From ldxar1 at tesco.net Wed Aug 27 05:01:10 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:01:10 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] MONGOLIA: Mass uprising after election rigged Message-ID: <002a01c9083c$9a15f500$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES - Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5htXp_X6rVZOmySXc9OKAkhYQXeVg Mongolia clamps down after five killed in unrest Jul 1, 2008 ULAN BATOR (AFP) - Armed soldiers patrolled the tense streets of Mongolia's capital Wednesday amid a state of emergency that was imposed after protests over alleged vote-rigging left five people dead. The government vowed it would prevent further unrest after Tuesday's upheaval, when around 8,000 people stormed through the centre of Ulan Bator, destroying buildings, torching cars and pelting police with rocks. Five people were killed and 329 people injured in the protests, Justice Minister Tsend Munkh-Orgil told reporters, adding that police had fired tear gas and rubber bullets to quell the unrest but that they had been overwhelmed. "Border troops and armed forces are being used to improve security in the city because of an insufficient number of police," Munkh-Orgil said. "We have word that certain groups are organising for large demonstrations after the end of the state of emergency. The government will suppress any such acts." Mongolian President Nambariin Enkhbayar declared a four-day state of emergency late on Tuesday to end the rioting, with the measures including a ban on alcohol sales and the closure of all media except government-run outlets. A night-time curfew also was imposed while traffic was banned from the centre of Ulan Bator, where the worst of the violence erupted. "This is the first ever state of emergency in Mongolia and I hope it will be the last," Munkh-Orgil said. The unrest began after the former communist Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) claimed victory in Sunday's national elections over the Democratic Party, with which it had shared an uneasy coalition since 2004. The General Election Committee has yet to make a formal announcement on the ballot. A spokesman for the committee, Purevdorjiin Naranbat, told AFP that a final decision did not have to be made public for another fortnight. "By law we have to have a final result within 15 days, we are not late yet," Naranbat said. After Democrats leader Tsakhia Elbegdorj alleged the MPRP had cheated its way to a supposed win, its supporters took to the streets in protest. The Soviet-era headquarters of the MPRP, a concrete five-storey structure in the centre of town, was set alight and looted. An AFP reporter who walked through the city on Wednesday also saw burnt-out cars and other damaged buildings, including the National Palace of Culture, a Soviet-era building that houses many national treasures. "The Palace of Culture was set on fire and the invaluable collection of art inside was looted," Munkh-Orgil said. Mongolia , a landlocked nation of nearly three million people, has a history of political intrigue and turmoil after emerging from 70 years as a Soviet satellite to hold its first democratic elections in 1992. However the violence was among the worst the nation -- famous for its ancient warrior history under Genghis Khan -- had seen since adopting a democratic model, and many people here were left disenchanted. "I sincerely appreciate my country and its history but I think this was an unfair election," said Denzin Chuluunbaatar, 45, a social worker, who was walking through the city on Wednesday. "The politicians are not thinking about the country, they just think about themselves... It's just a small country so we can't fight each other. It would be terrible if there was a civil war." As the protests erupted, Prime Minister Sanjagiin Bayar, of the MPRP, accused the Democrats and Elbegdorj of inciting the violence. "The other party is accusing us of buying the election. It's not true, the election was free and fair," he said from the MPRP headquarters before it was ransacked. Elbegdorj bluntly accused the MPRP in a press conference on Tuesday of "illegal activities" to rob the Democrats of victory. "People voted for democracy. Ask eight of 10 people and they will say they voted for the Democratic Party. We lost because... corrupt people changed the results," he told reporters. "This was a dark moment in the history of Mongolia." The MPRP, which ruled during the Soviet years, had claimed to have won 45 seats in the 76-seat Great Hural. State press said the Democrats had won 21 seats. http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/357601/1/.html Violent protests erupt in Mongolia amid poll dispute Posted: 01 July 2008 2056 hrs Photos 1 of 1 Mongolians clash with police officers outside the HQ of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party in Ulan Bator ULAN BATOR - Thousands of people staged a violent protest in Mongolia's capital on Tuesday as they voiced outrage over what they claimed were rigged elections, forcing police to fire gunshots, witnesses said. The headquarters of the former communist Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party was set alight, with Prime Minister Sanjagiin Bayar believed to be inside, according to the witnesses at the building. The protesters from the rival Democratic Party, which claims the MPRP bought votes and used other tactics to win Sunday's election, threw stones at firefighters who arrived to put out the blaze. However the flames appeared to be extinguished by people inside the six-storey building, with the unrest also broadcast live on the privately run Eagle Television station. Politics in Mongolia, a country of 2.6 million people sandwiched between China and Russia, has a recent history of turmoil and disputes, but violence such as that seen on Tuesday is extremely rare. As the rioters massed outside the building before the blaze, Bayar spoke on television from inside, calling for restraint. "The other party (the Democrats) is accusing us of buying the election. It's not true, the election was free and fair. We now request that everyone should stop this chaotic protest immediately," he said on Eagle Television. Bayar accused Democratic Party leader Tsakhia Elbegdorj of being responsible for the unrest. "Elbegdorj made a false announcement and he is misleading people and inciting violence," Bayar said. Police repeatedly fired what appeared to be rubber bullets into and above the crowd to quell the protests, according to a reporter for Eagle Television and a European journalist at the scene. However there were no immediate signs of major injuries. The MPRP, which ruled for decades under the protection of the former Soviet Union, says it won 45 seats in the 76-seat Great Hural while the Democrats have reportedly won 21 seats. The General Election Committee has yet to make a formal announcement on the ballot. "This election was run by one party. It is a false election," one of the protesters, Galsan-Namjillin Sukhbaatar, told AFP outside the MPRP's headquarters before the worst of the riots erupted. "The communist party should not win. I stand for democracy and human rights, but we don't see that today in Mongolia." The MPRP ruled Mongolia from its independence from the Chinese in 1921 until 1996, when it was beaten in elections by the Democratic Party. In 2004, Mongolia's last general election, the MPRP and the Democrats nearly split the vote and were forced into a coalition that produced three different prime ministers. The instability held up economic reforms and shook investor confidence, but the nation's economy still grew by 9.9 per cent last year thanks largely to its vast deposits of copper and gold. - AFP/ir http://www.chinapost.com.tw/asia/other/2008/07/03/163739/5%2Ddead.htm 5 dead in Mongolia post-election riot By Irja Halasz, Reuters Thursday, July 3, 2008 ULAN BATOR -- A riot in Mongolia's capital over alleged election fraud has killed five people, dampe ning hopes for a period of stable government to develop the mining sector and tackle inflation. President Nambariin Enkhbayar declared a four day state of emergency late on Tuesday after protesters upset over last weekend's election clashed with police and set fire to the ruling Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) headquarters. The emergency rule -- the first in Mongolia's history -- means protests are banned and security forces can use tear gas and rubber bullets to break up demonstrations. "We urge parties to resolve outstanding issues related to election results in a legal way and seek a consensus-based solution to the present crisis," Justice Minister Monkh-Orgil told a news conference. He said about 220 civilians and 108 servicemen were injured in the clashes. Around 700 protesters have been detained. Mongolia's election committee has yet to announce the final result of Sunday's vote, but preliminary results give the MPRP, which ruled the country as a Soviet satellite for much of the last century, a clear majority in the 76-seat parliament. The opposition Democratic Party said it did not accept the projected outcome, but members also disavowed the violence. Its members were set to meet with the MPRP on Wednesday. "From the Sea of Japan to the eastern border of Europe, we are the only functioning democracy and we have a duty to save it," Democratic Party leader Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj said. He condemned the government for allowing the riot to continue so long but also said it may not have been necessary to immediately declare the state of emergency. The chaos threatens to further delay deals that could unlock vast reserves of copper, coal, uranium and other resources beneath the country's vast steppes and deserts, seen as key to lifting the landlocked Central Asian state out of poverty. http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=377740 Five killed, 300 injured in Mongolia riots IANS Wednesday 2nd July, 2008 Moscow, July 2 (RIA Novosti) Five people have been killed and over 300 injured during mass protests in the Mongolian capital Ulan Bator over allegations of election fraud, the Mongolia Web news portal reported Wednesday. Up to 6,000 people took to the streets Tuesday after the results of Sunday's elections were announced with the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) claiming to have won at least 44 seats in the country's 76-seat parliament, the Great Hural. The opposition Democratic Party has won 21 seats. Following Tuesday's riots, President Nambaryn Enkhbayar announced a four-day state of emergency after protesters set fire to cars, attacked government buildings, shops and tried to steal weapons from a police station. A total of 1,800 police were involved in trying to maintain order but were forced to use rubber bullets and water cannons after the crowd set fire to the headquarters of the ruling party's building. Over 700 people have been arrested and 108 police were injured in the clashes. Riots were also reported in the easternmost province of Dornod and the northern province of Bulgan. Moscow expressed concern over the riots in Mongolia and called on the country's political forces to show restraint and responsibility. 'We are convinced that the existing disagreement could and should be solved within the framework of the country's constitution,' the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/02/2291704.htm Mongolian rioters burn ruling party headquarters By ABC reporter Nicky Redl in Ulaanbaatar Posted Wed Jul 2, 2008 9:44am AEST Updated Wed Jul 2, 2008 12:51pm AEST Protesters gather in the streets of the Mongolian capital, Ulaanbaatar. (ABC News: Nicky Redl) Angry demonstrators in the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar have seized an opportunity to hold violent riots against the outcome of last weekend's election, saying that they have been ''waiting for years'' for this moment. The protesters have burned down the headquarters of the ruling, former communist Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP). Police fired rubber bullets into the crowd and used batons against the demonstrators as they began their rampage, but to no avail. Protesters told ABC reporter Nicky Redl, who is in Ulaanbaatar, that they did not care if they were hurt or arrested because they had been waiting for this moment for years. Several hundred protesters threw furniture out the windows of the building and threw bottles of alcohol into the flames. The night sky was alight and the streets full of people as a neighbouring building and a car were also torched as protesters threw rocks and chanted slogans. The masses blocked firefighting trucks from getting to the flames, only letting them pass in the early hours of the morning. People yelled that they will not be intimidated and that they had had enough of the MPRP. Mongolian President Nambariin Enkhbayar has declared a state of emergency in the capital. Demonstrators say they want democracy and allege the ruling MPRP receives donations from China and Russia in return for access to the country's resources, while most of Mongolia's people remain poor. While political unrest has been fairly common in recent years, violence in the landlocked nation between Russia and China is rare. The nation of 2.9 million people made a peaceful transition from communism to democracy in 1992. http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7011475405 Mongolia Capital In State Of Emergency As Protesters Riot ShareThis July 1, 2008 8:46 p.m. EST Click Here! Windsor Genova - AHN News Writer Ulan Bator, Mongolia (AHN) - Mongolia's leader, President Nambariin Enkhbayar, placed the capital under a state of emergency for four days on Tuesday to stop violent protests against the results of Sunday's parliamentary election. A 10 p.m. curfew and ban on public assembly and independent broadcasts took effect here following two days of rioting by 6,000 supporters of the losing Democratic Party. The protesters burned and looted the headquarters of the former communist Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP), which they claim rigged the elections to win. Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas on protesters, who threw rocks on firemen who came to put out the burning MPRP building. Protesters also attacked a police station to free their arrested colleagues. http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2008-07/2008-07-02-voa3.cfm?CFID=27413982&CFTOKEN=47093143 5 Dead After Violent Political Protests in Mongolian Capital By VOA News 02 July 2008 Smoke from headquarters of ruling party after protesters set it on fire in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 1 Jul 2008 (Kyoto News Photo) Mongolia's justice minister says five people were killed Tuesday in a violent protest in the capital Ulaanbaatar over Sunday's parliamentary elections. Hundreds of others were injured Tuesday after demonstrators burned the offices of the ruling party, accusing it of voter fraud. Police responded by firing rubber bullets and tear gas. The violence led President Nambaryn Enkhbayar to declare a four-day state of emergency, beginning after midnight Wednesday night. Under the presidential decree, no public gathering will be allowed in Ulaanbaatar during the emergency period. The full results of the election have yet to be released, but preliminary results show the ruling Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party winning more than 40 of parliament's 76 seats. The head of the rival Mongolian Democratic Party, which is predicted to have won more than 20 seats, says his party will not accept the results of the race. Both parties campaigned on a promise to give cash payouts to every Mongolian from big mining projects, including a major copper deposit in the Gobi desert. The Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party ruled the country for much of the past century as a one-party communist state, but introduced multi-party democracy and market reforms in the 1990s. http://www.dw-world.de/dw/function/0,,12215_cid_3453801,00.html?maca=en-rss-en-news-1092-rdf | 02.07.2008 | 01:00 UTC Protests continue in Mongolian capital despite curfew Mongolia's President has declared a four-day state of emergency in the capital after violent protests over claims the general election was rigged. Thousands of protestors from the rival Democratic Party stormed the headquarters of Mongolia's governing party in Ulan Bator, as officers used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowds. Part of the Cultural Palace, which contains an art gallery, a museum and a theatre, was on fire early Wednesday as violence continued despite the emergency decree. Public gatherings and independent media broadcasts have also been also banned. The General Election Committee has not yet made any formal announcement on the ballot. http://www.mongolia-investment.com/news/mining-news/political-unrest-in-mongolia-may-hinder-mining-investment/ Political Unrest in Mongolia May Hinder Mining Investment The political chaos that triggered a state of emergency in Mongolia this week could slow the country's economic transformation and delay investment plans of Western mining companies that have been waiting to push through deals. Mongolia imposed a four-day state of emergency in downtown area of the capital, Ulaanbaatar, after the opposition alleged fraud in weekend elections which lead to violent protest. By Thursday, newswire services were reporting that the military vehicles had withdrawn from the streets, and the state of emergency officially ended early Saturday. Despite the end of unrest in the capital city, political bickering could take months to resolve. Mongolia has endured boisterous protests in recent years as it tries to establish a permanent democracy following decades of domination by the Soviet Union. Many of those protests have revolved around mining, which some locals view as a critical source of revenue and others see as a potential driver of environmental degradation and corruption. In one 2006 protest, activists burned effigies of a key foreign mining executive and top political leaders in the capital's main square. The latest unrest is different from past episodes because it has been more violent and intense, according to observers. Though largely agrarian, Mongolia, which has about three million people, is rich in copper, coal and other commodities whose prices have skyrocketed in recent years. As mining companies have depleted resources elsewhere, many of the country's best mineral assets were left untouched. That puts Mongolia among a handful of developing countries -- including troubled places such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and other parts of Africa -- that still hold promise of big riches for Western miners. Companies that see Mongolia's potential include Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. of Vancouver and global mining giant Rio Tinto, which together are trying to develop one of the world's largest copper and gold projects deep in Mongolia's Gobi desert. But the $7 billion effort, called Oyu Tolgoi, has been held up for years as the companies have sought to negotiate a final investment agreement with the government that would set terms for taxation, royalties and other issues. Mining companies "are waiting for closure on major mineral agreements. ... There is a sense that they want to begin the development process in a serious way and [want to] have a stable investment climate" to work in, says a Western diplomat based in Ulan Bator, the capital. "This is a pivotal time for Mongolia." Mongolia's ruling party has supported legal changes that would facilitate deals with foreign miners but has been unable to push them through the country's legislature. The ruling party's gains in Sunday's parliamentary elections were therefore expected to benefit the resources industry, but the opposition's protests have clouded those hopes. Tensions began to escalate Tuesday afternoon, after the leader of Mongolia's Democratic Party -- which appeared to fare worse than expected in preliminary results from Sunday's elections -- questioned the results. Final tallies from the vote still have not yet been released. After the opposition party questioned preliminary tallies, as many as 8,000 people participated in a major demonstration, according to Montsame, Mongolia's national news agency. Five people were killed when the protests took a violent turn. Some protesters ransacked the headquarters of the victorious political party, removing computers and setting fire to the building. International observers have called the elections free and fair, but the fraud allegations could delay a resolution for months. Technically, a new government must be formed two weeks after the elections, but that looks uncertain as the opposition has called for a recount in some areas. Mongolia's parliament usually sits twice a year, in the spring and fall. The uncertainty means investors might have to wait until February for a decision on any mining deals. Ian Head, a spokesman for Rio Tinto, would say only that "we're optimistic that we can sit down and talk with the new government to achieve a satisfactory agreement," once calm is restored. Source: Wall Street Journal July 6, 2008 http://globalvoicesonline.org/2008/08/01/mongolia-silent-protest-at-sukhbaatar-square/ Mongolia: Silent Protest at Sukhbaatar Square AsianGypsy tells that families of the recent protests' detainees along with Mongolia's National Green Movement and Civil Front Movement members have organized a silent demonstration at central square of Mongolian capital, demanding the release of the detainees. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/PEK339912.htm Relatives await news of Mongolia riot detainees 05 Jul 2008 09:27:31 GMT Source: Reuters By Royston Chan ULAN BATOR, July 5 (Reuters) - Mongolia lifts its four-day state of emergency late on Saturday, but relatives are still waiting for news of those detained in the post-election riots that prompted the imposition of emergency rule. Some 700 people were taken into custody following violence on Tuesday night over perceived election fraud, when stone-throwing mobs torched the headquarters of the ruling Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP). "I am worried and people here are saying different things about the situation, such as the detainees being beaten up," said one woman, who said her son had been missing for three days. "Some of them went up the hill and saw detainees made to squat down and walk in line ... They talked about such harsh conditions," the woman added. She was one of several anxious relatives waiting outside the Denjiin Myanga detention centre, many of whom said they had received no word on the condition of their family members or whether and where they were being housed. "When I asked the Sukhbaatar district police about his whereabouts, they asked me to go to the state investigation office," said the woman, who did not want to be identified. "Later, the state investigation office sent me here. But I also cannot find any information about him here. So I am just waiting," she said. The status of those detained is one of several questions being raised following the president's declaration of a state of emergency on Tuesday, the first since the country shook off Soviet influence and embraced democratic reform in 1990. At least three of the five killed in the riot were determined to have died from gunshot wounds, and local newspapers have reported that several more in hospital had gunshot injuries. The opposition Democratic Party, which alleges fraud in last Sunday's election, which international observers say was largely fair, established a working group to investigate accounts of homicide during the riot. Security forces were mandated to use rubber bullets and tear gas to bring the thousands of protesters under control, but were not authorised to use lethal force. The party has also announced it will evaluate the impact on the media of emergency rule, under which only state television is permitted to broadcast on air. For those waiting at the detention centre in the poor suburb of Ulan Bator, one of several outlying areas where unemployment and alcoholism run high, the promise of a long-term investigation may bring little comfort. Some said they were pushed around by police when they demanded information. One woman, who said her son was only out buying groceries on the night of the riot, said she was worried that authorities might force him to confess involvement. "First I found out that he was here but the next time I came, his name was not on the list anymore," she said. "So I went to the investigation office, but he was not there. Who knows if he is being kept somewhere and forced to sign some confessions?" (Writing by Lindsay Beck; Editing by Jeremy Laurence) http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7011512462 Mongolia Lifts Emergency Rule After Deadly Election Riots ShareThis July 5, 2008 1:33 p.m. EST Click Here! Mayur Pahilajani - AHN News Writer Ulan Bator, Mongolia (AHN) - Mongolia on Saturday removed a state of emergency imposed following deadly clashes erupted in the capital Ulan Bator early this week. On Tuesday, fatal protests led to the deaths of five people and left 300 wounded, after hundreds were detained in riots over alleged fraud in the general election. Country's first state of emergency was lifted four days after deadly riots as the reports said calm had returned to the city, but police and military personnel continued to patrol the streets on the capital city. Mongolian Prime Minister Sanj Bayar announced that the authorities and parties will look in to the accusations of alleged voting fraud in parliamentary elections by law. Local reports showed that the ruling Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) won a majority of seats in the elections held on Sunday. Prime Minister Bayar accused the leader of Democratic Party, Tsakhia Elbegdorj, for misleading people and increasing tensions leading to violent protests. But international observers, who were stationed at several polling booths in the country, said the election was free and fair and it was not rigged. Observers said protesters were mainly demanding the government to stop corruption and frustrations boiled over widening rich-poor divide. The national election commission has until July 10 to announce final results of the elections. http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/03/asia/mongolia.php Mongolia capital cleans up debris after deadly rioting The Associated Press Published: July 3, 2008 ULAN BATOR, Mongolia: The smell of smoke hung in the air Thursday as people swept up in Mongolia's capital on the second day of a state of emergency called after at least five people died in rioting brought on by allegations of election fraud. A four-day emergency was declared after thousands of rock-throwing protesters clashed with the police late Tuesday, mobbing the headquarters of the governing Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party, or MPRP, and setting it on fire. The demonstrators also attacked the General Election Commission, demanding that officials resign. The police and troops imposed a 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. curfew, which appeared to have been mostly observed overnight. Traffic on Thursday was near normal in a steady drizzle of rain. The smell of burned wood and plastic was still heavy in the air. Workers were sweeping out a cultural center near the party headquarters that was also attacked. Every office in the building, which housed arts and music groups, had been broken into and looted, with glass and other debris on the floors. "They stole everything, all the instruments, even the performers' costumes. The only thing left is the piano," said Delgensaikhan Tuvshinsaikhan, the leader of a traditional folk music group that was housed in the building. As he spoke, several of his musicians swept up glass and broken vases. President Nambariin Enkhbayar issued a nine-point decree allowing the police to use force in dealing with demonstrators, who reportedly also looted an art gallery and government buildings. Mongolia's national news agency Montsame said five people died in the Tuesday violence, in which officers used tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannon to beat back rioters wielding bricks and iron rods. The report did not say how they died. There were 220 people wounded in the unrest, including a Japanese reporter, Montsame reported. According to preliminary results of the Sunday election that focused on how to share the country's mineral wealth, the MPRP - the former Communists who governed the country when it was a Soviet satellite - won 46 seats in the 76-seat Parliament. Official results are to be announced by July 10. The MPRP has long been dogged by allegations of corruption and official misconduct and is unpopular in the capital. A spokesman for the opposition Mongolian Democratic Party, Sharavjamts Bathayar, said supporters of his party showed up to vote only to find that someone had already cast their ballots. There were also cases of votes cast in the names of dead people, he said. The opposition was seeking a recount, but there was no comment from the General Election Commission. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Wed Aug 27 09:05:26 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:05:26 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] KASHMIR 1 of 3 - Muslims protest land grab Message-ID: <00bd01c9085e$bbbc5600$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES - Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ Protesters have mobilised on a massive scale in Kashmir, firstly to protest a land deal to transfer land to a Hindu shrine, in breach of the constitution, then later in an ongoing series of protests against Indian rule. * On 24th May, protesters targeted the Indian President on a visit to the region, holding a general strike and setting up barricades to resist police violence * In June, protests started over the land transfer with day-long protests in the capital Srinagar * A general strike had persisted for a week by the end of the month, with ongoing clashes and protests * After eight days of protests, the government reversed the land transfer http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/349748/1/.html Kashmir capital shuts to protest Indian president's visit Posted: 24 May 2008 2325 hrs Indian President Pratibha Patil (3L) greets officials upon her arrival at Baramullah. SRINAGAR, India : Islamic separatists staged a general strike in Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar on Saturday to protest a visit by India's president to the revolt-hit region. Businesses closed and schools and colleges declared the day a holiday in line with the strike call by the hardline wing of the separatist Hurriyat Conference alliance. The strike to protest the visit by President Pratibha Patil was also backed by the powerful Islamic rebel group Hizbul Mujahedin, which is fighting New Delhi's rule in India's only Muslim-majority state. Traffic was also thin in Srinagar, the urban hub of the secessionist drive in Indian-administered Kashmir. Indian soldiers backed by police declared several areas of the city "out of bounds" for civilians to ensure Patil's security during her visit. Patil, elected India's first woman president last year, arrived here on Friday on a four-day official trip to the region, which borders Pakistan. On Friday she warned that India would retaliate "resolutely and firmly" against any violations of the heavily militarised border. "I'm confident that any violation of our borders will be dealt with resolutely and firmly," Patil said in a speech to soldiers at a camp in Baramulla town, 55 kilometres (35 miles) north of summer capital Srinagar. The warning by Patil, who is also supreme commander of India's armed forces, came after forward Indian posts came under fire from across the Line of Control (LoC) three times this month. In one incident, an Indian soldier was killed. The LoC or ceasefire line splits Kashmir between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan. The two nations each hold part of the region but claim it in full and have fought two of their three wars for control of Kashmir. The insurgency has left more than 43,000 people dead by official count. Earlier this week, India's foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee held talks with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad, with the neighbours expressing optimism about their slow-moving four-year-old peace process. - AFP /ls http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2008/05/200861505915721694.html Police tear gas Kashmir protesters Protesters erected barricades to block police [Reuters] Police in Indian-administered Kashmir have used tear gas to disperse about 150 pro-Pakistan separatist demonstrators amid a strike called to protest against a visit by the Indian president. Police fired the gas on crowds in Kashmir's main city on Saturday, a day after Pratibha Patil began her five-day tour of the disputed region. The protesters, some shouting anti-Indian slogans and throwing stones, had earlier gathered in the streets of Srinagar, Kashmir's summer capital, which had largely been deserted except for patrols by large numbers of police and soldiers. Most people had remained at home and many shops, businesses and schools were closed due to a strike, called by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, a separatist advocate who heads the All Parties Hurriyat Conference. Strike action The move was supported by Hizb-ul-Mujahidin, the main armed group fighting Indian rule in Kashmir. "We appeal to people to observe a complete strike on Saturday to protest against the Indian president's visit," Geelani said. "The strike would be a mark of protest against the Indian occupation of Kashmir." "We want to convey to the Indian president that Kashmiri people are against Indian occupation of Kashmir," he said. Soldiers tightened security by erecting checkpoints at street crossings, while police and the army patrolled the area to prevent protests. Patil, who became India's first female president last year, addressed Indian troops and visited a military control line dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan on Friday. Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan. Both claim it in entirety and have fought two wars over control of the territory since gaining independence from Britain in 1947. http://www.dawn.com/2008/05/25/top9.htm Protests mark Patil's visit to Kashmir SRINAGAR, May 24: Police fired tear-gas shells at stone-throwing protesters here on Saturday while shops stayed shut after Kashmiri leaders called a strike in protest against a visit by the Indian president. Pratibha Patil, who became India's first woman president last year, began on Friday her five-day tour to occupied Kashmir. Streets in Srinagar were largely deserted except for patrols by a larger than usual number of police and soldiers. The strike was called by prominent separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and backed by an alliance of militants called the United Jihad Council. While most people stayed indoors, around 150 protesters gathered in the streets, threw stones and shouted slogans before police fired tear gas. "We want freedom. Indian troops go back," the protesters shouted. Officials say more than 43,000 people have been killed in violence between militants and Indian troops since 1989. Human rights groups put the toll at around 60,000 dead or missing. -Reuters http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1166322 Srinagar residents protest president Pratibha's visit Ishfaq-ul-Hassan Sunday, May 25, 2008 03:58 IST Their aim is to indicate that all is not well in their troubled state SRINAGAR: Violent protests rocked capital city on Saturday against the visit of President Pratibha Patil to trouble-torn state. The police had to resort to cane charge and fire smoke shells to quell the mob which turned violent in old city area here. Unfazed by the protests, the President arrived in Gulmarg to spend the weekend with her family at the resort . Life came to a grinding halt in Kashmir as people observed strike for which the call was given by Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani to protest against the visit of the president to the state. Shops and business establishments remained closed. "The government is trying to create an impression that all is well in Kashmir. That is why we decided to protest the visit of president by calling for a strike," Geelani said. Even as tight security arrangements were put in place, people took to streets at Habba Kadal, Nowhatta and Nawa Kadal and raised slogans. The protestors clashed with the police prompting them to resort to lathi-charge and lob smoke shells to disperse the mob. Reports said several people suffered injuries in the ding dong battles which continued at different intervals. "There were some minor incidents in some parts of the city which have now fizzled out. Situation is well under control and there is no need to feel panicky", said Syed Afad-ul-Mujtaba, senior superintendent of police, Srinagar. President Patil is on a five day visit to J&K. She arrived on Friday and on this first leg of the tour she visited the line of control (LoC) and met the troops stationed there. She visited the underground bunkers at Tangdhar sector and met the troops guarding the LoC. Taking some time off her busy schedule, President Patil arrived in Gulmarg to spend the weekend with her family. She took a joy ride in the World highest ropeway Gulmarg Gandola. Tight security arrangements were made at Gulmarg for the visit of first family. President and her family is staying at Chief Minister's special lodge in Gulmarg. http://www.tribuneindia.com/2008/20080628/main5.htm Amarnath Land Row Day-long protests in Srinagar Kumar Rakesh Tribune News Service Srinagar, June 27 Protests in the valley seem to be taking deeper roots today as thousands of people from different parts of the capital took out many daylong processions. The main city square, Lal Chowk, hosted a massive rally that resonated with anti-government and pro-freedom slogans. The valley witnessed a complete strike. A huge congregation, starting from downtown, gathered at the Lal Chowk after Friday namaz and spurred by religious and anti-government fervour, several youngsters went atop the high clock tower, where they hoisted several green Islamic flags of crescent and stars. Hordes of policemen watched at some distance as the surcharged crowd raised slogans against India and the state government. On a day when participation of people grew on a big scale against the transfer of 800 canal land to Amarnath Shrine Board, the only breather the security establishment had was subsiding of violence. However, what should be a concern to mainstream leadership is that the agitation has moved onto a distinct anti-national platform from its previous anti-shrine board character. Roads and lanes in city reverberated with slogans like "Jeeve-Jeeve Pakistan (long live Pakistan)" and "hum kya chahte, azadi (we want freedom)". Beside a big rally, scores of people gathered in their localities and were addressed by small-time separatist leaders as most of their recognised faces, except JLKF leader Yasin Malik, remain under house-arrest. Some other important Hurriyat leaders led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq are in Pakistan on a tour. Over 50 persons, including 25 security personnel, were injured in the valley today, but the determined attack from protesters, which they faced in downtown till yesterday, subsided. Security personnel had apprehended violence after the Friday congregation in mosques, especially in old Srinagar. As many as three persons have been killed and over 300 persons, including over 100 security personnel, have been injured so far. Burning tyres and blockades across the connecting roads were visible everywhere and protestors tried to ensure that even two-wheelers do not ply, except vehicles carrying mediapersons. Large crowds gathered at the Lal Chowk from different places, like Soura, Batmalu, and downtown areas, after doing rounds of different localities, and dispersed after being addressed. The rally started from Chanpora and gathered in numbers as it passed through Rambagh, Maisuma, Solina, Dal gate and other localities. There were also reports of rallies from cities like Ganderbal, Tral and Baramulla. Uri and Anantnag, where locals have largely refrained from pro-separatists protests for a long time, also saw rallies today. http://www.ibnlive.com/news/protests-over-land-transfer-cops-open-fire-in-anantnag/67819-3.html?xml Protests over land transfer, cops open fire in Anantnag CNN-IBN Published on Thu, Jun 26, 2008 at 14:47 in Nation section FIGHTBACK: A protestor throws back a teargas shell towards policemen during a demonstration in Srinagar. Kashmir: There is no let up in the violent protests in Jammu and Kashmir over the transfer of 40 hectares of forest land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB). On Thursday, the fourth day of protests in the Valley police had to open fire to control protestors at Anantnag, in south Kashmir. There is a complete shutdown across the state following clashes between protestors and police on Wednesday. So far three people have been killed and 75 injured during the protests with 18 of the injured being policemen. Hundreds of tourists are stuck in Srinagar and other tourist places due to the protests. The protests have also brought ruling coalition partners the coalition partners People's Democratic Party (PDP) and Congress in Jammu and Kashmir on a collision course. While the PDP is against the transfer of forest land to build facilities for Amarnath pilgrims, the Congress is in favour. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is also supporting the project. Political parties in Jammu, too, are in favour of the project. Parties like the BJP, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Shiv Sena have called for a bandh in Jammu on Thursday. Sikh organisations like Jammu and Kashmir Youth Akali Dal and Gurdawara Prabhandhak Board are also in favour of the deal and have blamed Valley-based politicians for communalising the issue. http://www.tribuneindia.com/2008/20080628/main5.htm Amarnath Land Row Day-long protests in Srinagar Kumar Rakesh Tribune News Service Srinagar, June 27 Protests in the valley seem to be taking deeper roots today as thousands of people from different parts of the capital took out many daylong processions. The main city square, Lal Chowk, hosted a massive rally that resonated with anti-government and pro-freedom slogans. The valley witnessed a complete strike. A huge congregation, starting from downtown, gathered at the Lal Chowk after Friday namaz and spurred by religious and anti-government fervour, several youngsters went atop the high clock tower, where they hoisted several green Islamic flags of crescent and stars. Hordes of policemen watched at some distance as the surcharged crowd raised slogans against India and the state government. On a day when participation of people grew on a big scale against the transfer of 800 canal land to Amarnath Shrine Board, the only breather the security establishment had was subsiding of violence. However, what should be a concern to mainstream leadership is that the agitation has moved onto a distinct anti-national platform from its previous anti-shrine board character. Roads and lanes in city reverberated with slogans like "Jeeve-Jeeve Pakistan (long live Pakistan)" and "hum kya chahte, azadi (we want freedom)". Beside a big rally, scores of people gathered in their localities and were addressed by small-time separatist leaders as most of their recognised faces, except JLKF leader Yasin Malik, remain under house-arrest. Some other important Hurriyat leaders led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq are in Pakistan on a tour. Over 50 persons, including 25 security personnel, were injured in the valley today, but the determined attack from protesters, which they faced in downtown till yesterday, subsided. Security personnel had apprehended violence after the Friday congregation in mosques, especially in old Srinagar. As many as three persons have been killed and over 300 persons, including over 100 security personnel, have been injured so far. Burning tyres and blockades across the connecting roads were visible everywhere and protestors tried to ensure that even two-wheelers do not ply, except vehicles carrying mediapersons. Large crowds gathered at the Lal Chowk from different places, like Soura, Batmalu, and downtown areas, after doing rounds of different localities, and dispersed after being addressed. The rally started from Chanpora and gathered in numbers as it passed through Rambagh, Maisuma, Solina, Dal gate and other localities. There were also reports of rallies from cities like Ganderbal, Tral and Baramulla. Uri and Anantnag, where locals have largely refrained from pro-separatists protests for a long time, also saw rallies today. http://www.kashmirobserver.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=291:shutdown-cripples-life-for-7th-day&catid=50:localnews&Itemid=81 Shutdown cripples life for 7th day Srinagar, Jun 29, KONS- Even as the state government Sunday revoked the controversial order diverting forest land to SASB, protest strike continued crippling normal life for the seventh straight day. Thousands of riot police and paramilitary personnel were deployed across capital to keep people off the streets to prevent them from holding demonstrations which during past one week have often turned violent resulting in the death of at least four people and injuries to nearly 700. Most parts of the city presented a deserted look as if curfew was clamped, residents said. However in more volatile areas where pro-freedom sentiments have traditionally been high, police failed to keep youth off the roads. The protesters, mostly young and teenagers, burned tires, created road blocks and held noisy protests chanting 'favourite' slogan - Ham Kya Chahtay: Azadi or "we want freedom". Similar reports have come in from other major towns where for last seven says people are observing a spontaneous strike. This despite the fact that people are facing acute shortage of essential commodities, including vegetables, milk and bread because truck services bringing in such commodities from rural areas and from outside the state too have been grounded for past one week. A report from Anantnag said life remained crippled in the entire south Kashmir due to strike with people staying indoors. Reports suggest an undeclared curfew has been imposed in Pulwama, which witnessed massive violent demonstrations during the past four days. People are being asked to remain indoors by police, they said. The report said a total shut down was also observed in Pahalgam, Shopian, Awantipore , Tral and other major areas of south Kashmir. Baramulla in north also is closed with streets empty. Total strike also has closed down main trading centre of north, Sopore. Further north in Handwara, Kupwara and beyond reports are coming in that life has come to a grinding halt there as well. The worst violence was witnessed in Rafiabad area where small processions from various villages converged in Rafiabad square and staged massive protest demonstrations against government. Reports said police deployed in the area tried to disperse the protestors by resorting to cane charge and tear gas shelling resulting in violent clashes between police and protestors. Eyewitness said that about 35 people including 10 cops were injured in violent clashes that later spread to nearby Watergam. http://www.dawn.com/2008/06/29/top4.htm Kashmiris intensify anti-Delhi protest SRINAGAR, June 28: At least 60 people were injured when police and protesters clashed for a sixth consecutive day on Saturday in occupied Kashmir as resistance to the transfer of land to a Hindu pilgrim group deepened. Scores of people, including Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik, were hurt when protesters clashed with police in the heart of occupied Srinagar. "Mr Malik was admitted to a hospital, he is safe" Mohammad Amin, a police official said. At least 12 paramilitary soldiers were injured in clashes with protesters. Seven policemen were also hurt. The week-long protests started when authorities transferred nearly 100 acres of forest land to Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB), a Hindu trust, to erect shelters for thousands of Hindu pilgrims who annually trek to a cave shrine in the mountains. The Indian constitution prohibits outsiders from buying land in Kashmir. "It will become impossible for the Kashmir leadership to control public anger if the order is not revoked immediately," said Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who heads the moderate faction of the region's main separatist alliance, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference. "The present situation reminds me of 1990, it is all disturbing," Omar Abdullah, chief of Kashmir's main opposition party, the National Conference party, said. "The issue does not stop there," said Farooq. "There are thousands of acres of land occupied by the Indian army that also needs be addressed." Three people have died in police fire and about 300 have been injured in clashes, evoking memories of widespread anti-India protests that swept the region after an armed campaign broke out in 1989. Daily life in Srinagar has come to a halt since the protests began on Monday. Protesters have been destroying government property and hoisting green flags. Shops, offices and banks remained shut, as protests spread to other parts of the valley. -Agencies http://story.floridastatesman.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/c08dd24cec417021/id/376607/cs/1/Kashmiri Muslims in protest over religious grantFlorida StatesmanSunday 29th June, 2008In India, Muslims have continued to gather to protest against a governmentplan to build Hindu settlements in the mainly Muslim Indian Kashmir.Separatists and local group leaders have expressed determination to continueto hound the government over the recent transfer of 40 hectares of land bythe state government to keepers of a Hindu shrine.Indian officials have closed schools and government offices while sendingparamilitary officers onto the streets.Tear gas and bullets been shot into the crowd and at least three people havebeen killed and hundreds wounded in the past week of protests.Protesters believe Indian authorities plan to turn the area into a permanentsettlement for Hindus, thus changing the religious balance in theMuslim-majority region.http://www.hindu.com/2008/06/30/stories/2008063059861300.htmMirwaiz leads protest rally in SrinagarSpecial CorrespondentViolence rocks north Kashmir; life hit for the seventh day- Photos: Nissar AhmadHurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq (centre) leading a protest rally inSrinagar on Sunday.SRINAGAR: Kashmir Valley observed a complete shutdown on the seventhconsecutive day in protest against the transfer of land to Shri AmarnathjiShrine Board (SASB). Demonstrations were reported from various areas; onerally was led by Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.The death toll in the violence in the past five days has gone up to four,with one person dying of injuries in hospital on Sunday.As the authorities imposed "undeclared curfew" with stringent securitymeasures, the level of protests came down but the Mirwaiz led a protest indowntown and demanded the revocation of the land order. He said a sea ofpeople would throng the city on Tuesday in response to a "Srinagar Chalo"call by the Action Committee on Land Transfer (ACALT).Reports said police and CRPF men were seen in large numbers in the citysince morning to prevent people from venturing out of their houses. Barringa few incidents of stone-pelting in the old city, no violence was reportedfrom any part of the Valley, police sources said.As the news of the death of Imtiyaz Ahmed Haroon, who was injured in firingon Saturday, spread in the evening, hundreds assembled outside the SMHSHospital and carried his body in a procession towards Bemina. The policemenallowed the protesters to pass.Police disperse protestersAt least 45 persons, including 20 policemen, were injured in clashes innorth Kashmir's Baramulla district on Sunday.Paramilitary forces patrolling the streets of the State capital.Reports said hundreds took to the roads in various areas to protests againstthe transfer of land to the SASB. However, security forces intercepted themusing batons and tear gas.The protesters retaliated by pelting stones, triggering clashes whichcontinued till late in the afternoon. Reports said protests took place inKupwara, Bandipora and other places.http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0630/p99s01-duts.htmlKashmiri women looked out of a window during a protest in Srinagar, Kashmiron Sunday. Indian police fired bullets and tear gas to quell thousands ofstone-throwing Muslim demonstrators angry over the transfer of forest landto a Hindu shrine trust. The week-long protests started when authoritiestransferred nearly 100 acres of forest land to Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board(SASB), a Hindu organization, to erect temporary shelters for thousands ofHindu pilgrims who annually trek to a cave shrine in the Kashmir mountain.Danish Ismail/ReutersKashmir: Mass protests force government to reverse controversialland-transfer decisionMuslims in Indian-administered Kashmir charged that the transfer was anattempt to tip the Hindu-Muslim ratio of the area in favor of Hindus. Theprotests have widened to support for independence.By Mian Ridgefrom the July 1, 2008 editionE-mail Print Letter to the Editor Republish del.icio.us diggEight days of mass protests in Indian-administered Kashmir have prompted theregion's government to reverse a controversial decision to transfer a largetract of land to a Hindu organization.The land transfer, which was seen by some as an attempt to change theMuslim-Hindu ratio in this Muslim-majority area, sparked huge - sometimesviolent - protests in the capital, Srinagar. The protests, in which fourpeople were killed and hundreds injured, were the biggest in Kashmir foryears.The Associated Press reported on Monday that protesters had dismissed thegovernment's claim that it would renege on transferring the land and vowedto continue with the protests.By Sunday, the protests appeared to have evolved into pro-independenceagitations."Our protests will continue until we achieve freedom from Indiandomination," Mirwaiz Omer Farooq, head of the moderate faction All PartiesHurriyat Conference, told a crowd of protesters in Srinagar. The crowdchanted "We reject Kashmir's auction" and "We want freedom."Greater Kashmir, a local newspaper, elaborated upon the separatist leader'smotivations.Mirwaiz termed the present struggle as peoples' movement. "The resentment ofpeople is not only against land occupation, but also against cultural,political and army aggression of New Delhi in Kashmir. It is sentiment forAzadi (freedom) and New Delhi should without any further delay address thebasic issue. Even if the land transfer order is revoked, sentiment of Azadiwill remain," he added.The government had originally said it would transfer 99 acres of forest landto the Amarnath Shrine Board, which manages a Hindu shrine in the area,saying it was necessary to build huts and toilets for the many pilgrims thatvisit the area.Each year, thousands of Hindus trek to a Kashmir cave, situated at analtitude of 3,800 meters (2.3 miles), which they believe is an abode of thegod Shiva. Last year, 400,000 pilgrims visited the cave, staying in tentsand prompting the government to find new ways to accommodate them.The BBC reported the view of separatists who believe that the land transfer"was part of a 'conspiracy to settle non-local Hindus in the valley with aview to reducing the Muslims to a minority'."The Hindu, an Indian daily, reported that the situation was a little calmeron Sunday after the authorities imposed a curfew in Srinagar. The police hadused batons and tear gas against protesters, who had responded by throwingstones. But the report also hinted at more trouble to come.As the authorities imposed "undeclared curfew" with stringent securitymeasures, the level of protests came down but the Mirwaiz led a protest indowntown and demanded the revocation of the land order. He said a sea ofpeople would throng the city on Tuesday in response to a "Srinagar Chalo"call by the Action Committee on Land Transfer (ACALT).The Kashmir Observer reported on Sunday that the situation remained tense,and that life was becoming increasingly difficult for some in the area.However in more volatile areas where pro-freedom sentiments havetraditionally been high, police failed to keep youth off the roads. Theprotesters, mostly young and teenagers, burned tires, created road blocksand held noisy protests chanting 'favourite' slogan - Ham Kya Chahtay: Azadior "we want freedom".Similar reports have come in from other major towns where for last sevendays people are observing a spontaneous strike.This despite the fact that people are facing acute shortage of essentialcommodities, including vegetables, milk and bread because truck servicesbringing in such commodities from rural areas and from outside the state toohave been grounded for past one week.The political fallout of the controversy is likely to last longer than theprotests themselves.On Saturday night, the People's Democratic Party (PDP), a key partner inJammu-Kashmir's ruling coalition, which is led by the Congress party,withdrew its support of the government, saying it had not acted fast enoughto quell the protests.The Calcutta Telegraph later reported that Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azaddid not want his former allies in the PDP to rejoin the government, eventhough his government had been significantly weakened by their withdrawal.Azad, who has accused the PDP of pushing the land deal and then doing anabout-turn, today got the governor to accept the resignation of itsministers.Other parties castigated the government for succumbing to pressure over theland transfer, according to the Indian television news channel NDTV.CNN-IBN, another leading Indian news channel, said India's Hindu nationalistBharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had called for a general strike to protest thegovernment's decision to back down."The whole issue has been given a communal colour by the Congress and thePDP, and they are being supported by the National Conference in that. Peoplein Jammu feel hurt," state BJP In-charge, R P Singh said.The government has said that, in the future, it will provide accommodationsfor pilgrims traveling to the sacred cave. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Wed Aug 27 13:07:45 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 21:07:45 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Niger Delta unrest Message-ID: <00ef01c90880$93692f30$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * Shell deepwater platform attacked * Ondo State youths protest for development money * Pipeline bombed in protest at Delta summit * Ijaw march against oil companies * Naked protest as ethnic violence continues * Nigerians in South Africa protest against secret trial of Niger Delta leader * London Nigerians protest president's visit http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article4175357.ece June 20, 2008 Shell deepwater platform attacked as Nigerian separatists step up protests The Bonga oil field was attacked by militants Carl Mortished, World Business Editor An attack by armed separatists in speedboats has forced Royal Dutch Shell to shut down its biggest offshore oil production unit in Nigeria, removing a tenth of the Opec state's output. The raid on Bonga, a vast floating oil production and storage facility 120km offshore, has caught Nigeria's foreign oil operators by surprise. The deep water installations in the Gulf of Guinea were previously thought to be beyond the reach of the militant groups that continue to harass and disrupt oil production in the swamps of the Niger Delta. The attack, which took place before dawn yesterday, was aimed at Bonga but the militants also attacked two drilling rigs and three supply vessels in the area. The American captain of one supply vessel, under contract for Chevron, was taken hostage. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend), claimed responsibility for the attack and threatened further violence. The movement said yesterday that oil companies should remove their expatriate workers and avoid sending oil and gas tankers to the area if they wished to avoid violence. "The location of today's attack was deliberately chosen to remove any notion that offshore oil exploration is far from our reach," it said. The militants tried but failed to get on board the Bonga facility, Shell said. "The ship is protected with electronic devices," a spokesman added. Production was immediately stopped and the spokesman was unable to say when it would resume. The shutdown removes 225,000 barrels per day of oil output as well as natural gas that is fed into Nigeria LNG, the country's liquefied natural gas export joint venture - another Shell-operated project. A prolonged shutdown of Bonga would be a significant financial loss to Nigeria, which is already failing to meet its Opec production quotas because of the frequent attacks by Mend on pipelines and pumping stations. More worrying is yesterday's evidence that the deepwater offshore operations are no longer safe. Officials close to Snepco, the Shell venture that operates Bonga and Shell's other offshore projects, expressed concern about the use of boats capable of travelling several hundred kilometres at speed over the ocean. "It's a new development. There must be somebody behind this. It is beyond the capability of the usual groups in the Delta," one official said. Nigeria's navy is ill-equipped and unable to patrol the area and the attack is likely to arouse calls for greater protection for offshore oil installations. The vulnerability of deepwater oil platforms in West Africa has been discussed within Nato, whose officials have proposed seconding warships to the area but no action has yet been taken. The Bonga project has been the flagship of Shell's offshore Nigeria activities and cost $3.6 billion (?1.8 billion). Located far from shore and in depths of more than 1,000 metres, the project uses a floating production and storage vessel, a converted crude oil tanker that stores oil pumped from wells on the seabed, which is then transferred to other ships for export. Being so far from shore, Shell and its Bonga partners, ExxonMobil, Total and Eni, believed until yesterday that it would be safe.Shell is only producting two thirds of its potential output from its onshore operations with 350,000 barrels per day still shut in because of threats of violence. More than 200 people have been abducted in the Delta by militant groups. In most cases, the hostages are released unharmed in exchange for cash. http://allafrica.com/stories/200806200013.html Nigeria: Ondo Youths Protest Derivation Fund Spending, ask Govt to Refund N4.2bn Vanguard (Lagos) 19 June 2008 Posted to the web 20 June 2008 Dayo Johnson Akure Leaders and youths of the oil rich Ilaje Communities in Ondo State, yesterday, protested the spending of derivation funds meant for the development of their communities for other purposes by the state government. Consequently, the protesters in their hundreds have asked government to refund the N4.2b deducted from the State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, OSOPADEC, to construct roads outside their communities. The state government had recently awarded a road contract from Ayeka/Irele/Igbodigo road worth N4.2b stating that it was necessary to link Okitipupa with Ese Odo areas of the state. Omogbemi who is the Chairman of the State Advisory Committee on Oil Matters argued that instead of spending out of the 40 per cent set aside for the development of the oil producing areas, government should have taken from the remaining 60 per cent meant for the entire state. According to them the recent decision of the state government to deduct N4.2b from the commission to construct road in Ikaleland "is ignoble, condemnable and unacceptable." The communities said, "The decision was meant to set the Ilaje people against the entire people of Ikale and Ese-Odo. "This is a complete violation of OSOPADEC Law enacted by the government and the people of the oil producing communities. Dr. Olusegun Agagu can still construct the roads with the remaining 60 per cent of the derivation." According to Omogbemi, "The people of the area had been agitating for an increase in the allocation of the derivation fund from 40 per cent to between 50 and 70 per cent, saying that the present 40 per cent was not enough to develop the area." He pointed out that, "Over 95 per cent of the people of the area had no access to potable water, while about 95 per cent of the communities in Ilaje had no access to good motorable roads." The Communities also rejected the return of the 260 oil wells to Delta State following a recent Federal High Court judgment. Omogbemi said that the Ugbede community said to have been ceded to Delta State was in Ugbo ward six in Ilaje Local Government Area. "The deceitful claim under which the judgment was obtained surreptitiously is quite unfair and highly illegal because the issue of boundary adjustment can not be handled by the individual family like a case of this nature. "We are physically present and on ground in the area, we will not allow anybody from Delta to go to the place because the place rightly belongs to Ilaje and by extension to Ondo State." http://allafrica.com/stories/200806170371.html Nigeria: Protest Over N-Delta Summit - Militants Bomb NNPC Pipeline Vanguard (Lagos) 17 June 2008 Posted to the web 17 June 2008 Emma Amaize Lagos IJAW militants from Egbema in Edo State, yesterday, said they bombed an NNPC pipeline, supplying crude oil to the Kaduna Refinery in Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State, weekend, because of the insistence of the Federal Government to go ahead with the planned summit on the Niger-Delta with the former External Affairs Minister and Under-Secretary for Political Affairs at the United Nations, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, as the chairman against the wish of the people of the region. One of the leaders of the Niger-Delta Freedom Fighters (NDFF), who claimed responsibility for the bombing told Vanguard on phone, yesterday, that the Ijaw of Egbema in Edo State were marginalised and "we want our own local government area". He said, "The Niger-Delta summit will not hold with a Northerner as the chairman, that is impossible, we will make the place unsafe for them, they cannot continue to treat us as fools. This is unacceptable". According to him,"We will continue to bomb oil facilities in our area until they create our own local government for us. We are also not happy that the Federal Government has flagrantly been breaching the agreement it reached with Ijaw activists on the peace process in the Niger-Delta region". He said the militants were also protesting the unprovoked destruction of Egbema communities, namely, Gboleikekuro, Safarogbo, Simughan, Adaugbene and Ojudou by the Joint Task Force (JTF) on the Niger-Delta about a fortnight ago. His words, "We will not accept the task force coming to burn our communities saying that they are looking for arms. As we have said, we will not accept what the Federal Government, led by President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua has done to the Ijaw communities, we will fight back if the Presidency fails to do anything about the killing and displacing of our people from their communities in Egbema kingdom in Edo and Delta states". He said the claim by the JTF that they burnt down militant camps was not correct, as the soldiers invaded the Ijaw communities without aggravation and wreaked havoc on the defenseless people. "We have just started, this is the beginning, we are going to cripple all activities in our area, we are tired of political oppression, we want to rule ourselves, let them give us our own local government area in Edo State if they want peace", he added. http://www.breitbart.com/image.php?id=iafp080717163157.v84p8jk7p0&show_article=1 Members of Ijaw communities in Bayelsa State march during against protest against oil companies Members of Ijaw communities in Bayelsa State march during against protest against oil companies in 2005. Nigerian villagers blew up a key crude oil supply pipeline operated by Agip, the Nigerian subsidiary of Italian group Eni, early Thursday, cutting production, industry sources told AFP. http://allafrica.com/stories/200807170572.html Nigeria: Women Protest Naked; Eight Shot in Renewed Inter-Ethnic Crisis Vanguard (Lagos) 17 July 2008 Posted to the web 17 July 2008 WOMEN of Obodogugu-Ogume community in Ndokwa area of Delta State protested naked, yesterday, while no fewer than eight persons, including a policeman have been shot by armed youths in a renewed orgy of violence between the community and the people of Emu-Ebendo over negotiations with an oil company. Also yesterday, mobile policemen took over strategic areas in Effurun on the directive of the Inspector General of Police following reports of increased criminality in Uvwie local government area. Reports from Ndokwa said that soldiers have been deployed to the warring communities to assist the police, as the villagers were still mobilizing forces to continue with the skirmish. Vanguard learnt that the problem between the two communities started since the 1950s and even after the Supreme Court had delivered judgment in a land case between them, tempers have still not calmed down. But the latest crisis has to do with negotiations with an oil company, which one of the communities claiming ownership of the land, chased away from the area in 2006. The company recently staged a come-back and agreed to pay compensation for land, but, one of the communities, claiming that the meeting was held without its representatives resisted the company's re-entry bid. Three days ago, about 200 armed youths from the community laid ambush for members of the opposing community, who they accused of hijacking the company, and a man, a woman and a girl that went to the farm were shot. The chairman of the local government council obtained police permit before they could be attended to in the hospital and to restore law and order, the police deployed some men to the area, but, the youths engaged the police in a gun battle. Some of them were shot and allegedly escaped with bullet wounds, while a policeman was shot at the head. A Police Area Commander rushed to the community on getting the report but when the crisis persisted, soldiers were drafted in. Vanguard learnt that the soldiers repelled the move of the Obodogugu youths and pushed them back to the community, but, early yesterday, women of the community protested naked while their armed youths stayed behind them. There is tension in Ndokwa area of Delta State following a clash between Obodogugu-Ogume and Emu- Ebendo communities over negotiations with an oil company, resulting in the shooting of three persons and protest by women, who marched round naked. The army held a meeting with some leaders of the community to maintain peace after pushing the youths back to their domain, but, there was fear, yesterday, that the crisis may escalate. The chairman of the area, his councillors and leaders of the community were said to be holding a meeting on how to end the crisis at the time of this report. At Effurun in Uvwie local government area, the police were searching vehicles and frisking passengers and passers by, yesterday, for weapons. The local government has been tense since the last local government elections and disbanding of the youth leadership of the area, which the government identified to be a major source of trouble in the state. http://allafrica.com/stories/200806060773.html Africa: Nigerians in South Africa Protest Secret Trial of Okah Vanguard (Lagos) 6 June 2008 Posted to the web 6 June 2008 Emma Amaize Lagos Concernd Nigerians in South-Africa have carried out a peaceful demonstration at the Nigerian High Commission in Johannesburg, calling on the visiting President Yar'Adua not to only facilitate an open trial for the leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger-Delta (MEND) Henry Okah, but, also grant him freedom in the interest of peace in the Niger-Delta and Nigeria. Reports from South-Africa said the protesters carried banners, which called on the Federal Government of Nigeria to free Henry Okah. One of the banners bore the inscription, Free Henry Okah, paramount for peace. Their rally organised by some Nigerians in South Africa as the President, it was gathered, stopped over in Cape Town. One of the protesters said, "It is alarming to Nigerians in South Africa that the President had chosen to ignore the importance of releasing the key figures and stakeholders to the peace of the Niger Delta crisis while releasing some and negotiating with others. Henry Okah was solicited for his help in the peace process earlier on in 2007 before his arrest and extradition to Nigeria on the 14th of February 2008," he added. Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark recently in an interview with Vanguard faulted the reasons given by the government for trying Henry Okah secretly, saying that it was against the constitution of the country. http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art200807172211425 Nigerian group to protest Yar'Adua's London visit By Emeka Madunagu, Olamilekan Lartey and Ibanga Isine Published: Thursday, 17 Jul 2008 A group of Nigerians known as the Liberty Forum is planning a protest against President Umaru Yar'Adua's current four-day visit to the United Kingdom. Skip to next paragraph Photo file President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua Opposition to the visit mounted late last week after British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in Japan on July 2 that his country would offer military assistance to Nigeria to enable it restore law and order in the Niger Delta. Downing street reaffirmed the promise at its first meeting with Yar'Adua on Wednesday. It was gathered on Wednesday that the group intended to demonstrate in front of the venue of a seminar in London to be addressed by Yar'Adua. The discussion, titled "Energy security, the food crisis and the Niger Delta," is being organised by a non-governmental organisation, the Chatham House. Information obtained from the NGO's website indicated that Yar'Adua would address critical issues affecting Nigeria, including the Niger Delta where a naval rating and four others were killed in an attack by militants on Wednesday. The Chatham House, which said registration for the event was fully booked said, "Nigeria is undergoing fundamental change as it transforms from (a) developing country to (an) emerging economic power. "At the same time, the country faces significant challenges in establishing good governance, economic diversification, and growth that benefits its entire people. "The crisis in the Niger Delta and in energy supply, in food costs and availability, all have serious global, as well as national dimensions. President Yar'Adua will address these challenges and how they are to be overcome; as well the increasing impact Nigeria has in international affairs." The event is strictly for members who must have done advance registration for themselves and their guests. The NGO's statement apparently rewarded the search by Nigerian civil society groups over the past week for open venues where Yar'Adua was being expected during his visit. The convener of LF, Mr. Kayode Ogundamisi, had told one of our correspondents on Tuesday that the Nigerian High Commission cancelled two open events that Yar'Adua was supposed to attend. He had said in a statement that the cancellation was wrong because it was a veiled way of denying Nigerians in the UK the right to protest the controversial visit. However, an email titled "Stop Press: At last Yar'Adua found in London - protest at Chatham House," was distributed by the LF through some blogs on Wednesday. "Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua will be at the Chatham House between 1600 hours and 1700 hours on Thursday, July 17 , 2008. Nigerians have a right to protest peacefully outside the venue from 15.30hrs to end of event," the LF said. The Chatham House has, however, assured that "venue details and security procedures will be confirmed for those whose application for registration is successful. Non-registered guests will not be admitted." Britain has restated its desire to help Nigeria crack down on violence in the Niger Delta through a security training force. Speaking after talks on Wednesday between the British Prime Minister, Mr. Gordon Brown and Yar'adua, a senior Downing Street official, indicated that the assistance would involve military experts providing advice to Nigeria, according to a report by Agence France Presse. "The UK will work with the government of Nigeria to identify a training and advisory support package which could help improve Nigerian capability to improve security in the Niger Delta," Brown said at a news conference. "The security training force that we're talking about will be support for the Nigerians, to be able to have trainers and others who can build up this capacity locally to deal with the problems." Responding, Yar'Adua said Britain's help would focus on river and maritime security around the Niger Delta. The President added that he asked Brown to lead a campaign at the United Nations against the so-called 'blood oil' - oil stolen in the Niger Delta, which he wants stigmatised in the same way as "blood" diamonds. "I asked for his support to lead a campaign at the UN to track stolen crude and to declare it blood oil just like the Kimberly diamonds so that there is a concerted international effort to ensure that stolen crude is trapped," Yar'Adua said. Meanwhile, an attack on a houseboat near Orubiri Flow Station in Okrika Local Government Area of Rivers State on Wednesday led to the death of a naval personnel, a civilian and three militants. The gunmen were said to have made away with two Passport-19 Patrol boats anchored by the vessel after the attack that lasted close to two hours. A Passport-19 boat is a light river craft used for waterway patrol from a designated command point. A source said that the houseboat and the flow station would have been overrun by the bandits but for quick response by operatives of the NNS Pathfinder. He said, "We started hearing shooting around 1am this(Wednesday) morning and it continued for a very long time. "We learnt that gunmen attacked the houseboat in Orubiri and stole two small boats and killed some persons on the boat. "Three of the gunmen were also said to have died during the fighting and several others escaped with bullet wounds." From ldxar1 at tesco.net Wed Aug 27 13:17:46 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 21:17:46 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Anti-corporate protests, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <00f001c90881$f99d9fb0$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * SOUTH AFRICA: Protesters oppose mine's removal of graves * AMERICA/DOMINICAN REP: Protests over oil price gouging * GREECE: Protesters storm supermarket, give out free food * US/DR CONGO: Coltan protest by rocker at NME awards * US: Workers target Carlyle Group meeting * UK: British American Tobacco protested over sales in global South * HUNGARY: Microsoft CEO egged * US: Protests over Super Target store * CANADA: Protest against store building * US: Consumer groups target car dealer for exploiting vulnerable people * UK: Starbuck's targeted in Birmingham over suppression of unions * US: Sweatshop activists rally in Lansing * INDIA: Students protest against Dow Jones sponsorship * US: Louisiana residents protest at unfair mineral payments * INDIA: Traders' group protests against retail giants * US: KB Homes is focus for anti-foreclosure protest http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_General&set_id=1&click_id=139&art_id=nw20080529131344777C969239 Seven held for gravesite protest May 29 2008 at 01:51PM Seven people were arrested on Thursday after residents from Sekuruwe in Limpopo staged protests against Anglo Platinum's removal of gravesites, police said. Spokesperson Captain Sebogsero Motavi said protests started early Thursday morning when Anglo Platinum contractors and funeral undertakers came to remove the graves from the land purchased by the mining company. "Protesters threw rocks at the contractors and funeral undertakers. The graves were being removed for re-burial. "Police intervened and shot rubber bullets to disperse the angry crowd," he said. Jubilee South Africa alleged that Anglo Platinum was trying to remove gravesites without permission from families. Simon Tebele - head of corporate communications at Anglo Platinum - told Sapa that the company had received permission from the next of kin for the removal of the graves. "The protests do not affect us in any way and we are continuing with normal activities," he said. According to Motavi, all 82 gravesites were removed under heavy police presence. - Sapa http://www.dominicantoday.com/dr/local/2008/7/31/28870/Dominican-Americans-protest-oil-price-gouging-in-NYC-PWW-reports Dominican-Americans protest oil price-gouging in NYC, PWW reports Print Email Bookmark Save to my profile 60 Comments - last on Aug 4 at 4:14 PM Close Gallery Adriano Espaillat. Photo elnuevodiario.com.do Zoom Picture NEW YORK-Dozens of community members and a group of Dominican-American and other Latino elected officials protested petroleum speculation here in Times Square on Wednesday, a picket held outside the headquarters of NASDAQ, which trades oil futures, said People's Weekly World. "We are here to address rampant unregulated speculation conducted in the NASDAQ trade market," said New York State Assembly Member Adriano Espailla, who is co-chairman of the League of Dominican American Elected Officials, which called the protest. He and other speakers blamed market speculators and deregulation of the oil markets for the unprecedented oil and gas prices in working-class Dominican American communities in the U.S., and in the Dominican Republic, PWW said. The average for a gallon of gas in the Dominican Republic tops US$6.00. "Speakers blamed the staggering gas prices on the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, which opened the door to speculation on energy commodities. U.S. gas prices have more than doubled since the act was passed," PWW said, adding that the league is supporting legislation introduced by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), which would reestablish some regulation to curb such speculation. Espaillat told reporters that Congressional Republicans attempted to kill Reid's bill by introducing offshore drilling proposals into it last week. "This winter in New England is going to be a difficult one," said Rhode Island State Senator Juan Pichardo, referring to predictions of high heating-oil prices next season. "We are stepping up not only for congressional action but to build an alliance with [Dominican Republic] President Fernandez." Pichardo is the other co-chairman of the league. In response to the global oil crisis, Dominican President Leonel Fernandez is proposing a Global Petroleum Solidarity Fund be created to assist countries with annual per capita income less than $6,000. Under the proposal, oil-producing nations would allocate 3 percent of their record earnings to the fund. "Our goal is to let the speculators on Wall Street know, we will not be invisible. We are being impacted by oil prices not only in this country, but in the Dominican Republic," Councilman Reynaldo Martinez of Haledon, N.J., told the World. Elected officials from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Maryland participated in the protest and press conference. The American Northeast is home to the majority of Dominican Americans. http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=94184 Greek Protesters Strike Supermarket, Give out Food 16 June 2008, Monday Greek Protesters Strike Supermarket, Give out Food: Greek leftist demonstrators entered a supermarket in the Exarxeia district of Athens, filling up shopping trolleys and leaving without paying to give out the food to people on the street. The group also handed out leaflets protesting rising food prices and managed to escape before the police appeared. The protest came at a time of growing dissatisfaction with the government of Kostas Karamanlis whose administration has been involved in a number of financial scandals since its re-election in 2007. Rising food and petrol prices have caused hardship amongst those on low incomes and many accuse the government of negligence over its inability to curb the spiraling cost of living. http://www.postchronicle.com/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=67&num=144162 Published: Apr 25, 2008Share It | Most Popular | Send A Tip Pete Wentz Stages Silent 'Coltan Diamond' Protest At NME Awards by Staff Fall Out Boy rocker Pete Wentz got political at the NME Awards in Los Angeles on Wednesday night (23Apr08) by scribbling 'Coltan Is A Conflict Diamond' on his T-shirt. The bass player was protesting the mining of coltan diamonds in Africa. The gem, which is used in the manufacture of mobile phones, has become a massive commodity that some say is now more valuable than gold. It's mining has led to warring rebel groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo exploiting coltan to help finance war - an issue raised in Leonardo DiCaprio's hit film Blood Diamond. Wentz told reporters, "People have got to be careful what they buy." The rocker went on to state that the engagement ring he bought his new fiancee Ashlee Simpson was not made with conflict diamonds: "I trust the jeweller. He's a reputable person." (c) WENN http://newsok.com/company-director-unyielding-in-face-of-noisy-protestors/article/3238470 Sun May 4, 2008 Top of Form Bottom of Form Company director unyielding in face of noisy protestors By Clytie Bunyan Business Editor BALTIMORE, Md. - There's nothing like a little drama to liven up a dull event. After about an hour listening to what was one of the most boring speeches I've ever heard, I folded my laptop and headed for the door, only to be ordered to lock the door and return to my seat. The frantic order followed the dramatic lockdown of a conference ballroom last week at the Sheraton Inner Harbor where Robert Steel, Treasury undersecretary for domestic finance, was speaking to a group of business journalists. Within minutes there were shouts outside: "Better staffing, better care; no more money for the millionaire." A group of about 30 people had slipped past security intending to storm the room. But just when I thought things were going to get really exciting, I learned the protestors weren't there to embarrass Steel. Instead, they were about 30 minutes early. Their target: David Rubenstein, co-founder and managing director of the Carlyle Group. Rubenstein, who appeared for a conversation about private equity and leveraged buyouts, later explained that he'd been the target of the Service Employees International Union since Carlyle Group bought Manor Care, the nation's largest nursing home company. It's not working The way Rubenstein sees it, the union takes every opportunity to embarrass him, hoping he'll give in and put pressure on Manor Care management to improve benefits and allow workers to unionize. But Rubenstein is unmoved. It's not working. He's used to the protestors and expects them to show up wherever he is. The noisemakers were removed long before he showed up. (Steel, by the way, made his exit through the hotel's kitchen when his session was over.) And Rubenstein delivered a candid conversation that made leveraged buyouts sound like the best thing since ... well, IPOs. Transparency typically isn't a word associated with private equity firms, and definitely not with a company like Carlyle, known for its high-powered associations with the rich and the powerful, among them several former White House connections, including past presidents. In one publication, the company has been described as the "CIA of the business world - omnipresent, powerful, a little sinister." But Rubenstein said he decided in recent years to start speaking out more about Carlyle basically to keep government off their back. Looking abroad Private equity firms, he said, have to try to explain what they do, who they are or they may have a hard time getting the government to leave them alone. They don't want to draw cumbersome government regulation that would prevent such firms from doing deals or raising money for deals. That's partially because private equity is not just a domestic practice. Firms are looking abroad for investment opportunities and investors. "Private equity started in the U.S., now it's all over the world," Rubenstein said. "Perhaps it's the largest U.S. export." Firms are putting good people on the ground in Europe, Africa, South America and allowing them to hire local talent to identify investors and investment opportunities. In China, for example, people are hired who were educated in the U.S. and are knowledgeable about Western private equity and how it works. And private equity firms are focusing on emerging markets, Rubenstein said. That's anywhere that's not Canada, Australia, Western Europe or Japan. But the U.S. is still the best place to invest because of transparency, management and respect for the rule of law, he said. Maybe private equity firms should add Oklahoma City to their list of emerging markets. Long overlooked as a possible growth community for large firms, Oklahoma City's growing biotech, aerospace and energy sectors, efforts to grow a more skilled workforce and success in transforming its former underdog image surely make it a more attractive investment opportunity. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/05/398110.html British American Tobacco AGM targetted by ASH protest rikki | 03.05.2008 09:44 | Globalisation | Health | London BAT sells 100 billion cigarettes each year in africa causing a hundred thousand deaths. early on weds 30th april young volunteers from 'action on smoking and health' (ASH) laid shoes outside the BAT HQ to represent the dead, then energetically harangued delegates outside the AGM. WMV movie of demo - video/x-ms-wmv 10M despite torrential rain, groups of young people (from salford, south wales and elsewhere) arrived outside the BAT hq and placed a 1000 shoes on the pavement, tagged with common cigarette-induced illnesses, each meant to signify an estimated thousand yearly deaths in africa later, the young people successfully harangued delegates as they entered the AGM at the mermaid conference hall. the noisy and boisterous protest was policed by a very hands-off U747 city of london police officer (paul) who sat in his car and observed. BAT were also filming the protest from an upstairs window. a tv production team filmed the events - they were working on a documentary due to be broadcast in july and fronted by duncan bannatyne (a scottish business entrepeneur known for his role in the 'dragons den' tv shows). he said he hadn't liked the practices he'd seen as part of his research in africa. these include aggressive marketing, the officially sanctioned selling of 'single sticks' (for greater sales and more child-friendliness), the encouragement of corruption in governments, the child labour and restrictive practices in tobacco farming, and many other issues covered in a far-reaching report released by ASH this year. some of the delegates were astonishingly bravado about their profits from death. comments included that there were too many people in africa already, that child labour was ok if they had no other means, and that they were all foreign so it didn't really matter. lovely people! ASH have vowed to be back again next year with an even bigger protest. in the meantime you can check out their websie to read more about the issues and their campaigning work http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2008-04/2008-04-30-voa44.cfm?CFID=23177045&CFTOKEN=51366195 Anti-Smokers Protest British American Tobacco Expansion in Africa, Asia By Tendai Maphosa London 30 April 2008 Shareholders' meeting of British American Tobacco on Wednesday was besieged by anti-smoking activists protesting the cigarette manufacturer's increasing focus on Africa and Asia. Tendai Maphosa has more for VOA in this report from London. British American Tobacco (BAT) has been in Africa since 1902. The shareholders at the London meeting had reason to celebrate; the company made a pretax profit of more than $4.5 billion last year. But Action on Smoking and Health, a non-profit group that works to eliminate the harm caused by tobacco, used the opportunity to protest the company's growing presence in Africa. Group spokesman Martin Dockrell says African countries are experiencing the highest increase in tobacco use among developing countries. "The shareholders are meeting in London today to count their profits," he said. "They sold 1.1 billion cigarettes in Africa and the Middle East region last year, and we are not so happy because by our calculation that is equivalent to about 100,000 deaths." Dockrell says since smoking is on the decline in the West due to pressure by organizations like his and the general public's awareness of the health implications of smoking, companies such as BAT have shifted their focus to Africa and Asia with aggressive advertising. Dockrell also says tobacco is not a good crop for African and Asian farmers. "It is harmful economically for the farmers," he said. "What they have got is a system where British American Tobacco will have a near monopoly on the product so you can only sell your product to British American Tobacco. They will give you a loan, they will supply you with the fertilizer, they will supply you with everything that you need to grow your plant and you just have to pay them back come harvest time. Increasingly African farmers are finding that the money that they get for the harvest from British American Tobacco is scarcely enough to pay the debts." Dockrell also says land used for growing tobacco cannot be used for growing food crops and that child labor is often used. BAT responded with a written statement saying Action on Smoking and Health's facts just do not stand up. It also dismissed the charge it is breaking into emerging markets to dodge regulation, since it has been in those markets for more than 100 years and abides by the laws and regulations of all the countries it operates in. The company says the health risks associated with smoking are well-known and warnings about the hazard are printed on every single pack of cigarettes it makes whether the law requires it or not. http://www.wsbtv.com/news/16338460/detail.html?rss=atl&psp=money Protester Hurls Eggs At Microsoft CEO POSTED: 10:49 am EDT May 20, 2008 UPDATED: 11:22 am EDT May 20, 2008 While delivering a speech at a university in Budapest, Hungary, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer had to take cover behind a desk when a man threw three eggs at him. The man reportedly was protesting a deal between Microsoft and the Hungarian government that he claimed is costing Hungarian taxpayers. When Ballmer addressed the audience, asking them how many still had finals to take, the man stood up and yelled in English in a thick Hungarian accent. He finished his quick rant by saying, "Give that money back right now." The man then pulled an egg out of his pocket and hurled it at Ballmer from about 10 to 15 feet away, missing him. The audience laughed as the first egg was thrown, but by the time he threw the second and third egg the audience began to yell out in protest at the man's egg throwing. Ballmer hid behind a desk and did not appear to have been hit by any of the eggs. The man had the words "Microsoft = Corruption" written on the back of his shirt. What followed was a lot of awkward silence as the man then made his way down the aisle to leave. Other audience members in the aisle had to stand up, some holding their laptops, as the man exited. As he calmly made his way down the stairs, two men in suits met him and led him out of the auditorium. After the man left, Ballmer turned to the audience. "It was a friendly disruption," he said as the audience laughed. "That broke my train of thought." http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/jun/05/super-target-okd-despite-protests-highlands-ranch/ Super Target OK'd despite protests in Highlands Ranch By Tillie Fong, Rocky Mountain News (Contact) Originally published 07:47 a.m., June 5, 2008 Updated 07:47 a.m., June 5, 2008 Residents in Highlands Ranch are hoping that a developer who plans to put in a Super Target store next to their homes will listen to their concerns. "This land is zoned for this and they have the right to do this," said John Lyon, 35, a health worker who moved into the Westridge Glen neighborhood a year ago. "They don't have to get the approval of the residents, but we wish we had been consulted." Late Wednesday night, the Highlands Ranch Development Review Committee unanimously approved Shea Properties' proposal to build a Super Target on a 15-acre parcel of land northeast of Lucent Boulevard and Highlands Ranch Parkway. "One of the things is that Highlands Ranch is underserved in terms of the amount of retail," said Gordon Von Stroh, chair of the committee. "People were going over to Park Meadows, they're going to the Streets of Southglenn. The key thing is the importance of having more opportunity for people to shop in Highlands Ranch and not elsewhere." More than 50 people attended the committee meeting held at the Southridge Recreation Center on Wednesday night. Many had concerns about the impact of having a Super Target practically in their backyards. "We don't think it's necessary," said attorney Lisa Pray, who's part of a loose group of Westridge Glen residents opposed to the project. Pray, like many residents, was worried about the impact of lights, noise and traffic from the Super Target. "It's right behind the residences," she said. Pray said she had circulated a petition protesting the project at a farmers' market recently and obtained 90 signatures. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2008/06/03/tims-protest.html?ref=rss Flower power over coffee beans, anti-Tim's protesters say Last Updated: Tuesday, June 3, 2008 | 9:00 AM NT Comments21Recommend31 CBC News Demonstrators used flowers and soil Monday evening to protest a proposed Tim Hortons franchise in a western Newfoundland city. About 30 adults and children planted dozens of brightly coloured flowers in a grassy field on West Street in downtown Corner Brook, where a coffee shop has been proposed. "We're going to kind of make a little, happy statement about possibilities for this neglected green space here," said organizer Les Sasaki. Marie Mathews, who has lived in the area for more than 40 years, said the area needs an open space more than a Tim Hortons shop. "I know that I've always appreciated this area quite a lot, and you always seem proud when you come, bring visitors down this area - nice, open green spaces," she said. "Hopefully we won't lose it." The City of Corner Brook, though, says that the site is private property, and already meets all zoning regulations for commercial development. Participant David Maggs said he was far from confident that the protest would amount to much. "This will be bulldozed in, in no time," said Maggs, as he prepared soil for planting. "But it's like the Buddhists and their sand paintings - you know, you just make it and it teaches you a little lesson about beauty and trying to make it happen in your community." http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23942962-2862,00.html Protest against motor dealer Holly Ife June 30, 2008 12:00am CONSUMER groups protested outside a car dealership at the weekend over claims the business focuses on vulnerable customers. Consumer advocates Choice and the Consumer Action Law Centre spent Saturday providing customers with information outside the Dandenong dealership of Motor Finance Wizard. Choice claims Motor Finance Wizard -- which sells and provides finance for secondhand cars -- often sells vehicles in poor condition for inflated prices. CALC spokesman Gerard Brody said more than a quarter of all complaints about motor car traders or financiers over the past 12 to 18 months were related to Motor Finance Wizard. "Generally the complaints relate to the poor quality of vehicles, the fact that they are overpriced -- sometimes three or four times their market value -- and the company does not disclose the cost of the credit," Mr Brody said. He said the vehicles were marketed as interest-free, but the inflated prices meant buyers ended up paying the equivalent of well over 50 per cent interest. Motor Finance Wizard spokesman Peter Llewellyn denied the cars were poor quality, and said all went through 32-point checks and were sold with a roadworthy certificate. He said the company had competitive prices and provided customers with an upfront cost. "We do remind consumers that they do have a choice when purchasing a car," Mr Llewellyn said. "If they are not happy with the price of the cars sold at our yards we suggest they consider purchasing a vehicle from an alternative dealership." Choice and CALC want Motor Finance Wizard and its related finance company, Kwik Finance, to comply with the Uniform Consumer Credit Code, to stop hiding finance costs in the price of the car and to disclose interest and fees, and to adequately assess borrowers' ability to pay. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/06/402015.html Birmingham Starbucks Protest D | 27.06.2008 10:11 | Globalisation | Workers' Movements | Birmingham In Solidarity with Sacked Workers Protest Picket-12pm, Saturday 5th July, Starbucks, New St, Birmingham Bollox to Union Busting! An Injury to One is an Injury to ALL! To protest against the latest illegal firings of union activists in Starbucks organising for a better life in Michigan USA and Seville Spain. On Thursday 24th April, Monica, a barista in the central Seville branch of Starbucks, was fired without notice for creating problems with her workmates. She had worked there for a year and a half. She had been active in organising with the CNT and defending her rights. The store manager told her on several occasions that she must have nothing to do with unions. She is a member of the Commerce Union of the CNT, in Spain. The CNT is demanding her reinstatement. Barely a month later, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA, Starbucks fired barista Cole Dorsey on June 6th. Cole had over 2 years of service and was active in the IWW Starbucks Workers Union. The National Labor Relations Board in the US has already made the firm rehire two sacked workers in 2006, and are looking at Starbucks latest violation. Please come and join us and show Starbucks bosses will not tolerate their union busting. This is part of an international day of action. Bring placards, banners, instruments and your mates. Solidarity Federation and Industrial Workers of the World www.solfed.org www.iww.org.uk http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/06/401637.html Arrested & Charged McLibel Protester! Mr. A. Protester | 21.06.2008 23:48 | Animal Liberation | Ecology | Globalisation | Cambridge | World Campaigner arrested. McLibel protest. See the video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld3I4zVxc2A On the 21st June 08, as part of the anniversary of the now famous 1997 McLibel court case in which two campaigners were sued by the McDonalds Corporation for distributing a leaflet critical of the company, campaigners entered the McDonalds in Rose Crescent, Cambridge. After being removed from the restaurant by police a campaigner was approached and his details requested. He gave his name and address but was told if he did not give his date of birth he would be arrested under Section 5 of the Public Order Act. He refused, as he believes that a person is only required to give their name and address for the purpose of a summons and no additional details. He was subsequently arrested under Section 5 of the Public Order Act. The arrest got public attention with people making use of their cameras and coming up to take leaflets. He has been charged and bailed to attend Cambridge Magistrates - Narey - Court 613 - Magistrates Court at 43 Hauxton Road, Cambridge on the 3rd July at 9.30 a.m. - ANY SUPPORT APPRECIATED. The protesters hoped to highlight the issues that originally comprised the leaflet that led to the court case ranging from animal farming to environmental degradation. According to a campaigner, "McDonalds hasn't really changed. Whether it be the environmental impact of animal agriculture or the fact they continue to market junk food to children in the middle of an obesity problem, McDonalds still makes a lot of people very Mcangry." Many of the original leaflet's criticisms of McDonalds were vindicated in court. According to the ruling of the High Court, Mcdonalds had 'exploited children', was 'culpably responsible for animal cruelty' and used marketing that had 'pretended to a positive nutritional benefit which their food did not match'. The campaigners are calling on the people of Cambridge to boycott the restaurant chain. We can all make a statement about our values by the way we spend our cash. We call on everyone to say no to this business in our city. - You can learn more about the McLibel case at http://www.mcspotlight.org/ - An additional video of the protest was taken by an independent camera man see http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/06/401610.html (thanks!) - Protester's video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld3I4zVxc2A COURT DATE: Cambridge Magistrates - Narey - Court 613 - Magistrates Court at 43 Hauxton Road, Cambridge on the 3rd July at 9.30 a.m. http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080701/NEWS06/80701052/1118/RSS Group protests oppressive conditions in global factories at state Capitol July 1, 2008 LANSING - Activists opposed to what they regard as oppressive working conditions in garment factories around the globe held a news conference at the state Capitol today to call on elected officials in Michigan to use their purchasing power to force improvements. The SweatFree Michigan campaign, backed by labor, religious and student organizations, called on Gov. Jennifer Granholm to issue an executive order joining Michigan to other communities and states which have formed a coalition to monitor conditions in overseas factories. When substandard conditions are uncovered the coalition pressures vendors and manufacturers to make changes, said Victoria Kaplan, the Midwest regional organizer of the campaign. Michigan and other public agencies across the state purchase many of the uniforms worn by police officers and firefighters, among others, from manufacturers who own factories where workers are mistreated, Kaplan said. http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=382232 IITians protest Dow sponsorship of golden jubilee celebration IANS Monday 14th July, 2008 Mumbai/Hundreds of former and present students, including many faculty members of the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B), have protested acceptance of sponsorship by an alumni group from US-based Dow Chemicals for a golden jubilee conference in New York July 18-20. Addressing the media in Mumbai Monday, Janak Daftari, an IIT-B alumni, said: 'A group of IIT-B alumni, mostly from Silicon Valley, in total disregard to the sentiments and the callous practices being followed by the firm in their (alumini's) origin country, has gone ahead and under the aegis of IIT-Bombay Heritage Fund are organizing a two-day golden jubilee function in New York between July 18-20.' The Bhopal gas tragedy, which is often considered as one of the world's biggest industrial disasters, took place December 3, 1984. A Union Carbide subsidiary pesticide plant released 40 tonnes of methyl isocyanate, which killed more than 3,800 people and affected many thousand more. The Dow Chemicals now owns Union Carbide. Daftari said that over 1,000 students signed a petition last year urging the IITs to debar Dow from on-campus recruitment or sponsoring programs, 'purely because of Dow's mishandling of its subsidiary Union Carbide's environmental and criminal liabilities in Bhopal and its disregard for Indian courts.' He said the company was forced to call off its recruitment plans in Mumbai, Chennai, Kharagpur and New Delhi and 'IIT Kanpur and IIT Delhi returned Dow's sponsorship at the last minute, succumbing to pressure from alumni, faculty and students'. 'It is a sheer irony that in 2005, the organisers of Global IIT Conference in the US, cancelled their invitation to the then CEO of Dow, William Stavropoulos. And here the IIT-B Heritage Fund has gone ahead and not just accepted the sponsorship but has even put the firm at the pedestal of gold sponsor,' Daftari said. Asked whether IIT authorities have given any approval to the contentious event, Daftari said an invitation has been sent to all senior members of the institution. 'Obviously, the golden jubilee celebration is being done privately but then there is a tacit approval from the senior administrators. After all they are seriously contemplating to attend the event even though scores of faculty members have opposed the sponsorship itself,' he said. In Delhi, Ravi Kuchimanchi, another alumni, said he, like scores of others, was shocked that the organisers of the conference could even think of associating themselves with a company that has caused such an enormous disaster and given birth to innumerable tales of agony. 'In 1984 when the gas leaked in Bhopal, I and other students in IIT-Bombay were shocked and angry. Today I am shocked to see, instead of forcing Dow to fork up money and clean up the Bhopal site, the organisers of the 50th anniversary celebrations have sought its money. As IIT alumni we can do better,' a disappointed Kuchimanchi said in a press statement in the national capital. http://www.ksla.com/Global/story.asp?S=8631237 Protestors say Shreveport company not being fair in mineral right payments Posted: July 8, 2008 12:28 AM Updated: July 8, 2008 01:05 AM By Liz Elan - bio | email SHREVEPORT, LA (KSLA) - Northwest Louisiana landowners have begun cashing in on the Haynesville Shale, which is being called one of the largest natural gas deposits in the country. But some people feel they're not getting paid what their mineral rights are worth. " They're paying (a) certain (amount of) money on one side of town and then less, at least (an) $8,000 difference on the other side of town," said protestor Artis Cash. Picketers gathered in downtown Shreveport, angry because they say one company buying up many of the mineral rights from land owners, is taking advantage of them."If you start looking at the neighborhoods, you will come to realize those are the impoverished neighborhoods that are getting less money," Cash said. Blanchard Landowner Kevin Terry feels he's one of those not getting a fair deal. "They use divide and conquer tactics and pressure tactics to get people to hurry up and sign." The company targeted by Monday's protestors was Twin Cities Development. It's the middle man for Chesapeake Energy. "When you are dealing with people and prices of this magnitude, you are going to get all types of reactions," said Matthew Montgomery with Twin Cities Development. One common reaction, Montgomery says, is confusion. "They reported on your station (KSLA) that they were paying $15-25,000-per acre. We know that's not the case," Cash said. What was actually said on KSLA News 12 was a quote from Chesapeake Energy that stated in one area, bonuses reached higher than $15,000. Nowhere did we report that $15,000 was a blanket amount for everyone. "Our offers differ on what we call market conditions. It has absolutely nothing to do with race or ethnicity whatsoever. It has everything to do with competition, drill site availability, and then acreage involved within the trade," Montgomery said. The lines get blurred when words like signing bonus and lease offers are used, and who gets how much money. Both sides say to clear it up, learn as much as you can. "If I was in their position, I would be getting the best deal possible. That's what I am trying to do," said Terry. Kevin is trying to become as educated as possible. Montgomery says Twin Cities wants to help. "We want everyone to feel comfortable with the deal before they sign." Picketers say they plan to stay out in front of the Twin Cities' Edward Street office all week long to make their point. One of the reasons the Haynesville Shale is taking off so quickly is because of higher natural gas prices. The price for natural gas on the New York Mercantile Exchange has increased every month since December, when it traded for around $7 per million British Thermal Units. It now is at the highest levels since setting records in December 2005 in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Sunday's closing price was $13.39, nearly doubling in the past six months. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/11/stories/2008071155120600.htm Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram Traders' body holds protest against retail giants Special Correspondent UP IN ARMS: President of the Kerala Vyapari Vyavasayi Ekopana Samithi T. Naziruddin addressing the protesters near the Assembly complex in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday. Thiruvananthapuram: A majority of traders all over the State downed shutters in response to a call for a dawn-to-dusk protest by the Kerala Vyaparai Vyavasayi Ekopana Samithi (KVVES) against the entry of monopoly retail chains in the State. Hotels and medical shops remained open but most other shops were closed. Markets and shopping centres wore a deserted look. Thousands of traders participated in an Assembly march organised in the city by the KVVES demanding legislation to control retail giants. The rallyists also raised slogans demanding withdrawal of the cess on Value Added Tax. The march led by KVVES leaders started from the Museum Junction. The police blocked the protestors near the War Memorial. KVVES State president T.Naziruddin addressed the rally. Pannian Ravindran, MP, Aanathalavattom Anandan, MLA, KVVES general secretary Alex M. Thomas spoke. http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/08/09/20080809swv-kbprotest0809.html Buckeye homeowners join mortgage protest 77 comments by Cynthia Benin - Aug. 9, 2008 08:00 AM The Arizona Republic Buckeye homeowners joined a demonstration in Los Angeles on Thursday to protest high interest rates on loans that are threatening to throw many residents into foreclosure. Six homeowners from the Santarra subdivision in Buckeye joined supporters from the Laborers' International Union of North America in a protest at the KB Homes headquarters in Westwood, Calif. The protest comes in conjunction with a report just released by LIUNA detailing the mortgage crisis and revealing that an even bigger wave of foreclosures is likely forthcoming. The report examines mortgages made in Maricopa County by the lending partners of three of the nation's largest home builders: Richmond America, Lennar and KB Homes. "We've been in touch with homeowners in lots of subdivisions in Maricopa County," said LIUNA strategic organizer Jordan Ash, who authored the report. "There were a lot of the same issues." Notably, more than one-third of the mortgages made in 2005 and '06 were five-year adjustable rate mortgages, known as ARMs, poised to reset in 2010. When the loans were made, homebuilders and lenders assumed the loans would be refinanced before the rates reset. But plummeting home values will likely prevent residents from refinancing. "There's been a lot of attention paid to the three-year ARMs that are causing foreclosures now," Ash said. "But we may only be at the tip of the iceberg." At the Santarra development built by KB Homes in Buckeye, home values decreased an average of $78,800 last year, according to the report. Rosa Garcia, a single mother of two, bought her home two years ago for $231,900. Now it's worth $145,800, according to Maricopa County assessors, much less than the $208,000 she owes on her mortgages. Although home prices are decreasing nationwide, part of Garcia's problem may be that her loan was based on an inflated initial appraisal. KB Homes and Countrywide KB Home Loans - a lending enterprise formed by Countrywide Financial and KB - have been the subject of two lawsuits in the past year claiming the companies conspired with appraisers to inflate home prices. Ash's report states that another couple from Santarra wanted to take out a loan on a home priced at $394,000, but their credit union denied their request, claiming the house was worth $351,000. KB referred the couple to Countrywide, which appraised it at KB's price. What's more, many homeowners are behind on their payments due to rising interest rates from property taxes. In the first year, Ash said, interest rates on homes in new developments are often based on the value of the undeveloped property, but in the second year rates are based on the value of the home. In Garcia's case, that means her monthly payments almost doubled from one year to the next. "I started out paying $1,274 a month on my first loan," she said. "Now it's at $1,729. With my second loan, it started at $74 a month, and in two years it went up to $398. It nothing happens to relieve her debt, Garcia expects she'll be kicked out of her house by late October. So far, Countrywide and KB have offered no real solution, she said. "All they've done is to send me more paperwork for a third loan. What makes you think I'm going to sign paperwork for a third loan if I can't even pay you the loans I have?" Garcia asked. LIUNA hopes the protest will inspire KB homes and Countrywide to offer some assistance. "We just want the builder to take responsibility for what they've done," Ash said. A release from KB Homes' Corporate Communications Director Lindsay Stephenson stated, "We could not disagree more with the assertions made by LIUNA." While the company does not believe it is responsible for the current situation, Stephenson said, "We want every KB homeowner to know that we stand ready to assist them in any way we can to ensure that they are pleased with their purchase." From ldxar1 at tesco.net Wed Aug 27 13:26:02 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 21:26:02 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Global worker unrest, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <00f101c90883$220990c0$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * INDIA: Bhavnagar diamond workers attack bosses, 1 killed by guards * IRAN: Kiyan-Tire factory workers burn tyres and factory and rally * SOUTH AFRICA: Municipal workers stone police * SOUTH AFRICA: Defence workers clash with police in Lenasia * FRANCE: Dockers battle police at anti-privatisation protest * PAKISTAN: Police clash with office workers at protest against dismissals * TAIWAN: Transport workers battle police * KUWAIT: Migrant workers protest for better pay and living conditions, teargassed by police * UAE: 3000 Indian workers involved in protests over food, some ransack canteen http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080055884&ch=7/6/2008%2011:21:00%20AM Diamond workers' protest turns violent in Bhavnagar, 1 dead Rohit Bhan Sunday, July 06, 2008, (Bhavnagar) Violence rocked India's diamond capital Gujarat on Sunday. At least 40,000 angry workers who have been demanding better pay for a while, attacked small factories and homes of their owners. The security guards hit back and one person died while others were injured in the firing. These workers are demanding a 20 per cent raise. Currently, they are paid anywhere between Rs 15-25 per diamond which they say is inadequate in these times of skyrocketing prices. And what has made matter worse is the gradual decline in the demand for diamonds. It had begun in Surat a week ago. Today, when they are close to a compromise, Bhavnagar has taken up the fight. "We called a meeting of all industrialists and unanimously felt that the worker charges should be increased by 20 per cent," said C P Vanani, president, Surat Diamond Association. Thousands of workers at units in Gujarat cut and polish the raw materials until they are priceless jewels which are then exported to the US at huge profits. But the workers say they are paid very little and the pay structure is inconsistent. Some get paid Rs 25 per diamond while others get just Rs 15. And wages have not been revised in years, despite the inflation. On top of this, the current recession has made things more difficult with demand dropping almost 19 per cent. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Diamond_workers_protest_over_wages_reaches_Bhavnagar_1_dead/articleshow/3204171.cms Diamond workers' protest over wages reaches Bhavnagar, 1 dead 7 Jul 2008, 0230 hrs BHAVNAGAR: The agitation for better wages by diamond cutters and polishers that started in Surat spread to Bhavnagar on Sunday and took an ugly turn. One worker was killed and 31 were injured when a private security guard opened fire on a mob indulging in arson and pelting stones in Kumudwadi area of the town. Three people were seriously injured. Twelve policemen were also injured in the violence that lasted for more than an hour from 8.45 am. Vijay Zadaphia, 27, the diamond worker, died when the security guard fired four times to disperse crowds outside Jewel Star diamond unit, owned by Mavji Chaugat, police said. Although the agitation, which began on July 1, has calmed down in Surat, it is threatening to spread to other towns of Gujarat. There were incidents of violence in Rajkot, Liliya, Damnagar, Gondal, Jungadh and Amrelim, all of which have diamond polishing units. "We have arrested the security guard, Gajendra Singh, an ex-army man," said Bhavnagar SP Anupamsinh Gehlot. "About 50 people have been rounded up for arson and rioting." http://story.indiagazette.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/701ee96610c884a6/id/379071/cs/1/ 1 killed as guard fires on protesting diamond workers India Gazette Sunday 6th July, 2008 (IANS) One person was killed and six others were injured when a private security guard opened fire at a mob of diamond workers, who were protesting over wage hike Sunday, the police said. The trouble began Sunday morning when close to 40,000 workers, who were demanding a hike in wages, took their protest to the diamond units in Kumbudwadi area of the city, about 200 km from Ahmedabad. They pelted stones and damaged some vehicles, the police said. A private security guard at a diamond unit opened fire leading to one person - identified as Vijay Arjunbhai Japadia, 21 - being killed and six others injured. Diamond workers across the state Saturday started their protest for wage hike. The protest was organised following a 20 percent hike given to diamond workers of Surat. The Surat Diamond Association had recently announced a rise of 20 percent in wages but many manufacturing units are refusing to pay the increased wages leading to workers unrest. Diamond workers of other parts of the state like Rajkot, Ahmedabad, and Amreli are also demanding a 20 percent wage hike. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=aXfgr8XGrUyQ&refer=india Indian Diamond Worker Protesting Wages Killed by Private Guards By Jay Shankar July 6 (Bloomberg) -- An Indian diamond worker, protesting low wages, was killed when a trader's private security guards opened fire in the western city of Bhavnagar in Gujarat state, a state-government official said. The worker was among more than a dozen protesting outside the factory of a trader in the city, Pradip Shah, a senior government official in Bhavnagar district, said in a phone interview today. ``When the protesters attacked the factory, the guards opened fire, killing one of them,'' Shah said. ``Another protester was injured.'' Most of India's diamond-polishing companies are based in the state of Gujarat. While the industry processes 11 of every 12 diamonds in the world, the stones make up about 80 percent of total volume because of their sizes. There are about 20,000 workers in the diamond industry in the district and their pay varies according to their skills, Shah said. The government is in talks with factory owners about possibly raising salaries, he said. http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080055884&ch=7/6/2008%2011:21:00%20AM Diamond workers' protest turns violent in Bhavnagar, 1 dead Rohit Bhan Sunday, July 06, 2008, (Bhavnagar) Violence rocked India's diamond capital Gujarat on Sunday. At least 40,000 angry workers who have been demanding better pay for a while, attacked small factories and homes of their owners. The security guards hit back and one person died while others were injured in the firing. These workers are demanding a 20 per cent raise. Currently, they are paid anywhere between Rs 15-25 per diamond which they say is inadequate in these times of skyrocketing prices. And what has made matter worse is the gradual decline in the demand for diamonds. It had begun in Surat a week ago. Today, when they are close to a compromise, Bhavnagar has taken up the fight. "We called a meeting of all industrialists and unanimously felt that the worker charges should be increased by 20 per cent," said C P Vanani, president, Surat Diamond Association. Thousands of workers at units in Gujarat cut and polish the raw materials until they are priceless jewels which are then exported to the US at huge profits. But the workers say they are paid very little and the pay structure is inconsistent. Some get paid Rs 25 per diamond while others get just Rs 15. And wages have not been revised in years, despite the inflation. On top of this, the current recession has made things more difficult with demand dropping almost 19 per cent. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Diamond_workers_protest_over_wages_reaches_Bhavnagar_1_dead/articleshow/3204171.cms Diamond workers' protest over wages reaches Bhavnagar, 1 dead 7 Jul 2008, 0230 hrs IST,TNN BHAVNAGAR: The agitation for better wages by diamond cutters and polishers that started in Surat spread to Bhavnagar on Sunday and took an ugly turn. One worker was killed and 31 were injured when a private security guard opened fire on a mob indulging in arson and pelting stones in Kumudwadi area of the town. Three people were seriously injured. Twelve policemen were also injured in the violence that lasted for more than an hour from 8.45 am. Vijay Zadaphia, 27, the diamond worker, died when the security guard fired four times to disperse crowds outside Jewel Star diamond unit, owned by Mavji Chaugat, police said. Although the agitation, which began on July 1, has calmed down in Surat, it is threatening to spread to other towns of Gujarat. There were incidents of violence in Rajkot, Liliya, Damnagar, Gondal, Jungadh and Amrelim, all of which have diamond polishing units. "We have arrested the security guard, Gajendra Singh, an ex-army man," said Bhavnagar SP Anupamsinh Gehlot. "About 50 people have been rounded up for arson and rioting." http://story.indiagazette.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/701ee96610c884a6/id/379071/cs/1/ 1 killed as guard fires on protesting diamond workers India Gazette Sunday 6th July, 2008 (IANS) One person was killed and six others were injured when a private security guard opened fire at a mob of diamond workers, who were protesting over wage hike Sunday, the police said. The trouble began Sunday morning when close to 40,000 workers, who were demanding a hike in wages, took their protest to the diamond units in Kumbudwadi area of the city, about 200 km from Ahmedabad. They pelted stones and damaged some vehicles, the police said. A private security guard at a diamond unit opened fire leading to one person - identified as Vijay Arjunbhai Japadia, 21 - being killed and six others injured. Diamond workers across the state Saturday started their protest for wage hike. The protest was organised following a 20 percent hike given to diamond workers of Surat. The Surat Diamond Association had recently announced a rise of 20 percent in wages but many manufacturing units are refusing to pay the increased wages leading to workers unrest. Diamond workers of other parts of the state like Rajkot, Ahmedabad, and Amreli are also demanding a 20 percent wage hike. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=aXfgr8XGrUyQ&refer=india Indian Diamond Worker Protesting Wages Killed by Private Guards By Jay Shankar July 6 (Bloomberg) -- An Indian diamond worker, protesting low wages, was killed when a trader's private security guards opened fire in the western city of Bhavnagar in Gujarat state, a state-government official said. The worker was among more than a dozen protesting outside the factory of a trader in the city, Pradip Shah, a senior government official in Bhavnagar district, said in a phone interview today. ``When the protesters attacked the factory, the guards opened fire, killing one of them,'' Shah said. ``Another protester was injured.'' Most of India's diamond-polishing companies are based in the state of Gujarat. While the industry processes 11 of every 12 diamonds in the world, the stones make up about 80 percent of total volume because of their sizes. There are about 20,000 workers in the diamond industry in the district and their pay varies according to their skills, Shah said. The government is in talks with factory owners about possibly raising salaries, he said. http://ncr-iran.org/content/view/5464/105/ Iran: Kiyan-Tire factory workers burned old tires in protest Monday, 04 August 2008 NCRI - On Sunday, striking workers at Kiyan-Tire factory, in a symbolic move to show their protest, again set ablaze on the old tires stacked in the factory's warehouse. The workers chanted anti-government slogans. They have not been paid for the last four months. The State Security Forces (SSF) ? mullahs' suppressive police ? fearing the spread of protests to other parts of the city cordoned the factory grounds for hours. On July 29, more than 800 Kiyan-Tire factory workers held a sit-in on Tuesday morning at their workshops protesting to unpaid salaries. They hanged a banner 21 feet long across Tehran-Saveh highway to catch people's attention commuting to the capital. The handpicked management stopped the workers from having their protests outside Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's office in Tehran. The participants in the protest burned used tires causing huge columns of smoke visible from miles away. Workers in the sit-in chanted "Incompetent minister should resign," a clear reference to Ahmadinejad's labor minister. The workers went on strike on April 12 for the first time when the hand picked management called in the suppressive State Security Force (SSF) ? mullahs' suppressive police ? to crush their demonstration. A number of the workers were arrested in that incident. http://www.ncr-iran.org/content/view/5449/128/ Iran: Protest gathering of Kiyan-Tire factory workers Wednesday, 30 July 2008 NCRI - On Tuesday, more than 800 workers of the Kiyan-Tire (Alborz Factory) held a protest gathering outside management office demanding their unpaid salaries. The demonstrators chanted anti-government slogans such as "Incompetent [labor] minister should resign." The handpicked management stopped the workers from having their protests outside Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's office in Tehran. They hanged a banner 21 feet long across Tehran-Saveh highway to catch people's attention commuting to the capital. The workers went on strike on April 12 for the first time when the hand picked management called in the suppressive State Security Force (SSF) ? mullahs' suppressive police ? to crush their demonstration. A number of the workers were arrested in that incident. The mullahs' inhuman regime, fearing the spread of the move, rushed hundreds of the State Security Forces (SSF) ? mullahs' suppressive police -- agents to the scene to suppress the strikers. However, the local residents and youths clashed with the SSF units in support of the striking workers. They threw stones and sticks at the security forces. The Iranian Resistance calls on all labor organizations and unions, in particular, the International Labor Organization (ILO) to condemn anti-labor policies of the Iranian regime and to support workers' just demands. http://www.ncr-iran.org/content/view/5417/128/ Iran: Protesting workers at Kiyan-Tire torched parts of the factory's building Wednesday, 23 July 2008 NCRI ? Angry workers at Kiyan-Tire (Alborz-Tire) factory set ablaze part of its building in their 13th day of strikes over unpaid salaries by the mullahs' regime, reported the state-run news agency ILNA on Wednesday. More than 600 workers chanting anti-government slogans gathered outside the management's building, ILNA added. The workers threatened to have their next gathering outside mullahs' Majlis (parliament) should they not receive positive responds to the protests soon. The workers went on strike on April 12 for the first time when the hand picked management called in the suppressive State Security Force (SSF) ? mullahs' suppressive police ? to crush their demonstration. A number of the workers were arrested in that incident. In the past year, thousands of workers employed by government owned factories and workshops have gone on strike over their pay disputes. Five thousands workers of Haft-Tapeh Sugar Cane factory have been on strikes like the Kiyan-Tire workers since last March. However, the mullahs' regime is refusing to settle row over salaries and wages with the workers. http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Finance%20And%20Labour&set_id=1&click_id=594&art_id=nw20080516155507836C752173 Protesters 'stone' metro cops May 16 2008 at 04:02PM Three police officers were taken to hospital on Friday after protesters stoned their vehicle, said Tshwane metro police. Metro police spokesperson William Baloyi said the three male officers were injured by protesters suspected to be members of the SA Municipal Worker's Union (Samwu). A group of 50 to 100 protesters took part in the stone throwing. "This sporadic action taken today (Friday) was unexpected," Baloyi said, adding reinforcements were called in and rubber bullets fired to disperse the crowd. Fleeing demonstrators then "started trashing the streets," he said. The officers sustained minor injuries. The attack comes after Samwu suspended a one-and-a-half week strike on Wednesday. Workers downed tools last Monday, demanding that the city halt its restructuring process, employ all its workers directly and stop investigations into outsourcing the bus service. Services like refuse collection and bus travel were disrupted. "The situation is a bit tense but under control, we will continue to monitor the situation," said Baloyi. Commenting on the matter Samwu spokesperson Zebulon Monkoe: "The union has not received such a report". - Sapa http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_South%20Africa&set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=nw20080509190543177C867577Rubber bullets fired at protesters May 10 2008 at 01:25PMSeven members of the SA National Defence Force Union (Sandu) were injuredwhen police fired rubber bullets during a protest picket in Lenasia,Johannesburg on Friday, the union said.SANDU spokesman Pikkie Greeff said the police shot at the protesters whilethey were within the demarcated area for the picket."The captain involved failed to exercise proper control over the picketscene by inter alia failing to determine the 50m demarcation line withinwhich picketers were expected to remain," he said.Greeff said the police did not warn the picketers before the shooting."The official in question did not warn the picketers as demanded by propercrowd control doctrine and physically pushed the picketers, all this whilethe picketers posed no threat to any person or property," Greeff said.Greeff accused the police of been "unapproachable", improper anddisrespectful to SANDU officials.Police refused to disperse the military police, who were armed with R4rifles and live ammunition and were deployed there to intimidate thepicketers.Greeff said SANDU has laid criminal charges against the police.The union would lodge a complaint with the Independent ComplaintsDirectorate. Police had failed to protect unarmed picketers and behaved in acriminal and cowardly manner, said Greeff.When contacted for a comment police spokesperson Mpho Kgasoane said thepolice had no records of such an incident. - Sapahttp://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/22/europe/22france.phpDock workers' protest in Marseille turns violentThe Associated PressPublished: May 22, 2008MARSEILLE: French dock workers hurled chairs and bottles at riot policefiring tear gas during protests in Marseille on Tuesday over planned portprivatizations. It was the latest outbreak of mounting unrest at ports alongFrance's coasts.One police officer suffered head injuries and a police car was set ablazeduring a demonstration in front of Marseille City Hall, city police said.Some 500 workers had gathered to protest a plan reforming French ports thatgoes before the French Senate on Tuesday. The demonstration degenerated intoviolence as protesters threw chairs, stones and bottles at police, whoresponded with volleys of tear gas.The Marseille port authority - which handles heavy oil, gas and chemicaltraffic, as well as other cargo - said Tuesday that it had suffered morethan ?1 million, or $1.58 million, in losses since the protests began amonth ago.Meanwhile, French fishing industry workers blocked a key oil terminal nearMarseille on Tuesday as part of nationwide port protests over rising fuelprices.Some 50 protesters were barring delivery trucks from entering and leavingthe Fos-sur-Mer terminal, and had set fire to tires and delivery crates atthe site, port officials said. Police were sent to the site."We don't rule out more action," said Mourad Kahoul, head of theMediterranean fishing workers' union.Protesters blocked France's other key Mediterranean oil terminal, at Lavera,on Monday but lifted their barricades Tuesday.The protesters, including self-employed fishermen and those working forprivate companies, say fuel makes up a growing share - for some, themajority - of their monthly expenses. The French government alreadysubsidizes fuel for commercial fishermen, but even with the subsidy theprice for a liter of diesel fuel has nearly doubled over the past year.Since May 10, the demonstrators have disrupted several ports along France'sAtlantic and Mediterranean coasts to demand that the government help themcope with rising fuel prices.The government promised a ?310 million aid package following port blockagesin November, but fuel prices have continued to mount and the workers say itisn't enough.President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged Tuesday to review the aid plan, givenhigher fuel prices. In a letter to the head of the National Maritime FishingCommittee, he pledged to defend workers, whose sector is "essential to theeconomy of our coasts."Burkhard Riuss, a spokesman for Total, the largest French oil company, saidthough strikes have "complicated the situation" and slowed down boatdeliveries, its refinery in the Marseille region has "maintained operationsat a normal level."Protests and strikes have posed problems for several weeks, he said, buttheir short duration - sometimes lasting only half a day - has allowed therefinery to make up for temporary cuts in oil deliveries.http://www.dawn.com/2008/08/07/rss.htm#19Lahore police clash with protesters LAHORE, Aug 7 (Reuters): Thegovernment's move to dismiss 80,000 employees of the National Commission forHuman Development sparked a clash between protesters and police Thursdaythat injured six people, officials said. Police used batons to disperse some100 of the employees protesting in Lahore. Officer Ishtiaq Khan said policewere trying to restrict protesters to the side of a road when scuffles brokeout. (Posted @ 15:25 PST)http://www.taiwanheadlines.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=123138&CtNode=39Violence breaks out as FAT workers protest06/11/2008 (Taiwan News)A serious physical clash broke out on Tuesday when hundreds of employeesfrom Far Eastern Air Transport took to the streets in Taipei to urge thegovernment to save the cash-strapped company.Protesters had serious physical jostles with the police when they staged aprotest on the Ketagalan Boulevard to call on President Ma Ying-jeou (???)to help them."What have I done wrong? I've been working really hard for the company forthe past 20 years; I have to raise my kids. Why doesn't the government comeout and save us?" a female protester said while wiping away her tears.More than 500 FAT employees staged a protest yesterday in front of theMinistry of Transportation and Communications in the morning, marching alongmajor Taipei City roads, before stopping at the boulevard.Raising banners that said "the government should come out to save FarEastern Air Transport," and "we want a good economy," protesters said theyhave not had their salary from the company for two months, and some of themsaid they have not been paid for four months.Air Hostesses, dressed in airline uniforms, went on their knees during theprotest.Protesters called on the government to step into the company's operation,and to help look for reliable investors to bring the dying company back tolife.The protesters remained in a calm state when protesting in front of theMOTC, but when they staged the protest before the Presidential Office andsaw a motorcade running toward the office, demonstrators shouted "MaYing-jeou, come out," and had physical jostles with the police.The police raised barriers to stop protesters from running near the office,and warned the protesters that they would be arrested if they kept marchingforward.Chang Chiu-chun, an MOTC official, arrived at the protest venue and tried tocalm the protesters down. Chang said the government will set up a dialoguewindow to negotiate with the FAT labor union in the immediate future. Theprotest ended at around 5 p.m.FAT had a serious financial crises more than three months ago; it filed forcorporate restructuring with the Taipei District Court in February, whichmakes it temporarily exempt from paying its debts. The airline announcedthat it would suspend all its flight operations in the middle of last month.The Civil Aeronautics Administration took back five of the domestic routesfrom the company, and will take back its international air routes if thecompany fails to revive its financial operation before June 15.http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/28/africa/ME-Kuwait-Asian-Workers.phpBangladeshi Embassy: Kuwaiti authorities use tear gas to disperse protestingAsian workersThe Associated PressPublished: July 28, 2008KUWAIT CITY: The Bangladeshi Embassy says Kuwaiti police have used tear gasto disperse thousands of Asian workers demonstrating for better pay andliving conditions.Shahriar Kader Siddiki, the embassy's labor secretary, says most of theworkers are paid around 20 dinars (US$75) a month, and live in poorconditions. He says tear gas was used at two locations Monday.Security officials in this small oil-rich state could not be immediatelyreached for comment. Thousands of mostly Bangladeshi men and womencontracted to clean offices, streets and hospitals have been staging strikesto demand salary increases.Washington has criticized its ally Kuwait for not taking adequate steps toend trafficking in humans.http://www.outlookindia.com/pti_news.asp?id=5869193000 Indian workers held for rioting in UAEDUBAI, JULY 8 (PTI)Around 3000 Indian workers have been detained at an undisclosed place nearthe UAE capital Abu Dhabi for their alleged involvement in violent protestsagainst the poor quality of food being served to them at a labour camp,official sources said.Working with a ceramic manufacturing unit in the emirate of Ras Al Khaimah,the workers were protesting on Friday night against the poor quality of foodbeing given to them at their camp.They were rounded up by security forces after some of them allegedly went ona rampage, the sources said.The labourers, believed to be the natives of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Punjab,were questioned and their finger prints reportedly taken by the authorities.Although all 3000 have been detained, the authorities are investigating whowere the actual perpetrators of the violent action and will let off thosewho did not take part in the alleged criminal act.The workers allegedly ransacked the canteen and thrashed the camp-in-charge.Then they torched a few vehicles standing outside the camp, police claimed.There have been some violent protests by Indian workers over workingconditions in the UAE resulting in action by the riot squads, but this wasperhaps for the first time the army personnel were called to deal with thesituation.http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=450092008-07-10InternationalIndia seeks release of workers arrested over UAE riotAfp, DubaiUnited Arab Emirates police arrested more than 3,000 mostly Indian workersafter a dining room riot at a construction site in which a manager, securityguards and the workers were beaten up, India's ambassador said yesterday.The ambassador, Talmiz Ahmad, said that the Indian embassy in Abu Dhabi wasnow seeking the release of those not involved in the riot and had made anofficial approach to the government."A total of 3,147 mostly Indian workers were arrested after a small grouphad a violent altercation in the dining room with the mess manager" at aconstruction site in the northern emirate of Ras al-Khaimah on Fridayevening, the diplomat told AFP by telephone from the capital Abu Dhabi."They beat up the manager and security guards, and they were also beaten up.The police were called," he said."We have informed the UAE government officially through a note andunofficially that while we totally condemn violence, we believe that peoplenot involved in the violence should be released immediately," the envoysaid.Ahmad said the workers were being held in prisons in several of the sevenemirates making up the UAE.Indian diplomats have not had access to the detainees, but sent afact-finding team to the site of the riot and had spoken to managers of thecompany that employs the workers and police, he said."We have offered to help identify those involved in the violence," he said,adding that the embassy was seeking to meet the interior minister andundersecretary over the issue.He said there were several versions of what sparked the violence.?We heard that the workers were complaining about the quality of the food.We also heard that they were complaining that managers have a differentmess. (Another theory is that) the workers were intoxicated," Ahmad said.The violence is the latest to hit construction and other working sites inthe UAE, an oil-rich Gulf country in the midst of an economic boom wherehundreds of thousands of mostly Asian low-paid labourers are employed.The protests, which have multiplied since last year despite a ban on publicprotests, have been mainly over low or withheld pay and poor livingconditions.Indians have been involved in several of the protests. In February, thelocal press reported that a court in the emirate of Dubai sentenced 45Indian construction workers to six months in jail followed by deportationover a violent protest to demand wage increases.But Ahmad said he did "not see any broad pattern in these grievances ... Ibelieve that in such episodes, only small numbers are involved.?http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Indians_Abroad/UAE_arrests_3000_Indian_workers_for_rioting/rssarticleshow/3208446.cmsUAE arrests 3,000 Indian workers for rioting8 Jul 2008, 0035 hrs IST, Daniel P George,TNN Print EMail Discuss New Bookmark/Share Save Write to EditorCHENNAI: Nearly 3,000 Indian workers have been detained at an undisclosedlocation on the outskirts of the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi, on charges ofrioting. ( Watch )The workers - from Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Kerala - of a largeceramics manufacturing unit in the emirate of Ras Al Khaimah were rounded upby security agencies after they went on a rampage at their labour camp onFriday night to protest against the poor quality of food being served tothem.Indian ambassador to the UAE, Talmiz Ahmed, confirmed on phone thatemployees of RAK Ceramics indulged in arson by burning vehicles anddestroying furniture and are now under arrest.Although not all of the nearly 3,000 workers were involved in the fracas,the police took all of them to Abu Dhabi and Dubai in army vehicles.While there have been strikes by Indian workers in the past in the UAE overpoor working conditions and unpaid salaries, which have led to the Dubairiot squad being called in, this is the first time the UAE army has beenpressed into service to arrest Indian workers for rioting.Confirming the detention of the Indians, minister of overseas Indianaffairs, Vayalar Ravi, told TOI that his department "is in touch with theUAE authorities". There were people of other nationalities, too, involved inthe rioting, he said. "We are trying our best to get the Indians released.The labour officer attached to the Indian consulate is in constant touchwith the UAE officials."The workers have been questioned and their fingerprints taken. Those foundto be involved in the violence will be deported after serving their prisonterms, a source in the UAE told TOI. Ras Al Khaimah, where the violenceoccurred, and Abu Dhabi, are among the seven emirates that make up the UAE.Talmiz Ahmed also said "the workers went on a rampage at their camp overpoor quality of food served to them," and added that he wasn?t aware of theexact number of workers detained.According to Rateesh, an eyewitness, the workers beat up the camp-in-charge,smashed windows and destroyed canteen furniture. Not content, they then cameout and set at least two parked vehicles on fire. A few of them were eveninjured in the melee. During his visit to the UAE in May this year, foreignminister Pranab Mukherjee had urged the Gulf countries to promote socialequality for the millions of Indian workers in the region. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Thu Aug 28 13:50:45 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2008 21:50:45 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Workers' protests, Europe, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <005601c9094f$bfb77ef0$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * FRANCE: Protest wave over attempt to raise working hours * BULGARIA: Steel mill workers protest over plant future * SCOTLAND: Workers at homeless charity strike * UK: Public sector workers strike, march over pay * IRELAND: Telecom workers protest * GREECE: Migrant farm workers protest over pay * GREECE: Telecom workers strike over sale * GREECE: Workers strike against privatisation * DENMARK: Teachers protest over use of non-unionised labour * NORTHERN IRELAND: Protest at local assembly over job cuts * POLAND: Shipyard workers protest EU ruling in Brussels * CZECH REP: Workers march against "reform" plans * GREECE: Dockers protest shipyard safety after explosion, stone government building * MOLDOVA: Teachers suspend protests because of floods * ALBANIA: Protest over injuries in the workplace http://www2.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-234/0806181918092915.htm Nationwide protests grip France over bid to boost work hours Paris, June 18, IRNA France-Nationwide Protests Several thousand people marched from the Place de la Bastille. In the southern port city of Marseille, organizers said 60,000 people demonstrated. About a third of cafeterias in Marseille's schools were closed, as were a third of the city's day care centers. Nationwide, fewer than 3 percent of public school staff stayed off the job, the Education Ministry said. Some trains were disrupted in southern France, as were a few Paris suburban train lines. The Paris subway operated as normal. The demonstrations were called by the two biggest French unions, CGT and CFDT. CFDT leader Francois Chereque complained that the government did not take union concerns into account. On Wednesday, President Nicolas Sarkozy's Cabinet will discuss the latest attempt to encourage longer hours. Under the new proposal, the statutory limit on working hours will be retained but companies will be able negotiate opt-outs with employees. The measure has yet to go before parliament. French union activists marched in cities throughout France Tuesday to protest the conservative government's latest effort to encourage employees to work more than the standard 35-hour week. http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=94215 Kremikovtzi Workers Stage New Protest 17 June 2008, Tuesday Bulgaria: About 1000 workers from Bulgaria's biggest steel mill Kremikovtzi gathered Monday in front of the Ministry of Economy and Energy, calling the government to take urgent decisions regarding the fate of the plant. The protesters read a declaration insisting that Kremikovtzi starts producing at full capacity and high standards of work conditions are established. Currently Ukrainian businessman Konstantin Zhevago and his Vorskla Steel is competing with ArcelorMittal of the Indian billionaire Lakshmi Mittal for acquisition of 71 percent of the steel mill. Bulgaria's Minister of Economy Petar Dimitrov had announced that both bidders insisted that the deal takes place after the plant is declared in a state of bankruptcy due to the great debts of Kremikovtzi. http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=94979 Workers of Bulgaria Steel Mill Kremikovtzi to Launch Large-Scale Protests 10 July 2008, Thursday Workers of Bulgaria Steel Mill Kremikovtzi to Launch Large-Scale Protests: Podkrepa Labor Confederation and the Confederation of Independent Syndicates in Bulgaria announced the workers of Kremikovtzi steel plant were going to start massive protest on Monday. The main demand of the workers is that the government finalized the deal for the sale of the country's largest steel maker so that a new owner, who would resolve the issues of the factory, would finally take over. According to the trade unionists, the Kremikovtzi employees were going to block the Sofia-Plovdiv highway on Monday unless the government stated its clear position on the future of the plant. On Tuesday, the workers plan to block the Sofia-Varna road as well, and by the end of next week they intend to protest before the Parliament and the Council of Ministers, where they will set up a tent camp. The union leaders called upon the state to take measure to stop the demands by the State Railway Company BDZ, and the National Electric Company NEK that the debts of the plant be repaid. If it failed to do that, this would mean it was conducting a policy aiming to close down the factory, which would bring down its price. The two syndicates also declared they renounced their gentleman's agreement with one of the bidders for the plant ArcelorMittal, because the company had not paid the promised EUR 10 M for the May salaries of the workers, which had been pledged in exchange for products of Kremikovtzi, and backed by some of its assets. The unionist said ArcelorMittal wanted to see the plant declared insolvent, which meant it would be liquidated. They stated again their preference for the other main bidder - the Ukrainian tycoon Konstantin Zhevago. http://www.workers.org/2008/us/teachers_0619/ Los Angeles: 40,000 teachers protest budget cuts By Julia La Riva UTLA Member Los Angeles Published Jun 14, 2008 8:19 AM More than 40,000 teachers with the United Teachers Los Angeles sacrificed an hour of their pay to protest proposed state budget cuts on June 6. The hour-long protests were held in front of schools, as students entered campus and administrators were relegated to supervising children. From elementary through high school, students, parents, teachers and labor supporters wore placards and distributed flyers to other parents, students and commuters. Labor and community support was evident with cars honking, hands waving and volunteers and students remaining outside with their teachers. United Teachers Los Angeles fight for the right to an education. Photo: James Casey The last time UTLA had an action was in 1989, when teachers went on strike for two weeks. The June 6 action went beyond the union?s expectations, with 75 percent of teachers not reporting for work and other support staff, who were not authorized to stay out, remaining outside in a show of solidarity. The proposed budget cuts include no cost-of-living increase for teachers and cuts to many programs throughout the schools. According to the Los Angeles Unified School District, these state budget cuts will mean a $353-million-dollar shortfall. Because of the budget cuts, LAUSD has said that 6,500 probationary teachers will be laid off, an action UTLA has vowed to fight. While LAUSD Superintendent David Brewer was unsuccessful in his attempt to get a restraining order against the protest, a smear telephone campaign was implemented in an attempt to discredit the union?s action. According to UTLA President A. J. Duffy, ?If he [Brewer] was standing next to me ... then no Legislature, no governor would try to take the kind of cuts out of education that they?re talking about.? (Los Angeles Times, June 7). Scare tactics were also used, claiming students? safety was at risk. However, no incidents or injuries were reported during the stay-out. Instead, many older students remained outside independently or with parents to protest, and younger children were cooperative and concerned inside the campuses. Many students complained later that they were bored and missed their teachers. The large turnout and positive reports demonstrate that the action, and future actions if necessary, will be well supported and well attended. While schools throughout the Los Angeles area and the country are in dire need of funds to improve student achievement and secure jobs, the continued attack on public education is just an indication that public education is not a priority to any administration?from Sacramento, Calif., to Washington, D.C. To slash education from the most vulnerable of individuals?children?is shameful and does indeed leave every child left behind. UTLA is a united front that will stand at the vanguard and protect public education, the rights of teachers and other labor as they fight for a decent wage and job security. Articles copyright 1995-2008 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved. http://news.scotsman.com/politics/Shelter-staff-start-strike-in.4017364.jp Shelter staff start strike in pay shake-up protest STAFF at the homeless charity Shelter today began a three-day strike in protest over pay conditions. Workers picketed outside Shelter's Scottish head office on South Charlotte Street this morning and were set to hold a demonstration at the Scottish Parliament. Staff went on strike last month over management plans to scrap their pay and grading structure. The current industrial action is set to be continued tomorrow and on Monday. Shelter's chief executive Adam Sampson said: "We made it clear to managers and staff that our offer at ACAS was full and final. This has not changed. "We hope the union will reconsider its position and we can move our working relationship forwards. "In Scotland, some of our services have been affected by the strike, but we are doing our best to limit the effect of this industrial action on those people who may need housing advice today." http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/business/news/article_1401737.php/Massive_turnout_at_public-sector_pay_protests_in_Britain__Roundup_ Massive turnout at public-sector pay protests in Britain (Roundup) Apr 24, 2008, 16:47 GMT London - The first national strike called by teachers in Britain since the 1980s snowballed into a serious challenge for the government Thursday as employees from other public sectors turned out to back their demand for above-inflation pay rises. Estimates said that up to 400,000 teachers, lecturers, coastguards and civil servants working in government departments joined rallies and marches across Britain to protest against government-imposed restraint on public-sector pay. Trade union officials estimated that the turnout was the highest seen in Britain over the last 10 years. The main teaching union, the NUT, accused the government of Gordon Brown of having 'underestimated the strength of feeling' over three years of below-inflation pay rises. The sentiments were echoed by other unions, including the Public and Commercial Services' Union (PCS), which said that 100,000 civil servants had caused 'widespread disruption' across government departments Thursday. 'The breadth and depth of the support for today's action has been fantastic,' PCS leader Mark Serwotka said. Meanwhile, the leader of Britain's Trade Unions' Congress (TUC), Brendan Barber, told a rally in London that giving public-sector workers below-inflation pay rises was 'no longer good enough' for a Labour government. 'We need a fundamental change of direction. If the government continues to use the public sector like as political football, I am convinced they will pay a devastating price at the general election,' Barber said. As up to 8,000 schools in England and Wales remained shut, or partly closed, by the teachers' action Thursday, Prime Minister Brown said the strikes were 'regrettable and unjustified.' Schools Secretary Ed Balls, who made a point of visiting a functioning primary school in Kent, southern Britain, said he was 'annoyed and disappointed' by the teachers' strike. But he insisted that 'only a minority of schools' were affected by closures and disruptions. NUT estimates said more than 2.5 million pupils would have stayed at home. 'There isn't a justification for the strike. Over the last 10 years teachers' pay has risen substantially,' Balls said. However, judging by the angry mood among the mostly young participants in rallies in London, Cardiff, Manchester, Liverpool, and many other cities, it looked as if the government could have a serious problem on its hands. Leaders of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) warned that they were ready for a 'long-term campaign' to achieve recognition for their work. Christine Blower, the acting general secretary of the NUT, said in a BBC interview Thursday that it was 'not in her gift' to rule out further protests. 'The government has underestimated the strength of feeling of teachers. For three years we have had below-inflation pay deals and have been offered the same for the next three,' said Elaine Kay, regional NUT secretary in Newcastle, northern England. 'It's time to say, 'enough is enough,'' NUT representative David Room said. The Labour government, which has made education-spending one of its main priorities, has offered teachers a 2.45-per-cent pay rise, against demands of an increase of 4.1 per cent. Teachers, who earn between 20,000 and 34,000 pounds (40,000 to 68,000 dollars) a year, say that inflation, as well as rising costs for accommodation, food and transport, make it impossible for them to manage on their wage. Lucy Beckford, a 25-year-old primary school teacher, told reporters she 'loved her job' but could not live on the salary she earned. 'After I pay my mortgage and the bills, I just have a couple of hundred pounds a month to pay for petrol and food. I believe everybody has the right to equal opportunities and the right to a decent, free education,' she said. 'We are professionals and we should be treated as such,' said Dawn Whittaker, a teacher with 35 years' experience. She said the job had become increasingly demanding, with paperwork and 'stress' adding to teachers' frustrations. http://www.worldpress.org/feed.cfm?http://www.breakingnews.ie/Business/?jp=mhojidqleyey&rss=rss2 BT Ireland workers to stage protest at company headquarters 22/04/2008 - 11:38:17 Workers at BT Ireland are to stage a protest, organised by the Communications Workers Union, in Dublin today to highlight what they say is discrimination against the company's workforce. Staff claim management are refusing to treat employees in Ireland and the North equally, despite operating its business on a 32-county basis. Workers say BT has resisted all attempts by staff operating in Ireland to be represented by their union of choice, the Communications Workers Union. They are planning to stage a demonstration outside the company's corporate headquarters in Dublin at lunchtime today. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100020_21/04/2008_95767 Workers arrested Foreign farm hands protest over pay Farm workers clashed with police in Manaloda, outside Patras, yesterday while protesting against work conditions. Ten workers were arrested, all foreign nationals. Earlier this month, state labor inspectors raided several farms in the area in response to media reports that hundreds of migrants are being employed as modern-day slaves. Some 2,500 migrants are employed as strawberry pickers and are believed to be working for a pittance. http://b92.net/eng/news/society-article.php?yyyy=2008&mm=05&dd=05&nav_id=49977 Serb justice workers resume protest 5 May 2008 | 12:57 | Source: Tanjug KOSOVSKA MITROVICA -- Serb justice workers have resumed their protest in front of the courthouse in northern Kosovska Mitrovica demanding talks on their reinstatement. The aftermath of the March 17 riots (FoNet, archive) District Court Judge in Vu?itrn Nikola Kaba?i? said that the employees would continue their protests every day until their demands were met. ?The fact is, we want negotiations to start,? he said, adding that there had been no contact whatsoever with UNMIK justice representatives during the holidays. Kaba?i? said that on Friday, representatives of the justice institutions had spoken to UN investigators and put their side of the events of March 17, when one Ukrainian policeman and some 150 members of the international forces and civilians were injured during rioting sparked by the UN police?s dawn raid on the courthouse. The justice workers began their protests on February 21, and broke into the court?s premises on March 14, before being forcibly evicted three days later during the intervention by UNMIK police and KFOR. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/06/business/EU-FIN-COM-Greece-OTE-Deutsche-Telekom.php Greek telecoms workers strike to protest plans to sell stake in OTE to Deutsche Telekom The Associated Press Published: May 6, 2008 ATHENS, Greece: Workers at Greece's biggest phone company, OTE, began a two-day strike Tuesday to protest plans to sell a stake in the former telecom monopoly to Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG. About 1,500 striking workers later marched through central Athens, chanting slogans and burning flags ? although they mistakenly burned two Belgian, rather than German, flags. Last week, the government said talks with Deutsche Telekom over the future ownership and management of Hellenic Telecom had made progress. The government is OTE's largest shareholder with a stake of just over 28 percent, and effectively appoints the company's chairman and chief executive. In March, the German company announced plans to acquire a 20 percent stake in OTE for about ?2.5 billion (US$3.9 billion) from Marfin Investment Group Holdings SA. But the deal is contingent on a follow-on agreement with Greece's government. Greek labor unions and opposition parties strongly oppose the deal, arguing that Greece's conservative government should not allow foreign control of OTE. "The government and the Germans are deluded if they think that the deal will have prospects when workers and Greek society are totally against it," the OTE workers' union said in an announcement. The union claimed the deal would turn OTE's management into a German state company. "Our struggle continues and will continue until we find justice," the union said. http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/may2008/gree-m17.shtml Major Greek unions strike to protest privatization By Tim Tower 17 May 2008 Use this version to print | Send this link by email | Email the author The two largest unions in Greece organized strikes on Thursday, May 15, of workers in telecommunications, banking and transportation. The national actions were called to protest government plans to effectively privatize OTE, the Hellenic Telecommunications Organization, along with large portions of shipping operations at two major ports. GSEE, the country?s largest labor union, called 24-hour strikes at OTE and at shipping operations in Piraeus and Thessaloniki. In the center of downtown Athens, workers staged a march from the Omonia Plaza Metro station to Sindagma Square opposite the national parliament building in the city center. Police fired tear gas to prevent strikers from entering the headquarters of the National Bank of Greece. There were no reported injuries or arrests. On the same day, 2,000 students staged a separate demonstration and launched sit-ins at 10 universities. Olympic Airlines, the government carrier, was compelled to cancel 40 flights to and from Athens, and to reschedule an additional 16 international and domestic flights because of work stoppages by pilots and air traffic controllers. Aegean Airlines cancelled an additional 28 flights. Deutsche Telekom (DT) has purchased 25 percent of OTE in a deal that gives the German concern managing control of the Greek phone service and threatens complete privatization. Protests from opposition parties in parliament, coupled with actions by the unions, escalated on May 14 when Finance Minister George Alogoskoufis announced that DT would purchase a 19.56 percent share of the company from the private investment firm Martin Investment Group. The government facilitated the deal by selling DT an additional 3 percent for ?29.75 per share. The transaction reduces government holdings from 28 percent to 25 percent. By purchasing an additional 2 percent of the company on the open market DT will obtain a parity stake immediately, with the government and the company each holding 25 percent. In response to the news, OTE stock fell 8 percent the next day to close at ?18.82 per share on fears that the move would provoke the unions. The conservative New Democracy government is simultaneously moving to sell the rights to manage container terminals at the ports of Piraeus and Thessaloniki. Giant firms Cosco and Hutchinson from China and Dubai World Ports from the United Arab Emirates are competing for the contract, which would secure control of the container operations at the two ports for 30 years. Banners on Thursday?s march called for the restoration of the telecommunications industry to 100 percent public ownership. Perrakis Alexandros, president of the Telecommunications Workers Union for the Athens area, told the WSWS, ?We are on strike because we are opposing privatization.? The privatization would hurt the general public because the cost of communications services would increase and the quality of service would decline. ?It is not only a problem in Greece, or the European Union,? he said, ?that workers? wages and rights are being cut down. It is the same problem all over the world. This is due to the system that we live in, capitalism. To make more profit, the capitalists cut wages and workers? rights.? Yannis and Angelos, who held one of the banners, said the actions were organized against the threat to jobs and working conditions posed by privatization. ?The only way, finally, to secure jobs and working conditions,? Yannis said, ?is that the public has to defeat capitalism.? Turning to world politics, he said, ?Iraq is an imperialist war, only for oil and to open markets in Asia to American industries. Everyone sees that.? The strikers have been following the US election campaign and commented that Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama did not represent an alternative to the policies of the Bush administration. ?The only chance for real change is to build a separate party of the working class,? said Yannis. ?I would tell the workers in America that the problem is not just with Bush. After him, Clinton or Obama will be the same. It is the system of capitalism which must be changed.? The Athens News reported that a vote against the Telekom deal in parliament could bring down the government and precipitate a general election. The paper also reported that although Alogoskoufis denied reports that the government was moving to liquidate all of its holdings in OTE, many observers believed that to be the case. The state will receive ?442.3 million and Martin Investment Group will get ?2.55 billion. As soon as the transaction goes into effect, the structure of the company board of directors will shift to give five of its ten members to DT and five to the Greek state. Despite holding a mere one seat majority in parliament, the government is pushing ahead with plans for aggressive privatizations and massive cuts in government pension plans. In response, the unions have staged a number of protests. ADEDY, the civil servants? union, called a three-hour strike on May 14 at the state-run electric utility, PPC, and other public utilities to oppose plans for privatization and cuts in pensions and to demand a salary increase from ?658 to ?1,300. http://www.cphpost.dk/get/107284.html First lady caught up in teacher strike 22.05.2008Print article Striking daycare teachers in the town of Rudersdal have begun protesting outside schools that use non-unionised labour, including one where the wife of Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen works. Anne-Mette Rasmussen is educated as a daycare teacher, but is not a member of the BUPL union, whose members walked off the job on Monday seeking higher pay raise than the one negotiated with the national association of local councils earlier this year. Union members gathered at the B?rnehuset school in Holte, where Rasmussen works, said they hoped their protest would draw parents attention to the fact that their children were being cared for by unorganised labour. 'These people aren't a part of our struggle,' Lars Christiansen, BUPL's regional chairman. (KM) http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/0609/breaking5.htm Monday, June 9, 2008, 08:08 Ictu protests at Stormont over job cuts Trade Union members are to stage a protest today at Stormont as part of a campaign to block public sector job cuts. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) has called on all trade unions to join in the protest. The ?Speak Up For Public Services? campaign claims 6,000 jobs will be lost if cuts are enforced, but the government insists it is pushing for greater efficiency. Ictu said a series of measures, including aspects of the Northern Ireland Executive?s Programme for Government and the changes scheduled under the Review of Public Administration, will result in job losses. Northern Ireland?s largest public sector union, Nipsa, will take part in the Stormont protest. General Secretary John Corey said: ?We are going to the Assembly today to highlight to Assembly members, and the public, the very serious threats to our future public services in Northern Ireland. ?We have already identified up to 6,000 job cuts over the next three years. It would be impossible to deliver quality public services with that level of job loss." http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2008/06/25/polish_shipyard_workers_protest_closure_threats/ Polish shipyard workers protest closure threats June 25, 2008 BRUSSELS, Belgium?Polish trade union workers demonstrated outside EU headquarters Wednesday demanding officials move away from threats to force the closure of three ailing shipyards, including the birthplace of the Solidarity labor movement. Around 100 people took part in a noisy protest to try to sway the European Commission not to rule against Polish subsidies given to the shipyards in Gdynia, Szczecin and Gdansk in recent years. The docks have played a significant role in Poland, especially Gdansk, where members of Solidarity began the nation's peaceful anti-communist revolt in the 1980s. EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes has given the Polish government until Thursday to present a credible restructuring plan that will limit distortion to competition and ensure the long-term viability of the shipyards. The EU executive began investigating the subsidies in June 2005. If Warsaw ignores the request for credible plan, the EU can order the Polish government to claim back from the yards all the subsidies they have received -- an order bound to run into hundreds of millions of euros. Kroes' office said she met with representatives of unions to stress that any plan must not violate state aid rules. Last summer, Polish dockworkers protested outside EU headquarters in Brussels against closing two of the Gdansk yard's three slipways, saying that would put more than 1,000 workers -- a third of the work force -- out of jobs. A decision on closing those slipways is part of a plan to make the Gdansk shipyard viable. Restructuring the yards, EU officials said, means putting them under new, private ownership and reducing capacity by selling off assets that are not essential. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/25/europe/EU-GEN-EU-Poland-Shipyards.php Polish shipyard workers protest outside EU headquarters The Associated Press Published: June 25, 2008 BRUSSELS, Belgium: Polish trade union workers demonstrated outside EU headquarters Wednesday demanding officials move away from threats to force the closure of three ailing shipyards. Around 100 people took part in a noisy protest to try to sway the European Commission not to rule against Polish subsidies given to the shipyards in Gdynia, Szczecin and Gdansk in recent years. The docks have played a significant role in Poland, especially Gdansk, the birthplace of the Solidarity labor union movement, which launched the nation's peaceful anti-communist revolt in the 1980s. EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes has given the Polish government until Thursday to present a credible restructuring plan that will limit distortion to competition and ensure the long-term viability of the shipyards. The EU executive began investigating the subsidies in June 2005, but must yet see a plan to guarantee the yards' viability and end subsidies that harm rivals. Her office said Kroes met with representatives of unions to stress that any plan must not violate state aid rules. If Warsaw ignores the request, the EU can order it to claim back from the yards all the subsidies they have received ? an order bound to run into hundreds of millions of euros. Kroes made clear that unless Polish restructuring plans comply in full with EU demands "she would have no option but to propose ... negative decisions concerning the aid granted to the yards and to require the repayment of the state aid received." Last summer, Polish dockworkers protested outside EU headquarters in Brussels against closing two of the Gdansk yard's three slipways, saying that would put more than 1,000 workers ? a third of the work force ? out of jobs. Restructuring the yards, EU officials said, means putting them under new, private ownership and reducing capacity by selling off assets that are not essential. http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0711/poland.html Gdynia workers protest at EU ruling Friday, 11 July 2008 11:44 More than 2,000 workers from Poland's Gdynia shipyard have protested against an EU ruling on subsidies for the industry. The workers fear that the ruling on state aid could bankrupt the Polish shipbuilding industry. Rallying in front of the headquarters of the yard under banners of the historic Solidarity trade union, the protesters demanded that Poland's President Lech Kaczynski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk 'take strong measures to save Poland's shipyard industry, including the Gdynia yard, to save thousands of jobs.' Advertisement The European Commission said on Friday it would study 'very quickly' an update on Polish plans to save the country's shipbuilding industry. The Commission said Warsaw had provided new information concerning the restructuring of three shipyards hours before a midnight Thursday deadline. On Wednesday the Commission had given Warsaw 24 hours to produce restructuring plans for Gdynia and two other Baltic yards in Gdansk and Szczecin. The Commission warned that Warsaw could be ordered as soon as 16 July to recover state aid the yards have received but which did not conform with EU competition regulations. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/24/europe/EU-GEN-Czech-Strike.php Czech trade unions protest government economic reform plans The Associated Press Published: June 24, 2008 PRAGUE, Czech Republic: Hundreds of thousands of people left their jobs for a few hours in the Czech Republic on Tuesday to protest government economic reform plans. The protest was called by trade unions, and it mostly involved blue-collar workers, but doctors also participated at some hospitals. The government aims to enact tax and pension reforms as well as reforms in a health system burdened by a growing debt. The reforms are strongly opposed by the left-wing opposition led by Social Democrats who claim that only the rich would benefit. Doctors and medical workers started the protest early Tuesday, with teachers, miners and drivers of buses, streetcars and trains joining it later in the day. Most of the participants just left their jobs for a few hours in what they called a "symbolic warning strike." The unions claimed that up to 1 million people took part. Since the strike resulted in few street demonstrations, police and the government did not estimate the number of protesters in this country of about 10 million people. The job action differed in various parts of the country, with some trade unions split over the issue, but organizers claimed this was the biggest labor unrest in the country since the 1990's. Hundreds of trains were delayed or canceled across the Czech Republic, and buses and streetcars came to a halt for at least one hour in the afternoon. Government officials denounced the protest as politically motivated, accusing left-wing parties of trying to influence the country's regional elections this fall. http://calibre.mworld.com/m/m.w?lp=GetStory&id=315156171 Dockworkers protest as death toll from Greek shipyard explosion rises to 8 Released : Friday, July 25, 2008 9:07 AM ATHENS, Greece-Hundreds of angry dockworkers marched in protest Friday over an explosion and fire at dockyard near Athens in which eight people were reported killed. Some threw rocks at a government ministry. Thursday's explosion during repair work on the Panamanian-flagged Friendship Gas tanker killed eight, the Merchant Marine Ministry said. Greek labor unions and opposition parties accused the government of ignoring repeated warnings of poor safety standards at Perama dockyards 12 miles (20 kilometers) west of Athens. The ministry said rescue workers at Perama had found the last three bodies on Friday and were trying to remove them from the wreckage. No more workers are missing, it said, adding that one of the dead was from the Philippines. Two of the four people injured remained hospitalized for treatment of smoke inhalation, authorities said. Hundreds of dockworkers marched to ministry at Piraeus to protest the deaths and safety conditions. Riot police fired tear gas to disperse groups of workers throwing rocks and ripping down a metal fence outside the ministry. Several ministry vehicles were damaged by the protesters, police said. The dockworkers called a three-day strike to protest one of the worst accidents to have hit their industry in Greece in recent years. Two members of the repair crew have been arrested on suspicion of not maintaining safety standards, the ministry said. In July, after two people were killed while repairing a ship at Perama, workers held a 24-hour strike. "This tragic accident, once again confirms the lack of proper measures to safeguard (dockyard) workers," the main opposition Socialist Party said Friday. The government said it increased safety measures since 2006, when it introduced daily inspections at Perama. http://social.moldova.org/stiri/eng/139877/ Teachers postpone protests because of floods The National Council of Education and Science Trade Unions put off the protest scheduled for August 4 in connection with the floods that affected the country. The teachers intend to protest against the low salaries and demand that they are increased. The Council?s president Ion Bulat told a news conference on August 5 that the Council will not stop negotiating with the Government for higher salaries because the latest rises in the heating, electric power and gas charges will bring the people working in education into incapacity to earn their living. Bulat said that he carried out talks with the Government, which has not yet proposed solutions for remedying the situation. He also said that the minimum salary in all the areas should make up 50-60% of the average salary per economy, which is about 2,600 lei. The salary of the fist category in Moldova is only 400 lei, when it should be 1,200-1,300 lei a month. The Council?s Executive Bureau will return to the issue of protests after September 10 if the tariff salary for the first category is not raised to 600 lei by September 1. The trade union representatives also said that the protests will be continued if the monthly salary of the first category is not increased to 900 lei from January 1, 2009 and to 1.200 lei from July 1, 2009. On August 6, representatives of the National Council of Education and Science Trade Unions will have a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Victor Stepaniuc to discuss salary-related issues. According to statistics, the average salary in education in May this year as about 1,874 lei, three times lower than in the financial sector and 1.4 times lower than the average salary in the economy.//REPORTER.MD Publication date: 05 August 2008 http://see.oneworldsee.org/article/view/150896/1/3184 Protests in Memory of Workers Who Suferred Injuries in the Work Place Luan Ibraj 05 May 2008 The Confederation of Albanian Trade Unions, the Mjaft! Movement and other labor union groups held protests last Thusrday, May 1, in the Skanderbeg Square in Tirana, demanding better working conditions. May 1 is the day where the workers openly speak and present their complaints and demands regarding the working conditions. `In 2007, over 300 work-related accidents were registered in Albania, with 44 casualties and hundreds of injuries. Such figures lead us to believe that workers` safety is always at risk due to lack of safety measures` say the organizers. The protesters paid respect to their colleagues that fell victims to inhuman working conditions with a moment of silence and declared May 1 the day of mourning for the workers. `We are gathered here to commemorate the ones who could not be with us today - the miners, metal workers, miners. We are here today to demand from the Albanian State to respect the law and not become accomplice to the murders of the citizens with their irresponsibility`, said the organizers in a joint declaration. The protesters headed to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Energy where they accused Minister Genc Ruli for the death of workers in 2007. `We demand from the Prime Minister and other officials not to come and visit us on this day of mourning, or on other sad occasions when they fail to protect the lives of the citizens. We demand from the elected officials to draft legislation so that the citizens` are not staggered by the bombs and employees not to face with every day G?rdec`s?, said the organizers in front of the Ministry. (Note: Gerdec is a village near Tirana in which recent explosion at an ammunitions depot killed 26 and injured 300 people.) From ldxar1 at tesco.net Thu Aug 28 13:58:53 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2008 21:58:53 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Workers' protests, Canada, Australia, Aotearoa/New Zealand, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <005701c90950$e2b7cda0$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * CANADA: GM car plant workers blockade factory in protest over closure * AUSTRALIA: Postal workers protest work changes * NEW ZEALAND: Telecom workers, food workers protest over pay * AUSTRALIA: Rally by local government workers * AUSTRALIA: Mining equipment workers protest * AUSTRALIA: Union protests charity workers' sackings * CANADA: Alberta politicians fear protests over attack on workers * AUSTRALIA: Laboratory workers campaign to save workplace * CANADA: Postal workers protest over mileage rates * AUSTRALIA/GLOBAL: Trade unionists protest private equity firms * AUSTRALIA: Public sector workers rally in New South Wales * NEW ZEALAND: Bank workers protest in Wellington * AUSTRALIA: More protests for abolition of building board * AUSTRALIA: Firefighters march on offices of politician * AUSTRALIA: Teachers protest at official's office http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/255863/GM_Production_Halted_By_Union_Protest GM Production Halted By Union Protest Posted Jun 8, 2008 by Bob Ewing in Business | 11 comments | 456 viewsNext in Business Study: Most U.S. Corporations Pay No Income Tax General Motors' Oshawa, Ontario, car and truck plants were shut down for several hours Saturday during a protest against plans to close a truck assembly line. General Motors workers continued their protest yesterday by driving their vechiles around the company's plants. The plants were shut down for several hours as the workers registered their anger with the company's plans to close the plants. Union spokesman Keith Osborne said. Federal politicians, including Liberal Leader St?phane Dion and NDP Leader Jack Layton, were present to provide their support, Transport workers could be heard honking their horns in support of the workers. According to Osborne, who is the Canadian Auto Workers' plant chair for GM's Oshawa complex, the vehicles travelled at about 10 km/hr in a protest aimed at pressuring the company to reverse its decision. Meanwhile the union's blockade of the plant was in its fourth day; the blockade began last Wednesday, one day after GM announced plans to close four plants in North America. The Oshawa truck-assembly line is slated to shut down next year, putting 2,600 people out of work. Two weeks prior to this announcement, members of the Canadian Auto Workers union ratified a three-year contract with General Motors, which they say contained a promise the plant would build a new hybrid truck that would give them work until at least 2011. The union has vowed to maintain the blockade and states that the Oshawa plant shutdown violates that contract, in which members agreed to a wage freeze and several concessions to maintain the jobs. Buzz Hargove, union president had met on Friday with GM brass at the company's headquarters in Detroit, but GM flatly refused a union demand to keep the truck plant open past 2009. http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2008/06/04/5767571-cp.html GM workers fearing for their future By Allison Jones, THE CANADIAN PRESS OSHAWA, Ont. - Angry General Motors workers put up a defiant front Wednesday as they blockaded the company's corporate offices, a show of protest they hope will help reverse the embattled automaker's decision to mothball a truck plant that employs 2,600 people. Behind all the placards, flags and shouts of anti-government rhetoric in this auto-manufacturing hotbed, however, loomed the grim reality of an uncertain future - one that Tuesday's sudden bad news has given few GM workers much of a chance to prepare for. "We try to make light of it, keep a smile on our face, keep our spirits up, (but) I'm pretty sad," said Bob Cain, a 23-year veteran of GM who showed up at the protest in hopes of winning some form of concessions from the company. Cain, 42, struggled to keep his composure as he spoke about his nine-year-old son Ashton and how he plans to provide for his future. "I don't know," he said jokingly. "Get a paper route?" More than 150 workers were at the blockade throughout the day Wednesday, promising to stand their ground until GM either changes its mind about closing the plant next year or agrees to compensate the affected employees, said union spokesman Chris Buckley. Buckley, president of the Canadian Auto Workers union Local 222, later said GM had agreed to meet Friday in Detroit with senior union leaders. Until then, he said, the protest isn't going anywhere. "I would have travelled to Detroit this afternoon to meet with them, but apparently they can only meet on Friday morning," he said. "(Given) the severity of the situation, one would think they'd want to meet as soon as possible to put this issue behind us." The protest could be just the first step in an ongoing fight against the automaker's plans, although GM plant workers were being told they should continue working, Buckley added. "We are encouraging our members in the plants to continue to build cars and trucks. We are not asking our members to withdraw our services." The protest began early Wednesday as a blockade of the GM building, but eventually some corporate employees were allowed to pass and enter the building. Shortly after the business day began, however, GM decided to send its corporate staff home. General Motors spokesman Stew Low called the protest "understandable" and said the company wasn't looking for police assistance. "This is a very tough thing for employees to go through and for the union to go through and us as well," Low said. The company would be willing to meet with the union to explain its decision, which is a reflection of the changing market for more fuel-efficient vehicles, he added. "We'd love nothing better than to be continuing to build pickup trucks in great volumes, but . . . consumers are moving away from big trucks to cars and smaller crossover vehicles and we're transforming to be a part of that," Low said. Ontario NDP Leader Howard Hampton arrived in the afternoon to meet with protesters and said companies that receive public money, such as General Motors, should be held accountable for the treatment of their workers. "Protests like this are a way of saying to companies that we expect companies to live up to their agreements," Hampton said. "We expect companies to respect workers." The company shouldn't be allowed to take public money, then backpedal on a contract deal negotiated two weeks ago, he added. The Ontario government plans to try to recoup part of a $175-million provincial loan earlier than planned if GM was found to be violating minimum job levels specified in their agreement. Premier Dalton McGuinty wouldn't say Wednesday whether he thinks the protest should continue, but said he understands the plight of the workers and respects their right to earn a living. "This is their livelihood," McGuinty said. "There aren't that many things that are more important than that. It's their ability to feed their families and build a bright future for themselves." Tracy Ryder, 41, worked for GM for 20 years before she was laid off at Christmas, a move that has forced her to make tough decisions ever since. All employees can do for now is put faith in their union, Ryder said. "I've sold my house because of the uncertainty already, and then when I heard the news yesterday about the truck plant closing altogether, I thought, 'Well, I've made the right decision."' Protesters said they plan to continue their demonstration through the night and possibly the next several days in order to stand up for their jobs and their industry. It likely won't be enough, said one analyst. The industry is changing so rapidly that there just isn't demand for the types of vehicles GM's truck line was producing, said Scotiabank economist Carlos Gomes. "The shift from big vehicles has accelerated quite dramatically," Gomes said, citing a sales decline in trucks of 15 per cent in the first quarter of 2008 alone. "These types of vehicles are not selling at the moment." Tuesday's cuts are another blow to the battered manufacturing sector in Ontario and Quebec, which has been decimated by layoffs and closures in the lumber, auto assembly, textiles and auto parts sectors. A high Canadian dollar and a slump in the United States have squeezed exports in those industries and produced widespread streamlining at the so-called Big Three carmakers - GM, Ford and Chrysler. http://economie.moldova.org/stiri/eng/125430/ Protesters blocking GM Canadian plant A leader of General Motors employees who used a convoy of cars to block delivery trucks from a entering Canadian plant Saturday, says the action was about jobs. The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. said the automobile blockade of a truck assembly plant in Oshawa, Ontario, marked the most recent protest since General Motors announced the plant would be shut down. The decision, which will put 2,600 people out of work, also prompted a blockade of the company's Canadian corporate headquarters Wednesday. The plant's closure next year was part of the automaker's announcement that four North American plants would be shut down, the CBC said. The Toronto Star reported that Canadian Auto Workers Local 222 President Chris Buckley, whose union is conducting the Oshawa protest, told his supporters Saturday the blockade was aimed at preserving jobs. This is about all of us -- all our jobs, all our community, he said. Copyright 2008 by United Press International Publication date: 07 June 2008 http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080616/CAW_blockade_080616/20080616?hub=Canada Protests to continue despite end of blockade: CAW Updated Mon. Jun. 16 2008 2:07 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff Protesting workers ended a two-week blockade around the General Motors Canada headquarters on Monday, allowing 900 salaried employees to go back to their offices. Members of the Canadian Auto Workers union disbanded from the Oshawa, Ont. property by 7 a.m. to comply with a legal injunction issued on Friday by Justice David Salmers of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. His order allowed for 20 people at a time to continue to protest, but the union decided to vacate the property altogether. Many took part in a rolling protest in their vehicles that wound its way through Oshawa on Monday morning. Keith Osborne, the chairman of the CAW Local 222, said union members made sure the property was clean of any garbage before they left. "We cleaned up last night," he said. "We had people picking up cigarette butts. The place will look like we've never been there." Nonetheless, union officials say they are far from quitting their fight to keep the Oshawa plant open. Workers have been protesting GM's decision to cut the plant since June 4 when the company announced high fuel costs are forcing them to cut productivity on their pick-up trucks and SUVs. They said the Oshawa plant would close by 2009, leaving 2,600 people without jobs. The union argued GM made the decision to close the plant just two weeks after it had ratified an agreement with the CAW ensuring job security for Oshawa workers. The union says GM breached the contract by pulling out of a promise to continue production at the plant through 2011. "There are a number of different (protest) options we're going to explore," said Local 222 president Chris Buckley on Monday. "I will sit down with GM any time, any place but at the end of the day, GM needs to understand that this fight is far from over," he continued. "We need a product in that facility." Buckley wouldn't say what kind of action workers were planning. "Stay tuned," he said. GM union members say they must continue their fight or else workers at other auto makers will suffer the same consequences. "The CEO of Ford (was) calling our leader here Buzz Hargrove, saying 'if you're going to let GM breach their contract we're going to do the same thing,'" one worker told CTV Toronto on Monday. Union officials have talked about holding information pickets at GM facilities across Ontario and maybe even Detroit. Osborne told The Canadian Press that he would meet with union lawyers late Monday to discuss bringing the dispute to the Ontario Labour Relations Board. When GM announced the truck plant closure, the company cited slow sales. Statistics Canada figures released Monday confirmed that claim, saying new vehicle sales fell for a third straight month in April, mainly due to lower sales in Nova Scotia and the four western provinces. With a report by CTV Toronto's Galit Solomon and files from The Canadian Press http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23675412-2862,00.html Posties protest work changes May 10, 2008 02:20pm POSTIES are rallying through Melbourne's western suburbs in protest against the closure of three delivery centres and the recruitment of outworkers. Communication Workers' Union (CWU) organiser Joan Doyle said Australia Post was closing the Newport, West Footscray and Sunshine delivery centres to make way for a new centralised centre at West Sunshine in July. As a result, 130 staff would be redeployed and part-time outworkers hired to work four-hour shifts on 15 per cent less pay per hour. Ms Doyle said the shake-up would compromise the reliability of the mail service and the $66 a day pay packet for new posties was not enough to live off. "It's a disgrace in this day and age," she said. "... They're trying to introduce outworkers into our industry when we've never had them before. "What it means is that people don't have the ability to organise, they have low pay rates, they don't know what their rights are and they don't have a workplace and work mates." Ms Doyle said mail deliveries would inevitably be affected because new posties would no longer be responsible for sorting the mail they deliver. And there would be a high turnover of staff. She said hundreds of posties turned out to vent their anger at today's rally, driving in convoy from the Footscray Post Office to Williamstown. Australia Post disputes the union's attendance figures and said the rally was a Union Solidarity protest. "I would be surprised if any posties are there," spokeswoman Nadine Lyford said. She said there would be no job losses when the mail centres merged and in most cases postal workers would keep their existing rounds. "They're not upset. We've got three facilities that are relocating to a new custom-built, brand new facility. "All these posties are keeping their jobs ... In the large majority of cases the same posties will actually be delivering to the same addresses." Ms Lyford said Australia Post had yet to make a decision about employing outworkers. But if it did, they would not get penalty rates because they would not work early morning shifts, she said. http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4526546a28.html Telecom broadband workers to protest pay offer Wednesday, 14 May 2008 Telecom broadband technicians are protesting outside the company's main offices in Auckland and Christchurch today over a pay offer which they say does not cover the rate of inflation. The technicians are employed by Australian company Downer EDI which is Telecom's largest contractor. However, the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) blamed Telecom for the offer based on its "refusal to properly resource its contractors". Telecom spokesman Mark Watts said the company had no comment on the industrial issue which was, "between Downer and their workforce". "It doesn't involve Telecom, it involves the workers and their employer which is Downer not Telecom," he said. EPMU national secretary Andrew Little disagreed, saying Telecom's dominant position allowed it to push down costs, harming workers. "Telecom's been playing its contractors off against each other for years to the point where there now isn't money available to pay broadband workers a fair rate, which is particularly galling for them when their skills are in high demand internationally and they can get 50 per cent more just by crossing the ditch." He said it was "extremely short-sighted, if not irresponsible" to under-invest in a skilled workforce when a massive rollout of fibre optic infrastructure was likely. Downer EDI New Zealand general manager Sheridan Broadbent said she respected the workers' right to take action but was surprised they had decided to involve Telecom. "The EPMU and its members have got a right to do what they need to do. I'm not comfortable they are trying to involve our customer because commercially it's embarrassing for us. "These are our staff and we should be dealing with them directly. And from Telecom's point of view they don't want to get involved in discussing what we may or may not do with our own staff." She said negotiations with the EPMU had reached "an impasse" and they were heading to mediation at the beginning of June. It is not the first time unions have targeted the customer of a contractor in recent disputes. Last month the EPMU spoke out against energy company Vector, blaming them for not providing sufficient funding to contractor Energex to pay their line workers. A few days earlier Spotless Services workers, represented by the Service and Food Workers Union, ended a two-year dispute over pay, during which they protested outside hospitals and the home of a District Health Board chairman. http://www.stuff.co.nz/4500417a11.html Auckland Foodstuffs workers protest low wages NZPA | Monday, 28 April 2008 Auckland Foodstuffs workers, who say they can't feed their families on their wage, have begun a series of extended lunchtime strikes. National Distribution Union distribution sector secretary Karl Andersen said workers added an extra half an hour on to their half-hour lunch break today and would continue doing so until negotiations with Foodstuffs were settled. The ninety unionised distribution staff have said they could not afford to properly feed their families on their current pay rates, Mr Andersen said. "How long will it take for companies like billion-dollar Foodstuffs to take responsibility for the wage-poverty they maintain and start paying their low paid workers and families a livable wage." Mr Andersen said it was appalling the Reserve Bank was calling for wage restraint when one in five children remained in poverty, despite the recent economic boom. The striking workers receive $14.59 an hour and are fighting for $17 an hour. The company, which owns Pak'N Save and New World supermarkets, was offering up to $15.50 an hour but Mr Andersen said that was not good enough for New Zealand's second biggest company. "Foodstuffs made its biggest profit ever last year," he said. Murray Jordan from Foodstuffs Auckland said he was surprised by the strike action. "We're in early stages of what has so far been amicable negotiations with the union. "We look forward to reaching a settlement in due course which is satisfactory to both parties." http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/thepress/4526501a6530.html Telecom techs in pay protest UPDATE: Telecom broadband technicians are protesting outside the company's main offices in Auckland and Christchurch today over a pay offer which they say does not cover the rate of inflation. The technicians are employed by Australian company Downer EDI which is Telecom's largest contractor. However, the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) blamed Telecom for the offer based on its "refusal to properly resource its contractors''. Telecom spokesman Mark Watts said the company had no comment on the industrial issue which was, "between Downer and their workforce''. "It doesn't involve Telecom, it involves the workers and their employer which is Downer not Telecom,'' he said. EPMU national secretary Andrew Little disagreed, saying Telecom's dominant position allowed it to push down costs, harming workers. "Telecom's been playing its contractors off against each other for years to the point where there now isn't money available to pay broadband workers a fair rate, which is particularly galling for them when their skills are in high demand internationally and they can get 50 percent more just by crossing the ditch.'' He said it was "extremely short-sighted, if not irresponsible'' to under-invest in a skilled workforce when a massive rollout of fibre optic infrastructure was likely. Downer EDI New Zealand general manager Sheridan Broadbent said she respected the workers' right to take action but was surprised they had decided to involve Telecom. "The EPMU and its members have got a right to do what they need to do. I'm not comfortable they are trying to involve our customer because commercially it's embarrassing for us. "These are our staff and we should be dealing with them directly. And from Telecom's point of view they don't want to get involved in discussing what we may or may not do with our own staff.'' She said negotiations with the EPMU had reached "an impasse'' and they were heading to mediation at the beginning of June. It is not the first time unions have targeted the customer of a contractor in recent disputes. Last month the EPMU spoke out against energy company Vector, blaming them for not providing sufficient funding to contractor Energex to pay their line workers. A few days earlier Spotless Services workers, represented by the Service and Food Workers Union, ended a two-year dispute over pay, during which they protested outside hospitals and the home of a District Health Board chairman. http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/750/38796 WA public servants protest for pay rise Barry Healy 10 May 2008 Western Australian public servants voted unanimously to continue their fight for a decent pay rise at a 1000-strong rally on the steps of Parliament House on May 8. The rally heard from Civil Service Association officials that the government had either rejected all of the union's pay proposals or hedged their offers with conditions trade-offs. "We think the government has just forgotten about the people who deliver the day-to-day service to the people", CSA state secretary Toni Walkington said. The rally, which was preceded by a march through the streets of Perth, coincided with the handing down of the state budget. Barry Healy http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/06/21/1957638.htm Sandvik workers protest over enterprise bargaining Posted Thu Jun 21, 2007 11:00am AEST Map: Newcastle 2300 Dozens of employees of a Newcastle mining equipment company on the New South Wales central coast are manning a picketline on Industrial Drive as part of a dispute over enterprise bargaining negotiations. The Sandvik workers have gone on strike for 24 hours, concerned over the company's wage offer and attempts to reduce conditions. Australian Workers Union spokesman Kevin Maher says after months of negotiations, employees decided strike action was the only option. "The thing that's equally galling is the company is a major supplier to the mining industry, going gang busters as they tell us, but are deciding to give an absolute minimum set of wage increases over the next couple of years to their employees," he said. Sandvik has declined to comment. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/06/26/1962741.htm Union protests charity workers' sacking Posted Tue Jun 26, 2007 6:40pm AEST Unions have accused the St Vincent de Paul Society of sacking two of its staff members because they used a staff meeting to complain about the behaviour of a manager. The two workers have taken the charity to the New South Wales Industrial Relations Commission, which is arbitrating the dispute. Michael Flinn, from the Australian Services Union, says the workers were sacked when staff members grouped together to raise their concerns with management. "This was a group concern and it had to be dealt with as a group," he said. "This is not about singling out individuals, this is about the right of people to have their problems dealt with as a group." http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2008/06/03/edm-labour.html?ref=rss Alberta legislature braces for protests over labour code changes Last Updated: Tuesday, June 3, 2008 | 10:20 AM CBC News Government officials are so concerned about the potential for strife over changes to Alberta's labour code that they have beefed up security at the legislature. "We expect individuals to come and voice their displeasure with what we're doing," said Alberta Employment Minister Hector Goudreau Monday. Goudreau said extra sheriffs have been brought in this week, but he would not provide any details. "We're trying to minimize conflicts by just being more on the cautious side." The changes announced to the labour code Monday are the first in 20 years. Among other things they will ban strikes by ambulance workers and prevent unions from subsidizing contract bids by unionized contractors competing with non-union firms. The new legislation will also prevent union organizers from joining a non-union company to kick-start the process of unionizing the firm - a practice known as "salting." 'He's just trying to make us look like the bad guys in this case, when obviously it's the government that's wearing the black hat.'-Alberta Federation of Labour president, Gil McGowan Alberta Federation of Labour president Gill McGowan said he's doubly incensed. First the government introduced the legislation, he said, then it suggested labour groups would resort to violence. "He's just trying to make us look like the bad guys in this case when obviously it's the government that's wearing the black hat." There is no need for politicians to fear for their safety, he said. But he also acknowledged workers will be upset by the legislation. "From our perspective it's not only unconstitutional, it's illegal. And it's a slap in the face to all these hard-working Albertans." McGowan said it's too early to say whether labour groups would plan mass demonstrations to fight the changes which, given the Tories' huge majority in the legislature, could be passed into law by the end of the week. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/13/2273370.htm CSIRO staff to protest against lab closure Posted Fri Jun 13, 2008 7:39am AEST Map: Merbein 3505 Groups opposing the closure of the CSIRO research laboratory at Merbein, near Mildura, have met an adviser to federal Science Minister Kim Carr. About 30 staff will lose their jobs when the 90-year-old facility's work is transferred to Adelaide within three years. The adviser met staff and industry leaders yesterday, but the Government says the CSIRO is at arm's length from Government and it will not seek to have the decision reversed. Staff are taking part in a Black Friday protest around the nation today, but the staff association's Everard Edwards says he is not hopeful. "Well I think it would be hard for the decision to be reversed, but of course we always hold out hope that not only would the decision be reversed, but that the site may be built up to provide a centre for the future," he said. http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=11978603-3dfc-4e1e-852a-3a4903e0798b Canada Post couriers to protest against mileage rates Canwest News Service Published: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 ABBOTSFORD - Mail couriers with Canada Post plan a protest Friday over the vehicle-allowance rate they are paid. "The raise in gas prices and the new carbon tax comes straight out of our own pockets, but yet we have not seen any increase in vehicle funding," said Canada Post courier David Morrison. Canada Post couriers pay all their own vehicle expenses, including gas, maintenance and insurance, but the amount of money they are given "does not come even close to covering the costs," said Morrison. "Canada Post has told us they have raised their gas surcharges for the public on all deliveries, to make up for the high gas prices, but yet we have not seen any of that," he said. All Canada Post mail couriers are paid 50 cents per kilometre for the first 5,000 kilometres and then they are given 39 cents for every kilometre after that, said Morrison. "Canada Post has presented what we believed was a reasonable and just offer at the negotiating table," said Lillian Au, Canada Post's manager of media and community affairs for the Pacific region. The protest is planned for 1 p.m. at the Canada Post outlet at Clearbrook Town Square in Abbotsford. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24033107-421,00.html?from=public_rss Unionists to join global protests July 17, 2008 12:12am UNIONSISTS will join a global day of protest today against private equity firms they say exploit workers. The Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union (LHMU) says its members will take part in various actions across the nation as part of international Take Back the Economy demonstrations. The LHMU will target Australian companies associated with private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR), such as Coles, Toys R Us, Nuvox Communications and the Seven Media Group. LHMU assistant national secretary Tim Ferrari said his union supported demands outlined by the Service Employees International Union calling for private equity firms like KKR to be more accountable and responsible. "The LHMU believes that good corporate practice will not only improve the conditions of millions of workers but also help strengthen economies and protect the environment.'' http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/30/2318990.htm Public sector workers take pay protest to Costa Posted Wed Jul 30, 2008 2:21pm AEST Map: Newcastle 2300 More than 50 public sector employees have rallied outside of the office of New South Wales Treasurer Michael Costa in protest at the State Government's latest pay offer. Police association Hunter representative Kel Graham says the offer of a 2.5 per cent rise per year fails to reflect the impact of inflation and rising cost of living. Mr Graham says officers are today refusing to issue fines for minor infringements to convey their dissatisfaction with the offer to the Government. "We're not going to wear it, so today to send a message home we're asking members to use their discretion and not write out tickets to hit the Government where it hurts, in the hip pocket," he said. "[This should] identify with them that we are hurting and we want to maintain a decent standard of living." http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/top-stories/4907046 Bank staff to stage protest ahead of strike August 15, 2008, 10:40 am NZPA ? [Enlarge photo] ANZ National Bank workers plan to picket outside the Courtenay Place branch in Wellington at lunch time today to draw attention to their cause ahead of planned strike action next week. The bank workers' union Finsec is in dispute with the bank as it seeks what it believes will be "a better deal for New Zealanders". Finsec's claims are part of an industry campaign launched in February which aims to create "better banks" and greater regulation in the finance sector. "Bank staff have been attempting to negotiate fairer sales targets, better staffing levels and real wage increases that recognise the skills and value they bring to the bank," Finsec said. ANZ staff have scheduled a strike for next Friday and in the lead-up are running a public campaign to garner public support. ANZ National Bank spokeswoman Virginia Stacey-Clitherow told Fairfax Media the bank was the industry leader in terms of staff pay and conditions and salary payments for non-managerial staff at both ANZ and National Banks were independent of sales targets. "We pay more than our main competitors for similar jobs, sometimes by as much as 15 percent." However, ANZ National staff representative Cathie Lendrum said the bank could afford a better deal and was treating New Zealand like a "cash cow". "ANZ National is returning as much profit as possible to Australia ahead of investing in the business locally." Ms Campbell said this was demonstrated in the bank's decision, announced last month, to shift 238 back office jobs to India where the work would be done at a quarter of the cost. http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/762/39359 Protesters call on PM to abolish ABCC Jim McIlroy, Brisbane 10 August 2008 "Abolish the ABCC! Support rights of building workers!" was the message on protesters' placards outside PM Kevin Rudd's electorate office in Morningside on August 8. The picket called for the abolition of the Howard-era Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC), a special industrial police force set up under the Howard government to attack building unions and their members. The federal Labor government has not disbanded it. "A Victorian [building] union official, Noel Washington, faces six months' in jail for simply refusing to tell the ABCC who attended a union meeting held outside work hours. Yet, the Rudd government refuses to act!", Maggie May, spokesperson for WorkLife, the workers' rights coalition which organised the protest, said the previous day. WorkLife will screen the hard-hitting film exposing the ABCC, Constructing Fear, on August 28 [see the calendar on page 23]. http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/local/4864004 Firefighters protest at Rees' office August 7, 2008, 4:00 pm AAP ? [Enlarge photo] NSW firefighters have marched on the electoral offices of Emergency Services Minister Nathan Rees, calling on him to intervene in their long-running dispute over wages and conditions. About 150 firefighters descended on Mr Rees' western Sydney electorate office on Thursday. They say the NSW Fire Brigades is trying to water down employment conditions in return for higher wages. Firefighters and the NSW Fire Brigade Employees' Union (FBEU) have been fighting the Iemma government's insistence on a 2.5 per cent cap on public sector wage increases. Pay rises above the cap will only be given if there are productivity gains, the government says. FBEU vice president Jim Casey said the fire brigade was trying to trade away leave and other entitlements during the arbitration process, or wanted roster changes which could see some stations closed. The dispute is now being heard by the NSW Industrial Relations Commission (IRC). "The last offer they made to us before we got into formal conciliation was essentially three-quarters of a per cent on top of the 2.5 per cent, and in return for that we were giving up, amongst other things, a week of annual leave," he said. "It was clearly not an offer made in good faith. It's a spit in the face, and they want to take us through the courts. "We're prepared to take our chances in terms of having a crack inside the IRC around the question about the quantum of our wages, but we're not prepared to negotiate around questions like rostering or leave." Firefighters wanted Mr Rees to intervene and stop the "attacks" on their working conditions, Mr Casey said. "We're calling on the minister to intervene to resolve the pay matter we've currently got before the courts ... and to stop these attacks," he said. Firefighters are not the only public servants fighting the 2.5 per cent cap, with police and other workers angry at the Iemma government's handling of public sector wages. This culminated in a statewide protest last month, when firefighters and other public servants walked off the job. Mr Casey would not rule out similar action in the future, should firefighters and the government fail to reach an agreement in the IRC. "If the government is going to treat public sector workers this way then public sector workers are going to be voting with their feet, and there will be some type of industrial disruption around that," he said. "If they don't give us satisfaction now they've got two-and-a-half years of an extremely pissed off, well-mobilised and angry fire service." Mr Rees said the NSW Fire Brigades had put a number of cost saving proposals to the union, but roster changes were not on the table. "The NSW Fire Brigades commissioner has assured me there is no plan to change the ... roster used by most fulltime firefighters and no fire stations will be closed," said Mr Rees, who has been touted as a replacement for beleaguered Premier Morris Iemma . http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/4863754 Teachers protest outside Henderson's office ABC - August 7, 2008, 3:46 pm ABC ? [Enlarge photo] Around 150 teachers set up a picket opposite the Chief Minister's electoral office this morning demanding a better pay deal before Saturday's election. The teachers waved placards and banners and blew whistles to show they are fed up with the Government's 12 per cent pay offer. The Australian Education Union wants a 20 per cent pay rise over three years, and the Australian Education Union's Nadine Williams says the offer from the Government is not good enough. "Promises at election time are worth very little because we've had promises since 2001 from the Labor Party, many of which have never been fulfilled and they include increasing the level of support for teachers, making education the number one priority. " The union's Glenn Dixon says teachers are fed up with waiting. "We need to be in a competitive market with the rest of Australia and unfortunately 12 per cent just doesn't get us there. We are already seeing a shortage of teachers now, especially specialist teachers." Many teachers say they will not be voting Labor if a better deal is not offered, though the union says it is also waiting to hear what the offer the CLP would put on the table if elected. Teachers have not ruled out more demonstrations tomorrow. The Chief Minister says he is dissapointed by the union decided to strike during the election campaign. "We've given the union an absolutle clear commmittment, its in the paper today but it's also a commitmtnet thats been given to them over the last two weeks, that if returned to government, we would continue to negotiate in good faith." From ldxar1 at tesco.net Thu Aug 28 17:44:49 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2008 01:44:49 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Disability rights protests, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <007f01c90970$7259e190$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * INDIA: Protest over "humiliating" scenes in film * US: Autistic groups protest offensive remarks by far-right talk-show host Savage * US: People with disabilities protest film Tropic Thunder over "R-word" * US: People with disabilities protest for healthcare expansion in Texas and Washington D.C. * INDIA: Protest over transfer of schools for blind children * US: Disability activists arrested after being refused meeting with McCain * CANADA: Protest against forced chemotherapy for boy with cancer * US: Palm Beach people with disabilities protest against aid cuts * INDIA: Karnataka people with disabilities protest for bus passes * IRELAND: Protest against relocation of "mental hospital" into prison http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/10/stories/2008071060130500.htm Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad Protest in front of Censor Board Staff Reporter VHPS alleges 'humiliating' scenes in Telugu film 'Gorintaku' - PHOTO: P.V. Sivakumar Touchy issue: Manda Krishna of the MRPS staging a 'dharna' outside the Censor Board office at Masab Tank on Wednesday. HYDERABAD: Nearly 200 activists of the Vikalangula Hakkula Porata Samiti (VHPS) demonstrated in front of the Central Censor Board office at Masab Tank on Wednesday in protest against scenes 'humiliating physically-challenged persons' in the Telugu film 'Gorintaku'. The protest demonstration lasting over an hour threw traffic movement out of gear on the bustling Masab Tank-Mehdipatnam stretch. Mild tension prevailed as the protesters tried to barge into the Board's office located in the 'Samachara Bhavanam' defying the huge contingent of police. Sit-in staged The agitators tried to break open the lock of the main gate even as policemen prevented them from forcibly entering inside. Later, the VHPS workers staged a sit-in on the road bringing the traffic movement to a grinding halt. The Madiga Reservation Porata Samiti (MRPS) founder-president Manda Krishna Madiga joined the demonstration pledging support to the agitators. He urged the Government to delete the scenes portraying physically-challenged persons in poor light in 'Gorintaku'. "The Government should also ensure that scenes humiliating physically-challenged persons are not included in films in future," the agitators demanded. They maintained that VHPS was forced to take up the agitation since the film director failed to respond to their demand for unconditional apology and threatened to intensify it in the future. Later, they submitted a memorandum to the Censor Board officials. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/28/BAOU120FGO.DTL S.F. protest against Savage's autism remarks Robert Selna, Chronicle Staff Writer Monday, July 28, 2008 Parents of children with autism, along with politicians and other protesters, convened Sunday in front of a San Francisco radio station and renewed calls for the firing of talk show host Michael Savage, who recently suggested that most autism diagnoses were fraudulent. A crowd of 50 to 60 people gathered in front of KNEW radio's Townsend Street offices Sunday to protest the decision by KNEW and Talk Radio Network, the company that syndicates Savage's shows, to keep him on the air despite his controversial statements. "Michael Savage's remarks were hurtful to the safety and the well-being of vulnerable children and we want him off the air," said Evelyn Ain, president of Autism United in Long Island, whose 8-year-old son has autism. "If this (KNEW) and other radio stations don't stop carrying Savage's signal, then we will pursue every advertiser until they drop him." Ain was joined at the protest by Craig Johnson, a New York state senator from Long Island, who has advocated for spending on autism issues and education, and by Alice Lai-Bitker, an Alameda County supervisor, and others. As part of his July 16 conservative, nationally syndicated talk-radio show, "The Savage Nation," Savage said that autism is being over-diagnosed and actually is a result of parental failures. "They don't have a father around to tell them, 'Don't act like a moron. You'll get nowhere in life,' " Savage said during his show. " 'Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don't sit there crying and screaming, you idiot.' " Representatives of Talk Radio Network could not be reached Sunday. In a statement, the company said it would not fire or suspend Savage and was satisfied that he did not mean any disrespect to autistic children or their families but instead was, "reiterating his long-standing concerns on public health issues." Savage has not apologized. Representatives of KNEW, an AM station, also could not be reached Sunday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 1 in 150 children are diagnosed with what is called "autism spectrum disorders," which range from severe to mild problems in communication and social behavior. Specialists are increasingly diagnosing autism. The CDC's Web site states, "It is unclear how much of this increase is due to changes in how we identify and classify (autism spectrum disorders) people, and how much is due to a true increase in prevalence." Savage routinely is controversial, and this is not the first time groups have called for his firing. During one of his radio broadcasts in 2007, Savage suggested that supporters of an immigration reform bill, who fasted in San Francisco's Civic Center Plaza, should starve to death. In May he made light of Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy's malignant brain tumor. Savage's off-color remarks have not hurt business. With 8 million listeners a week on 400 radio stations, Savage is the third-most-listened-to radio talk show host in the country, behind only Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. On Friday, a federal judge in San Francisco dismissed a copyright infringement lawsuit by Savage against a Muslim rights group that reprinted his attacks against Islam. The Council on American-Islamic Relations posted four minutes of an Oct. 29 broadcast in which Savage called the Quran a "hateful little book" and a "document of slavery." http://www.wyff4.com/entertainment/17166765/detail.html#- Mentally Disabled Protest 'Tropic Thunder' Studio Plans No Changes To War Movie Spoof POSTED: 8:24 am EDT August 12, 2008 UPDATED: 12:46 pm EDT August 12, 2008 LOS ANGELES -- The president of the American Association of People with Disabilities calls the new movie "Tropic Thunder" offensive from "start to finish." He and many others are upset by what they say is the "tasteless" portrayal of the mentally disabled, including scenes littered with a disparaging term used to describe them. Protesters at the Monday premiere in Los Angeles held up signs with slogans such as "Call me by my name, not by my label" and chanted phrases like "Ban the movie, ban the word." In the movie, director and co-star Ben Stiller is a fame-hungry actor cast in a war movie, after previously playing a role as a mentally disabled character named Simple Jack. A DreamWorks spokesman has said "no changes or cuts to the film will be made." It also stars Robert Downey Jr. and Jack Black http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/MYSA043008_7B_DisabilityProtest_EN_38d2871_html4147.html Web Posted: 04/29/2008 2:00 CDT Disabled Texans join more than 1,000 at D.C. protest WASHINGTON - Disabled Texans traveled to Capitol Hill and participated in a march Tuesday in support of legislation that would expand Medicaid and Medicare coverage to include home health care and community services. About 35 people from Texas joined more than 1,000 people with disabilities for protests and exhibits sponsored by the Americans Disabled for Accessible Public Transit, or ADAPT. "It's the largest turnout we've ever had," said Danny Saenz, 48, of Austin, who was among disabled Texans from Seguin, El Paso, Sugar Land, Odessa, Conroe and Fort Bend taking part in three days of activism in the nation's capital. Saenz, who was born in South Texas with cerebral palsy and is confined to a wheelchair, said people with disabilities rely on community-based services. ADAPT and other advocacy groups for the disabled support bipartisan legislation introduced in the House and Senate that would make eligible for Medicare and Medicaid coverage the services provided by home health care providers. Many of those services are covered when provided by nursing homes and hospitals, but not by community-based providers. The legislation, the Community Choice Act of 2007, would allow people to receive services in their homes, instead of being forced into institutional settings. The bills, introduced last year, have yet to emerge from committees in the House and Senate with oversight over Medicare, Medicaid and health care services. President Bush has proposed a $183 billion cut over five years in the budget for fiscal year 2009, which begins Oct. 1. The budget proposals and regulatory changes could result in a $104 million cut in nursing home care in Texas alone, according to an analysis by the American Health Care Association. The Community Choice Act legislation would provide federal matching funds to help states develop long-term care through home health care and community-based services. http://www.nbc4.com/health/16039065/detail.html People With Disabilities Protest Medicaid Cuts POSTED: 5:09 pm EDT April 28, 2008 UPDATED: 5:38 pm EDT April 28, 2008 WASHINGTON -- People with disabilities protested Medicaid cuts outside the Department of Health and Human Services in the 200 block of Independence Avenue in southwest D.C. on Monday. According to ADAPT, which promotes assisted-living community services for the disabled to help them live independently, thousands of senior citizens and people with disabilities are forced into nursing homes and other institutions because of the inaction and regulations of Health and Human Services. ADAPT demanded that Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt increase states' flexibility with the Money Follows the Person Demonstration Projects, immediately eliminate rules causing undue burdens in regard to case management, eliminate rules discouraging small, grass-roots providers from meeting the needs of their consumers, eliminate regulations and interpretations of "spousal impoverishment" and "risk" that promote institutionalization of people with disabilities, work with ADAPT to pass the Community Choice Act, and meet with ADAPT leaders within 30 days in regard to these demands and any other barriers to community-based services. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/05/stories/2008050559640400.htm Protest by differently-abled Staff Reporter Hyderabad: Members of the Andhra Pradesh Welfare Committee of the Blind (APWCB) held a protest meeting against the transfer of five schools for the visually and hearing challenged from the Education Department to the Disabled Welfare Department on Sunday afternoon at Indira Park. Over 50 students from five schools participated in the protest against the G.O.MS 33 that was passed in February this year. Apart from the transfer, the order stated that the disabled welfare department can seek help from philanthropic individuals and NGOs to run these schools, which was strongly opposed by the students. "A similar order was passed 20 years ago but the Government had revoked it then. The five schools that are situated at Malakpet, Darul Shifa, Kadapa and Kakinada are being run by the Department of Education and have good standards compared to those under the Disabled Welfare Department," said, Chairman of APWCB, N. Venkat Ramulu. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/05/stories/2008060559580400.htm Visually-challenged in protest mode Oppose transfer of schools to Department of Disabled Welfare HYDERABAD: Members of A.P Welfare Committee of the Blind (APWCB) launched a relay hunger strike at Dharna Chowk, Indira Park, on Wednesday protesting the government's decision to handover control of five schools for blind and deaf children, presently under School Education Department, to the Department of Disabled Welfare. GO passed The government has issued an order (G.O. Ms No.33) allowing transfer of these schools to the Department of Disabled Welfare. The order also says that residential institutions under Disabled Welfare Department will be formed into societies to enable co-management and co-option by philanthropic individuals and NGOs. "Once the five schools are transferred to the Disabled Welfare Department, private persons and NGOs will be able to control and manage them. Effectively, it will reduce the role of the government in managing such schools," said N. Venkat Ramulu, Chairman of APWCB. Out of the five residential schools, two schools are exclusively for the deaf in Malakpet, Hyderabad, and Kakinada in East Godavari. Out of the remaining three, one blind school is in Kadapa while the other two, are in Malakpet and Darul Shifa. The APWCB members also felt that the government was not clarifying on the issue of whether it would continue to fund the schools after handing them over to the societies. They also demanded that visually handicapped persons should be appointed as headmasters and school education officers so that they could understand the travails of the blind. http://www.wtop.com/?nid=116&sid=1395548 Disabled group members arrested at McCain's office April 29, 2008 - 6:38pm By LAURIE KELLMAN Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - At least 20 disabled activists, most of them in wheelchairs, were arrested outside Sen. John McCain's offices Tuesday after being refused a meeting with the GOP presidential nominee-to-be over a bill to expand Medicaid coverage to more people who want in-home care. "If he should be president, it would be ironic that he comes from a party that talks a lot about family values," said Bob Kafka, national organizer for ADAPT, a group advocating for passage of the bill. Without the legislation, many disabled and elderly people don't have the choice to apply coverage to anything other than institutional care, he said. "Families are devastated because they don't have a choice to keep people at home," Kafka said. McCain was not in his office during the protest. He was campaigning Tuesday in Florida on his health care plan. The bill, stuck in committee since last year, would amend the Social Security Act to allow people who are eligible for Medicaid coverage of nursing home costs to spend it instead on home-based, or community care. Sponsored by Sens. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Arlen Specter, R-Pa., it also would grant extra money to states that participate in the program, according to a summary of the bill. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois, rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination, are co-sponsors of the bill, but McCain is not. Capitol Police Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said about 20 people from the group were arrested outside McCain's office in the Russell Senate Office Building on Tuesday and charged with unlawful assembly. McCain's Senate chief of staff said the protesters turned down an offer to meet immediately with McCain's aides. Mark Busey said he didn't know McCain's position on the legislation but would ask. The chances are slim, however, that the senator himself would be meeting with members of the group. "We are more than happy to let them know when he will be back in the Washington area at public events, town halls and the like," Busey said in a telephone interview. "Right now we do not know when he's going to be here for a meeting." http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=dce99959-f95e-40fc-9a0a-1eb87c033c43 Supporters of cancer-stricken boy protest forced chemo Canwest News Service Published: Monday, May 12, 2008 HAMILTON - McMaster Children's Hospital was the scene of a small but emotional protest Monday morning over the plight of an 11-year-old boy forced by the Children's Aid Society to undergo cancer treatment. The boy's parents were joined by about a dozen supporters who say the CAS is wrong to order the child to endure chemotherapy when he says he doesn't want it. "I want them to leave me alone. I'm doing the right thing and taking natural medicine," the boy, whose name cannot be released because of his age, told CHCH-TV in a telephone interview. The boy has an aggressive form of leukemia and has undergone chemotherapy before. His parents say he suffered through it, and they decided as a family to stop the treatments. On Thursday, when they brought the boy to the same Hamilton hospital for routine tests, the CAS seized him. When his father protested, he was handcuffed and evicted from the premises. The parents were allowed to go into the hospital to visit him Monday morning and his mom brought him to a window to wave to supporters. The next step in the dispute is expected to take place in court Tuesday. The parents say they anticipate the CAS will ask a judge to allow the organization to assume custody of their son. The parents have hired a prominent Toronto lawyer, Marlys Edwardh, to fight their case. http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/local_news/epaper/2008/05/21/0521disabilitiesrally.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=76 Hundreds protest cuts to programs for people with disabilities By KATHLEEN CHAPMAN Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Wednesday, May 21, 2008 Hundreds of people with disabilities held up stop signs to protest state budget cuts today, and asked Palm Beach County commissioners not to further reduce aid to the most vulnerable this summer. State lawmakers cut money for programs that serve people with mental disabilities by $43.5 million dollars this session - a 5 percent reduction. And Palm Beach County Administrator Bob Weisman has warned all social service agencies that get money from the county that they could lose another 5 percent because of local budget shortfalls. Those cuts affect programs that help people with disabilities like cerebral palsy and Down syndrome to get jobs in the community or sheltered workshops. The money also pays for group homes, as well as support for families who have adult children with disabilities. "Stop those cuts," people with disabilities shouted Wednesday at the rally held by Palm Beach County agencies that serve the disabled. Several parents and agency leaders said the continuing cuts are unconscionable because they follow previous years of budget-cutting for programs that serve the disabled. Rita Head of Boca Raton, who spoke at the rally, said she is a registered Republican. But she is tired of attending events year after year to ask state leaders not to cut programs for her daughter Brandon, now 41. "I've been to three or four of these rallies in the last 10 years, and I've been to Tallahassee," Head said. "I'm a Republican, but the Republicans have not been listening. And come election time, they may want to listen." Brandon has seizures and mental disabilities that prevent her from getting a job in the community. But for the past 22 years, Brandon has found work and a sense of purpose at the Habilitation Center of Boca Raton, where she assembles parts for Motorola. Lawmakers need to ask themselves, Head said, where they expect people to go if they continue cutting money for programs that allow disabled people to work. "What are they going to do - put them back in institutions?" she said. "Where are we going to go? That is what they have to ask themselves." Head said she was upset that Republican lawmakers in Tallahassee refused to approve a even a small tax hike on cigarettes to help pay for the most vulnerable citizens because they didn't want to be seen as raising taxes. Sometimes, she said, you can't just vote your party: "You have to vote your conscience." http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/01/stories/2008060154760500.htm Protest by the handicapped KOLAR: Led by the taluk unit of Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha (KPRS) scores of handicapped people staged a dharna in front of the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation's Divisional Controller's office here on Saturday. They demanded issue of bus pass to physically challenged people. They also urged authorities to initiate action against the conductors responsible for atrocities on handicapped persons in KSRTC buses. http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/mhgbidgbojkf/rss2/ Protestors to step up mental health plans 06/07/2008 - 12:07:23 Relatives of mental health patients opposing the relocation of one of the country's largest facilities to the grounds of a new super prison will this week step up their campaign. The Central Mental Hospital carers' group wants to stop the Dundrum centre being closed and moved to a site in north Co Dublin earmarked for Thornton Hall. Members will appear before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children on Tuesday to hand over its report, Patients Not Prisoners, which was published jointly with the Irish Mental Health Coalition and Schizophrenia Ireland. A spokesman said concerned members will also present evidence invalidating the Government's proposal and urge the committee to call on Health Minister Mary Harney to reverse the decision. The Central Mental Hospital carers' group, which is made up of relatives and carers, is campaigning for improved facilities, care and human rights for patients. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Thu Aug 28 18:10:43 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2008 02:10:43 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Feminist, women's and gender-based protests, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <009e01c90974$10a03180$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * IRAN: Thousands protest sexual harassment of student * PHILIPPINES: Protest for reproductive health * CAMBODIA: Protest against crackdown on sex workers * CHILE: Mass marches, strike for contraceptive pill * UKRAINE: Students protest against sex tourism * INDIA: Punjab police lock up rape survivor for semi-nude protest * NEW ZEALAND: Tourist strips to protest wolf-whistling * AUSTRALIA: Protesters demand mayor resign after insulting women * INDIA: Women rally against BJP local government * SOUTH AFRICA: March highlights gender violence * US: Supporters outnumber protesters over underclad performers * CANADA: Abortion bill draws protests * ITALY: Public mass breastfeeding action * UK: McDonald's branch "breastfeeding ban" sparks feed-in * INDIA: Protest over attack on girl by stalker * DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Sex workers attempt naked protest over park ban, suppressed by police * CANADA: Vancouver retailer targeted for breastfeeding demo * INDIA: Uttar Pradesh rape survivor strips in protest http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=74494 Students protest after sexual harassment Last Updated : Tuesday 17 Jun, 2008 - Thousands of university students in an Iranian city have held a protest against the attempted sexual harassment of a female colleague by a top university official. About 3,000 students at the university in the northwestern city of Zanjan staged the sit-in protest over the weekend at a sports hall on campus. They demanded that the board of directors resign and an apology from the higher education minister following the alleged offence committed by the vice chancellor. The vice chancellor is alleged to have sexually harassed the girl while she was in his office to resolve a problem with the committee of conduct - a disciplinary body which monitors students' activities, reports said. "Students broke into the vice president's office and handed him over to security after finding out that he had sought to (sexually) harass a student," reports said. The unnamed official had on several occasions tried to shut down the students' Islamic association "under the pretext that its members have moral problems and do not have an Islamic behaviour". The official in question had been suspended until investigations were completed. "We have asked the students to present relevant evidence because this issue needs further examination," Zanjan university director Ali Reza Naddaf said. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/topstories/topstories/view/20080724-150447/Population-bill-campaign-intensifies-ahead-of-Church-protest Population bill campaign intensifies ahead of Church protest By Maila Ager INQUIRER.net First Posted 15:58:00 07/24/2008 MANILA, Philippines -- Supporters of the proposed population management bill have intensified their campaign ahead of the Catholic Church's simultaneous "bell ringing" slated this Friday to protest the measure. Various non-government organizations led by the Reproductive Health Advocacy Network (RHAN) held a small rally in Quezon City on Thursday to push for the passage of the bill pending at the House of Representatives. The advocates, one dressed as a bishop, paraded a coffin to symbolize "maternal death" with 10 women supposedly dying everyday due to unintended pregnancies and lack of access to reproductive health methods. At a press conference after the rally, RHAN secretary-general Elizabeth Angsioco said the group was also planning a big protest action to counter the anti-reproductive health campaign by the Church. She said they also started a signature campaign to further boost the support in Congress. "We want a million signatures to really strengthen the support for the bill. We will present the signatures to the House and the Senate to show that there's real support from the grass roots," Angsioco said. Some of them, she said, have also been talking to some Cabinet members to get their support for the bill. Aside from Quezon City, Angsioco said three others -- Antipolo City, Angeles City and the province of Lanao del Sur -- have also passed a reproductive health code in their respective areas. Despite the strong lobbying of the Church against the bill, Professor Danton Remoto, chairperson of "Ang Ladlad," remained confident that the proposed legislation would pass "under the good the guidance of God." Addressing the Catholic bishops, Remoto said, "Wala kaming balak maging [We have no intention of becoming] celibate. Gusto naming tikman ang luto ng Diyos." "And we're cocksure that this bill, if not today, in the days to come will pass under the good guidance of God," he said. In defending the measure, Remoto pointed out that the use of condoms was important to stop population growth. UP Professor Ernesto Pernia, who has two priest brothers, criticized the Catholic Church for being "so conceited." "The problem, I think, is that the Catholic bishops, the Catholic hierarchy, has been developing hubris. They have become so conceited because the government is courting them," Pernia said in the same forum. He then cautioned the Church from issuing "dogmatic" statements about the issue of contraceptives. http://www.chinapost.com.tw/asia/other/2008/06/17/161366/Sex%2Dworkers.htm Sex workers protest crackdown AP Tuesday, June 17, 2008 PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- Cambodian sex workers gathered at a Buddhist temple Monday in the latest protest against a police crackdown on prostitution. Dressed in white, about two dozen sex workers kneeled inside a Phnom Penh pagoda and prayed for the government to halt a crackdown that started in March after a new anti trafficking law was introduced. "Please Lord Buddha help make our leaders listen when we say that the new law does not protect us," said 68-year-old Su Sotheavy, a transvestite sex worker. "Our families depend on our profession. Please Buddha give (the government) the strength to change the law and develop policies that really protect our lives." Police began rounding up male and female sex workers from brothels, bars and parks in March. The law does not specifically target sex workers but activists say it prompted authorities to take a tougher stand against prostitution. Earlier this month, some 200 Cambodian sex workers protested against the crackdown and alleged that some of them had been physically and sexually abused in custody. Cambodian law does not explicitly define prostitution as illegal, but commercial sex is frowned upon by authorities who routinely launch sweeps to clean up the streets. Some sex workers at the protest said they were married with children and their families relied on their job. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20080604-0632-cambodia-prostitutes.html Cambodian prostitutes protest police crackdown, allege physical and sexual abuse By Sopheng Cheang ASSOCIATED PRESS 6:32 a.m. June 4, 2008 PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - About 200 Cambodian prostitutes protested peacefully Wednesday against a police crackdown and claimed to have been physically and sexually abused in custody. The prostitutes staged a protest in the capital, Phnom Penh, to complain that they had been unlawfully detained and to highlight the behavior of guards at the rehabilitation center where they were held. "Some of them (the sex workers) were beaten and gang raped by the center guards, and most of the time they did not use condoms," said Chan Dina, a 31-year-old prostitute and member of the Cambodian Prostitute Union, a sex workers' advocacy group. Police began rounding up male and female sex workers from brothels, bars and parks in March, detaining them for a week to 10 days at the Prey Speu rehabilitation center on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. Cambodian law does not explicitly define prostitution as illegal, but commercial sex is frowned upon by authorities who routinely launch sweeps to clean up the streets. "Sex workers are human beings and we have equal rights" and deserve protection from abuse, Chan Dina said. "We do not think that sex work is wrong. It is just a means to an end," said Pich Sokchea, a 42-year-old transvestite sex worker with the Women's Network for Unity, another prostitutes' advocacy group. Pich Sokchea urged the government to end the crackdown because it was affecting the livelihood of sex workers, many of whom were forced into the profession by poverty and debts. "We are people who sacrifice everything for the sake of our families and for our livelihood." It was unclear what prompted the latest crackdown but some activists said an anti-trafficking law approved in March may have caused authorities to take a tougher stand against prostitution. Police Lt. Gen. Khieu Sopheak, the Interior Ministry's spokesman, dismissed claims that police committed violence against sex workers and said none was mistreated in the crackdown. He defended the crackdown, calling sex work unacceptable in Cambodia. http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/748/38671 Chile: Protests for contraceptive pill Gonzala Villanueva, Santiago 25 April 2008 More than 20,000 people marched on April 22 through the streets of Santiago to demonstrate their rejection of the Constitutional Court's ruling, which last week banned the distribution of the morning-after pill through the public health care system. Earlier in the day, La Nacion reported: "The chairman of the Confederation of Workers of Health Municipalizada (Confusam), Esteban Maturana, said that the guild had accepted the call to paralyse its activities." Subsequently, 80% of medical clinics went on a one-day strike. The Constitutional Court declared on April 4, by five votes in favour and four against, that the free distribution of the contraceptive, morning-after pill in public health services was illegal. In Chile, abortion is completely illegal. Chilean President Michelle Bachelet declared: "I deeply regret the judgement, in a country that aspires to be in the major leagues, where people have equal opportunities in health, education, and development . this is an injury to the construction of a more equitable society." The objection was submitted in early 2007 by 31 right-wing legislators against the decree of the health ministry, which provided for the free distribution of the emergency pill to teenagers older than 14 years without the consent of their parents. The Catholic church lead an ideological battle against the decision, based on the "the right to life", with all forms of contraception considered as "immoral" as an abortion. While this decision does not prevent the contraceptive pill being sold commercially in pharmacies - another indication that the privatisation of the health care system continues - the poor will suffer the most. Wealthy women will have the luxury of being able to pay for the pill. In the lead up to the protest, the media reported that a 21 year-old woman was hospitalised after her boyfriend attempted to administer a backyard abortion. Unfortunately, this is not uncommon. In an April 10 Clase Contra Clase article, Maria Caceres argued: "Today in the country there is between 160,000 and 200,000 abortions a year, even though abortion is illegal; tomorrow, with the recent [court] judgement, there will be double the abortions and we will see double the deaths due to clandestine abortions." Caceres argued that "when speaking about reproductive rights, it's about rights that have been conquered by women years ago, through struggle, with the rise of the masses, through social and cultural change." She concluded that "it's not about only defending the pills and other methods of contraception . we should fight for [the proper] conditions and right to reproduction that are quality, and free." http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20080426072231188 Chile: Unions strike work for a day in protest against abortion ruling Saturday, April 26 2008 @ 07:22 AM CDT Contributed by: WorkerFreedom Views: 161 Chilean judges, siding with the Vatican, have dealt a major blow to the Bachelet government by ending free emergency contraception in public clinics. A women's rights group is organizing a mass renunciation of Catholicism to express their outrage. Unions strike work for a day in protest against abortion ruling By Matt Malinowski WeNews correspondent SANTIAGO, Chile (WOMENSENEWS)--Hundreds of Chileans are planning to renounce their membership in the Roman Catholic Church on April 29 as an outcry against a major blow to the government's push for expanded access to contraception. On April 18 Chile's Constitutional Court outlawed distribution of emergency contraception in public health clinics to women 14 and older, a policy implemented in September 2006 by the government of President Michelle Bachelet to lower teen pregnancy rates in a country where 15 percent of births are to women 18 or younger. Emergency contraception remains available in the nation's private pharmacies. Over 10,000 people also marched in evening demonstrations to protest the court's decision Tuesday. Mujeres Publicas, or Public Women, a women's rights group in Santiago, has used e-mail to organize the "massive apostasy," that is, an active rejection of the Catholic faith. Group members say that roughly 500 people have signed up to participate so far and they expect the figure to reach 1,000. Participants are being asked to sign a letter requesting the Catholic Church remove their names from all records and then deliver the document to their nearest archdiocese. Women from each of Chile's 15 regions have committed to the abandonment of their faith. http://wham1180.com/cc-common/news/sections/newsarticle.html?feed=104673&article=4032792 Students Protest Ukraine's Sex Tourism Industry Students from several universities dressed as prostitutes to draw attention to a problem many Ukrainians say is tarnishing their country. Thursday, July 31, 2008 VIDEO: Students dress like prostitutes to protest "We are not for sale:" a group of Ukrainian women gathered in central Kiev to protest against the country's burgeoning sex tourism industry. The women - students from several universities - dressed as prostitutes to draw attention to a problem many Ukrainians say is tarnishing their country. "Lots of foreigners come here for sex, and to put it bluntly sex tours are now being sold. We don't want our country to become a big brothel. It's a shame and it's shameful," says one of the protestors. Prostitution is illegal but widespread and largely ignored by the government. Ukrainian police estimate there are approximately 12,000 prostitutes in Ukraine, with 4,000 working in Kiev alone. The former Soviet republic may lag far behind Thailand on the list of sex tourists' favourite destinations, but it's moving up - thanks in part to the easing of visa restrictions on American and European Union citizens. Ukraine is one of the largest exporters of women to the international sex industry - a damning statistic. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, almost half a million Ukrainian women have been trafficked into sexual slavery abroad - and now increasingly at home as well. http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=361130 Police lock up rape victim for semi-nude protest IANS Tuesday 20th May, 2008 A semi-nude protest here by a woman against Punjab police inaction in registering a case against some men who allegedly raped her has landed her in a lock-up. The victim took off her clothes on a busy crossing on the Ferozepore-Ludhiana highway here Monday and shouted that her pleas to the police for getting a rape case registered had fallen on deaf ears. The protest shocked people moving along the highway. The protest took place just a few hundred metres from a police station. After passers-by informed the police, a few officials rushed to the spot and caught the woman. No woman police personnel came to arrest her. She was later booked for obscenity at a public place and sent to a police lock-up. Embarrassed by the incident, police announced that they had already registered a case against two men for having allegedly raped the woman. District police chief Ashok Baath said the case had been registered well before the woman staged the protest. Police officials said there had been delay in registering the case since the woman's complaint was being investigated. Last week, another woman in neighbouring Haryana's Yamunanagar town had stripped down to her undergarments inside a police station complex after the Haryana police did not register a case on her complaint that she was raped. She was also booked by the police for obscenity. http://www.smh.com.au/news/travel/tourist-strips-in-wolf-whistle-protest/2008/05/22/1211182953590.html Tourist strips in wolf whistle protest May 22, 2008 An Israeli tourist tired of wolf whistles from road workers in New Zealand stripped off her clothes in a show of defiance, police say. The woman was about to use an ATM in the main street of Kerikeri, in the far north of the country, when the men whistled, the New Zealand Press Association reported. She calmly stripped off, then used the cash machine, before getting dressed and walking away. The woman told police she did not take too kindly to the whistling from the men repairing the road. "She said she had thought: 'Bugger them, I'll show them what I've got,' " Police Sergeant Peter Masters told NZPA. "She gave the explanation that she had been ... pestered by New Zealand men. She's not an unattractive looking lady," Sergeant Masters said. "She was taken back to the police station and spoken to and told that was inappropriate in New Zealand." Reuters http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/4935768 Protesters demand Mt Isa Mayor resign over 'degrading' comments ABC - August 20, 2008, 1:12 pm ABC News ? [Enlarge photo] A protest was staged in Mount Isa, in north-west Queensland, last night with calls for the resignation of the Mayor over his comments this week about women. Around 150 protesters gathered outside the Mount Isa Council Chambers last night to protest against what was described as "disgusting and degrading comments" towards women. Earlier this week, Mayor John Molony appealed for "beauty disadvantaged women" to move to Mount Isa to help even up the male-to-female population, despite figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics proving little difference. Councillor Molony was not at the protest but earlier said he stood by his words. Protester Shirley Slann says she does not agree with the comments and says Councillor Molony has to apologise or go. "If he declines, then we must call on him to resign as mayor of our great city," she said. "How do you measure a person? Are we going into a hierarchy where we're saying that there's higher class, low class- all these levels - it's not. "We're all people. We're all men, women, children. We live in this community. Mount Isa is a good community." Protester Matt Cain says Councillor Molony's comments are offensive. "He is disgusting and he needs to go," he said. "Forget the apology - he needs to resign. "I think he's shown his ineptness as a politician quoting statistics that are factually incorrect." http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/22/stories/2008052253730700.htm Madhya Pradesh Women's Congress holds protest rally Staff Correspondent To express public outrage against the BJP-led State Govt ' Women cheated and exploited in the State' BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh Women's Congress organised a huge "Jan Aakrosh" (Public Anger) rally in Indore on Tuesday to express public outrage against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led State Government. The rally was attended by the Union Minister in charge of the party's Madhya Pradesh affairs, V. Narayanaswamy, Union Minister Kantilal Bhuria, Member of Parliament and All-India Mahila Congress president Prabha Thakur, and PCC president Suresh Pachouri. The Madhya Pradesh Women's Congress president, Shobha Oza, told The Hindu on Wednesday that the huge turnout at the rally reflected public anger over "wrong policies, poor implementation of State-sponsored programmes and large-scale corruption at the Government level". Through the rally, the Women's Congress tried to draw women's attention to the core issue of corruption even when it came to serving those living below the poverty line, said Ms. Oza, adding that women had been cheated and exploited in Madhya Pradesh for the past four and a half years of BJP rule. "The State also has the dubious distinction of registering the largest number of crimes against women," she added. She alleged that there had been massive bungling in distribution of BPL (Below Poverty Line) cards and a large number of those eligible had been deprived of this facility. "Similarly, the State Government was not implementing the pension scheme for the poor and the destitute by contributing its full share as per Government of India guidelines ," she added. http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_General&set_id=1&click_id=139&art_id=nw20080523144755222C188097 Protest march highlights gender violence May 23 2008 at 02:56PM Thousands people marched to parliament on Friday to present a memorandum to the safety and security ministry on gender-based violence. The march was led by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and supported by, among others, the Sonke Gender Justice Network and Aids Law Project. According to the TAC, the Women's Health and Rights Campaign highlights the scourge of violence against women and the spread of HIV in the communities in which it worked, how the justice system is failing women, and how the laws targeted at women's empowerment are not taken seriously. The TAC and its allies called for, among other things, an end to victimisation of rape survivors by police and court officials, more rape crisis centres along the Simelela and Thuthuzela model, the roll-out of Sexual Offences Courts to be speeded up, and improved access to antiretroviral treatment (ARV) post-exposure prophylaxis for rape survivors. 'We want to work in partnership with the SAPS' Other demands included scaling up programs empowering rape survivors and improving community awareness, sensitising police to barriers faced by women reporting cases, and improving investigations, especially forensic evidence collection, of rape cases. More resources had to be given to the court system so that prosecutions could be speeded up and carried out more efficiently, and more human and financial resources had to be given to the police, including victim empowerment centres. The TAC further demanded that long sentences for rape and murder offenders be ensured, resources for criminal rehabilitation services be increased, criminals be identified and arrested more speedily, and sex work be decriminalised and police stop harassing sex workers. "We call on all stakeholders, including government, to work together to achieve these objectives. "We want to work in partnership with the SAPS and other elements of the law enforcement and criminal justice systems to achieve these objectives," the TAC said. - Sapa http://www.kirotv.com/news/16385809/detail.html?rss=sea&psp=mostpopular Supporters Outnumber Protestors For Baristas In Bikinis POSTED: 4:33 pm PDT May 24, 2008 UPDATED: 11:21 am PDT May 25, 2008 BONNEY LAKE, Wash. -- What was supposed to be a protest against some scantily clad baristas Saturday in Bonney Lake ended up to be more of a pep rally. A protest was planned this holiday weekend against a couple of coffee stands in Bonney Lake because neighbors are upset over how little the baristas wear. The coffee stand told KIRO 7 that on most days the baristas wear bathing suits, but twice a week they are allowed to wear just pasties. "That's what our stand is about half naked women," said Taylor Butterfield, a barista. "I think the exploitation of women and the sexualization of that is bad and damaging," said Ron Easley, a protestor. By Saturday afternoon, the number of supporters for the coffee stand outnumbered the protestors. As for the pasties, the owner said the baristas will keep wearing them twice a week until the law says they can't. Both sides are planning to continue the protest Sunday. http://politicom.moldova.org/stiri/eng/123939/ Canadian abortion bill draws protests Nearly 1,000 people marched in Montreal to protest a Canadian Conservative government bill they say threatens abortion rights. Bill C-484, which has passed two readings in Parliament, would make it an crime to injure, cause the death of, or attempt to cause the death of a child before or during its birth while committing, or attempting to commit, an offense against the mother, The Gazette (Montreal) reported. However, protester Anais Bertrand said at the rally Sunday the bill opens the door to prosecuting legal abortionists. It refers to a fetus as a child -- and that's dangerous, she said. Conservatives have countered criticisms by saying the bill is only meant to bring harsher punishments to people who commit crimes against pregnant women, and quotes the bill's wording as saying the law does not apply to conduct relating in the lawful termination of the pregnancy. Copyright 2008 by United Press International Publication date: 02 June 2008 http://www.postchronicle.com/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=75&num=154562 Italian Mothers Bare Breasts In Protest by Staff A group of Italian mothers bared their bosoms and breastfed their babies in a public square Wednesday as part of their I'll Suckle Where I Want campaign. More than 100 of the lactating ladies gathered in Rome's EUR district for the protest, aimed at eliminating laws prohibiting public breastfeeding they say are hypocritical in an era when bare breasts are readily available on Italy's prime time television programming, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. People still give a start when they see a woman breastfeeding, but they have to learn that a breast is not just a sexy object, Grazia Passeri, president of the Salvamamme breastfeeding group said. It's ridiculous that showgirls can show theirs but mothers can't. They also protested the high cost of powdered baby formula. European Parliament Member Roberta Angelilli, who attended the rally, told ANSA Italy has already asked the EU for permission to get rid of a sales tax on baby products, with powdered milk first on the list. (c) UPI http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2307169/Breastfeeding-mothers-stage-protest-over-ban-at-McDonald%27s.html Breastfeeding mothers stage protest over ban at McDonald's A group of mothers staged a protest at a branch of McDonald's after one of them was asked to leave for breastfeeding her baby. By Richard Savill Last Updated: 10:37PM BST 18 Jul 2008 The fast food chain has apologized to Maddie Reynolds, 27, a nursery nurse, after a junior manager asked her to stop feeding her 10-week-old daughter Sophie in public. When she refused the request, Miss Reynolds said the manager asked her to leave the branch in Bournemouth, Dorset. She said: "I was breastfeeding when I was asked to stop doing it by a member of staff. I said 'no' and he then said 'will you please leave?'. I refused and carried on. "He stood and watched me for a few minutes and went away. I was quite upset but I was not prepared to leave." Miss Reynolds, who had been on a shopping trip, returned home, and told six of her friends about her experience. They went as a group to the restaurant and breastfed their babies as a protest. "We just wanted to prove a point to them," Miss Reynolds said. Another protestor, Catherine Davis, 19, who was accompanied by her seven-week-old daughter, Amelia, criticised the treatment of her friend. She said: "It is the most natural thing to feed your baby. There is nothing wrong with it. "I have breastfed in public and no-one has ever said anything to me. It is fine as long as you are discreet." A third mother, Nicky Clark added: "My son is five-months-old and I am still feeding him. Luckily no-one has ever said anything to me. There is no reason why people should not be able to breastfeed." A spokesman for McDonald's said breastfeeding mothers were welcome in its restaurants. She said: "This manager was working unilaterally and not following company policy at all. "We are disappointed and shocked by his actions and we would like to apologise to the customer. "If another customer ever expressed their discomfort about breastfeeding we would encourage them to move, rather than the mum. "What we do not want to do is to make mums feel as if they have to hide away." The spokesman said the manager's actions "have been discussed with him and he is now fully in touch with company policy." http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/20/stories/2008072059220700.htm Andhra Pradesh Protest over attack on girl Staff Reporter KHAMMAM: Students organisations staged protest demonstrations in the town condemning the attempt on the life of a college girl, Sunera by a photographer said to be an obsessed lover and wanted stringent action against him. Even after 24 hours of the incident the girl was in the intensive care unit of a local hospital and her condition continued to be serious. The activists of the PDSU, PYL and POW, Ch. Aruna, C.Y. Pullaiah and Ashok voiced concern over the increasing attacks on the girl students. http://www.dominicantoday.com/dr/local/2008/7/25/28801/Dominican-Police-disperse-hookers-who-threatened-naked-protest Dominican Police disperse hookers who threatened naked protest Print Email Bookmark Save to my profile 28 Comments - last on Jul 29 at 10:50 AM Photo padealcaladehenares.org Picture 1 of 1 Close Gallery Santiago .- The Police today dispersed dozens of Haitian and Dominican prostitutes who threatened to march naked through the streets of Santiago to protest alleged harassment and indiscriminate arrests by the authorities. The Police however, asked the women to leave the area of the park where they planned to protest and arrested and later released those who resisted, according to North Region police spokesman Jesus Cordero Paredes. He denied that the prostitutes are beaten by the officers who patrol the area as some of the sex workers alleged. The Haitian prostitutes in the area, all undocumented, were handed over to the Immigration authorities for subsequent repatriation, newspaper Diario Libre said. Yahaira Jimenez, spokesman of prostitutes, said all her colleagues were ready to strip naked to protest the eviction. http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080807/BC_protest_breast_080807/20080808?hub=Canada Vancouver H&M target of breastfeeding protest Updated Fri. Aug. 8 2008 5:34 PM ET The Canadian Press Dozens of Vancouver moms packed into a popular fashion clothing store Thursday, and they weren't there to shop. They came to H&M's downtown location to breastfeed. The nursing moms were to support Manuella Valle. On a recent visit to H&M, she began to breastfeed her two-month-old child, Ramona, but was interrupted when a store employee asked her to use a fitting room. "[This was] because I was offending other customers, and also she told me to mind that there were children around,'' she said. Valle says she was told it was store policy, one that has clearly touched a nerve. "I would love for them to explain to me like a two year old, what is so offensive about me feeding my child," said one mom, who joined the protest. The store manager wasn't talking, but H&M spokesperson Laura Shankland says the company is sorry. "To set the record straight, we do have a breastfeeding policy that allows women to feed their children in all our stores," she said H&M is a Swedish retailer with 1,400 stores in 28 countries. Shankland says part of that policy is to offer moms the use of a fitting room or a chair, if they want. "It wasn't handled in the best possible way. That is clear." Meanwhile, a protest is also brewing in London, Ont., where a woman says staff at a La Senza store chastised her for breastfeeding. "I felt violated... you would eat your big mac in public, why can't my baby eat his big mac in public," the woman said. Rights advocates say breastfeeding women are protected by the provincal human rights code, which prevents discrimination on the basis of sex. For more information, check the Infant Feeding Action Coalition website With reports by CTV British Columbia's Maria Weisgarber and the Canadian Press. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/10/stories/2008081058920300.htm Other States - Uttar Pradesh Rape victim protests police inaction Bulandshahr: Accusing police of shielding her rapists, a 20-year-old housewife tore off her clothes in Khurja Dehat Kotwali here on Saturday. The housewife belonging to Wajidpur village under Khurja Dehat was allegedly raped by four persons of the same village on August 3. A case was lodged with the Khurja police and one of the alleged rapists was arrested but released after reportedly bribing the police, claimed the husband of the victim. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Thu Aug 28 20:20:42 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2008 04:20:42 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Protests for conservation of historic sites Message-ID: <00a801c90986$3a4a8640$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * US, Connecticut: Protest campaign to save historic house * US, Dallas: Protests as building torn down * ARGENTINA: Protest at clandestine destruction of historic building, mural * AUSTRIA: Protest over tourism plan at von Trapp home * INDIA: Protest against statue defacement * TAIWAN: Protest to conserve sanatorium * UK: Bristol archaeologist chains self to lamppost to protest destruction http://www.wfsb.com/news/17246580/detail.html?rss=hart&psp=news#- Plan To Demolish Historic Home Protested 'We Want To Save Home In Some Form,' Owners Say POSTED: 5:21 pm EDT August 20, 2008 UPDATED: 7:35 pm EDT August 20, 2008 LYME, Conn. -- The owners of a pre-American Revolution home in Lyme have taken out a demolition permit to take it down. On a tour of the structure, Matt and Barbara Abrams explained the issues with the home, from mold to asbestos to structural problems. ?We're all on the same page,? Matt said. ?We want to save the house in some form.? The Abrams met Wednesday morning with town leaders and a preservationist who campaigned recently to fight the demolition. How it?s going to be saved will be revealed in a couple of days, they said. ?The house has issues, but those aren't the only determining factors,? Matt said. The Abrams said they love their 30-acre farm and the neighborhood. However, they said they?re upset that some in town are protesting their decision. They said someone even nailed a poster to their front door. Matt and Barbara said they plan to stay put and build a new home as soon as the issues with the old one are settled. http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews/stories/wfaa080420_mo_demobuilding.833964b4.html Neighbors protest as Dallas building torn down 03:16 PM CDT on Monday, April 21, 2008 By MONIKA DIAZ / WFAA-TV WFAA-TV Howard Smith built the building in 1959. Video April 20, 2008 DALLAS - Neighbors in Turtle Creek rushed to voice criticism Sunday as a bulldozer plowed down a building many consider a part Dallas' history. Before noon, a bulldozer began tearing down the building that experts have called one of the best examples of mid-century modern architecture in Dallas. Located on 2505 Turtle Creek Boulevard, the building did not have any protection. Since it was never designated a Dallas historic landmark, the building's owner has the right to tear it down. "I think you are making a huge mistake allowing this to continue," pled one shocked neighbor to the demolition crew. "Call and check, that's all I'm asking." After several hours, workers wrapped caution tape around the rubble, mangled metal and broken glass. "It's pretty bad," said Chris Culak, Preservation Dallas. "It was a great building. It was built in 1959. Howard Smith was a local architect back in those times who did a lot of great buildings." In early April, the site's owners, GGH Development, went before the city's planning commission with a proposal to rezone the area to build a hotel and restaurant. The board denied the request. The day after, the company asked for a permit for demolition, sources told News 8. Some neighbors have called the act retaliation. "[They are] destroying this building out of spite," said Earl Seachander, a neighbor. "They are trying to say we will show you what we can do." A building inspector for the city showed up to place an orange sticker, which was an order to stop all work on the site, on the bulldozer. While he said the company has a valid demolition permit, he said one rule was violated. "They shouldn't be working without a permit being posted," he said. But before the sticker was placed on the bulldozer, the building that stood for almost 50 years was destroyed in less than three hours. "We were always going to remove the building to begin development," said Karl Crawley, a representative of GGH Development, in a statement about the demolition. "The plans have always reflected this. There is no thought of retaliation. Many of our neighbors support the project." While many have voiced criticism against the demolition, other neighbors have sent e-mails to News 8 in support of the developer and said they want the project to move forward. http://www.keyetv.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=532da110-6e24-4c93-9da4-de60867a3f59&rss=909 Some protest demolition of Central Austin house CBS 42 Reporter: Alexis Patterson Email: adpatterson at keyetv.com Last Update: 5/16 11:11 pm Home Demolition Protest On Friday night dozens of Hyde Park neighbors held a protest by candle light, as demolition approaches for a home they consider historic. The home is located at 4113 Ave. F. Some worry its demolition will change the nature of their neighborhood. Some neighbors tried to buy the house, but the cost of renovations proved too much. Demolition could happen any day. The City of Austin granted the demolition permit this week. http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2008/05/19/argentina-protest-of-demolishment/ Argentina: Protest of Demolishment Monday, May 19th, 2008 @ 05:50 UTC by Eduardo Avila http://basta-de-demoler.blogspot.com/2008/05/evento-candombero_18.html Basta de Demoler [es] (Enough with the Demolishment) posts video of the recent gathering in protest of an illegal and clandestine destruction of a historic building with colorful mural in the San Telmo neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20080519/ap_tr_ge/travel_brief_sound_of_music_1 Protests over plan to create 'Sound of Music' hotel in Austria Mon May 19, 2:49 PM ET VIENNA, Austria - The hills are alive ... with the sound of protest. Angry Austrians living near a Salzburg villa that once belonged to the Von Trapp family immortalized in the blockbuster hit movie "The Sound of Music" are fighting plans to turn the home into a hotel. Opponents have said the neighborhood already is teeming with tourists drawn to the area where the 1965 film starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer was made. Organizer Andreas Braunbruck told Austrian television that neighbors intend to fight the hotel plan "with all means at our disposal." Salzburg tourism officials had previously announced plans last week to open the property and an adjacent park to the public for the first time. But local residents complain they weren't consulted. The Villa Trapp is located on the outskirts of Salzburg and once housed the von Trapp family, which gained global fame in a 1965 film starring Julie Andrews. The movie tells the story of an Austrian woman who married a widower with seven children and teaches them music. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/12/stories/2008051260570300.htm Protest against statue defacement Staff Reporter ? Photo: K. Murali Kumar FOR A HERO: Residents staging a protest in front of the defaced statue of late Rajkumar on Mysore Road in Bangalore on Sunday. BANGALORE: Residents of Panterpalya on Sunday staged a protest against the defacement of a statue of thespian late Rajkumar on Mysore Road. The residents, who blocked traffic, have called for a bandh in the area on Monday. The residents said the statue of the thespian was installed in the area three days ago. On Sunday, a man, who came to wash the statue, noticed the defacement. It was said that a figure of a pigeon which was part of the statue was also missing. A portion of the statue was damaged. Angry over the incident, the residents and members of the Akhila Karnataka Shivarajkumar Abhimanigala Kannada Sangha staged the protest. ?We are pained over the defacement to the statue. We want the police to take action against those who are involved,? said sangha president M. Muniyappa. The protestors blocked traffic on Bangalore-Mysore Road for nearly an hour. The Byatarayanapura police came to the spot and dispersed the protestors. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2008/07/01/2003416230 President surprised by Losheng protest DISAPPOINTMENT: Ma Ying-jeou agreed to talk to three representatives of the sanatorium, but only said that he would refer the case to government agencies By Loa Iok-Sin STAFF REPORTER Tuesday, Jul 01, 2008, Page 4 Holding a banner that said ?President Ma, please save human rights and culture,? Losheng Sanatorium preservation activists staged a surprise sit-in demonstration outside President Ma Ying-jeou?s (???) residence in Taipei early yesterday morning. About 60 people from the Youth Alliance for Losheng and sanatorium residents appeared on the sidewalk across the street from Ma?s apartment at about 6:30am. Hoping to talk to Ma directly, they sat down quietly on the sidewalk and along the roadside, holding banners and placards demanding the preservation of the sanatorium and its designation as a historic site. The sanatorium complex in Sinjhuang City (??), Taipei County, was built during the Japanese colonial period to isolate patients with Hansen?s disease. A decision made a few years ago to demolish the sanatorium to make way for an MRT maintenance depot has faced strong opposition from supporters who believe the place bears important witness to the history of Taiwan?s public health system. They said that forcing the residents to relocate after forcing them to live there for decades a violation of human rights. The matter has remained unresolved as preservationists and the Public Constructions Commission have failed to reach an agreement on a new construction plan that would still see many of the buildings torn down. ?We were notified earlier this month that the Department of Rapid Transport plans to go ahead with construction on Aug. 1,? Wang Hao-chung (???), a member of the youth alliance said in explaining the reason for the demonstration. ?Ma Ying-jeou has repeatedly said that he knows the problem well ? but now it?s urgent, we want to know what he has to propose to resolve the issue,? Wang said. After nearly two hours of negotiation and minor verbal disputes with local police and National Security Bureau agents in charge of the president?s personal security, Ma finally agreed to receive three representatives among the demonstrators and came out of his apartment at about 8:15am. After a two-minute meeting, Ma jumped into a waiting car, leaving the disappointed demonstrators. ?After listening to [Losheng resident] Chen Chai-tien [???], Ma?s only response was that he would ask government agencies to study our request,? an activist surnamed Hung told the crowd that was waiting across the street after the brief meeting. ?When I tried to give more details, I was told that only one person could talk and Ma told me not to interrupt Chen. Some security officers even tried to pull me away,? he said. ?I don?t think he was really listening to us.? ?So when Ma went into his car, I shouted that we?ll be back in seven days if we don?t hear anything back from him,? Hung said. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2905666.html?menu=news.quirkies Archaeologist's lamppost protest An archaeologist went on hunger strike chained to a Victorian lamppost in protest at a council's streetlight replacement programme. David Cemlyn, 66, bolted himself to the lamppost in St Andrews, Bristol, to prevent the columns being replaced with modern steel ones, reports the Daily Telegraph. Mr Cemlyn halted his protest after Bristol city council suspended the removal of further lampposts pending talks with residents. He said: "Isn't it strange you have to chain yourself to a lamppost at seven in the morning to get the council to talk to you. We have won this battle but the war is not over yet." Seventeen lampposts were removed earlier this month and Mr Cemlyn vowed to do "whatever it takes" to retain the 13 others. He said: "It is absolutely disgraceful that the council has been replacing them with ugly motorway lights. "The lampposts have been here for over 100 years and have been part of what makes a community, along with the red pillar boxes, the railings, and the park benches." Mr Cemlyn added: "I have found out lampposts are being taken away to refurbish conservation areas and any extras were being sold to architectural salvage yards and the money raised was being spent on the conservation areas. It is flogging off the family silver." The council said the "outdated" cast-iron columns gave off limited light, partly because they were relatively low in height. It added: "The lighting in the St Andrews area is relatively poor and there is a significant problem with car crime in many streets." From ldxar1 at tesco.net Fri Aug 29 18:59:55 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 02:59:55 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Palestine protests, international, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <006501c90a44$1ad413d0$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * ITALY: Thousands protest Israeli focus at bookfair * Academics protest restrictions on Palestinian students * IRAN: Protest against official for Israel comment * UK: Free Palestine protest in London * UAE: Protests target Israeli-linked jeweller * US: Protesters target Caterpillar meeting * IRELAND: Amnesty protest Israeli detentions * LEBANON: Protest at Egyptian embassy over Gaza siege * LEBANON: Palestinians protest exclusion * Nakba protests in Jordan, Iran, Pakistan, Tel Aviv * Protest over death of Bedouin http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2008/05/10/turin-fair-protest.html Thousands protest Israeli focus at Turin book fair Last Updated: Saturday, May 10, 2008 | 4:15 PM ET CBC News Italian police officers wearing blue helmets look on during a demonstration described by organizers as pro-Palestinian, outside the Lingotto building, venue of the Turin book fair, in Turin, northern Italy on Saturday. (Alberto Pellaschiar/Associated Press) About 4,000 people filled the streets of Turin, Italy, on Saturday to protest against the Turin Book fair's celebration of Israeli writers. With a banner reading: "Boycott Israel, support Palestine," protestors walked through the streets towards the old factory building, which is hosting the prestigious booksellers' exhibition, due to end on Monday. About 1,000 police were on hand to contain the crowd as demonstrators denounced the "continuing terror and daily raids which have, these last few years, killed 5,050 Palestinians and destroyed 32,000 houses." This year marks the 60th anniversary of the creation of Israel. Israeli authors featured at the fair include Abraham B. Yehoshua, David Grossman, Amos Oz, Aaron Appelfeld and Meir Shalev. When asked by an Italian newspaper this week whether he represented Israel, Applefeld replied: "I cannot represent a state, I can only represent my thoughts." No Palestinian writers invited Italian President Giorgio Napolitano inaugurated the fair on Thursday by saying: "No dialogue is possible if there is a refusal to recognize Israel." However, the 1997 Nobel Prize winner for literature, Italian playwright and director Dario Fo, supports the protest and criticized organizers for not having invited Palestinian authors. Fo says that instead of reading from his new book, The Apocalypse Postponed, he plans to use his appearance at the fair to talk about the Palestinian cause. "Many have chosen to forfeit the fair, but I think it is necessary to attend and to raise a taboo theme: Palestine," Fo told the newspaper Corriere della Sera on Wednesday. The 21-year-old fair, the second-largest in Europe with more than 300,000 visitors last year, features traders, writers and more than 1,400 publishers from all over the world. The Paris book fair in March, which also highlighted Israeli literature, drew similar protests. http://africa.reuters.com/world/news/usnL9300082.html Israeli academics protest curbs on WBank students Tue 29 Jul 2008, 14:25 GMT By Allyn Fisher-Ilan JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A group of Israeli academics protested on Tuesday against military restrictions that bar many Palestinians living in occupied territory from attending universities in Israel. In a letter to Israel's high court, five professors said the restrictions amounted to a violation of academic freedom, and also made them more vulnerable to campaigns to boycott Israeli academics in Europe and elsewhere. Israel's court has been weighing the issue since 2006, in a case that has tested Israel's sweeping restrictions on Palestinian travel both inside the occupied West Bank and from the territory into Israel. Israel has generally barred Palestinian entry since violence erupted in September 2000 after failed peace talks, citing security reasons, such as keeping out suicide bombers. After Hamas's election victory in January 2006, the rules were tightened and even the few Palestinians who seek to study at Israeli universities have been routinely denied permits. The Israeli Defence Ministry has told the court it would permit Palestinians to attend Israeli universities only if it could limit the number of applicants and retain the right to decide who could apply and for which fields of study. Its five-page response in March also said Palestinians could not be allowed to study subjects "that could potentially be used against Israel". University heads have criticised the ministry's proposals as an infringement on academic freedom. Some joined the protest on Tuesday in an apparent bid to hasten a ruling on the case. "I am ashamed that people being paid with my tax money have come up with this policy," Tsevi Mazeh, a physics professor at Tel Aviv University, one of the signatories, told Reuters. Mazeh said he feared the restrictions could lead to further calls to boycott Israeli academics abroad over Israel's tough policies towards Palestinians in occupied territory. He contested the ministry's proposed quota for Palestinian students, saying Israel should not adopt policies resembling the discrimination once suffered by Jews in other countries. "I wonder how the hand of whoever wrote this proposal didn't shake. It's unbelievable and stupid and I'm ashamed. I hope the court sends them back to do their homework," Mazeh said. The Israeli military has obeyed an initial court ruling issued in October 2006 to permit a West Bank woman to study for a doctorate in Israel. She is one of a handful of Palestinians to receive such a permit. http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=1.0.2410961580 Iran: Protest against Ahmadinejad confidant for Israel comment Tehran, 12 August (AKI) - A volunteer paramilitary force known as the 'Basij' will protest in Iran on Wednesday demanding the removal of a government official who has said that Iranians are the "friends" of Israelis and Americans. Student groups close to the government are asking for the immediate dismissal of Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, vice-president of tourism, who in the past month has repeatedly mentioned Israelis and Americans as friends of Iranians. On Tuesday, he once again repeated the controversial statements, adding that he did not want to modify anything that he said. "I am proud about what I said and I am willing to repeat a thousand more times that we are friends of all the people in the world, including Americans and Israelis," said Mashaie. On Monday, the president of the Majlis or Parliament and former nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani criticised Mashaie saying that "inhabitants of the occupied territories that refuse to define themselves as Palestinian cannot be our friends." The protest will take place in front of the offices of the Cultural Heritage, Handcrafts and Tourism Organisation, a government-funded educational and research institution that co-ordinates museums throughout Iran. Mashaie is the current director of the organisation. The Basiji are a volunteer group linked to the Pasdaran or Revolutionary Guards of Iran. Mashaie is a close confidant of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the father in law of Ahmadinejad's son. http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_26721.shtml London protest calls for Free Palestine By Palestine Solidarity Campaign May 14, 2008, 21:14 Thousands marched through London, sixty years after the Palestinian Nakba, to demand an end to the siege on Gaza, an end to Israeli occupation, and for the right of return of refugees. The demonstration, organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, British Muslim Initiative and the Palestinian Forum in Britain, was supported by trade unions UNISON, Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), Unite the Union, Communication Workers Union, GMB, TSSA, RMT, Fire Brigades Union, and the National Union of Miners, who joined organisations such as the Association of Palestinian Community UK, Amos Trust, Friends of Al Aqsa UK, Palestinian Return Centre, War on Want, Jewish Socialist Group, Pax Christi, Stop the War Coalition, Jews for Justice for Palestinians, Britain Palestine Twinning Network, ICAHDUK, Friends of Lebanon, Federation of Student Islamic Societies, and Midlands Palestinian Community Association. Dr Mustafa Barghouti, elected Palestinian Legislative Council member, told the rally of the situation of Apartheid existing in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories: "Israeli citizens make 30 times what Palestinians do, settlers take 48 times the water of Palestinians, Palestinians are denied entry to Jerusalem..." He said that the 'peace process' of Annapolis was an illusion: "Since then Israeli attacks have tripled and even more checkpoints have been set up." He stressed the importance of re-establishing Palestinian unity and accused western governments of hypocrisy, in undermining democracy in Palestine, but supporting an Apartheid state. Speakers also included Richard Burden MP, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Palestine, who reminded people of the ongoing plight of the refugees from 1948, especially those in Gaza: "Gaza is dotted with masses of cesspits of raw sewage, as deadly as any bomb or missile." Like many speakers, he called for the lifting of the siege of Gaza and withdrawal from all the Occupied Territories: "The peace process cannot work while people are imprisoned in their own land." Both he and Caroline Lucas stressed Israel cannot continue to enjoy a privileged trading relationship with Europe while it persists in violating international law. Referring to the founding of Israel, Tony Benn said: "Nothing that happened in the WWII can justify Israel's seizure of Palestinian land." He found room some optimism: "Wherever you go you find people understand increasingly what is happening to the Palestinian people. There will never be peace in the Middle East till the Palestinians are treated decently." Manuel Hassassian, the General Delegate to the UK said: "Our problem is not a humanitarian problem, it is a political problem, which must have a political solution." He also said: "The right of return is a sacred right for the Palestinians. Jerusalem is our capital, and we will never compromise on Jerusalem." Respect MP George Galloway reminded the crowd of Britain's historic responsibility for the tragedy inflicted on the Palestinian people, from the time of Balfour onwards, and remembered the "thousands upon thousands of martyrs" created over decades; he also demanded the release of Marwan Barghouti and other political prisoners, and declared: "If there is no justice in Palestine there can be no peace in Palestine, and peace in Palestine is the key to peace throughout the Middle East." http://www.thenational.ae/article/20080712/FOREIGN/791961566/1135 Protesters target Israeli jeweller Sharmila Devi, Foreign Correspondent Last Updated: July 12. 2008 9:03PM UAE / July 12. 2008 5:03PM GMT View of the Levant Jewellery store at Mina Al Salam hotel in Dubai, which sells Leviev's jewellery. Pawan Singh / The National NEW YORK // Human rights protesters took to the streets in New York last week to continue their campaign against an Israeli billionaire who is suspected of building settlements in the occupied West Bank. Adalah-NY, a Jewish-Palestinian umbrella group of activists, vowed to maintain pressure on Lev Leviev, a real estate and diamond mogul who is one of the richest men in Israel, over his suspected activities in the West Bank and to prevent him from opening more Leviev diamond jewellery stores in Dubai. "There is growing awareness around the world about Leviev's blatant human rights abuses," said Daniel Lang-Levitsky, a spokesman for Jews Against the Occupation, which is part of Adalah-NY. Unicef, the United Nations children's agency, announced last month it would not accept any financial contributions from Leviev companies after finding "at least reasonable grounds for suspecting" they were building settlements in defiance of international law. Mr Leviev is the chairman of Africa Israel Investments, a global conglomerate. One of its units is Danya Cebus, which activists say is helping to construct the settlement of Zufim on land taken from the Palestinian village of Jayyous in the northern West Bank. There is one Leviev store at the Mina Al Salam hotel in Dubai; plans to open more shops appear to be on hold while the Arab League's Central Boycott Office in Damascus considers its position. About 20 people gathered on a rainy afternoon outside the Leviev store on Madison Avenue on Wednesday for the latest in a string of protests that started last year. Wednesday was the fourth anniversary of the International Court of Justice's ruling that Israel's separation barrier illegally annexed Palestinian land. Just inside the store, protected by a New York police cordon, a burly security guard in a suit stood behind a window display of diamonds and a printed list of Leviev store locations - London, New York, Moscow and Dubai. The protesters chanted such slogans as "you sparkle, you shine, but settlements are still a crime" and "you're glitzy, you're glam, you're stealing Palestinian land". Many people walking past, including glamorous Upper East Side ladies, looked bemused but many took a leaflet. "Our movement is providing a model for other campaigns in the boycott movement," said Riham Barghouti, a spokesman for Adalah-NY, who is from Ramallah and works as a teacher in Brooklyn. "Our main message to supporters either here or in the United Arab Emirates is that in spite of the difficulties, it is possible to get together and protest against human rights violations." Mr Leviev's public relations staff would not comment. In an interview with Ha'aretz, an Israeli newspaper, this year, the usually media-shy Mr Leviev said he would build in the Palestinian territories as long as he had permission from Israel. He said "groups that are funded by business competitors" were behind the protests but offered no evidence. The Adalah-NY grassroots campaign - including protests, letters to the media and internet activism - is sharply focused against Mr Leviev and his business activities in the West Bank but also supports striking miners at his companies in Namibia and rent-controlled tenants at properties owned by the businessman in New York. Although Adalah-NY is a small group, it said its effect was illustrated by Unicef's rejection of further financial contributions from Mr Leviev. Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, which fights anti-Semitism, defends Mr Leviev. "The decision not to accept assistance from Mr Leviev smacks of selective political discrimination," Mr Foxman said. "This decision only gives legitimacy to those who would seek to promote a boycott of the state of Israel and its supporters." The debate was taken up by Richard Silverstein, who runs the liberal Tikun Olam website. "I've been following Adalah's energetic, months-long campaign against Russo-Israeli diamond baron Lev Leviev with great interest. Not so much because I agree with Adalah's politics regarding the I-P [Israel-Palestine] conflict but because I find Leviev's political, commercial and religious interests to be so odious," he wrote. "Through an imaginative, tenacious campaign they have nipped at Leviev's heels all over the globe where he maintains commercial interests." sdevi at thenational.ae http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/12/9573/ Published on Thursday, June 12, 2008 by Reuters Caterpillar Annual Meeting Draws Protesters by James B. Kelleher and Erin Zureick Pro-Palestinian protesters angry with Caterpillar Inc for selling tractors to Israel picketed the company's annual meeting on Wednesday as shareholders rejected a proposal that would have required Caterpillar to publish a report on its foreign military sales. Chanting, "Take responsibility and do the right thing," the protesters claimed tractors sold to the Israeli Defense Force have been used to demolish more than 12,000 Palestinian homes in recent years. Caterpillar, which has been targeted by activists for five years, continues to say that it cannot control how its equipment is used. Sales are made through the U.S. government under the U.S. Foreign Military Sales Program. The issue came to a head this year when the activists submitted a proposal that would have forced the company to provide a report on all such sales. Only 3.3 percent of Caterpillar's shareholders supported the proposal, which the company opposed. The maker of heavy construction and mining equipment said such sales bought in just $3.7 million in 2007, or 0.008 percent of its overall sales and revenue, and that spending money to complete such a report would be an "inappropriate" use of its resources. During the meeting, Caterpillar reiterated its financial forecast for 2008, saying it expects 2008 earnings per share of $5.91, up from $5.37 last year, on sales of $48 billion, up from $45 billion in 2007. Last year, Caterpillar moved its annual meeting to the small town of St. Charles, Illinois, in part to avoid the protests that have marred the meeting in recent years. Even so, protesters showed up, and the company adjourned 30 minutes earlier than planned. This year, some protesters carried placards bearing a picture of Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old American peace activist killed in 2003 by Israeli soldiers driving a Caterpillar bulldozer while she was protesting a home demolition in the Gaza Strip. Corrie's parents are suing Caterpillar over her death. During Wednesday's 90-minute meeting, which was disrupted three times by protesters, the company's chief executive officer Jim Owens stood by Caterpillar's forecast that 2010 sales and revenue would approach the $60 billion mark and that 2010 earnings per share would be between $8 and $10 a share. "We're just trying to hold Caterpillar, among other companies, accountable," said Suha Dabbouseh, national organizer for the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation. "We think that corporations should be held accountable . It's not good enough to just sell your products and say we don't know any better because now they do know better." Wednesday's meeting also drew pro-Israeli counter demonstrators, including 22-year-old Josef Rabin, a political science student at Northeastern University who has served in the Israeli Defense Force. He defended the demolitions by the Israelis, saying the razed homes "had been occupied by terrorists." Caterpillar shareholders also rejected a separate proposal that would have amended the company's bylaws and forced directors standing in uncontested elections to win a majority of the votes cast, not just a plurality as currently required. They approved a nonbinding proposal that the company begin holding annual elections for all its directors, abandoning the current system of three-year staggered terms. Caterpillar opposed the resolution, saying the current structure provides stability. http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/mhqleygbqlau/rss2/ Amnesty International to protest against Israel in Dublin 23/08/2008 - 13:15:18 Amnesty International is asking the people of Dublin to support its campaign against Israel's policy of 'administrative detention'. The group says the Israeli government is holding more than 700 Palestinians without charge or trial, claiming that they are security risks. Amnesty will be on Grafton Street today, asking shoppers to sign postcards that they are going to send to the Israeli government. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=91498 Beirut protest decries Egypt's closure of Gazan border By Agence France Presse (AFP) Saturday, April 26, 2008 More than 200 people staged a sit-in outside the Egyptian Embassy in Beirut on Friday to demand that Cairo open its border with the densely populated Gaza Strip, currently being blockaded by Israel. "We are here to hand over to diplomats a letter for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak demanding that the frontier be opened. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=78013 LEBANON: Palestinians protest exclusion as government moots minimum wage Photo: Hugh Macleod/IRIN Children in Shatila camp play among rubble and piles of rubbish BEIRUT, 1 May 2008 (IRIN) - With inflation in double digits and the cost of living rising, the government has proposed raising the minimum wage for the first time in a decade, but Palestinians say they continue to be marginalised in the labour market. Several hundred Palestinians protested at the edge of Shatila camp in south Beirut on 30 April ahead of the 1 May labour day holiday, traditionally a time for workers' to air their grievances. "We are humans, we have the right to live," shouted the protesters. "We are half humans in Lebanon." Palestinians in Lebanon are barred from working in 70 professional vocations. They cannot work as lawyers and doctors, and cannot own or inherit property. Unemployment is rife, particularly inside the dozen refugee camps which are home to just over half the country's 400,000 Palestinian refugees. In Ain al-Hilweh, the largest and most dangerous camp, leaders of factions estimate unemployment at 70 percent. The rise in the minimum monthly wage from US$200 to $300 is the first increase in a decade, but local researchers InfoPro estimate that only 10 percent of Lebanon's 650,000 wage earners take home the minimum wage or less. Photo: Google Earth A map highlighting the 12 Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon Half a million Lebanese are self-employed and would not benefit from the wage increase, while Palestinians do not qualify as they are considered refugees, not citizens in Lebanon. Lebanese salaries average $500, while the actual minimum wage is around $320, according to figures from InfoPro. Citizens' wages are further supplemented by a de-facto government set of subsidies estimated at $150 a month, through price controls on electricity, gas, fuel and wheat. Rising prices Inflation in 2007 hit 16 percent, according to the Central Administration for Statistics. The General Federation of Labour Unions says a family of four needs a minimum of $640 a month to secure the necessary basket of goods and services needed for a decent livelihood. The figure is based on joint research conducted with the help of the International Labour Organization (ILO). Workers' unions are demanding that the minimum wage be tripled to around $600 and that wages above the minimum and up to $1,000 also be raised across the board, at a rate that beats inflation. Though widely disputed, estimates put average annual inflation over the past 10 years at around 25 percent. The unions have called a nationwide strike for 7 May. Fuel prices have been climbing steeply over the past year, with a litre of diesel doubling to $1, while petrol that used to be 60 US cents per litre in 2007 has increased to 90 US cents today. A year ago one US dollar used to buy a kilo of flour for bread. Today it buys 700 grams. With electricity rationed in Beirut for three hours a day, utility bills for running a generator have quadrupled while in the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs, where power cuts are more extensive, residents say they spend around $100 a month paying for their generators, on top of regular utilities. Fears of violence One of the Palestinian protesters, Mazen al-Habit, said he was shocked at his treatment when trying to find work having graduated in engineering. "I was full of hope before graduation but I have no hope now," he said. "No Lebanese companies accepted me and I tried to teach but they didn't give me more than $167, half of which I ended up spending on transport. I worked double shifts but now I would prefer to join one of the Palestinian factions where I will be paid more." Photo: Salma Zulfiqar/IRIN This Palestinian refugee family of 12 live in a house with only two rooms. Palestinians say they continue to be marginalised in the labour market Wisal al-Jishi, from the Palestinian non-governmental organization Najde, said studies show that unemployment and lack of health insurance among Palestinians were key drivers of social unrest. "Unemployment among Palestinians is causing social violence and we are worried that it also helps to radicalise younger generations," she said. "Some radical groups try to attract young guys with money." In Nahr al-Bared, Islamist radical group Fatah Islam gained a foothold by distributing money on religious holidays to the young employed. With a third of the cabinet still resigned, the decision to raise the minimum wage was not passed in the 30 April government meeting. Even when it gains cabinet approval, the new law will have to be passed by parliament which has been closed since late 2006 when the Hezbollah-led opposition walked out of the government. http://www.jfri.org/page.aspx?id=175798 Jordan: Some 2,000 people protest Israel's 60th anniversary AMMAN, Jordan - Some 2,000 people have demonstrated in Jordan's capital Amman to protest the 60th anniversary of the creation of Israel. Palestinians call the establishment of Israel in 1948 their "nakba," Arabic for catastrophe, because hundreds of thousands of them fled or were driven from their homes. The protesters in Amman on Friday were carrying Palestinian flags and portraits of Arab leaders. They were angrily chanting anti-Israeli slogans, but the protest ended peacefully. http://www.mathaba.net/rss/?x=592145 Iran: University students stage a sit in protest in front of UK embassy Posted: 2008/05/14 From: Mathaba A large number of university students staged a sit in protest in front of the British Embassy in Tehran on Tuesday to condemn the role of country in the establishment of the fabricated Zionist regime. The protesters waved placards condemning British government along with other allies of global arrogance. Representatives of the university students delivered speeches condemning the Zionist regime. "The fate of Palestine is now in our hands," underlined one university student, adding, "We will avenge global arrogance as well as the usurper Zionist regime." The sit-in protest, which went off peacefully in front of the British Embassy, lasted about two hours. --IRNA http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=113162 Countrywide protests against Israel, US Saturday, May 17, 2008 Islamabad Nationwide protest rallies and strikes were held in Pakistan against America and Israel on the eve of national day of Israel. On Friday, angry mobs in Islamabad led by Imamia Students Organization have burnt American and Israeli flags after trampling them under their feet. A rally was also taken out in the federal capital, which started from Sector G-6/2 Imam Bargah, and ended at the Press Club in Melody Market, led by Ali Kamil, and chief of Wahadat-E-Islami Muhammad Amin. The protestors were holding banners and placards condemning Israel's anniversary day of May 12, 1948, as a bad omen for Muslims. Addressing the protest rally, Muhammad Amin and Ali Kamil condemned Israel as an illegal proxy of America, under whose guise America committed genocide of millions of Muslims in Lebanon and Palestine, especially children. The orators also demanded to summon an immediate meeting of OIC to denounce any kind of relations with Israel, while expressing their deep concern about heavy American influence in Pakistan. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/990939.html Last update - 01:17 08/06/2008 Leftist groups gather in Tel Aviv to protest 41 years of occupation By Adam Molner Tags: Gaza, Gush Shalom, Israel Assorted left-wing groups on Saturday gathered in Tel Aviv for a protest marking Israel's 41-year occupation of Palestinian land, which began when Israel conquered in the Six-Day War in June 1967. Members of Gush Shalom, the Hadash political party, the Committee against House Demolition, Anarchists against the Wall concluded their march at Meir Park, which Friday was the starting point for Tel Aviv's 11th annual Gay Pride parade. The protesters were joined by representatives from the Coalition of Women for Peace, the Communist Youth League of Israel and the Socialist struggle movement. "We demonstrate here against the occupation, against the war, against the unjustified reign over a foreign people - the people of Palestine," said Or Shay, a member of the Communist youth league. Advertisement The march itself departed from a nearby meeting point and protesters of all ages marched under police escort to the park. Gush Shalom spokesman Adam Keller, one of the event's organizers, drew a parallel with between the situation of Palestinians in the West Bank and that of Black South Africans under Apartheid. "When I look at the [West Bank] roads which are only for Israelis, I would say this is a specific apartheid feature which did not exist actually in apartheid South Africa, but it could have been. It is certainly fitting with the mindset of apartheid." In an unusual step, the march was followed by small discussion groups. According to Keller, "We decided that it is better that we have circles where everybody could express his or her opinion rather than a rally where we have a few speakers who make speeches and then everybody claps and goes." Despite the overall peaceful nature of the rally, marchers did face some opposition to their protest. According to one demonstrator, a woman told him "you're sick. Go do this march at the kibbutzim that are now being bombed in the south." http://www.cctv.com/english/20080824/104242.shtml Israelis gather to protest against Bedouin?s death Source: Xinhua | 08-24-2008 13:24 JERUSALEM, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- About 200 Israeli Arabs and Jews gathered Saturday afternoon in the Negev desert of southern Israel in memory of a Bedouin who died after being violently attacked by police. Haia Noach, one of the organizers of the gathering, told Xinhua that the aim of the conference is to commemorate the death of Sabry El Jarjawi, an Israeli Bedouin youth, and to protest against the violence and brutality of the Israeli police forces that attacked Jarjawi. "We hope Jarjawi's death could draw the Israeli society's attention to the police forces' attitude towards the Bedouins as well as other Israeli Arabs," said Noach. According to organizers of the conference, Jarjawi was attacked by the police in March during a leisure trip to the coastal city of Ashkalon. The police stopped the young Bedouin near the seashore, requesting identification, then verbally insulted him. The verbal confrontation then turned into severe violence, during which Jarjawi was "slammed repeatedly in the head and in other organs until he lost consciousness," the organizers said. Jarjawi died from his wounds three months after the incident. Dr. Mansur, Jarjawi's brother, complained that until now his family has not seen the investigation report on the case as well as the autopsy report. The Bedouins are a desert-dwelling Arab nomadic group. There are more than 100,000 Bedouins living in the Negev desert as Israeli citizens. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Wed Aug 27 05:30:50 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:30:50 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] "Food riots" and price protests - Africa Message-ID: <002c01c90840$bf34fda0$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES ? Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * Reuters factbox: "food riots" * SOMALIA: Mogadishu troops kill protesters; tens of thousands march, stones thrown, roads blocked * SENEGAL: Hundreds protest over food prices * GABON: Police violently suppress food protests * SOMALIA/PUNTLAND: Days of protest in regional capital * KENYA: Repression of food protests * BURKINA FASO: Food prices lead to strikes, demonstrations * EGYPT: End to flour subsidy sparks protests, unrest in northern town * TUNISIA: Militant demonstrations over commodity prices, unemployment - 1 killed by police * SOUTH AFRICA: Strikes, street demonstrations and road blocks during COSATU mobilisaiton over prices * NIGER: Thousand protest over food, electricity * SWAZILAND: Unions plan food price protest http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L15794527.htm FACTBOX-Food price rises spark protests 15 May 2008 15:12:10 GMT Source: Reuters May 15 (Reuters) - Anger over high food prices has sparked protests in several countries. Surging food prices have posed a particular risk to poor economies. Here are some details of recent price rise protests and disturbances: * BURKINA FASO -- Unions began a three-day general strike on May 13 against soaring prices for food and fuel products. Several thousand demonstrators later marched through the capital Ouagadougou in a noisy protest. Protests had already triggered riots and looting in February during which more than 300 people were arrested. The government has moved to cut import duties and to subsidise cereals to try to cushion the effects of high prices. * MOROCCO -- Four unions staged a one-day strike in state schools and other public services on May 13 to protest against soaring food prices but the impact was mixed. The strike was seen as a test in a showdown between the government and trade unions over a food prices crisis ahead of a general strike planned for May 21. * CAMEROON -- At least 24 people were killed in protests that erupted in February and were linked partly to rising living costs. Human rights activists put the death toll at 100. The government raised state salaries and suspended customs duties on basic foodstuffs. * IVORY COAST -- Police in Ivory Coast fired teargas at the end of March to disperse demonstrators protesting against steep price rises in the commercial capital, Abidjan. * MOZAMBIQUE -- At least six people were killed in Mozambique in protests in February over high fuel prices and living costs. The government agreed to cut the price of diesel fuel for minibus taxis. * SENEGAL -- More than 1,000 people, some carrying empty rice sacks, marched through Senegal's capital Dakar on April 26 to protest against rising food prices. * SOMALIA -- A young man was shot dead when thousands protested in Mogadishu earlier this month over Somali food traders' refusal to take old currency notes amid spiralling inflation. A shopkeeper shot the young man dead after dozens of protestors carrying clubs and stones broke into his store. * SOUTH AFRICA -- Thousands of members of South Africa's powerful labour federation marched through Johannesburg in April to protest against higher food and electricity prices. * HAITI -- Protests in Haiti over high rice prices brought down the prime minister in April. At least six people were killed in two weeks of riots and demonstrations in the poorest country in the Americas. * ARGENTINA -- Striking farmers could lift their latest protest for 24 hours, if the government offers to negotiate. Farmers in Argentina, a leading exporter of soy, wheat and corn, are locked in a two-month standoff with the centre-left government over a tax hike on soy exports. Farmer have already been on strike for three weeks until early April over tax policies and other government measures, including export bans, aimed at taming food price inflation. * PERU -- More than 1,000 women protested outside Peru's Congress earlier this month, to demand the government do more to counter rising food prices. Upset by rising fertiliser costs and seeking debt relief, farmners blocked rail and road links in February. They said a free trade deal with the United States would flood markets with subsidized agricultural imports. * BANGLADESH -- In April factory workers protested at Fatullah, 12 km (8 miles) east of the capital, Dhaka, against rising food prices, leaving at least 50 people injured. Retail prices of wheat, edible oil and pulses had doubled over the previous 12 months. * VIETNAM -- Vietnam moved to quell panic over rice supplies on April 28, banning speculation in the market after a "chaotic" buying binge highlighted growing global fears about food security. * AFGHANISTAN -- In the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad some 300 protesters took to the streets in April over prices. * RUSSIA - Thousands of people protested against rising food prices across Russia in May, highlighting one of the biggest challenges before new president, Dmitry Medvedev. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com) (Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit; Editing by Richard Balmforth) http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=68&art_id=nw20080506090821907C886652 Somali food prices protest turns violent May 06 2008 at 10:37AM Mogadishu, Somalia - Troops fired into tens of thousands of rioting Somalis, killing two people in the latest eruption of violence over soaring food prices around the world. Wielding thick sticks and hurling stones that smashed the windshields of several cars and buses, the rioters jammed the narrow streets of the Somali capital on Monday, screaming, "Down with those suffocating us!" In Mogadishu, demonstrators including women and children marched to protest the refusal of traders to accept old 1 000-shilling notes, blaming them and a growing number of counterfeiters for rising food costs. Within an hour, a reporter for The Associated Press watched their ranks swell to tens of thousands, and the riot spread to all 13 districts of the capital. Some threw rocks at shops and chaos erupted at the capital's main Bakara market. Hundreds of shops and restaurants in southern Mogadishu closed for fear of looting. At least four other people were wounded in the violence, witnesses said. The price of rice and other staples has risen more than 40 percent since mid-2007, leading to protests and riots in other nations, including Haiti, Egypt, Cameroon and Burkina Faso. The Asian Development Bank said on Monday that a billion poor people in Asia need food aid to help cope with the skyrocketing prices. And the president of Senegal said the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation should be dismantled, calling it a "money pit" and blaming it for the food crisis. Soaring fuel prices, growing demand from the burgeoning middle classes in India and China and poor weather have contributed to a jump in food prices worldwide. Africa has been particularly hard-hit. In Mogadishu, the price of corn meal has more than doubled since January. Rice has risen during the same period from $26 (about R197,52) to $47,50 for a 110-pound (50-kilogram) sack. The cost of food has also been driven up by the plummeting Somali shilling, which has lost nearly half its value against the US dollar in 2008 because of growing insecurity and a market clogged with millions of counterfeit notes. The shilling has tumbled from about 17 000 per US dollar to about 30 000. "First we have been killed with bullets, now they are killing us with hunger," said protester Halima Omar Hassan, a porter who hefts goods for people on her back. Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed said Monday that he planned to create a new currency in a bid to fight against counterfeiters who helped spark massive inflation in the country. Ahmed - speaking in Paris, where he met with top French officials - did not directly respond to a question about the current situation in the Somali capital, saying only "the country has been in chaos, in anarchy for a long time." He said counterfeiters have long flourished in the lawless country flooding it with "an incalculable number of fake bills." "That led us to the kinds of financial and economic problems we're seeing," Ahmed told reporters in Paris following his meeting with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. "But today we are determined to fight that and to create ... a new currency," he said through a French translator. At the riot on Monday, witnesses said troops opened fire in at least two areas of the capital, though most soldiers were firing into the air. One man shot by the troops died on the way to an operating room at the capital's main hospital, Dr Dahir Dhere said. And Abdinur Farah, a protester, said his uncle was hit when government troops opened fire and died before he could reach a hospital. "He was just peacefully expressing his feelings," said Farah, who was marching with his uncle, his uncle's two wives and his uncle's six children. "It is saddening that the very government which is supposed to support him, killed him." Somalia has been without a functioning government since the 1991 overthrow of dictator Siad Barre. Over the past year, thousands of civilians have been killed and hundreds of thousands forced from homes in fighting pitting Islamist insurgents against a UN-sponsored transitional government supported by troops from neighbouring Ethiopia. The UN food security unit warned last week that half of Somalia's population of 7 million faces famine. It blamed an enduring drought as well as soaring food prices. In a statement late Sunday, Senegal President Abdoulaye Wade said he had long called for the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, a separate UN agency, to be moved from Rome to Africa, "near the 'sick ones' it pretends to care for." But, "This time, I'm going further: It must be eliminated," he said. Wade suggested its assets be transferred to the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development, which he said was more efficient, and that that agency set up headquarters in Africa "at the heart of the problem." The FAO declined comment. Wade's government in Senegal, in western Africa across the continent from Somalia, responded to protest marches by securing a deal with India that ensures Senegal's needs of 600 000 tons of rice a year are met for the next six years. In Burkina Faso, the government eliminated duties and taxes on rice, salt, milk and all products used to prepare food for children. Associated Press Writer Todd Pitman contributed to this report from Dakar, Senegal. - Sapa-AP http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_East%20Africa&set_id=1&click_id=87&art_id=nw20080506152117914C394934 Mogadishu food prices protest continues May 06 2008 at 04:10PM Mogadishu - Police opened fire in Mogadishu on Tuesday to disperse thousands rallying against soaring inflation and food prices, witnesses said, a day after gunshots from the security forces killed five in similar protests. More than 10 000 people gathered in the southern neighbourhood of Madina and marched towards the main Bakara trading district as the value of the local currency plummeted once again. Rally leaders vented anger at printers of fake money and traders whose refusal to accept the local currency is blamed for helping to push inflation to record levels. Police fired in the air to disperse some violent protesters, injuring at least five people in southern Mogadishu and the nearby Lafole district where demonstrators smashed at least 10 cars, witnesses said. "Security forces opened fire at demonstrators smashing cars, injuring three of them," said Abdukadir Mohamed, a resident of Lafole, a district south of the capital. Police in Madina wounded two protesters who stoned a security patrol. An important local cleric added his voice to the clamour over the worsening food crisis in the war-torn and impoverished nation. "This is the worst problem facing the planet. Nobody cares about civilians and traders are harming us even more than Somalia's armed enemies now," Sheikh Mohamoud Abdulle told the crowd in Bakara. "We can no longer ignore what is happening and we must respond to the best of our ability," he said. On Monday, rioters had set tyres on fire and smashed shop windows in the trading district, drawing a fierce response from Somali security whose shots had left five demonstrators dead, according to witnesses. Traders, fearing for their lives, started accepting the Somali shilling again on Tuesday, but the value of the local currency continued to plummet, dropping from 25 000 to 31 000 shillings against the dollar. "We are now accepting the Somali shillings, but the dollar's exchange rate has shot through the sky, rising by nearly 6 000 shillings," said Hussein Moalim Ali, a forex trader in Bakara market. Although there are no official inflation figures, UN monitors say cereal prices have increased by between 110 and 375 percent in the past year as central Somalia has endured its worst drought in recent memory. In 1991, when the country descended into lawlessness after the ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, the greenback was exchanging at an average of 4 000 shillings. Since then, it has had no central bank to regulate inflation. A shortage of dollars has led to a bumper crop of fake 1 000-shilling notes - the only available denomination - appearing in market places and fuelling the inflation problem in the country. "We are urging security men in the market to kill anybody bringing fake notes," said traders' spokesman Abbas Mohamed. A vibrant market in mobile phones, weapons and basic foodstuffs had helped to keep Somalia's inflation in check over the years. But last week, the UN warned that hyperinflation and a sharp devaluation of the Somali shilling had increased food prices, threatening the livelihood of millions of people. The dire situation has been exacerbated by relentless conflict as well as the delayed start to the April-June rainy season. Global food prices have nearly doubled in three years, according to the World Bank, sparking riots and protests in several poor countries. The World Food Programme is seeking contributions for a $755-million emergency fund while the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation is raising $1,7-billion to provide seeds to the poor and boost output. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/06/africa/AF-GEN-Somalia-Food-Riot.php Youths damage shops, burn tires in food protest The Associated Press Published: May 6, 2008 MOGADISHU, Somalia: Hundreds of youths lobbed stones at shops and cars and blocked roads with blazing tires here Tuesday in a second day of violence over soaring food prices. The unrest marked the latest upheaval for a population brutalized by rival militias and troops in one of the world's most dangerous war zones. Amnesty International on Tuesday accused Ethiopian troops supporting the shaky U.N.-backed government of torturing and killing civilians in the capital, Mogadishu ? slitting throats, gouging out eyes and gang-raping women. Ethiopia vehemently denied the charges. Ethiopia sent troops to Somalia in December 2006 expecting to remain only for weeks. They speedily drove out Islamist fighters who had seized control of most of southern Somalia including Mogadishu. But since then they have got bogged down and failed to halt the Islamists who are now using roadside bombs and occasional suicide attacks. Besides the insurgency, Somalia has been rent by years of violence between militias of rival clan warlords. Disturbances continued on the streets of Mogadishu Tuesday over high food prices and few cars were on the streets. Thousands of shops remained shuttered as young men hurled stones but the unrest was not as widespread as Monday when tens of thousands took to the streets in rioting that spread across the capital. Troops fired into the crowds then, killing two people. The protests were sparked by shopkeepers' refusal to accept some bank notes, apparently because so many are counterfeit. "Down with those printing the fake money!" the young men yelled Tuesday. "Down with opportunists!" Protester Abdinur Ileyke said: "We will not allow them to trade while we are dying (of hunger) before their eyes." On Tuesday, shop owners met and agreed to begin accepting the notes again. In Mogadishu, the price of corn meal has more than doubled since January and rice has risen from US$26 (?16.82) to US$47.50 (?30.72) for a 110-pound (50-kilogram) sack. Food costs also have been driven up by the plummeting Somali shilling, which tumbled from about 17,000 to the U.S. dollar to about 30,000. Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed said Monday that he would create a new currency to fight against counterfeiters who helped spark massive inflation. Somalia has been without a functioning government since the 1991 overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. The U.N. food security unit warned last week that half Somalia's 7 million people face famine. It blamed an enduring drought and soaring food prices. Last week, a U.S. airstrike killed the suspected al-Qaida leader in Somalia and 24 others. It was the first successful strike against a significant figure of several such attacks in Somalia. The United States fears the country is a breeding ground and safe haven for international terrorists. On Tuesday, Islamist fighters said an overnight U.S. airstrike blasted a remote area of central Somalia hours after armed civilians met there, but the U.S. military denied the claim. Two Islamist insurgents said they heard airplanes overnight and about 10 explosions in the Odam rural area, where armed civilians had met Monday. The fighters, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said no one was hurt. But a spokesman for the U.S. military's Central Command in Tampa, Florida, said there was no strike. "We had no activities there overnight," said Capt. Matt Hasson. Last week's attack threatens to derail planned May 10 peace talks. The biggest alliance supporting the insurgency said it might pull out because the strike undermined the U.N.-sponsored conference. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/0505/breaking29.htm May 5, 2008, 10:51 Mogadishu hit by food price protests Thousands of Somalis protested in Mogadishu's streets today, angry at food traders refusing to take old currency notes that have been blamed for spiralling inflation, witnesses said. "The whole city is up in smoke," protestor Hussein Abdikadir told Reuters while rolling a tyre he said he was planning to burn in the Buulahubey neighbourhood of southern Mogadishu. "Traders have refused to take old notes. Food prices are high and we have nothing to eat. We will protest until the traders agree to take the notes and sell us food," he said. The Somali shilling is valued at roughly 34,000 to the dollar - more than double what is was a year ago - and many blame counterfeiters who mint the notes for the fall in value. That has been doubly compounded by sharply rising world food prices, leaving many in the lawless Horn of Africa nation of 10 million short of money to buy food, prompting several protests or riots in the past six months. http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=68&art_id=nw20080505150558421C678102 Security forces kill Somali food protester May 05 2008 at 03:53PM Mogadishu - Somali security forces on Monday opened fired at crowds protesting rising food prices in Mogadishu, killing one and wounding four others, witnesses said. "A police patrol opened fire on a crowd in K4 area, killing one and wounding another," said Ahmad Ali Bashir, a witness. Three other demonstrators were wounded in Bakara market and near the sea port, all in southern Mogadishu, they said. http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_East%20Africa&set_id=1&click_id=87&art_id=nw20080507090355721C861469 Somali food protest 'turns ugly' May 07 2008 at 09:44AM Mogadishu, Somalia - Hundreds of youths lobbed stones at shops and cars and blocked roads with blazing tires during second day of violence over soaring food prices. The unrest marked the latest upheaval for a population brutalised by rival militias and troops in one of the world's most dangerous war zones. Amnesty International on Tuesday accused Ethiopian troops supporting the shaky UN-backed government of torturing and killing civilians in the capital, Mogadishu - slitting throats, gouging out eyes and gang-raping women. Ethiopia vehemently denied the charges. Ethiopia sent troops to Somalia in December 2006 expecting to remain only for weeks. They speedily drove out Islamist fighters who had seized control of most of southern Somalia including Mogadishu. But since then they have got bogged down and failed to halt the Islamists who are now using roadside bombs and occasional suicide attacks. Besides the insurgency, Somalia has been rent by years of violence between militias of rival clan warlords. Disturbances continued on the streets of Mogadishu on Tuesday over high food prices and few cars were on the streets. Thousands of shops remained shuttered as young men hurled stones but the unrest was not as widespread as Monday when tens of thousands took to the streets in rioting that spread across the capital. Troops fired into the crowds then, killing two people. The protests were sparked by shopkeepers' refusal to accept some bank notes, apparently because so many are counterfeit. "Down with those printing the fake money!" the young men yelled on Tuesday. "Down with opportunists!" Protester Abdinur Ileyke said: "We will not allow them to trade while we are dying (of hunger) before their eyes." On Tuesday, shop owners met and agreed to begin accepting the notes again. In Mogadishu, the price of corn meal has more than doubled since January and rice has risen from $26 (about R196,51) to $47,50 for a 50-kilogram sack. Food costs also have been driven up by the plummeting Somali shilling, which tumbled from about 17 000 to the US dollar to about 30 000. Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed said Monday that he would create a new currency to fight against counterfeiters who helped spark massive inflation. Somalia has been without a functioning government since the 1991 overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. The UN food security unit warned last week that half Somalia's 7 million people face famine. It blamed an enduring drought and soaring food prices. Last week, a US airstrike killed the suspected al-Qaida leader in Somalia and 24 others. It was the first successful strike against a significant figure of several such attacks in Somalia. The United States fears the country is a breeding ground and safe haven for international terrorists. On Tuesday, Islamist fighters said an overnight US airstrike blasted a remote area of central Somalia hours after armed civilians met there, but the US military denied the claim. Two Islamist insurgents said they heard airplanes overnight and about 10 explosions in the Odam rural area, where armed civilians had met Monday. The fighters, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said no one was hurt. But a spokesperson for the US military's Central Command in Tampa, Florida, said there was no strike. "We had no activities there overnight," said Capt Matt Hasson. Last week's attack threatens to derail planned May 10 peace talks. The biggest alliance supporting the insurgency said it might pull out because the strike undermined the UN-sponsored conference. Associated Press writers Michelle Faul and Malkhadir M. Muhumed in Nairobi, Kenya, and Anita Powell in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, contributed to this report. - Sapa-AP http://articles.latimes.com/2008/may/06/world/fg-somalia6 At least 5 killed in Somalia food riots Armed troops and shopkeepers clash with stone-throwing crowds protesting soaring prices and collapsing currency. By Edmund S, Ers, and Lutfi Sheriff Mohammed May 06, 2008 Thousands of angry Somalis rioted Monday over rising food prices and the collapse of the nation?s currency, culminating in clashes with government troops and armed shopkeepers that killed at least five protesters, witnesses and officials said. Shops and markets throughout Mogadishu quickly shut their doors as protesters, including many women and children, stoned storefronts and chanted slogans accusing traders of cheating them. ?I?ve never demonstrated before, but I?m not ashamed because if you can?t eat, you will do whatever you can,? said Abdullahi Mohammed, 57, of Mogadishu. ?Before I was eating three times a day, but now sometimes it?s not even once.? Somalia?s beleaguered population is already coping with a civil war that began with the collapse of the government in 1991. But recently, the Horn of Africa nation?s food industry, which previously thrived thanks to private traders, has been grappling with soaring inflation, spurred by an explosion of counterfeit currency over the past year and the global spike in food prices. Somalia imports at least 60% of its grain and its local crops this year were devastated by a cycle of drought and flooding. As a result, prices for rice, maize, sorghum and other cereals are up between 100% and 400% over the past year. A sack of rice that sold for $32 only one month ago is now going for $52. At the same time, the nation?s currency, the shilling, has lost half its value against the U.S. dollar over the past year, requiring consumers to carry sacks of money just to buy common grocery items. Somalia joins a growing list of African countries where rising food prices have led to violence, including Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Egypt. Monday?s riots followed a smaller outbreak in the Somali capital last month. Around the same time, rioters also looted two World Food Program trucks in Mogadishu, apparently encouraged by a local government official who announced on the radio that people should vent their frustration against the WFP convoy rather than steal from local shops. The stolen food was eventually returned to the WFP, with a government apology, according to a spokesman for the program. In recent days, unrest returned when shop owners, who had already been pressuring customers to pay in dollars, said they would no longer accept old, worn-out shillings. Consumers blame traders for exploiting the current crisis, but retailers insist their own suppliers will no longer accept Somalia?s older bills, some of which date back to before 1991. ?I can?t accept the old money because I can?t use it to buy products again from my wholesalers,? said Obey Mahad, who runs a food shop in the capital. Traders fault the government for failing to address the violence and lawlessness that have driven hundreds of importers to flee the country, and for doing nothing to stop the printing of fake currency. Critics say government officials may even be linked to the counterfeiting rings. The U.N.-recognized transitional government is barely holding on to power, supported by thousands of Ethiopian troops who in 2006 helped it topple an Islamic regime that controlled Mogadishu. During a news conference Monday, Mogadishu Mayor Mohammed Dheere blamed the riots on traders and ordered them to accept all bills. ?They have almost of the money in the country,? Dheere said. ?And they [feel they] can just refuse whenever they want and accept whenever they want.? The U.S. government, which supports the presence of Ethiopian troops in Somalia, views the ongoing instability as a threat to global anti-terrorism efforts. Last week, the U.S. military killed a top Islamist leader with alleged links to Al Qaeda during an airstrike in central Somalia. Even before the food and currency crises, aid groups had issued stark warnings about an impending humanitarian catastrophe in Somalia. About 2.6 million Somalis, more than one-fourth of the population, are in need of food aid, up 40% since January, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. Rising prices are fueling a surge in unemployment among the urban poor, who previously found work selling firewood or doing laundry but now are unable to find even casual labor. ?I?m very worried because Somalia has so many people on the edge,? said Peter Smerdon, spokesman for the World Food Program in Nairobi, which is feeding nearly 2 million Somalis. ?If rising food prices continue, Somalia is going to get hammered. If the government can?t do anything, the question is can aid agencies step up?? edmund.sanders at latimes.com Special correspondent Mohammed reported from Mogadishu and Times staff writer Sanders from Nairobi, Kenya. http://www.sabcnews.com/africa/west_africa/0,2172,168474,00.html Hundreds protest against food prices in Senegal Surging food prices have posed a particular risk to poor people April 27, 2008, 08:00 More than 1 000 people, some carrying empty rice sacks, marched through Senegal's capital Dakar yesterday to protest against rising food prices, the latest such demonstration in impoverished West Africa. Aid experts say soaring global prices for foodstuffs and fuel threaten to push 100 million people worldwide into hunger, and governments in the poorest countries are scrambling to find ways to mitigate the effects. Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, whose nation imports more than 80% of its rice needs, announced an ambitious plan last week to increase rice production five-fold to 500 000 tonnes in a season. But many people say the measures are not enough to prevent rice, the daily staple, from becoming a luxury. They accuse Wade of focusing on glamorous infrastructure projects to the detriment of his people's more basic needs. "President Wade has to stop his prestigious expenses," shouted Ousmane Ndiaye, a 42-year-old teacher, as other demonstrators chanted behind him. "The measures announced so far will not get Senegal out of this food crisis," he said. Parts of Dakar have been transformed over the past year as four-lane highways and luxury hotels -- most of them unfinished -- began springing up for the city to host an Islamic summit last month. But behind the new palm-fringed oceanside highway, residents in its most populous neighbourhoods are struggling to contend with rising prices for basic utilities as well as food. "Water is expensive, electricity is expensive," said one female protester, utility bills stuck to her chest. The security forces monitored the demonstration but kept a low profile, unlike in Cameroon where dozens of people were killed in February during riots fuelled by anger over the cost of living. - Reuters http://www.feedzilla.com/news-archive/world-news/2008-04-25-africa-gabon.html Gabonese police attack fresh protests at soaring prices (AFP via Yahoo! News) Police violently broke up fresh protests on Friday against soaring food prices in the capital Libreville, witnesses and organisers said, a day after Gabon decided to suspend food taxes temporarily. http://allafrica.com/stories/200804210734.html Somalia: Second Day of Protests in Puntland Capital Garowe Online (Garowe) 19 April 2008 Posted to the web 21 April 2008 Puntland Somalis in the northern region of Puntland took to the streets Saturday for the second straight day of protests against hyperinflation and the worsening economic situation, Radio Garowe reported. Hundreds of protestors including women and students walked up and down the main streets in Garowe, the capital of the northern region of Puntland. Protestors chanted words directed against the policies of the Puntland government and the local business community, with angry crowds blaming traders for the rising price of goods. Unlike Friday, protestors today did not block roads or throw stones at government buildings and business centers. However, most businesses remained closed for fear of looters hiding among the demonstrators. Garowe police arrested at least four men involving in criminal activities while the peaceful protest was in progress, police officials said. The government of Puntland has not yet commented on two days of protests in the capital city. On Thursday, a Puntland Cabinet meeting concluded with the government deciding to lower the taxes on necessary goods by 25% and impose a fixed exchange rate for the U.S. dollar. Puntland government officials want money changers to trade $100 U.S. dollars for a fixed rate of 1,800,000 Shillings. But the market value exchange rate now stands at 3,200,000 Shillings per $100 U.S. dollars. It is not clear how a fixed exchange rate can be applied in Puntland, but the government issued a similar decree last year that had no affect on the market. Critics allege Puntland government officials and allied business interests are directly involved in the printing of counterfeit Shillings, an illegal practice that has affected markets across Somalia. The Puntland Ministry of Finance recently denied reports that Shillings were being minted locally. http://www.afrol.com/articles/29173 Four arrested in Nairobi food protests afrol News, 2 June - Four protesters were arrested last Saturday in the Kenyan capital Nairobi for protesting against the soaring food prizes. Police described their demonstration as illegal and fired tear gas to disperse the crowd counted in hundreds. Demonstrators were waving placards demanding government to cut down prizes of staple food like maize meal in the country. Kenya has been hit by a rapid increase of over 6% inflation between March and April this year (21.8% to 26.6%)mainly because of current hikes in food prizes worldwide. Although President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya acknowledged that Kenyans are feeling the burden of increased prize in basic commodities he has however urged them to also admit that the rest of the world is feeling the pressure too. In a speech published on the state house website, he revealed that his government plans to import 3 million bags of maize in the next two months as part of cushioning for the shocks. Mr. Kibaki further said that his government was increasing funding for expansion of the strategic grain reserve from 4 million to 8 million bags of maize in the next two years as a medium term measure. "The government is also making available, cheaper fertilizer through the national cereals and produce board, which will in turn lower the cost of maize production in the country. In addition to the political challenges we faced early this year, we are also facing serious social challenges caused by the rapid rise in the cost of living over the last few months. The government is also making available, cheaper fertilizer through the national cereals and produce board, which will in turn lower the cost of maize production in the country", the president added. The recently published report prepared by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations had projected an increase in a range from less than 10 percent for rice and sugar, under 20 percent for wheat, around 30 percent for butter, coarse grains and oilseeds to over 50 percent for vegetable oils. The report further estimates about 850 million people in the world today suffering from hunger and about 820 million live in developing countries. The report alludes to growing demand for biofuel as another factor contributing to higher prices. World fuel ethanol production has tripled between 2000 and 2007 and is expected to double again between now and 2017 to reach 127 billion litres a year. The growth in biofuel production adds to demand for grains, oilseeds and sugar, contributing to higher crop prices. The protests come at a time when Kenya is still recovering from the country's disputed presidential election in December that had left 1,500 people dead and an estimated 600,000 people displaced in the aftermath of post-elections violence. Granaries and farms were also burnt to ashes, contributing to the current shortages in food supplies. Meanwhile, heads of states from United Nations' member countries are expected to address and deliberate on food security issues in the face of soaring food prices and the new challenges of climate change and energy security in upcoming 'High-Level Conference on World Food Security: the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy will be in Rome Italy from 3 to 5 June 2008. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/05/31/2261419.htm Kenya police disperse food protesters Posted Sat May 31, 2008 11:37pm AEST Kenyan police have fired teargas to disperse hundreds of demonstrators protesting against high food prices in the east African country. Food prices have risen sharply in the region's biggest economy since a political crisis over a disputed election led to food shortages. Annual inflation rose to 26.6 per cent in April from 21.8 per cent in March because of food prices. "The government must subsidise the cost of food, it is not fair for the poor to be suffering with high food prices yet the government has not increased salaries," one of the organisers, Tom Aosa, said. Several protesters were bundled into police cars during the march. Nairobi's police chief Tito Kilonzi said the demonstration was illegal. Four people were arrested, he told reporters. The marchers carried placards urging the government to slash the cost of maize flour, a Kenyan staple, to 30 shillings ($0.50) from the current 80 shillings. "On Monday [a public holiday] your families will eat chicken, meat, and chapattis, what do you expect us to eat, if we cannot afford to make Ugali, leaves?" shouted one angry protester. Sharp hikes for essential food and fuel have triggered riots and protests in African countries from neighbouring Somalia to Cameroon and Senegal in West Africa. In Kenya, violence after President Mwai Kibaki's disputed election last December killed more then 1,200 and displaced 300,000 others, while maize in granaries and on farms was set ablaze. Mr Kibaki has ordered the state cereals board to import three million bags of maize for the country as the agricultural sector gets back on its feet. - Reuters http://story.australianherald.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/c08dd24cec417021/id/365815/cs/1/ Sporadic food riots break out in Kenya Australian Herald Saturday 31st May, 2008 Demonstrators in Kenya have called on the government to introduce subsidies to battle rising food prices. Police said they arrested four demonstrators, who were demanding that the government slash the price of maize. Inflation in the east African nation jumped to 26.6 percent in April from 21.8 percent the previous month due to the rising cost of food. Upward global pressure on food prices has been exacerbated in Kenya by the post-election violence as grain stores were set on fire and farmers quit their fields to flee the fighting. Some 350,000 people fled their homes after December's elections, when violent clashes followed opposition leader Raila Odinga's claims that President Mwai Kibaki's Party of National Unity rigged the elections. More than 1,000 people died in clashes between rival tribes affiliated to the political parties. Sharply-rising food prices have already triggered sometimes-deadly protests in African nations such as Somalia, Senegal and Burkina Faso. http://www.sabcnews.com/africa/east_africa/0,2172,170633,00.html Kenya police disperse food protesters Hundreds of demonstrators protested against high food prices in the east African country May 31, 2008, 14:00 Kenyan police fired teargas today to disperse hundreds of demonstrators protesting against high food prices in the east African country. Food prices have risen sharply in the region's biggest economy since a political crisis over a disputed election led to food shortages. Annual inflation rose to 26.6% in April from 21.8% in March because of food prices. "The government must subsidise the cost of food, it is not fair for the poor to be suffering with high food prices yet the government has not increased salaries," said Tom Aosa, one of the organisers. Four people arrested Several protesters were bundled into police cars during the march. Nairobi's police chief Tito Kilonzi said the demonstration was illegal. Four people were arrested, he told reporters. The marchers carried placards urging the government to slash the cost of maize flour, a Kenyan staple, to 30 shillings from the current 80 shillings. Sharp hikes for essential food and fuel have triggered riots and protests in African countries from neighbouring Somalia to Cameroon and Senegal in West Africa. In Kenya, violence after President Mwai Kibaki's disputed election last December killed more then 1 200 and displaced 300 000 others, while maize in granaries and on farms was set ablaze. Kibaki has ordered the state cereals board to import three million bags of maize for the country as the agricultural sector gets back on its feet. - Reuters http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_2332634,00.html Police arrest 8 at food protest 31/05/2008 20:08 - (SA) Nairobi - Kenyan police fired tear gas and arrested eight people during a protest on Saturday over high food prices, an organiser said. Hundreds of people took part in the demonstration to complain that high inflation had made it difficult for many poor Kenyans to feed their families, organizer George Nyongesa said. Nyongesa said the protest was peaceful and sanctioned by a permit, but police used tear gas to disperse the crowd. Eight people were detained without charge, though one has since been released, Nyongesa said. Police did not return calls seeking comment. Kenya has been doubly hit by globally rising food prices and by riots that followed disputed elections in December. More than 1 000 people were killed in the riots, and at least a tenth of the country's crop was destroyed. Many farmers have still not returned home. http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2008-05/2008-05-14-voa36.cfm?CFID=23779245&CFTOKEN=43280315 Burkina Faso Strikers Demand Pay Increase, Protest Rising Prices By Ricci Shryock Dakar 14 May 2008 Shryock report - Download (MP3) Shryock report - Listen (MP3) Protesters in Burkina Faso have marched in the streets of the capital Ouagadougou on the second day of a partially-observed general strike against rising prices. Strikers from the government sector are also demanding a pay increase. For VOA, Ricci Shryock reports from Dakar, Senegal. A demonstration held by the labor union in Ouagadougou, placard reads: 'Life is expensive, do you want our flesh,' (File) Residents in Burkina Faso marched in the streets of several cities, protesting salary freezes and the rising cost of living. Some carried pots and pans and empty sacks of rice. They also demanded the government raise their wages. At the end of the march, organizers from the West African country's unions and civil organizations urged people to continue the strike Thursday. There was heavy security. The secretary general of the main union behind the protest, Tole Sagnoon, said people must wake up and change things, and they must be ready to continue the struggle. Marchers say their salaries are not enough to pay for simple products such as bread and rice. They are calling for the government to pay them a retroactive 25 percent increase in their salaries, beginning from January 2001. Ouagadougou resident Diane Sanwide says her salary does not stretch far enough to cover her monthly expenses. Sanwide says she decided to march, because the issue is important and needs to be addressed by the government. A journalist in Ouagadougou, Zoumana Wonogo, says the government tried to prevent the protest by releasing a statement Monday that promised formal talks with union and civil leaders in September. "The government says it is not a problem concerning only Burkina Faso. And in this way, the government begged the association to wait for another moment," said Wonogo. In a letter earlier in the month, Burkina Faso Minister of Labor Jerome Bougouma said the government cannot provide salary increases, but it is working to cut taxes on food and gas. Union leaders said they went ahead with the strike because they want immediate government policies and not just promises of future change. Higher prices have hit self-employed people in the informal sector even harder. Since Monday, students have not gone to class and administrators at the state-owned electricity company have been on strike, so residents cannot pay their electricity bills. More than half a dozen African countries have experienced riots in recent months because of protests tied to food shortages and escalating prices. International financial and aid organizations are focusing on needed improvements within agricultural sectors that can help provide food for local populations. U.N. Secretary Ban Ki-moon said the world needs to provide $1.7 billion to help African farmers buy seeds and fertilizers. http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7011210997 Egyptians Protest End To Flour Subsidy ShareThis June 9, 2008 5:48 a.m. EST Joseph Mayton - AHN Middle East Correspondent Cairo, Egypt (AHN) - Thousands of Egyptians in a northern coastal town took to the streets as the government cut the long-running subsidy on flour rations. The incident is the most recent in months of battles between the average citizen and the government, who Egyptians blame as not doing enough to curtail rising food prices and low wages. Since the beginning of the year, the World Bank has reported the cost of living for Egypt to have risen as much as 50 percent, possibly more. This, doubled with little to no increase on salaries has left many Egyptians struggling to feed their families. According to police reports, some 8,000 protestors sealed off a main road in the town of Burullus for seven hours, burning tires to stop traffic. Police responded by firing teargas and charging the crowd with batons in an attempt to disperse the masses. At least three demonstrators were hospitalized due to the gas. Security forces arrested 30 people, the state-owned Al Ahram daily newspaper reported. The paper added that one security source revealed that rubber bullets had been fired into the crowds. The move to end subsidies on flour has been replaced with the government's decision to supply bakeries with cheaper flour instead, a move that has angered much of the nation. http://africa.reuters.com/business/news/usnBAN752720.html Egyptians protest bread shortages, clash with police Sat 7 Jun 2008, 13:38 GMT [-] Text [+] CAIRO (Reuters) - Hundreds of Egyptian demonstrators sealed off a road and burned tyres on Saturday to protest at bread shortages in the northern coastal town of Burullus, security sources said. Police used teargas and batons to disperse the crowds and three protesters were hospitalised suffering from teargas inhalation, the sources said. One security source said rubber bullets had been fired at the crowd. Protesters accused local officials and bakeries of stealing flour earmarked for subsidised bread, causing shortages. High wheat prices have put great strain on Egypt's bread subsidy system, where the urban poor depend on cheap bread to survive. The demand for subsidised bread has grown and the heavy subsidy has increased the incentive to divert subsidised flour illegally to other uses. Egypt said in May it would add at least 17 million people to the ranks of ration card holders to ease the effect of rising food prices. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L07142958.htm Egypt police clash with protesters, arrest 30 07 Jun 2008 21:15:15 GMT Source: Reuters (Adds details from paper, updates report on causes) CAIRO, June 7 (Reuters) - Thousands of Egyptian demonstrators clashed with police to protest a decision by local authorities to end distribution of flour rations in the northern coastal town of Burullus, security sources said. The state-owned al-Ahram newspaper said around 8,000 protestors sealed off a road for seven hours, using burning tyres to stop traffic. Police used teargas and batons to disperse the crowds and three protesters were hospitalised after inhaling teargas, security sources said. Police made 30 arrests, according to al-Ahram. One security source said rubber bullets had been fired at the crowd. Security sources said earlier the protests were caused by bread shortages, but subsequent reports said the protestors, primarily local fisherman, were angered by the local authority's decision to end direct distribution of flour rations in favour of supplying bakeries with the flour. High wheat prices have put great strain on Egypt's bread subsidy system, where the urban poor depend on cheap bread to survive. The demand for subsidised bread has grown and the heavy subsidy has increased the incentive to divert subsidised flour illegally to other uses. Egypt said in May it would add at least 17 million people to the ranks of ration card holders to ease the effect of rising food prices. (Writing by Aziz El-Kaissouni, editing by Mary Gabriel) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25048249/ Egyptians clash with police in bread riot Like much of the world, Egypt has been wracked by rising food prices updated 8:27 p.m. ET June 8, 2008 CAIRO, Egypt - Thousands of demonstrators fought with police after a protest over flour rations in a town on Egypt's Mediterranean coast, a security official and state media said Sunday. The state-owned daily Al-Ahram said some 8,000 protesters sealed off the main Cairo-Mediterranean highway for seven hours Saturday and burnt tires to stop traffic. Police fired tear gas and arrested dozens to disperse the crowd, A security official said police were questioning 87 suspects. The protesters were angered by the decision of authorities in Burullus to stop distributing subsidized flour directly to residents and instead deliver it exclusively to bakeries, the official said on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to give statements. Fishermen in Burullus prefer to bake a type of bread suited to long fishing voyages instead of buying the standard subsidized bread from bakeries. There have also been accusations by the government that people are selling the subsidized flour on the black market for a profit, leading to shortages. Like much of the rest of the world, Egypt has been wracked by rising food prices and stagnant wages, resulting in protests and demonstrations. There has also been a shortage of the subsidized bread relied on by vast segments of this impoverished country of 76.5 million. Some 10 people were reported killed since the beginning of the year after scuffles in bread lines. http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7011191117 Rising Prices Fuel Tensions In Tunisia, 1 Protester Killed ShareThis June 6, 2008 4:08 p.m. EST Linda Young - AHN Editor Tunis, Tunisia (AHN) - Weeks of protests in the North African country of Tunisia over high unemployment, poor living conditions and high prices of essentials boiled over into violence on Friday leaving one person dead and others injured. When some members of a crowd of protesters in Tunisia attacked police in the south-western town of Redeyef, the officers opened fire on the crowd. The protests took place in the Gafsa mining region of the central part of the country. And the violent clashes between police and protesters in Tunisia were not the only protests as incidents occurred in other countries where dissatisfaction over the cost of living has created unrest. Police in Mumbai arrested 20 people during protests over inflation there and India saw its second day of protests disrupt road and rail traffic in some places on Friday. On Thursday, angry opposition party protesters gathered in Malaysia to express their concerns over the government's decision to raise fuel prices. Rising fuel prices are making fuel unfordable for some individuals sparking social unrest. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/06/africa/AF-GEN-Tunisia-Protest-Violence.php One dead, several injured in clashes between police, protesters in Tunisia, officials say The Associated Press Published: June 6, 2008 TUNIS, Tunisia: Violent clashes erupted Friday between protesters and police in central Tunisia, leaving one person dead and at least eight other people injured, government and labor union officials said. Some protesters threw Molotov cocktails and police responded by opening fire as months of intermittent protest over high unemployment and poor living conditions in the Gafsa mining region took a violent turn. In the clashes Friday in the town of Redeyef, a 25-year-old protester was killed and ten other people were injured, said local labor union leader Messaoud Romdhani. Government officials confirmed one person had died, but counted five protesters and three police officers injured. Earlier the government issued a statement warning that some protesters had thrown "incendiary bottles" despite warning shots from security forces. http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jun/07/world/fg-tunisia7 Archive for Saturday, June 07, 2008 1 killed, 8 hurt in protests in central Tunisia June 07, 2008 Violent clashes erupted Friday between protesters and police in central Tunisia, leaving one person dead and at least eight injured, government and labor union officials said. Some protesters threw Molotov cocktails and police opened fire as months of intermittent protests over unemployment and living conditions in the Gafsa mining region took a violent turn. A 25-year-old protester was killed in the town of Redeyef and 10 people were injured, said local labor union leader Messaoud Romdhani. Government officials confirmed that one person had died, but counted five protesters and three police officers injured. http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Finance%20And%20Labour&set_id=1&click_id=594&art_id=nw20080716171033794C279480 Textile workers support protests July 16 2008 at 05:26PM Almost 80 percent of all clothing and textile workers in the Free State and Northern Cape took part in Cosatu's protest action against electricity prises, the Southern African Clothing & Textile Workers' Union (Sactwu) said on Wednesday. Deputy general-secretary for the union Andre Kriel said 77 percent of workers in the two provinces took part in the protest action by staying away from work on Wednesday. Thousands of people took part in protest marches in Bloemfontein and Kimberley and handed over memorandums to government and Eskom. Kriel said the clothing and textile industries in the two provinces came to a standstill. He said last week 88 percent of clothing, textile and footwear workers in the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal participated in Cosatu's first day of mass action against the "electricity crisis". Kriel said in the Free State large companies such as Amica Fashions, Apple Jeans, Manhood Clothing and Top Denim in Botshabelo and In Focus, Tradelink, SA Cloth and Robin Clothing in Qwa Qwa reported workers participating in the protest action. "Clothing and textile workers are the lowest paid in manufacturing and their budgets are already stretched thin by rising fuel, transport and food prices," Kriel said in a statement. He said the increasing electricity prices would add to the difficulties workers were experiencing. - Sapa http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_South%20Africa&set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=nw20080716175209279C599608 Thousands march in support of Cosatu protest July 16 2008 at 06:11PM Thousands of workers took to the streets in the Free State, Northern Cape, and Mpumalanga on Wednesday in support of the Congress of SA Trade Unions' (Cosatu) protest against rocketing food and electricity prices. Marchers in Bloemfontein urged government not to let ordinary people pay for its failure not to invest in power in the 1990s. "We must not be the victims of this electricity crisis," said Bheki Ntshalintshali, Cosatu deputy general secretary. "We cannot afford the 27,5 percent increase in electricity," he told protesters at the Lebohang building. Further increases meant workers would suffer the most, especially if employers started retrenching people. He implicated President Thabo Mbeki and Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka amongst those whose mistakes workers had to pay for. "We are called to pay the cost for mistakes of others," he said. In a memorandum handed to Free State premier Beatrice Marshoff, the trade union federation demanded that the electrification programme to poor households not be compromised. Cosatu said the mining industry should also not be "sacrificed" in an effort to manage the crisis. Earlier on Wednesday, several hundred bus passengers were stranded at the Central Park bus terminal in Bloemfontein's central business district (CBD) due to drivers taking part in the one day stayaway. All operations at the Beatrix gold mine of Gold Fields were affected by the Cosatu action, while De Beers said there was no impact on three of the four operations in the Northern Cape and Free State. The Free State health department said only about 200 workers, out of about 16 000, were absent from work. Almost 80 percent of all clothing and textile workers in the Free State and Northern Cape took part in the protest action, the Southern African Clothing & Textile Workers' Union (SACTWU) said. In Kimberley in the Northern Cape, about 2 000 workers marched through the streets. Cosatu General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi addressed the crowd at Eskom's offices before the marchers moved to the buildings of the old Northern Cape Legislature in Kimberley. And in Nelspruit in Mpumalanga, over a thousand workers heeded the call to protest. Mpumalanga Cosatu spokesperson Raymond Mnguni said more than 60 percent of businesses ground to a halt and many shops, factories and companies closed for the day. "Many production industries operated on skeleton staff," he said. Memorandums were handed over to senior managers from Eskom and Sasol who said they would take them to their bosses to find a way forward, said Mnguni. The marches were considered by Cosatu to be a good build-up to a national strike on August 6. Meanwhile, Cosatu in the Western Cape has distanced itself from an email doing the rounds suggesting that the province will be on strike on Wednesday July 23. "This email goes as far as threatening violence against those who may defy this strike action," the union said. However, no protest action was scheduled for the province that day, and Cosatu did not condone violence or intimidatory tactics to coerce people to action. "We believe in our cause and given our support see no reason for such tactics in any case," the federation said. - Sapa http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2354370,00.html Dbn CBD shuts down for protest 09/07/2008 09:58 - (SA) Durban - Businesses in Durban's city centre closed shop on Wednesday morning ahead of a planned trade union protest against spiralling food, fuel and other costs. Taxis and buses were also not operating. Metro police spokesperson Superintendent John Tyala said Durban was quiet and that no blockades or incidents of intimidation had been reported by shortly after 09:00. Businesses along the city's busier streets in the central business district were shuttered and even traders and hawkers were absent. On Tuesday, the chairperson of KwaZulu-Natal's largest taxi association warned employers that their vehicles would "go up in flames" if they did not support the strike organised by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu). Eugene Hadebe, the province's Transport Alliance boss, threw down the gauntlet. "We want the bosses to collect workers from the places where they live. Their vehicles will go up in flames. I am warning them," he said. Protests in Cape Town, Durban and Newcastle He was speaking ahead of a series of protests and stayaways organised by Cosatu in Cape Town, Durban and Newcastle. Hadebe said the alliance's members would also be joining the two Cosatu marches in Durban and Newcastle. Newcastle police spokesperson Captain Shooz Magudulela said protesters had been gathering at Trim Park in the town since early morning. "But there have been no incidents so far...we are monitoring them." He said there had also been no blockades on any roads. Cosatu secretary general Zwelinzima Vavi was expected to address marchers in Durban later on Wednesday. They were expected to gather at Curries Fountain stadium from 10:00 and then make their way to the city centre. http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Finance%20And%20Labour&set_id=1&click_id=594&art_id=nw20080709125203176C246431 Durban businesses hit by Cosatu protest July 09 2008 at 02:05PM Durban businesses on Wednesday reported that up to 80 percent of their labour failed to turn up for work ahead of the planned Cosatu protest against spiralling food, fuel and other costs. Denise Chendip, acting chief executive for the Durban Chamber of Commerce, said all businesses had agreed that the mass action had affected them considerably in terms of production. "There is about 80 percent absenteeism in labour intensive companies. Many companies had negotiated with their shop stewards and staff to close for today (Wednesday) and cover up for it over the weekend." By midday on Wednesday, Chendip said the Chamber had not received any reports of business staff being intimidated or shops being damaged. Businesses along the city's busy Smith and West streets were shuttered and even traders and hawkers were absent. Taxis and buses were also not operating. A growing crowd of 3 000 protesters converged at Durban's Curries Fountain stadium and started marching towards the city centre by 10.30am. A Sapa reporter at the scene said protesters were singing Jacob Zuma's trademark tune Umshini Wam. One was seen with a replica of a machine gun made out of plastic piping. Among the marchers were senior alliance leaders, including SA Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande, and leaders of the Denosa nurses' union. By midday Cosatu secretary-general Zwelinzima Vavi had joined in the protest. There was a heavy police presence including a water cannon along the route. Prosecutors at the Durban Magistrate's Court and the Commercial Crime Court said all cases would be remanded due to the protest. "Many accused that are out on bail have not pitched up because they had no transport to come to court. Proceedings have been hindered by this protest," said a prosecutor, who declined to be named. The city's main taxi and bus rank at Warwick Triangle was closed. Bus terminals were also empty. Metro police spokesperson Superintendent John Tyala said no blockades or incidents of intimidation had been reported. However, SA Police Service spokesperson Superintendent Vincent Mdunge confirmed a blockade by taxis on the N2 southbound near the Petro Port station. "About 20 taxis blocked the road and police are there at the scene. We are going to tow them away. They are going to pay hefty prices for the release of their vehicles." No arrests had been made, and no incidents of violence were reported, Mdunge said. The chamber's spokesperson Zama Phakathi earlier told Sapa that hundreds of businesses had been closed and that due to taxis and buses being non-operational many people were stranded without transport to work. - Sapa http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2354772,00.html 2 000 join rainy Cosatu protest 09/07/2008 20:05 - (SA) Cape Town - About 2 000 people, many of them carrying umbrellas, braved spitting rain on Wednesday to march on Parliament in a Cosatu-led protest against rising electricity and food prices. The protest, along with a call for a day-long general work stay-away in the Western Cape, was timed to coincide with similar marches in KwaZulu-Natal. March leaders handed over a memorandum to representatives of Parliament, Eskom and organised business. The memorandum said Cosatu demanded as "an absolutely basic principle" that the costs of electricity cuts should not be borne by the poorest in society, and that workers should not be retrenched because of the cuts. Chairperson of the SA Communist Party in the province, Karl Cloete, told marchers that South Africa's coal mines, its major source of power generation, should be nationalised along with Sasol, which was producing 40% of the country's fuel, but still charging international prices. Working-class plight He said the Western Cape message ahead of the 2009 general election was that it was the tripartite alliance that had to govern, not just the African National Congress. The coming ANC Western Cape provincial conference had to produce leadership that understood the plight of the working class, he said. Cosatu provincial secretary Tony Ehrenreich said labour had been negotiating these issues with the government and business at Nedlac for some time, but with no result. "If there's no solution, we will bring this country to a standstill," he said. He repeated Cosatu's call for a basic income grant, which had already been rejected by the government. He said the grant would cost the country R25m, while the government each year gave back R137bn to the wealthy in tax cuts. "Now isn't that just criminal... how can we give money back to the wealthy when people don't have enough to eat?" he asked. Although the march was billed as a tripartite alliance event, there was no speaker from the African National Congress. Ehrenreich said ANC provincial secretary Mcebisi Skwatsha had been scheduled to speak, but was ill and had sent apologies. The march was initially called off on Tuesday morning, as rainstorms continued to soak the city centre, but was reinstated after plans had already been made to hold an indoor rally instead. Ehrenreich said initial indications were that there had been a stay-away rate of more than 50% in most sectors. "The strike was an incredible success. A clear message has been sent to the government that policies are hurting people, and there's a need for urgent action," he said. Some sectors not affected Cape Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry director Albert Schuitmaker said the feedback his organisation had had was that no particular industry sector was badly affected by the strike, and many were not affected at all. Some individual companies had felt its effects - one had reported a 90% stayaway. But in the clothing sector, for example, although one company was badly affected, five others reported no problem at all. "It appears that it did not have a major impact," he said. He said all companies operated on a no-work, no-pay rule. http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2362704,00.html Protesters hand memo to MEC 23/07/2008 15:52 - (SA) Want to know more? Answerit can help. ? Cosatu protests hit 4 provinces ? Cosatu protesters 'disgusted' ? Thousands expected to protest ? Commuters left stranded ? Cosatu calls on civil society Johannesburg - A second memorandum was handed to MEC for local government Qedani Mahlangu by Congress of SA Trade Union members protesting over rising prices in Johannesburg on Wednesday. Cosatu's Gauteng secretary Siphiwe Mgcina delivered the document, saying he hoped the government would communicate with the union federation's leaders to find a lasting resolution to the electricity crisis. "On behalf of government I have taken the memorandum so that we can evaluate it and find a solution," said Mahlangu. She thanked marchers for their peaceful behaviour throughout the day and said the government would meet Cosatu before the national stayaway on August 6. Cosatu president S'dumo Dlamini said marchers turned out in numbers in response to "the war declared by capitalists". 'Johannesburg can stand still' "They (capitalists) were driven by the desire to privatise Eskom, therefore the streets of Johannesburg can just stand still," he said. Dlamini said workers and the poor should not suffer because of Eskom, and blamed the company for the retrenchments of miners. He said those responsible for high food prices should be criminally charged, labelling them as greedy. Earlier a memorandum of demands was given to Eskom. "We know the increase in electricity prices has affected the working class and we are working with stakeholders to minimise the effect," Hugh McGibbon, Eskom's general manager in the central region, told some 25 000 protesters. The march was part of mass action in Johannesburg, the Eastern Cape, North West and Limpopo against rising electricity and food prices. "The memorandum is about serious issues and we will treat it seriously," McGibbon said as protesters chanted "no to electricity hikes", referring to a 27.5% increase in Eskom tariffs. Alternative energy sources The document detailed demands, including that workers not be retrenched as a result of power cuts. It also called on the government to invest in the development of alternative energy sources. Earlier, Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said: "Together we have formed a broad coalition of organisations prepared to register their disgust at the spiralling cost of living affecting people." He said those who complained about disruptions in the city centre should be thankful that there was a solid trade union movement that could organise workers in a disciplined way. Dressed in red t-shirts and caps, Cosatu members held placards reading "Away with food prices" and "Away with high fuel prices". Entrepreneurs were selling food and vuvuzelas to the group. The march was expected to see road closures in the city until 15:00. http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Finance%20And%20Labour&set_id=1&click_id=594&art_id=nw20080723125044617C532393 Protesters show 'disgust' about rising prices July 23 2008 at 01:04PM A 25 000-strong protest march in Johannesburg on Wednesday showed how "disgusted" people were at the spiralling costs of living, said Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi. "Together we have formed a broad coalition of organisations prepared to register their disgust at the spiralling cost of living affecting people," Vavi said as the crowd excitedly welcomed him with a song and the blowing of vuvuzelas. He chanted "amandla", to which the crowd replied: "awethu" outside the Braamfontein offices of Eskom where the Congress of SA Trade Unions would hand over a memorandum protesting against rising electricity prices. Vavi said the protests had also brought the Eastern Cape, North West and Limpopo to a standstill. He said those who complained about disruptions in the city centre should be thankful that there was a solid trade union movement that could organise workers in a disciplined way. Johannesburg metro police estimated that some 25 000 people were participating in the march. Earlier, Cosatu's Gauteng chairperson Thuthas Tseki said the government should drop interest rates and intervene against rising food and fuel prices. "Everything is shooting through the roof... If the government doesn't respond, we will continue protesting," he said. Dressed in red t-shirts and caps, members of the trade union federation held placards reading "Away with food prices" and "Away with high fuel prices". Entrepreneurs were selling food and vuvuzelas to the group whose march would see road closures in the city centre from 11am until 3pm. Cosatu is also planning a national stayaway for August 6. - Sapa http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Finance%20And%20Labour&set_id=1&click_id=594&art_id=nw20080723130706670C602864 'Workers have good reason to protest' July 23 2008 at 01:11PM Cosatu members have good reason to protest, concludes an Ipsos Markinor survey released on Wednesday as the trade union federation staged protests against rising electricity and food prices. The survey found that the majority of Congress of SA Trade Union members did not think the government was handling rising costs well. "Looking at income and price trends, Cosatu members have good reason to be unhappy," said the research house. "During the period May 2007 to May 2008 food prices increased by 16,8 percent while earnings per capita increased by 12 percent. "Furthermore, during the same period fuel prices increased by 35,6 percent, which together with the prices of goods such as medical care and health expenses, transport, housing, household operation goods and services and personal care goods grew much faster than the said 12 percent earnings increases. "This implies that workers were in real terms becoming poorer during the past year." In the Ipsos Markinor survey, some 66 percent of Cosatu members questioned believed that the government was "not at all handling the increase in the petrol price well". Another 68 percent felt the same about rising food prices while 54 percent said the electricity crisis was not being handled well. "Cosatu members were extremely worried about... bread and butter issues," it said. The government scored better in Cosatu's books when it came to promoting equality between men and women, distributing welfare grants and improving basic health services. The research suggested that Cosatu's decision to stage mass protests was not only aimed against the government but also the private sector. "Cosatu wants to emphasise to society the extent of the crisis and the necessity that it should be dealt with through targeted action." The findings of the study are based on answers received in the Pulse of the People series, a survey taken every six months by Ipsos Markinor among 3 500 South Africans from all provinces, language groups and religions. The opinions of Cosatu members were filtered out from the total survey. - Sapa http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-07-23-voa61.cfm?rss=africa Thousands Disrupt Johannesburg Traffic in Protest Over Rising Prices By VOA News 23 July 2008 Demonstrators in Johannesburg, 23 Jul 2008 South African police say an estimated 25,000 demonstrators shut down central Johannesburg for several hours Wednesday to protest the country's rising cost of food, fuel and electricity. The mass demonstration was peaceful, but it disrupted businesses, commuter services, and street traffic until about noon local time. The protest was part of rolling demonstrations organized by the Congress of South Africa Trade Unions (COSATU), the country's largest umbrella organization for trade unions. Organizers said demonstrators are registering their "disgust" with the government and employers over high prices. Among other things, protesters denounced plans to hike the electricity tariff by 27.5 percent. The rolling demonstrations began earlier this year and are expected to continue indefinitely. Increasing food prices have sparked riots in at least five African countries this year - Ivory Coast, Niger, Cameroon, Senegal and Burkina Faso. United Nations officials have warned that food prices are likely to keep rising. http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/Politics/0,,2-7-12_2362681,00.html Cosatu protests hit 4 provinces 23/07/2008 14:57 - (SA) Johannesburg - Tens of thousands of workers downed tools in four provinces on Wednesday to voice their "disgust" with rising living costs. Commuters were left stranded while mining industries and essential services ground to a near halt as the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) flexed its muscles in Johannesburg, the Eastern Cape, Limpopo and North West. "Together we have formed a broad coalition of organisations prepared to register their disgust at the spiralling cost of living affecting people," Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi told some 25 000 workers at a Johannesburg march. Cosatu handed over a memorandum of demands to Eskom's general manager in the central region, Hugh McGibbon, at the electricity utility's office in Braamfontein, Johannesburg. "We know the increase in electricity prices has affected the working class and we are working with stakeholders to minimise the effect," McGibbon told protesters chanting "no to electricity hikes", referring to a 27.5% increase in Eskom tariffs. The document detailed demands that workers not be retrenched as a result of power cuts and called on the government to invest in the development of alternative energy sources. Four cities brought to a standstill Earlier, Vavi told protesters that the stayaway had brought cities in four provinces to a standstill. He said those who complained about disruptions should be thankful that there was a solid trade union movement that could organise workers in a disciplined way. The marches all proceeded peacefully amid a strong police presence. Meanwhile, Ipsos Markinor released a survey concluding that Cosatu members had good reason to protest. The survey found that the majority of Cosatu members did not think the government was handling rising costs well. Some 66% of Cosatu members questioned believed that the government was "not at all handling the increase in the petrol price well". Another 68% felt the same about rising food prices while 54% said the electricity crisis was not being handled well. The findings of the study were based on answers received in the Pulse of the People series, a survey taken every six months by Ipsos Markinor among 3 500 South Africans from all provinces, language groups and religions. The opinions of Cosatu members were filtered out from the total survey. http://africa.reuters.com/business/news/usnBAN345817.html South African workers protest, mines halted Wed 23 Jul 2008, 11:46 GMT By James Macharia JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Thousands of striking South African workers brought mines and businesses to a halt on Wednesday across four provinces to protest against a jump in electricity, food and fuel prices. Carrying placards reading "Away with high food prices!" and "Down with high fuel prices!" the protesters snarled traffic in central Johannesburg. The one-day walkout is part of a series of rolling strikes being held around the country, Africa's biggest economy, by labour unions to protest against rising inflation, high interest rates and likely job cuts after a power crisis engulfed the country this year. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and its allies, including mineworkers, want to pressure the government to tilt policy to the left. Union leaders warned cabinet ministers to heed their demands or be swept aside. COSATU, an ally of the ruling ANC, said its nearly two million members wanted government to pay more attention to workers. "We don't want to pay tax on bread, salt, paraffin and fish oil," Zwelinzima Vavi, COSATU's General Secretary told about 25,000 workers at a rally outside offices owned by state power utility Eskom in Johannesburg. "To the Finance Minister, we say you are not indispensable." COSATU plans to hold a national strike on August 6, when the country's mines and other businesses are expected to halt. A sharp rise in the price of petrol, milk and bread, and a series of interest rate hikes meant to curb inflation have stoked labour's determination to change government policies. There is rising political tension in South Africa and fear of an economic downturn. Growth has averaged about 5 percent in recent years but dropped sharply in the first quarter of 2008 as the impact of the power crisis hurt mines and manufacturing. The strike shut mines and car makers, disrupted textile factories and brought business to a standstill in Gauteng, the province in which South Africa's commercial capital Johannesburg is located, the Eastern Cape, North West and Limpopo provinces. MINES SHUT The country's top three gold producers AngloGold Ashanti, the world's third largest gold producer, Gold Fields and Harmony Gold said some of their mines had been shut and others partially affected. Anglo Platinum, the world's top producer of the precious metal, was largely unaffected. Economists said little could be done to change policy. "It causes an air of instability in the country when it hurts production," Russell Lamberti, an economist at ETM said. "I doubt, however, that there is any chance of a change of policy to sort out price increases. A price cap would distort the market, while we in South Africa are still paying low electricity prices by global standards. If Eskom is not allowed to raise prices, their business will become unviable." Car maker Volkswagen's main South African factory, near the eastern port city of Port Elizabeth, was shut, as were those of Ford Motor Company and Daimler AG. Unions fear job losses linked to the electricity crisis that began in January when a near collapse of the system led to a five-day shut down of platinum and gold mines. Eskom has been rationing electricity to large industrial customers since then, with mining houses threatening to shed jobs because of lower output. Critics blame President Thabo Mbeki's government for not investing in power generation. Unions say their workers should not be made to pay for the government's lack of planning. A 27.5 percent hike in power tariffs has further annoyed unions. http://www.fin24.com/articles/default/display_article.aspx?Nav=ns&ArticleID=1518-24_2362626 Gold firms hammered by protest Jul 23 2008 2:00PM Johannesburg - Gold producers with operations on the Witwatersrand were the hardest hit by Wednesday's stay-away by members of Congress of Trade Unions of SA (Cosatu). Cosatu protested in Gauteng, the North West, Limpopo and the Eastern Cape on Wednesday as part of its series of one-day protests in each province, culminating in a nationwide stay-away on August 6. Trade union members are protesting against rising food, fuel and electricity prices, which are fast eroding their members' monthly income. Gold Fields said 91% of underground night and morning shifts at its Kloof operations were absent from work, and while attendance in mechanised areas of South Deep was 90%, there was almost no attendance in other areas of the mine. Gold Fields spokesperson Daniel Thole said it was "too early to assess the impact on production", but added that typical approximate daily production at Kloof was about 95kg. "We anticipate all operations to be back to normal by tonight," Thole said. At Harmony Gold Mining Gauteng and North West, mines and surface operations supported the strike. "We have contractors at work at some of the operations; we also have some of our plants processing for the next 12 hours," said Harmony spokesperson Amelia Soares, who added that mineworkers should return to work tonight to commence the night shift. She said between 30kg and 32kg of gold would be lost. AngloGold Ashanti reported little impact with its three major mining operations in the affected areas reportedly unaffected. http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Business%20Report&fArticleId=4521837 Food protests affect Harmony operations July 23, 2008 Johannesburg - Harmony Gold's operations in Gauteng and the North West Province have been hit by Thursday's strike. "All operations in the two provinces have been affected," Harmony spokeswoman Amelia Soares said. "However, our contractors are at work - but the mine workers are on strike." Harmony is the fifth largest gold producer in the world. The Congress of SA Trade Unions was staging a one-day stay away against rising food and electricity prices in Limpopo, North West, Eastern Cape and Gauteng on Wednesday. - Sapa http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Top&set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=nw20080723105042415C818531 Protesters paint Joburg red July 23 2008 at 10:51AM Hundreds of protesters started arriving in the Johannesburg city centre ahead of a Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) protest against rising electricity and fuel prices on Wednesday. Cosatu members gathered at the Beyers Naude square carried signs saying "Away with food prices" and "Away with high fuel prices". Others were holding up placards complaining about a 27,5 percent hike in electricity prices. Protesters, dressed in red T-shirts, were singing songs and blowing on vuvuzelas as a strong police contingent kept a close watch. Commuters have been left stranded as most taxi, bus and train operators are expected to join in the Johannesburg march which would see road closures in the city centre from 11am until 3pm. "But we have made arrangements for those coming to the march. They will be bussed in," said Gauteng Cosatu secretary Siphiwe Mgcina. Soweto commuter George Myeza said he left home later than usual because he knew it would not be easy to commute to his workplace in Victory Park, Johannesburg. "There were only a few taxis but the real problem is the trains not running," Myeza told Sapa. Metro police are expecting at least 10 000 protesters to take part in the march. Members of the Gauteng African National Congress are also participating. Cosatu, which held protests in the Free State, Northern Cape and Mpumalanga last week, is also staging protests in the Eastern Cape, Limpopo and North West on Wednesday. A national stayaway is planned for August 6. - Sapa http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?from=rss_The%20Star&fArticleId=4521975 Protesters stream into city centre over high prices July 23, 2008 Edition 4 Staff Reporters and Sapa Thousands of Cosatu members today descended on Beyers Naude Square in the Joburg city centre from where they were to march in protest against rising food and electricity prices. Scores of commuters were left stranded as many taxi and bus drivers adhered to the one-day stayaway, also taking place in the Eastern Cape, Limpopo and North West. Train services were hit hard and Metrorail spokesperson Sibusiso Ngomane said it was because most of their drivers, who belong to the Cosatu-affiliated SA Transport and Allied Workers' Union, had taken the day off to join the strike. Essential services were not expected to be affected by the strike. The Johannesburg Hospital reported a full complement of workers this morning and were not expecting any trouble. Metro police spokesperson Edna Momonyane said they, together with the SA Police Service, were ready to take control of the march. Their presence was visible at the gathering point. It was not clear which schools were not open. Children in Soweto and in the city were seen earlier this morning walking to school. By 11am about 4 000 protesters had arrived at the square as union leaders were preparing to address them before they proceeded to Eskom's offices in Braamfotein to deliver a memorandum. The march was to proceed to the Local Government offices in Sauer Street to deliver another memorandum. Clad in union T-shirts and waving banners and placards denouncing the escalating food, fuel and electricity prices, protesters sang freedom songs, shouted slogans and blew vuvuzelas. "No to 27,5% Eskom tariff increase", "Away with high food prices", and "No to high interest rates", some of the placards said. The Cosatu-driven strike is part of a countrywide build up to a national stayaway scheduled to bring the country to a halt on August 6. This morning, hordes of people swarmed into the city centre shortly before the 11am scheduled start of the march. Busloads arrived from as far as Carltonville, Randfontein and other mining towns around the city, trickling in as early as 9am. Cosatu's Gauteng chairperson Mosanku Tseki said about 60 000 workers were expected to participate in today's event. Among the protesters was 39-year-old Charmaine van Schalkwyk of Eldorado Park, south of Joburg. "I've come to support the strike because I am unemployed, and my husband can no longer afford to provide the family with food and other basic needs," she said. Hlengiwe Sithole, who lives in the CBD and works at the Home Affairs Department said: "I'm joining the strike because of the high inflation rate. We want the government to do something about it, because even the 10,9% increase we got this year, makes no difference." Commuters from Soweto waited for hours in long queues, with others getting lifts from motorists driving into the city. Hundreds more were left stranded at the usually busy Noord Street taxi rank. According to Cosatu provincial secretary Siphiwe Mgcina, commuters were left stranded because most taxi, bus and train operators had joined the march. One of many people affected was Soweto resident Puseletso Mafilikoane, who waited at the Bara taxi rank hoping for a miracle this morning, knowing that taxis had been disrupted. She waited for more than two hours with some colleagues, even after a queue marshal told them there would be no taxis. They were scared of losing their jobs at Checkers in Fourways if they did not get to work on time. A depressed Mafilikoane said it had taken her three years to find a job after she passed matric in 2004. "I will do anything to keep my job," she said. The Star visited different businesses in Diagonal, Market and Commissioner streets, where it was business as usual. Shop owners said they would close their businesses if marchers threatened them. SA Chamber of Commerce and Industry CEO Neren Rau said member chambers contacted had reported no problems this morning. Disruptions are also not expected, but the loss of productivity is, he said. "We do expect huge losses to the economy," he added. Anglo American spokesperson Pranill Ramchander said the company's operations were not affected by the strike, as they were outside the strike areas. "Essentially none of our coal operations are affected." Cosatu has held protests in the Free State, Northern Cape and Mpumalanga, leading up to the national stayaway. http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_South%20Africa&set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=nw20080806141515584C557620 Protesters 'burn tyres' in Johannesburg August 06 2008 at 02:27PM Metro police have dispersed 2000 protesters who were burning tyres on the Honeydew stretch of Beyers Naude Drive in Johannesburg on Wednesday. Spokesperson Wayne Minnaar said police addressed the crowd who had gathered in support of the Congress of SA Trade Unions' march over rising electricity prices, and asked them to disperse. The crowed complied with the request and police removed the burning tyres. "We are going to monitor the situation the whole day because these protesters might return," Minnaar said. Metro police and the SA Police Service were on the scene. Earlier on Wednesday the protesters danced and sung in the road, blocking Beyers Naude Drive as far as Peter Road in Honeydew, said Minnaar. "Beyers Naude has since been opened and the traffic is flowing freely," he said. - Sapa http://www.sabcnews.com/africa/west_africa/0,2172,173018,00.html Thousands protest in Niger against power, food woe July 10, 2008, 20:30 Around 30 000 people marched through Niger's capital Niamey to protest against the high cost of living and electricity blackouts caused by disruptions in power supplies from neighbouring Nigeria. It was one of the biggest public protests seen in recent years in the landlocked Sahel state, which is a leading world exporter of uranium but, like many African nations, has suffered the squeeze of sharp increases in oil and food prices. Witnesses said the protesters shouted slogans complaining about the high cost of basic food products and about frequent daily power outages which have been affecting Niamey and other cities in the former French colony over the last two months. Niger's national electricity company, NIGELEC, imports 90% of its needs from neighbouring Nigeria, Sub-Saharan Africa's biggest oil producer. It has recently suffered serious disruptions in these supplies, causing the blackouts. "Niger is in danger and the authorities must snap out of their indifference towards NIGELEC's catastrophic situation and the high cost of living," said Badje Hima, coordinator of the Citizens' Convergence coalition which organised the march. Hima said it made no sense for Niger, a top supplier to the world of the nuclear reactor fuel uranium, to be suffering power shortages. The coalition was demanding that the government negotiate the acquisition of a nuclear power plant for the country, so it could have an independent supply of energy. In addition to power and food cost problems, Niger's government is also faced with a rebellion by Tuareg-led rebels in the uranium-producing northern Agadez region. These nomadic insurgents, grouped in the rebel Niger Justice Movement (MNJ), have since last year attacked army posts and convoys, killed at least 70 government troops and briefly abducted employees of uranium companies from France and China. President Mamadou Tandja's government, which dismisses the MNJ rebels as bandits and smugglers of arms and drugs, has ruled out any negotiations unless they first lay down their arms. It says the armed forces have killed at least 200 rebel fighters. Stoking social tensions in Niger, prices of food staples like rice, maize and sorghum have risen more than 20 percent since the beginning of the year, driven up by soaring world grain and oil prices that have triggered a global food crisis. One in five children dies before their fifth birthday in Niger, one of the world's poorest nations, and aid agencies fear rising food prices could put decent nutrition beyond the reach of several million people even if the next harvest is good. The country suffered a humanitarian emergency in 2005 that threatened 3.5 million people with famine after drought and locusts the previous year wiped out crops in many villages. - Reuters http://news.morningstar.com/newsnet/ViewNews.aspx?article=/DJ/200807281109DOWJONESDJONLINE000387_univ.xml Swaziland Unions Plan September Protests Over Food Prices7-28-08 11:09 AM EDT | E-mail Article | Print Article MBABANE, Swaziland (AFP)--Trade union members in Swaziland are to stage a mass protest in September to voice their anger at rising food prices, the country's main labor federation announced Monday. Jan Sithole, general secretary of the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions, said members would take to the streets from Sept. 3 to Sept. 4 after the government failed to reply to a letter outlining their grievances. "We have already written to the Labor Advisory Board notifying them of the intended action," Sithole told AFP. "Given government's failure to respond to our concerns and the ever increasing food prices that have greatly affected our members, we have since resolved to embark on a staggered action. The first installment is slated for Sept. 3 to Sept. 4," Sithole said. The unions also want the government to reverse a ban on political parties contesting a parliamentary election taking place later this year in Africa's last absolute monarchy. "We want the 2008 elections and beyond to be held under a multi-party system," said Sithole. Swaziland, which celebrates its 40th anniversary of independence from the U.K. on Sept. 6, is one of Africa's poorest nations with more than two-thirds of its 1 million people living below the poverty line. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Wed Aug 27 06:51:03 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:51:03 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] KOREA protests against free trade, April-June Message-ID: <003101c9084b$f3e4fe50$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES ? Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ South Korea has been gripped by a months-long wave of demonstrations over the resumption of imports of American beef, deemed by social movements to be a risk of importing mad cow disease. The beef issue is a catalyst for broader anger about free trade with America, the policies of the current conservative government and the exclusion of popular movements from power. * Protests have been organised nearly daily since April 18 when a deal was reached with America * Protesters have gathered for mainly night-time, candlelight vigils from May through to August * Protests are reported as growing in size to over 10,000 in mid-May * Farmers also protested against the free trade deal in May * Police escalated repression in late May-early June, arresting protesters * The repression triggered clashes with protesters who sought to march on the presidential palace and cut their way through police barricades * George W. Bush's visit in early June was a trigger for further protests * The anniversary of the June 10 transition to democracy was marked by the biggest protests yet, with between 80,000 and 500,000 protesting; some stormed a barrier * On June 11 worker activists blocked a major road * One protester has died after self-immolating * With protests growing, the government offered to resign and tried to renegotiate the trade deal http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/south-koreans-protest-us-beef/story.aspx?guid=%7B268628D5-9889-4954-8E3E-8A361A6194FD%7D&dist=msr_1 South Koreans protest U.S. beef as unsafe Government trying to ease concerns amid flurry of Internet rumors By Sue Chang, MarketWatch Last update: 2:43 p.m. EDT May 10, 2008 Comments: 65 SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Protestors gathered Friday night in various cities across South Korea to denounce their government's decision to ease restrictions on U.S. beef amid widespread fears the meat could be contaminated with mad cow disease. In Seoul, some 10,000 people attended a candlelight vigil, according to Korean media reports. Such vigils have become a popular form of protest in recent years. Public fears over the safety of U.S. beef have been fueled by unsubstantiated Internet reports, with the South Korean government aggressively trying to ease such concerns. Last week, Prime Minister Han Seung-soo told the nation that if there is the slightest indication U.S. beef is unsafe, the government will take immediate action to reinstate an import ban. The government also released a 10-point memo last week refuting many of the rumors circulating via the Internet, including claims that Koreans are genetically more susceptible to the human form of the mad cow disease. How President Lee Myung-bak handles the U.S. beef controversy is expected to be a critical litmus test of his leadership and an indication of whether he can achieve a balance between his pro-U.S. stance and sometimes anti-U.S. public opinion. South Korea last month agreed to allow import of beef on the bone from cattle under 30-months-old and further relax regulations to import meat from cattle older than 30 months if the U.S. strengthens control on feed. South Korea, once one of the largest markets for U.S. beef, banned its import in 2003 after a case of mad cow disease was discovered in the state of Washington. It subsequently eased regulations in 2006 to allow the import of boneless beef from some types of cattle. Sue Chang is a MarketWatch reporter in San Francisco. http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200805/200805060009.html Public Protests Grow Over U.S. Beef Imports The Korean government has announced plans to reopen inspections of U.S. beef from May 15. It will be the first time in seven months for American beef to return to store shelves after inspections were suspended last October after the discovery of banned bone-in beef in shipments. By mid-June more beef cuts which have been banned for nearly five years, including those with bones and from cattle over 30 months old, will enter the Korean market. Seoul's announcement comes on the heels of an emergency press conference held by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington on Sunday in a bid to quell growing public fears over the safety of American beef. Aware of discontent over the resumption of the U.S. beef trade, Under Secretary for Food Safety Dr. Richard Raymond gave assurances of high standards of safety in the butchering and packaging of beef. "It provides for Korea's sovereign right to conduct an audit of our facilities and to work with U.S. Department of Agriculture inspection authorities if any food safety concerns are identified," Raymond said. His comments however did little to allay escalating concerns in Korea with protests taking place in downtown Seoul calling on the government to call off the beef deal. Echoing such sentiment, the opposition United Democratic Party stressed the need to fully review the government's decision and pledged to pass a law that can monitor and regulate U.S. beef imports. Their statement was met by strong objections from the ruling Grand National Party which opposes renegotiation, saying only that it will take steps to ease worries and clear up any distorted perceptions among Korean consumers. To further assure the public, the agriculture ministry plans to send four teams of inspectors to the U.S. later this month to verify conditions at 31 meat processing plants approved for exports. But the beef deal has also unnerved cattle farmers here who will be forced to compete with cheaper beef. In anticipation of the flood of imports prices of homegrown beef have plunged by almost 10 percent since the middle of April. http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200805/200805300018.html Massive Protests Send Message to President Lee Over 10,000 people gathered in downtown Seoul to protest against the resumption U.S. beef imports on Thursday, marking a sixth day of demonstrations that blocked the roads of the capital. Civic groups organized a candlelight vigil at 7 p.m. in Seoul Plaza in front of City Hall that drew many university students, with the flags of major universities like Korea, Sungkyunkwan, and Ewha prominently visible in the crowd. Democratic Labor Party lawmaker Kang Ki-kab said the government ?ignored public opinion? when it decided to go ahead with the announcement of new import rules for beef. Demonstrators shouted slogans like, ?Nullify the agreement, and withdraw the announcement? and ?Withdraw the announcement, it will be judged by the people.? Led by an anti-Lee Myung-bak group that took to the streets around 8:30 p.m., protesters marched from Euljiro 1-ga and Gwanggyo through Jongno 2-ga and 3-ga, back to Euljiro and on to Jongno 1-ga. They eventually occupied the eight-lane avenue in front of the Gwanghwamun Post Office and attempted to enter Sejongno, which leads to Gwanghwamun. But police barricaded the street with police busses while 105 companies of altogether 9,000 police officers were stationed in the Gwanghwamun area, the largest number since the candlelight vigils started. People shout slogans during an anti-government rally denouncing U.S. beef imports and President Lee Myung-bak in front of the city hall in Seoul on Thursday. South Korea will start quarantine inspections on U.S. beef, which will lead next week to a full resumption of American beef imports for the first time in more than four years, Seoul's farm ministry said on Thursday. The green banner reads, "Lee Myung-bak out". /REUTERS Choi Bo-sig from the Chosun Ilbo?s National/Politics News Desk observed the protests during the past five days. Here is his account of the events: What is noticeable in this rally is that it is not centrally controlled. Even though there may be some groups who are leading the demonstration, they are failing to drive the people into a single direction. Most participants seem to believe misinformation on U.S. beef available online, and came out because of genuine indignation. When police blocked the crowds from entering the roads on Sunday night, a woman in her 30s with a baby on her back asked officers if they wanted their children to eat U.S. beef. ?I came here to protect my child,? she said. Around 1 a.m., five middle school students were debating whether they should go home or stay. ?It?s not cowardly to go home now because we?re going to come again tomorrow,? one of the girls told the boys. This emotional innocence seemed impervious to logic. For them, occupying the roads does not seem so wrong compared to the government?s indifference to people?s legitimate demands. The World Cup experience, of huge crowds going out into the streets and supporting the Korean national football team, also fed into this demonstration. ?I love this country because when something happens everyone comes out into the streets,? one protestor said. In this Monday May 26 file photo, a protester walks in front of an anti-U.S. imported beef banner in Seoul. The Korean reads: "Don't Want to Eat Mad Cow Disease Beef." /AP A police officer said police are uncomfortable about having to forcefully disperse crowds made up of ordinary citizens -- middle and high school students, salarymen on their way home, women wearing high heels and miniskirts. ?There is no channel for dialogue,? an officer complained. It was impressive to see workers who would have to be up early the next morning take part until late at night. One 31-year-old office worker who gave his name as Kim stayed with the demonstrators until 2:30 a.m. on Tuesday. Kim, who voted for President Lee Myung-bak, said he knows that there is only a slim chance of being infected with mad cow disease from eating U.S. beef. ?But the president did not seek any understanding from the citizens, and didn?t consult public opinion when so many people were concerned and fearful about it,? he said. ? That clearly shows what he thinks of the masses. He believes the people are his employees who should follow the decision made by the CEO of the country. I regret my vote every day,? Kim said. That perhaps sums up what is really in the minds of the people who were swarming through the heart of the capital. The government fatally missed it. (englishnews at chosun.com ) http://www.chinapost.com.tw/international/americas/2008/05/29/158586/S%2E%2DKorean.htm S. Korean police detain protesters of U.S. beef By Kwang-tae Kim, AP Thursday, May 29, 2008 SEOUL, South Korea -- Police detained more than 100 protesters Wednesday after they took part in night-time rally against a deal to allow beef imports from the United States. It was the largest number taken into custody so far amid weeks of demonstrations that have stymied the government's plan to end restrictions on imports of American beef imposed over four years ago due to fears of mad cow disease. A total of 113 people were apprehended and were being questioned, said a Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency officer. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media. Thousands of South Koreans have held candlelight protests and street rallies on a near-daily basis since the April 18 deal to resume U.S. beef imports. Crowds have occasionally reached up to 10,000. The protesters want the government to renegotiate the accord, which they say does not adequately protect the country from beef infected with mad cow disease. South Korea slapped a ban on U.S. beef imports in December 2003 after the first U.S. case of mad cow disease was discovered in the state of Washington. Two more cases were later discovered. The rallies began in early May and are largely centered on downtown Seoul. They have been mostly peaceful, though tensions flared this week after the government instructed police to take a harder line. Protesters accuse the government of ignoring their concerns about food safety and acting arrogantly. Media reports and Internet rumors have fueled fears about the safety of U.S. beef, which both governments have repeatedly said poses no health risk. The arrests Wednesday came after scuffling erupted at a rally that began Tuesday evening and drew some 2,000 people. The protests have forced the government to delay the final administrative step necessary to allow the imports. The latest detentions bring to 210 the number of people this week, though 68 have been released, the police officer said. The protests are emerging as a major headache for President Lee Myung-bak, who took office three months ago. Lee last week sought to reassure the country over the safety of U.S. beef, but failed to ease public anger. Critics accuse Lee, who was making a state visit to China, of making too many concessions on the beef issue to prompt the U.S. Congress to approve a bilateral free trade agreement. http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/27/asia/beef.php More protests and arrests in Korea over U.S. beef imports The Associated Press Published: May 27, 2008 SEOUL: Thousands of protesters marched through Seoul against a U.S. beef import pact that has renewed fears about mad cow disease. The police said Tuesday that 29 demonstrators were arrested after scuffling erupted. The police estimated that 3,000 people held a candlelight vigil on Monday night before embarking on the march. "Nullify the agreement," the protesters chanted as they were stopped by some of the 7,000 riot police officers blocking off streets. The rally ended early Tuesday morning as the police dispersed the protesters, leading to clashes but no serious injuries, officials said. Twenty-nine protesters were detained, according to a police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk with the media. The latest arrests came hours after the police freed 36 out of 68 demonstrators detained at separate, related rallies on Sunday. Thousands of South Koreans have held similar vigils and street rallies on a near daily basis against the April 18 deal to resume U.S. beef imports. The protests are one of the biggest domestic challenges faced so far by President Lee Myung Bak, who took office three months ago. Lee sought to reassure the country over the safety of U.S. beef last week but failed to ease public anger. Lee, who was scheduled to leave Tuesday for a visit to China, has been criticized for making too many concessions on the beef issue to prompt the U.S. Congress to approve a free trade agreement. South Korea and the United States agreed to the accord last year to cut tariffs and other trade barriers, but the deal must still be endorsed. South Korea suspended U.S. beef imports after the first American case of mad cow disease appeared in December 2003 in a Canadian-born cow in Washington State. Three cases have been discovered in the United States. After protracted negotiations, restricted imports of U.S. beef reached South Korean supermarkets last year, but further shipments were canceled in October after banned parts, such as bones, were found. The new beef agreement scrapped nearly all the quarantine restrictions imposed by the previous government. Scientists believe that mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, spreads when farmers feed cattle with recycled meat and bones from infected animals. In humans, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare and fatal malady, is linked to eating contaminated meat. http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200805/200805230022.html Farmers in Massive Protests Against FTA With U.S. Downtown Seoul saw massive demonstrations by farmers against the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement and import of U.S. beef on Thursday. Some 8,000 farmers from 42 groups nationwide including the Hanwoo Association gathered at 2 p.m. in Yeouido Park, near the National Assembly. These farmers came to Seoul from all corners of the country on over 200 buses. These buses parked randomly near the park, and caused extreme traffic jam around Yeouido. The participants sat in rows and shouted, ?Do not pass the FTA bill? and ?No U.S. Beef to Korea.? More than 8,000 farmers gather in Yeouido Park on Thursday afternoon to protest against the reopening of the Korean market to the U.S. beef. /Yonhap A farmer who gave his name as Kim (64) and had come from Gimcheon, North Gyeongsang Province, said, ?I have to plant rice tomorrow: May is a very busy month for farmers and we actually have no time for this. But my colleagues and I had to come because we felt so distressed by the situation.? ?We got onboard at 7 a.m. and it took us five hours to get here.? A livestock farmer who identified himself as Lee (63) flew in from Jeju Island. ?I have raised cattle and pigs for 35 years, and this is my first time coming out to a demonstration,? he said. ?I have made W50 million of losses in just five months because the price of animal feed skyrocketed (US$1=W1,044).? The farmers argue that the government failed to take steps to protect them while pushing for the FTA with the United States. Another farmer also named Kim (68), who cultivates rice on 20,000 sq.m. of land in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, stressed that farmers do not always oppose FTAs. However, he emphasized that the government should have taken thorough protective measures for farmers and given them some time to prepare. ?The National Assembly should not push the ratification through before measures to provide support to affected farmers have been devised,? he added. Police dispatched 74 companies of altogether 7,000 officers to Yeouido around the National Assembly and the Yeouido Park. The demonstration ended without any clashes around 5 p.m. Afterwards, some 800 farmers moved to the Cheonggye Plaza to join a candlelight vigil in opposition to the import of U.S. beef. http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200805/200805270016.html Beef Protestors Continue Occupations A student shouts slogan during an anti-U.S. imported beef rally against a beef import agreement with the United States in Seoul, South Korea on Monday. The Korean read " Null Agreement."/AP Candlelight vigils against import of U.S. beef are turning into illegal occupations. For the third consecutive day, protesters on Monday occupied the streets and shouted anti-government slogans like ?Impeach Lee Myung-bak? and ?Life has become too tough, let?s change the government.? Police on Monday released 36 people arrested on Saturday and said it decided to investigate them without detention as they could not be seen as instigators and the degree of their involvement was low. Some 3,000 people who took part in the candlelight vigil in the Cheonggye Plaza on Monday took to the Euljiro boulevard around 9:50 p.m. after the vigil ended and marched to Jongno 2-ga. They occupied the road until after midnight and confronted the police. Police mobilized 80 companies of altogether over 7,000 officers but did not use force to prevent protesters moving into the road. The demonstrators were demanding the release of some 60 people who had been detained on Sunday and a halt to the import of U.S. beef. Leaflets and banners with anti-government slogans such as ?Join in the revolt!? circulated in Cheonggye Plaza. As the candlelight vigils turn illegal, Eo Cheong-soo, commissioner general of the Korean National Police Agency, said demonstrators who committed illegalities will be tracked down and punished. http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200805/200805150022.html Continuing Beef Protests Draw 6,000 Some 6,000 people gathered in the Seoul Plaza in front of the City Hall on Wednesday afternoon for a candlelight vigil protesting the import of U.S. beef. The event was organized by over 1,700 civic groups and online clubs including stalwarts of such events like People?s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU). Thousands of protesters participate in a candle rally in front of City Hall against a recent South Korea-U.S. agreement on the expansion of U.S. beef imports on Wednesday. /AP Protestors cheered the government?s decision to delay the official announcement of new sanitary conditions for U.S. beef imports for seven to 10 days, with organizers saying ?the passion of citizens? achieved half a victory already over the government. They vowed to continue protests until the government decides to renegotiate with the U.S. from scratch. http://www.cattlenetwork.com/Cattle_Processing_Content.asp?ContentID=224273 5/26/2008 6:39:00 AM S Korean Police Detain 68 Protesters Over US Beef Rally SEOUL (AFP) ? Sixty-eight protesters have been detained after participating in street demonstrations against South Korea's decision to resume imports of US beef, police said Monday. Police said 37 people were taken into custody Sunday over an illegal anti-government demonstration following a candle-lit vigil in central Seoul. Another 31 people were detained early Monday when police blocked hundreds of demonstrators from marching towards the office of President Lee Myung-Bak. Thousands of South Koreans have been staging rallies over the past few weeks. They say the government has not secured enough safeguards against the dangers posed by the human form of mad cow disease. The government dismisses the critics' claims as groundless, defending the resumption of imports as a catalyst for a US-South Korean free trade deal to be ratified in the US Congress. Lee apologized last week for failing to ease "mad cow" fears but urged legislators to quickly pass the free trade deal. South Korean Agriculture Minister Chung Woon-Chun is expected to announce the resumption of US beef imports on Tuesday. http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2008/200805/news05/30.htm#12 Suppression of Protest Struggles Criticized in S. Korea Pyongyang, May 29 (KCNA) -- Members of political parties and civic organizations in south Korea, including the Democratic Labor Party and the People's Measure Council against the Total Opening of south Korean Market to American Beef, called a press conference in Seoul on May 26 to condemn the security authorities for having mobilized fully-armed riot policemen to indiscriminately repress the candle-light struggle against the import of American beef. Speakers at the press conference said that the present situation reminds one of the June popular resistance 21 years ago. They stated that the Lee Myung Bak regime is mistaken if it expects that a second June popular resistance will not take place. A press release read out at the conference urged Lee Myung Bak to lend an ear to the voice of the people and behave himself. Meanwhile, the south Korean Federation of University Student Councils called a press conference in front of Yonsei University in Seoul on the same day, demanding that the "government" come out for renegotiations on the import of American beef. The federation declared that 30 student organizations under it would go on a hunger strike in demand of the renegotiations. http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-06/01/content_8294524.htm Anti-U.S. beef protests continue despite crackdown A woman holds a candle during an anti-government rally demanding the renegotiation of the beef deal with U.S., in front of the city hall in Seoul May 30, 2008. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>> SEOUL, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Organizers said thousands of South Koreans were to hold another massive protest in downtown Seoul Sunday against the impending resumption of U.S. beef imports despite the police crackdown, Yonhap news agency reported. About 40,000 people gathered in front of City Hall Saturday for the largest rally since candlelight vigils started in early May. Protester hold banners criticizing the U.S. beef import deal, which they insist is infected with mad cow disease, at a rally in Seoul May 9, 2008.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>> Hundreds who continued protesting until early Sunday morning and tried to march toward the presidential office were forcefully dispersed by the police. Up to 100 citizens and 40 policemen were injured in the clashes, with a male citizen reportedly suffering a cerebral hemorrhage. Witnesses said many citizens were seen bleeding and limping after the clashes with police, Yonhap said. A total of 228 protesters were hauled away by police, with the total number of detainees since the start of the protests reaching over 460. On April 18, Seoul agreed to permit imports of all beef regardless of the age of cattle, except for high-risk parts such as tonsils, brains and spinal cords, for the first time in almost five years. It had banned imports in 2003 following the first U.S. case of mad cow disease. Although the South Korean government has been assuring the public that U.S. beef is safe to eat, concerns have been growing following some sensational media reports and opponent parties' move to use the deal as political leverage against the newly launched government. Anger has intensified since Thursday when the government started a legal process to put the new import terms into effect. Imports are expected to resume as early as this month. President Lee, who won the December election in a landslide, has been suffering from dwindling popularity of below 30 percent amid the beef dispute. http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific_business/view/351186/1/.html 228 arrested as South Korean beef protesters clash with police Posted: 01 June 2008 1153 hrs Riot policemen blast water at protesters SEOUL - Nearly 230 people were arrested early on Sunday as thousands of hardcore South Korean protesters rallying against moves to resume US beef imports fought running battles with police. Riot police carrying shields used water canon and scuffled with angry demonstrators as they broke up an attempt to march on the presidential office overnight, detaining 228. The clashes followed mass protests late on Saturday when some 20,000 people joined a candle-lit vigil against the government's decision to import US beef again after an initial ban in 2003 over mad cow fears. "Police have taken 228 people into custody, and they are subject to interrogation for possible punishment," a Seoul police spokesman told AFP. No serious injuries were reported despite the display of force against thousands of unruly protesters who chanted, "Down with President Lee Myung-Bak," as they confronted thousands of riot police. Seoul agreed in April to lift its intermittent ban on US beef imports, which was first imposed in December 2003 over mad cow disease. But opponents claim the government has not secured safeguards against the alleged dangers posed by the human form of the illness. The resumption of US beef imports was a pre-condition for Washington's approval of a free trade agreement with South Korea, which some analysts say could boost annual trade between the two nations by 20 billion dollars. However, South Korea's parliament failed to ratify the free trade deal before the legislature's four-year term expired Thursday. Protests have snowballed in recent days culminating in Saturday's gathering, where demonstrators carried banners demanding the resignation of President Lee. South Korea's Yonhap news agency said Saturday's demonstration was the largest since mass candlelit protests began a week earlier in Seoul and several other cities across the country. The demonstrations intensified as Agriculture Minister Chung Woon-Chun on Thursday unveiled new rules on imports and for the inspection of US beef, which is expected to go on sale here in the week ahead. - AFP/ir http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200806/200806030022.html Core Protestors Brave Heavy Rain Despite heavy rain, demonstrations against the import of U.S. beef went ahead on Monday evening in downtown Seoul. Because of bad weather, police estimate only some 1,500 people gathered in the Seoul Plaza, or 3,000 according to the organizers. Demonstrators assembled as usual in Seoul Plaza and from there marched to Gwanghwamun at around 8:30 p.m. They continued to Jongno 1-ga, Euljiro, Sungnyemun, and returned to the Seoul Plaza, voluntarily dispersing at around 10 p.m. Police outnumbered protestors, deploying 50 companies of altogether more than 4,000 officers. Korean students and residents hold a candlelight vigil in the Place du Trocadero in Paris on Sunday afternoon. /Yonhap Meanwhile, overseas Koreans in Paris, Berlin, and Auckland, New Zealand, also organized candlelight vigils. Some 150 Koreans studying or living in Paris gathered in the Place du Trocadero across from the Eiffel Tower for two hours. The protesters held banners with slogans such as ?We protest the import of U.S. beef,? and ?Way to go, protesters in Korea? and denounced the Korean police for using water cannon at demonstrators. They also voiced opposition to the Grand Canal project of the Lee Myung-bak administration. About 80 Koreans came out to the Breitscheidplatz in downtown Berlin. About 200 Koreans braved the rain at a rally in front of the Aotea Centre in Auckland, criticizing the Lee Myung-bak administration and calling for a stop to the import of U.S. beef. http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific_business/view/351365/1/.html 200 South Korean beef protesters arrested in new clashes with police Posted: 02 June 2008 1557 hrs Photos 2 of 2 A protester at a rally against the South Korean government's plan to resume importing US beef Related News ? 228 arrested as South Korean beef protesters clash with police ? Candle-lit protest against US beef imports intensifies in Seoul ? South Korean opposition threatens court action against US beef ? SKorea resumes US beef imports as protesters vow to continue with rallies ? SKorea's parliament dissolves, fails to ratify US trade deal SEOUL: South Korean police detained 70 anti-US beef protesters in fresh clashes early on Monday, taking the total arrested to more than 500 in days of intensifying rallies. Shield-carrying riot police set off hand-held fire extinguishers to disperse thousands of protesters for the second night running after similar scenes late on Saturday and Sunday morning. Daily protests escalated over the weekend with tens of thousands joining a candlelit vigil on Saturday which degenerated into violence as thousands of hardcore activists tried to march on the presidential office. A Seoul police spokesman told AFP the latest arrests brought the total number of arrests to 545 since May 24. Police have released 224 protesters and brought 21 to a summary court for violence offences, with the rest under interrogation. No serious injuries have been reported. Seoul agreed in April to lift its intermittent ban on US beef imports, which was first imposed in December 2003 over mad cow disease. American beef is expected to go on sale here this or next week. But opponents claim the government has not secured safeguards against the alleged dangers posed by the human form of the illness. The resumption of US beef imports was a pre-condition for Washington's approval of a free trade agreement with South Korea, which some analysts say could boost annual trade between the two nations by 20 billion US dollars. However, South Korea's parliament failed to ratify the free trade deal before the legislature's four-year term expired Thursday. The demonstrations grew on Thursday as Agriculture Minister Chung Woon-Chun unveiled new rules on imports and for the inspection of US beef. - AFP/ac http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-06/02/content_8298170.htm Protesters dispersed by police near presidential office in Seoul www.chinaview.cn 2008-06-02 08:53:22 Print SEOUL, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Just a day ahead of South Korea's formal resumption of U.S. beef imports, some 20,000 protesters scuffled with riot squads early Monday and hauled police vehicles away as they tried to clear the way to the presidential complex in Seoul. The protest came to a violent end when the police mobilized over 7,000 officers to break up the crowd with clubs and riot shields only several hundred meters away from Cheong Wa Dae, the presidential office. It was the latest street rally calling on the government to retract its decision to allow U.S. beef imports. Seoul government agreed on April 18 to almost fully reopen its market to U.S. beef despite concerns it could also allow parts including bones and sections of intestines that are feared to trigger mad cow disease. The disease, also known as bovine spongiform scephalopathy, is found in a rare number of cows and believed to cause Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, a fatal human malady associated with sponge-like brain degeneration. After a series of delays, Seoul went ahead last week with an official announcement that it would begin the resumption on Tuesday, which also marks the 100th day since President Lee Myung-bak took office. Lee, a conservative who won the December election in a landslide, has been accused of granting Washington the beef deal as part of diplomatic gestures aimed at boosting his April summit with U.S. President George W. Bush. On Sunday, some 30,000 protesters began a candlelight rally in central Seoul, with huge portions of them later marching toward Lee's office through a thoroughfare next to the U.S. embassy. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view/20080806-152965/South-Korea-arrests-167-after-anti-Bush-protests South Korea arrests 167 after anti-Bush protests Agence France-Presse First Posted 08:25:00 08/06/2008 SEOUL -- South Korean police used water cannon and arrested 167 people to break up protests in the evening and overnight against the visit of US President George W. Bush, officers said Wednesday. A total of 155 people were arrested overnight, a spokesman for the National Police Agency told AFP. Twelve others were held earlier for staging an anti-war rally at a military airport near Seoul, where Air Force One landed Tuesday evening. Demonstrators protesting against Korea's resumption of US beef imports and against Bush's visit held a peaceful candlelit rally in a central Seoul plaza later in the evening. Police fired water cannon, laced with tear-causing chemicals and dye to identify offenders, after the crowd dispersed into neighboring streets. Unauthorized political protest marches after sunset are illegal in South Korea. Police said 2,700 people took part in the candlelit rally while organizers put the number at 10,000. "Down with Lee Myung-Bak!" and "We oppose Bush's trip," demonstrators chanted. A student trampled on a picture of Bush and South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak bearing the slogan: "No Bush. No mad cow." Police have stationed about 7,000 officers to guard Bush while 17,000 more are being deployed to control protests. South Korea's April decision to resume US beef imports, which were suspended in 2003 over mad cow disease fears, sparked months of street protests. The rallies largely subsided after Seoul secured extra health safeguards for US beef imports. Attendance Tuesday was tiny compared to protests earlier in the summer. On Tuesday afternoon some 30,000 military veterans, rightwing activists and conservative Christians staged a rally in support of Bush's visit, according to police estimates. http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/05/bush.arrives/index.html?eref=rss_politics Protests greet Bush in Seoul Story Highlights NEW: Protest organizers say about 10,000 people taking part in demonstrations First stop is South Korea, where U.S. nuclear deal with North Korea is a concern In Thailand, president will make what's being billed as major speech on Asia policy Trip's final stop is in Beijing, China, where president will attend Olympics SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- Thousands of protesters packed the streets of the South Korean capital Tuesday as President Bush arrived for the start of his Asian tour. Protesters clash with police Tuesday during a rally against President Bush's visit to Seoul, South Korea. While some of the demonstrations were peaceful, violence erupted at other protest sites. In one instance, riot police fired a water cannon to keep the crowds at bay. Police said they detained about 80 protesters. They estimated about 2,700 people were participating in the protests, which included a candlelight march and a sit-in. But the organizers said some 10,000 people were taking part in the demonstrations. The weeklong trip will be Bush's ninth visit to the region as president. His stop in the Seoul comes just months after violent street protests erupted over worries about the safety of U.S. beef imports. While those tensions seem to have eased, the U.S. nuclear disarmament deal with North Korea is also a concern. Michael Green, a former Bush adviser on Asian affairs who is now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Seoul's proximity to North Korea contributed to an ongoing unease. "The North Koreans have 11,000 artillery tubes and rockets aimed at the South Korean capital, so any little thing that we do with North Korea makes the South Koreans very jittery," Green said. Don't Miss Bush heads to Asia for talks, Olympics Thousands of demonstrators expected at GOP convention North Korea to expel South Koreans from resort In Depth: Beijing Olympics "On the other hand, the U.S. has to worry a great deal about where terrorists might get nuclear weapons or nuclear material." After South Korea, the president will go to Thailand for what's being billed as a major Asia policy speech. See a map of Bush's itinerary ? He's expected to denounce the military regime in neighboring Myanmar -- also known as Burma -- for its human rights abuses. First lady Laura Bush has fervently taken up the cause, sharply criticizing the regime for its response to a cyclone which killed tens of thousands of people. "The more I've seen, the more critical I see the need is ... for the world to pay attention to the people of Burma, and for the world to put pressure on the military regime," Laura Bush told reporters in a May news conference in the White House briefing room -- the first ever by a first lady. President Bush will continue his Asia tour with a visit to Beijing to attend the 2008 Olympics, a decision critics have blasted, saying his presence gives China a pass on its poor record on human rights and religious freedom. Last week, the president again defended his decision in an interview with China's state-run television network. "I think it's best for U.S.-China's relations that I go. I know it's important for me to send a clear signal to the Chinese people that we respect them," he said. Bush plans to attend a church service in Beijing to deliver what is sure to be a carefully crafted message. "He will have to say something public which is always tricky, how much he spotlights these issues," Green said. "And I think he will not [do it] in an adversarial way." Last week, the president welcomed five Chinese dissidents to the White House, telling them he would carry a "message of freedom" to Beijing. The move drew a sharp rebuke from Chinese leaders, who accused the president of interfering in their country's internal affairs. http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=225594&Sn=WORL&IssueID=31139 Protests greet Bush in Seoul SEOUL: US President George W Bush was greeted in Asia with duelling demonstrations by prayerful, flag-waving supporters and raucous protesters doused by police water cannons yesterday, reflecting sharp political divisions at the outset of his three-nation trip. The mixed reactions reflected a US-South Korean relationship that has endured volatile moments this year, but is still considered reliable and vital for both sides. Bush will meet today with President Lee Myung-bak, a conservative, pro-US leader who took office in February. Lee's approval ratings tumbled when he lifted a ban on US beef despite public fears about its safety. The public outcry prompted street protests that drew attention worldwide earlier this year; Bush held off visiting Seoul around that time because of the unrest. As Bush arrived yesterday, 30,000 people held an outdoor Christian prayer service to support him. His motorcade sped by pockets of people smiling and waving US flags his way. Later, an estimated 20,000 anti-Bush protesters gathered downtown. Riot police blasted them with water cannons as they tried to march onto the main boulevard. Police warned the crowd that the liquid contained markers to tag them so they could be identified later. About 70 demonstrators were arrested and 12 more were arrested near the military airport where Bush landed. "I don't have anti-US sentiment. I'm just anti-Bush and anti-Lee Myung-bak," said Uhm Ki-woong, 36, a businessman who was wearing a mask and hat like other demonstrators in an apparent attempt to conceal his identity from authorities. Despite the protests, the US has a good standing with the Seoul government. The US has quietly maintained a long-term troop presence in South Korea, now numbered at almost 30,000, since intervening in the 1950-1953 Korean War. "The US made sacrifices for South Korea during the Korean War and helped us live well," said Kim Jung-kwang, a 67-year-old retired air force colonel who wore his military uniform to the prayer rally. "The US is not our enemy. Without the US, we will die." Bush is on his ninth trip to Asia; this one is built around the Olympics in Beijing. Bush will also stop in Thailand today. The White House anticipated protests over the beef issue but sought to put them in perspective. US beef has begun appearing again on the South Korean market and is selling. http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200806/200806110014.html Biggest Beef Protests Yet Mark Democratic Anniversary The largest candlelight demonstrations yet against the import of U.S. beef brought hundreds of thousands of protesters to the streets in over 80 cities nationwide on Tuesday, the 21st anniversary of the June 10, 1987 pro-democracy movement. Some 80,000 people gathered in Seoul alone, a figure disputed by the organizers who claim there were in fact 500,000. Conservative groups also held their own rallies supporting the government in the Seoul Plaza in front of the City Hall. The People's Association for Measures Against Mad Cow Disease held a candlelight vigil from 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday on Sejongro to call for a complete withdrawal of the promulgation of sanitary conditions for U.S. beef imports, immediate re-negotiation, and judgment on the Lee Myung-bak administration. Some 80,000 demonstrators occupied two km of a 10-lane road from the Sejongro and the head office of the Samsung Group. From 9:20 p.m., the protesters moved to Seodaemun, Anguk-dong, and Dongnaemun to advance on Cheong Wa Dae. Protesters fill Seoul Plaza in a candlelight vigils against U.S. beef imports commemorating the 21st anniversary of the June 10, 1987 pro-democracy protest. Police confronted them when the demonstrators tried to march towards Cheong Wa Dae. The rallies paralyzed traffic in downtown Seoul until early Wednesday morning. Some 4,000 workers from the Korea Federation of Public Services and Transportation Workers? Union, 2,300 from the Korean Metal Workers' Union, and teachers from the Korea Teachers and Education Workers? Union joined the protesters. Police erected huge barricades with containers in three spots in downtown Seoul since Tuesday morning. Meanwhile, conservative groups including the New Right National Union held a rally at 3 p.m. Tuesday, calling for restoration of order and quick approval of the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement. More than 7,000, according to the police, came out in support of their cause. (englishnews at chosun.com ) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7479560.stm Clashes in Seoul over US beef row At least 13,000 people protested in Seoul, police say South Korean police have used water cannon to disperse thousands of people in the capital Seoul protesting against the resumption of US beef imports. The protests took place as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice insisted in Seoul that US beef was safe to eat. South Korea suspended US beef imports in 2003 after a case of mad cow disease, or BSE, was identified there. Earlier this week, it formally lifted the ban, allowing shipments of meat from young US cattle. An agreement on ending the ban was reached in April and it was due to be lifted in May, but this was twice postponed as protests continued, despite reassurances that US meat was safe. Anger At least 13,000 people demonstrated in Seoul on Saturday, police said. The police erected barricades, using buses to prevent the protesters from marching towards the presidential office. "We don't need US troops, we don't need US mad cows," read some of the slogans. Public anger in South Korea remains high at what is perceived by many as the government's readiness to cave into Washington and ignore health concerns. The latest protest came as Ms Rice was visiting Seoul. "I can only say that American beef is safe and that we hope in time the South Korean people will listen to that, and will be willing to listen to what their government is saying and what we are saying," Ms Rice said. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2008/06/200862943658471818.html Korean beef activists battle police Activists have staged daily protests against the decision to resume US beef imports [AFP] Hundreds of of South Koreans protesting against the resumption of US beef imports have been injured in clashes with riot police. Police fired water cannon and used batons in an attempt to disperse the protesters, some of which were carrying steel pipes and throwing stones, in the capital Seoul. About 15,000 people had gathered for a rally on Saturday night demanding that the government withdraw its decision to lift a ban of American beef. But the protest turned violent when some people used ropes to try and move police buses that were used as barricades to prevent them from marching on the president's Blue House office. Many of the injured suffered head wounds from the stones that were being thrown and were taken to hospitals in ambulances, according to witnesses on the scene. A police spokesman said more than 30 troops were injured in the prolonged overnight clashes, while protest organisers claimed that more than 100 citizens were hurt. Police said that they arrested about 50 protesters on charges of assaulting police and illegally occupying streets. Health fears Activists have held daily protests sparked by the fears of possible health risks, such as mad cow disease, from US beef. Imports were banned in late 2003, when the first case of mad cow disease in the US was discovered. Condoleezza Rice, the US secreatary of state, was inundated with questions about the issue during an official visit to Seoul on Saturday "I want to assure everyone that American beef is safe," she said during a news conference with Yu Myung-hwan, her South Korean counterpart. "We will continue to work with you to have consumer confidence in that matter." In the wake of public outrage over plans to resume shipments of American beef, the South Korean cabinet offered to resign and the president reshuffled his senior advisers. http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200806/200806090012.html Beef Protests Turn Violent Violence marred protests against the import of U.S. beef in Seoul early Sunday morning, when demonstrators for the first time in the ongoing protests wielded iron pipes and wooden planks. An organization calling itself the People's Association for Measures Against Mad Cow Disease organized a candlelight vigil in Seoul Plaza in front of City Hall at 7 p.m. on Saturday. Demonstrators then attempted to march to Cheong Wa Dae after walking from the Gwanghwamun area to Angukro and Dongnimmunro. Police estimated some 42,000 protesters gathered, and the organizers put the number at 200,000. Police deployed 167 companies of altogether 15,000 officers and built barricades with buses to block the approach to Cheong Wa Dae, causing protesters to return to Sejongro and square off with police. After midnight, some protesters attacked officers on the police bus with flagpoles and ladders. Police wielded shields and sprayed them with fire extinguisher. Some demonstrators broke the windows and engines of the police bus with iron pipes and wooden bars. Eleven protesters were arrested, including a 35-year-old man identified as Yoon. One, a teenager, was later freed and 10 are being investigated. Am anti U.S. beef protester brandishes a pipe at police officer inside a bus blocking the way toward Cheong Wa Dae on early Sunday morning. At 7:40 p.m. on Sunday, some 4,000 people, or 30,000 according to the organizers, gathered in Seoul Plaza for a candlelight vigil and marching rally. Justice Minister Kim Kyung-han and Minister of Public Administration and Security Won Se-hoon in a joint emergency statement at 7 p.m. said, ?The government has respected and tolerated the large-scale demonstrations for more than a month because it felt that citizens were exercising their right to expression,? they said. ?However, excessive rallies night and day have paralyzed traffic in nearby areas and are causing serious inconvenience to many citizens.? Kim warned that legal action is inevitable if illegal and violent demonstrations continue at the cost of social stability. (englishnews at chosun.com ) http://www.worldpress.org/feed.cfm?http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10515375&ref=rss S Korean beef protester dies 6:15AM Tuesday June 10, 2008 A South Korean man died in hospital two weeks after setting himself ablaze in protest at a deal to resume US beef imports. Lee Byong Ryol, 40, had received treatment for serious burns since he doused himself with paint thinner and set himself on fire. http://www.nowpublic.com/world/beef-protests-korea-street-democracy-candlight-vigils-storming-barricadeBeef protests in Korea: street democracy, candlight vigils, stormingbarricadeby cynthia yoo | June 11, 2008 at 01:03 pm | 151 views | 1 commentby cynthia yooby nike6The US beef protests in South Korea is reaching fever pitch.Participants and observers are comparing the protests, marches and vigils tothe solidarity movements in Europe and to the Korean democracy movement inthe 1980's.One focal point of the rising 'street democracy' movement is the widestretch of freight container barricade blocking the main Gwanghwamun roadleading to the presidential Blue House and government buildings.Anti-US beef protesters numbering in the tens of thousands gathered in frontof the barricade aka "Myung-bak Fort" (named after President Lee Myung-bak).They gathered to debate whether to take down the barricade or to continuepeaceful protests. Speakers spoke for 7 hours from late Wednesday night toearly Thursday morning.Speakers ranged from movement leaders to any participant who wanted to havetheir say. OhmyNews reported on the marathon-debate:?? ?? ????? ???? ?????, ?? ?? ??? ????. ??? ??? ?? ??? ??? ???.Source: ohmynews.comTrans. "Some spoke reasonably and thoughtfully, others broke down in tears.The thousands protesters cheered and booed throughout."? ? ??? ? ???? ??? ? ???. ???? ???? ???. ???? ??? ???? ??? ???? ??? ??? ??,??? ? ??? ???? ?????? ???? ??? ??? ????? ?? ? ???? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ??? ??????.Source: ohmynews.comTrans. "These debates didn't just take place in front of the barricades,they happened all over. While President Lee Myung-bak slept across from oneside of the barricade, on the other side of the barricade, theGwanghwamun-intersection turned into the Acropolis square and citizens tookcentre state there, staying up all night debating with one another."As speakers and demonstrators debated throughout the night, people startedto carry in giant styrofoam blocks into the intersection. The styrofoamblocks were stacked-up one-by-one to create another barricade in front ofthe "Myung-back Fort." People argued that the Citizens' fort should topMyung-bak's Fort.At the end, Myung-bak's Fort was not taken down.? ??? ??? ???? ??? ??? ???. 11? ?? ? ??? "??? ??? ???? ?? ??? ????????? ????"? "??? ???? ???? ?? ???"? ????. ???? ??? ??? ???.???? ???? ?? ? ? ?? ??? ??? ??? ????. ?????? ?? ??? ????, "???? ????" ???"??? ??"?? ????. ??? ??? ?? ?????? ?? ??? ?? ??? ??? ?????.Source: ohmynews.comTrans. "Citizens complained of the lack of communication with thePresident. One citizen in the early hours of the morning spoke out: "Weshouldn't storm the police barricades. Let's debate the issues on theDaum-Agora website with one another and then decide. And let's follow whatthe majority decides." The audience clapped and cheered in agreement."Looking back, there has been continual protests over the past month. Thecandlelight vigils have turned into street demonstrations. Calls forabandoning unfair negotiations have turned into calls for the PresidentLee's withdrawal and resignation. It is clear that these demonstrationshave entered a new phase."http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-06/11/content_8345589.htmS Korean protesters climb container barricade to oppose U.S. beef importswww.chinaview.cn 2008-06-11 10:24:29 Print SEOUL, June 11 (Xinhua) -- Elements of at least 80,000 protestersagainst South Korea's recent agreement to resume U.S. beef imports raisedmakeshift styrofoam stairs early Wednesday to climb a bulky containerbarricade set up to prevent their march on the presidential complex. More than a dozen protesters waved flags, including the national flag,and unfurled a banner criticizing President Lee Myung-bak, after reachingthe top of the five-meter barricade at the landmark Sejonro Intersection,about a kilometer away from the presidential palace, Yonhap news agencyreported. The protesters also criticized other major plans by the new government,including a cross-country canal project and a set of pro-business economicreforms. The rare scene at the sand-filled containers came early Wednesdaymorning after scuffles erupted among protesters with no serious injuriesreported as they debated for hours whether they should override safetyconcerns to stage their opposition to the April 18 deal between Seoul andWashington. Protesters argue that the deal fails to protect South Koreans from madcow disease because it allows beef from cows 30 months old or above whileparts like bones can be imported. Mad cow disease, also known as bovine spongiform scephalopathy, mostlyhas been found in cattle over the age, while specified risk materials,including intestines, tongues and tails, pose greater risk of transmittingit. The barricade marked the first time that South Korean police have usedcontainers in the capital, as previous protests involved demonstrators usingropes to pull police buses and clear their way to the presidential palace. The scene was reminiscent of a 2005 anti-globalization protest when asimilar barricade was set up against farmers and activists in South Korea'ssecond largest city Busan during a meeting of Asian Pacific leaders there. The rally that began on Tuesday in Seoul, which police estimated 80,000joined, was the largest ever since candlelight vigils began early last monthagainst the April 18 agreement. Amid the daily protests calling for a better deal, Lee phoned his U.S.counterpart George W. Bush on Saturday and asked him to only allow theexport of beef made from cattle younger than 30 months. A top presidential advisor and a group of ruling party lawmakers alsoleft for Washington on Monday to follow up on the phone conversation, whilethe Cabinet has offered to resign over the political crisis aggravated bynose-diving public approval ratings for Lee. The rally in Seoul came on the anniversary of a historic 1987 protestthat led the then-military regime to grant free presidential elections andprompted a series of democratic reforms. The National Police Agency initiated the highest alert that allows about40,000 riot police officers to be mobilized nationwide when authoritiesbelieve public security is severely threatened. Scientists believe mad cow disease leads to the spongy-like degenerationof the brain, medically referred to as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease,when a human contracts the disease by eating infected food. About 200 people have died around the world from the disease, butaccording to the U.S. government, no human infection has been reported fromeating American beef. South Korea has declared it will indefinitely delay putting theAprildeal in effect until Washington or U.S. exporters agree to refrain fromexporting beef from cows aged 30 months or older. Butit has not addressedthe controversy over parts to be imported. The U.S. side has yet to respond formally to South Korea's request. http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jun2008/kore-j12.shtmlSouth Korean government unravels in the face of mass political protestsBy James Cogan12 June 2008Use this version to print | Send this link by email | Email the authorThe conservative Grand National Party (GNP) administration of South KoreanPresident Lee Myung-bak is in disarray little more than three months aftertaking office. It faces popular repudiation of virtually its entire policyagenda, amid the largest anti-government demonstrations since the final daysof the military dictatorship in 1987.Well over a million Koreans took to the streets in Seoul and 80 other citiesand towns on Tuesday evening. The main slogan of as many as 700,000demonstrators in Seoul was ?Out with President Lee?, making clear theirrejection of his attempt to appease the opposition by having his entirecabinet offer to resign earlier in the day.The initial trigger for the unrest was the government?s unexpected liftingin April of the ban imposed in 2003 on US beef imports due to mad cowinfections. The announcement on beef imports was made as a concession to theBush administration during Lee?s first state visit to Washington, where hewas seeking to make progress on protracted 18-month negotiations toward aUS-Korean free trade agreement that would enhance opportunities for Koreanexporters. US negotiators have repeatedly linked a repeal of the beef ban toany trade deal. South Korea was previously the third-largest market forAmerican beef.To many Koreans, Lee?s decision was a subservient gesture to US corporateinterests, made in anti-democratic contempt for public opinion and at thepotential expense of their health and safety. Fear of mad cow infectionsfrom US beef was subsequently heightened by Korean nationalist groups, whogenerated a degree of hysteria over the issue with crude anti-Americanism.Accusations were made that the American beef industry intended to dumppotentially infected beef in South Korea that it would not sell at home.Small demonstrations against the decision steadily grew throughout May butrapidly became the focus for discontent over a number of political andsocial issues. Opposition to US beef imports is now only a component of afar broader movement against the Lee government. Demonstrators on Tuesdaychanted against moves to privatise state-owned companies and ban labourstrikes; the cost of education; rising fuel and food prices; an unpopularplan to build a canal across the country; and the GNP?s attempt to shiftSouth Korea into alignment with the Bush administration?s bellicose stancetoward the North Korean regime.The date of Tuesday?s protests, June 10, is the anniversary of the historic1987 demonstration that began the weeks of rallies, called the ?Resistanceof June?, that brought down the military dictatorship. Demonstrators openlycompared Lee with US-backed South Korean dictators such as General ChunDoo-hwan and Park Chung-hee.A 33-year-old computer specialist, Lee Hong-taek, told Washington Postcorrespondents: ?It is too late to soothe the public with lip service andeven fixing the beef issue is too late. The real question is his leadershipstyle.? A 41-year-old office worker said to the Associated Press: ?I came tothe rally again because Lee has turned the clock back to 21 years ago.?Kim Sook-yi, a housewife, commented to the New York Times: ?What he [Lee]did was little different from an old Korean king offering tribute to aChinese emperor. This time, we give a tribute to Washington? It?shumiliating, bad education for Korean children.?Lee won the December 2007 election and took office on February 25. He isalready polling just 17 percent in opinion polls?the lowest for anypresident in the first 100 days in office. The rapid collapse of support forhis administration only underscores that the main factor in his victory wasnot support for his agenda, but disillusionment with the so-called?democrats? who had held the presidency since 1993.Presidents Kim Young-sam (1993-98), Kim Dae-jung (1998-2003) and RohMoon-hyan (2003-2008), were all figures in the pro-capitalist opposition tomilitary rule during the 1970s and 1980s. Far from their ascent to officeushering in a period of radical social and political change, they worked toprotect the interests of the corporate elite and suppress working classdemands for reform. Since 1998, the consequences of the Asian financialcrisis have been imposed on the backs of the Korean masses. Living standardshave stagnated or fallen and social inequality widened. Adding to thealienation, Roh took the deeply unpopular step of committing thousands ofKorean troops to the US occupation of Iraq in order to shore up the US-Koreaalliance.In last year?s election, millions of people abstained from voting out ofdisgust with having to choose between Roh and Lee?the candidate of the GNP,the party most associated with the old military dictatorship. The turnoutwas just 63 percent, compared with 80 percent in the 1997 election of KimDae-jung. Lee?s victory stemmed primarily from a populist campaign in whichhe claimed that his experience in business made him more capable of devisingeconomic policies to improve the lot of ordinary people.Instead, the first months of 2008 have seen conditions steadily worsen. Fuelprices have risen sharply, helping to push inflation to a seven-year high of4.9 percent last month. Economic growth is slowing and is expected to beonly 5 percent for the year. Unemployment is predicted to increase due to acontraction in the construction industry and layoffs by Korean manufacturingexporters affected by the slowdown in the US.In this economic and social climate, the beef import issue is serving as alightning rod for well over a decade of pent-up hostility toward the entirepolitical establishment. While Lee?s popularity has plummeted, the party ofthe ?democrats?, the United New Democratic Party, is also registering lessthan 20 percent support in polls.Ongoing discontentA series of demonstrations and strikes are scheduled over the coming days,deepening the crisis of the Lee government.Large crowds are expected to turn out tomorrow for a vigil to mark the sixthanniversary of the June 13, 2002 killing of two Korean schoolgirls by a USmilitary vehicle. Thousands of truck drivers are launching a general striketomorrow over fuel prices. Workers have rejected as inadequate a governmentoffer to compensate them for half the increases. The Korean export industrywill be crippled by the action. Unions representing auto workers at Hyundaiand Kia are holding meetings today and tomorrow on whether to launch strikeaction not only against the lifting of the beef import ban, butprivatisation and the canal project.On Saturday, a planned public funeral of Lee Byeong-ryeol is likely to drawlarge numbers of people into the streets. Lee, a 56-year-old worker, sethimself on fire on May 25 during an anti-beef protest and died later of hisinjuries.Lee Myung-bak has responded with an element of panic. In the past 24 hours,he has declared that he will make major changes to his cabinet andrepudiated key polices of his administration. His spokesman, Choo Yoon-sun,told a press conference yesterday that Lee was delaying ?public corporationprivatisations and the pan-Korean waterway project? as they were ?adding tothe public?s concern, amid a flurry of conflicting views over the government?s controversial policy tasks?.Choo announced that ?the government and the GNP agreed to readjust policypriorities and to focus on bread-and-butter issues?. A range of subsidies,cheap loans and concessions were unveiled for truck drivers, small businessand low-income earners. Lee is reportedly seeking to appoint Park Geun-hyeas the new prime minister. She is the daughter of former military dictatorPark Chung-hee and his rival for the GNP presidential nomination. Parkenjoys a degree of support among sections of the middle class and alienatedyouth.The broader alarm in ruling class circles over the eruption of discontent isexpressed in yesterday?s editorials in the Korean press.The Korea Herald declared the ?nation is in crisis... comparable to that ofthe 1997 financial crisis?. Protestors, it wrote, ?should go back to theirhomes, workers to their jobs, activists to their original fields of campaignand lawmakers to the National Assembly. They need to watch what thepresident and his administration do....?The GNP-aligned Chosun Ilbo commented: ?People elsewhere must have thoughtsome kind of revolution was taking place in Korea.? While stating that the?government is chiefly to blame?, it declared ?it is high time, however,that the people who took part in the candlelight vigils, too, took some timeto think... Should we shake the government more and hurt governmentfunctions further, the citizens in general will pay...?In more than a hint that the state should employ outright repression, ChosunIlbo concluded: ?The usual suspects who also led protests against thedispatch of our troops to Iraq, the construction of the Pyeongtaek US baseand the Korea-US free trade agreement, have taken over. They use thehousewives carrying candles and high school students holding non-violentpickets as foils.?http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-06/14/content_8368320.htmAnti-government protest continues in S KoreaPolice block protesters trying to march toward the presidential Blue Housein Seoul after a candle-light vigil June 7, 2008.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)Photo Gallery>>> SEOUL, June 14 (Xinhua) -- More than 700 South Koreans continued theirprotest in Seoul Saturday morning, shortly after attending the funeral of aSouth Korean man who set himself ablaze protesting the planned resumption ofU.S. beef imports, Yonhap reported. The man died at a Seoul hospital on Monday, about two weeks after he sethimself on fire while taking part in a street rally in the southern city ofJeonju. The protester's suicide action added an emotional mood to the ralliesand public anger has grew into protests against a broader range of PresidentLee Myung-bak's policies, from a huge canal project to educational reformplans, Yonhap reported. Tens of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets almost everynight in recent weeks. Lee's popularity has nosedived since his government signed a deal withthe U.S. in April to end years of bans on U.S. beef imports.http://www.chinapost.com.tw/asia/korea/2008/06/14/160918/Protests%2Dgo.htmProtests go on as trade minister heads to U.S.By Burt Herman, APSaturday, June 14, 2008SEOUL, South Korea -- Thousands of South Koreans kept up their protestsFriday against the government's plan to resume U.S. beef imports, while thecountry's trade minister departed for Washington in an attempt to appeasedemonstrators' demands.Meanwhile, truckers went on strike to protest rising fuel prices in a freshchallenge for President Lee Myung-bak's young government.In the latest of the anti-government rallies that have echoed through thestreets of the capital for more than a month, about 10,000 demonstratorsgathered Friday in front of Seoul's City Hall, police said.Many carried candles at the protest, which coincided with the anniversary ofthe deaths of two schoolgirls in a 2002 accident with a U.S. militaryvehicle. That event became a flashpoint for anti American protests backed byliberal politicians in a presidential election year, helping them maintainthe presidency by promising not to kowtow to Washington.Lee's agreement to resume U.S. beef imports in April just before a summitwith U.S. President George W. Bush was viewed by critics as caving in toAmerican demands, stoking South Koreans' strong nationalist pride andaccusations that he failed to seek a public consensus over health concerns."I think South Korea is a colony of the United States," Shin Jung-ah, athird year high school student, said in a speech to the protesters.Referring to the dead schoolgirls, she said: "We will make efforts to changethe situation where both of you died unfairly. I hope you support us fromthe heavens."Protesters chanted back, "Punish U.S. murderer soldiers," and called forchanges in the agreement governing American forces' presence in South Korea.Some 28,500 U.S. troops remain deployed in South Korea in a legacy of theKorean War, which ended in 1953 with a cease-fire that has never beenreplaced by a peace treaty.Protest organizers said they will intensify their rallies after next Fridayif the government fails to agree to completely renegotiate the beefagreement.Meanwhile, about 900 conservatives demonstrated at two TV stations againstcoverage that they claimed had encouraged the anti-government protests,police said.Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon traveled to Washington and was scheduled tomeet U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab later Friday to discuss aproposal for U.S. beef producers to voluntarily agree not to ship meat fromcattle older than 30 months, which are believed to be more susceptible tomad cow disease.South Korea was the third largest overseas market for U.S. beef until itbanned imports after a case of mad cow disease was detected in 2003, thefirst of three confirmed cases in the United States.Meanwhile in another headache for Lee, who took office in February, morethan 13,000 unionized truck drivers stopped working early Friday to protestsurging oil prices.The strike was expected to cripple operations in South Korean ports andcause massive losses to exporters. The government said it planned todispatch 100 military trucks and use trains to help transport cargo duringthe strike.http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90851/6428236.htmlPolice detain dozens of protesters after overnight rally+-15:16, June 11, 2008Police in Seoul said they detained two dozens of protesters Wednesdaymorning at one of the busiest intersections in Seoul after an overnightrally.A large candlelight demonstration against the government's U.S. beef importdeal was held late Tuesday night in the capital. It drew at least 80,000citizens -- 700,000 according to organizers --the largest turnout since U.S.beef protests started in central Seoul in early May, according to the Yonhapnews agency.No major clashes occurred during the demonstration, but hundreds of people,mostly members of the Korean Metal Workers Union, continued occupying thestreet through the morning rush hour despite a police order for them todisperse, Yonhap said.Police said they detained 24 people, including five women, for occupying theSejong-no street.They protest against the government's decision in April to lift almost allbans on U.S. beef imports. The protesters called for renegotiation of theU.S. beef pact to protect South Koreans from the threats of mad cow disease.http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23846555-38196,00.html?from=public_rssProtesters in beef flap clog cityBy Lim Chang-Won in SeoulJune 11, 2008 01:01pmArticle from: Agence France-PresseFont size: + -Send this article: Print EmailTENS of thousands of flag-waving South Koreans packed central Seoulovernight, demanding an agreement to resume US beef imports be scrapped andnew President Lee Myung-Bak resign.The entire cabinet earlier offered to quit following weeks of turmoil overthe deal, which opponents say exposes Koreans to the risk of mad cowdisease, but demonstrators pressed on with their largest protest to date.Police erected barricades of greased shipping containers in the heart of thecapital to block access to government buildings and the presidential palace.They said an estimated 100,000 protesters were on the streets, while 62,000demonstrated in provincial cities.Yonhap news agency today reported that more than a dozen protesters hadmanaged to climb on top of the barricades and waved banners, including thenational flag.It said they used styrofoam stairs to climb on top of the containers, whichwere placed at the landmark Sejonro Intersection, about 1km from thepresidential Blue House.The move came after scuffles erupted among protesters with no seriousinjuries reported as they debated for hours whether to override safetyconcerns, Yonhap said.Police said some 37,000 riot police were mobilised, 20,000 of them in thecapital."Today's protests are to pass judgement on the Lee Myung-Bak governmentwhich keeps ignoring people's demands despite a month of candlelitprotests,'' said activist spokesman Park Won-Suk.The US and South Korean governments say the risk of the human form of madcow disease is virtually non-existent but they have failed to persuadethousands of Korean consumers.Yonhap said Mr Lee was expected to replace four or five ministers as hegrappled with the backlash over the April agreement to resume US beefimports, which were halted in 2003 over mad cow fears.Agriculture Minister Chung Woon-Chun, whose job is said by local media to beon the line, pushed through the crowds to reach the speakers' podium inSeoul.He said he wanted to apologise to people and explain the Government'sposition but protest organisers pushed him away and crowds called him a"traitor".Police finally cleared the remnants of the protest this morning.US legislators have warned they will not ratify a free trade agreement (FTA)unless Seoul first opens its beef market.http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jun2008/kore-j14.shtmlSouth Korean government besieged by demonstrations and strikesBy James Cogan14 June 2008Use this version to print | Send this link by email | Email the authorSouth Korean President Lee Myung-bak heads a government under siege, facinganother week of demonstrations demanding his resignation over his decisionto lift a ban on US beef imports, and a national strike by truck driversover rising fuel prices.As many as 13,000 unionised truck drivers began strike action yesterday,defying government threats to deprive any striker of a $14,500 annual fuelsubsidy and to deploy military vehicles to take over their jobs. The country?s major ports are being affected severely. While union drivers make up only3 percent of the trucking workforce, they move 20 percent of shippingcontainers, according to a report in the New York Times. The number oftrucks transporting containers out of the port of Pusan fell to just 13percent of normal levels.The strike enjoys considerable public sympathy and support. Its key demandsare for a slashing of the cost of diesel, increased haulage fees and aguaranteed minimum wage. Thousands of non-union drivers, who have been justas hard hit by the rapid rise in fuel prices over the past year, have joinedthe industrial action. At the port of Incheon, where only 157 drivers areunion members, over 2,000 non-union drivers refused to load cargo.The leadership of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), to whichthe truck drivers? union belongs, has threatened to call a general strike ofits entire membership if the government arrests any strikers or uses forceagainst them. Workers in major industries, such as auto and ship-building,are already holding meetings over whether to launch political strikes insupport of the protest campaign against US beef imports.The beef ban was imposed in 2003 after a case of Bovine SpongiformEncephalopathy (BSE) or Mad Cow disease was discovered in American cattle.At the time, South Korea was the third largest market for US beef.The issue became a major sticking point in negotiations that began 18 monthsago on the terms of a Free Trade Agreement between the US and South Korea.South Korea?s corporate and financial elites are desperate to finalise theagreement before the Bush administration leaves office. The US DemocraticParty, reflecting the interests of American auto manufacturers, has come outagainst any pact, as it would give their South Korean rivals greater accessand competitiveness in the US market. Barak Obama, the Democratic nomineefor president, and the candidate the South Korean establishment fears willwin the election, has been one of the most vocal opponents of the proposedtrade pact.Upon assuming office in late February, Lee Myung-bak set out to resolve theimpasse. In April, his government announced it was lifting all restrictionson the sale of US beef. The outrage among South Korean workers and youth wasimmediate and has rapidly grown into a mass political movement against theentire policy agenda of Lee?s conservative Grand National Party (GNP)government, as well as against South Korea?s political and militaryalignment with the United States.Lee?s popularity has collapsed to only 17 percent?just six months since hiselection and after only three months in office. His government is seen asthe embodiment of a corrupt US-backed corporate and financial oligarchy thathas amassed vast wealth from the exploitation of the Korean working classand is indifferent to ordinary people?s problems and concerns.As demonstrations have grown in size and scope over the past two months,protestors have increasingly carried placards portraying Lee as a rat. Aswell as opposition to beef imports, demonstrators have denounced rising fueland food prices, the government?s education and health policies, moves toprivatise state-owned companies, an unpopular plan to build a canal acrossthe country, the presence of US troops in Korea and Lee?s hard-line attitudetoward the North Korean regime.More than one million people demonstrated on Tuesday in the largestpolitical rallies in South Korea since the protests to bring down themilitary dictatorship in 1987. Last night, over 10,000 people assembled incentral Seoul for a vigil to mark the sixth anniversary of the 2002 killingsof two young girls by a US military vehicle. The Associated Press reportedthat speakers demanded both the withdrawal of US troops from South Korea andLee?s resignation.A student, Sin Jung-ah, told the rally: ?I think South Korea is a colony ofthe United States. We will make efforts to change the situation where bothof you [the girls killed six years ago] died unfairly. I hope you willsupport us from the heavens.? Kim Kwang-ho, a cook interviewed by theAssociated Press, said: ?I want Lee Myung-bak to resign now. He?s notqualified to be our president because he unilaterally decided to import USbeef without thinking about people?s health.?Another vigil is being held today in memory of Lee Byeong-ryeol, a56-year-old worker who died after setting himself on fire during ananti-government protest on May 25.A demonstration is taking place tomorrow to mark the eighth anniversary ofthe first summit between North and South Korea in 2000. Millions of Koreanshad illusions at the time that the summit would lead to the country?sultimate reunification and an end to decades of tensions and the constantthreat of war on the Korean peninsula. Instead, they have seen the Bushadministration embark on a continuous policy of provocation against theNorth Korean regime, preventing any significant progress toward stability.More demonstrations have been scheduled for next Wednesday and Saturday bythe People?s Association for Measures Against Mad Cow Disease?a coalition of1,700 groups that has been organising virtually daily protests against thegovernment.In a statement issued on Wednesday, the coalition set June 20 as thedeadline for Lee to renegotiate the beef agreement to ensure that no UScattle older than 30 months will be sold in South Korea (younger cattle areless susceptible to contracting BSE). The statement declared: ?If thegovernment decides to ignore the mandate from the people, who hold thesovereign power in this country, we will not hesitate to launch a campaignto drive President Lee Myung-bak out of office.?Lee claimed later on Wednesday to have secured a verbal undertaking from theBush administration that no cattle older than 30 months will be exported toSouth Korea. He also announced he was delaying privatisation and theconstruction of the canal across the peninsula from Seoul and Pusan. Bothpolicies have attracted mass opposition. In a further attempt to appeaseopposition, he unveiled subsidies for truck drivers and concessions forlow-income earners. He is preparing a major reshuffle of his cabinet and mayappoint a new prime minister.Lee?s desperate efforts to end the protests are a measure of how deeply theyhave shaken the Korean ruling elite. Their greatest concern is that massesof people are beginning to organise outside the parties that have dominatedKorean politics since the end of the dictatorship. Amid the outpouring ofanger at Lee, the opposition United New Democratic Party of former PresidentRoh Moon-hyan has registered no significant increase in its support. Theunderlying cause of the eruption of social discontent is the profoundalienation of the Korean working class from the entire politicalestablishment. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Wed Aug 27 05:30:40 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:30:40 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] "Food riots" and price protests - Asia and global Message-ID: <002b01c90840$bb59e650$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES - Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ Food protests: * INDIA: Left and opposition parties stage protest campaign over commodity prices * Clashes with officials were reported in flood-hit Bihar * Protesters in Patna blocked trains * In Hyderabad, protesters tried to storm a meeting * In Delhi, a (near-)naked protest was held * AFGHANISTAN: Hundreds block road in protest over food prices * PERU: Women protest outside congress * HAITI: Food price protesters battle UN guards * BANGLADESH: Textile workers smash factories and cars in food price protest * PHILLIPINES: Street vendors and "militants" stage price protests Water shortages: * BANGLADESH: Hundreds defy ban to protest in capital * INDIA: Similar protests held in Tamil Nadu http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSDEL87720080822?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews Food riots as floods swamp South Asia Fri Aug 22, 2008 8:24am EDT By Sharat Pradhan LUCKNOW, India (Reuters) - Flood victims demanding food and shelter beat up government officials in India on Friday as monsoon rains spread misery among millions of people across South Asia and forced thousands from their homes. Rising rivers have crumpled embankments, swamped farmlands and destroyed homes, killing almost 1,000 people since the monsoon rains began in June. In India's eastern Bihar state, hungry villagers rioted for food, chasing and beating up officials and local politicians with iron rods. They damaged government vehicles. "We do not understand their anger because the government is rushing relief and doing everything to save them," said R.K. Singh, a senior government official in Patna, the state capital. Most deaths have been reported in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, home to 170 million people. Indian officials on Friday reported 50 more deaths, raising the toll there to 710 this season. Monsoon rains have killed at least another 130 people in other parts of India this year, while Nepal has reported some 65 deaths and Bangladesh another 30 so far. The monsoon is key to irrigating farmland in South Asia and driving economic growth in a region heavily reliant on agriculture. But it leaves massive destruction in its wake, killing hundreds of people every year. RESCUE BY BOAT Officials in Uttar Pradesh have moved more than 10,000 people into temporary shelters after their houses were destroyed in floods. Rescue workers used boats to ferry food packets, medicines and clothes to those marooned, Balwinder Kumar, a senior government official said on Friday. More than 7,000 flood victims were being treated for water-borne diseases. In neighboring Bangladesh, more than 300,000 people have fled their homes and thousands have been marooned as heavy rains over the past week triggered fresh floods in southeastern Cox's Bazar district, officials said. Several overflowing rivers in Cox's Bazar and nearby hill districts have flooded roads and damaged crops. In Nepal, 40,000 flood victims were housed in relief camps. "We have collected enough food grains to feed them for two weeks but need tents, medical kits and other relief materials urgently," said government official Suman Ghimire. (Additional reporting by Ruma Paul in Dhaka and Gopal Sharma in Kathmandu; Writing by Bappa Majumdar; Editing by Krittivas Mukherjee and Paul Tait) http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/24/stories/2008042458240300.htm Left parties to continue protest against rise in prices of essentials Staff Reporter - Photo: R. Ashok. JOINT EFFORTS: Communist Party of India leader R. Nallakannu addressing a public meeting in Tiruchi on Tuesday. TIRUCHI: The Left parties will continue their protest against the sharp hike in the prices of essential commodities until the Central government initiates necessary steps to bring it under control, senior Communist Party of India leader R. Nallakannu said on Tuesday. Addressing a meeting organised jointly by the CPI and CPI (M) against price rise here, Mr. Nallakannu said the prices of essentially commodities had spiralled since the Union Budget was presented in the Parliament in February. Pointing out that online trading was the chief cause for the drastic increase in the prices, he accused the government of being supportive of price manipulators. The joint protest by the two Left parties was being conducted to make the Government understand the problem of price rise, which was affecting all sections of the society. The protest were being organised not with an eye on elections but to necessitate the government to take suitable steps to control price rise and thereby reduce the burden on the common man, he said. The CPI (M) central committee member U. Vasuki said the Government had to answer various questions as to the reasons for the price rise and the steps it planned to control the trend. She said the Government should remove 25 types of food grains from online trading. Instead of paying huge price by importing food grains, the Government could provide competitive price to the farmers for their produce which would go a long way in improving their economic condition, she said. The CPI district secretary Indrajit and CPI(M) district secretary Sridhar spoke . http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/23/stories/2008042352550300.htm CPI (M) protests over rising prices Staff Correspondent SHIMLA: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) organised protests all over Himachal Pradesh on Tuesday against rising prices and "anti-people policies" of the State Government and the Centre. Hundreds of CPI (M) activists took part in demonstrations at Shimla, Rampur, Bhawa Nagar, Rohru and Theog areas of the district, said Sanjay Chauhan, district secretary of the party. Similar demonstrations would follow in the days to come in other districts of the State, he said. The party's State secretary and Central Committee member Rakesh Singha addressed a public meeting in Rampur. In Shimla, a dharna was held followed by a procession through Lower Bazaar that culminated into a public meeting at Naaz. The meeting was addressed by Tikender Singh Panwar, Member of the CPI (M) State Secretariat, and other local leaders. The CPI (M) has charged that the price rise in recent times has reached alarming proportions because of the neo-liberal policies adopted and very conscientiously followed both by the Congress and the BJP. "It is because of these policies that the essential food items, which were earlier regulated, were freed from controls and kept directly under the supervision of market forces," it alleged. To make matters worse, "the Government has virtually dismantled the public distribution system for essential commodities, which acted as a buffer for holding the prices. Now the BJP government in the State has even reduced the compressed PDS quota", the CPI (M) alleged. http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Protestors-stop-trains-to-protest-price-rise/301095/ Protestors stop trains to protest price rise Posted online: Thursday , April 24, 2008 at 11:07:16 Updated: Thursday , April 24, 2008 at 11:07:16 Patna, April 24: Hundreds of volunteers of 'Rashtriya Mahila Brigade' stopped trains in Patna on Thursday as some of them even climbed on the top of a locomotive during an agitation against rise in prices of essential commodities. Railway sources said the women, protesting the price rise, also squatted on the tracks at Mokama railway station in Patna district. Nearly one hundred activists of the brigade headed by their leader Anita Singh, carrying sticks, halted the Mahananda Express and Farakka Express at the Sachivalay Halt in the state capital protesting price hike and demanding adequate reservation for women in Parliament. Many of them clambered atop the engine of Mahananda Express and did not allow the driver to proceed further. Shouting slogans like mehangai roko bandho daam, nahin to hoga chakka jam (check spiralling price, there will be no blockade), they blocked the movement of the trains for about a couple of hours this morning. The protesters also stopped Lalquila Express at Mokama station, about 50 km from Patna. Some of the activists also entered into scuffle with the passengers who got angry over their move. The tracks were later cleared of the agitators by the police. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/16/stories/2008051651070300.htm Price rise: TDP, CPI (M) stage protests Staff Reporter Allege government failure in taking action against hoarding and black-marketing Police arrest 200 CPI (M) activists while picketing The arrested stage dharna at Two Town police station Tug-of-war: Police officer trying to remove a CPI (M) leader who is picketing the BSNL office protesting the price rise in Anantapur on Thursday. ANANTAPUR: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Telugu Desam Party staged separate protests here on Thursday against the rising prices of essential commodities and the alleged government failure to control the prices. While the CPI (M) picketed the BSNL GM's office and HPO, the TDP staged a dharna in front of the RDO's office. Speaking at the picketing district secretary of CPI (M) G. Obulakonda Reddy, town secretary V. Rambhupal and others alleged that the government failed in taking measures to check the rising prices and this has dealt a sever blow to the poor and the middle class. They alleged that lack of action against hoarding and black marketing of essential commodities was giving an impression that there was an unholy nexus between the traders and government. Lack of government control on the trading of commodities, particularly the future and forward trading, was leading to the crisis, they felt. They urged the Centre to exempt at least essential commodities from future and forward trading to bring down the prices. Artificial scarcity Supermarket chains and traders were procuring the commodities cheaply from farmers and hoarding them to create artificial scarcity, the CPI (M) leaders alleged. Such hoarded stocks were also making their way to black market. They suggested vigilance raids on godowns of traders and major supermarkets to prevent hoarding and strengthening the public distribution system. The rising prices had a serious impact on the lives of those working in the unorganised sector. They also criticised the Centre's talk of "no need to worry" as height of irresponsibility. Later, the police lifted the protesting activists and arrested about 200 of them. The arrested activists staged a dharna in Two Town police station alleging that the police had used private persons in obstructing the protest and their misbehaviour with women activists. Party leaders Mr. Obulakonda Reddy, V. Rambhupal, P. Prasoona, corporator, V. Savithri of AIDWA, Sunkanna of DYFI, A. Manohar and Rasool were among the arrested. AT the dharna in front of the RDO's office district secretary of TDP V. Hanumantharaya Chowdary, party leaders B.K. Parthasarathi, K. Jayaram, K.M. Saifullah, K.C. Narayana, K. Venkata Prasad and others gave examples of commodity-wise prices now and four years back. The party will stage another protest on May 27. http://andhracafe.com/index.php?m=show&id=35026 TDP bid to protest at collector's meet foiled Updated: 07-04-2008 Email this Page HYDERABAD : City police foiled the attempts of the TDP activists to protest near Jubilee Hall, where the collector's conference was in progress, against the price rise. Over 150 Telugu Desam Party leaders and cadres were arrested when they tried to charge towards Jubilee Hall from Indira Park on Thursday. They were protesting against the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities and non-availability of normal brand of diesel, fertilizers and pesticides.The agitators staged a dharna at Indira Park and wanted to go towards the Jubilee Hall where Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy was addressing the Collectors' conference. Speakign at the dharna former minister and TDP city unit president K Vijayarama Rao accused the State government of neglecting peoples' problems. Former Mayor T Krishna Reddy reached Indira Park by a bullock card. MLA Sayanna, MLC Ch Babu Rajendra Prasad, former MLA K Prasanna and many party leaders took part in the agiration. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/16/stories/2008071659030300.htm Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada Left, TDP protest against milk price hike Special Correspondent PHOTO: RAJU. V For a fair deal: Activists of Telugu Desam Party and Left parties stopping milk vans at Nehru Bomma Centre in One Town area in the city on Tuesday. - VIJAYAWADA: Activists of the two major Left parties -- the CPI and the CPI (M) -- and the Telugu Desam Party staged a dharna in front of the Krishna Milk Union parlour at the Lenin Centre to register their protest against the hike in milk price to customers here on Tuesday. Addressing the activists, CPI city secretary K. Subba Raju said the people were already overburdened by the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities and the increase of milk price by the union was like the proverbial 'last straw' that broke the camel's back. Mr. Subba Raju demanded the union to roll back the increase. CPI (M) State committee member Ch. Babu Rao urged the union to roll back the hike before there was a revolt from the general public. TDP urban general secretary Nagul Meera said the primary duty of a cooperative society was to provide milk and milk products at a reasonable price. In a continuation of the protest against the price rise, the activists of the three different parties stopped vans transporting milk to various booths in the city in the afternoon. CPI activists stopped vans at Sitara Theatre Centre in Bhavanipuram under the leadership of former corporator Kaparthi Lakshman Rao. Milk union vans were stopped by CPI (M) and TDP activists at a few other places in the city. Meanwhile, PCC executive member Kolanukonda Sivaji in a statement alleged that the State government and APDDCF could not be made accountable for the hike in milk price. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/12/stories/2008071260020800.htm Other States - Puducherry PMC to hold protest rally Staff Reporter PUDUCHERRY: The Puducherry Munnetra Congress will organise a protest rally on July 19 to highlight the failure of the Congress government in Puducherry to control price of essential commodities, founder leader of the party P Kannan said on Friday. He told reporters that though several State governments had taken appropriate measures to curb increase in the price of essential commodities, the administration had not dealt with the issue. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/10/stories/2008071059470300.htm Karnataka - Bangalore Protest against price rise Staff Reporter BANGALORE: Members of the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch staged a demonstration in the city on Wednesday against the rise of prices of essential commodities. They urged the Government to purchase the commodities from wholesale market and distribute it through the public distribution system (PDS) to the poor consumers. The protesters who staged the demonstration in front of Town Hall raised slogans against the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and that mindless globalisation had resulted in the steep rise in inflation rate. The inflation rate that had reached an alarming level of above 11.45 per cent had driven prices of foodgrains, pulses, fruits and vegetables sharply, and had made these commodities expensive to the common man, they said. A release said that during eight months between August 2007 and March 2008, the price of coconut oil had risen by 61 per cent while the price of groundnut oil increased by 71 per cent. Further, the price of maize had gone up by 54 per cent, price of rice had increased by 72 per cent and wheat price had gone up by 74 per cent. In the light of the increase, Union Government should take steps to prevent the death of poor consumers on account of price rise. http://story.indiagazette.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/701ee96610c884a6/id/391454/cs/1/ Protesters take out semi nude march against inflation in New Delhi India Gazette Thursday 7th August, 2008 (ANI) New Delhi, August 7 : A group of protesters took out a semi nude march here today to demonstrate against the rising prices of basic commodities. Activists of Indian Justice Party marched on Delhi roads wearing neckties over underpants, which were covered with plant leaves, and took out a demonstration against the United Progressive Alliance (UPA)-led central government for failing to curb inflation. The protesters lamented the alleged apathy on the part of the central government in failing to control the rising prices of basic commodities making it difficult for people to make the ends meet. "The protest is against the price hike. It is getting difficult for people to survive in this country in the wake of inflation. The government is not concerned are not worried about the woes of the common man," said Ram Kishan Saini, a protester. Inflation rate, is ruling at a 13-year high, just below 12 per cent in the country. Last week, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised its short-term lending rate by half a percentage point to nine per cent, citing inflation concerns. http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2008-04/2008-04-22-voa68.cfm?CFID=22367105&CFTOKEN=67470185 Afghans Protest Skyrocketing Food Prices By VOA News 22 April 2008 Hundreds of people, angry over rising cost of food, block a key road connecting Jalalabad to Kabul, demand action from the government to bring down prices Hundreds of people angry over the rising cost of food demonstrated in eastern Afghanistan Tuesday. Protesters blocked a key road connecting the town of Jalalabad to the capital, Kabul. They demanded action from the government to bring down skyrocketing prices. Earlier, the Afghan government announced it is setting aside $50 million to buy wheat from other countries, including Kazakhstan and neighboring Pakistan. Many demonstrators expressed anger with Pakistan - upon which Afghans are heavily reliant for food imports. Pakistan has recently slowed its exports due to its own concerns about rising food prices. Elsewhere, in the western Afghan province of Herat, authorities say they believe militants have abducted two foreign employees of a U.S. security company. Police say an Indian and a Nepalese worker disappeared Monday evening while traveling in the Adraskan district. Their driver also is missing. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/01/world/americas/01PERU.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin In Peru Protest, Women Urge Action on Food Prices By REUTERS Published: May 1, 2008 LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - More than 1,000 women protested outside Peru's Congress on Wednesday, banging empty pots and pans to demand that the government do more to counter rising food prices, which are squeezing the poor worldwide. The women, some toting small children on their hips, run food kitchens, known as eating halls, for the poor. The meals the eating halls serve are subsidized by the government, but the women say they are struggling to provide enough food and want the government to increase financial aid so they can cover their costs. Hundreds of thousands of people rely on the eating halls each day in Peru, where about 12 million people, or 42 percent of the population, live in poverty. The rising cost for basic foods sank President Alan Garc?a's approval rating to 26 percent this month, the lowest level since he took office in 2006. This month, weeks after cutting taxes on food imports, Mr. Garc?a started sending the army to hand out free bags of food in the poorest neighborhoods here in the capital. "Food prices keep on rising, and the government doesn't pay attention to the eating halls," said Mar?a Bozeta, director of one of three associations that represent eating halls in Lima. "The pot is empty, Garc?a!" the women chanted as they wound their way toward Congress in downtown Lima. http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_South%20America&set_id=1&click_id=122&art_id=nw20080409073024611C170946 Violent protests in Haiti April 09 2008 at 08:00AM Port-au-Prince - Blue-helmet UN peacekeepers were called in on Tuesday to protect Haiti's presidential palace after violent demonstrations against high food and fuel prices broke out in the capital. At least five people have been killed by gunfire since the protests erupted last week, according to an unofficial count. On Tuesday at least eight people were rushed to the city's public hospital with bullet wounds, medical sources told AFP. Haitian police clashed with protesters Tuesday and fired in the air to prevent them from breaking into the presidential palace building, witnesses said. By midday a dozen armoured vehicles manned by Brazilian soldiers under the United Nations peacekeeping mission (MINUSTAH) took position around the whitewashed palace, firing in the air and hurling tear gas canisters to keep the protesters at bay, witnesses said. President Rene Preval asked UN peacekeepers to shore up security around the palace, MINUSTAH spokesperson Sophie Boutaud de la Combe told AFP. The UN peacekeepers also beat back protesters that were heading to the city's international airport. The protests began last week after a sudden jump in fuel and basic food commodity prices in the poor country of 8,5 million. Two reporters as well as a photographer and a cameraman were wounded by rubber bullets fired by MINUSTAH forces, the sources told AFP. One journalist had his car's windows shattered and was attacked by a mob of youths that sacked an Air France office, an AFP reporter said. "People can keep protesting but they have to respect the property of others," Public Security Secretary Luc Euchere told reporters. Protests also broke out in the Carrefour quarter on the south side of the capital. "Living conditions are horrible. We are tired of hearing promises, we want fast action," said a protester named Wilson, 25. Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis condemned the protests while acknowledging the source of the discontent. On Monday Alexis announced a $42-million programme to ease the situation, including the creation of thousands of jobs for youth and small business grants. "These measures take time. We need to have patience," he said on a radio station in the capital. In the city of Cayes on Monday, thousands of protesters attacked the home of legislator Gabriel Fortune, who was rescued by UN troops and evacuated to the capital. Fortune said the protesters were "manipulated by drug deals and the Lavalas party" of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who has lived in exile in South Africa since 2004. - Sapa-AFP http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2008/04/13/2003409155 Bangladeshi rioters condemn prices, women's rights AFP AND DPA, DHAKA Sunday, Apr 13, 2008, Page 5 A police officer kicks a protester during a demonstration against gender equality in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Friday. PHOTO :AP About 10,000 garment workers rioted yesterday close to the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, smashing cars and buses and vandalizing factories in anger at high food prices and low wages, police said. Police fired tear gas and used batons to break up the protests and at least 28 people were injured. The textile workers went on the rampage in Fatullah, some 20km south of Dhaka, demanding better pay amid soaring rice prices, police Inspector Nasir Ahmed said. He said they wrecked cars and buses, attacked factories, and hurled bricks and stones at police who were forced to retaliate with tear gas. Most of the injured were police officers, he added. Police sub-inspector Shafiqul Islam said the rampage involved around 10,000 workers from several garment factories, adding: "They became unruly demanding higher wages, saying their current wages don't even meet basic food needs." The government says that food prices, notably the staple rice, have doubled in the last year, caused by a massive shortfall in production after devastating floods and a cyclone last year. The unrest in Bangladesh was the latest incident of the fallout of mounting food prices. At least five people have died in similar protests over high food and fuel prices in Haiti, while disturbances have rocked Egypt, Cameroon, Ethiopia, the Philippines, Indonesia and other countries in the past month. Meanwhile, thousands of militant Islamists threw stones at police and other auxiliary forces as violence erupted for a second day on Friday around the national mosque in central Dhaka, leaving more than 70 people injured, officials and witnesses said. Street battles broke out as police in armored cars fired teargas to disrupt rallies and chase protesters off the roads in downtown Dhaka. Angry mobs torched police jeeps and motorbikes during the demonstration. The violence spread to the country's principal port city of Chittagong, where hundreds of Islamic students were involved in attacking vehicles, shops and other businesses. Students of local madrassas also set up barricades on the highway connecting the southeastern commercial hub with the capital Dhaka. "We will oppose any measure to improve the lot of women which goes against the injunctions of the holy Koran," said Mufti Fazlul Huq Amini who heads a large madrassa in the private sector. In Dhaka, protesters took shelter in mosques as police followed them with swinging batons. About 120 protesters were injured in the two days of clashes, prominent Islamic cleric Shaikul Hadith Allama Azizul Huq said, claiming at least 25 people were arrested during the violence in Dhaka. The protesters, belonging to the committee for the prevention of anti-Koran laws, are accusing the interim government of trying to alter the inheritance rights of men and women in order to bring about gender equality, which is said to be contrary to Islamic injunctions. The government has denied any such move in a proposed women development policy that had been recently circulated in order to elicit public opinion. Nearly 5,000 extra policemen were deployed in the congested squatter colonies in southern Dhaka and several sensitive installations, deputy district administrator Nahid Ahmad said. The demonstration, banned under a state of emergency proclaimed last January, was called by the Islamic clerics who are opposed to any change in the Muslim inheritance laws considered by many development analysts as biased against female inheritors. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/regions/view/20080606-141012/Street-protests-vs-rice-prices-start Street protests vs rice prices start By Inquirer Mindanao Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 00:31:00 06/06/2008 CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY - Children of street vendors joined their parents in a noise barrage here Wednesday to express their dismay over not being able to go to school because of the high price of rice. "We can't continue attending school anymore because our parents' income are only enough to buy rice," said one placard held by a 9-year-old boy, who stopped going to school. The protest was held even as Mayor Constantino Jaraula announced that the National Food Authority (NFA) would soon sell rice in villages to ease the queue in market-based NFA outlets. Members of the Coalition for the Recognition and Empowerment of Street Vendors Association (Cresva) said despite the assurance from government officials on the availability of cheap rice, they staged the noise barrage because prices continued to soar. Some rice varieties are now being sold for P54 per kg here. Banging empty pots and shouting "We are going hungry!", vendors urged the government to release funds for rice subsidy and blamed corruption for their misery. Efie Medio, Cresva chair, said at least 20 percent of the group's members will stop sending their children to school this year because most of their day's income is only enough to buy rice for two meals. "Education has become our least priority. We only earn more or less P100 per day and half of that is spent for only 1 kilo of rice. There's just not enough money to send our children to school," he said. The Department of Education regional office has not released official enrollment figures but parents enrolling their children in the City Central School here observed a low turnout. "Many of my neighbors did not enroll at least one of their children," said Erlinda Dumayon, mother of a Grade 5 pupil. Teachers said some pupils who they were expecting to turn up for enrollment did not come. But they said there was still time to enroll next week and other pupils may just be waiting for the last day before they list up for the school year. In Cotabato City, the NFA said it would start flooding the markets with cheap government rice this week to pull down the price of commercial rice. Similar moves were also being done in Southern Mindanao, a rice-producing region where prices of commercial rice had gone past the P50 level in recent days. But while prices of commercial rice were skyrocketing, organic rice was being sold in Davao City for P35 per kg. At the 5th Street Caf?, which sells organic rice, the queue was surprisingly short, unlike in NFA stores. "I like the rice here. It's cheap compared to the rice sold at the stores and at NFA stalls. My grandchildren also like the taste of the rice here.the store owner told me that it's chemical free," 67-year-old Carmen Duarte, a rice cake vendor from Toril district, said. Tina Delima, marketing officer of the Sustainable Integrated Area Development in Mindanao Convergence for Asset Reform and Regional Development (Siad-Simcarrd), said more and more people have discovered organic rice. In another store selling organic rice - the Bios Dynamis Health Food Center - the demand for organic rice has also surprisingly increased since the prices of commercial rice soared. May Fabiolas, store keeper of Bios Dynamis, said from June 1-5, they have already sold about 100 bags of rice, or close to a month's rice distribution. "There was really a significant increase because of the affordability of the rice we are selling. And people are also starting to recognize the importance of eating organic rice," Fabiolas said. Bios Dynamis, along Quimpo Boulevard here, is being run by the Don Bosco Foundation for Sustainable Development, Inc. (DBFSD), a nongovernment organization promoting organic farming in Mindanao. Tom Villarin, executive director of the Siad-Simcarrd, explained the low prices. "Our inputs did not go up - like the organic fertilizer, which is only P195 per sack. The seeds that are traditional are kept by the farmers and the communal irrigation in the upland farms did not need irrigation," Villarin said. In Davao del Sur, a farmers' group lambasted the Department of Agriculture (DA) for blaming farmers for the soaring rice prices. Ma. Cecilia Rodriguez, Charlie Se?ase, Orlando Dinoy, Jeffrey Tupas, Ryan Rosauro, Chris Panganiban, Ma. Cecilia Rodriguez, Aquiles Zonio and Eldie S. Aguirre with a report from Joselle R. Badilla, Inquirer Mindanao http://www.gmanews.tv/story/103410/Militants-gather-at-Rotonda-to-protest-high-cost-of-living Militants gather at Rotonda to protest high cost of living 06/26/2008 | 01:59 PM Email this | Email the Editor | Print | Digg this | Add to del.icio.us MANILA, Philippines - Members of militant groups gathered at the Mabuhay Rotonda at the boundary of Manila and Quezon City Thursday afternoon to protest the continued high cost of living. Radio dzBB's Rowena Salvacion reported that the militants described the increasing oil and food prices, coupled with low wages and income, as a "delubyo sa Hunyo (storm in June)." "Typhoon Frank may have already left the country after devastating several provinces and claiming hundreds of lives. But the more destructive economic crisis - increasing prices, low wages, lack of jobs - is here to stay and will continue to wreak havoc on our people as long the government continues to adhere to its wrong economic policies," said Bayan spokesman in a statement. Joining the protest were the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), Pinagkaisang Samahan ng Tsuper at Operator Nationwide (Piston), Kadamay, and Anakbayan. The groups paraded wooden push carts depicting the pressing economic problems facing the country today. A Bayan statement said the pushcarts symbolized high prices, low wages and unemployment, demolition, landlessness and food crisis, lack of social services, foreign plunder of natural resources, onerous taxes, and others. The militant groups were to march from the Rotonda to Plaza Miranda in Manila's Quiapo district. Bayan said anti-people economic policies of the regime stemmed from rich countries led by the US and the multilateral institutions they control, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and World Trade Organization (WTO), among others. "Using foreign loans and grants as leverage, like the $216 million that the Bush administration committed to the Philippines during Arroyo's latest US visit, rich countries are able to dictate national economic policies favorable to them but burdensome for the people. This supposed foreign aid also worsens the country's debt burden that the people shoulder through more taxes and less social services," it said. "We hold Gloria Arroyo and her foreign masters accountable for the hardships that our people are forced to shoulder everyday. Her anti-people policies of privatization, deregulation, and liberalization have pushed up the prices of goods and services, destroyed jobs and livelihood, and compromised the country's long-term economic development," Padilla said. Bayan added government even makes money from the poverty of the people through its collection of onerous taxes such as the oppressive 12 percent value added tax (VAT) that contributes to exorbitant prices and deteriorating poverty. It noted that since the start of the year, the pump price of diesel has already jumped by P12.54 per liter; unleaded, P13.51; and kerosene, P13.53. Food prices rose by 14 percent in May, with rice soaring by 32 percent. Overall inflation, or the rate with which prices of basic goods and services is increasing, has reached a nine year in May. Costs of living already reached P858 per day while the daily minimum wage (including the cost of living allowance) of workers has remained low at P382 in spite of a recent wage hike order. "Arroyo must not be surprised if the people suddenly storm Malaca?ang like a raging typhoon. People's outrage due to hunger and poverty and further fueled by Arroyo's corruption will be like a perfect storm that will sweep away the anti-people regime," said Padilla. Bayan reiterated more than alms and subsidies, urgent policy reforms are needed to provide relief to the people battered by escalating cost of living. These reforms include the cancellation of the VAT on oil and power, imposition of price controls, and substantial increase in the minimum wage, it said. - GMANews.TV http://www.stuff.co.nz/4494023a12.html Protests in Bangladesh over water shortage Reuters | Thursday, 24 April 2008 Hundreds of people took part in protests in the Bangladeshi capital against a shortage of drinking water, witnesses said, defying a ban on such demonstrations. A falling water table and lack of power to run water pumps has led to a serious shortfall of drinking water in Dhaka, a city of 11 million, officials said. "How can we pump enough water while there is no electricity to run the pumps," said an official with the Dhaka water and sewerage authority. "Many pumps remain shut or cannot operate up to their capacities because of shortage of power," said the official who asked not to be identified. Hundreds of residents, carrying empty water cans, gathered in the streets demanding an end to the water and power shortages that have in the past sparked violent protests. Authorities have asked the army to help supervise the distribution of water in the city. Bangladesh is governed by an army-backed interim administration that has under a state of emergency imposed last year banned all public protests. "The situation is turning from bad to worse every day, we stand in long queues for hours for water," said rickshaw-puller Mohammad Salam outside a roadside water pump. His wife and children were also standing in queues elsewhere in the city to obtain water. The Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority is supplying 1.50 billion litres of water a day against a demand of 2.25 billion litres due to frequent power cuts and a fall in groundwater level, officials said. Some 86 per cent of the capital's water supply comes from underground sources but declining groundwater levels at the rate of three metres each year has worsened the situation. A power official said the daily shortage of electricity in the city had soared to 1500 megawatts because of lack of enough natural gas to run power plants. "We have to cut down power production in several plants as Petrobangla is supplying up to 700 mmcf gas daily against our demand of 846 mmcf," said Saiful Hasan Chowdhury, a deputy director at the Power Development Board. The situation is still worse in the countryside with power only available for a few hours each day. Barely 40 per cent of the country's more than 140 million people have access to power. Power shortages often spark protests in impoverished Bangladesh. More than 20 people, mostly farmers, were killed in clashes with police, mostly in northern Bangladesh in 2006, during demonstrations demanding adequate power for irrigation. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/18/stories/2008051858110300.htm Residents stage protest for water Staff Reporter Bangalore: Residents of Domlur second stage staged a demonstration in front of the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) office in the area on Saturday demanding regular water supply. Carrying empty vessels and buckets, they marched from Kalki Mandir to the BWSSB office, where they held the protest for more than one hour. While adjoining areas got regular water supply, residents of second stage had to buy water, complained C.G. Sharma. Ninge Gowda, Assistant Executive Engineer, BWSSB, Domlur, pacified the residents by assuring that "from tomorrow, water will be supplied on alternate days," while blaming summer for the shortage. http://www.dawn.com/2008/04/24/int21.htm Protests in Dhaka over water shortage DHAKA: Hundreds of people staged protests in the Bangladeshi capital on Wednesday against a shortage of drinking water, witnesses said, defying a ban on such demonstrations.A falling water table and lack of power to run water pumps has led to a serious shortfall of drinking water in Dhaka, a city of 11 million, officials said. "How can we pump enough water while there is no electricity to run the pumps," said an official with the Dhaka water and sewerage authority. "Many pumps remain shut or cannot operate up to their capacities because of shortage of power," said the official who asked not to be identified. Hundreds of residents, carrying empty water cans, gathered in the streets demanding an end to the water and power shortages that have in the past sparked violent protests. Authorities have asked the army to help supervise the distribution of water in the city. Bangladesh is governed by an army-backed interim administration that has under a state of emergency imposed last year banned all public protests. "The situation is turning from bad to worse every day, we stand in long queues for hours for water," said rickshaw-puller Mohammad Salam outside a roadside water pump. His wife and children were also standing in queues elsewhere in the city to obtain water. The Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority is supplying 1.50 billion litres of water a day against a demand of 2.25 billion litres due to frequent power cuts and a fall in groundwater level, officials said. Some 86 per cent of the capital's water supply comes from underground sources but declining groundwater levels at the rate of three metres each year has worsened the situation. A power official said the daily shortage of electricity in the city had soared to 1,500 megawatts because of lack of enough natural gas to run power plants. "We have to cut down power production in several plants as Petrobangla is supplying up to 700 mmcf gas daily against our demand of 846 mmcf," said Saiful Hasan Chowdhury, a deputy director at the Power Development Board. The situation is still worse in the countryside with power only available for a few hours each day. Barely 40 per cent of the country's more than 140 million people have access to power. Power shortages often spark protests in impoverished Bangladesh. More than 20 people, mostly farmers, were killed in clashes with police, mostly in northern Bangladesh in 2006, during demonstrations demanding adequate power for irrigation.-Reuters http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=112510 Lyari residents protest against water shortage Wednesday, May 14, 2008 Karachi The residents of Karo Lane, Lyari Town, staged a protest demonstration against the city government outside the Karachi Press Club on Tuesday, as they had been without water since last one week. The residents were shouting slogans against the government saying that despite an additional supply of 6 million gallons of water announced by the City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal, Karo Lane had been facing water scarcity. The residents demanded of the provincial minister for local government who also heads Water Board, Agha Siraj Durrani, to personally take notice of the serious situation. They also informed the elected MPAs and MNA of the area that residents of Karo lane were without water for last several days, which had inflamed the situation, and people would come out on the streets, which may precipitate a law and order situation. They have also started a signature drive of the affected citizens which will be sent to the provincial Minister, city Nazim, Chief Secretary, Sindh, and the Town Nazim further saying that contaminated and mixing of water has given birth to epidemics in the area. This happens due to the gross negligence of the concerned engineers of the KWSB, they said. They asked the concerned authorities to take drastic steps for the supply of potable water to the area residents or they would come out on the streets in protest and the responsibility would lie squarely upon the shoulders of the authorities, they warned. The City Nazim, they said, had increased the quota up to 20 million gallons daily (mgd), yet the water shortage problem in this area persisted as certain elements had created hurdles. Lyari has been suffering from scarcity of water for long. Therefore, the City Government allotted the maximum quota from the K-III project. Before this Lyari was supplied water through three different lines and still there were complaints about non-supply of water in some areas. In a signature drive campaign, they said that conspiracies were hatched by certain elements to halt the process of development. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/16/stories/2008071651900300.htm Tamil Nadu CPI cadre stage protest against erratic water supply Staff Reporter - Photo: N. Bashkaran Voicing their protest: Cadre of the Communist Party of India staging a demonstration on Rayakottai road, Krishnagiri, on Tuesday. Krishnagiri: Cadres of the Communist Party of India (CPI) staged a demonstration in front of the Block Development Office here on Tuesday protesting against erratic water supply at Palakuri, Kodiyur, Melkottai, Rajkottai and Bellarampalli in Ittikal Agaram panchayat. Residents in the area were put to untold hardships, as the local body had not initiated any steps to provide basic amenities including protected drinking water. The cadres claimed that the local body had not supplied water to several parts in the panchayat for the past two weeks. The cadres demanded uniform supply of water to all villages in Ittikal Agaram panchayat. They wanted the local body to sort out the problems in the drinking water distribution network. The residents had represented these issues to the panchayat officials and the ward councillor on several occasions. But the pleas fell on deaf ears, they claimed. They urged the district administration to take steps to provide potable drinking water to the residents. District secretary, CPI, S. Kannu led the protest. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Wed Aug 27 06:51:11 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:51:11 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] KOREA protests against free trade, June-August Message-ID: <003201c9084b$f8a4f760$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES ? Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ South Korea has been gripped by a months-long wave of demonstrations over the resumption of imports of American beef, deemed by social movements to be a risk of importing mad cow disease. The beef issue is a catalyst for broader anger about free trade with America, the policies of the current conservative government and the exclusion of popular movements from power. * On June 30 protesters blocked roads and battled police after their regular venue was shut off; protesters tried to remove police buses blocking their rally point * Police intimidation also worsened as police raided leading social movement offices * This has been widely interpreted as a return to dictatorial form by the Korean state and elite * Clashes, arrests and injuries were frequent at protests towards the end of June * Protesters blocked distribution depots to prevent the distribution of US beef * Religious groups also staged nonviolent protests to defy the crackdown, leading what again turned into tens of thousands strong protests * On July 2, car workers staged a symbolic strike in support of the protests * Clashes were again reported on Constitution Day and towards the end of July * Protests continued into August * Bush's visit on 5th August prompted further protests; police attacked with water cannons as protesters tried to rally http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/07/117_26731.html 06-30-2008 11:35 S. Korean Police Detain Over 120 Protestors Over Weekend South Korean police took into custody more than 120 people who staged violent protests over the weekend demanding a renegotiation of a U.S. beef import deal. About 1,700 people gathered at Jongno street in central Seoul at 9 p.m. Sunday and hundreds of them stayed into the early morning hours. The protesters rallied in several groups, unable to enter their usual protest venue at Seoul City Hall plaza, which had been sealed off by police buses. Police detained about 70 people into custody early Monday for illegally occupying roads. About 18,000 people also participated in the largest gathering since June 10. Police fired water cannons and fire extinguishers and used batons against protestors who hurled water bottles and eggs at them and tried to pull away police buses with ropes. The protests are expected to continue this week as organizers plan massive demonstrations. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, the more radical of South Korea's two umbrella labor groups, will launch a one-day general strike to join the beef strike Wednesday. Meanwhile, police raided the offices of two leading civic groups that organized the beef demonstrations, including the People's Solidarity for Participatory Government, Monday morning. South Korea last week lifted a ban on U.S. beef imports and began quarantine inspections of American meat that has been in storage since imports were suspended last October. http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/30/asia/beef.php South Korean police raid offices of protest groups By Choe Sang-Hun Published: June 30, 2008 SEOUL: The police on Monday raided the offices of two civic groups accused of leading weeks of protests against American beef imports. The raids followed government warnings that it would get tough on the demonstrations. One of the civic groups, the Korea Solidarity for Progressive Movement, said the police confiscated 22 desktop computers and a box-load of documents from its office early Monday morning. Hwang Soon Won, a civic group leader, was taken away for questioning. Shortly afterward, police officers barged into the office of another civic group dedicated to fighting the government's agreement to lift a five-year-old ban on importing American beef despite public concerns that the meat may not be safe from mad cow disease. Computers, placards and banners used during the protests were seized. The police said the raids were necessary to collect evidence of illegal street demonstrations, which President Lee Myung Bak said he would no longer tolerate. The two civic groups issued statements accusing the Lee government of reverting to "dictatorship." On Sunday evening the police sealed off major rallying points in central Seoul after hundreds of police officers and members of the public were injured during a beef import protest that began Saturday evening and continued into Sunday morning. Police buses cordoned off plazas and intersections where large crowds have gathered almost daily since early May to demand that the government renegotiate the deal that was reached in April. Police officers blocked subway entrances and alleys leading to those rallying points. Still, protesters broke into several groups of hundreds and marched Sunday evening, engaging in sporadic shoving matches with the police. The police detained more than 100 protesters for questioning. The Korean Metal Workers' Union, which represents workers at 240 companies, including the country's four major automakers, said 76 percent of its voting members had agreed to a two-hour work stoppage on Wednesday to demand a new beef deal and better working conditions. The Catholic Priests' Association for Justice, an influential religious group known for its struggle against the military dictatorships of the 1970s and '80s, said it would lead an outdoor Mass on Monday to lend its moral support to the protesters. In April, South Korea agreed to lift the ban on American beef, imposed in 2003 after a case of mad cow disease was detected in the United States. Officials in Seoul persuaded the United States this month to revise the terms of the April agreement to placate the protesters. But the protests continued, dashing Lee's hopes for an early end to what has become the biggest political crisis of his four-month-old government. http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?at_code=434743 Police Round Up Candlelight Protest Organizers Arrest warrants issued for bloggers, NGOs associated with US beef protests Ha Jae-geun (internews) Email Article Print Article Published 2008-07-02 14:02 (KST) Baek Seong-geun, the owner of "MichinCow.net" [Michin means mad or crazy in Korean] who is wanted by the police for arousing suspicion of promoting the ongoing candlelight protests -- attended by tens of thousands of citizens daily all over the country -- left the following message on his website on the evening of the June 30. "As founder and operator of MichinCow.net, I am wanted by the police... 'Darkness has never overcome light.' Today, this statement has never felt more true." He added with anxiety, "As I hear of the group mass held by priests and see the huge crowds in City Hall Square surrounded by riot police vans, my heart raced and I so very much want to run and be with these people." Baek continued: "At present, there is an arrest warrant out on me and I have been wanted by the police for a few days now," and brought up his current situation saying that he has left his home. "My heart feels heavy as I couldn't even say goodbye to my parents before I left." However, Baek said, "I knew this would happen when I hosted the first candlelight vigil on May 3. I had a premonition that this would happen to me... I am fighting with the Grand National Party now. I am fighting with the ChoJoongDong [short for the three leading newspapers in Korea: Chosun Ilbo, JoongAng Ilbo and Dong-ah Ilbo] now. I am fighting with President Lee Myung-bak now." Baek continued, "I wondered if I was doing something too big for me to handle. But I couldn't stop and I had to continue because of you: the hearts of the mothers who came out to protest with their children in strollers; the outcries of the teenagers who left their evening studies to march; the farmers who sold their cows in order to come to Seoul and protests; and all the Korean citizens who came to march in solidarity rain or shine." Even though four subpoenas were served on him, Baek said he would not go to the police of his own accord. "First of all I find it offensive that they want to find the person who 'caused' the candlelight vigils. But I am not the one 'causing' you to march... If I let myself be interrogated, it would wrong the will of the Korean people who struggled through the candlelight vigils." "If I use the way you explain yourself, I say to you: 'Why didn't you listen to us when we were engaging in peaceful vigils? Why did you make the Korean people this angry?' President Lee Myung-bak, you are the sole cause of our protests." Baek ended his letter saying, "I beg of you all. Please stop this recklessness of this incompetent government. I will continue the fight but away from your sight." Netizens who have read his letter on "MichinCow.net" supported him by leaving messages such as, "I feel ashamed for sleeping without worries." "We will support you all the way with our candles." And, "Take care. We support you." Currently, the police have received arrest warrants for Baek, as well as Park Won-seok, the team leader of The Anti Mad Cow Organization who were both suspected of promoting the beef protests and the candlelight vigil. An Jin-gul, the team supervisor of The Anti Mad Cow Organization, and Yun Hee-Sook, the vice-chairman of The Korean Youth Organization, were arrested on the May 28. Huang Soon-won, the democratic human rights director of Korea Alliance For Progressive Movement was also arrested on the May 30. http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jun2008/skor-j24.shtml South Korean government tries to stem protests against US beef imports By James Cogan 24 June 2008 Use this version to print | Send this link by email | Email the author The South Korean administration of President Lee Myung-bak has announced significant concessions in order to placate mass opposition to the lifting of a ban on beef imports from the United States and broader discontent over falling living standards. US beef was banned from South Korea in 2003 following the discovery of a case of Mad Cow disease in American cattle. Lee, from the conservative Grand National Party (GNP) and a former chairman of the Hyundai conglomerate, announced an end to the embargo in April in order to advance negotiations toward a US-South Korea free trade agreement, which is desperately wanted by Korean auto companies and other major corporations. Lee?s decision on beef imports coincided with sharply rising prices for fuel, food and other essentials, as well as a slowing economy and rising unemployment. The ending of the ban was widely viewed as symptomatic of Lee?s preoccupation with pleasing the Bush administration and the Korean corporate elite, and his indifference to the concerns of ordinary people. Protests against US beef sales rapidly escalated into a social movement against the new government?s entire agenda, including its hard-line stance toward North Korea and its plans to weaken the regulation of big business, privatise state-owned companies and construct a controversial canal from Seoul to Busan. Despite an offer by Lee?s cabinet to resign, over one million South Koreans demonstrated in 80 cities and towns on June 10, demanding that the president go as well. He has only been in office since February, after winning elections last December that were marked by popular disaffection from the entire political establishment and a low voter turnout. Since the June 10 protests, Lee has embarked on a desperate campaign to end the protests. Negotiators were dispatched to Washington for crisis talks with US trade representatives, aimed at amending the terms on which US beef could be sold in South Korea. While declaring his government could not re-impose a ban, Lee promised that no beef from cattle older than 30 months would enter the Korean market. Though no American cattle have been diagnosed with BSE since 2003, older stock is considered more susceptible to the disease. Lee also announced the suspension of privatisation plans and the scrapping of the canal project. On June 19, he gave a nationally televised press conference in which he issued a grovelling public apology. ?I and my government should have looked at what people want regarding food safety more carefully, but we failed to do so,? he declared. On Saturday, the government announced that it had secured a ?voluntary? agreement from the US that no beef from animals older than 30 months would be exported to Korea. South Korean inspectors will also have the right to inspect American slaughterhouses. A strike by thousands of unionised truck drivers over fuel prices was brought to an end on the Sunday after freight companies agreed?under pressure from the government?to increase hauling rates by 19 percent. Lee is expected to unveil a major cabinet reshuffle this week and has dismissed a number of his aides and advisors. Finance minister Kang Man Soo announced last Friday that the government?s ?utmost priority? would be ?stabilising prices and looking after the lives of the people?. The corporate media has played its part in seeking to restore political stability. Editorials and opinion pieces have declared that the protestors have succeeded in moderating the government?s policies and that further demonstrations are therefore pointless and damaging to the economy. The protests since June 10 have been small by comparison. Police estimated that some 10,000 people took part in a demonstration on Saturday in Seoul, though the organisers claimed that as many as 60,000 attended. The lack of a political perspective, however, is as much a factor in the ebb of the demonstrations as the government?s concessions and the media?s lectures for protestors go home. The June 10 rally called for the bringing down of Lee?s government. That posed the question of what was to replace it. Millions of people at present do not have an answer. While they oppose Lee?s policies, they have no confidence in the parliamentary opposition?the United New Democratic Party (UNDP). Recent polls showed that the UNDP had barely 20 percent support, while Lee?s popularity stood at 17 percent. The Democrats held power from 1998 until February under former presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moon-hyan. Kim Dae-jung?s administration was ruthlessly pro-big business, imposing wage cuts, unemployment and high inflation on the population in order to salvage the fortunes of corporations following the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis. Moreover, it offered little resistance to the bellicose US policy toward North Korea unveiled by the Bush administration in 2001 that shattered initial steps towards a rapprochement on the Korean peninsula and posed a real threat of war. Roh Moon-hyun narrowly won the December 2002 elections by making nationalist appeals to anti-US sentiment, which had been aggravated by the killing of two schoolgirls by an American military vehicle earlier in the year. Upon taking office, however, he fell into line with the Bush administration, going as far as to agree to send more than 3,000 Korean troops to assist in the occupation of Iraq. Roh?s administration suppressed workers? demands for wage rises to compensate for the cuts suffered under Kim Dae-jung and assisted Korean companies to further erode working conditions, particularly through the extension of casual contracts. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU)?whose militant strikes against the dictatorship in the 1980s were hailed by some as evidence that trade unionism could achieve enduring political and social change?has demonstrated its utter uselessness. It repeatedly capitulated to the corporate agenda of the Kim and Roh governments, while promoting the myth that they represented a ?lesser evil? to the GNP, the party of the old dictatorial regime. The KCTU covers less than 10 percent of the workforce and its membership has been in decline since 2002. After a decade of widening social inequality, its one-day general strikes are widely viewed by workers as unserious. The disillusionment with the KCTU was sharply revealed in the vote taken on June 13 on whether the federation should stage a one-day general strike over US beef imports. Only 271,000 of the 511,000 members voted, with 169,000?or just one third of the total membership?endorsing a strike. The token industrial action is scheduled to take place on July 2. The movement against Lee was not initiated by the Democrats or the unions, but by young people networking on popular web portals. International Herald Tribune correspondent Choe Sang-hun reported on June 16: ?There, people suggested that they stop just talking and take to the streets. When a high school student began a petition on Agora [a web forum] calling for Lee?s impeachment, it gathered 1.3 million signatures within a week. The police were caught off-guard on May 2 when thousands of teenagers networking through Agora and coordinating via text messages poured into central Seoul, holding candles and chanting ?No to mad cow!?? Beef imports were the trigger for the expression of pent-up social tensions and the tremendous alienation felt by young people. After a decade of economic hardship, million of people now have to endure the consequences of rapidly rising inflation. In South Korea, food prices rose 4.7 percent in May, transport costs by 10.6 percent, household costs such as electricity by 5.1 percent and furniture by 4.7 percent. Overall inflation hit 4.9 percent?a seven-year high. Even if the current protests dissipate, the underlying discontent will not. Its ultimate source is opposition to the inequality, injustice and militarism of the capitalist profit system. The crucial question in South Korea is the development of a genuine socialist movement that can give conscious expression to the aspirations of the working class and youth for political and social change. http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1413977.php/Several_hundred_protesters_injured_in_anti-US_beef_protests Several hundred protesters injured in anti-US beef protests Jun 29, 2008, 17:49 GMT Seoul - Hundreds of persons were injured Sunday in new street clashes between police and demonstrators protesting against new import rules permitting US beef into the country. Sunday's clashes were the worst so far since the protest demonstrations, now being held on a virtual daily basis, began several weeks ago amid public dismay over the Seoul government agreeing to permit imports of US beef. The clashes came when demonstrators - estimated at some 15,000 - sought Sunday morning to break through barricades and march on to the presidential palace. Organisers of the demonstraion said 300 to 400 protesters were injured, while police spoke of more than 100 injured, including both demonstrators and police officers. Each side blamed the other for escalating the tensions. Media reports said police used water cannons and fire extinguishers against protesters. At the same time, protesters attacked police vans with iron bars and hammers while also hurling stones and other objects. Koreans are upset at the government for agreeing with the US in easing import restrictions on American beef, amid fears of the BSE or so-called mad-cow disease. The mass protests have stirred a political crisis which at one point culminated in the entire cabinet offering to resign. http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/06/113_26551.html 06-26-2008 11:02 S. Korean Protestors Break Up After Violent Rallies Protestors broke up early Thursday morning after staging violent rallies overnight in central Seoul in protest against the implementation of a new U.S. beef import deal. About 700 people who had been rallying on roadways in front of Koreana Hotel retreated to Seoul Plaza in front of Seoul City Hall at 5: 40 a.m. as police launched a crackdown on protestors. Most of them returned home but 100 others remained at the plaza, holding a debate about the future direction of their protests, witnesses said. Earlier, South Korean police used water cannon and detained more than 130 people as the protests turned violent. Some 3,000 people tried to break through a barricade of police buses in downtown Seoul by pulling the vehicles away. They wanted to march toward the presidential palace of Cheong Wa Dae. Police used hand-held fire extinguishers and water cannon to stop them. Some demonstrators smashed bus windows and protestors and police exchanged kicks and punches in the early-morning clashes. Meanwhile, South Korean activists and unionists blocked the distribution of U.S. beef stored at piers across the country Thursday morning. The action comes after the government issued a legal notice to officially resume U.S. beef imports. Members of civic groups and labor unions took part in the protests. The South Korean government announced a package of extra safeguards ensuring the safety of American beef after week-long negotiations in Washington, D.C. The announcement satisfied many South Koreans but some activists and citizens were still against the new import deal, vowing to continue their candlelight rallies that began in early May. http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-06/27/content_8448777.htm Three arrested in violent protest after U.S. import ban is lifted SEOUL, June 27 (Xinhua) -- Three people were arrested as overnight protests turned violent in downtown Seoul, where thousands of Koreans clashed with police following the government's final move to resume U.S. beef imports, police said Friday. Protesters trying to march on the presidential office piled sandbags to climb over a barricade of police buses near the Gwanghwamun district, while police used fire extinguishers and water cannons to push them back, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported. Police detain protesters who tried to march toward the presidential Blue House to demonstrate against the U.S. beef import deal in Seoul June 26, 2008. South Korea will allow the resumption of U.S. beef imports starting Thursday, the farm ministry said, implementing an unpopular deal that sparked street protests held by people fearing mad cow disease and caused a crisis for the government.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo) "Three people were taken away for engaging in illegal violence, and we are trying to verify how many people and police officers were injured," said an officer at the Jongno Police Station that covers Gwanghwamun. Police said 3,000 people took to the streets, while organizers put the crowd at 50,000. Discrepancies of this kind have become increasingly common. Several opposition party lawmakers attempted to act as a buffer against the violent clash, standing at the forefront of the protesters. They called for a peaceful rally, criticizing police for using water cannons, which can cause serious injuries when shot directly. ? http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-06/27/content_8448861.htm S Korea protesters block shipment of U.S. beef imports for 2nd day SEOUL, June 27 (Xinhua) -- South Korean protesters continued Friday for second day physically blocking the shipment of U.S. beef stored at piers nationwide, according to Yonhap News Agency. Hundreds of unionists from the South Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), the more militant of the nation's two umbrella labor groups, gathered at major piers across the country, to prevent the distribution of the U.S. beef. Police surround domestic cattle breeders and a locally bred cattle during a demonstration against the U.S. beef import deal in Gwacheon, south of Seoul, June 26, 2008. South Korea will allow the resumption of U.S. beef imports starting Thursday, the farm ministry said, implementing an unpopular deal that sparked street protests held by people fearing mad cow disease and caused a crisis for the government.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo) At 12 piers around Gyeonggi Province in the metropolitan region, 20 to 50 unionists started to gather and resume the blockade of the U.S. beef. The move comes as quarantine inspections of the U.S. beef started early Friday after being postponed from the previous day, due to the blockade by protesters. Some 30 unionists, who stayed all night at the Gamman pier at the Busan port, continued with their protest, saying a new beef agreement with the U.S. fails to effectively address fears of mad cow disease and calling for a completely new deal. A deal was reached in April between Seoul and Washington to fully resume the imports that had been halted or highly restricted since 2003, when a case of mad cow disease was found in the United States. South Korean and U.S. officials revised the April 18 agreement last week in an effort to soothe fears of mad cow disease, saying American beef imports are safe due to an effective inspection system. http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/29/asia/korea.php Hundreds injured in South Korean beef protest By Choe Sang-Hun Published: June 29, 2008 SEOUL: Hundreds of protesters and police officers were injured during a violent rally against U.S. beef imports, officials said Sunday, a day after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged South Koreans to believe that U.S. meat was safe from mad cow disease. The demonstrations, which coincided with the end of Rice's trip to Seoul, highlighted the shifting priorities South Koreans place in their relations with the United States. While Rice and South Korean leaders, including President Lee Myung Bak, huddled Saturday to discuss ways of getting North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons programs, more than 18,000 people poured into central Seoul to demand that the two governments discuss something else: renegotiating a beef import deal. On Sunday evening, the government sealed off major rallying points in central Seoul by adding police officers, establishing blockades with buses and rerouting car traffic. Groups of several hundred people held separate protests, some marching and engaging in shoving matches with the police. For U.S. and South Korean leaders, the past week should have been a moment of celebration. After years of negotiations, North Korea submitted a long-delayed account of its nuclear weapons programs and demolished part of its main nuclear complex. But that news was eclipsed in South Korea by protests against U.S. beef. Threats from North Korea, which had traditionally brought the United States and South Korea together, no longer loom large among South Koreans after a decade of reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula. South Koreans also receive periodic breakthroughs in relations with North Korea with caution because efforts to engage the North have always alternated between progress and new deadlocks. The protest that began Saturday evening was the largest since a rally on June 10 brought together at least 100,000 people. The demonstrations against U.S. beef started in early May and dwindled in the past two weeks, but they have picked up again after the government pushed ahead with lifting the import ban Thursday despite South Koreans' concerns that U.S. beef may not be safe from mad cow disease. On Sunday, Reuters reported that the Korean Metal Workers' Union, which represents 230 companies, said that 76 percent of its voting members had agreed to a work stoppage on Wednesday to demand a reworking of the beef deal and better working conditions. The metal industry union is under the militant Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, which has more than 600,000 members at companies including Kia Motors and Ssangyong Motor. The country's president has warned that he will deal sternly with large protests. "We will choose those who instigate violent protests and those who use violence to the end and bring them to justice," said a government statement read Sunday by Justice Minister Kim Kyung Han. Kim warned that the police would use liquid tear gas, something that they have refrained from doing in the past decade. Dozens of police buses lined boulevards in central Seoul and thousands of riot police officers were dispatched as protesters began rallying Saturday evening despite the government warning. Clashes erupted late Saturday and continued into Sunday when thousands of protesters tried to march on Lee's office. The police stopped them with barricades built with police buses. Protesters tied ropes to the buses and pulled at them. The police fired water cannon and sprayed fire extinguishers. The demonstrators hurled rocks and swung steel pipes while the police beat them back with plastic shields. People hooked hoses to fire hydrants to make their own water cannon. On Sunday, police officials reported that 112 officers had been injured and 35 police vehicles had been damaged. About 50 protesters were detained on charges of assaulting police officers, the officials said. Organizers of the protest said that 300 to 400 people had been hurt "because of police brutality." The first shipment of U.S. beef is expected to be released into the South Korean market this week after quarantine inspections. South Korea imposed an importation ban on U.S. beef in 2003 after a case of mad cow disease was detected in the United States. "I want to assure everyone that American beef is safe," Rice said at a news conference Saturday. "We will continue to work with you to have consumer confidence in that matter." http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/world/asia/30koreabeef.html?_r=1&ref=asia&oref=slogin South Korea Cracks Down on Suspected Protest Organizers By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: June 30, 2008 SEOUL, South Korea ? The police on Monday raided the offices of two civic groups accused of leading weeks of protests against American beef imports. The raids followed government warnings that it would get tough on the demonstrations. One of the civic groups, the Korea Solidarity for Progressive Movement, said the police confiscated 22 desktop computers and a box-load of documents from its office early Monday morning. Hwang Soon-won, a civic group leader, was taken away for questioning. Shortly afterward, police officers barged into the office of another civic group dedicated to fighting the government?s agreement to lift a five-year-old ban on importing American beef despite public concerns that the meat may not be safe from mad cow disease. Computers, placards and banners used during the protests were seized. The police said the raids were necessary to collect evidence of illegal street demonstrations, which President Lee Myung-bak said he would no longer tolerate. The two civic groups issued statements accusing the Lee government of reverting to ?dictatorship.? Justice Minister Kim Kyung-han said on Sunday, ?We will chase those who instigate violent protests and those who use violence to the end and bring them to justice.?. Mr. Kim warned that the police would use liquid tear gas, which they have refrained from using in the past decade. They commonly used liquid tear gas against antigovernment demonstrators during the military dictatorships of the 1970s and ?80s and against labor activists of the 1990s. On Sunday evening the police sealed off major rallying points in central Seoul after hundreds of police officers and members of the public were injured during a beef import protest that began Saturday evening and continued into Sunday morning. Police buses cordoned off plazas and intersections where large crowds have gathered almost daily since early May to demand that the government renegotiate the deal that was reached in April. Police officers blocked subway entrances and alleys leading to those rallying points. Still, protesters broke into several groups of hundreds and marched Sunday evening, engaging in sporadic shoving matches with the police. The police detained more than 100 protesters for questioning. The Korean Metal Workers? Union, which represents workers at 240 companies, including the country?s four major automakers, said 76 percent of its voting members had agreed to a two-hour work stoppage on Wednesday to demand a new beef deal and better working conditions. The Catholic Priests? Association for Justice, an influential religious group known for its struggle against the dictatorships, said it would lead an outdoor Mass on Monday to lend its moral support to the protesters. A protest Saturday night attracted more than 18,000 people, the largest crowd since a rally on June 10 brought together at least 100,000 people. Police officials said 112 officers had been injured and 35 police vehicles had been damaged. About 50 protesters were detained on charges of assaulting police officers, they said. Protest organizers said that 300 to 400 people had been hurt ?because of police brutality.? In April, South Korea agreed to lift the ban on American beef, imposed in 2003 after a case of mad cow disease was detected in the United States. Officials in Seoul persuaded the United States this month to revise the terms of the April agreement to placate the protesters. But the protests continued, dashing Mr. Lee?s hopes for an early end to what has become the biggest political crisis of his four-month-old government http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f8937914-4c88-11dd-96bb-000077b07658.html Seoul moves to quell beef protests By Anna Fifield in Seoul Published: July 8 2008 03:00 | Last updated: July 8 2008 03:00 Lee Myung-bak, South Korea's embattled president, yesterday replaced his agriculture, welfare and education ministers in an attempt to assuage public anger over his government's decision to re-open the domestic market to US beef. The reshuffle was smaller than that expected when the entire cabinet tendered its resignation almost a month ago at the height of nationwide protest rallies. Analysts expressed doubt about whether it would placate the protesters. Han Seung-soo, prime minister, and Kang Man-soo, finance minister, will retain their positions. Lee Dong-kwan, the president's spokesman, said: "Economic difficulties are a global phenomenon. It is not desirable to frequently change top policymakers in charge of economic affairs." But Choi Joong-kyung, the vice-finance minister in charge of foreign exchange policy, was fired; the Korean won has declined 10.5 per cent against the dollar this year. Kim Dong-soo, a deputy finance minister, will replace him. Korea has been in a state of upheaval for more than two months, as public disappointment with Mr Lee's presidency - he took office in February - came to a head over his decision to allow US beef back into the Korean market. Beef imports were suspended in 2003 after a mad cow disease scare in the US but Seoul last year accepted, as a side agreement to a bilateral trade deal with Washington, a resumption of imports if the meat was declared safe by the World Organisation for Animal Health, which it was. Shops selling US beef - which is about a third of the price of Korean beef - have been inundated with customers since imports resumed last week. But many Koreans remain sceptical about its safety, with some media reporting that Koreans have a gene that makes them susceptible to mad cow disease. Ahn Byong-man, a presidential adviser for state planning, will become education and science minister; Jang Tae-pyoung, former secretary-general of an anti-corruption panel, was designated agriculture minister; and Jeon Jae-hee, a lawmaker in the ruling Grand National party, was nominated health minister. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aM.MDHGncWn4&refer=home South Korean Priests Lead Peaceful Anti-Government Beef Protest By Heejin Koo July 1 (Bloomberg) -- South Korean Catholic priests led a peaceful protest against U.S. beef imports late yesterday after the authorities cracked down on recent demonstrations that turned violent. About 200 priests with the Catholic Priests' Association for Justice held an ``emergency mass'' in the plaza in front of City Hall in the capital, Seoul. It was attended by about 10,000 people, according to police estimates. The clerics and protesters then held an hour-long parade, calling for the government to renegotiate its beef deal with the U.S. Numbers grew to about 20,000 at the end of the march as people on the streets joined in, police said. Clashes between police and demonstrators June 28 and 29 left more than 100 people injured on each side. President Lee Myung Bak has been trying to contain a backlash against his agreement in April to resume U.S. beef imports. Protesters have staged daily demonstrations for the past two months to highlight the possibility of mad cow disease from imported U.S. beef. Lee was forced to publicly apologize for his handling of the negotiations and fired all but one of his top aides. `Stern Action' The government promised ``stern action'' against violent protesters on June 29. South Korean police yesterday raided the offices of AntiMadCow, an umbrella group of South Korean consumer groups, food safety advocates and student activists. Mad cow disease is a brain-wasting livestock illness that scientists say is spread in cattle by tainted animal feed. Eating contaminated meat from infected animals can cause a fatal human variant that has been blamed for the deaths of 151 people in the U.K., where it was first reported in the 1980s. South Korea, once the third-largest importer of American beef, stopped accepting shipments in 2003 when the U.S. discovered its first mad cow case. Some beef was imported in 2006 and the ban was reinstated in October last year. The priests yesterday called on protesters to continue peaceful rallies. They also began a fast over the resumption of U.S. beef imports and pledged to hold a mass at the City Hall Plaza every evening at 7 p.m. Seoul time, according to a statement distributed to the protesters. The U.S. and South Korea agreed June 21 that South Korea will import beef only from animals younger than 30 months, which are thought to be at lower risk for mad cow disease. The U.S. agreed to verify the age of its exports. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2008/07/20087352124546633.html S Korean car workers join protests About 200 priests joined the protests [AFP] Tens of thousands of South Korean car workers have added their voice to opposition against resumed US beef imports. The workers, along with about 200 priests, joined weeks of anti-government protests on Wednesday, gathering at Seoul's city hall to condemn the government of Lee Myung-bak, the president. The protest came a day after US beef returned to South Korean stores under a deal Lee struck with the US in April. About 55,000 workers at South Korea's largest car manufacturer, Hyundai Motor. and its affiliate Kia Motors, stopped work for two hours, union officials said. A Hyundai spokesman said the strike was expected to cost the companies about $40.4m in lost production, or 2,900 vehicles. "This is not a political strike, but a strike that is aimed at protecting our right to health," Lee Suk-haeng, the leader of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions which organised the strike, told reporters. Protesters warned The union leader said his group planned to launch a nationwide consumer campaign to boycott US beef. About 55,000 workers stopped work for two hours [AFP] The president's office denounced the walkout as an attempt to hurt the nation's economy and vowed to deal sternly with strikes. "Now it is time for everyone to return to work and pull together all our energies and wisdom to surmount economic difficulties," the office said in a statement. US beef sales resumed on Tuesday, although they were limited to one store run by a US beef importer. Lee agreed to lift the import ban in April imposed in 2003, when the first case of mad cow disease was discovered in the US. This led to a backlash due to health concerns and a perception that South Korea had backed down too easily to US pressure. As the protests peaked in June at 80,000 people, the South Korean cabinet offered to resign and Lee reshuffled top aides. http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/216362,south-korea-auto-workers-strike-to-protest-us-beef-imports.html South Korea auto workers strike to protest US beef imports Posted : Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:04:00 GMT Author : DPA Category : Asia (World) Seoul - Ten of thousands of South Korean auto workers went on a partial strike Wednesday to protest the government's lifting a ban on importing US beef. A spokesman for Hyundai, the country's largest carmaker, said said 44,000 workers would strike for two hours during both the day and night shifts at four factories. At affiliate Kia Motors up to 20,00 workers are expected to stop working for two hours. The strike was called by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) over a new import deal that allowed US beef to be sold Tuesday in South Korea for the first time since imports were halted in 2003 after a US mad cow case. Since an April agreement to lift the ban there have been mass rallies nationwide. The crisis has caused President Lee Myung Bak's approval ratings to plummet and there have been calls for the resignation of the new leader, who took office in February. His cabinet, however, offered to quit en masse. Last week the two countries agreed on more stringent import criteria that only beef younger than 30 months would be allowed into South Korea. Mad-cow disease occurs mainly in older cattle. The removal of the import ban was considered a condition for the ratification of a South Korean-US free trade agreement by the US Congress. Mad-cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is a brain-wasting illness that can be transmitted to people who eat infected meat. http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jul2008/skor-j03.shtml South Korean government turns to repression to curb protests By James Cogan 3 July 2008 Use this version to print | Send this link by email | Email the author South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has ordered the police to crack down on the anti-government movement that has developed since his administration?s decision to allow the resumption of US beef imports. The move is a response to fears in the Korean ruling elite that social discontent is spiralling out of control and aggravating an already unstable economic situation. Lee?s office sought to outlaw industrial stoppages yesterday by an estimated 120,000 of the 511,000 members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), called over both wage demands and in opposition to US beef imports. Lee declared the stoppages were an ?illegal and political walkout? and KCTU leaders have been summoned to appear before the Ulsan District Prosecutors Office. If they do not turn up, arrest warrants will be issued. Hyundai Motors, whose 44,000-strong workforce closed down production lines for two hours at plants in Ulsan, Jeonju and Asan, has announced it is filing a petition for union leaders to be arrested and charged with ?obstructing its business?. Some 29,000 workers at Hyundai affiliate Kia Motors also took part in the brief stoppage, closing plants in Sohari, Hwaseong and Gwangju. Auto parts manufacturers Mando and Halla Climate Control were affected as well. The vast majority of workers at Daewoo Auto and Ssangyong Motors reportedly did not strike. Outside of the auto industry, few KCTU members participated. Despite its limited scope, the strike contributed to the general panic in the South Korean corporate elite. The stock market Kopsi index plunged 2.6 percent in trading yesterday, the largest decline in three months and the 18th consecutive day of falls. The stock sell-off has been a response to high oil prices, the government?s lowering of economic growth expectations from 6 percent to 4.7 percent, rising inflation and the fear of political instability. South Korea recorded a trade deficit of $US284 million in June, a dramatic reversal from the $1.03 billion surplus registered in May. The overall trade deficit for the six months to June has reached $5.7 billion. The cost of oil imports are the main cause, blowing out by 60.9 percent due to the global rise in prices. Inflation is accelerating. The consumer price index (CPI) rose by the largest rate in June since the turmoil induced by the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis. The CPI increased by 5.5 percent, compared with 4.9 percent in May. So far this year, the Korean currency, the won, has fallen by 12 percent, contributing to sharp price rises for oil, food and other commodities. The Korean central bank is under intense pressure to raise interest rates to shore up the currency and stem the exodus of foreign capital. Five-year government bonds have already risen this year from 4.92 percent to 5.97 percent. Lee?s prime minister, Han Seung-soo, told a press conference on Tuesday: ?The daily protests are making foreign investors avoid direct investment in Korea and also discouraging investment by domestic businesses. The credibility of South Korea?s economy is worsening rapidly.? The protests began in April when Lee unexpectedly lifted the US beef ban, which had threatened to obstruct negotiations toward a US-Korea free trade agreement that will give Korean auto companies and other export industries greater access to the US market. US beef imports were banned in 2003 after a case of Mad Cow Disease was discovered in American cattle. The protests against the decision rapidly developed into a volatile expression of the pent-up discontent and alienation within the working class and youth. Living standards have stagnated or declined since the 1997-1998 financial crisis, as successive governments have implemented policies to protect the profitability of Korean corporations. President Lee, a former Hyundai CEO who took office in February, is viewed as an even more pro-big business figure than his predecessor Roh Moon-hyan. The policies that Lee unveiled?privatisation, constructing a canal from Seoul to Busan, changes to the education and health-care systems and support for the Bush administration?s hard-line stance against North Korea?have been widely opposed. The US beef decision was seen as symptomatic of the government?s indifference to the conditions facing ordinary people. Even though no case of Mad Cow has been diagnosed in the US since 2003, thousands of young Internet users discussed the lifting of the ban as evidence that Lee was prepared to infect them in order to secure export opportunities for the chaebols?the Korean corporate conglomerates. On June 10, an estimated one million people demonstrated around the country, demanding Lee?s resignation and the maintenance of the prohibition on US beef. For weeks, the Korean media has been voicing demands of the ruling elite for Lee?s administration to crack down on the demonstrations and suppress any move by workers to take industrial action. Lee is now clearly acting. Yesterday?s move to arrest union leaders comes in the wake of brutal police actions on Saturday night against more than 20,000 people who assembled in Seoul Plaza?the largest demonstration since June 10. Over 10,000 riot police were mobilised to block an attempt to march on Lee?s presidential offices. A barricade of 30 police buses blocked their intended route. Footage quickly published on the Internet showed police rushing into crowds of people and beating them with batons and riot shields, and demonstrators being bowled over and flushed along the ground by high-pressure water cannon. For the first time, the police added fluorescent dye to the water so that protestors could be tracked down and arrested later. As many as 400 demonstrators required medical treatment, as did 112 police. In an Associated Press clip police can clearly be seen striking a man with the rim of their shields during one of their baton charges. In another clip available on YouTube police officers can be seen repeatedly kicking a young woman in the head and body as she lies on the ground. The woman?later identified as a 24-year-old who said her family name was Jang?suffered a broken arm and severe bruising. She told journalists: ?I continuously rolled my body to survive. They chased me, kicking me primarily in the head. I was afraid that I could die.? Among the injured were members of the Young Men?s Christian Association (YMCA), who lay down on the road between the protestors and police in an effort to stop the baton charges. Police ignored their pacifist gesture and reportedly stomped on them and struck them with their batons as they ran over the top of them. YMCA Korean secretary general Lee Hak-yeong told journalists that his right arm had been broken. His associate, Hong Gyeong-pyo, was kicked unconscious. The government seized upon the violent clashes to issue a declaration on Sunday that all further assemblies in Seoul Plaza were illegal and would be prevented. On Sunday evening, police blocked the subway exits to the Plaza, where demonstrators intended to assemble, while hundreds of police fanned out into the surrounding streets. A truck rigged with protestor?s broadcasting equipment was towed away. At least 16 people who attempted to protest against the police actions were arrested. At the break of dawn on Monday, police raided the offices of the Korea Solidarity of Progressive Movements, an organisation which has been prominent in the almost daily protests since the beef import ban was lifted in April. According to the Korea Herald, 23 computers, a laptop and boxes of documents were removed. At the same time, more than 50 police raided the Seoul offices of the People?s Alliance for Countermeasures against Mad Cow Disease?the umbrella organisation for the 1,700 groups involved in the protests. For more than 90 minutes, the police rampaged through the building. They removed three computers, along with placards, banners and raincoats. In response to the repression meted out to the Mad Cow Alliance, religious organisations have taken responsibility for organising the daily protests. The Catholic Priests? Association for Justice held a mass in Seoul Plaza on Monday evening, criticising the resumption of beef imports and calling for the sacking of the police commissioner over Saturday?s brutality. Despite promises of non-violence by the religious groups, thousands of police were still mobilised on the streets. Protestant and Buddhist groups are planning similar vigils over the coming days. For the Mad Cow Alliance?s next major action, scheduled for Saturday, it is calling for a massive turnout to turn the protest into a ?Day of victory for one million protesters?. Editorials in the Korean press have made clear that the ruling class expects the government to use overwhelming force to suppress the demonstration. The JongAng Daily declared on Monday: ?As a nation, we have entered into a nightmare of lawlessness and anarchy... In our view the government should respond strongly to the violent protests pursuant to laws and regulations. It should not renege on its pledge to take the more radical leaders of the protestors into custody for initiating the violence.? Lee?s cabinet has announced that police will be granted the right to use tear gas?a controversial move because tear gas was last used during the mass demonstrations and strikes that led to the downfall of the military dictatorship in 1987. The instinctive resort of the ruling elite to police-state repression underscores just how superficial the so-called ?democratic? reforms since 1987 have been. Behind the fa?ade of elections, the interests of the same clique of powerful business families that benefited from the previous period of military rule continue to be served. http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=592619&rss=yes New mass protest against S Korean govt 23:10 AEST Sat Jul 5 2008 42 days 3 hours 18 minutes ago By Park Chan-Kyong Tens of thousands of South Koreans called for the scrapping of US beef imports and the resignation of President Lee Myung-bak in the latest of a series of mass protests in Seoul. Waving flags and banners, the 35,000 people packed a broad street near the City Hall in central Seoul, many of them sitting down on the damp pavement in defiance. They chanted slogans such as "Lee Myung-Bak out" and "People will triumph", and a large red banner reading, "Mad Cow, Mad Government" was floated high in the air. Passers-by and vehicles were turned away from the area, which was sealed off completely with barricades of police buses, parked tightly and manned by thousands of riot police with shields. Two months of demonstrations have been sparked by Seoul's agreement in April to resume US beef imports, which were halted in 2003 after a US mad cow disease case. As Lee's government struggles to ratify a free-trade pact with the US and in response to the protests, Seoul went back to Washington to negotiate extra health safeguards, and the meat is now on sale. "Aside from the beef issue, this government fills me with disgust," said a 32-year-old protester who works as a computer programmer. "This government has lost public confidence, betrayed people's expectation for economic turnaround and worsened education problems," he said as his two young nephews in prams were playing with yellow protest balloons. The crowd grew as more and more groups arrived after the rain stopped, although generally the number at protests has fallen sharply since 100,000 people gathered in Seoul on June 10, according to police estimates. An umbrella grouping of activists, the People's Association for Measures against Mad Cow Disease, said hundreds of people, including young Christians, would serve as "human shields" to separate the protesters from riot police. "In order to prevent any violent clashes with riot police, religious leaders, leading activists and parliament members will lead the march," it said in a statement. Protesters have previously clashed with police, with more than 200 people hurt in running battles last Sunday. Supporters of the newly installed conservative government say left-wing professional agitators have been taking over some rallies, a charge denied by the protest groups. Analysts say beef is not the only source of public dissatisfaction. Policy failures due to inexperience, economic woes deepened by high oil prices and Lee's alleged authoritarian style have also stoked resentment, they say. Lee has twice apologised to the nation for his handling of the issue and sacked top aides, but says rallies should now stop. http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200807/200807180020.html Constitution Day Sees Protests Turn Violent Again Anti-government street protests in Seoul once again turned violent on Thursday when protesters smashed police buses and police turned water cannons on them. It was the first time since June 29 that the protests became violent. Some 1,500 protesters tore wire netting and smashed the windows of four police buses that blocked their way to Gwanghwamun from the Anguk-dong intersection at around 10 p.m. on Thursday, which was Constitution Day. The police responded by shooting water cannon and spraying protesters with fire extinguishers. Some protesters wrested the fire extinguishers from the police and sprayed back. The People's Association for Measures Against Mad Cow Disease had gone all out in efforts to mobilize protesters, but only 3,500 people turned up. The figures are disputed, as the association claims there were 20,000. Participants were mostly members of stalwart progressive groups, including Jinbo Corea, the New Progressive Party, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, and the Korea Teachers and Education Workers? Union, but participation from ordinary citizens has drastically declined. Police say protesters are becoming more violent because they have lost their mainstay and driving force. http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7011512716 New Mass S Korea Beef Protest Demanded President's Resignation ShareThis July 5, 2008 2:57 p.m. EST Mayur Pahilajani - AHN News Writer Seoul, South Korea (AHN) - Tens of thousands of South Koreans protested against the government's plan to resume U.S. beef imports under a new agreement between the two sides. Police estimate 50,000 people turned out in Seoul on Saturday in the renewed demonstrations demanding he resignation of President Lee Myung-Bak and stopping the beef import plan. In the latest mass protest, the crowd gathered in front of City Hall in the capital city of Seoul, waving banners, flags and candles. Last month, the United States had struck a deal on beef exports with South Korea to ease the concerns related to meat safety. South Korean President's administration announced that it had reached a deal with the U.S. to ensure the safety of beef imports in the country. The U.S. has agreed not to export beef to South Korea from cattle older than 30 months, which is believed to carry a higher risk of mad cow disease or BSE, to quell public concern that sparked a political crisis. The new mass protest is in the series of weeks long demonstrations sparked by the initial decision by the authorities to ease the quarantine regulations on U.S. beef based on the April 18 agreement with Washington. Protesters have previously clashed with police, forcing riot troops to fire water cannon and arrest 228 people. Around 100 protesters and 40 security officers were wounded in the clashes, with a male citizen reportedly suffering a cerebral hemorrhage. The U.S. beef imports were suspended for more than four years following the first U.S. case of mad cow disease in a Canadian-born cow in 2003 in Washington State. It was planned that the markets will be reopened mainly for the U.S. to send in all cuts of beef from cattle of all ages but the countries like Japan will not be allowed as the locals still fear of mad cow disease. However, after the latest agreement between the two countries, they will now introduce an age verification system. Meanwhile, President Lee Myung-bak, who took office in February, has seen his popularity decrease among the masses, especially after the widespread protests started. http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/07/113_27461.html 07-13-2008 10:16 Protestors Rally Against US Beef Imports in Central Seoul Thousands of South Koreans Saturday staged rallies against the resumption of U.S. beef imports in downtown Seoul despite pouring rain, calling for the renegotiation of a beef deal with the U.S. At 7:30 p.m., the protestors started marching through streets alongside the Cheonggye Stream that runs through the heart of Seoul, chanting slogans calling for the renegotiation of the deal. Protesters had planned to hold rally in a plaza in front of Seoul's City Hall at 7:00 p.m., but failed as police blocked their approach. Police in riot gear blocked the march, but there were no significant clashes. Early Sunday morning, police dispersed the remaining hundreds of protestors. South Korea lifted a ban on U.S. beef imports on June 26 after the U.S. agreed on June 21 not to export beef from cattle older than 30 months to South Korea. It was the latest additional measure to address South Koreans' safety concerns over U.S. beef, which they fear may carry mad cow disease. In April, South Korea reached a deal to import U.S. beef from cattle of all ages, sparking weeks of street rallies and candlelight vigils. The nationwide protests against U.S. beef started on May 2 in downtown Seoul. http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24086463-5005961,00.html Police clash with beef protesters Article from: Agence France-Presse Font size: Decrease Increase Email article: Email Print article: Print >From correspondents in Seoul July 27, 2008 09:15pm SOUTH Korean riot police clashed with protesters in Seoul today, detaining 43, when a rally against US beef imports turned violent, officials said. Police wielded riot shields and sprayed hand-held fire extinguishers at the demonstrators, who hit back with kicks and punches in clashes that left dozens hurt on either side, according to witnesses. Those held were among 1000 protesters who took to the city centre late yesterday and into the early hours of today. "Police rounded up at least 43 violent protesters, who are now under questioning,'' a Seoul police spokesman said. During the rally, a drunk driver ran his car through the demonstrators, injuring five people. The driver was arrested, the police spokesman said. Tens of thousands of people have rallied in South Korea since early May against the proposed resumption of US beef imports, which critics say could increase the risk of mad cow disease. South Korea was once the third largest market for US beef, with imports worth $US850 million ($886.99 million) a year until they were suspended in 2003 after a US case of mad cow disease. http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200807/200807210016.html ?Guerrilla? Protests Paralyze Seoul Traffic Traffic in downtown Seoul was in chaos due to a series of street protests from Saturday evening to Sunday morning. Some 500 protesters marched through Jongno and Euljiro and completely cut off traffic in the nearby Dongnimmun and Seoul Station area for nine hours, from the time when the march began in Cheonggye Plaza at 7:20 p.m. on Saturday to 4:30 a.m. on Sunday, when the protesters finally reached Seoul Station. Instead of the People's Association for Measures Against Mad Cow Disease, whose leadership has been significantly weakened, a small number of groups such as the radical National University Student Council or Jeondaehyup led the protests. Without a concrete plan, the protesters carried out guerrilla rallies, marching without direction from the Cheonggye Stream through Jongno and Namdaemun to the Seoul Railway Station. Drivers in the downtown area were caught in the middle as protesters suddenly appeared on the roads, and the police could do nothing but watch. Demonstrators began their all-out guerilla strategy from 1 a.m. Sunday, simply changing direction when police blocked their way. This lasted for seven hours in the pouring rain. About 400 cars were caught for more than 30 minutes between the Seodaemun Station and Dongnimmun. http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2892527 Protests dwindling to hard-core supporters July 19, 2008 A few protesters swing metal pipes at a police bus near Anguk Subway Station in Seoul after ending a candlelight demonstration Thursday night. By Kim Tae-seong Constitution Day?s candlelight vigil turned into a violent demonstration by a dwindling number of hard-core protesters. Police detained seven people on charges of occupying streets and wielding metal pipes and sticks at around 3 a.m. yesterday in Jongno, downtown Seoul. The 71st candlelight protest organized by the People?s Conference against Mad Cow Disease had been scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday at Seoul City Hall Plaza, but access to the area was blocked by 10,000 riot policemen. Undeterred, an estimated 3,500 demonstrators gathered at the Cheonggye Plaza where they chanted anti-government slogans and shouted: ?Guarantee candlelight vigils!? and ?Lee Myung-bak must step down!? The organizer had anticipated a turnout of tens of thousands. At around 9:30 p.m., demonstrators tried to march to Insa-dong, but riot police blocked them and most protesters left. After midnight police started to disperse the remaining 150 demonstrators. Some resisted, shattering windows of police buses with metal pipes and sticks. In response, police turned water cannons on the protesters. Meanwhile, the Seoul Central District Court yesterday sentenced a 44-year-old protester, Lee Sang-don, to 18 months in prison and a 200,000 won ($197) fine for climbing up a riot police bus in downtown Seoul and hitting two policemen with a metal pipe during a street rally on June 8. Both victims had injuries that required two weeks of medical treatment. The Seoul National Police Agency said that they have detained 987 people during the candlelight vigils organized across the country from May 2 through June 30. Police also said that 770,000 demonstrators took part in the protests. Some 477,000 police officers were dispatched to keep order. They were sometimes too aggressive, according to Amnesty International, an international human rights group. The group released a report yesterday critical of some police actions while noting that some protesters also were violent towards police. ?The protests were generally peaceful, but there were some incidents of violence (between protesters and policemen),? said Amnesty researcher Norma Kang Muico. By Park Sang-woo Staff Reporter [spark at joongang.co.kr] http://www.chinapost.com.tw/international/americas/2008/07/21/166484/South%2DKorean.htm South Korean police detain 16 protesters of U.S. beef AFP Monday, July 21, 2008 SEOUL -- South Korean police said Sunday they had detained 16 demonstrators during an overnight rally in Seoul against U.S. beef imports. The detainees were among 1,600 protesters who took to the streets of the capital from Saturday evening through early Sunday, Seoul police said. Demonstrators let off firecrackers and police fired water cannons, but there were no major violent incidents, police said. Riot police blocked the protesters from key downtown areas. "Sixteen people have been put in police custody for questioning over the charges of illegally occupying the streets," a police spokesman said. http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2892879 Protests turn into violence July 28, 2008 Protesters against resumption of U.S. beef imports confront riot police on the streets near Jonggak subway station in central Seoul early Sunday morning after demonstrating at the Cheonggye Plaza on Saturday night. [YONHAP] Candlelight protests turned into another violent confrontation with riot police on Saturday and early Sunday morning as a thousand demonstrators started street protests at 9 p.m. in Jongno streets, central Seoul, after holding candlelight vigils against resumption of imports of American beef at the Cheonggye Plaza. The vigils turned political as some protesters circulated pamphlets critical of Kong Jung-tack, a conservative running for superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education. Kong?s rival, Jou Kyong-bok, showed up at the plaza to ask for support in the election on Wednesday. Riot police started dispersing protesters at 11 p.m. as they occupied Jongno streets. In the process, some protesters fell over a street fence and were injured. After midnight, a drunk driver identified only by his surname Cho hit six protesters when he tried to make a U-turn to get away from the crowd. He was later arrested. No serious injuries were reported. http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200808/200808070022.html Police Get Serious in Cracking Down on Protests Police have become more active in their response to illegal street protests after being accused of passivity in the last couple of months. On Tuesday night, police issued verbal warnings to some 2,700 anti-Bush demonstrators every time they tried to occupy the streets and did not hesitate to arrest anybody who violated the law. Protesters, apparently used to rather lax treatment, seemed taken aback by the prompt action taken by the police. Thanks to strict law enforcement, traffic in downtown Seoul was back to normal before midnight. Demonstrators seemed to have learned the lesson from the night before, and after only three warnings from the police, those who rallied in front of KBS in Yeouido on Wednesday night dispersed without much resistance. Police took unprecedentedly swift action on Tuesday night, having earlier warned they would deploy water cannon and arrest violators. They tracked down especially violent protesters and arrested them when they fled, a task made easier by spray cans they turned on them. Protesters scattered into smaller groups of 100 to 300, and the crowds dispersed to Euljiro, Toegyero and the Myeongdong Cathedral. Traffic downtown was normalized by 11:30 p.m. Up until a few days ago, police reacted with forbearance and did not prevent demonstrators from occupying the roads, and even after issuing warnings they waited for hours overnight until the protesters dispersed voluntarily. Water cannon were used only to protect barricades set up by police buses. Accustomed to lax reaction from the police, the demonstrators did not flinch when the police issued warnings, and did not give into water cannons. On July 26, some 1,500 demonstrators freely walked along the streets downtown for 12 hours, and kidnapped, stripped and beat two police officers. Police promised rewards to officers to encourage them to act against illegal protesters. Seoul Metropolitan Police Commissioner Kim Seok-gi said, "Actions disturbing law and order have continued throughout the demonstrations in recent months. We decided to introduce the reward system to boost the morale of police officers since there were officers who avoided arresting protesters because of the danger at the rally scenes." http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/080816/world/skorea_protest SKorea arrests 157 in protest against US beef: police Module body Sat Aug 16, 2:14 AM SEOUL (AFP) - South Korean police hosed protesters with water laced with blue dye and mobilized specially-trained plainclothes officers to break up an anti-government demonstration late Friday and early Saturday, witnesses said. The Seoul Police Agency said it had arrested 157 people on charges of staging illegal demonstrations in central Seoul. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Some 5,500 people showed up for the 100th candle-lit rally to protest against South Korea's resumption of US beef imports and against policies of President Lee Myung-Bak of the conservative Grand National Party, police said. They chanted "Lee Myung-Bak Out!" and "Renegotiate the beef deal," witnesses said. Police sprayed water mixed with blue dye at demonstrators and arrested offenders whose clothes were tainted by the pigment after the crowd dispersed into neighbouring streets and alleys, witnesses said. Police also brought in plainclothes officers, who are specialized in chasing and overpowering offenders during street protests. Such personnel, although used widely by past authoritarian governments, have been seldom seen in the street during the past 10 years of liberal rule. South Korea's April decision to resume US beef imports sparked months of street protests. Because of fears over mad cow disease, Seoul suspended US beef imports in 2003. The rallies largely subsided after Seoul secured extra health safeguards for US beef imports. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,397985,00.html Thousands of Protesters Water-Bombed as Bush Arrives in South Korea Tuesday, August 05, 2008 Aug. 5: South Korean protesters stage a rally against U.S. President George W. Bush's visit in Seoul. SEOUL, South Korea ? Police fired water cannons at thousands of protesters Tuesday as President Bush got a volatile reception in South Korea at the start of his three-nation Asian trip. Dueling demonstrations reflected mixed sentiments in this U.S. ally, where public opinion surveys remain generally positive about America, though many people decry Washington for a variety of issues. Bush will meet Wednesday with President Lee Myung-bak for the third time since the conservative, pro-American leader took office in February. Some 18,300 police were on high alert with riot gear and bomb-sniffing dogs to maintain order during Bush's brief visit, the National Police Agency said. About 30,000 people gathered in front of Seoul City Hall for an afternoon Christian prayer service supporting Bush's trip. Large South Korean and U.S. flags were held aloft by balloons overhead along with a banner reading, "Welcome President Bush." "The United States made sacrifices for South Korea during the Korean War and helped us live well," said Kim Jung-kwang, a 67-year-old retired air force colonel who wore his military uniform to the rally. "The United States is not our enemy. Without the U.S., we will die." Related Seoul Divided As evening approached, an estimated 20,000 anti-Bush protesters gathered nearby. Police turned water cannons on them as they tried to move onto the main central downtown boulevard, telling the crowd that the liquid contained markers to tag them so they could be identified later. "I don't have anti-U.S. sentiment. I'm just anti-Bush and anti-Lee Myung-bak," said Uhm Ki-woong, 36, a businessman who was wearing a mask and hat like other demonstrators in an apparent attempt to conceal his identity. The anti-Bush crowd dwindled later in the evening to several thousand people, with the hard-core remnants turning aggressive. Protesters shattered the windows of a police bus and authorities responded by again firing water cannons. About 70 demonstrators were arrested, police said, in addition to another 12 near the military airport where Bush landed. Bush held off on visiting Seoul earlier this year when protesters staged nightly candlelight vigils and repeatedly clashed with riot police over imports of American beef, saying Lee ignored public health concerns over the possibility of mad cow disease and failed to consult with citizens. Lee has promised to patch up relations with Washington that became strained under Seoul's previous decade of liberal governments. Bush calls Lee a friend, which is good considering the raft of sensitive topics they will tackle before the American president heads to Thailand, then to the Beijing Olympics. At the top of the list is getting North Korea to live up to its commitment to dismantle its nuclear weapons program. Sunday is the earliest that Washington could move to strike North Korea from a list of state-sponsors of terrorism, a long-held demand from Pyongyang. But first, Washington wants the North to agree to procedures for verifying a declaration of its nuclear programs that Pyongyang submitted to the international arms talks ? six months late and with fewer details than the U.S. originally demanded. Washington has called for North Korea to allow thorough inspections and interviews with nuclear scientists, but Pyongyang has so far not accepted the proposal. "We're at a very critical moment now for the North Korean government to make a decision as to whether or not they're going to verify what they said they would do," Bush said in an interview with China's state-run CCTV last week. "It's one thing to say it, but I think it's going to be very important for them to understand that we expect them to show us." Grateful for South Korea's troop contribution in Iraq, Bush also will try to persuade Lee to make a bigger contribution in Afghanistan to help deal with the Taliban's resurgence. "Obviously we'd like to see a greater role for South Koreans in Afghanistan, if the South Korean people are willing to move in that direction," Dennis Wilder, the National Security Council's senior director for Asian affairs, told reporters on Air Force One. Also on the agenda will be efforts by both presidents to have their legislatures approve a free trade agreement, with estimates it could increase bilateral trade by 25 percent. But with free trade deals with Colombia and Panama stalled in Congress, the prospects for ratification by the end of the year are unlikely. Bush will meet with U.S. troops based in South Korea, as he did during a stopover in Alaska, where he expressed gratitude for their role in fighting terrorism. "About a year ago, people thought Iraq was lost and hopeless," Bush said at Eielson Air Force Base, where he posed for photos with airmen and soldiers and worked the crowd, at one point lifting a baby in the air. "People were saying, 'Let's get out of there, it doesn't matter to our national security.' "Iraq has changed ? a lot ? thanks to the bravery of people in this hangar and the bravery of troops all across our country. The terrorists (are) on the run. The terrorists will be denied a safe haven, and freedom is on the march. And as a result, our children are more likely to grow up in a peaceful world." Bush's Asia trip also includes stops in Thailand and China. In an interview aboard Air Force One with The Washington Post, Bush said it was "really hard to tell" whether human rights in China had improved over the past eight years. Bush said he speaks candidly with Chinese President Hu Jintao about human rights, but he skirted a question about a pre-Olympics security drive by Chinese authorities. "They're hypersensitive to a potential terrorist attack," Bush said in the article for Tuesday's editions of the paper. "And my hope is, of course, that as they have their security in place, that they're mindful of the spirit of the Games, and that if there is a provocation, they handle it in a responsible way without violence." http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200808/200808250009.html 19 Held Over Weekend Protests in Seoul Police arrested 19 protesters in demonstrations against U.S. beef imports near the Myeongdong Cathedral and Gangnam Subway Station and in Apgujeong-dong on Saturday night and early Sunday. Police said some 250 protesters, most of them members of Agora web forum on portal Daum, rallied from 6 p.m. on Saturday until 6 a.m. the following morning, disobeying police order to disperse and shouting slogans such as "Down with Lee Myung-bak!" Separately, another group of about 200 protesters staged guerrilla-style rallies by swiftly moving from one location to another in the Gangnam Subway Station area and Apgujeong-dong from around 7:10 p.m. on Saturday until 2 a.m. on Sunday. Police sprayed protesters with colored water and arrested seven for illegal occupation of roads. http://www.wisconsinagconnection.com/story-national.php?Id=1936&yr=2008 Protests Over U.S. Beef Flare Up Sgain in South Korea USAgNet - 08/19/2008 Despite recent progress made in resuming U.S. beef exports to South Korea, some protesters continue to voice and act out their displeasure regarding the agreement. Early on Saturday, South Korean police arrested 157 people during an overnight rally in downtown Seoul opposing the resumption of U.S. beef imports, reports MeatPoultry.com. On Friday, Aug. 15, which is a national holiday in South Korea, about 5,500 people rallied in the capital. The protest continued until early Saturday, at which time police fired water cannons to disperse the crowd. Police made arrests on charges of staging unauthorized demonstrations, illegally occupying streets and defying orders to disperse. In July, the first shipment of U.S. beef under the newly brokered U.S. beef export deal arrived in South Korea, amid some lingering local concerns over bovine spongiform encephalopathy that were fueled by sensationalized news reports questioning the safety of U.S. beef. South Korea struck an agreement with Washington in April to resume U.S. beef exports to their country, however, weeks of protests throughout South Korea followed. http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Asia/Story/A1Story20080816-82666.html S Korea arrests 157 in protest against US beef: police Sat, Aug 16, 2008 AFP SEOUL (AFP) - South Korean police hosed protesters with water laced with blue dye and mobilized specially-trained plainclothes officers to break up an anti-government demonstration late Friday and early Saturday, witnesses said. The Seoul Police Agency said it had arrested 157 people on charges of staging illegal demonstrations in central Seoul. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Some 5,500 people showed up for the 100th candle-lit rally to protest against South Korea's resumption of US beef imports and against policies of President Lee Myung-Bak of the conservative Grand National Party, police said. They chanted "Lee Myung-Bak Out!" and "Renegotiate the beef deal," witnesses said. Police sprayed water mixed with blue dye at demonstrators and arrested offenders whose clothes were tainted by the pigment after the crowd dispersed into neighbouring streets and alleys, witnesses said. Police also brought in plainclothes officers, who are specialized in chasing and overpowering offenders during street protests. Such personnel, although used widely by past authoritarian governments, have been seldom seen in the street during the past 10 years of liberal rule. South Korea's April decision to resume US beef imports sparked months of street protests. Because of fears over mad cow disease, Seoul suspended US beef imports in 2003. The rallies largely subsided after Seoul secured extra health safeguards for US beef imports. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Wed Aug 27 06:51:17 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:51:17 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] KOREA protests against free trade, analysis and general coverage Message-ID: <003301c9084b$fc315270$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES ? Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ South Korea has been gripped by a months-long wave of demonstrations over the resumption of imports of American beef, deemed by social movements to be a risk of importing mad cow disease. The beef issue is a catalyst for broader anger about free trade with America, the policies of the current conservative government and the exclusion of popular movements from power. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/JF13Dg01.html Party time at South Korea's protest 2.0 By Sunny Lee SEOUL - This is strange. Even as anti-government demonstrations in South Korea go, this is an odd, odd scene. Even a foreigner thinks so. "I have never seen anything like this before," said Jeff Lazar, an American activist observing the ongoing protests here over the import of beef from the United States. "It's like a festival. They are even using a laser projector to write their protest words in the air. It's effective because it's fun. It's also a sure attention-grabber," he adds. South Korea's infamously combative street protests have taken an unexpected, and sometimes amusing, turn. It has become much more peaceful, but, mind you, that's a relative term compared with previous practices. For example, during the 40-day-long candlelight demonstration that started on May 2 - when 15,000 students unexpectedly took to the streets - and up to this Tuesday which commemorated the June 10 Democracy Movement in 1987 that had bid farewell to the decades of military rule, only one person has lost his life. And the deceased was not killed because of a bloody clash with the riot police, but because he set himself on fire. Like any good festival, some people have come out wearing interesting costumes. Lee Dong-keun, a 19-year-old freshman at Korea University, and a classmate wear identical full-body tiger outfits. "I got a lot of pictures taken by media people," said Lee with pride. And the streets themselves are much cleaner because of people like Cho Eun-mi, who volunteers to pick up trash, including empty soda cans, water bottles and pieces of torn slogan-bearing placards. "I know some people frown on the protesters. They think streets get dirty after protests. So I thought if I made the street less dirty by picking up trash, then those people might also get less upset," Cho said. The most commonly seen slogans are variations on "No to US beef!" But people seem equally, if not more, upset about President Lee Myung-bak. "The President Lee said he would serve people. I think he's not doing it. So, I am protesting," said tiger-suited Lee. Mahbub Alam from Bangladesh said of the street protests: "I get the feeling that the issue is not just about the beef. The American beef is rather a symbol for people to snub President Lee, who they feel is snubbing them." Besides the lack of violence, what is surprising - even to South Koreans - is that there is no organizer for the already weeks-long demonstration. People took to the streets and formed ad hoc protest groups, usually around 6pm or 7pm each day. This has been bewildering to South Korean civil society, labor unions and opposition politicians - the usual players in such public protests. Tuesday's rally was the first officially organized protest and had the biggest turnout - police estimate 105,000 demonstrators, while the organizers said the number was closer to 500,000. Still, one might think it was some kind of mass picnic, until you spot the riot police standing stiff, waiting for a crackdown order. Some people are holding impromptu concerts complete with guitars and violins, singing and dancing. In some cases, entire families have arrived to literally "camp out" in the middle of traffic. Of course they brought tents with them. Other "protesters" have brought hot coffee to serve anyone who needs it. And high school students have given out roses to riot police, a move that definitely brings down the tension level. Some are distributing water bottles to the aggressive "frontliners" who usually shout more and work up a justified thirst. There are even volunteer medics walking around, shouting "Does anybody need help?" Young couples use the protest for a romantic outing. They march with hands held tight, and the other hand holding a candle. Local TV footage has shown a man celebrating his girlfriend's birthday with a protest-candle cake. Other "demonstrators" have brought an outdoor movie projector and are showing the US documentary Sicko. With the party atmosphere in full swing, the street vendors are enjoying a heyday of extra money and unusual business hours. It's 2am, and here they are selling kimbob (Korean sushi) or bundaegi (roasted silkworm larvae) right in the middle of roads that have been declared "no-traffic zones" by protesters who're occupying them. This is South Korea's street protests 2.0. Or, perhaps, South Korea's "postmodern" demonstrations. With some Koreans mistrustful of mainstream media reports on the demonstration, they've taken matters into their own hands by broadcasting and reporting themselves. Using high-speed wireless Internet, some "embedded" citizens are using their own laptops and camcorders to broadcast real-time events. There are "citizen reporters" conducting interviews and taking pictures and posting them on their personal blogs and Internet forums. In fact, these news hounds have been so effective that some established newspapers have begun quoting them. With no leaders leading, the protest might be considered "ineffective". People are protesting individually, shouting different slogans, marching in different directions; different people with different agendas. Some shout "2MB", the lowest speed unit of computer processing and also the initials of President Lee, sarcastically pointing out how slow Lee is in understanding the people's will. Lee, who won the presidency in December with a record 5-million vote margin over runner-up Chung Dong-young, saw his popularity plunge below 20% by the time he marked his 100th day in office last week - another record in South Korea's recent decades. In fact, Lee has recently become so controversial a figure that the Korean edition of Wikipedia, the online participatory encyclopedia, decided to freeze any further revision on "Lee Myung-bak" for the next four months, fearing malicious attempts to distort the "facts" on him that have yet to be settled. In this unusual protest, there are some unusual chants as well. "Turn away from your evil sin and turn to God," shouts a 40ish woman waving a Bible. "Take President Lee to God. I pray that God takes Lee out of the planet quickly," a man shouts back. Not far away, Roh Eun-jung, 28, a web designer chants: "Non-violence! Keep non-violence!" Meanwhile, those who have earned an appetite after hours of street protesting yell, "We want food!" This mantra received echoes and giggles from sympathetic comrades throughout the crowd. For the police, this unorganized rabble - ranging from a uniformed high-school student to a 57-year-old housewife, who said she came out "to change the world" - is easier to manage than a well-organized and militant group of protesters led by a strident leader. This self-appointed mob, however, does tend to stick around longer. And why not? It's 4am now in Seoul's main Gwanghwamun area and there are still quite a number of candle-holders milling about. A police officer, asked when all this was likely to end, said: "I have no idea because this is an organization where there is no organizer." The conversation was then interrupted by a man holding out a cup of silkworm larvae to the officer. "Please, eat and keep up the good work!" the man says. A lady next him agreed: "We love you, police officer!" Surely, even love is possible in this wondrous war zone. But things aren't so lovely all the time. As the protests have stretched into weeks, the familiar protest tools such as steel pipes and rocks have also surfaced, spelling an omen for possible violence and bloodshed. For example, Friday will mark the sixth anniversary of the death of two Korean middle school girls who were run over by a US armored vehicle - a very emotional issue for many South Koreans. What is also worrisome is that the month of June in South Korea is traditionally a season for annual labor protests. Already some labor groups have designated June 16 as a walk-out day. Then comes June 25, the Korean War Memorial Day. It's likely that the rightist groups will take to the streets at that time to protest against the leftist groups, who they believe are fooled by Pyongyang and sympathetic towards North Korea. There will be many more pickets, chants, roses, candles, silkworm larvae and DVDs - it won't be a quiet month. Some people call the recent lack of violence in protests as "democratic progress". They also see it as a social experiment in South Korea's deepening democratic experience. Hardline "old school" protesters, however, view it as "a picnic that doesn't change the nation". They argue that a street demonstration should be more forceful, with a clear set of actions designed to get concessions from the government. They believe that after the decades of military rule ended, a noisy protest is still the best way to make one's voice heard. Amid this raucous imbroglio, it was a foreigner who saw the silver lining. "I think it will eventually help the country's democratic progress. People will find a point of convergence where they can begin a constructive dialogue," said Mahbub Alam from Bangladesh. "They just need some time to sort things out." Sunny Lee, a native of Seoul, worked for the United Nations and as a journalist and writer. Lee is a graduate of Harvard University and Beijing Foreign Studies University. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f054f9dc-4925-11dd-9a5f-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1 Stalled in Seoul: How protests have humbled South Korea?s ?Bulldozer? By Anna Fifield and Victor Mallet Published: July 3 2008 19:28 | Last updated: July 3 2008 19:28 When Lee Myung-bak was preparing to take office as South Korea?s president in February, one of his top priorities was to dispatch a team of repairmen to Daebul industrial park in the south of the country. Seoul struggles to defuse US beef protests - Jul-02 Comment: A paradoxical free trade agreement - Jun-14 S Korea-US trade deal clears hurdle - Jun-29 US beef back in South Korea - Apr-23 US and S Korea in landmark trade deal - Apr-03 US, S Korea struggle to reach trade pact - Apr-02 An electricity pole had fallen over some five years before, inconveniencing the truck drivers who had to navigate around it every day. What should have been a matter for the local council suddenly became one for the highest office in the land. The incoming president made a few calls and had the pole removed, an act that his team heralded as a sign of the new administration?s can-do attitude. Indeed, the act speaks volumes about Mr Lee?s presidency. Elected with a landslide victory and a strong mandate to overhaul Asia?s fourth biggest economy, Mr Lee?s strength was his proven record as a Mr Fix-it. As chief executive of Hyundai Construction, he turned the company into an international force. As Seoul mayor, he made significant progress towards making the capital an international city. But the man once known as ?The Bulldozer? has found out all too painfully that the gritty business of building roads and installing bus lanes is a lot easier than the sensitive, consultative task of running an energetic democracy. With even some of his supporters calling him politically naive, Mr Lee?s first months in office have been mired in controversy ? from his choice of senior staff and his handling of a US beef import agreement to his privatisation plans and efforts to promote English in schools. The public response has been intense. Taking as a rallying point the president?s decision fully to resume imports of US beef ? suspended in 2003 after a scare over BSE, the ?mad cow? disease ? thousands of Koreans have been protesting in the streets for two months. The demonstrations have now turned violent: protesters have been attacking police and torching their barricade buses. Businesses are complaining about the disruption. This week, shop owners in central Seoul even protested against the protesters, wielding placards exhorting, ?Fellow citizens, please think about us!? Images of rioters have been beamed around the world, causing consternation in the US in particular and prompting some business delegations to delay visits to Seoul. ?The daily protests are making foreign investors avoid direct investment in Korea and also discouraging investment by domestic businesses,? Han Seung-soo, the prime minister, warned this week. ?The credibility of South Korea?s economy is worsening rapidly.? A further worry for investors is a battle over Korea Exchange Bank, the country?s fifth-biggest lender. Lone Star, the US private equity fund, wants to sell KEB to HSBC of the UK but the deal is being blocked by protracted legal disputes. Foreign fund managers have told the FT they are holding off making large investments in South Korea until some certainty returns to the regulatory environment. Net foreign direct investment turned negative in the first quarter for the first time in two years, with $670m (?340m, ?430m) being withdrawn from Korea, according to the central bank. Business executives in Seoul express concern that Korea is heading in the wrong direction and is becoming increasingly protectionist. ?Korea is snatching defeat from the jaws of victory,? says one foreign banker, asking not to be named. The bilateral trade deal with the US, supposed to stimulate the economy, has become bogged down amid political wrangling and looks unlikely to be ratified any time soon. The deal was projected to create about 340,000 jobs and boost gross domestic product by more than 6 per cent over a decade. The upheaval could hardly have come at a worse time. South Korea?s economic growth is slowing, inflation is surging and the currency is weakening: the one-time Asian tiger has lost its roar. Data published this week showed inflation, at 5.5 per cent, reaching the highest annual rate in almost a decade. Everyone from the Bank of Korea to the International Monetary Fund has cut growth forecasts for 2008 GDP to the 4 per cent range, which is still respectable but is much lower than the 6 per cent Mr Lee promised for the year. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/02/business/NA-FIN-US-Beef-Labeling.php US companies announce plans to label beef bound for S. Korea with cattle's age after protests The Associated Press Published: June 2, 2008 LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas: Several U.S. beef companies said Monday they will begin labeling shipments to South Korea to note how old slaughtered cattle were at the time of their death, responding to weekend protests over fears that U.S. beef imports carry a risk of mad cow disease. Springdale-based Tyson Foods Inc., as well as Cargill Meat Solutions Corp., JBS Swift & Co., National Beef Packing Co. and Smithfield Beef Group Inc., said the labels would show whether the cattle were younger or older than 30 months when slaughtered. The companies said in a joint news release that it would be up to South Korean customers to decide whether to purchase the meat or not. Younger cows are believed to be less at risk for mad cow disease. U.S beef has been banned by South Korea for most of the past 4 1/2 years over fears of mad cow disease. The South Korean Agriculture Ministry said in April it would begin loosening restrictions on U.S. beef imports, beginning with imports from cattle younger than 30 months. Last week, the ministry announced that the government had finalized new regulations that call for South Korea to import nearly all cuts of American beef without restrictions on the cattle's age. Nearly 60,000 people took to the streets of Seoul over the weekend to denounce the government and call for the import agreement to be scrapped, and South Korea announced Monday that it would delay its planned resumption of U.S. beef imports. "We're making this offer in response to the concerns of some South Korean consumers by voluntarily implementing this temporary labeling program as a way of ensuring the reopening of the market and attempting to rebuild the confidence of the South Korean consumer," Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson said. For Tyson, the world's largest meat producer, the loss of the South Korean market four years ago tore away its third-largest export location, behind Japan and Canada. In 2003, South Korea represented 15 percent of its $2.2 billion (?1.42 billion) international sales, Mickelson said. Last year, the company reported international sales of $1.9 billion (?1.22 billion). Mark Klein, a spokesman for Minneapolis-based Cargill, declined to discuss the share of its export sales formerly represented by South Korea but described the market as "one of the leading destinations for U.S. beef." "It was a very good customer," Klein said. "We're trying to demonstrate we want their business." Under the companies' plan, the labels would be used for up to 120 day. Mickelson said the companies were still working out how the labels would look and where they would be placed on boxes. Scientists believe mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, spreads when farmers feed cattle recycled meat and bones from infected animals. The U.S. banned recycled feeds in 1997. In 2003, South Korea joined Japan in banning U.S. beef imports after a cow in Washington state tested positive for mad cow disease. Officials later determined the cow had been born in Canada. Japan lifted its ban in 2005 but imposed it again in January 2006 after an import violation. U.S. beef shipments to Japan resumed in July 2006, but sales became a fraction of what they once were. In humans, eating meat products contaminated with the cattle disease is linked to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare and fatal malady. There have been three cases of that disease reported from the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but none of them are believed to have gotten it from eating beef in the U.S. The CDC said it thinks there is strong evidence that two of the cases contracted the disease while living in the U.K. and one while living in Saudi Arabia. Two of the cases resulted in fatalities. Americans consumed 28.1 billion pounds of beef in 2007, U.S. Department of Agriculture data show. http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200806/200806300027.html The Government Is Hiding Behind Riot Police Street protests between June 28 and 29 were the most violent of the demonstrations that have continued for some 40 days. Protesters wielded steel pipes and threw pieces of metal, rocks and even acid at riot police. The scene was reminiscent of the turbulent 1980s, except that Molotov cocktails were absent this time. Indeed, former student activists from the era took part in the protests under the banner of former members of the radical National University Student Council or ?Jeondaehyup.? The overnight protests left 112 police officers wounded. One riot police officer suffered a crushed skull. The protests are expected to continue this week. The People?s Association for Measures Against Mad Cow Disease has designated July 1-6 as a week of ?victory for the people? and planned a major demonstration for July 5. Wednesday is when the umbrella group Korean Confederation of Trade Unions has planned a nationwide strike. This is becoming simply intolerable. People from around the world who come to Seoul are amazed as they watch the violent protests in the heart of the capital every day. The National Assembly officially started a month ago, but sessions have yet to begin. It?s been 20 days since the entire Cabinet tendered their resignations. The nerve center of the nation has been broken into pieces in front of thousands of protesters and government has virtually come to a halt. On the frontlines are young men clad in masks who throw stones and fire slingshots at police and recently began to use cutting machines to take police buses apart. On Saturday afternoon, three police water trucks were demolished after being surrounded by protesters in front of City Hall. On Sunday morning, one police platoon was cut off from the rest of the troops by protesters wielding steel pipes and sticks and were assaulted. Debate sites on Internet portals are filled with incendiary pieces of writing urging others to ?bear arms now,? ?manufacture Molotov cocktails,? ?come out with heavy equipment? and to attack the Grand National Party headquarters and police stations. There was even an incident where a member of a leftwing party was arrested after posting a fabricated story on an Internet portal saying a female protester was dragged to a police bus and gang-raped. The professional protesters, with years of experience, have already retreated to the rear by the time the police begin arresting people, and are never caught. The only people being arrested are overly excited ones like homeless people. Out of the six protesters who were arrested until Friday, three were jobless and two were itinerant laborers. The head of the violent crimes unit at the Namdaemun Police Station, who was tried in a kangaroo court organized by the protesters, pursued and finally arrested a protester who turned violent at a hotel during an earlier protest. He turned out to be a semi-itinerant man with no permanent job. One female owner of a restaurant in Gwanghwamun pleaded with protesters not to damage her store. The protesters responded by hurling abuse at her and told her to go and talk to the president. After the protesters had gone away, the owner took photographs of her damaged restaurant, but she had no idea who to go to in order to seek compensation. These are the incidents that have been taking place for the last month while the cowardly government has been hiding behind riot police. http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/programguide/stories/200806/s2262930.htm Protests escalate in South Korea over US beef imports Updated Mon Jun 2, 2008 7:30pm AEST There's been more clashes and more arrests in Seoul as anti U-S beef protestors continue to take to the streets. The protests escalated after Seoul agreed to lift its intermittent ban on American beef imports. Presenter: Sen Lam Speakers: Bronwen Dalton, lecturer in the School of Management, University of Technology Sydney. DALTON: It's tied actually to a plummeting popularity rating of the new president. His honeymoon is definitely over and in particular, many believe that this has been a sweeping victory for conservative politics and it's more the symbolism of re-engaging with and in progress his point of view kow towing to Washington that has many Koreans, particularly from the radical side, up in arms. LAM: Do you think that these protests might be partly driven by politics, by President Lee Myung-bak's enemies? DALTON: They have a history no doubt political rallies that are partly made up by rent a crowd. But what has happened is for the first time since Kim Dae-Jung, the progressives have lost any foothold, have been denied any foothold now in terms of political power. In the outcomes of the general election of 2007 and April 2008 rather can be summed up as a consecutive sweeping victory of conservatives, so it's really about trying to gain a voice, given they're denied a voice now in legislative circles. LAM: And beef as you know is a major part of South Korean cuisine. So why don't South Koreans want a resumption of beef imports from the United States? Are they purely concerned about Mad Cow disease? DALTON: No, I don't think so. South Korea banned the imports of US beef back in 2003. Mad Cow disease was cited as the main reason, but in a sense, it was a non-tariff trade barrier. Really driving it, is concerns about the viability of any kind of beef industry in Korea if these much cheaper imports come in. Also another form of non-tariff barrier to US imports is that they have only accepted very, very low grade beef, hamburger beef and quite fatty dairy cow beef into the market. So actually, American beef has a very low reputation in terms of quality. But yeah it's more concerned about in the general population about bending to Washington's will and also with some groups about the future of rural Korea, even though that is only a very tiny proportion of the population these days, the highly urbanised society. LAM: As you say, the move is seen as President Lee's attempts to try and please Washington. So may we broaden the issue a bit, that the people are perhaps not happy to see Lee Myung-bak moving closer to the US as opposed to his predecessor? DALTON: Yes, one of the great points of contention between the US, especially the Bush administration and the previous administration in South Korea, was with regard to how they engage with North Korea and the rhetoric of "axis of evil", global war against terror, and quite a hawkish stance on North Korea from Washington was in many ways with odds with, particularly the Sunshine Policy, but even after that there was concerns that that was a far to inflammatory sort of approach to North-South relations. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/12/world/asia/12seoul.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin An Anger in Korea Over More Than Beef By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: June 12, 2008 Correction Appended SEOUL, South Korea ? When tens of thousands of South Koreans spilled into central Seoul on Tuesday in the country?s largest antigovernment protest in 20 years, the police built a barricade with shipping containers. They coated them with oil and filled them with sandbags so protesters could not climb or topple them to march on President Lee Myung-bak?s office a couple of blocks away. Protesters in Seoul, South Korea, expressed their anger behind a barricade of shipping containers that had been erected to keep them from the president?s office. Faced with the wall, people pasted identical leaflets on it, their message dramatically summarizing Mr. Lee?s image and alienation from many of his people: ?This is a new border for our country. From here starts the U.S. state of South Korea.? In the background, a female voice from a battery of loudspeakers led the crowd to chant: ?Lee Myung-bak is Lee Wan-yong!? Lee Wan-yong is an infamous name every South Korean child knows. A royal court minister at the turn of the last century who helped Imperial Japan annex Korea as a colony, he is Korea?s No. 1 national traitor. The protests illuminate the shift in President Lee?s political fortunes. When he was elected last December, South Koreans hailed him as a long-awaited leader who could salvage their country?s alliance with the United States, which was strained under Mr. Lee?s left-leaning predecessor, Roh Moo-hyun. Only six months later, Mr. Lee finds Koreans vilifying him as something Mr. Roh famously said he would never become: ?a Korean leader kowtowing to the Americans.? ?While championing a pragmatic leadership, Mr. Lee overlooked Koreans? nationalistic pride,? said Choi Jin, director of the Institute of Presidential Leadership in Seoul. ?If what troubled Roh?s presidency was too much nationalism, Lee?s problem is a lack of it.? The chants showed that the demonstration was not merely about the president?s unpopular decision to lift an import ban on American beef. It also tapped into Korean pride. This is a small country in a strategic location with a deep sense of grievance about being manipulated by the great powers around it. Chinese emperors demanded tribute from Korea; Japanese occupiers forbade Koreans to speak their own language; American, Chinese and Russian cold war rivalries divided Korea in two. While mostly approving of their alliance with the United States, South Koreans remain acutely sensitive to any suggestion that they must do America?s bidding. Mr. Lee?s slumping popularity was sown in his first glorious moment as president. On April 19, he became the first South Korean leader to be invited to the United States presidential retreat of Camp David, Md. Days before the visit, his aides billed the meeting with President Bush as a momentous event ? one that never would have been granted to leaders like Mr. Roh, who was often accused of being too nationalistic and anti-American. South Koreans who had fought alongside the Americans during the Korean War in the early 1950s took to the streets in joy. They trusted Mr. Lee to save the country from what they called ?leftist, anti-U.S. and pro-North Korean elements,? like Mr. Roh. On the eve of the summit meeting, Seoul agreed to lift a five-year-old ban on American beef imports, imposed after a case of mad cow disease was confirmed in the United States. By traveling with a political gift for Mr. Bush, Mr. Lee demonstrated how eager he was to rebuild ties with Washington. Little did he apparently imagine the reaction at home, among young South Koreans who had been watching with a cold eye. ?What he did was little different from an old Korean king offering tribute to a Chinese emperor,? said Kim Sook-yi, a 35-year-old homemaker who joined the protest on Tuesday with her two children. ?This time, we give a tribute to Washington? It?s humiliating, bad for education for Korean children.? The demonstrations began on May 2, when hundreds of teenagers held a candlelight vigil in Seoul, and quickly snowballed. By this week they had become so overpowering that the entire cabinet offered to resign. Foreign bloggers watching the brouhaha ask: Why would thousands of South Koreans join protests about mad cow disease but not ask why Americans are not protesting American beef? Would South Koreans demonstrate with the same intensity if the beef came from Australia or New Zealand? What about Korean-Americans who eat American beef? To many South Koreans, however, the beef dispute is not entirely about health concerns or science. It is not entirely about the economy, either ? beef from the United States is half the price of homegrown meat. To them, it is also the latest test of whether their leader can resist pressure from superpowers, even if there is good reason for the pressure, as is the case in the beef dispute. South Korea had promised to lift the ban once the World Organization for Animal Health ruled American beef fit for consumption, as it did in May last year. South Korea has built the world?s 13th largest economy largely through exports. Nonetheless, historical resentments linger. South Koreans in their 40s remember words from a popular childhood song handed down from their fathers and grandfathers: ?Don?t be cheated by the Soviets. Don?t trust the Americans. Or the Japanese will rise again.? Koreans still chafe at the fact that the United States and the Soviet Union divided Korea after liberating it from Japanese colonial rule at the end of World War II. Whether a South Korean leader can navigate this current of nationalistic sentiment can make or break his career. When two South Korean teenage girls were killed by an American military armored vehicle six years ago, it first appeared to be nothing more than a tragic traffic accident. But many young Koreans who had grown to regard the American military presence with humiliation rallied in protest. Mr. Roh, a relative political neophyte, quickly rode the wave into election victory. But South Koreans soon grew tired of Mr. Roh?s ideological pronouncements, which often strained the alliance with the United States. They gave a landslide victory to Mr. Lee, who promised to bring pragmatism into the presidency. ?Lee was overconfident,? said Kang Won-taek, a professor of political science at Soongsil University. ?He thought since people rejected Roh, he could go just the opposite.? Many experts in Seoul draw a careful line between nationalism and anti-Americanism among Koreans. They say the recent series of demonstrations were more an expression of the former than the latter. But the divide gets thin sometimes. Alexander Vershbow, the United States ambassador in South Korea, got a taste of the simmering anti-American sentiment when he emphasized the safety of American beef last week. ?We hope that Koreans will begin to understand more about the science and about the facts of American beef,? he said. The next day, politicians and protesters called the comment an ?insult to all Korean citizens.? Jeon Sang-il, a sociologist at Sogang University, said the men seemed to have shot themselves in the foot. ?These days, Koreans say there are only two anti-Americans in South Korea,? Mr. Jeon said. ?One is Lee Myung-bak and the other Vershbow. They stoked anti-American sentiments with what they did and what they said.? Mr. Vershbow expressed regret that he was misunderstood. http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2891892 Seoulites gobble greens as mad cow protests rage July 04, 2008 Food safety fears sparked by Korea?s resumption of U.S. beef imports are a headache for the government but good news for vegetarian restaurants. Restaurants and markets specializing in green and organic food reported yesterday increasing numbers of customers amid two months of protests over the imports. Opponents say U.S. beef carries a risk of the human form of mad cow disease while the Washington and Seoul governments insist the meat is safe. ?The number of customers has almost doubled as fears over mad cow perils have gripped the nation,? Kim So-yeon, a manager of SM Vegetarian Buffet in Seoul?s southern Poidong District, told AFP. Apart from its restaurant business, takeaway customers are snapping up an assortment of vegetarian food products, including artificial meat made of soybean. Choi Sun-hee, owner of New Start Vegetarian Restaurant in the city?s Daechi District, said vegetarian food is drawing new customers, especially young people. ?When I opened this restaurant 17 years ago, old people and the sick were the main customers. But nowadays, we have young mothers with kids, young couples and entire families visiting us,? she said. ?We?ve seen some 30 percent increase in the number of customers since the controversy over mad cow perils erupted.? KBS TV said sales of vegetable were surging. A large market in Seoul reported a 14 percent increase in such sales over the past month. ?My children, having heard rumors [about mad cow perils], wouldn?t eat meat. So I?ve bought vegetarian food,? housewife Kim Jin-hye told the station. Outlets dealing in organic and environmentally friendly food reported the number of customers also doubled, according to KBS. Seoul agreed in April to resume U.S. beef imports, which were halted in 2003 after a U.S. mad cow case, so it can push ahead with a wider trade deal. After mass protests, it negotiated extra beef safeguards and called for the protests to stop. But the rallies, some of them violent, have continued. AFP http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200807/200807180007.html Merchants File Protest Compensation Suit Shopkeepers in the Gwanghwamun area of central Seoul filed a compensation lawsuit on Thursday against the organizers of the anti-American beef rallies over the loss of business caused by the protests. Some 115 merchants are seeking W15 million (US$1=W1,013) per person with W10 million in terms of compensation and W5 million in damages. According to the retail owners in the downtown core the massive candlelight rallies that often led to violent clashes between demonstrators and police have led to a drop in the number of consumers visiting the area. Arirang News http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200807/200807170022.html Beef Protest Groups Given W650 Million in Subsidies Seventy four civic groups who protested against imports of U.S. beef in sometimes violent street demonstration were allotted some W822 million in government aid this year (US$1=W1,009). Of this, they have already claimed W657 million. The first-phase subsidy was disbursed on May 30, around the time the candlelight vigils in central Seoul turned into illegal anti-government protests. Citing data from the Public Administration and Security Ministry, ruling Grand National Party Rep. Shin Ji-ho on Wednesday said 74 of the recipients of subsidies for civic groups were members of the People's Association for Measures Against Mad Cow Disease, which is orchestrating the illegal protests. The association consisted of 1,839 groups as of July 6. The association has for the past months occupied streets, set police buses on fire and assaulted officers, calling for a renegotiation of the beef agreement with the U.S. and the resignation of the Lee Myung-bak government besides a welter of other gripes. In questions to the government, Shin said the ministry cannot escape criticism for providing state aid to violent organizations and letting taxpayers' money be used to destroy public order. Public Administration and Safety Minister Won Se-hoon responded the aid ?was provided as planned because their illegal activities were not evident at the time. We're trying to confirm their participation in the protests with the police. If the aid is found to have been misused, we will retrieve it all." http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2892225 Papers disclose secrets behind street protests July 12, 2008 Police yesterday released documents produced by anti-U.S. beef rally organizers that appear to show that the rallies were organized with the intent to bring down the Lee Myung-bak administration. Police raided the office of the Korea Alliance for Progressive Movement and confiscated documents that were made during its meetings. The documents recount discussions between leaders of various civic groups on the direction of anti-U.S. beef demonstrations. The leaders included those from the Democratic Labor Party, Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, South Korean Federation of University Student Councils and Korea Alliance for Progressive Movement. At a meeting, a leader put it simply: ?If Lee Myung-bak and the United States do not make a serious mistake, we have no choice but to wait until 2010. We need to foster a strong political opposition front by combining anti-American sentiments and President Lee?s faulty policies.? ?If we merely focus on demanding U.S. beef renegotiations, it can swamp our real intention, which is to bring down the Lee Myung-bak administration.? Furthermore, there are suggestions in the papers of intent to paralyze downtown streets by encouraging citizens to participate in candlelight vigils at night and mobilizing their groups? activists during the day. Another leader suggested a week-long demonstration to swamp the downtown core of the city with demonstrators. There were ideas thrown about by demonstration organizers to tie the South Korea-U.S. alliance issue into the protests. ?The moment we suggest why the Lee Myung-bak administration cannot renegotiate the beef deal, we can start to bring up our discontent towards the South Korea-U.S. alliance.? Police believe the demonstrations started as peaceful candlelight vigils and later escalated into something more. They also believe the demonstrations were masterminded from the beginning by members of various civic groups spearheaded by the Korea Alliance for Progressive Movement. By Kang In-sik JoongAng Ilbo [enational at joongang.co.kr] http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200807/200807300020.html Mad Cow Protesters Target Merchants The People?s Association for Measures Against Mad Cow Disease revealed on its Internet homepage a legal document that shows the names and addresses of the 115 merchants who filed a damage compensation suit against the anti-U.S. beef group. The group has made it easy for others to find out the owners of which stores and restaurants in Gwanghwamun had filed the suit. The motive is clear. They want to teach the merchants a lesson. Already, protesters have descended on the stores and restaurants of the merchants who filed the suit and have resorted to taking pictures and sitting in front of entrances, making it difficult for customers to enter. On its homepage, the association is filled with posting by people vowing to hold one-man protests in front of those stores so they?d go out of business or vowing to boycott them. People running their own businesses are trying everything to survive slow economic conditions. On top of that, more than two straight months of mad cow protests in the Gwanghwamun area have led to snowballing losses. Roads have been blocked every day, while the streets were filled with violence. So the stream of customers had come to a grinding halt. Some restaurants say their sales have dropped to a tenth of what they used to be. Restaurants have had their signs destroyed, windows broken and their premises ruined by the trash left behind by the protesters. The people who led the mad cow protests should come and apologize on their knees and even that won?t be enough to compensate for the damage. The association said it is customary for civil suits to be held in an open trial. It vehemently denied allegations that it was prodding its supporters to launch a boycott by posting the information about the plaintiffs on its homepage. When advertisers to newspapers critical of the mad cow hysteria were being threatened to pull their ads from those dailies, it had shrewdly provoked others to join in by asking its supporters to make phone calls ?praising? those companies for advertising on those newspapers. The merchants must not cave in to the threats and push ahead with their suit. They must create a precedent that those who lead illegal protests must bear the responsibility in the end. If not, then the pain and damage those merchants suffered will be repeated in the future. http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200807/200807300007.html July.30,2008 09:33 KST Police Won't Be Punished Over Street Protests: Minister Public Administration and Safety Minister Won Se-hoon said Tuesday that he would not punish police for what he said was ?fair and strict? enforcement of law, and promised to create an environment where police can work with confidence. Won made the remarks when Liberty Forward Party lawmaker Kim Yong-gu criticized the police?s timid response to street protests during a meeting of a special committee in the National Assembly. Won added that the police could not actively contain protests because any problem would result in punitive measures. When Grand National Party lawmaker Lee Jong-heuk asked what percentage of the candlelight vigils protesting the import of the U.S. beef were held legally, Won said they could not be regarded as legal because none of them were reported in advance. When Lee asked again if 100 percent of them were illegal, Won said, ?Yes.? When Lee asked if those who shout anti-Lee Myung-bak slogans were anti-constitutional dissidents, Won also said yes. ?It is very dangerous to allow outdoor assemblies at night. The reason why it was difficult to contain street protests in the beginning was because they were held at night,? Won said. Asked about a reduction of the number of combat and auxiliary police, Won replied, ?It would be impossible to block protesters with a smaller police force, so it seems necessary to secure a supply of combat and auxiliary forces from military personnel.? http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?id=ENGNAU200806065055&lang=e South Korean protestors report excessive force by police 6 June 2008 Amnesty International has received reports of police using excessive force against demonstrators protesting against US beef imports in South Korea. More than 300 people were arrested during candlelight vigils held on 31 May and 1 June. Police used fire extinguishers and water cannons fired at close range against largely peaceful demonstrators, causing serious injuries such as blindness, broken bones and concussions. Amnesty International has received hundreds of reports of riot police rounding people up and arbitrarily arresting all those who happened to get caught in the process, including peaceful protesters, bystanders and passers-by. Several detainees reported police violence during and after their arrest. Among those beaten and arrested was a 27-year-old man. Police officers kicked him and beat him with clubs and shields. When the Amnesty International South Korean section director, Kim Hee-jin, visited him at the Hyehwa Police Station on 2 June, his face was swollen and he had cuts and scratches on his face and arm. He was suffering head and chest pains from the beatings. Although injured and in visible pain, the police did not provide him with any medical attention during his 48-hour arrest. Amnesty International has called on the South Korean authorities to immediately investigate reports of excessive force. "The police's resort to violence has angered a lot of peaceful protesters and increased the possibility of violence," said Norma Kang Muico, Amnesty International's Korea researcher. "The government should use the anniversary of the 1987 protests as an occasion to demonstrate its commitment to human rights and rule of law." The organization also called on the authorities to ensure people's safety at future protests. There are fears of more violence and arrests with the imminent 10 June rally marking the anniversary of the 1987 democratic uprising that led to free elections and political reforms. Since early May, tens of thousands of protesters have demonstrated against the renewal of US beef imports over fears of BSE or mad cow disease. http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?id=ENGPRE200807185513&lang=e PRESS RELEASE July, 18 2008 South Korea: Use of force against beef protestors should be investigated thoroughly South Korean police used excessive force against peaceful protesters demonstrating against the government?s trade policies, Amnesty International said today as it provided preliminary findings of its investigation into human rights violations during the protests against US beef imports that took place in central Seoul between 25 May and 10 July. ?The government should demonstrate its commitment to the rule of law by ensuring accountability for any police officers who used excessive force and providing due process for protesters who face criminal charges,? said Norma Kang Muico, Amnesty International Researcher. ?Generally, both the protesters and the police showed remarkable organization and constraint. These protests, and the response to them, generally show the strength of South Korea?s civil society as well as its legal institutions, but we have documented several instances of human rights violations.? Since early May, tens of thousands of protesters have demonstrated against the renewal of US beef imports over fears of BSE or mad cow disease. The protests, often involving crowds as large as 10,000, were largely peaceful, but there were incidents of violence as riot police sought to control surging crowds and some protesters attacked and vandalized police vehicles. During candlelight vigils held on 31 May and 1 June, police used fire extinguishers and water cannons fired at close range against largely peaceful demonstrators, causing serious injuries such as blindness, broken bones and concussions. Amnesty International?s investigation indicated that: In some instances, police used excessive force and abused non-lethal riot control devices such as water cannons and fire extinguishers; Police engaged in arbitrary arrests of protesters and onlookers; Some detainees were subjected to cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment, including a lack of adequate medical care; The Korean government has not yet carried out adequate investigations of these claims. In one case a 24-year-old female office worker fell down after the riot police suddenly charged into the crowd. She was surrounded by at least five police officers who hit her with batons and kicked her repeatedly on her head. To protect herself, she covered her face with her arms. As a result, she suffered a broken arm, her head was severely swollen, and she had cuts and bruises on her upper body. She has not been able to return to work and has been hospitalised since 30 June. Another case involved a 14-year-old boy who participated in the vigils with his mother, fellow classmates and teachers. When the police surged into the crowd, they ran onto the pavement for safety. A police officer hit the boy with a shield in the back of his head while the boy was running away. He fainted and his head was bleeding heavily. He was taken to the Yonsei Severance Hospital where doctors stitched his cut. "These protests involved citizens making their point strongly but in large part peacefully. What they were met with, however, was excessive force by their own government, and that deserves a more thorough investigation," said Norma Kang Muico. http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?at_code=434758 Korea Protests: 'You Can't Win Over the People' [Opinion] Seoul resident Ida Grandas shares her thoughts on 50+ days of demonstrations Ida Grandas (jezaky) Published 2008-07-03 17:04 (KST) There is a sentence I cannot get out of my head. For a week, it is the only thing that comes up when I read the news, talk with friends, or walk through downtown Seoul where the streets are filled with police buses and people protesting beef imports and government policies. Last week, I was discussing the protests in Korea with a friend. Both of us have been following the conflict between the people protesting in the streets and the Lee Myung-bak administration from somewhere in between, talking to supporters of both sides in an attempt to try to understand what is going on. My friend, who is a public official, couldn't understand the Lee administration's actions. "They are not trying to find a solution," she said, pointing at the container wall that that was put up on June 10 and the crackdowns of protesters. She called for the administration to try to listen to the people, to try to find a solution. Then she said the sentence that I cannot get out of my head: "You can't win over the people." Since we had that conversation, measures taken against the protesters have hardened. The government has said it cannot tolerate "violent, illegal rallies." They have tried to hinder the protest by encircling Seoul City Plaza -- where the candlelight vigils usually start -- with police buses. As a result, the protesters tried to push the buses over, and the police used water cannons against them. When the trade unions were going on strike against the resumption of beef imports, privatization of public companies and the Grand Canal construction project, the Lee administration warned them, saying that they won't tolerate such an illegal and political walkout. Prosecutors are issuing warrants to arrest the ringleaders. Justice Minister Kim Kyung-han has said that authorities may have to use tear gas to prevent more clashes between protesters and police. Tear gas has been banned since 1999 in South Korea. The people organizing through the Internet are also being targeted. Prosecutors are trying to find Internet users who initiated and promoted the boycott against companies advertising in the three main conservative newspapers -- Chosun Ilbo, Dong-A Ilbo and JoongAng Ilbo -- all which support the president. They are said to commit "cyberviolence." Meanwhile, in Mongolia, the government has been fighting violent protests in the capital Ulan Bator. There's a heavy troop presence and a curfew is in place. President Nambaryn Enkhbayar allowed the police to use force including tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons against the protesters. In Mongolia, people took to the streets when the opposition Democratic Party rejected the results of the election held on Sunday. Frustration over the election became a lightning rod for tension over corruption and a growing gap between the rich and poor, as reported by the BBC recently. I don't have a solution to what is happening in Korea or Mongolia. All I know is that I don't believe in the way the leaders are trying to solve these respective situations. As my friend said, a leader is there to listen to the people. When there is a conflict, their job is to solve it, through communication, through understanding and in a peaceful way; even when the protests turn violent. The leaders of nations are not the power-holders, it is the people. No matter how hard leaders try to control the people, they are the ones who in the end will decide. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Wed Aug 27 07:41:15 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:41:15 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] INDIA: Sikh protests Message-ID: <005801c90852$f87b2410$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES - Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ Indian Sikhs have carried out a campaign of road and rail blockades, sometimes involving clashes with police, in a wave of protests over killings of protesters by bodyguards of a religious sect. Starting in the Punjab, the protests spread to major cities such as Mumbai and Bangalore. The campaign was suspended after the state took action against the sect. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Sikh_mobs_run_riot_in_Mumbai_/rssarticleshow/3152760.cms Sikh mobs run riot in Mumbai 22 Jun 2008, 0312 hrs IST,TNN Sikh activists attack a BEST bus at Mulund. (PTI Photo) More Pictures MUMBAI/CHANDIGARH: Outraged over the shooting of a Sikh protester, allegedly by a bodyguard of Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, riotous Sikh mobs blocked commuter trains and arterial roads and clashed with police in Mumbai while others in Punjab disrupted traffic and train movement. For hours, Sikh mobs, many with men armed with wooden staffs and waving swords, attacked vehicles and trains and squatted on railway tracks in Mumbai's north eastern suburbs around Mulund. There was no official word on injuries but police said two cops were injured when they tried to prevent mobs from attacking cars. Police used tear gas and canes to disperse the mobs. A train from Mumbai was stopped near Phagwara and Sikhs armed with swords swarmed several highways. The Dera chief was shopping in Mulund on Friday when he was confronted by Sikh protesters. His bodyguards allegedly fired, killing a protester. On Saturday, three guards were arrested and remanded in custody until July 2. Police said at least 30 people were arrested during the protests on Saturday. For most part, the police were mute spectators as they had been told to handle the protesters with kid-gloves, lest the agitation spread to other parts of the state. There are big plans to celebrate the tercentenary of the Sikh faith at Nanded in Maharashtra in October this year. With a little foresight, police could have prevented the fracas, which led to the firing on Friday. They failed to make adequate security preparations when Ram Rahim visited Mulund's Nirmal Lifestyle mall at 5pm along with 60 men, most of them bodyguards. He has been given Z-plus security by Haryana government and has private bodyguards as well. Trouble began when the bodyguards started frisking all Sikhs visiting the mall. There are 5,000 prosperous Sikh families in Mulund and soon two dozen Sikhs started shouting anti-Dera slogan at the gate. At 6.30pm, when the Dera chief was leaving, Mulund Sikhs were mobilizing more support. Ram Rahim's bodyguards sensed danger when they saw an Indigo car laden with Sikhs coming towards them near the gate and opened fire, killing Balkar Singh (50), a small-time transporter from Mulund. Then Ram Rahim drove off to the Dera base at Khalapur in Raigad, 60 km from the city and late at night went to Pune in a convoy of 60 cars and took a flight to Delhi. By then, hundreds of Sikh protesters had already started blocking roads out of Mulund. On Saturday morning, the community, including women, took to the streets, some brandishing swords. They were demanding that Ram Rahim be arrested and his Khalapur base be closed. The agitation petered out by 5 pm. Police, meanwhile, arrested three private bodyguards on charges of murder, attempt to murder and unlawful assembly. They have been remanded to police custody till July 2. Eleven more Dera men were arrested from Khalapur and Pune in this connection. Police also arrested 30 Sikh protesters on Saturday afternoon on charges of rioting. Later in the evening, deputy chief minister R R Patil met Sikh representatives and assured them the culprits would be booked. However, he was non-committal about Ram Rahim's arrest, the demand to ban him from entering the state and the closure of his Khalapur base. Chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh appealed for calm and announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh for the family of the deceased. The Shiromani Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh. The funeral of Balkar Singh will be held at 4pm on Monday after his relatives arrive from Punjab. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Sikh_protesters_block_trains_in_Punjab/rssarticleshow/3162411.cms Sikh protesters block trains in Punjab 25 Jun 2008, 0959 hrs IST,TIMESOFINDIA.COM Sikh protesters block railway track in Amritsar. (Reuters Photo) More Pictures NEW DELHI: Demanding the immediate arrest of Dera Sacha Sauda Chief Gurmit Ram Rahim Singh, Sikh protesters blocked seven trains in Punjab on Wednesday. The Amritsar Shatabdi and the Sachkhand Express was stopped at the Amritsar Railway Station. According to reports, around 150 protesters have blocked the Amritsar-Jalandhar rail line near Walla village. Sikhs also held demonstrations in Haryana demanding action against the Dera chief. The killing of a Sikh allegedly by the Dera chief's security guard in Mulund sparked major protests by the community in Mumbai. The protests have since spilled over to Punjab, Haryana and Jammu. Though the situation has largely been peaceful, Sikhs have staged large-scale demonstrations in several parts of the country since then. Protesters have repeatedly warned that things will get out of control if no action is taken against the Dera chief. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/26/stories/2008062655581300.htm Sikh protesters disrupt train services Five long distance passenger trains, two goods trains halted at various places Sikhs block railway tracks during a protest against Dera Sacha Sauda leader Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in Amritsar on Wednesday. Chandigarh: The day-long rail blockade organised by different Sikh groups to protest against the Mumbai firing incident passed off peacefully on Wednesday even as many passengers suffered after being stranded following cancellation and termination of various trains. A railway spokesman said 14 long distance trains bound for different destinations, including Mumbai, Dadar, Nanded, Barauni, Katihar and Saharsa and a number of local passenger trains were cancelled and some trains were terminated at Ambala, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Beas. Five long distance passenger trains and two goods trains were halted midway due to the protests at various places - Amritsar, Madhopur (Sirhind), Malout, Abohar, Moga, Sangrur, Mullanpur (Ludhiana) and Rajpura. The services were, however, restored in the evening. Pilgrims going to Vaishnodevi and Amarnath on board the Jabalpur-Jammu Tawi Express were stranded at the Chaheru railway station, about seven km from Phagwara. The call for the rail roko was given by different Sikh groups, including the radical Damdami Taksal, which demanded the arrest of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, whose bodyguard had allegedly shot dead a Sikh in Mumbai last week. At most places the protesters left at around 3 p.m., but around 400 Sikhs led by chief of Damdami Taksal Baba Harnam Singh Dhuma and SAD (Amritsar) president Daljit Singh Bittu among others ended their sit-in on the tracks at Madhopur village near Sirhind late this evening. They ended the protest by performing 'ardas' (prayers). The cancelled trains included Amritsar-Saharsa Garib Rath, Amritsar-New Delhi Shatabdi, Amritsar-Nanded Sahab Sachkhand Express, Amritsar-New Delhi Superfast, Ganga Nagar Haridwar Express, Amritsar-Katihar Amrapali Express, Amritsar Katihar Jan Sewa Express, Amritsar-Haridwar Jan Shatabdi Express, the Amritsar-Barauni Express, Amritsar-Mumbai Paschim Express, Amritsar-Dadar Express, Saryu Jammu Express, Amritsar Tata Nagar Express and Jammu Tawi-Guwahati Lohit Express. The New Delhi Amritsar-Shatabdi, New Delhi Amritsar Shan-e-Punjab, Howrah Express, Jallianwala Bagh Express, Chhattisgarh Express and Mumbai-Amritsar Frontier Mail were terminated short of their destinations at Ambala, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Beas, the spokesman said. Road traffic was also blocked for some time on the Jalandhar-Amritsar national highway at Dhilwan near Kapurthala when more than 100 Sikhs staged a protest for nearly half-an-hour. -PTI Centre's advisory PTI reports from New Delhi: The Centre has issued an advisory to all States to take precautionary measures following protests by Sikhs in the wake of alleged firing by bodyguards of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in Mumbai last week. The Union Home Ministry also asked the Haryana government as to why the personal security guards were given all India arms licences despite the Dera chief enjoying Z-plus security cover, official sources said here. In the advisory, the government asked the States to keep strict vigil in the Sikh dominated areas, particularly in Delhi, Maharashtra, Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh, the sources said. The Centre is particularly worried that the agitation may spill over to other States as protests in Punjab on Wednesday completely disrupted train services there. http://www.ibnlive.com/news/punjab-derailed-protestors-cut-off-rail-access-to-state/67778-3.html?xml Punjab derailed: Protestors cut off rail access to state Press Trust Of India Published on Thu, Jun 26, 2008 at 00:57 in Nation section Tags: Sikh Protests, Dera Sacha Sauda , Chandigarh PUNJAB ON THE EDGE: Angry Sikhs demanded the arrest of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Singh. Chandigarh: Rail services on Wednesday were suspended in Punjab with five long distance passenger and two goods trains being stopped midway to their destinations as Sikhs protesting the Mumbai firing incident blocked rail tracks. The Railways said that at least 14 trains were cancelled in view of the protests and others were terminated before their final destinations. Hundreds of pilgrims on way to Vaishnodevi and Amarnath shrines in Jammu and Kashmir were also left stranded after a train from Jabalpur to Jammu-Tawi was stopped at Chaheru in Phagwara. The two goods trains were stopped at Amritsar and Madhopur near Sirhind. The rail blockade call was given by radical Sikh groups, including the Damdami Taksal, and the SAD (Amritsar) to demand the arrest of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh for the death of a community member who was allegedly shot by his bodyguard in Mumbai last week. Protesters squatted on the track at several places, including Amritsar, Madhopur (Sirhind), Malout, Abohar, Moga, Sangrur, Mullanpur (Ludhiana) and Rajpura. At Madhopur, around 400 Sikhs led by Damdami Taksal chief Baba Harnam Singh, SAD (Amritsar) president Daljit Singh Bittu sat on the tracks between Delhi, Amritsar and Jammu, disrupting the movement of trains. In Amritsar, a large number of youths of the Taksal carried swords in their hands and portraits of Sikh militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and blocked rail tracks at different railway crossings. http://www.indianexpress.com/story/327494.html Sikh groups hold protests across Punjab Express News Service Posted online: Thursday, June 26, 2008 at 2258 hrs Several passenger, long-distance trains cancelled, some trains from Amritsar, Pathankot , Jammu Tawi rescheduled Chandigarh/Amritsar, June 25: Rail and road traffic across Punjab and Haryana were disrupted on Wednesday with Sikh groups blocking roads and railway tracks to protest against the recent killing of a Sikh in Mumbai by Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmit Singh Ram Rahim's security guard. About 50 Shiromani Akali Dal (Mann) activists led by party district president Anup Singh put up a roadblock on GT Road near Samrala Chowk disrupting traffic movement to Jalandhar and Chandigarh. The protestors also squatted on the rail tracks at Mullanpur on the Ludhiana-Ferozepore section. Several passenger and long distance trains were cancelled and a few trains from Amritsar, Pathankot and Jammu Tawi rescheduled, Railway officials said. Hundreds of pilgrims on way to Vaishno Devi and Amarnath shrines in Jammu and Kashmir were stranded when a train from Jabalpur to Jammu-Tawi was stopped at Chaheru in Phagwara. Radical Sikh groups, including the Damdami Taksal, and the SAD (Amritsar), had called for a "rail roko" demanding the arrest of the Dera chief. "The situation is tense. The cancellation of trains has affected people like us very badly. I have no option but to take a bus to Ahmedabad. The journey by road not only takes more time but is very uncomfortable," said Amarjit Singh, a passenger. Shalini, an engineering aspirant, said she was supposed to reach Delhi for her counselling but had to postpone her journey as the Shatabdi Express was cancelled. "I have no idea when I would be able to get my next appointment. The counselling meant a lot to me," she said. Jalandhar Railway Station Superintendent Ashok Kumar said "We are refunding the money to passengers for those trains that have been cancelled due to the protests." Protestors also stopped the Delhi-Lahore "Sada-e-Sarhad" bus at Beas, about 45 km from Amritsar. However, after a five-hour delay, it was allowed to carry on with its journey to Pakistan. Sikhs also held a peaceful protest march at Fatehabad in Haryana demanding action against the Dera chief. However, the situation at Sirsa, where the Dera headquarters is located, remained peaceful with Haryana Police intensifying security arrangements. The Gurdwara Singh Sabha of Fatehabad submitted a memorandum to the deputy commissioner, demanding action against the Dera chief. Hissar Commissioner of Police P C Bidhan and IGP A K Dhull jointly addressed a meeting of BSF and RAF companies deployed at Sirsa. Later, they appealed to the Sikhs and Dera followers to maintain peace and communal amity in the district. Dhull said the entire district has been divided in 11 zones and 2 duty magistrates have been appointed head of the local peace committee. The peace committee was constituted after the Dera-Sikh strife in May last year. http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/jun/22sikh.htm Sikh protests fan out; Dera chief taken to undisclosed destination June 22, 2008 21:29 IST The police on Sunday shifted Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh to an undisclosed destination for "security reasons" amid continued protests over the gunning down of a Sikh demonstrator in Mumbai while radical groups demanded the Dera Sacha Sauda chief's immediate arrest. As protests by Sikh groups spilled over into Bangalore, Mysore and Jammu besides several towns of Punjab and Haryana, SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar appealed to them to "maintain calm and not to allow themselves to be provoked". He said the protests should be within the "parameters of the law" and announced Rs 5 lakh to dependents of Balkar Singh Thakur, 40, who was killed when Ram Rahim Singh's security guards allegedly opened fire on Sikh demonstrators near a mall in suburban Mulund on Friday. The head of the Sirsa-based sect was whisked away by the police to an undisclosed place on Sunday morning after he reached Mysore from Bangalore. The controversial spiritual leader arrived in his bullet -proof car and headed straight to the sect's Prathana Mandir at Siddalingapara on the city's outskirts, but police shifted him from there apprehending a threat to his life as his presence had triggered protests by local Sikh groups. Swords and daggers drawn, members of the community also blocked traffic on Jammu-Pathankote national highway and burnt the Dera chief in effigy in Sirsa, Moga and Sangrur though the protests remained by and large peaceful, police reports said. Radical groups Damdami Taksal and Sant Samaj demanded that Ram Rahim Singh be arrested by Tuesday after which they would call a rail and road blockade. They also asked the Centre to withdraw Z-plus security cover to the Dera. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/23/stories/2008062358840300.htm Sikhs stage protest Staff Reporter - Photo: Sampath Kumar G.P IN PROTEST: Members of Sikh community setting on fire an effigy of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in Bangalore on Sunday. BANGALORE: Members of the Sikh community in Bangalore staged a protest in front of the Gurudwara in Ulsoor on Sunday against the alleged killing of a Sikh in Mumbai by the bodyguard of Dera chief Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh recently. They were seeking the arrest of Ram Rahim Singh in connection with the killing in Mumbai. "We want the Government to register a case against him (Ram Rahim Singh) and seize his property. He has hurt the sentiments of the people in our community and should be banned entry into Karnataka," said Harminder Singh, member of the Gurudwara Committee. Describing the act of killing the Sikh in Mumbai as shameful, the Sikhs also questioned the need for providing security to Ram Rahim Singh. "He has maintained his own security guards," said the agitating Sikhs. "The Government should take action against the Dera chief, as he continues to be a threat to national security," they said. The protesters also said that the Sikh community was a peaceful one and it was not against followers of any religion. However, they maintained that Ram Rahim Singh should not insult any religion by adding God's name to his own. Later, they met Governor Rameshwar Thakur and submitted a memorandum to him in this connection. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/23/stories/2008062355261300.htm Sikh protests spread to Bangalore and Jammu - Photo: A.M.Faruqui ANGER SPREADS: Sikh protesters waving swords during a demonstration demanding the arrest of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Ram Rahim Singh, in Bhopal on Sunday. Mumbai/Mysore: Police on Sunday shifted Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh to an undisclosed destination for "security reasons" amid continued protests over the gunning down of a Sikh demonstrator in Mumbai. Radical groups demanded the Dera chief's immediate arrest. As protests by Sikh groups spread to Bangalore, Mysore and Jammu, besides several towns of Punjab and Haryana, SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar appealed to them to "maintain calm and not to allow themselves to be provoked." He said the protests should be within the "parameters of the law" and announced Rs. 5 lakh to dependents of Balkar Singh Thakur, 40, who was killed when Dera chief's security guards allegedly opened fire on Sikh demonstrators near a mall in Mumbai suburb Mulund on Friday. The head of the Sirsa-based sect was whisked away by the police to an undisclosed place on Sunday morning after he reached Mysore from Bangalore. He arrived in a bullet-proof car and headed straight to the sect's Prathana Mandir at Siddalingapara on the city's outskirts, but the police shifted him from there apprehending a threat to his life as his presence had triggered protests by local Sikh groups. Members of the community blocked traffic on the Jammu-Pathankote National Highway and burnt the Dera chief in effigy in Sirsa, Moga and Sangrur, though the protests by and large remained peaceful, police reports said. Radical groups Damdami Taksal and Sant Samaj demanded that the Dera chief be arrested by Tuesday. They asked the Centre to withdraw the Z plus security cover provided to the Dera chief. - PTI http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEH20080621142414&Title=Top+Stories&Topic=0& Sikhs withdraw agitation as Patil assures probe Sunday June 22 2008 00:45 IST MUMBAI: Guru Singh Sabha, a Sikh body heading the protests against the killing of a community member by Dera Sacha Sauda chief's bodyguard, on Saturday agreed to withdraw the agitation after Deputy Chief Minister RR Patil promised a thorough probe into the incident. A delegation, including former Maharashtra Director General of Police PS Pasricha and MLC Charansingh Sapra met the deputy chief minister. Sapra, however, later said the protests would continue in a 'democratic manner' untill Dera chief Ram Rahim Singh was arrested. "The Sikh community members would not resort to any kind of violence." Patil later told reporters that if required, police will summon Ram Rahim Singh for questioning in the last night's incident at suburban Mulund where one person was killed. Patil also said the Dera chief had informed the authorities about his arrival in Mumbai. He also said government will think on whether security persons from other states should be allowed to operate in the state in future. "State police are well capable of providing security to any person," he said. Meanwhile, Sapra appealed to onlookers who had footage of last night's firing on their mobiles, to come forward and provide evidence to the authorities. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/23/stories/2008062359761200.htm Dera chief taken to undisclosed place as Sikh protests spread Special Correspondent - Photo: A.M.Faruqui SIMMERING ANGER : Sikh protesters waving swords during a demonstration demanding the arrest of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Ram Rahim Singh, in Bhopal on Sunday. MYSORE: Dera Sacha Sauda chief Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was whisked away to an undisclosed destination by the police under heavy security cover on Sunday. Ram Rahim Singh arrived here late on Saturday evening and stayed overnight. A heavy security cloak was thrown around him following disturbances in Mumbai and other places during the last few days. Balkar Singh (40), was killed when the Dera chief's security guards allegedly opened fire on Sikh demonstrators near a mall in the Mumbai suburb of Mulund on Friday. Following the death, Sikhs went on the rampage in Mumbai. In view of the growing tension, authorities shifted Ram Rahim Singh in a convoy and put him up in a place they kept secret. The security was so tight that photographers were prevented from going close to the convoy and a huge pandal was erected to prevent onlookers from getting a glimpse of the vehicle in which he was seated. Ram Rahim Singh has established a camp on the outskirts of Mysore where it is speculated that a religious structure is likely to be constructed. The 2.5 acres of land has been purchased near Siddalingapura. Appeal for calm PTI reports: As protests by Sikh groups spread to Bangalore, Mysore and Jammu, besides several towns of Punjab and Haryana, SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar appealed to them to "maintain calm and not to allow themselves to be provoked." He said the protests should be within the "parametres of the law" and announced Rs. 5 lakh to dependents of Balkar Singh. Sikhs blocked traffic on the Jammu-Pathankote National Highway and staged protests in Sirsa, Moga and Sangrur. Radical groups Damdami Taksal and Sant Samaj demanded that the Dera chief be arrested by Tuesday. They asked the Centre to withdraw the Z plus security cover provided to him. http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=373887 Protest continues against Ram Rahim Singh ANI Sunday 22nd June, 2008 Amritsar, June 22, : In a series of protest by the various organisations against the killing of a Sikh in Mumbai by the guards of Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh on Friday, Shri Guru Granth Sahib Satkar Committee and members of the Damdami Taksal took out a protest march in Amritsar today. The activist staged dharna outside Hall gate. The activists were shouting slogans against Ram Rahim Singh and also demanded his arrest without delay. They also threatened to intensify the agitation if the government fails to fulfil their demands. By Ravinder Singh Robin http://www.ibnlive.com/news/sikhs-call-off-protests--cops-lathicharge-sikhs/67501-3.html?xml Sikhs call off protests | Cops lathicharge Sikhs CNN-IBN Published on Sat, Jun 21, 2008 at 10:16, Updated at Sat, Jun 21, 2008 in Nation section Mumbai: The Sikhs have called off their violent agitation till Monday over the killing of a Sikh boy by Dera Sachcha Sauda sect chief Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh's bodyguards. The agitation was called off temporarily after assurances from Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister RR Patil that strict action will be taken against those involved in the incident. The Maharashtra government also announced Rs 2 lakh compensation for the dead boy and Rs 25,000 for those injured during Friday night's clash between Dera followers and the Sikh community. Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal condemned the killings of the Sikh boy and he said he was in touch with Maharastra government. "It's a very sad incident and we are in touch with Maharastra government to defuse the situation. Take action immediately and nab the culprits immediately. The situation in Punjab will not be allow to go out of control," Badal said. Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee Secretary Dilmegh Singh added the government should take strict action against the Dera chief. "A case should be filed against him for whatever he has done. We request the Sikh community to maintain peace and the government should impose restrictions on him as wherever he goes, he spreads hatred amongst people," Singh said. On Friday night a group of Sikhs had raised anti-Dera slogans at the Nirmal Lifestyles mall in Mulund during a visit by the sect head. There was a scuffle between the sect chief's supporters and the Sikh group. During the altercation, the bodyguards allegedly fired killing a Sikh boy. Hundreds of Sikhs hit the streets on Saturday protesting the killing. Violent protestors stormed Mulund Railway Station and brought trains to a halt. On the streets, buses were damaged and shops were forced to down shutters. Over 50 schools affiliated to Sikh organisations were shut down. http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=373631 Violence erupts in Mumbai as Sikhs protest killing by Dera chief's guard ANI Saturday 21st June, 2008 Mumbai/Chandigarh, June 21 : Violence erupted in Mumbai on Saturday as Sikhs protest against the alleged killing of a man by the security guards of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, the controversial chief of Dera Sacha Sauda sect. The protesters gathered in large number and blocked Eastern Express Highway in western Mumbai. They disrupted traffic and ransacked many vehicles. However, the Sikh leaders made it clear that their enemy is not the public but the chief of the Dera Sacha Sauda. "We have requested our brethrens to carry out the protests peacefully as neither public nor the government is our enemy. Our foe is Ram Rahim," said Sardar Tara Singh, Member of Maharashtra State Assembly and Sikh Leader. According the officials, the protests were confined to a small area near the railway station of Mulund. A large number of Sikhs took to streets in Chandigarh with an effigy and posters of the Dera chief. They burnt the effigy and slammed posters with slippers. Several Sikh organizations have been staging protests in and outside Punjab against the Dera Chief, demanding his arrest. An inquiry has been ordered into the incident. http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=373626 Mumbai Sikh protests continue, additional forces sent in IANS Saturday 21st June, 2008 The Mulund area of Mumbai continued to be on the boil Saturday as special forces were rushed in to quell protests by thousands of Sikhs over the killing of a community member by the bodyguards of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Ram Rahim Singh the previous day. Sikhs blocked railway tracks, damaged a station and observed a shutdown in parts of Mumbai, vowing to continue carry out protests until the culprits were brought to book. The protesting Sikhs had called for a truce following Deputy Chief minister R.R. Patil's announcement to convene a high-level meeting in the evening to resolve the issue. Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has also appealed to the Sikh community to maintain calm and refrain from violence. He has announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs.200,000 to the family of the victim. But following an altercation with the police, some Sikhs smashed vehicles and vandalised public property in Mulund in northeast Mumbai. The elite Rapid Action Force (RAF) was sent in to assist police to maintain peace. 'We have not called off the agitation. It will continue peacefully on Gandhian principles. We will wait for the state government's decision this evening,' Charan Singh Sapra, a Sikh legislator of the Congress party from Mulund, told IANS. 'We have demanded that Dera chief Ram Rahim Singh and his men be booked by police. The Sikh community is shocked that despite the murderous attack on innocent youths, the Dera members managed to evade police action,' Sapra said. Ram Rahim Singh was said to be present near the upmarket Nirmal Lifestyle Mall in Mulund in northeast Mumbai with his bodyguards and supporters when they clashed with members of the local Sikh community. Malkar Singh, a Sikh, died in the clash Friday night. The Sikhs continued their protests overnight, with over 5,000 of them blocking trains for over two hours Saturday morning and staging a sit-in protest outside the Mulund police station. The tension caused a virtual shutdown in Mulund and its neighbouring areas in north-east Mumbai Saturday. Local Sikh-managed educational institutions remained closed in protest against the incident. The shutdown was also observed in Sikh majority pockets in Thane district, towns like Kalyan and Ulhasnagar, and reports of stray incidents of violence came in from different parts of the suburb. Simultaneously, security was beefed up in Sikh-dominated localities of Mumbai, Thane, and Nanded suburb in north-east Maharashta. http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=373644 Highway blocked in Haryana, protests in Punjab after Mumbai clashes IANS Saturday 21st June, 2008 Members of the Sikh community Saturday blocked traffic on National Highway No.10 near Sirsa town in Haryana to protest the killing of a Sikh in Mumbai in firing by armed security men of Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief Gurmit Ram Rahim Singh. The protest by the Sikhs was organized in Sirsa, about 300 km from here, which is close to the headquarters of the Dera sect. Police reinforcements were rushed to the spot to prevent any clash between the Sikh community and the sect's followers. Sources in the Haryana police told IANS that the Dera chief, who is presently in Maharashtra, has been asked not to come back to his sect headquarters near Sirsa till the current crisis is over. He is likely to go to Uttar Pradesh or Uttarakhand. Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal called up his Maharashtra counterpart Vilasrao Deshmukh Friday night to demand action against those who killed the Sikh youth in Mumbai. Protests were also held by Sikh organizations in various cities across Punjab. These included Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Mohali, Patiala and Bathinda. The Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) appealed to the Sikh community to show restraint even as it demanded action against the sect chief for instigating Sikhs, its spokesman said in Amritsar. The Sikh protesters demanded the arrest of the sect chief. A Sikh activist was killed when security guards accompanying the controversial Dera chief opened fire on Sikh protesters at a shopping mall in Mulund area of Mumbai Friday. The sect chief had gone shopping. The firing took place when Sikhs protested against the Dera chief's presence and threw stones at him. His security guards fired on the protesters. The sect chief enjoys Z-plus security cover, mostly from the Haryana police. He has been in the middle of controversies since May last year when he dressed himself as 10th Sikh Guru Gobind Singh during his sect's religious ceremony. This led to protests from Sikhs and large scale violence by the community against the sect, particularly in Punjab and Haryana. Punjab remained on the boil for over two weeks last year as the anti-sect protests intensified. The controversial Dera chief is also facing two cases of conspiracy to murder and one case of rape in a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Ambala. He has millions of followers in north India and other parts of the country. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/23/stories/2008062359080500.htm Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad Sikhs hold protest rally Hyderabad: The Sikh community in the twin cities on Sunday organised a rally from Ameerpet Gurudwara protesting against the alleged killing of 42-year-old Barkarar Singh Bhatti in Mumbai by the security personnel of Dera Saccha Sadua chief Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Punjab_on_the_boil_protesters_block_railway_movement/rssarticleshow/3152775.cms Punjab on the boil, protesters block railway movement 22 Jun 2008, 0326 hrs IST,TNN A Sikh brandishes a sword during protests. (Agency Photo) AMRITSAR: Incensed at the killing of a Sikh by a bodyguard of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in Mumbai, community members took to the streets in Punjab and Haryana and burnt effigies of self-proclaimed godman, demanding his arrest. While scores of Sikh organisations called for strict action against Ram Rahim, SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar sent a missive to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, asking him to discuss the issue on a priority basis. Sources said Makkar will fly to Mumbai and hand over a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the victim's kin and Rs 1 lakh to those injured in Friday's incident at a mall in Mulund. In Phagwara Shiromani Akali Dal Panch Pradhani activists squatted on the tracks delaying the departure of the Amritsar-Mumbai Paschim Express. Led by extremist Sikh leader Kulbir Singh Bara Pind, the activists raised anti-Dera slogans. The Bathinda-Dhuri Express was also stranded at Rampura Phul railway station in Bathinda district for over two hours. Carrying unsheathed swords, Sikhs organised a protest march from Mehna Chowk to the Bathinda bus stand. Tension prevailed in Sirsa district, the headquarters of the Dera, as protesters blocked the Delhi-Fazilka highway near Sahuwala village for more than four hours. In Amritsar, sword-wielding activists of Shiromani Youth Akali Dal, led by its district president Gurpartap Singh Tikka, staged demonstrations at Hall Gate and burnt effigies of the Dera chief. Protesters also blocked traffic in Sangrur and Jalandhar. In Chandigarh, Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal asked people to stay calm. ''It is a very tragic and unfortunate incident and the culprits must be immediately booked,'' the CM said, adding he had discussed the issue with Maharashtra CM Vilasrao Deshmukh and asked him to ensure the safety of Sikhs. http://www.tribuneindia.com/2008/20080622/punjab1.htm Mumsbai killing: Protesters block rail, road traffic n SGPC announces Rs 5 lakh for family of Balkar n To seek meeting with PM Tribune Reporters Amritsar, June 21 A five-member team of the SGPC, headed by its president Avtar Singh, will leave for Mumbai by air tomorrow to take firsthand information of the incident in which a Sikh was killed and three were injured in the firing by a bodyguard of the Dera Sacha Sauda chief yesterday. The SGPC president has sought time from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to discuss the incident. He said the team would seek immediate arrest of Dera chief Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh apart from imposing a ban on the activities of the Dera. The SGPC would give Rs 5 lakh to the family of Balkar Singh who was killed in the firing and bear expenses on the treatment of the injured. The SGPC president lashed out at the Congress and the Centre for not containing the anti-Sikh activities of the Dera. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, while describing the Mumbai incident "unfortunate", urged the Sikh community to exercise restraint and help the state in maintaining peace and harmony. He, however, said nobody would be allowed to take law into his hand. Activists of various Sikh organisations, including the Khalsa Action Committee, Akal Purkh Ki Fauj, Sikh Students Federation (Mehta), staged a protest against the killing of Balkar Singh by a bodyguard of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh. The children of the slain militants, led by Sandeep Kaur, also held a protest near the Hall Gate. A few skirmishes were reported in certain areas, but the situation remained under control. Earlier, the agitators blocked traffic on the Bandari bridge for half an hour. HOSHIARPUR: Hundreds of activists of various Sikh organisations, led by former president of the Dal Khalsa Harcharanjit Singh Dhami, district president of the All-India Sikh Students Federation (Peer Mohamad) Kirpal Singh Ahluwalia, senior vice-president of the SAD (Amritsar) Lakhwinder Singh, staged a dharna and blocked traffic at the Prabhat chowk here for more than an hour. The leaders demanded immediate arrest of the culprits responsible for the killing of a Sikh in Mumbai, registration of cases of rape and murder against Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and his immediate arrest. They submitted a memorandum to SDM Karnail Singh. PHAGWARA: Activists of the SAD (Amritsar Panj Pardhani), led by its leaders Kulbir Singh Barapind and Manjit Singh Khalsa, stopped the Amritsar-bound Paschim Express at the local railway station for at least 10 minutes. Later, they submitted a memorandum to the SDM demanding the immediate arrest of the Dera chief. SANGRUR: Sikh organisations and saints staged a dharna and blocked traffic at the traffic lights chowk, near main bus stand here. Prominent Sikh saints and leaders, including Baba Sukhchain Singh Dharampura, Baba Buta Singh Gurthli Wale, SGPC member Nirmal Singh Gharachon, president of the Panthic Vichar Manch Parshotam Singh Phaguwala and joint secretary of the SAD (Panch Pardhani) Babu Singh Kahangarh, participated in the agitation. The protesters demanded the arrest of Dera Sacha Sauda chief. They submitted a memorandum to naib tehsildar Nirmal Singh at the dharna site. Sant Samaj threatens rail roko Tribune News Service Jalandhar, June 21 Echoing the demand of Sikh community of Mumbai, the Sant Samaj, a conglomerate of several Sikh organisations, here issued a three-day ultimatum to the Centre and Maharashtra government to arrest Dera Sacha Sauda chief Grumeet Ram Rahim Singh. President of the Sant Samaj Harnam Singh Khalsa, also chief of the Damdami Taksal, said if the Centre and Maharashtra government failed to arrest the Dera chief within three days, a rail roko would be observed on Wednesday between Amritsar and Delhi from 8 am to 7 pm. Khalsa said the Dera chief should be arrested for murders of Balkar Singh in Mumbai yesterday and Karamjit Singh in Sunam last year. He appealed to the Sikh community of Mumbai to maintain peace. http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1173129 Kolkata Sikhs protest Mumbai murder DNA Correspondent Monday, June 23, 2008 23:43 IST KOLKATA: The ripples of the recent murder of S Balkar Singh in Mumbai have now reached Kolkata, but minus the street fights. On Monday, thousands of Sikhs in the city participated in a silent protest march condemning the murder of Balkar Singh. The march was organised by the West Bengal unit of the Central Gurudwara Committee. Committee convener Satnam Singh said that Monday was also observed as "Black Day". The protest march of 500 Sikhs that started at 10.30 am, ended at Raj Bhavan where committee representatives handed over a memorandum to the Bengal governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi. A similar memorandum was also given to chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. The committee demanded a ban on activities of the Dera Sacha Sauda in the state and alleged Singh was killed by henchmen of Sauda chief, Gurmit Ram Rahim Singh. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/27_held_in_Mumbai_for_protests_against_Dera_chief/rssarticleshow/3154805.cms 27 held in Mumbai for protests against Dera chief 23 Jun 2008, 0250 hrs IST,TNN MUMBAI: Twenty-seven people have been arrested for rioting, a day after a mob went on a rampage in Mumbai, stopping road and rail traffic and shutting down shops to protest shooting of a Sikh protester allegedly by a bodyguard of Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh. A holiday court at Bhoiwada on Sunday remanded them in police custody till June 24. According to police, the accused are residents of suburbs like Andheri (E), Chembur and Sion. They had arrived in cars and bikes to Mulund on Saturday to stage protests. All those arrested belong to the Sikh community, which was enraged over Friday night's incident where one of their members, protesting againstthe Dera chief, was shot dead by his bodyguard. "We have recovered three swords and some bikes which were used by the protesters. More arrests are likely," said ACP Prakash Wani. Four separate cases of rioting, destruction of public property and obstruction to traffic have been registered at the Navghar and Mulund police stations and the Kurla railway police station. Shiromani Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) Avtar Singh Makkar, who arrived in Mumbai leading a four-member delegation from Punjab to probe the protester's death, appealed to the Sikh community in Mumbai not take law into their hands. "Sikhism promotes for peace and love among all human beings. We urge our community members to restrain from all forms of violence," Makkar said. "We plan to meet the victims and eyewitnesses who were present during the incident and find out the truth. It is unfortunate that one of our members were killed during a peaceful protest," the SGPC chief said.There are around 2 lakh Sikhs in Mumbai and a large majority of them live in Sion-Koliwada area. In a separate case, an unidentified Sikh youth was booked for attacking a biker near the Airoli flyover bridge on Friday night. The complainant, Vijay Rao (42), was driving towards Mulund, where he lives, when he encountered a traffic jam on the Airoli bridge. While he was waiting on his bike, the attacker came from behind and hit him on the head with a sword around 11.40 pm. Rao was rushed to the Veer Savarkar hospital and later to a private hospital after his blood pressure shot up. Police officials are still probing if the assault is linked with the Dera agitation. Besides the three bodyguards of the Dera chief, the crime branch has also arrested 11 more Dera men from Khalapur and Pune. "They have been booked on murder, attempt to murder and rioting charges. We are yet to decide whether to apply any charges on the Dera chief," additional commissioner Deven Bharti said. Mumbai police commissioner Hasan Gafoor tried to downplay Sikhs using kirpans for threatening people. "The kirpan is part of their religious faith," he said. He also denied that the police were soft on the protesters. "The trouble was confined to one area. We succeeded in ensuring that it did not spread to other areas," he added. http://www.zeenews.com/articles.asp?aid=450194&sid=nat Mulund firing: Sikhs call off agitation till Monday Zeenews Bureau Mumbai, June 21: The Sikh community members called off their agitation temporarily till Monday after the Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil assured them of taking actions against the accused. Earlier in the day, three persons were arrested in connection with the firing by a bodyguard of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Ram Rahim Singh outside a suburban mall here, which left one person dead. A court here on Saturday remanded the three persons who were arrested in connection with firing by bodyguards of Dera Sachha Sauda's chief to police custody till July 2. The accused, namely Jaidev Singh, Satnam Aroda and Rajguru Taneja, are suspected to have opened fire, and have been charged with murder as well as offences under arms act. All of them belong to Ram Rahim Singh's staff. Earlier in the day, the Sikh protestors blocked roads near Mulund police station and clashed with police on Saturday, demanding the arrest of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Guru Ram Rahim Singh. They refused to cremate the deceased until the Dera chief is arrested. The protestors attacked buses and forced shopkeepers to shut down their shops. The Mumbai-Nashik highway was also blocked by the protestors. The Sikh protestors staged a rail blockade at suburban Mulund station to protest against the killing of a community member. The blockade disrupted rail traffic in the area for nearly an hour after which police managed to drive the protestors off the tracks, central railway sources said. In Haryana, 500 Sikh protestors blocked the NH-10 in Sirsa, Haryana near Dera Sacha Sauda headquarter. The protestors were demanding action against those responsible for firing. Almost 50 schools affiliated to Sikh organisations were also shut down. Anti-Dera protests also spread to Jammu. A group of Sikhs had raised anti-Dera slogans inside the Nirmal Lifestyles Mall in suburban Mulund during a visit by the Dera head to the place last evening, which led to an altercation between Singh's supporters and the Sikh group, that later turned violent. Asked if any action would be taken against the sect head, the officer said it will depend only upon the progress made during investigations and on the statements of arrested people as well as the witnesses. A case of murder, attempt to murder and unlawful assembly under the provisions of arms act has been registered in connection with the incident, which left one dead and two others injured. The police officer said the entire probe into the case has been now handed over to the city police's crime branch for investigation. The body of the deceased, Balkar Singh Thakur Singh has been, meanwhile, sent for postmortem and security has been beefed up across the city. Security has been stepped up at the mall, the Mulund police station and other spots in the vicinity. The Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg, and the eastern express highway, both important arterial roads, were blocked by protestors from the Sikh community till 02:30 hours this morning but traffic has been moving smoothly since daybreak. Ram Rahim Singh left Khopoli last night itself and is reported to have reached Pune airport from where he will take a flight for a north Indian destination, police sources said. "A mob of over hundered persons were stopped on their way to Khopoli at Airoli junction on the eastern express highway resulting in a traffic blockade. We had reports that the mob was on its way to take action ....Against Singh and his followers, who were held near Khopoli," the officer added. Sikhs have been enraged at Singh after he was seen at a public function dressed as Sikh Guru Gobind Singh in Haryana's Sirsa where a religious commune started by him is located. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/24/stories/2008072458160100.htm Sikhs protest in Punjab, Haryana PTI SIRSA: Sikh activists, under the banner of Sant Samaj, protested here and other parts of Haryana as well as Punjab on Wednesday demanding the arrest of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Wed Aug 27 07:52:59 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:52:59 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] INDIA: Gujjar unrest Message-ID: <005901c90854$9a6bf050$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES ? Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ The Gujjar, an indigenous group spread across western India, has renewed a protest campaign calling for registration as a scheduled caste or tribe (leading to benefits under affirmative action programmes). The campaign is focused in the state of Rajasthan, which unlike some of its neighbours has refused to give the Gujjar such a status. 43 protesters were killed by Indian police opening fire on crowds, mostly during the first few days, after which an outcry seems to have restrained police violence somewhat, and the head of Rajasthan police was forced to resign. Protesters blocked roads and railways, burned down police stations, and on one occasion lynched a policeman involved in the shootings. They also lined up the bodies of their dead alongside the living protesters. At one point the capital city, New Delhi, was blockaded by Gujjar protesters. The campaign was eventually called off after the Rajasthan state government promised the Gujjar a separate quota. http://www.zeenews.com/articles.asp?aid=449710&sid=REG Gujjars to get 5% quota in Rajasthan, call-off protest Jaipur, June 18: The Rajasthan government on Wednesday announced a five per cent reservation for Gujjars under a "special, separate backward class" category sealing an agreement with the community and ending the nearly month-long agitation by its members demanding scheduled tribe status. Apparently as a balancing act ahead of assembly polls later this year, Rajasthan government also announced 14 per cent reservation for "poor among upper castes" including Bramhins, Rajputs, Vaishyas and Kayasthas. Addressing a joint press conference with Gujjar leader Kirori Singh Bainsla here, Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje announced five per cent quota for Gujjars as also Rebaris and Banjaras. Apparently keeping in mind the sensitivities of the influential Meena community, which enjoys the ST status in the state, she sought to allay apprehensions about the impact of the quota for Gujjars on the present reservation system. "This quota would not have any adverse effect on the present reservation system in the state", she said adding "there is a necessity to give special support to some sections". Expressing gratitude to Raje and giving her all credit for ending the stalemate, Bainsla said that in view of today's announcement the Gujjar agitation would be called off after he reaches Pilupura in Bharatpur, the nerve centre of the agitation. "We hope there will be no need for any more agitation on the issue", he said. Earlier, the formal announcement of the agreement between the two sides, which was slated for morning, was delayed by a few hours apparently due to some last-minute glitches. The 27-day Gujjar agitation, which witnessed largescale violence, claimed 43 lives in police firing in Rajasthan and Haryana. Soon after resolving the Gujjar issue, Raje addressed a separate press meet announcing reservation for economically poor among upper castes, based on a report submitted today by the economically backward classes commission. The speed with which the commission report was accepted by the government underlines BJP's anxiety to ward off possible backlash by upper castes, perceived to be the party traditional vote bank, to reservation for Gujjars. At the same time, the chief minister assured other castes that EBC's recommendations would not affect the existing quota categories of SC/ST/OBC. The state EBC chairman justice Shashi Kant Sharma and his two colleagues Ashutosh Gupta and Mahesh Tanwar submitted the report to the government today, Raje said. A cabinet meeting would take up the report on Thursday and consider its implementation in the state at the earliest, she added. The state EBC commission was set up on the pattern of the central EBC to cover poor people of upper caste and who were deprived of their educational and professional rights, Raje said. In the past, almost every political party promised reservation for poor among upper castes but it was never fulfilled, she said. The Rajasthan government also a relief package for Gujjar community including Rs.5 lakh cash ex-gratia each to the next of the kin of those 38 people killed in police firing and violence. Besides cash, one dependent of the deceased would be given a government job, an official release said adding the seriously injured person would be paid Rs. One lakh while persons with simple injuries would be given up to Rs.25,000. The state government also assured the Rajasthan Gujjar Arakshan Sangarsh Saimit that the legality of the demand for withdrawal of criminal cases filed against those during the agitation would be examined on merits. The Gujjar delegation, in turn, also assured the state government that it would not raise any other demand and it would not support any other Gujjar faction's movement and agitation in future. About 35 Gujjar leaders, four state ministers K L Gujjar, Nathu Singh Gujjar, L N Dave, S M Jat, and state BJP president Om Prakash Mathur and senior party leader Ram Das Agarwal were signatories to the agreement between the two sides. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10513551&ref=rss Thousands riot in Delhi streets over the right to be 'untouchable' 5:00AM Saturday May 31, 2008 By Andrew Buncombe A tribe in India is challenging the nation's centuries-old caste system by demanding that their official status be lowered in order to provide them better access to jobs and education. Members of the Gujjar tribe blocked major roads and highways into Delhi in sit-down protests and set fire to tyres as they vowed to create gridlock across India's capital and the surrounding area. Some train services were suspended and many IT and outsourcing companies with offices in Delhi's satellite cities sent staff home early. In some places police fired tear gas at the stone-throwing demonstrators. "This will go on until our demands are met," said Surjit Singh, a Gujjar protester who was standing in front of hundreds of cars. According to Indian law, the Gujjars - many of whom live in the nearby desert state of Rajasthan - are classified as belonging to the country's second-lowest group, known as Other Backward Classes (OBC). In the complex, divisive system this category is one step up from the lowest level known as Scheduled Tribes and Castes (STC) otherwise known as Dalits, or "Untouchables". The Gujjars say they have been discriminated against in terms of jobs, health care and education - particularly in Rajasthan - but by being reclassified as STC they will be eligible for government positions and university places reserved for that group. The Indian Government reserves about half of all seats in state colleges and universities for lower castes and tribal groups - a huge affirmative-action plan it says is designed to counter centuries of discrimination. Many have criticised the quota system, however, saying it accentuates caste differences at a time when India is seeking to modernise and develop economically and socially. A government panel set up to look into the Gujjars' claims recommended a ?40 million ($100 million) aid package be set aside for their community but ruled out reclassifying the tribe. That has not satisfied the Gujjars. The unrest was the latest in several weeks of confrontations between the tribe and the police; 40 people have died in violence across the north and west of India. In a number of villages and towns in Rajasthan, police used live ammunition to suppress demonstrations, killing dozens of people. In one case, a policeman was lynched by protesters. This time last year, 26 people were killed in similar demonstrations. In Rajasthan yesterday, protesters blocked roads with the bodies of those demonstrators who were shot dead by police. They said the bodies would not be cremated until the government agreed to their demands. "The Rajasthan government must realise the mood of the people and not delay the implementation of quotas for Gujjars," said Avatar Singh Bhadana, a Gujjar leader and MP. During the 1857 uprising against British colonial rule, Hindu and Muslim Gujjars fought tenaciously against the imperial troops and in support of Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last of the Moghul emperors. In the aftermath of the uprising, brutally suppressed by the British, the Gujjars and some 150 other ethnic groups were then listed as "criminal tribes". This listing was officially lifted in 1952 under India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Two years earlier, India's constitution had outlawed discrimination based on caste though the practice remains widespread. - INDEPENDENT http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/29/asia/AS-GEN-India-Caste-Protests.php Lower caste protesters block traffic around New Delhi The Associated Press Published: May 29, 2008 NEW DELHI: Members of one of India's lower castes blocked major roads, burned car tires, and threw stones at police in several areas around New Delhi on Thursday in a continuation of protests in the country's north and west that left 39 people dead. Members of the Gujjar tribe threatened to shut down the capital unless the government agreed to reclassify them as members of the lowest caste so that they can benefit from government quotas. Hundreds of protesters blocked traffic at major roads around the edges of New Delhi, burning tires alongside a traffic jam that sprawled in all directions. In some areas, police fired tear gas to quell the stone-throwing mobs. "This will go on until our demands are met," said Surjit Singh, a Gujjar protester who stood in front of hundreds of cars. Authorities deployed thousands of police to key points to minimize disruptions. The traffic snarls were limited to the borders of the Indian capital and the city was largely running normally by midmorning. There were no reports of violence. The group began protesting last week in northern and western India, disrupting traffic and transportation links across the state of Rajasthan in protests that turned violent. The leader of the tribe, Kirori Singh Bainsala, and 13 others have been charged with murder and rioting. The murder charge is connected to the killing of a policeman who was beaten to death during protests. No mention has been made of any possible action against the police officers who used live ammunition over two days in half a dozen villages and towns in Rajasthan to suppress the demonstrations, killing 38 people. "We are willing to take the bullets and beatings to make sure our demands are met," Jeetendra Pradhan, a protester, said Thursday. Gujjars took to the streets after a government panel set up to look into their demands recommended a US$70 million (?45 million) aid package for their community, but ruled out caste reclassification. Gujjars are considered part of the second-lowest group, known as Other Backward Classes, a step up from the Scheduled Tribes and Castes, the lowest classification. Soon after India's independence from Britain in 1947 it was made illegal to discriminate against someone based on the Hindu caste system, but its influence remains powerful and the government sets quotas for jobs and university spots for the different caste groups. Twenty-six people died in Gujjar riots in Rajasthan last year. http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1167181 Gujjar protestors, block roads, train stopped PTI Thursday, May 29, 2008 14:27 IST NEW DELHI/JAIPUR: Stone-pelting Gujjars protestors were on Thursday teargassed by police as the agitation hit the national capital region disrupting roads and rail traffic and causing acute hardship to commutors. The teargassing took place at south delhi's Mehrauli area where protesters attacked the police by throwing stones. Incidents of violence including stone pelting also occurred at Aya Nagar, bordering Gurgaon, police said. Over 35,000 policement kept a tight vigil as the 'NCR rasta roko' protesters blocked vehicular movement on major road stretches leading to the national capital. Gujjars burnt tyres and placed blockades on the Delhi-Noida-Delhi (DND) Expressway, the Mathura Road connecting Faridabad and Delhi and Mehrauli-Gurgaon road. The NCR agitation, called by All India Gujjar Mahasabha, is in support of the community's demand for Scheduled Tribe status in Rajasthan where 39 people were killed last week in police firing and clashes. As their "martyrs days" protests were held Rajasthan's Karwadi and Bayana areas, the hotbeds of protests, an IAF helicopter dropped pamphlets appealing to the activists to refrain from violence and take up their demand for ST status with the Central Government. In Jaipur, a bandh called by the Gujjars brought public transport to a grinding halt with buses remaining off the roads. However, government offices and markets remained open. Incidents of road blockades and forced shutdowns were reported from the districts of Alwar, Bundi, Tonk, Nagaur, Udaipur, Kota and Dausa, reports reaching police headquaters in Jaipur said. Anticipating trouble, the Railways on Thursday cancelled ten trains, including Nizamuddin-Kochi, Maharashtra Sampark Kranti, Nizamuddin-Udaipur and Dehradun-Bandra expresses. Rail traffic between Aligarh and Ghaziabad was reportedly affected while a large number of protestors blocked a train in Loni in adjoining Ghaziabad this morning. In Delhi, protest marches were held in Mehrauli, Aya Nagar, Mayur Vihar, Anand Vihar, Wazirabad, Surya Nagar, Khajuri Khaz, Sarai Kalekhan besides other areas. The Union Home Ministry had put the National Capital Region on high alert two days ago following the agitation call and issued advisories to Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh governments asking them to take measures to maintain peace. Tight security measures were also enforced in neighbouring areas like Faridabad, Gurgaon, Noida and Ghaziabad. In Gurgaon, about 500 activists of the Ajit Singh led Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) blocked the Delhi-Jaipur highway at Narshingpur Chowk. Reports from Noida and east Delhi said public transport was affected while private vehicles were plying but in less numbers. Vehicular traffic was also hit in south-west Delhi's Kapashera bordering Gurgaon. Police are keeping a strict vigil on Delhi borders -- especially on three points, Aya Nagar, Bopari and one in north-east district -- to keep trouble-makers at bay. Security personnel were deployed in strength in Gujjar strongholds like Mehrauli, Ghazipur, Patparganj, Badarpur, Khanpur, Ayanagar, Chilla village and Rampur, anticipating a strong showing by the community during the agitation. "The community has a sizeable population in South and East districts. We anticipate more troubles in these areas and along the inter-state roads," a senior police official said. There was an unusual rush on certain stretches in Delhi in the early hours as office-goers chose to leave for office early anticipating traffic snarls in the later part of the day. A traffic policeman on duty said there were more vehicles on roads this morning before the rush hour. "I did not want to take a risk. You don't know how things unfold. I have an important meeting at my office which I could not afford to miss. So I left early," Shanker Roy, who works in a financial firm in Delhi's Connaught Place, said. However, some other commuters were not that fortunate as they had to return home after waiting for buses or their vehicle being blocked during their journey. "I waited for the bus for quite a long time in Mayur Vihar to go to office but I had to return home. I did not anticipate this," Meenakshi Sharma, a software developer, said. Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, Delhi MLA and chief patron of All India Gujjar Sangarsh Samiti, appealed to protestors not to resort to violence. "We have a just demand and we are protesting in a peaceful manner. Protestors should resort to peaceful means and public should not be harassed," he said. http://www.zeenews.com/articles.asp?aid=445422&sid=REG Haryana vigilant on Gujjar protest in Rajasthan: Hooda Chandigarh, May 27: Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Tuesday said that the state government was vigilant about the ongoing agitation by Gujjar in neighbouring Rajasthan and added that such protests in Haryana were peaceful. Talking to reporters here today he said that government of Rajasthan should resolve this issue amicably and in a peaceful manner. Without naming BJP, he said if the party which was in power in Rajasthan, had made such a promise in its election manifesto, it should resolve it as such agitations hamper the pace of development within the state and also in the country, he added. Meanwhile according to a report from Rewari, which neighbours Rajasthan, markets remained closed in the town today to show solidarity with the protesting Gujjar in the neighbouring state. The local traders and other people took out a procession in the town and submitted a memorandum to the local additional deputy commissioner demanding immediate resolution of the issue. The memorandum threatened to block the Delhi-Jaipur National Highway No 8 at Kashola Chowk on May 29 to show solidarity with the protesting Gujjars in Rajasthan. A report from Bhiwani said that in view of the police action against the agitating Gujjars in Rajasthan, the Zila Gujjar Mahasabha today sought dismissal of Vasundhara Raje government of Rajasthan. In a meeting held at local Gujjar Dharmshala and presided over by its patron Dr Radha Krishan Chandel the sabha today condoled over death of 42 Gujjars during agitation in Rajasthan and observed two minutes silence for the souls. The meeting unanimously decided that the Gujjars would also participate in the nation wide agitation on May 29. Besides, a state level meeting of the Gujjars would also be held under the banner of Gujjar Mahasabha on June 1 and next course of action would be decided therein. Addressing the meeting the general secretary of the mahasabha, Chand Ram demanded imposition of president rule in Rajasthan besides dismissal of Vasundhara Raje government. He said that the Gujjar society of Rajasthan was economically backward and so it should be included in the list of scheduled tribe. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Gujjar_protests_escalate_rail_traffic_badly_hit/rssarticleshow/3077349.cms Gujjar protests escalate; rail traffic badly hit 27 May 2008, 1740 hrs IST,PTI Print EMail Discuss New Bookmark/Share Save Write to Editor JAIPUR/BAYANA: Police on Tuesday tear-gassed Gujjar protestors on Delhi-Jaipur highway and in Tonk district as the stir spread to new areas in Rajasthan with agitation leader Kirori Singh Bainsla asking Centre to intervene to resolve the five-day old impasse over the issue of ST status for the community. Police fired teargas shells to disperse hundreds of protesters who put up blockades on the busy Delhi-Jaipur national highway, near Kothputli, about 130 kms from the state capital, leading to traffic chaos and large queues of buses. Police had earlier lathicharged the agitators. Gujjar protesters were also tear-gassed by police in Tonk district, about 200 kms from Jaipur, after they forced shopkeepers to down their shutters and blockaded roads, Superintendent of Police Giriraj Lal Meena said. At least ten people including two policemen were injured in the violence at Ghas village, 12 kms from Tonk, Meena said. In Banswara district, the protestors burned tyres and effigies. Some minor clashes with police were also reported from the area. The agitation showed no signs of abating with 70-year-old Bainsla, who is camping along with his supporters in Karwadi in Bharatpur district, vowing to continuing the ongoing stir and asking the Centre to intervene. Making it clear that he would settle for nothing less than ST status for Gujjars, he outrightly rejected a proposal of letter the Chief Minister to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recommending four to six per cent reservation for the community in the category of denotified tribes. Rail traffic in North India disrupted Rail traffic passing through Rajasthan continued to be badly affected for the fourth consecutive day on Tuesday with ten trains being cancelled by the Northern Railways in view of the violent agitation by the Gujjar community in the state. Ten trains, mostly originating from Delhi, were cancelled on Tuesday in the interest of passengers' safety following the ongoing violent agitation at different places in Rajasthan, a Railway official said. The trains that were cancelled are August Kranti Express, Nimach Link Express, Nizamuddin-Udaipur Intercity, Nizamuddin-Indore Intercity, Janta Express, Nizamuddin-Kota Jan Shatabdi Express and Gujrat Sampark Kranti. Bandra-Nizamuddin, Maharashtra Samprak Kranti, Muzaffarpur-Bandra Avadh Express and Ahmedabad-Asansol Parasanath Express were also cancelled on Tuesday. Service of these trains has been stopped due to the agitation by Gujjar Samaj Mahapanchayat Samiti and largescale public disturbance between Gangapur City-Bayana section in Kota Division, a Northern Railway statement said. The main motive behind suspension of rail traffic in the area was to prevent further damage to railway property. "The situation is very bad. Railways properties worth lakhs of rupees have been damaged at several places in Rajasthan. Protestors have uprooted the railway tracks at many places. It is not possible to continue the train services in such circumstances," a senior Railway official said. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/DEL18000.htm India quota protesters block traffic with dead bodies 27 May 2008 09:42:33 GMT Source: Reuters JAIPUR, India, May 27 (Reuters) - Members of an Indian ethnic group demanding job quotas squatted on roads and rail tracks in a western Indian state for a fifth day on Tuesday, alongside the dead bodies of protesters killed in clashes with police. The violence began on Friday when protesters belonging to the Gujjar community lynched a policeman in the state of Rajasthan. Police later opened fire on rioters, killing 36 of them in subsequent days. The Gujjars, already considered a disadvantaged group, want to be reclassified further down the complex Hindu caste and status system so they qualify for government jobs and university seats reserved for such groups. Police said hundreds of Gujjar protesters paralysed traffic, squatting on rail tracks and a highway connecting Jaipur, the state capital, to the Taj Mahal town of Agra, as well to India's financial capital Mumbai. The army and paramilitary forces patrolled the Gujjar-dominated areas, which continued to report stray incidents of protesters burning tyres and damaging vehicles. "Almost all the national highways are functional except for Jaipur-Agra where a 20-30 km of diversion has been made", V.S. Singh, Rajasthan's Home Secretary, told Reuters. Indian media reported on Tuesday that food supplies to the Gujjar-dominated areas had been cut, but Singh denied this. Gujjars say they deserve preferential treatment, but a state government committee did not agree, and announced instead it would spend 2.8 billion rupees ($67 million) improving schools, clinics, roads and other infrastructure in Gujjar areas. The Rajasthan government has warned the protesters to back down or face further police action. "They should stop testing our patience," G.C. Kataria, Rajasthan's home minister, said. "Otherwise the authorities would be forced to throw them out and very many lives could be lost." On Tuesday, a Rajasthan court asked the protest leader, K.S. Bainsla, to appear before it for failing to stop his community members from breaking the law. Separately, police filed murder charges against Bainsla for the lynching of the policeman. A year ago, Gujjars in Rajasthan fought police and members of another caste that already qualifies for job quotas. At least 26 people were killed in that violence. (Writing by Krittivas Mukherjee, editing by Simon Denyer and Valerie Lee) http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/southasia/news/article_1407354.php/10_more_killed_in_quota_protests_in_Indias_Rajasthan__2nd_Roundup_ 10 more killed in quota protests in India's Rajasthan (2nd Roundup) May 24, 2008, 14:31 GMT New Delhi - At least 10 people were killed and scores wounded as police opened fire on protestors belonging to the ethnic Gujjar community in India's Rajasthan state Saturday, bringing the toll in two days of violence to 26, news reports said. Police opened fire on a rioting mob which set fire to a police station in Rajasthan's Dausa district, about 80 kilometres west of Jaipur near the main Agra-Jaipur highway, PTI news agency reported. The Gujjars, an ethnic group who rear livestock and earn a living by selling milk and dairy products, are demanding that they be classified as a scheduled tribe to qualify for government jobs and slots in educational institutions reserved for this section. Once nomadic, the Gujjars inhabit mainly India's northern and western areas like Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat. The Gujjars were protesting the killing of their community members in Bayana Friday. Bayana, in Rajasthan's Bharatpur district, is about 155 kilometres east of Jaipur and barely 65 kilometres west of the Uttar Pradesh tourist town of Agra, home to the Taj Mahal. Most of the dead were Gujjar protestors who were killed when the police opened fire on a rioting mob that set two police vehicles ablaze and lynched a policeman in Karwar village near Bayana, PTI reported. The police said they were forced to open fire to control the mob after teargas and rubber pellets failed to disperse them. A judicial probe has been ordered into the exchange of fire. The protests spread on Saturday with Gujjar groups damaging state-run buses, vandalizing a bus stop on the Agra-Jaipur highway and damaging a railway track on the Mumbai-Delhi route, IANS news agency reported. Gujjars also tried to block highways connecting Jaipur with Agra and Delhi. The Rajasthan government has stopped bus services on several routes and several trucks were reportedly stranded. Four columns of the army, numbering about 800 troopers, have been deployed in Bayana and three adjoining villages where the situation remained tense, Bharatpur district official T Ravi Kant was quoted as saying. Orders prohibiting crowds from gathering and public meetings had been given in five districts of Rajasthan including Bharatpur and Jaipur. The latest violence comes nearly a year after protests by Gujjars in Rajasthan claimed 26 lives. Under India's affirmative action policy, quotas have been set for government jobs and admission to educational institutions for disadvantaged sections of society and lower castes who are listed as scheduled tribes and scheduled castes. Gujjar leaders said the protests would continue and spread to other areas until their demands were met. They claimed Rajasthan's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party had promised to give them scheduled tribe status before local elections in 2003. The state government has said such a decision can only be taken by the federal government to which it had sent a recommendation. http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/southasia/news/article_1407167.php/Five_killed_in_protests_over_ethnic_quotas_in_India Five killed in protests over ethnic quotas in India May 23, 2008, 11:51 GMT New Delhi - At least five people, including a policeman, were killed Friday when protestors belonging to the ethnic Gujjar community who were demanding special status to gain government jobs clashed with police in India's north-western state of Rajasthan. State Home Minister GC Kataria said five people including the policeman had died in the violence in the Bharatpur district adjoining state capital Jaipur, the IANS news agency reported. He said police opened fire after a mob of Gujjars clashed with the police, set fire to police vehicles and lynched a policeman. Four persons died in the police firing subsequently. Earlier on Friday, Gujjar mobs gathered to block rail traffic in the district pelted stones and tried to damage railway tracks. They did not disperse even after police lobbed tear-gas shells. Unconfirmed reports said that the agitators also fired at the police and the death toll in the violence could be higher. The Gujjars held protests demanding that they be categorized as a scheduled tribe, which would entitle them to quotas for state jobs and student admissions. Friday's violence comes nearly a year after the protests by Gujjars in Rajasthan over quotas claimed 26 lives. Under India's affirmative action policy, quotas have been set for government jobs and admission to educational institutions for disadvantaged sections of society and lower castes. Political observers said Gujjar leaders are angry about the slow progress of their community in government jobs and social life. The Gujjars have been critical of the ruling conservative Bharatiya Janata Party, which had promised to give them the scheduled tribe status during the local elections in 2003. The Gujjars, an ethnic group who rear livestock and earn a living by selling milk and dairy products, mainly inhabit India's northern and western areas like Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat. http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-05-26-india-protests_N.htm?csp=34 Bloody protests in India leave at least 37 dead Posted 5/26/2008 5:38 AM JAIPUR, India (AP) ? Protests by one of India's lower castes spread to new areas Monday as government forces were ordered to evict demonstrators who had blocked highways and railroad tracks, government officials said. Four days of bloody demonstrations in western India by members of the Gujjar community have so far claimed the lives of 36 protesters and one policeman in the worst-hit Rajasthan state. The Gujjars are seeking to reclassify their hereditary caste to a lower level, which would allow them to qualify for government jobs and university places reserved for such groups. The government has refused. The riots have paralyzed road and rail traffic between Jaipur, the state capital, and Agra, where the famed Taj Mahal monument is located, as well as to Mumbai, India's financial and entertainment capital, said Rohit Kumar Singh, the state's information commissioner. On Monday, the protests spread to northern Uttar Pradesh state, where Gujjars stopped trains, blocked highways and disrupted court proceedings. Groups of students burned tires and set up roadblocks on the main highway passing through Meerut, a town near New Delhi, and stopped trains for nearly two hours, said Surendra Srivastava, an Uttar Pradesh government spokesman. Trains also were briefly stopped by members of the community in the nearby town of Ghaziabad. Attorneys disrupted court proceedings in Noida, a township on the outskirts of New Delhi, to express their support for the Gujjar community's demands, said Srivastava. Police repeatedly opened fire on violent protests by the community on Friday and Saturday in half a dozen villages and towns in western Rajasthan state. Thousands of army, police and paramilitary forces patrolled villages to control the violence. After Gujjar leaders rejected the Rajasthan state government's offer of talks, the government ordered forces Monday to clear the highways and rail tracks and restore traffic flows, said Vijay Shankar Singh, the state home secretary. Twenty-one people were killed in clashes Saturday when police in Sikandra town fired at protesters who torched a police station and two buses Saturday and also shot and wounded a policeman, said Amanjit Singh Gill, Rajasthan's director-general of police. Fifteen demonstrators died Friday when police fired live ammunition and tear gas to halt rioting, said Singh. A police officer was also beaten to death. At least 70 injured people have been hospitalized in Jaipur, the state capital, and the town of Dosa, said Singh. Gujjars took to the streets after a government panel set up to look into their demands recommended a US$70 million (euro45 million) aid package for their community, but ruled out caste reclassification. Gujjars are considered part of the second-lowest group, known as Other Backward Classes, a step up from the Scheduled Tribes and Castes. The Hindu caste system was outlawed soon after independence from Britain in 1947, but its influence remains powerful and the government awards aid packages to different groups. Twenty-six people died in Gujjar riots in the same area last year. http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/southasia/news/article_1407406.php/Indias_Rajasthan_tense_as_protest_death_toll_reaches_35 India's Rajasthan tense as protest death toll reaches 35 May 25, 2008, 8:28 GMT New Delhi - The ethnic Gujjar community protested in India's north-western Rajasthan state on Sunday as the death toll from clashes with police reached 35, officials and news reports said. At least 18 people were killed and over 20 injured when the police fired on a group of Gujjar protestors in Sikandra in the Dausa district, about 80 kilometres west of state capital Jaipur on Saturday, an official at the police control room in Jaipur said. One policeman was also killed in clashes with the mob, he said. The Gujjars, an ethnic group who raise livestock for milk and dairy products, are demanding to be classified as a scheduled tribe to qualify for government jobs and quotas in schools. Police fired on protestors in Bayana in Bharatpur district Friday, killing 15. One policeman was killed by the mob. Bayana is located 155 kilometres east of Jaipur. In both cases, mobs set ablaze police stations and attacked policemen who retaliated with live ammunition after teargas shells and rubber pellets failed to disperse the mobs, officials were quoted as saying. Rajasthan Chief Miister Vasundhara Raje invited the Gujjar leader KS Bainsla, a former Indian army colonel, for talks. Bainsla has reportedly refused the offer and asked for a government envoy to be sent to Bayana, NDTV reported. The Gujjars blockaded the Agra-Jaipur highway near Sikandra and the rail track on the Delhi-Mumbai route, Rajasthan Home Minister GC Kataria was quoted as saying. They also tried to block the highway connecting Jaipur with Delhi and other highways in the state. More than 6,000 people were squatting on the rail track near Dhumaria village, Rajasthan police chief AS Gill said. 'We are working out a strategy to disperse them,' he said. adding that the army had been called in to help. The Rajasthan government has banned gatherings of more than four people and tightened security measures in 10 districts, including Jaipur. The Gujjar community are currently included in the 'other backward classes' list. They want to be downgraded and classified as a scheduled tribe to qualify for special benefits. Under India's affirmative action policy, quotas have been set for government jobs and admission to schools for disadvantaged sections of society who are listed as scheduled tribes and scheduled castes. The latest violence comes a year after protests by Gujjars in Rajasthan claimed 26 lives. The state's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government had then reached an understanding with the Gujjar leaders saying their demand would be followed up. The Gujjar leaders claim the BJP promised to give them scheduled tribe status before local elections in 2003. The state government said such a decision can only be taken by the federal government. The BJP government is also in a quandary as another dominant tribal group in the state, the Meenas, who have scheduled tribe status, do not want the same to be given to the Gujjars. Gujjar leaders vowed Sunday to continue the protests and spread to other areas until their demand was met. Thousands of Gujjars gathered at Sikandra where the bodies of their dead community members were being kept. 'We have been fooled by the Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state for long. This time we want our demand to be accepted,' Bainsla was quoted as saying. http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1168973 Protesters damage pipelines, water supply to Dausa cut off PTI Thursday, June 05, 2008 15:49 IST DAUSA (Raj): Gujjar protesters on Thursday damaged two major pipelines cutting off drinking water supply to Dausa city and neighbouring areas, which have been hit by the stir for ST status. About hundred metres of two large pipes were ruptured at Jasota village, 25 kms from Dausa, police said. The village borders the neighbouring district of Alwar. The pipelines provide 70 lakh litres of water to the Dausa region, a senior engineer in the Public Health and Engineering Department said. The repair works have been taken up and the damaged pipelines were being replaced, he said. While a 10 inch pipeline is expected to be repaired by late this evening, the 18 pipeline would take a day or two for resumption of normal water supply, he said. With several areas going dry, tankers have been pressed into service to provide drinking water. Nearly 10 villages in this area have been badly hit. Pumps were also installed at Banganga reservoir to supply water to the affected areas. Security personnel have been deployed to keep a watch on major water pipelines in Dausa region. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/03/asia/AS-GEN-India-Caste-Riots.php Low-caste Indian group starts cremating dead protesters after 12 days of violence The Associated Press Published: June 3, 2008 JAIPUR, India: Members of one of India's lower castes on Tuesday cremated some of the 43 people killed during 12 days of violent demonstrations in the country's north and west, police said. The Gujjar tribe began protesting May 23 to pressure the government to reclassify them as members of the lowest caste, so they can benefit from government quotas in higher education and the civil service. Most of the 43 people killed were shot by police during protests in the western state of Rajasthan, while one policeman died after a beating and one protester was trampled to death. Most of the deaths took place during the first two days of protests. Caste members cremated five bodies Tuesday in Rajasthan's Bayana, one of the centers of the violent demonstrations, local superintendent of police Rohit Mahajan said. Before then, the protesters had refused to allow the bodies of any protesters killed to undergo autopsies or be cremated, and instead used the cadavers to block roads and rail tracks, Mahajan said. Relatives removed 11 other bodies to be cremated later, he said. Forensic teams were conducting autopsies on 14 other bodies, police official Jose Mohan said. Police provided no details for the other bodies. Hundreds of police continued to patrol areas where the protests continued. Gujjar villagers blocked roads and rail tracks for a 12th consecutive day between the Rajasthan state capital Jaipur and Agra, home to the world famous Taj Mahal, according to Umesh Misra, the area's inspector general of police. The riots began after a government panel recommended a US$70 million (?45 million) aid package for the Gujjar community, but ruled out caste reclassification. Gujjars are considered part of the second-lowest group, known as Other Backward Classes, a step up from the Scheduled Tribes and Castes, the lowest classification. Soon after India's independence from Britain in 1947 it became illegal to discriminate against someone based on the Hindu caste system. But its influence remains powerful and the government sets quotas for jobs and university spots for the different caste groups. Twenty-six people died in Gujjar riots in Rajasthan last year. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/B339215.htm India quota protesters cremate dead, block trains 03 Jun 2008 08:47:34 GMT Source: Reuters JAIPUR, India, June 2 (Reuters) - An ethnic Indian group demanding job quotas began cremating on Tuesday dozens of people killed by police, but continued blocking rail and road traffic in a western Indian state, the centre of days of violent protests. The ethnic Gujjars are fighting to be reclassified further down India's complex Hindu caste and status system to qualify for government jobs and university places reserved for such groups. The violence, which started 12 days ago in Rajasthan state, has claimed some 40 lives, mostly protesters shot dead by police. Gujjars had also briefly halted traffic on highways into New Delhi last week. They had refused to cremate the dead, squatting with the bodies on rail tracks and roads leading to New Delhi, but eventually agreed to post mortems and cremation. But they seem in no mood to call off their protests. On Tuesday, hundreds of Gujjar women, their colourful saris drawn over their faces, damaged rail tracks in Rajasthan using axes and sticks. Rail services, particularly between Rajasthan's capital Jaipur and the Taj Mahal town of Agra, remained disrupted for the 12th day. Some roads in the state continued to be blocked. "Cremation of four (people) have been done by relatives, while others are likely to happen today," V.S. Singh, Rajasthan's home secretary, said. "We have stepped up security in and around Bayana and Sikandra," he said, referring to two Rajasthan towns at the centre of the Gujjar protests. India's government reserves about half of all seats in state colleges and universities for lower castes and tribal groups to flatten centuries-old social hierarchies, in what has been called the world's biggest affirmative action scheme. The Gujjars fall into the Other Backward Classes grouping and seek to be reclassified under the Scheduled Tribes and Castes grouping. The scheme has been criticised for accentuating caste identities in India, where discrimination on caste is banned in the constitution. Some critics say the quota system masks India's failure to provide good universal education and social equality. A year ago, Gujjars in Rajasthan fought police and members of another caste that already qualifies for job quotas. At least 26 people were killed in that violence. After these protests, a state government committee said it would spend 2.8 billion rupees ($67 million) improving schools, clinics, roads and other infrastructure in Gujjar areas. But Gujjars rejected this option. (Writing by Krittivas Mukherjee; Editing by Simon Denyer and Sanjeev Miglani_ http://www.ibnlive.com/news/12yearold-pays-for-gujjar-protests-with-his-eye/65980-3.html?xml 12-year-old pays for Gurjar protests with his eye Swati Vashishta / CNN-IBN Published on Mon, May 26, 2008 at 09:23, Updated at Tue, May 27, 2008 in Nation section CHILD BLINDED: Chuttan, the youngest victim has yet to come to terms with what he has lost forever. Jaipur: Among the 35 Gurjar protestors who have died in the police firing, there is a little boy in Bayana who is injured and has lost an eye. Out of curiosity, the 12-year-old boy, Chuttan went to the railway tracks where the Gurjar protestors were meeting. He wanted to see what all the grown-ups were doing with batons in their hands. He was looking for water when the police opened fire. All he recalls is something slicing open his right eye and after bouts of unbearable pain, Chuttan woke up in a hospital. ?I went to see that the drama. There were lots of people and police. I was having water when the police fired and I got injured,? says Chuttan. The little boy wonders when he would be able to say goodbye to the hospital and when the food his mother cooks will replace the biscuits he is eating now. And what worries him is whether he would be able to do what he loves most, going to the city and catching a movie. His brother now repents not bringing Chuttan to Jaipur as he had earlier planned. ?I was bringing him to Jaipur on May 17th with me but then we dropped the idea. In his last summer break also, he was with me. This time I did not bring him. Little did I know that this would happen,? says Chuttan's brother, Mukat Singh. While the doctors say he's lost his right eye for good, Chuttan will undergo a surgery on Monday. Whether the Gurjars get something out of the agitation or not remains to be seen. However, Chuttan the youngest victim has yet to come to terms with what he has lost forever. http://www.indianexpress.com/story/314544.html Pilot says govt not letting him near protests Express News Service Posted online: Monday, May 26, 2008 at 0120 hrs Print Email JAIPUR: : Dausa MP Sachin Pilot, who is in Jaipur, has accused the Rajasthan government of not letting him visit Sikandara that falls under his constituency. The Gurjjar leader has been visiting hospitals in the city where 14 victims of police firing on protestors are still awaiting postmortem. Pilot pointed out that because of the delay, the families had not been able to perform the last rites. He also claimed that most of the injured he had visited had bullet wounds on their backs, proving that they were innocents who had been fired at when they had had gone to help those injured. While emphasising that he objected to violence in any form, whether by the police or the protestors, Pilot added: ?The state government, it appears, first fires at protestors, the administration then comes in and finally the political talks are initiated, while common sense says it should be the other way round.? http://www.ibnlive.com/news/gurjar-stir-rajasthan-top-cop-removed--protest-in-ne-soon/66353-3.html?xml Gurjar stir: Rajasthan top cop removed | protest in NE soon Press Trust Of India Published on Sat, May 31, 2008 at 16:51, Updated at Sat, May 31, 2008 in Nation section PROTEST ON: The Gurjar community in the North East will also take up the agitation. Jaipur Director General of Police A S Gill has been asked to proceed on long leave, home department sources said on Saturday. The charge has been handed over to K S Bains who is currently holding the post of special DG (Anti-Corruption Bureau). Sources said the state government was unhappy over Gill's handling of the Gurjar clashes in which over 42 people have been killed. "We are not trying to send any signal," Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria said when asked about the move. "This is something between the Chief Minister and the cop. It is his decision to quit. I think it is quite natural for him to take the step after the incidents of deaths," he told a news channel. However, Gill was not available for comments. Gurjar showdown in North East soon As the quota protests of the Gurjars spread to fresh areas, the community in the North East will also take up the cudgels, launching an agitation in support of the cause. "Rajasthan Government has betrayed the Gurjars. In spite of the protests, both the Rajasthan Government and the Centre have been indifferent so far," a representative of the Gurjars Bhai Gurjar said. Representatives of the community from the entire region met at Guwahati on Friday to chalk out a programme to join the protests. While the Gurjars of the North-East resolved to form an apex organization of the community in a day or two, the community has also sought permission from the Assam and Meghalaya government to allow them to stage peaceful demonstrations, he said. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/02/stories/2008060259591500.htm Autopsies to be done at Gujjar protest sites Mohammed Iqbal Bodies kept in hospitals sent to two sites; doctors? teams waiting for go-ahead from officials ? Photo: AP DEMAND MET: Gujjars receive bodies of police firing victims, near the blocked railway tracks at Bayana town in Bharatpur district of Rajasthan on Sunday. JAIPUR: In the first indication of the crisis being resolved, the Rajasthan government on Sunday acceded to the demand of agitating Gujjars to conduct the post-mortem on the bodies of victims of police firing at the three sites of ongoing protests in Pilupura, Sikandra and Kushalipura and sent the 18 bodies kept in hospital mortuaries to two of the sites. While 20 bodies of firing victims were lying in the open, 14 bodies were in Sawai Man Singh Hospital?s mortuary in Jaipur and four in the Bharatpur Government Hospital. The autopsy by the medical boards sent from Jaipur and Sawai Madhopur was likely to start late in the evening. State Principal Secretary S.N. Thanvi, camping at Bayana in Bharatpur district, said the bodies would be handed over to relatives after autopsy. Arrangements for power generators and floodlights were made and temporary tents erected at the sites of post-mortem. Mr. Thanvi said three teams comprising three doctors each were waiting for a go-ahead from the district administration near the railway track at Pilupura, where Gujjar supremo Kirori Singh Bainsla was sitting on a vigil with 12 bodies. The District Magistrate?s permission is required for post-mortem after sunset. Agitators have placed huge slabs of ice on the bodies. The bodies from the S.M.S. Hospital here, sent to Sikandra under police protection, were accompanied by doctors and the former pradhan from Dausa, Shobhna Gujjar. The agitators were insisting on bringing all the bodies to the site to enable the community representatives monitor the process of autopsy. The demand for post-mortem on bodies of those killed in the 10 days of violence at the sites of agitation arose after a couple of Cabinet Ministers raised doubts about the deaths caused by bullets from the guns of policemen. It was suspected that some of the victims were hit by shrapnel from other types of guns. After the Gujjar Arakshan Sangharsh Samiti laid down conditions for post-mortem, the State government wrote to the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences for constituting a medical team for the purpose. The AIIMS authorities turned down the request. Even though the process for autopsy started at the three locations of sit-in protests, Gujjar leader Bainsla indicated to reporters at Pilupura that the agitation would not be affected by it and continue until the government sent a letter to the Centre recommending the inclusion of Gujjar community in the Scheduled Tribes category. Bharatiya Janata Party MP and scion of the Bharatpur royal family, Vishvendra Singh, arrived at Pilupura on what he described as his ?personal mission? to break the impasse and take Gujjars into confidence. He was accompanied by BJP leader Devi Singh Bhati. With several major roads and rail routes blocked by the agitators, train and vehicular traffic continued to be affected. However, the situation was largely peaceful. http://news.indiainfo.com/2008/05/30/0805301148_gujjars.html Fuel rationing in areas hit by Gujjar protests Friday, May 30, 2008 11:42 [IST] Karwadi / Bayana: Fuel rationing was today imposed in Karwadi and Bayana by the district authorities in a bid to check the movement of Gujjar protesters as their agitation entered the eighth day here. "The collector has ordered a stipulated amount of 10 litres of diesel and one litre of petrol to vehicles in all tehsil areas except district headquarters," District Supply Officer A Punia told PTI over telephone from Bharatpur. A vehicle can only get a full tank at Bharatpur, he said. Supply of essential food items has not been hit in Bayana, but authorities said that the situation could worsen if the agitation continues. The shopkeepers in Bayana rue their business has gone down since the agitation as it had hit the truck traffic in the district. "I read about the agitation in the newspapers. I felt that I should visit the area and also let my children see what all is happening here," a woman came from Surote in the district said. As the agitation entered its eight day, curious villagers from adjoining districts of Karauli and Bharatpur are reaching here to express solidarity with the protesters who are being led by 70-year-old Kirori Singh Bainsla, a retired army colonel. http://www.indianexpress.com/story/316692.html Gurjjar protest: 2 killed in Rajasthan Agencies / Express News Service Posted online: Saturday, May 31, 2008 at 2255 hrs Print Email 12 injured in Uttar Pradesh; Union Home Minister chairs a meeting to find solution Jaipur/New Delhi, May 30: Even as Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil on Friday examined legal aspects of the ST status demanded by Gurjjars at a high-level meeting, the agitation kept on taking more lives as the police opened fire at violent protestors killing two of them and injuring two others during a road blockade in Rajasthan?s Sawai Madhopur district. Chances of an early end to the stand-off between Gurjjars and Rajasthan Government appeared remote with Gurjjar leader Kirori Singh Bainsla ruling out a dialogue unless the state Government first accepted their demand. His remarks came a day after Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje made a fresh offer of talks with the agitators. Four policemen were also injured in clashes with the protestors, who had been blocking stretches of the road connecting Sawai Madhopur with Sheopur in Madhya Pradesh since Thursday, an official spokesman said. The firing happened after the protestors pelted police personnel with stones at Usali Darra, 12 kms from Sawai Madhopur. The deceased were identified as Kanahia Lal and Radhyeshyam. In Uttar Pradesh, about 12 people, including some policemen and journalists, were injured as protesting Gurjjars clashed with securitymen near Asafabad area. Police lathicharged a mob led by local Samajwadi Party leaders squatting on railway tracks. The mob threw stones as police tried to clear the track and indulged in arson, setting a police jeep and three motorcycles ablaze. Superintendent of Police Vijay Shankar Singh said though the situation was under control, a roadways bus was damaged and 20 people were arrested. As many as 43 people have so far been killed in police firing and violence since the agitation, spearheaded by Bainsla, began last week. Now, it has spread to areas in neighbouring Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and the National Capital Region. In a firefighting exercise, Home Minister elicited views of the Law Ministry on the matter during the meeting which discussed options to defuse the situation. He was briefed by senior officials of the Law Ministry and the Tribal Affairs Ministry. National Security Adviser M K Narayanan, Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrashekhar and Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta were also present at the meeting, sources said. Sources said views of states having sizeable Gurjjar population were being taken as any decision on according ST status to the community was likely to have wide-ranging ramifications. They said the Rajasthan Chief Minister?s letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recommending four to six per cent quota for Gurjjars in the category of de-notified class of tribals/nomadic tribe was also under consideration. Raje, however, came in for sharp attack from the CPI(M) on Friday as it accused the BJP Government in Rajasthan of having a ?murderous record? and demanded her resignation for her ?gruesome record of ordering 50 police firings? during her tenure. ?This is a Chief Minister who believes she has a divine right to rule... like a feudal ruler. She has deployed the Army... We want her resignation owning up the responsibility for firing on the Gurjjar agitators,? CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat told reporters in New Delhi. http://news.indiainfo.com/2008/05/29/0805291920_gujjars_protest.html Gujjars protest leaves Delhi residents fuming Thursday, May 29, 2008 19:16 [IST] New Delhi: People in Delhi faced a tough time in commuting from one place to another Thursday as hundreds of agitating Gujjars took to the streets and blocked all roads and highways entering the national capital. The Gujjars, fighting for Schedule Tribe status, blocked the major arteries - Mathura Road, National Highway 8, M.G. Road, D.N.D. flyway, Noida Link Road, National Highway 24, Loni Road, Wazirabad Road, GT Road and also parts of the Ring Road. They blocked the roads for at least four hours and burnt tyres and effigies. At some places like Aya Nagar and Mehrauli in south Delhi, they threw stones at police personnel and clashed with them. Police had to resort to lobbing tear gas shells to disperse the mobs. Over 120 people were detained from several parts in the national capital. Traffic movement could be restored only in the afternoon. "It's a virtual house arrest. I could not move out of the home fearing for life. Why do we allow such people to create ruckus in the city?" complained Manish Sharma, a west Delhi based chartered account. "Because of unrest I could not meet many of my clients," he added. Rakesh Verma, an employee of a software firm in south Delhi, said: "Our employer had already advised us not to come to office on Thursday. He did not want us to risk our lives in case the protest turned violent." Sarita Gulati, a student in a business administration college in Gurgaon, had to wait for nearly two hours in her car in Mehrauli of south Delhi on her way to the capital's satellite township. "I got scared when I saw a mob pelting stones at the police personnel, who were trying to remove them from the road. The mob completely jammed the road leaving no space to move my car on either side. I had to request a policeman for help and he took me to a safe place," Gulati said. The Gujjar community has been holding a second round of protests in Rajasthan since Friday. At least 37 people were killed, mostly in police firing, in the weekend as police used force to control mobs. http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/southasia/news/article_1408422.php/Three_killed_in_protests_over_quotas_in_Indias_Rajasthan Three killed in protests over quotas in India's Rajasthan May 30, 2008, 11:02 GMT New Delhi - At least three people were killed Friday when ethnic Gujjar protestors clashed with police in India's north-western state of Rajasthan, news reports said. The Gujjars, who raise livestock and sell dairy products, have been holding protests since May 23 demanding to be classified as a scheduled tribe to qualify for government jobs and quotas in schools. The 50 million Gujjars want to be downgraded in official social status in order to benefit from India's affirmative action policy. The NDTV network reported that police opened fire and killed three protestors in the Sawai Madhopur district, 150 kilometres south-east of state capital Jaipur. Police said they fired to disperse agitators who were blocking roads in the area since Thursday. Two villagers and four policemen were also injured in the clash, other reports said. The Gujjars have resorted to blocking road and rail traffic, destroying public property and attacking policemen across Rajasthan to exert pressure on the state government to accept their demand. On Thursday, Gujjar protestors also blocked roads and highways in and around the capital New Delhi. Friday's clashes brought the death toll in the 40, mostly Gujjars who were by police in street skirmishes. The Rajasthan state government said Friday it had decided to open talks with Gujjar leaders, local news outlets reported. http://specials.rediff.com/news/2008/may/29sl1.htm Gujjar protests reach Delhi's streets May 29, 2008 Text: Onkar Singh & PTI Members of the Gujjar community, who had threatened to take their agitation to New Delhi, blocked the various national highways leading to Delhi on Thursday and staged massive traffic blockades at various places. The Centre deployed over 45,000 officers and men of paramilitary forces to prevent any untoward incidents during the agitation by Gujjars, who have been demanding Scheduled Tribe status for their community. They are also marking the anniversary of the clashes last year, which had claimed 13 lives. The protestors blocked the Delhi-Gazipur Road since the morning, resulting in massive traffic jams. The protestors finally allowed the vehicles to turn back and take alternate routes to the capital. http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=364758 Gujjar protests hit Delhi, parts of north India IANS Thursday 29th May, 2008 Tens of thousands of Gujjars took to the streets Thursday in north India in support of their community's demand for tribal status in Rajasthan, blocking all roads leading to the national capital and paralysing road and train traffic in parts of the region amid some violence. Clashes erupted between the police and protestors who burnt tyres at Aya Nagar and on the Mehrauli-Gurgaon road in south Delhi. The police fired tear gas to disperse the mobs and detained around 50 people. In most places, however, the protests by the Gujjar community passed off peacefully although it led to a virtual paralysis of Delhi's border regions, halting traffic to and from the city in the morning for a good four hours. The situation began returning to normalcy after noon as the Gujjars -- who formed human chains to stop road traffic and squatted on railway tracks blocking trains -- started to disperse after shouting slogans against the Rajasthan government. It was a show of strength by the mainly rural Gujjar community in support of their kin in Rajasthan, where 37 people have been killed in violent protests this month demanding that Gujjars be classified a Scheduled Tribe (ST) community to secure educational and job quotas. The Rajasthan government is ready for talks with the community. But its leaders have vowed not to call off their campaign until the authorities kneel. Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana, Jammu region and western Uttar Pradesh are home to millions of Gujjars. The situation in the capital was serious enough for the US embassy to warn its citizens about traffic disruptions in New Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. It advised them 'to maintain a low profile, and avoid areas of traffic disruptions and political protest'. Traffic has been badly hit between New Delhi, Jaipur and Agra, three cities that form the Golden Triangle, the most popular tourist triangle in India. In Rajasthan, hotels have reported mass cancellations. Vehicular movement in much of western Uttar Pradesh was paralysed. Highways from Ghaziabad to Lucknow, the Uttar Pradesh capital, and Dehradun, the Uttarakhand capital, were under blockade at various places. The Gujjar protests also led to train blockade in Jammu region. But this ended when the authorities pleaded that this would inconvenience pilgrims to the Vaishno Devi hill shrine. Said community leader Shah Mohammad: 'Gujjars in Jammu and Kashmir are Muslims. But we are indebted to the Hindu Gujjars who supported us when we asked for Scheduled Tribe status.' Among the worst hit areas around New Delhi were its satellite towns: Gurgaon and Noida, which are home to many multinationals and call centres, and Faridabad. Thousands of policemen from Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh as well as paramilitary forces were deployed in and around New Delhi. Police said they did not lift road blockades by force as that could have sparked violence. The Delhi-Jaipur national highway that passes through Gurgaon was reportedly the only major inter-state road that remained open in the morning. The busy Gurgaon-Mehrauli road, the Mathura Road that connects Faridabad to Delhi, the Delhi-Noida-Delhi (DND) expressway and the National Highways 24 and 58 that connect Ghaziabad to Delhi came under blockade, with thousands of vehicles piling up. About two dozen trains were stuck between Aligarh and Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh as the protesters squatted on the railway tracks. The latest disruption to railway services comes on top of the large-scale cancellation and diversion of trains connecting New Delhi and Mumbai which pass through Gujjar areas of Rajasthan. 'Vehicular movement on Noida-Greater Noida Expressway was totally stopped,' said Raj Kumar Bhati, national convener of a Gujjar activist group. Rajasthan, where the Gujjar protests broke out a week ago, was mostly calm Thursday. Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje had thousands of pamphlets dropped over areas where the protests are taking places, asking the Gujjars to end their campaign. The army and paramilitary forces are patrolling many districts in Rajasthan including Bharatpur, Dausa, Sawai Madhopur and Karauli. http://www.ibnlive.com/news/no-dignity-in-death-for-gurjar-riot-victims/66165-3.html?xml No dignity in death for Gurjar riot victims Divya Iyer / CNN-IBN Published on Wed, May 28, 2008 at 22:49, Updated at Thu, May 29, 2008 in Nation section Essential supplies have been affected with Gurjars threatening to stop milk supply. Sikandra (Rajasthan): The Gurjar violence in Rajasthan claimed the lives of more than 39 people, including many from the community itself. But the dead are still waiting for a proper cremation and those alive have no news of the dead. Twenty-six-year-old Kamot Gujjar?s husband Dharam Singh left the house five days ago and hasn?t still returned. Her daughters Sulekha and Tulsi have been told that their father has gone to town to buy sweets. Kamot herself thinks he got hurt in the police firing and is currently in a hospital in Jaipur. Like Kamot, many other women in Sikandra too believe that their sons and husbands are in the hospital in Jaipur and will return soon. But the truth is they are dead. Dharam Singh was killed in police firing five days ago. Villagers fear that an emotional reaction might hamper the agitation. Says Dharam?s friend Man Singh Burja, ?If we tell the women of the death of their menfolk, our movement will be weakened." The Gurjars are trying to guard their dead and protect the living at the same time. The government is not returning the bodies though the post-mortem has been conducted in Jaipur. The families continue to live between hope and despair. http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=364760 Gujjars hold protest in Jammu IANS Thursday 29th May, 2008 Scores of Gujjars marched in a procession in Jammu and attempted to block the railway tracks by squatting on them, to express their solidarity with community members in Rajasthan agitating for inclusion in the Scheduled Tribe list. The rallyists raised slogans in support of the demand of Rajasthan's Gujjars as they marched to the railway track and staged a sit-in. However, they were persuaded to move off the railway tracks by the authorities who pleaded with them that it would cause great inconvenience to Vaishno Devi pilgrims. 'We have registered our protest. But this is not the end of it,' said Shah Mohammad, general secretary of the Gujjar United Front, which organised the protest. He said the next step would be a relay hunger strike outside the governor's residence here from Saturday. They also plan to go to Rajasthan to support the agitating Gujjars there. 'Gujjars in Jammu and Kashmir are Muslims, but they are indebted to the Hindu Gujjars who offered us their support when we were asking for Scheduled Tribe status.' Jammu and Kashmir Gujjars were granted ST status in 1991. http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/29/india.caste/index.html?eref=rss_latest May 29, 2008 -- Updated 1406 GMT (2206 HKT) Class protests bring disruption to India Story Highlights Gujjar community demanding a bigger share of government jobs and education Group members burned effigies, squatted on railroad tracks and blocked highways Gujjars are part of India's centuries-old, complex social caste order Several days of clashes between Gujjars and police left at least 35 people dead NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Members of an Indian ethnic community burned effigies, squatted on railroad tracks and blocked highways Thursday in an attempt to bring part of the country to a halt in a protest over caste classification. Protesters blocked key highways and railroads leading to New Delhi in a bid to cut off the national capital The Gujjar community -- part of India's centuries-old, complex social caste order -- are in their seventh straight day of demonstrations to demand a bigger share of government jobs and education benefits. Several days of clashes between Gujjars and police have left at least 35 people dead. On Thursday, more than 35,000 police officers fanned out across the capital city of New Delhi and surrounding areas to maintain peace during the 'bandh,' or shutdown. By 1 p.m., major arteries joining Delhi to surrounding cities had reopened. In the Gujjar's home state of Rajasthan -- where the protests began last week -- Thursday's shutdown appeared to have been only partially successful. Some shopkeepers shuttered their stores and universities postponed exams. But many government buildings remained open. Railway officials canceled 16 train routes, stranding thousands, said Northern Railway spokesman Rajesh Khare. The Rajasthan government airdropped pamphlets asking demonstrators to refrain from violence. But protesters picked up the pink-colored pamphlets and made a bonfire of them, state news agency The Press Trust of India said. The demonstration commemorates the anniversary of a similar Gujjar protest last year that claimed at least 25 lives. Don't Miss Class violence leaves 35 dead in India India's constitution outlaws caste-based discrimination, and barriers have broken down in large cities. Prejudice, however, persists in some rural areas of the country. As a result, the Indian government has put in place an affirmative action plan that sets aside job and educational quotas for the disadvantaged groups that it classifies as Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes. These communities, the government believes, needs extra assistance to overcome centuries of discrimination. Gujjars -- a farming and trading tribe -- are classified by the government as an "unscheduled tribe." They are part of the caste system that does not face as much exclusion or discrimination. But the community feels it has been economically and educationally left behind and it wants to be reclassified at a lower level -- as a scheduled tribe. As a scheduled tribe, it can gain access to government jobs and benefits, as well as a shot at university seats allocated to the disadvantaged. After last year's violent clashes, the ruling political party in Rajasthan -- the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -- made a promise of downgrading the Gujjars. With elections scheduled for later this year, the party is under pressure to placate the Gujjars. It has said the onus of changing status falls on India's central government. The central government, in turn, said it has referred the issue to the Law Ministry. Gujjar leader Kirori Singh Bainsla has accused the two sides of "time buying tactics." http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L09492587.htm Indian quota protesters call off nationwide strike 09 Jun 2008 16:39:10 GMT Source: Reuters (Recasts with protests being called off, quotes) JAIPUR, India, June 9 (Reuters) - An Indian minority community demanding job quotas called off plans for a nationwide strike after talks with authorities on Monday, officials and leaders said. At least 40 people have been killed since the Gujjars began their protests last month in the western state of Rajasthan. Most of the dead are Gujjars shot by the police. They had decided to take to the streets on Tuesday and shut down businesses and shops, but withdrew their strike call after talks with the state government in the town of Bayana. "We have withdrawn our strike call because of positive discussions during the meeting," Ramveer Singh, a senior Gujjar leader, told reporters late on Monday. He said protests would continue until the Gujjars' demands were met. L.N. Dave, a Rajasthan minister who attended the meeting, said talks to resolve the issue would continue. Members of the community are demanding that their place in the Indian caste system be downgraded so they can qualify for government jobs and university places reserved for such groups. India reserves about half of all government jobs and seats in state colleges for people born into lower castes and tribal groups, who tend to be poorer than other Indians. A year ago, Gujjars fought police and members of another caste that qualifies for job quotas. At least 25 people died in the clashes. After these protests, a state government committee decided that the Gujjars should not be downgraded, but said the government would spend 2.8 billion rupees ($67 million) improving schools, clinics and roads in Gujjar areas. Gujjar leaders rejected this. For the last two weeks, Gujjars have been blocking roads and railways and torching government vehicles. Soldiers and policemen were patrolling many districts of Rajasthan to control violence on Monday, officials said. Dozens of long-distance trains continued to be cancelled or diverted due to the continuing protests. (Writing by Bappa Majumdar; Editing by Kevin Liffey) http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/southasia/news/article_1410231.php/Stalemate_in_talks_to_end_tribe_protests_in_India Stalemate in talks to end tribe protests in India Jun 10, 2008, 8:45 GMT New Delhi - Talks between India's north-western Rajasthan state and the minority Gujjar community to end two weeks of Gujjar protests have hit an impasse after starting on a positive note, news reports said Tuesday. The Gujjars, who raise livestock and sell dairy products, have been holding protests since May 23 to exert pressure on the state government to accept their demand to be classified as a scheduled tribe to qualify for government jobs and quotas in schools. More than 40 Gujjars were killed in clashes between demonstrators and police in Rajasthan. The Gujjars want to be downgraded in official social status in order to benefit from India's affirmative action policy. Talks that opened between a 37-member Gujjar delegation and Rajasthan ministers in the eastern Bayana town on Monday evening had ended on a conciliatory note, the Hindustan Times daily reported. As a result of headway made in the preliminary discussions, the Gujjar leadership called off a nationwide strike planned for Tuesday and said they would hold further talks with the government. But Gujjar leader KS Bainsla on Tuesday made fresh demands as a pre-condition for further talks, nullifying efforts by officials to end the Gujjar agitation. Quoting senior officials, the PTI reported that Bainsla had demanded the withdrawal of murder charges against 20 protestors and release of arrested female activists as pre-conditions for talks. A written commitment by Bainsla about holding the next round of talks was also retracted, the report said. During the talks on Monday, the Rajasthan government agreed to stop police raids in Gujjar-dominated villages and restore water and electricity supplies in the areas which were turned off to break the protests. As for their main demand that the state government recommend their case for job quotas to the federal government, the Gujjar leaders said they had reminded the government ministers to accept their plea. In the violent protests spread over the desert state, Gujjar demonstrators disrupted train services, destroyed public property and attacked police stations leading to the clashes. The latest violence came one year after protests by Gujjars in Rajasthan claimed 26 lives. http://www.zeenews.com/articles.asp?aid=447081&sid=REG Gujjars resolve to intensify stir; to hold series of protests New Delhi, June 05: The agitating Gujjars on Thursday threatened to boycott BJP in the upcoming Rajasthan assembly and Lok Sabha elections if their demand for scheduled tribe status is not met. At a 'mahapanchayat' organised here under the aegis of Akhil Bharatiya Gujjar Sangharsh Samiti, the protesters also chalked out a series of protests, including a nationwide bandh and a march to Rajasthan. The date for the nationwide bandh will be announced in the next five days. The resolutions to this effect was passed at the mahapanchayat. Addressing a huge gathering of Gujjars, Samiti national president Sukhbir Singh Jounpuria announced a financial aid of Rs five lakh to the kin of the deceased and monetary benefits to the injured. Terming those who were killed in police firing in Rajasthan as "martyrs", the Gujjar leader also announced construction of memorials in their remembrance in Jaipur. Senior JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav, who addressed the meeting, assured them that he would raise the issue in the coming session of the Parliament. Condemning the killings of Gujjars in police firing in Rajasthan, he said he would ask the central and state governments to resolve the matter in a peaceful manner. The Gujjars also demanded filing of criminal case against Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje over the killing of members of the Gujjar community. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Protesters_in_Dausa_want_Pilot_to_attend_cremation/rssarticleshow/3107823.cms Protesters in Dausa want Pilot to attend cremation 7 Jun 2008, 0152 hrs IST,TNN JAIPUR: He was unsuccessful in reaching Sikandra on May 24, a day after Gujjar protests broke out in Rajasthan. On Friday, however, Dausa MP and Congress leader Sachin Pilot is one of the most sought after men by the protesting community seeking ST status. With Gujjars in Dausa insisting Pilot be present in Sikandra and take on a larger role in the ongoing Gujjar protests, the rift between the faction led by Col Kirori Singh Bainsla and the former appears to be complete. With Gujjars from his constituency demanding his presence as a condition for cremating the bodies of 20 protesters killed in police firing on May 24, the Congress leader is expected to reach Sikandra on Saturday morning after which the cremation is likely to take place. The Dausa administration, which had last time denied Pilot entry in the region, has agreed to allow the MP to come to Sikandra this time. "I spoke to a few officers, who have given me verbal sanction to reach there," Pilot told TOI, adding that his priority was to ensure proper cremation of the 20 people who fell victim to police bullets. "We can talk about the issues but first thing I had to do was get a funeral organized." Asked if he had emerged as leader of the Gujjar faction, Pilot said it was not the right time to talk politics and efforts should be to share the sorrow of the aggrieved families. "I am going only to share the pain that the community was made to undergo," he said. Distanced from the faction sitting at Bayana under Bainsla's leadership, Gujjars at Sikandra now have a fresh set of demands, including the release of two rebel BJP MLAs Prahalad Gunjal and Attar Singh Bhadana currently at Cental Jail in Jaipur. http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1169175 Gujjar protesters intensify road blockades PTI Friday, June 06, 2008 14:25 IST DAUSA/NEW DELHI: Unrelenting Gujjar protesters on Friday intensified road blockades in violence-hit Dausa area throwing life out of gear as 27 trains passing through Rajasthan were cancelled by the Northern Railways. The protesters, who were agitating against teargassing and baton charge by police to quell stone-pelting groups in Khuri village, 10 kms from here, on Thursday, set up road blocks in several areas in this district since early this morning, police said. Badly hit were roads in the Bandikui area, where Gujjar men and women continued their blockade of a key rail track, leading to cancellation or diversion of several trains. In Dausa town and neighbouring areas, where Gujjar protestors damaged pipelines hitting drinking water supply, work was on to restore the connections, they said. Following up on the directive asking people in Bharatpur range to surrender their licensed weapons, the district administration has cancelled nearly 200 arms licences, Inspector General of Police (Bharatpur Range) Umesh Mishra said. Gujjar protesters also continued their blockade of the highway linking Rajasthan's Sawaimadhopur district with Shivpuri in Madhya Pradesh, reports reaching here said. As many as 27 trains passing through the stir-hit state were on Friday cancelled and several others diverted, a Northern Railways spokesman said in New Delhi. The cancellation of train services following disturbances in the Gangapur City-Bayana section in Kota Division has been done in view of passengers' safety, the spokesman said. The trains that have been cancelled include Dehradun Express, Delhi-Nimach Link Express, Nizamuddin-Udaipur Intercity, August Kranti Rajdhani, Mumbai Janta Express, Bandra Garibrath, Gujarat Sampark Kranti, Jammu-Bandra Special, Bandra-Amritsar Special, Gorakhpur-Bandra Awadh Express, Ajmer Shatabdi and Ahmedabad Rajdhani. Mumbai Rajdhani, Paschim Express, Bandra-Jammu Swaraj Express and Golden Temple Mail are among other trains that have been diverted. Due to disruption of trains, bus services from Jaipur and other areas to Delhi and neighbouring regions have been facing heavy rush of passengers and the Rajasthan road transport authorities have pressed additional buses to tide over the pressure. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Wed Aug 27 09:05:33 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:05:33 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] KASHMIR 2 of 3 - ongoing protests, August 2008 Message-ID: <00be01c9085e$bddc01b0$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES - Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ Protesters have mobilised on a massive scale in Kashmir, firstly to protest a land deal to transfer land to a Hindu shrine, in breach of the constitution, then later in an ongoing series of protests against Indian rule. The reversal of the transfer decision did not end the protests as Kashmiris continued to turn out against police violence and the Indian occupation. ANALYSIS: * Successful protest gives Kashmiris in India a sense of freedom * Protests, killings could be Kashmir's tipping point * The (up)rising: Young blood fuels J-K protests FURTHER PROTESTS: * Hindu attacks, police shooting spark further protests * Protesters blockade highway to protest police shooting * Hotel, car torched in protests * Aug 9: Srinagar shutdown as hunger striker's condition worsens * Aug 12: 100,000 rally in defiance of curfew, 13 killed by police including a protest leader * Aug 13: death toll increases as police again shoot protesters * Aug 14: surprise demo near midnight responds to late-night police raids * Aug 15: 2 more protesters shot * Aug 16: thousands rally to mourn victims of police shootings * Protesters march on UN headquarters in Kashmir * Separatists protest at media coverage * Protests continue despite divisions in leadership * Aug 24: protests continue, police lathi-charge protesters * Aug 25: 3 more protesters killed by police as hundreds defy curfew MISCELLANEOUS: * Member of parliament threatens to resign over police violence * Kashmiris in Bangalore protest against continuing violence * Politician arrested for protest over inclusion in Kashmir talks http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-kashmir27-2008jul27,0,2685991.story?track=rss Successful protest gives Kashmiris in India a sense of freedom Many youths in the Indian-held part of Kashmir remain disaffected. But a surprisingly strong uprising over a land transfer has revived hopes of self-rule. By Henry Chu, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer July 27, 2008 SRINAGAR, INDIA -- The students at the University of Kashmir have freedom on their minds. Not from the tyranny of exams and professors, or of too-strict parents. What many young people here are dreaming of is freedom for their divided land, instead of being caught in the middle of a decades-old tug of war between India and Pakistan. They got a taste of self-rule recently when thousands of residents rose up against a government decision to set aside forest land for use by Hindu pilgrims visiting a shrine here in India's only predominantly Muslim state, Jammu and Kashmir. The protests, in which at least six people were killed, were the biggest in years and forced not only an official reversal but the collapse of the state government this month. It was a rare triumph of people power in the eyes of many Kashmiris, none more so than the youthful agitators in their teens and 20s who formed the majority of those chanting in the streets. "It was like we were celebrating our freedom," said law student Saaqib Amin, 27, savoring the memory. "People on the roads talked about when we get freedom how much we will celebrate." India and Pakistan each control parts of the contested Himalayan region, but both claim it in full and have gone to war twice over it. If nothing else, the protests put India on notice that it has yet to convince the younger generation of the benefits or justice of its rule in this part of Kashmir. After nearly two decades of fighting between the Indian army and Kashmiri Muslim militants, some backed by Pakistan, New Delhi has won few hearts and minds here on its side of the divide, where unremitting bloodshed is almost all that many have ever known. More than 60,000 people have been killed since disaffected groups took up arms in 1989 to press for independence or a merger with Pakistan, according to human rights groups. Civilians have been slain by militants' bombs and grenades; others have been kidnapped, tortured and killed by Indian security forces. Violence has receded in the last few years amid peace talks between India and Pakistan, but tragedy still scars this land of breathtaking natural beauty, where an estimated half a million Indian troops remain posted, their fatigues and automatic weapons everywhere in evidence. Here in Srinagar, the summer capital of the Indian state, there is anger at both the militants and the Indian security forces. But much more of it is reserved for the latter. "We are the children of conflict. That shaped our minds," said Shahid Mohammed Lon, 22. "I've seen people butchered before me by Indian troops. I see that India is not my friend." His dormitory mates nodded in agreement as they sat around talking on the leafy campus of the University of Kashmir. They nodded even more vigorously when Lon, a mass-communications major, explained that, for members of his generation, those slogans of the '90s that demanded unification with Muslim brothers and sisters in Pakistan have given way to shouts for full-blown independence. That is anathema to the leaders of both India and Pakistan. But such a scenario may not be so unacceptable to the Indian and Pakistani public. In a rare survey of attitudes toward Kashmir on either side of the de facto border, a U.S.-based polling firm reported this month that only 35% of Indians and 11% of Pakistanis would oppose independence if the majority of Kashmiris wanted it. Despite the more peaceful atmosphere these days, it is difficult to find anyone here who is content with the status quo. "We can't stay in an environment like this. Change is necessary. You cannot stay in an occupied land," said Maroosha Muzaffar, 23. "It's up to youth to come out and stage protests and change things for themselves," she added. "They have the passion. They have the energy." The recent land protests were a timely vehicle for channeling that energy. The uproar centered on the state government's decision to transfer 99 acres of land to a Hindu trust that runs a pilgrimage to the Amarnath shrine in southern Kashmir, where a giant ice stalagmite inside a cave is worshiped as a symbol of the god Shiva. Each year, thousands make the pilgrimage during a two-month period in the summer to see the stalagmite as it waxes. The land was to be used for rest stops and other facilities for pilgrims. To many Kashmiris, for whom land is a highly emotive aspect of local identity, the transfer was too much. Some suspected a government plot to bring more Hindus to Kashmir to dilute its Muslim majority. Environmentalists also opposed the move. The strength of the ensuing protests, which erupted in mid-June and continued for two weeks, took many aback, including the demonstrators themselves, who turned out in numbers not seen since the 1990s. Hindu activists mounted counter-protests after the government decided July 1 to rescind the land grant. Ironically, it was the decline in violence and the improving relations between India and Pakistan that, in many ways, made such agitation possible. During the blood-soaked years of militant attacks and army reprisals, there was no space for a popular grass-roots movement. Now, civil society has begun cautiously to bloom. With the land protests, "the movement became again purely indigenous, purely Kashmiri," said political scientist Gul Mohammed Wani. "It was quite unprecedented. . . . Suddenly the people took it on their own shoulders." That so many of those shoulders belonged to the young was due in part to demographics. In the Kashmir Valley, more than two-thirds of the population is younger than 35. But beyond that, experts detect a rising sense of political and economic discontent among Kashmiri youths. About 400,000 young people are unemployed, half of them with bachelor's degrees. Many complain of discrimination when they apply for jobs in other parts of India, where human rights groups say police routinely detain and harass young Kashmiri men. The pent-up resentment and anger helped drive young people out to protest and to support the demonstrations from behind the scenes. On the university campus, students organized blood drives as the number of people injured in clashes with security forces grew. After the government reversed itself, they celebrated along with millions of other Kashmiris, and hoped it would be a sign of things to come. "Surely India will take heed of what the Kashmiri people are demanding," said Lon, the mass-communications major. "Kashmiri people are not to be taken for granted. . . . They were trying to push [us] to the wall, but Kashmiris bounced back." henry.chu at latimes.com http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080814/india_nm/india350068 Protests, killings could be Kashmir's tipping point By Alistair Scrutton Thu Aug 14, 7:24 AM ET NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A land row in Kashmir may have achieved what years of militant violence largely failed to do -- fuse Muslim separatist sentiment into mass protests that seriously challenge Indian rule and South Asia's stability. The dispute over land for a Hindu shrine trust and the killing of 21 Muslim protesters by police has galvanised separatists after years of relative stability in Kashmir that saw some hope for India negotiating a political solution. "All this crisis in Kashmir has played into the hands of the separatists," said Ashok Mehta, a retired Indian army commander and security expert. "It is all a huge setback for a political solution to Kashmir. We are back to where we were many years ago." Unsteady progress between India and Pakistan over a region both claim in full but rule in parts also might have been dashed by the biggest demonstrations in Kashmir in two decades. Indeed, some fear Kashmir will become a diplomatic football once again between the two nuclear rivals, with New Delhi unsure of a new civilian government in Islamabad that it perceives is in a dangerous vacuum. Kashmir has been racked by militant violence since 1989, when an insurgency against Indian rule erupted. Around 43,000 people have died but the past few years had seen some progress. State elections in 2002 were regarded as largely fair despite a separatist boycott and violence. Insurgency attacks fell in the past few years. Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf made some peace proposals in 2006 that were seriously discussed in India. "Looking back, it seems like one missed opportunity," said Siddharth Varadarajan, diplomatic editor of the Hindu newspaper. "One lesson is that the Indian government cannot just allow Kashmir to drift along. There has been a level of simmering resentment that the government has been unwilling to deal with." An Indian government with eyes on 2009 elections might do just that -- drift along and hope protests fizzle. For the most part, Kashmir is not an issue for voters in the rest of India. Some analysts predict a doomsday scenario, with more protests leading to the breakup of Kashmir state, split between the Hindu-majority Jammu region and the mainly Muslim Kashmir valley. Others predict mass protests forcing the government to appease separatists with some negotiations, from issues such as tentative demilitarisation to relaxation of border controls. Experts say perceived Indian oppression of protests could spark tension between Pakistan and India as well. "The most worrying issue is Kashmir seems to be returning to be a point of tension with Pakistan," said Varadarajan. He pointed to a war of words this week between Pakistan and India, with New Delhi criticising Islamabad for meddling in its internal affairs after a call for U.N. intervention. STATE ELECTIONS With Pakistan seen as in limbo, with President Pervez Musharraf under pressure to resign or face impeachment by the new government, the focus for peace might now fall on Kashmir itself rather than the uneasy South Asian neighbours. "Protests have changed the whole parameters of the conflict," said Sajjad Lone, leader of the main separatist alliance All Parties Hurriyat Conference, which rejects militant violence. "The peace process was for years seen through the eyes of Pakistan and India. Kashmir was confined to being an ornament. There is increased relevance being given to Kashmiris." That new focus could fall on state elections due later this year. The state government is leaderless and the first step to a peaceful solution might be free and fair elections. Separatists want elections boycotted. Mainstream parties that accept New Delhi rule and participate in elections are overshadowed by separatists. To make matters worse for New Delhi, once-split separatists have shown some unity. Indeed, one political winner seems to be hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani, for years seen as marginalised. "Kashmir's tipping point could be the election," said Mehta. "India's claim to legitimacy in Kashmir rests on the holding of free and fair elections. The last election had more than 40 percent participation. What happens if a separatist boycott leads to 7-8 percent participation?" It would mean, some say, a new political scene in Kashmir. "What we have seen in Kashmir is the start of non-violent and mass protests. A new generation has taken over," Lone said. http://www.ibnlive.com/news/the-uprising-young-blood-fuels-jk-protests/68171-3.html?xmlThe (up)rising: Young blood fuels J-K protestsAasim Khan / CNN-IBNPublished on Wed, Jul 02, 2008 at 12:47, Updated at Wed, Jul 02, 2008 inNation sectionTags: Amarnath Shrine Board, Land Transfer , SrinagarE-mail this report | Print this reportSrinagar: Jammu and Kashmir is witnessing the biggest protests in twodecades over the transfer of land to the Amarnath Shrine Board.While state government has revoked the order on the transfer of the shrineland, the crisis has given a fresh lease of life to Kashmiri separatistleaders.Not one political party in the valley has claimed leadership of the protestson the streets - neither the mainstream parties and nor the ones who havepreviously indulged in open defiance of Central Government.So will these protests fuel a new wave of separatist sentiment in Kashmir -a sentiment that was on the wane or hidden all the time?Leader of Separatist Group Hurriyat Conference, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq isconfident. He feels his stand has been vindicated."The CBMs, the economic supports, loans, subsidies, all this just does notmatter. New Delhi should understand the basic sentiment of the Kashmiris,"he says.While Mirwaiz might sound confident, the truth remains that in the latestcrisis, even the Hurrriyat served a volunteer's role."No one was in control. It was spontaneous and the most worrying thing isthat participants were born after 1990. They were all young people," saysjournalist Muzammil Jaleel.While it is still too early to suggest if the separatists can sustain thepresent emotion, with elections slated later this year, the mainstreamparties will have a tough time convincing the people.http://news.morningstar.com/newsnet/ViewNews.aspx?article=/DJ/200808050534DOWJONESDJONLINE000145_univ.xmlPolice, Protesters Clash Amid More Fury In Indian Kashmir 8-5-08 5:34 AMSRINAGAR (AFP)--Muslim protesters throwing bricks battled police Tuesday inIndian Kashmir's main city, Srinagar, as anger intensified over attacks onMuslims by Hindus.Tensions were stoked by the death a day earlier of a Muslim protester, whowas hit by a police tear gas shell in Srinagar.Protesters blocked roads and set fire to vehicles, and police used tear gasand batons to disperse hundreds of demonstrators.The attacks on Muslims in the region's Hindu-dominated Jammu area weretriggered when the state government reneged on a plan to transfer land to aHindu shrine.The move plunged Kashmir - which is India's only Muslim-majority state andis already gripped by an Islamic revolt - into new turmoil.Muslims in the mainly Hindu southern part of Kashmir alleged that Hindurioters set fire to many of their houses were set and that they beingthreatened and told to leave the region."We're living in constant fear," says Shah Mohammad Chowdhary, a Muslimleader in Jammu. He said police did not intervene when "our homes were beingtorched." Police reported a "few arson incidents.""We're doing our best to restore order," a police officer said, asking notto be named.Two Hindu protesters were killed in the Jammu area on Monday when policefired shots after demonstrators attacked cars and buses.Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi summoned an all-partymeeting for Wednesday to discuss how to defuse tensions in Kashmir.Singh hopes to get assurances from the main opposition Hindu nationalistBharatiya Janata Party that it will not fuel tensions in the state amidreports that party activists were halting trucks carrying supplies for theKashmir valley.Kashmir, where a 19-year revolt against Indian rule has killed least 43,000people, had been enjoying a lull in violence against the backdrop of India'speace process with neighboring Pakistan to settle the disputed region'sfuture when more conflict erupted in June.Both India and Pakistan claim all of the Kashmir region, which is dividedbetween them.On Monday much of Kashmir was shut down by a strike to protest the attacksin Jammu and attempts by Hindus to impose an economic blockade on the area.http://www.newkerala.com/topstory-fullnews-6833.htmlProtestors lay siege to Jammu-Pathankot highway over police firingJammu, Aug 5 : Hundreds of people lay siege to the Jammu-Pathankot NationalHighway Tuesday, demanding that the policemen who fired on protesters in theregion's Samba town Monday, killing two men and injuring 28 others, bebrought to book.Police officials said traffic came to a standstill on the highway even asmost parts of the Jammu region continued to be under curfew for the fourthday Tuesday. Army and police personnel were deployed to guard strandedtrucks."There is no fixed formula to deal with such a situation. It has to behandled with care and this time we don't want any escalation in thetension," a police officer told IANS on condition of anonymity.The Amarnath land row has taken a communal tone in Jammu and Kashmir asprotests, violence and shutdowns have been going on for weeks now.On Tuesday, two protesters were killed and at least 28 injured when policeopened fire to disperse a mob that had gathered in Samba on theJammu-Pathankot National Highway and held demonstrations seeking allocationof 40 hectares of forest land in north Kashmir to the shrine board.Authorities fear violence at the cremation of the two youth killed in thepolice firing. Community elders are being asked to persuade people to allowthe last rites to be held in peace.The government allotted the land to the board of the Amarnath cave shrine insouth Kashmir May 26. But the order was revoked July 1 following 10-day-longviolent protests in June in the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley. Therevocation silenced the protests in the valley but ignited passions inHindu-dominated Jammu.Some Hindu groups, united under the umbrella organisation of the AmarnathYatra Sangarsh Samiti, have been demanding the restoration of the land tothe temple trust. The plot, according to the government, was meant forcreating facilities to hundreds and thousands of pilgrims to the Himalayanshrine.But the protesters in Kashmir have alleged that the allocation of the plotwas meant to settle outsiders to change the Muslim-majority character of thevalley.--- IANShttp://arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=112469&d=6&m=8&y=2008Wednesday 6 August 2008 (05 Sha`ban 1429)Violent protests continue in KashmirRUNNING FOR COVER: Indian policemen try to save themselves fromstone-pelting protesters in Srinagar on Tuesday. (Reuters)SRINAGAR: Thousands of Hindu and Muslim protesters clashed with governmentforces in different parts of Indian Kashmir yesterday as anger over agovernment decision relating to land and a Hindu shrine continued to grow.Eighteen protesters and 12 policemen were injured in a clash at Jurian, avillage on the outskirts of Jammu city, Ramesh Kumar, a police officer said.Kumar said police had to fire in the air and use tear gas shells afterthousands of Hindu protesters burned a police post and a government office,he said. Three policemen were seriously injured.Railway traffic between Jammu and rest of the country was halted yesterdayafter rioting protesters damaged part of the tracks, he added. On Monday,one Muslim protester was killed when a tear gas shell fired by police hithis chest. Muslims in Srinagar are protesting against alleged assaults byHindus on Muslims in Jammu.Muslim protesters yesterday pelted stones at the police and paramilitaryforces which responded by firing tear gas shells to break up thedemonstrations at many places in Srinagar, said Prabhakar Tripathi, aspokesman for the Central Reserve Police Force."We will continue peaceful protests against the economic blockade andharassment of Muslims by Hindu extremists," said Syed Ali Shah Geelani, ahard-line separatist leader. The protests have led India's government toreach out to the main Hindu nationalist opposition, the Bharatiya JanataParty, to defuse the crisis.Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called a meeting of India'spolitical parties today to discuss the situation. Shops, businesses andschools remained closed for the second day yesterday in Srinagar, thebiggest city in the state.The Kashmir Valley was running short of food, fuel and medical supplies.Traders associations said lorries loaded with vital goods like medicines,vegetables, meat and fuel were stranded on the region's main 300-km (185mile) highway, the only surface link between the Kashmir Valley and the restof India.Anger between Hindus and Muslims in the Himalayan region has flared sinceJune when the government in Jammu-Kashmir decided to award 99 acres of landto the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board.http://www.hotelsmag.com/articleXml/LN833344097.htmlVIOLENT PROTESTERS SET ON FIRE HOTEL AND CAR IN SOUTH KASHMIRReport from UNI brought to you by HT Syndication. -- UNI (United News ofIndia), August 6, 2008 Wednesday 5:59 PM ESTSrinagar, Aug 6 (UNI) A hotel, allegedly selling liquor and a car were seton fire in south Kashmir where thousands of people today took to streets inprotest against economic blockade and attack on Muslim and Kashmiri driverin Jammu. Official sources said thousands of people today took to streets inAnantnag raising anti-communal organisationS and anti government slogans.Marching through different streets peacefully, when the processioinstsreached near a hotel in the town, a group of people went inside and allegedthat liquor was being sold. They show liquor bottles to processionists andlater set on fire the hotel, owned by a local. A car was also set on fire bythe mob, they said. They alleged that the hotel was being used for the saleand consumption of liquor besides other immoral activities.Published by HT Syndication with permission from UNI.http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/aug/09aha.htmSrinagar shuts down in protestMukhtar Ahmad In Srinagar | August 09, 2008 21:27 ISTLast Updated: August 09, 2008 21:52 ISTSrinagar observed a sudden shutdown on Friday after the health of Jammu andKashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Yasin Malik, who is on anindefinite fast, got deteriorated.Even though there was no shutdown call and separatist groups had asked forresumption of the normal business and social activity, yet parts of capitalcity shut itself down to continue the protests for the sixth day.Almost all the separatist leaders had asked the people not to observe shutdowns without any call. However, people did not heed to it.Clashes erupted yet again in the city centre Lal Chowk, where protestorsshouting pro-freedom slogans.Police responded with tear smoke shells and repeated baton charges, chasingthe protestors, who continued to re-group and stone the police.Areas of old city were also rocked by police- protestor clashes.The southern town of Anantnag was tense this morning, following allegedbeating of civilians by the paramilitary last evening.Movement in the town was restricted as security forces enforced restrictionsto obviate eruption of protests. The town observed a complete shut down.Ganderbal district which is located on either side of the Srinagar BaltelCave Shrine route in north also witnessed protests and clashes betweenpolice and slogan shouting mobs against continued harassment of minoritycommunity members in parts of Jammu.Condition of Yasin Malik who was admitted to Soura Medical Institute kept ondeteriorating, causing grave concern and anxiety to his supporters.Despite repeated attempts by doctors to feed him, Malik has staunchlyrefused to take any food.Meanwhile, both groups of All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) havedecided to march with the Kashmir fruit growers to Muzaffarabad on Monday.The fruit growers association has announced that they would cross the Lineof Control (LoC) Monday for carriage of their fruit to Muzaffarabad fromwhere they intend to carry their produce to Amritsar in the Punjab.http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/080812/world/kashmir_shrine_protestsFresh violence rocks Kashmir; 13 protesters killed in police firingModule bodyTue Aug 12, 1:10 PMBy Aijaz Hussain, The Associated PressSRINAGAR, India - Indian forces shot and killed at least 13 Muslimprotesters Tuesday as tens of thousands of people defied a blanket curfew inIndian Kashmir, the bloodiest day in nearly two months of unrest that hasrocked this long-troubled Himalayan region.Police and protesters battled each other through clouds of bullets, tear gasand rocks, while in New Delhi, politicians again failed to find a solutionto the crisis that threatens to shred the last tenuous threads binding thepredominantly Muslim region of Kashmir to Hindu-majority India.Angry Muslims took to the streets of cities and towns across Kashmir inspite of the first total curfew imposed on the region in 18 years to protestMonday's killing of prominent separatist leader, Sheikh Abdul Aziz, and fourothers.In Srinagar, the main city, about 100,000 people gathered at MartyrsGraveyard for Aziz's funeral, vowing to fulfil his legacy and achieveindependence for Kashmir from India.Violence has roiled the region since June 23 when Muslims and Hindus begantit-for-tat protests over a government proposal to transfer land to a Hindushrine in India's only Muslim-majority state.The protests have crystalized anti-Indian feeling in Kashmir just as Indianforces appeared to be gaining an upper hand in their nearly two decade fightagainst the region's separatist rebels.Huge crowds thronged Aziz's emotionally charged funeral, setting tiresalight and waving green Islamic flags. Chants of "We want freedom," and"Blood for blood," rang through the cemetery."Our struggle for complete independence from India will continue. No poweron earth can deter us from achieving this," Mirwaiz Omer Farooq, anotherseparatist political leader told the crowds who huddled together in therain, straining to hear the speeches delivered without microphones."It's a do or die for us. India can take as many lives of Kashmiris as itcan, but it must leave," said Rafiq Ahmed, a protester waiving green flag.Six protesters were killed in several incidents Tuesday in Srinagar, policesaid. Two more died in Nagbal village on the city's outskirts and threeothers were killed in Paribal, a village 65 kilometres to the north, theysaid.Two protesters died in Jammu, the only Hindu-majority city in the region,when police opened fire at an angry Muslim mob that attacked Hindu shops andhomes, said Sudhanshu Pandey, a senior government official.Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan, which have fought two oftheir three wars over the region and both claim it in its entirety.More than a dozen Islamic militant groups have been fighting since 1989 forKashmir's independence or its merger with Pakistan. Some 68,000 people havebeen killed in the fighting.Aziz was killed Monday when police fired into a large crowd of Muslimsattempting to march to the Pakistan-controlled portion of Kashmir to protesta blockade by Hindus of the highway linking the Kashmir Valley with the restof India.The Hindus had blocked the roads to protest to the government's decision notto allocate land to a Hindu shrine in the region, after initially saying itwould. The reversal came after protests by Muslims, who accused thegovernment of trying to change Kashmir's demographics in favour of Hindus.Traders say the region faces shortages of food and medicine because of theblockade, and complain that hundreds of truckloads of Kashmiri fruit arespoiling because they cannot be delivered.On Tuesday the government announced that the road was now clear. However, itsaid it was open to the idea of traders exporting their products across theborder to Pakistan - a move that would further reduce Kashmir's ties toIndia."However, a decision in the matter can be taken only through mutualarrangements between India and Pakistan," the Home Ministry said in astatement, warning against unilateral action.http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-08-12-voa13.cfm?rss=topstoriesDeath Toll Rises as Protests Continue in KashmirBy Shahnawaz KhanSrinagar12 August 2008Khan report - Download (MP3)Khan report - Listen (MP3)At least 13 people have died as Indian security forces opened fire onprotests led by Muslim separatists in Indian-controlled Kashmir. ShahnawazKhan reports for VOA from Srinagar that police killed four people Monday whowere trying to lead a march to Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-controlledterritory.Kashmiri Muslims look at burnt vehicle belonging to one of party workers ofa pro Indian political party after it was set on fire by protesters inSrinagar, 12 Aug 2008At least three of the protesters were shot in the town of Bandipora, locatedabout 60 kilometers north of Kashmir's summer capital of Srinagar. The otherprotesters were killed at separate demonstrations near Srinagar and inKishtwar District.The demonstrations were held despite a curfew imposed Monday, after Kashmiriseparatist leader Sheikh Aziz and three other people were shot and killed byIndian forces trying to stop thousands of Muslim protesters from marching tothe Pakistan-controlled part of Kashmir.Kashmiri separatist leaders held the march to protest what they say is aneconomic blockade by Hindu extremists in the Himalayan region.Kashmiri Muslims wave Pakistan's national flag during the funeral processionof Sheik Abdul Aziz, leader of All Parties Hurriyat Conference, in Srinagar,12 Aug 2008Hindu protesters have blocked a major highway leading to theMuslim-dominated Kashmir Valley, disrupting the flow of supplies to theregion. The fruit industry, in particular, has taken a big hit."By this economic blockade they have completely finished the apple industryat least for this year. Because our crop was ready and it came back," saidMubeen Shah is the President of Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry.The Hindus are demanding that the government re-instate a land transfer to aHindu shrine. The government recently backed off the plan after Muslims heldviolent protests against what they termed "Hindu colonization."Kashmir is divided between Pakistan and India, and claimed by both. Muslimseparatists have been fighting for Kashmir's independence from India or forthe region's merger with Pakistan.http://arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=112715&d=12&m=8&y=2008&pix=world.jpg&category=World12 August 2008 (11 Sha`ban 1429)Police kill APHC leader during mass protestMukhtar Ahmad I Arab NewsBRUTAL BASHING: Indian policemen beat a Kashmiri Muslim protester during amarch on Srinagar-to-Muzaffarabad Road in Srinagar on Monday.SRINAGAR: Indian troops shot dead a prominent Kashmiri separatist leader andfour other protesters yesterday as they tried to halt huge Muslimdemonstrations in the revolt-hit region, witnesses said. Sheikh Abdul Aziz,a former militant turned moderate political leader, was killed while takingpart in a protest march close to the Line of Control, which separates theIndian and Pakistani parts of the Himalayan region.A police official said four other protesters were killed on a day of fierceclashes in the disputed Kashmir Valley. Police said the day's violence hasalso left at least 200 people injured.A doctor at Srinagar's main hospital, Manzoor Ahmed, confirmed that AllParties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) leader Aziz died of a gunshot wound. "Wewill spill blood for blood," Aziz's supporters chanted as they carried hisbody out of the hospital, signaling the killing could unleash a new round ofviolence after several years of relative calm.Authorities imposed an indefinite curfew across the valley and moved inpolice and paramilitary troops in full strength. Thousands of people carriedthe body of the separatist leader to the historic Jamia Masjid from where itwould be taken to his native Pampore town in south Kashmir.Aziz, a senior separatist leader and chairman of the People's League (PL)joined the moderate APHC headed by Mirwaiz Maulvi Omar Farooq in Januarythis year after his release. He was jailed several times since 1988 whenmilitancy erupted here."This is the real face of Indian democracy," said Farooq, adding that Aziz'sdeath was a "big loss" to the separatist movement. "For demanding lifting ofan economic blockade we get bullets, while Hindu fanatics who are attackingMuslims in Jammu and setting their property on fire are allowed to dowhatever they want," he fumed, appealing for international action.Aziz, who had been jailed on several occasions for demanding Indian Kashmirbe handed to archrival Pakistan, is the third prominent separatist leader tohave been killed since the eruption of the Muslim insurgency in 1989.The shooting came as Indian security forces tried to prevent about 100,000Muslims from marching toward the de facto border with Pakistan - one of thebiggest protests ever seen in Kashmir.The marchers had reached a point just 40 kilometers from the heavilymilitarized border despite repeated efforts by Indian police andparamilitary forces to stop them with tear gas, rubber bullets and warningshots.http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-08-13-voa47.cfm?rss=warNew Protests Break Out in Kashmir, Across IndiaBy VOA News13 August 2008Kashmiri Muslims shout pro-freedom slogans during a protest in Srinagar,India, 13 Aug 2008For a second day, police in Indian-controlled Kashmir have opened fireduring protests in the main town of Srinagar.Thousands of Muslims took to the streets Wednesday to mourn fellowprotesters killed in skirmishes with police. Demonstrators chanted sloganscalling for revenge and independence from India, while destroying policebunkers.Others scrambled to stock up on supplies as Indian forces briefly eased atotal curfew.Officials say at least 21 people have been killed since Monday, when Muslimseparatists began demonstrating against an economic blockade and India'srule over the region. Many others have been wounded in clashes.Muslim separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq today called for three days ofmourning and urged people to protest peacefully.United Nations spokesman in New York, Farhan Haq, today said the HighCommissioner for Human Rights is monitoring developments and SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon is aware of the situation.Muslim protesters oppose the Hindu blockade of a major highway leading tothe Muslim-dominated Kashmir Valley. The blockade has disrupted the flow ofsupplies to the region.Meanwhile, the demonstrations spread throughout India - as Hindunationalists in New Delhi, Mumbai and the tourist city of Agra blockedtraffic and railway lines for several hours, bringing the cities to atemporary standstill.Hindu protesters are demanding that the government re-instate a landtransfer to a Hindu shrine.Kashmir is divided between Pakistan and India, and claimed by both. Islamicseparatists have been fighting for Kashmir's independence from India, or forthe region's merger with Pakistan.http://www.indianexpress.com/story/348738.htmlMidnight protests rock Srinagar, Governor says replacing CRPF IGExpress News ServicePosted online: Thursday, August 14, 2008 at 1142 hrs Print EmailJ&K: Musharraf speech refers to Kashmir situation, India slams Pak forsaying it will raise it with UNSrinagar, New Delhi, August 13: In chaotic scenes in Srinagar an hour beforemidnight Wednesday, people, responding to calls made over loudspeakers ofmosques, poured into the streets in protest after security forces allegedlybarged into some houses in downtown localities and assaulted people.There was confusion all around with hundreds packing the streets andchanting slogans. There were unconfirmed reports that CRPF personnel hadentered homes in Rozabal, Safakdal, Kamangarpora and Zaina Kadal - thesecurity forces are already under fire for the manner in which protestorshave been dealt with in the last three days.As the authorities tried to persuade people to return to their homes,Governor N N Vohra told The Indian Express: "We have sought the immediatereplacement of the Inspector General of CRPF. We are trying our level bestto calm people. It is in nobody's interest".The police, however, said that apart from one incident in the evening theydid not have reports of security forces breaking into homes. "We know of onesuch incident. The other incidents are not true," said Srinagar SSP SyedAhfad-ul-Mujtaba.Security forces were trying to avoid moving into the city to break up theprotests. "We do not want to create a scene. We will let them stay out," asenior police officer told The Indian Express.http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Kashmir_simmers_42_injured_in_protests/rssarticleshow/3361992.cmsKashmir simmers; 42 injured in protests13 Aug, 2008, 2145 hrs IST, PTISRINAGAR: Forty two persons were injured on Wednesday, including 23 inpolice firing at various places in Kashmir, as demonstrations continuedacross the city over the economic blockade in the Valley by Shri AmarnathSangharsh Samiti in Jammu. ( In Video )Four persons received bullet injuries when CRPF personnel opened fire on agroup of protesters being chased by police in Delow village of Rajpora areain Pulwama distict, official sources said.The protesters were engaged in clashes with police when the latter firedtear smoke shells to chase them away. As the protestors were retreating intothe village, CRPF personnel from nearby camp opened fire on them, injuringfour of them.Three of the injured have been referred to a hospital here in criticalcondition, the sources said.Police and paramilitary forces opened fire at Kralkhud area of the city,injuring six persons, two of them critically, they said.The group of agitators had tried to dismantle a bunker of CRPF in Kralkhudarea, promoting the law enforcing agencies to open fire, the sources said.The protesters fought pitched battles with the security personnel promptingthe latter to open fire in which five persons were injured at Habbakadal inthe city, they said.The injured where shifted to hospital where condition of one of the injured,Tanveer Ahmad of Tankipora locality, was stated to be critical.In Bemina, one person was injured when CRPF personnel opened fire on a groupof protesters, the sources said, adding the mob then set afire the buildingof Srinagar Development Authority.The agitators pelted stones at security personnel in Karan Nagar, FatehKadal, Nawa Kadal, Safakadal, Natipora and Chanapora areas of the city.Police used batons and tear smoke shells to chase away the protesters whocontinued to pour on to the streets of the Valley.Four persons were injured when police used batons and tear gas shells todisperse protesters in Tral area of Pulwama district, the sources said.There were also protests in Pampore, Baramulla, Anantnag, Kupwara, Bandiporaand Charar-e-Sharief towns of the Valley.Curfew relaxed for few hours in SrinagarEarlier, the administration extended the relaxation period in the curfew bythree more hours as the first six-hour period passed off peacefully with nomajor untoward incident reported from anywhere in the city.Curfew was relaxed from 8 am to 11 am initially and later extended to 2 pmto allow the people to buy essential items as the Valley has remained shutfor almost six days owing to strikes called by separatists and curfewimposed by the authorities.People were seen buying essential items like vegetables, grains andmedicines.http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Asia&set_id=1&click_id=126&art_id=vn20080813060118145C991751Indian police gun down protesters August 13 2008 at 07:37AMIndian security forces shot and killed at least 10 Muslim demonstrators inKashmir on Tuesday amid a new wave of anger against New Delhi's control overthe disputed region.Casualties mounted the day after a leading separatist politician and fourother protesters were killed by troops in the scenic valley, which is in themidst of some of the worst violence of a 19-year insurgency.Police and soldiers enforced a daylight curfew across the Himalayan regionin an attempt to prevent large-scale rioting, but opened fire in the face oflarge crowds of stone-throwing youths, witnesses said.Police, medical doctors and witnesses said 10 Muslim protesters were gunneddown on Tuesday, and at least 80 others were wounded, in various parts ofJammu and Kashmir state, including inside the summer capital, Srinagar.The city's two main hospitals called in extra staff, and local televisionchannels issued appeals for blood donors."India is holding our region by force," fumed local businessman AbdulHameed. "Until the Kashmir dispute is resolved, the anti-India sentimentswill stay. The protests should open the eyes of Indians that Kashmiris arenot with them."On Monday Sheikh Abdul Aziz, a moderate political leader at the forefront ofthe political struggle against Indian rule, was shot and killed by securityforces during a protest near the Line of Control, which divides the Indianand Pakistani parts of Kashmir.Indian police said they were investigating the shooting.Aziz's funeral went ahead on Tuesday after mourners managed to break apolice cordon and free two senior separatist leaders - Mirwaiz Umar Farooq,a moderate, and Syed Ali Geelani, a hardliner - who were under house arrest,so they could lead funeral prayers.'We will spill blood for blood!'Aziz's body was driven through Srinagar accompanied by an estimated 50 000people, many of whom chanted: "We want freedom!" and: "We will spill bloodfor blood!"The unrest also underscores what locals say is the boiling resentment aboutthe fact that the peace process between India and Pakistan - launched in2004 - has led to no progress on the thorny Kashmir issue."The Indians were flaunting it that the freedom sentiment among theKashmiris has ended. They can't make such claims now," said Farooq. "We wantfreedom and we will continue our struggle until we are free."The current unrest, which has shattered several years of relative calm, wastriggered by an order by the Kashmir government in June to donate a parcelof Kashmir land to a Hindu pilgrimage trust.The land transfer was cancelled after a first wave of protests, but thatsparked riots in the Hindu-dominated south of Jammu and Kashmir state, whereHindu hardliners began blocking the only road access to the Kashmir valley -a move that has badly hit Muslim traders.The blockade has led to shortages of essentials, prompting a massive protestmarch towards the Line of Control on Monday so fruit growers could selltheir goods on the other side of the border. That was the clash in whichAziz was killed. - Sapa-AFPhttp://story.indiagazette.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/701ee96610c884a6/id/393992/cs/1/Finally, protests ease in Kashmir Valley, anger persistsIndia GazetteWednesday 13th August, 2008(IANS)After a day of police firing and huge protests, mass anger over the Amarnathland row finally eased Wednesday in the Kashmir Valley. But the authoritieswarned that the situation remained serious as the death toll in Tuesday'smayhem rose to 15.In comparison to the 40,000 who marched through Srinagar Tuesday with thebody of Hurriyat leader Sheikh Abdul Aziz, who the police gunned down a dayearlier, the biggest of the dozen demonstrations Wednesday attracted no morethan 4,000 slogan-shouting people.But violence persisted on the streets.A policeman was beaten up and his motorcycle burnt in Srinagar, the urbanhub of Jammu and Kashmir's separatist campaign and the scene of the mostviolent protests over the allotment of land to the Amarnath shrine board --a decision since taken back by the government.Mobs also torched the office of the Srinagar Development Authority (SDA) onthe city's outskirts and destroyed a bunker of the Central Reserve PoliceForce (CRPF), the paramilitary force blamed for firing at crowds.Angry crowds made up mostly of young men fought pitched battles with thepolice at several places in Srinagar.A portion of the SDA complex at Bemina was saved because the police reachedthe site soon after it was set on fire, officials said.A mob in Charar-e-Sharief town in central Badgam district attacked a policepost after policemen tried to disperse them following the burning of aforest department hut nearby.Thousands of people shouting slogans demanding independence from Indiamarched through Solina, Safa Kadal, Rajouri Kadal, Batmaloo and some otherareas of Srinagar.Curfew was imposed in the Kashmir Valley after large-scale violence Mondaywhen thousands tried to march towards Pakistan, alleging an 'economicblockade' of the valley by Hindu protestors in the Jammu region.On Wednesday, the authorities relaxed curfew first from 8 a.m to 11 a.m. Therelaxation was later extended to 2 p.m. and then again till 5 p.m.Mobs resorted to violence during the curfew relaxation. A policeman drivinga motorcycle in Safa Kadal area of the Old City during the curfew relaxationperiod was stopped and thrashed.'Although the cop was in civvies, the mob identified him from his identitycard,' a police officer said. 'They set fire to his motorcycle and beat himup mercilessly.'Protesters gathered near Safa Kadal, Rainawari and Bana Mohalla policestations of Old Srinagar and stoned them, said another officer.'We are maintaining utmost restraint and trying to ensure that the situationis brought under control with minimum use of force,' the officer told IANS.A petrol tanker was also set ablaze by protesters at Bemina. Officials saidthe arson attack immediately halted traffic on the road linking Jammu andthe Kashmir Valley, causing hardships to people.As the state continued to reel under protests, Governor N.N. Vohra called ahigh-level meeting at the Raj Bhavan to take stock of the situation.Meanwhile, three people wounded in Tuesday's firing by the police and armypersonnel succumbed to their injuries in hospitals, taking the death toll inTuesday's violence to 15.Also Wednesday, massive protests were reported from Baramulla and Ganderbaldistricts in north Kashmir and Anantnag district in the south.For the last two months, both the Hindu-majority Jammu region and the MuslimKashmir Valley have been locked in unparalleled strife on communal linesover the transfer and subsequent revocation of 40 hectares of land to theAmarnath board. The board manages the annual pilgrimage to the shrinededicated to Lord Shiva.The burning issue set off a wave of protests, shutdowns and violence firstin the Kashmir Valley, then in Jammu -- and now back in the valley -virtually paralysing the state.http://www.dawn.com/2008/08/15/top7.htmWidespread protests test India's hold on KashmirSRINAGAR, Aug 14: Police shot dead a Muslim protester as huge crowdsshouting "we want freedom" took to the streets of occupied Kashmir onThursday over a land row that is testing New Delhi's hold on the troubledHimalayan region.Police have now killed at least 22 demonstrators this week and more than 500people have been injured during some of the biggest protests since aseparatist revolt against New Delhi broke out in the region 20 years ago.Seven other demonstrators were wounded when police opened fire to disperseprotesters in downtown Srinagar. Protesters torched a police vehicle andhoisted green flags in several areas of the occupied valley.The row pits Muslims against Hindus in one of the toughest challenges facingPrime Minister Manmohan Singh's government since it took office in 2004.India reacted angrily to a statement from the Organisation of the IslamicConference expressing "deep concern over the deteriorating situation inIndian Occupied Kashmir.""OIC has once again chosen to comment upon Jammu and Kashmir and India'sinternal affairs on which it has no locus standi (legal standing tointervene). We reject such comments," India's foreign ministry said late onThursday.In the Jammu region a Hindu activist committed suicide by swallowinginsecticide in protest against the government, police said. The disputebegan after Kashmiri authorities promised to give forest land to a trustthat runs Amarnath, a cave shrine visited by Hindu pilgrims. Many Muslimswere enraged.The government then rescinded its decision, which in turn angered Hindus inJammu who attacked lorries carrying supplies to Kashmir valley and blockedthe region's highway, the only surface link with the rest of India.The dispute has snowballed into a full-scale anti-India protest, unitingKashmiri leaders and reviving calls for independence.Authorities relaxed a curfew for a few hours in Srinagar late on Thursday,but most of the streets were deserted except for security patrols.Police and soldiers increased security around a stadium in Srinagar whereIndia's independence day celebrations are to be held on Friday. Separatistgroups called for a general strike and labelled Friday a "black day"."I strongly condemn the reign of terror let loose by the Indian forcesagainst the besieged people of Kashmir," said separatist leader MohammedYasin Malik, who led a protest in Srinagar.-Reutershttp://www.telegraphindia.com/1080815/jsp/nation/story_9697441.jspYouth, doctor die in protestsOUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTSrinagar, Aug. 14: Deaths continued to scar Jammu and Kashmir as theAmarnath protests raged on.Police gunned down a young protester in the old city of Srinagar while aretired doctor in Jammu allegedly "sacrificed his life for the Amarnathcause".The police said the youth was part of a mob that had tried to attack apolice station in Safakadal, prompting them to open fire. Three persons wereinjured.Two police vehicles were torched at Rawalpora in the Civil Lines area.Pakistani flags were unfurled at some places in the old city and in LalBazar.Today's death has taken the toll in the blood-soaked Valley to 24. CRPFinspector-general S.K. Jain has been summoned to New Delhi followingrepeated complaints about his men using excessive force against protesters.B.R. Khajuria, a 65-year-old retired doctor, committed suicide in Jammu'sHira Nagar after consuming poison.Shri Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti leader Suchet Singh said Khajuria had"sacrificed" his life after he saw some pilgrims returning from the caveshrine being beaten up by people in Banihal. "That event disturbed him."Singh, a retired brigadier, said Khajuria had left a suicide note saying hisorgans should be donated and that nobody should mourn his death but insteadrecite Om Namah Shivaye five lakh times.But, Singh added, Khajuria's wish could not be fulfilled as his organs hadbeen damaged by poison.Governor N.N. Vohra had organised an all-party meeting today. It wasattended by People's Democratic Party leader Mehbooba Mufti, NationalConference's Abdul Rahim Rather and several other local leaders.They appealed to the people to maintain peace and harmony and said alldisputes must be resolved through "dialogue and reconciliation".The governor urged the leaders to use their influence "in clearing theatmosphere of mistrust and suspicion".State chief secretary S.S. Kapoor told the meeting vehicles would be allowedon the Srinagar-Jammu highway twice a day, but in convoys and under policeprotection.http://www.stuff.co.nz/4656959a12.htmlTwo dead as Muslims continue protest in KashmirReuters | Friday, 15 August 2008Police shot dead one Muslim protester as huge crowds shouting "we wantfreedom" took to the streets of Kashmir over a land row that is testing NewDelhi's hold on the troubled Himalayan region.Seven other demonstrators were wounded when police opened fire to disperseprotesters in downtown Srinagar, the summer capital of Kashmir. Protesterstorched a police vehicle and hoisted green flags in several areas of Kashmirvalley.The row pits Muslims in Kashmir against Hindus in Jammu - the two mainregions which make up the state of Jammu and Kashmir - in what is one of thehardest challenges facing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government sinceit took office in 2004.The crisis has also raised tensions with nuclear rival Pakistan. India hascriticised Islamabad for interfering in its internal affairs by calling forUN intervention in the region that both claim in full but rule in parts.In Jammu, the winter capital of Indian Kashmir, a Hindu activist committedsuicide by swallowing insecticide in protest against the government, policesaid.The dispute began after the Kashmir government promised to give forest landto a trust that runs Amarnath, a cave shrine visited by Hindu pilgrims. ManyMuslims were enraged.The government then rescinded its decision, which in turn angered Hindus inJammu who attacked lorries carrying supplies to Kashmir valley and blockedthe region's highway, the only surface link with the rest of India.Police in the Kashmir valley have killed at least 22 Muslim protesters thisweek, inflaming tensions. More than 500 people have been injured in clashes.The protests are some of the biggest since a separatist revolt against NewDelhi broke out in the region 20 years ago. (See analysis.)The dispute over land allocated to Hindu pilgrims visiting the shrine inKashmir has snowballed into a full-scale anti-India protest, unitingKashmiri separatists and reviving calls for independence.Authorities relaxed a curfew for a few hours in Srinagar late on Thursday,but most of the streets were deserted except for security patrols.Police and soldiers increased security around a stadium in Srinagar whereIndia's independence day celebrations are to be held on Friday.Separatist groups called for a general strike and labelled Friday as a"black day"."I strongly condemn the reign of terror let loose by the Indian forcesagainst the besieged people of Kashmir," said separatist leader MohammedYasin Malik, who led a protest in Srinagar. "Indian troops cannot suppressour struggle."Challenging the blockade, Kashmiris took to the streets.Through Wednesday night, thousands of Kashmiri protesters shouted anti-Indiaslogans, condemning security forces. Hundreds of Muslims also assembled inmosques and shrines which relayed the slogans on loudspeakers.The New York-based Human Rights Watch urged India to show restraint."The Indian government should order troops and police to refrain from usinglethal force against violent protesters in Jammu and Kashmir unlessabsolutely necessary to protect life," it said.http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10527132&ref=rssProtesters injured after police open fire5:00AM Friday August 15, 2008Police try to remove the wreckage of a Government car which was burnt byprotesters in Srinagar. Photo / APIndian police opened fire again wounding dozens of Muslims protesting inIndian Kashmir after hundreds of demonstrators pelted officers with rocks,as bloody riots that have rocked the restive Himalayan region continued.Police in jeeps using loudspeakers warned that residents would be shot ifthey broke a curfew imposed after 16 people were killed earlier this weekprotesting the death of prominent separatist leader Sheikh Abdul Aziz whowas shot by police.In the village of Dellow, some 50km south of the region's main city ofSrinagar, paramilitary police opened fire on hundreds of protesters who hadsurrounded their camp throwing rocks. Police officer Abdul Gani said 34 werewounded. At least 13 were taken to Srinagar and were in critical condition,said Asif Drabu, a doctor at Srinagar's main hospital.Violence has rocked Kashmir since June 23 when Muslims and Hindus began aseries of protests over a plan to transfer land to a Hindu shrine in India'sonly Muslim-majority state.The protests have crystallised anti-Indian feeling in Kashmir just as Indianforces appeared to be gaining an upper hand in their two-decade fightagainst the region's separatist rebels, who seek Kashmir's independence orits merger with Pakistan.Several thousand protesters also took to the streets in Srinagar again,attacking police posts and chanting slogans that called for revenge."Blood for blood" and "We want freedom," they shouted as they ransackedsand-bagged police bunkers across the city. Police fired at hundreds ofrock-throwing protesters at Fateh Kadal, a suburb in Srinagar, said a policeofficer who asked for anonymity because he was not authorised to speak tothe media. Three people were wounded, he said.In Srinagar's Bemina neighbourhood, thousands of protesters clashed withpolice, then torched a Government complex, according to a police statement.Dozens of protesters and police were wounded, police said, but they couldnot provide exact figures. Doctors at Srinagar's two main hospitals saidthey received 58 injured.INDIAN KASHMIR:It has two capitals, Jammu in winter (November-April), Srinagar in summer(May-October). It has 10 million people. New Delhi claims the whole of Jammuand Kashmir as an integral part of India.PAKISTANI KASHMIR:Consists of the smaller Azad Kashmir (Free Kashmir), which has its ownpresident and legislature, and the Northern Areas, which also formed part ofthe state before independence and is administered directly from Islamabad.Three million people live there.- APhttp://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2008/08/15/2003420364Thousands protest in Indian Kashmir'QUESTION OF OUR HONOR': The protests overnight in Srinagar followed rumorsthat security forces were breaking into homes and beating women and childrenAP, SRINAGAR, INDIAFriday, Aug 15, 2008, Page 5Thousands of Muslims poured into the streets of Kashmir overnight, demandingindependence from India hours after Pakistan called on the UN to stop whatit characterized as gross human rights violations in the divided Himalayanregion.Pakistan's statement drew a sharp rebuke from India yesterday, which calledthe comments "deeply objectionable."Nearly six weeks of unrest in India's part of Kashmir have pitted the region's Muslim majority against its Hindu minority and left at least 33 peopledead, many of them protesters shot during violent clashes with police andsoldiers.Villages have been attacked, police stations torched and, in at least onetown, security forces have been ordered to shoot on sight any protestersviolating a curfew.The protests were sparked by a plan to transfer land to a Hindu shrine inKashmir, which was quickly abandoned.But in the weeks since, the unrest has unleashed pent up tensions betweenKashmir's Muslims and Hindus, threatening to snap the bonds between Indiaand its only Muslim-majority state.There are also growing fears that the violence could drive a wedge betweenHindus and Muslims in other parts of India, where Hindu nationalistpolitical parties have been organizing rival protests and calling for thegovernment to give the land back to the shrine.The protests overnight in Srinagar, Kashmir's main city, followed rumorsthat security forces were breaking into houses there and beating up womenand children."This is a question of our honor, come out of your homes," saidannouncements played over the public address systems at various mosques inSrinagar.The people of Srinagar - a mountain town once famed for its cool summerweather and the houseboats that ply the lake in its center - responded bythe thousands, pouring into the streets and chanting "Long Live Pakistan!"and "We Want Independence!"Perhaps more than anything seen in the last six weeks, it's those sentimentsthat are most worrying to India.Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since 1948 and is at thecenter of their six-decade rivalry.The insurgents want to see the part of the region that is controlled byIndia merged with Pakistan or given independence.On Wednesday, the Pakistani foreign ministry called on the UN to step in andcurb "the gross violation of human rights" in Kashmir.Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf followed up a few hours later, saying:"I strongly condemn the human rights violation and the suppression on theseoppressed people."India's reaction was angry."To call for international involvement in the sovereign internal affairs ofIndia is gratuitous, illegal and only reflects reversion to a mindset thathas led to no good consequences for Pakistan in the past," the foreignministry said in a statement released soon after Musharraf's remarks.http://www.chinapost.com.tw/asia/india/2008/08/14/169996/Kashmir%2Dprotests.htmKashmir protests spread to Indian cities; curfew imposedBy Aijaz Hussain, APThursday, August 14, 2008SRINAGAR, India -- Police jeeps drove through the deserted streets of a townin Indian Kashmir on Wednesday blaring warnings from loudspeakers thatresidents would be shot if they broke a curfew imposed after 16 people werekilled in the riots that have rocked the restive Himalayan region.The violence, which has roiled Kashmir since June 23 when Muslims and Hindusbegan a series of protests over a plan to transfer land to a Hindu shrine inIndia's only Muslim-majority state, also spread to other parts of India.The extreme measures in Kishtwar town come a day after tens of thousandsviolated the blanket curfew to attend the funeral of a prominent separatistleader shot by police. Kishtwar is some 155 miles (250 kilometers) north ofJammu, the region's only majority Hindu city."Curfew has to be implemented fully," said Hemant Lohia, aenior police officer. "This last option becomes the first in order not tolet the situation go out of hand."In the village of Dellow, some 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of theregion's main city of Srinagar, paramilitary police opened fire on hundredsprotesters who had surrounded their camp throwing rocks. Thirty-four werewounded, said police officer Abdul Gani.At least 13 were taken to Srinagar and were in a critical condition, saidAsif Drabu, a doctor at Srinagar's main hospital.Several thousand protesters also took to the streets in Srinagar againWednesday, attacking police posts, chanting slogans that called for revenge."Blood for blood" and "We want freedom," they shouted as they ransackedsandbagged police bunkers across the city. Police fired at hundreds ofrock-throwing protesters at Fateh Kadal, a suburb in Srinagar, said a policeofficer on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak tothe media. Three people were wounded, he said.The protests have crystalized anti-Indian feeling in Kashmir just as Indianforces appeared to be gaining an upper hand in their nearly two decade fightagainst the region's separatist rebels, who seek Kashmir's independence orits merger with Pakistan.In Srinagar's Bemina neighborhood, thousands of protesters clashed withpolice, then torched a government complex, according to a police statement.Dozens of protesters and police were wounded, police said, but they couldnot provide exact figures.Doctors at Srinagar's two main hospitals said they had received 58 injuredWednesday.On Tuesday, police firing into groups of protesting Muslims killed at least16. Five more, including the political leader, were killed Monday. No newdeaths were reported Wednesday.Separatist political leaders called for three days of mourning and urgedpeople to keep their protests peaceful."Kashmiris will continue to agitate peacefully and we should not give Indianoppressors any chance to use brute force," said Mirwaiz Omer Farooq, aseparatist leader.State police chief Kuldeep Khoda said police would investigate "all theincidents of firing that led to killings."While the violence appeared to be subsiding in Kashmir, the protests spilledover to other parts of India, with Hindu nationalist groups blocking trafficand railway lines for several hours in New Delhi, Mumbai and the tourist hubof Agra, home to the Taj Mahal.The activists demanded that the government transfer about 100 acres (40hectares) to a Hindu shrine, as it had earlier proposed. The plan wasshelved after widespread protests by Muslims, who accused the government oftrying to change the demographics of the state in favor of Hindus.Some 50 protesters were detained in Mumbai, said police officer PranGokhale.Earlier Wednesday, thousands of people streamed out of their homes inKashmir to buy supplies as authorities relaxed the curfew for several hours.The lockdown, the first to be imposed across the entire Kashmir region in 18years, was ordered after separatist leader Sheikh Abdul Aziz was killedMonday while attempting to march to the Pakistan-controlled portion ofKashmir to protest a blockade by Hindus of the highway linking the KashmirValley with the rest of India.Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan, which have fought two oftheir three wars over the region and both claim it in its entirety.Since 1989, more than a dozen Islamic militant groups have been trying torend Kashmir from India in fighting that has killed more than 68,000 people.http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=150611Thousands protest at UN office in KashmirTens of thousands of Muslims marched past the United Nations office inIndian Kashmir on Monday, protesting against New Delhi's rule in thedisputed Himalayan region.Demonstrators shouting "Oh tyrants and oppressors leave our Kashmir" marchedto police barricades within a few hundred metres of the UN Military ObserverGroup in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) office in Srinagar, summer capital ofIndian Kashmir. The organizers, Kashmir's main separatist All PartiesHurriyat (Freedom) Conference alliance, handed over a petition againstIndian rule. A row over land allocated to Hindu pilgrims visiting a shrinein Kashmir has snowballed into full scale anti-India protests, unitingseparatists and reviving calls for Kashmiri independence. Marches last weekled to police killing at least 22 Muslim demonstrators, including a seniorseparatist leader, inflaming passions in one of the biggest separatistprotests since a revolt against Indian rule broke out in 1989. UNMOGIP, oneof the oldest UN missions, monitors a 1949 cease-fire line dividing Kashmirbetween India and Pakistan.http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2008/08/200885135522448873.htmlSecond day of protests in KashmirMuslim Kashmiris have accused India of trying to alter the demography of thestate [AFP]Hundreds of Kashmiri Muslim protesters have clashed for a second day withgovernment forces in the main city of Indian-administered Kashmir, officialssaid.Police and paramilitary troops fired tear gas to disperse the crowd inSrinagar, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Jammu-Kashmir on Tuesday.The clashes come a day after a Muslim protester was killed demonstratingagainst alleged attacks on Muslims by Hindus in the Jammu region ofJammu-Kashmir.Sajjad Haider, editor-in-chief of the Kashmir Observer told Al Jazeera thatin Jammu, "where the agitation has been alarming, Muslims have been targetedby right-wing Hindu groups"."The unfortunate part is that the government of India has been totallycaught off guard and the situation has developed into full-scaleconfrontations.Land promiseThe spate of violence comes after the government in Jammu-Kashmir, India'sonly Muslim-majority state, decided in June to award 99 acres of land to atrust that maintains the Amarnath shrine, a revered Hindu site.The Jammu-Kashmir government had planned to build shelters for Hindupilgrims visiting Amarnath.Kashmiri Muslim leaders say the confrontations will continue [AFP]But the state government was later forced to revoke the land transfer afterprotests by Muslim Kashmiris who called the move an attempt to alter thedemography of the state.The provincial government's decision to stop the transfer of land inresponse to protests by Muslims, triggered protests by Hindus, who have beenaccused of attacking Muslim protesters, sparking further demonstrations.Haider said: "They have let things worsen in Jammu. There have been nomeasures taken so far to contain the violence which has been exerted againstminority [Muslim] members and government property."On the other hand we have seen in the Kashmir valley that the [Indian]government has come down heavily on protests [by Muslims] against theviolence on minority [Muslim] members, which have been peaceful."In Jammu, they have taken a soft approach against protesters who areobviously a minority there."Muslim Kashmiri leaders say the confrontations will continue.Syed Ali Shah Geelani, a separatist leader fighting Indian government forcesfor a Kashmir with closer ties to Pakistan, said the "peaceful protests"would continue after "harassment of Muslims by Hindu extremists".A Hindu group leader, Shri Amarnath Yatra Sangrash Samiti, who organisedsome of the protests, said: "We stick to our core demand, restoration ofland."Monday violenceTwo Hindu protesters were shot dead and at least 14 police and paramilitarysoldiers were injured in Jammu city on Monday, during Hindu protests againstthe government's U-turn, a government statement said.Shops and businesses in Srinagar have closed in response to the allegedassaults on Muslims by Hindus.Demonstrations by Hindus in the Kashmiri valley have stopped transport alongthe region's major highway, preventing food, fuel and medical supplies fromreaching towns and cities.Trader associations said lorries loaded with vital goods such as medicines,vegetables, meat and fuel were stranded on the region's main 300km highway,the only surface link between the Kashmir valley and the rest of India.About a dozen Muslim groups in the state have been fighting Indiangovernment forces to carve out a separate homeland or to merge Jammu-Kashmirwith Pakistan.More than 68,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since the startof the conflict in 1989.http://www.ajc.com/services/content/shared-gen/ap/Asia/Kashmir_Shrine_Protests.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=1&cxcat=0India asks Kashmiri separatists to end protestsBy AIJAZ HUSSAINAssociated Press WriterSRINAGAR, India - Tens of thousands of Muslims took to the streets againFriday in India's part of Kashmir, ignoring a plea by the country's primeminister for an end to weeks of violence that has left 34 people dead.A curfew that had been in place throughout much of Kashmir was liftedearlier Friday because the day appeared calm with streets deserted and shopsclosed as Kashmiris fell in line with a call by separatist leaders toobserve the Indian Independence Day holiday as a "black day."(enlarge photo)A Kashmiri Muslim cyclist is seen through a hole in a black banner held byprotestors as a mark of protest, in Srinagar, India, Friday, Aug. 15, 2008.India's prime minister called Friday for an end to weeks of violence thathas left 34 people dead in India's part of Kashmir as Muslims in thetroubled Himalayan region boycotted the country's Independence Daycelebrations. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)But soon after Muslim Friday prayers ended, tens of thousands of peoplepoured into the streets of Kashmir's towns and cities. In Srinagar, theregion's main city, protesters burned Indian flags and raised an Islamicgreen flag at the clock tower in the city's main bazaar.They also burned effigies of Indian soldiers. Security forces kept theirdistance from the protesters to avoid provoking another deadly clash.More than six weeks of unrest in Indian-administered Kashmir have pitted theregion's Muslim majority against its Hindu minority and left at least 34people dead, many of them protesters shot during violent clashes with policeand soldiers. Villages have been attacked, police stations torched and, inat least one town, security forces were ordered to shoot on sight anyprotesters violating the curfew.The crisis began in June with a dispute over land near a Hindu shrine. TheHindu minority was angered when the state government reversed a decision togive 99 acres (40 hectares) of land to a Hindu trust to build facilities forpilgrims near the shrine. Muslims had complained that the gift of land wouldalter the religious balance in the region.The spiraling unrest has unleashed pent-up tensions between Kashmir'sMuslims and Hindus and threatened to snap the bonds between India and itsonly Muslim-majority state.There are also growing fears that the violence could drive a wedge betweenHindus and Muslims in other parts of India, where Hindu nationalistpolitical parties have been organizing rival protests and calling for thegovernment to give the land back to the shrine.In New Delhi, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called for an end to theprotests and violence."It is my conviction that all issues can be resolved only through dialogueand peaceful means," Singh said in an Independence Day speech.He spoke from behind a bulletproof screen atop the ramparts of the historicRed Fort, the massive 17th-century sandstone structure built by the MuslimMogul emperors who ruled much of India before the British arrived.Singh's call was promptly dismissed by a key Kashmiri separatist leader,Mirwaiz Omer Farooq, who said the protests symbolize the "total rejection ofIndia's rule in Kashmir.""It's a people's movement and Indian forces are trying to break it by use offorce," he told The Associated Press.There is a long history of separatist movements in Kashmir, which has beendivided between India and Pakistan since 1948. Most were peaceful until1989, when a bloody Islamic insurgency began. The insurgents want to seeIndia's part of the region merged with Pakistan or given independence.The rebellion has so far killed an estimated 68,000 people. India accusesPakistan of aiding the insurgents - a charge Pakistan denies.India and Pakistan gained independence when the departing British colonizerssplit the subcontinent in 1947, sparking one of the most violent upheavalsof the 20th century and creating a rivalry that has led to three wars, twoof them over Kashmir.http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24192366-12335,00.htmlThousands rally to mourn protestersFont Size: Decrease IncreasePrint Page: PrintFrom correspondents in Srinagar | August 16, 2008TENS of thousands of people shouting freedom slogans massed in revolt-hitIndian Kashmir today to mourn 22 protesters killed in police firing duringhuge demonstrations in the mainly Muslim region.Mourners in cars, buses, jeeps and trucks streamed to Pampore town, justoutside the main city Srinagar, to take part in the outpouring of grief andanger and shout, "We want freedom," Indians go home" and "Kashmir is ours"."This is a day we want to protest the slaying of 22 innocent Kashmiris,"Mohammed Latief, 32-year-old truck driver, said as the town's centre wasthronged by a sea of people.Longtime separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the region's chief Muslimcleric, was carried to the rally podium on the shoulders of supporters."These demonstrations should open the eyes of Indians. Every soul wantsfreedom," said Farooq ahead of leading the crowd in prayers for the shootingvictims.Police said they would not disrupt the event where many of the demonstratorshoisted black flags, a Muslim symbol of mourning, and green and blackIslamic flags."Authorities have said no force should be used against peacefuldemonstrations," said police chief Kuldeep Khuda as security forces remainedat a distance to avoid provoking further deadly clashes.Street battles earlier this week left at least 22 dead in police firing andhundreds injured. Police have promised to investigate every shooting death.Srinagar and other parts of the Muslim-dominated Kashmir valley have beenrocked by some of the biggest protests since an insurgency against NewDelhi's rule erupted in 1989.Veteran separatist leader Sheikh Abdul Aziz was among those who died earlierthis week and Pampore, where the mourners gathered, was his home town.Aziz was a former militant who had renounced violence and joined IndianKashmir's political separatist alliance to seek independence for the region."He is our hero - he has laid a fresh foundation for our freedom strugglewith his martyrdom," said Ayub Laway, one of Aziz's supporters.Many mourners carried photographs of the slain separatist leader as asecurity helicopter carrying police and state administration officialshovered overhead."We are here to demonstrate against India's rule," said Mehraj-u-Din, aproperty dealer.The rally in Pampore came a day after India's Independence Day celebrationswhen thousands of Muslims in Srinagar protested against New Delhi's rule -some burning the national flag.Addressing the nation in New Delhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called itan "hour of crisis" and urged dialogue to resolve the violence in Kashmir,held in part by India and Pakistan but claimed in full by both.The unrest was triggered by a Kashmir government move in June to donate landto a Hindu shrine trust. The decision was later reversed, angering Hinduswho dominate the south of Jammu and Kashmir state.Hindu extremists then began blocking the only road link to the Kashmirvalley, sparking a fresh wave of protests in Muslim areas and furtherpitting the two communities against each other.http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/FullcoverageStoryPage.aspx?sectionName=&id=74e1216a-1a0b-4dae-9a18-5645fdf6663bAmarnathLandRow_Special&&Headline=Tens+of+thousands+march+in+Kashmir+protestTens of thousands march in Kashmir protestTens of thousands of Muslims marched in Kashmir on Saturday in honor of aprominent separatist leader killed in a recent wave of violence that hasrocked the volatile Himalayan region.The streets were a sea of black protest flags and Islamic green flags asdemonstrators filled Srinagar, the region's main city, and headed south tothe hometown of Sheikh Abdul Aziz. Aziz, the leader of the All PartiesHurriyat Conference, was shot Monday by police firing into a crowd ofprotesters. On Saturday, security forces kept their distance from thedemonstrators to avoid provoking another deadly clash. The protesters wereheading to Aziz's hometown of Pampur, 15 kilometers south of Srinagar.The march comes a day after the India's Independence Day holiday, whichKashmir observed as a "black day" by burning Indian flags and effigies ofIndian soldiers.More than six weeks of unrest in Indian-administered Kashmir has pitted theregion's Muslim majority against its Hindu minority and left at least 34people dead, many of them protesters shot during violent clashes with policeand soldiers.Villages have been attacked, police stations torched and, in at least onetown, security forces were ordered to shoot on sight any protestersviolating the curfew.The crisis began in June with a dispute over land near a Hindu shrine. TheHindu minority was angered when the state government reversed a decision togive 99 acres (40 hectares) of land to a Hindu trust to build facilities forpilgrims near the shrine. Muslims had complained that the gift of land wasactually a settlement plan meant to alter the religious balance in theregion. The spiraling unrest has unleashed pent-up tensions betweenKashmir's Muslims and Hindus and threatened to snap the bonds between Indiaand its only Muslim-majority state. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singhcalled Friday for an end to the protests and violence, saying "all issuescan be resolved only through dialogue and peaceful means."Singh's call was promptly dismissed by a key Kashmiri separatist leader,Mirwaiz Omer Farooq, who said the protests symbolise the "total rejection ofIndia's rule in Kashmir."There is a long history of separatist movements in Kashmir, which has beendivided between India and Pakistan since 1948. Most were peaceful until1989, when a bloody Islamic insurgency began. The insurgents want to seeIndia's part of the region merged with Pakistan or given independence.The rebellion has so far killed an estimated 68,000 people. India accusesPakistan of aiding the insurgents, a charge Pakistan denies.India and Pakistan gained independence when the departing British colonizerssplit the subcontinent in 1947, sparking one of the most violent upheavalsof the 20th century and creating a rivalry that has led to three wars, twoof them over Kashmir.http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=395020Nocturnal protests create panic in KashmirIANS Saturday 16th August, 2008An uneasy quiet descended here early Saturday after nocturnal protestscalled by the separatist Hurriyat Conference, during which people in someareas beat tin roofs and shouted slogans against security forces, creatingpanic in the Kashmir Valley.Repeated announcements were made through mosque loudspeakers late Friday,asking people to come out on their rooftops and protest against the allegedpolice and paramilitary excesses.People also observed a 'black out' for one hour by switching off electricbulbs in many areas.A few private vehicles could be seen plying in the summer capital of Jammuand Kashmir Saturday morning after days of shutdown and curfew.Though there was no shutdown call for the day, separatist leaders askedpeople to take out processions to the south Kashmir town of Pampore, 16 kmfrom here, where they will pay tributes to their slain colleague SheikhAbdul Aziz.Aziz was killed in police firing Aug 11, when thousands of Kashmiris,alleging an 'economic blockade' by Jammu protesters, attempted to cross overthe the Line of Control (LoC) - the de-facto border between India andPakistan - in north Kashmir.The valley has been witnessing unprecedented violence and public frenzyfollowing the bitter Amarnath land row, which has nearly brought the stateto the brink of division on religious lines.More than 40 people have died, mostly in police firing, in the last twomonths of violent protests in Hindu-dominated Jammu and mainly MuslimKashmir Valley.http://news.aol.com/story/_a/scattered-protests-held-in-indian/n20080817093709990007?ecid=RSS0001Scattered protests held in Indian KashmirBy AIJAZ HUSSAIN,APPosted: 2008-08-17 09:37:23SRINAGAR, India (AP) - Scattered groups of protesters across Indian Kashmirrepeated their call for independence Sunday as Muslim separatist leadersprepared for a march expected to draw large crowds.The streets of Srinagar, the main city in Indian Kashmir, were relativelyquiet Sunday, a day after tens of thousands of demonstrators shut down thecity to honor a slain separatist leader and demand Indian forces leaveKashmir.Protests were reported in several towns in southern Kashmir, includingBijbehara and Anantnag, but security forces were sparse to avoid provokinganother deadly clash.At least 34 people have been killed in more than six weeks of unrest inIndian-administered Kashmir that has pitted Muslims against the region'sHindu minority.Separatist groups prepared for a march Monday through downtown Srinagar thatMasarat Aalam, a prominent leader, expected would draw tens of thousands ofpeople.Leaders planned to deliver a petition to the United Nations office inSrinagar citing human rights violations by Indian authorities and demandingU.N. intervention, Aalam said.Indian authorities have discouraged the march and warned of a showdown ifthe separatists go ahead with their plans, senior police officer AfabulMujataba said.The crisis began in June with a dispute over land near a Hindu shrine. TheHindu minority was angered when the state government reversed a decision togive 99 acres (40 hectares) of land to a Hindu trust to build facilities forpilgrims near the shrine. Muslims had complained that the gift of land wasactually a settlement plan meant to alter the religious balance in theregion.The growing unrest has unleashed pent-up tensions between Kashmir's Muslimsand Hindus and threatened to snap the bonds between India and Jammu-Kashmir,its only Muslim-majority state.There is a long history of separatist movements in India's portion ofKashmir, but most were peaceful until 1989 when an Islamic insurgency beganthat has killed an estimated 68,000 people. The insurgents are seekingindependence or a merger with Pakistan.India accuses Pakistan of aiding the insurgents - a charge Pakistan denies.The neighbors have fought three wars, including two over Kashmir.http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=96091INDIA: Protesters blame media for 'improper' coverageSeparatist leader says the national media needs to be more objective whenreporting events in KashmirThe Times of IndiaSaturday, August 16, 2008By M Saleem PanditSRINAGAR --- The Jammu and Kashmir-based journalists have rubbed theprotesters the wrong way. While the Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti, spearheadingthe Jammu protests, blamed the national media for not giving proper coverageto its agitation, the separatist Hurriyat Conference flayed Delhi-based TVchannels for "downplaying the grave situation in Kashmir".About a fortnight back, mobs at Lakhanpur near Jammu attacked OB vans of twonational channels, while protesters in Srinagar assaulted the Srinagarcorrespondent of Aaj Tak on Wednesday."The channels need to do some introspection and report objectively. Theycan't play up the protests in Jammu and downplay the situation in theValley," separatist leader Nayeem Ahmed Khan said. "Media should report theincidents in the right perspective."Date Posted: 8/16/2008http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=396010Protests continue in Kashmir valley as leadership divided over futureIANS Monday 18th August, 2008Srinagar/Jammu/Tens of thousands of people were out on the streets inKashmir Valley Monday chanting secessionist slogans even though theirleaders appeared quite divided over the future direction of the movement.The threatened mass march to UN observers' office did not materialise asauthorities only allowed little groups to go there in batches.In Hindu-majority Jammu thousands of protesters courted arrest over theAmarnath land row. But the new volatile edge in the state did not translateinto any violence.In New Delhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed concern over thegrowing divide between the two regions that form the troubled state butthere was little sign of the deadlock being resolved amicably.'All political parties, all right thinking people must work together tobring the situation under control,' the prime minister told reporters.'Everybody has an obligation to contribute, all political parties... this isnot a partisan issue.'His comments did little to assuage tensions and there was no indication ofwhat the government was planning to do to calm the troubled waters.Tens of thousands supporting the cause of a 'free Kashmir' congregated inSrinagar from all over the valley Monday and marched towards the UN officeshouting pro-Pakistan slogans while security forces, asked to exercisemaximum restraint, watched on.The march to the United Military Observers' Group (UNMOG) office in uptownSrinagar was sponsored by the separatist Hurriyat Conference to seek UNSecretary General Ban Ki-moon's intervention to resolve the long-standingissue of the future of the Kashmir Valley.Leader of the hardline faction of the Hurriyat Syed Ali Shah Geelani said:'Our memorandum seeks UN intervention for the permanent resolution ofKashmir issue in the wake of the economic blockade imposed on the valley.'Upping the ante, Geelani told the mammoth gathering at the Tourist ReceptionCentre, a short distance from the UN office: 'We are Pakistanis and Pakistanis us because we are tied with the country through Islam.'But the ideological clash with the moderate faction of the Hurriyat wasapparent.Taking a dig at the moderate Hurriyat leaders who shared the stage with him,Geelani said the leadership issue of the Kashmiri separatist movement was'solved today'.'Do you have faith in my leadership? I will be faithful to you till my deathand will carry everyone along,' he said, as the crowd applauded him shoutingin unison 'zaroor' (certainly).In his speech, moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq called for atrilateral dialogue over Jammu and Kashmir, whose ownership is disputed byIndia and Pakistan.'We ask India to start a dialogue over Kashmir, open theSrinagar-Muzaffarabad road for trade and release all Kashmiris in Indianjails,' he said.Pro-independence leader Yasin Malik said that Kashmiris want 'completefreedom' -- implying from both India and Pakistan.The two factions of the Hurriyat Conference had been at loggerheads tillrecently but got united when the Kashmir Valley saw protests against thetransfer of government land to the Amarnath shrine management two monthsago.The state government cancelled the order -- provoking protests in Jammuregion and triggering an unprecedented communal divide in the state.On Monday, the 24th day of the shutdown in Jammu, many thousands came out tocourt arrest but police said they did not have vehicles to accommodate them.'Hum matwale kahan chale, jail jail chale!' (Where are we heading, to jail,to jail!) they shouted along with chants of 'Bam Bam Bhole' for Lord Shiva,to whom the Amarnath shrine is dedicated to.What appeared to be crowd of few hundreds first swelled and the streets soonfilled up.In Udhampur, the garrison town on the Jammu-Srinagar highway, 66 km north ofJammu, the police lobbed teargas shells to disperse a crowd of more than15,000.Monday's demonstrations by the Shri Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti (SASS), theconglomerate of various groups coordinating the agitation, would be followedby women courting arrest on Tuesday and children on Wednesday, saidBrigadier Suchet Singh, a Samiti leader.'We have no count of how many came to court arrest. It was a never endingprotest it seemed,' said a police official while the SASS put the figure at300,000 people.The charged mob ransacked the Jammu office of NDTV after the TV news channelwas labelled partisan by the SASS. The mob also searched for the channelstaff who had to run for their lives, an employee said.'It was quite scary,' one of the NDTV staffers, not wishing to beidentified, told IANS.http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080062748Protestors cane-charged in KashmirPress Trust of IndiaSunday, August 24, 2008, (Srinagar)Security forces lobbed tear gas shells and cane-charged protesters whodefied curfew orders and took to streets in Beerwah town of Budgam districton Sunday morning.Men, women and children trooped onto streets and hurled stones at personnelforcing them to resort to cane-charging. However, agitators refused todisperse prompting security forces to lob tear gas shells, sources said.Agitated over the imposition of indefinite curfew in all the ten districtsof the Valley since 4am ahead of separatists rally to Lal Chowk on Monday,people at several places defied curfew.Groups of people at Khanyar, Nowhatta, Gojwara, Jamia Masjid in interiorcity and in uptown areas including Maisuma, Nowgam, Natipora, Rambaghassembled in mosques and raised slogans against the Central and stategovernments.Meanwhile, the Coordination Committee of Separatists said Monday's march toLal Chowk would take place as planned. "Our programme 'Lal Chowk Chalo' onMonday stands", Committee spokesman Masrat Alam said.The Committee has called upon people to stage peaceful demonstrations in theevening.Alam and two other leaders including Shabir Ahmed Shah and Nayeem Ahmed Khanevaded arrest as they were not present at their houses when security forcesconducted raids.Holding that the curfew was imposed as a precautionary measure, a governmentspokesman said steps were taken as some of the leaders face threat from"vested interests."http://news.morningstar.com/newsnet/ViewNews.aspx?article=/DJ/200808250503DOWJONESDJONLINE000078_univ.xmlOne Killed As Police Open Fire On Kashmir Protesters - Police8-25-08 5:03 AMEDTSRINAGAR, India (AFP)--One man was shot dead Monday when Indian securityforces opened fire to break up a march by hundreds of independenceprotesters in Muslim-majority Kashmir, police said.Two others were critically wounded in the police firing that erupted ashundreds of people defied a curfew to try to reach a separatist rally slatedfor later in the day in Kashmir's main city Srinagar, police said."Security forces had to open fire when protesters attacked them with stonesand sticks," police officer Imtiaz Ahmed said.The death of the protester on the outskirts of Srinagar came as more 40people were injured Monday across the Kashmir valley in clashes betweensecurity forces and demonstrators, police said.Indian authorities imposed a curfew on the region Sunday in a bid to calmtensions in the scenic region that has been shaken by massive separatistdemonstrations in recent weeks.The demonstrators were planning a protest in a square in Srinagar where in1948 India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru promised Kashmiris theright to self-determination through a referendum - a pledge still to befulfilled.http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/JK_Curfew_defied_protesters_lathi-charged/rssarticleshow/3398405.cmsKashmir Valley tense ahead of Hurriyat rally25 Aug 2008, 0331 hrs IST,TNNCRPF troops question a man during curfew in Srinagar. (AFP Photo)More PicturesSRINAGAR/NEW DELHI: The government has decided to clamp down on massmobilisation by separatists in the Kashmir Valley with the administrationimposing curfew in the entire region ahead of Hurriyat's 'Lal Chowk chalo'call for Monday and launching a manhunt against the show managers.The crackdown -- with house arrests of Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz UmerFarooq and Yasin Malik and arrests of second-rung leaders -- was accompaniedby action on all fronts seen as hostile by the establishment, in whatsignals that the Centre may have drawn the red line against the continuingHurriyat protests.While the Army has been put on standby, a ban has also been slapped on local'unregistered' news channels identified by the administration as 'agentsprovocateur' in the raging Valley fire.The decision to flag down the separatists' call to gather in the heart ofSrinagar -- which officials explained was necessary as there was threat tolives of separatist leaders -- could test the administration as prevailingsentiments on the ground and a defiant Hurriyat leadership may result inpeople trying to defy curfew, leading to clashes with security forces. Over30 people have died till now in police firing.Sunday marked an ominous setting for an overstretched administration. Whilethe divisional commissioner of Kashmir Masood Samoon said, "Curfew will notbe lifted for 2-3 days and no one will be allowed to march towards Lal Chowkon Monday", an unfazed Mirwaiz warned, "People will defy the curfew to jointhe sit-in at Lal Chowk."The crackdown marks a sharp change in the "hands-off policy" adopted by thegovernor-ruled state where separatists, riding the crest of theirmobilisation in the wake of Amarnath land transfer controversy, were given afree run to "spend their anger".The policy saw the Hurriyat factions, working in close coordination,organise massive gatherings in Pampore, Srinagar-based UN office and Idgah,besides general calls for strike every now and then. It exposed theCongress-led government to attacks from BJP which said the Centre wasindulging the separatists at the cost of security.But now, indications from North Block and security agencies are that itcould be an end to the shows of strength and uncontested agitations in theValley, as the "threshold of tolerance" had been breached.It could be a prelude to similar action in Jammu where, besides theagitation on Amarnath land issue, there is strong intelligence that"outsiders" were moving in to fish in troubled waters. It is felt that the"outsiders" would try to scuttle a compromise between the administration andthe agitators for political or vested reasons.Action in Jammu -- where talks have started between agitating SangharshSamiti and governor's panel, with a likely solution being temporary transferof land during the yatra period -- would also look to balance the perceptionin Kashmir that the government was lenient in its treatment of pro-landtransfer agitators.http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/southasia/news/article_1426759.php/3_killed_70_injured_as_protestors_defy_curfew_in_Kashmir__1st_Lead_3 killed, 70 injured as protestors defy curfew in Kashmir (1st Lead)South Asia NewsAug 25, 2008, 10:46 GMTvote nowBuzz up!Srinagar, Kashmir - Three people were killed and 70 injured when crowds ledby Muslim separatist activists defied a curfew and clashed with securityforces in India-administered Kashmir on Monday, officials said.Police earlier arrested three prominent separatist leaders, Syed Ali ShahGeelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Yasin Malik, to foil a major anti-Indiarally called by them in state capital's Srinagar Lal Chowk area.Violence erupted in various areas of Srinagar as activists violated curfeworders and tried to march to Lal Chowk, in the latest protest action byseparatists demanding an end to Indian rule.A separatist demonstrator was killed and 12 injured when Indian securityforces opened fire to contain stone-pelting protestors in the Narbal area onthe outskirts of Srinagar.Protests were reported from other areas in Srinagar as local people andactivists tried to march toward the Lal Chowk area shouting pro-freedomslogans, violating the curfew.'Two protestors including a middle-aged woman, were killed in firing inviolence in the Pulwama and Handwara areas,' an administration officialsaid, requesting anonymity.Police sources said at least 70 people, including some policemen, wereinjured in similar clashes in other areas in the Muslim-dominated KashmirValley.Meanwhile, troops enforced the curfew in Srinagar as authorities mountedunprecedented security arrangements to thwart the planned march.The Lal Chowk area resembled a fortress as it came under heavy securitycover, with hundreds of police deployed in the area to break up anyprotests.In all, four people have been killed and more than 100 injured since acurfew was imposed in all 10 districts in the valley Sunday to thwart themarch by separatists.Daily life in the region has been disrupted by the strike by theseparatists, with shops, banks, schools and most government offices closed.The unrest, the most widespread in the region in over a decade, has seenclashes between protestors and security forces in the Kashmir valley thatled to the deaths of 23 people over the past two weeks.The protests, triggered by a row over the allocation of government land to aHindu cave shrine called Amarnath, have taken an anti-Indian turn in theKashmir Valley and led to a deep communal division in the Jammu region inthe south, which has a large Hindu population.While the Hindu groups in Jammu region have been holding protests to demandland be given to the Hindu shrine, the Muslims in the north have beenprotesting against it.The disputed Kashmir region is divided into two parts - one administered byIndia and the other by Pakistan. The South Asian neighbours have fought twoof their three wars over Kashmir.While a section of Kashmiri separatists wants to join Pakistan, anotherwants independence for India-administered Kashmir.'We will fight for self-determination for the region. It is no longer amatter of land for the Amarnath cave shrine,' Shabbir Shah, a prominentseparatist leader who has gone underground to evade arrest, told theDeutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.'The agitation will gather momentum and people will take to the streets inlarge numbers whenever the curfew is lifted,' he added.http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/I-will-quit-LS-if-protesters-brutalized-Omar/349837/I will quit LS if protesters brutalized: OmarPosted online: Sunday , August 17, 2008 at 05:26:53Srinagar, August 17: Threatening to quit Parliament if excessive force wasused against protesters in Kashmir, NC chief Omar Abdullah said a sustaineddialogue between the coordination committee of various separatist groups andShri Amarnath Sangarsh Samiti could resolve the shrine land row."If police continue to use excessive force, then it will be difficult forpeople like me to continue in Parliament," the National Conference leadersaid."Talks between the coordination committee and the Sangarsh Samiti should bea sustained one to find an acceptable solution to the crisis generated bythe land transfer row," he told reporters.http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/18/stories/2008081858470300.htmKarnataka - BangaloreProtest against J&K violenceStaff Reporter- Photo: K. Murali KumarConcern: Kashmiris of Bangalore staging a protest in front of Mahatma Gandhistatue on Sunday.BANGALORE: Several Kashmiris on Sunday protested against the continuingviolence in Jammu and Kashmir.The protesters, including those selling garments, and students, expressedconcern over the hardships caused to people there by the continuingviolence.They said the protests had made it hard for them to get money from or sendmoney back home. They said that people there were finding it difficult toget even medical help.http://www.newkerala.com/topstory-fullnews-7771.htmlUma Bharati stages protest outside PM residence, heldNew Delhi, Aug 6: Bharatiya Janshakti Party leader Uma Bharati was Wednesdaytaken into police custody when she tried to stage a protest outside theprime minister's official residence here.She was upset after her party was not invited at an all-party meeting at theprime minister's residence to discuss the situation in Jammu and Kashmir,which has been simmering for the past 36 days over the cancellation of landtransfer to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board.Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Uma Bharati reached the 7 Race CourseRoad house, but was apparently denied entry by security personnel. She thenattempted a sit-in outside the prime minister's residence and was taken tothe Tughlaq Road police station.Delhi Police officials were tight-lipped whether she was taken intopreventive custody or if she was arrested.Uma Bharati demanded that the central government immediately recall Jammuand Kashmir Governor N.N. Vohra and the disputed land be transferred to theshrine board.On Saturday, the Jammu and Kashmir police had in Jammu taken Uma Bharati andSadhvi Ritambhara into preventive custody amid renewed violence over theAmarnath land row.Jammu's Hindu population is protesting the revocation of a land transferorder that gave about 40 hectares of forest land in north Kashmir to theshrine board, which manages the Himalayan cave shrine. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Wed Aug 27 09:05:37 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:05:37 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] KASHMIR 3 of 3 - Hindu counter-protests Message-ID: <00bf01c9085e$c393c840$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES - Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ Protesters have mobilised on a massive scale in Kashmir, firstly to protest a land deal to transfer land to a Hindu shrine, in breach of the constitution, then later in an ongoing series of protests against Indian rule. Especially after the reversal of the transfer agreement, Hindus have staged counter-protests in Jammu, the mainly Hindu part of Kashmir, and across India. These protests have sometimes turned into pogroms and communal violence against Muslims. On some occasions, police have shot Hindu protesters. * Protester killed during Hindu protests * 25 wounded as protesters battle police * Communal tension in Poonch * Protesters besiege minister at airport * Protesters damage railway track * Kashmiri Pandits rally in Delhi * Cops injured, bus destroyed as Hindus rally in Delhi * Jammu protesters defy curfew * Protesters damage fence at minister's residence * Protesters damage official vehicle, electricity meters in Jammu * Protester suicide sparks protests, curfew * Tamil Nadu protesters block roads * Thousands arrested in Jammu protests http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/08/06/asia/AS-Kashmir-Shrine-Protests.php 1 dead as protests continue in Indian Kashmir The Associated Press Published: August 6, 2008 SRINAGAR, India: The army in Indian Kashmir opened fire Wednesday at hundreds of stone-throwing Hindu protesters angry over a government decision to not transfer land to a Hindu shrine, killing one person, an official said. Two other protesters were injured in the clash at Pullimore, a village on the outskirts of Jammu city, Ramesh Kumar, a police officer said. Kumar said that the army, deployed along the highway that connects Jammu with the rest of India, the only Hindu-majority region in India's mostly Muslim Jammu-Kashmir state, was forced to fire at the protesters after they defied a curfew and pelted stones at vehicles on the road and tried to block off the highway, Kumar said. Anger between Hindus and Muslims in the Himalayan region has flared since June when the government in Jammu-Kashmir decided to award 99 acres (40 hectares) of land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board, a trust that maintains the Amarnath shrine, a revered Hindu site. The shrine contains a large icicle revered by Hindus as an incarnation of Lord Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction and regeneration. Hundreds of thousands of Hindus are currently visiting the shrine on an annual pilgrimage. The state government was forced to revoke the land transfer last month after a week of often violent protests by Muslims who called the move an attempt to build Hindu settlements in the area and alter the demographics in the state. Six people were killed and hundreds wounded in those protests. But the cancellation angered Hindus and set off demonstrations by them. Jammu, the only Hindu-majority city in the state, and Samba, a town on its outskirts, have witnessed massive protests ever since. The violence has escalated sharply over the last two weeks and so far six people have been killed in the new clashes. The casualties include a Muslim man who was protesting alleged attacks on Muslims in the Jammu area. On Wednesday thousands of other Hindu protesters also clashed with police in other parts of Jammu, Kumar said. Shops, businesses and schools remained closed in Srinagar, a Muslim-majority area and the biggest city in the state, to protest the alleged attacks on Muslims. To control the spiraling violence, the state government last week asked cell phone service providers in the state to block text messaging to stop rumors from adding to the anger. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called a meeting of India's political parties on Wednesday to discuss the situation. About a dozen rebel groups in the state have been fighting Indian government forces to carve out a separate homeland or to merge Jammu-Kashmir with Pakistan. More than 68,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since the start of the rebellion in 1989. http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-kashmir-shrine-protest,0,7363623.story Medics say 25 wounded as Hindu protesters clash with police in Indian Kashmir By Associated Press 6:56 AM EDT, August 20, 2008 JAMMU, India (AP) _ Police using tear gas and batons clashed with Hindu protesters defying a fresh curfew in Indian Kashmir on Wednesday, injuring at least 25 people, medics and witnesses said. Authorities reimposed a curfew in Jammu, the region's only predominantly Hindu city, and several nearby towns after several incidents of violence were reported overnight. The clashes, which come after several days of relative calm, were small compared to the massive protests that have rocked the state over the last two months. At least 34 people have been killed in the violence. The crisis began in June with a dispute over land near a Hindu shrine. Muslims held protests complaining that a state government plan to transfer 99 acres (40 hectares) to a Hindu trust to build facilities for pilgrims near the shrine was actually a settlement plan meant to alter the religious balance in the region. A subsequent decision by the state government to scrap the plan angered the region's Hindus, sparking tit-for-tat demonstrations. On Wednesday, several hundred Hindu protesters took to the streets in Akhnoor, some 18 miles (30 kilometers) west of Jammu, demanding that the land transfer go ahead. The protesters set a police vehicle on fire and police used tear gas and batons to disperse them. "The baton charges and firing smoke shells won't stop us getting back the land," said Kishore Kumar, one of the protesters. Hospital officials said at least 25 people, including some police officers, were being treated after the clashes. Two people were in serious condition, said Romesh Kumar Gupta, the head of the local hospital. Police officials could not immediately be reached for comment. The streets were calm Wednesday in Srinagar, a predominantly Muslim city in the region that has seen some of the largest protests in recent weeks. Separatist leaders have called for a break in the protests until Friday. The recent unrest has reinvigorated the region's decades-long separatist struggle. The protests represent the biggest challenge to Indian rule over its only Muslim-majority state since the start of a violent insurgency in 1989 that has killed an estimated 68,000 people. Also in Jammu on Wednesday, several thousand people, including many children, defied a ban on public gatherings and assembled in large groups. Many marched to police stations, but police took no action. Wednesday was the third day of a planned three-day Hindu campaign to demand the land be transferred the shrine. Organizers had said they wanted 100,000 people to take part and try to court arrest - a tactic pioneered by Indian independence leader and pacifist Mohandas K. Gandhi. http://www.indianexpress.com/story/346574.html Curfew imposed in Poonch, protestors clash with police NEERAJ SANTOSHI Posted online: Saturday, August 09, 2008 at 0105 hrs Print Email Jammu, August 8: Even as the Army attempted to enforce a strict curfew in many parts of Jammu on the eve of the visit of the all-party delegation led by Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, protestors continued to throng the streets, with several tense encounters reported between the agitators and law enforcement personnel. Following the Thursday's communal tension in Poonch after stones pelted by pro-Amarnath protestors landed on Muslim properties, curfew was clamped on Friday as a precautionary measure, but rumours of major clashes spread to Mandi and Surankote, where people started enforcing a bandh. Throughout the day, pitched battles took place between protestors and cops, but no major casualties were reported. Early on Friday, protestors assembled and moved towards the bus stand where they smashed windowpanes of buses and pelted cops with stones, after which the administration handed the area to Army which staged flag marches there. Relaxation was given for Friday prayers between 1 to 3 pm, which passed peacefully, but around 6 pm, protestors defying curfew came out and started a procession from Geeta Bhawan to City Chowk. They threw stones at the cops, which forced the troops to resort to firing of teargas shells and lathicharge. There was also fear of a communal flare-up in Mandi, when a Muslim chemist was injured by agitators trying to shut down his shop. With people taking out processions and engaging in various acts of aggression, curfew continued to remain in force - although it was relaxed for brief spells - in Jammu, Samba, Udhampur, Rajouri and Kathua as well. Protests were also reported from Jammu old city, Talab Tillo, Anand Nagar, Janipur, Satwari, Jajjhar Kotli, Nowshera, Baribrahmina, Purkhoo, Mishriwala, Chinore, Bhour Camp, Gajansoo, Bantalab and Ghagwal, but the highlight of the day was a joint protest by Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus in the Parade area, demanding restoration of the land to the Amarnath Shrine Board and peace in the region. Now, even as markets and streets remain deserted except for sporadic protests and a heavy Army presence, Jammu residents are hoping that the all-party delegation reaching here on Saturday will help put an end to the impasse here, especially after no concrete result came of the much-hyped all-party meet chaired by the Prime Minister in New Delhi on Wednesday. The Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti has extended the Jammu bandh till August 14. http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2008/08/04/6348806-ap.html Police kill 2 Hindu protesters, 16 others wounded By Aijaz Hussain, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Hindu protesters shout slogans against Jammu and Kashmir state governor N. N. Vohra as one waves an Indian flag during a curfew in Jammu, India, Monday, Aug. 4, 2008. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Channi Anand SRINAGAR, India - Police in Indian Kashmir opened fire Monday at hundreds of stone-throwing Hindu protesters angry over a government decision to not transfer land to a Hindu shrine, killing two people, an official said. Both protesters were shot to death in the clash in Jammu city, said Ramesh Kumar, a police officer. Sixteen others were wounded, he said. In June, the government in Jammu-Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state, decided to award 40 hectares of land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board, a trust that maintains the Amarnath shrine, a revered Hindu site. The shrine contains a large icicle revered by Hindus as an incarnation of Lord Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction and regeneration. Hundreds of thousands of Hindus are currently visiting the shrine on an annual pilgrimage. The state government was forced to revoke the land transfer last month after a week of often-violent protests by Muslims who called the move an attempt to build Hindu settlements in the area and alter the demographics in the state. Six people were killed and hundreds wounded in the protests. But the cancellation set off protests by Hindus. On Monday, protesters defied a curfew order and poured into the streets of Jammu, the only Hindu-majority city in the state, and Samba, a town on its outskirts. "The mob turned very violent and started pelting police with stones," Kumar said. "Protesters outnumbered the police and tried to encircle them, forcing them to open fire," he added. Two people were killed in a similar incident Friday. Meanwhile, hundreds of Muslim protesters clashed with police and paramilitary troops in several cities in Indian Kashmir to protest alleged assaults by Hindus on Muslims in Jammu. In Srinagar, the biggest city in Indian Kashmir, one protester was killed when a tear gas shell fired by police hit his chest, said S.M. Sahai, a senior police officer. It was not immediately clear if any police were injured in the clashes. About a dozen rebel groups in the state have been fighting Indian government forces to carve out a separate homeland or to merge Jammu-Kashmir with Pakistan. More than 68,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since the start of the rebellion in 1989. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7542280.stm Protester dies in Kashmir clash Protests in Jammu have gone on for nearly a fortnight A protester has been shot dead by police in the Jammu region of Indian-administered Kashmir, officials say. The death follows three fatalities on Monday, two of them in the Jammu area. The Jammu protesters are angry at a state government decision to revoke a move to allot land for a Hindu shrine in the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley. Meanwhile, police in the valley fired tear gas to disperse Muslims. Worsening relations between Hindus and Muslims in Kashmir are worrying the government. The BBC's Binoo Joshi in Jammu says that much of the area continues to be under curfew with troops patrolling the streets. In the latest clashes, officials say that hundreds of protesters tried to set a government office on fire. "The police tried various ways to disperse them but had to resort to firing later in which 10 protesters were injured, one of them critically," an official told the BBC. Tuesday's death means that eight people have been killed and many more injured in Jammu in protests over the last fortnight. Our correspondent says that tensions have been exacerbated over the decision not to include the Amarnath Yatra Sangarsh Samiti (AYSS) - one of the main groups spearheading the protest campaign - in a group of concerned parties that will discuss the controversy over the shrine with the Indian prime minister in Delhi on Wednesday. Local Muslim leaders in Jammu have blamed "mischievous elements" for spreading what they say are rumours of communal unrest. Stone-pelting On Tuesday, Muslim protesters marched through the Maisuma area of the summer capital, Srinagar, in protest at what they say is communal tension being stirred up in Jammu. Chanting slogans, they pelted stones at the security forces who responded by firing tear gas shells to break up the demonstration. Protest rallies have also been seen in the city's Nowhatta and Gojwara areas. Shops and offices in Srinagar remain shut. One person was killed during Monday's demonstrations, as well as the two in Jammu. Srinagar has seen violent protests over the land row The Kashmir valley has witnessed violent protests in recent weeks following the government's decision to grant 40 hectares of forest land to the Amarnath Shrine Board. Muslims argued the move was aimed at altering the demographic balance in the area. The state government said the Amarnath Shrine Board needed the land to erect huts and toilets for visiting pilgrims. But after days of protests by Muslims, in which five people were killed and hundreds wounded, the government rescinded its decision, leading to unrest in the state's Hindu-majority region of Jammu. The BBC's Chris Morris in Delhi says that the latest trouble comes after years of relative calm. Our correspondent says Hindus in Jammu and Muslims in Kashmir are more divided than ever. http://www.newkerala.com/topstory-fullnews-5039.html Abdullah, Mufti forced to stay in airport by protestors Jammu, Aug 1 : Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah and People's Democratic Party leader Mehbooba Mufti, who had come here to attend an all party meeting, were forced to stay inside the airport for over three hours by protestors demanding allocation of land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board. Curfew was imposed in the city after the incident. Abdullah and Mufti had flown from Srinagar to Jammu Friday to attend the all party meeting called by Governor N.N. Vohra The word leaked out that Abdullah and Mufti would be attending the all party meeting following which protesters blocked the roads leading to the airport and they pelted stones. The state government offered to airlift them in helicopter to the Raj Bhavan but they declined. After a while, the protestors `learnt' that either the two leaders were going to be taken back to Srinagar or being airlifted to Raj Bhavan. So, they dispersed with some heading for the Raj Bhavan. In the meantime, the route from airport to the Raj Bhavan, a distance of about 12 km, was virtually sealed by three battalions of police and para-military personnel. It was then that the Abdullah and Mufti left the airport for the Raj Bhavan by road. Earlier Friday, the leaders of the Amarnath Yatra Sangarsh Samiti (AYSS), a conglomerate of 30 groups spearheading an agitation for allocation of land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board, Friday decided not to have further talks with Jammu and Kashmir Governor N.N. Vohra. The first round of talks Thursday had ended in a stalemate. "It is pointless to talk to the governor again unless he sends us a concrete proposal on the land issue," Tilak Raj Sharma, spokesperson for AYSS, told the media. Sharma had earlier said that they would continue with their agitation until their goal is achieved and simultaneously hold talks as well. But, the change of mind came after several hundred protesters gathered around the houses of Tilak Raj and Sangarsh Samiti convenor Leela Karan asking them to get the land before talking. Mediapersons were hurriedly called to be informed that the talks had broken down. "Talks have failed," said Sharma. Although the governor has called a meeting of prominent residents of Jammu and also of the leaders of all parties, the agitation leaders have warned them against "making any compromise". Meanwhile, the Jammu shutdown entered the ninth day Friday. Shops, commercial establishments and educational institutions were closed. The government May 26 allotted 40 hectares of forest land in north Kashmir to the SASB for creating "temporary and pre-fabricated" shelters for Hindu pilgrims on their way to the Amarnath cave temple and back. But the order was revoked July 1 following violent protests in the Muslim-dominated Kashmir valley, in which six people were killed. The protesters alleged that the land would be used to settle outsiders and change the Muslim-majority character of the valley. The revocation order silenced the protests in Kashmir but ignited demonstrations in the Hindu-majority Jammu region, which has been reeling under curfews, shutdowns and violent protests for the past one month now. --- IANS http://www.newkerala.com/topstory-fullnews-7046.html Land row protests: Railway track damaged in Jammu Jammu, Aug 5 : Protesters Tuesday uprooted a portion of the rail track to Jammu as the Amarnath land row agitation, that has had the state on the boil for more than a month now, gained aggression after the death of two youths Monday. An angry mob blocked the Jammu-Pathankote National Highway from Kathua to Vijaypur - a stretch of nearly 50 km. Some of the protesters, according to sources, also damaged the Jammu-Pathankote railway track between Ghagwal and Samba - a stretch of 10 km. The sources said the police and army troopers present there could only watch as mute spectators. People claiming to be eyewitnesses said the furious protesters were shouting "it is the time for Delhi to listen (to them)". People in Jaurian, a border town about 45 km north of Jammu, also staged protest demonstrations. The fresh spate of violence comes a day after two protesters were allegedly killed in police firing in Samba town. Their bodies were cremated Tuesday amid raging anger and anguish over the Amarnath land row. The Jammu and Kashmir government Tuesday ordered a magisterial probe into the alleged police firing in Samba on demonstrators blocking traffic on the Jammu-Pathankote Highway to press for their demand of restoration of 40 hectares of forest land in north Kashmir to the board of a Himalayan cave shrine in south Kashmir. The protesters alleged that district police chief Prabhat Singh opened fire first and other policemen followed. Official sources said Governor N.N. Vohra, who is performing chief ministerial functions after the state assembly was dissolved July 9, took cognizance of the case and ordered that the killings be probed by a magistrate. District official Saurav Bhagat told newsmen that a "magisterial probe has been ordered", and soon the terms of reference would be announced. But the people were not satisfied and were demanding action against the accused police officer. Hundreds of them Tuesday laid siege to the highway demanding that the accused be brought to book. Police officials said traffic came to a standstill on the highway even as most parts of the Jammu region continued to be under curfew for the fourth day Tuesday. Army and police personnel were deployed to guard stranded trucks. "There is no fixed formula to deal with such a situation. It has to be handled with care and this time we don't want any escalation in the tension," a police officer told IANS on condition of anonymity. The issue of the land transfer to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) and its subsequent revocation has polarised Muslim and Hindus of the state. At least 14 people have been killed in both the regions, the Kashmir Valley and Jammu, of the state since May 26 when the government first ordered diversion of the land to the SASB. The order was later revoked July 1 following 10-day long violent protests in the Muslim-dominated valley in June. The revocation ignited passion in Hindu-majority Jammu where some groups under the umbrella organisation of the Amarnath Yatra Sangarsh Samiti (AYSS) have been leading the protests for the restoration of the land to the shrine board. The government says the land was meant for erecting "temporary and pre-fabricated" huts for pilgrims to the temple. But Muslims allege that it was meant for settling outsiders and changing the demography of the valley. Every year hundreds and thousands of Hindus visit the shrine at an altitude of 3,888 metres. They believe their god Shiva narrated the secret of immortality to his wife Parvati, also a goddess, in the cave. http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=136712 Kashmiri Pandits protest in favour of land transfer The controversy of land transfer in in Jammu has created quite a stir in the capital as well. After a spate of protests in Jammu, now it's the Kashmiri Pandits staying in Delhi and NCRs who are protesting against the issue.. CJ: ROCKEY PANDITA , 30 Jun 2008 Views:412 Comments:0 AFTER PROTESTS from Kashmiri Pandits in Jammu , the Kashmiri Pandits who are putting up at different places in Delhi and NCR region protested in the capital on Sunday (29th June) against the controversy of land transfer in Kashmir. The Kashmiri Pandits, particularly the youths from the community protested at Jantar Mantar Connaught Place against the communalisation and politicisation of the sacred shrine of Hindus - Shri Amarnath. The youths were protesting under the banner of Roots In Kashmir (RIK) - a frontline global initiative of the Kashmiri Hindus (Pandits). In a press release issued to media, Amal, magazine coordinator said that "While on the one hand they purportedly issue messages and call for return of the Pandits back to the valley and the other side all of you are seeing what is happening." He further added in a release that number of Hindu temples and Shrines has been encroached and occupied not just by anti social elements but even by the state government that is supposed to protect this unique heritage of the state. Anshika Munshi a female activist while protesting said that "Some of the political parties even after supporting the transfer backed out for political interests. " The RIK said in a release that if the demography of the state has changed it has been due to the forced exodus of half a million Kashmiri Pandits of the valley. It is a shame that the state is acting like a spineless organisation against the anti national elements who in the garb of the land transfer issue are trying to disintegrate this nation", said Aditya Raj Kaul, founder-member of RIK. "The sacred shrine of Amarnathji has been pushed into a controversy deliberately and now hurdles are being created at each passing day against its smooth passage.", said Pooja Shali, a female activist with the group. http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Cops-hurt-in-Bajrang-Dal-protest/328754/ Cops hurt in Bajrang Dal protest Express News Service Posted online: Sunday , June 29, 2008 at 10:41:26 Updated: Sunday , June 29, 2008 at 10:41:26 New Delhi, June 28 Bajrang Dal activists supporting the transfer of land to the Amarnath shrine in Kashmir attacked Delhi Police personnel during a protest on Saturday. The mob, numbering over 400, left three policemen injured and damaged a bus outside the Jammu and Kashmir House on Prithvi Raj Road, the police said. "Bajrang Dal activists held a protest outside J&K House this afternoon and tried to enter it. They were, however, stopped by the police," a Delhi Police officer said. Police sources said the activists retreated before suddenly attacking a Delhi Police bus, standing across the road. "They broke all the windowpanes," an officer said. Armed with swords, the activists pelted J&K House with stones and burned effigies of leaders of the J&K government. The police had to resort to the use of water cannon to disperse the mob. Officers said six people were arrested for rioting. An eyewitness said: "Suddenly, a mob of over 400 people attacked the bus. Fortunately no one was inside otherwise a major mishap could have occurred." A case has also been registered at the Tughlaq Road police station and further investigations are on. Meanwhile, Roots in Kashmir, an organisation of Kashmiri Pandits, along with several other Kashmiri Pandit groups, such as Panun Kashmir, Kashmiri Samiti Delhi, All India Kashmiri Samaj, Panun Kashmiri Movement and Jammu Kashmir Vichar Manch, will stage a protest at Jantar Mantar on Sunday morning against the attempt to communalise the land transfer issue. http://www.indianmuslims.info/news/2008/jun/29/kashmiri_pandits_join_protest_over_amarnath_land_row.html Kashmiri Pandits join protest over Amarnath land row Submitted by Kamran on Sun, 06/29/2008 - 15:03. Indian Muslim By IANS, New Delhi : About 500 Kashmiri Hindus, settled in the national capital, Sunday took to the streets and burnt effigies of a few political leaders against what they called "communalisation and politicisation of the Hindu shrine Amarnath". Youths, who had drawn red lines on their forehead, blocked a road near Jantar Mantar, close to the city business hub Connaught Place, for over an hour. They held placards reading, in red colour, "Kashmiri Pandits still alive... U dare not do that", "Ethnic cleansing of Hindus... Genocide.. Exodus.. Now the revocation of land transfer!!!" and "Don't ignore our silence". They burnt the effigies of former deputy chief minister Muzaffar Baig and militant-turned-politician Yasin Malik. A minor clash took place between Kashmiri Pandits and the police when they set fire to the effigies of Mahbooba Mufti, People's Democratic Party (PDP) president, and another symbolising the Jammu and Kashmir government. The protesters accused the political leaders of communalisation and politicisation of the sacred Amarnath shrine. "The ongoing crisis in the Valley is a well-crafted exercise by the separatists and some `anti-national' forces. It comes at a time when the Amarnath pilgrimage was in progress and the Jammu and Kashmir elections are round the corner," said Amal Magazine, a coordinator with Roots In Kashmir, a group that organised the protest. Ajay Raj Kaul, another activist, termed Jammu and Kashmir Governor N.N. Vohra's decision to ask the state government to retain the land allotted tyo the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) as "immature". "The land transfer is justified for the benefit of locals and as well the pilgrims. Over six hundred Hindu temples and shrines have been desecrated and destroyed as a part of a systematic plan of cleansing the Valley of any traces of its glorious Hindu past," said Kaul. He also criticised the PDP that withdrew from the Ghulam Nabi Azad-led coalition government Saturday. "They are at the forefront of this mayhem, fuelling the anti-Hindu campaign in the Valley," he added. Kashmiri Pandits warned the government of a possible backlash on Amarnath shrine issue. "This should be treated as a warning to the government that there will be a severe backlash and mayhem of the same magnitude as is being seen on the streets of Srinagar if the land transfer is reversed," said Pooja Shali, a female activist. The Jammu and Kashmir government Sunday said it will retain the forest land allotted to the SASB. The move came a day after the PDP left the government in crisis by pulling out of the Congress-led coalition amid differences over the allotment of the forest land in north Kashmir's Baltal area. The Kashmir Valley has witnessed violent protests in the past week, after the state government March 5 allotted 40 hectares of forest land to the SASB, which till now managed the annual pilgrimage to the Hindu cave shrine in south Kashmir. The Jammu and Kashmir cabinet March 5, 2008 allotted the 40 hectares of forest land in north Kashmir Baltal base camp area of the Amarnath Yatra to the SASB headed by the state governor for facilities for the pilgrims. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/07/stories/2008070755451200.htm Protesters defy curfew orders Luv Puri Jammu: Protests against the cancellation of land allotment to the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board continued on Sunday and 35 people were injured in clashes with the police and Rapid Action Force personnel. The Baba Amarnath Yatra Sangharsh Samiti, a joint front of religious, social and political organisations, which is leading the agitation, extended the bandh till July 8. In the morning, curfew orders were defied at Muthi, Gangiyal and Kathua. The police and Rapid Action Force personnel resorted to cane charge and fired tear-gas shells. Post-afternoon, the situation was peaceful as curfew was relaxed from 6 to 8 p.m. throughout Jammu. Besides seeking restoration of land to the Amarnath Board, the BJP has demanded the removal of Governor N.N. Vohra. Congressmen quit About 400 Congress workers from various parts of Jammu quit their posts in protest against the cancellation of land transfer order. People's Democratic Party activists in Udhampur, Kathua and Akhnoor also resigned in protest against the party's stand on the issue. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Protesters_go_berserk_at_Soz_residence/rssarticleshow/3204389.cms Protesters go berserk at Soz residence 7 Jul 2008, 0456 hrs IST,TNN Print EMail Discuss New Bookmark/Share Save Write to Editor NEW DELHI: About 100 protesters from various Kashmiri Pandit groups in the capital allegedly damaged the fence around Union minister Saifuddin Soz's residence and broke flower pots after he reportedly refused to hear their case on the revocation of land allotment to the Amarnath shrine board. Fifty protesters were held and charged with rioting, criminal tresspass and damaging public property among other charges. http://www.indiaenews.com/politics/20080703/129471.htm Thursday, July 03, 2008 Land row: Protests continue in curfew-bound Jammu >From correspondents in Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir, 04:01 PM IST Angered by the cancellation of the land allotment order to a Hindu shrine board in Kashmir, some activists of the ruling Congress here Thursday defied curfew orders and took to the streets protesting against their own government's decision. Earlier, curfew was extended to other parts of the tense Jammu region as angry mobs demanding allotment of the forest land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) set ablaze a few abandoned houses in a town, forcing the authorities to deploy the army at communally-sensitive places. Thursday was the fourth day of agitations in Hindu-dominated Jammu, where people continue defying prohibitory orders to take out anti-government processions. Jai Singh, a Municipal corporator of the ruling Congress, came out with scores of his supporters defying the curfew order. He denounced the government's decision. Congress activists have also at other places joined the protests, largely sponsored by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). Protests in Jammu were triggered after government Tuesday decided to cancel the land allotment to the SASB, ending a controversy but beginning another over an issue that has gained a communal edge. Earlier on May 26, the government had allotted 40 hectares of forest land to the SASB, which organises the pilgrimage to the high altitude Amarnath cave shrine dedicated to Lord Shiva. The land, according to officials, was meant to create temporary facilities to the hundreds of thousands of Hindu pilgrims visiting the shrine every year. The decision quietened the violent protests in the Muslim-dominated Kashmir Valley where five people were killed in alleged police firing last week. But it led to violent demonstrations in Jammu where at least 80 people, including several police personnel, were injured in unrelenting protests since Monday against the cancellation. The authorities were forced to clamp indefinite curfew on Jammu since Tuesday evening. Rail traffic was halted at Kathua for sometime Thursday morning, while protesters blocked traffic movement on the national highway near Samba, Udhampur and Nagrota. Reports from Vijaypur, a town 30 km south of Jammu, where protesters stopped trains Wednesday evening, said an agitated mob set ablaze a few 'kullas' (huts) of Gujjars, who are up in the mountains with their cattle these days. According to a report from Banihal, a town 180 km north of Jammu on the Jammu-Srinagar highway, a few Amarnath pilgrims were allegedly pulled out of their vehicles and beaten by some people, who also misbehaved with women pilgrims. The BJP and the VHP have called for a nationwide strike Thursday to protest the cancellation order. Authorities here claim they were trying to bring the situation under control. 'We are trying our best to keep the situation under control,' divisional commissioner, Jammu, the highest civilian officer of the province, told media. 'Every one is concerned over the situation. We are determined to protect the properties and lives of all citizens.' Even in the few parts of Jammu not under curfew, normal life remained paralysed with people holding protests and demanding restoration of the land to the shrine board. Some of the BJP leaders have either been held or kept under house arrest to prevent their participation in protests. BJP's state unit president Ashok Khajuria is under house arrest, while former president Nirmal Singh, and party spokesperson Romesh Arora were held while marching with protesters. Women protesters have come out in large numbers in the border towns of Samba, Vijaypur, Bishnah and Ranbirsingh Pora raising religious slogans. Angry protesters have rejected all appeals from the government to calm down. 'This is a government of Islamic fundamentalists, and we are not going to call off our agitation because (Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi) Azad says so,' said Ramesh Kumar, a student leader who led protests in Jammu's walled city. 'We will continue with our agitation till the government restores the land to the shrine board.' http://www.newkerala.com/topstory-fullnews-3096.html Protestors damage official vehicle in Jammu Jammu, Jul 29 ; Agitators protesting against the revocation of the order transferring land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) today damaged the official vehicle of a Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM). ''The protestors passed through main bazaars of the city here destroying the electronic meters outside shops and houses,'' official sources told UNI asserting, ''The mob ransacked the official vehicle of SDM Samba Namely Abdul Hafiz, which was parked outside a local hotel at posh residency road.'' Sources said the mob, on seeing beacon light on official vehicle turned violent and damaged it. ''Aggressive protestors attempted to torch the vehicle but police resorted to mild lathicharge and dispersed the mob,'' sources added. The SDM however, had come to the hotel to attend a private function. Thousands of protestors took out a massive rally amid slogans against Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra, PDP and the State police. Situation in Jammu is tense and turned violent after the death of Kuldeep Kumar Verma, a protestor of Sangharsh Samiti, who allegedly committed suicide on July 23 during chain hunger strike, demanding the land back to the Shrine Board. --- UNI http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/29/stories/2008072951880700.htm Fresh violence as protesters defy Jammu curfew Luv Puri Jammu: Compared to the last two days, Jammu was peaceful but tense on Monday. Members of the Sangharsh Samiti defied curfew orders in some places. The samiti, a conglomeration of 35 political, social and religious outfits, has been demanding restoration of land to Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board. At least 20 people, including three policemen, were injured in fresh violence as protesters defied curfew at a few places even as the city observed a shutdown. Protesters threw stones and burnt a police vehicle at Muthi. District officials said curfew would continue in Jammu city, Muthi, Bantalab, Mishriwala, Pukhoo and Nagrota. Police resorted to lathi charge and fired teargas shells to control the mob. Samiti chairman Leela Karan Sharma said: The agitation will continue till the land is given to the Shrine Board." Meanwhile, Jammu Bar Association president B.S. Salathia appealed to the samiti not to allow the agitation to be hijacked by any particular party. A group formed on the initiative of peace activist Sushobha Barve urged Governor N.N. Vohra to invite the samiti members for talks. It also called for an all-party meeting on the land issue. http://www.newkerala.com/topstory-fullnews-2418.html Protesters damage over 1,000 electronic meters in Jammu Jammu, Jul 28 : Protesters agitating for restoration of forest land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) in South Kashmir today went berserk and damaged electronic power meters installed at houses and business establishments in the winter capital. ''Over 1,000 electronic meters have been damaged by the protesting youths who went door to door in the Old City and nearby areas of winter capital,'' a UNI correspondent reported from the area. Having covered their faces with handkerchiefs, the agitating youths were seen moving in the city on two-wheelers, shouting 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' and anti-government slogans. Despite curfew restriction, police forces, including CRPF and RAF, were seen nowhere in the old city areas, which witnessed violent clashes yesterday. Police control room sources said the curfew has not been lifted from ''sensitive'' Janipur, Bakshi Nagar, Pacca Danga, Domana, Nowabad, Bus Stand, Peer Mitha and City Police station areas in Jammu city. Jammu region is facing acute electricity crisis after a major transformer at Gladni Grid was damaged in fire early this month. Entire areas falling under district of Jammu, Rajouri and Poonch are facing more than 12 hours curtailments daily. People are facing hard times due to power curtailments in the hot and humid weathers. Meanwhile, life remained crippled in Jammu on the fifth consecutive day after the death of a protester Kuldeep Dogra, which rekindled massive agitation in the winter capital on Amarnath row. Various political and non-political parties joined under the banner of the Shri Amarnath Yatra Sangarsh Samiti (SAYSS) to carry on with the agitation against government decision of revoking the order for diversion of forest land at Baltal (in South Kashmir) to SASB for construction of temporary structures to facilitate Amarnath yatris. --- UNI http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1179739 Curfew lifted, protests continue in Jammu IANS Friday, July 25, 2008 18:49 IST JAMMU: Curfew was lifted yet shops and educational institutions remained closed here Friday following a call for shutdown, sparked by a youth's suicide over the cancellation of land allotment to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB). Despite the announcement by officials that curfew has been lifted, shops, commercial establishments and educational institutions remained closed following the strike call given by the Amarnath Yatra Sangarsh Samiti (AYSS) that was spearheading the agitation to restore land to SASB. The samiti on Thursday extended its shutdown call till Sunday evening following clashes between the police and protesters after the cremation of Kuldip Kumar Dogra, in his 20s, who committed suicide Wednesday urging the people to intensify the agitation. The officials after reviewing the situation found that curfew was not required. "We lifted the curfew as we felt that the situation was not as tense as it was on Thursday," an official said. Protesters continued to hold demonstrations against the government and demanded that the land be restored to SASB. The AYSS is demanding the allocation of nearly 40 hectares of forest land to the Amarnath shrine board. The land was first diverted to the shrine board May 26 for setting up temporary prefabricated structures for pilgrims travelling to the cave shrine of Hindu god Shiva in south Kashmir. The issue triggered massive protests in the Kashmir Valley. Protesters in the Muslim-majority region alleged that the plot would be used to settle outsiders and change the demographic character of Kashmir. The government rescinded the order July 1. That silenced the street protests in the Kashmir Valley but ignited a counter-agitation in Jammu, where people are still demanding allotment of the plot to the shrine board. http://www.ibnlive.com/news/curfew-in-jammu-after-amarnath-protestors-suicide/69463-3.html?xml Curfew in Jammu after Amarnath protestor's suicide CNN-IBN Published on Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 11:12, Updated at Thu, Jul 24, 2008 in Nation section Tags: Amarnath Shrine Board, Land Transfer , Jammu ON A PROTEST: Amarnath Yatra Sangarsh Samiti has called for a bandh over the suicide. Jammu: An indefinite curfew has been imposed in Jammu and adjoining areas ahead of a bandh call by the Amarnath Yatra Sangarsh Samiti (AYSS). The curfew has been relaxed for an hour between 1800-1900 hrs IST. The Samiti is protesting the alleged suicide of a man over the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) land row. The bandh has now been extended till Sunday. The committee is demanding restoration of 40 hectares of forest land to SASB. Protests began immediately after news of the suicide spread on Wednesday and an inquiry has already been ordered into the incident. Kuldip Kumar Dogra, in his late 20s, appeared at Parade Ground in Jammu and Kashmir's winter capital, where activists of the AYSS were on a hunger strike. Dogra made a speech to the gathering saying the revocation of the land transfer order to the shrine board had driven him desperate. He said that he was "sacrificing his life for the cause", said eyewitnesses. Dogra left a suicide note blaming politicians for not doing anything against the land revocation order. Meanwhile, police roughed up a few media persons covering the protest on Wednesday. The police top brass is now promising action against the guilty policemen. "It was very unfortunate that the media persons were attacked. We will take action and an inquiry will be conducted," K Rajendra, IG, Jammu zone, said. The land was first diverted to SASB on May 26 for setting up temporary prefabricated structures for pilgrims to Amarnath in Himalayas in south Kashmir. But the issue triggered massive protests in Kashmir. Protesters in the Muslim-majority region charged the plot would be used to settle outsiders and change the demographic character of Kashmir. The government rescinded the order July 1. That silenced the street protests in the Kashmir valley but ignited a counter agitation in Jammu, where protesters are still demanding allotment of the plot to the shrine board. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/14/stories/2008081451610300.htm Tamil Nadu - Salem Members stage protest against withdrawal of land Special Correspondent - Photo: E. Lakshmi Narayanan Voice of dissent: Members of various Hindu fronts staging a road blockade in Salem on Wednesday in connection with Amarnath temple issue. SALEM: Members of various Hindu fronts including Bharathiya Janatha Party, Hindu Munnani and Vishwa Hindu Parishad staged a road blockade near the New Integrated Bus stand here on Wednesday protesting against the withdrawal of land allotted to the Amarnath Temple in Jammu and Kashmir for the benefit of its pilgrims. The members raised slogans against the Centre saying that the moves had denied the basic rights for the yatrikas of the Sri Amarnath temple. They also said that they would not permit the Pak-sponsored terrorism on the Indian soil. The government's decision to bow to the separists' plea on the land issue will affect the secular fabric of the country, they claimed. State general secretary, BJP, R. Ramesh presided over the agitation. When the cadres tried to block the traffic in the busy road opposite to the New Bus stand, Police asked them to disperse. But when they refused the police arrested 62 including 4 women and moved them all to a Kalyana Mandpam near-by. Later all of them were released. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7570855.stm Tuesday, 19 August 2008 16:30 UK Many Jammu protesters 'arrested' Protesters in Jammu chanted pro-India slogans Thousands of Hindu protesters in the Jammu region of Indian-administered Kashmir have been arrested during street protests, police say. The demonstrators were angry over the state government's reversal of a decision to grant a small piece of land to a trust running a Hindu shrine. The original decision provoked anger in the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley where the land was located. Life has returned to normal in the valley after earlier violent clashes. More than 21 people died last week in the Kashmir valley during police firing on protesters. Correspondents say that Muslim anger has not been abated despite the decision to revoke the land order. Recently protesters in the valley have been demanding either independence from India or for Kashmir to become part of Pakistan. However, a call by separatist leaders for three days without demonstrations allowed shops, businesses and schools in the valley to reopen for the first time in two weeks. The row over the land has developed communal overtones Hundreds of people bought supplies in the summer capital, Srinagar. "There was little food left in our house, it is good they have called off protests for sometime," Mohammad Yaqoob told the Reuters news agency near a grocery shop in Srinagar. Correspondents say that the protests are expected to resume on Friday. After years of relative calm, the demonstrations in the valley were the biggest in a decade, analysts say. Surrounded Meanwhile thousands of people were arrested and taken to jail in the Hindu-majority Jammu region on Tuesday in protest over the government's decision not to provide land to the trust. Women waving flags surrounded the police station in Jammu town and nearby areas. They chanted pro-India slogans and willingly put themselves forward to be arrested as a symbol of their protest. Police looked on as some protesters climbed into police station buildings - many were detained but were let off later, police said. In one incident in Jammu town, hundreds of protesters threw stones and clashed with police who responded with batons and tear gas. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Wed Aug 27 09:46:03 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:46:03 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] CHINA: Protest at Tiananmen Square, unrest in Weng'an, Guangdong, and southwest Message-ID: <00c001c90864$6680f910$0202a8c0@andy1> Protests and social unrest in China: * In Beijing, residents evicted to make way for Olympic venues have rallied in protest, four days before the Olympics. Officials deny reports of clashes. * In Xinjiang, separatist attackers targeted paramilitary police, killing 16. * In Guiyan village, Weng'an county, Guizhou province, up to 10,000 people protested over allegations of a cover-up in an alleged child murder case. Dubbed "the largest unrest since Tiananmen 1989", the unrest saw attacks on police stations and vehicles, with dozens of police cars destroyed. 100 police were reported as injured and hundreds of protesters were later rounded up. The police chief was fired. Social grievances were cited in the media as the main cause of the unrest. * In Shangnan village, Guangdong province, locals tried to seize a body of a man they believe was killed by police, clashed with guards and trashed police cars. * In Yuhuan county, Zhejiang province, in the east, migrant workers were involved in three days of protests and clashes and targeted police stations after a migrant died during an identity check. * In Menglian county, Yunnan province, in the southwest, three protesting rubber workers were killed by police. Hundreds of migrant workers protested after a worker was injured. * In Fugu county, Shaanxi province, locals fought police over a suspicious death. * In earthquake-torn Chengdu, survivors confronted police over their theft of tents. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24130554-12335,00.html Protest near Tiananmen Square Font Size: Decrease Increase Print Page: Print >From correspondents in Beijing | August 05, 2008 A PROTEST by disgruntled Beijing residents broke out today close to Tiananmen Square, city officials said, just four days before the Chinese capital hosts the Olympics. The group were protesting the meagre compensation they were given after being forcibly removed from their homes in the Qianmen district of Beijing, an official at the area's relocation office said. The official, who did not want to be named, said: "There was some disruption and the street was blocked for some time." A Xinhua news agency report said police broke up the protest after the group voiced "dissatisfaction with government compensation for demolition of their houses" to a group of foreign media organisations. The report said police rushed to the site to maintain order as the group, made up of three to five households, had caused a traffic jam towards the south end of Tiananmen Square. Security officials later issued a statement denying that police had clashed with the demonstrators, Xinhua reported. "Police officers didn't clash or scuffle with the protesters, nor did they interfere with journalists' news-gathering activities, or detain any protesters today," security officials said, according to the agency. Tiananmen is one of the most sensitive sites for China's authorities, as it was the scene of weeks of pro-democracy protests in 1989, which ended in a bloody crackdown leaving hundreds, possibly thousands, dead across Beijing. Many Beijing residents have been forced to move out of their homes in recent years, as the booming city clears many traditional residential areas such as Qianmen to make way for modern buildings. The move has led to complaints from many long-time residents that compensation offered for the prime sites was inadequate. Authorities have stepped up security measures near the square in the run-up to the Olympic Games, which begin on Friday. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/04/world/main4318385.shtml Beijingers Protest Olympic Evictions About 20 Demonstrate Near Tiananmen Square, Houses Demolished To Beautify City BEIJING, Aug. 4, 2008 A couple react after their house was demolished, in Beijing, in this Dec. 21, 2007 file photo. Some urban residents said they were evicted to make way for new Olympic development without being paid enough compensation to buy new homes. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty) (CBS/AP) About 20 people angry about being evicted from their homes in central Beijing demonstrated Monday not far from Tiananmen Square, saying the Olympics should not curb their legal rights. Uniformed police quickly surrounded the residential street where the group was shouting about being kicked out of their homes and not getting proper compensation. The protesters had been evicted as early as 2003. "We don't oppose the Olympics. But it's wrong for them to demolish our house. It's wrong," said protester Liu Fumei, who scuffled with women in civilian clothes who were trying to force her from the area. The police officers did not interfere, but women who said they were members of a neighborhood committee pushed and led the protesters away from the area. Neighborhood committees are not officially part of the government but work closely with police and other departments. CBS News reporter Celia Hatton says an estimated 1.5 million people have seen their homes simply disappear in Beijing, as authorities rush to spit-shine the image of the capital city. A woman named Yu Ping, who's family lived in their Beijing house for 60 years, running a small store in front, was evicted recently. Hatton reports the police insisted on tearing it down, arguing it blemished the Olympic torch route. Yu says she and her 13 relatives who lived in the home will now have nowhere to go. China is sensitive to any public criticism of the Beijing Olympics, which begin Friday, and has stationed security agents throughout the city to watch for signs of unrest. Demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square are rare and generally stopped quickly by police. It was not clear where the protesters were taken, and whether they were detained. A duty officer in the Beijing police news office said he did not know what happened to them. A large crowd of onlookers gathered to watch the protest in the historic Qianmen district just south of Tiananmen Square, one of Beijing's most famous landmarks where large pro-democracy protests were held in 1989. Authorities cracked down hard on those protesters. Monday's demonstrators were unhappy about being evicted from their former homes in the area to make way for redevelopment. The area is being rebuilt into a commercial strip with businesses such as Nike, Starbucks and Rolex, and it is scheduled to open on Thursday. "Developers shouldn't use the Olympics to take our homes. And we cannot stop protecting our rights because of the Olympics," protester Ma Xiulan said. Beijing carried out a $40 billion makeover in preparation for the Olympics, and many older homes were razed as part of the modernization campaign. The protesters' complaints are not unique. Residents who are displaced to make way for new development without being paid enough compensation to buy new homes have protested in cities throughout the country. Meanwhile, two men rammed a dump truck into a group of jogging policemen and then tossed explosives into their barracks Monday, killing 16 officers in a restive Chinese province bordering Central Asia, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-08/05/content_6903095.htm Reports of clash with housing protesters denied (Xinhua) Updated: 2008-08-05 00:19 Comments(0) PrintMail BEIJING - Security authorities in Beijing on Monday issued a statement denying that police clashed with protesters who met with foreign media earlier in the day on Qianmen Street (Qianmen Dajie) in the city center, voicing dissatisfaction with government compensation for demolition of their houses. "Police officers didn't clash or scuffle with the protesters, nor did they interfere with journalists' news gathering activities, or detain any protesters on Monday," said the statement. The Chongwen District Government confirmed that some 15 protesters from the Qianmen area of Chongwen District met two Associated Press correspondents in front of a roast duck shop near Qianmen around 10:30 am on Monday, while Japanese TV staff were filming in front of the shop. This caused a traffic jam as other people joined to watch the scene. Being informed of the traffic jam, the police rushed to the scene and dealt with the congestion, leaving soon after the traffic jam was cleared. The Japanese TV crew's work was not interrupted, the statement said. The incident was the subject of at least two AP reports. An initial report said that Olympics protesters clashed with police in Beijing; a later one noted that women claiming to be members of a neighborhood committee were involved in the incident. The later story, filed at about 3:13 pm Beijing time, discussed the demonstration and said: "The police officers did not interfere, but women who said they were members of a neighborhood committee pushed and led the protesters away from the area." In an interview with AP correspondents at 12:30 pm, Zhong Yongming, deputy chief of the Chongwen District Government, said that 96 percent of the residents who used to live in the old Qianmen area, featuring poor public works, serious safety problems and dilapidated housing, were pleased with the upgrading project in the area and the solutions offered to rehouse them. http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-08/05/content_8956275.htm Beijing officials deny report of clash with housing protestors BEIJING, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Security authorities in Beijing on Monday issued a statement denying that police clashed with protesters who met with foreign media earlier in the day on Qianmen Street (Qianmen Dajie) in the city center, voicing dissatisfaction with government compensation for demolition of their houses. "Police officers didn't clash or scuffle with the protesters, nor did they interfere with journalists' news gathering activities, or detain any protesters on Monday," said the statement. The Chongwen District Government confirmed that some 15 protestors from the Qianmen area of Chongwen District met two Associated Press (AP) correspondents in front of a roast duck shop near Qianmen around 10:30 a.m on Monday, while Japanese TV staff were filming in front of the shop. This caused a traffic jam as other people joined to watch the scene. Being informed of the traffic jam, the police rushed to the scene and dealt with the congestion, leaving soon after the traffic jam was cleared. The Japanese TV crew's work was not interrupted, the statement said. The incident was the subject of at least two AP reports. An initial report said that Olympics protestors clashed with police in Beijing; a later one noted that women claiming to be members of a neighborhood committee were involved in the incident. The later story, filed at about 3:13 p.m. Beijing time, discussed the demonstration and said: "The police officers did not interfere, but women who said they were members of a neighborhood committee pushed and led the protesters away from the area." In an interview with AP correspondents at 12:30 p.m., Zhong Yongming, deputy chief of the Chongwen District Government, said that 96 percent of the residents who used to live in the old Qianmen area, featuring poor public works, serious safety problems and dilapidated housing, were pleased with the upgrading project in the area and the solutions offered to rehouse them. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4460397.ece August 4, 2008 Chinese separatists blamed for police grenade massacre (Jack Hill/The Times) The scene of an attack on Chinese policemen in Kashgar in Xinxiang province Richard Lloyd Parry in Kashgar The two men who killed 16 policemen in the Kashgar massacre were today identified as members of an ethic group engaged in a shadowy insurgency in China?s north-western Xinjiang region. The attackers, aged 28 and 33, were overcome and arrested at the scene and have been confirmed as Uighurs, a predominantly Muslim Turkic people, who make up the majority of Xinjiang?s 20 million population. Although the official media did not spell it out there appears to be little doubt that they were members of the insurgency seeking to break Xinjiang away from China and establish an independent Islamic state of ?East Turkistan?. The separatist link emerged as the crude audacity of the attack became clear. Repeated warnings from the Chinese authorities of a serious terrorist threat from the Uighurs were dismissed as cries of wolf to justify a security crackdown during the Olympics Rather than an assault on a police station, as had been initially reported, the men in fact targeted 70 policemen from the paramilitary border patrol service as they were jogging along one of the main streets of Kashgar. At about 8am, a lorry drove straight into the group, scattering the unarmed patrolmen before crashing into a power cable mast. The attackers jumped out and threw a pair of homemade bombs into the group before attacking the survivors with knives. Fourteen of the police were killed at the scene, according to the state news agency Xinhua, and two others died on the way to hospital. A further 16 were injured. Although the two killers were taken away alive, it was essentially a suicide attack ? they gave no sign of having a getaway plan and there is no doubt that, after a swift trial, they will be executed. In their language, religion, culture and origins, the Uighurs are quite distinct from the Han Chinese who dominate China?s business and politics. Separatist organisations have operated since the early 1990s, when increasing numbers of Han immigrants were encouraged to move to Xinjiang from China, creating tension with the Uighurs. The last unambiguous attacks by Uighur separatists were in 1997 and 1998 when they carried out a series of attacks on buses, police stations, military installations, prisons and political leaders ? although no attack killed more than a handful of people. After the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, the United States supported Beijing in having one of the groups identified by the Chinese government, the East Turkistan Islamic Movement, listed as a terror organization by the United Nations. China says that in this year alone it has arrested 82 people for terrorist activity, including plots to kidnap Olympic athletes and an attempt to set off a bomb on a domestic flight. Last month, after people were killed by series of explosions on buses in southern China, a video claiming responsibility was posted on the Internet by a group identifying itself as the Turkistan Islamic Party. But foreign analysts have expressed doubts as to whether these were serious terrorist threats, or were exaggerated by the Chinese authorities to justify the intense security measures imposed on the country during the Olympics. Either way the latest attack represents a drastic and unambiguous escalation of a formerly murky conflict and a blow to the safe image of China after a year which has already seen violent protests in Tibet in March and the devastating earthquake in Sichuan Province in May. http://en.epochtimes.com/news/8-7-5/72988.html 300 Protesters Arrested After Riot One of the Worst Demonstrations since Tiananmen Massacre in 1989 By Li Xin, Lee Wen, and Xion Bin New Tang Dynasty TVJul 05, 2008 Dozens of police vehicles were rolled over and set on fire by protesters. (The Epoch Times) The largest unrest since the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre has been quashed in southwest China's Weng'an County in Guizhou province. Currently a large number of paramilitary and riot police are stationed in the county. TV stations and radio have been urging people to turn themselves in to police. The unrest started on June 28 in reaction to the authorities' cover up of the alleged rape-murder of a 17-year-old local female student. On June 30, a Chinese reporter, Zhou Shuguang, arrived at the river bank in Weng'an County where the victim, Li Shufen's, body was found. Zhou told The Epoch Times, he saw many armed forces vehicles driving into the city. Locals warned Zhou it was dangerous to stay. Zhou took the advice and left. Zhou said, "Armed police are stationed on every corner with rifles and riot shields. The locals said that after the body was examined, it was found that all the victim's organs, including the uterus, had been removed." Local resident Mr. Lee revealed to NTDTV, "There are 7,000 to 8,000 troops stationed in town. Soldiers are everywhere. They are broadcasting all day to urge people to turn themselves in." Another local resident, Mr. Lai, said that there have been many other similar cases and several girls have been missing or found dead in the past. The police have also ignored those cases. This time, the victim came from a poor family, "People raised around 40,000 yuan (approximately US$ 5836) for the family to appeal to higher authorities. However, the local officials burned the money and did not allow them to leave. That's why people were mad and furious and a mass protest was triggered." According to the Information Center for Human Rights & Democracy, a watchdog organization based in Hong Kong, over 300 students and residents had been arrested by June 30. This recent protest in Weng'an is believed to be one of the worst demonstrations in China since the Tiananmen Square Massacre. http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/beijing/archive/2008/07/02/can-the-propaganda-machine-filter-the-steam.aspx Posted Wednesday, July 02, 2008 7:01 PM Guizhou Riots: How much steam can the machine filter? Jonathan Ansfield Say somewhere in China, during the Olympics, mobs of citizens go spastic over some case of official malfeasance, or mishandled public concerns thereof. Not some quibble over sovereignty or state security (like Tibet or terrorism) which turns public opinion against "anti-China" forces. We?re talking a squarely domestic social crisis. Will word of unrest filter out to the wired masses elsewhere around the country? Will Netizens clamor in curiosity and anger? Will their attempts to access information and engage in debate be stymied? Will this make them even angrier? Will they find cracks in the vaunted Great Firewall of China? Will senior leaders react fast enough to dispel the uproar? Will a lot of observers still be stewing for some time afterward? Will the 20,000 to 30,000 foreign journalists in China for the Games be all over the story? The answer to all these questions is likely to be yes, if we?re to judge by reactions to violent convulsion in Guizhou this past weekend. On Sunday night, I stepped into my favorite pub in Beijing to find it dead quiet but for Little Wang, the 22-year-old exec barman. Wang?s a scrawny migrant from the south who mixes a mean mojito with an unflagging social conscience (he appeared on this blog in a previous post), and it does not take much to press his buttons. Little Wang was literally stomping mad over the mass protest in China?s deep-south a day earlier. Advertisement Wang had first read about the incident in Weng?an county on popular Chinese Web forums, particularly Maopu. People were up in arms over the death of a 16-year-old girl who drowned in a river a week earlier. Police ruled her death a suicide; her family suspected she was raped and murdered. Rumors spread that two young men she was with were somehow related to the county party secretary and a police station chief, and that the girl?s uncle, a local teacher, was beaten to death outside public security headquarters where he pressed her case (turned out he was beaten but not dead, as later revealed by a Hong Kong TV interview with him from his hospital bed). On Saturday afternoon, a group of 300 people led by family, friends, and classmates descended on the police and government HQs. The crowd eventually swelled to as many as 30,000 people. A standoff with riot police spiraled out of control. In seven hours of fiery bedlam, people smashed, looted, and torched police cars and government offices, injuring more than 100 police. (The blog ESWN carries lots of pix) Suspicious death cases with police links can easily stir moments of national reckoning over class barriers in China today, as they long have race relations in the States - take the case of Sun Zhigang in 2003 or Lu Haixiang in 2004. Little Wang was plenty steamed about the rumors of foul play in Weng?an. The sentiment was echoed by his understudy Xiao Huang, who confessed to being ?dizzy? from hearing Little Wang?s rant but added: ?I myself have never thought anything good of China?s police. They?re all corrupt scum of the earth.? What really riled Little Wang, though, was his confusion about the case. Why were people in Weng'an angry? Were their suspicions true? Why didn?t the government address them properly? Efforts to answer his questions only left him more frustrated. Wang: ??All night and morning, I was clicking on posts about it. First it was there. Then it was gone. Then it was there again. Then gone. Every few minutes it was being deleted, sometimes every few seconds. The site had orders to block it. That was obvious. But they couldn?t keep up. Every time they did, we Netizens got angrier and angrier.? Little Wang gave up surfing on Tianya, the go-to Web forum in China for discussion of social injustices. ?Tianya?s too serious!? he scoffed. In fact, though the editors were scrubbing out posts about Weng?an, Tianya groupies were masking their posts under oblique headers, sometimes very oblique headers. Roland Soong, the Hong Kong-based uber-blogger behind ESWN, detailed this phenomena (see comment 030), which was later covered in The Wall Street Journal. Wrote Soong on Sunday evening: "For example, the first item says that oveseas media are paying a great of attention of the lives of people living in the plateau of the Yunnan-Guizhou area. The second item says that the people of X'an (Guizhou) are lighting an extra large sacred flame to celebrate the Beijing Olympics. The third item just says, "Delete this!! Your mother's c*nt!" The fourth item says that "when the army arrives in southwestern China, I think something big will happen! I believe that our troops have conscience." The fifth item says that the anti-American posts from the anti-American warriors have all met death -- the revolution has not yet succeeded and our comrades need to keep working. What was that last one? The term "American" is being used for "Chinese"!" I explained Soong?s insights to Little Wang. He said such invention was also evident on Maopu, a buzz-driven entertainment site which targets a younger audience (the name means ?pouncing cat?). He took a seat at my laptop and scrolled way down the site in search of links on the Weng?an rioting. Nothing. Little Wang sprung to his feet in a fit of accusatory stuttering: ?You see! Gone again!? By this time the easiest info to find in Chinese was by far the official Xinhua new agency?s initial two-graph report, which came out after the news proliferated in the forums and on Chinese news sites outside the mainland. Little Wang, for his part, was surprised Xinhua would report the incident at all. ?You must be kidding? All we can get is Xinhua?? Part of it read: "During the process of reception by the relevant government officials, certain people instigated the masses who did not know the truth to attack the county public security bureau, county government and county party offices. A small number of criminal elements vandalized the offices and set fire to many offices and vehicles." ESWN provided a link to the Xinhua piece that appeared on the obscure site of a Fujian-based trade weekly sponsored by the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture. Click on the link now and the page is blank. But at the time, the text was accompanied by an unattributed picture ? probably not Xinhua? - of a throng of thousands gathered outside Weng?an government buildings. ?Doesn?t look like a ?small number? to me,? cracked Wang. My shaggy mixologist friend was only further irked by what official attempts to paint people protesters as a herd of know-nothings incited by misinformation and ?criminal elements?, even if, by many accounts, this was partly the case. ?How are they supposed to know any better, when the government conceals everything from them?? A lot of Chinese Netizens felt that way, and over the next couple days they let the government know it. Not that there were tons of open venues for dissent. Whereas threads of discussion were cut off too fast to engender lasting debate on many Indies forums, those of central media appeared to be less carefully vetted in the first two days. Comments there predominately cast the protesters as ?rights defenders? up against corrupt local cadres and police. It?s not that surprising, in this day and age, that central government media would allow such scrutiny of a small-town mess. This is how the Communist Party distances itself from its problems. Still, it?s interesting to see how -- as the provincial and central government began to investigate the matter and establish their official version of events -- their online departments moved into a guiding role. They became mother ships, swallowing up a good proportion of the virtual space for critique of the government. Soong analyzes this stratagem of co-option in uniquely Chinese political terms, both traditional and technocratic. ?Hydrological engineering?, he dubs it: "Yes, HYDROLOGICAL ENGINEERING! Many of the current crop of central government leaders are technocrats with engineering background. As such, they must understand that public opinion is water that can carry the ship as well as turn it over. [per the dynastic conception of the imperial mandate to rule] The point about hydrological engineering is not to build dams to hold the water back because there will be a catastrophic dam break one day that might bring down the entire system. Instead, the point should be about controlling and redirecting the awesome power of nature in less harmful ways down selected channels." "In the case of the Weng'an mass incident, the major portals were deleting the related posts as quickly as possible. At Tianya Forum, it was estimated that a Weng'an-related post has an average lifetime of 15 seconds before being deleted by the administrators. That was supposed to be a record speed. The same thing was happening at Sina.com, Sohu.com, Baidu, etc. So this was building massive dams all over the map which builds up a tremendous pressure. Where was the pressure release point? You may be amazed that it was over at the Xinhua Forum. The webmasters posted the official Xinhua news story on the forum. That does not help in itself because Chinese netizens think that this Xinhua story was vague and misleading. However, the webmasters allowed the comments to run freely. This meant that the Xinhua posts became the meeting points of all those who want to talk about the Weng'an incident but could not do so elsewhere. Although that post did not contain any news information (such as photos and videos), it was a place for people to vent their outrage. As a result, Xinhua got a record-setting number of visitors who were very appreciative. Is this the plan for the future? You'll find out at the next mass incident (and there will be many)." On the independent forums earlier this week, an abundance of anonymous posts have emerged from "authoritative local sources" who dispel rumors of official meddling and blame the dust-up on small band of rowdies. Soong, who has translated quite a few of those posts, notes that Netizens do not trust them: "On one hand, there is the legendary "50-cent gang." These are supposed to be professional Internet writers who get paid 0.50 RMB for every post favorable to the government position. When yet another version of the Weng'an mass incident gets published as being the ultimate truth, the author is accused of being a member of the "50-cent gang" who is trying to confuse the public. Indeed, if you read through enough versions, you will probably throw up your hands and decide that you don't know what the truth is anymore. Instead, you change your investigation to questioning the motives of the people who are producing these versions." "On the other hand, there is the legendary "Internet special agent (??)." These are supposed to be professional spies who are paid by anti-China hostile forces to publish unfavorable information about China. For example, some of the posts mentioned that the People's Liberation Army has been dispatched to Weng'an with tanks and artillery, with the hint of a Tiananmen-like massacre to follow. Immediately, the other netizens reacted by pointing that these posts are coming from "Internet special agents." The netizens want to draw a very clear line: they may be protesting against what is happening in Weng'an but they will not serve the purpose of the anti-China hostile forces. This is very clear." By Monday, local authorities had detained or questioned as many as 300 rioters, and ordered a new inquest into the girl?s death. But the results of the review appeared a foregone conclusion. Three days after my encounter with Little Wang, state media across the country were leading on the file compiled by Guizhou?s Communist Party-run media ? the Guizhou Daily, Guizhou Television, and the Guizhou Metropolis Daily ? which took on key questions in the case point by point. It stood faithfully by the provincial government findings that the young men with the dead girl had no family connections to officials and had done no wrong - the girl had simply jumped into the river. The file was broken down into a series of ?inquiries? in The Beijing News, a progressive tabloid. At the top of the Maopu message board, the same body of information was packaged as ?rumor? and ?fact?. Maopu was back to its perplexing ways on Thursday. One featured link on the Weng'an protest poked a number of holes in the eyewitnesses accounts from the dead girl's friends. But the topmost link turned the problem of public mistrust in the case on its head: "Why didn't anyone doubt the rumors?" begged the title. One reason is officials in Weng'an did too little, too late to address people's suspicions. So argued the Jinan-based Qilu Evening News, far from Guizhou in Shandong province, in an editorial on Tuesday: "In the Internet age, if public information lags in the slightest, it can leave room for rumors to be broadcast. This is a reality that must be confronted." Arguably, senior leaders did react much faster and more attentively than they might have in the past. The provincial government sprung to action, backed by orders from Chinese leader Hu Jintao. Guizhou Party Secretary Shi Zongyuan, formerly chief of the state press and publication regulator, was in Weng'an within 48 hours of the incident. Shi ultimately pinned the riot on a "criminal elements" with "ulterior motives" - not a popular statement at all, as noted. But at a "public forum", according to the Guizhou Daily, he also did acknowledge "social conflicts that had accumulated over time", "tense relations between cadres and the masses", and "people's dissatisfaction toward our work". But the remarks were airbrushed when compared to unpublished comments Shi made behind the scenes at a meeting of 100 local officials. Blogging For China translated the intriguing account of a Guizhou journalist named Wu Hanpin, who apparently was in attendance and later blogged on the exchange: "After listening to the comments of those attending, Shi Zongyuan said: Weng?an county has always had tense relations between cadres and citizens, police and citizens. Weng?an county has repeatedly had violent incidents of robbery, murder, and rape which have gone unsolved. The people who live here lack a sense of security. The failures of the county public security ministry has made everyone in the local community angry. He advised that those responsible for county public security should be ?dismissed from class?. Hearing this, all of the local political leaders (members of the people?s congress, political consultative conference) clapped in approval." That page of Wu's blog now appears to be blocked. By the end of the week, Little Wang was not impressed by the Guizhou government's moves to resolve the issue fairly. He'd read a dizzying array of accounts and arguments, from Wu's to those on Maopu. He still believed it highly plausible that the dead girl was raped and murdered; that the two young men she'd been with were related to top Weng'an officials; and that the protesters were instigated to commit violence. He did not believe the provincial government was going over the heads of Weng'an officials to conduct an independent probe into the death or the riots. "Even if they sack a few officials, it's just a show," he concluded. "But how am I to really know?" http://english.sina.com/china/1/2008/0628/168979.html Police station assaulted, torched by local people in southwest China county 2008-06-28 22:33:15 GMT 2008-06-29 06:33:15 (Beijing Time) Xinhua English GUIYANG, June 29 (Xinhua) -- A police station and a county government office building in southwest China's Guizhou Province were assaulted and torched by local people Saturday night, official sources said. The chaos started in Weng'an county seat Saturday afternoon when people who were dissatisfied with the medicolegal expertise on the death of a local girl student gathered at the county government and public security bureau, police said. When officials were handling the case, some people who did not know about the exact context of what had happened were instigated to mob the police station and the office buildings of the county government and Communist Party committee. They smashed and torched many offices and some cars, police said. Provincial public security chief Cui Yadong, who is also member of the standing committee of the provincial Communist Party committee, rushed to the scene to help quiet down the incident. By 2 a.m. Sunday, the county seat was gradually resuming order while lookers-on began to disperse. http://english.sina.com/china/1/2008/0701/169452.html Police defend riot measures, admit 150 injured in SW China protests 2008-07-01 14:38:59 GMT 2008-07-01 22:38:59 (Beijing Time) Xinhua English GUIYANG, Guizhou, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Public security officials on Tuesday defended police actions in dealing with violent protests in southwest China at the weekend, saying they showed "great restraint". However, more than 150 people, including more than 100 police, were injured in Saturday's riots in Weng'an county, Guizhou Province, but no deaths were reported, said Wang Xingzheng, provincial public security department spokesman. "Most of them were slightly injured," Wang told a press conference on Tuesday evening. The police, who were keeping order, had showed "great restraint" in face of the attacks with bricks and water bottles, he said. The incident began when about 300 people, including some who were dissatisfied with a police report on the death of a 17-year-old girl, started to gather at about 4 p.m. on Saturday at the county government and public security bureau. The police report said Li Shufen, an eighth grader, had drowned herself. However, her family insisted she was raped and killed. The crowd swelled and reached as many as 30,000 people at one point. Eventually, they charged into the police building, smashed office facilities, burnt vehicles and later some of them broke into the building of the county government and set about destroying facilities there. The chaos lasted almost seven hours and subsided on Sunday morning. The provincial Communist Party chief Shi Zongyuan on Monday called for local authorities to handle the incident properly. "We must put maintaining social harmony and stability on the top of our agenda," he said. The incident started from a simple cause, but was used and incited by a few people with ulterior motives, and some criminals took part, Shi said. Shi called for strict punishments for the organizers, ringleaders and key rioters, but an verbal caution for minor offenders. There must be deep-seated reasons beyond the death of the girl behind the violent protest, he said. Disputes over mines, immigration, relocation of residents for construction projects and other issues had not been given due attention for quite a long time. He criticized local officials, saying they had shortcomings that dissatisfied residents. "We must draw a lesson from the problems exposed." http://www.china.org.cn/china/local/2008-07/10/content_15987185.htm Final autopsy shows Weng'an girl drowned The girl whose death sparked violent protest in southwest China's Guizhou province was drowned, confirmed authorities after the final eight-day autopsy on Wednesday. Qu Jianping, the doctor in charge of the third and final autopsy, went to Weng'an County Wednesday to convey the results to the family of of Li Shufen. An examination on the vagina of 17-year-old Li Shufen shows that she was still a virgin at her death, dispelling rumors that she was raped before her death. A team composed of four doctors failed to find sperms inside and her maidenhead was still complete. The examination was done last Wednesday witnessed by Li's father, aunt, and two others. Apart from scratches on her right cheek and legs, experts who anatomized her head and body didn't find deadly injuries, said Qu. The doctors concluded that the scratches were not a result of assaults but was caused when Li struggled in the water or when her body was salvaged. No toxin was found in her stomach, Qu added. Experts also found blood spots on her conjunctiva and pericardiac velum and said the girl had swollen lungs, signs that she died after falling into water. The dead girl, Li Shufen, was a student at the No. 3 Middle School in Weng'an. Her body was recovered from a river in the county on June 22. This was the third postmortem and previous reports concluded she had drowned, but her relatives contended that she was murdered. Some suspected that Li was raped and killed by people who had connections with local government officials. Some people said they found blood on the spot. The autopsy report, however, said the blood was not of human being, but that of an animal yet to be decided. controversy over the cause of Li's death has sparked off a massive protest and riots in the county seat, in which the office of the county government and that of the county's public security bureau were torched. Dozens of government vehicles were smashed. Provincial Party Chief Shi Zongyuan attributed the riots to "rude and roughshod solutions" by local authorities to solve disputes over mines, the demolition of homes for public projects, the relocation of residents for reservoir construction and other issues. He also blamed local authorities for long-standing disregard for rampant crime in the county and incompetence in maintaining public security. Shi urged Weng'an officials to make the people's rights and interests their first priority and to deal with public grievances. The government also moved swiftly to sack four local officials. They were: Wang Qin, Party secretary of Weng'an county, Wang Haiping, the head of the county government, Luo Laiping, secretary of the politics and law committee of the Weng'an county CPC Committee and commissar of the county's public security bureau, and Shen Guirong, chief of the public security bureau. (Xinhua News Agency July 10, 2008) http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-07/04/content_6820613.htm Police chief sacked after violent protest in Guizhou (Xinhua) Updated: 2008-07-04 14:47 Comments(0) PrintMail Guiyang- Two officials of the southwest China county that saw violent protests over the death of a teenage girl at the weekend have been recommended for dismissal for "severe malfeasance". Armed police stand guard on a street in Weng'an, Guizhou Province, July 2, 2008. [Asianewsphoto] Click for More Photos The Guizhou provincial committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) proposed to Weng'an county's CPC committee and People's Congress at a meeting on Wednesday to remove county public security bureau director Shen Guirong and political commissar Luo Laiping from their posts. The provincial committee also required local CPC discipline inspection and supervision departments to investigate allegations against other officials in dealing with the protest. Leaders of the county's CPC committee and government had an undeniable responsibility for Saturday's violent protest ignited by a controversial police report into the girl's death, said Shi Zongyuan, Party Chief of the province. Wang Fuyu, provincial deputy Party chief, who is heading an investigation into the violence, said the protest would not have happened if local officials had communicated appropriately with the aggrieved people after the first signs of protest emerged. The deep-rooted reasons behind the protest were the "rude and rough-hand solutions" of local authorities to solve disputes over mines, demolition of homes for city building, relocation of residents for reservoir construction and many other issues, said Shi. "Some officials neglected their duties, but resorted to police forces when any dispute happened, which led to strained relations between officials and the people, and police and the public," he said. Shi also blamed local authorities for long-time disregard on rampant crimes in the county and incompetence in maintaining public security. He urged Weng'an officials to put the people's rights and interests at the first place and pay great attention to deal with people's complaints. "If the people's rights and interests are hurt because of improper polices or government decisions, we should admit the mistakes and correct the wrongdoings in time," he said. He also told local government to strengthen construction of the cadre team and management of the police force and vowed to seriously punish those who cover up for gangsters. Up to 30,000 people were involved in the protest, which was prompted by a police report on the death of the junior high school student Li Shufen last month. Police said the 17-year-old drowned, but her family and relatives contend she was raped and killed. The protest turned violent and rioters mobbed government office buildings. More than 150 police and protesters were injured, but no deaths were reported. About 160 offices and more than 40 vehicles were torched. Police believe 134 people committed the destruction, and later took 59 into custody. Sixteen are still in detention. Xinhua reporters found that most local people could name several gangs during their interviews, and the residents felt insecure because of the gangsters. Earlier in the day, police announced a four-month crackdown on gangs who were accused of inciting violence during the protest. Luo Yi, police chief of Qiannan prefecture, which administers Weng'an County, said the crackdown would "target gangs and criminal elements in Weng'an and its neighboring areas". Police would also investigate the illegal possession of guns and explosives, gambling, and other organized criminal activities, he said. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/30/asia/AS-GEN-China-Protest.php Police swarm Chinese town where thousands rioted after suspecting cover-up in teen's death The Associated Press Published: June 30, 2008 WENG'AN, China: Paramilitary police swarmed the streets of this town in southwest China on Monday and detained hundreds of people for allegedly torching police and government buildings in an outburst of public anger over the suspected police cover-up of a teenage girl's death. Official vehicles roved the town with loudspeakers blaring recorded appeals for rioters to turn themselves in as squads of paramilitary police in riot helmets and wielding batons patrolled the streets. Television stations also broadcast warnings to surrender, residents said. Police stood guard on corners and still hundreds more stood by in alleys and side streets. Authorities rounded up 300 people accused of taking part in Saturday's riot, a Hong Kong-based human rights organization said. The unrest is especially sensitive for China ahead of the Beijing Olympics in August. Citizens venting anger over official corruption, land confiscation and a growing gap between the rich and poor have been a thorn in the side of the Communist leadership in recent years, and top leaders have called for a focus on building a "harmonious society." The unrest in Weng'an, a town in hilly Guizhou province, stemmed from the death of a high school student, whom Internet chat sites said was raped and murdered. Her body was pulled from a river June 22, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Investigators questioned three young men ? two of whom may be related to local police officials ? but let them go, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said. As many as 30,000 people rioted Saturday because they were angry about a police report that said the girl drowned, Xinhua reported. One person carried a banner with the message "Return justice to the people," it said. Police used tear gas to disperse the crowd, and the violence injured 20 police and 30 protesters, Xinhua said. The crowd left 20 charred vehicles scattered in the yard of the county government compound and burned parts of the Weng'an Communist Party committee building. A preliminary investigation found no links between children of local officials and the girl's death, Xinhua cited vice county chief Xiao Song as saying. Liu Zhongmin, a teacher at the No. 3 Middle School in Weng'an County, where the girl studied, said further investigations by higher level medical experts and authorities are not complete. But residents feared they will also blame drowning in the death, he said. "The girl's teacher is now explaining the whole situation to her fellow students, trying to keep them calm," he said. Though shops were open, the announcements and heavy police presence lent a tense undercurrent to Weng'an ? set in a valley of terraced rice and vegetable fields about three hours from the provincial capital of Guiyang. The girl's landlord told Xinhua the girl's uncle recently had several confrontations with police, and was beaten by unidentified men in the street. The report did not specify whether the confrontations took place before or after the girl's death. The uncle was hospitalized last week in a county hospital, but has since been transferred elsewhere, Xinhua said. Telephones were not answered at the Weng'an public security bureau and county government office. A male employee at Qiannan prefecture's public security bureau, which oversees Weng'an, said the investigation into the student's death was continuing. Like many Chinese officials, he refused to give his name or position. Xinhua said the provincial government has set up a work team involving 10 criminal investigators and forensic experts to reinvestigate the death. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-07/03/content_6816840.htm Social grievances behind violent protest in Guizhou (Xinhua) Updated: 2008-07-03 14:00 Comments(2) PrintMail Armed police stand guard on a street in Weng'an, Guizhou Province, July 2, 2008.Local authorities beefed up security after the death of a 17-year-old girl led to riots, in which the county's public security bureau was set ablaze and ransacked by locals. [Asianewsphoto] Officials in southwest China's Guizhou Province have admitted there are social grievances in Weng'an County where a girl's death sparked a violent protest over the weekend. At a panel discussion on the protest on Wednesday, officials from the provincial and local governments said local authorities in Weng'an County had failed to solve disputes over mines, demolition of illegal buildings, immigration, reform of state-owned enterprises and many other issues. Related readings: No officials' kin involved in girl's death Guizhou stresses stability Up to 30,000 took part in mass action "Some legitimate interests (of the people) were not effectively protected, and some people bore grievances," said a Guizhou Daily report on Thursday. The officials also blamed rampant crimes in the county, between 600 and 800 cases annually. About half had not been solved. Theft, robbery and fighting were frequent occurrences. Up to 30,000 people were involved in the protest, which was prompted by a controversial police report into the death of Li Shufen last month. Police concluded the 17-year-old drowned, but her family and relatives contend she was raped and killed. The protest turned violent and rioters mobbed government office buildings. More than 150 police and protesters were injured, but no deaths were reported. About 160 offices and more than 40 vehicles were torched. Police believe 134 people committed the destruction, and later took 59 into custody. Currently, 16 are in detention. Earlier, provincial Communist Party chief Shi Zongyuan said the incident started from a simple reason, but was used and incited by a few people with ulterior motives. However, he added there must have been deep-rooted reasons behind the violent protest. He criticized local officials, saying they had shortcomings that dissatisfied residents. "We must draw a lesson from the problems exposed." Wang Fuyu, provincial deputy Party chief, and Vice Governor Huang Kangsheng joined the discussion on Wednesday. Wang, who is also heading a work team in investigating the protest, urged Weng'an officials to listen to the people and solve the problems that were closely related to their interests. http://en.epochtimes.com/news/8-7-6/73079.html Following Mass Protests in Weng'an, Many Chinese Renounce the CCP By Li Xin, Li Sisi and Xiong Bin Sound of Hope Radio StaffJul 06, 2008 In the wake of bitter unrest in Weng'an County, Guizhou Province, a large number of people in mainland China quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on July 1?the CCP's birthday. The Weng'an protest on June 28 had over 10,000 people?furious over an apparent cover up of a 15-year old girl's death by local authorities?surround local government buildings. The protest was violently put down by armed police. In response to these events "A special day to withdraw from the Chinese Communist Party" was initiated by the Global Service Center for Quitting the CCP. Many people said that they could not bear to CCP's violent suppression of the Weng'an people and thus wanted to withdraw from the evil party. One Weng'an resident, knowing of the special call by the service center and of the almost 40 million people who have already withdrawn from the CCP, stated on July 1 that he would quit the CCP's Young Pioneers. He said that what happened in Weng'an was unbearable and people are rising one after another against the CCP's tyranny. He said, "A young girl was murdered. The government said she committed suicide. This made people very angry. The police used tear-gas grenade and caused the chaos. Then government buildings and the Public Security Bureau were burned." He also pointed out that the local government colludes with criminal syndicates to engage in all manner of criminal activities, but no media dares to tell the truth. People seeking justice were suppressed with force by armed police. Now the armed police are everywhere. He said he could hold out no hope for this evil party. "You can see disorders all the time. Killing happens everywhere. There are many crime syndicates. Media reports are only interested in saving the government's face, but not the truth," added he. Guizhou resident, Miss Zhang, went beyond just quitting the Young Pioneers and the Communist Youth League herself. She decided to help more than 20 relatives and friends withdraw from the CCP and its related organizations. She said that the CCP suppressed Weng'an people, and many good people like Falun Gong practitioners and Christians of family churches [who attend non-registered churches] have long been persecuted. As such, many people want to quit this evil party. Miss Zhang said, "Not only me, all my relatives have agreed to withdraw from the CCP. I have helped more than 20 people quit the CCP. They all understand how evil the CCP is. We have no civil rights, no democracy and no freedom of faith. We really are living in an abyss of misery." [Taken from recording] http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_2349295,00.html Murder sparks violent protests 30/06/2008 09:27 - (SA) Beijing - China has ordered "rioters" to surrender following violent protests by 10 000 residents of a southern county angry over the alleged rape and murder of a local girl, a dissident website said on Monday. Residents of the restive county of Weng'an in southwestern Guizhou province reported a tense calm on Monday amid a heavy police presence two days after huge crowds attacked and burned government and police targets. "There are many police in front of the county government building and police station. Students are going back to classes, social order is back to normal," a resident who gave only his surname, Lai, told AFP. The incident comes at a sensitive time for China's Communist Party rulers as they seek to showcase the nation as harmonious and stable ahead of the Beijing Olympics in August. The riots on Saturday were triggered by anger over the alleged rape and killing of a 15-year-old schoolgirl amid reports that local officials were protecting the suspect, who has been identified as the son of the county's deputy chief. The anger was further fuelled by the death in police custody of the girl's uncle after he protested the handling of the case, locals told AFP. The state-run China Daily newspaper on Monday quoted officials as saying 10 000 protesters had taken to the streets due to "officials' alleged attempt to cover up a murder case of a girl student". The dissident website Boxun.com featured a photo of a public notice ordering those involved in the rioting to turn themselves in. Phone calls by AFP to the local police station went unanswered on Monday. The Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said on Sunday that more than 1 500 paramilitary and riot police had been dispatched to the area and that nearly 200 people had been arrested. Although numerous internet postings on the violence were seen over the weekend, few could be found on Monday. The government's internet censors typically block information on such clashes. China sees thousands of such outbursts each year as ordinary Chinese, faced with an unresponsive legal system and rampant official corruption, lash out violently at perceived government abuses and graft. China typically cracks down harshly on such outbursts and metes out stiff punishments for protesters. http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-07/10/content_8519852.htm Final autopsy shows girl in southwest China protest drowned GUIYANG, July 9 (Xinhua) -- The girl whose death sparked violent protest in southwest China's Guizhou province was drowned, confirmed authorities after the final eight-day autopsy on Wednesday. Qu Jianping, the doctor in charge of the third and final autopsy, went to Weng'an County Wednesday to convey the results to the family of Li Shufen. An examination on the vagina of 17-year-old Li Shufen shows that she was still a virgin at her death, dispelling rumors that she was raped before her death. A team composed of four doctors failed to find sperms inside and her maidenhead was still complete. The examination was done last Wednesday witnessed by Li's father, aunt, and two others. Apart from scratches on her right cheek and legs, experts who anatomized her head and body didn't find deadly injuries, said Qu. The doctors concluded that the scratches were not a result of assaults but was caused when Li struggled in the water or when her body was salvaged. No toxin was found in her stomach, Qu added. Experts also found blood spots on her conjunctiva and pericardiac velum and said the girl had swollen lungs, signs that she died after falling into water. The dead girl, Li Shufen, was a student at the No. 3 Middle School in Weng'an. Her body was recovered from a river in the county on June 22. This was the third postmortem and previous reports concluded she had drowned, but her relatives contended that she was murdered. Some suspected that Li was raped and killed by people who had connections with local government officials. Some people said they found blood on the spot. The autopsy report, however, said the blood was not of human being, but that of an animal yet to be decided. controversy over the cause of Li's death has sparked off a massive protest and riots in the county seat, in which the office of the county government and that of the county's public security bureau were torched. Dozens of government vehicles were smashed. Provincial Party Chief Shi Zongyuan attributed the riots to "rude and roughshod solutions" by local authorities to solve disputes over mines, the demolition of homes for public projects, the relocation of residents for reservoir construction and other issues. He also blamed local authorities for long-standing disregard for rampant crime in the county and incompetence in maintaining public security. Shi urged Weng'an officials to make the people's rights and interests their first priority and to deal with public grievances. The government also moved swiftly to sack four local officials. They were: Wang Qin, Party secretary of Weng'an county, Wang Haiping, the head of the county government, Luo Laiping, secretary of the politics and law committee of the Weng'an county CPC Committee and commissar of the county's public security bureau, and Shen Guirong, chief of the public security bureau. http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/the-wengan-model-china-s-fix-it-governance The Weng'an model: China?s fix-it governance Li Datong The Beijing government's response to an eruption of local fury in Guizhou province signals a vital change in its operating mode, says Li Datong 30 - 07 - 2008 A constant feature of the extraordinary social flux of contemporary China is the occurrence of serious clashes between the public and the police. A few examples from May-July 2008 indicate the extent and variety of this phenomenon: * on 26 May, police in Chengdu arrested people who witnessed them attempting to steal tents meant for earthquake-relief work; this sparked a confrontation between members of the public and the police * on 28 June, over 10,000 people attacked government and party buildings and set fire to a police station in Weng'an county, Guizhou province; this action was related to a belief that a local high-school girl had been raped and killed by people with links to the government * on 5 July, family members of a drowned driver in Fugu county, Shaanxi province attempted to seize the body of the deceased from police; this sparked a riot in which three police cars were smashed and seven people arrested * on 9 July, several police officers in Yuhuan county, Zhejiang province were injured when over 1,000 migrant workers attacked their building; this was related to problems migrant workers had had in obtaining temporary residence permits in the county * on 17 July, dozens of people were injured when members of the public clashed with the police in Boluo, Guangdong province; citizens had suspected the police of beating a motorcyclist to death * on 19 July, rubber-plantation workers in Menglian county, Yunnan province held a protest; police opened fire on the demonstrators, killing two and injuring one. Li Datong is a Chinese journalist and a former editor of BingdianFreezing Point), a weekly supplement of the China Youth Daily newspaper. When a conflict between the public and police occurs, the Beijing authorities routinely classify the event under the broad heading of "mass incidents". Media workers in China know that the term "mass incident" in fact refers to any incident which has to be quelled using the police. How many such incidents take place in China each year? The estimate for 2007, collated by weighing a number of sources, is 80,000. But this number is hard to verify. The authorities strictly prohibit reporting on where incidents take place, their causes, the extent of casualties and the outcome of the conflicts. Even if media outlets become aware that such an event is taking place, most will not send anyone to investigate it because they know that their reports will not be publishable. In this light the fact that so many reports on "mass incidents" have seen the light of day in the first seven months of 2008 is a real sign of progress. Of all the incidents that have been reported, the one that has been covered in most detail, and which has been most discussed online, is one of those listed above: the Weng'an incident of 28 June 2008. A change in the climate The riot that took place on 28 June in Weng'an county was even more serious than the protests in Lhasa in mid-March 2008. In Weng'an, over 10,000 people directly attacked the party committee and government building, and the local police station. Images of the chaos spread quickly across the internet. The official media - perhaps as the result of some modification of the censorship system - broke with the tradition of covering up such events. At the same time, the news stories that did appear were full of familiar, hackneyed phrases (such as "a minority of people incited the masses, who were ignorant of the true situation" and "attacked the party and government.") The establishment media stuck to this line even though China's netizens all knew that such reporting was inaccurate and thousands posted comments questioning the official story. After three or four days, however, there was a change in the climate. The Guizhou provincial party secretary Shi Zongyuan made a personal inspection tour of Weng'an and offered his views on the fundamental reasons for the unrest. His comments suggested that these went far beyond the ostensible trigger of the assault on the high-school student: Shi Zongyuan instead cited the way that the process of developing the mining industry in the area, accommodating migrants and relocating residents after their homes had been demolished had repeatedly infringed people's rights. In dealing with the disputes that these changes had provoked, local officials had acted brutishly, and even made indiscriminate use of police power. The county government's failure to implement strong and fair policies, the party secretary implied, had brought public resentment to boiling-point."Local authorities have failed to pay sufficient attention to the concerns of the public", Shi Zongyuan said. "They have failed to crack down on dark forces and serious criminality. The crime rate is high, arrest rates are low, and this has created an unsafe environment." Shi Zongyuan apologised three times to the people of Weng'an for the situation in their county. Even more surprising, the primary target of official sanction was not the rioting townspeople but the local officials. The county head, county party secretary, chief of police and commissar were all dismissed from their posts. In the end, even the more senior prefectural party secretary was sacked over the incident. The significance of Weng'an is that this is the first time that local officials have been the first to come under scrutiny following a "mass incident" (see Simon Elegant, "China Protests: A New Approach?", Time, 4 July 2008). After the initial riot, Hu Jintao himself - general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and state president - issued a memo on how the incident should be handled. This evidence suggests that the highest authorities were dissatisfied with the initial response to events in Weng'an at local level, and demanded an investigation into their root causes. The contrast between the immediate official reaction and what was to follow within a few days shows how the party's style of governance is evolving. A power beyond law China's breakneck economic development since the mid-1980s has to a certain extent been founded on the premise that the state's monopoly on violence will protect the government and official institutions even as unfair burdens are imposed on the public. For two decades and more, Deng Xiaoping's mantra of "stability above all else" has been the highest article of faith at all levels of government. Those who protest or petition to the authorities - no matter the cause - can according in principle be accused of "breaching stability", and subject to legal repression. The most common examples of this are the forced relocation of urban residents whose homes are to be demolished, and the appropriation of farmers' land in the countryside. The lack of any balancing power or democratic accountability has led to officials using ever cruder methods to deal with disputes. At the scene of almost all conflicts, the police tend to be out in force - as an instrument of state rather than of social protection. The use of state agencies as a tool in official hands is reflected in the way that the party secretary of Xifeng county, Liaoning province sent police to Beijing to arrest a journalist at a large newspaper who had written an article that the secretary found offensive (see Edward Cody, "Move to Arrest Journalist Sparks Backlash in China", Washington Post, 9 January 2008) . This is but one classic example of the abuse of police power with no regard for law or principle. It is obvious that this form of governance cannot persist. Weng'an helps to show why, in three ways. First, citizens have more access to information and freedom in circulating it than ever before. The fact that so many members of the public knew that the authorities' version of events in Weng'an was untrue or deficient, and were able to post their own stories and experiences, means that the total monopoly of information that was a bulwark of state power no longer holds (see Geoffrey A Fowler & Juliet Ye, "Chinese Bloggers Score a Victory Against the Government", Wall Street Journal, 5 July 2008). Second, the Weng'an riot is revealing in that none of the rioters were themselves affected by the incident which sparked their protest. After all, the death of a girl in suspicious circumstances directly affects at most a few families. At a deeper level, however, an environment where public anger and frustration have been bottled up for a long time can lead to any available incident becoming the occasion for an eruption of mass fury. The commentator Xu Zhiyong, who said that "Weng'an could be any county in China", was right. Third, local governments often act with wanton disregard for the law and public opinion. In the past the central government has chosen to tolerate this situation in order to maintain a united front. This has meant that the actions of some local officials have come to reflect on the government as a whole. The inevitable result - evident in Weng'an in the disparity between initial and eventual official reactions - is a crisis of governance. A new rulebook The central government will do its best to address the first two points, however difficult this may prove. It also appears to have understood and begun to take action to meet the third - by, in effect, refusing to be held to ransom by local officials. Beijing is conscious that if local officials are not held to account, it will be the object of the public's accusations: it needs to act to defend itself. Thus, the logic of the central government's demand for an investigation of "the root causes of events" in Weng'an is an examination of the culpability of officials at all levels. Indeed, three government departments have (independently of the Weng'an events) jointly released a set of regulations on punishments for the violation of rules on dealing with petitioning. A close reading of these makes it plain that they aim to lay responsibility for any unrest with local officials. If a "mass incident" develops, the local officials responsible will be punished. A single line speaks volumes: "Those who make indiscriminate use of police power during mass incidents will be stripped of party membership and dismissed from their posts." The new rules appear already to be having some effect. The media has reported on some meetings between local officials and petitioners. Such gatherings are often extremely crowded, an indication of how deep and complex the task of solving the problems petitioners raise will be. True, neither this new approach nor the specific response to the Weng'an riot can solve all the problems the party is facing. However, the fact that officials as well as the public are now being held responsible for "mass incidents" is at least a step in the right direction of solving China's crisis of governance. This article was translated from Chinese by Chris Allen http://networks.org/?src=abc:5402960 More Than 100 Chinese Villagers Protest Man's Death Chinese police: Villagers attack police station to protest man's death BEIJING July 18, 2008 (AP) The Associated Press More than a hundred Chinese villagers attacked a police station to protest the death of a man they say was beaten by local Communist Party security guards, police said Friday, the latest in a recent spate of violence triggered by discontent with authorities. Relatives gathered Thursday after Ouyang Jiusheng, 40, died in a motorcycle accident near Shangnan village in the southern province of Guangdong, according to a police statement sent via e-mail. A police officer and a doctor determined that Ouyang died of injuries sustained after his bike overturned, however, the relatives argued he was beaten by the guards who refused to let police take his body away, it said. The statement did not give a reason for the relatives' allegation. The crowd grew to more than 100 people and they attacked the police station, the local Communist Party office and a supermarket, the statement said. Four guards were injured and police cars were overturned, it said. Police and government officials tried to negotiate with the protesters but were unsuccessful and even more people joined in. "To prevent the incident from escalating, police had to clear out the site," the statement said. Eight people were taken into custody and a 25-year-old man, Ouyang's cousin, was detained for inciting the violence. As Beijing enters the final stretch before the Aug. 8-24 Olympics, the government is trying to limit protests or complaints across the country that could embarrass the image of a modern nation. Last week, hundreds of migrant workers attacked a police station in eastern Zhejiang province after one worker was allegedly beaten while trying to get a residence permit. In Guizhou province, more than 30,000 people protested and torched a police station in a town last month over what they believed was a cover-up of a teenage girl's death. A notice issued this week by the central government ordered local leaders to be more responsive to people's complaints and be better at resolving disputes and conflicts. http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-07-18-china-protests_N.htm?csp=34 Chinese police: Villagers attack police station as protest BEIJING (AP) ? More than a hundred Chinese villagers attacked a police station to protest the death of a man they say was beaten by local Communist Party security guards, police said Friday, the latest in a recent spate of violence triggered by discontent with authorities. Relatives gathered Thursday after Ouyang Jiusheng, 40, died in a motorcycle accident near Shangnan village in the southern province of Guangdong, according to a police statement sent via e-mail. A police officer and a doctor determined that Ouyang died of injuries sustained after his bike overturned, however, the relatives argued he was beaten by the guards who refused to let police take his body away, it said. The statement did not give a reason for the relatives' allegation. The crowd grew to more than 100 people and they attacked the police station, the local Communist Party office and a supermarket, the statement said. Four guards were injured and police cars were overturned, it said. Police and government officials tried to negotiate with the protesters but were unsuccessful and even more people joined in. "To prevent the incident from escalating, police had to clear out the site," the statement said. Eight people were taken into custody and a 25-year-old man, Ouyang's cousin, was detained for inciting the violence. As Beijing enters the final stretch before the Aug. 8-24 Olympics, the government is trying to limit protests or complaints across the country that could embarrass the image of a modern nation. Last week, hundreds of migrant workers attacked a police station in eastern Zhejiang province after one worker was allegedly beaten while trying to get a residence permit. In Guizhou province, more than 30,000 people protested and torched a police station in a town last month over what they believed was a cover-up of a teenage girl's death. A notice issued this week by the central government ordered local leaders to be more responsive to people's complaints and be better at resolving disputes and conflicts. http://www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp?S=8697488&nav=6DJI2cTB Chinese villagers protest man's death Associated Press - July 18, 2008 11:03 AM ET BEIJING (AP) - Chinese authorities are dealing with more protests ahead of the Olympics. Police say more than a hundred Chinese villagers in the south attacked a police station to protest the death of a man they say was beaten by local Communist Party security guards. It's the latest in a recent spate of violence triggered by discontent with authorities. The police say the man died in a motorcycle crash. The protesters haven't said why they think otherwise. The crowd overturned police cars and attacked the local Communist Party office and a supermarket. Police and government officials unsuccessfully tried to negotiate with the protesters, leading even more people to join in. Police say they were forced to clear the site. Eight people were taken into custody and a cousin of the man was detained for inciting violence. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/7/14/worldupdates/2008-07-14T174132Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-345057-1&sec=Worldupdates Monday July 14, 2008 Migrant workers protest, riot for 3 days in eastern China By Chris Buckley BEIJING (Reuters) - Migrant workers in eastern China rioted and protested for three days last week, officials said, vowing tough steps to quell the latest ripple of unrest ahead of the Beijing Olympics. The clashes broke out in Yuhuan County in coastal Zhejiang province, where dizzying manufacturing growth has attracted a torrent of migrant workers from poor parts of the countryside. The county government gave a sparse account of the confrontation on a local official Web site (yhnews.zjol.com.cn). But officials left no doubt they were alarmed. "This was a grave crime of obstructing public security organs in carrying out their duties and assembling a crowd to attack state offices," a deputy head of the Yuhuan police force, Weng Zhengui, told local reporters, according to the Web site. "We will thoroughly investigate it, sternly attack and show no softness." Thousands of protests, riots and "mass incidents" occur in China every year, most of them small and never openly reported. But the recent spasm of reported unrest comes at a tense time, with Beijing readying for the Games in August that it has promoted as a show of social progress and harmony. Rioting broke out in Kanmen town in Yuhuan on the night of July 10 after a migrant worker surnamed Zhang came to a local law-and-order office to complain about injuries from "colliding with a wall" there the previous day, said the account posted late on Sunday. The report did not say how he collided with the wall. Zhang agreed to be taken to a hospital by police, but on the way an angry crowd surrounded the police and yanked the fuel pipes out of six of their motorcycles. "Seeing that the situation was tense, the police decided to first withdraw, but while they were doing so the surrounding crowd threw rocks at them, injuring three police officers." The confrontation grew out of a quarrel over Zhang's application for a temporary resident permit and drew hundreds of workers to the Kanmen police station, some of them throwing stones, the official Xinhua news agency reported late on Monday. Migrant workers' sometimes complain that local officials and police abuse rules requiring residence permits and other checks, demanding exorbitant fees for them. The Yuhuan government report said 23 people were "dealt with according to the law" after authorities regained control. The Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, a group that often reports on unrest in China, said 300 anti-riot police were deployed to restore control. Calls to village and county offices were not answered. But on the following night, angry migrant workers again assembled in front of the Kanmen police station to "stir trouble," the report said, and again on July 12 a crowd surrounded the station and smashed some windows. Weeks before the Beijing Olympics, Chinese officials have been told to keep a tight lid on any flickers of unrest. But a riot involving 30,000 in the southwest Chinese town of Weng'an Fugu County, Shaanxi province has prompted widespread media discussion about the sources of continued discontent. Officials in Yuhuan said they would issue rules to strengthen management of migrant workers while also opening a "rights defence centre" for them. http://insidechinatoday.net/2008/07/15/bloggers-debate-suppression-of-zhejiang-workers-protest/ Bloggers debate suppression of Zhejiang worker?s protest Posted by Daniel on Tuesday, July 15th, 2008 According to reports on July 14, tensions were sparked between police and temporary residents of Kanmen in Yuhuan county of Zhejiang province. The conflict, which began on July 10, due to police checks on identification, lasted for several days. According to the Hong Kong based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, outraged workers violently attacked police stations for three consecutive nights. Most of the glass windows in the Kanmen Police Station have been broken. Internet news sources indicate tens of people had been killed, while police staff denied that they had beaten anyone to death. Information and discussion in relation to this incident have since been blocked and censored on major Chinese Internet blogs and forums. The Information Center revealed protesting workers were requesting the release of those who had been arrested. Yet, in response, the Yuhuan government has widened the scale of arrests, causing the conflict to further escalate. A local government website has given evidence of this protest event. One local government official told the Associated Press that 300 police officers arrived at Yuhuan County on July 13. According to an anonymous Chinese Internet blogger, officers with police batons would beat anyone within sight, and this continued until early morning. Reportedly, one man from Jiangxi and two from Sichuan were beaten to death. However, at an interview with overseas media, local police officers claim no one was killed. Another anonymous blogger also exposed that on the fourth day since the incident began there were still fights outside and that a normally busy street mall was devoid of shoppers as a direct result of conflict between the police and protesting mobs. An Internet blogger revealed that actual events did not follow the official line of a government statement. People were physically beaten until they moved on, not that they dispersed of their own accord under police force and that even casual passers-by and children under 14 were the subjects of violent abuse by police. Another blogger suggested that Sichuan workers would not protest for three days without reason, they also needed to make a living. The blogger wished that the government would reveal the truth behind the incident. In recent years, due to discontent toward government corruption, land repatriation and abuse of power by government officials, protests and riots have continuously arisen in many regions across China. Similar events have also taken place in Guizhou during which tens of thousands of people surrounded more than ten government buildings in protest, while its County Police Bureau and government buildings were attacked by arsonists. The Chinese Communist regime seems to be deeply unsettled by these protests. All government officials have received instructions to ensure that the Olympics would not be affected by protest activities. A ?Yuhuan 7-10 event? leadership team has already been established, and up to ten thousand Chinese Communist officials have been summoned for meetings on strategies to control the situation. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/19/asia/AS-China-Protest-Deaths.php Report: Chinese police kill 2 in fight with rubber farmers in country's southwest The Associated Press Published: July 19, 2008 BEIJING: Chinese police killed two people during a fight Saturday with rubber farmers in the country's southwest, a government news agency said. About 400 people fought with police in Menglian county in Yunnan province, the Xinhua News Agency said. It said some of those involved were rubber farmers who had protested against a local rubber company but gave no details about the source of Saturday's violence. Police used guns and clubs, killing two people and injuring a third, the report said. It said 13 police officers were injured. The area has residents from the Dai, Lagu and Wa ethnic minorities, Xinhua said. There are thousands of protests a year in China over complaints about official corruption or misconduct, the seizure of farmland for redevelopment and other issues. Some erupt in violence but fatalities are rarely reported. The Communist government is trying to limit protests ahead of August's Beijing Olympics, which it hopes will showcase China as a prosperous, stable country. Beijing has ordered local leaders to be alert to grievances and solve them quickly, the state press reported this week. Authorities in Yunnan were investigating Saturday's violence, Xinhua said. http://www.buzzle.com/articles/209864.html Police Kill Two in China After 400 Protesters Attack Officers Government stresses need for stability in run up to Olympics but faces string of direct protests Chinese police killed two people in a clash with local residents in the south-western province of Yunnan, according to official media, in the latest of several mass disturbances. The government has stressed the need for stability in the run-up to the Olympic games next month, but has faced a string of protests and the direct targeting of government property in recent weeks. The state news agency Xinhua said police used baton guns after they were attacked by around 400 local residents in Menglian County, a rubber farming area. Thirteen policemen and one local resident were also injured in the violence on Saturday, which broke out as police tried to take away people suspected of involvement in illegal activities, according to Xinhua. Rubber farmers are said to have been in dispute with a large rubber company in recent years. While thousands of protests and riots take place in China each year, most are small and never widely reported. But with the games fast approaching, the authorities are keen to find swift solutions. While Beijing has ordered local leaders to ensure they maintain security and stability, it has also ordered them to be more responsive to people's complaints. The provincial party secretary of Yunnan, Bai Enpei, ordered a swift investigation into this weekend's incident and urged officials to "listen attentively to the complaints and appeal of local residents, make great efforts to rescue the injured people, and console family members of the dead to prevent the matter from escalating". After another recent incident - when 30,000 people protested in Guizhou, bordering Yunnan, about an alleged cover-up over a teenage girl's death - officials accused "gangsters" of stirring up trouble. This weekend police said they had detained 117 people in connection with the riots, in which people set fire to police headquarters. But the authorities also acknowledged that local people had "social grievances" and sacked the head and political commissar of the public security bureau. The provincial party chief accused local officials of neglecting their duties, being incompetent and using "rude and rough-hand solutions" to solve problems. On Friday, Xinhua reported that more than 100 people in Huizhou city in the southern province of Guangdong had attacked police in a row over the death of a motorcyclist. Angry protesters claimed that he had been beaten to death by security guards - not, as the police stated, in a traffic accident. The incident came only a few days after hundreds of migrant workers attacked a police station in Zhejiang, eastern China, during three days of unrest. They alleged one man had been beaten while applying for a residence permit. http://uk.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUKPEK2000420080707 China sees another clash over a disputed death Mon Jul 7, 2008 9:57am BST BEIJING, July 7 (Reuters) - A week after rioting erupted in southwest China over a disputed death, another controversial death in the country's northwest sparked a clash between villagers and police, local newspapers reported. The earlier riot in Guizhou province brought 30,000 locals onto the streets after a local teenage girl's death sparked claims of a police cover-up of her rape and murder. The more recent clash on Saturday in Fugu County, Shaanxi province, was smaller and less destructive -- but nonetheless another reminder of the widespread distrust of authorities in parts of the countryside. China, with its vast and poor rural populations, sees many thousands of protests and what officials call "mass incidents" every year. But especially in the build-up to the Beijing Olympic Games in August, authorities want to stamp out any signs of unrest. The Shaanxi-based Sanqin Metropolitan Daily reported that on July 3 the driver of a farm vehicle jumped into the Yellow River to escape police checking him for traffic violations. Police fished his body out of the river two days later, and were then pursued by angry kin of the dead man, who demanded to know why they were not told of the find and also demanded to have control of the corpse. "The two sides struggled over the corpse...and neither side would back down, and this immediately attracted many spectators," said the report, which was reproduced on many Chinese news Web sites on Monday. In the earlier incident, residents in Weng'an, Guizhou, torched police and government headquarters and vehicles, demanding justice after claims spread that police had covered up as a suicide the rape and murder of a teenage girl. Police denied that relatives of officials had anything to do with the girl's death and said she drowned herself. Province authorities, however, subsequently sacked Weng'an Communist Party chief, county mayor and two top law-and-order officials. They said corruption and abuses of police power were widespread there. (Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by David Fox) http://seagullreference.blogspot.com/2008/05/protesting-chengdu-residents-tear-gased.html Friday, May 23, 2008 Protesting Chengdu Residents Tear Gased by Police A Chengdu resident climbed on the top of car to take a picture of the police woman, No. 006677. It had been raining like no end in the disaster area after the Sichuan Earthquake, and refugees had to stay overnight on the street in cold rain. Where had those tents donated by people around the world gone? No detective is needed, they were stolen. Police used tear gas on people protesting officials stealing donated tents. The incident started when self-appointed Netizens mobilized to find out the truth behind numerous relief supply tents appeared in stores on Chengdu streets. Chengdu is not a disaster area of this earthquake, but these tents are all relief supplies that were not for sale. Some of the tents found on black markets were donated from foreign countries. Police forces were dispatched to suppress the protesting people who discovered a location of illegal retail place on Beisen Road. When more than 870,0000 affected by the quake do not have a tent for the night and the government placed the up most priority on getting in more tents, it's understandable the situation was explosive already. The bomb was ignited when a police woman, No. 006677 (police woman in the picture taken by protectors) told the protectors that they did not have a say on corruptions, and beat some of the protectors. Soon many angry Chengdu residents came to confront the police woman, No. 006677 , and demanded an apology. Instead of issuing an apology, the police chose to use tear gas to disperse the protectors. Around 30-40 policemen were seen beating Chengdu residents with batons. Many women, children and elderly people were beaten by the police, just because they happened to be witnesses of corruptions in the earthquake relief. It would be the first time Chengdu residents were tear gased by police after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. In one sense, foreign government and organizations should stopped donating tents to China. If they stop sending tents, then corrupted communism officials will have nothing to steal, then innocent people will not be beaten by police. In the least, anyone who still wants to donate needs to get an answer from the Chinese government first: Who is the police women No. 006677? Who are the police women No. 006677 trying to cover? Who ordered the use of tear gas on people who dare to point out officials corruption? How were the 40 Chengdu policemen rewarded for beating protectors? From ldxar1 at tesco.net Wed Aug 27 09:46:13 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:46:13 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] CHINA: Weng'an "mass incident" coverage Message-ID: <00c101c90864$6ca40490$0202a8c0@andy1> Lengthy report on the Weng'an incident in China, from Chinese bloggers and news monitors, with translations from the Chinese media. http://zonaeuropa.com/20080701_1.htm Yet Another Version of the Weng'an Mass Incident (06/30/2008) (Boxun) The name of the female student victim was Li Shufen. She was 15 years old and she was a resident of Yuhua town. At around 6pm on June 21, Li Shufen was asked to go out by her classmate Wang Jiao. Li was raped by two young men who killed her and tossed her body into the Simen river. At some time past 11pm that night, some people heard cries for help. At around 12:30am, Wang Jiao called the elder brother of Li Shufen to report that Li Shufen "had committed suicide by jumping into the river." Li Shufen's elder brother and others went down by the river and saw Wang Jiao standing by the bridge with two men. They found that there was no water in Li's stomach. Given that Li had given no indication of suicidal tendency, they took the three people down to the police station. But at 10am the next morning, the three people were released unconditionally without any interrogation or statement-taking. The police also said that the victim had died by "suicide." The next day, someone told the relatives of Li Shufen that she had been raped, killed and thrown into the river. The police did not conduct an autopsy and ignored the request from the family to do so. Based upon information provided by local citizens, the Li family found out that Wang Jiao and the two young men were related to the leaders of the county public security bureau, county party committee and provincial party committee. That was why they were released after being detained only eight hours. On Monday, the forensic doctor said that the cause of death was 'suicide.' The family went to petition at the country party committee office. Li Shufen's uncle who is a teacher at the Yuhua Middle School was assaulted by six plainclothes security guards and subsequently died from the injuries. Li Shufen's aunt was also beaten unconscious. Meanwhile, the parents of Li Shufen guarded the coffin by the Simen river. According to the godfather of Li Shufen, "The public security bureau sent out people to try to steal the corpse to force a quick interment. When the family relatives refused, they were assaulted. The country mayor and the public security bureau all wanted a quick interment. Many people are on the site ready to defend the corpse. The corpse had been retrieved from the water by the family, but the public security bureau wanted them to say that the fire department retrieved it." This tragic incident has aroused the anger of the local residents. The students from four Weng'an middle schools went down to the public security office to petition. The police used force to suppress them, which caused the students and other citizens to set fire to the public security bureau office and more than a dozen police vehicles. The police officers were trapped in the office building, and police reinforcements had to be summoned from elsewhere. According to Mrs. Liu: "The students went to the government office with protest banners but nobody paid them any attention. Then they went down to the public security bureau building, where the police attacked them with electric prods. The students and the supporting citizens set fire to the dozens of police vehicles as well as the offices." On this day, several tens of thousand of citizens assembled and protested in front of the public security bureau office, the county government building and the Civic Affairs Bureau building. They set fire to the public security, county government and county party committee buildings. Mr. Wang who participated in the action said, "The county mayor and the public security bureau director were all in hiding. Several hundred anti-riot policemen were stuck in the building and did not dare to come out. The fire department people were blocked by the people from going in to put out the fires. This time, they saw the power of the people. They learned that when people are not afraid to die, then death cannot be used to threaten them!" [ESWN Comment: The story above is unverified. Nevertheless this is the most popular story spread around the Internet. A competitive alternative with the rape angle has Wang Jiao taking revenge because Li Shufen refused to pass tips to her during an exam. The big problem here is this. First, it is known from the photos and videos that a mass incident had occurred in Weng'an county. Secondly, all mainstream media have been ordered to carry the Xinhua story: According to the local police, on the afternoon of June 28, certain people were dissatisfied with the inquest on the cause of death for a female students and congregated at the county government and public security bureau offices. During the process of reception by the relevant government officials, certain people instigated the masses who did not know the truth to attack the county public security bureau, county government and county party offices. A small number of criminal elements vandalized the offices and set fire to many offices and vehicles. Afterwards, the principal leaders of the Guiyang provincial party committee and government issued orders for the matter to be quickly and properly handled. Guiyang provincial Party Standing Committee member, Politics and Law Committee secretary and Public Security Bureau director Cui Yadong arrived at the scene to direct the local party committee and government to calm things down. At around 2am on June 29, the spectators slowly dispersed and the incident did not become bigger. Calm has basically been restored in Weng'an county. The Xinhua story does not satisfy the need to know the truth. It only created many more doubts. This opened up the space for all sorts of rumors to dominate public opinion which cannot be fully blocked anymore at this time.] More 'Facts' About The Weng'an Mass Incident (06/30/2008) (Ming Pao) (1) The uncle of the female student was alleged to have been beaten by the police and later died at the hospital. He is still alive, but in critical condition. He is interviewed by Hong Kong Cable in this YouTube Video: ???????29????? ncle of the female student was alleged to have been beaten by the police and later died at the hospital. He is still alive, but in critical condition. He is interviewed by Hong Kong Cable in this YouTube Video: ???????29????? (2) There were reportedly four attempts by unidentified men to snatch the body of the female student. Alternately, the body of the female student was given a quick autopsy in which her internal organs were removed to destroy the evidence. In fact, the body is still resting in a refrigerated coffin by the river awaiting an autopsy. Yet Another Another Version of the Weng'an Mass Incident (06/30/2008) (DWnews) Today, I read a Xinhua report which was vague and misleading. I have heard the story from a fellow student who was an eyewitness. The dead female student was a Form 3 student attending the Weng'an County Number Three Middle School in Yuhua town, Weng'an county, Guizhou province. To study at the school, she rented a room near the gas station on the north side of the county city. This female student took her middle school exams this year with excellent results. She died for a reason that you may find it unimaginable -- during the exams, she refused to let three male students copy her answers. In revenge, the three male students raped her and then pushed her into the Simen river where she drowned. That night, people tried to locate her body but they were unsuccessful. The next day, the police retrieved the body and arrested the three murderers. But one of them has family connections. When the body was brought out of the river, there were many spectators. The parents of the murderer called a certain department head at the Guizhou provincial level, and this person then issued an order. The next day, the Weng'an county police released the three murderers. This was how the mass incident got started, so that the police had to scramble on top of the roof while the masses aimed firecrackers at them. My fellow students asw more than two dozen police vehicles vandalized and set on fire. Even the fire truck got vandalized. An additional point was that the female student was not murdered by another female student. The three male murderers asked another female student to get the victim to come out. The parents of the murderer addressed the department heard as "Department head Jiang." My fellow student said that the police did not do anything wrong in terms of how they handled the matter. The main issue was with "Department head Jiang." Such was the immediate assessment by my fellow student based upon his personal experience. But since then, the police had taken the wrong actions during the long confrontation. So far, family elders have been assaulted. It is not true that family relatives were beaten to death. Also, it is not true that the victim was murdered by another female student named Wang Jiao. It is not true that the victim was gang-raped by the son of the deputy county mayor and associates. If someone has to be investigated, it is "department head Jiang." Signal-To-Noise Ratio (06/30/2008) With respect to the Weng'an mass incident, I have so far translated the following versions: Mass Incident in Weng'an Yet Another Version of the Weng'an Mass Incident More 'Facts' About The Weng'an Mass Incident Yet Another Another Version of the Weng'an Mass Incident There is plenty more versions, variations and recombinations out there. Out of these versions arise two interesting phenomena. They are not necessarily new, but they are quite apparent this time. The first phenomenon has to do with hydrological engineering. Yes, HYDROLOGICAL ENGINEERING! Many of the current crop of central government leaders are technocrats with engineering background. As such, they must understand that public opinion is water that can carry the ship as well as turn it over. The point about hydrological engineering is not to build dams to hold the water back because there will be a catastrophic dam break one day that might bring down the entire system. Instead, the point should be about controlling and redirecting the awesome power of nature in less harmful ways down selected channels. In the case of the Weng'an mass incident, the major portals were deleting the related posts as quickly as possible. At Tianya Forum, it was estimated that a Weng'an-related post has an average lifetime of 15 seconds before being deleted by the administrators. That was supposed to be a record speed. The same thing was happening at Sina.com, Sohu.com, Baidu, etc. So this was building massive dams all over the map which builds up a tremendous pressure. Where was the pressure release point? You may be amazed that it was over at the Xinhua Forum. The webmasters posted the official Xinhua news story on the forum. That does not help in itself because Chinese netizens think that this Xinhua story was vague and misleading. However, the webmasters allowed the comments to run freely. This meant that the Xinhua posts became the meeting points of all those who want to talk about the Weng'an incident but could not do so elsewhere. Although that post did not contain any news information (such as photos and videos), it was a place for people to vent their outrage. As a result, Xinhua got a record-setting number of visitors who were very appreciative. Is this the plan for the future? You'll find out at the next mass incident (and there will be many). The second phenomenon was the amount of noisy chaff released. On one hand, there is the legendary "50-cent gang." These are supposed to be professional Internet writers who get paid 0.50 RMB for every post favorable to the government position. When yet another version of the Weng'an mass incident gets published as being the ultimate truth, the author is accused of being a member of the "50-cent gang" who is trying to confuse the public. Indeed, if you read through enough versions, you will probably throw up your hands and decide that you don't know what the truth is anymore. Instead, you change your investigation to questioning the motives of the people who are producing these versions. On the other hand, there is the legendary "Internet special agent (??)." These are supposed to be professional spies who are paid by anti-China hostile forces to publish unfavorable information about China. For example, some of the posts mentioned that the People's Liberation Army has been dispatched to Weng'an with tanks and artillery, with the hint of a Tiananmen-like massacre to follow. Immediately, the other netizens reacted by pointing that these posts are coming from "Internet special agents." The netizens want to draw a very clear line: they may be protesting against what is happening in Weng'an but they will not serve the purpose of the anti-China hostile forces. This is very clear. Government Reactions To The Weng'an Mass Incident (07/01/2008) (Xinhua via Daqi.com) On June 30, the Guizhou provincial party secretary and provincial people's congress standing committee chairman Shi Zhongyuan rushed to Weng'an county to personally supervise the handling of the 6.28 incident ... At around 11am, Secretary Shi Zhongyuan arrived at the scene of the incident; he went deep among the people to understand the situation; he met with militia and armed police officers. At around noon, Secretary Shi Zhongyuan left the scene and held a meeting with the relevant Weng'an county leaders; he summoned the school principals and education department director to listen to their reprots; he invited more than 100 county people's congress delegates and political consultative conference members to attend a forum. They representatives enthusiastically condemned the criminal elements whose smashing, vandalizing, looting and arson have seriously damaged the images of Weng'an county and Guizhou province, the excellent social and economic development of Weng'an county and disrupted the unity and harmony of the county and the province. The representatives asked the Party Committee and the government to severely punish the saboteurs and defend social stability and harmony. At 7pm, Shi Zhongyuan proceeded to another meeting in Yongyang town with veteran cadres, representatives of the masses, businesses operators, middle school students and teachers and other eyewitnesses of the mass incident. Shi Zhongyuan pointed out the 6.28 incident was a simple affair that a small number of people with ulterior motives manage to manipulate and leverage, with the direct participation of organized crime forces, to provoke and challenge the Party and the government publicly. It was a bad situation with serious damages, leading to huge property and economic losses while also affecting the stability and image of Guizhou. Afterwards, the Party central and the State Council paid a high degree of attention. Secretary General Hu Jintao issued an important directive; the Politburo standing committee member and Central Political and Legal Committee secretary Zhou Yongkong issued two important directives; Minister of Public Security Meng Jianzhu telephoned multiple times to command the frontline actions ... The provincial Party Commitee and government carried bout the spirit of the important directives from the central government leaders and calmed things down with the restoration of stability being the top priority ... The above Xinhua article is just about unreadable because it is just another stream of homilies without content. Is this how people really think and talk? What exactly are these 'important directives' from the central government leaders? Wouldn't you want to do? (Ming Pao) A disturbance took place in Weng'an county, Guizhou province. It is said that Chinese president Hu Jintao has questioned why the disturbance took place. According to informed sources, Hu Jintao personally asked about this incident and what to know, "Why did such a small criminal case trigger such a large-scale mass incident?" In his directive, Hu Jintao demanded that the local government should calm down the demonstrators and protect social stability; at the same time, the directive asked that the local Guizhou media should actively report the affair and lead public opinion, without blocking information from going to the outside. (Boxun) The 6.28 incident in Weng'an (Guizhou) was defined by the Chinese Communist as "smashing, vandalizing, looting and arson" and thte local public security, armed police and armies imposed heavy suppression. The news is that there were many deaths. At present, the entire county and the surrounding towns are under martial law. According to known internal information and published reports, this massacre was personally ordered by Hu Jintao and supervised by Zhou Yongkong and others. The murders were carried out by Guizhou officials and the locally based soldiers. Someday, the 6.28 Weng'an (Guizhou) massacre will be vindicated and the people will have already recorded the names of those Chinese Communist officials who ordered and participated in the massacre beginning with Chinese Communist Party secretary-general Hu Jintao ... [ESWN comment: The last report above shows why Boxun is an example of what the Chinese government refers to as "hostile overseas forces." Nobody else but the "hostile overseas forces" and the "Internet special agents" have talked about a massacre carried out by military soldiers. Boxun cites anonymous "internal information" which it is very unlikely to have access to (as in, what insider would speak to a 'hostile overseas force'?) and does not name the 'published reports' (as in, Epoch Times? Radio Free Asia? BBC? New York Times?).] Related Link: Weng?an Riots: How the state media hurts China Blog for China Yet Another Another Another Version of the Weng'an Mass Incident (07/01/2008) (CReaders.net) [in translation] I am a Weng'an resident and I am one of the few people who know the entire story from beginning to end. My information comes from official sources, civilian sources and even people who have ulterior motives. At just past 8pm on June 21, Weng'an middle school Form 4 female student Li Shufen and apprentices Liu Yantao and Chen Guangquan from a certain aluminum alloy factory dined at a friend's place. At 11:30pm, the four went down by the Simen river. Li Shufen sat on the bridge and said: "If I jump down from here, will I die?" The other three people thought she was joking and did not pay too much attention. She said: "If I don't die after I jump, I will try to lead a good life afterwards." At that time, Chen Guangquan was chatting with another girl and Liu Yantao was doing push-ups. At 00:10pm June 22, there was the sound of a splash. The three looked and saw that Li Shufen had jumped into the river. Liu Yantao jumped in immediately after her, and then Chen Guangquan did so too. But by the time that they got in, Li Shufen was nowhere to be seen. Liu Yantao called aloud for help too. So Chen could only save Liu first and then they called the police. Half an hour later, the fire brigade retrieved the body of Li Shufen. The Weng'an county medical doctor determined that Li Shufen had no signs of physical trauma except for a mild injury on her forearm from brushing with the sand in the bottom of the river. There were no signs of sexual violence, so that there was no possibility of rape. The results of the medical exam and the verdict of the public security bureau were handed over to the parents of Li Shufen. At the time, the parents did not object. On June 24, through the insistence of other family members, the parents took the body of Li Shufen in front of the public security bureau and demanded that Liu Yantao and Chen Guangquan be arrested for raping and killing Li Shufen (see Weng?An riots: The family?s petition). Since there was no factual basis, the public security bureau officers refused. According to information, the Li family wanted to extort money from the families of the three persons (Liu Yantao, Chen Guangquan and the other female student) and this was the excuse. At 10am on June 25, Li Shufen's uncle led the family members to the office of the Criminal Investigative Bureau on the third floor of the county public security bureau building. The officer on duty was Zhang Ming, who asked them: "What are you here for?" The uncle said: "Nothing. Can't we just come in?" Zhang Ming said: "This is an office. If you don't have business here, please leave." The uncle refused and Zhang Ming attempted to push him out. But as soon as Zhang Ming touched the uncle, the latter fell down on the floor and screamed: "The police is beating me! Save me!" The aunt and another woman took off their high-heel shoes and hit Zhang Ming with them. Zhang Ming considered his own status and did not fight back. As a result, he suffered some minor injuries. Other police officers heard the commotion and arrived to restrain the two women. A video-taped interrogation of the three individuals was made in the presence of an education department leader. The uncle admitted that he and his family had assaulted Zhang Ming (there is a signed statement as well as videotape as evidence). At 16:30 on June 25, the uncle completed his testimony and left the building. Outside the public security bureau office, he was assaulted by the friends of Liu Yantao and Chen Guangquan. (This was based upon the testimony of the uncle and other family relatives in the form of signed statements and videotapes). The uncle was admitted to the Weng'an County Hospital, where he was diagnosed with a mild concussion. At 6am on June 28, the uncle and other family members placed the body of Li Shufen by the Simen river with big-character posters to appeal to the central government. All those who wish to view the body was charged 5 RMB apiece, and almost 20,000 RMB was collected. On the afternoon of June 28, the uncle and his sister (who was a teacher at the Number Three Middle School in Weng'an) instigated the students (who are as young as eight years old) who did not know the truth to march and demonstrate in order to magnify the impact. But certain criminal elements used the opportunity to gather almost 10,000 people together. These criminal elements prepared rocks, bricks and gasoline and went to the public security bureau building where they smashed and burned all the police vehicles in front. They also set fire to the first floor office and destroyed files and computers. Several dozen police officers were injured, including one in critical condition. The first three floors of the buildings were in flames. The rioters then turned to attack the armed police, whose leader fired one shot in the air and stopped the mob. The rioters then backed out of the public security bureau building and turned their attention to the Weng'an county government building, where they smashed all the cars and set fire to the courtyard. Next the rioters turned their attention to the private cars parked in the basement garage of the Civic Affairs Bureau. The rioters went over to the Telecommunications and Postal Building and destroyed the communication structures. >From start to end, none of the militia or armed police officers was seen using violence. I personally witnessed these incidents and I am willing to accept legal responsibility for what I wrote. But I would like to say a few more things. 1. According to the uncle, Liu Yantao and Chen Guangquan are family members of people working in the Weng'an county public security bureau and that was why no full autopsy was conducted. (Later on, one of the two was said to be the son of a deputy mayor of Weng'an county; this morning, he had become the son of the provincial public security bureau director). The Guizhou provincial county public security bureau has done its own investigation and their findings are identical to the initial one. There is no possibility of secret help to Liu and Chen, who were found to be farmer children presently working as apprentices at an aluminum alloy factory. Therefore, the facts are inconsistent with the allegations. 2. According to the uncle, Li Shufen was raped and then tossed into the river. Three separate medical exams showed that the deceased had not been sexually violated -- she was still a virgin. So how could she have been gang-raped? Besides, nobody heard any cries of help or sounds of struggle that night. 3. According to certain people with ulterior motives, the armed police assaulted the masses. As for 23:00 on June 29, no Weng'an hospital has come across a single person who was injured on June 28. Instead, the hospitals have admitted more than 30 seriously injured police officers. More than 100 other police officers had their wounds treated and bandaged and then released. You can check out all the photos on the Internet and there are no scenes of the police officers attacking the rioters. 4. If this was just dissatisfaction with the police action, why were the government, political consultative conference and telecommunications buildings also set on fire? Why vandalize the private vehicles parked in the underground garage? 5. You have all seen the photos on the Internet. These photos were of high resolution and did not come from mobile camphones. Many of them were taken from above. How do these photos come about from a suddenly breaking incident? Also, the incident took place at the center of the county town. Where did the crowd find all the rocks and bricks? Where did they get the gasoline and machetes? All of this shows that this was a well-organized, pre-planned riot. 6. This incident is analogous to the 3.14 Tibet incident in that certain people who did not know the truth were incited to "hit, smash and loot." The uncle and the aunt could not have started something on this scale. I cannot preclude the possibility that organized criminal elements are involved in the planning and execution behind the scene. The above is based upon the facts that I experienced personally. If you disagree, please provide your counter-evidence. Or else you should not mislead people with rumors to further the interests of those with ulterior motives. The Official Guizhou Provincial Version of the Weng'an Mass Incident (07/01/2008) (Dayoo) According to the Guizhou provincial public security bureau information office spokesperson, the Weng'an county public security bureau received a call at 00:27 on June 22, 2008 that someone had jumped into the river. The command center ordered the Yongyang town police station to send militia police officers to the scene and also notified the fire department. The militia police arrived at the scene and began to search for the body. Since it was dark, it was around 3am that they finally fetched the body of the drowned girl. The emergency medical crew determined that the girl was already dead. The police then interrogated the three persons (Liu, Chen and Wang) who made the call to 110 (the police telephone number). The police learned that the drowned girl was named Li Shufen, who was born in July 1991 and is a Form 2 student at the Number 3 Middle School in Weng'an county. The Yongyang police also inspected the scene, examined the body and conducted the investigative work. According to the investigation: At around 20:00 on June 21, Li Shufen and her girlfriend Wang went out. They had dinner along with Wang's boyfriend Chen and Chen's friend Liu. Afterwards, they strolled down to the bridge over Simen river to chat. During the chat, Li Shufen suddenly told Liu: "I might as well as kill myself by jumping into the river. But if I don't die, I will try to lead a good life afterwards." Liu immediately grabbed Li and stopped her from doing so. About 10 minutes later, Chen said that he was leaving. Liu saw that Li had calmed down and so he began to do push-ups. By the third one, Liu suddenly heard Li said: "I'm going" and then she jumped into the river. Liu jumped in after her immediately. Wang phoned Chen and then she began to cry for help. Chen raced back to the riverside and jumped in to help search for Li. Liu was exhausted, so Chen had to drag him back to shore first. Wang and Liu called the police and notified Li's elder brother. According to information, Chen is a resident of Yanmen brigade, Naxiang village, Caotang town, Weng'an county. He is presently working at a paper factory in Weng'an county. His parents are villagers of the Yanmen brigade, Naxiang village, Caotang town, Weng'an county. Liu comes from the same villager as Chen and is presently working at a paper factory in Weng'an county. His parents are villagers of the Yanmen brigade, Naxiang village, Caotang town, Weng'an county. Wang is a Form 2 student at the Number 3 Middle School in Weng'an County. Her parents are villagers of the Jiajiabo bridage, Jiajiabo village, Tianwen town, Weng'an county. According to the investigation conducted by the Weng'an public security bureau, Li Shufen committed suicide by jumping into the river. This was not a criminal case. They informed the family which refused to accept the conclusion because they believed that this was a rape case. They asked for a DNA analysis. On the afternoon of June 5, the southern Guizhou public security bureau sent a medical examiner to conduct another examination and the conclusion was that this was death by drowning. At the time, the family accepted the conclusion. However, they indicated that they would not bury the Li Shufen yet and they asked the public security bureau to order Wang Jiao, Liu Yanchao and Chen Guangquan to pay restitution to the amount of 500,000 RMB. On June 26, the family of Li Shufen said that they agreed with the mediation recommendation by the county workgroup and promised to sign an agreement on June 28. On June 28 at 16:00, the family invited more than 300 people to march in the streets of Weng'an with banners. This was a Saturday and there were many people in the street, some of whom began to follow the procession. At 16:30, the marchers assembled in front of the public security building. The police set up a police line, but the marchers in front got emotionally excited. At the incitement of a small number of people, some criminal elements threw water bottles, rocks and bricks at the police. They broke through the wall of police officers and charged into the first floor lobby, smashing the equipment, setting fire to the vehicles and assaulting the police and firemen. They grabbed the fire nozzles and they cut up the fire hoses. The firemen were forced to withdraw. At about 20:00, the criminal elements hit, vandalized, looted and burned the Weng'an county Party and government office buildings. They even charged at the county detention center. The whole incident took almost seven hours. On July 1, after repeated explanations to the family, they agreed for a burial after another medical examination. The body will be unfrozen and the Guizhou provincial procuratorate and the medical examiner will conduct a joint examination. Public Security Bureau Office Building Public Security Bureau Office Building Weng'an County Party and Government Building Weng'an County Party and Government Building Weng'an County Party and Government Building YouTube links: (Pt. 1) ???????????? (Pt. 2) ???????????? (Pt. 3) ???????????? "I Am Not Dead Yet" (07/02/2008) In The Weng'an Mass Incident, rumors abounded. Prominently featured at first was the story about the uncle who went to complain at the police station and was beaten to death by the police. The uncle was a teacher and the protest launched his students triggered the riot on June 28. Later, Hong Kong media interviewed this uncle in a hospital and dispelled the rumor of his death. Then another rumor said that the uncle has been removed from the hospital and presumably placed under police arrest. Here is the most recent interview with this uncle as published in Guizhou Daily. [in transation] At 13:30 on July 1, our reporter interviewed Weng'an county Yuhua Town Middle School teacher Li Xiuzhong at the Weng'an People's Hospital. Li Xiuzhong is the uncle of the Form 3 Weng'an County Number Three Middle School student Li Shufen. At the time of the interview, Li Xiuzhong was in bed. He was very angry about the rumors of his death at the hands of the militia police: "I am not dead yet. Please do not spread rumors." He told the reporter: "Late night on June 22, I received the news that my niece Li Shufen had died in the Simen River of the county city. I immediately went to the scene to help recover the body. After the body was recovered, the county public security bureau notified me to go down. I entered the office of militia police officer Zhang Ming. He was working and he impatiently yelled at me: "What are you doing here?" Due to the recent death of my niece, I was impatient and I said: "I've come to fool around." Zhang Ming yelled: "Get out!" Then he came over to push me out. There was a clash. Afterwards, the Education Department asked me to go down to the police station so that they can find out what happened. Afterwards, I left the police station. When I reached the insurance company office, six unidentified persons suddenly appeared and assaulted me. I called 110 and the police came and took me to the hospital for treatment. Since I was seriously injured, I was kept in the hospital during the whole time. I had no idea that there was a demonstration that led to hitting, vandalizing and arson. On the day of the incident, my family members told me that nine out of ten people in the street thought that the police had beaten me death and that as many as 10,000 people were seeking justice for me and Li Shufen." Li Xiuzhong said: "As a member of the family of the deceased, I never imagine that things would turn out this way. I believe that my family members would never hit, vandalize and burn the county party, county government and public security bureau offices. I did not want to see instances of hitting, vandalism and arson. My family members knew that I was still alive, and they would never say that I was dead. They knew that the public security people would not beat me to get a confession and there had only been an accidental clash. They knew that I was assaulted by unidentified persons outside of the public security bureau office. They would never say that I was beaten to confess." "I believe that the matter had been expanded and manipulated by certain people with ulterior motives," said Li Xiuzhong. "I am thankful to the leaders, reporters and citizens who care about me. The provincial public security bureau, county education department and other leaders have visited me at the hospital. With the good care from the hospital, I am feeling a lot better physically. I heard that the militia police officer who clashed me was suspended for fifteen days. The public security bureau is investigating the incident of my being assaulted by unidentified persons. I believe that the government will be fair and just in how they handled the hitting, vandalism and arson, and give justice to those criminal elements, my attackers as well as the masterminds. I believe that the government will deal with the case of my niece appropriately. I hope that she will be buried in peace. I hope that people will not believe in any rumors." More Photos From Weng'an (07/02/2008) (QNBS.net via ifeng.com) (China Daily) No officials' kin involved in girl's death in Guizhou. By Fu Jing. July 2, 2008. Police on Tuesday reiterated that no officials' relatives were responsible for the death of a girl that sparked violence in Weng'an county of Guizhou province on Saturday. About 30,000 people torched the local public security bureau and government buildings and 42 vehicles, alleging that the children of some officials had raped and killed the 17-year-old Li Shufen. The mayhem that lasted seven hours left 150 people, including policemen, injured, for which 59 people had been arrested till on Tuesday. The burned vehicles have been removed from the government complex, and life is returning to normal in parts of the town. Police insist that Li, a student of No 3 Middle School in Weng'an, committed suicide by jumping into a river on June 21 because she was unhappy with life. Her body was found floating the next day. The three persons she last met were members of farmers' families, Wang Xingzheng, a spokesman for the provincial public security bureau, told a news briefing last night. She had gone on an outing with her 21-year-old boyfriend surnamed Chen, and two other friends, an 18-year-old boy surnamed Liu and a 16-year-old girl surnamed Wang on June 21, the spokesman said. She had told them about her feelings, which her friends did not take very seriously, Wang Xingzheng said. But while they were busy with something else, she jumped into the river. They tried to save her, but when they realized it was impossible to do so, they called police, the spokesman said. The provincial government has sent 10 officers and forensic experts to re-investigate the death. And Wang Daixing, the forensic scientist, who conducted a post mortem on Li's body, said that she had not been raped. Zhou Guoxiang, deputy police chief of Weng'an public security bureau, denied rumors that policemen had harassed Li's relatives when they had come to seek justice from authorities. He, however, said that an unidentified man beat up Li's uncle on a street, and police are trying to find out who the attacker was. Shi Zongyuan, Party chief of Guizhou, said on Monday that some people with ulterior motives had incited the mob into frenzy. Some of those people were gangsters, and had taken part in the violence. Shi was in Weng'an to direct officials and police to restore normalcy, and said those responsible for the mayhem should get strict punishment. It was the local officials' shortcoming that angered the people, he said, and criticized them for letting the situation get out of hand. "We must learn a lesson from these problems." He said there have to be "deep-seated" reasons behind the girl's death and the violence that followed. Officials had not paid due attention to disputes over mines and relocation of people for construction projects for quite a long time, Shi said. This may have bred discontent among the residents. He met with local representatives, including retired officials, business people, students and witnesses on Monday evening, and stressed the importance of social stability. "We must put maintaining social harmony and stability on top of the agenda." The county public security bureau has appealed to people to maintain order. Reporters And Common Folks In Weng'an (07/06/2008) (YZZK) At around 8am on the morning of July 1 more than one hundred persons were already gathered around the refrigerated coffin that held the body of Li Shufen. When they learned that we were Hong Kong reporers, they surrounded us to tell us about what has been happening in Weng'an during the past week. "Hong Kong reporters serve some use. Our local newspapers are useless, because officials protect each other." There were old, middle-aged, young people and children in the crowd. They wore peasant clothes, t-shirts, leather shoes, slippers, ... the talk went back and forth. Some people were angry and emoted; other people were only here to enjoy the spectacle and they laughed as they spoke. "We are Weng'an citizens not related to the deceased. We spontaneously come here to watch over the refrigerated coffin out of sympathy." "The body was retrieved by the uncle of Li Shufen in the middle of the night, and the fire department showed up after daybreak on the next morning. But the broadcasts are saying that the fire department recovered the body." "There were signs of injuries on the body. There were strangulation marks on the throat. On the night of the incident, nearby peasants heard cries for help." "This was a rape scene. There was blood here. The public security people arrived and destroyed the evidence." This is a news story that is vey exciting, rich and fully of legends. So we asked: "Which one of you personally witnessed the recovery of the body? the beating of the uncle? the blood at the rape scene? the removal of the internal organs during the autopsy?" Everybody became quiet for a while. Finally, a Ms. Zhang in front laughed and said: "We all heard about it. We did not see it." "But all officials are crooked. When the son of the director of the public security bureau murders someone, he is not punished!" she added. As we left, a dozen citizens walked with us along the side of the Simen river and waited until we got into the taxi and left. "You should take care and leave Weng'an quickly. There are bad people who may want to take revenge on you." The people may not be able to tell right from wrong, but they are not asking for too much. More than one taxi driver told us: "The Li Shufen affair was just the fuse. Many people may not know what the truth is. But public anger has been tremendous during the recent years. Things have calmed down because there are several thousand armed policemen here. If they are not around, the people will go into action again sooner or later." There are varous civilian versions about the death of Li Shufen: it was a rape-murder; it was revenge; it was a love quarrel. But none of these are backed up by accurate information. Likewise, the government version does not pass either. Nobody has been able to contact the three key persons at the scene: Wang Jiao, Chen Guangquan and Liu Yanchao. Everybody says, "They have disappeared." More Reports From Weng'an (07/03/2008) (Journalist Wu Hanpin's blog) I visited several places this morning, including a hospital. I saw a seven-year-old boy whose left leg was injured. The doctor said that it was a flesh wound and there was no bone damage. On June 28, this boy took part in the mass incident. A reporter asked him why. He said that he was angry because the police refused to care about the death of a person. Someone asked him who told him to say these things. He said that this was what he saw himself. He said that he went down by the river to look at the refrigerated coffin of the dead girl. Nobody cared either. I asked him what he did on that day. He said that he was small and could not do the other things. So he only released air from the car tires. I asked him how many car tires did he work on. He answered in his childish voice, "Two." How did he get injured? He said that he got hurt when the police advanced. He had no idea what caused his injury. He said that there were too many people around him at the time. His dad was unhappy. He took the boy there to watch what was happening. At first, he held the boy in his arm. But the boy said that he could not see anything and wanted to come down. Once down, he vanished in a flash. The next time the dad saw the boy, it was at the hospital. I don't know what to say. This matter gave me a lot to think about. Also on the morning, Guizhou provincial deputy party secretary Wang Fuyu and vice-governor Huang Kongsheng visited the Weng'an 6.28 incident command center to check on the preparations of the report from the working group of seven persons. These seven people are the Weng'an Number Three Middle School Form 2 student Wu Qing, Weng'an entrepreneur Zhao Chengguo, 82-year-old retired cadre and party member Cheng Wenqing, Weng'an county Yuhua town party disciplinary committee secretary Huang Guoxing, Weng'an county Fire Department comander Huang Wei, Weng'ai county public security bureau police patrol squad commander Huang Cheng and Weng'ai county deputy mayor Xiao Song. The draft speeches for these seven persons have been repeatedly edited and revised by the Publicity Department. My guess is that the local Publicity Department "interviewed" these individuals first and then wrote their speeches based upon what these said, while adding what needs to be added and deleting what needs to be deleted. I just received a copy of their speeches and some of the content is impenetrable and won't be easily understood by ordinary people. This morning, the Guizhou provincial leaders listened to the speeches once and gave it a "high rating." Tomorrow, these people will go to Guiyang City and deliver the speeches again. (Guiyang Daily via 163.com) At 7:00pm on June 30, this reporter interviewed some of the eyewitnesses of the 6.28 incident. They told the reporter what they saw and heard. Villager Peng Qinggui: I personally saw how the county party, the county government, the public security bureau, the treasury and the civic affairs bureau buildings being set on fire. It was a terrifying situation. The decent people of Weng'an know that it is a crime to smash car and set fire to buildings so they would not be doing that. It is just some criminal elements who used the drowning death of Li Shufen to incite the crowd to riot. Based upon the situation, there was about a couple of hundred people who were leading the the looting, vandalism and arson. They usually charged at the sound of long whistles and they retreated at the sound of short whistles. Villager Chen Qingshu: At the time of the incident, I saw a few teenagers throwing rocks at the police and the building as well as setting off fireworks. I was very worried. I asked them why they were throwing rocks. The children said that they had no idea and they were doing this because others were doing it. This showed that they did not realize the causes or consequences of the incident and they were just feeding off rumors. This showed that the crowd and the students were being used. Entrepreneur Zhao Chenggui (the boss of a hair salon): At around 4pm that afternoon, I had just finished talking business. Suddenly my family called me to say that up to ten thousand people are causing trouble at the county public security bureau building. It went through my head immediately that the Toyota Corolla that I parked in front of the public security building was doomed. So I rushed over to the scene and saw that my vehicle was resting upside down. Someone had punctured the gasoline tank and set a fire. I saw that there must be 10,000 spectators. Several hundred people were ready to charge into the lobby of the public security building. Several dozen militia policemen had formed a police line. Several dozen people threw rocks and bricks at these militia policemen, some of whom were bleeding from the assault. But the militia policeman were restrained and stuck to their discipline of never retaliating with words or actions. Finally, when the bricks, rocks and steel rods got too much, the militia policemen retreated into the lobby. At the sound of long whistles, two to three hundred people attacked; at the sound of short whistles, they retreated. I saw many people going into the public security bureau building and coming out with confiscated restricted weapons such as machetes and daggers. After the militia policemen were forced to retreat to the second floor, a few dozen people hauled two police vehicles up the steps in front of the entrance. Someone smashed the car windows, placed large numbers of file documents taken from the offices on the car seats and set off fires. The flames soared high while the black smoke rose into the sky. The entire public security bureau building was on fire. The crowd then charged at the county government building which they set on fire with the liquid gas that they brought. People went through the first floor to the fifth floor, emptying drawers, smashing desks and throwing computers on the ground. Someone looted the computer CPU boxes and monitors. Then they set the county party office building on fire. The sky was red from the fire. Several dozen armed police officers came to defend the county party office and county government office buildings. But a group of people with machetes and iron rods attacked them and made them back off. A Weng'an High School student: At 4:30pm on that afternoon, we were still taking an examination. After the exam was over, we heard that there was an incident at the county. When I and my fellow students arrived at the scene, the looting, vandalism and arson had already begun. We did not understand the truth, but we wanted to watch. Provincial People's Congress and County People's Congress representative Cao Dongmei: I did not think that this was a case of middle school students causing trouble. This was not as simple as people speaking out on behalf of the dead person. This incident was exploited by persons with ulterior motives, with the possible direct participation of organized crime figures. At the scene, I observed that someone was directing the charges and retreats by blowing long and short whistles. When the students and the masses moved up, the 200 rioters backed off. When the students and the masses got quiet, these people moved up to create disturbance. Sometimes, the noise was too loud and people could not hear the sound of the whistles. So these people watched the hand signal from their leader. When I told the students not to charge, one of the persons in the group told me fiercely, "If you dare to dissuade them again, I'll beat you to death." 7-year-old boy Wang XX participated in releasing air from car tires: At around 1pm on July 1, the reporter interviewed Wang XX at the Weng'an County People's Hospital. At the time, his father Wang Huafei was tending after him. The young boy was lying on the bed. When asked why he was releasing air from car tires, he said: "I heard that people were creating a scene over at the county government building. So I went with my father to see what was going on. Since there were too many people standing in front of us, I could not see anything. My father put me on top of the engine hood of a tricycle. When my father was not paying attention, I sneaked out into the crowd. Then two adults told me to release the air out of car times. So I went and released the air out of two car tires. When asked how he got hurt, he said: "The police moved up and the people retreated. I got hurt." Detained troublemaking youth Huang X: At 2pm, the reporter went to the Weng'an county detention center and interviewed 13-year-old Huang X who had just graduated from elementary school. An armed police officer brought him into the courtyard. He cried and said: "At just past 4pm on June 28, I was at the school entrance and someone said that many people are causing a scene at the county government office. Out of curiosity, I went over there to see. I saw many people throwing rocks to smash the windows at the county government and public security bureau buildings. Someone was calling to dare the police on top of the public security bureau building to come down. Several dozen adults led the way by overturning cars. Someone else was settling the cars on fire. The people who set the fires were armed with steel rods. I did not know what was going on, but I joined them. I pushed at one car. I did not overturn it, and I did not set it on fire. Afterwards, I was scared and I hid on the roof for a while. (Xinhua Net) Photos from June 28, 2008. Why Is It So Easy To Not Know The Truth? (07/04/2008) (Rose Luqiu) A girlfriend of mine who only cares about Korean serial dramas and cosmetics but not current affairs angrily told me: "Have you heard about the Guizhou affair? The son of a department chief raped many girls, but the government took no action. So several tens of thousands of people took to the streets to protest." At first, I thought that there was a new incident in Guizhou. After listening to her some more, I was sure that she was talking about the Weng'an incident. I tried to explain to her, but I found out that she was actually not interested in the truth. The reason why she was angry was that she found that this piece of hearsay once again reaffirmed her fixed opinion about local governments in mainland China. When faced with this kind of hearsay, a journalist would not accept it lightly. Instead, it may ignite an interest to investigate the case. After all, the videos and photos on the Internet are not hearsay. As for the cause, it requires a third-party confirmation. Another type of person who would not accept it lightly are those who are used to listening to hearsays and prefer to use their own judgment and thinking to reach a conclusion. These people hold a cautious attitude and pay continual attention to the developments. After all, rumors usually contain too many flaws, some of which are not reasonable. Of course, sometimes the rumors get confirmed and it only makes it worse. The people who readily believe it are like my girlfriend. They have a pre-existing credibility issue with the local governments in mainland China. Therefore, they will believe it anything bad because this re-affirms the fact that the local governments are bad. These people hold such attitudes out of a strong sense of justice and sympathy. And then there are some people who will believe whatever they hear. There are also those who want to have a good time whether the activity is legal or not, because if other people are doing it, then it must be alright. ... Hong Kong media paid close attention to this affair. Many reporters went to Weng'an immediately, even though they did not have any investigative reporting. Even so, the Hong Kong media interviewed the uncle of the deceased girl. His comments on camera and the follow-up mainland media reports provided at least two credible facts. First, the uncle had not been beaten to death. Secondly, he was beaten by unidentified persons. Another confirmed fact was that the local citizens have been asked to be careful about what they say. It is somewhat abnormal to demand that citizens be careful about what they say. I frequently receive letters and telephone calls to ask about certain injustices, as if the petition system does not exist. This is also somewhat abnormal, because this leads one to wonder why these people could not count on the administrative and judicial systems and had to place their hopes on the media (and public opinion) instead. It does not matter how dissatisfied you are, because it is definitely against the law to take those kinds of actions (namely, hitting, vandalizing, looting, arson, etc). As the Guizhou provincial government official said, it is necessary to reflect on the underlying structural causes about why these people employed such extreme methods. If this was a case of organized crime challenging the authority of the government, then two questions are raised. First of all, how did the government leave room for organized crime to grow and flourish? Secondly, does the government have the ability to go after organized crime? But if this case was an explosion of public discontent and distrust, then this case rose out of other problems (and not organized crime). This kind of distrust is like the distrust of my girlfriend. The distrust of the local citizens is the accumulation of many mundane issues in daily life over time. To regain their trust, it is necessary to make them feel that the government is there to serve the people. Of course, after the local citizens regain their trust, the prejudices of people like my girlfriend will also change gradually over time because there will be fewer biased rumors to go around. Even if organized crime was involved in the Weng'an incident, the local government cannot avoid its share of responsibility. It was dereliction of duty on the part of the local government that organized crime had the power and opportunities. Some people may use the excuse that people are dumb and ignorant, but even so it is still the responsibility of the government (to educate people about civics and law). Wang Jiao, Chen Guangquan and Liu Yanchao Meet The Press (07/06/2008) In the item below, the YZZK reporters wrote: Nobody has been able to contact the three key persons at the scene: Wang Jiao, Chen Guangquan and Liu Yanchao. Everybody says, "They have disappeared." Not so. The three have been reached by Guizhou Commercial News (via China News; China News) Chen Guangquan Liu Yanchao Wang Jiao (ni translation) Yesterday noon, our reporter went to Naxiang village, Caotang town, Weng'an county. After some runaround, the reporter managed to locate the Yanmen brigade where Liu Yanchao and Chen Guangquan belonged. "The Chen and Liu families are all respectable farmers whose standard of living belongs to the lower class in his village," said the village party secretary Wen Wenchuan. Liu Yanchao's father Liu Yangfu had gone to Weng'an county city. With the help of villagers, the reporter found Liu Yanchao's mother Xu Zhengying who was working in the fields. According to Xu Zhenghing, at around 5pm on June 27, Liu Yanchao returned home from Weng'an county city. That evening, Liu Yanchao informed his parents that he and some friends were playing by the river on June 22 and one of the friend Li Shufen suddenly jumpted into river and drowned. He also jumped into the river to save Li Shufen. "But for Chen Guangquan, I might have drowned as well." Around noon on June 29, the public security bureau criminal investigation squad called and asked Liu Yanchao to be interrogated. "At the time, his dad accompanied him. I have not seen my son since. His dad has called me and told me not to worry because he is with our son," said Xu Zhengying. THe reporter asked Xu Zhengying about contacting her son. She said that she could try. At 2:22pm, Xu Zhengying used the home telephone to call Liu Yanchao's mobile telephone. "Chao-son! Where are you?" The phone call got through and Xu Zhengying got excited. "I'm staying in the office of the detention center. You don't have to worry." After learning that her son was safe, Xu Zhengying breathed a sigh of relief. When Liu Yanchao heard that a reporter wanted to interview him, he said, "We can speak by phone. We don't have to meet." By telephone, Liu Yanchao told the reporter what happened. At around 20:00 on June 21, he and Chen Guangquan were with fellow student Qin ing at a rented room in Weng'an. During that time, he rode a motorcycle to pick up Li Shufen and Wang Jiao. Then He, Li Shufe, Wang Jiao, Chen Guangquan, Qin Ming and Liu Sitao began to drink liquor. Li Shufen drank one full cup of rice wine, Wang Jiao drank half a cup, while the other men drank two cups. At around 10pm, they were about to go home. Li Shufen suggested that they go down by the Simen river. So Liu Yanchao, Li Shufen, Wang Jiao and Chen Guangquan walked down to the rier. When they reached the Dayan bridge, Li Shufen sat down on the railing facing the water. At the time, Liu Yanchao was about two meters on the left of Li Shufen, while Chen Guangquan was lying on the ground by the riverside. "I was shooting the breeze with Li Shufen. She said that she wanted jump into the river; if she survives, she wants to live well afterwards." As soon as Liu heard that, he went up, grabbed her and said, "You want to jump into the river? Have you gone mad?" Li was dissuaded by Liu and things calmed down. After about ten minutes, Cheng Guangquan said that he was tired and left early. About two minutes later, Liu Yanchao heard a loud cry of "I'm going" and Li Shufen jumped into the river. Liu jumped into the river immediately to rescue her. Wang Jiao was standing at the top of the bridge and immeidately called Chen Guangquan. Chen returned immediately. At the time, Liu Yanchao was physically tired, and Chen and Wang had to pull him ashore first. By the time, they were ready to try to rescue Li Shufen, she could no longer be seen. Wang Jiao called 110 (police) immediately, and then she called Li Shufen's elder brother Li Shuyong. When the reporter asked "Why did Li Shufen kill herself by jumping into the river?", Li Yanchao said that she had told him that she felt that her parents favored males over females; her elder brother bullied her frequently; her parents childed her frequently, and therefore she was better off dead than alive. The reporter then went to the home Chen Guangquan. His mother Lu dengyong used the home telephone to dial her son's mobile phone. Chen Guangquan said that he was staying at the office fo the detention center and everything was fine. He told the reporter that he was in a romantic relationship with Li Shufen. But he emphasized repeatedly: "I have never had sexual intercourse with Li Shufen." ============ Wang Jiao speaks coherently and unhurriedly. Apart from her petite size, her coolness and maturity makes it hard to realize that she is just a Form 2 students. Wang Jiao, who claims to be the best friend of Li Shufen, met with the reporter in a courtyard of the Weng'an county detention center. "I have known Li Shufen since sixth grade in elementary school. Since then, we have been classmates. It can be said that we are best friends among classmates," said Wang Jiao. She told the reporter what happened on the early morning of June 22 when Li Shufen jumped into the river. "On that night, the four of us (Wang Jiao, Li Shufen, Liu Yanchao, Chen Guangquan) ate dinner and drank wine at the place of Liu's classmate QIn Ming. We were going to go home, but Li SHufen that we walk home. When we got to the Dayan bridge of SImen river, Li Shufen suggested that we go play around. We got on the bridge. I was about 20 meters away from Li Shufen and I was worried about being scolded by my parents for going home late. Liu Yanchao and Li Shufen were about two meters away from each other. Li Shufen was sitting on the railing facing the river. They talked and they laughed. Then came the horrible scene when Li Shufen said 'I am going' and jumped into the river. I saw that she actually jumped into the river." Wang Jiao said that Liu Yanchao jumped into the river to save Li while she called Chen Guangquan to come back to help. This girl who did not seem saddened by the death of her best friend said that Liu Shufen loved to get on the Internet and she may have been having an Internet romantic affair for a month because the guy was calling her by phone. She also told the reporter that Li Shufen has been staying at a rental room with her elder brother Li Shuyong. Her elder brother is in High School Form 3 and has just taken the university entrance exam this year. Wang Jiao said that Li Shuyong resents her sister's Internet addiction and has been verbally abusive towards her. The parents give Li Shuyong 500 RMB for living expenses, but just 100 RMB to Li Shufen. Thus, the parents favored boys over girls. "Her death may be related to her family," Wang Jiao told the reporter. (Xinhua) Final autopsy shows girl in southwest China protest drowned. July 11, 2008. The girl whose death sparked violent protest in southwest China's Guizhou province was drowned, confirmed authorities after the final eight-day autopsy on Wednesday. Qu Jianping, the doctor in charge of the third and final autopsy, went to Weng'an County Wednesday to convey the results to the family of Li Shufen. An examination on the vagina of 17-year-old Li Shufen shows that she was still a virgin at her death, dispelling rumors that she was raped before her death. A team composed of four doctors failed to find sperms inside and her maidenhead was still complete. The examination was done last Wednesday witnessed by Li's father, aunt, and two others. Apart from scratches on her right cheek and legs, experts who anatomized her head and body didn't find deadly injuries, said Qu. The doctors concluded that the scratches were not a result of assaults but was caused when Li struggled in the water or when her body was salvaged. No toxin was found in her stomach, Qu added. Experts also found blood spots on her conjunctiva and pericardiac velum and said the girl had swollen lungs, signs that she died after falling into water. The dead girl, Li Shufen, was a student at the No. 3 Middle School in Weng'an. Her body was recovered from a river in the county on June 22. This was the third postmortem and previous reports concluded she had drowned, but her relatives contended that she was murdered. Some suspected that Li was raped and killed by people who had connections with local government officials. Some people said they found blood on the spot. The autopsy report, however, said the blood was not of human being, but that of an animal yet to be decided. controversy over the cause of Li's death has sparked off a massive protest and riots in the county seat, in which the office of the county government and that of the county's public security bureau were torched. Dozens of government vehicles were smashed. Provincial Party Chief Shi Zongyuan attributed the riots to "rude and roughshod solutions" by local authorities to solve disputes over mines, the demolition of homes for public projects, the relocation of residents for reservoir construction and other issues. He also blamed local authorities for long-standing disregard for rampant crime in the county and incompetence in maintaining public security. Shi urged Weng'an officials to make the people's rights and interests their first priority and to deal with public grievances. The government also moved swiftly to sack four local officials. They were: Wang Qin, Party secretary of Weng'an county, Wang Haiping, the head of the county government, Luo Laiping, secretary of the politics and law committee of the Weng'an county CPC Committee and commissar of the county's public security bureau, and Shen Guirong, chief of the public security bureau. (Caijing) A Sad Drowning, A Summer of Discontent. By Luo Changpin. July 10, 2008. Few Chinese knew about a remote, ethnically diverse county in the mountains of Guizhou Province before a tense night in June when about 200 people, emboldened by a surrounding crowd of thousands, set fire to offices of the local government and public security bureau. But the June 28 incident, which locals now call ?6-28,? thrust Weng An County into a public spotlight -- at home and abroad. The riot, which the official Xinhua news agency said injured 50 police officers and protesters, coincided with a community protest march. The march was triggered by public outcry over the suspicious death of 17-year-old Li Shufen. Li was the pretty daughter of tobacco-farming parents who drowned in the Ximen River six days before 6-28. Police say it was a suicide. Relatives call it murder. Although Li?s death was said to have sparked the riot, a range of local injustices -- from mining disputes to police thuggery -- apparently laid the foundation for seething discontent among the county?s farmers and townspeople. The town is poor and primarily composed of the Buyi and Miao minorities. Per capita income among farmers -- who account for 90 percent of the county?s 460,000 people -- is just 2,000 yuan a year. Provincial officials for the Communist Party who met less than a week after the riot acknowledged not only public angst over Li?s death, but also the public?s hard feelings tied to mining disputes with landowners, relocations of villagers from a dam project zone, callous government officials, and weak law enforcement by police. In hopes of regaining public trust, the party?s Guizhou committee dismissed the chief and commissar of the Weng An public security bureau on July 3. County party chief Wang Qing and government head Wang Hairong were removed the next day. Yet resentment over Li?s late-night death has continued to hang over Weng An like the humid summer air. It all began when police investigators concluded that Li committed suicide -- and her relatives passionately disagreed. Teacher Zhang Guoming told Caijing that Li was a good student who never skipped school and ranked sixth in a class of 87. Classmate Lan Xiaoyin said Li?s scores had slipped in the past semester but added that ?recently, she worked diligently.? Li?s older brother, Li Shuyong, said his sister?s death came after she accepted an invitation from another girl -- her classmate Wang Jiao -- to go out on the night of June 21. Additional details were released by a Guizhou provincial public security bureau spokesman. He said Li, Wang and two young men -- Chen Guangquan and Liu Yanhcao -- ate dinner together that evening and walked to the Ximen River. The spokesman claimed Chen was Li?s boyfriend. Li told Liu she wanted to kill herself by jumping into the river, police said. But the man apparently managed to change her mind. Thinking Li was safe, Liu then went to a nearby bridge to do push-ups. Chen also left the scene, police said. Police said Liu, from the bridge, soon heard Li cry out, ?I will go!? before she leapt into the water. Police were later notified by Wang. A Caijing check of the records found that Wang phoned police at about half past midnight -- four hours after Li, Wang and the men walked to the riverside. Records also show police chose not to try pulling Li from the river on grounds that none of the officers could swim, and that rescue team members who arrived later said ?conditions are not proper for a rescue.? Li?s body was retrieved by relatives and neighbors at 3 a.m. on June 22. Chen, Liu and Wang were detained but released the following day after police said they lacked evidence to press charges. All three were said to be related to high government officials. The claim of kinship was later discounted as a rumor by Luo Yi, the party official in charge of the local prefecture?s police and justice systems. Separate autopsies were conducted at the county, prefecture and provincial levels. The final autopsy results, released July 9th, confirmed the findings from the first two, saying that Li drowned, and that there were no signs of sexual activity prior to death. Word among locals in Weng An, however, was that Li was raped and killed, and that government officials were protecting Chen, Liu and Wang. Li?s relatives pressed for a more thorough investigation. Police refused. Tension mounted. The dead girl?s uncle clashed with a county police officer on June 25 and was later brutally beaten by six unknown men. Meanwhile, Li?s body was kept in a cooled coffin by the riverbank. Relatives and neighbors kept guard. Police urged the mourners to dispose of the corpse and, on June 28, issued a notice ordering its removal. If mourners disobeyed orders they were told that the ?police will deal with the body according to law.? The notice ignited fury. A taxi driver who saw events unfold said it began when two students started marching with a white banner. Other local residents, sympathetic to the plight of Li?s family, joined the protest march throughout town. It was Saturday, and the streets were filled with people. The protesters stopped at the gate of a county government building, but no officials emerged to receive them. Eventually, the protest turned violent. Stretching from mid-afternoon to late night, the demonstration lasted seven hours. Li?s corpse was buried four days later, while riot police were stationed around town and soldiers guarded government buildings. The Communist Party of China?s Guizhou committee, headed by Shi Zongyuan, met a few days later. Shi said Li?s death were not the only reasons for the incident. Weng An was also a hot spot for struggles over mine ownership and villager relocations. Citizens? interests and rights had repeatedly been trampled upon. Local party official Luo said the incident exposed complex conflicts tied to economic development in the poverty-stricken county. ?Numerous conflicts criss-crossed, including the relocation of residents for reservoir construction, downtown reconstruction, struggles over interests in coal and phosphorus mining, as well as the ownership transfer of state-owned enterprises,? Luo said. Another party official, Mo Tao, said many party and government officials had overstepped the law in the past by handling issues through personal connections, sometimes with criminal gang protection. Shi further stressed that many government officials had dealt with sensitive issues callously. These officials frequently used police force to settle disputes, he said. In addition, the party leader said, many officials and police officers had been negligent toward their duties in battling the area?s gangs. Official provincial reports indicate that crime, including theft and gang fights, have been rampant in Weng An. Only about half the crimes are solved by local police, souring public views of the government. The community well remembers last summer?s late-night attack on a schoolgirl and her boyfriend by the Ximen River. The boy was beaten and the girl raped by four of the five attackers. Two hours passed before police arrived. Another sore spot stems from the relocation of 45,812 people, including 32,553 farmers, to make way for the Goupitan hydroelectric station -- the biggest in the province. Complaints focused on heavy-handed house demolitions and inadequate compensation for displaced residents. At least one struggle turned bloody. Weng An is also home to phosphorus mines and considerable coal reserves, creating clashing interests over mine ownership. Some locals blame land-grabs on government officials, including administrative and judicial powers who work with criminal gangs. Referring to the violent demonstration that put Weng An on the map, Shi admitted, ?the incident seems to have been spontaneous. But it was doomed to happen sooner or later.? (Southern Weekend) Weng'an, an unpeaceful county city. July 10, 2008. [in translation] It took only a short six days from the day of the abnormal death of a junior high school female student to the disturbance that rocked Weng'an county city and gained the attenton of the entire nation. On the day when Guizhou province Weng'an County Number Three Middle School Form 2 student Li Shufen died (June 22), the medical examiner made a preliminary determination and informed the family she "had drowned by suicide" and the three principals present at the scene were released. On the next day, her father Li Xiuhua raised doubts and asked for a full autopsy. He submitted an application for a crime investigation. On the fourth day after the death of Li Shufen, rumors began to float around the city. Her uncle Li Xiuzhong clashed with the police at the county public security bureau and was then assaulted by unidentified persons outside. The case is still unsolved at this time. Her father filed an emergency appeal to ask the government to "solve the case and punish the evil doers in order to calm public discontent." Seven days after the death of Li Shufen, several dozen people marched with banners and then engaged in vandalism, looting and arson at the Weng'an county government and party buildings as well as the public security bureau building. More than 10,000 people were at the scene. The family of Li Shufen is reluctant to discuss her death now. The young Li Shufen could not imagine that her death would lead Guizhou Provincial Party Secretary Shi Zongyuan to say directly: "Weng'an is unsafe; the masses feel unsafe; the people won't tell the truth." In six days, how did the escalating clashes and associated rumors around the death of a female student cause the city to explode? What kind of unsafe city was Weng'an during those six days? There was no prior hint for the incident. On the day when Li Shufen died, her family did not have many questions. On the morning of the same day, the three principals present at the scene were questioned by the police and released because there was no suspicion of wrongdoing. When the family of Li went to the police station to talk to the three principals, the latter were no longer there. At the same time, the three began to appear in the rumors: "The principal murderer is the niece of the county party secretary, and the other two men are relatives of the police station chief. The deceased had been raped and killed." "The relatives were submerged in sorrow and they did not considered the key issues about what had occurred before her drowning death. They did not demand an autopsy or an examination of her lower body party," Li Xiuhua described the initial situation. In order to preserve her body, Li Shufen's godfather Xie Qingfa rented a refrigerated coffin at a daily rate of 120 RMB. The refrigerated coffin was placed at the end of the Dayan bridge where the accident took place. This concrete bridge is less than 1.5 meters wide. The balustrades on both sides are about 1 meter high. The Simen river which is several dozen meters wide flows underneath the bridge. There are weeds floating in the river, which is as deep as two meters. There is no open space by the riverbank. The refrigerated coffin was placed inside a temporarily erected tent. Some spectators swore that they heard screeching cries for help in the middle of the night. Someone said that they saw condoms and blood stains on the river bank. A grassy patch by the river was said to be the spot where the crime was committed. The death of the girl Li Shufen became interwined with government officials, merciliess policemen and injustice across this small county city. The family of Li Shufen thought that there was an injustice at first. On June 23, they asked for another medical examination. At the time, the maternal grandmother Cheng Shujen witnessed the process and swore that "there was no water in the stomach and there were pills in her throat." The increasingly distorted rumors began to spread through the streets of Weng'an. "16-year-old Li Shufen was murdered because she refused to let a female classmate copy her answers during an exam; her throat had many wound marks -- she was obviously strangled to death!; the son of the Weng'an county deputy mayor with another young man raped a Weng'an County Number Three Middle School female student, killed her and tossed her body into the Simen river ..." This small space by the river became a stage. From morning to evening, people came continuously. People brought their own discontent to gawk at this girl who died of unknown causes. They opened their wallets generously because they wanted to see justice rendered for her. Many citizens told the reporters that they heard that someone gave as much as 3,000 RMB. "That person told her relatives to take the money to file a lawsuit. We will support you to the end. If you don't want to go to court, you return the money to me." This is as if they had personally seen this occurred. The donors included common folks. "There were peasants who don't earn much from the vegetables that they sell. But they donated their ten RMB of the day." According to an eyewitness, the donations totalled several tens of thousands of yuan. On June 25, a new incident occurred. Li Shufen's uncle Li Xiuzhong clashed with militia policeman Zhang Ming. Afterwards, the official statement was that "the two had clashed but Li was not injured." But Li Xiuhua wrote in this petition letter that his brother Li Xiuzhong "had been beaten with truncheons and kicked before being interrogated by the militia policeman." Li Xiuzhong was then summoned by the county education department to go down to the police station for questioning. Afterwards, he left and when he got to the Weng'an insurance company, he was assaulted violently by a group of unidentified men in plain clothes. In his "emergency appeal," Li Xiuhua wrote: "Li Xiuzhong was assaulted ... he was bleeding, unconscious and in critical condition." He also claimed that "my beloved daughter Li Shufen was murdered but the public security bureau refused to estabalish a case for investigation ..." The aforementioned episode showed up in the street rumors as: "The family of the deceased went down to the public security bureau but the police beat the uncle severely. Then they ordered gangsters to beat him further. His uncle died at 4pm after medical treatment failed." The rumors about the injustices rolled bigger and bigger, but these were clearly ignored by the government. The Simen river flowed on silently and nobody noticed what was happening. But these small dark changes were brewing silently and gathering strength. On the morning of June 28, the Weng'an County Public Security Buerau delivered the to the family of Li Shufen. The notice stated that Li Shufen "had jumped into river on her own accord and drowned." "The cause of death has been established, so there is no need to preserve her body." The Li family was enjoined to send the body of Li Shufen back home for burial before 14:00, June 28 2008." "If not, the public security bureau will handle this in accordance with the law." This aroused the ire of the spectators. At around 3pm on that day, two middle school students raising a banner saying "Justice for the people" in front and several dozen followers marched on behalf of Li Shufen. None of these marchers were family relatives of Li Shufen. The group started from the Dayan bridge and chanted slogans. Then they got on the Old Ring City Road. At the Seven Stars village alongside the Old Ring City Road, there resided almost 1,000 people who had been displaced by the hydroelectricity project. After the 6.28 incident occurred, Guizhou provincial party secretary Shi Zongyuan said that his incident appeared to have been triggered by the controvesial death of a middle school female student, but the deep structural reason is that there had been frequent infringements of citizen rights over the relocation of migrants, demolition of buildings and mining rights disputes. The "relocated migrants" that Shi Zongyuan was referring to included the 1,000 or so people at Seven Stars village. These people were displaced by the construction of the largest hydroelectricity project in Guizhou province. More than 4,000 were displaced for the dam, including more than 3,000 who had previously been farmers. As early as 2004, the villagers in Laiyuan district had clashed with government workers over the compensation and relocation plans. The villagers recalled that the relocation began in late 2002. The entire village was to be relocated. At the time, the compensation was 19,000 RMB per person, but the villagers thought that the amount was too low and they suspected the relocation department was keeping some of the money for themselves. In terms of land compensation, the villagers also thought that the amount paid for fruit trees was also too low. According to the national standard, each mu of garden land should be given more than 16,000 RMB. But these villagers were only offered 100 RMB per tree, which worked out to be only 7,000 RMB per mu. Meanwhile, a neighboring village received 1,000 RMB per tree. In December 2004, then county mayor Wang Qin visited the village along with members of the provincial-, prefecture- and county-level relocation bureaus. "We asked them why the compensation was so low," said a villager. "We were not communicating. They could not explain so we were not going to let them go." The angry villagers took away the cars and blocked the roads. Other people in the neighboring areas also came over when they heard the news. Together with the more than 1,000 outsiders, there were 2,000 to 3,000 migrants in the village. The government officials including the county mayor were forced to stay in the village for three days and three nights. The two sides could not reach an understanding. On December 16, the villagers found that a large number of armed policemen had arrived. Once the clash began, many villagers were injured, including women and children. "We called 120 but they did not care. We brought our injured people to the town clinic but they were ordered not to receive injured people. In the end, we had buy our own medicine to treat our injured," said this villager. Finally, the government officials managed to leave with the escort of the armed policemen. After more than half a year later, the government agreed to provide a total of 5,000 RMB in medical compensation to 34 injured persons. But the issue of relocation compensation remained unresolved. More than two years later in late March 200, the villagesr received notices from the town government to complete their relocation by March 31. "If you fail to relocate before then, you will bear all the consequences." On April 6, 2007, the Weng'an county government leaders led a team of more than 100 government workers and demolished the buildings in the village, including setting some on fire. Not only this, but these officials saw all the fruit trees under the waterline, destroyed all the grown crop and sprayed poison on the seedlings. At the time, the pears were ripe but they were gone before being picked. "It rained heavily that night. So people could only hovel under some tent clothes." That was how the villagers spent a sorrowful night. Today, that village is a pile of weed-filled deserted rubble. As of today, 54 of the more than 200 migrant families have stayed in the village. They have not received any compensation from the government. They managed to build shacks above the water level. They have no water or electiricity. They survive on the farmland and fruit trees that are above the water line. When they try to get construction work at the town government, they are told that they are not needed. "We only want a transparent policy in which we receive our compensation. We want to live peacefully above the water line." They are waiting without much hope for the problems to be resolved. The more than 1,000 villagers who have relocated to the Seven Stars village have received their compensation which they think is too low. So they are still pursuing the matter. On June 28, when the demonstrators went by the Seven Stars village, some of the migrants who were still pursuing the compensation issue joined in. After going down Old Ring City Road, the marchers led by middle school students turned into Northeast Road. The Weng'an Number Three Middle School is located on Northeast Road. The deceased girl Li Shufen had attended this school. "The school is unsafe. Many fellow students have joined gangs and they show off their membership," said a male student who did not want to disclose his name. He said that there were almost daily fights in front of the Number 3 Middle School each day after classes. There were group melees or individual face-offs involving machetes, daggers, poles and so on. The brawlers included students as well as local "hooligans" from various gangs in the city. According to two teachers at Number Three Middle School, "Students assaulting teachers is nothing new." Another students said that it is not just male students who join gangs. In Weng'an, if you want to concentrate on studying and not be bullied, you must join a gang and get 'protection' and this applies to girls as well as boys. The gangs are not just active among students, for that was just the lowest ring in the organizations. According to someone who had invested in mining, at the tip of the pyramid are the gangsters in the mining industry, who sometimes collude with government officials. "It is tough to operate a mine if you refuse to accept the terms of the gangs." According to the informant, the terms include payment of protection money; distrubution/sales rights of mined products; ownership of shares in the mines. Some gangs operate mines themselves. Between the mines and the gangs, the villagers live awkwardly. In Yuhua town where Li Shufen came from, there are many phosphorous mines. The reporter saw that the river water was greyish-white murky. The villagers said that since 2002, the mines have contaminated the water source which meant that people and animals could not drink from it and the crops withered. When the villagers complained to the government and the mines, they were ignored. In addition, the mines created soil erosion but the villagers received little or nothing in compensation for losing their land. At the Tianba briadge of Yanganhe village, Yuhua town, the villagers found that the water level was sinking due to the mining. In 2007, a well dried up completely so that there was no water for man and animals. According to a villager who declined to disclose his name, the Tianba villagers went to the mine to complain. The mine representative said that the falling water level was a natural phenomenon. The villagers also went to the complain to the county and town governments to no avail. Reluctantly, the villagers tried to cut off the electricity as well as blockade the mine shaft. Clashes occurred between the two sdies. This villager said that the Weng'an government organized a work group to come down on March 15. The villagers said "as long as the water problem is unresolved, we won't let you go." The work group was detained in the village for three days and three nights before being released. On April 29 last year, the county governmetn asked the village representatives to attend a meeting "to resolve the problems." A group of 14 villagers including the village mayor and the village party secretary went to the county government office building to meet in the conference room. According to a villager who attended the meeting, the county police showed up in the middle of the meeting and took away 11 of the representatives. "When the villagers heard that their representatives had been arrested, the whole brigade went to the county city. At the police station, a police line was set up to prevent the villagers from seeing their representatives. Amidst the chaos, a physical melee occurred. 22 people from the brigade, including the representatives, were arrested." The eyewitness said that some of the villagers were accused to assaulting the government office. Ultimately, seven of the village representatives were found guilty of "assembling and disturbing public order," with prison sentences between two to six years in length. The godfather of the deceased school girl Li Shufen, Xie Qingfa, is a member of the Tianba bridage in Yuhua town and he particpated in the aforementioned incident. So when the demonstrators went by on June 28, the mining district residents who had suffered at the hands of the government workers and the gangs were quickly ignited and many joined the marchers. According to an eyewitness, many shop owners by the road shuttered their shops and joined the demonstration. On July 3, Guizhou party secretary Shi Zongyuan said that in the process of handling conflicts and mass incidents, certain cadres were violent and simplistic, frequently invoking the police force ... some cadres were lazy and derelict and they pushed the police onto the front line whenever an incident occurred. This ired the people greatly. The result was that there was not only tension between the government and the people, but also between the police and the people. Guizhou provincial deputy party secretary Wang Fuyu said that some cadres are corrupt and collude with the gangs by acting as their "sentries" and "protection umbrellas." After the 6.28 incident, the Guizhou police quickly established a crime squad and arrested 249 persons belonging to six different gangs. The largest gang was "the Yushan gang which was established in 1998 and has more than 50 lieutenants." In one day, the gangs that had existed safely in Weng'an were wiped out. On July 3, Weng'an county public security bureau director was recommended for dismissal; on July 4, the Weng'an county party secretary Wang Qin and county mayor Wang Haipnig were dismissed from their posts. When the demonstrators left North East Road to turn into Wenfeng Middle Road, the crowd had swelled from the several dozens in the beginning to one thousand. The lesson to be drawn after the incident was expressed on the afternoon of July 2 at a mobilization meeting for the anti-gang campaign in southern Guizhou province. The prefecture party secretary Wu Ting described the situation to the party and government leaders from the twelve counties. The incident occurred on June 22 and the Weng'an government paid attention to it by establishing a work group. They were still discussing the issues on the morning of July 3. "So why did everything change at 3pm?" Wu Ting said that he could not see how two or three hundred people holding a banner could swell up to four to five thousand by the time that they reached the county government buildings. During the process, how come nobody in the government knew or mediate? On Wenfeng road, the shops are mostly "sales agents" and "recreational massage parlors." According to an informed sources, the "sales agents" are pawn shops and loan sharks with gangster backgrounds and hidden government backers. The official presentation of Weng'an county is that this was a historical revolutionary county, a top 100 green county in the nation for is forestry, a model county for protecting the old and the young and a red flag county for public safety in the province. But a taxi driver said that Weng'an is an unsafe city. "I am definitely home by 11 o'clock at night. That is when the gangs come out." A parent named Feng Zhongming cried to the reporter that his 9-year-old son died from poisoning last year and the case is unsolved. At past 10pm on June 26, the Changsha Water Pump Shop on Wenfeng Road was robbed by two masked men. According to the owner, "Two men armed with guns just walked into the shop." They pointed the guns at the owner's head and ordered him to bring out his money. The robbers rolled down the steel gate, tied up the family of three, took two mobile phones and 1,000 RMB in cash and they left. "I called 110, and they showed up more than 40 minutes later." The owner thought that police were too slow in responding. On one evening on the year before last, a middle school students was killed as soon as he stepped out of the school gate. Last month, a middle school girl suddenly went "missing." Later on, her body was found in a corn field. She had been strangled. That case is still unsolved. "I go and pick up my child after school each day or else I feel very insecure," said a parent named Shi. Although the child is already in high school, the parent is uneasy because of the general lack of safety. There is a local doggerel: "The good people are in disarray, the bad people have formed gangs; if security is no good, there cannot be any prosperity." According to published information, the police noted that there were four explosions on September 12, 19, 22 and 26, 2007 at the Weng'an county Audit Department dormitory, Jinlong Garden, the North Gate Well and the Pedestrian Mall. Those cases are unsolved at this time. Guizhou provincial deputy party secretary Wang Fuyu believes that an underlying reason for the 6.28 incident was the bad public safety situation in Weng'an. Although the police have gone after the gangs, the latter have not been eradicated. Robberies and fights continued to occur. There were 600 to 800 crimes committed last year, of which about 50% were solved. When crimes go unsolved and pile up, people feel unsafe. When the cars were being torched outside the government building, the police could not stop the masses. But the owner of a small shop told the masses: "This car is mine. I need it. Please don't burn it." The vandals did not torch that car. Southern Guizhou party secretary Wu Ting sighed: "Why do the vandals refuse to listen to us but they would listen to a citizen? Why is our relationship with the masses so tense?" After the 6.28 incident, the broadcasts continued to urge the participants to surrender themselves. On the streets, the armed police and the regular police patrolled. In front of the county party and government offices, there were armed police guards 24 hours a day. A taxi driver said: "These are the safest times in Weng'an." The most interesting conversation took place between provincial party secretary Shi Zongyuan and the workers at a blind-person massage place. Shi asked whether the shop owner felt safe because they were next to the public security bureau building. When the owner hestitated to answer, Shi apologized: "Our party and government have failed in our work. Weng'an is unsafe, the people feel unsafe and there are more and more bad people." When a worker at the shop refused to state his name, Shi Zongyuan once against admonished himself: "Weng'an is unsafe. The people dare not tell the truth. That is our responsibility ... the government is unable to stop the bad people and the masses are suffering. Weng'an is unsafe. The good people cannot defeat the bad people." He apologized repeatedly to the people of Weng'an. "The incident began with students demonstrators. Then thousands of people gathered to watch. But the party, government and public security bureau had no information beforehand. They lack information, they were not mentally prepared and they had no contingency plan. When the incident took place, they had no response." On the meeting of July 3, Wang Fuyu said, "In condlusion, there were too many unresolved matters, there was too much bitterness and things were irreversible." "The 6.28 incident appeared to be an accident, but it was inevitable. Sooner or later, this was going to happen!" said Shi Zongyuan. At 3:30pm on June 28, citizen Hu saw the demonstrators coming down on Wenfeng Road. The people were chanting slogans and heading towards the county party and government buildings. Hu joined the group. When the demonstrators reached the county and government offices, more than 10,000 people had shown up. There were students, migrants, shop owners, farmers, service workers, massage girls and even public servants, relatives of police officers ... they were men, women, young, old -- all the groups of Weng'an county city were represented here. Hu said that the students went into the county party and government buildings and went from the first floor to the fifth floor without finding any relevant government officials. It was a Saturday. "If someone in charge had come out and communicated with the people -- even if it was just someone saying a few words with a loudspeaker -- what happened later on could not have occurred," said Hu. Since the Li Shufen affair was handled by the public security bureau, the demonstrators proceeded to the county public security bureau building. Hu saw that the police had set up a police line in front of the building. They were going to let two students to enter the building "They seized the banner and the students seized it back. There was a clash and the students jostled with the police," said Hu. "When people saw the students being beaten, more people charged past the police line to help." At that moment, the fully armed anti-riot police appeared and pointed their truncheons at the crowd. Guizhou provincial party secretary Shi Zongyuan said afterwards: "You cannot just push the police onto the front line on any flimsy reason. You cannot impose the dictatorship of the people onto the people themselves. Otherwise, wouldn't it be weird!" Shi Zongyuan requested the cadre leaders to determine the cadres who were derelict in their duties during the incident. The crowd was in an uproar. When they saw the students being assaulted, they tossed the water bottles in their hands, the flower pots in front of the building and everything else at the public security bureau building. "It was over," said Hu. At that moment, he realized that the crowd has lost its head and the situation has spun out of control. By that time, the triggering fuse was no longer important. The important thing was that the pented-up volcano had suddenly just found what had been a very small crack and Weng'an exploded. (Outlook Weekly) Weng'an Focused On Economy And Neglected Public Opinion; The People Won't Tell The Truth To The Government. By Zhao Peng, Zhou Furong and Liu Wenguo. July 12, 2008. "When I saw the county government building go up in flames, tears poured out my eyes. But the spectators were cheering, 'Go!'." Although the 6.28 Weng'an incident occurred more than a dozen days ago, Cai Dongmei (who is a Guizhou provincial People's Congress delegate and the chairman of the Auntie Cai's Food Company) was still filled with sorrow when she recounted her feelings as an observer at the scene. "This was not an isolated incident. Rather, it was the inevitable culmination of many social conflicts over a long time." The 71-year-old veteran cadre (and former Weng'an county mayor) Xu Yinfeng said. "The people are bitter. When their feelings get pented up over time, something is going to happen!" Another veteran cadre Wang Rude told our reporter. The Weng'an cadres and people have been reflecting: How can the death of the middle school female student Li Shufen lead to an extraordinary mass incident of 10,000 people gathering together, assaulting, vandalizing and torching the county party, government and public security bureau buildings? Our investigation showed that the local government was slow in reacting and they mishandled the incident. But the more disconcerting thing was that "the masses were not longer willing to tell the truth to the government." With respect to the death of Li Shufen, there were doubts ever since her body was recovered by her uncle Li Xiuzhong and others on the early morning of June 22 and placed in a refrigerated coffin by the river bank. The various cadres and citizens pointed out that there were two critical periods during which the escalation to the 6.28 incident could have been avoided. The first time period was the seven days between June 22 and June 28. Although the county public security bureau and the other relevant county departments worked on the Li family, they were unable to persuade the family to bury Li Shufen and prevent the incident from escalating. "That week was the time when the government should have acted to prevent the 6.28 incident," Xu Yinfeng told our reporter. From the day when the Li family put the body by the river bank, there were thousands of people going to the scene each day. Rumors were flying all over the place. The government and the public security bureau did not provide any clarification concerning what the people were saying and they did not issue any clarification through communication channels. As a result, the false rumors spread like wildfire. "Many people who did not know the truth believed in the rumors. They were angry and there were signs that there would be trouble. But there was no awareness. This meant that the initiative to guide public opinion, prevent escalation and stabilizing emotions was lost," said Xu Yinfeng. The second time period was between 16:00 and 20:00 on June 28. During those four hours, the crowd assembled to state their complaints. But the county party, government and public security bureau leaders (as well as the southern Guizhou party and the Guizhou provincial government) leaders did not appear in front of the crowd to speak to them. Many of the interviewed spectators had the same refrain: "If any of the county party, government and public security leaders had come out personally to meet with the petitioners and communicate with them in front of everyone, the situation would not have gone out of control. There would not have been a large-scale clash." On that Saturday, where were the county and provincial leaders? Our reporter learned that at 10:20pm on June 28, the southern Guizhou party leaders had arrived in Weng'an. But there were too many people around and the car could only circle around while they waited for the arrival of Guizhou provincial party standing committee member and political and legal committee secretary Cui Yadong to arrive from Guiyang. The actions taken by Weng'an county party secretary Wang Qin were the following: 800 cadres of the directly responsible departments and the county towns were sent to the scene to maintain order; the fire brigade was sent in to put out the fire; the deputy county mayor Zheng Yi was sent in to direct action at the scene; the various other cadres were dispatched to the scene; Wang Qin himself installed himself at the county armed police headquarters to command the actions. It is worth thinking why the local party, government and public security bureau departments had no information while several hundred people including students were marching on June 28. The local public security bureau had inserted an "informant" to report on the actions of the Li family, but this person failed to file any reports. Afterwards, Wang Qin concluded: when the informant failed to deliver, they became unprepared, they did not even have an emergency plan and they were at a loss when the mass incident occurred. County Political Consultative Conference and People's Hospital doctor Wang Deqing said, "Even if this informant failed, while didn't other citizens report to the county party? When the people won't tell the truth to your government, you are in trouble." "Weng'an is not safe place." This was what our reporters heard repeatedly from the people of Weng'an. In Guizhou province, Weng'an is famous for its chaos. According to information, there have been many cases of abnormal deaths among middle school students in Weng'an county since 2007. None of those cases have been solved. In December 2007, the Caoqiao Middle School student Fu Chaoxian was raped and murdered less than 200 meters from her home. The perpetrator is still at large and the people are strongly dissatisfied. According to Yonghe town villager Zhang Yanhong, his 9-year-old nephew Zhang Xiaoyun was kidnapped in May 2006 with no information available since. He went down to the public security bureau to complain and he got a beating for his trouble. A taxi driver said that his colleague Xu Anqi was assaulted by Yushan gang members and the county public security bureau refused to take action. Only when all the taxi drivers in Weng'an county threatened to go out on strike did the public security bureau make the other party pay 3,000 RMB in compensation. Between September 12 and 26, 2007, there were four explosions at the Golden Dragon Garden, Flower Bamboo Garden, Northgate Water Well and the Plaza Restaurant. None of those cases have been solved. These four sites are places near which county cadres live, or where government workers pass through. According to Lu Xiaoli, who owns a blind-person massage parlor: "So many children are being murdered in the city and not a single bad guy has been apprehended. Why would the people trust them?" A middle-aged woman cried to the reporter: "The people pressed for an explanation in the case of Li Shufen because we are trying to protect our own children!" Behind the chaos of public safety in Weng'an county are the criminal gangs. According to the people, there were more than a dozen gangs such as the Yushan gang, the Green Dragon gang, the Axe gang, the Kitchen Knife gang and others. The reasons why the gangs proliferate was that the police were so poor at solving crimes and some of the police were even helping gangsters. Since the place was unsafe and the rate of solving crimes was poor, the people and the police were like fire and water. Our reporter could sense this strong emotion of opposition during the interviews. At 21:00 on July 3, the reporters observed at the textile factory workers' dormitory that 20 to 30 volunteers were making dumplings for the armed police officers who had been sent in to restore order. "They are like a blue sky. It is normally very unsafe. There are many robberies, which begin to happen around 7pm or 8pm. We don't dare to go out at night. We feel very safe when the armed police are around for the past several days," said a laid-off worker at this textile factory. An armed police officer who was eating dumplings told the reporter: "The local crowds are very enthusiastic and nice. During the day, they bring us mineral water bottles. During the night, they bring us snacks. They treat us like family. But they act very differently towards the local public security personnel. When we wanted to share the mineral water that they brought us with the local public security people who were standing guard alongside us, they scolded us and they made it very clear that they did not want to give the mineral water that they purchased with their own money to the local public security personnel." ... (yWeekend) Weng'an Officials Provide "Full Company" At Interviews. By Ma Jun. July 17, 2008. [in translation] The 'unusual death' of a girl in Weng'an county (Guizhou province) led to a mass incident in which county government buildings were attacked, vandalized and set on fire. Had the government been open about information, would the incident have occurred? The China News Weekly reporter Wang Weibo went to Weng'an to investigate and found the following during his ten days or so of work there: If the reporter does not register with the local authorities, he does not get cooperation; the family members of the deceased are provided "full company" by local officials during interviews; the 'bulletins' provided to the reporter are deliberately filtered; more than a dozen local teachers have been organized to comment and guide opinion on the Internet ... "But it was an improvement to observe that the local officials are reflecting on the issue of information openness," said Wang Weibo to yWeekend. On the evening of July 3, I arrived in Weng'an. On the next day, the county party secretary and mayor were removed from their posts. At about two to three kilometers from Weng'an county, there is a toll booth on the main road to Weng'an county city. Inside, there is a notice in red with the big letters: "Welcome Chinese and foreign media reporters to come and gather news." The reception and mobile telephone numbers were listed underneath. But we did not dial those contact numbers. Based upon our previous practice in investigative journalism, we entered the city and set out to find the principals directly. On the streets of Weng'an, there were patrols wearing red armbands. At the major street intersections, armed policemen stood guard. There were banners everywhere that said: "Thank you for your hard work, media reporter friends!" These banners sounded very warm and friendly, showing a certain posture by the local authorities. But when we wanted to interview people, we had to produce a special press pass. This pass is issued by the 6.28 Incident Management Team. When a reporter applies with the team, he receives a special press pass. Without this pass, many people (especially officials) will refuse to be interviewed. At first, we did not go through this process. Without the pass, we ran into many obstacles during our interviewing. We arrived at Yuhua town where the family of the deceased lived, and the local cadres questioned and blocked us repeatedly. Our press cards issued by the General Administration of Press and Publications were not good enough. At the home of the deceased Li Shufen, the reporter encountered the people from the county publicity department. We reasoned with them for a long while before they reluctantly permitted the family members to be interviewed. The next day, we went back to the county city and got our press passes. This press pass gave us some guarantees. But it also allowed the authorities to keep track of whom we were interviewing and what we were asking about. Generally speaking, the government has been open about media coverage from the start of the incident to now. As long as we had our press pass, they did not directly stop us. But on July 3 and 4 when the reporters interviewed the parents and elder brother of the deceased, the local officials were present. Town cadres and county publicity department workers were present the whole time. It would seem that the family members did not want to say too much. Some reporters would try to get a family member to go on the side and have a private chat for a few minutes and maybe get something new. Otherwise, the family members repeated the information that has already been provided at the press conferences. The final version of the facts is completely different from the original Internet rumors. Of course, there are still some doubts that are still unknown, such as the motive for the girl to commit suicide and so on. But basically, the possibility of murder, rape, and other Internet rumors have been excluded. This is actually favorable to the government. Such being the case, then why won't they let the reporters gather information freely? I think that this situation is understandable. The local officials are hoping to do their work well to get the media publish positive reports. So they will necessarily try to manage the process. That is to say, they would not interfere with the interviews but they still wanted to put the reporters under control if possible. They wanted even more for the reporters to help them dispel the rumors and calm people down. But when there are large numbers of media from the outside whose contents are beyond their control, they can only control the interviewing process. Actually, this is still the same traditional way of thinking. The interviews with the three principals who were at the scene was a joint interview with various media organizations. Of course, they were accompanied by local officials. The three principals said the same things that were already said at the press conferences. We are a group of three reporters and we took different directions in our stories. I was covering the angle of the responses by government officials during this affair. The handling of the 6.28 incident was probably inappropriate based upon the outcome. The situation went out of control. Therefore, the local officials were being evasive and did not want to say much. On July 5, I asked to interview the county leaders in order to understand the details of how they dealt with the situation on June 28. I hoped to interview Xiao Song who was at the scene of the disturbance. He was the county vice-mayor in charge of petitions and public security. The Information and Publicity Office people told me to go and get the bulletins at the incident emergency command center. These bulletins were issued on a daily basis and they documented the government's emergency responses. The command center was located at another site. When I got there, I was turned back because they said that the bulletins were also available at the Information and Publicity Office. So I went back to the Information and Publicity Office and one of their directors was decent enough to run over to the command center in the rain and got me the bulletins. But there were only three bulletins. Actually, more than a dozen bulletins had been published already. The three bulletins that they gave me was principally about how they had finished their propaganda work and other items that showcased their achievements. But I wanted above all to read the bulletins between the critical days of June 28 to June 30. Those were absent. Without doubt, they had "filtered" the bulletins to be given to me. "Why won't you provide me with all the bulletins? You filed these bulletins for your superiors to read, and they should also be released to the media." I raised this question right there. They replied that the bulletins involved certain secret matters such as the movements of the armed police. As such, it was inappropriate to release the information to the press. This explanation may seem alright, but it couldn't be the case that all of the other bulletins were about the movements of the armed police? I argued back and forth, but I never got the bulletins that I wanted. This chunk was a key missing part of my report. Afterwards, I could only go through many interviews, including government officials who wanted to stay anonymous and certain citizens (who had taken videos at the scene) before I could reconstruct how the government officials reacted and coped during the 7 hours of the afternoon of June 28. Previously, there are many taboos and customs in covering similar mass incidents. But this time, there were many breakthroughs. In less than one hour after the incident, netizens were posting videos and photos on the Internet. On the evening of June 28, 'roadside rumors' began to circulate on the blogs and forums. Not only were the local police accused of injustice, but the rumors also said that the police had beaten an uncle of the deceased to death. These stories drew innumerable angry comments. At the Tianya and Strong Nation forums, the relevant posts soared to the top. These stories contain the ingredients that rile the Chinese people the most: official corruption, rape-murder, police inaction, etc. The Internet action created a different kind of worry for the local officials. They organized to counterattack. Although they were reacting passively, they nevertheless achieved decent results. Certain posts that counterattacked the rumors began to appear on the Internet. These posts came mostly from the "Group for policy discussion and law publicity" in Weng'an county. More than a dozen teachers who were familiar with the Internet were selected and transferred from the county schools and they acted systematically and purposefully to dispel rumors and calm people down with comments on the Internet. The leader of this publicity team is the Guizhou provincial party committee publicity department deputy director Zhou Xiaoyun. According to the presentation of a local official, the principal mission of this publicity team is to organize personnel to make Internet comments, "and use the Guizhou media to affect national opinion." Since the government website office was destroyed by arson, the workers worked on the second floor of the Telecom Building. The dozen or so workers from the relevant county departments and schools worked daily to collect information and followed up with comments on inaccurate information. An official with the emergency handling command center also explained, "Apart from Weng'an county, all other counties and cities in the Southern Guizhou Prefecture assigned 5 Internet commentators each. Each day, they consulted the Xinhua news reports and other recently published information, and then they use a variety of flexible methods to guide Internet discussion." Obviously, the local government has begun to study news tactics. These methods are much more effective than what they used to do. Of course, they were doing different things on and off the Internet too. Off the Internet, they were mainly guiding and restricting the traditional media. This close monitoring of the traditional media gives the sense of a pro-active technique. On July 29, the 6.28 incident emergency response command center was established. The aforementioned "Group for discussion and law publicity" was one of eight work groups within the center. They also have an incident investigation team, a persuasion/guidance team and so on. On the morning of July 29, Xinhua published the report titled . By comparison to the historical record, this type of incident is usually reported several days afterwards. Afterwards, the Guizhou provincial and Southern Guizhou Prefecture media began their reporting on the incident. The government began its work to dispel the rumors on the fourth day after the incident occurred. On July 1, the Guizhou provincial government information office, the Guizhou provincial public security bureau and other departments held a press conference in Guiyang concerning "the major incident of assault, vandalism and arson on June 28 in Weng'an." They made the following clarifications: (1) the evidence showed that the girl had died by drowning and was not raped/murdered; (2) the county party secretary Wang Qin is from the local area and he has no relatives in the Weng'an area; etc. An analysis showed that from June 30 and July 3, the reporting on the case (including the interviewing by the militia police, family members and the three principals on the scene) was controlled by the Guizhou media. Outside media could not make any breakthrough mainly because they could not find anyone to interview. Afterwards, the local government arranged several interviews of the principals by outside media for publicity reasons. During the interviewing process, we observed certain improvements. But this is still far away from genuine openness of government information. With respect to channel availability and timing for information openness, there is still a lot of room for improvement. Openness of government information means genuine openness, but the local officials still have an antiquated idea about propaganda and they want to control the media. I interviewed one government officials and he kept using words such as "monitoring," "controlling" and "blocking." These terms clearly exhibited an old style of thinking. If they had started out with open information, what happened later need not have occurred. Between June 22 and June 28 (from the death of Li Shufen to the presence of thousands in the streets), the government was basically silent. I spoke with local government officials, and they admitted that the government stayed silent because it had no awareness about the need of openness of government information. They also did not have the kind of communication means. It may be said that the system of information openness has not been effectively built at the time. In today's interview (July 14), I spoke with a director at the Weng'an county emergency response office. They had also reflected and summarized this experience. They were confounded by one problem: For the government, information openness often implied an openness that is authoritative and accurate; for the public, information openness should be as transparent and clear as possible. For an emergency incident, there always needs to be an investigative process. This implies an conflict between information openness and timeliness. How to resolve the conflict? For this director, he thinks that they should let the people hear the government's voice in the first instant, even if this voice does not contain an authoritative explanation yet. But the voice in the first instant can at least show the attitude of the government and give a promise to the people. When the masses hear this voice, they know that the government is going to ignore this matter. This is the way to calm people down. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Wed Aug 27 10:06:05 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 18:06:05 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Mayday protests, 2008 Message-ID: <00c801c90867$32944000$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES - Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ Mayday protests, 2008: * GERMANY: "Heaviest riots" in years as antifa confront Nazis in Hamburg * Further unrest in Nuremburg, Berlin, and later in the night in Hamburg * In Kreuzberg, Berlin, a police chief is chased off with rocks and bottles * TURKEY: Police ban on Mayday demos leads to clashes * INDONESIA: Workers march on presidential palace, fight with police * FINLAND: Police attack anti-capitalist protest * US, OLYMPIA: Mayday protesters storm governor's office * GLOBAL: Protests across Asia, Latin America and the world * PHILIPPINES: Workers march against Arroyo * KENYA: Workers' protests raise salary demands * INDIA: Train drivers observe protest day * RUSSIA: Police attack Mayday rally, 35 arrested * THAILAND: Thousands of workers march * SERBIA: Workers jeer president at Mayday rally * KOSOVA: Workers mark Mayday * NIGERIA: Symbolic Mayday march replaced by protest at local government * TOGO: Workers march * LEBANON: Workers protest worsening economy * US: CHICAGO, ATLANTA, SAN DIEGO, RHODE ISLAND: Thousands rally for immigrant rights * US: WEST COAST: Dockers strike on Mayday against war * US: RICHMOND: Peace protest on Mayday * PHILIPPINES: Thousands attend labour marches http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/05/398023.html Germany, Hamburg: Heaviest Mayday Riots since 30 Years! tomka | 02.05.2008 12:09 | Anti-racism | Social Struggles | World Germany, Hamburg. Cops were hunted, barrikades were built - 10 000 protesters turned Hamburg into Chaos, yesterday. They violently stopped 500 neo-nazis, protected by thousands of riot cops, from marching through Hamburg. tomka Download this article in pdf format Email this article to someone; Submit an addition or make a quick comment on this article Additions more information on: 02.05.2008 13:12 http://de.indymedia.org/2008/05/215364.shtml (german) john video on: 02.05.2008 13:20 http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=UqiBgApoHk0 john Mayday Riots in Hamburg 02.05.2008 21:28 Hamburg, germany, 1st of may 2008. 1,000 nazis marched in through Barmbek district, protected by the police, while 10,000 antifascists protested and attempted to stop the Nazi demonstration. the police violence against peaceful blockades sparked the heaviest riots Hamburg has seen since the 80's. the anti-nazi actions consisted of rallies, concerts, barricades on the street and on railroad tracks (which actually delayed the arrival of the neo-nazis), and a protest march. when about 8 000 people blocked the starting point of the neo-nazi demonstration, the police, instead of canceling the neo-nazi march, decided to attack the blockade with water cannons, pepper spray and truncheons. the organizers of the anti-nazi demonstration decided to cancel the march at this point. right afterwards, the demonstration was attacked again by thecops for standing on a crossroad which turned out to be part of the alternative route for the fascist demonstration. in the meantime, the nazi demonstration didn't receive as much attention from the police as it should have. most of the police force was engaged in fighting antifascist, while the nazis could attack people on the side of their demonstration, among them a couple of journalists, without the police giving them too much trouble. on the nazi route, the water cannons were in permanent operation to keep off protesters and clear burning barricades. a spontaneous demonstration of 3 000 antifascists was stopped by water cannons, close to the S-Bahnhof Ohlsdorf (a train station), which was the end point of the neo-nazi march. when the neo-nazis arrived,they were welcomed with flying stones. The situation almost turned into a street battle with stones been thrown on both sides. When neo-nazi leader J?rgen Rieger started to sing the first verse of the Deutschlandlied (german national hymn), which has been illegal since 1945 (only the third verse is legal), the concluding rally was immediately canceled. the police attempted to arrests Rieger, which failed due to the resistance of his fellow neo-nazis, who fought back the police. With massive pepper spray use, the police managed to move the neo-nazis into the train station. But their departure proofed to be difficult, since a lot of their buses were destroyed or left without them. A number of later skirmishes on subways and train stations were reported. main article: http://de.indymedia.org/2008/05/215364.shtml related indymedia posts: Riot in front of the Rote Flora. later that night, in front of the autonomous culture center Rote Flora, a fight between kids and the police broke out. 4 people were arrested. These Quarrels are common, especially after big demonstrations, and have been more frequent since the G8 protests last year. http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=UqiBgApoHk0 Neo-nazi identified in an assault on antifascists. Siegfried Borcher, called SS-Sigi by his mates, lives in Dortmund. you can find a picture of him here: http://de.indymedia.org/2008/05/215334.shtml 200 Nazis riot in the Bremer HBF. On the way back from Hamburg, 200 neo-nazis assaulted everybody at the train station who looked remotely left-wing. the police watched and did nothing for a long time. as the finally decided to arrest one of the fascists, they were attacked by his kameraden. stones, bottles and firecrackers flew through the air, and the cops decided to let the arrestee go. http://de.indymedia.org/2008/05/215405.shtml nazi postings on indymedia.de, during the demonstration, several postings appeared, claiming that an antifascist was killed at protests. since no reliable sources could be found, these posts were deleted by the indy-moderators. In a later post, the name of the supposed victim was given, an antifascist journalist, who has been defamed by nazi newspapers in the past. The antifascist journalist enjoys best health. These postings are believed to have been launched to stir up violence at the protest. http://de.indymedia.org/2008/05/215580.shtml mainstream media reports: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7379615.stm http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,551037,00.html http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3305672,00.html a lot of these reports miss the fact, that Hamburg has a long history of police violence, especially since 2001, when a coalition of the newly formed ultra right-wing Schill party and the conservative CDU, (chirsitian democratic union) took over the government. If you just only think about the Bambule protests 2002-2003 or the student protests in the last 4 years, this kind of militant resistance come as no surprise. hello, my name is_____ http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,551037,00.html MAY DAY VIOLENCE Hamburg Sees Worst Rioting in Years May 1 is a traditional day of workers' unity rallies in Europe, but in Germany the day often brings clashes, particularly between anti-fascist leftists and neo-Nazis. On Thursday there were some isolated incidents in Berlin but it was Hamburg that saw the worst rioting. Major May 1 riots rocked the northern German port city of Hamburg and isolated attacks occurred on Thursday in Berlin, where the head of the city's police department was forced to flee an angry crowd of left-wing demonstrators. In Hamburg, an estimated 1,100 right-wing extremists and 7,000 left-wing demonstrators clashed, escalating to an unusual level of violence for the city. "These were the biggest riots the city has seen in a long time," Ralf Meyer, a spokesman for the Hamburg police, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. The intensity of the riots in the city has left officials shaken. At a press conference on Friday, Peter Born, the Hamburg police officer in charge of deploying officers during the protests, said he believed the presence of officers prevented a loss of life during the particularly brutal clashes between the two groups. "If the police hadn't thrown themselves in between," Born said, "there would have been deaths. I am firmly convinced of that." Born was refering to a brawl that broke out between several hundred right-wing radicals whom he described as "nationalist anarchists" and a similarly large far-left group. Following Thursday's violence, Hamburg Interior Minister Udo Nagel and the police union GdP sharply criticized the decision of a local upper administrative court to invalidate a police order prohibiting the right-wing and left-wing protest marches from coming into direct contact with each other. "We knew we had to expect violence," Nagel told the mass-circulation daily Bild. "The police had developed a plan, but it was undermined by the court." Nagel described the court's decision as "irresponsible," adding that "the judges didn't just expose police to the worst dangers, but also people who hadn't even participated." In the city on Thursday, rioters burned trash cans and cars, vandalized stores and caf?s, lit firecrackers, set off smoke bombs and volleyed a hail of stones. In one incident, a pile of tires was burned just 20 meters (65.6 feet) away from a gas station. Around 2,500 police were deployed in the city, and officers attempted to disperse the crowds by firing water cannons. Neo-Nazi groups in Germany often hold rallies during the May 1 holiday that frequently end in massive clashes between neo-Nazis and anti-fascist, left-wing groups. The day is traditionally one for workers' unity rallies across Europe, but in Germany it often boils down to confrontations between extreme-right and far-left protesters. The event that triggered Thursday's violence was a march by far-right activists and neo-Nazis through Hamburg, during which the demonstrators shouted out slogans against the newly elected city parliament. The right-wing radicals disparaged it as a "gay government," an apparent reference to the city's openly homosexual mayor and his new city coalition government of conservative Christian Democrats and the left-wing Green Party. They also accused the government of working together with a "left-wing radical mob." The demonstration ended with a speech by the head of the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) in the city, neo-Nazi attorney J?rgen Rieger. But police quickly broke up the event. In total, police arrested 55 people and temporarily detained another 200. Police said most of those arrested were young men who had traveled to Hamburg from either the formerly communist eastern German states or neighboring Denmark. Two men were arrested on suspicion of arson for allegedly burning two cars. Around 20 of the 2,500 police deployed were injured, and one police car and six other vehicles were burned. In evening demonstrations, radical left-wing protesters threw stones at a local bank, set up barricades and then lobbed fireworks and rocks at oncoming police. Attack on Police Chief Berlin, a past hotbed of May 1 violence, remained relatively peaceful on Thursday -- with an estimated 10,000 people holding a demonstration in the city's multicultural Kreuzberg district. Still, police on Friday said that 138 rioters had been detained in the city, with charges expected to be filed against 92. But as the city's police chief, Dieter Glietsch, visited the site in the early evening to get a better view of what was happening, left-wing extremists tried to attack him. Glietsch's security guards took him into a police van for protection, but protesters threw bottles stones and chairs at the vehicle. Police retaliated with pepper spray. Elsewhere, protesters also threw bottles, stones and even bicycles at officials in a neighborhood that has long been a lightning rod for left-wing violence. The Bavarian city of Nuremberg also experienced left-wing violence on Thursday after 3,000 left-wing protesters try to stop a demonstration by the far-right NPD party. Police officials say protesters threw stones at officers, who responded by deploying nightsticks. The state's governor, who is a nationally prominent politician, described the annual "violent excesses" of the right-wing anarchists and left-wing extremists as "entirely unacceptable." Governor G?nther Beckstein called for changes in the law to allow security authorities to move to prevent violence from these groups before it takes shape on May 1 each year. He proposed, for example, implementing a rule that would require "known violent people" to register with their local police office on May 1. Similar requirements are on the books for registered football hooligans during some major matches, and Beckstein believes it would keep many from traveling to major rallies in bigger cities. Neo-Nazis Take Control of Train Meanwhile, police confirmed on Friday that a neo-Nazi group took control of two cars of a commuter train near Hamburg on Thursday as they traveled towards the march in the city, sending out xenophobic messages over its loudspeaker. NEWSLETTER Sign up for Spiegel Online's daily newsletter and get the best of Der Spiegel's and Spiegel Online's international coverage in your In- Box everyday. According to passengers, the neo-Nazi's took control of the loudspeaker and made anti-foreigner statements like: "Starting today, the German National Railway will transport foreigners and Germans in separate cars." For foreigners, the neo-Nazis apparently said, "freight cars are available." However, a police spokesman denied a report in the mass-circulation daily Bild that federal police stood by and did nothing as the xenophobic incident occurred. Police claim they didn't receive a call from a witness until the train had pulled into a Hamburg train station. They said they were able, however, to get the names of some of the people who participated in the incident. dsl http://story.irishsun.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/88176adfdf246af5/id/354714/cs/1/ German May Day riots continue Irish Sun Friday 2nd May, 2008 (IANS) Hamburg/ Leftist radicals rioted in three German cities overnight into Friday, clashing with riot police which had anticipated trouble in the traditional May Day parades. The clashes tended to centre on opposing rallies by the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD). In the worst violence in the northern port city of Hamburg, police said they detained 250 rioters. The leftists set fire to a police car, six private cars and 3,000 tyres in a storage yard. They set bonfires on the streets and in a park in a bid to draw off police and force cancellation of the parade by 1,500 right-wing marchers. After an initially quiet start to events in Berlin, leftists attacked police in the Kreuzberg part of the city, targeting Berlin Police Chief Dieter Glietsch with rocks and bottles and forcing him to seek shelter in a protected police vehicle. Kreuzberg has for years been the scene of violent clashes on the May Day holiday between leftist radicals and the police. In Hamburg, there were scuffles between rightist and leftist activists. The NPD parade went ahead, hours late, after police cleared a path through the crowd using powerful water jets mounted on tanker trucks. Police counted 6,600 demonstrators opposed to the anti-immigrant NPD, which has claimed to be a voice of the German poor and demanded to hold a labour day parade in an old-time working-class district of Hamburg. The 2,500 police officers struggling to separate the two groups were pelted with stones and firecrackers, and 20 were injured. After nightfall, the leftists, who say they are acting to end imperialism and oppression in an annual May Day ritual, withdrew to their home base in the city and skirmished with police for a second night running. In Nuremberg, 1,500 NPD supporters paraded through empty streets but were pelted with eggs and bottles during a final rally, as some of nearly 10,000 anti-NPD demonstrators managed to get within throwing range after scuffles with police lines. Four police officers were injured. Many Germans were outraged that the NPD had marched in Nuremberg, the city adopted by dictator Adolf Hitler as the home of his Nazi Party. Attempts to proscribe the NPD because of its alleged pro-Nazi views have never succeeded. The NPD, believed to have 7,000 card-carrying members, has seats in two of Germany's 16 state parliaments but none at the federal level. Police said they were obliged to provide the marches with security cordons in the name of free speech and to avert serious bloodshed. At a safe distance from the violence, mainstream labour and religious groups held peaceful rallies in both Hamburg and Nuremberg to denounce the NPD. German Social Democrats (SPD) and labour leaders called Saturday for renewed efforts to outlaw the far-right party. Bavarian State premier Guenther Beckstein, who comes from Nuremberg, said that his government would use undercover agents, court challenges and youth education programmes to undercut the NPD wherever possible. The violence was associated with the Black Block, a loose movement of several thousand German anarchists who led violent demonstrations in June 2007 against the Group of Eight (G8) summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, and who seek to physically confront the NPD. http://www.dw-world.de/dw/function/0,,12215_cid_3306419,00.html?maca=en-rss-en-news-1092-rdf 02.05.2008 | 07:00 UTC Hundreds arrested after May Day riots Traditional May Day demonstrations in Germany have ended after riot police clashed with leftist radicals in three German cities. The worst violence occurred in the port city of Hamburg where police said they detained 250 rioters and numerous vehicles, including from the police, were set ablaze. In Nuremberg, around 1,500 supporters of the far-right National Democratic Party were pelted with eggs and bottles by some 10,000 anti-NPD demonstrators. The leftists were angered by the legal NPD marches in the two cities that were accompanied by thousands of police officers. Also in the capital, Berlin, left-wing radicals fought with police after nightfall following a relatively quiet May Day. http://www.mathaba.net/rss/?x=590936 Berlin police chief attacked during May Day riots Posted: 2008/05/02 From: Mathaba The head of Berlin's police Dieter Glietsch was attacked by militant leftists during a May Day demonstration in Berlin Thursday evening, press reports said. Glietsch was touring the site of the May 1 demo in Berlin's working-class neighborhood of Kreuzberg when he was pelted with bottles. The police chief was whisked away by security forces to a police van which was assaulted by protesters with bottles, chairs, bicycles and stones. Police did manage to fend off the attackers. Riots have reportedly spread to other parts of the German capital as police have been reportedly targeted for attacks by militant leftists. There have been numerous arrests, according to news reports. Berlin has a long and sad tradition of bloody street riots since the mid-1980s. Germany had been the scene of ugly riots in several cities throughout the day, especially in Hamburg and Nuremberg but also Cottbus and Leipzig. Dozens of people have been arrested and wounded as a result of street clashes with hundreds of baton-wielding riot police over the past 24 hours. The riots were mainly provoked by a series of neo-Nazi marches across Germany. --IRNA http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/05/01/may-day-protests.html May Day marked with protests, celebrations Last Updated: Thursday, May 1, 2008 | 2:23 PM ET Comments2Recommend0 CBC News More than 400 demonstrators were arrested Thursday in Turkey as people around the world marked May Day with protests and celebrations. May 1 is considered the unnofficial International Workers' Day and is typically marked with demonstrations and rallies. This year's protests included calls for improved workers' rights and help with rising food prices. In Turkey, tens of thousands of workers and students clashed with police on Istanbul's streets. Six police officers were injured and 467 demonstrators detained as police fired tear gas and water cannons and used clubs to try to prevent a rally in the central Taksim Square. Protests in the square have been banned since 1977, when unknown gunmen killed 37 people. In Germany, police said anti-capitalism and pro-socialism protests Wednesday in Hamburg turned to violence and vandalism. The night before May 1 is known in the country as Walpurgisnacht and is often a night of mischief. In Berlin, 24 people were arrested late Wednesday night after a rowdy party near where the Berlin Wall once stood. A police officer was slightly injured after partygoers threw glass bottles and rocks, police spokesman Hansjoerg Draeger said, and two cars were set on fire. On Thursday, up to 10,000 people gathered for more rallies across the country, including a march for the far-right National Democratic Party and a counter-demonstration from leftist groups. In Russia, police said about 30,000 people gathered for rallies around Moscow. Members of the Kremlin-backed party United Russia carried banners praising new President Dmitry Medvedev and former president Vladamir Putin as the "saviours of higher education," while Communist groups carried red, hammer-and-sickly flags and portraits of Lenin and Stalin. Meanwhile, a reported 500,000 people gathered in Havana to see new Cuban President Raul Castro lead a short parade as marchers danced, sang, waved banners and screamed "Long Live Fidel! Long Live Raul!" Raul Castro did not speak, but Communist labour union chief Salvador Valdes Mesa used the podium to call on state employees to work harder and increase production. http://www.mathaba.net/rss/?x=590907 Turkish police break up May Day protests Posted: 2008/05/02 From: Source Police used clubs, tear gas and water cannons on Thursday to disperse workers in different areas of the city. Around 30,000 security personnel have been deployed to enforce a ban on demonstrations. (Aljazeera) Riot police in Turkey have clashed with labour activists trying to gather in Istanbul's Taksim square to celebrate May Day. Police used clubs, tear gas and water cannons on Thursday to disperse workers in different areas of the city. Authorities had warned they would use force to prevent the rallies, which have been banned since 1977. Over 500 demonstrators have been detained and six police officers injured. 'Tough measures' Police wearing gas masks first broke up a crowd that had gathered in front of a labour union office with the intention of walking to Taksim square, where at least 34 demonstrators were killed on May 1, 1977. The workers then ran into the building and police blockaded it, preventing them from leaving. The trade unions later abandoned plans to hold the march, the first time in 30 years they have agreed not to go into the square. Metehan Demir, from the Ankara-based Hurriyet newspaper, told Al Jazeera that the May Day demonstrations this year had turned into a "showdown" between the government and the labour unions over the last week. The unions ultimately decided not to go into Taksim Square on Thursday morning because of "tough measures" by the police, he said. "Earlier this month the unions were fully determined to walk to Taskim Square but later on, through the judiciary and police warnings they saw that the situation was very serious." Demir said the authorities had allowed the unions to demonstrate at other public squares. He said that they had also offered trade union leaders the chance to "lay a wreath at the monuments in Taksin Square - but unions rejected this offer, saying they wanted to bring the workers along too". The demonstrations were relatively peaceful this year because of the decision not to march into the square, Demir told Al Jazeera. "If the unions had gone in there would have been a big catastrophe. Police would have responded in a very harsh way and easily turned it into a tragedy," he said. Turkish officials have said that they had intelligence that groups of extremists would also seek to provoke unrest during the march. Turkey's Anatolia news agency reported that a man in possession of 17 molotov cocktails was arrested near Taksim. Workers' rights The first of May is marked annually in many countries as a day of labour recognition. Human Rights Watch (HRW), a New York-based rights group, used the day to call on Lebanese authorities and employers to improve treatment of domestic workers. HRW's Nadim Houry said: "On the eve of Lebanese Labour Day, we would like to highlight a huge segment of labourers who are not recognised as such. "They are domestic workers, almost a 100 per cent of whom are foreigners." Workers and activists in the Philippines on Thursday called for a wage increase amid soaring food prices. While in Greece, disruptions to public transport services and domestic flights were expected due to trade union strikes. Thousands of people were expected to turn out in Havana to hear Raul Castro, Cuba's president, give his first May Day address. Overnight, police in the German city of Hamburg arrested several rioters after pre-May Day street protests turned violent. http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/05/01/turkey.riots/index.html?eref=edition_europe Riot cops rout Turkish May Day protesters Story Highlights Riot police use tear gas to break up demonstration banned by government Turkish workers planned to defy ban on rallies in Istanbul's Taksim Square Unions promised to mobilize up to 50,000 people for the May Day rally Rallies at Taksim Square stopped after gunman opened fire there in 1977, 30 died ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) -- Turkish riot police attacked hundreds of workers with clubs, tear gas and water cannons to prevent them taking part in a May Day march in Istanbul that was banned by the government. The workers, representing several trade unions, planned to defy a ban on holding rallies at the city's Taksim Square by celebrating the country's former Labor Day there, but they were met by thousands of police, The Associated Press reported Thursday. Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler said 530 demonstrators were detained and 38 people were injured, AP reported. The government banned rallies at the square after unknown gunmen fired on a rally there in 1977. More than 30 people died, either of bullet wounds or after they were trampled to death in the stampede. May Day, like Labor Day in the United States, celebrates the achievements of the labor movement. But Turkey stopped marking May 1 as Labor Day after a 1980 military coup, whose leaders regarded the festivities as an opportunity for leftist activism, AP said. In recent years, labor groups have sought permission to march to the square to commemorate the massacre. Every year, the government has turned them down. Instead, Turkish authorities allow a small wreath-laying ceremony at the location, and open up other areas of Istanbul to rallies. This year, however, several labor groups and trade unions have said they would flout the ban. They said they would mobilize up to 50,000 people for the rally at the square, located in the heart of Istanbul. Last year, dozens of people were injured in violent clashes making the 30th anniversary of the 1977 shooting. See workers also protesting in South Korea. ? To prevent that from happening, police used tear gas and water canons to break up the crowd as they gathered in front of labor union offices. Demonstrators retaliated by hurling taunts and rocks at officers. Smoke from tear gas enveloped some city streets, while office workers in shirts and ties walked away with handkerchiefs covering their mouths. Unlike most of Europe, May Day is not a holiday in Turkey. The governor of Istanbul said police have permission to use force to disperse the crowd. Authorities sealed Taksim Square to the public and shut down public transportation to the area. Undeterred, demonstrators took to the streets. They chanted slogans and pumped their fists in the air. Officers with guns drawn tried to wave them away. One man, his shirt in tatters after a confrontation with police, was escorted away by officers. Another tried to kick the shield off an officer before he was taken down. http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=140671 Indonesian workers take to streets; Germany May Day protests turn violent Indonesian policemen push protesters in front of the presidential palace during a May Day rally in Jakarta on Thursday. Hundreds of thousands of workers to the streets on Thursday to celebrate May Day and marched peacefully in Indonesia's major cities to protest a draft proposal that would reform the existing labor law. In Jakarta workers from the capital and surrounding areas marched to the State Palace and parliament under tight security from the police until a downpour forced them to disperse. "We are sending a message to the government that workers nationwide are joining forces to oppose its plan to revise the new labor law. We also demand the government declare May Day a national holiday," said Rekson Silaban, chairman of the Confederation of Indonesian Prosperity Labor Unions. "We are against the planned revision of the labor law because the government wants to restrict workers' rights and create job insecurity," Khoirul Anam, deputy president of the Indonesian Trade Union Congress, added. The 2003 Manpower Act granted workers rights such as the right to organize and the right to strike. Proposed changes tabled in parliament in April and immediately rejected by trade unions would allow companies to hire contract-based workers and outsource permanent jobs and core businesses to other companies. It would pave the way for foreign investors to hire expatriates to occupy key positions and restrict the right to strike, eliminate service payments, weaken minimum-wage provisions by 50 percent, and give employers. In Hamburg, anti-capitalism protests on the eve of May Day turned to violence and vandalism, police said on Thursday before afternoon rallies involving leftist groups and rightists. May 1 is known in Germany and elsewhere as the unofficial International Workers' Day and is marked with demonstrations and rallies that have, in some instances, turned violent. The night before May 1, known in Germany as Walpurgisnacht, is also an occasion for mischief. This year nearly 1,000 people attended a rally in Hamburg where protests against capitalism and in support of socialism quickly escalated into scattered violence and vandalism. Demonstrators stole materials from a nearby construction site to erect barricades on at least one city street, police said, adding that rocks were thrown at the windows of a kiosk containing ATMs. Several small fires were lit. Police responded with water cannon to extinguish the fires, and the protest ended shortly after midnight. As many as 10,000 people were expected to gather later for more rallies, including 800 registered to march in a parade for the far-right National Democratic Party. Leftist groups from across Germany were expected to mount a counter-demonstration. In Berlin, police arrested 24 people late Wednesday night at a rowdy party in the Mauerpark, situated along the path where the Berlin Wall once stood. One police officer was slightly injured when revelers threw glass bottles and rocks, said Hansjoerg Draeger, a spokesman for Berlin police. Two cars were set ablaze. But this year's gathering at the Mauerpark was relatively quiet -- 120 arrests were made there last year. "Everyone in Germany can and should use their right to demonstrate," said Draeger, "but we're always glad when things stay peaceful." According to Draeger, 4,700 police were deployed throughout Berlin on Thursday to monitor any demonstrations that might arise on what looked to be a rainy May Day. http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/344921/1/.html Indonesian workers hold rallies to protest against rising food, fuel costs Posted: 01 May 2008 1500 hrs Labourers take part in a demonstration to mark May Day in Jakarta JAKARTA: Thousands of Indonesians took to the streets of the capital Jakarta for Labour Day rallies on Thursday, with rising food prices and an expected cut in fuel subsidies weighing heavily on workers' minds. "We are expecting more than 40,000 people demonstrating today," policeman Hariyadi said as thousands of workers gathered at the central Imam Bonjol traffic circle. Carrying banners reading "Lower Food Prices Now" and "More Pay for Workers and Farmers," many of the demonstrators said they were alarmed at soaring inflation and the prospect of sharply higher fuel bills. "We want the price of kerosene to come down. Food is getting expensive," said garment factory worker Yuningsih. Factory worker Lia said: "If they keep increasing the price of food, maybe we'll have to eat less. "The price of formula milk for the baby has gone up. It's now 36,000 rupiah (nearly four dollars) for a can of 600 grams and the baby drinks it up in two days," she said. Tarjiman, who was marching with a group of garment factory workers, said people would go hungry if inflation was not brought under control. "I feel it very hard with the increasing prices. We have to borrow money before the end of the month and try to work extra odd jobs. "If the price keeps going up, we'll be hungry." High food prices helped drive Indonesia's annual inflation rate to 8.17 percent in March, the biggest increase since October 2006. Prices are expected to keep rising, with the government considering hiking subsidised fuel prices in June by almost 30 percent to minimise the impact of record oil prices on the national budget. Many workers were also concerned that their rights were being eroded through companies' growing use of contract labourers hired from employment agents. Jakarta police chief Adang Firman told reporters after monitoring the capital from a helicopter that 10,000 security personnel had been deployed to control the rallies and another 50,000 were on standby. All May Day rallies were banned in Surabaya, the country's second largest city, because the workers' holiday coincided with a religious holiday, police said. "Rallies are not allowed during a public holiday. Let's respect Jesus Ascension day," Surabaya police chief Anang Iskandar told state news agency Antara. "If there are rallies, we'll break them up." http://virtual.finland.fi/stt/showarticle.asp?intNWSAID=18641&group=General EuroMayDay protesters blame Finnish police for scuffles 2.5.2008 at 14:56 Demonstrators at the EuroMayDay rally held in Helsinki on Wednesday night berated the Finnish police on Friday for allegedly aggressively provoking the organisers. Dan Koivusalo, the media spokesperson for the event, claimed that the police pounced on the rally before a single bottle had been thrown at them. "I think it is incomprehensible that the police stopped a well run demonstration and the first people they detained were those responsible for keeping order," Mr Koivulahti said. Inspector Petri Juvonen from the Helsinki police told the Finnish News Agency (STT) on Friday that around ten people are suspected for resisting the police or violently resisting the police during the scuffles at the May Day eve rally. "Mainly there was bottle throwing. I am not sure if all of it was in connection with the demonstration," Inspector Juvonen said. He did not know of any police officers who were injured. Mr Koivusalo for his part would not comment on the bottle throwing. However, he maintained that the police attacked first, which may have annoyed some people. As far as Mr Koivusalo knew, no demonstrators were hurt either. A total of 27 EuroMayDay demonstrators spent the remainder of May Day eve behind bars but were released on Thursday. According to police estimates over 500 demonstrators participated in the event. http://www.king5.com/localnews/stories/NW_050108WAB_may_day_olympia_protests_TP.bbd246e8.html Olympia May Day protesters pound on Governor's door 10:24 PM PDT on Thursday, May 1, 2008 KING5.com Staff OLYMPIA, Wash. - May Day protests for workers' rights ended up on Gov. Chris Gregoire's doorstep Thursday afternoon as dozens of people marched into the capitol building to Gregoire's office. Protesters also clashed in Downtown Olympia with police who were armed with pepper spray paintball guns. About 40 protesters, some wearing masks over their faces, also spray painted anarchist symbols on the marble walls and wood doors inside the building. "Sanctuary now," the protesters chanted over and over as one man pounded on Gregoire's door. Officials say Gregoire was not in the capitol at the time. When a state trooper arrived, telling protesters that some of them would be allowed to meet with a representative, one man yelled "We will not be divided." More troopers came in to block the door and make sure things didn't get out of hand. In the city, police controlled the crowd using pepper spray paintball guns. Some protesters also blocked police cars and a few were arrested. A couple of windows at a bank were also smashed in. Protesters also rallied at Sylvester Park, carrying signs and playing music. The protests coincide with immigration marches in Downtown Seattle. Workers at Puget Sound ports held a work stoppage Thursday, protesting the Iraq War, although there is speculation it's actually a ploy in contract negotiations. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/markets/china/article3857950.ece May 2, 2008 Asian workers protest during May Day parade Demonstrations in some Asian capitals were met with huge deployments of riot police as people took to the streets Leo Lewis, Asia Business Correspondent May Day parades by hundreds of thousands of Asian workers were transformed into angry protests over the rocketing price of food and wages that no longer put rice on the table. The demonstrations, which turned violent in some of Asia's capitals and were met by mass deployments of riot police from Istanbul to Manila, came as Rajat Nag, the director-general of the Asian Development Bank, declared that a billion people across the region were seriously affected by the recent food price surge. But even as governments struggle to quell rising unrest, leading Asian economists said that misguided policymaking bore heavy responsibility for the current crisis. According to a new report by HSBC, interest rates, foreign exchange policy and a blinkered view of inflation are as much to blame for record rice prices as cyclones in Bangladesh, drought in Australia and flooding in Vietnam. Related Links Troubled times as harvest shortages hit home Kraft to cut portions to keep prices down Faced with the real threat of trouble on the streets and shop shelves emptied by food hoarders, Asian governments must confront the task of adopting interest rate tightening policies where white-hot growth is sacrificed for the sake of more stable prices. To view the $1,000 per tonne market price as a temporary supply shock, said the report, was to underestimate the fundamental reasons that food prices were so high. The main cause was there were simply more mouths to feed and demand is accelerating. But in a region fixated with stellar growth and maintaining a cheap currency to encourage exports, low interest rates have played an important role. Policymakers, said the report, had been beguiled into thinking of food price rises as a transitory phenomenon when they should be thinking of them as long-term forces of inflation. Frederic Neumann, an economist at HSBC, wrote: "The synchronised global jump in food prices also raises the suspicion that this is not just a story about local supply disruptions. Rather, it may reflect excessively loose monetary conditions in emerging markets where burgeoning liquidity is starting to impact on the overall price levels." Food prices, he said, were closely related to macroeconomic policy measures such as wage increases and greater money supply, creating across Asia instances where too much money was chasing too few goods. Raising interest rates would, while not suddenly supplying more pigs to China or rice to the Philippines, dampen the sort of demand pressures that had fuelled the recent price rises. The HSBC economists added that rice price surges, which were not easily explained by supply-side arguments, were part of the same food "contagion" that began with high crude oil prices and had created record highs for wheat and corn. If central banks lost their credibility as controllers of inflation, the report said, the currencies of those countries would fall causing the problem to worsen. http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-05/02/content_8090663.htm Latin America marks May Day mostly with protests MEXICO CITY, May 1 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of thousands of workers on Thursday throughout Latin America took to the streets on May Day, protesting against food shortage and unemployment, and demanding better labor conditions and wages. Workers from most labor sectors participated in the march throughout Latin America, including peasants, educators, government employees, and sex workers, while some people affiliated to labor unions and others marched as independent workers. In Mexico, about 70,000 workers from 30 independent labor unions marched to demand that the government stop food shortage and unemployment. In Peru, this day was marked by the death of four workers in a labor accident and by complaints against an alleged political persecution of human rights defenders. Mario Huaman, secretary general of Peru's General Workers Confederation (CGTP), criticized enterprises "that murder workers," referring to a landslide that buried four workers in a construction site in Lima on Wednesday. Huaman protested against the high cost of living and Peruvian President Alan Garcia's "modernization" process, which, according to him, is to "give away" all the natural resources and lands to international enterprises. In Bolivia, during a Labor Day ceremony held in La Paz, President Evo Morales rejected a report published by the United States claiming that Bolivia is a country potentially capable of terrorist activities. Morales demanded that the U.S. withdraw its troops from Iraq ifit is really fighting terrorism. In Santiago, capital of Chile, hooded protesters clashed with police as a Labor Day march concluded, leaving 96 people arrested. In Ecuador, over 15,000 people participated in Labor Day march to protest against labor subcontracting and hourly wage work. The celebration coincides with the Constituent Assembly's elimination of labor subcontracting, which used to allow enterprises to contract cheap labor through enterprises. Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa criticized state guilds for enjoying too many privileges contrary to most Ecuadorians. In Guatemala, thousands of workers urged to put an end to general corruption and basic food price hikes, and stop the high cost of living affecting most of this Central American country's population. In Nicaragua, opposition labor union celebrated the day with demonstrations and called on the government to stop food price hikes and create more jobs. In Cuba, half a million people headed by socialist Cuban leader Raul Castro show their loyalty to the revolutionary government during the main Labor Day ceremony in this Caribbean country. Cuban workers urged to continue "the road marked by Fidel (Castro) towards a more humane and efficient socialism." In Venezuela, thousands of people participated in different Labor Day ceremonies throughout this South American country led by President Hugo Chavez, who on Wednesday made a 30 percent increase in the minimum pay to all workers in Venezuela. In Paraguay, President-elect Fernando Lugo participated in the Labor Day celebrations, the first time an incoming president in this South American country is invited to participate. On April 20, Lugo won the presidential elections while running for the Patriotic Alliance for Change (APC), and his victory has put an end to right-wing Colorado Party's 61 years of uninterrupted rule. In El Salvador's capital, San Salvador, thousands of people marched through its streets to protest against price hikes and the wage and job crisis in this Central American country, among other labor problems. http://www.buzzflash.net/story.php?id=50617 Latin America marks May Day mostly with pro-labor, anti-right wing protests news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-05/02/content_8090663.htm sent by RicKelis since 98 days 1 hour, published about 97 days 19 hours 20 minutes Hundreds of thousands of workers protested against food shortage and unemployment, demanding better labor conditions and wages. Peruvians protested the "give away" of all the natural resources and lands to international enterprises. In Bolivia, Morales demanded that the U.S. withdraw its troops from Iraq. In Chile, hooded protesters clashed with police. Ecuadoreans protested against labor subcontracting and hourly wage work. Guatemala's, Nicaragua's and El Salvador's workers urged an end to corruption and food price hikes. Cuban workers urged to continue "the road marked by Fidel (Castro) towards a more humane and efficient socialism." Venezuelans celebrated Chavez' 30 percent increase in the minimum pay as Paraguay celebrated the an end to right-wing Colorado Party's 61 years of uninterrupted rule. http://www.chinapost.com.tw/asia/philippines/2008/05/02/154607/Phillipine%2Dprotesters.htm Phillipine protesters demand wage hikes AP Friday, May 2, 2008 MANILA, Philippines -- Thousands of Philippine workers marched in scorching heat Thursday in May Day protests demanding President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's resignation for not raising the minimum wage to help them cope with surging food and fuel prices. Arroyo announced she had signed an order granting a 10 percent salary increase for about 1.4 million government workers starting in July but left it to regional wage boards to discuss possible minimum wage hikes for privately employed laborers. Watched by riot police, two major groups of workers marched separately across Manila, waving red flags and placards, and then held noisy rallies at a downtown Manila square where musical bands and singers delighted the crowd. About 3,000 members of the left-wing New Patriotic Alliance marched with red umbrellas marked "125 Now," referring to their demand for an immediate 125 peso (US$3; euro1.93) increase in the daily minimum wage. Workers can no longer cope with inflation, the group said. "Every day, people are becoming more restless with the failures of the regime," said alliance leader Carol Araullo. "It's a social volcano waiting to erupt." Some of about 4,000 marchers from another group, the Alliance of Progressive Labor, carried Arroyo's portrait labeled "Exit Now." Joshua Mata, a leader of the group, said workers were suffering from high unemployment and skyrocketing food prices under Arroyo's rule. "This is an administration that has zero credibility, zero legitimacy, zero concern for the plight of the working class," said Rep. Risa Hontiveros, who joined the protest. The Philippines, the world's largest rice importer, has been struggling to deal with a 10 percent shortfall this year. It failed to buy all the grain it sought in an April tender despite agreeing to pay 62 percent more than at a similar tender just a month earlier. http://allafrica.com/stories/200805010794.html Kenya: Protest Over Salaries The Nation (Nairobi) 2 May 2008 Posted to the web 1 May 2008 Jeff Otieno Nairobi Labour Day celebrations ended in disappointment for thousands of workers after President Kibaki failed to announce an increase in the minimum wage. The celebrations at Uhuru Park in Nairobi, which had started on a high note, ended in an anti-climax when a section the crowd walked out on the President to protest over his failure to set new guidelines on minimum wages. The minimum wage for workers in the industrial sector was last raised in 2006 when it went up from Sh4,817 to Sh5,395. The amount for agriculture workers is Sh5,346. In recent months, the cost of basic commodities has gone up significantly partly due to inflation, the effects of post-election violence and the rise in the price of fuel globally. The President ruled out a pay increase and said: "Shida tuliyo nayo ni kubwa (the challenge we are facing is immense). He also said that many countries in Africa were also experiencing hard times. Food riots have been reported in Cameroon and Senegal. The President's explanation did not go down well with the workers. So disappointed were they that some, who had been expecting good news, started walking away before the national anthem was played. Their hopes for a salary increase had been raised by the Central Organisation of Trade Unions secretary general, Mr Francis Atwoli, who had asked the President to consider workers' conditions in view of the rising food prices. Trouble started when the President, who was the chief guest at the celebrations, finished his 30-minute speech without a word on salaries. No sooner had he started thanking the crowd for attending the celebrations, than they started chanting: "Mshahara! mshahara! (salary, salary)". At first, the President did not understand what the crowd was chanting about. He inquired from the podium. "Ni kitu gani mnataka (What do you want)?," the President asked. After his aides told him, he explained why he had skipped the issue. According to him, the country was facing a major challenge due to post-election violence and this had made it difficult for him to announce an increase in the minimum wage. But his explanation did not go down well with the workers who protested even more. "If you don't want me to tell you the truth I will still tell it anyway," the President said. It was then that the crowd started walking away as the President was saying: "Asanteni sana (Thank you very much)". Soon after, the military band began to play the national anthem. After the President left the venue, the workers complained bitterly, accusing the Government of short-changing them. Labourer "We came here with the hope that Government increases the minimum wage. Any other agenda was not important for us," said Mr Peter Ligale, a casual labourer in the city. His sentiments were supported by Mr Francis Muthusi and Fredrick Omondi who argued that the cost of living had gone beyond the reach of the common man. Mr Omondi said that though the President's message of reconciliation was important, he should have raised the minimum wage even if it was by 10 per cent. The crowd later surged forward after the President, left making it difficult for ministers and assistant ministers and other invited guests to leave the venue. Police on horseback had to be called in to control the mob and create space for the guests to leave. Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi and Agriculture Minister William Ruto had difficulties going to their vehicles as the crowd mobbed them demanding that they should address them. Among those who attended the function were Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka, Labour Minister John Munyes and Public Health Minister Beth Mugo. And in a speech that lasted one hour and 20 minutes, Mr Atwoli made a case for workers' rights saying they were being exploited by employers. "Mr President, these workers are your people who have been exploited. They are hungry and with the high cost of living, the government needs to intervene," he said amid applause. He criticised some companies owned by foreigners for paying their workers low wages, while making millions in profit. He also promised to name the companies in question. "Some of them have even prevented workers from joining trade unions yet it is the workers' right to do so," Mr Atwoli added. However his proposal that the constitutional review consider the proposal that the public only elects MP and councillors while Parliament elects the President and the Prime Minister was not received well by the crowd. Mr Atwoli said the country was blessed with qualified top ranking leaders among them "Economist Kibaki, lawyer Kalonzo Musyoka and Engineer Raila Odinga". However, the mention of Mr Musyoka's name was greeted with jeers by a section of the crowd, who had earlier welcomed apologies sent by Prime Minister Raila Odinga which was conveyed by Mr Atwoli. Though Thursday's function was free of protocol hitches with the absence of Mr Odinga, a section of the crowd heckled when the VP stood to welcome the President. He however received applause when he appealed to different ethnic groups to live in peace and harmony, adding that Kenya must remain united. The Vice President immediately got into trouble when he said the country was now peaceful and "hakuna matata" (there was no problem). Commodities He was greeted with chants of "njaa, njaa, bei za bidhaa zimepanda" (hunger, hunger. The prices of commodities have gone up). The Vice President, who kept his cool, said the Government would ensure that internal refugees return to their farms to help increase food production in the face of a looming food shortage. The President also urged Kenyans to live in harmony. He urged wananchi to love one another and desist from acts of revenge. There was drama when a man who had tried to dodge the heavy security detail tried to deliver a message to the President. He was immediately whisked away to a waiting police Land Rover. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/02/stories/2008050259430300.htm Train controllers observe protest day Special Correspondent TIRUCHI: Members of Tiruchi Railway Division unit of All India Train Controllers' Association observed May Day as a protest day by wearing black badges while on duty for 24 hours. This was to protest against the anti-labour and the retrograde recommendations of the 6th Pay Commission. A press release of Association Tiruchi division secretary N. D. Prem Kumar said though the train traffic controllers were responsible for safe and punctual movement of passenger and express trains and prompt movement of freight train and thereby responsible for the turnaround of the railways as a profit making organisation, they have been given a raw deal by the Pay Commission without understanding the intricacies in their duty. The release said that the Association pleaded with the 6th Pay Commission among other things to treat the traffic controllers as special cadre and fix scales as per the scales in the 3rd Pay Commission, sanction 30 per cent stress allowance, ten per cent mike allowance apart from break-down allowance, etc. But the 6th Pay Commission neither accorded any special status to the traffic controllers, nor higher grades, nor stress allowance, nor break-down allowance. http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080501/106343811.html Moscow police break up unsanctioned protest rally 17:19|01/ 05/ 2008 MOSCOW, May 1 (RIA Novosti) - Police in Moscow have arrested some 35 people over an unsanctioned protest rally in the center of the city, a police spokesman said Thursday. "A group attempted to hold an illegal protest rally on Kaluzhskaya Square. Around 35 people were arrested," he said. Four underage protestors have been released on the condition that they later report to court, the spokesman added. The others will stand trial today. The spokesman also commented that the group had not professed allegiance to any party or organization. The protest came as 30,000 people took part in May Day rallies in downtown Moscow. May 1 is Spring and Labor Day across Russia, a national holiday. In Soviet times, May 1 saw massive pro-Communist Party rallies. Russia's modern political parties have also taken the opportunity to hold rallies, with supporters of the ruling United Russia party, the Communist Party, the ultranationalist LDPR party and A Just Russia taking part in rallies across the city. An opposition 'March of Dissent' also took place in St. Petersburg with the participation of some 350 demonstrators. No arrests were reported, although there are unconfirmed reports that two bags filled with excrement were thrown at Eduard Limonov, the leader of the banned National Bolshevik Party. http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/345014/1/.html Thai workers protest for higher minimum wage Posted: 02 May 2008 0254 hrs Workers shout slogans as they march to mark May Day in Bangkok, BANGKOK : Thousands of workers waving flags and banners gathered in the Thai capital on Labour Day to call on the government to raise the minimum wage and improve their welfare. More than 3,000 workers from various industries across Thailand gathered for a rally outside Government House, where they handed in a list of their demands. Speaking from a makeshift stage on the back of a truck, labour leaders criticised the government, which they said was more concerned with constitutional amendments than efforts to improve the welfare of workers. "We will gather here with no time limit," Wilaiwan Sae Tia, president of the Thai Labour Solidarity Committee, which helped organise the rally, told the gathering. "Today is the day that will prove whether this elected government is sincere about solving our problems or not," she said, as protesters waved Thai and labour organisation flags along with signs saying "Expensive rice prices, cheap labour wages," and "How can labourers live?" Demonstrators demanded a minimum wage of 233 baht (7.35 dollars) a day and a curb on rising commodity prices. Many labourers around Bangkok earn less than 200 baht a day, while in the provinces daily wages are as low as 144 baht. They also called for legal amendments to protect labour rights and improve their working and living conditions, while urging the government to stop its policy of privatising state enterprises. "We have long suffered from stagnant wages while inflation keeps rising steeply," Arunee Srito, deputy chairwoman of the Women Workers Unity Group, told AFP. "Whenever we labourers pleaded for a wage increase, the governments always told labourers to make sacrifices for the sake of the country. Have they ever wanted to see us live like other normal people?" Arunee said. The protesters later handed in a letter with their demands to labour ministry deputy permanent secretary Nakorn Silpa-archa at Government House. Nakorn said their demands would be put to a meeting between the government and employers' and workers' representatives on Friday. - AFP/de http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/01/europe/EU-GEN-Serbia-President-Jeered.php Protesting workers jeer Serbia's President Tadic The Associated Press Published: May 1, 2008 BELGRADE, Serbia: Dozens of workers have jeered Serbian President Boris Tadic during a protest in the capital. Tadic attended the May Day rally at a central Belgrade square to express support for the workers' demands. But several dozen workers angrily shouted at him and scuffled with his security officers. Dozens of others clapped in support of the president. Thursday's incident shows the mounting tensions between nationalists and pro-Western reformers as crucial May 11 elections approach. Nationalists have criticized Tadic for signing a pre-entry agreement with the European Union. They argue the deal was designed to force Serbia to accept the independence of Kosovo a former Serbian province. Up to 2,000 people attended the protest. http://see.oneworldsee.org/article/view/150879/1/3188 BSPK Organizes May 1 Protests Luan Ibraj 30 April 2008 The Union of Independent Trade Unions of Kosova (BSPK) announced yesterday that is completed the preparations for the protests announced for May 1, International Labour Day. The Organization Committee and Executive leadership of BSPK, as well as the leadership of Independent Unions, have held numerous meetings with the membership, to inform them about the protest and encourage their participation. Protest will be held on May 1, International Workers` Day, from 12:00 to 13:30 hours in the main street of Prishtina. According to the BSPK, this protest is `the last warning` to Government and institutions that they `must change their course and approach in regard to numerous requests by employees, pensioners and other categories, otherwise patience is coming to an end!` BSPK adds that the Government may face with other forms of trade-union pressure, as well as civic disobedience campaign, reports QIK. http://allafrica.com/stories/200805020311.html Nigeria: Workers Protest in Borno Daily Trust (Abuja) 2 May 2008 Posted to the web 2 May 2008 Isa Umar Gusau Maiduguri Workers in Borno State refused to perform the usual march past by various trade unions at the Ramat Square, Maiduguri to commemorate the May Day celebrations. Our correspondent reports that many of them instead displayed placards peacefully in protest against the state government over their plight. The workers, through the NLC, had initially decided to embark on an indefinite strike by Monday next week to protest against government failure to meet some of their demands. It was gathered that when news filtered that workers had planned not to do the usual match pasts during yesterday's celebrations, protocol officers from the Government House Maiduguri had, before the arrival of Governor Ali Sheriff, told NLC leaders that the governor was only going to attend the occasion as a special guest of honour if different unions were going to perform the match past. The NLC leaders were said to have conceded, but workers who converged at the venue kept on shouting 'no' when secretary of the state's NLC attempted to persuade them. When Governor Sheriff arrived at the venue later, he refused to mount the podium to receive salute because the workers refused to do the match past in honour of the governor. Many workers displayed placards with messages bordering on payment of salaries, leave transport grants, and promotions, among many other issues. State's Chairman of the NLC, Comrade Garba Ngamdu, spoke on the issues which were captured by workers displaying placards. Governor Sheriff in his response promised that annual increment/ promotion was going to be implemented immediately, while 2008 leave transport grants would be paid between this month and July, and that of 2002 would be paid between August and September. The governor also announced that NI100 million is going to be set aside for payment of gratuity. It was, however, not clear if the promises made by Sheriff would change Monday's proposed strike even though the NLC has called for an emergency meeting at the time of filing http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-05/02/content_8091574.htm Togolese workers protest on May Day Togolese workers march with a slogan during a May Day protest in Lome, capital of Togo, on May 1, 2008. Workers from diversified labor union leagues marched on Thursday, demanding better labor wages, reducing the daily necessities price and value added tax, as well as settlement of problems of energy and water.(Xinhua Photo) http://www.zawya.com/printstory.cfm?storyid=DS030508_dsart16&l=064520080503 May day mayday Lebanese protest worsening economy 03 May 2008 BEIRUT: Hundreds of people protested against inflation on Thursday at a May Day rally organized by the Lebanese Communist Party, demanding an increase in the monthly wage. Earlier this year Lebanon's General Labor Confederation of Workers (GLC) called for the minimum wage to be tripled from LL300,000 to LL960,000. According to consumer organizations, prices have risen by 43 percent over the past 21 months, and while the official unemployment rate stands at 10 percent, independent estimates put it at 20 percent. Up to 2,000 people took part in the protest, brandishing banners with anti-government slogans, while one group carried a giant loaf of bread to symbolize the rising cost of the staple. "Where is Foufou? Is he eating a hungry man's bread?" asked one banner, referring to Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. "Hunger kills more than the power vacuum," said another placard. Lebanon has been without a president since November because of a standoff between Siniora's government and the opposition. Also on Wednesday, the GLC held its yearly ceremony to mark Labor Day at its headquarters in Nahr al-Mot. GLC head Ghassan Ghosn said the general strike scheduled for May 7 to compel both the government and the private sector to raise the minimum wage to LL960,000 a month, "still stands." The government, under pressure from the trade union activists, is expected to raise the minimum wage to LL450,000 next week.- The Daily Star, with AFP Article originally published by The Daily Star 03-May-08 http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/02/america/Immigration-Protests.php Thousands rally in U.S. for immigration reform The Associated Press Published: May 2, 2008 CHICAGO: Thousands of chanting, flag-waving activists rallied in cities across the country Thursday, attempting to reinvigorate calls for immigration reform in a presidential election year in which the economy has taken center stage. >From Washington to Miami to Los Angeles, activists demanded citizenship opportunities for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. and an end to raids and deportations. "We come here to fight for legalization. We're people. We have rights," said Eric Molina, an undocumented factory worker who immigrated to Zion, Ill., from Mexico. Molina, his sister and his 13-year-old daughter Erika, a U.S. citizen, were among about 15,000 people who rallied in Chicago in one of the largest demonstrations of the day. Turnout has fallen sharply since the first nationwide rallies in 2006, when more than 1 million people - at least 400,000 in Chicago alone - clogged streets and brought downtown traffic to a standstill. Activists say this year's efforts are focused less on protests and more on voter registration and setting an agenda for the next president. Some said participation likely was lower because many immigrants increasingly fear deportation. Margot Veranes, a volunteer organizer in Tucson, Ariz., - where 12,000 took to the streets last year but early estimates Thursday put the crowd at about 500 - blamed the turnout on aggressive enforcement by Border Patrol and police. "People have been stopped and deported in the last week. This is a community living in fear," said Veranes, a researcher for the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades. "You never know when you're going to be stopped by Border Patrol and now the police." But she said that's also why people were marching. "We're marching to end the raids and the deportations, but we're also marching for health care and education and good jobs," she said. Steamy downtown Houston saw between 300 and 400 marchers, including Victor Ibarra, 38, who said he entered the U.S. illegally from Mexico 15 years ago and remains undocumented although he's tried to attain legal status for the past seven years. "I'm here because we need immigration reform immediately," Ibarra said, wearing handcuffs and chains. "We need to be able to travel and be free." In Washington, immigrant rights groups and social justice organizations were demanding that Prince William County, in northern Virginia, rescind its anti-illegal immigration measure. They also called for an end to raids and deportations and for establishment of worker centers in Washington, Maryland and Virginia. Activists also asked the Republican and Democratic national committees to have their presidential candidates enact immigration reform. A crowd of about 1,000 gathered on the steps of the Oregon Capitol in Salem to call for changes in immigration and workplace laws within the first 100 days of the next congressional session. Many demanded that Oregon reverse a decision, imposed by the Legislature in February, to require proof of legal residence to get a driver's license. Hugo Orozzo, a 17-year-old high school senior, was among hundreds who marched through the streets of southwest Detroit. He was born in the U.S., but his father was born in Mexico and some other family members are originally from Mexico. "It is going to help my family and friends," Orozzo said of the effort. He carried a preprinted sign that read: "Stop raids and deportations that separate families!" in both English and Spanish. In Miami, 75 people marched to the regional immigration offices from the Little Haiti neighborhood. Among them was Elvira Carbajal, who came from Mexico more than a decade ago and is a U.S. citizen but said many of her family members are not. "They are going to grow up with this anger of the government for the loss of their parents, parents who were simply trying to give them a better life," she said. In San Francisco, protesters Marta Acuchi and her husband Jose, from Michoacan, Mexico, closed their child daycare center to march with about 400 others. "We need to fix the legal situation of immigrants," she said. "Even if it's not this year legislators are seeing we're still here, we're still marching, we're still knocking on their door." And in Milwaukee, factory worker Miguel Tesillos, 29, was among hundreds who lined sidewalks waiting for the march to begin. "Our people, we pay taxes, we pay the same as a citizen," said Tesillos, who has a Green Card. "Maybe the new president can see this point, and do something for us." But activists say they know it will be a challenge to push their issues to the political forefront. Immigration reform did not resonate with voters in primary elections who overwhelmingly listed the economy as their top concern. Immigration legislation has stalled and been defeated in the Senate, and presidential candidates have not extensively addressed the issues. Democratic presidential rivals Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton supported a 2006 bill, sponsored by Republican candidate John McCain, that offered illegal immigrants legal status on conditions such as learning English. All three also have supported a border fence. In Chicago, 17-year-old Celeste Rodarte marched with a group of her friends from the city's West Side. She said her parents came to the United States more than 20 years ago and became citizens last year. "I know a lot of people who don't have papers and I want to help them out," Rodarte said. Seventh-grader Vicente Campos of Milwaukee was granted an excused absence from school to attend the march. He said he was concerned by stories of immigration officials separating parents and children. "Immigrants come here to support their families in Mexico," said Campos, 13. "They're not all here to do crimes." ___ Associated Press Writers Caryn Rousseau in Chicago, David Runk in Detroit, Dinesh Ramde in Milwaukee, Arthur H. Rotstein in Tucson, Ariz., Joseph B. Frazier in Salem, Ore., Mike Graczyk in Houston, Laura Wides-Munoz in Miami, Juliana Barbassa in San Francisco and Jacquelyn Martin in Washington D.C. contributed to this report. http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2008/05/01/protest_0502.html Immigration crackdown protested outside state capitol By MARY LOU PICKEL The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 05/01/08 About 200 people gathered on the steps of the state capitol Thursday to protest immigration raids and deportations. The rally, organized by the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, called for comprehensive immigration reform and an end to the kinds of deportation agreements in effect in Cobb County's jail. From July through March, Cobb sheriff's deputies have worked with federal agents to identity and process 1,632 people for deportation. Georgia protesters called for human rights for workers everywhere. The rally was timed for May 1st, which is Labor Day in many countries outside the U.S., including Mexico. It coincided with rallies in cities across the country where thousands of immigrants and activists gathered Thursday to demand comprehensive immigration reform, including citizenship opportunities for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. Turnout appeared to be down since the first nationwide rallies in 2006, when more than 1 million people rallied, including about 40,000 in Atlanta who marched on Buford Highway and gathered at Plaza Fiesta in April, 2006. On Thursday, Jose Ramirez, 25, came to the rally at the capitol with his wife and one-year-old son. The Mexican immigrant has lived and worked in the United States for 10 years with no papers. The deportation program in Cobb County worried him enough that he moved to Gwinnett County about three months ago. "We don't feel comfortable going out as much as we used to ever since they started that new law in Cobb," said Ramirez' wife, Reina, 25. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20080501-1027-immigrationprotests.html Immigrant rights activists join protests nationwide By Sophia Tareen ASSOCIATED PRESS 10:27 a.m. May 1, 2008 Associated Press May Day protesters, including Valentine Cavrera, right, take to the streets in Los Angeles Thursday. Thousands of immigrants and activists gathered in cities across the country to demand comprehensive immigration CHICAGO - Thousands of immigrants and activists gathered in cities across the country Thursday to demand comprehensive immigration reform, including citizenship opportunities for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. Turnout has fallen sharply since the first nationwide rallies in 2006, when more than 1 million people - at least 400,000 in Chicago alone - clogged streets and brought traffic to a standstill. Activists hoping to re-ignite the immigration debate in time for the presidential elections say this year's efforts are focused less on protests and more on voter registration and setting an agenda for the next president. Nevertheless, they planned to take to the streets from Miami to Dallas to Los Angeles for May Day protests. "We come to let Washington know we're still here. We're still fighting," said Jorge Guzman, 34, as crowds swelled in Chicago's Union Park before a march to a federal plaza downtown. Guzman, a legal immigrant from Mexico, was among a group of about 100 marchers from the Chicago suburb of Waukegan, where tension mounted after city officials applied for a federal program that would train local police to help enforce immigration laws. He carried a giant hand-painted banner depicting a man being handcuffed by immigration agents and a little girl crying and saying, "Where is my family?" In Washington, D.C., immigrant rights groups and social justice organizations were demanding that Prince William County, in northern Virginia, rescind its anti-illegal immigration measure. They also want raids and deportations to end, and are calling for worker centers to be established in Washington, Maryland and Virginia. Activists also plan to deliver a letter to the Republican and Democratic national committees, asking the presidential candidates to enact immigration reform. In Tucson, a march organized by a coalition of immigrant advocate organizations and labor union locals was expected to address border and immigration issues, ethnic and racial justice and education, health care and jobs. In Milwaukee, factory worker Miguel Tesillos, 29, was among hundreds who lined sidewalks waiting for the march to begin. "Our people, we pay taxes, we pay the same as a citizen," said Tesillos, who has a Green Card. "Maybe the new president can see this point, and do something for us," he said. http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/05/01/immigration.protests/index.html?eref=rss_topstories Protesters across America call for immigration reform Story Highlights Thousands protested federal immigration raids and deportations Far fewer turned out in cities across America than in years past Protesters hope to attract presidential candidates' attention (CNN) -- Thousands of demonstrators gathered in U.S. cities Thursday to protest federal immigration raids and deportations and to call for comprehensive immigration reform. Protesters in San Francisco, California, rally Thursday in support of amnesty for all illegal immigrants. In Chicago, Illinois, 3,000 to 4,500 people marched in the city's downtown, police said. Several people carried a large American flag; others held banners or signs. The early estimate of participants paled greatly in comparison to protests in Chicago in past years: In 2007, numbers reached about 150,000, and the year before, estimates ranged from 400,000 to 700,000. In New York, hundreds of sign-carrying protesters gathered in Union Square, preparing for a march toward Foley Square in downtown Manhattan. "We are demanding that the raids and deportations stop," said Teresa Gutierrez, one of the organizers for the New York rallies. "We are for the rights of all immigrants, whether they're documented or not," she said. New York protesters are also marching in support of workers' rights, she said. Watch Gutierrez explain the issues ? In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, thousands of protesters carrying flags and signs descended on the city for a scheduled march. The march was scheduled to proceed from the city's southside to a park that overlooks Lake Michigan, said the Web site of Voces de la Frontera, the group organizing that city's march. Last year, 80,000 to 95,000 people participated, the group said. Turnout was even less impressive in the nation's capital. About a dozen people began protesting outside of the Republican national headquarters Thursday afternoon and later moved to the Democratic national headquarters. Don't Miss iReport.com: Are you at a rally? Send your pics, video Commentary: Marches won't bring reform Another 60 people gathered about noon by the U.S. Capitol's Reflecting Pool where, in the rain, some finished writing protest signs. A group of American Indians joined the demonstration, saying they are often mistaken for illegal immigrants. Elsa Zambrano, among the protesters at the reflecting pool, said she wanted a path toward legalization for "the folks who are here, and to stop the raids. Children are left at bus stops not knowing their parents have been arrested. This is not just immigration; it's racial profiling." Thursday marks the third year of such rallies and demonstrations on May 1, known as May Day. However, 2008 is the first time the rallies have been held during an election year, and protesters are hoping to draw the candidates' attention to their cause. The two main Democratic candidates, Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois, have supported legislation that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, co-sponsored. Among other things, the legislation would increase funding and border security technology, improve enforcement of existing laws and provide a legal path to citizenship for some illegal immigrants. Critics had lambasted the legislation, which President Bush backed, as "amnesty." The measure has stalled in the Senate. The three candidates have also supported the construction of a 700-mile fence along the U.S.-Mexican border. "The debate might have died in Congress," Gutierrez said, but "immigration policy is being carried out every single day statewide, locally and nationally." "We need to remember that [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] is carrying out immigration policy every day," she said. http://www.beloblog.com/ProJo_Blogs/newsblog/archives/2008/05/opponents_of_ex.html May 1, 2008 Group to protest Carcieri's order vs. illegal immigrants A group of Rhode Islanders is getting together today for another in what has been a string of rallies decrying an executive order issued by the governor to identify and remove illegal immigrants from the state. The groups involved say in a statement that immigration reform is the responsibility of the federal government, not the state. "We are calling on the governor and legislators to rescind the executive order," the statement reads, "and put an end to anti-immigrant legislation built on stereotypes and misinformation." While the order targets illegal immigrants, opponents have said enforcement could lead to profiling all immigrants. The groups involved include Immigrants in Action Committee, Ocean State Action, the Rhode Island Mexican-American Association and the Center for Hispanic Policy and Advocacy. The rally is set for 4:30 p.m. today on the lawn of the State House. http://www.democracynow.org/2008/5/2/25_000_dockworkers_shut_down_west May 02, 2008 25,000 Dockworkers Shut Down West Coast Ports in Historic Antiwar Protest In the largest labor strike since the invasion of Iraq, ports along the West Coast-all twenty-nine of them-were shut down as some 25,000 dockworkers went on a one-day strike to protest the war. We speak to Jack Heyman of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. [includes rush transcript] AMY GOODMAN: We're going to turn very quickly now to the protests that took place here on Thursday to mark May Day. There were-in the largest labor strike since the invasion of Iraq, ports along the West Coast, all twenty-nine of them, were shut down as some 25,000 dockworkers went on a one-day strike to protest the war. Several other smaller antiwar actions took place in other parts of the country. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of marchers in defense of immigrant labor rights in several cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Milwaukee, New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Houston, Seattle and here in San Diego, took to the streets. We're going to turn now to the dockworkers' strike, where the workers from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union brought the port operations to a halt from Long Beach to Seattle in defiance of their employers and arbitrators. We're joined on the phone from San Francisco by Jack Heyman, an officer with the International. Welcome to Democracy Now!, Jack Heyman. Can you talk about the significance of what happened yesterday? JACK HEYMAN: Well, yeah. We were really proud here on the West Coast, as far as the longshore union, the ILWU, making this stand, because it's part of our legacy, really, of standing up on principled issues. And this, I think, is the first strike ever-well, I would call it a stop work, work stoppage, whatever you want-workers withholding their labor in demand-and demanding an end to the war and immediate withdrawal of the troops. AMY GOODMAN: What about the significance of the arbitrator saying that the longshoremen should not go out on strike? JACK HEYMAN: Well, you know, the interesting thing about this action is that not only did we defy the arbitrator, but in a certain sense we defied our own union officials. The union officials did not want to have the actions that we organized up and down the coast. And the arbitrator's decision is simply-we don't take our orders from the arbitrators. We don't take it from judges. The rank and file goes out and does what it has to do. We did that in 1984, when the ship came in from South Africa, the Nedlloyd Kimberley. We refused to work that ship for, I think it was ten or eleven days. And that was in defiance of what an arbitrator said and also against what our union officials were telling us. So we've got a strong tradition in the ILWU of rank-and-file democracy, workers' democracy, where we implement what we decide in a democratic fashion. And our action took place based on a motion that came out of our caucus, which is like a convention of all longshoremen represented up and down the coast. And we decided to stop work to stop this war, and that's what was carried out. AMY GOODMAN: The action within Iraq in solidarity with your strike, can you talk about that? JACK HEYMAN: Well, I think that really was the icing on the cake, because we were appealing for solidarity actions. And I know there was some actions in New York with the college teachers at a New York community college and teach-ins with students and so forth; there were postal workers that had a few moments of silence, a few minutes of silence in New York, Greensboro, North Carolina, and out here in the Bay Area; but really, the most stunning solidarity came from the port workers in Iraq, who struck in solidarity with us. And that was really a very courageous move, because they're literally under the gun of a military occupation there. AMY GOODMAN: What are your plans now? JACK HEYMAN: Well, what this action was was raising the level of struggle from protest to resistance, and we're hoping that these kinds of actions will resonate to other unions and workers. It's already catching on with some of the port truckers. Actually, they've been doing actions for quite awhile. While it's not mainly based on the war-I think they're very much affected by the high price of fuel-they've been shutting down ports over that issue, but also immigrant rights, because many of them are immigrant workers. And I hope that this will be an example to other workers that we have the power, we've got to use it. And that's how we can bring this war to a halt. AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you very much, Jack Heyman, for joining us from San Francisco, an officer of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. http://www.myantiwar.org/view/150612.html West Coast ports closed by worker protest Thu May 1, 2008 5:55pm EDT By Jill Serjeant and Bernard Woodall LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Ports along the U.S. West Coast, including the country's busiest port complex in Los Angeles, shut down on Thursday as some 10,000 dock workers went on a one-day strike to protest the war in Iraq, port and union officials said. Twenty-nine ports from San Diego to Washington state that handle more than half of U.S waterborne trade ground to a halt, but shipping experts said the economic costs of the walk-out would be limited. "We are hearing there is no activity taking place up and down the West Coast," said Steve Getzug, spokesman of the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents all 29 ports. "There is no unloading or loading." At the Los Angeles-area port of Long Beach, a hub for trade with Asia, a Reuters reporter said the normally bustling area was unusually quiet and there were no signs of protesters. Long Beach Port terminal operators expect union workers to return for the second shift beginning at 6:00 p.m. PDT (9:00 p.m. EDT/0100 GMT on Friday). Paul Bingham, an economist with Global Insight, which tracks container volume and congestion at U.S. ports, said labor officials had alerted shippers and carriers. "If this had come as a surprise it would have been a lot more serious in its impact," said Bingham, also noting that it was not peak season for shipping. "This isn't like the West Coast port lockout in 2002 when we shut down the ports for 10 days," he added. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union said some 10,000 workers joined the anti-war protest, spurred in part by its belief that big shipping companies are profiting from the war. "Longshore workers are standing down on the job and standing up for America," said ILWU International President Bob McEllrath. "We're supporting the troops and telling politicians in Washington that it's time to end the war in Iraq." 'LEVERAGE CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS' But port officials cast doubts over the war protest motive. PMA's Getzug said the action came two months prior to the expiration of the current labor agreement. "Today's actions raised the question of whether this was an attempt to leverage contract negotiations," he said in a statement. He added that the work stoppage was illegal under the PMA's contract with the ILWU. It was not clear how many ships or containers were affected by the longshore workers action. But the PMA said that on a typical weekday shift between 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. about 10,000 containers are moved on the West Coast. Arly Baker, spokesman for the Port of Los Angeles, said 15 ships were to arrive at the port on Thursday and about half of them had arrived and berthed before the work stoppage began for the day. "What this amounts to is probably the same effect of an official holiday where the terminals shut down," Baker said. "There won't be a backup in cargo or some kind of bottleneck resulting from it." Together, the neighboring ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach handle 43 percent of the container cargo imports, including most of the household goods shipped from China. The two ports bring in about $1 billion of cargo daily, Baker said. (Additional reporting by Alexandria Sage in Los Angeles and Dan Whitcomb in Long Beach; Editing by Eric Walsh) http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2008-05/2008-05-01-voa73.cfm?CFID=23069677&CFTOKEN=87944898 US Port Workers Strike in Anti-War Protest By VOA News 01 May 2008 US President George W. Bush addressing the nation aboard the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, 01 May 2003 Workers at ports on the west coast of the United States staged a one-day strike Thursday to call for an end to the war in Iraq, five years after President George Bush stood underneath a banner that declared "Mission Accomplished." On May 1, 2003, the president visited a U.S. aircraft carriers the USS Abraham Lincoln to declare an end to major combat operations in Iraq and call it a victory in the war on terrorism. West coast dockworkers marked the anniversary with a brief strike that halted loading and unloading of ships from southern California to Washington state. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union said at least 10 thousand workers stayed home. The White House says the "Mission Accomplished" phrase referred to the aircraft carrier's completion of its 10-month mission at sea, not the military completing its mission in Iraq. White House spokesman Tony Fratto said Thursday the Bush Administration is looking forward to helping the Iraqi government take greater responsibility for its own security. Fratto also said President Bush is ignoring a new poll that shows the president's approval rating has dropped to just 27 percent. The poll indicates 73 percent of voters believe the country is on the wrong track. The poll was conducted by the Wall Street Journal and NBC news between April 28 to April 28. Democrats have repeatedly criticized the president for his Iraq policy and the mounting casualties there. The war is a major issue in the presidential campaign. On Wednesday, a White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, told reporters that President Bush is well aware that the "Mission Accomplished" banner should have been more specific. Since the war started, more than 4,000 members of the U.S. military have been killed, along with thousands of Iraqi civilians. http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/33180 Richmond Citizens Join Nationwide Protests to End the Iraq War Submitted by davidswanson on Fri, 2008-05-02 16:05. Media By Mary Delicate Richmond, Virginia - May 1, 2008 - As part of a day of nationwide labor strikes, a dozen Richmond citizens left work on May 1st to gather in front of Senator Jim Webb's Richmond office to demand he stop funding the occupation of Iraq. While the Democratic Senator has said he opposes the war, he continues to vote to fund it. The protesters expressed their exasperation with Senator Webb and other Democratic members of Congress who continue to fund the occupation. "The Democratic Party has pretended to be against the war," said Chris Dorsey, co-founder of RVA4Peace, "however, whenever the President requests funding, the Democratic-controlled House and Senate march in lockstep with the administration." The result, Dorsey stated, has been an escalation of the occupation that the Democrats were elected to end. "In short," he continued, "the Democratic Party has become a controlled opposition party." During the demonstration, volunteers with Project 1, Inc. a Richmond-based not-for-profit organization, collected canned food for the Central Virginia Foodbank. "While 51 cents out of every tax dollar goes to military spending," said Toni Davy, co-founder of Project 1, "the average American is finding it hard to pay for daily expenses." The Central Virginia Foodbank is currently experiencing severe shortages due to increased need and reduced donations. This event was organized by RVA4Peace, a group of Richmond citizens focused on peace and justice. For more information, see http://www.myspace.com/rva4peace . http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storyPage.aspx?storyId=116793 Thousands join Labor Day protest actions in Bacolod By RAGIE MAE ARELLANO ABS-CBN Bacolod Around 1 o'clock Thursday thousands of workers started to march from different points in Negros Occidental. Members of Labor Power Council and Lumaya Ka, marched from Rizal Park to Bacolod City Public Plaza. Another labor group Manggagawa para sa Kalayaan ng Bayan or MAKABAYAN converged at the Department of Labor and Employment building and started marching to the Rotonda near the public plaza. Protestors carried placards and streamers demanding a P125 across-the-board wage increase for workers in Western Visayas. While the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines is pushing for a P50 increase in workers' wages, the Wage Increase Solidarity Negros or WINS on the other hand filed a petition for a P125 wage hike. WINS said that a P50 hike in wages is not enough to strengthen the purchasing power of workers amid the crisis. Aside from asking for a wage increase, workers also called on the government to bring down prices of basic commodities. Protestors will be converging at the plaza Thursday afternoon for a culminating program. Meanwhile, the Philippine National Police remain on alert and continue to observe maximum tolerance. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Wed Aug 27 11:44:29 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:44:29 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Global unrest over service delivery Message-ID: <00eb01c90874$f1af0ee0$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * PAKISTAN: Multan textile workers revolt over power cuts * BANGLADESH: Road blockade to protest power cuts * INDIA: Thousands protest, revolt over power cuts in several cities * TRINIDAD: Road blockades in three areas over road conditions, water * BOTSWANA/SOUTH AFRICA: Border blocked in service delivery protest * ITALY: Naples residents protest against local dump, rubbish crisis; fight police * INDIA: Road blocked in demand for water supply * GREECE: Youths clash with police in protest against landfill on island * INDIA: Locals led by panchayat chief storm water project HQ * SOUTH AFRICA: Durban, Pretoria protesters demand houses * SOUTH AFRICA: Unrest at service delivery protest at Tshing, Vukuzakhe, Lenasia South and Khutsong settlements near Johannesburg * SOUTH AFRICA: Buses torched over rumour of service withdrawal * SOUTH AFRICA: Merafong settlement service delivery protest http://arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=108952&d=15&m=4&y=2008&pix=world.jpg&category=World%22 Violent Protest Over Power Cuts in Multan Azhar Masood & Reuters MULTAN, 15 April 2008 - Hundreds of agitated textile workers took to street in Multan to protest against power cuts which were affecting their livelihood. Protesters manhandled government officials at an office of the state-owned power utility and torched several vehicles, a bank and a petrol pump, a witness said. Nearly two dozen people were hurt in the rioting as police fired shots in the air and used teargas to disperse the crowd. About 60 people have been detained, a senior police official said. Pakistan is suffering a power deficit of up to 3,000 MW mainly because of low water levels at major reservoirs, and is implementing load-shedding, or switching off power to areas for several hours a day, across the country. Protesters shouted slogans against the Pakistan Electric Power Company, blaming it for what they said were up to 18 hours of cuts a day, instead of about eight they said authorities had promised. "Our workers and laborers are forced to starve," said Abdul Khaliq Qandeel, a top official of the All Pakistan Power Looms Association that organized the protest. "Due to the power cuts there is no work," he said, referring to about 50,000 textile looms in the city, the home town of newly elected Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani. A spokesman for the power company, Tahir Basharat Cheema, said the power shortage was being compounded by rising demand and some private power generators producing less electricity than their installed capacity. Pakistan's installed capacity is about 19,845 MW, of which about one-third is produced by hydro-electric plants. Much of the rest is generated by thermal stations, fueled primarily by gas and oil. In January, the government shut steel melting units for two weeks and ordered hundreds of textile mills to reduce operations to cope with the power shortage. Gilani urged people to remain calm and be patient, saying his government was striving to deal with the problem. Violence would serve no purpose, he said. http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/apr2008/paki-a19.shtml Pakistan: Textile workers' protests convulse Multan By Keith Jones 19 April 2008 Use this version to print | Send this link by email | Email the author The industrial city of Multan, Pakistan's sixth largest, was convulsed by protests of textile workers, Monday and Tuesday, angered by repeated power outages that have resulted in pay and job cuts for tens of thousands. The protests were initiated by the Power Looms Association, most of whose members work out of their homes, in a contracted-out, "cottage industry" that makes cloth for garment manufacturers. Chronic electricity outages, which are depriving large parts of the country of power for from 10 to 20 hours per day, have robbed the power-loom workers and the laborers who assist them of their livelihood. In Multan alone, half a million people-the power-loom operators and laborers and their families-are said to be dependent on the power loom industry. For months the power loom workers have been agitating for an end to the power outages or, at the very least, that the government-owned national electricity utility, WAPDA, guarantee them a set number of hours of electricity per day and adhere to a schedule when imposing power cuts. "Our workers and labourers are forced to starve," said Khaliq Qandeel Ansari, the general-secretary of the Power Looms Association Monday. "Due to the power cuts there is no work." On Tuesday workers blocked rail lines. The previous day the protests had taken a violent turn, with protesters attacking the offices of the local WAPDA subsidiary, the Multan Electric Power Company (MEPCO), and a bank, and torching several vehicles. Security guards at MEPCO opened fire, injuring several protesters. According to press reports, the police and the power loom workers subsequently fought a four hour-long pitched battle, with police using baton-charges and teargas to disperse the crowd. Pakistan's new prime minister, Yusuf Raza Gilani, who himself represents a Multan constituency in the National Assembly, has blamed Monday's unrest on "miscreants" and insinuated that they were the work of the government's right-wing opponents who want to "divert people's attention from real issues." Recent weeks have seen repeated provocations by elements loyal to President Pervez Musharraf, the US-supported military strongman, who has been shorn of much of his power in recent months. To quash constitutional challenges to his phony "re-election" as president and to intimidate the opposition and populace, Musharraf imposed martial law for six weeks late last year, but in the February 18 national and provincial elections his political allies were routed. The provocations have included staged attacks on pro-Musharraf politicians, which have then been used to denounce and discredit both the new government and the lawyers who have been demanding the restoration of the more than 60 supreme and superior court judges whom Musharraf purged under his martial law regime. The most violent of these provocations occurred in Karachi on April 9. It began with a brawl between anti- and pro-Musharraf lawyers-or at least persons who claimed to be lawyers-and ended with a fire in which six people died. Several other persons were killed from gunfire during the melee. The pro-Musharraf Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has claimed that some of its lawyer-members were attacked by members of the Karachi Bar Association (KBA) when they initiated a protest against the roughing up of the former Chief Minister of Sind, an MQM leader. The KBA president says the fighting broke out when MQM supporters invaded their offices. Musharraf was quick to seize on the Karachi events to denounce the lawyers' movement. "I appeal to the lawyers not to spread anarchy," declared Musharraf. "Law and order should be maintained." Gilani's denunciations of the Multan protests are a reactionary slur. There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that Monday's riot in Multan was instigated by Musharraf loyalists or by the pro-Musharraf PML (Q), the MQM's Punjab-based ally. In an editorial Thursday, the Dawn was forced to concede that the claims the Multan protest were part of a right-wing conspiracy have no foundation; "The bottom line is that people are fed up-with spiraling inflation and food shortages, joblessness and underemployment, the ostentatiously rich exploiting the miserably poor, crime without punishment. The electricity shortage is only one indigestible ingredient in the bubbling brew of discontent and almost any provocation can trigger a free-for-all." The new government, its democratic and populist pretensions notwithstanding, responded to the unrest in Multan with savage reprisals akin to those employed by Musharraf against working class unrest and political opposition. Police have been mounting late night raids on the homes of workers involved in the protests. A report in the April 16 Dawn says police have registered cases against 1,500 people and, moreover, that the workers are being charged under the country's draconian Anti-Terrorism Act. On Wednesday the Interior Minister announced that all rallies and public meeting would require government approval to be held. The previous government comprised of Musharraf's cronies had imposed similar restrictions and with the same justification-the need to minimize terrorism. Pakistan's new government-which is comprised of Pakistan's two main traditional parties, the Pakistan People's Party and the Pakistan Muslim League (Sharif), and the Pashtun-based Awami National Party and the Islamic fundamentalist, JIU-F-has promised that it will soon introduce a package of measures to provide jobs and relief from spiraling food prices. But at the same time Finance Minister Ishaq Dar is warning that the government must take harsh measures to scale back a burgeoning budget deficit. Dar told an April 9 press conference that if a combination of tax increases and spending and price-subsidy cuts is not implemented in the coming budget, the deficit will soon be "almost unmanageable." On Thursday, the government raised the price of petrol and diesel by 3 Rupees a litre. Traditional bitter political rivals, the PPP and PML (N) fought over which party should assume the finance portfolio in the coalition government, neither wanting have to take political responsibility for unpopular measures. The World Bank in a statement issued March 28 said "Pakistan's new government must take rapid action, backed by the international community, to avoid an economic crisis in the nuclear-armed nation." It added that "painful" adjustments are needed because of "high global prices for food, oil and commodities." Such "painful" adjustments will come under conditions where Pakistan's toilers are already facing extreme hardship. The government says food prices in March were up 20 percent on the year. Others say the increase is significantly higher, noting that there have been shortages of some key staples including wheat-flour. A World Food Programme report issued last week said food prices rose at least 35 percent in Pakistan last year and warned that because of the continuing price surge half of the 160 million Pakistanis are at risk of not having enough food. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/DHA58449.htm Bangladeshis block highway to protest power outage 24 Aug 2008 09:41:10 GMT Source: Reuters DHAKA, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Bangladesh factory workers blocked a national highway on Sunday to protest against frequent power outage that idles their mills and deprives them of jobs, police said. Several thousand workers from textile and jute mills rallied at Narsingdi, 50 km (31 miles) northeast of the capital Dhaka, blocking traffic on the busy Dhaka-Sylhet highway for more than three hours. "The protesters withdrew the blockade after relevant authorities assured them to try to reduce the power outage," a police officer said. Officials of the state-managed Power Development Board said uninterrupted electric supply was not possible immediately due to fall in generation capacity. Bangladesh's electricity generation has fallen to 4,300 megawatts against a requirement of 5,500 MW, due to mechanical faults and shortage of natural gas. "We have to sit idle and lose our wages when factory remain closed due to power outage," a protest leader said. Bangladesh fetches around $11 billion annually from textile exports. Consumers often stage violent protest demanding adequate supply of electricity and other utilities in the country. (Reporting by Nizam Ahmed; editing by Elaine Hardcastle) http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article3863240.ece >From The Times May 3, 2008 India feels the heat as thousands riot over power cuts Police fired teargas to disperse the crowds, which blocked roads and railway lines Jeremy Page in Delhi Thousands of people, many wearing only underwear, rioted across northern India yesterday over power cuts that have left millions without electricity or water, highlighting the yawning gap between the country's superpower aspirations and realities on the ground. The violence underlined growing public frustration at the Government's failure to improve the basic infrastructure, especially electricity and water supplies, despite an unprecedented economic boom. The Government has pledged to provide "power for all" by 2012, but analysts say that it will struggle to keep up with demand as the middle class sates its appetite for electronic goods and larger homes. While India's economy has grown at an average of 8 per cent for the past four years, enriching a consumer class of 50-60 million people, half of the billion-plus population are not even connected to the electricity network. Those who are rely on voltage stabilisers, inverters (large batteries) and diesel-powered generators. The power minister in Uttar Pradesh predicted that the energy crisis would last for at least two more years. Yesterday riots spread across the country's most populous state, raising fears of repeated protests throughout India's long, sweltering summer, as 24-hour blackouts deprived thousands of air-conditioning, fans and even drinking water in temperatures above 40C (104F). Police fired teargas to disperse crowds who had blocked roads and railway lines, attacked police vehicles, set fire to an electricity transformer and attacked electricity workers. More than 250 people were arrested. India's power plants can produce 132,000 megawatt hours of electricity - less than half the output of the national grid in Britain. The Power Ministry says that demand is at least 14 per cent higher than that - and growing faster than output. Uttar Pradesh is one of the worst-affected states. It generates 2,600 megawatt hours and imports a further 3,700, but still has a shortfall of about 1,800 during peak hours. Local officials said that the state had been unable to cope with a surge in demand, especially from air-conditioners, as temperatures soared this week. As a result, most cities had been getting only 12 hours of electricity a day. The city of Gorakhpur, with a population of about four million, had no power for more than 24 hours, local officials said. "We are fed up," Ajit Singh, the owner and manager of a travel agency in the city, told The Times. "We pay our taxes but still the power is not coming. We cannot live like this, especially in such heat." Protesters in Gorakhpur stormed an office of the electricity board, taking several workers hostage and beating others. They also set fire to a nearby electricity transformer. In Kanpur, the state's largest city, hundreds of protesters marched to the home of the Kanpur Electric Supply Corporation's managing director to complain about daily power cuts of 15 to 18 hours, according to the Indo-Asian News Service. At the stroke of midnight on Thursday they began beating drums, chanting hymns and singing parodies of Hindi movie songs,. "How can the electricity board officials sleep when the residents are sweating out in the sweltering heat," the news agency quoted Irfan Solanki, a Samajwadi Party legislator who led the mob, as saying. "We have decided that neither will we sleep nor allow power corporation officials to sleep." Ram Veer Upadhaya, the state Power Minister, said that he expected the power crisis to continue for at least two years. "There is a big gap between the demand and supply. Our power stations do not generate required electricity," he said. He promised last month that the state would complete several power plants in the next five years to boost its generation capacity to 10,000MW - enough to provide 24-hour electricity for all. Uttar Pradesh's Paricha Thermal Power Project is scheduled to start generating in July next year and the Harduaganj Thermal Power Project three months later. Delays are almost certain and, for the moment, the power shortfall is so great that the state has been overdrawing from the national grid, causing power cuts in several neighbouring states. Last month the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission threatened for the first time to cut power supplies to Uttar Pradesh for nonpayment of dues for overdrawing from the grid. Growing pains - From 1980 to 2002 India's economy grew at 6 per cent a year, and then at 7.5 per cent from 2002 to 2006. Despite being one of the world's best-performing economies, it has lagged behind China, which averaged 9.2 per cent growth between 2002 and 2006 - In the past two decades, India's middle class has quadrupled to roughly 60 million people; 1 per cent of the country's poor have risen out of poverty every year - Over the same period, China lifted 300 million people out of poverty and increased its workforce by 120 million - India has more than 100,000 dollar millionaires, and is creating new ones at a rate rivalled only be Russia. China has 350,000 millionaires - If current trends continue, India could overtake Britain as the world's fifth largest economy within a decade. It could then overtake the US, and be second to China by the middle of this century Sources: IMF, United Nations; Times archives, CIA http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/02/asia/AS-GEN-India-Power-Protests.php Protesters in northern India clash with police over power cuts The Associated Press Published: May 2, 2008 LUCKNOW, India: Rioters, some wearing just underwear, clashed with police in northern India early Friday in anger over massive power cuts that left wide swaths of the region without electricity as summer temperatures soared, police said. Police fired tear gas to disperse the crowds who attacked police vehicles, blocked roads and rail lines, set an electricity transformer on fire and attacked electricity workers in Uttar Pradesh state, police spokesman Surendra Srivastava said. Riots were reported in several cities across the state, he said. Uttar Pradesh, home to some 180 million people, is one of India's poorest states. Its inadequate energy infrastructure has been unable to cope with the high demand for electricity as temperatures peaked above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in recent days. Most cities have been getting just 12 hours of electricity a day. Many people were left without air conditioning or fans - and, in some cases, without water, as electric pumps failed. More than 250 people had been detained and charged with rioting, Srivastava said. In Gorakhpur, which had been without electricity for more than 24 hours, protesters stormed an office of the electricity board, taking several workers hostage and beating a few. They also set a nearby electricity transformer ablaze in the town, 300 kilometers (190 miles) southeast of the state capital, Lucknow. As police tried to disperse the crowd, many of the men - clad just in their underwear to beat the heat - taunted police, challenging them to open fire, Srivastava said. State Power Minister Ram Veer Upadhaya said he expected the power crisis to continue for at least the next two years. "There is a big gap between the demand and supply. Our power stations do not generate required electricity," he said. India faces chronic power shortages amid growing demand, spurred by its rapid economic growth, and a lag in building enough new power stations. http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=353548 Candlelight march held to protest Jharkhand power crisis IANS Tuesday 29th April, 2008 Over a hundred people staged a candlelight march here to protest against poor electricity supply in Jharkhand even as a group of activists is planning to gift the chief minister a lantern to draw his attention to the problems arising from frequent power cuts. Protestors, under the banner of Nagrik Yuva Vikas Manch (NYVM), hit the streets of Ranchi Monday night. 'Jharkhand is gradually plunging into darkness. Ranchi witnesses 10 to 12 hours of load shedding everyday. Our children have to study using candles and lanterns,' said Sanjay Kumar, a NYVM member. The Jharkhand Yuva Sangharsh Samiti said it has decided to gift a lantern each to Chief Minister Madhu Koda and other state ministers to draw their attention to the problems faced by people due to power shortage. Even government officials have joined the chorus of demand for regular power supply. Sources said that in a letter to the chief minister, Jamshedpur Deputy Commissioner Nitin Kulkarni spoke of his district witnessing a scorching summer with the mercury already touching 44 degrees Celsius. The poor power supply has compounded the people's problems. Jharkhand High Court Monday reprimanded Jharkhand State Electricity Board (JSEB) for the poor electricity supply. The court also sought a status report of generation and consumption of power in the state and steps taken by the board to improve the situation. Jharkhand needs about 800 mw of power everyday. The power plants in the state generate about 200 mw per day, while Jharkhand purchases about 200 mw of electricity from the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC). The erratic power supply has also affected the water supply in the state. 'People should restrict their consumption of electricity. The JSEB will cut connections to display hoardings to save on power,' said the chief minister. 'DVC does not supply power properly. Every summer, it diverts electricity meant for Jharkhand to West Bengal, putting the state in a power crisis,' said a JSEB official. http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=109663 Wednesday, April 30, 2008 HYDERABAD: The citizens are facing immense difficulties in many localities of Hyderabad that are currently undergoing massive power breakdowns of long durations and voltage fluctuation also deprived them of electronics goods. Residents of different localities complained that their areas remain without power supply for more than five hours on a regular basis that disturbs their normal life. They said officials of the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) are not approachable at the time of power failure to inform the consumers as to when the electricity would be restored. Residents of Gadi Khata, Saddar, Cantonment, Mumtaz colony, Latifabad and other rural areas complained of massive power breakdowns well before peak hot hours and they remain without power without any intimation. Enraged protesters on Monday alone ransacked two sub-divisional offices of Hesco to press the authorities for meeting their demand for restoration of power supply. The citizens are of the opinion that peak summer is yet to start and massive and long-duration power outages have already affected their normal life. They called upon the minister for power and water to take notice of the situation in Hyderabad before things go out of control of authorities. They demanded that inquiry should be conducted into long-duration power and continuous faults at the grid stations, adding that they have been deprived of electronics goods because of fluctuation of power supply and dropping of voltage. The power breakdowns also affected the business activities in markets but the Hesco authorities have yet not taken any notice. http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161314184 Fiery protest for third day Carolyn Kissoon South Bureau Thursday, April 24th 2008 FED UP: Villagers of Salt Mine Trace, Fyzabad, protest over poor road conditions yesterday. -Photo: Trevor Watson BURNING tyres lined the entrance to Salt Mine Trace, Fyzabad, yesterday, as villagers entered their third day of protest for improved roads. They blocked motorists from leaving and entering the village, preventing school children from reaching to classes on time. Firemen put out the fires and police assisted in clearing the debris from the road. Several backhoes from the Siparia Regional Corporation picked up the debris. Villagers said their roads had not been paved in 15 years and the potholes have expanded across the roadway. On Monday, firemen were called out to put out fires and remove debris to clear the roadway. Fyzabad MP Chandresh Sharma and both the People's National Movement (PNM) and the United National Congress-Alliance (UNC-A) local representatives visited the site. Eventually, a meeting between senior officials of the council and village representatives was organised for 9 a.m. today. In a letter to the corporation, the villagers promised to continue the protest until the road repair starts. "We are faced with hefty sums to repair vehicles, high prices by school vans and taxis, while pedestrians are faced with dust when the place is dry and mud when rain falls." Sharma said he met Minister of Local Government, Hazel Manning, last Monday and discussed villagers' concerns. He said the minister promised to address the matter. "The minister said there were many similar problems throughout the country. She said a hands on approach was needed," he said. Meanwhile, an official at the Siparia Regional Corporation said they were strapped for labour and finances. "We have not been getting the resources from the ministry. There is a lot of red tape to go through before getting finances from the ministry and that is keeping us back," he said. http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161328690 Cushe residents in fiery protest for water Phoolo Danny-Maharaj South Bureau Tuesday, May 27th 2008 PLAGUED by persistent water shortages and unsympathetic responses from the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA), residents of Cushe Village, near Biche, set fire to debris they piled across roads yesterday, bringing traffic to a halt for several hours. The early-morning protest by angry villagers brought almost immediate response from WASA, with the distribution of a truckborne water supply. Now, however, protesters and villagers in other nearby areas who do not receive pipe-borne supply are threatening to extend the protest to other areas. "It seems that is only when we protest that we will get some water. So if is protest WASA want, we will have to continue the protests," several villagers said yesterday. The water woes were raised by Rio Claro/Mayaro Regional Corporation chairman Ramlochan Panchoo, during a Regulated Industries Commission (RIC) public consultation recently at the Oilfields Workers' Trade Union (OWTU) headquarters in San Fernando. He spoke about water bandits, who held up distribution trucks and forced drivers to deliver water to their areas. Panchoo said while the corporation supplied water daily to the areas that had no water lines, "WASA does not distribute its water evenly". Councillor Glen Ram yesterday said the villagers of Cushe went to WASA to try to talk to officials to find out about truckborne water supplies, "but nobody bothered with them". He said WASA had only four trucks to distribute to thousands of people in the Biche, Cushe, Charuma, Ecclesville and Rio Claro areas. He said whenever WASA trucks delivered water to the villagers, "they are unable to deliver to the schools, and the pupils are sent home early". Ram said WASA dropped pipelines in some areas before last December's general elections, but "they took up the pipes after elections and never came back in the area". The corporation runs a six-day-a-week service to the areas that had no water lines, he said. WASA officials said they would try to send more trucks into the area. http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161317225 Broken bridge, lack of water spark protest Phoolo Danny-Maharaj pdanny at trinidadexpress.com Thursday, May 1st 2008 CLEANING UP: A fire officer washes away burnt debris which villagers of Chrysostom Trace, Mafeking, Mayaro used to block the main road yesterday. The residents were protesting over a broken bridge and the lack of pipeborne water in the area. - Photo: TREVOR WATSON MAYARO residents yesterday burned debris in the middle of roads, creating traffic jams and preventing workers and pupils from going to work and school. Spokesperson Stacy Dinanath said the wooden bridge at Chrysostom Trace, Mafeking Village, "broke years ago, and a wooden makeshift walkway was built. Now people are tired of walking more than quarter mile to their homes from that bridge and they want it fixed". She said there were about 13 homes after the bridge, and most villagers had cars, "but they have to leave their vehicles on the other side and walk half mile and more to their homes." Dinanath said the villagers , including the elderly and the sick, "walk with their goods over the makeshift bridge." Another problem, she said, was the absence of pipeborne water and "still WASA does not deliver water to the residents. We have to pay $300 for water." She added that Mafeking Road had standpipes, "but the water supply is scarce". She said villagers intend to keep up the protest until they get some positive action. Rio Claro/Mayaro Regional Corporation chairman Ramlochan Panchoo, said the bridge was earmarked to be rebuilt by the Ministry of Local Government, "but we have pulled it under the corporation's development programme. The project, for which $800,000 has been allocated, is out for tender and that's where it's at," he added. http://www.sabcnews.com/africa/southern_africa/0,2172,170104,00.html Protests disrupt traffic between SA and Botswana The group said they were protesting against lack of service delivery by the district municipality May 23, 2008, 06:30 Traffic between Botswana and South Africa was severely disrupted last night at Ramatlabama border post near Mafikeng in North West Province, when a group of people from nearby Miga village, barricaded the main road. The group said they were protesting against what they called lack of service delivery by the district municipality. Heavy duty vehicles carrying goods, as well as passenger vehicles going to and from Botswana were turned around by the toyi toying crowd. The R503 road is one of the busiest linking the two countries. The group comes from nearby Miga village situated along the border, and started barricading the road with burning tyres, stones, poles and road signage just hours before the official closure of the border post. Trucks and motorists that were travelling between the two countries were turned back. A locomotive travelling from Botswana to South Africa, to haul a luxury train destined for the Victoria Falls, was pelted with stones and had its windows shattered. A Botswana citizen driver and his assistant sustained minor injuries. Protests expected to continue The protesters, mainly young people, vowed to continue with their protest action until the district municipality addresses their concerns which include the installation of electricity in their village. This is the second protest action in less than two weeks after the villagers gave the district municipality a memorandum of grievances. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/24/europe/EU-GEN-Italy-Garbage-Clash.php Protesters clash with police in latest demo over dump sites near Naples The Associated Press Published: May 24, 2008 ROME: Tensions remained high Saturday after a night of clashes between police and protesters furious at plans by the Italian government to dump mountains of trash from nearby Naples in their towns. Police in riot gear watched but did not intervene Saturday when a protester threw what appeared to be a firebomb near the town of Chiaiano, a suburb of Naples. Demonstrators also hurled cans and other garbage at police. A few hours later, police chased protesters, who scattered and then regrouped. A protest march through Chiaiano was scheduled for Saturday evening, SKY TG24 news reported. The site near Chiaiano is one of 10 selected by Premier Silvio Berlusconi's new government to receive some of the tons of stinking garbage that has piled up uncollected in Naples and surrounding areas. Police and protesters clashed overnight after authorities tried to move an empty bus demonstrators were using to block a road leading to the planned dump site. Several injuries were reported on both sides. Police arrested three people, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. Earlier this week, Berlusconi led a Cabinet meeting in Naples to show that his government was serious about tackling Naples' garbage problem. He pledged to deploy the military to protect the dump sites. "Neapolitans have a lot of imagination, but they haven't invented a new way to get rid of garbage," Infrastructure Minister Altero Matteoli, told SKY in a telephone interview. The local protests will not change the government's plans, the minister said. Guido Bertolaso, the civil protection official named by Berlusconi to be garbage crisis commissioner, was quoted as estimating it will take 2 1/2 years to solve Naples' trash problem. "Thirty months, a lot of working together, a lot of determination and a lot of humility" will be needed, ANSA quoted Bertolaso as saying. Naples' latest garbage crisis began in December, when trash collectors said they had run out of dump sites. The recurring problem is blamed on decades of poor local government, residents' resistance to new dump sites or incinerators and what authorities say is organized crime's infiltration of the trash business. With summer approaching, the stench of garbage piled up on sidewalks and piazzas has become overpowering, and the tourist industry is worried it will hurt business. But local leaders vowed to thwart the national government's plans to move the rubbish to dumps in their areas. "I won't give up easily," ANSA quoted Marano mayor Salvatore Perrotta as saying. Marano is situated next to the planned Chiaiano dump. Perrotta said he would wage a legal battle to try to prevent it from opening. http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=105504 Naples locals block site to protest rubbish dumping Monday, May 26, 2008 ROME - Agence France-Presse Angry locals in a Naples suburb continued yesterday blocking a site chosen by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government to dump waste in order to solve an ongoing crisis over rubbish removal. At least 12 people were injured in clashes with police this weekend during mass demonstrations by hundreds in the suburb of Chiaiano, with citizens resisting the choice of their area for a dumping ground. Commentators said the confrontation began to look like a standoff between the government and just one local community that could threaten Berlusconi's plans for solving the 14-year Naples rubbish crisis. But Berlusconi was adamant that the controversial new measures must go ahead whatever the locals felt. "The state cannot give in," he said Saturday. "The problem of waste must be resolved. We musn't give way, not a centimetre." Waste has been piling up in Naples all these years for various reassons. The local mafia has been accused of responsibility because it has infiltrated the lucrative waste disposal market over the last 20 years, say experts. But other reasons for the chronic overflow include lack of disposal dumps, the absence of an incinerator in the Campania region, and almost no system for sorting recyclable waste. The Naples mafia, known as the Camorra, are best known for drug trafficking, but experts say the highly lucrative clandestine trade in industrial waste is their second source of revenue. Undercutting competitors and subverting safety procedures, the "ecomafia" ship industrial waste from the north and dump it illegally in and around Naples. Since Friday demonstrations have been ongoing day and night in Chiaiano with locals blocking access to disused quarries requisitioned by government decree, along with nine other sites elsewhere to absorb 35,000 tonnes of rubbish that have piled up in Naples and surroundings. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/30/stories/2008053051200300.htm Residents block Sathy Road to protest against irregular water supply Staff Reporter Protestors say that it has been nearly 10 days since they received water Photo: M. Govarthan Protest: Residents of Ward Nos. 6 and 7 of Periyasemur Municipality blocking the arterial Sathy Road, demanding regular water supply, in Erode on Thursday. - ERODE: Residents of Ward 6 and 7 of Periya Semur Municipality took to the streets on Thursday morning protesting against irregular water supply. Residents from Kothukaran Thottam, Iyyangadu, Sukramani and other places blocked the arterial Sathy Road, near Chikkaiah Naicker College. The women said it had been nearly 10 days since they received water. The only other water source the 500-odd families of the area had was a lone hand pump. They wanted to know why the Municipality, which levied a fine of Rs. 10 if water tax payment was delayed by a day, could not ensure proper and adequate water supply. Police pacified the agitators and cleared the road. Chairman of the Municipality S. T. Prabakar said the civic body could not ensure adequate and timely supply of water because squalls in the last few days had disrupted power supply to the pumping station. "Electricity poles transmitting power to the pumping station in Soolai fell, which is the reason for not supplying water. There are six poles all of which have now been erected and water supply will resume by Thursday evening," he said. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100016_11/08/2008_99425 TWO ARRESTS Youths clash with police in protest against landfill A group of youths clashed with riot police on the island of Corfu late on Saturday as they protested against a new landfill being built in the area of Lefkimi, authorities said yesterday. Clashes then took place outside the police station in Lefkimi where the youths threw stones and firebombs at police. Soon afterward two men were arrested, including a priest, in connection with the violence and were expected to face charges yesterday. There were no reports of injuries. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/24/stories/2008082454530500.htm Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram Public health engineers' protest THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Association of Public Health Engineers, Kerala has protested against the storming of the JBIC office (Japanese aided water supply scheme) in Kozhikode and the destruction of office equipment by a group of persons led by the vice-president of the Kuruvattoor panchayat. In a memorandum to the Water Resources Minister, it demanded action against those involved so that such incidents would not be repeated in future. -Special Correspondent http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_General&set_id=1&click_id=139&art_id=nw20080703112543609C943995 Chesterville poor protest in Durban July 03 2008 at 11:28AM Poor shack dwellers took to the streets of Durban on Thursday to protest against low-cost houses "being given" to those not from their area, KwaZulu-Natal police said. Superintendent John Tyala said the group from Chesterville marched from Botha's Garden along West Street to the Durban City Hall where a memorandum was handed to city councillors. "The shack dwellers are saying low cost houses are being given to people who do not live in their area and that they are not poor," said Tyala. He said no violence was reported during the protest. A Sapa reporter at the scene said a 50-strong crowd sang and chanted outside the hall under the watchful eye of police. Some carried banners, with one reading "No money to bribe". - Sapa http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2358532,00.html Pretoria flat protesters disperse 16/07/2008 14:54 - (SA) Pretoria - Hundreds of disgruntled Schubart and Kruger Park residents dispersed around noon on Wednesday after handing over a memorandum of grievances to a senior member of the Tshwane mayoral committee. Residents demanded that allegations of a lack of service delivery and corruption be addressed by mayor Gwen Ramokgopa' within 14 days. The memorandum was received by Subesh Pillay, Member of the Mayoral Committee for public works and infrastructure. Ramokgopa paid a visit to the flats off Vermeulen street on Monday and told the residents they would need to be evacuated from their homes so that renovations could be done to the "unliveable" complex. She said this could not, as the residents wanted, be done in a block by block manner as the complex was unsafe. List of grievances In their list of grievances, the residents demanded that the city investigate the activities of the "illegitimate" Housing Company Tshwane which managed the property. The company must also be charged in terms of the Municipal Management Finance Act and be removed with immediate effect for acting irresponsibly and "permitting the building to deteriorate to such a state of disrepair". It further demanded that all evictions should be stopped for non-payment of rentals in view of the company's "negligence and incompetence" which had resulted in the fire department condemning the building. "It was illegally forcing and collecting rental from condemned buildings, knowingly," the memorandum stated. The building must also be repaired and renovated to the satisfaction and compliance of the sectional title schemes act and once done, all registered tenants who had been living in the complex for more than five years must be given title deeds free of charge in terms of a benefit discount scheme or subsidy. Units should also be sold to those living in the complex for less than five years at cost recovery and new tenants should be allowed to buy units at market related prices. The residents also demanded that block removals or relocations should only be done to those who volunteered and that no resident could be forced. 'Lies' Earlier a spokesperson for the residents, Ronnie Mahlangu, said the mayor had "lied" to the people, made "petty excuses" and not kept her promises. "She betrayed our rights... we want our title deeds, that is our right." Mahlangu said Ramokgopa had promised to receive the residents' memorandum but had not arrived to meet them at her offices. "She's not around because she's ashamed to face you," he said to the sound of vuvuzelas and loud applause. Mahlangu said residents agreed that renovations needed to take place but that this should be done block by block and alternative accommodation in the city should be provided for them. Tshwane councillor Absalom Ditshoke said the flats were rental stock and that the people who lived there had to pay rent and did not have to option to buy or receive title deeds. He said that the city was looking into alternative accommodation for the elderly and disabled. http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_South%20Africa&set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=nw20080728091105971C573977 Ntuzuma residents protest against housing July 28 2008 at 09:33AM More than 500 people burnt tyres in protest over a lack of housing in Durban's Ntuzuma area on Monday. There was a heavy police presence and crowds had been gathering in F Section since 4am. Numerous protesters carried knobkerries, sticks and banners. One called for the resignation of local African National Congress councillor S'khumbuzo Ndaba. People say they are living in mud and zinc structures, and want proper housing. - Sapa http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2277533,00.html Protests continue in North West 26/02/2008 12:00 - (SA) Johannesburg - Vandalism continued through the night in Tshing settlement following Monday's service delivery protest, North West police said on Tuesday. Spokesperson Superintendent Lesego Metsi said two houses belonging to municipal employees were vandalised by a group of young people. "After dispersing at about 16:00 the residents regathered at about 22:00 and went to vandalise houses belonging to the municipal employees," Metsi said. He said shops belonging to Bangladeshi and Pakistani people were burnt and goods stolen from their shops. On Monday, Tshing residents gathered at a local stadium to listen to the mayor's report back on the grievances they had given to her on February 9. The grievances included poor service delivery, lack of opportunities, absence of facilities in the area and the poor council management. When the mayor attempted to address the meeting, residents started singing and chanting. The mayor could not address the meeting and was escorted out of the stadium by police. The residents barricaded roads with burning tyres and set fire to a local business and the house of a local councillor. Metsi said 15 people were arrested on Monday. He described the present situation as calm, but said police would continue to monitor the area. http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2362789,00.html Violent protesters released 23/07/2008 17:16 - (SA) Johannesburg - Ninety six people arrested after a violent protest in Vukuzakhe were released for lack of evidence against them, Mpumalanga police said on Wednesday. Superintendent Abie Khoabane said four houses were torched in what was believed to be a protest over a rates increase in the town near Volksrust. Khoabane said police would continue with their investigation into damage to property and public violence. "We have intensified our investigation," he said. http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_South%20Africa&set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=nw20080421120558734C236564 Cops called to quell Joburg riot April 21 2008 at 12:23PM By Bhavna Sookha Service delivery protests in Lenasia South have left looted shops, a burnt-out security vehicle and damaged homes in their wake. The situation was tense on Monday morning as hundreds of residents from the Hospital Hill informal settlement started gathering from around 7am. Just after 8pm on Sunday night, residents barricaded roads leading to the area and looted shops. 'They took everything - the meat and the scales - and broke fridges and computers Hundreds of residents were seen running, breaking shop windows and stealing whatever they could carry. Police monitored the situation this on Monday morning as residents once again blocked off a road with burning tyres and tree branches. They had started gathering at the intersection of Violet and Cosmos streets, just outside Southview High School, while singing freedom songs and blowing vuvuzelas. It is believed that an address on Sunday by local councillor Paul Molutsi, who was giving residents their quarterly update, sparked the violent incidents. Molutsi was addressing residents on service delivery issues and the delays in the provision of housing, electricity, water and sanitation facilities. Police officers, who had escorted Molutsi into the area for the meeting, hastily withdrew him when residents became violent and the crowd was dispersed with rubber bullets. Contrary to reports in earlier editions of The Star, Molutsi's house was not burnt down. It is believed the crowd went to Molutsi's home with the intention of setting it alight but were stopped by the police before they got there. SAPS spokesperson Inspector Mpho Kgasoane said police were monitoring the situation. "There are about 300 people here right now. The situation is under control." Hoosein Khan, owner of Khan's Butchery, situated about a kilometre from the informal settlement, said this morning that his business was looted last night. When The Star arrived at the butchery on Monday morning the windows were shattered with glass lying everywhere and the shelves empty. Khan and his employees had gathered outside the shop. "They threw bricks through the window and broke down the door," he said. "They took everything - the meat and the scales - and broke fridges and computers." Khan, who said he lost about R100 000, said he was alerted by one of his employees and his security company about 10pm on Sunday night. A bottlestore next door also had windows shattered but it looks as if looters were unable to gain entry. Southview High principal Banks Naidoo allowed pupils to return home early as residents were protesting just outside the school. He said he couldn't guarantee the pupils' safety. By mid-morning on Monday the situation was calm, with Joburgad metro cops, members of the Crime Combating Unit and Lenasia SAPS at the scene. Many of the residents have been living in the informal settlement for about 20 years. At the last count there were at least 3 200 shacks in the area. http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2375762,00.html Man hurt in Khutsong protest 14/08/2008 10:02 - (SA) ? 6 youths arrested in Khutsong ? Tensions high in Khutsong ? Khutsong to stay in North West Johannesburg - A man was injured and eight people arrested following a protest by community members of the Khutsong settlement over poor service delivery in Bothaville, Free State police said on Thursday. Spokesperson Puleng Motsoeneng said the community had a meeting at about 17:00 on Wednesday. When the meeting ended at 18:00 they started throwing stones at shops in the area, damaging seven properties. It is believed the community was angry with the municipality and the mayor over poor service delivery, said Motsoeneng. The crowd also threw stones through the windows of the mayor's house and at police vehicles. The protesters dispersed after the police fired rubber bullets at them, which injured one man. Eight people were arrested for malicious damage to property and will appear before the Bothaville Magistrate's Court on Thursday. http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_South%20Africa&set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=nw20080811114827816C388687 Protesters show solidarity with accused August 11 2008 at 11:58AM Demonstrators marched peacefully to the Volksrust magistrate's court on Monday in solidarity with Mandla Shabangu who was arrested following violent protests in Vukuzakhe township, Mpumalanga police said. Superintendent Abie Khoabane said the demonstration was peaceful and that no injuries or incidents of violence had been reported. On July 21 four houses in Vukuzakhe were burned down and one councillor's vehicle and a police vehicle were damaged during the protest by community members. Ninety six people were arrested after the protest but were released for lack of evidence against them. Police continued their investigations and arrested thirteen people, Shabangu among them. The Vukuzakhe protest was believed to have been sparked by a possible municipal rates increase in the town. On July 14 residents marched to the Vukuzakhe council's offices and handed over a memorandum raising their concerns. - Sapa http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2373676,00.html 5 000 protesters torch 10 buses 11/08/2008 11:11 - (SA) Johannesburg - About 5 000 protesters set 10 Putco buses alight early on Monday on the Moloto road in Cullinan, Gauteng police said. Sergeant Miranda Stoltz said the protesters burnt the buses in Cullinan following confusion about tickets. "Apparently they got the wrong information about the tickets. Putco buses sent out a message stating that no tickets were on sale, so they could use the buses for free, but someone sent out the wrong message." No one was injured and no arrests had been made. The Moloto road in Cullinan leading to Umhlanga was closed to traffic. Thousands of commuters were left stranded. http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Development&set_id=1&click_id=124&art_id=nw20080808152034611C417310 Merafong residents protest against services August 08 2008 at 03:25PM About 500 residents of Khutsong in Merafong near Carletonville marched to the municipal offices on Friday in a protest over service delivery, police said. Spokesperson Superintendent Lesego Metsi said the protesters also handed memoranda to banks in Carletonville. SA Communist Party treasurer in Khutsong Paul Ncwane said the protest was triggered by a municipal decision to deduct money from residents every time they bought electricity coupons. The deducted money was said to be used to pay for water. "They do this to all residents including pensioners. We want this council to dissolved," Ncwane said. He said residents wanted the municipality to separate water and electricity billing. Memoranda delivered to banks demanded an end to the blacklisting of debt defaulters, Ncwane said. - Sapa From ldxar1 at tesco.net Wed Aug 27 11:59:57 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:59:57 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Anti-neoliberal protests in Latin America, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <00ec01c90877$1d56ad80$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * MEXICO: Protests head off oil privatisation * CHILE: Protests over neoliberal education "reform" continue - lecturers strike, students clash with police, hundreds arrested * BRAZIL: Via Campesina lead wave of protests over food crisis, land; target multinationals, mines * BOLIVIA: Protests against US asylum for rights violator target US embassy * BOLIVIA: "Where Rioting is a Way of Life" * CHILE: Mine shut after "violent" workers' protests * CHILE: Argentine consulate occupied in protest for services * OAXACA: Protests target local government * HONDURAS: Protests over visit by US official * MEXICO: Protest against Canadian mine * GUATEMALA: Protests over cost of living * EL SALVADOR: Bus price rise leads to social unrest * NICARAGUA: Banning of left party, neoliberal policies lead to protests * ARGENTINA: Pension cuts spark unrest in Cordoba * PARAGUAY: Landless protesters occupy hacienda http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20080415-1007-mexico-energy-left.html Mexico protests snag government's oil reform plans By Catherine Bremer REUTERS 10:07 a.m. April 15, 2008 MEXICO CITY - Mexican leftists have stormed Congress and taken to the streets in a campaign that could force President Felipe Calder?n to dilute his plans to allow foreign companies a bigger role in the oil industry. Calder?n had hoped to rush through a law this month to boost private investment in the oil sector to help Mexico seek new crude reserves in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico. He has the backing of some opposition members in the divided Congress but a backlash of left-wing protests has now delayed a vote until after this month. Even Calder?n's conservative National Action Party, or PAN, admits the bill, which makes it easier for state oil firm Pemex to ally with private firms in the search for oil, will not be voted on before Congress breaks for the summer April 30. Leftist lawmakers from the Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, have seized the podiums of both houses of Congress and are even sleeping there to prevent a quick debate and vote on the bill. "It's clear we'll now have a summer of this," said analyst Dan Lund, head of research firm MUND Americas. Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in the capital's main square at the weekend in a demonstration against what they see as the "creeping privatization" of the oil sector. "Even the elite is divided, not just ordinary people. The administration will basically not get its proposal," said Lund, predicting Congress will pass a more watered-down version of the bill later this year. The energy proposal is Calder?n's most ambitious reform attempt since taking office in 2006 but he is taking a big risk by tampering with the cherished state-controlled oil industry, nationalized in 1938 when foreign firms were thrown out. CAN'T KILL THE BILL Mexico is the world's No. 5 oil producer and a top U.S. supplier but Pemex says that without foreign partners it cannot reach new reserves fast enough to shore up falling output. Calder?n needs the backing of the centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, to get the 50 percent majority to pass the bill. PRI leaders say they broadly back plans to give Pemex more autonomy and let it sweeten oil field service contracts with bonus fees. But analysts say some in the party are wary of being seen to support changes to oil laws so close to mid-term congressional elections in 2009, and the left-wing protests might lure some centrists to the "No" camp. "The PAN's main challenge is defectors from the PRI," said Francisco Gonzalez, a Latin American studies professor at Johns Hopkins University. "The left will not be able to derail it, but the public relations dimension is important," he said. The leftist PRD has been weakened by ideological divisions between moderates and radicals, yet a large group of its lawmakers managed to seize the podiums in the Senate and lower house Chamber of Deputies last week to protest the energy reform plan. PRD deputies dressed in oil worker suits covered the lower house podium with a banner reading "Closed" and began a round-the-clock vigil, snoozing on benches, playing chess and bedding down for the night in sleeping bags. The government proposals omit risk-sharing contracts that Pemex had wanted, yet opponents say its "incentive contracts" amount to the same thing and breach a ban in the constitution on private firms drilling for Mexican oil. "Anyone from a great law expert to a D-grade student would say this is a flagrant violation of the Constitution," an unshaven Sen. Ricardo Monreal said at the Senate sit-in. Calder?n's party and centrists held a short session at another hall in the Senate Tuesday to sidestep the protests. Leftist leader Andres Manuel L?pez Obrador, who riled Calder?n with months of street protests in 2006 after claiming his presidential election defeat was rigged, has drummed up big crowds to street rallies in recent days. The government might be helped by a rift in the PRD as moderate and militant camps bicker over an unresolved March 16 party leadership vote. "The internal struggle for control of the PRD and the failure of its election to redistribute power between moderates and radicals weakens the party's position," said Enrique Bravo at political risk consultancy Eurasia Group. (Additional reporting by Michael O'Boyle; Editing by Kieran Murray) http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=ROS20080523&articleId=9057 Mexico: Oil privatisation halted due to mass protests by John Ross Global Research, May 23, 2008 "The Adelitas have arrived/To defend our oil/Whoever wants to give it to the foreigners/ Will get the shit kicked out of him!" yodelled the brigades of women pouring onto the esplanade of the Mexican senate. The demonstration was to protest a petroleum privatisation measure President Felipe Calderon insists is not a petroleum privatisation measure - and which he sent onto the Senate for fast-track ratification at the tag end of the session this April. Inside the small, ornate Senate, leftist legislators aligned in the Broad Progressive Front (FAP), some dressed in white oil workers' overalls and hard hats, were camped out under pup tents arranged around the podium for the eighth straight night. They paralysed legislative activities and demanded an ample national debate on Calderon's plans to open up the nationalised petroleum corporation PEMEX to transnational investment. Sneak privatisation The hullabaloo, which has been brewing for months, exploded when rumours circulated that Calderon's right-wing PAN party and allies in the once-ruling (71 years) PRI had cooked up a secret vote approving the privatisation measure. Such covert manoeuvring is called an "albazo" or "madruguete' - a pre-dawn ruse to approve legislation in the dark when there is significant opposition, often behind locked doors and military and police barricades. Seizing the podiums in both houses of congress and the timely arrival of the Adelitas prevented a madruguete and derailed plans to fast-track the privatisation. Under Calderon's "energy reform" package, building and operating refineries and pipelines will be opened up to the private sector - 37 out of PEMEX's 41 divisions would be subject to partial privatisation. In an analysis anti-privatisers label "catastrophic", which Calderon sent on to congress to back up his initiative, the president pinned salvation of PEMEX on deep water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico that would necessitate the "association" of private capital. Mexico's petroleum industry was expropriated from an array of oil companies known collectively as the "Seven Sisters" in March 1938 by then-president Lazaro Cardenas - an act that remains a paragon of revolutionary nationalism throughout Latin America. But down the decades, PEMEX has subcontracted out important parts of its structure to transnational drillers and service corporations like Halliburton, now its number one subcontractor, that suck billions of dollars in profits from Mexican oil each year. The appearance of the Adelitas and their male counterparts ("Los Adelitos") is the latest gamble by the left populist leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) to monkey wrench the government's plans to return PEMEX to the contemporary version of the Seven Sisters. Organised by neighbourhoods and by workplaces, the Adelita brigades are the lineal descendants of the groups of AMLO supporters who came together after the stolen 2006 election in a seven-week sit-in that shut down the capital's main thoroughfares. At last count, there were 41 registered brigades - 28 Adelitas and 13 Adelitos, about 50,000 citizens in all. Operating in shifts, 13,000 "brigadistas" have been encamped off and on for a week in front of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. The brigades are named after significant political events - "18th of March", marking the day Cardenas expropriated the oil - or to honor social activists such as Jesus Piedra, the long-disappeared son of left senator Rosario Ibarra. Women warriors like Leona Vicaria and Benita Galeana are similarly remembered. Citizens' army The creation of so large a citizens' army pledged to carry out civil disobedience to prevent the passage of legislation it thinks detrimental to the republic is unprecedented in Mexico's political history. Similar brigades, led by women, have invaded local congresses outside of Mexico City and one band of activists closed Acapulco's busy airport last week. Shutting down Mexico City's Benito Juarez International Airport is the Adelitas' ultimate threat. The Adelitas, like most of the weapons in AMLO's arsenal, are drawn from Mexico's revolutionary history. Las Adelitas were "soldaderas", or women soldiers who fought shoulder to shoulder with the men in Pancho Villa's "Northern Division" during the 1910-1919 revolution. With their long skirts, broad sombreros, bandoleers strung across their chests, and toting .22 carbines, the Adelitas were emblematic of the many courageous women who participated in that epic struggle. AMLO's crusade has not been confined to one house of congress. On April 8, when Calderon sprung his initiative on the legislature, FAP members stormed the tribune in the Chamber of Deputies while lawmakers were preparing to grant Calderon permission to travel to New Orleans for the April 21-22 summit of the North American Security and Prosperity Agreement. Mexican presidents must solicit congress for permission to travel. Calderon was eager to attend the summit with the re-privatisation of Mexican oil in hand. Suddenly, the FAPos unfurled a 60-foot banner that announced Congress had been closed and cast it over the entire presidium - trapping president Ruth Zavaleta in its folds. The ensuing chaos prevented her from calling for a vote on the President's travel arrangements. Eight days later, the tribune was still draped in the banner and FAP deputies had chained shut the doors of the chamber and moved the desks of the PAN legislators to the podium to barricade themselves from attempts to take it back. Zavaleta, a member of AMLO's Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) but not friendly to him, has called for the use of "public force" to remove the rebel lawmakers. AMLO is the target of extravagant vitriol delivered by the media, reminiscent of the public lynching he was subjected to during the tumultuous 2006 presidential campaign. TV tyrant Televisa's coverage of the takeover of congress was so venomous that thousands of Adelitas, wearing bandaleros and wielding facsimile .22s, descended on the conglomerate's Mexico City headquarters, provoking one prominent PAN politico to label them "paramilitaries". In violation of constitutional amendments banning "black" political hit pieces, a PAN front group "Better Society, Better Government", is running primetime Televisa spots comparing AMLO to Hitler, Mussolini, and Pinochet. The Empresorial Coordinating Council, the nation's elite business federation, takes out full-page ads blasting AMLO for staging a coup d'etat. PRD divisions Despite the anti-AMLO media blitz, or perhaps because of it, Lopez Obrador remains the only figure on the Mexican political stage who is able to convoke tens of thousands of supporters, often with virtually no notice. Three times since March 18, when he kicked off this crusade, AMLO has filled the great Zocalo plaza, the heart of Mexico's body politic. What makes the turnouts even more impressive is the fact that AMLO has built this massive movement while the PRD has been reducing itself to rubble. In-fighting since a corrupted March 16 party presidential election has divided the PRD down the middle. The party is roughly split between an activist wing headed by Lopez Obrador and party bureaucrats who see the PRD as an instrument for political and personal advancement. The latter seek to demobilize the Adelitas. The "Chuchus" (many of their leaders are named Jesus) eschew AMLO's rallies and sit-ins and instead conduct their own private hunger strikes to protest privatisation. The Chuchus portray themselves as the "reasonable" left and are only too willing to "dialogue" with Calderon - a president Lopez Obrador resolutely refuses to recognise, due to the fraudulent nature of his "victory" in 2006. Whoever wins, the tussle over the bones of the PRD may be a moot one - after two years of grassroots campaigning, ALMO's base has grown wider than the PRD's. Although Calderon's scam to fast track privatisation through congress was blunted by the Adelitas and the FAPs, the PAN and the PRI still have plenty of room in which to connive. Now the PRI, seconded by Calderon's right-wing minions, proposes an uninterrupted 50 day "national" debate to be restricted to the two houses of congress with a congressional vote by mid-summer. Calderon's initiative can only pass if at least half of the PRI's 120-vote delegation goes along with the game. Even if the privatisation measure eventually passes, the legislation is bound to wind up in the Mexican Supreme Court the moment it clears congress. Meanwhile, AMLO's people are clamouring for a very different kind of debate, one that would unfold over the next four months and be conducted inside and outside congress in every state and municipality with the prospect of a national referendum to decide the issue - one poll has 62% opposed to the privatisation. Such grassroots decision-making would be a revolutionary step in the land of the albazo and the madruguete. Out on the esplanade of the Senate, the Adelitas were shaking their bodies to "La Cumbia del Petrolio". "Are you tired, companeras?" the companera with the bullhorn asked and brigadista Berta Robledo, a nurse about to retire from the National Pediatric Hospital, came to her feet with a loud "No!" "Sure the sun is hot but so what?", she responded to a gringo reporter's stupid question, "the sun can't stop us, the rain can't stop us, the cold can't stop us and you know why? Because we are right! We are fighting for our oil and for our country. This is the resistance. We don't get tired." [Abridged from http://counterpunch.org, April 28.] http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-07-08-Chile-protests_N.htm?csp=34 New clashes rage between police and protesters in Chile Posted 7/8/2008 2:00 PM By Roberto Candia, AP A masked demonstrator runs from a water cannon during a similar protest in Santiago on June 25, 2008. SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) - Chilean police are using tear gas and water cannon to scatter hundreds of school teachers and students protesting a government-sponsored education bill. The clashes Tuesday began when protesters tried to march along the main avenue of Santiago toward the government palace. Some protesters were detained and two reportedly suffered minor injuries. The protesters complain the education reforms don't give the center government enough control over education. The bill was approved by the lower house of Congress last month and now waits for Senate approval. http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-06/19/content_8398880.htm Chilean police detain 180 protesters SANTIAGO, June 18 (Xinhua) -- At least 180 Chilean high school and college students were detained in Santiago Wednesday during a large-scale protest against a proposed new education law. Over 5,000 students took to the streets in the capital at a time when Chilean law makers were discussing the education bill, which had drawn strong criticism from students and professors. They argued the bill inherits the existing education law established during the military dictatorship and fails to address inequality and profit-focused practices within the Chilean education system. The bill was expected to be passed in Chilean parliament earlier in the day, but it now faces an uncertain destiny as many legislators from the ruling coalition boycotted the bill, saying the government has made too many concessions to the opposition. Professors and students threatened their demonstration will continue if the authorities make no efforts to amend the bill and provide quality education to all citizens. http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-04/25/content_8046490.htm 260 arrested during student protests in Chile SANTIAGO, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Some 260 people were arrested Thursday during protests in Chile convoked by a student organization, police said. The Association of High School Students is boycotting the Organic Education Law (LGE), which will replace the one inherited from the country's military regime, and urged the government to increase the educational budget. The protests were especially large in the Chilean capital Santiago and the southern city of Valdivia. Some 2,000 people participated in the protest in Santiago. The protestors, aged between 14 and 17, received official authorization to march to the Bellas Artes Museum and through the Parque Forestal in the downtown area. However, police intervened to stop the manifestation and arrested some 50 people as the students tried to surpass the authorized limits. Meanwhile, thousands of students clashed with police and about 210 people were arrested in Valdivia, 840 km south of Santiago, and Concepcion, another city in the south of this South American nation. "The police repression surpassed all the limits since it was a peaceful manifestation that only demanded the compliance of the government's commitment not to commercialize education," said Ursula Shuller, vice president of Chile's Federation of University Students. In 2006, students staged protests against the LGE, which they said would change the country's public state education system. Nicolas Pineda, a spokesman of the Manuel de Salas School in Santiago, said the LGE "does not represent all students and it does not solve any of the demands we made in 2006." http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/536641/1857312 Protesters clash with Chile police Jun 19, 2008 10:59 AM Students and teachers clashed with police in Chile as they protested against an education bill they say doesn't go far enough to bring equal access to schooling for the poor even with a government flush with copper dollars. About a thousand students marched shoulder to shoulder in the nation's capital, confronting police with tear gas and water canon in the upscale Providencia neighborhood. In Valparaiso, the port town where the national Congress is debating the controversial legislation, 10,000 teachers marched in peaceful demonstrations. "The quality of public education is very poor in this country, and does not stand a chance against the interests of the rich," said Jaime Gajardo, president of Chile's National College of Teachers. Chile is the world's largest copper producer and revenues from the red metal have helped make the Chilean economy one of the region's healthiest. Demonstrators want President Michelle Bachelet to withdraw an education bill from Congress that replaces a law in place since the end of Chile's 1973-1990 dictatorship. Students and teachers don't like the existing law either, but they say the new bill does not go far enough to meet their needs, and are demanding the government draw more on funds from coffers bursting with revenues from a four-year copper bonanza. They also accuse the center-left government of allowing the wealthy right to control the debate over education funding. "When you negotiate with the (political) right, the right wins," Gajardo said. Public school students and teachers say privileged, private schools receive government funds that would be better served in improving the public school system. Police said at least 270 students were arrested by late afternoon in Santiago, and at least seven more were arrested in Valparaiso. http://www.mathaba.net/rss/?x=590094 260 arrested during student protests in Chile Posted: 2008/04/25 From: Mathaba Some 260 people were arrested Thursday during protests in Chile convoked by a student organization, police said. SANTIAGO, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The Association of High School Students is boycotting the Organic Education Law (LGE), which will replace the one inherited from the country's military regime, and urged the government to increase the educational budget. The protests were especially large in the Chilean capital Santiago and the southern city of Valdivia. Some 2,000 people participated in the protest in Santiago. The protestors, aged between 14 and 17, received official authorization to march to the Bellas Artes Museum and through the Parque Forestal in the downtown area. However, police intervened to stop the manifestation and arrested some 50 people as the students tried to surpass the authorized limits. Meanwhile, thousands of students clashed with police and about 210 people were arrested in Valdivia, 840 km south of Santiago, and Concepcion, another city in the south of this South American nation. "The police repression surpassed all the limits since it was a peaceful manifestation that only demanded the compliance of the government's commitment not to commercialize education," said Ursula Shuller, vice president of Chile's Federation of University Students. In 2006, students staged protests against the LGE, which they said would change the country's public state education system. Nicolas Pineda, a spokesman of the Manuel de Salas School in Santiago, said the LGE "does not represent all students and it does not solve any of the demands we made in 2006." http://www.santiagotimes.cl/santiagotimes/2008051513685/news/political-news/chile-students-protests.html CHILE STUDENT PROTESTS CONTINUE UNABATED Thursday, 15 May 2008 Santiago students also took part in transportation-related protests last month Leigh Shadko, Santiago Times Region V students on Wednesday continued to protest what they claim are unfair regulations regarding student bus fares, among other alleged problems. Meanwhile, the government proposed the formation of a dialog group to analyze the fare issue and called on the demonstrators to return to classes. In February, the companies that provide public bus transportation in Region V announced they would raise student fares in order to compensate for financial difficulties partially caused by high oil prices. Region V student leaders then called on the government to address the problem. Specifically, they demanded that authorities overturn a Transportation and Telecommunications Ministry decree that allows bus companies outside of Santiago to charge students up to 50 percent of the adult fare, a greater percentage than what bus companies in the capital can charge. The students also asked to be able to pay discounted fares year round, not just during the traditional school year months. The students began demonstrating in April, claiming officials had not satisfactorily responsed to their petition. A Saturday protest convoked an estimated 2,500 students near Chile?s National Congress in Valpara?so. Police suppressed the demonstration after protestors set garbage bins on fire (ST, May 12). Additionally, students at some Region V universities protested by taking over university buildings. In response to a request by the Regional Government, the bus companies this week agreed to freeze student fares, which had been slated to increase on Thursday. The companies said student tariffs will not increase until Congress votes on a bill that would provide government subsidies to bus companies to keep fares down. Education Minister M?nica Jim?nez then called on students to end the protests, saying they had "no reason" to continue striking. On Tuesday, education and transportation officials met with Region V student leaders and proposed creation of a dialogue group to examine and resolve the bus fare problem. Some Region V student leaders called the proposal a step in the right direction. But Radical Party (PRSD) Senator Nelson ?vila, who represents Region V, said the proposal failed to directly address the bus fare regulations at the root of the students? complaints. The president of the Universidad de Playa Ancha Student Federation, Sebasti?n Delpiano, agreed. He told The Santiago Times that changing the controversial regulations is the only acceptable solution to the fare conflict. He said the fare-freezing agreement between the Regional Government and the bus companies leaves students dependent on a bill he doubts Congress will pass. The vice president of the Pontificia Universidad Cat?lica de Valpara?so (PUCV) Student Federation, David Mora, agreed that authorities must change the fare regulations. "There aren't first and second-class students, depending on which city they live in," he told The Santiago Times. Delpiano said the government?s proposal will not necessarily put an end to the region?s student protests. Both he and Mora said Region V students are also protesting the proposed General Education Law (LGE), which some have charged does not combat inequality and profit-focused practices rooted in Chile's education system (ST, March 12). Delpiano, who claimed that the public Universidad de Playa Ancha is in "financial crisis," said students will continue their occupation of university buildings until the LGE is removed from consideration in Congress. He said the students hope Chilean President Michelle Bachelet will address the issue in her annual May 21 speech to the nation. Mora said PUCV students, who have also taken over university facilities, planned to hold a meeting on Wednesday night to determine a course of action. The Region V protests are unfolding in the context of widespread demonstrations by Chilean university and high school students. Students demanding changes to bus fares, school hours and education finance have taken to the streets in Valpara?so, Santiago, Temuco, Concepci?n and Valdivia over the past few weeks. The demonstrations have resulted in 200 arrests and scattered reports of property damage (ST, May 12, 2008). Chilean student federations have called for a nationwide student strike for today, Thursday. SOURCE: EL MERCURIO DE VALPARA?SO By Leigh Shadko ( editor at santiagotimes.clThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) Last Updated ( Thursday, 15 May 2008 ) http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-06/05/content_8315434.htm 50 detained in Chile in protests against proposed education law Students participate in a protest against an education law under review in the parliament in Santiago, capital of Chile, June 4, 2008. (Xinhua Photo) SANTIAGO, June 4 (Xinhua) -- At least 50 people were detained here Wednesday as a protest launched by students and teachers against an education law under review in parliament turned violent. The protest was organized to support a Wednesday strike by the country's largest teachers' union, the College of Professors, demanding the rejection to the proposed law. The demonstration in downtown Santiago led to clashes between protesters and riot police. Meanwhile, hundreds of students were detained in continued protests throughout the country against the education law, which they said did not bring substantial reform to the education system inherited from the country's military regime. The protesters seized a dozen schools and at least four universities, urging an immediate rejection to the education bill, which is a result of a consensus between the rightist opposition and the ruling leftists. The government is abusing the education system to profit from the misallocation of educational resources, the protesters said. http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-06/12/content_8353831.htm Chilean professors to launch strike to protest new education law SANTIAGO, June 11 (Xinhua) -- The Professors' College of Chile decided on Wednesday to call a nationwide strike for next Monday to protest the controversial General Law of Education (LGE). Jaime Gajardo, head of the school teaching, said the professors were calling the strike seeking to revoke the LGE and create a new project. The professors also agreed to launch a series of activities, including delivering letters to the authorities of each region, province and municipality. The LGE is an education reform package designed to replace the existing Organic Constitutional Education Law. Opponents argue that the reform fails to properly address inequality and profit-focused practices within the Chilean educational system. Also on Wednesday, groups of young people gathered at the seat of the National Coordinator of Popular Students in protest at the LGE. They were stopped by police while trying to march through Alameda avenue. Meanwhile, the Coordinator Assembly of High school and Collage Students also planned to launch a strike to press their demand for a repeal of the LGE. http://www.santiagotimes.cl/santiagotimes/news/education/nationwide-teachers-strike-keeps-chile-students-protesting.html NATIONWIDE TEACHERS STRIKE KEEPS CHILE STUDENTS PROTESTING Thursday, 05 June 2008 Marchers Say Education Officials Are Changing LGE "Behind Teachers and Students' Backs" A sea of umbrellas flooded Santiago's central Plaza de Armas around midday on Wednesday as teachers, high schoolers, university students, and parents took over the rainy Santiago streets in a national protests called by the Teacher's Association. The protest was against the General Education Law (LGE), an education reform package being put forward to replace the existing Organic Constitutional Education Law (LOCE). Students and teachers alike participated in nationwide protests against the proposed education reform act Christian Pe?a, Santiago Times. "More than 90 percent of teachers in the country did not hold classes today to support this national movement," said Jaime Gajardo, the president of the Teacher's Association. "With all the obstacles people faced today, including the rain, transportation, and police interference, I would say that more than 5,000 people arrived, making this strike an astounding accomplishment." In the Plaza de Armas, Gajardo, along with other influential leaders of the education reform movement, spoke to a crowd of enthusiastic supporters. "From Arica in the north to the Straight of Magellan in the south, teachers are on strike," Gajardo said. Commenting on the objective of Wednesday's gathering, Gajardo said, "The LGE reform does not represent what the majority of the country wants and we need to stop it from passing through Congress now." As leaders spoke, protestors continued to file into the Plaza de Armas, some with picket signs and others with puppets of penguins (representing high school students for their black and white uniforms). A group of students from Vapara?so, Chile?s largest port city in Region V, created a huge puppet of President Bachelet, dressed in the typical suite she uses for the state of the union address. Bachelet just recently gave her State of the Nation speech on May 21 and made little mention of the student demands. Wednesday's march to the Plaza de Armas marked the third week of organized protest against the LGE. After two previous protests, more than 30 Metropolitan Region high schools have either ceased classes or have been taken over by students, while their university counterparts have also taken over faculties in various universities, including the emblematic Universidad de Chile, Universidad Tecnol?gica Metropolitana (UTEM), and the Universidad de Santiago. On Tuesday, Education Minister M?nica Jim?nez announced she would like to make some changes to the LGE. Most important, said Jim?nez, is the need to cut the deadline for education facility administrators to declare themselves non-profit from four years to one. She also expressed a desire to not rush the LGE through Congress. "I am glad she has made the decision she has, so we can have more time for discussion," said Gajardo. Still he remained unconvinced that she really sides with the teachers and students. "She has been trying to make modifications behind the backs of teachers and students," alleged Gajardo. Along with the Teacher's Association, other related groups involved in the education reform movement - including the Student Federation of the Universidad de Chile (FECH) and the Metropolitan Association of Parents and Guardians (AMPA) - made a significant impact with their presence on Wednesday. "We cannot continue to accept small advances on this law," said FECH president Jaime Zamorano. "Rather, there needs to be a structural reform in Chile's education system." As a solution, Zamorano presented the idea of creating a project where all social actors participate. "There has been talk of a Popular Law, or a Participative Law, but still nothing concrete," Zamorano said. Zamorano also defended the student educational movement, insisting it is not anarquistic. "Those of us fighting for education reform do not want to alienate the government, rather, we want to work together," said Zamorano. "There are people from the right that we cannot dismiss because they vote in parliament, too." The march to the Plaza de Armas was authorized by the Metropolitan Regional authorities. But at the end of the Teacher's Association's act in the plaza, protestors decided to march towards the Education Ministry, an exit plan that had not been accepted by regional authorities. As a result, conflicts erupted. High school students who managed to reach the Alameda began blocking traffic and were later dispersed by police armed with water canons and tear gas. Student spokespeople said their protest was growing and predicted this year's movement will be as large and possibly larger than the massive student protests of 2006. By Thom?s Rothe ( editor at santiagotimes.clThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_12834.cfm The Food & Farming Crisis: Wave of Grassroots Protests Across Brazil ? Activists launch wave of protests against giant agribusiness across Brazil Protestors blame big multinationals for food price hikes By Michael Astor The Associated Press, via MSNBC, June 10, 2008 Straight to the Source Thousands of landless rural workers invaded dams, railways, plantations and corporate headquarters in a wave of protests across eight Brazilian states on Tuesday. Rogerio Homm, a coordinator with the Via Campesina activist group, said the protests are aimed at large corporations that benefit from Brazilian policies favoring agribusiness over small farmers. "This is a big demonstration on a national level against big multinationals, which are to blame for high food prices," Homm said. "There are only a few companies that control the production of seeds and fertilizers." Homm said the protests are also aimed at electric companies the group accuses of causing environmental problems and displacing people with the huge reservoirs created by hydroelectric dams. Protesters invaded a soy-crushing plant belonging the multinational agribusiness giant Bunge Ltd. in Southern Rio Grande do Sul state and the company said it shut down operations to avoid security problems. The Agencia Estado news service said police fired rubber bullets at the protesters, injuring five, as they entered the Bunge plant. The group said about 600 rural workers briefly occupied the headquarters of Votorantim, an industrial conglomerate in Sao Paulo.. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N11363933.htm Brazil peasant protests target multinational firms 11 Jun 2008 19:25:04 GMT Source: Reuters RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Hundreds of landless peasants occupied properties of industrial conglomerate Votorantim and a supermarket belonging to the Wal-Mart group Wednesday in a second day of protests in Brazil against multinational firms. The Via Campesina movement said about 500 protesters occupied two sites belonging to Votorantim, one of them a farm in Rio Grande do Sul state to demonstrate against the advance of monoculture crops that were harming the environment and small farmers. It said its members had also occupied a Nacional supermarket, part of the Wal-Mart group, in the Rio Grande do Sul city of Porto Alegre to protest against what it called the control of agriculture by multinational companies. At least 10 protesters were wounded when they clashed with police during a march by more than 1,000 people to protest against the state government, Via Campesina said in a statement. Several thousand peasants of Via Campesina, which includes the Landless Workers Movement (MST), invaded properties across Brazil Tuesday, protesting against foreign corporate influence, the country's fast-growing biofuels industry and rising food prices. The actions in 13 states Tuesday targeted mining giant Vale , Brazil construction and petrochemical group Odebrecht, U.S. fertilizer and oilseed processor Bunge Ltd>, and French power firm Suez. The MST and similar groups frequently occupy farms, block highways, torch crops and stage rallies to pressure the government to give more land to the poor. Landowners often hire armed guards and hit squads to repel invasions. Landless militants have blocked a railroad operated by Vale several times in recent months and interrupted the flow of iron ore to foreign markets. Industry and farm lobbies have urged the government to get tougher on the landless movements, saying they undermine investment conditions in Brazil. (Reporting by Stuart Grudgings; Editing by Cynthia Osterman) http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-06/13/content_8360049.htm Landless worker protestors block railway in Brazil RIO DE JANEIRO, June 12 (Xinhua) -- About 300 members of the so-called Via Campesina, a branch of the Landless Workers Movement (MST), blocked a railway line Thursday in Brazil, local media reports said. The railway, connecting Minas Gerais State to the ports of the coast of Espirito Santo, southeastern Brazil, is operated by mining giant Vale to transport ores produced by Vale and other companies. The protestors camped on the rails in the countryside of Governador Valadares, east of Minas Gerais. According to Vale, the protestors have prevented 30 trains from passing by. Via Campesina has been fighting for the re-nationalization of Vale and a share of local government's revenue from mining. Moreover, it has requested indemnities for the losses caused by the construction of hydroelectric power plants and floods caused by the dams that forced many families to flee. Via Campesina launched a series of protests in 13 Brazilian states Tuesday. Vale, the world's top iron-ore exporter, released a statement Thursday to criticize the protests, which it considered as harmful to the security of the communities and railway operations. http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN1248140120080612?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews Protesters end blockade of Brazil mining railroad Thu Jun 12, 2008 7:14pm EDT SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Hundreds of Brazilian protesters ended a blockade of a railway line that transports iron ore for mining company Vale, the company said late on Thursday. It was the latest in a series of protests this week, some of them violent, by landless peasant groups targeting large companies and multinationals in Brazil. Protesters left peacefully after the Minas Gerais state's justice department ordered them to leave the tracks earlier on Thursday or risk being removed by police or fined 30,000 reais ($18,000) for every day they remained, Vale said in a note. "It started around 6 a.m. this morning," a Vale spokeswoman said, adding more than 30 trains were delayed in the 10 hours that protesters had stopped traffic on the railway. Trains on the line each carry around 14,000 tonnes of ore from the company's network of mines in the state to ports but Vale could not immediately confirm how many were transporting the commodity. It said around 70 trains a day carry iron ore and other cargo down the line. One passenger train was stopped by the protest as well as trains carrying goods for other firms, Vale said. The Via Campesina peasant movement said about 1,500 people were occupying the railway to pressure Vale to negotiate with 500 families who will be dislodged by the construction of a hydro-electric dam in which the company is involved. Protesters occupied properties of industrial conglomerate Votorantim and a supermarket belonging to the Wal-Mart group on Wednesday. The peasant groups are demonstrating against the advance of one-crop farms they say harm the environment and small farmers. They are also protesting high food prices, the growing use of biofuels and the influence of multinational companies in Brazil. Via Campesina said in a statement it was holding another protest in front of Goias state's electricity company over price increases. (Reporting by Peter Murphy and Reese Ewing; Editing by Kieran Murray) http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/12/business/LA-FIN-Brazil-Protests.php Brazil activists block railway belonging to mining giant Vale The Associated Press Published: June 12, 2008 SAO PAULO, Brazil: About 300 protesters blocked a key iron ore-export railway belonging to mining giant Vale on Thursday in the third day of nationwide protests against multinational corporations. Farm workers blocked the railway line - which carries 70 cargo trains and about 1,000 passengers daily - for about 10 hours before abandoning the site, Companhia Vale do Rio Doce SA said in a statement. The demonstration halted the transport of about 463,000 U.S. tons (420,000 metric tons) of iron ore and iron pellets, the company said. Close to 1 million U.S. (metric) tons of iron ore and iron pellets are transported every day along the 560-mile (905-kilometer) line that links the company's mines in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais to the port of Tubarao on the Atlantic coast. Demonstrators from the Via Campesina activist group and the Landless Rural Workers Movement are protesting government policies they say favor large corporations at the expense of small farmers. About 700 activists also protested Thursday in front of a fertilizer plant owned by agribusiness company Bunge Ltd in the southern state of Parana, the government's Agencia Brasil news service reported, and about 1,000 protesters blocked four highways in the states of Pernambuco and Goias. There were no reports of violence. On Tuesday, thousands of rural workers organized by the two movements invaded dams, railways, plantations and corporate headquarters in 13 Brazilian states. The following day, police in the southern city of Porto Alegre fired rubber bullets and tear gas at about 500 protesters who tried to invade a supermarket to protest high food prices. Police said five demonstrators and six officers were injured, none seriously. About a dozen protesters were arrested. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/10/america/LA-GEN-Brazil-Land-Protests.php Activists launch protests against corporations in 8 Brazil states The Associated Press Published: June 10, 2008 SAO PAULO, Brazil: Thousands of landless rural workers invaded dams, railways, plantations and corporate headquarters in a wave of protests across eight Brazilian states on Tuesday. Rogerio Homm, a coordinator with the Via Campesina activist group, said the protests are aimed at large corporations that benefit from Brazilian policies favoring agribusiness over small farmers. "This is a big demonstration on a national level against big multinationals, which are to blame for high food prices," Homm said. "There are only a few companies that control the production of seeds and fertilizers." Homm said the protests are also aimed at electric companies the group accuses of causing environmental problems and displacing people with the huge reservoirs created by hydroelectric dams. Protesters invaded a soy-crushing plant belonging the multinational agribusiness giant Bunge Ltd. in Southern Rio Grande do Sul state and the company said it shut down operations to avoid security problems. Today in Americas U.S. cities plan to bring back streetcars Republican Party vulnerable in Northeast Arkansas suspect quit job on day of killing The Agencia Estado news service said police fired rubber bullets at the protesters, injuring five, as they entered the Bunge plant. The group said about 600 rural workers briefly occupied the headquarters of Votorantim, an industrial conglomerate in Sao Paulo. In Minas Gerais state, hundreds of workers blocked a railway owned by mining giant Companhia Vale do Rio Doce. Police could not immediately confirm the invasions and calls to Votorantim and Vale were not immediately returned. TV footage showed hundreds of farmworkers protesting at the Sobradinho hydroelectric dam in northeastern Bahia state. Mozart Bandeira director of Chesf, the company that owns the dam, said about 500 people were peacefully protesting in the dam's parking lot. "They are not interfering with operations and we are taking all measures possible to remove them," Bandeira said. The vast majority of Brazil's food supply is produced by large corporations, but on Tuesday, the federal government announced a program to provide small farmers with low-interest loans of 100,000 Brazilian reals (US$61,000) or more to boost production on the country's roughly 1 million family farms. According to the Agrarian Development Ministry, the program seeks to alleviate high prices caused by food shortages worldwide. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/14/business/LA-FIN-Brazil-Vale.php Brazil protesters occupy, disable railway owned by mining giant Vale The Associated Press Published: May 14, 2008 SAO PAULO, Brazil: Some 400 demonstrators pushing for land reform blocked and disabled a key iron ore export railway in Brazil for several hours before moving out as police arrived on Wednesday. The demonstrators occupied the railway late Tuesday and left peacefully the following day after federal police arrived, according to spokeswoman Cica Guedes of Companhia Vale do Rio Doce SA, which owns the line. Guedes said the protest was organized by the Landless Workers Movement, which has spearheaded several other actions against Vale to pressure the government to speed up its land reform program. Calls to the movement for comment went unanswered. According to a statement issued by Vale, the protesters pulled out 1,200 track clamps, slashed fiber optic communication cables and placed burning tires on the tracks, damaging more than 300 ties. Guedes said the railway was still inoperative. The line typically carries some 275,000 U.S. tons (250,000 metric tons) of iron ore daily from Vale's Carajas complex to Atlantic ports. Landless workers blocked the same railway for two days in November. In March, they invaded a Vale-owned pig iron plant in northeastern Brazil and damaged buildings and machinery at a charcoal ranch - leading to a court order banning the movement from using violence in protests against Vale. http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/world/brazil+protesters+disable+railway/2197052?intcmp=rss_news_itnnews Brazil protesters disable railway Print this page Last Modified: 15 May 2008 Source: PA News Some 400 demonstrators pushing for land reform blocked and disabled a key iron ore export railway in Brazil for several hours before moving out as police arrived. The demonstrators occupied the railway late on Tuesday and left peacefully on Wednesday after federal police arrived, according to spokeswoman Cica Guedes of Companhia Vale do Rio Doce SA, which owns the line. Guedes said the protest was organised by the Landless Workers Movement, which has spearheaded several other actions against Vale to pressure the government to speed up its land reform program. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2008/06/11/2003414447 Bolivians march on US embassy in protest AP, LA PAZ Wednesday, Jun 11, 2008, Page 7 Indigenous Aymara farmers shout slogans outside the US embassy in La Paz on Monday during a protest against Washington's decision to give political asylum to former Bolivian defense minister Carlos Sanchez Berzain. Thousands of people marched on the US embassy on Monday to demand that Washington extradite a former Bolivian defense minister who directed a military crackdown on riots that killed at least 60 people in 2003. Former defense minister Carlos Sanchez Berzain, now a resident of Key Biscayne, Florida, told La Paz-based Radio Fides last week that the US had granted him political asylum more than a year ago. The revelation sparked outrage in El Alto, a sprawling satellite city outside La Paz where dozens of anti-government rioters were gunned down by soldiers in 2003. On Monday, residents streamed down the hills into La Paz to demand justice for the killings. Authorities did not release an estimate of the crowd's size, but reporters at the scene put the throng at 15,000 to 20,000. "We've come to the doors of the embassy to say 'Enough with the impunity,'" said Edgar Patana, head of an El Alto labor union leading the protest. "The United States has to prove that they have the justice they're always showing off in their media and movies. Bolivia wants that justice." Protesters shot fireworks at a US flag flying just beyond the compound's concrete wall, as helmeted Marines looked on from the embassy's roof. When crowds tried to push through a police line, officers cleared the street with tear gas. Bolivia's government called the use of tear gas excessive. "Security is one thing, repression is another," Government Minister Alfredo Rada told reporters. La Paz state's police commander was fired on Monday night along with top policemen in Bolivia's eight other states. But government officials said the change had been planned since a new national police chief was named last month. The 2003 "Black October" protests were initially sparked by a government plan to sell Bolivian natural gas to the US by building a pipeline through Chile. The idea angered El Alto's poor, who often struggle to obtain their own gas for cooking and heating. The protests quickly snowballed as the city's largely Aymara Indian population vented centuries of anger over bitter poverty and political marginalization. The uprising eventually drove then-president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada from office, fortifying a growing indigenous political movement that brought Bolivian President Evo Morales to power two years later. Sanchez Berzain's lawyer, Howard Gutman, declined on Monday to confirm whether his client has been granted political asylum. But he and other lawyers acknowledge and cite Sanchez Berzain's asylum status in a motion filed last month in a Miami federal court to dismiss a US civil case against him. Plaintiffs, including families of the 2003 victims, accuse Berzain and Sanchez of authorizing the use of deadly force against protesters and say they are liable for the deaths. The pair's lawyers say protesters instigated the violence and that their blockade of La Paz, which cut the capital off from food and fuel, justified a military response. http://www.buzzle.com/articles/193669.html Bolivia: Where Rioting is a Way of Life A tropical morning sun beat down on the plaza and the crowd was impatient to become a mob. Some had sticks, others rocks. "To the school!" shouted someone, and a few young men started jogging down a muddy road. The rest surged after them, about three hundred men, women and children. Some improvised weapons along the way, tree branches, bottles, car aerials, so by the time they reached Claudia Theveneth school, which on Sunday doubled up as a voting center, they were a ragged army. This was Plan Tres Mil, a slum of mostly indigenous people in Santa Cruz, and their mission was to block a referendum on regional autonomy which threatened their champion, President Evo Morales. The voting center guard bolted the metal blue gates just as the attackers arrived. The men smashed the gates with boulders, the women lobbed rocks over the walls and the children used catapults to ping stones. In Bolivia rioting is not just a family affair, it's a way of life. South America's poorest and by some measures most volatile country has gone through 84 presidents and dictators in the past 182 years. In the past decade especially street protests have toppled presidents with alacrity. The twist now is that Morales himself is a veteran protester and when threatened by the opposition his indigenous supporters take to the streets, blocking highways, burning tires or, in this case, storming a voting center.A pro-referendum man outside the center plucked a pistol from his grubby jeans and fired five wild shots at the mob. All missed. The gates yielded and the crowd poured in as if it was the Bastille, shouting, cheering and breaking whatever seemed breakable. Under a hail of rocks and debris the center's officials fled through a back entrance while a handful of would-be voters cowered in voting booths. A middle-aged woman hugged her weeping teenage daughter and denounced "drunken Indians". She picked up a ceramic pot and hurled it a man smashing a window. "No mama," wailed the girl. By mid afternoon there was one reported death and 25 injuries, a mere blip compared to the huge disturbances which regularly shake El Alto, the indigenous stronghold beside the capital La Paz. By the time police deployed tyres were burning and street hawkers were doing brisk trade with 20p plastic bottles of vinegar. The smoke would disperse the teargas and the vinegar, when dabbed on a cloth and inhaled, would dull the gas's sting. "Here it's a bit like Braveheart," said Noe Osinaga, a young man selecting a rock. "Except we have vinegar." By Guardian Unlimited ? Copyright Guardian Newspapers 2008 Published: 5/5/2008 http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/1457637/ DJ Chile Codelco Closes El Teniente Mine Amid Violent Protests Tuesday, April 29, 2008; Posted: 08:43 AM 7 Stocks You Need To Know For Tomorrow -- Free Newsletter SANTIAGO, Apr 29, 2008 (Dow Jones Commodities News via Comtex) -- -- Chilean state copper miner Corporacion Nacional del Cobre, or Codelco, again shut down its El Teniente division after a worker was hurt amid violent contract workers' protests, a company spokewoman said Tuesday. The division, which includes the underground mine of the same name, was closed at the start of the night shift Monday night and remained closed for the morning shift Tuesday, she said. The company will evaluate the situation this afternoon to decide if the mining compound resumes operations at the start of the afternoon shift, she added. El Teniente accounts for about 25% of the company's annual output of around 1.8 million metric tons of copper. As the contract workers strike enters its 14th day, the smaller Andina and Salvador divisions are still closed. On Monday, Codelco said it was mulling reopening Andina sometime this week. These two divisions jointly account for about 18% of annual output. Codelco's chief executive Jose Pablo Arellano is scheduled to release the company's first quarter earnings and production at a press conference later Tuesday. He'll also likely discuss the contract workers strike. Several thousand contract workers, led by Cristian Cuevas of the Confederation of Copper Workers, went on strike April 16 to protest what they call Codelco's failure to meet the terms agreed upon after a month-long strike last year. Workers are now seeking improved benefits and production bonuses. The state mining company maintains it has fulfilled its terms of the agreement and that it won't negotiate any new benefits with contract workers now. Codelco employs about 14,000 direct workers and another 32,000 contract workers. -By Carolina Pica, Dow Jones Newswires; 56-2-460-8544; carolina.pica at dowjones.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/209867,chilean-protestors-occupy-argentine-consulate-15-arrests.html Chilean protestors occupy Argentine consulate, 15 arrests Posted : Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:57:01 GMT Author : DPA Category : World Santiago - Chilean police arrested 15 people who on Tuesday peacefully occupied the Argentine consulate in Santiago, in an attempt to gain publicity for their demands for more access to education and housing. The protestors, members of Movement for Combat in the Santiago neighbourhood of Penalolen, were arrested by elite police forces as they left the diplomatic mission in central Santiago of their own accord. They had sought to meet with the consul. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2008/06/2008619122747511453.html Mexicans protest in Oaxaca Oaxacan Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz is accused by the protesters of eliminating opponents [EPA] Tens of thousands of protesters have converged on the southern city of Oaxaca in Mexico to protest against the regional government. The protests on Saturday also mark the second anniversary of a violent crackdown on a teachers' protest, that left more than two dozens dead The protesters allege the regional government is authoritarian and say that Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, the state governor, is guilty of oppressive rule. Florentino Lopex Martinez, a protester, said: "This is a policy of oppression, the most fascist type of oppression in the whole of Oaxaca's history. The methods of repression have worsened considerably." In 2006, protesting teachers had siezed the main plaza demanding better working conditions. They complained that Ortiz was corrupt and came to office through a stolen election. The protest developed into a broad demonstration against social and economic conditions in the poor Mexican state. Violent crackdown State and federal police violently cracked down on the protest leaving at least 27 people dead. Witnesses claim gunmen supporting the governor fired into a crowd. There have been no convictions for the killings as yet. His opponents say Ortiz uses violence to suppress his political opponents. Amnesty International has said that his administration has been behind the murders of dozens of opposition members. National and international human rights organisations say most of the violence now takes place in remote villages of Oaxaca. Talking to Al Jazeera, Ortiz said: "There is no documentation to implicate any government official. Amnesty International's report is totally partial." Ortiz's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) has ruled Oaxaca for nearly 80 consecutive years. http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID={82BA4C7C-441F-4FC4-A94D-FD6E885F18F5}&language=EN CentAms to Protest Negroponte"s Visit Tegucigalpa, June 3 (Prensa Latina) Hondurans plan to reject the announced Central American tour of US Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte. The protest, organized by the Civic Council of Popular, Indigenous Organizations, will be the first of several demonstrations to reject the US official"s arrival to the region. In a communiqu?, the group repudiates Negroponte"s presence and recalled his role in 1982-1986, when he served as US Ambassador and imposed the National Security Doctrine. For its part, COMUN (the Comunicacion Comunitaria institution) recalled that this policy encouraged from Washington led to State terrorism and the emergence of the 316th Battalion, which tortured and killed hundreds of social fighters. Other organizations joining the protest include Convergencia de Movimientos de los Pueblos de las Americas and the Committee of Families of Detained Disappeared, which announced a vigil tonight outside the US Embassy. Axctions will continue tomorrow with a protest outside the Presidential House, where the US official and President Manuel Zelaya are scheduled to meet. Negroponte will arrive in Honduras from Medellin, Colombia, where he is scheduled to attend the regular session of the General Assembly of OAS and share views with authorities and private sector representatives. His Central American tour also includes El Salvador and Guatemala. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43004 ENVIRONMENT: Mexicans Protest Canadian Mining Company By Stephen Leahy* The old city centre of Cerro de San Pedro. Credit:?ngel Ca?do TORONTO, Jun 28 (Tierram?rica) - Residents and activists from the central Mexican state of San Luis Potos? travelled to Toronto to tell the shareholders of a Canadian mining company that their investments are at risk because the billion-dollar Cerro San Pedro gold and silver mine is illegal and environmentally unsafe. The trip ended Jun. 17 with delegation member Armando Barreiro, a national lawmaker, being roughed up by Toronto police after he had made his presentation before the annual shareholders meeting of Metallica Resources Inc., owner of the open pit mine. Barreiro, of the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), had stated that the Mexican Congress was about to pass a bill aimed at closing down the mining project and that a Mexican member of the board of Metallica Resources was under criminal investigation. "This was an aggression and a lack of respect to someone who immediately identified himself as a representative of the Mexican people," Barreiro told Tierram?rica. "This aggression is in deep contrast with the peaceful and respectful attitude with which we conducted ourselves." The police also restrained and removed Juan Carlos Ruiz, a history professor at the Colegio de San Luis, who was part of the delegation organised by Frente Amplio Opositor, an anti-mining group. "We want the Canadian people to be aware their investments have serious environmental and social damages in other countries," Ruiz had told Tierram?rica earlier through a translator. "The mining is right next to monuments of national importance." "A historic church has several large cracks because of the dynamite explosions from the pit," he said. The village of Cerro San Pedro, some 400 kilometres north of Mexico City, is right in the middle of the 18-month-old San Xavier mining operation, a subsidiary of Metallica. Some 150 people live in the 400-year-old village, and roughly 20,000 in the surrounding towns, in a region where mining for gold and silver has long been a fixture. The local people are not opposed to underground or shaft mining, as has been done for hundreds of years. What they overwhelmingly oppose is a huge open pit mine with millions of tonnes of ore being treated in the open with large amounts of cyanide. Of the 20,000 local people surveyed by the Frente Amplio Opositor in 2006, 19,500 said "no" to the project, said Ruiz. On its web site, the company displays another poll, conducted by Epiica and published in March 2007, in which 55 percent of those interviewed who said they knew about the project said they agreed with it, 31.3 percent said they disagreed, and 13.7 percent were undecided. One of the biggest concerns is water. The region is semi-arid and water is in short supply, but a series of underground aquifers provide water for local residents and the state capital San Luis Potos?, a city of one million located less than 20 km from the mine site. Not only does the mine require an estimated 32 million litres of water per day, there are serious concerns that the cyanide will contaminate the aquifers, says hydrologist Mario Mart?nez, resident of Cerro de San Pedro. "There are cyanide heap leach pads (large pools) right on top of an aquifer," Mart?nez told Tierram?rica through a translator. Once the ore is removed from the Cerro de San Pedro pit, it is trucked two km to specially prepared outdoor pads, where a solution of water and cyanide is sprayed on the ore to dissolve the gold and silver out of the rock. The water is treated to remove the precious metals and recover some of the cyanide. The "spent ore" is removed and piled into hills that Mart?nez says are already more than 20 metres high thanks to a daily deposit of 32,000 tonnes. "Sixteen tonnes of sodium cyanide are being used daily, and there is a great risk it could seep into the aquifer," he said. The mining company assures that the cyanide is managed in a closed circuit and that the surface of the leaching pools are covered by special plastic membranes, injected with air and monitored by leak detectors. The local residents also worry that the cyanide-saturated mountains of spent ore could pollute surface water after rains. Cyanide is very toxic to fish and other water species. Not surprisingly, the mine has been the centre of controversy for many years. Ten court injunctions have been obtained to stop the project over the past six years, according to Ruiz. "Federal and state officials are not applying the law," he said. Although a local court cancelled the mine's operating permits, the federal government re-authorised the project, observing several aspects of the environmental impact study. Subsequent rulings were downplayed by federal officials, who argued that municipal agencies did not have the authority to approve or reject this type of project. But the Frente Amplio Opositor maintains that, according to environmental law, the company cannot operate without municipal authorisation. "We want government officials to respect the rule of law. This mine should not be in operation," said Ruiz. Metallica is a small gold and silver mining company, headquartered in Toronto. Involved in exploration in Chile and Alaska, Cerro San Pedro is its only mine in production. A wholly-owned Mexican subsidiary, Minera San Xavier, operates the mine and Metallica projects that it will extract an estimated 1.5 million ounces of gold and 62.1 million ounces of silver over the next eight to 10 years. Tierram?rica contacted Metallica for an interview but received a negative response by email: "Today was an Annual General Meeting where we approved a merger with Peak Gold and New Gold. We are currently in a PR (public relations) blackout. Feel free to contact me after June 30," signed by Rhonda Bennetto, director of investor relations and corporate communications. "Cyanide heap leach mines have a chequered environmental record around the world," says Payal Sampat of the U.S.-based environmental group Earthworks, which in 2004, in cooperation with Oxfam, launched the "No Dirty Gold" campaign in an effort to get the industry to improve its mining practices. Thirty leading jewellery companies agreed to buy only gold from companies that follow the "golden rules" of responsible human rights and environmental standards. The rules do not exclude heap leach operations, which comprise the majority of large gold mine operations. They do oppose locating such mines near fragile ecosystems and require that companies obtain informed consent of affected communities. According to Barreiro, more than 200 legislative deputies and 57 senators in the Mexican Congress have signed a bill to close the Cerro de San Pedro mine and require Metallica to pay for environmental damages. The bill will be debated in the next session. In April, a similar bill did not win the necessary votes. "The mine will be permanently closed this year," said Ruiz. "The investors should be aware of this." (*Stephen Leahy is an IPS correspondent. Originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierram?rica network. Tierram?rica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme and the World Bank.) (END/2008) http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-06/27/content_8448655.htm Thousands protest high living costs in Guatemala MEXICO CITY, June 26 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of Guatemalans protested Thursday in the capital and several major cities against food price hikes in their country, the local press reported. The protesters marched to 15 governmental buildings, urging the government to lower living costs. Miguel Angel Sandoval, leader of the protest in Guatemala City, said that they also called for the government to take measures that would benefit poor people, not only the big companies. More than 20,000 people participated in the demonstration, the first since Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom took office on Jan. 14. Guatemala has a population of 13.3 million, more than 70 percent of whom live in poverty. http://luterano.blogspot.com/2008/06/cost-of-bus-trip-stirs-conflict.html Friday, June 20, 2008 Cost of a bus trip stirs conflict The bus operators of El Salvador are getting squeezed by high fuel prices. The law does not allow them to raise fares to cover those increased fuel costs. The government has dragged its feet on increasing the subsidy to drivers which allows them to cover their costs. So bus operators on some routes have begun illegally charging more than the set fare. They are demanding as much as 35 cents on routes supposedly capped at 25 cents. The Center for the Defense of the Consumer has denounced the illegal price increases and critiqued the government for not acting against the bus operators. It has proposed that bus operators who charge the increased fare should lose their concession to operate. The CDC calculates that fares of 35 cents would consume as much as 8-18% of a family's budget if two members needed to ride buses to get to minimum wage jobs. The rise in bus fares has led to protest. Young men in masks have been taking to the streets alongside the University of El Salvador and burning things. They torched two buses on one day and burned tires on other days. The images of the protests have echoes in the recent past. It was a little less than two years ago, when, in this same location, protests against rising bus fares turned violent and two policemen were killed. That event led to the passage of an aniti-terrorism law in El Salvador and attempts by ARENA to blame the violence on elements in the FMLN. Photos from Ethan James. http://globalvoicesonline.org/2008/07/08/nicaragua-protesters-pay-visit-to-former-president/ Nicaragua: Protesters Pay Visit to Former President Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 @ 02:25 UTC by Rodrigo Pe?alba The hunger strike by Dora Maria Tellez to stop the Supreme Electoral Court from banning the Sandinista Renovation Party for this year's municipal elections lasted 13 days. However, it did not stop the banning of the political party. Since then, there have been new protests and meetings to oppose the political and economical measures of the goverment. Within this context, all sort of political movements have been caught up in the confusion. Liberal candidates march together with members of the former Sandinista Front Party, while the goverment works on a pact with the largest opposition party, the Constitutional Liberal Party. Just this last Saturday, after a rally in central Managua, two groups formed to go "visit" political personalities. One group visited the Assembly's president Rene Nu?ez, and the second group found former president Arnoldo Alem?n dining at a local restaurant. Alem?n had been convicted for corruption charges that took place during his presidency. The group stood outside the restaurant singing and shouting against this tried and convictedpolitical figure. The funny side of this is that Alem?n had been proven guilty of corruption, but has permission to visit anyone he wants inside Nicaragua. Jorge Mej?a Peralta [es] was present and documented the event on his blog [es]: A few entered, and inside they starting shouting "Corrupt Alem?n", which is not offensive because it has been demostrated that he is a thief. With a strong judicial sentence. There were struggles and the bodyguards of the corrupt thief forced the protesters to leave the restaurant. Then later, for about an hour, the protestors used speakers, flags and signs that read "Beware, Corrupt Person Inside", and continued shouting at Alem?n and his family. More than 20 officers from the National Police, plus the bodyguards, guarded Alem?n. When he planned to leave the restaurant the National Police, paid with our taxes, pushed and hit some of the protesters, even moving vehicles without any care, putting lives in danger. (.) Today, spokesman Leonel Teller said that a mob tried to kill Arnoldo Alem?n and his family (with what? with the national flag?) Another online Facebook group was created to support the hunger strike of Dora Maria Tellez, and is now working on a apolitical AntiPact independent movement. Recently The Miami Herald published a report on this group. The group has 1500 members as of now, even though not all of them attend the protests. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/30/america/LA-Argentina-Protests.php More than 20 injured in Argentine protests The Associated Press Published: July 30, 2008 BUENOS AIRES, Argentina: More than 20 people have been injured in violent clashes between police and protesters in one of Argentina's largest provincial cities. The protests are in response to a proposal by the governor of Cordoba province that would cut state pensions by 20 percent for those making more than 5,000 pesos (US$1,600) a month. The proposal is being debated in the provincial legislature. Local television stations are showing chaotic scenes of protesters in the city of Cordoba throwing stones and tearing down small trees amid clouds of tear gas. Television station Todo Noticias reported that 17 police and six protesters have been hurt so far in Wednesday's violence, though the provincial police would not confirm those reports. http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/08/14/paraguay.land.ap/index.html?eref=edition_americas August 14, 2008 -- Updated 1712 GMT (0112 HKT) ASUNCION, Paraguay (AP) -- A Paraguayan farmers group says landless protesters have invaded a northern hacienda, setting up tents and destroying crops to press their demands for terrain. Members of Paraguay's Farmers Movement camp out near a private estate in Capiibary, Paraguay, in June. Soy growers association president Claudia Ruser said Thursday that 150 people have stormed a Brazilian farmer's land in San Pedro and wrecked some 500 acres (200 hectares) of sunflower crops. Landless groups also have invaded two other farms in Guayaibi and Kanindeyu. The protests come on the eve of the inauguration of President-elect Fernando Lugo, who has promised to deliver land to poor Paraguayans nationwide. Incoming Interior Minister Rafael Filizzola said the new government will ask the protesters to abandon their camps, but will send police to evict them if necessary. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Wed Aug 27 12:21:54 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 20:21:54 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] PERU: Indigenous rights protests, mine blockade, general strike Message-ID: <00ed01c9087a$2bc54270$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * Peruvian indigenous peoples in the Amazonian region held nearly two weeks of protests and blockades over a neoliberal law allowing the sell-off of the rainforest. The campaign ended after Peru's congress reversed the law. Previously, the Peruvian state had declared a state of emergency and police violence had injured a number of protesters. 21 police were injured when protesters stormed the regional centre, Madre de Dios. Protesters also shut down oil production and seized a boat. * Demanding a greater share of the revenue from copper production, thousands of protesters in the province of Moquegua staged a ten-day blockade of a US-owned mine, at one point taking police hostage after they were sent to break the blockade. The issue was resolved with an agreement giving more assistance to the region. The blockade had also cut off Peru's southernmost province. * In Lima, university students have resisted the building of a road through the campus, throwing stones at construction workers and marching on the local congressional offices. The work has compromised university activities as one wall of a building has been demolished. * In early July, all of Peru was rocked by a general strike accompanied by mass protests, focused on the failure of the country's economic boom to raise the welfare of the poor. Government buildings were burned, rail links disrupted and police routed. * In another incident, protesters targeted buses and bus depots, apparently over deaths in crashes. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7573887.stm Thursday, 21 August 2008 08:19 UK E-mail this to a friend Printable version Peruvian tribes end land protests Indigenous Amazonian tribes in Peru have begun lifting armed blockades on roads and energy installations after a week-long protest. Their action was called off after a congressional committee voted to repeal two laws which the tribes say make it easier for companies to buy their land. The laws, supported by President Alan Garcia, are aimed at promoting private investment in communal territories. Mr Garcia called the committee's decision a grave mistake. Peru's congress will now have to vote on the committee's decision, which was apparently prompted by the public outcry at the laws. It is a blow to Mr Garcia's plans for state reform, the BBC's Dan Collyns in Lima reports. A state of emergency had been declared in Peru after thousands of Amazonian tribespeople armed with spears, bows and arrows took over main roads, a hydroelectric dam, and oil and gas installations in the provinces of Cusco, Loreto and Amazonas. We have faith and expect Congress to follow through Alberto Pizango AIDESEP head The protestors from 65 tribes feared the laws would make it easier for investors to buy their energy-rich land in Peru's Amazon basin, parts of which are rich in oil and gas. The legislation was introduced as part of the country's free trade agreement with the US. The tribes are distrustful as companies extracting oil or gas have, in the past, brought contamination, which has had an impact on both their environment and health, says our correspondent. 'Huge mistake' "We have lifted the strike," said Alberto Pizango, head of the indigenous Amazonian organisation, AIDESEP, after the congressional committee's decision. Mr Garcia said repealing the laws would hold up progress "We have faith and expect Congress to follow through." Mr Garcia, who passed the laws earlier this year under special powers granted by Congress, said repealing them would be a grave error. "I am obliged to say to Peru that it would be a huge mistake which would hold up change and keep those farming communities in poverty and marginalisation for another century," he said in a televised address. Mr Garcia says bringing investment and industrialisation to Peru's remoter areas are the only way to tackle widespread poverty. But it is clear many people in Peru's Amazon see this as a threat to their way of life, says our correspondent. http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/americas/news/article_1425789.php/Indigenous_protestors_injured_in_clashes_with_police_in_Peru Indigenous protestors injured in clashes with police in Peru Americas News A handout photo provided by Ahora-Amazonas Newspaper shows Peruvian police officers chasing a man during clashes with indgenous people in Bagua Province, Peru, 20 August 2008. Ten people were injured in the clashes, authorities said. EPA/AHORA-AMAZONAS NEWSPAPER Aug 21, 2008, 4:54 GMT Lima - At least 10 people where injured in northern Peru when indigenous people protesting the exploitation of the Amazon rainforest clashed with police. The violence Wednesday came during the latest of 11 days of protests by indigenous groups, which have organized strikes and roadblocks against new laws facilitating the sale of land in their traditional settlement areas in the Amazon jungle. Indigenous communities can approve the sale of land with a simple majority vote. In the past, a two-thirds majority was necessary. The protestors said they fear the new rules would facilitate access to the rainforest for international companies exploiting raw materials - in particular oil, mining and logging companies - and would threaten their traditional lifestyles. President Alan Garcia warned Congress not to overturn the laws, which are geared toward attracting foreign investors. 'It would be a historic mistake and would continue the poverty in the affected regions,' he said. However, analysts did not rule out Congress soon scrapping the rule, which had been decreed by the government recently. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/7735629 Peru suspends rights in jungle protest regions ? AP foreign ? , Tuesday August 19 2008 By CARLA SALAZAR Associated Press Writer LIMA, Peru (AP) - Peru's government declared a state of emergency Monday in remote jungle regions where Indian groups are blocking highways and oil and gas installations to protest a law that makes it easier to sell their lands. The 30-day decree published in the official gazette suspends rights to public gatherings and free transit in three northern provinces. It follows nine days of protests by members of 65 Indian tribes and a clash Saturday in northern Peru between police and hundreds of spear-carrying Indians with painted faces. Lima newspaper El Comercio reported eight officers and four protesters were injured. Environment Minister Antonio Brack said protesters have closed a bridge and highway ``and threatened to cut the supply of oil via the oil pipeline and gas through the Camisea gas pipeline.'' Alberto Pizango, president of an Indian rights group speaking for the protesters, warned the government to be ``very careful'' as it attempts to bring order to the affected regions. The protests began when the Indians blocked an important natural gas installation and oil pipeline in northern Peru. The Camisea natural gas installation is operated by a consortium led by Pluspetrol Peru Corporation SA and including Hunt Oil Company of Peru L.L.C. The Indians are protesting a law that would let half of those attending a community assembly approve the sale of communal lands. Previously, two-thirds of the local community, whether they attended a meeting or not, had to approve any sale. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7569851.stm 19 August 2008 11:03 UK Peru moves to end Amazon protests Peru has declared a state of emergency in jungle areas where indigenous groups are blocking oil and gas installations in protest at a new land sale law. The government said violent acts by protesters had put security at risk. The measure allows the authorities to send in troops and bans public gatherings for 30 days. Some 65 Amazon tribes say the law will make it easier for big energy companies to buy up their land, parts of which are known to be rich in oil and gas. The indigenous people have been demonstrating for more than a week at hydro-electric dams and oil and gas installations in three different parts of Peru's Amazon basin. They are angry at a law which they say makes it easier for investors to buy their land because it lowers the bar for consent from two-thirds of a community assembly to a simple majority. The legislation is one of a number of laws being passed as part of Peru's free trade agreement with the US. "They have mobilised themselves for the right to life, the right to keep their territory and to defend the environment - the Amazon rainforest which is the lungs of the world," said Alberto Pizango, head of the indigenous Amazonian organisation, AIDESEP. Poverty Indigenous communities complain that some 70% of Peruvian Amazon territory is now leased for oil and gas exploration, putting at risk their own lives and the biodiversity of the Amazon. At the weekend, some 800 demonstrators and police clashed in the province of Bagua, leaving several people injured. Talks between the tribes' representatives and the Environment Minister Antonio Brack also fell through. Mr Brack said there could be no further dialogue until order was re-established. "The state has the obligation to guarantee the right of all Peruvians when others violate them so order has to be established - let us be absolutely clear on this," Mr Brack said. The state of emergency bans public gatherings for 30 days and gives the army special powers in the provinces of Cusco, Loreto and Amazonas. For their part, the tribal groups are calling on the Peruvian Congress to revoke the land law, saying their protests will end once the government displayed a readiness to talk. The Peruvian rainforest is the biggest stretch of Amazon outside Brazil. Peruvian President Alan Garcia has said that developing parts of the Amazon are part of his investment programme to tackle widespread poverty. http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2008/07/12/3543774.htm [July 12, 2008] Peruvian gov't reaches accord to end Amazon region protests (EFE Ingles Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Lima, Jul 12 (EFE).- The Peruvian government and representatives of the Amazon region of Madre de Dios reached an accord to end the violent protests that earlier this week left dozens of people injured and destroyed the regional seat of government. Environment Minister Antonio Brack announced Friday that a special commission over which he presided reached an accord with the Madre de Dios Federations Alliance. Brack described the meeting as "fruitful," after which he presented an agreement signed by the leaders of a march that on Wednesday left 21 police officers injured, 30 protesters under arrest and a regional government office in ruins. According to the announcement, the accords include a government commitment not to encroach on lands of native communities with future privatizations. The Agriculture Ministry also agreed to analyze the judicial status of the Amazon forests on the agricultural lands of Madre de Dios. The Madre de Dios authorities also asked that the region's infrastructure be declared in a state of emergency. On Wednesday, at least 21 police officers were injured during the attack of thousands of protesters on the regional seat of government in Madre de Dios. A spokesperson for the national police told Efe that the mob was protesting against the so-called "Law of the Jungle," a proposal that has not yet been approved by Congress but has been condemned for supposedly facilitating the sale of native community lands and promoting private investment in reforestation and agricultural forestry. During the attack, the forces of law and order threw tear gas and fired shots in the air but were overwhelmed by the thousands of demonstrators. Several Amazon regions protested throughout the week against the "Law of the Jungle" and on Wednesday came together in a national strike called by the leftist General Confederation of Workers of Peru, or CGTP. The national strike, which was a failure according to the government and a resounding success in the eyes of the CGTP, was carried out to pressure the government into increasing pay and repealing several privatizing decrees, including those promoting investment in lands occupied by peasant and native communities in the Amazon and in areas declared to be historic or cultural heritage sites. Workers also protested against the criminalizing of social protest while asking that attention be paid to the "agricultural and social agenda" so that workers' rights not be limited, and that government corruption be dealt with. The current district attorney of Madre de Dios, Hugo Concha, said Saturday that guilt had been confirmed in the case of 12 natives and two officials who had been arrested during the violent protests and were to be jailed in the coming hours. Those in custody include Manuel Calloquispe Flores, president of the regional Chamber of Commerce, and Luis Zegarra Kajat, president of the Madre de Dios defense front, according to the Web site of the daily El Comercio. In a bid to discredit the general strike, the government and the ruling APRA party sought to link the protests both to the terrorism of the now-defeated Shining Path rebels and to statements of disgraced former spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos, one of the architects of the rebels' defeat in the 1990s. EFE http://globalvoicesonline.org/2008/08/15/peru-amazonian-indigenous-groups-protest-new-governmental-decrees/ Peru: Amazonian Indigenous Groups Protest New Governmental Decrees Friday, August 15th, 2008 @ 21:26 UTC by Juan Arellano International Day of the World's Indigenous People was celebrated on August 9, but often in Peru these groups have very little to celebrate. The Aguaruna Indigenous group in Saramiriza in the Peruvian Amazon has mobilized to occupy the Petroleum Station No. 5 of the Northern Peruvian pipeline. Coordinadora Nacional de Radio [es] states that the groups are protesting that several legislative decrees are a threat to the Amazonian indigenous groups and peasant communities, which allows the government more access to their lands. In summary, according to a communiqu? from the National Agrarian Community [es], the decrees overturn previous laws that required a 2/3 vote from the community before the government can develop, purchase or lease communal lands. With the new decrees, only 50% is now required. This is causing concern for many communities as it will be easier for the government to influence some residents, and as a result other communities like Poyentimari, Monte Carmelo, Porenkishiari, Koribeni, Shima?, Puerto Rico, Miaria, Nuevo Mundo, Kirigueti, Camisea, Shivankoreni, Segakiato, Cashiriari and Timpia are also supporting the protest. The blog of Ideeleradio - Red Nacional [es] also notes that the indigenous groups may radicalize their protest. To date, 63 communities in 11 regions have been a part of these protests against these legislative decrees: "Esperamos que el conflicto tenga un pronto desenlace, pues de lo contrario tendremos que radicalizar nuestra protesta. Nosotros no estamos agrediendo, estamos reclamando respeto a nuestros derechos. Queremos que nos entiendan y nos atiendan", afirm? en tono en?rgico el dirigente aguaruna. Inform? que m?s de 700 pobladores awaj?n contin?an en los exteriores de la estaci?n petrolera N? 5, ubicado a unos 500 metros de la comunidad de F?lix Flores en el distrito de Manseriche provincia Datem del Mara??n. "We hope that the conflict will have a rapid end, but on the contrary, we have to radicalize our protest. We are not attacking, we are calling for them to respect our rights. We want them to understand us and attend to us," stated the Aguaruna leader in an energetic tone. He also said that more than 700 members of Awaj?n group would remain outside the Petroleum Station No. 5, located approximately 500 meters from the community of F?lix Flores in the Manseriche District in the Datem del Mara?on province. The joining of forces across indigenous communities is nothing new. In June, the blog Por La Amazonia [es] posts about the Aguaruna and Huambisa Council's Declaration for the Unity of the Aguaruna and Huambisa communities: El evento se realiz? en la Comunidad de Urakusa, provincia de Condorcanqui, Regi?n Amazonas y el acuerdo un?nime fue dejar atr?s las diferencias y luchar juntos por sus territorios, la educaci?n biling?e, la salud intercultural, el desarrollo humano, la producci?n agraria y defender su propiedad intelectual. Asimismo suscribieron un pacto para no permitir el ingreso de empresas petroleras como Per? Petro y Hoco SAC quienes pretenden acceder al lote 116 que recorta la reserva comunal Tunta Nain. El evento tambi?n se uni? al clamor nacional de las comunidades campesinas y nativas de todo el pa?s que vienen rechazando el paquete de medidas promulgadas por el Ejecutivo y que lesionan los derechos colectivos de los pueblos y comunidades ind?genas. The event took place in the community of Urakusa in the province of Condorcanqui, Amazon Region and the agreement was unanimous by leaving behind their differences and to fight together for their territory, bilingual education, intercultural health, human development, agrarian production and the defense of intellectual property. In addition, they signed an agreement that would not permit the entrance of oil companies such as Per? Petro and Hoco SAC who are attempting to gain access to the 116 lot that cuts across the Tunta Nain communal reserve. The event also united the national clamor of the peasant and native communities from the entire country that have been rejecting the package of measures promulgated by the government and hurts the collective rights of indigenous peoples and communities. The blog La Pagina de Milanta [es] publishes the statements from a local Aguarauna leader Santiago Manu?n, who said: ?Qu? da?os producir?a la petrolera? La deforestaci?n es uno. Si perforan, ?d?nde van a botar los desechos? ?Y c?mo van a sacar el petr?leo de ah?? Van a afectar r?os y bosque. Y el impacto social ser? enorme. Quieren trabajar 77 a?os en la zona: siete a?os de exploraci?n, 30 de explotaci?n petrolera y 40 de gas. Esa es toda una generaci?n de habitantes. ?Cu?l es el sentir de la poblaci?n? La selva no va a ser entregada aunque el Gobierno lo haya dicho y Sarasara haya firmado un convenio y nos digan perro del hortelano. Siempre las petroleras han hecho un da?o muy grande a la naturaleza y al ser humano. Los ind?genas no separamos al hombre de la naturaleza. Estamos incrustados uno en otro. El Gobierno est? en su palacio; nosotros, en nuestra selva. Pensamos diferente. Si nosotros entregamos la selva, ?d?nde vamos a vivir? Ser?amos mendigos en nuestra tierra. What damages does the oil company cause? Deforestation is one. If they drill, where will they toss the waste? How will they remove the oil from there? They are going to affect rivers and forests. The social impact will be huge. They want to work 77 years in the area, seven years of exploration, 30 (years) of petroleum exploitation and 40 for gas. It is an entire generation of inhabitants. What does the population think? The forest will not be handed over even if the government said so and if Sarasara had signed an agreement, and they calls us the farmer's dog. The oil companies have always caused large damages to nature and human beings. The indigenous do not separate themselves from the nature. We are linked to each other. The government is in its palace; we, in our jungle. We think differently. If we hand over the jungle, where will we live? We will be beggars in our own land. Finally, De La Selva Su Web [es] posts on the wave of protests by the indigenous groups near the the petroleum station in the city of Iquitos, and which includes photos: Es incre?ble que la mayor?a de iquite?os veamos con indiferencia los problemas de estos compatriotas, cuando son justamente ellos el legado de nuestros or?genes. Es injusto dejarlos solos. Como es injusto que el gobierno y empresas extranjeras hayan envenenado sus bosques y sus r?os, como es injusto que los madereros y caucheros hayan talado sus ?rboles, como es injusto tirarnos el dinero destinado a su salud y educaci?n, como es injusto desaparecer sus culturas, como es injusto continuar excluy?ndolos de los servicios b?sicos a los que deben acceder los ciudadanos de este pa?s. It is incredible that the majority of Iquito residents are indifferent towards the problems of these countrymen and women, when they are the ones that are the legacy of our origens. It is unjust to leave them by themselves. It is unjust how the government and foreign companies have poisoned their forests and their rivers. It is unjust that the lumber and rubber industry have stripped their trees. It is unjust how we waste the money that is for their health and education. It is unjust to make their cultures disappear. It is unjust to continue to exclude them from basic services, which all citizens of the country should be able to access. http://intercontinentalcry.org/indigenous-peruvians-launch-state-wide-protest/ Indigenous Peruvians Launch State-wide Protest August 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment | 249 views Marking the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, on Saturday, August 9th, Indigenous Peruvians launched an indefinite, state-wide protest against a set of new government policies that threaten their collective land rights. "In the southern Amazonian province of Cusco, hundreds of indigenous protesters occupied Lot 56 of the controversial Camisea gas field, forcing the company to cease extraction there. Argentine company Pluspetrol, which operates the field, evacuated its workers from the site," writes the activist group, Root force. "In Loreto, another southern Amazonian province, 800 indigenous protesters occupied an oil-pump, drilling platforms, helicopter port and buildings operated by state oil company Petroperu," they continue. Meanwhile, in the province of Amazonas, thousands took over the Aramango hydroelectric plant near Muyo; in Daten del Mara?on, 150 gathered at an oil pumping station; and several roads were reported to have been blocked throughout the country. Through the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Amazon (AIDESEP), a national indigenous organization, the protesters are demanding negotiations with the President, the Prime Minister, and the head of Congress. According to American Zapatista they want the government to revoke Law #1073 and the 38 decrees being legislated for the new Free Trade Agreement with the United States. The decrees effectively legalize a mass takeover of the Amazon, threatening not only their traditional territories but their cultures and livelihoods. They also want the hydrocarbon, natural gas, mining and forestry concessions in their territories nullified, and for the government to "re-establish [their] inalienable collective rights to [their] territories, as established in the Constitution in 1979," to "comply with Convention 169 of the International Labour Organisation, and comply with other demands of the country's indigenous peoples." The government says they will not consider negotiating until the protests end. photo courtesy of AIDESEP, http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/10/73912/7468/846/565641 This week in Indigenous Peoples' Rights by American Zapatista Sun Aug 10, 2008 at 09:21:13 AM PDT Good Morning Kossacks. This is the first in what I hope to be a weekly series. As noted in yesterday's diary by Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, yesterday was World Indigenous Peoples Day. Today's diary will focus on two urgent situations that happened yesterday. One in the Peruvian Amazon, the other in West Papua. Please read on and take action. Peruvian Amazon The Peruvian Government, in just the last few years, has divided up about 70% of the Peruvian Amazon into what they call "blocks", and auctioned them off to oil companies. About 90% of these blocks overlap indigenous territories that have been legally recognized by the government, and almost 30% of the blocks overlap land in which uncontacted peoples live (peoples living in voluntary isolation). This, despite last year's passing of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which specifically states: Article 32 1. Indigenous peoples have the right to determine and develop priorities and strategies for the development or use of their lands or territories and other resources. 2. States shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free and informed consent prior to the approval of any project affecting their lands or territories and other resources, particularly in connection with the development, utilization or exploitation of mineral, water or other resources. and despite Inter-American Human Rights law, which recognizes the right of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC). The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights specifically states that FPIC is applicable when a state makes a decision "that will have an impact upon indigenous lands and their communities, such as the granting of concessions to exploit the natural resources of indigenous territories." So, yesterday, the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, the peoples of the Peruvian Amazon launched an indefinite mass protest. Here are some photos: Latest news from the protest: - 1,500 Machiguenga people stopped transport on the Urubamba River, and non-violently captured a boat transporting petroleum from the company Pluspetrol. The boat is still being held by the protesters. All traffic on the river is stopped and protests will continue until the government meets with indigenous leaders. - 150 indigenous people from the province of Daten del Mara?on, non-violently gathered at Petro Peru's pumping station #5. The military has sent 100 soldiers to the area, but the people say they will not move until the government acts on their demands. - Indigenous protesters have shut down traffic on the Ucayali River. The protests will go on indefinitely, until the Peruvian government meets the following demands: 1. Revoke Law #1073 and the 38 legislative decrees that put at risk the Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon and the campesino communities of the coast and sierra. 2. Nullify the hydrocarbon, natural gas, mining and forestry concessions in indigenous territories. 3. Re-establish the inalienable collective rights to indigenous territories, as established in the Constitution in 1979. 4. Comply with Convention 169 of the International Labour Organisation, and comply with other demands of the country's indigenous peoples. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=a8FncOTTyiv8&refer=latin_america Pluspetrol Halts Peruvian Gas Operations on Protests, Efe Says By Juan Pablo Spinetto Aug. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Pluspetrol SA suspended part of its natural-gas operations in Peru after armed protesters took over facilities in the Amazonian region of Cuzco, Efe reported. Part of Block 56 of the Camisea field remains closed because of demonstrations against the government's decision to implement a trade accord with the U.S., the Spanish newswire said, citing a statement from the company. Protesters also took over an oil station controlled by state energy company Petroperu, Efe said. Pluspetrol is negotiating with the protesters to complete the evacuation of its workers in the region, Efe said, citing the statement. The demonstrations began Aug. 9, the news agency said. http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/2008/06/19/20080619biz-perubrief0619-ON.html Protesters in Peru reach mine operations deal by Max Jarman - Jun. 19, 2008 04:42 PM The Arizona Republic Peru's government reached an agreement with protesters Thursday, ending a weeklong blockade that had cut off supplies to Phoenix-based Southern Copper Corp.'s operations. The company said Wednesday that it would have to temporarily close its smelter and two copper mines if the unrest continued. The potential mine closure was linked to a rise in copper prices Wednesday. Protesters were demanding that the government return to the region a greater share of the taxes paid by Southern Copper. At one point club-wielding protesters took police hostage, and the government sent ships with food and fuel to replenish supplies. To end the protests, local political leaders approved an agreement, which includes more economic assistance for the province of province of Moquegua where the mines are located. http://www.livinginperu.com/news/6723 19 June, 2008 [ 18:30 ] Peru: Moquegua protestors clear roads after riots and 10-day blockade Living in Peru Israel J. Ruiz After regional authorities from Moquegua came to an agreement this morning in negotiations led by Prime Minister Jorge del Castillo, protestors began clearing Panamericana Highway, ending a 10-day blockade. On the other hand, Zenon Cuevas, President of the Moquegua Defense Front, affirmed that the strike would not officially end until the people of the region had been given details on the agreement made with the government. Protests, which later turned into riots and even developed into a hostage situation, began with claims that the distribution of mining royalties was not proportional among Peru's southern regions. Moqueguan authorities, which have been negotiating in Lima for several days, returned to the southern region today to give protestors specific information on the agreement made with the government. It was reported that the agreement has eight main points, one of which involves more investments in the region's infrastructure. "We've achieved an important agreement that puts an end to this conflict," said Peru's Premier. "Each mayor will go home with at least one project under his arm." http://africa.reuters.com/world/news/usnMOL766240.html Peru police hostages freed by mine protesters Tue 17 Jun 2008, 22:56 GMT By Maria Luisa Palomino and Marco Aquino LIMA (Reuters) - Peruvian protesters freed 48 police officers from captivity on Tuesday but the government was still struggling to end a week-long blockade over mining taxes as workers went on a strike at a second copper mine. Residents of Moquegua province have occupied roads, including the main highway to Chile, and severed access to the Ilo smelter and Cuajone mine of Southern Copper Corp, Peru's top copper producer, to demand that their province receive a bigger share of taxes paid by the company. "All police who were illegally taken hostage have been freed," said Jorge del Castillo, President Alan Garcia's chief of staff. He urged protesters to negotiate a deal to divvy up mining taxes and call off roadblocks that have caused food and fuel shortages. Hours before protesters were persuaded to release the hostages, union workers at the Cuajone mine started a two-day strike for better benefits, the latest sign that Garcia is being pressured to spread the wealth from a six-year economic boom to labourers and the poor. Police officers, although armed with tear gas, were overpowered by thousands of club-wielding protesters on Monday when they tried to break a blockade at a bridge. The police, some wearing bloody bandages, were then herded into a church and surrounded by demonstrators. Twelve of the 60 officers were let go earlier on Tuesday to be taken to a hospital, and soon the remaining hostages were freed. "We have taken a step forward in good faith so that the police don't have to stay in the church," said Roman Catholic Bishop Marco Antonio Cortez, who helped broker the agreement. The protests started with 5,000 people and have grown to include 20,000 at times as Garcia, whose approval rating hovers at 35 percent, faces calls to reduce poverty quickly. Delays could erode support for his free-market programs at a time when left-wing parties are eyeing Peru's next presidential election in 2011. The poverty rate, while falling, remains near 40 percent. PROVINCE CUT OFF The blockade has cut road links to Tacna, Peru's southernmost province, and the government has been forced to send tanker ships with gasoline to replenish supplies. Moquegua, more than 700 miles south of the capital, blames the central government for allowing Tacna to get a greater share of taxes generated by Southern Copper. Residents in provinces like Moquegua say Peru's economic surge has passed them by, even as mining companies reap big profits. The strike at Southern Copper comes as Peru's third-largest copper pit, Cerro Verde, was in its eighth day of a labour walkout, union leader Leoncio Amudio said. The mine's owner, U.S.-based Freeport-McMoRan, has said production remains steady and that the government has declared the walkout illegal, meaning labourers could eventually lose their jobs if they fail to return to work in coming days. Peru is a leading global exporter of minerals and Alberto Adrianzen, a political analyst, said other regions could also protest perceived unfair distribution of mining tax revenues. "This could spread to other provinces," he said. "The government needs to overhaul the way it shares mining revenue with the provinces." (Writing by Terry Wade; Editing by Eric Walsh and Bill Trott) http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/Protesters_in_Peru_hold_65_cops_hostage/rssarticleshow/3138969.cms Protesters in Peru hold 65 cops, general hostage 18 Jun 2008, 0036 hrs IST,AFP Print EMail Discuss New Bookmark/Share LIMA: Thousands of protesters demanding a greater share of economic benefits from mining operations overwhelmed riot police in southern Peru on Monday and took hostage 65 police and a general, mediators said. Furious residents of Moquegua, a town 1,200km south of Lima, have conducted a weeklong road blockade to demand more from an economic boom that has enriched mining companies. In a tense standoff about 20,000 people have converged on a cathedral where the hostages were being held. The violence left about 60 people injured, including 13 - mostly female police officers - who were released by the demonstrators, Veronica Paredes, of the Peruvian ombudsman's office which is seeking to negotiate an end to the violence, said. She said 65 police were captured in the clashes and were being held in a cathedral along with a commanding officer, General Alberto Jordan. "Right now the hostages are being held in the cathedral in Moquegua and they can not leave," Paredes said, adding that an angry mob had gathered outside the cathedral. http://www.livinginperu.com/news/6723 19 June, 2008 [ 18:30 ] Peru: Moquegua protestors clear roads after riots and 10-day blockade Living in Peru Israel J. Ruiz After regional authorities from Moquegua came to an agreement this morning in negotiations led by Prime Minister Jorge del Castillo, protestors began clearing Panamericana Highway, ending a 10-day blockade. On the other hand, Zenon Cuevas, President of the Moquegua Defense Front, affirmed that the strike would not officially end until the people of the region had been given details on the agreement made with the government. Protests, which later turned into riots and even developed into a hostage situation, began with claims that the distribution of mining royalties was not proportional among Peru's southern regions. Moqueguan authorities, which have been negotiating in Lima for several days, returned to the southern region today to give protestors specific information on the agreement made with the government. It was reported that the agreement has eight main points, one of which involves more investments in the region's infrastructure. "We've achieved an important agreement that puts an end to this conflict," said Peru's Premier. "Each mayor will go home with at least one project under his arm." http://www.stuff.co.nz/4584217a12.html Peru sends fuel as mining protests isolate cities Reuters | Saturday, 14 June 2008 Peru has sent tanker ships carrying food and fuel to its southernmost province of Tacna, where thousands of people have been stranded by deepening protests over mining taxes in neighbouring Moquegua province. More than 5,000 residents of Moquegua have blocked roads, including Peru's main highway to Chile, and severed access to a mine and smelter of global mining company Southern Copper, the country's largest copper producer, police said. Participants in the blockades say their province deserves a bigger share of taxes paid by the company, and have repeatedly rejected pleas by President Alan Garcia's chief of staff to negotiate an end to the stand-off. The protests come as Garcia faces mounting pressure to quickly bring the benefits of an economic boom to the poor. Delays could erode support for his free-market programmes and boost the prospects of a left-wing candidate in Peru's next presidential election in 2011. "We are sending to Tacna, which sadly is isolated and lacking supplies, 9,000 gallons of gasoline and 50,000 gallons of diesel," said Jorge del Castillo, Garcia's chief of staff. The protesters were not the only Peruvians demanding a bigger slice of an economic surge led by high prices for the silver, copper and zinc that Peru exports. A strike at Peru's third-largest copper pit, Cerro Verde, went into its fourth day on Friday, and a union leader said company officials would not talk to them about a settlement. Freeport-McMoRan, the mine's owner, has said production remains steady. "We are going to radicalise the strike. Starting Saturday, we will block access to the mine, so that you can't enter or leave," said union leader Leoncio Amudio. Peru's poverty rate, while falling, is nearly 40 per cent and many say the economic boom has passed them by, even as mining companies reap huge profits. Despite the strong economy, Garcia's approval rating stands at only around 35 per cent and the largest federation of mining unions is threatening to shut down Peru's traditional economic engine by going on a nationwide strike on June 30 unless a bill to improve labour benefits is approved in Congress. http://www.livinginperu.com/news/6830 4 July, 2008 [ 10:10 ] Peru: Lima universtiy students riot & destroy construction work Living in Peru Israel J. Ruiz Claiming their rights are being violated and that it is necessary to establish a new contract with the municipality of Lima, students from the University of San Marcos continue to protest the construction of a bypass next to and on university grounds. They took to the streets of Lima on Thursday, marching towards the country's congressional offices. Thousands of students marched through the streets of downtown Lima demanding authorities cease construction work in and around the university. Motorists and pedestrians showed their displeasure as the dean of the university and his students blocked off some of the capital's main streets. Protests did not end with the march, however. Students began to destroy what constructions workers had built on Thursday evening, making workers angry and sparking a battle between the two groups. At least 15 students were injured as construction workers responded by throwing rocks and Peru's national police began firing tear gas. It was reported that one of the worst injuries was a student that had to receive 15 stitches after a rock hit him in the head. Riots broke out in May as construction workers from the Municipality of Lima began working much closer to the university. They were controlled but began once again early this week when students arrived to the university and found that one of their walls had been demolished. The municipality has assured that this was part of a contract signed between municipal authorities and the university, explaining that agreements were reached months and in some cases years ago. The municipality has also affirmed a new wall is to be built within 20 days. The Municipality of Lima has stated that construction work will not stop and requested that Peru's national police provide the necessary security. The University of San Marcos, the oldest officially established university in the Americas, agreed to grant the Municipality of Lima 28,000 square meters (301,389 square feet) of land for the construction of the new bypass. http://www.livinginperu.com/news/6814 2 July, 2008 [ 10:45 ] Peru: San Marcos students riot and seize university offices over new bypass Living in Peru Israel J. Ruiz Students at the University of San Marcos took more extreme measures on Tuesday after realizing that the Municipality of Lima was not going to stop constructing a bypass and new road next to and on their campus. Assuring they were shocked and offended that the municipality had demolished one of the university's walls to continue construction of a new road, students blocked two blocks of Venezuela Avenue and attacked construction workers with rocks and sticks. Furthermore, students raided the university's administrative offices and demanded that the university void the contract it had signed with the municipality. Students affirm the destruction of the wall leaves the university unprotected and open to criminal acts. They have also explained that construction work would affect archaeological ruins next to the campus. Municipal authorities claim there are political reasons behind student riots, stating that the wall is to be rebuilt in 20 days. Furthermore, municipal representatives assure a contract was signed between district authorities and university representatives several months ago. A similar riot took place in May, when students went up against Peru's national police with rocks and sticks. The country's national police responded with tear gas and threw rocks as well. Riots left several police officers wounded and a group of students detained. http://www.livinginperu.com/news/6352 9 May, 2008 [ 10:30 ] Peru: San Marcos University riots not to stop Lima construction work Living in Peru Israel J. Ruiz The mayor of Lima, Luis Casta?eda affirmed that the municipality would not stop building the bypass at the intersection of Universitaria and Venezuela Avenues in Cercado de Lima. He assured that despite protests, construction would continue, explaining that the university had requested the construction of a new road and that an agreement had been made between the municipality and San Marcos in 1991. Casta?eda stated he would not be intimidated by vandals and riots, assuring that stopping the project would only be giving into disorder and misconduct. A police vehicle was set on fire and 14 police officers, including a colonel and a captain, were injured in the riot which took place in front of the university on Thursday afternoon. Violence began when students attempted to organize an unauthorized march to downtown Lima. As the march was being organized several students attacked construction workers, at which time the police intervened. This only made students angrier and they began throwing rocks. The national police responded by throwing rocks as well and firing tear gas. 23 students were detained by police. http://www.livinginperu.com/news/6866 9 July, 2008 [ 17:45 ] Riots break out across Peru - Protestors set fire to government building The head of Peru's national police along with Peru's minister of the interior affirmed Tuesday that the entire country's police force would be on the streets ensuring Wednesday's national strike did not get out of control. Just several hours after the strike began; the national police reported that 100 people found disturbing the peace had been detained. By Wednesday afternoon, Luis Alva Castro, the country's minister of the interior reported that another one hundred had been incarcerated for inciting riots and attempting to block roads. While the country's airports and ports have not been overrun by frustrated citizens - protesting everything from Alan Garcia's free trade policies to the law of the jungle - dozens of highways have been blocked and a government building has been set on fire. Protestors in Puerto Maldonado, a city in Southeastern Peru located in the Madre de Dios region, looted and set fire to offices belonging to the governor's office. Police reported that at approximately noon, vandals broke into the government building and set fire to chairs, desks and computers. It took over 100 police officers to chase away the protestors. According to local media, protestors were demanding that the governor of Madre de Dios support them in their claims. In Lima, reporters were attacked as they covered an assembly at 2 de Mayo Plaza. Members of the country's largest trade union federation (CGTP) assured that reporters were being paid to spread lies about them. In northern Peru, the Andean country's national police have put out street fires in Trujillo and prevented a group of protestors from taking a bridge in Tumbes. Despite their efforts, highways such as Panamericana Sur in Ica have been blocked, affecting hundreds of vehicles. Ger?nimo L?pez Sevillano, head of a civic front in Arequipa has affirmed that the strike has been peaceful in Peru's "White City". He explained that citizens were protesting an increase in the cost of staple foods, the privatization of ports and airports as well as trade policies that "would harm Peruvian agriculture". http://www.livinginperu.com/news/6854 8 July, 2008 [ 16:15 ] Peru Rail to halt service until protestors stop riots in Cusco Living in Peru Israel J. Ruiz After a group of unions began protests in the region of Cusco, PeruRail - the train company that provides tourists transportation to the town of Machu Picchu - decided to suspend its service, said the company's head of public relations, Guillermo Rom?n. It was reported that the company has been providing limited train service since Tuesday morning and will completely suspend its service for Wednesday. Protestors in the region of Cusco have announced they will support on Wednesday a nationwide strike that has been organized by the CGTP, the country's largest union federation. Representatives from PeruRail managed to hold off a strike last week after coming to an agreement with townspeople in Machu Picchu. The company agreed to carry out a study to determine exactly what was affecting the sale of merchandise in the town. Townspeople claim that Machu Picchu's tourist influx has not benefited them in the least, blaming PeruRail for taking visitors out of the town of Machu Picchu before they have a chance to spend time or money in the area. Peru's national police reported that protestors have already blocked the highway from the Sacred Valley to Cusco and from Cusco to Poroy. http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=595082&rss=yes Peruvian protesters burn govt building 12:42 AEST Thu Jul 10 2008 40 days 16 hours 37 minutes ago Thousands protest against rising food prices in Peru. Tens of thousands of union workers have taken to the streets across Peru to protest rising food and fuel prices they blame on the free market policies of President Alan Garcia. Nine police officers were wounded after protesters attacked them with sticks in the village of Puerto Maldonado in the remote jungle department of Madre de Dios, state news agency Andina reported. Protesters in the same town also set a fire that destroyed a regional government office, Cabinet chief Jorge del Castillo told reporters. Peruvian media estimated that across the country, more than 30,000 members of the General Confederation of Workers heeded the call for the national strike. In Lima, some 6,000 people filled a central plaza for a noisy pot-banging protest. Authorities did not give crowd estimates. Gen. Octavio Salazar, head of the national police, said 216 people were arrested nationwide. Transportation workers did not strike, but protesters blockaded key roadways with rocks. Rail service to the famed Inca citadel Machu Picchu was suspended on Tuesday and Wednesday because of safety concerns related to the strike, train operator PeruRail said. Garcia said the protests represented only a small sector of society and did not have a major impact. "The population has shown that it didn't have ... the will to leave the country paralysed," he said in a televised address. Peru's economy has surged since Garcia took office in 2006, with growth hitting 9 per cent last year and projected to be 8 per cent in 2008. But many of Peru's poor - who make up some 40 per cent of the population - say they haven't seen any benefits from the boom. http://www.breakingnews.ie/world/mhgbsnkfmhau/rss2/ Peru: National strike turns ugly as protesters attack police 10/07/2008 - 09:06:53 Tens of thousands of union members took to the streets across Peru to protest against rising food and fuel prices they blame on the free market policies of President Alan Garcia. Nine police officers were wounded after protesters attacked them with sticks in the village of Puerto Maldonado in the remote jungle department of Madre de Dios, state news agency Andina reported. Protesters in the same town also set a fire that destroyed a regional government office, Cabinet chief Jorge del Castillo said. Peruvian media estimated that across the country, more than 30,000 members of the General Confederation of Workers heeded the call for the national strike. In Lima, some 6,000 people filled a central plaza for a noisy pot-banging protest. Authorities did not give crowd estimates. General Octavio Salazar, head of the national police, said 216 people were arrested nationwide. Transportation workers did not strike, but protesters blockaded key roadways with rocks. Rail service to the famed Inca citadel Machu Picchu was suspended on Tuesday and yesterday because of safety concerns related to the strike, train operator PeruRail said. Mr Garcia said the protests represented only a small sector of society and did not have a major impact. "The population has shown that it didn't have ... the will to leave the country paralysed," he said in a televised address. Peru's economy has surged since Mr Garcia took office in 2006, with growth hitting 9% last year and projected to be 8% in 2008. However, many of Peru's poor - who make up some 40% of the population - say they have seen no benefits from the boom. http://www.livinginperu.com/news/6876 10 July, 2008 [ 18:30 ] Peru police detain protestors that set governor's office on fire Living in Peru Israel J. Ruiz Peruvian national police officers have arrested over thirty people that are believed to have been involved in the fire set to a government building during riots on Wednesday in the southeastern city of Puerto Maldonado. Officers from Lima and Cusco were sent to Puerto Maldonado to arrest the protestors responsible for setting fire to the governor's office in the Madre de Dios region. According to a correspondent for El Comercio daily, reinforcements from Lima and Cusco along with police Colonel Alfonso Ch?varri arrived on Thursday to Puerto Maldonado. It was reported that sixteen people belonging to the organization known as the Alianza de Federaciones de Madre de Dios were arrested today and approximately eighteen yesterday. According to Antonio Iviche Quique, the president of the FENAMAD federation, police arrested union leaders after a shoot out and after beating them. Affirming that the national police had abused of their authority, Iviche Quique stated that two hundred police officers had arrested fifty union leaders Thursday afternoon. Authorities in the region of Madre de Dios reported that almost one dozen of the protestors detained are directly responsible for setting fire to the governor's office. http://www.livinginperu.com/news/6963 23 July, 2008 [ 11:00 ] Peru: Protestors set Soyuz bus and bus station on fire during riot Living in Peru Israel J. Ruiz A group of protestors in Ica, the region south of Lima, attacked workers and set a bus and a bus station on fire when a riot broke out during a march that had been organized to protest the disappearance and murder of a six-year-old girl. According to Martin Gibbons, marketing chief for Soyuz Bus Company, a mob of people stormed into the bus station, which is located in the province of Chincha, attacking workers and vandalizing the establishment. "There is an angry mob that has broken into the terminal, they have broken buses, looted the place and beat on company workers. We don't know why," said Gibbons. While the reason for the attack has not been officially announced, it is known that a driver for the bus company is being held responsible for the death of over 20 people and 60 injuries. The Soyuz bus driver is blamed for the accident that took place in the Lima region when he attempted to pass another vehicle and crashed head on with another bus. During the attack on the Soyuz bus station, it was also reported that a bus was set on fire. The march was begun to demand that the Chincha police chief be fired and to push the national police to catch the criminals that kidnapped and murdered a six-year-old girl. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Wed Aug 27 12:54:39 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 20:54:39 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Summit Protests - G8 and more, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <00ee01c9087e$bf3c2060$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * JAPAN: G8-related repression leads to revolt by casual workers in Kamagasaki/Nishinari, in the town of Osaka * JAPAN: Thousands rally at G8 summit despite repression * PHILIPPINES: Japanese embassy picketed in G8 protest * US: North American Summit marked by protests * US: Conspiracy theorists turn out for Bilderburg Group protest in Virginia * US: Denver Democratic Convention protests start * PHILIPPINES: Migrant groups plan to protest migration summit * CANADA: Protest at Pacific Northwest economic summit * INDIA: Farmers' group holds protest against WTO talks in Andhra Pradesh * INDONESIA: Anti-WTO protest * US: Steelworkers to protest NAFTA * US/GLOBAL: Seattle protesters to donate lawsuit winnings to global projects * PHILIPPINES: Leftists to protest Arroyo-Bush summit http://www.indymedia.org/en/2008/06/908979.shtml Resistance action against police in Kamagasaki 29 Jun 2008 15:09 GMT On 12th June 2008, just in the afternoon before the G8 Finance Ministers' Meeting had began in Osaka with many guards and excessive security, one of the daily labourers in Kamagasaki was tortured by the police. From the next day 13th, many of the daily labourers and neighbourhood youth began to resist against the police repression and violence. Most Japanese mainstream media just copied the official announcements by the police and reported this as a "riot" for the first time after 18 years since the last one in 1990. 10pm, 17th June: 5th nights from the beginning, reporters told us that dozens of labourers and youth were arrested. 4am, 18th June: Are they "suppressed"? 19th June: Over the past week and a half, an unprecedented political crackdown has been enacted in advance of a series of economic summits around the country. Despite this, the brave workers of Kamagasaki stood up against the stiff security environment in riots against the brutal beating of a day laborer over the past five days. The twin situations of repression and revolt deserve to be examined in more detail. VIDEO: [1 (it)] | PHOTOS: [13 June] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [14] G8 LINKS: background | schedule | online media | local media centers | camp site | music | events | communications G8 MEDIA: G8 Media Network | No-G8 | Alt-G8 | IMC Japan | Teiko (ru) June in Kamagasaki -- Repression and Revolt in Japan Over the past week and a half, an unprecedented political crackdown has been enacted in advance of a series of economic summits around the country. Despite this, the brave workers of Kamagasaki stood up against the stiff security environment in riots against the brutal beating of a day laborer over the past five days. The twin situations of repression and revolt deserve to be examined in more detail. Repression In the run-up to the series of summits, over 40 people were arrested in pre-emptive sweeps of broad left and anarchist groups. On May 29th, 38 people were arrested at Hosei University in Tokyo at a political assembly against the G8. These large-scale arrests were carried out by over 100 public security agents after the students staged after a march across campus protesting the summits.[http://hosei29.blog.shinobi.jp/Date/20080531/] All of the arrestees are still jailed, and among them are apparently some leadership of the Chuukaku-ha Leninist organization, one of the largest organizations of its kind in Japan. On June 4th, Tabi Rounin, an active anarchist from the Kansai region, was arrested on accusation of having his address registered at a location other than where he was living. When arrested, his computer, cell phone, political flyers and more was taken from him; these items were used when detectives interrogated him, asking him about his relationship to internationals possibly arriving for the G8, as well as his activity around Osaka. He would be the first obviously political arrest masked as routine police work.[Tabi Rounin was thankfully released after a week in jail, and is back home] On June 12th, an activist from the Kamagasaki Patrol (an Osaka squatter and anti-capitalist group), was arrested for allegedly defrauding lifestyle assistance payments. This person has been constantly followed by plainclothes police and even helicopters during demonstrations. Clearly, his arrest was planned with the idea of keeping him away from the major anti-summit mobilizations and he will be held without bail for the maximum of 23 until the summit is over. The office of an anarchist organization called the Free Worker was raided in order to look for 'evidence' in this comrade's case. The same day the Rakunan union in Kyoto was raided, with police officers searching their offices and arresting two of their members on suspicion of fraudulent unemployment insurance receipt. One of these two arrested are accused of funneling money received from unemployment insurance to the Asian Wide Campaign, which was organizing against the economic summits. [The Rakunan Union can be contacted at the following address: Kyoto-fu Uji-shi Hironocho Nishiura 99-14 Pal Dai-ichi Biru 3F Rakunan Union / Jiritsu Roudou Kumiai Rengou / TEL: 0774-43-8721 / Fax: 0774-44-3102] In the meantime, Osaka city mobilized thousands of police with the pretext of preventing terrorism against the summit, setting up inspection points and monitoring all around the city. But the strengthened state high on its own power inevitably deployed it in violence, and turned the day laborers of southern Osaka against it in riot. Revolt Kamagasaki is a traditionally day laborer neighborhood that has experienced over thirty riots since the early 1960s. The last riot in Kamagasaki was sparked in 1990 by police brutality and the exposure of connections between the police and Yakuza gangs. The causes this time were not much different. A man was arrested in a shopping arcade near Kamagasaki and taken to the Nishinari police station where he was punched repeatedly in the face by four detectives one after another. Then he was kicked and hung upside down by rope to be beaten some more. He was released the next day and went to show his friends the wounds from the beatings and the rope. This brought over 200 workers to surround the police station and demand that the police chief come out and apologize. Later people also started demanding that the four detectives be fired. Met with steel shields and a barricaded police station, the crowd began to riot, throwing stones and bottles into the police station. Scraps with the riot police resulted in some of their shields and equipment being temporarily seized. The riot stopped around midnight with the riot police being backed into the police station. The next day they brought over 35 police buses and riot vehicles into the Naniwa police station with the intention of using these against the rioters. During the riot, the police surveilled rioters from the top of the police station, from plainclothes positions and from a helicopter. Riot police with steel shields were deployed all around the neighborhood in strategic places to charge in when the action kicked off. The workers organizations which by the second day were maintaining the protest had chosen a good time to do so because the police department proved unwilling to unleash the direct, brutal charges seen in the 1990 riot due to the international spotlight focused on them. On Saturday a police infiltrator was found in the crowd, pushed up against a fence and smashed in the head with a metal bar. The riot has lasted since the 13th and every night there is a resumption of hostility between the day laborers and the cops. Workers so far refuse anything less than the fulfillment of their demands in light of the police brutality incident. Despite the call from more "moderate" NGOs to "stop the violence" there has been no let-up in hostility towards the police, although the real level of violent confrontation is not as strong as the weekend of the 13th-15th. The riot has been characterized by the participation of young people as well as the older day laborers in confrontation with the police. As the guarantors of everyday exploitation under capitalism who have to assertively maintain the constant dispossession of the urban working class, the police have many enemies. This they are finding out every night.[Updates about the situation in Kamagasaki are being posted here (Japanese) www1.odn.ne.jp/?cex38710/thesedays13.htm] Over the past couple of days there have been points where more than 500 people have gathered and rioted around the neighborhood. Police have responded mainly by defending the Nishinari police station, their home base, while getting back up from the local Naniwa police station, which has a riot countermeasure practicing lot, and holds tens of anti-riot vehicles. Despite this mighty arsenal, the police were perhaps surprised when they deployed their tear gas cannon on the first day only to be met with cries of joy and laughter. The use of force no longer has any spell of intimidation, it is simply expected. Still, the combined brutality of the police and their riot vehicles has netted over 40 arrests (including of many young people), many injuries and even blinded one worker with a direct shot of tear gas water to his right eye. The struggle here is inevitably limited by the particular situations of day laborers, who are dispatched to their job sites and have no direct access to the means of production that standard wage workers would. This prevents them from for instance calling political strikes against police brutality, and hitting powerful interests in the city where they really hurt. As workers deprived of these means to struggle, the day laborers will always have the riot as a method not only of collective defense but for also forcing concessions from the city in the form of expanding welfare access, creating jobs, backing off of eviction campaigns etc. While these are more or less important gains strictly in terms of survival, it is important to explore the possibilities of spreading the antagonism of the Kamagasaki workers to the larger population of exploited people in order to imagine doing away with this power structure once and for all. It is unclear exactly where the situation is headed, but we can know for sure that the real repression in Kamagasaki will arrive after the summits have ended and the focus is off of the Japanese government. Then we will see the raids, the arrests and the scapegoating of particular individuals for the righteous outburst of class violence that these riots are. Instead of quietly accepting their fates as people to be trampled upon, the participants have directly attacked the wardens of wage labor who guarantee the violence of everyday slum life. Overall, the ongoing repression against those involved in organizing against the G8 summit as well as Kamagasaki should not convince anyone that the ruling class here is once again afraid of the working class. In repressing certain left groups organizing against the economic summits, the Japanese government is more interested in preventing a movement from emerging that starts to question capital at the macro level, than actually attacking an existing one. On the other hand in Kamagasaki, the state tries to deny the possibility of antagonism in a major metropole and the visibility of this revolt, for fear of it spreading. This is why most news reports have blacked out the ongoing riots in Kamagasaki. The concreteness and universality of the Kamagasaki revolt truly threatens to expand beyond the borders of police violence. Visitors to Kamagasaki from near and far have over the past five days participated and found their own struggle in riots fought by total strangers. The ruling class fears and knows that it cannot control this horizontal sympathy and the real practice of revolt that accompanies it. We Denounce the Arrest of Squatter Activist and Comrade Tabi Rounin! On the morning of June 5th, the squatter liberation activist Tabi Rounin was arrested via warrant claiming that he was a member of the "Black Helmets, a violent ultra-left group" and charged with "falsifying address registration" (the 'crime' of registering his driver's license at his parent's house), which led to his residence being searched three times and 21 items being taken by the police including his PC, cell phone, work resume, texts related to social movements and flyers. Tabi was taken to Nara prefecture's Koriyama police station and slapped with a 10 day extension of custody the next day. Special detectives in Nara prefecture assigned to the 'ultra-left' and Osaka city public order police came to investigate. We only feel contempt for the idiocy and greed for budget money which motivates the public order police in their incessant tailing and eavesdropping over the past six months. Their focus was absolutely on the movement against the G8 summit, foreign guests, Tabi Rounin's relationship with social and solidarity movements, and of course the naked aim of economically bankrupting Tabi Rounin, who had a job interview the next day. The material seized in the search of his apartment verifies all this. Thanks to all those who supported Tabi, we were able to win his freedom on June 13th.. Allow us to thank you for your efforts and support. However the twists and turns continue here. Hearing the story of a worker who was brutally beaten in the investigation room of the Nishinari police department in Kamagasaki, hundreds of day laborers and squatting/homeless workers gathered for several days in response to the call of the Kamagasaki labor union in front of the Nishinari police station and begun an autonomous, physical struggle with many arrests in the late nights after the labor unions leave. One of our number who went to visit an arrestee in jail was stopped by police and questioned, leading to our Free Worker offices here in Osaka to be watched by public order police. Just yesterday, June 18th, our offices were searched in relation to another G8 arrestee although no items were taken. We are preparing for second and third waves of repression against our members. Please keep a focus on the events here as they transpire. June 17th, 2008 Anarchist Black Cross Osaka-shi Kita-ku Nakazakicho 3-3-1-401 Jiyuu Roudousha Rengou Tsuke Post office bank account (Yuubin Furikae Kouza) 00200-5-38572 Name (Meigi) S-16 Kokushoku Kyuuenkai Mail : abc-j (at) sanpal.co.jp http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/06/401194.html Update on Riots in Osaka, Japan with Photos Some folks far from home | 15.06.2008 16:26 | Repression | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements | World Here is an update on the situation happening in Osaka, Sunday 15th June. We previously reported riots broken out in Osaka by workers, against police repression and brutality. Despite local news to the contrary the riots have happened for the third night running, still focused around Nishinari police station where a worker was badly abused on Thursday. Early tonight people set up burning barricades and were breaking the pavement to use as ammunition against the riot police. There were still a lot of people out on the streets after a long weekend. We have reports that over Friday and Saturday night about 20 people were arrested. Here are some photos from the rioting yesterday. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/06/401172.html Rioting in Osaka Japan Some folks far from home | 15.06.2008 05:19 | Repression | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements | World Riots erupted this weekend in Osaka as a result of a day labourer being arrested, after an argument over food he paid for and did not receive. When he was taken into custody he was tied to a chair and subjected to brutal beatings by 4 police. Riots erupted this weekend in Osaka as a result of a day labourer being arrested, after an argument over food he paid for and did not receive. When he was taken into custody he was tied to a chair and subjected to brutal beatings by 4 police. When he was released on Friday 13th he told people what had happened, and a demo was held outside the police station where he was held. The demands of demonstrators were very simple, for the chief of police to come out and apologise and for the officers responsible for the beating to be fired. These demands were not heard and rioting broke out, with 7 arrests. The area in which this happened is an area with a long history of working class struggle and solidarity. In 1990 a riot erupted there that lasted 4 days and later in the 90?s there was more rioting. However people say that this is the first militant struggle of this nature against police and state repression here since the mid 90?s. Day labourers in Japan, as everywhere, don?t know if they have a job from one day to the next and so are very open to exploitation from Yakuza (the Japanese mafia) and other rich bosses. On Saturday by 6pm at least 3 or 4 hundred people were surrounding the police station, denouncing the police over a loudspeaker, making demands that the people inside have access to lawyers, and that an apology and compensation be given. Most of the people were day labourers, men over 40. Riot police were outside the entrance to the station, barricading the gate, and also police surveillance from above- video and photographs being taken. There was a 2 hour stand off, the police being attacked with bottles, rubbish and metal bars. Many obvious plain clothes cops are in the area, one was severely beaten against a wall by a huge crowd of people. Yakuza drive through the crowd, the anger briefly turning away from the police and towards them. (we do not know what happened during the next 2 hours- the tension was rising as it became dark.) By around 10pm the area directly in front of the station had been cleared, with lines of riot police with 2 water cannons and a cherrypicker with video surveillance protecting the station. By this time there was a wider range of people, including many more young people, and people who have traveled to come and support. For hours the people are throwing many stones and bottles, with the police using water cannons to temporarily move back the crowd. Barricades are built from bicycles and traffic cones. At this point the demonstration was very much isolated to one side of the police station, with riot police and secret police occasionally blocking off the road behind the demonstrators, however there was no move to mass arrest or make a serious move to clear the road. At the point where we left the demo there was very much a stalemate happening with people throwing bricks and bottles at the police, the police then clearing the road with the water cannon, and it starting all over again. At this point we are unclear of the number of arrests from last night, although we will try to update the information. It seems more then likely that the trouble will continue tonight, as peoples anger is far from abated. Some folks far from home http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/06/401304.html Osaka Riots A Personal Account Ann On | 16.06.2008 17:31 | Repression | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements | World This is one persons account of the riots in Osaka, the time they are talking about is Friday 13th the day of the G8 Finance Ministers meeting. I heard someone should write a report so I'm doing it now. There were no camera from media, so they probably won't report the situation. Last night(or today in early morning)3am, police was called in a shop at Tsurumibashi and the worker was taken to Nishinari Police station. It wasn't a eat and run,it was just that the worker complained about gruff manner of the shop person. Then at a cell in the second floor(3F),the worker was punched,kicked, by the each of the 4 detectives,and ended up being hanged wrong side up as they holds the worker's foot. When the worker started feeling far, the detectives began spraying something to him. The protest action against this incident started, as always, with sound truck parked at the front door of Nishinari Police station. I had to go to Daikokucho, so I was passing by watching the action.But when I came back around 8:30pm ,passing through the Deshiro intersection and reaching to Nankai-line underpass, I bumped into a riot police platoon waiting in array. Then I though the protest is still going on,and went to see it so I found no less than 300 workers surrounding Nishinari station. The protest with sound car ended about 19:30 pm, and usually when it's over people starts to leave but this time it just got bigger. I checked for my acquaintance but found no one. I met the people from protest action and the worker who were beaten by detectives. He showed me his swelled face by being punched and scars in his neck from being roped. Is it normal to rope people at interrogation? The person who took the worker to hospital said the doctor told "They've done too much". When the worker was telling his stories other workers come and say"I've had that,too ", as usual. Some cried saying "More power to you".But after 21pm this excitement is unusual. Before i arrived a young policeman came from the front door and said something rude, then ended up beating few people so the situation had got bigger. The policeman was a new face who didn't know how workers usually react to these things. There were no police outside the station , and inside of the wall every kind of thrown objects was scattered.The streets nearby looked trashed. I was shocked by the Nishinary police behaving horrible as usual.They are the one causing this trouble. The front gate became quiet as people moved to the north gate and a big wave of people were trying to break the gate. The stainless made gate is not easily breakable, and there is a car the other side to protect the gate but people began to chant, not losing hope. A white smoke appeared and covered the street.I though they used the tear gas and covered my mouth by a towel but it was a fire extinguisher someone had thrown. repeating angry voices Sound of glass being broken Bikes are thrown Someone got hit in head by a "cup sake" (glass bottle of rice wine about the size of a half pint glass) thrown by our friends, but other than that, we didn't experience injuries. The riot police walked toward us from Nankai line guard,where there were waiting. The situation became tense. But they were not many and that was obvious sign of no intention to intimidate the workers. So the excited workers jumped to the riot cops who were about to enter the police station from the gate.Then a fight started. Some young workers runs with stolen the police helmets and shields. A young riot cop fall down during the fight at the gate.It was out friends E and K who carried him saying "this is serious.". The cop was totally unconscious, so if we left him there he might be beaten up.That's why E and K saved him. They talked to the riot cops crowded at the gate and left him inside then came back to us. The riot cops reformed themselves and tried to come out again but were attacked by "cup sakes", then they had to back off. Today was the first day of 8 finance minister meeting, the main force of riot police is probably concentrated there. 30 cops wouldn't do. The workers knows the situation well, some even complacently say "They gave us the untrained bunch". Considering that, why the Nishinari police would make this trouble in such time? They are just too foolish.The Chief of police should have come out and apologize frankly before causing all this mess. I couldn't witness the whole thing because I had thing to do, but it's the first report for now. I hope someone will fill the gap of this lacking report. I also hope we see no more arrest or injury. Ann On http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/summit/20080706TDY02311.htm 2,500 rally in Sapporo to protest G-8 summit The Yomiuri Shimbun Activists march carrying signs to protest against the upcoming Group of Eight summit meeting in Sapporo on Saturday under heavy police guard. SAPPORO--Nongovernmental organizations marched in central Sapporo on Saturday to protest against the upcoming Group of Eight summit meeting in Toyakocho, Hokkaido. About 2,500 activists from Japan and European, Southeast Asian and African countries participated in the rally. The rally's organizer had informed the police when applying for a permit to hold the rally that it expected up to 8,000 people would take part. The protesters marched about 2.5 kilometers carrying signs emblazoned with slogans such as "Stop global warming!" and "Crush G-8." During the march, some activists clashed with riot police, who arrested four people, including a 48-year-old Japanese Reuters photographer, on suspicion of obstructing police officers from performing their duties. In front of Sapporo Central Police Station, where the four were detained, about 100 people gathered to protest against the arrests and clashed with police officers again at about 5:50 p.m. on the day. (Jul 6, 2008) http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2008/07/2008755522967115.html Protests precede G8 summit Protesters are urging world leaders to ensure access to food for the poor [AFP] Protesters have gathered in the Japanese city of Sapporo to demonstrate against rising food prices, ahead of a summit of the Group of Eight (G8) rich nations. Thousands of people, including many farmers, are taking part in Saturday's protest. About 21,000 police officers have been deployed near Toyako, the northern Japanese lakeside resort where G8 leaders will meet on Monday. The demonstrators are calling for the G8 to pay more attention to food producers. "We should have a more balanced food supply in the world," Eiichi Hayashizaki, a rice farmer at the protest, said. "Japan imports the majority of its food from overseas, so we don't starve ourselves, but the government should stop controlling rice production in the country," he said. Food rights Oxfam International has said that soaring food prices and climate change are having a negative impact on world poverty. "This isn't the time for a holiday, this is the time for sorting out problems," Lucy Brinicombe, an Oxfam International spokesperson, said. "They shouldn't be distracted from finding solutions for the food crisis and climate change." Earlier this week, Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank, called for G8 leaders to address rising food prices at their summit. The crisis, which is limiting many poor peoples' access to staple foodstuffs, is a "man-made catastrophe" which is overwhelming the bank's resources, he said. Global food prices have nearly doubled in three years, according to the World Bank. There have been a string of protests in parts of the developing world over the sharp price increases. Leaders of the eight major industrial powers - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States - are reportedly set to install a system of "food reserves" to help nations that have limited immediate access to food. Activists said that Japanese immigration authorities barred the entry of more than two dozen South Koreans who planned to take part in Saturday's demonstration. South Koreans have a reputation for being particularly impassioned on issues of global trade. A farmer from South Korea stabbed himself to death in 2003 during a protest at global trade negotiations in Mexico. http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/217179,rally-held-to-protest-g8-in-northern-japan.html Rally held to protest G8 in northern Japan Posted : Mon, 07 Jul 2008 04:34:02 GMT Author : DPA Category : Asia (World) Tokyo - As the leaders of the world's largest economies gathered in the northern island of Hokkaido Monday for the Group of Eight (G8) summit, an estimated 150 people set out on a protest rally from the town of Date. Demonstrators shouted slogans such as, "Stop exporting nuclear power plants," "Stop G8" and "G8 should take responsibility of world poverty and food crisis." No arrests were made during Monday's protest, which was held on the opposite side of Lake Toya from where the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States are meeting in a luxury hotel. Four people were arrested Saturday in Sapporo, when an estimated 5,000 people from non-governmental and civil groups demonstrated against the G8's failure to deal with world poverty and war. http://www.stuff.co.nz/4601506a12.html G8 summit protesters scuffle with police Reuters | Monday, 30 June 2008 JUST GR8: An anti-G8 protester scuffles with riot police during a rally against next month's G8 summit in Hokkaido, northern Japan, in Tokyo. Anti-G8 summit protesters have danced to blaring music and marched down the streets of Tokyo in heavy rain, accusing the Group of Eight rich nations of causing poverty and world instability. The protests, which have become a fixture at Group of Eight summits, came as Japan tightened security ahead of this year's July 7-9 gathering in Hokkaido, northern Japan. Two separate rallies in the nation's capital gathered over 1,000 people, including anti-capitalists, labour union members and protesters from abroad, such as Spain and South Korea. Security was heavy with hundreds of anti-riot police guarding the streets as protesters walked down Tokyo's central shopping districts, carrying signs proclaiming various agendas such as "shut down G8 summit" and "G8hunger". Some protesters scuffled with the police. Japanese broadcaster TV Asahi said two people were arrested. Police could not confirm the report. "Issues like environmental destruction and poverty in Africa, these are all caused by the G8 governments," said Yu Ando, a 31-year-old working for a municipal government in western Japan. "I can't stand that they are proclaiming to solve these issues." For the summit at Lake Toya, about 760km north of Tokyo, domestic and international NGOs such as Oxfam plan to protest a range of topics including globalisation, the food crisis and wars. Protests are expected near the summit venue ? where protesters are expected to gather at three camp sites ? as well as in Tokyo and Sapporo, capital of Hokkaido. But tight security and the sheer cost of travel to the vicinity of the remote summit site could dampen turnout. Human rights lawyers have said Japanese immigration authorities are making it tough for some activists to get visas by complicating the application process, and media reports said some activists were detained for hours at immigration. At last year's G8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, an estimated 30,000 protesters flocked to the area and entered a restricted zone set up for the summit, as well as blocking land routes into the area. At Lake Toya, leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States will discuss soaring food and oil prices, along with climate change and African development. Japan has also invited eight other nations, including Brazil, China and India, to hold talks on climate change on the sidelines. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/T309898.htm RPT-Japan anti-G8 summit protesters scuffle with police 29 Jun 2008 23:15:57 GMT Source: Reuters (Repeats to additional subscribers) TOKYO, June 29 (Reuters) - Anti-G8 summit protesters danced to blaring music and marched down the streets of Tokyo in heavy rain on Sunday, accusing the Group of Eight rich nations of causing poverty and world instability. The protests, which have become a fixture at Group of Eight summits, came as Japan tightened security ahead of this year's July 7-9 gathering in Hokkaido, northern Japan. Two separate rallies in the nation's capital gathered over 1,000 people, including anti-capitalists, labour union members and protesters from abroad, such as Spain and South Korea. Security was heavy with hundreds of anti-riot police guarding the streets as protesters walked down Tokyo's central shopping districts, carrying signs proclaiming various agendas such as "shut down G8 summit" and "G8=hunger". Some protesters scuffled with the police. Japanese broadcaster TV Asahi said two people were arrested. Police could not confirm the report. "Issues like environmental destruction and poverty in Africa, these are all caused by the G8 governments," said Yu Ando, a 31-year-old working for a municipal government in western Japan. "I can't stand that they are proclaiming to solve these issues." For the summit at Lake Toya, about 760 km (470 miles) north of Tokyo, domestic and international NGOs such as Oxfam plan to protest a range of topics including globalisation, the food crisis and wars. Protests are expected near the summit venue -- where protesters are expected to gather at three camp sites -- as well as in Tokyo and Sapporo, capital of Hokkaido. But tight security and the sheer cost of travel to the vicinity of the remote summit site could dampen turnout. Human rights lawyers have said Japanese immigration authorities are making it tough for some activists to get visas by complicating the application process, and media reports said some activists were detained for hours at immigration. At last year's G8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, an estimated 30,000 protesters flocked to the area and entered a restricted zone set up for the summit, as well as blocking land routes into the area. At Lake Toya, leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States will discuss soaring food and oil prices, along with climate change and African development. Japan has also invited eight other nations, including Brazil, China and India, to hold talks on climate change on the sidelines. (Reporting by Yoko Kubota; Editing by Jeremy Laurence) http://www.dw-world.de/dw/function/0,,12215_cid_3463815,00.html?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf | 06.07.2008 | 04:00 UTC Protesters arrested before G-8 summit Four people have been arrested during a demonstration against the Group of Eight summit in Japan. Amongst those detained was a cameraman for the Reuters international news agency. Thousands of protesters are in the northern city of Sapporo, the closest major city to the lakeside resort of Toyako as the leaders of the top eight industrialised nations make their way to Japan. German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned in a pre-summit statement that rising food prices and shortages could cause international insecurity. She also said that the G-8 countries had to underscore their intent to keep their commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view/20080707-146956/G8-protesters-in-tense-stand-off-with-police G8 protesters in tense stand-off with police Agence France-Presse First Posted 16:14:00 07/07/2008 DATE -- Protesters and police engaged in a tense stand-off on Monday as Japanese authorities blocked demonstrators from nearing a summit of the world's most powerful leaders at a secluded mountain resort. Around 50 anti-globalization protesters, mostly from abroad, marched towards the Group of Eight leaders' luxury hilltop hotel but before they could come close they were stopped by more than 100 anti-riot police with 20 vans. "This isn't what democracy looks like," one of the protesters howled at the police, who stood guard with shields under pouring rain. A police negotiator replied to them: "Go back. I'm warning you that you will be arrested." After a 30-minute stand-off in the town of Toyoura, the protesters, some covered with hoods and scarves, retreated to their remote campsite. "In Japan the right to demonstrate is very strongly repressed," a Spanish activist said. "It's not only this time, but there's a permanent lack of access for Japanese citizens to express their ideas in any way that is difficult." Thousands of demonstrators chanted slogans Saturday in Hokkaido's largest city of Sapporo, with police arresting three demonstrators and one journalist, but no protesters have been able to get near the isolated summit venue. The closest demonstrators got was the edge of Lake Toya, some 10 kilometers (six miles) in diameter, where they shouted slogans in the vain hope that the leaders on the other side could hear them. Activists ranging from German punk rockers to Japanese indigenous activists are camping here some 30 kilometers (18 miles) away from Toyako, where the G8 industrial powers were holding annual talks. Japanese authorities agreed to let activists stay for free at far-removed campsites in a bid to make up for a hotel shortage and keep better control over protesters to prevent any violence. Colorful flags and banners reading "No G8!" fluttered from tents on the crowded campsite as a few dozen local farmers watched. Organizers of the campsite put up signs offering to buy vegetables from local farmers and asking them to join the movement. While many of the protesters are foreigners, they also include Ainu -- the indigenous people here on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido. Kenichi Kawamura, whose Ainu name is Shinrit e-oripak Aynu, performed a traditional ritual to pray to the gods for successful demonstrations against the Group of Eight summit. "The G8 are coming to our land to do whatever they please. Please protect us," said the 57-year-old, wearing an Ainu gown and a headband during the ritual, which was carried out in his indigenous language. The Ainu were displaced when settlers from Japan's main island of Honshu settled Hokkaido in the 19th century. They still lag behind in education and income in the Asian economic power. A group of German punk rockers lying down on the lawn at the campsite remembered that last year's protests were very different. Militant activists threw Molotov cocktails and stones during demonstrations at the summit in Germany that drew tens of thousands of protesters from around the world. "Demonstrations here are smaller than the German protests we saw last year," said Posti, the drummer of punk band Sprengsatz who goes by one name. http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?at_code=434938 Tough G-8 Protests for Korean Activists Japan took strong actions to prevent activists from reaching protest sites Ida Grandas (jezaky) Email Article Print Article Published 2008-07-22 05:12 (KST) The G-8 protests in Japan were both a disappointment and a good experience for Korean activists Do Young and Cho Yak-gol. On Saturday afternoon, they spoke about their experiences at a screening held by the radical language exchange group Seoulidarity at Kuchu Camp in Hongdea, Seoul. About 30 people came to see the screenings. One of the documentaries for which Seoulidarity provided the subtitles was produced by the Korean activist group NO G-8. Seoulidarity was formed two years ago. The group has a Web site with articles and documentaries in both Korean and English. The aim is to reach out to foreigners living in Korea and to people in other counties about social struggles in Korea. Both Do and Cho joined already for the preventive protests in Tokyo and then moved on to Sapporo and finally the Toyoura campsites. Do is a media activist and the G-8 protest was the first time for him to do a joint media action together with Japanese. In a park in Sapporo, they did laser tagging -- a way to make people reach out with what they want to say through projecting tags on big buildings. When they started the action, the police did not say anything. But then they came back. "I told the police in Korean to fuck off. Then we moved to next place," Do said. In the end the police stopped bothering them, and they could go through with their action. The protests in Japan were smaller than in previous years. Not many people from Europe could travel the whole way for the protests and many Korean activists did not come because of the ongoing protests in Seoul. Furthermore, Japan took strong actions to prevent activists from getting to the protests. Some activists were stopped at the airport and people were forced to leave fingerprints. Do erased his fingerprints before going to Japan. "The Immigration officer asked me why I didn't have any," Do said. "I said I've been working too hard." Cho and Do found it hard to go through with the protests. There were three campsites located 20 kilometers from the hotel where the meetings were held and the long walks in the heat only exhausted people. "That stopped us from doing many things," said Do. The large number of police officers and the violence against the protesters were also limiting. The protesters started to demonstrate against the police. "Even in the middle of nowhere they have to use this kind of violence, that's the only way to go through with the meetings." said Cho. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/2252071/Protesters-train-at-camps-before-Japan-G8-summit.html Protesters train at camps before Japan G8 summit Dreadlocks flailing in the wind, the man emitted a fierce cry as he ran down the quiet country lane towards me, brandishing a bamboo stick in each hand. By Danielle Demetriou in Tobestu, Hokkaido Last Updated: 8:05PM BST 05 Jul 2008 Japan has deployed 40,000 armed police across the country Photo: EPA Normally, I would turn and flee. But we were both playing roles in a training exercise for demonstrators preparing for Monday's G8 summit in Hokkaido in northern Japan, and my own face was covered by a menacing revolutionary scarf. Thousands of protesters have marched, danced and drummed their way through the streets near a highly secured hotel on the remote Lake Toya where the leaders will meet. For many people, the focus has already shifted from Gordon Brown's stance on climate change and the contents of Carla Bruni's wardrobe to the students, farmers, trade unionists and anarchists trying to disrupt proceedings. Japan, where such protest training camps have never been set up before, is taking the threat very seriously: it has deployed 40,000 armed police across the country and is spending ?142 million on security. The police have arrested three demonstrators after angry scuffles, including the disc-jockey on a mobile protest float. The protesters have been carefully planning their response in a rural camp in nearby Tobetsu. The programme covers direct action workshops, protest tactic discussions, legal advisory training, puppet making, football tournaments and drumming sessions. In the guise of a Western protester, The Telegraph infiltrated the camp, which adheres to a strict "no media" policy. It was a 20-minute walk through green fields backed by mist-shrouded mountains and drizzly skies. But as the string of colourful tents came into view, a car could also be seen in the distance, manned by plain clothes police keeping a watchful eye on proceedings. The camp was set in the grounds of a former school, where flourescent anti-G8 banners fluttered in the breeze and a large sign read: "Alternative village." Inside a reception tent, two Japanese activists slouched on a sofa, handed out a list of rules and politely asked for a daily Y1,500 (?7) donation to help run the camp. About three quarters of the protesters are Japanese from a variety of backgrounds, including trade unionists, farmers, activists, and the Japanese Communist party. Many of them are students, but there were plenty of older Japanese citizens as well, including Hiroshi Tsuchira, 71, a retired airport worker. "Life is difficult for people in Japan and I have never been to march this big before but it is important for people to hear our voice," he said. "Our future will not be good if it lies in the hands of the G8 leaders." Other activists came from San Francisco, London and Nantes. They included people from charities like Oxfam and more riotous protesters from a French anarcho-syndicalist commune. "We are protesting against a structure of capitalism that has been created by the G8 summit," said Nakata-san, a political science student from Tokyo. "We want to create our own ideal system in this campsite community." Despite its anarchic credentials, the campsite offers a perfect template of Japan's renowned organisational skills. Neat piles of placards, T-shirts and recycling bins line the entrance, while leaflets offer advice on protest etiquette. Japanese bamboo flute music is as prominent as punk rock on the internal sound system, which also broadcasts sudden and surreal messages: "Will volunteers please help peel vegetables for dinner!" or "Rave party in the gym at 5pm!" The gym is a vast space filled with piles of anti-G8 banners and brightly coloured protest "puppets" ? including eight wooden creations on sticks emblazoned with skulls on one side and the faces of G8 leaders on the other. And there are many meetings. After a long discussion about colour-coded washing-up bowls and whether sheets should be used with futons, the cultural differences suddenly came to light. "Is there nothing else to talk about?" muttered Sarah, a straight-talking activist who spent two months travelling overland to Japan from London. "I'm stunned." Beneath the veneer of domesticity, serious training sessions are under way for the 1,000 protesters at three camps near Lake Toya. One teaches how to avoid arrest. "It was hands on, direct and practical," said James, a 19-year-old Cambridge undergraduate. "It's useful for people who want to go to these protests and make an impact without getting arrested." >From intricate diagrams of where to stand in a crowd to stunts like dressing up as clowns, the discussions are painstakingly detailed. For protesters who need to sleep, there are tents or, for an additional fee, three neatly organised rooms, equipped with futons and blankets. And for those too hungry to continue training on behalf of the world's poor, there are delicious vegan meals of curry, risotto, seaweed salad and fresh fruit prepared by a "food collective" that also works around the clock to make fresh hemp bread from cannabis seeds. Late arrivals were disappointed to learn that they had missed the last of the direct action workshops laid on over previous days. They were masterminded by Lisa Fithian, an American activist - and so fearful are the Japanese authorities over the risk of disruption to the summit that she was reportedly only allowed into the country on condition that she left before the summit had even begun. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view/20080705-146695/Protests-greet-rich-nations-meet Protests greet rich nations? meet Filipino anti-debt campaigners among protesters Agence France-Presse, INQUIRER.net First Posted 22:05:00 07/05/2008 SAPPORO, Japan -- Thousands of farmers and activists from around the world demonstrated Saturday in the northern Japanese city of Sapporo ahead of next week's summit of the Group of Eight rich nations. Japan mobilized thousands of riot police to prevent any violence on the streets of Sapporo, the closest major city to the lakeside resort of Toyako, where world leaders will meet from Monday. Dozens of masked protesters marching to rock music were warned by police against entering restricted areas as Japanese organizers of the rally called on the demonstrators to avoid violence and clashes with police. Organizers said two protestors were arrested. "No violence! Please follow rules," said one of the organizers with a loudspeaker before the protesters hit the street. "Thousands of police have come here from throughout the nation and are watching us!" Security was tight for the rally, which brought together union activists, anti-war demonstrators, farmers, and students in a park in Sapporo. Riot police wearing helmets and carrying shields patrolled downtown streets and the central park, part of a 21,000-strong force deployed to ensure security for the summit. "Of course violence is not good," said a protestor from London. "It does not cause any good." "But look at the number of cops here," said the man, 50, who declined to be identified. Organizers estimated 5,000 people took part in the rally. Among them are Filipino debt campaigners who challenged rich nations to do more than promise more aid, by canceling illegitimate debts that people of some 100 developing countries are being forced to pay. Lidy Nacpil, coordinator of the Jubilee South-Asia Pacific Movement on Debt and Development coordinator, said the total external debt claimed from Southern countries is about US$2.7 trillion. "Illegitimate debts involve the gross violation of basic assumptions of debt contracts, as well as widely accepted ethical, social, political, economic, environmental values, standards, and principles. They cause harm to the well being of the people and communities in whose name the debts were incurred and who are the ones paying for these debts," she explained. Milo Tanchuling, secretary general of the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC), said that as of 2007, the Philippines has $6.23 billion debts claimed by G8 countries, or 45.6 percent of the country?s total foreign debts minus the bonds. He said more than $5 billion of these debts or almost 39 percent is claimed by Japan alone. Violent anti-globalization rallies have marred past G8 summits -- last year militant activists threw Molotov cocktails and stones during demonstrations in Germany that drew tens of thousands of protesters. Japanese authorities were taking no chances, refusing entry to 19 South Koreans, with others still detained at airports. A speaker from the Korean Federation of Trade Unions deplored the move. "We will not back down due to such suppression," he said to applause. Ahead of the demonstration, around 100 farmers and fishermen waved banners and shouted slogans in the park, calling for the G8 to pay more attention to food producers. "We should have a more balanced food supply in the world," said Japanese rice farmer Eiichi Hayashizaki, 69, holding a straw-woven banner saying, "Power to food producers!" "Japan imports the majority of its food from overseas, so we don't starve ourselves. But the government should stop controlling rice production in the country." Activists from charity Oxfam International warned of the impact of soaring food prices and climate change on world poverty as they performed their customary skit mocking the eight world leaders including Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and United States President George W. Bush. Wearing traditional Japanese kimonos, they sang a karaoke version of the Abba song "Money, Money, Money." "This isn't the time for a holiday, this is the time for sorting out problems," said Lucy Brinicombe of Oxfam International. "They shouldn't be distracted from finding solutions for the food crisis and climate change." Global food prices have nearly doubled in three years, according to the World Bank, setting off riots in parts of the developing world. Leaders of the eight major industrial powers -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States -- are reportedly set to agree on a new system of "food reserves" to assist hungry nations when they meet. http://www.gmanews.tv/story/105573/RP-militants-stage-peaceful-protest-vs-G-8-meeting RP militants stage peaceful protest vs G-8 meeting 07/07/2008 | 09:36 PM Email this | Email the Editor | Print | Digg this | Add to del.icio.us MANILA, Philippines - Members of militant groups on Monday staged a peaceful picket in front of the Japanese Embassy in Manila to join other protesters worldwide in denouncing the ongoing three-day G-8 summit in Japan. The activists, belonging to the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) and joined by the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, said deplored the meeting, saying that it was sham meant to preserve profits of big business. "What a great lie for the G-8 to proclaim that their top agenda is to alleviate the peoples of the world from price spikes of basic commodities. The leaders of the G8 countries and their capitalist cohorts have created and aggravated the crisis that all of us endure today, "KMU Chair Elmer Labog said. The G-8 countries are composed of Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia, the United States, France, Canada and Italy. Labog, who is also the first deputy secretary General International League of People's Struggle said that, "Imperialists such as the G8 heads direct a world economy that ensures primarily the super-profits of big business at the expense of widespread poverty and exploitation." He added that big businesses resort to cheap labor and massive lay-offs to avoid loss of income amid the global crisis. "Despite the spate of price hikes, people from exploited countries are refused of substantial wage hikes. They are threatened that factories will close down, even if top corporations enjoy rising incomes," said Labog. To bolster his argument, Labog noted that the net income of top 1,000 corporations to have increased by 327.23% from $2.3 billion in 2001 to $10 billion in 2005. Labog predicts worldwide unemployment increase because of the capitalists' absurd cost-cutting measures. The International Labor Organization said earlier this year that before the start of the looming economic crisis, more than 5 million more would be added to the 189.9 million who were already unemployed in the world in 2008. "Indeed, the workers and the people's welfare are the last priority in the summit of the international directors of the crisis," he said. Earlier, activists have accused some G-8 countries, particularly France, Canada and Italy, of skimping on aid to Africa, and urged them to ramp up their contributions. - GMANews.TV http://www.mathaba.net/rss/?x=589594 North American Summit gets under way amid tight security, protests Posted: 2008/04/22 From: Mathaba With street closures and traffic restrictions, security was tightest around in the Central Business District, where the North American leaders will engage in most of their summit-related activities. NEW ORLEANS, THE UNITED STATES, April 21 (Xinhua) -- The fourth annual summit of leaders of the United States, Canada and Mexico, dubbed the "Three Amigos summit," got underway Monday in New Orleans, the city still marred by the 2005 Hurricane Katrina, amid tight security and sporadic protests. During the two-day event, U.S. President George W. Bush will confer with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in promoting integrated trade and security arrangements under the framework of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP). With street closures and traffic restrictions, security was tightest around in the Central Business District, where the North American leaders will engage in most of their summit-related activities. But the morning scene inside the Gallier Hall, a historic building which used to serve as New Orleans' city hall, was messy as workers were still in last-minute preparations for Bush's arrival later in the day for a meeting with business executives. Local police and secret service agents lined the streets surrounding the luxury Windsor-Court Hotel, where the three leaders will be staying during the summit, effectively blocking traffic and authorized personnel from getting too close. Prior to the leaders' arrival, under the watch of police officers, a small number of protesters gathered in front of the hotel, chanting anti-summit slogans and waving placards that read: "No North American Union", "U.S. citizens say no to tyranny," etc. "They (The leaders) are doing this without consulting with the American people," Thomas Anderson, a protester from Texas, told Xinhua, saying that they were calling for transparency from the meeting. Anderson accused the leaders at the summit of ignoring the concerns of ordinary people and engaging in secrete discussions that violate the U.S. constitution and endanger the sovereignty of the United States. Jim Stachowiak, a New Orleans native who operates an independent on-line radio station, said that through their protests, they wanted the American people to know that the "real enemies" are not in Iraq, but "in Washington D.C.." "We are pleading, begging them to listen to the American people," Stachowiak said. The protesters demonstrated for several hours outside the hotel and later left peacefully in the afternoon. But elsewhere in the business district, small groups of demonstrators could still be seen sporadically. Some activists said they expected protests of larger scale to take place on Tuesday when Bush, Harper and Calderon are due to have a more formal meeting before wrapping up the summit. http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-04/22/content_8026905.htm Protest against North American leaders' summit Protesters demonstrate as U.S. President George W. Bush arrives for the North American Leaders' Summit in New Orleans, Louisiana on April 21, 2008. President Bush hosted the leaders of Mexico and Canada on Monday in the historic city of New Orleans to discuss progress moving toward integrated trade and security. (Xinhua/Zhang Yan) http://www.roguegovernment.com/news.php?id=9880 Epoch Times Covers Bilderberg Protests 06-10-2008 Epoch Times CHANTILLY, VA?While over a hundred of the most influential people in the world are believed to gather at the Westfields Marriott hotel in Chantilly, Virginia, for several days (June 5?8) all the major media, except for the Epoch Times, are apparently silent about it. The event is an annual gathering of the Bilderberg Group. Former Secretary of State Madelin Albright, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke, Henry Kissinger, Vernon Jordan, and others were seen by witnesses and some of them were confirmed by others just outside of the hotel. Photos and videotapes were taken of them. (See the websites operated by Alex Jones at the bottom of this report that have posted some of the videos and photos.) Alex Jones, syndicate radio talk show host and documentary film maker, says that he invited the Washington Post, the Fairfax Times, and asked 16 million listeners of the Coast to Coast AM radio show to call on the press to cover the event. But no major media showed. "This is a criminal group. They're involved in very bad things," said Alex Jones, referring to the Bilderberg Group. He said, "They violate the Logan Act. The federal law says that they can't come here and discuss policy with private interest in secret because we have the right to know. The only place they can discuss things in secret is in national security meetings, in the Congress, or in the Capitol, and that's amongst themselves ... This is illegal what they're doing ? That's why we have moles inside reporting to us what's happened." He continued, "This isn't about the federal government. This is about private interest meeting with members of the government, outside of the government, violating federal law, and the Logan Act. We are here because this is a criminal summit ? These are globalists. They want one world government. They want to reduce liberty." Alex Jones is also the producer of Endgames: Blueprint for Global Enslavement. When asked about evidence for Bilderberg Group's influence over U.S. Presidential candidates, he said, "From our sources, they decide who they like best and they put their weight behind him. These people own the media. They own the big corporations. They've got trillions of dollars together. And when you get the nod from the big boys, you tend to get the support ... Do they have total control over society? No. Do they have total control over the candidates? No. But they're steering it. They're massively influencing it." The Washington Post published an article on June 9 with headline, "Obama Adviser Faces Scrutiny Over Mortgage Deals." It reports that James A. Johnson, former Fannie Mae CEO, is leading Sen. Barack Obama's vice-presidential search process, and that Johnson is a member of the American Friends of Bilderberg. Jim Tucker, co-founder of American Free Press (AFP), has been investigating the Bilderberg Group for over a quarter of a century. His research on the Bilderberg Group was highly praised by participants of the protests at Chantilly. He is the author of Jim Tucker's Bilderberg Diary (2005). Jon Ronson, author of Them, describes the Bilderberg Group for CNN several years ago: "Many members of the Bilderberg see themselves in much the same way as the conspiracy theorists see them: as shadowy figures out to influence world events. They see themselves as wise globalist centrists. Many of the anti-Bilderberg conspiricists see themselves as twigs in a tidal wave of globalization; they see themselves as nationalists. World government is what Bilderberg are into?the idea of a global community and a 'one world order.' "The Bilderberg Group sees themselves as head hunters. They'll get an up and coming politician who they think may be President or Prime Minister one day and as globalist and industrialist leaders, they try to influence them. Bilderberg secrecy hulks back to Henry Kissenger who loves the idea of working in the shadows. The secrecy gives rise to conspiracy theories." The CNN interview can be seen on You Tube: CNN interview with author Jon Ronson. Free Press International offers some interesting resources on the Bilderberg Group. These websites, owned and run by Alex Jones, show photos and videos of the Chantilly event: http://infowars.net http://prisonplanet.com There appears to be a wide range of opinions about the Bilderberg Group. This report represents only the tip of the iceberg. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CVN_CONVENTION_PROTESTS?SITE=ILROR&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT Aug 25, 1:45 PM EDT Protesters: We're being treated like prisoners By JUDITH KOHLER Associated Press Writer DENVER (AP) -- A small group of protesters marched to the demonstration zone outside the Democratic National Convention, complaining they are being treated like political prisoners. A contingent from the protest group Recreate 68 Alliance walked from a downtown pedestrian mall to the fenced-off zone Monday, although they had vowed earlier they would never return because they oppose the limits on where they can demonstrate. Protesters derisively call the 47,000-square-foot zone the "Freedom Cage." It's separated from the parking lot around the convention hall by metal fences atop concrete barriers, about 700 feet from the Pepsi Center, where the delegates start gathering Monday night. "We're being treated by the city of Denver and the Secret Service like political prisoners, like pariahs," said Recreate 68 organizer Mark Cohen. Cohen and his wife, Barbara, each wore a red inverted triangle similar to the type political prisoners in Nazi Germany were forced to wear. "We're going to stay here for just a couple of minutes to state our disgust with this abomination, the way the city and Secret Service are tearing the Constitution of the United States to shreds and then we will leave," Mark Cohen said. Another protester, Holly Heiman, 40, of Green Mountain Falls, said she wanted to show her opposition to what she believes is an oppressive government that won't change no matter who is elected. Elsewhere, about 100 people rallied at Civic Center Park in downtown Denver to draw attention to people they consider to be political prisoners in the U.S., including American Indian activist Leonard Peltier, who's serving a life sentence for killing two FBI agents during a 1975 standoff on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. http://globalnation.inquirer.net/news/breakingnews/view/20080818-155400/Migrant-groups-to-protest-global-forum-on-migration Migrant groups to protest global forum on migration By Veronica Uy INQUIRER.net First Posted 18:09:00 08/18/2008 MANILA, Philippines?An international coalition of overseas workers and migrants' rights advocates vowed Monday to stage "the strongest opposition" against the Second Global Forum on Migration and Development that the Philippines will host in October. "The 10 days leading to the GFMD, from October 19 to 29, shall be marked by the strongest opposition mounted by grassroots migrants all over the world," Eni Lestari, chairperson of the International Migrants Alliance, said in an e-mail to media outlets. "For 10 days, we shall shake the GFMD down to its core agenda," Lestari said. Lestari said the "10 Days to Shake the GFMD" campaign will feature dramatic actions from different countries that will highlight migrants' national and international concerns. Noting that the forum will take place in the middle of a crisis, Lestari said the GFMD will only "intensify the labor export industry, aggravate the conditions in many backward and poor countries, and perpetuate forced migration of people." Arguing against globalization in general and state-sanctioned labor migration, the IMA chairperson said globalization has increased the disparity between rich and poor countries, and has caused the present global crisis. On the other hand, labor migration has become a major source of income for poor countries. Lestari also said that while combined remittance of migrant workers around the world total $2.26 trillion, the main stakeholders -- the migrants themselves -- are not party to the forum. "For the GFMD to talk about the rights of migrants is devoid of sincerity and full of hypocrisy," Lestari said. "Attacks to the rights of migrants, immigrants, refugees, and other displaced people are happening everywhere, every day. Ironically, the violators of the rights of migrants -- through grave anti-migrant policies -- are the same countries in the GFMD," Lestari said. The IMA leader also criticized the GFMD organizers for holding the Philippine labor export in high esteem, calling it "scandalous given the Philippine government's worse than poor record in upholding the rights of its overseas nationals." http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/080720/national/economic_summit Protesters demonstrate against Pacific Northwest Economic Region Summit Module body Sun Jul 20, 11:02 PM VANCOUVER - A handful of protesters armed with pots and pans staged a loud demonstration outside a political trade meeting in Vancouver Sunday. The Pacific Northwest Economic Region Summit brings together politicians and business representatives from across western North America to discuss issues like cross-border trade, long-term sustainability and transportation for the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympics. The group of about 20 people waved placards and made noise outside the posh hotel where the summit was taking place. Rally organizer Cynthia Oka said the summit was organized in a secretive manner with no public input for those most affected by the policies being discussed. "Part of our objective in having these public rallies is to raise awareness about what's happening when these things are taking place," she said. "We'll try in various ways to disrupt the agenda, to protest it, to educate other people about it." Dressed in a florescent workers vest and a hard hat with toy snakes wrapped around it, Joan Russow came over with a group from Victoria called Snakes in the Grass. She said some of the groups attending the summit weren't going to get off the hook just by showing up. "All the major polluters are here and this is diluting the public," she said. "Why are they here discussing solutions to solve the problems in the northwest?" Matt Morrison, spokesman of the PNER said the format of the summit will include open panels and discussions and organizers are relying on the media to relay the outcome of the event. "We do pride ourselves on engagement and inclusion. All parties, all communities. We're really looking at what we can share as a community with the region, beyond borders," he said. He said despite the expensive registration fee, the summit was open to anyone interested in attending. The U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Wilkins is scheduled to address the summit on Monday. Delegates from Alaska, Alberta, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Saskatchewan, Washington and Yukon were registered to take part. http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/080720/national/economic_summit Protesters demonstrate against Pacific Northwest Economic Region Summit Module body Sun Jul 20, 11:02 PM VANCOUVER - A handful of protesters armed with pots and pans staged a loud demonstration outside a political trade meeting in Vancouver Sunday. The Pacific Northwest Economic Region Summit brings together politicians and business representatives from across western North America to discuss issues like cross-border trade, long-term sustainability and transportation for the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympics. The group of about 20 people waved placards and made noise outside the posh hotel where the summit was taking place. Rally organizer Cynthia Oka said the summit was organized in a secretive manner with no public input for those most affected by the policies being discussed. "Part of our objective in having these public rallies is to raise awareness about what's happening when these things are taking place," she said. "We'll try in various ways to disrupt the agenda, to protest it, to educate other people about it." Dressed in a florescent workers vest and a hard hat with toy snakes wrapped around it, Joan Russow came over with a group from Victoria called Snakes in the Grass. She said some of the groups attending the summit weren't going to get off the hook just by showing up. "All the major polluters are here and this is diluting the public," she said. "Why are they here discussing solutions to solve the problems in the northwest?" Matt Morrison, spokesman of the PNER said the format of the summit will include open panels and discussions and organizers are relying on the media to relay the outcome of the event. "We do pride ourselves on engagement and inclusion. All parties, all communities. We're really looking at what we can share as a community with the region, beyond borders," he said. He said despite the expensive registration fee, the summit was open to anyone interested in attending. The U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Wilkins is scheduled to address the summit on Monday. Delegates from Alaska, Alberta, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Saskatchewan, Washington and Yukon were registered to take part. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/31/stories/2008073151510300.htm Andhra Pradesh - Kurnool Raithu Sangham protest against WTO talks Special Correspondent KURNOOL: The supporters of Raithu Sangham (CPI affiliation) held a demonstration here on Wednesday protesting against the participation of India in the WTO-sponsored Doha round of talks. Raithu Sangham district secretary K. Jagannatham and other leaders urged the Indian government to drop out from the negotiations on the ground that it was detrimental to the interests of Indian farmers. They said the WTO was fully under the control of the United States and any outcome there would be in favour of the super power. According to them, the impact of the WTO agreements could result in reduced subsidy to the farm sector, cut in bank lending to priority sector and import of foreign agriculture products in a big way. A deeper agrarian crisis would hit the country with increased suicides among farmers, indebtedness of farmers and lack of remunerative prices for farm products. All sectors in the country would be hit by the crisis, they added. http://www.breitbart.com/image.php?id=iafp080721143244.ghgwxas3p2&show_article=1 An anti-World Trade Organization (WTO) protest in Jakarta PREV LARGER VERSION NEXT Indonesian activists give a performance during an anti-World Trade Organization (WTO) protest in Jakarta. The United States and European Union took aim at emerging economies at crucial WTO trade talks, warning them to open up their markets if the seven-year Doha Round is to succeed. http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080730/BIZ/807300346/-1/BIZ09 Steel union to protest NAFTA Journal Gazette The United Steelworkers and area labor groups will protest free-trade deals today in front of Rep. Mark Souder?s Fort Wayne office. Street theater featuring a giant "Toxic Trader" puppet and a rally will start at 3 p.m. at 1300 S. Harrison St. in downtown, a statement from the USW said. The rally will be followed by a march to the Allen County Courthouse. Steelworkers are protesting because of the support shown by Souder, R-3rd, of recent free-trade agreements with Peru and Chile. The union said the agreements lacked protection for workers and the environment. "If companies operating in the U.S. must obey these rules, then it?s unfair competition when foreign firms don?t," the statement said. Souder said in a written statement that he has long opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement, and if he had been in Congress when the law was passed, he would have voted against it. "I have always stood with the workers of this district," Souder wrote. http://www.commondreams.org/news2008/0520-01.htm WTO Protesters to Donate Class Action Settlement Funds through ?Money to Movements? Landmark Seattle Court Ruling Fuels Global Justice Mission SEATTLE, WA - May 20 - Members of A class-action lawsuit have joined forces to DONATE a portion of settlement funds to fund organizations carrying on the work of the global justice movement through the Money to Movements Project. In a landmark decision for First Amendment rights, a Seattle civil jury has found that police acted unconstitutionally in arresting more than 175 peaceful protesters as part of the World Trade Organization protests in 1999. The plaintiffs involved in the case were arrested in downtown Seattle?s Westlake Park, part of a "no protest zone" hastily designated by city officials as the WTO meetings convened in November of 1999. The suit was brought by Trial Lawyers for Public Justice (TLPJ), a Washington, D.C.-based public interest law firm, who charged that the plaintiffs were arrested without probable cause while engaging in a constitutionally-protected act of free speech. The WTO conference drew about 50,000 protestors to Seattle in 1999. Groups such as farm-workers unions, environmental activists, indigenous rights advocates, and non-governmental organizations (NGO?s) gathered to protest the policies of the World Trade Organization, triggering what observers characterized as an UNCONSTITUIONAL reaction by police, national guard and government officials. Crowd-control tactics such as tear-gas, pepper spray, percussion grenades and rubber bullets were employed. A state of emergency was declared and over 600 mostly peaceful protesters were arrested and detained. Nearly all charges were later dropped. The Money to Movements project was created by a group of plaintiffs involved in the Westlake Park case in order to help channel funds obtained through the court settlement back into the global justice (formerly known as anti-globalization) movement. "We brought this suit for everyone who faced inappropriate police behavior at the protests," said Erica Kay, of Seattle?s Community Action Network. "We want to see this money put to good purpose." David Solnit, A CO-founder of the Direct Action Network and an organizer of the nonviolent direct action shutdown of the WTO?s opening day said, "These funds were won from a struggle for global justice. We wanted to make sure that a portion of those funds were put back into those struggles. So far, 15 of the plaintiffs involved in the Westlake case have donated to the Money to Movements project, totaling $15,000. The ultimate goal of the project is to raise $40,000 through donations and matching grants, a figure equivalent to 10% of the settlement after legal fees. Groups selected for funding include: Domestic Workers United (New York, NY), Critical Resistance (national), Community Coalition for Environmental Justice (Seattle, WA), The Jena 6 Legal Defense Fund (national), Bus Riders Union (national), Mothers for Police Accountability (Seattle, WA), RiseUp.net (international), Seattle WTO ?99 People?s History Project (national), Southwest Workers Union (San Antonio, TX), Democracy Now! (national), Community Alliance for Global Justice (international), Earth First! Journal (national), Grassroots Global Justice (national), Destiny Arts Center (Oakland, CA), Pan Left Productions (national), The Catalyst Project (San Francisco, CA), and Legacy of Equality, Leadership and Organizing (Seattle, WA), Groups were selected for their commitment to global justice, including environmental, racial and economic justice, worker?s rights, police accountability and justice system reform, independent media, and activist/youth nonviolent action training. They were chosen by those plaintiffs participating in the Money to Movements project. Money to Movements has timed the announcement of groups benefiting to coincide with the screening of the new movie The Battle in Seattle by director Stuart Townsend at the Seattle Film Festival, a fictional drama set during the WTO protests. "The mission of the global justice movement is to keep transnational corporations from profiting at the expense of people and the planet," said Holly Roach, Money to Movements co-founder and Westlake Class member. "Our intention with Money to Movements is to direct funds to those groups that are currently driving the global justice movement, and to help inspire a new generation of activists." "The WTO protests are an incredible model of ?people power? standing up the global elites," said Solnit. "We hope these funds will help to bring attention to the current strength of the global justice movement, and to help to fuel the work." Money to Movements is currently seeking matching grants and individual donations to reach the projected total of $40,000. All donations are tax-deductible through Money to Movements fiscal sponsor, the Agape Foundation. More information at www.realbattleinseattle.org http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20080530-139741/Leftists-to-protest-Arroyo-Bush-meeting Leftists to protest Arroyo-Bush meeting By Abigail Kwok INQUIRER.net First Posted 12:20:00 05/30/2008 MANILA, Philippines -- Filipino leftist groups in the United States will protest the meeting between "unpopulars" Presidents Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and George W. Bush in Washington DC next month, the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan, New Patriotic Alliance) said Friday. "Protests actions are already being readied by Bayan-USA and its affiliate organizations in time for Arroyo?s arrival in the US," Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes said. Malaca?ang and the White House have confirmed the June 24 meeting, during which the two leaders will discuss a wide range of concerns. Among the issues up for discussion, according to the White House, are the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Burma, counterterrorism, defense reform, food security, and regional economic integration. Bayan accuses the US government?s "borderless war on terror and continued US military assistance to the Arroyo government for the spate of human rights abuses in the Philippines." Reyes said the Philippines? counterinsurgency campaign was "inspired by the US war on terror," citing the training of Filipino soldiers by American troops. This, he claimed, leads Filipino soldiers to commit "human rights atrocities." Bayan is also protesting the Visiting Forces Agreement and the government?s economic relations with the US. Reyes said the Philippine government is following the US? "one-sided economic patterns. "Just look at the American-owned independent power producers. They continue to enjoy perks such as take-or-pay provisions which pass on unconscionable costs to consumers. Just look at the American-owned oil companies and how they continue to reap super-profits from the misery of consumers. Just look at our dependence on American imports, inputs and foreign debt and our dependence on exports to the US. This economic pattern has not helped the Philippines develop into a self-reliant nation," he said. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Wed Aug 27 13:41:02 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 21:41:02 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Anti-neoliberal protests, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <00f601c90885$3a1691c0$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * MOROCCO: Protesters blockade port over unemployment, attacked by police * MOROCCO: Repeat protest held two months later, demands protesters' release * EAST TIMOR: Student protests over government buying luxury cars - police attack, protesters respond * INDIA: Left protests against joint exercises with US, elite "imperialism" * GUYANA: Electricity bill increase sparks protests, strikes * PHILIPPINES: Debt activists protest at railway station * INDIA: Leftists protest Bush remarks * INDIA: Pay-to-worship scheme at shrine protested * US: Fee for bridge-players met with protest, walkout * PHILIPPINES: Religious group holds protest against Arroyo * CANADA: Anti-poverty protesters try to enter council meeting * INDIA: Protest over yarn price * UK: Site occupied against privatisation of education * THAILAND: Opposition protesters call for renationalisation of oil firm * PHILIPPINES: Protest at US embassy blames US for crisis * INDIA: Strike in Kolar over commodity prices * INDIA: Protest against Special Economic Zones * INDIA: 10,000 held in court-arrest actions in Chennai * SOUTH AFRICA: Protesters oppose removal of graves * GHANA: Protest against privatisation of telecom firm * US: Steelworkers hold street theatre against unsafe imports * CUBA: Dissidents protest to pay in local currency http://www.dawn.com/2008/06/08/rss.htm 44 hurt in clashes between police, unemployed in Morocco RABAT, June 8 (AFP) - Violent clashes between unemployed youths and the police left 44 people including 27 police officers injured in the southwestern Moroccan port of Sidi Ifni Saturday, hospital chief Mohamed Chafik, told AFP by telephone. The head of the local section of the Moroccan Human Rights Centre said at a press briefing in Rabat that between one and five people had died in the incident, but the hospital chief denied this. Protesters have picketed the port since May 30 and were refusing to negotiate a settlement. (Posted @ 10:00 PST) http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2008/06/11/feature-01 Moroccan government, NGOs disagree over Sidi Ifni clashes 2008-06-11 Accounts vary over what took place during clashes between protestors and police at the port of Sidi Ifni on Saturday. The government has described a legal operation to restore order, while several NGOs claim excessive police violence and rights abuses. By Sarah Touahri for Magharebia in Rabat - 11/06/08 [Getty Images] The Moroccan government and human rights NGOs have provided different versions of the police operation to remove protestors from the port of Sidi Ifni over the weekend. The Moroccan government and human rights NGOs have provided conflicting accounts of a police operation on Saturday (June 7th) to remove young unemployed demonstrators from the port of Sidi Ifni. The Moroccan government initially denied the incident but later said 44 people were injured, including 27 law enforcement officers. NGOs say the operation was a "wave of official aggression" in which security forces raided homes, stole personal property and detained many residents. On Monday, the Moroccan Human Rights Centre said several people were still missing. The Moroccan government has strongly denied claims by Aljazeera and several Moroccan NGOs that people were killed in the clashes. The demonstrators had been blocking the port of Sidi Ifni since May 30th to protest the high level of unemployment in the region. A group of 120 unemployed youths had applied to a lottery designed by the local council to take on eight employees for cleaning work. After the results were announced, however, an estimated 100 disappointed people decided to block the entries to the port, effectively trapping 89 lorries loaded with nearly 800 tonnes of fish. That meant "losing money," said Brahim Sbaalil, chairman of the local section of the Moroccan Centre for Human Rights. "That's what caused the police to become involved." The young demonstrators had laid out several demands. Having heard about the wave of socio-economic development that had affected other regions of the country, the unemployed youths wanted their own town to grow and develop. They called for the construction of a fish processing factory to reduce unemployment and bring money to the wilaya. Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi confirmed that events were driven by "demands for employment and by social unease similar to the crises affecting society on a universal scale." Government spokesman Khalid Naciri said the police operation took place only after dialogue with the protesters had failed. "We needed to get the port back to normal once the authorities had done their best to talk with them, but in vain. Caring about human rights and democracy does not mean you should let anarchy establish itself." "In the early hours of Saturday," said Abdullah Birdaha, head of the Tiznit branch of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights, "a yacht neared the shore and landed quick intervention squads and supporting forces." Local residents described what happened next. Mohamed, a young student and the brother of one of the protesters, told Magharebia: "The police were armed with truncheons and police dogs. Some demonstrators were arrested, whilst others are still in hiding in the mountains." Zahra, a young high school student, said "I was searched very thoroughly by the police, even though I had done nothing. I was terrified. But fortunately they released me straight away. All the talk here is about what's just happened, with the hope that we can find effective solutions to the problems rather than resorting to violence. Some families are waiting for news of their sons who have been jailed or have disappeared." Souilem Bouch?ab, Governor of Tiznit wilaya, said the operation was carried out legally under the supervision of the Public Prosecutor. He added that the police were successful in ending the blockade and allowing the lorries to leave. The Amazigh Human Rights League, however, called the operation "a wave of official aggression" and called on the state to open a calm, constructive and transparent dialogue with those living in the Ifni region to address their demands for employment. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L0782079.htm Moroccan police break up port protest 07 Jun 2008 16:30:09 GMT Source: Reuters RABAT, June 7 (Reuters) - Police used force to end the week-long blockade of a port in southern Morocco by youths protesting poverty and joblessness, but the government denied claims by locals that some demonstrators were killed. Residents said hundreds of police arrived at Sidi Ifni port at 2 a.m. on Saturday morning to remove the demonstrators. "The port has been under blockade since May 30 -- trucks were trapped inside and the fish they were carrying was rotting," said a local security official. "The police moved in to remove the demonstrators." He said 20 were arrested but none were killed or injured in the operation, which began after the protesters set fire to the car of a local official. A local resident involved in the demonstration said security forces attacked the protestors using dogs and truncheons. "Dozens were injured and I saw two lying dead on the ground with head wounds," said the resident, a social worker who asked not to be identified. "Friends in different neighbourhoods told me of three other deaths." A western diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity said he had been told by a reliable eyewitness that eight people were killed. Such protests occur regularly in Morocco but rarely result in deaths. Locals said the protesters were complaining of being sidelined by the Rabat government, left out of economic development and passed over for jobs. They said they had hoped Sidi Ifni might become a province in its own right in an upcoming reform to administrative boundaries but were then told this would not happen. Rights activists in the region said police were searching houses in the small town on the Atlantic coast 700 km (435 miles) southwest of the capital Rabat. "The town is cut off," said Abdallah Berhada, regional representative of Morocco's main independent human rights group AMDH. He said he had heard people had been killed but the situation was still unclear. (Reporting by Tom Pfeiffer and Zakia Abdennebi, editing by Mary Gabriel) http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/morocco/?id=26346 Unemployment to blame for North Africa protests Observers insist youth unemployment is cause of protests in past few days in Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco. RABAT- Unemployment disproportionately affecting young people is to blame for violent protests over the weekend in Morocco and Tunisia that killed one person and injured dozens, observers said. "Endemic unemployment among young people from the Maghreb (northwestern Africa) is the cause of the protests that broke out in the past few days in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia," said Aziz, an activist from the Moroccan city of Sidi Ifni who asked not to be identified by his full name. Clashes between security forces and young unemployed protesters erupted on Saturday in the Moroccan fishing port city 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of Rabat. The national unemployment rate stood at 9.7 percent in 2007, according to government statistics, but four out of 10 of these jobseekers were younger than 25. In Tunisia, the national unemployment rate reached 14 percent in 2007, according to a Tunisian government official. "Youth unemployment, especially among thousands of graduates in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia is the common denominator in the three countries where demonstrations periodically take place in cities," Khalid Cherkaoui, president of the Moroccan centre for human rights (CMDH), said. Sidi Ifni saw its first such protests in 2006, young people in the area said. The violence this weekend left 44 people injured, including 27 police officers, according to hospital sources in Sidi Ifni. CDMH estimates however that between one and five people died as a result of the clashes. The Moroccan government denies this. "There was not one death," said spokesman Khalid Naciri. In the southwest Tunisian city of Redeyef, one person was killed in protests on Friday and several were injured. Here the demonstrations were ignited by allegations that the region's main employer had doctored a recruitment campaign. Protesters believed that officials from the Gafsa Phosphate Company had manipulated a selection process to their own advantage. In Sidi Ifni, where fishing is the primary source of income, police used force to unblock the port where 89 trucks waited with loads of some 800 tonnes of fish. The blockade had begun May 30 when the results of a recruitment campaign were unveiled and three successful candidates randomly picked. After the draw, around 120 angry youths moved towards the port and blocked operations, said socialist deputy Abdelwahab Belfkih. Another elected official, Lahcen Achouad, said the "demands of the young people are socio-economic in nature. They are asking for an equitable distribution of the city's wealth." http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_North%20Africa&set_id=1&click_id=85&art_id=nw20080819133951196C926642 Moroccan youths protest, demand jobs August 19 2008 at 02:25PM Rabat - Moroccan security forces on Tuesday broke up a two-day blockade of a southwestern port by some 300 people demanding the freeing of unemployed youths arrested after a similar protest in June, the MAP news agency said. Nobody was hurt in the police action. Police however said they had arrested one "instigator" and were seeking five other key organisers of the demonstration at the port of Sidi Ifni, which began on Monday. Dozens of trucks filled with fish had been blocked at the port, the news agency said. The protesters wanted authorities to free several unemployed youths who were arrested at the port on June 7 after staging a similar blockade to demand jobs. A total of 182 had been arrested but all but ten were freed later. http://uk.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUKSP32519620080707 East Timor police arrest 21 in luxury cars protest Mon Jul 7, 2008 6:19am BST By Tito Belo DILI, July 7 (Reuters) - East Timor police arrested 21 people and fired tear gas to disperse a protest against a parliament decision to buy 65 luxury cars -- one for each member of parliament -- in one of the world's poorest nations. East Timor's parliament decided last month to buy the Toyota Land Cruisers amid soaring food and oil prices in a country where the average income is about 50 U.S. cents a day and 42 percent are unemployed. Around 1,000 protesters, mostly students, staged a rally at the parliament building, carrying the national black and red Timorese flag and banners saying, "Stand up East Timor, Fight Against Immoral Decisions". They were also protesting against a bill being discussed in parliament which will allow prosecutors and members of the intelligence service to possess weapons. "Do they want students to keep silent and let them buy luxury cars and allow civilians to own weapons? We are not yes men and we say no to the decision," Agusto Pinto, the rally's coordinator, told Reuters. "Petroleum funds must be used for people's interest, not to buy cars and weapons ... we are ready to die if the decision is not revoked." We agree if they buy rice to feed the people but not to permit civilians to kill each other like the 2006 crisis." The youngest Asian nation descended into violence in 2006 when the government decided to lay off 600 soldiers, which led to a clash between the two main tribes and left 37 people killed and 150,000 displaced from their homes. The students said they would continue to protest until Friday. The tiny nation that won their independence from Indonesia in 1999 has been striving to maintain political and social stability ever since. The country has substantial oil reserves but has only started to develop them. The former Portuguese colony, invaded by Indonesia in 1975, won independence in a violence-marred vote organised by the United Nations in 1999. It became fully independent in 2002 after a period of U.N. administration. The government and the United Nations launched a programme early this year to relocate some 30,000 refugees living in camps that dot the capital. (Writing by Olivia Rondonuwu; Editing by Sugita Katyal and Alex Richardson) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7492599.stm E Timor police move on students By Lucy Williamson BBC News East Timor's police have received training from foreign forces Police in East Timor's capital, Dili, have fired tear gas into the grounds of the national university and arrested several students, reports say. The students were demonstrating against plans by the parliament to spend $1m (?500,000) on new cars for MPs. Eyewitnesses told the BBC that local police had fired rounds of tear gas at lines of peacefully protesting students inside the grounds of the university. UN police were also part of the operation, beside the parliament. Week of protests The acting UN police chief, who had just arrived on the scene, said he had reports of students throwing rocks and could see broken glass on the ground. Others who witnessed the protest denied there had been any provocation. The police had been told to break up the demonstration at the campus because it had not been authorised. The university sits just beside the national parliament building, and is considered a no-go area for demonstrations. Several hundred more students were gathering at the official protest site - some distance away from the parliament. This is day one of a week of protests planned by students in East Timor. Opposition has been growing recently in response to government spending plans and widespread allegations of corruption. http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/217747,dozens-arrested-at-student-protests-in-east-timor.html Dozens arrested at student protests in East Timor Posted : Wed, 09 Jul 2008 06:38:00 GMT Author : DPA Category : Australasia (World) Sydney - Students protested in the East Timor capital Dili on Wednesday, the third day of demonstrations against government spending priorities, radio reports said. Dozens have been arrested outside the National University where hundreds of students have faced off against local police and United Nations police. Australia's ABC Radio reported from Dili that the protestors carried placards calling on the government of Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao to subsidize food prices rather than buy a fleet of four-wheel-drive vehicles for the 65 Parliamentarians. East Timor, which became independent in 2002, is South-East Asia's poorest country and has an unemployment rate of 50 per cent. An Indonesian province for the 24 years up until 1999, the tiny half-island of 1 million people has lurched from one political crisis to another since independence. The students claim that all 65 parliamentarians are to get new vehicles but Gusmao's government said only 26 vehicles were on order for the lawmakers. The latest threat to the overwhelmingly Catholic nation's survival came in February when President Jose Ramos Horta was shot by renegade soldiers, who launched twin assassination attempts against the Nobel laureate and against Gusmao. Gusmao escaped uninjured from the attack that nearly cost Ramos Horta his life. http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/07/08/timor-cars.html No SUVs for MPs: East Timor protesters Last Updated: Tuesday, July 8, 2008 | 11:15 AM ET Comments2Recommend3 CBC News Students in East Timor's capital clashed with police and occupied a public building Tuesday on a second day of protests against government plans to buy four-wheel-drive SUVs for members of parliament. Dozens have been arrested during the two days of demonstrations at Dili's National University for "investigation purposes," said National Police Chief Insp. Afonso de Jesus. He did not elaborate. Officers fired tear gas to scatter protesters on Monday, but many returned the following day to form human barricades before armed officers moved in to arrest them. Parliament voted last month to buy luxury Toyota vehicles for its 65 members, although the government insists that only 24 SUVs will be acquired. The students carried banners protesting the decision, saying state money should be spent on rice, not cars. The government recently doubled its budget for importing and subsidizing rice, and the protesting students also accused Prime Minister Xanama Gusmao of corruption by giving food purchase contracts to his cousin. Tiny East Timor's 900,000 people are among the poorest in Southeast Asia and have been hit hard by soaring international prices for food and fuel. A former Portuguese colony, East Timor broke from 24 years of military occupation by Indonesia in 1999. In the ensuing fighting between pro-independence forces and departing Indonesian troops bolstered by local militias, some 1,500 people were killed. After being governed and policed for three years by United Nations officials and troops, East Timor declared independence in 2002. The country descended into chaos again in April 2006 when national military forces split into warring factions and the government collapsed amid widespread looting and arson. Gun battles and gang warfare killed 37 people, and more than 150,000 were forced to leave their homes. Tens of thousands still live in squalid camps. http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/200807/s2297695.htm?tab=latest More student arrests in East Timor protests Another 18 East Timorese students have been arrested during protests at the National University in Dili. Radio Australia's Stephanie March reports that despite 21 arrests on Monday, hundred of students arrived this morning at the University opposite parliament to protest against the government's management of the budget and a proposed gun law that would enable civilians to carry arms. The demonstrators made human barricades at the front of the university and were given five minutes to disperse before being arrested by local police. The students have locked themselves inside the building and are singing the National anthem from second storey windows and the roof of a verandah. They have been told by police it is illegal to hold demonstrations within 100 metres of a sovereign building. The United Nations police waiting outside say they are trying to speak to the head of the University to get permission to enter the building, but in the meantime will wait patiently outside. http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5isatMtOZMhsYyV9dbecpMqHmg7XA 16 arrested in East Timor demo Jul 7, 2008 DILI (AFP) - East Timorese and UN anti-riot police arrested at least 16 students Tuesday during a second day of protests at the national university against a plan to import cars for lawmakers. Around 500 students rallied outside the National University of Timor Leste to condemn the procurement plan, after 21 were arrested in a similar protest there on Monday. The students carried banners reading "Stop plan to buy luxury cars" and "We need lower food prices" as they gathered on the campus, which is opposite parliament. Police used a loudspeaker to remind the crowd that protests are not allowed within 100 metres (yards) of public buildings. The students claim the government has ordered 65 Toyota Landcruisers from Japan for more than two million dollars but the government says the order is for only 26 cars at 900,000 dollars. East Timor, which gained independence in 2002 after 24 years of Indonesian occupation, is one of the world's poorest nations with an unemployment rate of around 50 percent. http://www.haitinews.net/story/379402 East Timor rioters threaten government over car purchases Haiti News.Net Monday 7th July, 2008 East Timor police have fired tear gas to disperse a protesters, who were angry over a decision to buy sixty five luxury cars for parliamentarians. The expediture will mean each parliamentarian will have a car. About 1,000 protesters staged a rally outside the parliament building in the capital of Dili, calling the purchase of the cars an "immoral decision." Some protestors said they would be prepared to die if petroleum funds were used to purchase the sixty five cars. Political leaders in East Timor, which is one of the worlds poorest countries, decided last month to buy the cars, even though soaring food and oil prices have been a constant problem for Dili's population. The average income in East Timor is around 50 cents a day and 42 per cent are unemployed. http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/200807/s2296623.htm?tab=latest Students arrested, hurt after East Timor protest Updated Mon Jul 7, 2008 10:08pm AEST Police in East Timor have arrested 20 students who were protesting against a government decision to buy new cars for MPs. Our correspondent, Geoff Thompson, reports police used tear gas to break up the demonstration. The protesters say a government decision means new Toyota Landcruisers for every one of the parliament's 65 members at a cost of more than $US2 million. The government says the plan is only to buy 26 cars for about $1 million. Either way, the issue was enough to get hundreds of students demonstrating at East Timor's national university on Monday. East Timor's police moved in to break them up, firing tear gas and arresting at least 20 students. One was injured when struck by a teargas canister. With an unemployment rate of about 50 per cent, East Timor remains one of the world's poorest nations. http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/200807/s2300574.htm?tab=asia East Timor students released following protest Updated Thu Jul 10, 2008 10:11pm AEST A total of 53 students have been arrested since demonstration began on Monday. [AFP] More East Timor Stories: ? ETimor prepared to accept independence poll report ? East Timor petroleum fund under review. ? MPs, human rights activists criticise ETimor student arrests Twenty-one East Timorese students, detained following protests over a government decision to purchase cars for 65 members of parliament, have been release from police detention. A total of 53 have been arrested since demonstrations began on Monday. Stephanie March reports from Dili groups of UN and local police waited outside Dili's national university, but the students gathered at the school failed to go ahead with planned protests. The 21 students arrested Monday appeared in court this morning before being released without charge, however, police say the incident is still being investigated. They've been told they must inform police of any plans to leave the capital. Amnesty International and the Fretilin Opposition party had previously called for the students to either be charged immediately, or released from police detention. UN police told the ABC despite no demonstrations at the University today they are prepared for the possibility of more on Friday. http://www.hindu.com/2007/09/06/stories/2007090654981000.htm Left protest rally leaves for Visakhapatnam Special Correspondent Karat tells cadres to "take a pledge to fight imperialist forces" - Photo: K. Pichumani MOBILISING PUBLIC OPINION: CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat (left), and CPI national secretary D. Raja at the start of a protest rally against the joint naval exercises, in Chennai on Wednesday. CHENNAI: The southern leg of the vehicular campaign taken out by Left parties in protest against India's joint naval exercises with the U.S. set out for Visakhapatnam on Wednesday. VOC portrait garlanded Leaders including Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat and Communist Party of India national secretary D. Raja garlanded the portrait of freedom fighter V.O. Chidambaram - coinciding with his 136th birth anniversary - near the main gates of the Chennai Harbour. They resolved to continue the leader's fight for the values of freedom and sovereignty. Mr. Karat urged the party cadres to "take a pledge to fight imperialist forces" like Chidambaram, who had floated the 'Swadeshi Shipping Company' during the British rule. He said the movement launched by the Left leaders would not allow India to become an ally of the United States. Several leaders of Left parties are accompanying the contingent of about 300 cars and two-wheelers. The rally was accorded public receptions at Red Hills and Gummudipoondi before it entered Nellore. Another rally launched simultaneously by CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan set out from Kolkata and both contingents are scheduled to reach Visakhapatnam on September 8. The Left campaign will culminate in a public meeting. http://www.radiojamaica.com/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=9192 Looming hike in electricity bills sparks protest in Guyana Thursday, 19 June 2008 Business in two of Guyana's bauxite mining communities ground to a halt Thursday because of protests over a planned increase in electricity rates. Residents there have not been paying market rate for electricity because surplus power generated by the bauxite plant is sold at rates far below that paid by the rest of the country. The government said the present circumstances will mean that residents and businesses will, as of next month, have to pay more for electricity. Although no final decision or agreement has been reached on the proposed rates, residents have rejected the idea and on Thursday shut-down all businesses and blocked major roads and streets with debris. Hundreds of them threw scrap-iron on the Linden-Wismar bridge across the Demerara River, blocking that major artery in the road network to gold and diamond mining operations, Indigenous Indian reserves and other locations in Guyana's vast jungle. Cabinet Secretary Roger Luncheon acknowledged that electricity rates for Linden, Wismar and surrounding communities will be increased by the authorities have not yet decided on how much. "It is inevitable that the rates will be increase but by how much is the matter that is being discussed," he said. The protesters are rejecting plans by Prime Minister Samuels Hinds to meet with them and have instead called on President Bharrat Jagdeo who is in New York attending the Conference on the Caribbean to meet with them. Police have not taken any action to clear the streets. http://www.gmanews.tv/story/101462/Debt-activists-stage-protest-at-railways-office Debt activists stage protest at railways office 06/16/2008 | 11:07 PM Email this | Email the Editor | Print | Digg this | Add to del.icio.us MANILA, Philippines - Debt activists and urban poor groups stormed the Philippine National Railways (PNR) office in Manila Monday, shortly after President Arroyo visited its offices there. In a statement, Task Force Diskaril said the protest aimed to attract awareness on the plight of people affected by the controversial North and South Railways Modernization projects. Task Force Diskaril, which includes the People Against Illegitimate Debt (PAID!) and the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC), underscored the Arroyo government's modernization of PNR, claiming that said projects have only resulted in job insecurity of PNR workers, involuntary displacement of many urban poor communities, and further indebtedness of an already debt-burdened populace. Members of Bagong Kapisanan ng mga Manggagawa sa PNR (BKM), the union of PNR workers, lambasted the government's effort to privatize PNR by pushing Executive Order 366. EO 366 mandates agencies of the executive branch, as well as government-owned and -controlled corporations, to scale down and phase out agencies that do not deliver "quality public service." But BKM President Armando Cruz said the order is tantamount to the massive retrenchment of regular government workers, adding that the modernization project coupled with retrenchment are stepping-stones to sell PNR to the private sector. "Malacanang's storyline is getting clearer. Truly, the bottom line is privatization. Like how our government sold management and regulation of public utilities such as water and power, they are now doing the same thing with our public railways," Cruz said. Cruz also stressed that railway service is a natural monopoly which must be in the hands of the public. "The push for privatization will not only displace many regular workers in a time of a grueling economic crisis, it will also result in the absence of any public accountability and regulation of a very strategic transport system important to economic development," Cruz said. For her part, Clarita Eneria, spokeswoman of Lakas at Ugnayan ng Mamamayan laban sa Kahirapan (Lumaban Ka) said they are not against progress and development. "In fact, we say that we totally favor a modern and efficient public transport system. What we are against are projects claiming to be in the side of modernity yet, are so detrimental to the poor's interest and welfare," Eneria said. Eneria said communities affected by the relocation were promised relocation sites and job opportunities in exchange for their displacement but what was given to them was worse. "If before they were in danger zones - living dangerously near the railway tracks - after the implementation of the Northrail project, our fellow urban poor families are now in death zones," Eneria said. The groups also said affected families were haphazardly transferred to relocation sites that were lacking in basic electricity and water services such as in Bulacan. Many of the houses offered to the affected families were badly built and that some families were relocated to areas near landfills and even close to a cemetery, they added. For its part, FDC demanded the immediate cancellation of the "illegitimate" North Luzon Railways Project and the suspension of the South Railways project pending an impartial and comprehensive investigation of the matter. It said the Northrail project had already been exposed as having numerous legal infirmities and procurement anomalies, aside from being allegedly overpriced. On the other hand, the South Luzon Railways project is challenged with serious accusations of anomalies such as the ones lodged by Rodolfo "Jun" Lozada Jr., the group said. "Truth be said, these are just the tip of the iceberg. There are a lot more of these illegitimate deals and debts that are being incurred by our government, hidden from public scrutiny, milking cows of unscrupulous public officials and instruments of the people's further indebtedness," said Milo Tanchuling, FDC secretary general. Tanchuling also said in lieu of the economic crunch, projects and programs of the government should generate more jobs, provide more services, and social opportunities for the people, not the other way around. FDC is calling for the passage of House Joint Resolution No. 4 calling for the creation of a Congressional Debt Commission that will audit all public debt and contingent liabilities. It said this will fundamentally determine the illegitimacy of many of our country's debts and loan agreements that must be canceled and/or repudiated. - GMANews.TV http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/12/stories/2008051259260300.htm CPI stages protest against Bush's remarks Special Correspondent KURNOOL: Supporters of CPI staged a demonstration to protest against the alleged remarks of U.S. President George Bush against Indian middle class here on Sunday. CPI leader K. Jagannatham who led the protest said the U.S. President had insulted the Indians by making a comment on their eating habits. The CPI protesters demanded an apology from the U.S. President. He said Americans were spending some Rs. 24,000 crore on treatment for obesity caused by over eating. Also, 3 lakh people died of obesity related problems. Also, each family wasted foodstuff worth Rs. 49,000 in the U.S. every year. The CPI protesters raised slogans against Mr. Bush for belittling Asians and causing humiliation by making racist comments. http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1168310 Buy-a-darshan scheme at Vaishno Devi sparks protests IANS Tuesday, June 03, 2008 00:26 IST JAMMU: The introduction of special tickets costing up to Rs1,000 to bypass queues at the Vaishno Devi shrine in Jammu and Kashmir has fuelled protests, some calling it an act of "commercialisation". Spontaneous vocal protests erupted in the shrine area after it became known that the temple management had decided to charge Rs200 to Rs1,000 to let pilgrims avoid winding queues and easily access the shrine. "Do the poor have no right to get a darshan of the deity?" asked Prem Kumar, an angry resident of Jaipur. "How can the shrine management discriminate between the poor and the rich?" asked a fuming Pushpa Devi, a pilgrim from Rambagh in Amritsar. Some pilgrims raised slogans against the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, which manages the temple. Vaishno Devi is one of the most revered Hindu shrines in northern India. It gets about 25,000 pilgrims a day. Rishi Kumar Koushal, a social activist, warned the management against commercialisation. "This is not hotel business. It is a divine place and everyone is equal before god," he said while asking the shrine board to scrap the special fee. The board started charging Rs1,000 ($25) for special 'atka darshan' from those seeking priority entry to the cave shrine. This process started midnight Saturday, an official said. According to the management, the idea behind the introduction of the special tickets is to discourage the practice of giving slips to a select few to jump the queues. http://www.adn.com/life/story/422239.html Bridge players protest new senior center fee $5 to play cards? Seniors say no way By DEBRA McKINNEY dmckinney at adn.com Published: May 31st, 2008 01:11 AM Last Modified: May 31st, 2008 04:24 AM It wasn't as fun as a food fight, but still, quite the scene unfolded the other day at the Anchorage Senior Center. Blood pressure rose. So did some furniture when a bunch of bridge-playing rebels took on management. Here's what went down. The center is in serious fundraising mode these days. So its board decided to start charging members $5 a month to play cards. To play cards. At a senior center. That's like charging extra to breathe the center's air. That's how card players feel about it, anyway. The canasta crowd, the cribbage fans, the pinochle buffs. But mostly it's the bridge players who dug in: No way! We won't pay, they said. Or something like that. Management was not moved. Around and around they went. The players wrote Mayor Mark Begich, Anchorage Assembly members and Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Charging to play cards, they argued, goes against the center's mission and will drive people away. But the center's board had decided. Unanimously. Finally, it came down to: Pay up or else. Or else, it was. The day the ultimatum kicked in, 30 or so senior insurgents showed up to play bridge as they have for years, armed with cards, score pads and sharpened pencils. The center was ready for them. "They had barricaded the door where we usually play, where the tables were set up," said John Whiting, one of the rebels. "Most of us went down the hall, sat in the lobby, found a few tables, 'Well, we'll just play here,' and we started to play." The way the card players tell it, that's when burly guys in white aprons emerged from the kitchen. Hands planted firmly on hips, they told the rogues how it was going to be. Then they commandeered the tables. "They picked them up and lifted them over us and took them away," Whiting said. "There was one little old lady with an oxygen tank who refused to give up her table. 'Over my dead body' she said." Whiting got a snapshot of "Shorty" Lathrop clutching her table with her 87-year-old hands. "The other girls acquiesced nicely but I wasn't about to," she said. Left with empty spaces where tables once had been, a few mutineers moved to some awkward end tables and unfurled their decks. With points made by both camps, the uprising was over. The card players posed for a group picture and left the building. As in, left for good. Several say they won't be coming back. "We are all sensible people," protester Ron Peacock said. "We understand that they need more funds and that fundraising is challenging. If they had come to us and said, 'Is there any way you can help us?' We'd have said, 'Sure. We'll all throw a dollar in the hat every time we come or something." Sylvia Short, board president of Anchor-Age Inc., the nonprofit that operates the center and imposed the new fee, doesn't get the big fuss. "It's really ridiculous," she said. "Five dollars a month. What is that, a latte or something like that?" Members pay $40 a year in center dues, raised recently from $25. A year's worth of card-playing tacks another $60 on top of that. "If there's a financial hardship, they can get it waived," Short said. It's not about the money, the players say. It's the principle of the thing. "It's a long-standing policy that this is a benefit of membership," said Angela Whiting, a spokeswoman for the bridge brigade. "Many of us in the bridge group, that really is all we do there. We play bridge. And of course we donate things, we participate in the functions, we volunteer." Having a place to play is one of the main reasons many of them joined the center in the first place. "It's the only reason," Ken Donohue said. "I joined to play cards." Becky Black too. When she moved up from Outside to live near her daughter, she had to start all over making friends. Bridge made the difference. This is an informal bunch, from the wealthy to a guy living at the Brother Francis Shelter. And they play party bridge, rather than the kind where, if you mess up, you risk getting your head bitten off. "I went to the senior center scared to death," Black said. "These people just opened their arms to me. They were so welcoming. And if they hadn't been there ... I might still be sitting in my little house, lost." Short finds the whole uproar "incomprehensible." "The pool players have been paying $5 for the past two years," she said. "And fitness training went up $5. Not a squawk about it." Yeah, but there's equipment to maintain or instructors to pay for those activities, the card players argue. They bring their own cards and score sheets. All they use are tables and chairs. "To me, it's a tempest in a teapot," Short said. "It will pass over." Maybe. For now, the bridge players are in exile at the Moose Lodge. They're playing there twice a week. For free. But their goal is to go back to the senior center. "Like the lost tribes of Israel, we hope to return to our homeland someday," John Whiting joked. http://www.gmanews.tv/story/100667/Religious-group-to-hold-anti-Arroyo-protest-in-Manila Religious group to hold anti-Arroyo protest in Manila 06/12/2008 | 08:24 AM Email this | Email the Editor | Print | Digg this | Add to del.icio.us MANILA, Philippines - While the government forewent its traditional Independence Day parade Thursday, an anti-Arroyo religious group was to hold its own version of the parade in Manila. Radio dzXL reported Thursday morning that the Kilusang Makabansang Ekonomiya (KME) planned a march to Plaza Miranda in Quiapo from the University of Santo Tomas at 2:30 p.m. Novaliches Bishop Antonio Tobias was to lead the march to protest what he called the continued enslavement of Filipinos to poverty. Another militant priest, Robert Reyes, said there was no reason to mark the 110th anniversary of the country's independence. Reyes said misgovernance, graft and corruption continue to plague the government. However, security remained tight in Manila and other parts of the country Thursday for the occasion. In Manila, police and traffic aides suddenly became visible in street corners. Roxas Boulevard was closed to traffic for the flag-raising ceremony at the Rizal Park, with out-of-school youths wearing "Pangulong Gloria" printed T-shirts lining the boulevard. Also lining the boulevard were Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) employees wearing pink shirts, pink being the "campaign color" of MMDA chairman Bayani Fernando. - GMANews.TV http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_24097.aspx OCAP Protestors Handcuffed At City Hall Monday June 23, 2008 CityNews.ca Staff Normally, it's city councillors who make noise while doing battle with each other. But on Monday, politicians had another fight to contend with that came not from within but from without. Several members of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty were taken away in handcuffs, after they attempted to get into the chambers. The OCAP members were trying to protest against a lack of adequate services and shelter spaces for the homeless, shouting and disrupting councillors as they conducted normal business. They were demanding a meeting with Mayor David Miller. Those who refused to leave were taken away by police - who had been expecting them. The loud and angry demonstrators began their standoff at Allen Gardens on the weekend, after illegally pitching a tent on the grounds. A permit is needed to camp out on the famed land and the protestors didn't have one. One man was arrested and charged with obstructing police. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/12/stories/2008071252650300.htm Tamil Nadu - Salem JD(S) to protest against yarn price hike Special Correspondent SALEM: The Salem district unit of Janata Dal (Secular) has decided to stage a demonstration in front of the Head Post Office on July 21 in protest against the steep hike in the prices of yarn. Hoarding cotton The urban district executive committee, which met here recently under the presidentship of G. Velayutham, pointed out that many big businessmen, who were not connected with the textile industry, were hoarding cotton and yarn thus triggering a crisis in the market. This had led to steep increase in their prices, which had affected the industry and the weavers badly, the meeting said. Since the State and Central governments were remaining insensitive to the issue, the Party had decided to stage a demonstration to draw their attention to the issue on July 21. The meeting also drew attention of the Salem Corporation Mayor to the increasing mosquito menace in the city. It said that the drainage channels were not regularly desilted and fogging was also not done regularly. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/07/403736.html Anti City Academy protest camp defies eviction order. Guido | 16.07.2008 00:38 | Education | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements | London Today Teachers and their supporters were celebrating as the deadline to leave their protest camp expired without the threatened eviction. Officers of the council were present but announced that they would only 'report back' the situation. Bailiffs were seen casing the area earlier before the deadline. Part of the protest is on the roof so it could well take Brent council a while to organise the eviction. Today a unexpectedly high number of supporters and local residents came out to block the removal of the protest camp. Members of the local RMT and TSSA branches, who were having their monthly meetings nearby, also turned out to register their disgust at government plans to privatise local education. More stuff here: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/07/403716.html and here: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/07/403622.html and here: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/07/403620.html Guido http://www.chinapost.com.tw/asia/thailand/2008/07/26/167229/Thai%2Dprotesters.htm Thai protesters vent anger at state oil firm By Chalathip Thirasoonthrakul, Reuters Saturday, July 26, 2008 BANGKOK -- Thousands of protesters marched on Thailand's state-owned oil company on Friday, calling for its renationalization a day after violent clashes between pro- and anti-government groups outside the capital. Members of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) blocked the main gates outside the headquarters of PTT PCL, the oil and gas firm which was semi-privatized in 2001 by the PAD's sworn enemy, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The PAD, a coalition of businessmen, royalists and activists whose protests led to Thaksin's ousting in a 2006 coup, is waging a similar street campaign against Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, whom they accuse of being a Thaksin proxy. PAD leaders said Thaksin and his allies were the main beneficiaries of the public listing of PTT PCL, which reduced the government's stake to 66 percent, arguing that consumers had paid higher fuel prices as a result. "They are more concerned with the benefits of shareholders than the public interest," PAD leader Sondhi Limthongkul told the cheering crowd, referring to PTT managers. By diluting its stake, the government is unable to influence fuel price policies at PTT, the PAD said, accusing PTT of profiteering from soaring global oil prices. "Give us back our PTT," one of the placards read, as protesters with yellow headbands waved Thai national flags or photos of revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej. PTT officials argue the government is still its biggest shareholder and the company supports state policies aimed at easing the burden on consumers. These include not immediately putting up pump prices when global oil prices rise. About 300 police were deployed at the rally to prevent a repeat of recent violence between pro- and anti-government groups outside Bangkok, Metropolitan Police chief Aswin Kwanmuang said. On Thursday, about 700 government supporters armed with planks, axes and slingshots broke through a police blockade and clashed with 150 unarmed anti-government demonstrators in the city of Udon Thani, 650 km (400 miles) northeast of Bangkok. Most of the 13 wounded were from the anti-government group and two were in a critical condition, police said. Thai media said one man had died but hospital staff told Reuters this was not the case. No arrests have been made. Similar clashes took place on Thursday in another northeastern province, Buriram, where 13 people were arrested. The clashes were the most serious yet as government supporters in the provinces, led by local politicians from the ruling, six-party coalition, have vowed to prevent the Bangkok protests from spreading into Thaksin's rural heartland. Sondhi suspended PAD protests in the countryside on Friday and criticized the police for failing to keep the peace. "It's time for Army Commander-in-Chief General Anupong Paochinda to take action now. If he sits idly, we will have bloodshed all over the country," Sondhi said, urging the army to provide public security. http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/read.php?newsid=30078975 Some 5,000 PAD-led protesters rally in front of PTT head office About 5,000 protesters led by the People's Alliance for Democracy rally in front of the head office of PTT Plc Friday morning. The protesters gathered there at about 9 am. Three PAD co-leaders, Sondhi Limthongkul, Somsak Kosaisuk and Somkiart Pongpaibool, arrived at the rally site at 10:30 am. The protesters demanded the government to delist PTT and seize its back as a state enterprise. The Nation http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/metro/view/20080724-150443/UPDATE-Youth-activists-arrested-over-US-embassy-protest Youth activists arrested over US embassy protest By Abigail Kwok INQUIRER.net First Posted 15:47:00 07/24/2008 MANILA, Philippines -- Four youth activists, including the leaders of two organizations, were arrested and five others injured after police dispersed protesters outside the US embassy in Manila Thursday. Senior Police Officer 1 Jerry Campo said Arrested were League of Filipino Students (LFS) national chairman Vencer Crisostomo, Anakbayan national chairman Ken Ramos, Marvin Serrano, and EJ Aguirre, who were nabbed soon after the 2 p.m. rally was dispersed, were released around 4:20 p.m. with no charges filed against them. The protesters had gathered outside the embassy on Roxas Boulevard to rail against "the continuing intervention of the US in our economy, which is to blame for the worsening crisis at present," said Ron Villegas, LFS vice chairman. But the activists were blocked at the embassy's gates by personnel of the Manila Police District who allegedly pushed them away with anti-riot shields, forcing the protesters to retreat to Kalaw Avenue. During the brief commotion, Aaron Castil, Liberty Sardina, Jeffrey Domingo, Katrina Andres, and Alex Belmonte were injured and taken to the Ospital ng Maynila for treatment. Protesters were urging the government to get rid of "globalization policies that encourage deregulation, liberalization, and privatization, which have caused greater harm to our economy," said Crisostomo. Villegas called on the government to stop being a "puppet" of foreign powers and to be self-sufficient. He said Thursday's arrests and "dispersal will not stop the students from joining the bigger rallies set as Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's state of the nation address nears." http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/21/stories/2008082154780500.htm Karnataka Mixed response to strike call in Kolar, protesters detained Staff Correspondent Most of the schools, colleges and government offices remained closed KOLAR: The all-India call given by various trade unions to protest against the spiralling price rise of essential commodities and the 'anti-people' policies of the Government evoked a mixed response in Kolar district on Wednesday. While the agitation was by and large peaceful in Chickballapur district, the police detained scores of activists of various Left organisations for staging a demonstration in front of the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation depot here, in support of the strike. The supporters allegedly blocked buses, forcing the police to take them into custody, Circle Inspector of Police Satyanarayan Kudur said. The Centre of Indian Trade Unions district president Gandhinagar Narayanswamy, Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha taluk president Holur Shankar, Janawadi Mahila Sanghatane leader V. Geetha, Democratic Youth Federation of India district president Sriram and Students Federation of India district secretary R. Meenakshi, were among those detained. The strike was total in Kolar Gold Fields. Supporting the call, workers of BEML stayed away from duty. Banks, the Life Insurance Corporation, government offices, schools and colleges remained closed while traders downed their shutters. Taluk headquarters Bangarpet also observed a total bandh. Gowribidnur, Chintamani, Gudibande, Sidlaghat, Mittemari, Gulur, Bagepali also observed a total bandh. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/18/stories/2008081853850400.htm Kerala - Kochi Protest against SEZs KOCHI: A group of writers and activists has come out against the special economic zones being set up under the SEZ Act of 2005 in the State. They said in a statement that it would promote colonialism and foreign capital and not promote the State's development. It also would not increase job opportunities. The SEZs tended to promote wage slavery as labour laws would not be applied to them. It would be the government's responsibility to acquire land needed for the SEZs and provide cheap water and power to them. Huge tax cuts would have to be given to them. In view of these, the group urged the government to drop its move to permit SEZs in Kerala. The statement was signed by KG. Sankara Pillai, M.N. Ravunni, P. Geetha and several others. - Special Correspondent http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Chennai_Over_10000_protesters_held/rssarticleshow/3386045.cms Chennai: Over 10,000 protesters held 20 Aug 2008, 1822 hrs IST,PTI Print EMail Discuss New Bookmark/Share Save Write to Editor Members of CITU protest in Chennai. (TOI Photo) More Pictures CHENNAI: More than 10,000 CITU and members of other Left-affiliated unions were arrested across Tamil Nadu for staging road and rail blockades. The nation-wide strike, however, evoked little response in the state. All public transport services operated as usual while industrial establishments reported normal attendance. Work in public sector banking and insurance sectors was partially affected with sections of the employees taking part in the strike. Tamil Nadu Government Employees Association Secretary R Muthusundaram claimed in a release that more than 2 lakh employees participated in the agitation. In Chennai, four private airlines cancelled their flights to Kolkata on Wednesday morning following reports of a total strike in Left-ruled West Bengal. All other flights were operated on schedule. The wholesale Koyambedu market, the supplier of vegetables to the city and suburbs, functioned as usual. CITU state Secretary A Sounderajan and CPM MLA Mahendran were among those arrested in Chennai, while CITU organising secretary Vikraman along with 1,700 others were arrested in front of the Madurai Railway Junction. A report from Coimbatore said over 6,500 people, including 900 women were arrested for either trying to stage road-blockade or picketing in and around the temple city. It said around 70 per cent of the 3,000 hosiery units functioned as usual in the garment export hub of Tirupur, considered to be a bastion of Left trade unions. http://news.morningstar.com/newsnet/ViewNews.aspx?article=/DJ/200808121425DOWJONESDJONLINE000521_univ.xml Hundreds Protest Plan To Sell 70% Of Ghana Telecom To Vodafone8-12-08 2:25 PM ACCRA, Ghana (AFP)--Hundreds of people staged a protest outside Ghana's parliament Tuesday against the sale of 70% stake in state-owned Ghana Telecom to the U.K.'s Vodafone Group PLC (VOD). The demonstration was timed to coincide with an emergency session of parliament, which is expected to ratify the multi-million dollar deal. "The Vodafone deal stinks to the high heavens. It doesn't make sense," Kwesi Pratt, a prominent activist and organizer of the march, told protesters. Among the demonstrators was John Atta Mills, leader of the main opposition National Democratic Congress of former military ruler Jerry Rawlings. Arguing that the deal is not in the national interest, opposition lawmakers last month scuttled attempts to have the deal ratified before parliament went on a break. Vodafone has offered to pay $900 million for the stake in the money-losing Ghana Telecom, but the opposition says the shares are grossly undervalued. As opponents of the deal took to the streets, some workers of Ghana Telecom held a separate march in support of the deal. They see Vodafone's coming on board as revitalizing the struggling national phone company. Ghana Telecom is the west African country's third-largest mobile phone group with 1.4 million customers or 17% of the market. In recent years, Vodafone has expanded aggressively into emerging markets across Asia and Africa, as it seeks to offset the effects of flagging sales and intense competition in maturing Western markets. http://salem-news.com/articles/may192008/toxic_avenger_5-19-08.php May-19-2008 09:27 'Toxic Trader' Street Theater Protesting Free Trade Premiers Outside Gordon Smith's Office Salem-News.com Gordon Smith is being called out by American workers over his record on facilitating unsafe imports. United Steelworkers began a campaign against toxic trade over a year ago. Courtesy: usw105.org (PORTLAND, Ore.) - The United Steelworkers will present a primary election day premier of "The Toxic Trader," a street theater production designed to hold elected officials accountable for facilitating unsafe imports. It happens tomorrow, May 20th at noon at One World Trade Center, 121 SW Salmon St., Portland, outside the office of U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith. Organizers say the special staging for Sen. Smith will include the added attraction of an oversized ballot box in which Oregonians may cast votes for or against his record of supporting Free Trade Agreements that cost Oregon jobs and bring toxic toys into the state. This gives Oregonians an opportunity to make their feelings known since Smith is unopposed in today's primary. The USW street theater production features three "Toxic Avengers" fending off the gigantic "Toxic Trader," a puppet constructed by world-famous puppeteer Tavia La Follette, whose gargantuan three-dimensional caricatures have toured Europe, Eastern Europe, South America and Japan, almost always making political points. The script, written by slam poet and USW activist Rebecca Cooper with USW intern Liz Laycak, illustrates the devastating downsides of free trade agreements supported by Smith and presumptive Republican Presidential Nominee Sen. John McCain, including imported toys containing toxic levels of lead and the millions of manufacturing jobs exported over the past two decades. "The Toxic Trader," will premier outside Smith's office because of what the group considers to be, "his particularly egregious record on trade. Smith has embraced only uncontrolled free trade, as evidenced by the fact that when it came to inserting protection for workers in agreements, he voted against it." Oregon lost 22,600 manufacturing jobs from 2000 to 2007, according to the Alliance for American Manufacturing, a significant decline since manufacturing accounts for $27.2 billion of the state's gross product, and is the second largest contributor to the state's economy. "Despite that" the group says, "Smith voted in favor of every free trade deal that came before him." After Tuesday's premier, the production will travel the country, performing at other senatorial and congressional offices where the occupants have backed free trade agreements, instead of fair trade agreements that have written into them protections for the environment and workers to ensure that at least their own country's labor standards are enforced. The USW began a campaign against toxic trade over a year ago, with alerts to parents about dangerous levels of lead in imported toys and by distributing lead testing kits. The USW is the largest manufacturing union in North America, representing 850,000 members in a variety of occupations, from tire making to nursing. http://miamiherald.typepad.com/cuban_colada/2008/06/exile-says-eigh.html Exile says eight dissidents arrested in Havana restaurant protest Magdelivia Hidalgo, Miami-based international representative of a women's dissident group in Cuba, said Wednesday that eight dissidents were detained for hours by state security in Havana for attempting to pay their bills in Cuban pesos at a restaurant frequented by foreign travelers. Hidalgo, in an interview with The Miami Herald, said the incident unfolded at lunch time Tuesday at the Havana restaurant Vadia when four couples walked in one after the other separated by 10-minute intervals and sat down at different tables. Hidalgo (second from left in photo) said one couple ordered ham and cheese sandwiches, another asked for beef, a third fish and the fourth pasta. Trouble started when they asked for their bills, said Hidalgo. They offered to pay in regular pesos but the restaurant manager said regular pesos were not accepted because at tourist sites only so-called convertible pesos were taken. Hidalgo said the manager then summoned the authorities who arrested the four couples and drove them to state security units. According to Hidalgo, the couples were released early Wednesday. In the end, said Hidalgo, authorities allowed them to pay in regular pesos but warned them not to try the tactic again. The couples were members of FLAMUR, a group whose name stands for Federacion Latinoamericana de Mujeres Rurales or Federation of Latin American Rural Women. The group has been spearheading a campaign to force the Cuban government to allow Cubans to pay for goods and services in regular pesos - not convertible pesos. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Wed Aug 27 14:05:03 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 22:05:03 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Global uprisings and unrest, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <00f701c90888$9488d660$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * CANADA: Mass unrest in North Montreal over police racism and murder Police killing sparks a night of looting, shooting and Molotov cocktails * IRAN: Baloch protesters clash with regime forces * KASHMIR: Protesters demand investigation of unmarked graves * NIGERIA: Unrest feared over murder of youth * SERBIA: Local police chief's car torched * KUWAIT: Protesters throw stones over ban on tribal elections * YEMEN: Protesters try to free detainees in the south, one killed * NIGERIA: Police killing sparks revolt by bus workers in Enugu * THAILAND: Farmers block roads over rice price, overdue payments * INDIA: Lawyers torch bus over death in custody * MALAYSIA: Locals tear down checkpoints in dispute over toll road * INDIA: Gorkha minority demands separate province, stages strike, blockades * INDIA: Police kill farmer in clashes over fertiliser dispute * FRANCE: Winemakers burn cop cars, trash supermarkets in price protest * NIGERIA: Soldiers "on the rampage" in protest at unpaid wages * NIGERIA: Military pensioners block roads in protest over unpaid pensions * SOMALILAND: Protests and clashes hit separatist regime over water rig * KASHMIR: Fire at shrine leads to unrest * PAKISTAN: Armed clashes between police and opponents in Quetta * EGYPT: Hundreds of Sinai Bedouin protest against arrests, block roads, burn tyres * DR CONGO: Unrest in eastern town over rumours of handover to warlord * FRANCE: Youths torch cars in unrest after murder * GHANA: Youths besiege police post to free detainees * GERMANY: Relatives revolt after death in hospital * ALGERIA: Berbers in clashes with police, Arabs in Oran * GUINEA: Week-long unrest as soldiers mutiny over prime minister dismissal, unpaid wages * UGANDA: Uprising narrowly averted over Kiseka Market * GERMANY: Dozens injured during Kurdish demonstration * UGANDA: Taxi drivers strike, revolt over police mistreatment * NORTHERN IRELAND: Police targeted during uprisings * INDIA: Bus torched over crash death * INDIA: Road blockaded over killing * UK: Insurrection after Notting Hill Carnival - police repression meets with response * US: Youths fight back against police persecution at Pocono carnival * NIGERIA: Unrest after bus crash * NEW ZEALAND: Youths defy repression, organise underground Undie, battle police * BANGLADESH: Political opposition group stages militant protests * JAMAICA: Estate blockaded in protest at police murder * INDIA: Police attack power cut protesters blocking roads at Kottakuppam http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=n081115A Montreal rioters fire on cops, loot stores to protest police shooting August 11, 2008 - 7:58 Andy Blatchford, THE CANADIAN PRESS MONTREAL - Propane tank fireballs, Molotov cocktails and gunfire lit up a Montreal neighbourhood as marauding youth gangs responded to the shooting death of a young man by police. The rampage erupted in the city's north end after residents took to the streets for a community demonstration to protest the police shooting. Hundreds of officers in full riot gear were still marching through the Montreal North neighbourhood early Monday morning, trying to bring calm to the area. Police said two officers were injured during clashes with the street gangs. They said one suffered a gunshot wound to the leg. An ambulance technician was injured when he was hit in the head by a Molotov cocktail. The violence started when protesters torched several cars parked outside a fire station Sunday night in the district. The rioters then set dozens of fires in the streets and pelted fire trucks with bottles when firefighters arrived to put them out. The rampage continued through town before close to 100 people gathered in a commercial area. Dozens crawled through the smashed windows of a pawn shop, convenience store and butcher shop. Most grabbed anything they could. Men and women of all ages could be seen running down the street clutching TVs, cigarette cartons and slabs of meat. A backdrop of three-metre high fireballs from about a dozen flaming propane tanks illuminated the looters' paths as they headed down the darkened streets. An elderly woman carrying her newly acquired stereo laughed with her friend as they made their escape. Some looters stood on the sidewalk and watched the action, drinking freshly swiped beer from the store. Meanwhile, along the residential streets, riot-squad officers were forced to dive for cover at least three times, after blasts of what sounded life gunshots went off around them. "It was sick," said Patrick Parent, who lives on the street behind the store. "I had a guy shoot a gun next to me, that's how bad it was. The guy shot two shots, I ran home. It was terrifying. This was bad. I never thought I would see this in my life." Parent, who has lived in the area for six years, thought he had grown accustomed to his neighbourhood's gritty reputation. "Once in a while there will be a gunshot," he said. "Usually it's quiet though. There's never nothing bad. This is bad. "I thought I would see this only on TV, never in real life." The catalyst for the violence was the shooting by police on Saturday of three people, including an 18-year-old man who died. The man, identified by his sister as Freddy Alberto Villanueva, died from his wounds in hospital. The other two, an 18-and a 20-year-old, were listed in stable condition. Montreal police say the officers were trying to arrest an individual during a routine intervention in Henri Bourassa Park when they were surrounded by a group of about 20 youths. A few individuals allegedly broke away from the group and rushed the officers. According to police, one of the officers then opened fire. The officers were not injured in the Saturday incident. Quebec provincial police have taken over the investigation into the shootings. Early Monday morning, heavily-armed Quebec provincial police officers escorted firefighters as they dosed dozens of fires. Police helicopters surveyed the sector from above. Police took some people into custody, but could not provide details. Meanwhile, curious citizens walked the streets, scanning the wreckage of fallen bus shelters, trashed phone booths and burned-out cars. "It's crazy," said a shaken Richard Christie, a longtime resident. "All night you could see explosions." Christie said he heard three gunshots as he sat on the front porch of his home. Photo caption:Montreal police stand guard over a person arrested during rioting in Montreal early Monday morning. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Peter McCabe "A little further down the road there were two fires and the kids were massacring our town," he said. "After 30 years in Montreal North, I'm wondering if I should move." http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/aug2008/mont-a20.shtml Canadian media covers up the social roots of the Montreal riot By Richard Dufour 20 August 2008 In the wake of the riot that erupted earlier this month in the north end of Montreal after the police shooting of an unarmed 18-year-old immigrant from Honduras, the big business media are trying to whitewash the killing and cover up the social roots of the underlying repression of minority youth. Andr? Pratte, chief editor of the Montreal daily La Presse, commented Saturday "no one can say today whether the police officers committed a tragic blunder or if they were acting in legitimate self-defense." A few days earlier, an editorial in the Toronto Globe and Mail asserted, "The circumstances around the fatal shooting ... remain murky." Those claims fly in the face of the eyewitness accounts of the fatal event, all of which paint a clear, consistent picture of what took place. The evening of the shooting, Fredy Villanueva was playing dice in a public park with his brother Dany Villanueva and some friends when they were approached by two Montreal police agents, who proceeded to arrest Dany for no apparent reason. When Fredy protested the arbitrary arrest of his brother, one of the cops drew out his gun and fired four shots, killing Fredy and injuring two of his friends, Denis M?as and Jeffrey Sagor Metellus. Hours after the shooting, police spokesmen began circulating a totally different version of the events, claiming the two officers were surrendered by up to twenty people. "At a certain point," according to a police press release, "a great number of individuals rushed toward the police agents and attacked them. One of the police agents then opened fire toward the suspects, hitting three of them." Samuel Meideiros, 18, was skateboarding nearby when he saw the police pair approach the group of youth. "I don't know what ran through the mind of the police agents, but it is really unfair," he said. "They were six. One can't know for sure what the young man could have done or said, but it doesn't matter. They were not twenty, and they didn't grab the police agents." Claude Laguerre, one of the young people involved in the incident, told the Montreal Gazette that no one in the group was armed nor made physical contact with the police agents. "We were six guys and two girls. We approached, but we didn't touch them." Laguerre said the officers became aggressive within thirty seconds of getting out of their car. "They didn't ask (our) names, they just got aggressive," said Laguerre, who said the policeman fired without any warning. He added that after the police agent shot, he continued to point his gun at the group. In a TV interview, Dany Villanueva gave a detailed account of the police killing of his brother. "There was a game of dice. We were having fun, myself, my brother and his friends ... A police car emerged behind us. We were in the middle [of the park], we moved back. The police agent came right at me and told me: 'I saw you play dice, come here'. He wanted to arrest me... I had initially maintained a distance from him, then I got closer. He grabbed my hand, he wanted to handcuff me. I said, 'Why are you doing this? I didn't do anything wrong.' He was pressing hard. At a certain point, my arm began to hurt. I was also struggling to straighten up my arm. The other police agent came and they threw me on the hood of the car. I managed to get up. The police agent took me by the neck and tripped me up. It's at this point that my brother came. He said, 'What are you doing, let go of my brother. Why are you doing this?' And then, I just heard gun shots. I saw my brother down on the ground." Government officials have refused to call a public inquiry on the police shooting of Fredy Villanueva and no disciplinary action has been taken against the police agents responsible for his death. A bogus internal investigation was handed over to the provincial police force, the S?ret? du Qu?bec. Its aim is to whitewash the two Montreal cops involved and the city's police force as a whole. "I don't even know what progress the investigation has made, what is going on, nothing," said Patricia Villanueva, the sister of the young victim and spokesperson for the family. There is also an attempt by the ruling establishment to deny any connection between the fatal police shooting of the Latino teenager and the on-going police harassment of minority youth. In the aforementioned La Presse editorial, Prate goes out of his way to reassure his readers that "absolutely nothing indicates that Montreal's police agents are a pack of racist thugs." The latter phrase is an apt one. "The relationship between young men and the police in these hot areas is very difficult," Maria Mourani, a sociologist and Bloc Quebecois MNA, commented to the Gazette August 12. "If you are male, a member of a visible minority and drive a sports car, you can be targeted," Mourani said. "One youth told me he was stopped 10 times in one day. That is a lot and I think the young people are fed up." This is particularly the case-and has been for years-in the heavily immigrant neighborhood of Montreal-North, nicknamed "the Bronx," where Fredy Villanueva was killed. The area has highly concentrated pockets of poverty and all the associated social problems, including gang and drug-related violence. These problems are coupled with police repression and criminalization of the population. Jacques H?bert, a professor of social work at Montreal's UQAM university, said of the area: "A study I co-directed in 1996 to understand the social trajectory of young Haitians living in this neighborhood found that a majority of them had been 'aggressively' called over by police agents during routine checks. The term most frequently used by law-enforcement officers was the word 'nigger'." In a similar observation, Pierreson Vaval, a youth-group leader in the Montreal-North neighborhood, told the press of youth "in revolt because they don't like the way they are being treated. They don't like how authorities interact with them." This remark was singled out for condemnation in the aforementioned Globe and Mail editorial as an attempt to "dignify the stealing of meat from small butcher shops or the burning of cars as an expression of oppressed youth." The mouthpiece of Canada's financial establishment wants no examination of the social roots of last week's riot in the north end of Montreal because of what would be exposed: mounting police brutality and racism as the response of a ruling class that has no progressive solution to the acute social ills generated by its profit-based system. Statistics for the Montreal-North neighborhood are staggering in that regard: 40 percent of its 85,000 inhabitants live below the official poverty line, double the provincial rate; 46 percent of its tenants spend about a third or more of their income on rent, as opposed to 35 percent in the city as a whole; the unemployment rate is 12 percent, as opposed to 8 percent in the province; and among those aged 15 to 24, the unemployment rate jumps to 16 percent, as opposed to 13 percent in the province. Marie Manseau, a teacher at a primary school attended mostly by Montreal-North pupils, described to La Presse the social process through which poor children are being denied a future. "It's normal that things boil over when so many kids lack goals and occupations. They must be motivated by engaging them in activities. It's impressive to see how one can revive the flame thanks to a school journal, a theater piece or a visit to the museum. Unfortunately, the budgets are never there and, with the [education] reform, artistic-oriented activities were slashed. Half of the professionals lost their jobs." http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/080818/national/mtl_riot Montreal police say 35 arrested following Montreal North riot Module body Mon Aug 18, 6:15 PM MONTREAL - Thirty-five people have been arrested by Montreal police as part of their investigation into a riot last weekend following the fatal police shooting of a teenage boy. Montreal police Chief Yvan Delorme said Monday that security has also been beefed up at the station serving Montreal North, where the riot happened. Security cameras have been installed around the building along with other measures Delorme wouldn't describe. He said an additional 30 officers have been assigned to the station, which is in what police are calling a hot zone. Police have released pictures of numerous people caught on security cameras during the riot and gotten tips from the public. The tactic also proved fruitful during the Stanley Cup riot downtown earlier this year. Montreal North erupted into a riot last Sunday during a demonstration to protest the police shooting of 18-year-old Fredy Villanueva, who was killed last Saturday as police moved in on a group of men in a local park. Villanueva was shot three times and bled to death. Under provincial policy, the investigation of the shooting was turned over to Quebec provincial police, who say they have interviewed 70 witnesses. They say they expect to turn the file over to a Crown prosecutor soon to determine if charges will be laid. Delorme also said efforts have been made to reach out to the Montreal North community in the wake of the riot. In his briefing, Delorme insisted that Montreal remains a safe city and pointed out that the level of youth crime is below the Quebec and Canadian average. http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080812/Montreal_riots_080812/20080812?hub=Canada Inquiry into teen's death will be 'fair': Que. police Updated Tue. Aug. 12 2008 8:02 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff Quebec provincial police say that their criminal investigation into the police shooting of an 18-year-old in Montreal will be public and will establish who was "responsible" for the incident. Freddy Alberto Villanueva's death sparked riots Sunday in the northern Montreal community where the shooting occurred. He was shot by a Montreal police officer during a confrontation Saturday night. Anti-racism groups have been calling for a public inquiry into the shooting, amid appeals from the police and government officials for calm in the community. In a press conference Tuesday afternoon, Lt. Francois Dore of the Quebec provincial police said in French, "We trust that we will do this inquiry well." "The goal of a criminal investigation is to establish responsibility, if there is, of each and every one (involved) -- which is not the goal of a public inquiry," he added in English. He said that the conclusion of the investigation will be made public and there will be regular communications from the provincial force on the matter. "The investigation will be complete, will be impartial . . . (it) will be a fair investigation," Dore said in response to a question about political pressure on the case. He said that more than 30 witnesses have been interviewed so far and police have met with the family of the victim. "We can feel the confidence between them and us," he said. Dore said the investigation should be complete in eight to 10 weeks. New information on officers involved The fatality occurred when police attempted to arrest an individual at a city park in north Montreal Saturday night. Police said two officers were conducting what appeared to be a routine intervention. When the officers got out of their vehicle, Montreal police said that they were surrounded by a group of youth, who then rushed the officers. The officers -- one female, one male -- were both white. Dore confirmed that four shots were fired by a single officer, one which killed Villaneuva. Two others were injured and are still in hospital. Both officers are now on sick leave. He said that neither officer has been questioned by Quebec police yet, which he said was normal for an investigation. But he did say they would be interviewed within a "few days." Dore refused to give any information on the officers involved, saying that it would "contaminate" the investigation. Montreal police have dismissed criticism that its officers had other alternatives than to use lethal force. "The ideology of Hollywood movies is that you can take on eight people with martial arts courses and that everyone can be neutralized just like that -- it's not that easy," Chief Insp. Paul Chablo told CTV Montreal. Some residents of the community feel the shooting incident erupted amid heightened racial tensions between police and community members in the area, which is troubled with high unemployment, a lack of education and poverty. Pierreson Vaval, who heads a youth group in the city's north end, told The Canadian Press the community members are in revolt because they don't like the way they are being treated by authorities. Public inquiry wanted A public inquiry would allow witnesses to testify, said a spokesperson for the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations. "The advantage of a public inquiry is that it will look for the motives that feed this hatred of the police system," lawyer Jacky-Eric Salvant told a news conference. "The other advantage of a public inquiry is that we will be able to analyze the intervention methods of police." Minister of Public Security, Jacques Depuis, told CTV Montreal that he has met with community groups and leaders, and that he wants people to stop taking violent action to make their point. "Police (are) doing work that is not easy," Depuis said. The police wants a good relationship with the community but also has to be able to fight crime, he said. "They are well-inclined to keep a peaceful atmosphere, to keep an open communication...with the communities, and the population should have confidence in the police department." One Montreal radio host says many of his callers continued to express anger and resentment at a police force they say has been harassing them for too long. "This is not only about gang street members, it's about ordinary citizens who live peacefully in Montreal North," Jean Fils-Aime, CPAM radio host told Canada AM Tuesday. "Whenever police see a black man or just see a young man, police will stop him and try to get information from them and arrest them." With files from CTV Montreal http://www.nowpublic.com/world/montreal-riots-whats-root-cause-all http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=716369 Montreal Riots: What's the root Cause in All this? by Barry Artiste | August 11, 2008 at 09:12 pm What's the root of the Montreal riots? Canwest News Service Published: Monday, August 11, 2008 Photo Inset, By John Morstad/Canwest News Service A propane tanks shoot flames during rioting in Montreal, following the earlier shooting of Fredy Villanueva by a Montreal police officer. MONTREAL - As it appealed for calm after a Sunday night riot sparked by the police shooting death of a teen, the Montreal police force's track record on race relations came into sharp focus on Monday. The force says the problems are mostly gang-related, but community leaders say the problems go deeper than that. "The relationship between young men and the police in these (hot) areas is very difficult," said Maria Mourani, a sociologist and Bloc Quebecois MNA who wrote a book about street-gang life in Montreal. "The police are on edge because when they get out of their cars they don't know what is going to happen. The young people are on edge because they feel they are being harassed. " Much of the tension stems from what young people say is racial profiling by police officers who are trying to crack down on street-gang activity. But in doing that, community leaders say police are harassing too many black and Latino youths with no ties to street gangs and with no criminal record. "If you are male, a member of a visible minority and drive a sports car, you can be targeted, " Ms. Mourani said Monday. "One youth told me he was stopped 10 times in one day. That is a lot and I think the young people are fed up." http://www.ncr-iran.org/content/view/5269/128/ Iranian Resistance calls for salvage of detained protesters in Zahedan Thursday, 12 June 2008 NCRI - Following demonstrations and clashes which started last Sunday between the Iranian regime's suppressive forces and angry residents in Zahedan, provincial capital of Sistan-Baluchistan in southeast Iran, a large number of people were arrested. Among the detainees there are many young people whose whereabouts and state remain unknown. The reason behind the angry protest and demonstration, which the regime is trying to blame on division between Sunnis and Shiites, is the brutal repression of the deprived people in the province and specially the cruel discrimination against the Sunnis. During the protests, the angry crowd attacked suppressive agents of the State Security Forces (SSF) and set fire to their vehicles. They also blocked the streets by setting fire to tires. The SSF agents and the Revolutionary Guards anti-riot special units attacked the protesters by firing into the crowd, throwing tear gas and beating them by batons. To control the riots, the SSF and special units have been stationed in different parts of the city and an undeclared martial law is in force in Zahedan. The Iranian Resistance calls on all human rights organizations, advocates of freedom of belief and religion as well as the relevant UN rapporteurs and competent bodies to condemn the systematic suppression prevailing in Sistan-Baluchistan. It also calls for urgent actions to free detained protesters in Zahedan. http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=140069 Hundreds of Kashmir protesters clash with police, demand investigation of unmarked graves Hundreds of protesters clashed with police Friday in Indian Kashmir, demanding an investigation into the recent discovery of more than 900 unmarked graves as India's prime minister visited the troubled territory. At least 10 policemen were injured _ three critically _ as protesters threw rocks, said local police officer Pervez Ahmed. It was not immediately known if any protesters were hurt. Police fired tear gas and used bamboo batons to disperse the protesters, Ahmed said. Mirwaiz Omer Farooq, the chief Muslim cleric and chairman of the main separatist alliance in the Indian-controlled section of divided Kashmir, led a vehicle convoy of nearly 2,000 protesters to hand over a petition to the U.N. office in the territory's main city, Srinagar. The petition called for an investigation into alleged human rights violations by Indian authorities amid the territory's separatist conflict. During a sermon he preached at a mosque before the protest Friday, Farooq demanded an investigation into the unmarked graves, believed to be those of people killed by India's security forces during the territory's nearly two-decade uprising against Indian rule. Farooq was detained at a police station later Friday, another police officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media. About a dozen militant groups have been fighting since 1989 for Muslim-majority Kashmir's independence from mostly Hindu India or a union with predominantly Muslim Pakistan. The territory is divided between India and Pakistan, which both claim it all and fought two wars over it. Four senior leaders of Indian Kashmir's main separatist alliance were placed under house arrest hours before Friday's protests, said police officer Shabir Ahmed. He had said that they were detained as a preventive measure because police anticipated law and order problems during Indian Prime Minister's Manmohan Singh's trip to Kashmir. Last month, the Association of Parents of Disappeared People, an Indian Kashmir rights group, issued a report saying it found 940 unmarked graves near Uri, one of Kashmir's most violent areas. Uri is near the Line of Control, the de facto frontier that divides the parts of Kashmir controlled by India and Pakistan. http://allafrica.com/stories/200804210487.html Nigeria: Tension As Youths Protest Killing of Student This Day (Lagos) 21 April 2008 Posted to the web 21 April 2008 Toba Suleiman Ado-Ekiti Tension is mounting in the Odo-Oro area of Ekiti State as angry youths in the town are protesting the gruesome murder of one Polytechnic student, Dele Awogbemi by people suspected to be hired cultists. The youths under the agies of Odo-Oro Ekiti Patriotic Front (OOEPF), have sent a Save Our Soul (SOS) message to the Inspector-General of Police (IG), Mr Mike Okiro, the state Commissioner of Police, Mr Yomi Onashile and other well-meaning indigenes of the state to intervene in the crisis that is daily assuming a dangerous dimension. The incident, which occured on April 5 during the installation of one Chief Victor Onipede as the new Alara of Odo-Oro Ekiti has continued to generate serious unrest among the youths, who now dress in black attire to mourn the gruesome murder of one them. Until his death, Awogbemi, was a 26-year old ND 11, Accountancy student of Kogi State Polytechnic, Lokoja. Briefing the press at the weekend in Ado-Ekiti, leader of the Front, Mr Suyi Ayodele said trouble started following a misunderstanding during which Awogbemi was beaten to a state of unconsciousness and later matcheted severally on his body, before he was later rushed to the nearby Ikole-Ekiti, general hospital, where he later died the following day. As the news of the death of Awogbemi filtered into the town the following Monday, youths in their multitude mobilized themselves, and matched to the palace of the monarch of the community, the Onise of Odo-Oro, Oba Ibiloye Ogunsakin Oyegbadebo, to register their grievances. The state Police boss, Mr Onashile confirmed the incident, saying his command is on the trail of those alleged to have had a hand in the gruesome murder of the student. https://xs4.b92.net/eng/news/in_focus.php?id=119 Novi Pazar police chief's car set alight 3 August 2008 The Novi Pazar MUP traffic police chief's car was set on fire this morning, reports say. The vehicle belonging to Enes Dakovic, parked close to his family home in the largest Sandzak town, burned completely. "Police directorate is undertaking all necessary measures in order to find the perpetrators," local MUP directorate chief Dragan Terzic told journalists on Sunday. http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=w050455A Kuwaitis protest crackdown on illegal tribal parliamentary election primaries May 4, 2008 - 16:50 Diana Elias, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS KUWAIT CITY - Thousands of Kuwaitis have demonstrated against a government crackdown on illegal tribal primaries, with some of them throwing stones at a security building before storming it, the Interior Ministry said Sunday. The confrontation Saturday evening was the third between authorities and tribesman over the banned parliamentary primaries since Kuwait's leader dissolved the legislature in March and ordered early elections on May 17. No injuries have been reported from any of the protests. The crowd of several thousand gathered in front of a security building south of Kuwait City on Saturday, demanding the release of members of the Mutair tribe arrested for carrying out the primaries, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. "There were mobs among them who pelted stones at the building, breaking the glass of its facade, and some of them stormed it," said the statement. Officials called in special forces, but tribal elders were able to mediate the confrontation before they were used, it added. Kuwait criminalized the primaries in 1998 because authorities believe they encourage allegiance to tribes rather than the state. Most Kuwaitis come from tightly nit Bedouin tribes. The state argues that the primaries also deprive many Kuwaitis from having a fair chance to compete in a district if they are not supported by the local tribe. However, tribes insist they have the right to choose whom to field in the parliamentary elections. The government has detained scores of people for taking part in the primaries. The tribes have been trying to get around the crackdown by holding votes in secret or by calling them "consultations" instead of actual primaries. Also Sunday, the Interior Ministry warned foreigners in a separate statement against demonstrating and threatened to deport any of them who organize protests. Many Asian labourers have held sit-ins in recent weeks to protest nonpayment of salaries. Some two-thirds of Kuwait's population of over 3 million are foreign workers. Unskilled labourers, mostly from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, often complain of lack of payment and poor living conditions. Kuwaiti law gives the interior minister the right to deport any foreign resident believed to be a threat to security. http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/middleeast/news/article_1402548.php/Protester_killed_in_clash_with_police_in_southern_Yemen Protester killed in clash with police in southern Yemen Apr 29, 2008, 13:40 GMT Sana'a, Yemen - A protester was killed in a clash between police forces and protesters trying to free detained opposition activists in the southern Yemeni province of Lahj on Tuesday, witnesses said. They said the clash broke out after dozens of armed protesters stormed into a detention centre in the Habeel Jabre twon of Lahj, some 300 kilometres from the capital Sana'a. Another protester and two police officers were injured in the clash, they said. The detained activists were among dozens of people arrested after violent protests in several southern cities in the past three weeks by disgruntled youths demanding army jobs. http://allafrica.com/stories/200805160572.html Nigeria: Protest As Police Kill Bus Conductor This Day (Lagos) 16 May 2008 Posted to the web 16 May 2008 Francis Ugwoke Enugu The serene environment of the coal city, Enugu, yesterday erupted in a riot as transporters protested the killing of a bus conductor by the Police. The conductor who was simply identified as Obiajulu in his twenties met his untimely death from a stray bullet said to have been fired by policemen who were chasing hoodlums at a notorious hideout somewhere in Obiagu. Obiajulu, according to an eye witness was standing on the road side on Wednesday night when the stray bullet from the Police who were said to have fired into the air apparently to scare the hoodlums hit him on the waist. Following the incident, it was gathered that the bus drivers organized themselves as a group to protest the killing. Our source said that the police team who killed the bus conductor had attempted to take his corpse but was stopped by the protesters who blocked the road to stop movement of vehicles. The police team had on noticing the mounting tension mobilized more officers to ensure that the protesters did not go beyond Obiagu. It was gathered that the aggrieved relations of the late conductor took his corpse to the mortuary late Wednesday night. However, drivers and conductors regrouped early yesterday morning to continue the protest, a development that made movement in the city difficult. In a bid to ensure that the protest was not hijacked by miscreants to cause serious mayhem in the city, the Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Suleiman Fakai was forced to come to the scene to pacify the relatives of the deceased and the commercial bus drivers and conductors. Fakai who admitted that it was a mistake from the Police urged the protesters not to take the laws into their hands. He promised that the Police were carrying out full investigation into the matter, and will bring to book the officers responsible for the killing. http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/read.php?newsid=30072877 Chiang Rai farmers protest Chiang Rai - More than 1,000 farmers blocked main roads in this northern province Monday in protest against the falling price of their crop. According to the protesters, middlemen had now agreed to buy the unmilled rice at just Bt9,600 per tonne. Last year, the price was at Bt10,000 per tonne. "The cost of growing rice has risen. How can our crop get less money than before? Rice can be exported," Banyat Thongdeenok, 54, said. He was among the protesters demanding that Chiang Rai Governor Traisit Limsomboonthong help raise the issue with Commerce Minister Mingkwan Sangsuwan or relevant officials. The Nation http://www.mathaba.net/rss/?x=593256 Thailand: Chiang Rai farmers protest for second day Posted: 2008/05/25 From: MNN Farmers in the northern province of Chiang Rai have blocked more main roads on the second consecutive day of their protest against the low price they are paid for the sticky rice they produce. The demonstrators called on the government to guarantee glutinous rice at a price of eight baht per kilogramme as it earlier promised. The protesters blocked three roads including a highway. Motorists heading to Bangkok are advised to use Chiang Rai-Toeng road to bypass the area and avoid traffic congestion. The protesters said they will not disperse unless the government enforces their bid to have millers buy their glutinous rice paddy at the earlier guaranteed price. The farmers also plan to block more main roads to paralyse the traffic in an attempt to pressure the government. (TNA) http://www.bangkokpost.com/260608_News/26Jun2008_news13.php Protesting farmers block road THEERAWAT KHAMTHITA About 300 rice farmers blocked the Chiang Mai-Phrao road in Chiang Mai's San Sai district yesterday to demand overdue payments worth 16 million baht from millers who bought their rice last month. The farmers from San Sai, Mae Rim, Mae Taeng and Phrao districts set up tents occupying one lane of the road. They demanded millers and state agencies pay the outstanding amount. The farmers sold their unhusked rice to the millers at a government-guaranteed price. The rice stock is kept at mills selected by the government. Some millers, however, were late making their payment, claiming they had difficulty securing loans from the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) to pay the farmers. This is their second time out on the roads. Earlier protests by the farmers in Chiang Mai were called off after they were promised prompt payments. But the millers fell behind on payments again this week, so the farmers renewed their protest. They say they will stay put until they get paid. They also plan to file complaints with police. Another group of rice farmers rallied in front of the BAAC's Chiang Mai branch, urging the bank to grant them loans. The farmers said their rally would grow if the bank ignored their request. They did not benefit from the recent surge in rice prices, they said. In neighbouring Chiang Rai, about 10 rice farmers have filed a complaint with Crime Suppression Division police in Bangkok, about overdue payments worth 35 million baht, allegedly owed to farmers by Pichet Tonitiwong, owner of the Siripinyo rice mill. The Chachoengsao-based mill set up points to buy rice from the Chiang Rai farmers. Farmer Weerapol Somsripaeng said the miller had bought rice worth about 40 million baht from over 4,000 farmers in Chiang Rai but had paid only five million baht to them. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/13/asia/AS-GEN-India-Prison-Death.php Angry lawyers in northern India torch bus in protest after colleague's death in custody The Associated Press Published: May 13, 2008 LUCKNOW, India: Hundreds of angry lawyers in northern India torched a bus and damaged other vehicles after a lawyer serving time for contempt of court died in custody Tuesday. S.K. Awasthi, 45, was sentenced to serve one month in prison for contempt of court by a judge in Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh state. He died in a state-run hospital after serving 10 days in prison, local police officer Piyush Srivastav said. Awasthi complained about feeling unwell Monday night and was taken to the hospital by jail officials, Srivastav said. He gave no other details. A representative of the Allahabad Bar Association told The Associated Press, however, the lawyers believe Awasthi was beaten in prison and that is what caused his death. "That's why he fell unconscious and died without gaining consciousness," lawyer Chotey Lal Pandey said. Angry lawyers took to the streets, setting fire to one bus and damaging two others, Srivastav said. The lawyers demanded that Awasthi's family be compensated and that the state government investigate his death, Pandey said. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/5/10/nation/21212228&sec=nation Saturday May 10, 2008 IGP sounds warning after protest over Cheras access road turns ugly PETALING JAYA: Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan said there should be no mob rule in this country. He said police would act against those who organised or incited residents to break the law by gathering illegally and demonstrating. He was commenting on the protest by about 1,000 demonstrators at Bandar Mahkota, Cheras, against a barricade at a traffic-light junction leading to the area on Thursday night. The residents have twice brought down the barricade. The demonstration turned ugly at about 10.30pm and police had to fire water cannons and tear gas to control the crowd. Unsafe driving: Drivers using the access road after the barricade was brought down a second time by irate residents. "We are concerned as the toll-free access road has yet to be gazetted. If there is an accident, we will not be able to investigate and motorists will have to file a civil suit for compensation," he said. "To me, all parties concerned should sit down and find an amicable solution without resorting to mob rule. They should go to the courts and fight for their rights, instead of damaging property and inconveniencing other motorists and residents." Police arrested four people after the demonstration. During the commotion, Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng was allegedly assaulted and later warded at the Selayang hospital. http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2008/5/10/central/21207929&sec=central Saturday May 10, 2008 Folks have the right to use access road without paying toll, says Khalid By WANI MUTHIAH and GEETHA KRISHNAN SELANGOR Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim said the state government will be holding a meeting with Cheras-Kajang Highway concessionaire Grand Saga Sdn Bhd and the Federal Government next week. He said the meeting was to find a solution for the tussle between the concessionaire and Bandar Mahkota Cheras residents over the barricade erected by the former on the toll-free access road belonging to the Selangor government. "We understand the problem as well as the plight of the people and will seek a quick solution,'' said Khalid when met by Bandar Mahkota Cheras residents at the state secretariat building yesterday. All ears: Liu (left) explaining the situation to Khalid at the SUK building in Shah Alam as Ean Yong (second from right) and Tan (right) look on. He said the residents had the right to use the access road without having to pay toll but added that the problem could only be settled when all relevant parties had discussed the matter. The residents arrived at the secretariat building yesterday at about 11am in a chartered bus and five cars to hand over a memorandum to Khalid. It was received by the his special duties assistant Mohd Yahya Sahri. The crowd was also met by state executive councillors Ronnie Liu and Ean Yong Hean Wah. Liu, who met reporters after speaking to the residents, said the concessionaire did not have the right to barricade the access road as it belonged to the state government. He lambasted the police for taking sides and said that the police should maintain law and order instead of manhandling the residents on behalf of the concessionaire. Under control: Bandar Mahkota Cheras residents watching the site in case Grand Saga blocks the road again. "We have all the proof to show that the land belongs to the state government and we have informed the police about this but the police, which is under the control of the Federal Government, is not paying heed,'' said Liu. He added that he had spoken to the Selangor CPO Deputy Comm Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar over the phone but the latter had remained stubborn. More than 100 policemen, including personnel from the Light Strike Force and the Federal Reserve Unit, were dispatched to the area on Thursday when the residents held a demonstration to protest against Grand Saga Sdn Bhd. Police personnel fired water cannons several times to ward off the protestors who were riding motorcycles and speeding towards the police barricades. Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng was allegedly assaulted when he pulled the plug of a generator before standing in front of a water cannon to prevent the police from aiming it at the crowd. He is presently recovering at the Selayang Hospital. "The police must be neutral and not help Grand Saga Sdn Bhd put up the barricade. Since when did the police force go into construction?'' asked Liu. He said that he would be speaking to Khalid as well as state legal adviser Datin Paduka Zauyah Be T. Loth Khan to see what action could be taken against the concessionaire. Liu said the residents also had the right to seek an injunction against the concessionaire as well as seek damages from it through legal recourse. Bandar Mahkota Cheras residents had been maintaining a 24-hour vigil at the crossroads where the concrete barricade put up by Grand Saga was first dismantled on April 21. But the tents and garden chairs which residents used while keeping an eye on the road were no longer there on Friday morning. Also missing were self-appointed traffic marshalls who helped to ensure the traffic situation was under control since the traffic lights were not synchronised. Although small groups of residents were present at the site, the crowd was not as big as the 1,000-odd people who converged on Thursday night where four people including the Bandar Mahkota Cheras Open Access Road Committee chairman Tan Boon Wah were arrested. To-date, Grand Saga has re-built the barricade twice and on both occasions, residents had broken down the barrier. "They can keep building the barricade but we will keep destroying it," said Tan when contacted. He was released from police custody after a few hours. With the highway concessionaire and the Selangor state government claiming right of way, the issue is still far from being settled. One resident, Suraya Haris Ong, said authorities should also view the socio-economic impact on the township with low rentals and vacant shoplots since the barricade was put up in 2005. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20080612-0712-india-darjeeling-.html Strike hits tea, tourism in India's Darjeeling hills By Sujoy Dhar REUTERS 7:12 a.m. June 12, 2008 KOLKATA, India - Protesters clashed with police in India's rolling Darjeeling hills on Thursday as a strike over demands for a separate state hit the region's tea and tourism industries, police and officials said. Gorkhas, who are ethnic Nepalis, demand a separate 'Gorkhaland' be carved out of the eastern state of West Bengal to protect their culture and heritage. Supporters of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (Gorkha People's Liberation Front) urged tourists to leave the hills, a popular destination as temperatures soar on the plains below, to avoid getting caught up in the protests. They have eased a ban on tourist buses for two days. In the foothills to the south near the town of Siliguri, supporters of the ruling communist government of West Bengal said tourists had been beaten up by Gorkhas. They called a parallel strike, blocked roads heading north and ransacked Nepali homes, officials and a Reuters photographer said. 'The communist government in the state is trying to starve us by cutting supplies,' said Bimal Gurung, who is leading the Gorkha agitation. 'We will not back out from our demands and our agitation will continue peacefully.' Ethnic Nepalis were singled out and police used batons and tear gas to contain clashes in which dozens of people were injured, police said. 'The Gorkhas were chased away by the Bengali speaking people from the plains who are opposed to the statehood (demand),' K.L. Tamta, a senior police officer said. The violence has badly hit another mainstay of the local economy, the region's vast tea gardens which ship highly-prized and fragrant brews around the world. 'This is the best time to pluck the high quality leaves, but the strike has hit us hard and we are losing 20 million rupees ($470,000) a day,' Rajiv Lochan, secretary of the Siliguri Tea Traders' Association, told Reuters. At least 1,200 people died in the first Gorkhaland campaign in the 1980s, but protests ended a few years later after Gorkha leaders accepted limited autonomy. Tour operators have warned tourists to avoid Darjeeling for the time being. (Additional reporting by Debiprasad Nayak in Mumbai and Rupak De Chowdhury in Siliguri; Editing by Bappa Majumdar and Mark Williams) http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=369970 Eight tourists hurt in attack by West Bengal protesters IANS Thursday 12th June, 2008 A group of Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) activists Thursday attacked a tourist vehicle and injured eight people in West Bengal's Jalpaiguri district. 'A tourist vehicle was attacked by some GJM activists who entered Dooars area from Kalimpong sub-division (of Darjeeling district). The local people chased away the GJM supporters. While escaping, they came across a vehicle carrying tourists from Darjeeling and they vented their ire on the passengers,' West Bengal Inspector General (North Bengal) K.L. Tamta told IANS. He said: 'The incident took place near Khunia in Dooars. Eight tourists received minor injuries in the attack.' Tourists continued to have a harrowing time in the Darjeeling hills as transport kept off the roads and food became scarce. Shops, markets and government offices remained closed and normal life came to a standstill as the three hill sub-divisions - Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong - and some portions of Dooars continued an indefinite shutdown since Tuesday morning. Thousands of tourists were stranded in Sikkim Wednesday as the National Highway No. 31-A, linking the state with the nearest railhead and civilian airport at Siliguri, remained cut off because of a blockade by GJM activists. Darjeeling was the summer capital of British India till 1911, when the capital was shifted to Delhi from Kolkata. The verdant hills and the Himalayan toy train service are a prime tourist attraction, particularly during the summer. But the stranded tourists did get a breather as the GJM leaders relaxed their indefinite shutdown in Darjeeling for 60 hours, from 6 p.m. Wednesday to 6 a.m. Saturday. Many of them arrived in Kolkata Thursday morning by the Darjeeling Mail and Teesta-Torsa Express. The GJM, led by its president Bimal Gurung, has been spearheading a movement in the hills for a separate state, besides opposing the Sixth Schedule status for Darjeeling district. The central government in 2005 conferred the Sixth Schedule status on the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF)-led Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) that ensures greater autonomy to the district's governing body. The DGHC was formed in 1988 through a tripartite agreement between the central and state governments and the GNLF after a two-year bout of violence in the hills in support of the greater autonomy demand. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/11/stories/2008061157170100.htm Farmers' protest turns violent, man killed in police firing Karnataka Bureau Yeddyurappa says it's an organised conspiracy to sully his Government's image To his rescue: A man rushes to help an injured person during farmers' protest in Haveri on Tuesday. HAVERI/BANGALORE: One person was killed and 13 were injured in police firing and lathi-charge when farmers in Haveri district resorted to violent protests on Tuesday. Deputy Commissioner of Haveri P.S. Vastrad gave the name of the deceased as Siddalingappa Choori (34) of Haveri. However, he denied that there was police firing and said that only tear-gas shells were lobbed to disperse the crowd. When contacted, District Surgeon Marekkanavar told The Hindu that some of the injured had sustained bullet injuries. He said seven injured persons were shifted to Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) Hospital. Of the seven, the condition of three was serious. According to eyewitnesses, the main reason for the protests was that in spite of having been issued tokens, the farmers were not given fertilizers. Hundreds of farmers had lined up in front of the fertilizer shops. When fertilizers were not given to them, they resorted to a "rasta roko." Violent protests were reported in Bankapur, Shiggaon, Motebennur and Haveri, which are connected by the Pune-Bangalore National Highway. Consequently, vehicular movement was paralysed for almost half a day. The protesters torched two buses in Motebennur and one bus in Haveri. They also pushed two buses into a roadside ditch and damaged several buses by throwing stones. Several shops, including fertilizer shops, were looted during the protests at Shiggaon and Bankapur. The police had to lob tear gas shells to control the mob. In Motebennur too, the police had to lob tear gas shells to disperse the crowd and to bring the situation under control. At Haveri, trouble started after the police resorted to lathi-charge to disperse the crowd which had started pelting stones at shops around the NWKRTC Bus Stand. When the protesters didn't budge the police lobbed tear gas shells. But the protestors continued throwing stones. According to eye witnesses, at this juncture the police resorted to firing. Mr. Vastrad, who denied this, said that the situation was brought under control by 6 p.m. He said prohibitory orders had been clamped in the city as a precautionary measure. Meanwhile, a defiant Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa did not express regret over the incident. Maintaining that "genuine farmers" were not involved in the ongoing violent protests against shortage of fertilizers, the Chief Minister warned that stern action would be taken against those who try to take the law into their own hands. Mr. Yeddyurappa, who convened a meeting of top-ranking officials and senior Ministers to review the situation told presspersons that the protest was "an organised conspiracy to sully his Government's image and to create confusion". He ordered an inquiry by the Belgaum Divisional Commissioner Amita Prasad into the police firing and gave her a deadline of 10 days to submit a report to the Government. He also ordered a compensation of Rs. 2 lakh to the family members of the deceased and Rs. 50,000 to those who were seriously injured. Those who suffered minor injuries will get Rs. 25,000 each. http://www.nowpublic.com/world/french-winemakers-riot-violent-protest French winemakers riot in violent protest by julianw | June 26, 2008 at 05:16 pm | 364 views | 6 comments This story's just coming in from the wires. We want some other perspectives on the protest, so look out for reports and photos from people in the area. Winemakers in southern France have burned two police cars and vandalized supermarkets during protests to demand government aid. Vintners in France's Languedoc-Roussillon region have been protesting plummeting prices for their regional wines as well as rising fuel costs. Top regional official Cyrille Schott says protesters broke windows at the courthouse in the city of Montpellier. In nearby Montagnac, protesters wielding baseball bats chased police from their vehicles and set the cars on fire. Schott says protesters damaged four bank buildings. http://allafrica.com/stories/200807050006.html Nigeria: Soldiers Rampage in Akure This Day (Lagos) 5 July 2008 Posted to the web 5 July 2008 James Sowole Akure For several hours beginning from around mid-afternoon yesterday, rampaging soldiers took over some streets of Akure, the Ondo State capital setting up bonfires that totally blocked the entrance to the metropolis through Ondo axis. The soldiers, drawn from across the country, had been quartered at the Owena Barracks of the 323 Artillery Regiment of the Nigerian Army. It was learnt that their grouse was the non-payment of their entitlements since they came back from Liberia on peace-keeping mission. Civilians living around the barracks, which is located on the outskirts of the town, ran helter skelter and most were forced to trek long distances as no vehicular movement was allowed to and from the metropolis. Elsewhere in town, palpable fear gripped residents as news filtered in that the soldiers were on rampage, resulting in abrupt paralysis of social and economic activities. THISDAY checks revealed that panic-stricken traders hurriedly closed shop in the state capital. The riotous situation was the same inside the barracks as hundreds others held hostage the Commanding Officer (CO), Gabriel Umelo, a Lieutenant Colonel, and other senior officers of the military in his office. Some of the peace-keeping soldiers said they were drawn from across the country to participate in the operations and that instead of the 1,228 USD that the global body approved to be paid to them on monthly basis, authorities of the Nigerian Army were shortchanging them by giving then only 3,000 USD for the six-month period. http://allafrica.com/stories/200807010769.html Nigeria: Policeman Shoot Protesting Military Pensioners in Ibadan Vanguard (Lagos) 1 July 2008 Posted to the web 1 July 2008 Ola Ajayi THE problems of military pensioners who trooped the major streets in Ibadan were compounded yesterday as a man who claimed to be a policeman from Asaba, Delta State, reportedly shot one of them during protest. The no fewer than 200 pensioners had, in the early hours of yesterday, trooped to the streets in the Dugbe area to protest non-payment of their 13 months arrears by the Federal Government. They had blocked the roads leading to the popular commercial area hindering the free flow of vehicular and human traffic. But about 11 a.m, a gun-totting man, who was apparently hindered by the protesting pensioners, in annoyance fired warning shots into the air to scare them. The shots, however, did not scare the ex-militarymen who refused to remove the barricade off the road. According to a witness, when the pensioners refused to leave the roads, the man who was in company of other five people, shot at them during which the bullets reportedly hit one of the pensioners. After the shooting they attempted to flee the scene but the pensioners pursued them. They succeeded in getting three of them and beat them to a pulp. The melee caused the traders in the market to close their shops and run for dear lives. http://allafrica.com/stories/200807080016.html Somalia: Three Killed As Somaliland Police Open Fire On Protestors Garowe Online (Garowe) 7 July 2008 Posted to the web 8 July 2008 Hundreds of protestors burned tires and blocked roads in the capital of Somalia's breakaway republic of Somaliland, Radio Garowe reported Monday. The protestors, mostly young men, walked in hordes and started from the southern neighborhoods of Hargeisa, Somalia's second-largest city and the seat of power for Somaliland's separatist government. Somaliland police attempted to disperse crowds by firing bullets into the air, but witnesses said the protestors continued their march towards downtown, where government offices are located. Soldiers aboard armored vehicles later joined the police effort to stop the protestors, leading to a number of deaths. One protestor told Radio Garowe that locals were angered by the Somaliland administration's to remove a water rig in south Hargeisa. According to local speculation, the rig will be taken to Awdal, the home region of Somaliland leader Dahir Riyale. Mohamed Dubad, Somaliland's chief of police, told the media that 2 civilians were killed and 5 wounded, while 9 police officers sufferend injuries during the protest which ended in the afternoon. But local newspapers reported a death toll of 3 people and more than 10 wounded civilians, citing information from Hargeisa hospitals. The Somaliland regions, in northwestern Somalia, have enjoyed a stable government in the past decade while much of south Somalia remains embroiled in domestic armed conflicts and foreign military interventions since the collapse of the central government in 1991. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/06/stories/2008070659530800.htm Shrine fire triggers protests Shujaat Bukhari Many injured as police, CRPF use force to disperse demonstrators - PHOTO: Nissar Ahmad The Jinab Sahib Soura where a fire broke out on Saturday. SRINAGAR: Several people were injured when the police and the Central Reserve Police Force used force to disperse demonstrators who were protesting against "laxity" on the part of authorities in preventing a fire in a shrine here on Saturday. Some journalists were also injured. Eyewitnesses said nine people were injured as they struggled to douse the flames in the shrine, Jenab Sahab Soura, which houses a relic of the Holy Prophet. Both locals and the police confirm that the relic is safe. The shrine caught fire after a blast at 12.45 p.m., and it engulfed the ceiling on the second storey. "We tried to douse the flames. But, it was difficult as the fire spread quickly," said a resident. "One of the youths fell down while removing sheets, and several others were injured as debris on them," he said. The locals blamed the police for "failing to protect" the premises despite round-the-clock guard in the shrine. They attacked the guardroom where the police have been stationed, burnt the belongings of the guards and snatched two rifles. Later, the people gathered in Soura and other parts and staged protests. The police resorted to a lathi charge and burst teargas shells. The pitched battles continued for some time. At least 10 people were injured. CRPF personnel attacked journalists who had gone to the shrine to cover the incident. Many of them were beaten up with rifle butts and canes. Photographers' equipment was damaged. Fifteen journalists were injured, some of them seriously. They have been admitted to hospital. The journalists have condemned the CRPF action and demanded a high-level inquiry. http://www.myantiwar.org/view/157442.html Five die as protesters, police clash in Quetta Sunday, July 20, 2008 By Muhammad Ejaz Khan QUETTA: Tension gripped the provincial capital on Saturday morning when five people were killed and 10 injured in armed clashes between the police and some protesters. The tragedy began with the killing of Ghulam Rasool by some unknown armed men in the Kirani area of the Brewery Road on Saturday morning. Following the incident, dozens of people blocked the Brewery Road and protested against the killing. As the police reached the spot to defuse the tension, some of the protesters reportedly opened fire on personnel of the law-enforcement agency. The police retaliated and as a result four people were killed and 10 others were injured. The bodies and the injured were rushed to the Bolan Medical Complex. The injured policemen were shifted to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) for treatment. Some of the injured are in critical situation, hospital sources told The News. Later, the protesters, armed with sophisticated weapons, moved on to the nearby mountains and started firing on the police. The exchange of fire between the police and the protesters continued for several hours. The attackers had not vacated their positions till the filing of this report. Large contingents of the Anti Terrorist Force (ATF) and the police were deployed in the area. Contingents of the Frontier Corps (FC) also patrolled the area. On the same evening, when a four-member reconciliatory committee, headed by provincial ministers Jan Ali Changezi and Shafiq Ahmad, reached Kirani, their vehicles came under attack. However, they remained unhurt. Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Mohammad Aslam Raisani has strongly condemned the incident, directing the IG Police to probe the tragic event. The Balochistan government has also constituted a judicial commission headed by a judge of the Balochistan High Court to probe the event. http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=14815 Sinai Bedouins protest against arrest of tribesman By AFP First Published: July 2, 2008 AL-ARISH: Hundreds of Sinai Bedouins protested on Wednesday against the detention of one of their tribesmen, burning tires and blocking roads on the peninsula, a security official said. "Hundreds of Bedouins from north Sinai have blocked roads in the Mahdia area near the Israeli border to protest against the detention of one Bedouin," the official told AFP, adding that they were setting tires ablaze. The man, Mahmoud Hassan Al-Menei, 40, was held on Tuesday without charge. A Bedouin source told AFP that police routinely carried out arrests in north Sinai and that Bedouins felt under threat of having their car licenses confiscated or homes searched at any time. A spate of bombings that hit popular tourist destinations in Sinai between 2004 and 2006 lead to massive sweeps of the peninsula with thousands of Bedouins arrested. The Egyptian government has regularly promised to pump money into the impoverished north Sinai and there have been several attempts in recent months at a rapprochement between authorities and the Bedouins. -AFP http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=78936 DRC: Aid activities suspended after riots in North Kivu Photo: IRIN MONUC staff have been targeted by rioters in Rutshuru, near Goma KINSHASA, 25 June 2008 (IRIN) - Humanitarian agencies have suspended all travel to the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo town of Rutshuru after two days of riots against the UN Mission in the Congo (MONUC), UN sources said. "The humanitarian consequences are dramatic as unfortunately humanitarian activities have been suspended because of insecurity," MONUC spokeswoman Sylvie Van Wildenberg told IRIN on 25 June. Patrick Lavand'Homme, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in North Kivu, said aid agency travel to Rutshuru, 60km north of the capital Goma, and the nearby village of Kiwandja had been suspended "in light of the crowd, the roadblocks, all the security problems". On the nights of 23 and 24 June, residents set upon MONUC personnel, throwing stones at the blue helmets. "These demonstrations followed the recent retreat of government forces from Mutabo, which seems to have caused some confusion among the population. Mechanisms have been set up to ensure the ceasefire [agreed in January by most parties to the conflict in North Kivu] is respected," said Alan Doss, the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative in DRC and head of MONUC. "MONUC played its role of facilitation," he added. MONUC military spokesman Col Jean-Paul Dietrich said five civilians had been injured in the riots, some by gunshots. He added that a laden World Food Programme (WFP) truck had been destroyed. Doss said MONUC troops had deployed in the area after government troops (FARDC) had pulled out at its request, which was in line with the January conference that delivered the widely ignored ceasefire. The government forces clashed with troops loyal to renegade Gen Laurent Nkunda on 18 June in Mutabo, near Rutshuru. A delegation of ambassadors from countries sponsoring the peace process in eastern DRC found that both parties - FARDC and Nkunda's troops - had acted against the spirit of the undertakings made at the January conference. "The riots followed a campaign to manipulate the population via local radio," said Van Wildenberg. "People did not understand FARDC's withdrawal because there had been rumours that [Nkunda's forces] were going to retake this territory occupied by MONUC," said Dietrich. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=78981 DRC: Aid work in Rutshuru town resumes after riots Photo: IRIN The blue helmets deployed after the withdrawal of government forces NAIROBI, 27 June 2008 (IRIN) - Travel to and work in the adjacent eastern Democratic Republic of Congo town of Rutshuru and Kiwanja village have resumed after riots curtailed such activities on 23 and 24 June, according to the UN. "Humanitarian organisations were not able to travel to the towns because of the crowds, demonstrations and barriers that had been erected," Patrick Lavand'Homme, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in North Kivu province, told IRIN by telephone on 27 June. "After 25 June, the situation improved and some movement restarted. By the end of the week, things were back to normal even though tension could still be felt," he added. There are several camps for displaced people in the area as well as large numbers of displaced civilians living with the host population. "Access to fields is very difficult due to the insecurity all around the town and this has dramatically reduced food production and the economy of the two towns," said Lavand'Homme. Several humanitarian organisations, including the UN's Refugee Agency, UNHCR, and NGOs such as the French branch of M?decins Sans Fronti?res, the International Rescue Committee, Secours Catholique, Saving Lives through Alternate Options and Solidarit?s, operate in the area, providing services ranging from camp coordination and management to water and sanitation, as wealth as health and nutrition, to both the displaced and resident populations. Earlier in the week residents of the towns had set upon personnel of the UN Mission in DRC, MONUC, after the blue helmets deployed there in the wake of the withdrawal of government forces (FARDC). FARDC withdrew at MONUC's request following clashes with troops led by renegade general Laurent Nkunda. http://story.australianherald.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/c08dd24cec417021/id/371250/cs/1/ French youths riot in the streets Australian Herald Sunday 15th June, 2008 Dozens of youths and police have clashed in northern France, leaving nine people injured. Around 60 cars went up in flames as youths went on a rampage in the streets of Vitry-le-Francois, some 200 kilometres north of the capital Paris. The youths, armed with baseball bats and Molotov cocktails, were only scattered after dozens of security forces quelled the unrest. The scuffles broke out after a young man was murdered on Saturday evening. http://allafrica.com/stories/200805140111.html Ghana: Breach of Peace at Abla-Adjei Rioters to be Put Before Court Accra Mail (Accra) 14 May 2008 Posted to the web 14 May 2008 Atiku Iddrisu Accra The serene community of Abla-Adjei near Pantang in the Ga East Municipality was thrown into confusion last Sunday afternoon when a number of armed youth believed to have been transported from Teshie went on rampage, causing injuries to persons and damaging property running into millions of cedis. The rioting youth besieged the Agbogba-North-Legon Extension Police Post, to free two of their colleagues who were arrested earlier during the riot with the help of a soldier who chanced on the incident. A police reinforcement managed to quell the tension at the police post and arrested two more young men, adding to four the number of suspects rounded up in connection with the rioting. They were named as Ablorh Abordo, 25, a carpenter, Eric Sowah Abordo, 28, mason and Samuel Sowah Abordo, 35, driver, and Adjetey Abordo, 23, carpenter. The Madina District Police Commander, C/Supt. Paul Aryeetey, who confirmed the incident to the media, mentioned a long standing land dispute as the remote cause of the disturbances. He said the dispute is being engineered by a group of people from the Abla-Adjei Family at Teshie on one hand and some members of the same family who had lived all their lives on the disputed land on the other, each of whom wanted to take control of the Abla-Adjei land. C/Supt. Aryeetey said the power struggle had led to a series of confrontations between the two groups over the years and cited one of such incidents last year during which a family member's BMW saloon car was burnt to ashes. He said the police were still doing their best to bring peace to the area when they got the information of a possible clash there. "We quickly sent our men there and some arrests were made. The suspects were granted bail after which we sat with both factions and they agreed to exercise restraint as their claims over the land is being determined by the relevant authorities", he said. Mr. Aryeetey told the ADM that he was "disappointed" to see a faction resorting to violence after they had all agreed to keep the peace. He warned the public to refrain from taking the law into their own hands and rather channel their grievances through the appropriate channels. "Since they have ignored our advice to keep the peace, we have no option than make them face the law. We are putting them before court as soon as possible", C/Supt. Aryeetey said. http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/206256,forty-relatives-riot-in-german-hospital-after-patient-dies.html Forty relatives riot in German hospital after patient dies Posted : Sun, 18 May 2008 17:57:00 GMT Author : DPA Iserlohn, Germany - Some 40 relatives of a female patient who died in a German hospital rioted Sunday and attacked police. After the woman died in the intensive care unit of the hospital in Iserlohn in the state of North-Rhine-Westphalia of natural causes, relatives are believed to have started kicking in doors and ripping paintings from the walls, police said. They attacked police called to the scene with wooden slats and broken medical equipment. Twenty police officers tried for 90 minutes to bring the situation under control. One officer was injured. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7408063.stm Monday, 19 May 2008 10:42 UK Ethnic riots rock Algerian town The Algerian security forces have sent hundreds of officers to the southern town of Berriane to end three days of fighting between Arabs and Berbers. Two people have reportedly been killed in clashes between rival gangs of hooded young men in the Saharan town. A number of homes and shops have been petrol-bombed. Correspondents say long-running tensions between Arabs and Berbers in Algeria have been worsened by high unemployment and a shortage of housing. "The town is in turmoil, but it is controllable," provincial governor Yahia Fehim told Reuters news agency. Ethnic Berbers claim to pre-date the Arabs, who now account for the majority in Algeria, and are concentrated in two provinces of the north-eastern Kabylie region. According to varying estimates, they account for between a third and a fifth of Algeria's population of 30 million, and they have campaigned for greater rights since the country won independence from France in 1962. http://africa.reuters.com/world/news/usnL31308230.html Algeria riots pose risk of wider unrest Sun 1 Jun 2008, 11:32 GMT By William Maclean ALGIERS (Reuters) - Sporadic riots in OPEC member Algeria this year risk triggering wider protests against a political elite slow to turn unprecedented oil wealth into jobs and homes. Street clashes are a prickly issue in Algeria, a major gas exporter to Europe with a record of rebellion and where youth riots in 1988 forced the authorities to abandon one-party rule. The country of 33 million people is still searching for stability following an undeclared civil war in the 1990s that cost more than 150,000 lives. The violence erupted after the cancellation of a general election in 1992 which a now-outlawed Muslim fundamentalist party was poised to win. There is very little risk of a return to the bloodshed of the 1990s, Algerians say. But a return to nationwide civil disturbances that shook the north African country in 2001-02 and 1988 cannot be ruled out if violent protests continue. "We have settled into a rioting phase which augurs no good," wrote the independent El Watan newspaper. Unemployed youths in the second city of Oran last week spent three days ransacking banks, shops, cars and bars and fighting running battles with helmeted riot police firing tear gas. PETTY THUGS The immediate trigger was anger over the relegation of the town's soccer team to the second division. Commentators said that while the instigators may have been petty thugs, an atmosphere of despair over social ills helped draw in other youths and spread the turmoil to central districts. The unrest followed street protests in dozens of other towns in recent months over worsening economic and social conditions. Police have so far adopted a measured approach in tackling the disturbances, using tear gas and baton charges in towns such as Chlef, Oran and Berriane, but if rioters are killed the risk to national stability would grow, analysts say Former prime minister Ahmed Benbitour, a critic of what he calls the unresponsiveness of the army-backed administration, said the unrest showed the authorities should pre-empt more unrest by promoting transparency and cleaner government. "We need to work rapidly for change and set the conditions for its success in the interest of the Algerian people, or change will impose itself by force," he told El Khabar daily. Power is concentrated in the presidency, with parliament seen as a rubber-stamp. Some 75 percent of under 30-year-olds are unemployed and despite a state pledge to build a million new homes by 2009, demands for more housing are made daily. "Citizens, above all the young, compare what goes on in the country to other nations. They seek a living standard and a future akin to what they see on foreign TV," Benbitour said. Communications Minister Abderrachid Boukerzaza said the Oran disturbances "were at the centre of the concerns of the public authorities" and the government had embarked on an effort to understand the violence and identify its causes. Uppermost in many minds is concern to avoid a repeat of 2001, when a local revolt in the Kabylie region triggered by the death of a youth in police custody escalated into a national revolt against what protesters saw as authoritarian rule. The government only defused the unrest when it agreed to demands to withdrew the paramilitary gendarmerie from Kabylie. Some secular Algerians fear wider instability would present a window of opportunity to banned Islamist groups seeking a return to active politics: They could make political capital by using their extensive networks of informal influence in mosques and the black market to stabilize the situation, they argue. (Editing by Giles Elgood) http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2008-05/2008-05-30-voa42.cfm?CFID=28909161&CFTOKEN=30304052 Negotiations Begin in Guinea After Weeklong Riots Begin to Calm Dakar 30 May 2008 Shryock report - Download (MP3) Shryock report - Listen (MP3) Guinea military officials pleaded with young, rioting soldiers to stop this week's violence, which has left dozens injured. On Friday morning, the capital Conakry was calm as high-ranking officials said they were working to negotiate with the mutinous soldiers. For VOA, Ricci Shryock has more from Dakar. Supporters of Guinea's President Lansana Conte rally in Kaloum neighborhood of Conakry, 30 May 2008 Presidential guards were posted along strategic points in the Guinea capital Conakry Friday morning, such as the November 8 bridge, leading into the city, says local journalist Maseco Conde. On Thursday Guinea's military had a standoff with young mutinous soldiers on the bridge. Both sides fired shots into the air, but not at each other. Conde says the capital was calm the next day, but gas stations and shops remained closed in fear of further violence and looting. Since Monday, young officers in the Guinea military, angry over unpaid wages, have been rioting. At least one person has died and more than a dozen were wounded in the violence. Lansana Kouyate (8 Feb 2007) The violence began after last week's surprise dismissal of prime minister Lansana Kouyate. President Lansana Conte fired Kouyate in a presidential decree read over state television last Friday. Kouyate was appointed prime minister early last year after riots against President Conte left more than 100 people dead. When he was appointed, the former prime minister said he would increase military salaries. Some soldiers say they have not been paid since 1996. On Tuesday new prime minister, Ahmed Tidiane Souare, a member of Conte's party, said he would begin to pay the soldiers the equivalent of $1100 US dollars at the end of this month. President Conte also fired the defense minister on Tuesday as part of negotiations with the soldiers. But the violence continued on Thursday, as some soldiers demanded the dismissal of more top-ranking army officials. Journalist Conde says it is just a small group of about 300 soldiers who are asking for the additional dismissals. Conde says Army Chief, Brigadier-General Diarra Camara, appeared on state television Thursday to say that negotiations are open, and to plead with the soldiers to stop the violence while they try to reach an agreement. West African researcher for the New York-based group Human Rights Watch, Dustin Sharp speaking from Burkina Faso, says a division between young and old in Guinea's military has been brewing for years. "The generational divisions within the army are probably more pronounced than the ethnic divisions," Sharp said. "In general, you have a group of young officers that are rising up, are frustrated by the fact that they feel that the sort of fat cat officers at the top are not opening up the way for new promotions, and the people at the top, at least in the eyes of the young officers, are living handsomely while they feel like they are suffering." Sharp adds riots within the Guinea military are nothing new, and the government should hold the violent officers accountable. Souare has already promised that no mutineers in this most recent incident will be punished. "The indiscipline that we have seen in Guinea's army this week, firing in the air and taking a high level military commander hostage, it is due at least in part to the government's repeated refusal over the years to hold them responsible for crimes they have committed. The government's failure to pursue those who have committed crimes is itself a threat to the government's own stability," Sharp said. Sharp adds that past military riots have usually been rooted in money, but some of his sources say this division between young and old could eventually materialize into a concrete movement. The West African country is home to mineral wealth. It holds more than a third of the world's known reserves of bauxite, but most of its citizens live in poverty. http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_2329715,00.html 'Unpaid' Guinea soldiers riot 27/05/2008 08:27 - (SA) Conakry - Guinean soldiers claiming years of unpaid wages have captured their own chief-of-staff and taken to the streets of the capital Conakry, say witnesses and military sources. Soldiers carried out the actions on Monday, in a repeat of anti-government protests staged by soldiers in May 2007 over the same issue. Paratroops and Special Forces at the largest military base of Alfa Yaya Diallo, near the capital's international airport, unloaded their weapons in the morning for more than two hours in an echo of a May 2007 mutiny. At about 14:30, they seized General Mamadou Sampil after he came to try to negotiate with them. Gunfire was also heard for the first time since the protests started in Kindia, 130km further inland, which housed one of the country's biggest army garrisons. Govt calls for calm Local civilians had hurried to take cover in their homes, for fear of being hit by stray bullets. Guinea's president, General Lansana Conte, called a meeting of his ministers and top military officers at the presidential palace in Conakry on Monday. It ran for four and a half hours, well into the evening. In a statement issued after Monday's meeting and read out on television, the government called for calm and asked for the soldiers to open dialogue and negotiations. Among those who attended the meeting was Prime Minister Ahmed Tidiane Souare, who was only appointed last Friday after Conte sacked his predecessor, Lansana Kouyate. The dismissal of Kouyate was one of the soldiers' grievances, as they said they were now left with no one to whom they could address their complaints. Troops launch violent protests The soldiers were angry about what they said was $1 735 in unpaid wages, a debt they said dated back to 1996. One soldier contacted by telephone said they had been paid only a fraction of the sum owed. Troops launched violent protests across the country a year ago over the same issue, during which at least eight people died and dozens more were injured by stray bullets. On that occasion, soldiers rampaged across the country looting food stocks and at times firing indiscriminately at civilians. Conte, who had ruled the West African nation with an iron fist since 1984, subsequently sacked the army's senior officers and his defence minister. He only appointed 58-year-old Kouyate as prime minister in February 2007 under a deal to end a general strike and massive protests during which 186 people were killed. Kouyate, a former United Nations diplomat, was on a list of candidates proposed by the opposition and unions, and replaced a close aide to Conte, Eugene Camara, whose appointment had only fuelled the unrest. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2008/05/mil-080530-voa06.htm Negotiations Begin in Guinea After Weeklong Riots Begin to Calm By Ricci Shryock Dakar 30 May 2008 Guinea military officials pleaded with young, rioting soldiers to stop this week's violence, which has left dozens injured. On Friday morning, the capital Conakry was calm as high-ranking officials said they were working to negotiate with the mutinous soldiers. For VOA, Ricci Shryock has more from Dakar. Presidential guards were posted along strategic points in the Guinea capital Conakry Friday morning, such as the November 8 bridge, leading into the city, says local journalist Maseco Conde. On Thursday Guinea's military had a standoff with young mutinous soldiers on the bridge. Both sides fired shots into the air, but not at each other. Conde says the capital was calm the next day, but gas stations and shops remained closed in fear of further violence and looting. Since Monday, young officers in the Guinea military, angry over unpaid wages, have been rioting. At least one person has died and more than a dozen were wounded in the violence. The violence began after last week's surprise dismissal of prime minister Lansana Kouyate. President Lansana Conte fired Kouyate in a presidential decree read over state television last Friday. Kouyate was appointed prime minister early last year after riots against President Conte left more than 100 people dead. When he was appointed, the former prime minister said he would increase military salaries. Some soldiers say they have not been paid since 1996. On Tuesday new prime minister, Ahmed Tidiane Souare, a member of Conte's party, said he would begin to pay the soldiers the equivalent of $1100 US dollars at the end of this month. President Conte also fired the defense minister on Tuesday as part of negotiations with the soldiers. But the violence continued on Thursday, as some soldiers demanded the dismissal of more top-ranking army officials. Journalist Conde says it is just a small group of about 300 soldiers who are asking for the additional dismissals. Conde says Army Chief, Brigadier-General Diarra Camara, appeared on state television Thursday to say that negotiations are open, and to plead with the soldiers to stop the violence while they try to reach an agreement. West African researcher for the New York-based group Human Rights Watch, Dustin Sharp speaking from Burkina Faso, says a division between young and old in Guinea's military has been brewing for years. "The generational divisions within the army are probably more pronounced than the ethnic divisions," Sharp said. "In general, you have a group of young officers that are rising up, are frustrated by the fact that they feel that the sort of fat cat officers at the top are not opening up the way for new promotions, and the people at the top, at least in the eyes of the young officers, are living handsomely while they feel like they are suffering." Sharp adds riots within the Guinea military are nothing new, and the government should hold the violent officers accountable. Souare has already promised that no mutineers in this most recent incident will be punished. "The indiscipline that we have seen in Guinea's army this week, firing in the air and taking a high level military commander hostage, it is due at least in part to the government's repeated refusal over the years to hold them responsible for crimes they have committed. The government's failure to pursue those who have committed crimes is itself a threat to the government's own stability," Sharp said. Sharp adds that past military riots have usually been rooted in money, but some of his sources say this division between young and old could eventually materialize into a concrete movement. The West African country is home to mineral wealth. It holds more than a third of the world's known reserves of bauxite, but most of its citizens live in poverty. http://allafrica.com/stories/200805270085.html Uganda: Town Clerk Halts New Riot New Vision (Kampala) 26 May 2008 Posted to the web 27 May 2008 Anne Mugisa And Josephine Maseruka Kampala The Kampala town clerk recently met vendors of Kisekka Market to stem a riot, she told the commission probing wrangles in the market on Friday. Ruth Kijjambu said the vendors had been demanding to meet her for about two months, but she was reluctant because there was an inquiry going on. The commission headed by city lawyer Jacob Oulanyah had put Kijjambu to task to explain why she had met the vendors a week ago, without notifying the probe team. "Did you do that to undermine the commission's work? We were not happy, especially after you told us that you were too unwell to meet us," Oulanyah stated. But Kijjambu said she met the vendors after the resident district commissioner asked her to, and on learning that they were plotting another riot. She said the riot was meant to pressurise Kampala City Council (KCC) into giving-in to their demands. "I thought it was important to stem an imminent riot. There was no ill motive," Kijjambu said. She denied reports that she asked the vendors to give her a name to put on the market's land title or even offering them the title. Her submission contradicted that of the Nakivubo Road Old Kampala Kisekka Market Vendors group, which last week told the commission that Kijjambu had offered them a partial title for the market. The group is fighting for the tender to renovate the market, which was last year awarded to the New Nakivubo Road Market Vendors Association and Rhino Investments. Kijjambu clarified that the city council only offered the vendors a tender to redevelop the market but not the title. http://www2.irna.com/en/news/view/menu-234/0804203153003848.htm Dozens injured and arrested as riots mar Kurdish demo in Berlin Berlin, Apr 20, IRNA Germany-Turkey-Kurds Dozens of people were injured and arrested late Saturday afternoon when a demonstration of Kurds in Berlin's city center turned violent, news reports said. At least 11 police officers were hurt and 57 people were detained, a Berlin police spokesperson said. Kurds and Turks clashed with each other following a series of verbal provocations, coming from the sidelines of the demonstration. Both sides pelted one another with bottles and stones. Germany has repeatedly been the scene of bloody street battles between militant Kurdish and far-right Turkish nationalist groups. http://allafrica.com/stories/200804140727.html Uganda: Taxi Operators' Riots Rock Kampala New Vision (Kampala) 11 April 2008 Posted to the web 14 April 2008 Kampala HUNDREDS of passengers were left stranded in Kampala yesterday as drivers protested what they described as "harsh treatment" by the traffic Police. For two weeks now, the Police have been cracking down on motorcycles and vehicles in poor mechanical conditions, drivers without permits and vehicles that have evaded taxes, as a means of curbing the increased road carnage in the country. The drivers complained that Police impound their vehicles on flimsy grounds and that the penalties are too heavy. Among the suspects were three men accused of masterminding the chaos. The Police nabbed them in Bweyogerere, another suburb. The riots, which left hundreds of public transport users stranded in the city, were sparked off by the Uganda Taxi Operators and Drivers Association (UTODA) committee. They mobilised members to strike against what they called harassment by traffic police. For two weeks, the Police have been cracking down on vehicles in poor mechanical condition, drivers without permits and vehicles whose owners have evaded taxes, as a means to curb road carnage. The operations kicked off on March 31. The taxi drivers complained that Police impound their vehicles on flimsy grounds and that the penalties are too heavy. Kampala Extra police spokesperson, Simeo Nsubuga yesterday disclosed that 43 of the suspects were detained at the Central Police Station in Kampala. "They are undergoing interrogation and screening," Nsubuga told Saturday Vision, moments after the mid-morning demonstration that paralysed several parts of Kampala. According to Nsubuga, the detainees are suspected of theft, malicious damage to property, simple robbery and involvement in a strike. The Police also accused them of obstructing security officials, threatening violence and setting up illegal roadblocks in the city and its suburbs. They were picked from the city centre, Bakuli, Mengo, Nakulabye and other suburbs. Nsubuga was optimistic that the suspects would appear in court on Monday. He said the riot, which kicked at the New Taxi Park, spread to other parts of the city. "Bonfires were lit on several the roads in the suburbs," he stated and cited Bwaise and Nateete as the affected suburbs. Nsubuga said a few shops on Namirembe Road were broken into. He insisted that there were no fatalities. The Police identified three people, who were injured in the epicentre of the chaos at the Old Taxi Park as Godfrey Gunira, 40, Johnson Mbeta, 33 and Kangude, a student of Masooli secondary School, who was attacked by goons in Mengo, a city suburb. They were rushed to Mulago hospital for treatment. "Lawlessness will not be accepted in the city," Nsubuga said. Police spokesperson Judith Nabakooba asked motorists to point out police officers who harass or intimidate them. "We are going to continue enforcing the law," she stressed, adding, "the city is safe and secure." Passengers were the worst hit by the chaos that lasted over four hours. Even when calm returned, commuter drivers refused to operate, forcing hundreds of people to walk homes. Lines of pedestrians formed along Jinja, Entebbe and Bombo roads. The strike was a blessing for boda boda operators, who ferried people with in the city and to the suburbs. But one had to fork out between sh2,000 and sh10,000 to get the nearest destination. By press time, the UTODA executive was buried in an emergency meeting. http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/?jp=mhojsngbmhau&rss=rss2 PSNI vehicles damaged during street riot in Belfast 28/04/2008 - 07:48:58 Three PSNI vehicles were damaged last night during street clashes between rival gangs in east Belfast. The violence broke out in the Templemore Avenue and Albertbridge Road areas just after 11pm. Riot police and community representatives managed to restore calm after a number of hours. The police say nobody was injured and no arrests were made. http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/mhqlmhaukfsn/rss2/ PSNI probe Belfast riot Print Email+ Share 09/08/2008 - 14:24:00 Police in the North are investigating a riot during which officers were attacked by a crowd in Belfast overnight. The incident happened in the Glebewalk area of Lisburn shortly before 1am this morning. Up to 20 people were involved in the attack, during which a can of tear gas was stolen from police. One person was taken to hospital with injuries but they are not thought to be life-threatening. Two people were arrested in connection with the riot and one was later charged with assaulting police officers. http://www.newkerala.com/topstory-fullnews-14159.html 350 booked for violence during protest over accident Kurukshetra, Aug 22 : Pehowa police has registered a criminal case against 350 unidentified persons who had put a Haryana Roadways bus on fire and also damaged a fire tender while protesting against the death of a local trader after being hit by a state-run bus yesterday. A police spokesman said here today, that the bus driver Harjinder Singh had also been arrested for negligent and rash driving leading to death of the Ismailabad-based scooter-borne trader Ved Prakash yesterday near DAV College, Pehowa, about 30 kms from here. Angered by the death, a mob had dragged and beat up the bus driver and put the bus afire. They also damaged a fire tender and did not allow firemen to extinguish the bus which was reduced to ashes. The criminal case has been registered against the 350-odd people for destroying the government and private property, assault on government employees and hindering government officials from performing their duties, the spokesman said. --- UNI http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/17/stories/2008081753680300.htm Other States - Himachal Pradesh Protesters block traffic on highway Rampur (HP): Hundreds of people on Saturday jammed the Shimla-Kinnaur NH-22 for over six hours near Nanan village in Rampur sub-division of Shimla district in protest against killing of an ITBP jawan on Friday, the police said. The villagers sat on the NH-22 at Nanan village blocking the traffic since morning, they said. An ITBP jawan, Prem Dass (33), was killed by a group of youths after a fight in Zuri Nanan village on Friday evening. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article4611991.ece August 26, 2008 Mob runs amok at Notting Hill Carnival Philippe Naughton Riot police were deployed on the streets of West London last night to break up a mob of youths intent on disrupting the Notting Hill Carnival after running battles on the streets around Europe's biggest street party. More than a million people enjoyed the dazzling spectacle of Caribbean costumes, dance and music over the weekend. There was a huge police presence to prevent a repeat of the violence that has marred carnival in previous years and a total of 33 arrests were made for offences including possession of drugs, offensive weapons, robbery and assault. There was no serious crowd trouble, however, until after dark when gang of around 40 young men started throwing missiles at police officers around Ladbroke Grove. Scotland Yard said that at least one officer was injured after being hit in the face with a bottle before officers in riot gear were sent in to disperse the group. "Our officers came under attack from bottles, bricks and other missiles for two hours," Chief Inspector Jo Edwards told Times Online. "There are a small minority of criminals who use the cover of darkness and crowded streets to cause trouble." Earlier, six miles across town, police detained no fewer than 151 youths after encircling another mob outside the Oval cricket ground. Police intelligence suggested that many of the youths were gang members headed for the carnival and they were held at a South London police station for around five hours to prevent a breach of the peace. After race riots at the 1976 carnival and further violence in the years afterwards, it appeared at one point that the event would be banned. But strict and highly visible policing has managed to calm things down in recent years and reduced the risk of party-goers getting caught up in violence. Ms Edwards said that only a quarter of the arrests involved crimes with a victim such as theft, robbery or assault. The remainder was the direct result of "proactive policing techniques" such as stop-and-search and numberplate recognition. Those techniques extended to the seizure of 21 dangerous pit bull-style dogs which are used by gang members as status symbols and to intimidate their victims. Weapons seized included knives, a baseball bat and a Taser stun gun. Scotland Yard had been planning their operation to combat violence at the carnival since May. Tactics included sending letters to more than 200 suspected troublemakers warning them about their conduct and using warrants to search their homes for weapons. The two-day extravaganza, themed Welcoming The World, saw huge crowds party in the streets of West London. Floats - with themes including Back From Space, Tutti Frutti Sweeties, Creatures Of The Earth and Paradise - snaked their way through the streets as revellers danced and clapped to the sound of steel drums and Caribbean music. Although the Met was not claiming a completely successful operation given last night's trouble, Ms Edwards said that there had been no serious violence compared to previous years. "No-one got stabbed and no-one got shot," she said. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/aug/26/ukcrime.nottinghillcarnival Notting Hill carnival ends with police battling troublemakers . Event marred by violence on west London streets . South London police swoop to halt gang members James Orr and agencies guardian.co.uk, Tuesday August 26 2008 12:30 BST Police arrested more than 300 people at this year's Notting Hill carnival during a crackdown on violent gangs. Knives, a Taser gun and a baseball bat were among weapons seized by officers aiming to prevent a repeat of violence that has dogged the weekend-long west London event for years. Last night, police fought a two-hour running battle with about 40 youths after the end of the carnival. Troublemakers threw bottles and bricks at dozens of riot police who struggled to contain the disorder. Chief Inspector Jo Edwards, of the Metropolitan police, said today: "It's disappointing that each year we see a small minority of mainly young men who don't come to the carnival until later. "They don't come to enjoy the floats and the music; they come to fight and commit acts of violence. "For two hours our officers came under attack from bottles, bricks and any debris that was on the ground. "These people are intent on fighting but innocent members of the public get caught up in it and their carnival is spoiled." Police made 330 arrests within the Notting Hill area during the carnival, which was attended by about 850,000 people. Last year, 246 people were arrested. Authorities said another 151 people were prevented from reaching the site after a planned police swoop on organised gangs gathering at the Oval, south London. Edwards said officers acted on information to confront the gangs at 4.20pm yesterday. "We had intelligence to suggest that people at the Oval were from a variety of gangs and that they were on their way to the carnival to commit crime, engage in disorder and potentially violence," she said. "Some members were arrested for substantial offences such as possession of weapons. Others were detained to prevent a further breach of the peace." Edwards said teams of specialist dog handlers worked with the RSPCA to seize 21 dangerous dogs taken to the carnival in response to concerns raised after last year's event. http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080724/NEWS/807240323/-1/rss01 Taser logs contradict families' version of 'riot' Officers used Taser guns to disperse the unruly crowd Thomas Peterkin, 14, from Queens, N.Y., who witnessed the Monday night incident, and his aunt Tracy Sommerville, of Mount Pocono, talk about the arrest of Sommerville's son.David Kidwell/Pocono Record By Beth Brelje Pocono Record Writer July 24, 2008 "If the people would have just listened to police and dispersed as directed, the incident would have been avoided completely." That is the bottom line from Chief Harry Lewis of the Pocono Mountain Regional Police, responding to complaints that the arrest of five people at a riot Monday night was brutal, unjust and racially motivated. The families of some of those arrested say police randomly used Taser guns against the crowd for no reason. "Kids were dropping down like flies," said Tymeco Preston-Sprinkle, mother of one of the arrested. Preston-Sprinkle and her husband, Tony Sprinkle, had enjoyed a family night at the carnival before witnessing the incident in which they say their son was shot with a Taser twice. "We moved here for a better life. I'm safer in Brooklyn dodging bullets in a gunfight than here in Pennsylvania. At least there I know who it's coming from. Here I don't know," said Preston-Sprinkle, who called police in the Poconos prejudiced. The riot took place shortly after police stopped a vicious fight at the Pocono Mountain carnival around 11:30 p.m. Monday. Police say some of the same people present at the fight were seen in a crowd of 20 to 25 people gathered across the road from the carnival on Belmont Avenue between the Rita's stand and Belmont Plaza. According to police, the group was defiant and unruly. They were loitering in the street, cursing and blocking traffic. "We just had a fight. After a fight, kids often find a way to go where we're not. When we see a group of kids in an aggressive posture, we tell them to disperse," Lewis said. A Pocono Mountain Regional Police officer tried to scatter the crowd. Some walked away; others used obscene language and refused to go. According to police, one 15-year-old threatened to kill the police and tried to incite others in the crowd to kill the police. The officer tried to arrest him for disorderly conduct. "The suspect pulled away from the officer and squared up in an aggressive manner. The single officer was completely outnumbered by a group of hostile individuals. It was a potentially volatile situation," Lewis said. According to police, the officer called for backup, displayed his Taser gun and gave verbal commands to the 15-year-old. The rioting crowd, which included adults and teens, surrounded the officer and blocked his Taser aim. The 15-year-old took this opportunity to run. The officer chased him and the angry crowd ran after the officer, who then deployed the Taser gun at the boy's back to stop him. Two other people were shot with Taser guns while interfering with the arrest. Of the three people hit by Tasers, police say just one felt the effects. When a Taser is used, two prongs attached to long wires (about 25 feet) are shot into a person's skin. An electrical charge is cycled through the wires. The Taser can't deliver an electrical charge unless both prongs are embedded in the skin. Two of the three shot with tasers felt nothing but a pinprick when just one of the prongs made the connection, according to police. Tracy Somerville, mother of two and aunt of one of the arrested said her son was "choked and electrocuted five times for no reason." Eyewitness reports of as many as eight Taser shocks on multiple victims are incorrect. Taser guns keep an electronic log of the time of deployment and number of charges administered. The records show a total of three Tasers were deployed by two officers. Three electrical charges were administered, just one was successful. "I'm looking at it as if it was real bullets. They'd all be dead," Somerville said. Jermain Peterkin, 19; Erinn Walker, 18; Tyshawn Somerville, 21; and two juvenile males, all of Mount Pocono, were charged with rioting, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. The adults were placed in Monroe County Correctional Facility and the juveniles in the Jim Thorpe juvenile detention facility. The adults will appear in Tobyhanna District Court. The juveniles will go to Monroe County Juvenile Court. "They locked them up and put them in jail for no reason," Preston-Sprinkle said. Pocono Mountain Regional Police Chief Harry Lewis said no one would have been arrested if they would have simply followed police commands to leave the area. Before the riot was under control, police assistance came from Pocono Township, Stroud Area Regional and state police. "Our officers adhered to department policy in using force, which they deployed in an attempt to apprehend and de-escalate an incident. The three individuals who were Tasered were arrested for riot, which is a felony, resisting arrest and disorderedly conduct. Because the officers followed departmental policy and used the Tasers to de-escalate the situation, nobody was injured," Lewis said. http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080723/NEWS/807230318 Police quell rowdy crowd at carnival in Mount Pocono Peterkin(nfs) July 23, 2008 MOUNT POCONO - A rowdy crowd taunted and chased police, requiring officers from four departments to get rioting under control Monday night. Five young men were arrested. At 11:22 p.m., Pocono Mountain Regional police were dispersing groups from the Mount Pocono carnival and, across the street, investigating a vehicle break-in at Belmont Plaza. Police found a crowd cursing and blocking traffic on Belmont Avenue. The crowd defied police orders to disperse. One young man tried to incite the group. Officers tried to take him into custody but he pulled away and ran, leading police on a foot chase. The crowd then chased police and interfered with officers arresting the young man. They surrounded police and managed to free one person from custody. More police units, including some from Pocono Township, Stroud Area Regional and state police, arrived and officers eventually regained control of the crowd. Jermain Peterkin, 19; Erinn Walker, 18; and Tyshawn Somerville, 21; and two juvenile males, all of Mount Pocono, were charged with rioting, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. The adults were placed in Monroe County Correctional Facility and the juveniles in the Jim Thorpe juvenile detention facility. The adults are scheduled to appear at a future date in Tobyhanna District Court while the juveniles are scheduled to head to Monroe County Juvenile Court. The chase and riot were preceded by a fight at the carnival as the event was closing for the night. Waylon Clarke, 24, of Tobyhanna, was punched in the head and had a cut on his face. He was taken to Pocono Medical Center. Police arrested and later released Dheklan John, 21, and Devon John, 27, both of Tobyhanna. Both men were charged with disorderly conduct, banned from the carnival grounds and are scheduled to appear at future dates in Tobyhanna District Court. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7537527.stm Friday, 1 August 2008 16:15 UK Mob riot in Nigeria after crash The mob blamed the German firm's vehicle for the crash An irate mob went on the rampage in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, after a road accident killed at least 11 people. A bus carrying 40 Nigerian employees of the German construction company Julius Berger crashed into a minibus and then turned over in the morning rush hour. Riot police had to quell a violent crowd who then burned a rescue vehicle sent to collect the Julius Berger bus. Correspondents say Nigeria's roads are among the most dangerous in the world; thousands die every year in accidents. The minibus was overtaking a large articulated lorry carrying a sea container converted into a bus, used for taking the construction company's employees to work. There were far too many of them for us to control Wilson Inalegwa Assistant police commissioner Authorities said it seemed as if the two had collided and the truck over turned on top of the minibus, crushing it. Two out of the 40 people in the truck were killed, along with nine in the minibus, a spokesman for Julius Berger said. The dead in the minibus included two children; 12 others were injured, he said. But a rescuer told the BBC Hausa service that he counted more than 30 bodies. Police have not confirmed the number of dead. Blame Julius Berger sent a crane to pick up the truck and a mob several hundred strong, who blamed the company for the accident, burned it. "There were far too many of them for us to control," said Assistant Commissioner of Police Wilson Inalegwa. A passing motorist then ran over the area commander of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) who was at the scene to investigate the accident. He is in hospital and responding to treatment, the FRSC said. According to official statistics, more than 4,000 people die and more than 20,000 are injured in road accidents in Nigeria each year. Although the true figure could be higher because in rural areas villagers sometimes bury the dead before the authorities can arrive. A Nigerian driving licence can be bought for 5,000 naira ($42, ?21) without needing to take a test. http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/thepress/4667095a6009.html Dunedin riots spark 35 arrests Narelle Suisted and Matt Maguire - The Press | Sunday, 24 August 2008 A 90-minute riot in Dunedin's Castle Street resulted in 35 arrests last night as the city's biggest student party weekend got out of control. About 60 police, including some in full riot gear, battle a crowd of 300-400 students along Castle Street after what was a quiet night spiralled out of control. Police and civic leaders had opposed the annual University of Canterbury Undie 500 car race and only a small event went ahead this weekend, but it didn't prevent the same sort of violence that resulted in 69 arrests last year. The trouble started shortly after midnight when a large influx of mostly drunk students arrived in Castle Street. Bottles were thrown and it took the police until about 1.30am to disperse the crowd. Lines of riot police worked their way through the crowds of bottle throwers, systematically clearing the street of trouble makers. This weekend marks a mid-term break at the University of Otago and is traditionally one of the biggest party weekends of the year. Extra police were brought in for the weekend. On Friday night a small rebel Undie 500 - the official event was cancelled by the University of Canterbury Engineering Society - arrived in Dunedin and the resulting partying saw five arrests. Police had been expecting major problems after an anonymous email was sent out to 2800 students Canterbury students last Saturday organising an underground event. The email stated that students should meet at the Bush Inn at 10pm on Friday where there would be "drinking , along with themed cars and costumes." There were 24 cars in the event - down from 150 last year. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/26/world/asia/26briefs-MANKILLEDINR_BRF.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin Bangladesh: Man Killed in Riot By REUTERS Published: August 25, 2008 Supporters of Bangladesh's detained former prime minister, Begum Khaleda Zia, went on a rampage in Dhaka on Monday, burning and damaging vehicles in a protest in which one man was killed and nine were injured, the police said. The protesters were demanding that Ms. Khaleda's son be allowed to go abroad for medical treatment. Ms. Khaleda and Tareque Rahman, her son and likely political heir, have been detained for more than a year and face charges of graft and abuse of power. The protests began after television channels reported that Ms. Khaleda's son had fallen and hurt himself in a Dhaka hospital where he was being treated for a broken spine. Relatives of the man killed in the rampage, above, mourned. The man was hit by hot metal that flew off a vehicle that had been set on fire, the police said. http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20080630/news/news8.html Death of 36-year-old man sparks protest published: Monday | June 30, 2008 Devon Evans, Gleaner Writer Ocho Rios, St Ann: THE FATAL shooting of a 36-year-old electrician by members of the security forces in Orange Hill, Brown's Town, St Ann, yesterday, sparked a major protest by residents in the town. The Brown's Town police were forced to call in reinforcement to control the situation after residents of Orange Hill blocked all major roads leading to the town. Many of the protesters wanted to know why Osbourne Smith of Orange Hill was shot and killed. Police raid The incident occurred early in the morning when members of Operation Kingfish carried out a raid in Orange Hill in search of a man, said to be on their most-wanted list. According to the police, Smith tried to disarm one of their colleagues and was shot. However, the residents are disputing the police version of the killing, claiming that Smith was killed in cold blood in the bathroom of his house. An alleged member of the notorious Stone Crusher gang was captured by the police. The protest crippled the flow of traffic in and out of Brown's Town for more than three hours. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/16/stories/2008071653440300.htm Tamil Nadu Protestors driven out, caned Special Correspondent Photo: T. Singaravelou USING FORCE: Police resorting to lathicharge on residents of Kottakuppam who squatted on the road in support of their demands on Tuesday. VILLUPURAM: At least 20 persons sustained injuries when the police resorted to lathicharge on Tuesday to chase away residents of Kottakuppam who squatted on the East Coast Road in protest against frequent power cuts. In the resulting melee, the irate crowd pelted stones at police personnel injuring woman Sub-Inspector Amularasi and Constables Kanagaraj and Sakthivel of the striking force. Some persons also damaged the windscreen of at least 10 buses plying on the route. Police arrested 20 persons in this connection, invoking the provisions of the Public Property Damage (Prevention) Act. According to sources, Kottakuppam residents have been complaining of frequent power cuts, which affected normal life. Farmers could not draw water for irrigation and households found it tough to draw drinking water from borewells. Students could not study during nights and traders were also affected. Small units suffered badly as the unannounced power cuts hit the production and affected quality of the products. Repeated representations to the authorities had not yielded results, the residents said. On Tuesday, they marched to the sub-station to urge the authorities to ensure regular power supply. They blocked traffic when they could not get proper response. The Kottakuppam police tried to persuade the protestors to disperse but in vain. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Wed Aug 27 15:04:15 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 23:04:15 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] TIBET PROTESTS 1 of 3 - the Nepal Relay Message-ID: <00f801c90890$da237740$0202a8c0@andy1> Tibetan exiles in Nepal have pursued ongoing protests ever since the crackdown in Tibet. The protests in Nepal followed a predictable pattern - every day or so, protesters would turn out at the Chinese embassy, and police would round them up, sometimes beating and abusing them. The numbers in the protests varied from a few dozen to a peak of 1300 on the opening day of the Olympics. Human rights groups have condemned the repression, and especially a threat to kill any protesters who reach Mount Everest. The purpose of the protests seems to be to attract media attention - which has certainly happened, due in large part to the repression. There was also an attempt to march to the Tibetan border which was blocked by police. http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSDEL20880920080511 Tibetan women protest in Nepal, over 500 detained Sun May 11, 2008 7:37am EDT KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Nepali police detained 562 Tibetan women at an anti-China rally in Kathmandu on Sunday, the first all-women protest against Chinese rule in their homeland, officials said. Some shouted "We want free Tibet" while others wept as they were dragged along the road to police vans and trucks and driven to detention centers. Many were wearing black armbands and had their mouths gagged with cloths. Nepal considers Tibet part of China, a key donor and trade partner, and has been cracking down on protests by the exiled Tibetans against Beijing. Police said the protesters would be freed later. Exiled Tibetans have been protesting regularly ever since deadly riots broke out in the Tibetan capital Lhasa in March, followed by demonstrations in other Tibetan areas of China. Many Tibetans are furious over the crackdown against protesters in Tibet and resent China's decades-old rule of the Himalayan region. The Lhasa riot broke out after days of protests centered on the anniversary of the failed 1959 Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule. More than 20,000 Tibetans have been living in Nepal since fleeing their Himalayan homeland after the failed uprising. "We are not against Nepal. Our protests are against China. So why are they arresting us?" asked a 70-year-old protester who gave her name as Chinjhoke, tears rolling down her face. (Reporting by Gopal Sharma; Editing by Bappa Majumdar and Alex Richardson) http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/352258/1/.html Nepal police detain 250 protesting Tibetans Posted: 06 June 2008 0417 hrs Nepalese police detain a Tibetan activist KATHMANDU - Authorities in Nepal's capital on Thursday detained at least 250 Tibetan exiles as they staged a protest in front of a Chinese embassy building, police and witnesses said. The protesters, including monks and nuns, waved flags of the and shouted "Liar China," "Free Tibet," and "Stop the killing in Tibet" in front of the Chinese consular and trade section. After briefly tussling with police they were bundled into waiting vans, an AFP reporter at the scene said. "We have taken around 250 Tibetans into custody after they tried to protest in a restricted area," Anupam Rana, a police officer at the scene told AFP. "They have been driven to various detention centres and will be released in the evening," the police officer said. Exiled Tibetans in Nepal began staging almost daily protests in Kathmandu in March after deadly unrest in their homeland. They played a daily cat and mouse game with police whereby hundreds of protesters would be detained, released without charge in the evening and then return the next day to be detained again. The protests were suspended after the massive earthquake hit China in May. "We took a break to pay respects to the victims of the earthquake, but we are compelled to continue our protests as China is not addressing the problems in Tibet," Tashi Lama, 31, told AFP before being dragged into a van by five police officers. Nepal officially respects its giant northern neighbour's "One China" policy that sees Tibet and Taiwan as indivisible parts of China. More than 20,000 Tibetan refugees live in Nepal and around 2,500 still arrive annually in Kathmandu before heading to Dharamshala in northern India, home of the Dalai Lama. http://www.independent-bangladesh.com/200807127432/international/tibetans-protest-in-nepal-116-held.html Tibetans protest in Nepal, 116 held Saturday, 12 July 2008 REUTERS, KATHMANDU- Hundreds of Tibetan exiles tried to storm a visa office of the Chinese embassy in the Nepali capital on Friday, and police said 116 protesters were detained. Police pushed and shoved the exiles as they resisted being dragged to police vehicles. No one was seriously injured. Police said they would be freed later on Friday. Tibetans have regularly protested since the deadly Chinese crackdown on riots in Lhasa and other parts of Tibet in mid-March. More than 20,000 Tibetans still live in Nepal, which considers Tibet as part of China. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-detain4-2008aug04,0,7940349.story In Nepal, 253 arrested at Tibet rally >From Reuters August 4, 2008 KATMANDU, NEPAL -- Police detained 253 protesters, including Tibetan monks and nuns, who tried to stage a silent protest march Sunday in front of a Chinese visa office here, days before the Olympic Games open in Beijing. The protesters carried Tibetan flags and banners that read "Free Tibet" and "We want religious freedom." The demonstrators were dragged away, some weeping and begging, and put into waiting vehicles. Police said the detainees would be freed later in the day. Tibetan refugees began regular protests after deadly anti-government riots broke out in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, and other areas in China in mid-March, to mark the anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959. Nepal says Tibet is part of China, an important trade partner and aid donor, and does not allow anti-China activities. Yet the exiles have managed to organize protests against Beijing regularly. More than 20,000 Tibetans live in Nepal. Many of the refugees had fled their homeland after 1959. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/DEL176576.htm Nepal police break up Tibet protests, 182 held 14 Jun 2008 13:59:47 GMT Source: Reuters KATHMANDU, June 14 (Reuters) - Nepali police broke up a protest by Tibetan exiles in Kathmandu on Saturday and detained 182 people for organising anti-China demonstrations. Protesters demanding a "free Tibet" came in minibuses, some of which were also seized. All the detained protesters will be freed later on Saturday, police said. More than 20,000 Tibetans now live in exile in neighbouring Nepal following a failed uprising against Chinese rule in the region in 1959. They have been protesting almost every day since the Chinese crackdown in Tibet in March. (Reporting by Gopal Sharma; Editing by Jonathan Allen and Tim Castle) http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=12224&geo=2&size=A 05/12/2008 09:54 NEPAL - TIBET 600 women arrested for pro-Tibet protest The Nepalese government aligns itself with Chinese repression of Tibet and imprisons demonstrators, among them many Buddhist nuns. Nepal hosts more that 20 thousands Tibetan refugees, who cannot return home because of their opposition to Beijing. Kathmandu (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Nepalese police yesterday arrested 600 female Tibetans, among them many Buddhist nuns, who were peacefully protesting against Chinese repression in Lhasa. Participants held three separate anti-Beijing marches, which were quickly broken up by police. Police chief, R. P. Dhamala, confirmed the arrests: the first group was immediately halted shortly after they had gathered on one of the main streets of the capital Kathmandu, while a second group of people was arrested as they prepared banners. A 70 year old woman among those arrested questioned: "We are not against Nepal. Our protests are against China. So why are they arresting us?" Nepal regards Tibet a san inalienable part of China and has been long aligned to the Chinese position on the issue. Kathmandu needs Beijing, a stalwart ally and essential commercial partner, and strongly clamps down on all anti-Chinese protests in its territories. Over 20 thousand Tibetan exiles, who fled the failed anti-Chinese uprising of 1959, live in Nepal. For years they have been seeking national and international backing for their return to their homeland, but Beijing considers them "unwelcome agitators" and denies them entry visas. http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7010859233 Nepal Arrests 120 More Pro-Tibetan Protesters ShareThis May 5, 2008 9:36 p.m. EST Siddique Islam - AHN South Asia Correspondent Kathmandu, Nepal (AHN) - At least 125 more pro-Tibetan protesters were arrested Monday as they demonstrated outside the Chinese embassy here, police and witnesses said. "Over 120 Tibetan protesters have been rounded-up near the Chinese embassy," police officer Hom Jung Chauhan told Agence France-Press, adding that the protesters would be released later in the evening. More than three protesters were injured in the baton charge, witnesses said. On Friday, over 100 Tibetan protesters were arrested as they staged another anti-China protest in front of the Chinese embassy. The authorities said they would not allow protests against any friendly countries, including neighboring China. Hundreds of protestors have been detained in recent weeks, although most are usually released within few hours. Tibetans have been staging demonstrations in Nepal's capital since March 10 to oppose the crackdown by Chinese military in Tibet. Protesters suspended demonstrations on April 3 to assist Nepal to peacefully hold a constituent assembly election April 10, but they resumed the demonstrations on April 16. http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/southasia/news/article_1402717.php/Nepal_police_arrest_70_Tibetan_protestors Nepal police arrest 70 Tibetan protestors Apr 30, 2008, 10:30 GMT Kathmandu - Nepalese police Wednesday arrested more than 70 Tibetan protestors trying to demonstrate in front of the Chinese embassy visa office in Kathmandu. Police said they arrested the demonstrators after the Tibetan exiles tried to cross the police lines and march on to the visa office. The protestors included several nuns and monks holding white and yellow roses to show their solidarity with Tibetans in Lhasa and to protest the Chinese crackdown following rioting earlier this year. Riot police charged the demonstrators and loaded them unto trucks and vans to be driven off to detention centres. Most detainees were expected to be released later Wednesday. Tibetans have been involved in protests around the United Nations and Chinese embassy in Kathmandu since 10 March, calling for a Free Tibet and UN investigations into the recent troubles in Lhasa. The Nepalese government has said it will not allow anti-Chinese activities in Nepal and police have broken up the demonstrations by force. The government has come under increasing criticism from international human rights organisations for its handling of the protestors, many of whom were beaten by the police. Rights groups have also accused the Nepalese authorities of threatening the refugees involved in demonstrations with deportation back to Tibet. The Nepalese government has denied the charges. http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/05/12/Nepal_arrests_500_protesters/UPI-73881210572392/ Nepal arrests 500 protesters Published: May 12, 2008 at 2:06 AM Order reprints | Print Story | Email to a Friend | Post a Comment Close KATHMANDU, Nepal, May 12 (UPI) -- Police in Nepal arrested more than 500 people Sunday protesting Chinese policy in Tibet outside the Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu. Tibetans began demonstrations in March. Scores of Buddhist nuns joined Sunday's demonstration, which was almost entirely women, Nepal News said. Usually, those detained during protests are released within a few hours. The coming Olympics in Beijing are being proceeded by massive protests around the world. In some cities, demonstrators have been trying to keep the Olympic torch. At the moment, Chinese climbers are trying to bring an Olympic torch to the summit of Mount Everest, which lies on the border between Tibet and Nepal. http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3&art_id=nw20080505150535887C397702 Cops beat up Tibetan protesters May 05 2008 at 03:16PM Kathmandu - Nepali police beat up pro-Tibet protesters in Kathmandu on Monday and detained at least 125 people as demonstrators tried to storm the Chinese embassy demanding freedom for their Himalayan homeland. The protesters were dragged into waiting police vehicles before driving away to detention centres. "China thief leave the country," the protesters, some of them monks, shouted in Nepali. "Stop killing in Tibet ... free Tibet," they demanded. Exiled Tibetans have been protesting regularly ever since deadly riots broke out in the Tibetan capital Lhasa in March, followed by demonstrations in other Tibetan areas of China. Many Tibetans are furious over the crackdown against protesters in Tibet and resent China's decades-old rule of the Himalayan region. The Lhasa riot broke out after days of protests centred on the anniversary of the failed 1959 Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule. More than 20 000 Tibetans have been living in Nepal since fleeing after the failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959. Nepal regards Tibet as part of China, which provides considerable financial assistance for its economic development. (Reporting by Gopal Sharma; Editing by Bappa Majumdar) http://story.irishsun.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/2411cd3571b4f088/id/389202/cs/1/ Nepalese police arrest 150 anti-China protesters Irish Sun Friday 1st August, 2008 (IANS) Nepali police Friday broke up an anti-China protest here and arrested over 150 Tibetan exiles. The Tibetans, including Buddhist monks and nuns, were arrested near the Chinese embassy in central Kathmandu. Police in riot gear stopped the protesters about 200 metres from the embassy's consular section. Minor scuffles then broke out as the protesters tried to breach the police lines. The protesters were dragged into waiting vans and police trucks to be taken to detention centres. 'More than 150 Tibetans were arrested after they tried to march to the Chinese embassy's consular section,' Kathmandu district police office said. 'We expect most of them to be released by Friday night.' Many Tibetans carried placards and Tibetan flags and chanted slogans including 'We want a free Tibet' and 'Long live the Dalai Lama'. The protest was the latest in a series of demonstrations by Tibetan exiles since March 10. Nepal has more than 20,000 Tibetans concentrated mainly in the Kathmandu Valley and Pokhara in the west. The figure does not include Tibetans who arrived in the country after 1990, when the Nepali government stopped registering them as refugees. Estimates said about 3,000 Tibetans arrive in Nepal each year crossing dangerous mountain passes and risking their lives to flee Chinese rule. The Nepali government has repeatedly said it considers Tibet to be part of China and will not tolerate anti-Chinese activities. International human rights organisations have criticised Nepal for its handling of the protests and accused the government of cracking down on the refugees under Chinese pressure. http://www.chinapost.com.tw/asia/other/2008/06/20/161806/700%2DTibetans.htm 700 Tibetans protesting outside China embassy detained in Nepal AFP Friday, June 20, 2008 KATHMANDU -- Police in Nepal on Thursday detained more than 700 Tibetan exiles protesting outside the Chinese embassy and formally arrested three top activists for alleged anti-China activities, officials said. "We have rounded up hundreds of Tibetan protesters. The number is over 700," said Nawaratna Poudel, a police officer outside the Chinese embassy in Kathmandu -- the scene of almost daily protests. "This is probably the largest number of detentions in a single day so far," he said, but added they were likely to be released later in the evening. But Kathmandu police chief Sarbendra Khanal said three senior Tibetan activists were being held "on the charge of being involved in anti-China activities in Nepal." "They are using Nepal's territory for political purposes and trying to disturb peace and security in our country. It is against the law," he said, adding that police were also searching for several other top activists. The official gave no further details on what the alleged anti-China activities were. The leaders detained were from the Tibetan Women's Association, an activist group, and Tibetan Reception Center, a body which aids refugees after they make the arduous illegal crossing into Nepal from China. An official from the Tibetan Reception Center dismissed the charges. "Police have accused the leaders of being involved in organizing anti-China demonstrations and have been given the arrest warrant for 90 days," Dorji Damdul, an official of the center, told AFP. "We condemn this act by police as they have been arrested without any proof. Our leaders are not involved in any anti-China activities in Nepal," he said. Kathmandu has seen almost daily protests since unrest erupted in Lhasa, capital of the Tibetan region, prompting a crackdown by Chinese security forces in March. http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7010811135 Pro-Tibetans Arrested In Protest At Chinese Embassy In Nepal April 30, 2008 5:43 p.m. EST Siddique Islam - AHN South Asia Correspondent Kathmandu, Nepal (AHN) - At least 75 pro-Tibetan protesters were arrested on Wednesday as they staged an anti-China protest in front of the Chinese embassy here, police said. Protesters, including several nuns, gathered near the embassy building holding white and yellow roses and chanting slogans such as, "stop killing innocent Tibetans." "We don't want violence any more, so we have come here with flowers to give to the Chinese officials," a young Tibetan protester was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India (PTI). Hundreds of security officers deployed at the visa and trade section of the embassy stopped the protesters as they tried to enter the premises. Hundreds of protestors have been detained in recent weeks, although most are usually released within few hours. Tibetan refugees suspended their demonstrations on April 3 so that Nepal could peacefully hold a constituent assembly election April 10, but they resumed the demonstrations on April 16. http://www.nowpublic.com/world/mass-arrests-all-women-protest Mass Arrests in All-Women Protest by jordan | May 11, 2008 at 11:15 am Around 560 women have been arrested during demonstrations in Nepal against China's crackdown on Tibet. In the first example of all-women protests, three rallies in Kathmandu were quickly stopped by police. It was the biggest round-up since Tibetan exiles began near daily demonstrations in March. Protestors wearing black armbands wept and shouted "We want free Tibet" as they were dragged to police vans. Police said those detained were being held in detention centres around the capital, and would be freed later. Source: news.bbc.co.uk Nepal says it cannot allow Tibetans to demonstrate because it recognises Tibet as an integral part of China. But the UN says the mass arrests are against the spirit of a society governed by the rule of law. Source: news.bbc.co.uk In this case, the Nepalese government seems more motivated by money: Nepal considers Tibet part of China, a key donor and trade partner, and has been cracking down on protests by the exiled Tibetans against Beijing. Source: canada.com http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/11/asia/AS-GEN-Nepal-Tibetan-Protest.php Police detain 200 Tibetan exiles protesting in Nepal's capital The Associated Press Published: June 11, 2008 KATMANDU, Nepal: Tibetan exiles dressed as Chinese soldiers squirted other demonstrators with red paint in Nepal's capital in a symbolic protest against Chinese rule in their Himalayan homeland. Dressed in green uniforms generally worn by Chinese soldiers, the half-dozen protesters carrying water pistols loaded with red paint were quickly detained by Nepalese police in Katmandu on Tuesday. The demonstrators were joined by 200 others, many of them Buddhist monks and nuns, in front of the Chinese Embassy's visa office in the heart of the city. "Stop killing in Tibet," and "Free Tibet," the protesters chanted before being rounded up by police and taken away in vans and trucks. Police official Hom Chauhan said more than 200 Tibetans were detained. China says 22 people died in anti-government violence in Tibet's capital of Lhasa in March, while foreign Tibet supporters say many times that number were killed in the protests and a subsequent crackdown. Tibetans in Nepal began protests against China in March but temporarily halted their rallies last month after the Tibetan government-in-exile based in India asked them to stop because of the major earthquake in China. The protests resumed last week. Nepalese officials say demonstrations against friendly nations, including China, will not be allowed and Tibetan refugees are barred from all political activities. China says it has ruled Tibet for centuries, although many Tibetans say their homeland was essentially an independent state for most of that time. Chinese communist troops occupied Tibet in 1951. http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-06-10-nepal-protest_N.htm?csp=34 200 Tibetan exiles detained after red-paint protest in Nepal Updated 6/10/2008 8:35 AM | Comments3 | Recommend2E-mail | Save | Print | Shruti Shrestha, Reuters A woman is held by police during a protest by Tibetan exiles in front of the Chinese Embasssy visa section in Katmandu, Nepal, on Tuesday. KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) - Tibetan exiles dressed as Chinese soldiers squirted other demonstrators with red paint in Nepal's capital Tuesday in a symbolic protest against Chinese rule in their Himalayan homeland. Dressed in green uniforms generally worn by Chinese soldiers, the half-dozen protesters carrying water pistols loaded with red paint were quickly detained by Nepalese police in Katmandu. The demonstrators were joined by 200 others, many of them Buddhist monks and nuns, in front of the Chinese Embassy's visa office in the heart of the city. "Stop killing in Tibet," and "Free Tibet," the protesters chanted before being rounded up by police and taken away in vans and trucks. Police official Hom Chauhan said more than 200 Tibetans were detained. China says 22 people died in anti-government violence in Tibet's capital of Lhasa in March, while foreign Tibet supporters say many times that number were killed in the protests and a subsequent crackdown. Tibetans in Nepal began protests against China in March but temporarily halted their rallies last month after the Tibetan government-in-exile based in India asked them to stop because of the major earthquake in China. The protests resumed last week. Nepalese officials say demonstrations against friendly nations, including China, will not be allowed and Tibetan refugees are barred from all political activities. China says it has ruled Tibet for centuries, although many Tibetans say their homeland was essentially an independent state for most of that time. Chinese communist troops occupied Tibet in 1951. http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2008-06/2008-06-08-voa23.cfm?CFID=26061005&CFTOKEN=18163856 Police in Nepal Detain 185 Tibetan Protesters By VOA News 08 June 2008 Nepalese police arrest a Tibetan protester in Kathmandu, 08 Jun 2008 Police in Nepal have detained some 185 Tibetan exiles who demonstrated outside the Chinese embassy in the capital, Kathmandu. Sunday's arrests come after Saturday's detention of 450 Tibetans who held a similar demonstration. The protests are the latest in the almost-daily demonstrations by Tibetan exiles in Kathmandu since March, when deadly clashes broke out between protesters and Chinese authorities in their homeland, Tibet. They temporarily suspended demonstrations in Nepal after the earthquake in China, but recently have restarted protests. Nepal, which regards Tibet as part of China, is home to some 20,000 Tibetan refugees. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Nepal-Tibetan-Protest.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin Tibetans in Nepal protest against China, Olympics By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: August 14, 2008 Filed at 7:53 a.m. ET KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) -- Nepalese police clashed with Tibetan protesters and detained more than 500 of them Thursday while breaking up a demonstration in front of the Chinese diplomatic mission in Katmandu. More than 1,000 Tibetan exiles had gathered outside the Chinese Embassy visa office in Katmandu shouting slogans against China and the Olympics. They held banners that said ''Shame on you IOC'' and waved banners that said ''Beijing 2008'' with sketches of Chinese soldiers shooting at Tibetans. Police had difficulty controlling the protesters but managed to take many of them away in trucks to detention centers. More than 500 were detained, police official Ramesh Thapa said. The area around the visa office in the heart of Katmandu is declared a no-protest zone and demonstrations and gatherings are prohibited. Police said the protesters violated the prohibition orders. Police briefly used bamboo batons to disperse the protesters. No one was seriously injured. Tibetan exiles in both Nepal and India have been staging frequent protests to show their support for the unrest that erupted in Tibet's capital in March. Arrested Tibetan protesters in Katmandu are generally freed the same day. The March protests in Lhasa were among the biggest in almost 50 years of Chinese rule. Many Tibetans insist they were an independent nation before communist troops invaded in 1950, while Beijing says the Himalayan region has been part of its territory for centuries. http://www.dw-world.de/dw/function/0,,12215_cid_3429591,00.html?maca=en-rss-en-news-1092-rdf 22.06.2008 | 07:00 UTC Nepalese police detain hundreds of anti-China protesters Nepalese police have detained more than 500 Tibetan exiles during anti-China demonstrations in the capital, Kathmandu. The protests followed the arrest of three top Tibetan leaders in Nepal on Friday on charges of provoking anti-China activities in the country. Meanwhile, the Olympic torch has been carried through the streets of the Tibetan capital without incident. Only spectators hand-picked by the Chinese authorities were allowed onto the streets of Lhasa, as the torch passed through the city. Students and employees of state-owned companies were among those chosen to cheer on the relay runners as they carried the Olympic flame along an 11-kilometre-long route. Many locals were ordered to stay at home and shops remained closed. http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=5282258 Nepal Police Stop Tibetan Protesters Near Chinese Border Nepalese Police Stop Tibetan Monks & Nuns From Reaching China Border After Five-day Trek By BINAJ GURUBACHARYA Associated Press Writer KATMANDU, Nepal July 1, 2008 (AP) Nepalese police detain a Tibetan activist during an anti-Chinese demonstration in front of the Chinese Embassy building in Kathmandu to protest the passing of the Olympic torch relay in Tibet's capital Lhasa on June 21, 2008. Police detained more then 500 Tibetan protesters who had gathered outside a building housing China's consular and trade offices. (Prakash Mathema, AFP/Getty Images) Nepalese police detained 42 Tibetan monks and nuns Tuesday after the group trekked for five days through the Himalayas to protest China's crackdown on dissidents in their homeland, officials said. Police blocked the protesters' path about seven miles from the China-Nepal border. Police asked them to turn around, and when they refused, they were all detained, said police official Birendra Shahi. An Associated Press Television News cameraman at the scene said police did not use force, but loaded the protesters into trucks and drove them to the nearest town. They were all likely to be driven to the capital Katmandu later on Tuesday, Shahi said. The protesters had trekked through the treacherous mountains from Nepal's capital to reach the border area about 75 miles north of Katmandu. The protesters had avoided walking along the main highway from the capital fearing they would be arrested by Nepalese police. http://networks.org/?src=abc:5402074 Nepal Police Break up Tibet Protests, 118 Held July 18, 2008 KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Hundreds of protesters calling for independence for Tibet protested in the Nepali capital of Kathmandu on Friday, and police said they took 118 demonstrators into custody for organizing anti-China demonstrations. Many were Tibetan exiles shouting "We want free Tibet" slogans. They burned an effigy of the Chinese President Hu Jintao near a consular office of the Chinese embassy in the Nepali capital. They were then hauled into police vans and trucks and taken to detention centers. A police official said they would be freed later on Friday. Tibetans have protested regularly in Nepal since the deadly Chinese crackdown on riots in Lhasa and other parts of Tibet in mid-March. More than 20,000 Tibetans still live in Nepal since fleeing their homeland after a failed uprising against Beijing in 1959. (Reporting by Gopal Sharma; Editing by Alistair Scrutton and Valerie Lee) http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D924TE9O0&show_article=1 Nepalese police detain over 100 protesting Tibetan exiles+ Jul 25 09:34 AM US/Eastern KATHMANDU, July 25 (AP) - (Kyodo)-Over 100 Tibetan protesters were temporarily detained in Kathmandu on Friday for allegedly trying to storm into the Chinese Embassy's visa office, police said. The Tibetans, including monks and nuns, were demonstrating for a free Tibet. The exiled Tibetans began their almost-daily anti-China protests in Kathmandu in March, demanding an independent international inquest into the Chinese crackdown on anti-government riots in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, that month. Nepalese police have regularly broken up such protests and temporarily detained the protesters. The protesters are generally set free after a few hours in detention. Nepal considers Tibet a part of China, a key development aid donor to the world's youngest republic. More than 20,000 Tibetan exiles live in Nepal. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/08/14/2335911.htm 1,000 Tibetan protesters arrested in Nepal Posted Thu Aug 14, 2008 9:10pm AEST Updated Thu Aug 14, 2008 10:56pm AEST Stick-wielding police in Nepal's capital Kathmandu have arrested at least 1,000 Tibetan exiles as they protested outside a Chinese embassy building, police and witnesses said. The protesters, many of them monks and nuns, said they wanted to highlight what they say are abuses in their Himalayan homeland during the ongoing Beijing Olympics. "The world must open its eyes to the plight of us Tibetans rather than focusing on the Beijing Olympics," Wangchuk Tsering, 28, said before joining the protest. "I will continue to protest unless China guarantees human rights in Tibet." Demonstrators wore T-shirts and jackets that read "China lies, Tibetan dies," "Stop genocide in Tibet," "Long live the Dalai Lama" and other slogans. Police initially charged a group of about 1,000 Tibetans outside the Chinese visa and trade section building, hitting them with bamboo sticks. Half of them were arrested and the others were chased away. The protesters later regrouped, and police arrested more than 500 others throughout the day. So far, "1,068 Tibetan protesters have been rounded up from around the protest site. They will be released later this evening," said Kathmandu police chief Sarbendra Khanal. "They kept on coming so we continued detaining them because they were in a place where protests are prohibited." There have been almost daily pro-Tibet protests in Kathmandu since a crackdown in the Chinese-controlled region following violent unrest in March. Nepal, which is home to around 20,000 exiled Tibetans, has banned all pro-Tibet protests as it seeks to maintain friendly ties with its giant northern neighbour China. Tibetans began arriving in Nepal in large numbers in 1959 after the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, fled his homeland following a failed anti-Chinese uprising. - AFP http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-08-14-voa63.cfm?rss=war Nepal Police Detain Hundreds of Tibetan Protesters By VOA News 14 August 2008 Nepalese police remove Tibetan exiles protesting outside the Chinese embassy Katmandu, Nepal, 14 Aug 2008 Police in Nepal Thursday detained at least 760 Tibetan exiles who were protesting outside the Chinese embassy in Kathmandu. Witnesses say police scuffled with some protesters, many of whom were hauled away in police trucks. Nepal is home to about 20,000 Tibetans who fled their homeland after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959. Exiles have been staging near-daily protests since March, when Chinese forces brutally suppressed demonstrations in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa. Activists have intensified anti-China protests recently, to coincide with the Olympic Games in Beijing. On Friday, the night of the Olympics opening ceremony, Nepalese authorities detained some 1,300 protesters in Kathmandu. http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSLA50238120080810 Nepal police beat pro-Tibet protesters, detain 230 Sun Aug 10, 2008 8:57am EDT KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Nepali police kicked Tibetan protesters and beat them with batons on Sunday before detaining some 230 people marching to a Chinese consular office in Kathmandu, police and witnesses said. At least two people were seen bleeding from their heads after a scuffle broke out with riot police trying to protect the walled Chinese office. At least 10 people were injured. Police said they had rounded up 230 protesters for opposing the Chinese crackdown in Tibet in March and shouting "Long live the Dalai Lama" and "Shame, shame, China, shame". Monks and nuns were among those held. Nepal is home to more than 20,000 Tibetans who fled Tibet after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959. But the country bars them from engaging in political activities against Beijing. Kathmandu says Tibet is part of China, its influential neighbor and trade partner, and has cracked down on near-daily protests against Beijing since the past five months. Those detained are usually released the same day. On Friday, authorities detained more than 1,300 Tibetans who protested in Kathmandu as the Olympic Games opened in Beijing. (Reporting by Gopal Sharma; Editing by Krittivas Mukherjee, editing by Mary Gabriel) (For the latest Reuters news on Nepal see: in.reuters.com, for blogs see blogs.reuters.com/in) http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/24/asia/tibet.php Tibetan exiles in Nepal protest Chinese rule Reuters Published: August 24, 2008 KATMANDU, Nepal: About 2,000 Tibetan exiles, including children, monks and nuns, joined a protest rally in Katmandu on Sunday, hours before the closing ceremony of the Olympics in Beijing. Maroon-robed monks and nuns with shaven heads, some with Tibetan flags and placards calling for independence, were among the participants who walked silently for eight kilometers, or five miles on the outskirts of the Nepali capital. Also Sunday, in Dharamsala in northern India, home of the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, hundreds of Tibetan youths marched, vowing to keep alive their "Free Tibet" campaign even after the Olympics. Monks and nuns walked alongside ordinary Tibetans, shouting "Free Tibet" and "We want justice." In Katmandu, the police kept a strict vigil and snatched some flags, but they let the march continue from the Boudha suburb to the ancient monastery of Swyambhu outside the main city. Exiles called for fact-finding missions from the United Nations and other organizations to "assess the actual situation in Tibet and let the world know the truth." More than 20,000 Tibetans live in Nepal, the second biggest home for them outside Tibet after India, having fled there after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959. Nepal, which considers Tibet part of China, which is an aid donor and trade partner for Tibet, says the exiles can stay in the impoverished nation but cannot organize any activities against its influential neighbor. The refugees have managed to protest, however, and have tried to storm the Chinese consular office in Katmandu regularly since a crackdown on anti-China riots in Tibet in March. About 10,000 refugees have been arrested in the past five months, but later freed. Human Rights Watch, based in New York, said last month that the Nepali authorities were under pressure from Beijing to stop Tibetan protests, a charge China denied. Nepal's new Maoist prime minister, Prachanda, also known as Pushpa Kamal Dahal, was in Beijing to attend the closing of the Olympics, and was to meet President Hu Jintao of China and other leaders and discuss Nepal-China relations. http://archive.gulfnews.com/world/Nepal/10239885.html Tibetans mark end of Olympics with protest Reuters Published: August 24, 2008, 21:34 Kathmandu: About 2,000 Tibetan exiles, including children, monks and nuns, joined a protest rally in Kathmandu on Sunday, hours before the closing ceremony of the Olympics in Beijing. Maroon-robed monks and nuns with shaven heads, some with Tibetan flags and placards calling for independence, were among the participants who walked silently for 8km on the outskirts of the Nepali capital. In India's northern town of Dharamsala, home of the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, hundreds of Tibetan youths marched, vowing to keep alive their "Free Tibet" campaign even after the Beijing Olympics. Monks and nuns walked alongside ordinary Tibetans, shouting "Free Tibet" and "We want justice". In Kathmandu, police kept a strict vigil, snatched some flags but let the march continue from the Boudha suburb to the ancient monastery of Swyambhu outside the main city. Second biggest home Exiles called for United Nations and other fact-finding missions to "assess the actual situation in Tibet and let the world know the truth". Over 20,000 Tibetans still live in Nepal, the second biggest home for them outside Tibet after India, since fleeing their homeland after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959. Nepal, which considers Tibet as part of China - an aid donor and trade partner - says the exiles can stay in the impoverished nation but can't organise any activities against its influential neighbour. The refugees have managed to protest, however, and have tried to storm the Chinese consular office in Kathmandu regularly since a crackdown on anti-China riots in March. http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2008/07/23/nepal19446.htm Nepal: Abuses Against Tibetans Protesting China's Tibet Crackdown China Leans on Nepal to Stifle Demonstrations (New York, July 24, 2008) - The government of Nepal, under pressure from China, has arbitrarily arrested hundreds of Tibetans and restricted their right to demonstrate against the March 2008 crackdown in Tibet, Human Rights Watch said in a new a report today. Human Rights Watch called on Nepal to respect Tibetans' rights to free expression and assembly, and for China to end its pressure campaign against Nepal. Nepal's government is turning the screws on peaceful Tibetan protesters at the behest of China. Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch "Nepal's government is turning the screws on peaceful Tibetan protesters at the behest of China," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "How can a government that came to power on a wave of public protests justify crushing peaceful protests by Tibetans?" The 60-page report, "Appeasing China: Restricting the Rights of Tibetans in Nepal," documents numerous violations of human rights by the Nepali authorities, particularly the police, against Tibetans involved in peaceful demonstrations in Kathmandu, including: unnecessary and excessive use of force; arbitrary arrest; sexual assault of women during arrest; arbitrary and preventive detention; beatings in detention; unlawful threats to deport Tibetans to China; restrictions on freedom of movement in the Kathmandu Valley; harassment of Tibetan and foreign journalists; and harassment of Nepali, Tibetan, and foreign human rights defenders. In preparing the report, Human Rights Watch directly observed protests and arrests, conditions in detention, and treatment in hospitals. Human Rights Watch carried out regular observation visits to Tibetan areas of Kathmandu, interviewed more than 90 Tibetan protesters and conducted interviews with non-Tibetan protest eyewitnesses, Tibetan community and religious leaders, Nepali medical personnel and police officers, and United Nations personnel in Nepal. Nepal, which borders the Tibetan region of China and is home to approximately 20,000 Tibetan exiles, refugees and asylum seekers, has seen numerous protests since March 10, "Tibetan National Uprising Day," the anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan rebellion against China's rule in Tibet. Protests in Kathmandu intensified in reaction to the Chinese government's violent suppression of protests in Tibet and neighboring provinces in China. Nepali authorities have made at least 8,350 arrests of Tibetans between March 10 and July 18 (many people have been arrested more than once). While the frequency of protests has diminished since May, protests have continued to take place regularly. Few of those arrested have been provided with a reason for their detention, and virtually all have been released without charge. Human Rights Watch said that Nepal's police have used unnecessary or excessive force to carry out arrests, at times with the apparent intent to disperse crowds of peaceful protesters. Police have beaten protesters with lathis (canes) on the head and body, and kicked and punched them, and sexually assaulted Tibetan women during arrest. Police, especially at Boudha police station in Kathmandu, have severely beaten detainees. Many detainees, including those who suffered injuries while being arrested, have been provided limited or no medical care. Threats of violence, sexual intimidation and deportation to China by the police also appear to have been used to deter future demonstrations. "Kathmandu has provided a home for Tibetan exiles for decades," said Adams. "That is now under threat as Nepali authorities cave into pressure from the Chinese government." China has played an important, if at times opaque, role in the Nepali government's crackdown on Tibetan demonstrations. China's ambassador to Nepal, Zheng Xianglin, has publicly exerted China's influence on the Nepali government through strong and frequent statements, calling for the arrest of protesters and urging the government to take strong action. For example, on May 12, Xianglin, said, "We want the Nepali establishment to take severe penal actions against those involved in anti-China activities in Nepal." The unusual number of statements from Nepali leaders reiterating the ban on "anti-China" activities suggests increasing pressure from Beijing. "China has long claimed that the bedrock of its foreign policy is 'non-interference' in the internal affairs of other countries. Yet it has directly called for the Nepali authorities to crack down on peaceful protesters," said Adams. "Beijing's attempts to export its persecution of Tibetans across the Nepal-China border should stop immediately and be strongly resisted by the government of Nepal." Nearly all Tibetan protesters interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported being threatened by Nepali authorities with deportation to China. This threat is being used during arrest and against those in detention with the apparent aim of instilling fear within the Tibetan community or to discourage future protests. The authorities' widespread use of this threat suggests Nepali government policy. "The threat of detention and deportation to China is being used by the government of Nepal to silence peaceful protest," said Adams. Human Rights Watch called on the government of Nepal to respect the fundamental rights of Tibetans to engage in peaceful assembly and expression, and to end the arbitrary arrest, harassment, and mistreatment of those who do so. Human Rights Watch also called on the Chinese government to cease its public and private pressure on the Nepali government to violate the rights of Tibetans. Tibetan protesters in their own words: "I was peacefully protesting when I was hit on the head by police and fell to the ground. I was then hit with lathis [canes] on the feet and legs by three policemen before they ran off, and I was helped home by a passerby. Both of my feet are fractured. The doctor told me my left foot will never be the same again." - 25-year-old Tibetan, Kathmandu, March 19, 2008 "We are protesting because we want to tell the truth about our country and we want justice from the UN and human rights. We want to show other countries the real situation in Tibet. This is our aim." - Nun from Swyambu, Kathmandu, March 29, 2008 "The police took my friend, so I tried to hold onto him. Then the police tried to hit me with a lathi, so I put my arms up and now I have a damaged arm. Then I fell to the ground and the police beat me while I was on the ground, and now I have this large bruise on my back. My friend picked me up because I couldn't walk, and then the police put me into the van." - Protester, age 25 http://www.commondreams.org/news2008/0421-03.htm Threat of Lethal Force in Nepal an Unacceptable Escalation for Tibet Protests, Says Amnesty International WASHINGTON, DC - April 21 - Amnesty International today condemned threats by the Nepali Home Ministry to use "force, including gunfire. to prevent anti-China protests" when the Olympic torch relay arrives on Mount Everest in early May. These threats to use lethal force follow earlier crackdowns on peaceful pro-Tibetan protestors, which were unconstitutional and resulted in the arbitrary detention of at least 400 people. Amnesty International is gravely concerned that the Nepali government is extending illegal police actions against Tibetans in Nepal and systematically violating their fundamental rights to liberty, due process and freedom of movement, assembly and expression. "Members of the Tibetan refugee community have in recent days faced increasingly punitive police measures designed to muzzle free speech, including threats of arbitrary deportation to China," said Amnesty International. "Statements threatening the use of lethal force represent an unacceptable escalation." The Government of Nepal must ensure that its officers are adequately equipped and trained to employ non-violent means of crowd control before resorting, where strictly necessary, to the use of force. Firearms may only be used as a last resort where lives are at risk. The Nepali government must ensure that its officers are subject to strict regulations regarding the use of such methods and are tied to a strict system of accountability. Amnesty International therefore calls on the Nepali government to police demonstrations in line with the U.N. Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials and the U.N. Basic Principles on the Use of Force. Principle 5 of the Basic Principles states that police have the duty to "exercise restraint [.] and act in proportion to the seriousness of the offense and the legitimate objective to be achieved." Police are also required to "minimize damage and injury, and respect and preserve human life." Principle 8 stipulates that "exceptional circumstances such as internal political instability or any other public emergency may not be invoked to justify any departure from these basic principles." From ldxar1 at tesco.net Wed Aug 27 15:38:32 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 23:38:32 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] TIBET PROTESTS 2 of 3 - The Torch Chase and the Games Message-ID: <00f901c90895$a4110d20$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ Torch route protests: * NEPAL: Torch protester arrested on Mount Qomolangma (Everest) * JAPAN: Taiwanese Tibetan tries to grab torch * AUSTRALIA: "Minor skirmishes" along torch route * INDONESIA: Torch protesters held back * HONG KONG: Pro-democracy protests mark torch run * VIETNAM: Protesters held ahead of torch run * SOUTH KOREA: Scuffles with China supporters, attempted self-immolation Related: * GREECE: Tibet protesters blockade IOC meeting Protests at the Games themselves: * HONG KONG: Pro-democracy protest hours before opening ceremony * CHINA: Journalist arrested covering Tibet demo * Five scale building and unfurl banner * Expelled demonstrator moves on to embassy * US protester paints hotel room in Tibet protest * Christian activist defends China protest * HONG KONG: Protester shouts slogans at equestrian event * Tibet flag smuggled into event * Six protesters at equestrian arena * Americans detained after protests * CHINA: Polish medallist shaves head in Tibet protest * HONG KONG: British protester drops banner from bridge http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-04/23/content_8036235.htm Nepal expels would-be anti-China protester from Mt. Qomolangma [Everest] Special report: Tibet: Its Past and Present KATMANDU, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Nepal has turned away a western climber from Mt. Qomolangma after he was caught with a pro-Tibet independence banner at a base camp, officials said Wednesday. The climber, whose identity has not been released, was caught with the "Free-Tibet" banner in his bags at Mt. Qomolangma's base camp, the THT Online website quoted mountaineering officials in Katmandu as saying. The climber is the first to be stopped by soldiers and policemen stationed on the Nepalese side of the world's highest mountain to prevent anti-China protests during the planned torch relay to the summit. The Nepalese government has deployed soldiers on the southern side as a precaution. The planned torch run will be held on the Chinese side of the mountain. Nepal's Home Affairs Ministry said Tuesday that appropriate security measures have been taken to prevent any protest activities from taking place on the Nepalese territory in connection with China's lighting of the Olympic torch on Mount Himalaya. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2008/04/27/2003410415 Taiwanese national arrested in Nagano after torch protest By Loa Iok-sin STAFF REPORTER, WITH CNA Sunday, Apr 27, 2008, Page 1 A Tibetan activist with Taiwanese nationality was arrested in Japan yesterday after attempting to disrupt the Nagano leg of the Olympic torch relay. The vice president of the Tibetan Youth Congress? Taiwan chapter, Tashi Tsering (????), was arrested after he attempted to grab the Olympic torch from Japanese table tennis player Ai Fukuhara, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokeswoman Phoebe Yeh (???) told the Taipei Times. Tashi is from a Tibetan family that took refuge in India after China took control of Tibet in the 1950s. Many of his relatives who remained in Tibet were killed by Chinese authorities, Tashi told the Taipei Times prior to his departure for Japan. Although local police dispatched over 3,000 officers to safeguard the torch relay, minor clashes broke out several times between Tibetan activists and around 5,000 Chinese supporters after the torch relay started yesterday morning, Yeh said. Along with Tashi, four other Japanese activists were also arrested, she said. ?Right now, he?s in custody at Nagano?s central police station,? Yeh said. ?He will be detained there for a 48-hour interrogation period during which he will not be allowed any visitors.? Taiwan?s representative office in Japan has already been notified of the incident. ?The representative office will keep a close eye on the situation and someone will go to see Tashi as soon as he is allowed to receive visitors,? she said, adding that the diplomatic mission will try to assist Tashi in whatever way it can. Meanwhile, a source who spoke on condition of anonymity said that Tashi would likely be transferred to a prosecutors? office after the 48-hour custody period, and would probably be released tomorrow. Some Tibet-support groups in Taiwan are also seeking to provide legal assistance to Tashi, the source said. Tashi was still unavailable for interview as of press time. Meanwhile, leaders of 21 Taiwanese American groups have urged US President George W. Bush to boycott the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics in August, over China?s violent crackdown on Tibetan protesters and its military intimidation of Taiwan. In a letter dated April 24, the leaders told Bush that if he were to attend the event, he ?would be viewed as endorsing China?s appalling policies toward Tibet and Taiwan.? ?In the words of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, China is carrying out ?cultural genocide? in Tibet. The United States must not be seen as colluding in committing this crime,? the letter said. Noting that Bush?s repeated calls for China to engage in dialogue with the Dalai Lama ?have all but fallen on deaf ears,? the statement said China?s brutal suppression of protesters in Tibet should not be tolerated as ?business as usual.? The statement dismissed a demand made by Chinese President Hu Jintao (???) that the Dalai Lama accept Tibet and Taiwan as ?inalienable parts of China? as a precondition for dialogue as ?arrogant? and ?imperialistic.? ?Hu is a dictator to be shunned, rather than an enlightened leader with whom you should share the stage in celebrating the Olympics,? the statement said. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2008/05/01/2003410715 Protesters call on Japan to release Tibetan Taiwanese By Loa Iok-sin STAFF REPORTER Thursday, May 01, 2008, Page 1 Dozens of Tibetan and human rights activists shouted ?Free Tibet! Free Tashi!? yesterday during a demonstration in front of the Japanese representative office in Taipei, calling on Japan to release Tashi Tsering (????) as soon as possible. Tashi, an exiled Tibetan who holds a Taiwanese passport, was arrested in Nagano, Japan, on charges of ?forcible obstruction of business? when he attempted to approach the Olympic torch during the Nagano leg of the relay. Tashi was detained for 48 hours with no visitors allowed before being transferred to a prosecutor on Monday. However, a decision was made to extend his detention for 10 more days. ?At this point, officials from our representative office in Japan are not allowed to visit him and we don?t know what awaits him after the extended 10-day detention ? release, even longer detention, or indictment,? Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Phoebe Yeh (???) told the Taipei Times. The activists found Japan?s handling of Tashi?s case unusual. ?Tashi did not act violently when he tried to approach the torch and he didn?t have anything on him that could cause anyone physical harm either,? Own Su-jei (???), deputy secretary-general of the Taiwan-Tibet Exchange Foundation, told the crowd. ?Normally, such an act is not considered an offense in Japan ? or at most a very minor offense with the person released after the 48-hour detention period.? He said that three other Japanese who were arrested for throwing eggs at the torch relay had already been released. ?The unusual handling of the case leads us to believe that Japan may be under political pressure from China,? Own said. ?We urge the Japanese government to stand firm on the values of human rights and not to bow to political pressure from China.? Chinese president Hu Jintao (???) is scheduled to visit Japan next Wednesday. After delivering the speech, Own, along with Taiwan Tibetan Welfare Association president Tenzin Tsering and the Taipei Bar Association?s Human Rights Protection Committee chairman Kao Yung-cheng (???), presented letters addressed to Japan?s Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Nagano central police station, where Tashi is being detained. The three were received by an official from the representative office who promised to deliver the letters, but declined to comment further. The activists also announced Nagano central police station?s telephone number, urging all those who are concerned to call the agency. http://www.inthenews.co.uk/news/autocodes/countries/france/small-scale-protest-as-olympic-torch-travels-through-malaysia-$1219671.htm Small-scale protest as Olympic torch travels through Malaysia Monday, 21 Apr 2008 13:28 A number of people were arrested in Kuala Lumpur Printer friendly version The Olympic torch has travelled through Malaysia today, with only a few small-scale protests being reported. The torch's 16.5 kilometres route was lined with riot police as the flame made its way through the Asian nation before finishing outside the famous Petronas Twin Towers. Reports claim over 1,000 police and security forces were deployed to prevent any repeat of the scenes experienced in London, Paris and San Francisco where pro-Tibetan demonstrators staged large-scale protests. Demonstrators worldwide are using the torch's passage through 22 countries, from Athens to Beijing, as an opportunity to protest against China's human rights record and its handling of recent uprisings in Tibet. The only incident of any note today was when police in Kuala Lumpur arrested a Japanese family of three, a Buddhist monk and a British woman. The family had attempted to unfurl a Tibetan flag before the start of the torch's relay but were quickly confronted by pro-Chinese supporters. Authorities maintained the relay had been a success. "It is a festive atmosphere here... and shows the good relationship we have with Beijing," Olympic Committee of Malaysia president Imran Jaafar said. The Olympic torch will now head to Indonesia, Australia, South Korea, Japan and Vietnam before making its way to Beijing for the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics on August 8th. http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/04/23/torch.relay.canberra/index.html?eref=rss_latest Australian torch relay ends with minor skirmishes CANBERRA, Australia (CNN) -- Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe ended the Australian leg of the Olympic torch relay Thursday, touching the flame to light a cauldron after a run that was only slightly affected by anti-China protests. At least five people were arrested during the torch relay that ended up more orderly than those in other countries but still heavy with people demonstrating both for and against China, which will host the 2008 Olympics in Beijing in August. Police said the five were arrested for interfering with the event under special powers enacted in the wake of massive protests against Chinese policy toward Tibet. The first scuffle took place at Reconciliation Place, where the relay began shortly before 9 a.m. local time (2300 GMT Wednesday). The incident took place shortly before the relay was to begin, prefaced by a ceremony of cleansing and dancing conducted by Aboriginal Australians. In all, 80 runners carried the torch through Canberra along with five-time Olympic gold medalist swimmer Thorpe. All along the route, and in a large crowd at the cauldron lighting, red Chinese national flags vastly outnumbered Australian flags or banners from any other nation along the route. Many in attendance appeared to be Chinese students studying abroad in Australia. International demonstrators had vowed to show up 500-strong for the torch relay to protest China's policy toward Tibet, which has long petitioned for more democratic rights and freedoms, and China's human rights record. Australian police countered armed with special powers -- enacted for the relay -- to stop and search them. Police reported some minor skirmishes between supporters of China and pro-Tibet demonstrators near where the run began, but no arrests were made. About 30 minutes into the run, a man ran into the street directly in front of the torchbearer but was immediately pushed away by security and apprehended by police Shortly before the flame arrived in Canberra, police arrested a man and a woman who were trying to unfurl a banner on Sydney's Harbour Bridge. The relay route, already truncated from 20 km (12 miles) to 16 km (10 miles), was to thread past the Parliament House and within yards of the Chinese Embassy. Police put up meter-high fences along the route to keep the 80 torch runners safe from protesters. About 350 police officers have been preparing for weeks, armed with special powers to stop and search people for prohibited items, from guns to eggs. "We're quite optimistic, having talked to all the parties involved, that it's going to be peaceful," said a spokesman for the Australian Federal Police. "But we're obviously prepared in the event that it gets out of hand." Police described most of the day's skirmishes as minor, saying security and law enforcement officers were able to break up disturbances before they became violent. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had requested that the number of Chinese "flame attendants" be limited during the run. The attendants, whose job is to ensure that the torch is not improperly extinguished, were accused of being too aggressive during protest-marred stops in other countries. Only two of the attendants were visible as the run began. Paul Bourke of the Australian Tibet Council said he expected about 500 supporters to descend on Canberra on Thursday to protest peacefully. Thousands of Chinese students were also expected at the relay. Early Wednesday morning, members of the Tibet Council used lasers to spell out statements on the pylon wall of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The statements -- "Don't torch Tibet" and "China, Talk to the Dalai Lama" -- were beamed on to the bridge wall about 1 a.m. after the floodlights had been turned off, Bourke said. They protested a plan to carry the torch through Tibet and China's refusal to negotiate with the Tibetan spiritual leader. "We believe it would be unnecessarily provocative to run the torch relay through the Tibetan areas," Bourke said. He added that the International Olympic Committee, in awarding the Olympic Games to China, said it would be a force for good in the country. But it hasn't happened, Bourke said. Watch a timeline of the Olympics and politics ? "There's still four months left for China to honor its commitment to rest of the world, and it can do so by negotiating with the Dalai Lama to work toward a lasting solution to the Tibet issue," he said. Several hours later, a man and a woman were arrested as they tried to unfurl a banner on the Harbour Bridge. Walsh, the police spokeswoman, would not confirm local reports that the pair was trying to unveil a Tibetan flag. Police cited the two protesters for violating a law that requires a permit for any displays from the bridge. Three men and a woman were also arrested for hanging a banner from a street sign at King's Cross, Walsh said. Security concerns prompted Pakistani officials to close the relay to the public and hold it at a stadium in front of invited guests. India truncated the route and kept protesters at bay by lining the route with thousands of police officers and paramilitary troopers. But stops in some countries, such as Argentina, Tanzania and Oman, have been trouble-free. The flame arrived in Australia from a relatively incident-free jaunt through Jakarta, Indonesia. On Tuesday, torchbearers circled a track around Jakarta's main sports stadium in front of invited guests and journalists in a relay that was shortened to just over 4 miles (7 km). Watch the torch being lit in Jakarta ? Indonesian police arrested six pro-Tibet protesters and took down anti-Chinese banners and signs outside the sports complex, according to a protest organizer. Police said they were charged with not having a permit to stage a protest. http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/22/asia/torch.php Olympic torch protests thwarted in Jakarta Reuters Published: April 22, 2008 JAKARTA: The Olympic torch was paraded through a heavily guarded stadium in Jakarta on Tuesday after the police stopped about 100 anti-Beijing protesters from disrupting the latest leg of the torch's fraught journey around the world. Taufik Hidayat, an Indonesian badminton star and Olympic gold medalist, lighted a caldron in front of a cheering crowd as about 2,500 police officers and 1,000 troops guarded the relay, which has been a magnet for anti-China protests in Europe and the Americas after Beijing's crackdown last month on protests in Tibet. About 80 athletes, officials and television and film stars took part in the relay of seven kilometers, or four miles. Earlier in the day, there had been a 30-minute standoff between the police and protesters outside the main gate of Bung Karno Stadium, named after Sukarno, the first Indonesian president. "I'm very proud to be part of this. I hope I can win a gold medal like four years ago," Hidayat said after lighting the caldron. The relay had originally been scheduled to pass through large stretches of the bustling city, but sports officials later said the route would be restricted to the vicinity of Bung Karno Stadium. About 5,000 guests and accredited members of the media were invited to watch the relay inside the stadium complex. China had hoped the torch's journey would be a symbol of unity in the run-up to the Beijing Games, but the relay has drawn anti-China protests, as well as pro-China demonstrations, many involving Chinese studying overseas. The protesters in Jakarta, grouped under the Indonesian Society for a Free Tibet, shouted, "Free Tibet!" and held banners reading, "Olympics and crimes against humanity cannot co-exist." The police arrested a Dutch citizen taking part in the protest after he failed to show his passport, said a local deputy police chief, Herri Wibowo. "They said they had a permit to hold a rally, but they could not prove it," he said. There have been several small demonstrations outside the Chinese Embassy in Jakarta over Tibet. Rita Subowo, chairwoman of the Indonesian Olympic Committee, had urged Indonesians to help make the Beijing Games a success. "We should not mix sports with politics, race or religion. We must defend the rights of athletes to compete in the Olympics," she said Monday. "I hope the Chinese will be able to resolve their own internal matters." The flame travels next to Canberra, where organizers said they were re-routing the torch relay, scheduled for Thursday, away from the heart of the Australian capital amid fears of clashes between pro-China and pro-Tibet demonstrators. Security concerns have also prompted changes to the torch route in Japan and led to sponsors pulling out of a motorcade for the relay Saturday in the city of Nagano. http://article.wn.com/view/2008/05/02/Olympic_torch_run_through_Hong_Kong_despite_protests/Olympic torch run through Hong Kong despite protests Houston ChronicleTOOLS HONG KONG - Runners carried the Olympic flame through Hong Kongwithout disruption today, as large groups of flag-waving torch supportersshouted insults at pro-Tibet and human rights protesters, forcing them toseek refuge in police vans. One angry pro-China mob yelled, "Do you thinkthis is Paris?" to a small group of pro-democracy supporters as theypeacefully demonstrated near the start of the torch route.http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/29/olympicgames2008.china?gusrc=rss&feed=worldnewsProtesters held ahead of torch relay in VietnamAllegra Stratton and agenciesguardian.co.uk,Tuesday April 29 2008 11:30 BSTArticle historySeven anti-China protesters were arrested in Vietnam today ahead of thelatest leg of the Olympic torch relay in the country.Several of the demonstrators were detained after unfurling a banner andshouting "Boycott the Beijing Olympics" through a loudhailer at a market inthe capital, Hanoi, two witnesses said. Police refused to comment on theincident.The relay was being held in southern Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known asSaigon.Several police officers were stationed close to the starting point outsidethe city's 19th-century opera house. A group of pro-China supporters ralliedthere, waving flags and shouting slogans.Vietnamese authorities gave few details about the relay route, apparentlyfor security reasons.China and Vietnam fought a border war in 1979, but relations have improvedgreatly in recent years.Vietnam has assured its communist ally it will not let demonstrators disruptthe parade, though students have threatened to protest against China's claimto the Spratly Islands, which are claimed by both countries and severalothers.The torch arrived in Vietnam last night from North Korea, where tens ofthousands of citizens were mobilised to celebrate the relay in Pyongyang.At many of its 18 stops around the world, the relay has been beset byprotests against China's human rights record and a recent crackdown in Tibetafter anti-government riots. Large groups of flag-waving Chinese have alsoturned out at various points in the relay, sometimes clashing withprotesters.After Vietnam, the flame will travel to the Chinese territories of Hong Kongand Macau before heading to the mainland, where it is scheduled to visit therestive Tibet region and the top of Mount Everest http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/418953Seoul torch relay marred by gas-doused protesterREUTERS/LEE JAE-WONA torch bearer runs with plainclothes policemen during the Olympic torchrelay in central Seoul April 27, 2008.Apr 27, 2008 05:44 PMKWANG-TAE KIMAssociated Press WriterSEOUL, SOUTH KOREA?Chinese students clashed with anti-Beijing demonstratorsat the Olympic torch relay Sunday in Seoul, throwing rocks and punches atthe latest stop on the flame's troubled round-the-world journey.A North Korean defector tried to set himself on fire to halt the relay,where thousands of police guarded the flame from protesters blasting China'streatment of North Korean refugees.But the small groups of anti-China demonstrators were far outnumbered byseas of red-clad Chinese supporters who waved red national flags as theytook to the streets of the South Korean capital to defend the torch.Police deployed 8,000 officers, some running beside the flame while othersrode horses and bicycles with the relay through the city, which hosted the1988 Summer Olympics.China's crackdown on violent protests against Chinese rule in Tibet hastriggered attempts to disrupt the torch run celebrating the August games atother stops of the torch relay.In South Korea, many critics focused on Beijing's treatment of defectors whotry to escape their lives of hardship in North Korea.Thousands of North Koreans have fled across the loosely controlled Chineseborder and many remain in hiding in China. If caught, they are deported byChinese authorities and face likely imprisonment in life-threateningconditions back in the North.The man who tried to immolate himself, 45-year-old Son Jong Hoon, had led anunsuccessful public campaign to save his brother from execution in theNorth, where he was accused of spying after the two met secretly in China.About an hour into the relay, Son poured gasoline on himself in the middleof a street, but police quickly surrounded him and carried him away beforehe could set himself on fire.Two other demonstrators tried to storm the torch but failed to hinder its15-mile trip from Olympic Park ? built in honour of the 1988 Summer Games ?to City Hall.Police said five people, including a Chinese student, were arrested.Scuffles broke out near the relay start between a group of 500 Chinesesupporters and about 50 demonstrators criticizing Beijing who carried abanner that read: "Free North Korean refugees in China." The students threwstones and water bottles as some 2,500 police tried to keep the two sidesapart.One Chinese student swatted at the demonstrators with a flagpole. Anotherstudent was arrested for allegedly throwing rocks, said an official at apolice station near Olympic Park. The official asked not to be named becausethe investigation was under way."The Olympics are not a political issue," said Sun Cheng, 22, a Chinesestudent studying the Korean language in Seoul. "I can't understand why theKorean activist groups are protesting human rights or other diplomaticissues.''Thousands of Chinese paced the torch on the 41/2-hour-long relay, somechanting, "Go China, go Olympics!"Before the relay, two South Koreans who had been chosen to run said theywould boycott it to protest China's actions in Tibet.The torch arrived in Seoul from Japan, where Chinese supporters alsooutnumbered protesters who failed to disrupt the run.After Seoul, the torch is scheduled to make its first-ever trip to NorthKorea for a relay Monday.Officials from North Korea's Olympic Committee, the Pyongyang city vicemayor, and the Chinese ambassador to Pyongyang were at the airport earlySunday to greet the torch's arrival, APTN North Korea reported. A 12.4-milerelay will take place in the streets of Pyongyang on Monday.http://story.indiagazette.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/b8de8e630faf3631/id/367680/cs/1/Tibetan activities stage peaceful protest outside IOC meetingIndia GazetteThursday 5th June, 2008(IANS)Tibetan activists staged a peaceful protest outside the venue of anInternational Olympic Committe (IOC) conference in Athens Thursday, beforebeing removed by police.A handful of activists from the Students For a Free Tibet blocked theentrance of the venue, shouting 'shame on the IOC' and 'Tibetans are dying'.The activists were demanding the IOC cancel the Olympic torch relay in Tibetnext week and put pressure on China to improve its record on human rights.The international network Students for a Free Tibet, which has disrupted thetorch relay along the route from ancient Olympia to the rest of Europe, saidit would continue to hold mass demonstrations around the globe, and probablyin Beijing, during the Aug 8-24 event.The torch relay is scheduled to travel to Tibet June 19 and stay for threedays but organisers said the Olympic flame would only end up spending oneday in the capital, Lhasa.The group said the IOC had not put any pressure on China or its Olympicorganising committee BOCOG to improve the situation in Tibet, which itdescribed as 'critical'.China says 22 people died in anti-government violence in Tibet's capital ofLhasa in March, while Tibet supporters say many more were killed in freedomprotests.http://au.sports.yahoo.com/olympics/news/article/-/4869184/democracy-activists-protest-outside-hk-olympic-venueDemocracy activists protest outside HK Olympic venueAFP - August 8, 2008, 10:18 pmHong Kong pro-democracy activists staged a protest here late Friday outsidea reception for Olympic competitors and guests hours before the officialopening of the Beijing Games.Around 40 protesters held placards and shouted slogans as competitors andguests drove to the reception venue in Shatin, where the Olympic equestrianevents will be held from early Saturday."We want to protest against the Chinese government's failure to live up toits commitment when it made the bid for hosting the Olympics seven yearsago," said Hong Kong lawmaker Emily Lau, founder of protest group TheFrontier."We hope China will honour the Olympics spirit by releasing all thepolitical dissents, human rights lawyers and religious groups they havearrested," she said.Members of another group, the Alliance in Support of Democratic Movement inChina, shouted: "One world, universal human rights, one dream, account forthe June 4th massacre," a reference to the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacreand a play on the "One World One dream" official catchphrase of the BeijingGames.There was no sign of trouble, with police officers at the site almostoutnumbering the protest group.Earlier Friday, a British man was arrested in Hong Kong after climbing on tothe city's largest bridge and unfurling two protest banners.Matt Pearce, 33, climbed on to a narrow girder in the centre of the bridgewearing a horse costume -- a nod to the Olympic equestrian events being heldin Hong Kong -- and carrying a guitar.He unfurled two large red banners that read: "The People of China wantfreedom from oppression" and "We want human rights and democracy."Hong Kong enjoys much greater freedoms than mainland China, including theright to protest.Three activists were this week refused entry to Hong Kong and at least oneplanned to take part in a peaceful protest to coincide with the Olympics.http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/aug/13/olympics2008.chinathemediaBritish journalist detained by Beijing police after covering Free TibetprotestIndependent Television News journalist detained after attempting to coverprotest close to main Olympic zoneTania Branigan and Jonathan Watts in Beijingguardian.co.uk,Wednesday August 13 2008 12:00 BSTJournalists were harangued while covering a small Free Tibet protest inBeijingPolice in Beijing roughed up and detained a British journalist after hecovered a Free Tibet protest close to the city's main Olympic zone earliertoday.The incident appeared to be the clearest breach yet of the host nation'spromise of free media access during the Games.John Ray, of Independent Television News, said he was pinned down by police,dragged along the ground and pushed into a police van.He said the authorities had also confiscated his equipment, pulled off hisshoes, filmed him and accused him of trying to unfurl a Tibetan flag.After his release some 30 minutes later, he said he was shaken but unharmed.Beijing police said eight foreign Free Tibet protesters, including seven UScitizens and a Japanese national, were arrested and their deportation wasbeing supervised. They made no comment about Ray's treatment.Today's incident, which came five days into the Games, is likely toembarrass the International Olympic Committee.It is also awkward for the Beijing hosts, who are keen to keep the spotlighton the Olympics, which are being covered by more than 20,000 foreignjournalists.The incident happened when a number of activists from Students for a FreeTibet gathered at the entrance and on a bridge inside the Ethnic Minoritiespark, less than half a mile from the Bird's Nest stadium.A British passport holder, who escaped arrest, was also among theprotesters.When demonstrators tried to unfurl a Tibetan Snow Lion flag and banner onthe bridge, a group of foreign journalists attempted to enter the park tofilm them.http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/FullcoverageStoryPage.aspx?sectionName=&id=eb78b792-e0f9-4a60-92dc-9a7c56955b7eBeijingolympics2008_Special&&Headline=Protest+continues%2c+5+detained+in+BeijingProtest continues, 5 detained in BeijingGillian Wong, Associated PressBeijing, August 15, 2008First Published: 22:38 IST(15/8/2008)Last Updated: 22:41 IST(15/8/2008)Five foreign activists were deported after they scaled a landmark buildingin Beijing on Friday to unfurl a ?Free Tibet? banner over an Olympicsbillboard in the latest protest during the games.Students for a Free Tibet said the protesters ? three Americans, a Britonand a Canadian ? were detained by police after hanging the banner from thenew headquarters of state-owned China Central Television, which is stillunder construction and is notable for having a shape likened to a twisted?Z.?Britain?s Sky News shot footage of the protest, showing the helmetedactivists draped in Tibetan nationalist flags and dangling from ropes asthey hung the black-and-white banner about 6 meters off the ground. Policequickly took the banner down. The activists chose the CCTV building becauseit represents the government?s use of state media to spread propaganda,spokesman Kurt Langer said.?They?re trying to whitewash their human rights record and present a prettypicture to the world when, in fact, behind the facade is an ugly reality andthe situation in Tibet is as bad as it?s been in a very long time,? saidLanger.The Beijing Public Security Bureau said in a faxed reply to questions thatthe protesters had ?engaged in activities that violated Chinese law.? Policehave ordered the activists to leave the country, it said.The group?s campaign director, Kate Woznow, confirmed the five activistswere deported later on Friday.It was the latest in a series of protests by activists who have sought touse the Olympic Games to criticise China for alleged repressive rule inTibet.http://en.epochtimes.com/n2/world/deported-woman-olympics-protest-2486.htmlDeported Woman Begins Olympics Protest at Chinese EmbassyBy Huw GreenwoodEpoch Times Staff Aug 10, 2008Share: Facebook Digg del.icio.us StumbleUponDaisy Wood across the road from the Chinese Embassy in London, August 10th,2008. Ms Wood was expelled from Beijing on August 8th for demonstrating nearTiananmen Square to raise awareness about China's human rights record. Sheplans to remain across from (Huw Greenwood/The Epoch Times)A British woman expelled from China for protesting on Tiananmen Square justhours before the Olympics opening ceremony has taken up her protest acrossthe street from the Chinese Embassy in London.Daisy Wood intends to remain there until the end of the Olympic Games onAugust 24.Ms Wood, who has been based mainly in Nepal and India for the last threeyears, had researched the plight of the Tibetans, Uighurs and Falun Gongbefore departing for China. She felt it was important to see with her owneyes, as a witness.?The Chinese people are great, they can't help the lack of knowledge they'vegot," she told The Epoch Times. "They're only told what they're allowed tobe told, it's not their fault. But actually the human rights violations havegot worse since the Olympics was awarded to [China].?Ms Wood said that if the Chinese authorities had fulfilled their promises toimprove human rights when they were initially awarded the Games in 2001, thesituation could have been a positive one.After staying up all night making her banner with felt-tip pens, Ms Woodleft her hotel at 5.30 am on the day of the opening ceremony.She said the atmosphere in Beijing was oppressive due to the heat, thethronging crowds and the overbearing security presence. Her discomfort wasamplified by the fact that her freshly-shaved head was disguised by a heavywig.Ms Wood spent a tense couple of hours trying to pick her moment ? hoping formaximum exposure to as many western journalists as possible. At 10.30 am shejumped over a fence in a prominent area near Tiananmen Square, in view ofMao's portrait.The sight of her banner drew gasps from the crowd, she said, before she wasseized by two policemen.She was not treated roughly, although her money was stolen and it was madevery clear that she would ?not be welcome in China ever again.? The policeseemed resentful that they had to miss the opening ceremony of the Games.She was put on a plane at 2 am.?Every day I feel lucky to have my passport and every right that gives me?tobe able to speak and move freely," she said.The seed for Ms Wood's journey to Beijing was planted three years ago inDharamsala, India, and the trip was financed by her work as a live-incaregiver in London. Although initially others were to be involved, Ms Wooddecided that it would be safer to carry out the demonstration alone.http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/276062/%20class=A hotel room at the Novotel is seen after it was painted with slogans byAmerican pastor Eddie Romero, in Beijing Wednesday Aug 6, 2008.In perhaps the strangest protest of the Beijing Olympics so far, themiddle-aged American pastor checked into two high-class downtown hotels thisweek, filmed himself painting the walls of his rooms with activist sloganslike "Beijing 2008 Our world Our nightmare" and then disappeared. (APPhoto/Aritz Parra) ** SPAIN OUT, HONG KONG OUT **Friday, 08 August 2008U.S. pastor paints Beijing hotel rooms in protestCara Anna - The Associated PressBEIJING -- An American pastor checked into upscale hotels in the Olympicshost city this week, filmed himself painting two of his rooms with sloganslike "Beijing 2008 Our world Our nightmare" and then disappeared. Withoutpaying.Eddie Romero's unusual protest, now making the rounds on YouTube, showsforeigners can still sneak through the tight security measures China imposedto keep potential troublemakers away from the games, which start today.The net tightened even more Thursday.A Hong Kong lawmaker said immigration officials deported three U.S.-basedChinese democracy activists after denying them entry to the territory, whichis the site of Olympic equestrian events. A second protest by threeAmericans in Tiananmen Square, including anti-abortion activist the Rev.Patrick Mahoney, was stopped by security agents who led them away.Locals who threaten to take some of the shine off the games get toughertreatment.At least two women who have protested being evicted from their homes nearTiananmen Square were rounded up late Wednesday and early Thursday and takento a police station, one of them told The Associated Press.In a telephone call, Zhang Ma said she was being held with the other woman,Zhang Wei, and several other residents but could not give other details. Shehung up quickly, saying she was being watched and was not supposed to talkto reporters.Romero's friends said the preacher was in hiding, but planned to surrenderto Chinese authorities as soon as the Olympics end Aug. 24.They said he began thinking about his elaborate, one-man protest of China'shuman-rights abuses when Beijing was selected as the host for the 2008Olympics seven years ago.On Tuesday, in a sometimes unsteady hand -- he had to teach himself how topaint -- the California-based pastor splashed the walls of his two hotelrooms with demands for the release of five Chinese activists. He slashedpillows and staged mock killings with stuffed people propped on the bed, redpaint spattered like blood on the headboard."One down," Romero whispers, looking into the video camera. Bespectacled andgray-haired, he holds up a finger in his transformed Novotel Peace Hotelroom. "One down."Romero, who appears to be alone, tells the camera he doesn't want to disruptthe games. He talks about religious freedom for groups that remain highlysensitive with the Chinese government -- Tibetan Buddhists, Uighur Muslims,the Falun Gong spiritual movement."Freedom's a scary thing for them, and by 'them' I mean the Chinesecommunists," he says.Before starting work on the second hotel room, he prays.After finishing his protests, Romero, who is a part-time philosophyprofessor at Mt. San Antonio Community College in Walnut, Calif., taped thedoor keys to the rooms' "Do Not Disturb" tags, hung them outside and hadsupporters tell journalists by e-mail where to find them.The four-star Novotel and the Traders Hotel, both part of internationalchains, said the case was in the hands of police. A Beijing policespokeswoman said she knew nothing of it."We really don't understand why he did this," said Lanny Liu, communicationsmanager at Traders. Romero apparently slipped out of room 417 before dawnWednesday, leaving damage that Liu said cost nearly $1,500 to clean up. "Wejust want to find the person and ask him to pay the bill."At the Novotel, room 1602 already was restored Thursday afternoon, withmachines drying the carpet and a smell of cleaning fluid in the air.Downstairs, manager Marc Cherrier spread his hands and shrugged hugely. "Ihave no idea," he said of what happened.Romero's friends said he had planned to paint four hotel rooms, but skippedtwo because of security concerns.At one hotel, he found the lobby full of security agents and left aftertelling officials he had walked into the wrong building. At the second, hefound two security agents searching his room, but convinced them there wasnothing suspicious about the paint he had."That was a close one," he says later into his camera.The protest is heartfelt, said Bob Fu, leader of the Texas-based China AidAssociation who is among a group of Romero supporters monitoring the protestfrom California."This is not like middle-age crisis, craziness," Fu said. "He's verygenuine, a caring, loving pastor. And very creative."Another friend, British-based pastor Tony Thomas, said Romero had no specialconnection to China, but he had a vision for the project in 2001 afterwatching Beijing win the right to host the games.Thomas said Romero hatched the protest plan -- which he eventually named"The Gadfly Project" -- after consulting with a few close friends at hisHacienda Christian Fellowship church and talking with American activists whocampaign for Chinese rights."It's gone quite amazingly well," Thomas said. "From the outset, it wasconsidered an almost impossible thing to happen unless God was in it."The friends said Romero was occasionally logging on to make blog posts whilein hiding. He speaks little Chinese, but has dodged authorities so far, andeven managed to shop at a Wal-Mart."Can you believe it? I'm in Sam's Club in Beijing!" Romero says in oneInternet posting. "Will be relieved when all is complete," he says inanother.http://www.nwcn.com/topstories/stories/NW_080908IDN_swindell_returns_KS.2ea592f8.htmlBoise activist defends China protest03:01 PM PDT on Saturday, August 9, 2008By YSABEL BILBAOAidan Brezonick-KTVBChristian activist Brandi Swindell is back in Boise after being deportedfrom China.BOISE -- Boise Christian activist Brandi Swindell is back home today afterher attempts to take on communist China and fight for human rights.The trip to China was not supposed to end until Saturday, but that changedwhen Chinese officials took Swindell into custody, terminated her touristvisa and sent her home.It's a controversial visit that has some saying was nothing more than apublicity stunt.But Swindell says it was a fight for human rights and the Olympics providedthe perfect venue.The 29-year old Christian activist flew home a day earlier than expectedafter being kicked out of China.Swindell and two other Americans have made national news over the past fewdays for their protest in Tiananmen Square.Swindell says it was fight for human rights, a way to educate the worldabout China and their persecution of Christians, Tibetan Monks and othersdiscriminated against by a Communist government.She says the government is trying to hide that under that pomp andcircumstance of the Olympic Games."While we did not want to in any way, protest the Olympic Games, we felt itwas a significant opportunity to raise awareness and be a voice for thosewho are not allowed to speak out against the Chinese government," saidSwindell.Swindell's mission was to gain awareness with the national media. Some ofher actions were planned and others were not."We knew what we were going into, we knew we would be detained, we knew wecould be arrested, we knew we could face jail time, we understood all ofthat, but we also knew that we would probably be safer as foreigners thansome of the Chinese people and so it was an incredible opportunity to tryand be a voice for them," said Swindell.Despite her work there, Swindell's efforts have not always been praised.Some have called this a publicity stunt.She defends her actions and says she would do it again."There is a lot of people that believe in what we did and they understandour heart and that's all that matters to me A handful of people who don'tlike me because I am Christian and pro-life, big deal," said Swindell.Swindell says the tickets cost about $2,000 each. She doesn't have a grandtotal for the trip, but says it was paid for by supporters.Swindell says the Chinese government told them they would have to pay$10,000 for new tickets. The three protesters refused and Swindell says theChinese government ended up footing the bill to deport them.The two other Americans who protested with Swindell were Rev. PatrickMcHoney from Washington, D.C., and Mike McMonagle from Philadelphia.http://www.nbc4.com/news/17137653/detail.htmlhttp://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080809/wl_asia_afp/oly2008hongkongequestrianprotestHK pro-democracy activist ejected from Olympic venueby Lynne O'Donnell Sat Aug 9, 1:09 PM ETHONG KONG (AFP) - Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmaker "Longhair" LeungKwok-hung was Saturday ejected from the Olympic equestrian venue aftermounting an anti-China protest calling for improved human rights.Leung stood in the stands and shouted in English: "Freedom for China" and"Human rights for China."He and an associate, Koo Sze-yiu, who shouted the same slogans in Chinese,were lifted out of the stands by security guards who took them to asealed-off area of the Shatin venue.They also held up a banner that read: "Freedom for China. No dictatorship."Earlier, a Hong Kong student who planned to unfurl a Tibetan flag inside thevenue was forcibly removed before she could mount her protest, organisersand the activist said.Leung's protest came after China's only entry in the three-day eventingcompetition, 18-year-old Alex Hua Tian, completed his dressage round.Leung appeared to use Hua's presence as the first equestrian competitor everto represent China as a platform to raise the issue of human rightsviolations in China.The lawmaker is well-known in the southern Chinese city for his frequentprotests and campaign stunts on a range of issues.Asked how he felt about being the focus of a protest, Hua said: "I'm hugelyproud to ride for my country, there is no better feeling than that. I don'thave the full picture of the situation so I can't comment or speculate."Hua was given 50 penalty points to move to a respectable 10th place early inthe second session of the dressage component of the three-day eventing.Student Christina Chan, who has a history of staging protests against theChinese government, said she and a friend smuggled the banned Tibetan flaginto the Olympic venue but she was ejected before she could display it.Security staff called police after 21-year-old Chan, a part-time model whostudies philosophy, refused to leave. She was surrounded and physicallyremoved from the stadium.Organisers said Chan and her companion, who was also made to leave, hadtried to unfold the Tibetan flag in breach of International OlympicCommittee rules that say no political slogans can be displayed at the Games.Chan is Hong Kong's most famous female protester after staging a pro-Tibetdemonstration during the city's leg of the Olympic torch relay in May.A Hong Kong government source later said Leung had informed Olympic securityauthorities of his plans to stage the protest.But Leung had "given an undertaking not to disrupt any of the riders," saidthe source, who did not want to be named.This was in stark contrast to Chan, who caused a prolonged ruckus during themorning dressage session when Australian Clayton Fredericks was in thearena.Fredericks said later he was aware of Chan's protests but said his horse BenAlong Time remained under control.Olympic organisers here specifically said before the start of the Games thatTibetan flags would be banned inside the venues.Tibet is one of the most contentious political issues facing China'scommunist rulers, and Hong Kong authorities are determined not to causeembarrassment despite the territory's tradition of freedom of speech.Security is tight for the equestrian events in Hong Kong, which enjoys muchgreater freedoms than mainland China, including the right to protest.Organisers do not have the power to arrest anyone who violates the IOC ruleson political slogans, but can make them leave the venue.http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/08/08/canadatibet-flag.html?ref=rssProtester hides Tibet flag under Canadian flag at Olympic eventLast Updated: Saturday, August 9, 2008A student who snuck a Tibetan flag into an Olympic equestrian event byhiding it under a Canadian flag has been removed by officials, according toa report.Christina Chan was sitting with another protester Friday in the front row ofthe dressage arena in the Sha Tin district of Hong Kong, according to anarticle on the BBC's website.When the two tried to unveil a Tibetan flag they had concealed underneath aCanadian one, they were quickly apprehended by event security officials andcovered with a blue cloth.Chan was then carried out of the venue after she refused to leave. The otherprotester was also ejected from the event."She was sort of disturbing other spectators around her, which is againstthe house rules," equestrian event spokesman Mark Pinkstone said.Chinese Olympic officials have said only flags from the 205 competingnations can be displayed during the Games, meaning the Tibetan flag cannotbe hoisted during any of the official events.Chan had previously protested China's treatment of Tibet during the Olympictorch relay in Hong Kong in May, according to the BBC.At that time, a young woman named Christina Chan and carrying a Tibetan flagwas hustled into a police van after a crowd of about 30 people shoutedobscenities at her, pushing and shoving police officers who had surroundedthe university student to provide protection."What right do they have to take me away? I have a right to express myopinion," Chan, 21, said of the police action.Elsewhere Friday, a British man was taken away by police after unfurlingbanners that denounced China's human rights record on a major bridge in HongKong ahead of the Beijing Olympics' opening ceremony Friday.Matt Pearce, a longtime Hong Kong resident from Bristol, England, hung twobanners on road signs on Hong Kong's Tsing Ma Bridge that said, "We wanthuman rights and democracy" and "The people of China want freedom fromoppression."Officials shut down traffic on the bridge's upper deck where Pearce wasprotesting.Protests against China's human rights record and its policy in Tibet havebeen staged around the globe in the run-up to the Beijing Summer Olympics,which kicked off Friday.Some have accused China of backsliding on human rights since it was awardedthe Games, citing continued repression in Tibet following a violentcrackdown on dissents in March.http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/08/09/asia/AS-OLY-Hong-Kong-Protests.phpActivists protest at Olympic equestrian eventThe Associated PressPublished: August 9, 2008HONG KONG: Protesters displayed the Tibetan flag and chanted pro-democracyslogans at an Olympic equestrian event in Hong Kong on Saturday, but wereremoved and banned from the venue.Two American activists from the New York-based Students for a Free Tibetunfurled the Tibetan flag among the spectators at the equestrian stadium inHong Kong's suburban Sha Tin district.Earlier in the day, Hong Kong university student Christina Chan and anotherprotester tried to unveil a Tibetan flag that was concealed behind aCanadian flag but security officers covered them with a piece of clothbefore it was fully exposed.Radical opposition lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung and a fellow activist held up apiece of paper that said "No dictatorship" and chanted "End one-party rule,"referring to the Chinese Communist Party's monopoly on power.A Students for a Free Tibet statement identified the Americans as MatthewBrowner-Hamlin from Anchorage, Alaska and Brianna Cayo Cotter from SanFrancisco, California.Security officers removed all six protesters. Leung, Chan and their twofellow demonstrators have been banned from the remaining equestriancompetitions, event spokesman Mark Pinkstone said.In a phone conversation with The Associated Press, Browner-Hamlin said hehad not been informed if he had Cotter were also banned. Security officersand Pinkstone did not immediately return a reporter's calls seeking commenton the Americans.Organizers said they violated rules that ban political propaganda and theflags of countries not represented at the competition.TV footage also showed a man wearing a T-shirt saying "Democracy and humanrights are more important than the Olympics." He was asked to remove theshirt before entering the venue.Several other protesters demanding China abolish the death penalty held abanner near the venue that said "Stop executions."After Chan's removal from the stadium, the chief executive of the equestrianevent lashed out at the student for disrupting the competition, calling heractions "very irresponsible.""The Olympics happen once every four years. All the athletes prepare veryhard for the competition. The audience watch the competition knowing it's arare occasion. And she deliberately takes actions that violate the rules anddisturbed other people," Lam Woon-kwong said.Chan said she only wanted to protest peacefully and raise awareness thatChina had failed to keep its promise to improve its human rights recordafter winning the bid to host the Olympics.Browner-Hamlin called his protest "an action that amplifies the voices ofTibetans who want to live under the Tibetan flag in a free nation."Equestrian host Hong Kong is usually more tolerant of dissent than mainlandChina.A former British colony now ruled by China, Hong Kong is promisedWestern-style civil liberties commonly denied on the mainland, such asfreedom of speech and protest. Still, the local government has apparentlytightened controls because of the Olympics.An opposition lawmaker said three U.S.-based ethnic Chinese democracyactivists were turned away at the airport Wednesday.Tibet has been an extremely sensitive topic since protests against Chineserule turned violent in the region's capital in March.Many Tibetans insist they were an independent nation before Communist troopsinvaded in 1950, while Beijing says the Himalayan region has been part ofits territory for centuries.http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-08-24-voa3.cfm?rss=asiaFree Speech Still a Top Issue on Last Day of OlympicsBy Stephanie HoBeijing24 August 2008As the Olympics winds down, the issue of free speech is still very much inthe news headlines. In the latest development, the U.S. embassy is callingfor the immediate release of eight American pro-Tibet demonstrators, who arein Chinese custody. Stephanie Ho reports from Beijing.Pro-Tibet protesters carry portraits of Tibetans allegedly killed duringprotests in Tibet and march without shouting slogans through Tokyo streets,24 Aug 2008There have been a handful of small-scale, unauthorized pro-Tibetdemonstrations before and during the Olympics. At first, Chinese authoritiesdetained and then quickly deported the foreign activists responsible.This week marked a change in tactics, as Chinese authorities detained eightAmericans, in two separate pro-Tibet incidents, on Wednesday and Thursday.U.S. embassy spokeswoman Susan Stevenson says the Olympics should have beenan opportunity for China to allow more free speech."We are disappointed that China has not used the occasion of the Olympics todemonstrate greater tolerance and openness," she said.The U.S. Ambassador to China, Clark Randt, is calling for the immediaterelease of the eight Americans. An embassy statement says he has beenraising concerns over their cases to "senior levels of the Chinesegovernment."Jonathan Watts, the president of the Foreign Correspondents Club in China,says there is a stark contrast between perceptions inside and outside theOlympic venues."Inside the stadiums, things have gone very, very well. Reporters seem verypleased with the number of press conferences that were held and the degreeof access they had to officials. However, outside the stadiums, we haveconfirmed more than 30 cases of reporting interference, heard of another20," said Watts.And, although the Chinese government designated three Beijing parks forprotests during the Olympics, it did not approve even one of the 77 protestapplications it received.The chairman of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, wasasked about this issue at the end of the Olympics news conference Sunday."There is a fact that there were 77 applications, that's what we have beentold. We found it unusual that none of these applications have come throughwith protest," said Rogge.Rogge said Chinese authorities told the IOC that the questions raised bymost of the protest applicants had been met, with what he called "mutualagreement."http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Shaven-head-was-Tibet-protest-says-Polish-medalist/352491/Shaven head was Tibet protest, says Polish medalistPosted online: Saturday , August 23, 2008 at 01:33:01Warsaw, August 23: Poland's Olympic silver medal-winning weightlifter SzymonKolecki has indicated that he had held a subtle pro-Tibet protest at theBeijing Games by shaving his head before his event.A protest group, Students for a Free Tibet, had said Kolecki's decision toswap his normally shaggy haircut for a bald look ahead of Sunday's 94kgcompetition was a sign of solidarity with Tibet's shaven-headed Buddhistmonks.Although Kolecki declined to confirm that directly, he left little doubtabout his motives. "I take a regular interest in world affairs and all theimportant news, including about Tibet. But I'm meant to respect the OlympicCharter," 26-year-old Kolecki said on Thursday after returning from China."Let's just say that shaving my head was a symbol," he said.The International Olympic Committee's document, which lays down the rulesfor the Games, says that "no kind of demonstration or political, religiousor racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or otherareas".One of the leaders of the Polish branch of Students for a Free Tibet, WitekHebanowski, said that he had been in touch with Kolecki before the Games.Hebanowski said the athlete had explained he was looking for a way to hold aprotest.Ahead of the Games, several dozen athletes had signed an open letter toChina's President Hu Jintao calling for freedom of speech and religion inChina, notably in Tibet, as well as the release of jailed human rightscampaigners and an end to capital punishment.But Kolecki's gesture appears to be the first protest action by an athleteactually at the Games against China's communist rulers, who have beenaccused by pro-Tibet groups of carrying out a bloody crackdown in theHimalayan region.China sent troops into Tibet in 1950 and officially "liberated" it thefollowing year. Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama fled into exile inIndia in 1959 following a failed uprising against Chinese rule.Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama of seeking independence for Tibet and offomenting unrest. He insists he wants autonomy and religious freedom ratherthan independence, and has said he supports the Beijing Olympics.Kolecki also took silver at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, as well as comingsecond in two world championships and winning the European title five times.http://www.breakingnews.ie/world/mhqlcwidojql/rss2/British man held after Hong Kong bridge protest08/08/2008 - 07:12:37A Briton was held today after unfurling banners condemning China?s humanrights record on a major bridge in Hong Kong.Other protesters critical of China?s human rights record were expected todemonstrate later in the day near the venue of the Olympic equestrian eventin Hong Kong.Matt Pearce, a long-time Hong Kong resident originally from Bristol, hungtwo banners on road signs on Hong Kong?s Tsing Ma Bridge that said: ?We wanthuman rights and democracy? and ?The people of China want freedom fromoppression.?Officials shut down traffic on the bridge?s upper deck where Mr Pearce wasprotesting.TV footage showed Mr Pearce wearing a horse?s head mask and a white shirtbearing the Olympic rings while carrying a guitar. His protest ended afterabout an hour when men in plain clothes hustled him away.Hong Kong police could not immediately be reached for comment.A Hong Kong pro-democracy legislator, Emily Lau, and a Hong Kong groupcritical of China?s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing?s Tiananmen Square in June 1989 are expected to protest later near theOlympic equestrian venue.Olympic organisers moved the equestrian event from Beijing to the formerBritish colony of Hong Kong because of a rash of equine diseases andsub-standard quarantine procedures on the mainland. Hong Kong has aprominent horse racing scene. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Wed Aug 27 15:59:08 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 23:59:08 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Tibet Protests 3 of 3 - the global freestyle: protests in Tibet and across the world, + analysis Message-ID: <00fa01c90898$84bba130$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ TIBET: * Nuns detained as protests continue in Kham - May 30 * Cop, suspect die in shootout over involvement in Tibet protests * Monks protest against earlier detentions GLOBAL: * Protesters rally worldwide as Games begin * GERMANY: Rally at Chinese embassy for minority peoples * US: Rally for Tibet in Detroit * UK: Protests continue as Games go on * CANADA: Marchers take to Parliament Hill * RUSSIA: Five arrested for Tibet protest * GERMANY: Dozens rally in Berlin * MALAYSIA: Falun Gong protests persecution * JAPAN: Protests as Chinese President visits * TAIWAN: Tibetans shave heads to protest killings * GERMANY, US, CANADA: Amnesty International hold "human rights torch relay" * PHILIPPINES: Rights groups protest China * NEW ZEALAND: Clashes at pro-China rally * GERMANY: Protest targets Olympic sponsor Adidas * BULGARIA: Protest over Falun Gong persecution and organ harvesting * US: Pro-China rally targeted by Falun Gong supporters in Flushing * US: Activists target Coca-Cola over Games sponsorship * CANADA: Three-day protest at Chinese embassy * US: Candlelit protest in New York * FRANCE: Tour de France targeted for China protest * US: Pro-Tibet "flash mob" planned in New York * AUSTRALIA: Falun Gong organ harvesting protest * US: Deported protesters rally on Union Square * CANADA: Falun Gong site survives legal persecution for now * US: 500 march to Chinese consulate in Chicago * US: Protester climbs on consulate in San Francisco * FRANCE: Protest on Champs Elysees * TURKEY: Uighur protester self-immolates * FRANCE: Journalists arrested for protesting at embassy * IRELAND: Protesters call for end to Tibet crackdown * INDIA: Hunger strikers arrested in New Delhi; monks storm Chinese embassy * Protests in Siliguri, Manali, Dharamsala, Lucknow, Andhra Pradesh ANALYSIS: * The place of Buddhism in Tibetan protests * The Uighur: "The other anti-Chinese protesters" (link) * Protests and marketing ploys "harm Olympic brand" http://newsblaze.com/story/20080530171153tsop.nb/topstory.html Published: May 30, 2008 Send to a friend More Than 80 Nuns Detained After Peaceful Protests Continue in Kham Tibetan female student fired upon by troops after solitary protest calling for Dalai Lama's return Tibetan nuns have taken a leading role in dissent in Kardze (Chinese: Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan (the Tibetan area of Kham) with two further peaceful protests on Wednesday (May 28) and at least six more separate protests since more than 50 nuns were detained after a bold demonstration on May 14. More than 80 nuns have now been detained in the unrest in Kardze, that has continued despite the severe 'anti-separatist' crackdown in Tibetan areas that has been upheld even since the earthquake struck Sichuan on May 12 (http://www.savetibet.org/news/newsitem.php?id=1313). In an incident on Wednesday (May 28), a 21-year old female student, Rinchen (or Rigden) Lhamo, was fired upon and possibly injured in the leg by armed police after she unfurled the banned Tibetan 'snow lion' flag at the government headquarters in Kardze, according to an eyewitness report received by the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), and other Tibetan sources. Her whereabouts is now unknown. Senior lama Phurbu Rinpoche, head of a nunnery in Kardze County [where more than 50 nuns were detained after they protested against the repression that has followed the wave of protests in Tibetan areas since March 10] was detained on May 18. Two monks from a local monastery were later taken into custody after they held a protest about his arrest and calling for the Dalai Lama's return. The recent incidents in Kardze are part of a second wave of dissent since March 10 that appears to have been sparked by the authorities' heavy-handed response to acts of peaceful protest, and stringent 'patriotic education' campaigns that compel Tibetans to denounce the Dalai Lama. On May 28, three nuns of Dragkar nunnery in Kardze County, Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, staged a brief peaceful demonstration in the town market square and distributed leaflets before they were detained, according to Tibetan sources with contacts in the area. The nuns were identified by TCHRD as 26-year old Sangye Lhamo, 26 years old from Serchuteng Township, Kardze County; Tsewang Kando, 38, also from Serchuteng Township, and Yeshi Lhadon, 24, from Tsozhi village, Kardze County. A Tibetan source told ICT: "The tension heightens after each such protest, how small it may be. Word gets around and there is an increase in the number of troops in the area." Approximately two hours later, 21-year old Rinchen Lhamo from Thingkha Township in Kardze left her college class during a break and, despite the heavy presence of police in the market square due to the nuns' earlier protest, she unfurled a Tibetan flag. The same Tibetan source, who has spoken to several Tibetans with contacts in the area, said: "She shouted 'May His Holiness the Dalai Lama live for thousands of years; His Holiness should be welcomed back to Tibet; freedom in Tibet; release political prisoners'. She shouted these slogans from the top of her lungs as if these are the last words she was going to utter." According to several sources, she appears to have been injured on the leg after security personnel opened fire. At least one eyewitness reported seeing blood on her body when she was taken away. A Tibetan source who witnessed a protest in Kardze on March 18 told the Tibetan newspaper in exile Bod Kyi Bang Chen: "It could be that they [the protestors, particularly referring to the monks] could not take oppression any more. The fact that the Chinese are forcing Tibetans to denounce His Holiness the Dalai Lama everyday makes Tibetans put their lives on the line and protest." The same source reported that a nun in the area left behind a letter with her relative before joining a protest in Kardze, saying: "I cannot bear any longer the constant denunciation campaign against His Holiness the Dalai Lama. I cannot even concentrate on my prayers. I have 500 Yuan [US$72] - give away 50 to others and keep the rest for prayer after I die." Since May 11, more than 80 nuns, two layperson and two monks have been detained following at least six separate incidents of protest in different areas of Kardze. The Dragkar nuns' protest on May 28 was the third incident of dissent by nuns from this nunnery in the last few weeks. Two Dragkar nuns, named by TCHRD as Sonam Lhamo and Thubten Dolma, were detained on May 11, after protesting against 'patriotic education'. The next day, a group of Dragkar nuns again protested against the Chinese authorities in Kardze and ten were detained, according to TCHRD and other Tibetan sources. On May 14, around 55 nuns, whose names are known to ICT, from Pang Ri nunnery in Su-ngo township, Kardze County in Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, staged a demonstration two days after the Sichuan earthquake. According to Tibetan sources, including TCHRD, the Pang Ri nuns protested on May 14 because of their distress and anger at the crackdown, detentions and disappearances that have followed peaceful protests in different areas of the Tibetan plateau. They were also angered by the implementation of the 'patriotic education' campaign by the Chinese authorities. There has been an intensification of this campaign since protests swept Tibet on March 10, and it has been particularly rigorous in areas where dissent has occurred. According to TCHRD, the Pang Ri nuns vowed not to take part in any 'patriotic education' campaigns and said: "It is better to die than to denounce, criticize and attack the Dalai Lama, to sign official documents denouncing the Dalai Lama, if there is no place for us to worship and live, let us go somewhere else or die, if the Chinese authorities kill us, let us be killed, we have no regrets." (http://www.tchrd.org). On the afternoon of May 14, the nuns marched peacefully towards the Kardze County government headquarters chanting slogans including "Long live the Dalai Lama" and calling for the Dalai Lama to return to Tibet. They were detained as soon as they approached the building and taken away in police vehicles. According to a Tibetan source in exile, "Police and soldiers responded violently to the protest and the nuns were arrested on the spot, many got severely beaten up and stains of blood were seen on the street, with nuns' robes and shoes scattered everywhere. The nuns were seen being taken away in trucks. People were too scared to pick up the nuns' robes for fear of being detained themselves." Since the protest by the Pang Ri nuns, the crackdown has worsened in Kardze County. Even so, on May 23, two nuns in their twenties, Jampa Lhamo and Rigzen Wangdon, held a further protest, calling for the release of political prisoners, freedoms for Tibet, and a long life for the Dalai Lama, according to a Tibetan monk in exile. The two nuns, from Dhargay Hardu nunnery in Trehor, Kardze County, were detained. Their protest follows the arrest of four nuns from Gesay Nunnery, also in Trehor, on May 22. The nuns, Bhumo Tengah, Rinchen Jamatsang, Jamgah Dolma and Pema, scattered leaflets which called for a free Tibet, long life for the Dalai Lama, his return to Tibet, and the release of all political prisoners, according to the same source. TCHRD reported that the four nuns staged their protest outside the county government headquarters, and that they were severely beaten after being detained. Two days before, on May 20, three Tibetan nuns from Nyagay nunnery, also in Kardze County, made a protest calling for greater religious freedom, according to TCHRD, which named the nuns as Achoe, Soe Choekyi and Tashi Yangtso. The nuns had left their nunnery in the early hours of the morning in an attempt to avoid being stopped by security personnel on duty in the area en route to Kardze county town. Four days after the demonstration by the more than 50 nuns from Pang Ri, a senior lama who was the head of the nunnery, Phurbu Rinpoche, was detained, according to Tibetan sources in exile who received information from the area. Phurbu Rinpoche, an incarnate lama of Trehor Kardze monastery who lives in Dragyab village, Kardze, was taken into custody at around 4:30 am on May 18, according to the same sources. His current whereabouts and welfare are unknown. Phurbu Rinpoche is a deeply respected local figure known for his work in the community, including the building of a center for elderly people, and two pharmacies. In addition to Pang Ri, Phurbu Rinpoche is also the head of Ya-tseg nunnery, according to TCHRD. (http://www.tchrd.org/press/2008/pr20080517a.html). Nuns ordered to raise Chinese flag According to a further source from Kardze, prior to the protest of the nuns on May 14, the Chinese authorities had been enforcing the raising of Chinese flags at Pang Ri nunnery and Ya-tseg nunnery. The source said that after protests in March in Kardze: "Security personnel have ordered nuns to hoist a Chinese flag atop the nunnery; they have asked nuns to reveal the instigators and say that they are grateful of the Chinese government. Also, they always ask nuns to denounce His Holiness the Dalai Lama. In return, nuns have told officials that they cannot say that they are grateful of the Chinese government because for five years when nuns were not able to get enough financial backing to rebuild the nunnery, the government did not extend any help for their difficulty. As for the protests [in March], [they said] no one instigated any one, they all took part voluntarily." (Translation from Tibetan, the Tibet Express, Bod Kyi Bang Chen, May 28, 2008). Two monks from a nearby monastery, Tsitsang, were taken into custody on May 20 after protesting against Phurbu Rinpoche's detention, according to TCHRD. The two monks, identified by TCHRD as Loyang and Tenzin Ngodup, shouted slogans calling for the Dalai Lama's return and the release of political prisoners, including Phurbu Rinpoche, in front of a county government building before being detained. Sources from Tibet also reported that nuns from Ganden Choeling nunnery in Kardze protested on May 14, leading to the arrest of six nuns and one layperson. As of March 17, Kardze County had more known Tibetan political detainees than any other county outside of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, according to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) (http://www.cecc.gov). 'Patriotic education' was stepped up in Kardze earlier this year, even before the recent protests. Citing an official article in the Ganzi Daily, the CECC reported that on January 8, 2008, authorities began a pilot program which utilizes "propaganda and cultural service kits" and "mobile propaganda banners" in select county villages aimed at increasing anti-separatism and 'patriotic education' initiatives. http://www.cecc.gov/pages/virtualAcad/index.phpd?showsingle=102948 Mary Beth Markey, Vice President for Advocacy of the International Campaign for Tibet, said: "Political restrictions were in place at Kardze even before the recent crackdown, making the personal risks taken by the nuns in protesting at this time all the more remarkable. If Chinese hardliners ever believed that making the veneration of the Dalai Lama an outlawed political act would sever the bond between the Tibetan people and their lama, then the nature of the protests in Tibet this spring continues to prove them wrong." Eyewitness testimony of March 18 protest in Kardze An eyewitness source told the Tibetan newspaper Bod Kyi Bang Chen about the aftermath of a demonstration in Kardze on March 18. He said: 'Initially [on that day] ten monks protested in Kardze County [town], followed by three nuns and a young man named Sergah. The protest had just happened when I reached the market, and Chinese police were disposing of small pieces of paper that were scattered everywhere. I did not see what was written on the paper, but others told me that the words on the paper read: 'His Holiness the Dalai Lama must be welcomed back to Tibet soon.' Police had sealed off the area, but blood stains were still visible on the street. They say it belonged to the young man, Sergah. The three nuns and Sergah were beaten to the point where they couldn't move and than thrown on to a truck as if they were bags of luggage - it is difficult to tell whether they were alive nor not. In the crackdown, police kicked the heads of monks and other protestors [who were on the ground] and plastic bags were shoved in their mouths to gag them. "Since then, 10 to twenty armed soldiers roam in the street everyday. Aside from guns, they carry other weapons to quell or control people. When they happen to come across a group of monks or nuns they immediately become suspicious and point guns at them." (Translated from Tibetan, Bod Kyi Bang Chen, May 28, 2008). International Campaign for Tibet judythpiazza at newsblaze.com http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D90BV2P00&show_article=1 Policeman, Tibetan riot suspect die in shootout: Xinhua+ Apr 30 12:08 AM US/EasternWrite a Comment BEIJING, April 30 (AP) - (Kyodo)?A police officer and a suspect accused of organizing Tibetan antigovernment riots in an ethnic Tibetan area of northwestern China died in a gun battle, state media reported, indicating that unrest is continuing in China's Tibetan areas. The shooting began when several police officers went to arrest the suspect in Dari County in Qinghai Province, the official Xinhua News Agency reported late Tuesday. Xinhua said the suspect was tracked down to an unnamed location in Dari on Monday and the shooting began when he resisted arrest. The policeman, named Lama Cedain, died of his wounds early Monday, according to the report. The unnamed suspect was alleged to have incited herders in the area to take part in a riot on March 21. Foreign journalists and independent observers are barred from Tibet and parts of neighboring provinces, where riots and antigovernment protests erupted in March, so there is no means of verifying the police report. Meanwhile, state-run media reported Tuesday that 30 people convicted of taking part in the riots in Lhasa on March 14 were given jail terms ranging from three years to life imprisonment. U.S.-based Human Rights Watch released a statement late Tuesday saying the Tibetans had not received a fair trial as the evidence was given in secret and Chinese human rights lawyers offering to represent Tibetan suspects were warned off and threatened with disciplinary action by the legal authorities in Beijing. Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, said, "The Chinese authorities have so restricted the defendants' rights that the hearings are no more than a rubber stamp. This isn't fair and transparent justice. It's political punishment masquerading as a legal process." Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said Tuesday that all cases concerning the riots in Lhasa are dealt with according to the law. "Those who break Chinese law should be punished by law," she said. Another U.S.-based advocacy group, the International Campaign for Tibet, released a statement late Tuesday quoting witnesses as saying that sporadic antigovernment protests are continuing in Tibet and neighboring provinces, despite a massive security clampdown. These include a protest by monks and nuns at Mozhu Gongka in Lhasa on April 12, it said. http://www.newscloud.com/read/China_Said_to_Arrest_100_Protesting_Monks?skipSplash o China Said to Arrest 100 Protesting Monks Via New York Times at 11:46 pm Apr 4, 2008 o As many as 100 Tibetans were arrested in northwest China on Thursday after they demonstrated against the earlier detention of monks from a nearby monastery, witnesses and a Tibetan human rights group said Friday. Local residents reached by telephone on Friday said that the police beat and arrested people at an open-air market in Tongren, a town in Qinghai, a western province bordering Tibet, after they refused orders to leave. http://www.theledger.com/article/20080808/news/808080370 Protesters Rally Worldwide as Games Begin Demonstrations focus on China's record on human rights. By JENNIFER QUINN THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: Friday, August 8, 2008 at 10:50 p.m. Last Modified: Friday, August 8, 2008 at 10:50 p.m. LONDON | A protester set himself on fire outside the Chinese Embassy in the Turkish capital and thousands of Tibetan exiles took to the streets in Nepal, as anti-China demonstrations occurred worldwide to coincide with the start of the Beijing Olympics. By the end of the day Friday, protests that had begun in Asia also were taking place in London, Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam. In Ankara, a demonstrator suffered second-degree burns after setting himself on fire during a rally by several hundred ethnic Uighurs, officials said. He was identified as a 35-year-old from Turkey's local Uighur community, an ethnic minority in China seeking independence or greater autonomy. In Katmandu, Nepal's capital, thousands of Tibetan exiles demonstrated at the Chinese Embassy, shouting, "China, thief: Leave our country. Stop killing in Tibet." Police forcibly dispersed the protesters, some of whom tried to storm the embassy, police official Ramesh Thapa said. More than 1,000 people were detained for violating a ban on demonstrations - the largest number of Tibetans detained in a single day in Katmandu. In India, more than 2,000 protesters marched in Dharmsala, a northern hill town that is home to the Tibetan government-in-exile and the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader. In China, three Americans who planned to hold Tibetan flags during the opening ceremony were detained by police as they traveled to Beijing National Stadium, Students for a Free Tibet executive director Lhadon Tethong said. Police did not confirm the incident. While the spectacle of the opening ceremonies was broadcast on large screens in London's Trafalgar Square, the Chinese Embassy was the focus for protesters railing against the country's treatment of people in Tibet, Sudan, Zimbabwe and Myanmar. In San Francisco, Buddhist monks holding up the Tibetan flag and chanting led between 200 and 300 protesters bearing banners across the Golden Gate Bridge on Friday. The crowd, clad in yellow, drew honks and the occasional "Free Tibet" cheers from passing tourists. http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,3545274,00.html?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf 07.08.2008 Protestors Rally in Europe on Eve of China Olympics Gro?ansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Tibetans, Uighurs and Mongolians protested in front of the Chinese embassy in Berlin A day before the Olympics open in Beijing, protestors demonstrating for human rights rallied in front of Chinese embassies in several European cities with the exception of France where authorities banned protests. In Berlin, demonstrators representing Tibetan groups, Uighurs, Mongolians and the Falun Gong spiritual movement gathered in front of the Chinese embassy on Thursday, Aug 7, waving flags and holding banners. The protest was one of a series of events planned in several European cities on the eve of the prestigious Olympic Games to draw world attention to China's continuing human rights violations. Protests were planned in Lisbon and in Porto in Portugal, candle vigils were planned in several Swiss cities and one in Norway, while in London the Free Tibet campaign was to hold a protest in front of the Chinese embassy on Friday. France bans protests outside Chinese embassy In Paris, authorities banned rights groups from demonstrating outside the Chinese embassy on Thursday and Friday. News agency AFP reported that a ruling ruling sent to media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) bans "all gatherings" from Thursday at 7:00 am (0500 GMT) to Friday at midnight (2200 GMT) within a fixed perimeter surrounding the Chinese embassy and consulate. Bildunterschrift: Gro?ansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Human rights activists have criticized Sarkozy's final decision to attend the Olympic opening ceremony RSF had called for a rally outside the embassy at 1:00 pm Friday, to coincide with French President Nicolas Sarkozy's arrival in Beijing for the three-hour-long Olympic opening ceremony. The media watchdog has challenged the ruling in court, with a decision due Friday at 10:30 am, AFP reported. RSF head Robert Menard voiced outrage at the demo ban, saying similar rallies were allowed to go ahead in six other European countries. "Does this mean that it is the Chinese embassy that decides who has the right to demonstrate in Paris?" he asked. Rowdy protests by activists angry at China's crackdown in Tibet seriously disrupted the Olympic flame's Paris leg in April, with images of the chaotic event provoking a wave of anti-French protests in China. "Games of repression" In Berlin, demonstrators tried -- and failed -- on Thursday to hand over a petition signed by 10,000 people calling for greater human rights in China organised by a local non-governmental organisation. According to the Goettingen-based human rights group, Society for Threatened Peoples, the diplomatic delegation would not grant an appointment, despite multiple requests. By handing over the petition the organization wanted to once against demonstrate against the increasing persecution of ethnic groups and religious communities. The Society for Threatened Peoples' secretary general, Tilman Z?lch, told German news agency DPA the Olympics would not be a ?Games of Peace? for Tibetans, Uighurs, Mongolians and Falun Gong members. ?They?ve already suffered too much repression in the past months for that,? he added. Bildunterschrift: Gro?ansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Some have compared China's carefully-orchestrated Games to the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany Z?lch also told news agency DDP that the Olympics in China were ?comparable with the games from 1936 in Berlin,? when Nazi Germany hosted the sporting event. ?These aren?t the games of openness and friendship, but rather the games of repression,? he said, adding that China was a ruled by a totalitarian regime that committed human rights abuses. China has painted the Games as a celebration of three decades of economic reforms and hopes the event will showcase a rapidly modernizing country. More than 1,000 Tibetans missing, groups say Some 100 participants took park in the demonstration in Berlin which couldn?t take place directly at the embassy due to police barriers. They held up banners with Chinese characters written on them, expressing their hope for improvement of human rights. Bildunterschrift: Gro?ansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Protestors in Berlin wanted to highlight the mass arrests and persecution of Tibetan groups, Uighurs and Falun Gong members The protestors also took lit torches, emblazoned with the Olympic rings, and put them out in giant tubs of water. With this symbolic gesture, the demonstrators wanted to make clear that Beijing has failed to honor the promises made leading up to the games to better human rights in the country. According to human rights organizations, more than 1,000 Tibetan were taken into custody during the unrest and mass arrests in March 2008 and are still missing. More than 1,500 Uighurs have been arrested in recent weeks for political reasons, and members of the Falun Gong sects have been victims of torture and murder. 3,160 of them have meet grisly deaths while in the custody of the security forces, they say. Germany-wide "protestival" Pro-Tibet groups are planning to hold Germany-wide demonstrations in order to call attention to the constant violations of human rights in China. Over the next 17 days, some 50 campaigns are planned to take place in 30 different cities, including Berlin, Munich and Frankfurt. One group of Tibet activists plan to hold a ?protestival? at Berlin?s landmark Brandenburg Gate to call attention to the ?ongoing bad human rights situation? in the Chinese-controlled province. Germany's human rights commissioner, Guenter Nooke who has been in the Chinese capital since Tuesday, said on Thursday that the decision to let Beijing host the Games has failed to improve the human rights situation in the country. Planning for the Games has improved the mood of the city and brought new construction but the ruling party still tolerates no criticism or press freedoms, Nooke told news agency AP. http://www.humanrightstorch.org/news/2008/05/11/human-rights-activists-in-detroit-protest-chinese-government/ http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-mi-china-protest,0,2826259.story Human rights activists in Detroit protest Chinese government Filed under: USA, Headlines, Torch Relay News | May 11th, 2008 3:32 PM CDT, May 10, 2008 Associated Press DETROIT - About 40 human rights activists marched downtown to protest what they call human rights abuses by the Chinese government or those supported by it. Jeanmarie Lunsford is a spokeswoman for the Human Rights Torch Relay, which has held similar demonstrations in other cities in advance of the Summer Olympics in Beijing. She tells The Detroit News that Saturday?s protest was directed against China?s government, not the Olympics. The group accuses China of human rights abuses including a government crackdown on the Falun Gong and protesters in Tibet, support for corrupt regimes in Darfur and Myanmar and persecution of Christians, lawyers and others who oppose the government. China has launched a massive nationwide security campaign to head off possible protests, terror attacks and any sort of disorder that could tarnish its staging of the Olympics, a source of prestige and huge national pride. http://www.nowpublic.com/world/amidst-golds-and-glory-tibet-protest-continue-3 Amidst golds and glory Tibet protest continue by Teacher Dude | August 17, 2008 at 07:12 am | 58 views | add comment Amidst an upsurge in nationalism brought on by the British Olympic team's continuing success media criticism of China's on going crack down on Tibetan protesters has faded from TV screens and front pages. However, Tibetans in the UK have continued their attempts to keep the issue of Chinese repression in what Beijing calls the Tibetan Autonomous Region in the public eye. Yesterday Tibetan and British demonstrators marched from the Chinese embassy in London to Downing Street, the official residence of the British prime minister, Gordon Brown, where they handed in a petition calling upon Brown to urge Beijing to halt its bloody crack down inside Tibet and find a peaceful solution to the issue of the country's future. In Bristol, south west England protestors held their own mock Olympics in the centre of the city in order to bring attention to a side of modern China, the communist regime would rather the world forgot at a time when the country is hosting the Games. Tibetan forced to flee their country told of their struggle to protets and the reprisals they risk from the Chinese police for even the most beneign of protest gestures such as putting up posters. Tashi, who fled to neighbouring Nepal in 2007 and then England told of his own personal story when he narrowly escaped arrest for protesting the Chinese occupation of his country. His friend, whowever, was not so lucky and was caught and has not been heard from since. Nor is this an isolated incident, according to Amnesty International more than 1000 protestors arrested during protests earlier this year in Lhasa and other parts of Tibet have not been accounted for. Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific director sam Zarifi was reported as saying that the situation in Tibet was "a dire picture of arbitrary detentions and abuse of detainees". Despite making commitments to the IOC when winning the Olympic Games in 2001 to improve its human rights record China has continued to harrass, arrest and detain critics of its regime. Most recently, Independent Television News reporter John Ray was detained and reportedly physically abused by Chinese police for trying to cover a Free Tibet protest near the Olympic Bird's Nest stadium. Similarly, Tibetans protesting in Bristol spoke of China failing to live up to their pre - Olympic commitments concerning press freedom in Tibet itself, saying that the level of repression had increased in the run up to the Games and that contact with the country had been made extremely difficult for those living outside Tibet. http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2008/08/16/6472001-sun.html Free Tibet protest takes to Hill Murray takes the plunge By AEDAN HELMER, SUN MEDIA The Ottawa Sun A massive pro-Tibet march snaked its way from Parliament Hill through the downtown core yesterday, before storming the Chinese Embassy. About 200 Tibetan expatriates and supporters were bused from Toronto, Montreal and Belleville to the capital, where they were joined by the Ottawa chapter of Students for a Free Tibet. The group chanted pro-Tibet slogans and marched amid a heavy police presence from the Hill to the United Nations building on Albert Street, before massing outside the embassy. Maude Cote, a 28-year-old Montreal lawyer who was recently deported from China after organizing a demonstration in Tiananmen Square, said human rights abuses in China and Tibet have worsened since the start of the Beijing Olympic Games. "People in China have been imprisoned for doing the same thing that I did," she said. "Chinese dissidents have been pre-emptively detained in the leadup to the Games. This is why we decided to go and take action for Tibet and for human rights in China." HOLLOW PROMISE Cote said China's pledge to address concerns over its human rights record has been a hollow promise. "While the world is watching the Games, and while China is putting on such a show, backstage so many people are suffering. So many people have been imprisoned to prevent peaceful protest from happening during the Games," she said. Tsering Lama, national director of Students for a Free Tibet, said protests would continue long after the Olympic spectacle comes to an end. "The victory is being here on the streets and making the Chinese government hear us," she said. "Our religion is different from the Chinese, our respect for nature is different. There's no way the Tibetans can be assimilated into China. All the government can do is put a bunch of Chinese people in Tibet to try to overwhelm us, but I don't think they realize how strong our resolve is." Yesterday's protest was peaceful, as Ottawa police and RCMP tactical units guarded a barrier erected around the Chinese Embassy. "We work to ensure individual rights of demonstrators are respected in a peaceful manner, as well as ensure public safety and the safety of demonstrators," said RCMP Cpl. J.J. Hainey. Police asked a lone pro-China demonstrator to remove a large Chinese flag from his car and vacate the area to avoid a potential clash. DAILY VIGIL Lama vowed protests would continue at the Chinese consulate in Toronto, where Students from a Free Tibet hold a daily vigil. The group has also staged six protests in Beijing and one in Hong Kong to date. Another demonstration is planned in Ottawa to coincide with the Olympic closing ceremonies on August 24. http://news.indiainfo.com/2008/04/26/0804260235_russia-protest.html Five arrested in pro-Tibet protest in Moscow Saturday, April 26, 2008 02:21 [IST] Moscow: Russian police quickly crushed today a demonstration in support of Tibet outside the Chinese embassy in Moscow, arresting five people moments after the protest began. Around twenty demonstrators held up a Tibetan flag and a banner saying "Stop Killing Civilians" and distributed leaflets that denounced "the bloody acts that continue in historical Tibet" before armed anti-riot police broke up the protest. An AFP journalist was briefly arrested during the protest before being released. "We want them to stop spilling blood," said Yulia Bachinova, one of the organisers of the demonstration. Russia has said that China's violent clampdown on protests in Tibet is not an international diplomatic issue but rather an internal matter for the country to resolve. Source : PTI http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/20/europe/EU-GEN-Germany-Tibet-Protest.php Dozens in Berlin protest Chinese crackdown on Tibet The Associated Press Published: April 20, 2008 BERLIN: Dozens of protesters in Germany's capital staged a rally Sunday to protest China's crackdown on Tibet, with marchers carrying Tibetan flags and pictures of the Dalai Lama. The peaceful crowd was made up of German residents and exiled Tibetans who carried banners denouncing violence in the region, along with pictures of the Dalai Lama, who is scheduled to visit Germany in May. Many of those marching called for talks between Tibet and China's government. "I think it is important that one supports dialogue rather than the violence," Kai Mueller, of the Tibet Initiative, told Associated Press Television News. "It is an important motto and I think it is important that the Chinese realize that the Tibetans are open for dialogue." Beijing has blamed recent violence in Tibet, which broke out March 14, on the Dalai Lama and his supporters. China said 22 people died in rioting in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa. The Dalai Lama's government-in-exile has denied any involvement in the violence and has said that more than 140 people were killed in the government crackdown. Sunday's protest started in front of the Chinese Embassy and wound its way toward Berlin's iconic Brandenburg gate. http://en.epochtimes.com/news/8-4-21/69548.html Falun Gong Protests Against Intensified Persecution Ahead of Olympic Games By James Chow Epoch Times Malaysia StaffApr 21, 2008 Zhang ZiJian reads out statement in front of local and international media outside the Chinese embassy. (The Epoch Times) KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia?Falun Gong practitioners demonstrated outside the Chinese embassy on Friday morning, raising concerns of intensified persecution of the group in China by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) by using the Olympics as justification. Thirty local and Chinese Falun Gong practitioners carried banners and read statements outside the embassy in an event covered by many major local and international media. The banners read "Falun Dafa is Good", "Release Falun Gong Practitioners: Liu Guo Rong, Li Zhi Hong, Zhang Guo Tong", "Protest CCP's Unlawful Arrest of Falun Gong Practitioners". The protest spokesperson, 24-year-old Chinese student Ms. Li ChiYue, said the CCP has intensified the persecution of Falun Gong ahead of the Olympics game. "We want the CCP to stop using the Olympic Games as excuse and reason to continue persecuting Falun Gong practitioners," said Li. Li ChiYue describes how the CCP is intensifying the persecution of Falun Gong because of the Olympic Games. (The Epoch Times) Li further explained the intensified arrests and persecution of Falun Gong in China is because the CCP does not want the truth to be exposed in front of the world. Falun Gong practitioners protest outside Chinese embassy in Malaysia. (The Epoch Times) According to statistics from Clearwisdom website, from January 1 to March 11, 2008 (71 days), there were 1,878 arrests in 29 provinces, cities, and autonomous regions. Jia Jia, a Chinese Falun Gong practitioner studying in Malaysia, said that her parents in ChangSha City, Hu Nan Province, were illegally kidnapped by police on March 25th, 2008. "This is a difficult time for me. I have to stand the pressure alone, I have lost my financial support, and I haven't heard from them since the illegal arrest," said Jia Jia. Another Chinese Falun Gong practitioner Zhang ZiJian said that his father Zhang GuoDong was arrested in Wei Hai, China on 11th October 2007. His mother was told by the police that she can only visit Zhang GuoDong after the Beijing Olympic game. Zhang said that the CCP is increasing the persecution because of the Beijing games. "We appeal to international communities to help save Falun Gong practitioners in China; we also strongly protest to the CCP to release them immediately," said Zhang. The protest took place ahead of the Olympic torch relay in Kuala Lumpur on April 21. The fear of interruptions by protesters in the Kuala Lumpur torch relay has focused Malaysian's attention on CCP's severe human rights violations. However, Li ChiYue said the Falun Gong group will not protest during the torch relay. Li said they are waiting for the CCP to fulfill their Olympic promise made in 2001, to improve the human rights conditions inside China. http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/06/japan.tibet/index.html?eref=rss_world May 6, 2008 -- Updated 1725 GMT (0125 HKT) Hundreds protest as Chinese president arrives in Japan Story Highlights It was the first state visit by a Chinese president in nearly a decade Hu is in Tokyo as a state guest in a sign of warming relations Tibet is a thorny issue between the two nations TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Hundreds of pro-Tibet demonstrators protested in Tokyo on Tuesday as Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived for the first state visit by a Chinese president in nearly a decade. Hundreds of people protest the arrival of Chinese President Hu Jintao in Tokyo on Tuesday. The president arrived to the sound of applause and well-wishes from supporters while protesters demonstrated a few miles away, in downtown Tokyo. They shouted "Free Tibet!" and carried signs that said "The Genocide Olympics." Tibet is a thorny issue between the two nations, but Japan has indicated it is encouraged by weekend talks between Chinese officials and envoys of the Dalai Lama. Protesters said those talks are not enough and urged stronger action. "Most Japanese people are angry with China," said a protester who declined to give his name. "But (Prime Minister Yasuo) Fukuda is not listening to our voices." Hu is in Tokyo as a state guest in a sign of warming relations between the two nations. Japan hopes to discuss global warming, food safety and oil exploration in the East China Sea. Hu is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, the Japanese emperor and business and political leaders. http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUST397420080508?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews Campus protests as China's Hu courts Japan public Thu May 8, 2008 7:45am EDT 08 Aug 2008 By Yoko Kubota TOKYO (Reuters) - Chinese President Hu Jintao, on a symbolic visit to cement warming ties with Japan, urged the two Asian powers to look to the future as partners not rivals, but protests outside even as he spoke suggested some bumps ahead. Hu wants to build goodwill after a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, when they agreed to focus on cooperation after years of rancor over Japanese wartime aggression. In a speech at Tokyo's elite Waseda University, Hu touched on Japan's 1931-1945 invasion and occupation of part of China, saying the "unfortunate history caused not only great misfortune among Chinese people but also great suffering for the Japanese people. "To remember history is not to nurse hatred, but to use history as a mirror and look forward to the future. Cherish peace, safeguard peace, let Chinese people and Japanese people be friends generation by generation," Hu said to applause, in a speech broadcast live on Japan's NHK public television. Hu lavished praise on Japan, expressed admiration for the hardworking Japanese and urged the two countries to "recognize each other's development objectively and accurately and consider each other as partners for cooperation, not rivals ... not as threat, but an opportunity." Both leaders want Hu's visit to be a success -- Fukuda because of low support ratings that could force him from office and Hu because he wants to shake off international pressure over unrest in Tibet that could mar the Beijing Olympics in August. But even as Hu spoke, about 200 protesters waved signs outside the university gate saying "Free Tibet" and "No Pandas, No Poison Dumplings", the latter referring to Hu's offer to lend two pandas to a Tokyo zoo and a row over Chinese-made dumplings laced with pesticide that made several Japanese people ill. RIVAL RALLIES Sino-Japanese ties chilled during Junichiro Koizumi's 2001-2006 term as Japanese prime minister, when he outraged Beijing with his visits to Yasukuni Shrine for the war dead, seen in much of Asia as a symbol of Japan's past militarism. They have since improved, and experts said the main purpose of what is only the second state visit by a Chinese leader was to cement a shift to friendlier ties by the Asian rivals, closely linked by trade and investment despite rows over the past. "The fact that the visit is taking place is an achievement," said Andrew Horvat, a professor at Tokyo Keizai University. Many ordinary citizens in both countries, though, are wary of the other nation, while anti-Chinese feelings among some Japanese have been stirred by Beijing's reaction to Tibetan unrest. "I just want to say 'Free Tibet'. I want to say 'No' to China's oppression of human rights," said 29-year-old Atsushi Hanazawa, who carried a guitar along with a Tibetan flag. Some Waseda students were more concerned about getting to class. "I can't get through the gate. It's a pain," said 18-year-old Takuhiro Waki of the protest. About two dozen right-wing activists yelled anti-Chinese slogans such as "Hu Jintao, Go Back to China". Earlier, some right-wing Waseda alumni protested against Hu's speech in a blog. Nearby around 50 Chinese students held their own rally, yelling "Go, China" in Chinese, "Sino-Japanese Friendship" in Japanese, and "Yes, We Can" in English. "When I hear the anti-Chinese slogans, I feel that the Chinese people's character has been maligned," said 28-year-old Chinese graduate student Cao Shunrui. But he added that the leaders' summit was positive. "The most important thing is moves to understand each other," he said. "VERY STRATEGIC" In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang dismissed the protests as the actions of a small handful of individuals that would "not stop the development of China-Japan relations and won't undermine the China-Japan friendship". Hu is also seeking to convince his own skeptical citizens that the two nations should draw closer, and on Thursday he stressed that his country had much to learn from Japan. The latest stage of Hu's trip, which lasts until Saturday, began with breakfast with former Japanese prime ministers. Koizumi did not attend. Hu later shed his suit jacket to play ping-pong at Waseda with popular players from both countries, but Fukuda, 71, declined to pick up a paddle. "I'm glad I didn't play ping-pong with him," Fukuda told reporters. "He's very strategic. I thought you can't be too careful." (Additional reporting by Chris Buckley, Teruaki Ueno and Chisa Fujioka in Tokyo and Lindsay Beck in Beijing; Writing by Linda Sieg; Editing by Alex Richardson) http://www.taiwanheadlines.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=117394&CtNode=39 Tibetans in Taiwan shave heads to mourn dead protesters 05/04/2008 (CNA) Taipei, May 4 (CNA) Fourteen Tibetans have shaved their heads in Taipei to mourn an estimated 200 Tibetan protesters who died in China's bloody crackdowns March 14. The head-shaving -- a Tibetan tradition to mourn the loss of family members or relatives -- was part of an initiative by India's exiled Tibetan community launched in April, said Rinzin Tsering, the chairman of the Taipei-based Taiwan Tibetan Welfare Association that organized the event, Saturday. The drive was aimed at highlighting a non-violent campaign led by the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, to seek human rights and freedom in Tibet, Rinzin noted. In a show of support for the campaign, over 5,000 people worldwide have shaved their heads, including Tibetan children and Youdon Aukatsang, a member of the India-based Tibetan parliament-in-exile, Rinzin said. According to the association, Tashi Tsering, a Tibetan protester who was arrested by police immediately after attempting to disrupt the Japan leg of the torch relay for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, has received legal assistance from a Japanese lawyer. Meanwhile, two other Tibetan groups in Taiwan held a mass funeral service in Taipei Saturday to pray for the souls of those Tibetan victims who rose up against the brutal Chinese rule in Tibet. At the service, Dawa Tsering, chairman of the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, cited the Tibetan-government-in-exile's estimates that more than 200 Tibetans were killed in the March 14 protests. The violence was the worst since the 1989 protests. Dawa added that more than 5,000 Tibetans were arrested for their involvement in the March protests and are now being abused by the Chinese government. Thirty of the Tibetan protesters, including six monks, were sentenced to jail terms ranging from three years to life in prison April 29, marking the first sentencing of Tibetans by the Chinese government, Dawa pointed out. The court rulings have also raised concerns about whether the Tibetans received fair trials, Dawa said. Describing the dead Tibetan protesters as "brave, " Own Su-jei, a Taiwanese and deputy secretary-general of the Taiwan Tibet Exchange Foundation, said at the service that they had sacrificed their lives to preserve Tibet's culture, religion and traditions. Some 300 people, including Tibetan monks and other Tibetans, Taiwanese nuns and local residents, took part in the Buddhist service. (By T.C. Jiang) http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1403255.php/Amnesty_begins_protest_torch_run_in_Germany Amnesty begins protest torch run in Germany May 3, 2008, 10:55 GMT Freiburg, Germany - Amnesty International began its own torch relay through Germany on Saturday to draw attention to what it described as human rights breaches in China. The run, organized by university students, was set to last several weeks and pass through 25 German cities, starting Saturday in Freiburg im Breisgau in Germany's south-west. It was modelled on the Olympic relay for this summer's Beijing Olympic Games. Pro-Tibet protests accompanied the official relay. The human rights group said the flame would reach Berlin on July 13. Germans would be invited to sign a petition to Beijing, asking it to carry through on a promise to improve its human rights at the time the games were awarded to Beijing. http://wnyt.com/article/stories/s429627.shtml?cat=300 Posted at: 04/30/2008 05:38:30 PM By: Bill Lambdin Print Story Email to a Friend Human rights torch lit during Capitol protest ALBANY - Human rights demonstrators rallied Wednesday at the state Capitol. They put forward an alternative to the Olympic torch currently making its way around the world. One of the demonstrators was Tenzin Norgay. He was born in Tibet and lived out of the country for many years before returning in 2004. "It was crowded with Chinese soldiers, Chinese immigrant workers and prostitutes. Monasteries were basically empty. Temples and shrines that used to be the center of daily Tibetan lives were nothing but museums for tourists," Norgay said. In addition to widespread complaints that Tibet's national identity and religious practices have been squashed by the Chinese government, demonstrators on the steps of the state Capitol complained unsanctioned religions and philosophies within China have been repressed, often brutally. Anne Li says her relatives in China are being punished because they practiced "My mother and my aunt were arrested and now they are under house arrest at my aunt's house in China," Li said. The actual Olympic torch has been drawing anti-Chinese government demonstrations at many locations during its world tour. The closest stop to here was San Francisco, where it was met with protests and forced to reroute under tight security. Demonstrators lit their own torch in Albany and conducted a ceremony in support of human rights. Demonstration organizers estimate 100 million Falun Gong practitioners are being persecuted in China. They warn some "prisoners of conscience" are having their internal organs forcibly removed and sold. http://www.wcax.com/global/story.asp?s=8247688 Protesters to bring "human rights torch" relay to Albany Associated Press - April 30, 2008 3:15 AM ET ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Activists looking to focus attention on human rights abuses in China before the August Olympic games in Beijing will bring a "human rights torch" relay to Albany today. The relay's organizers include members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, which China's government has banned as a dangerous cult, and the Tibetan Youth Congress. The Human Rights Torch Relay describes itself as a global grassroots effort to raise awareness of the Chinese communist regime's human rights abuses. Among other things, it denounces China's crackdown in Tibet and the underwriting of genocide in Darfur. The relay, which follows the Oympic torch relay route in some areas, plans to traverse six continents, 40 countries and 150 cities. Supporters plan to light the torch at noon on the state Capitol steps and march to Albany City Hall. http://en.epochtimes.com/news/8-5-20/70858.html Calgary Human Rights Torch Relay Protests Chinese Regime's Abuses By Dane Crocker and Neil Campbell Epoch Times Calgary StaffMay 20, 2008 Relay host Caylan Ford and human rights torch bearer Carrie Gilkison. (Jerry Wu/The Epoch Times) CALGARY?Continuing its trip around the world, the Human Rights Torch Relay (HRTR) arrived in Calgary Monday, bringing with it the message that "The Olympics and crimes against humanity cannot coexist in China." Initiated by the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG), the HRTR is a global grassroots campaign to press for an end to human rights atrocities in China before the Olympics in August. Representatives from a handful of non-governmental organizations joined the relay at the outdoor plaza by City Hall, and entertainment was provided by local musicians. Host Caylan Ford stressed that the point of the relay was not to be divisive but rather out of respect for the Chinese people, conveying a hope that China could take a positive role on the world stage. However, she said the Chinese communist regime is blocking this kind of development with its ongoing human rights violations against groups such as Tibetans, Uyghurs, Christians, Falun Gong practitioners, journalists, lawyers and democracy and human rights advocates. MLA Dr. David Swann emphasized the need for people to take a stand against human rights abuses wherever they occur. (Jerry Wu/The Epoch Times) Guest speaker Dr. David Swann, MLA for Calgary-Mountain View, emphasized the need for people to take a stand against human rights abuses wherever they occur. "It is also true that we are all responsible at some level for violations of human rights, for all that is needed for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing. We are all responsible for violations of human rights when we remain silent. So this is a call to each one of us." Winston Liu, a graduate student at the University of Calgary, came to Calgary in 2005 to escape religious persecution in China. Liu practices Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline which follows the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) outlawed Falun Gong in 1999, since then carrying out an unprecedented level of persecution against the group. Liu spoke of his ordeal in China. "During the time I was confined in the detention center? the mental torture I endured was worse than the physical abuse? The police told me directly that they would try to drive me insane if I continued to practice Falun Gong? Toward the end of my [sentence] my hair turned grey and I was on the verge of mental collapse." Liu added that his wife was sentenced to 12 years in prison for the crime of "downloading Falun Gong materials" from the internet. Liu also said he underwent "extensive medical exams" while in prison. Allegations surfaced two years ago that Falun Gong practitioners jailed in China were being murdered for their organs which were in turn sold at high prices, mainly to foreign transplant tourists. A man who appeared to be unaffiliated with any media group taking pictures not of the event or guest speakers but of relay supporters and coordinators. (Jerry Wu/The Epoch Times) These allegations have since been confirmed in Bloody Harvest, a report co-authored by former MP David Kilgour and Winnipeg-based human rights lawyer David Matas. Kevin Chazotsang, spokesman for the Tibetan community in Calgary, talked about the history of the CCP's repression of the Tibetan culture and people. It is estimated that over one million people have been killed in Tibet as a result of the China's policies in the region. "Freedom of speech is non-existent in Tibet and in most parts of China, so we have to be ten times as loud here in Canada to speak for those who can't speak for themselves," he said. Other speakers were Giao Pham, a representative of the Vietnamese community and Lu Decheng, the Chinese democracy activist who spent over a decade in prison for throwing paint-filled eggs at Mao's portrait in Tiananmen Square during the 1989 student demonstrations. While Ford reiterated that those present were not against the Chinese people but only wanted to raise public awareness of the CCP's human rights crimes, nonetheless a small group of Party supporters tried to disrupt the event. Two Chinese men approached the gathering, shouting profanities and making obscene hand gestures while attempting to fight with relay supporters and guests. But order was quickly restored after five members of the Calgary Police Service bicycle team broke up the shoving and escorted the two troublemakers from the plaza. They left the scene without being detained. Police talk to two men who tried to disrupt the rally by shouting profanities and making obscene hand gestures and attempting to start a fight with relay supporters and guests. (Jerry Wu/The Epoch Times) Rally organizers also spotted a man in the crowd sporting a high-powered Nikon camera with a professional lens. The man, who appeared to be unaffiliated with any media group, was taking pictures not of the event or its guest speakers as other media were ? he was instead focusing on relay supporters and coordinators. After an organizer approached the man and asked him if he was there on behalf of the Chinese consulate, the man left. When the Chinese Spectacular played in Calgary in April, consulate officials attempted to pressure the local Chinese community into not attending or supporting the cultural show, telling people, among other threats, that they would be refused passports if they wanted to return to China. HRTR is calling on China to release all prisoners of conscience and end the persecution of Falun Gong, Christians, lawyers, reporters and "all who have become prisoners of the Olympics as a consequence of China's pre-Games whitewash." HRTR condemns the arrest of close to 2,000 Falun Gong practitioners since January 1 and China's support of the regimes of Sudan, Burma, North Korea and Zimbabwe. http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSMAN32169520080430 Philippine group protests rights abuse in China Wed Apr 30, 2008 3:22am EDT MANILA (Reuters) - Dozens of Philippine activists held a mock Olympic torch relay parade outside the Chinese consulate in Manila's financial district on Wednesday, protesting against what they called political repression in China. Carrying placards saying "No to Political Harassment", the protesters marched behind a man in running gear and holding a symbol of an Olympic torch, but were blocked by a group of anti-riot police officers outside the consulate building. "We hope that the Chinese government will really address issues of internet censorship, arrest of peaceful protesters, as well as summary execution," Aurora Parong, a leader of the Amnesty International chapter in the Philippines, told reporters. "We would like to appeal to the Chinese government to choose human rights as a legacy of the Beijing Olympics." Some legs of the Olympics torch relay have been marred by protests in Athens, Paris, San Francisco and Nagano in Japan. Thousands of Australians joined a pro-Beijing rally to drown out anti-China protests while pro-China supporters clashed with some South Korean protesters in Seoul. In Hong Kong, authorities have barred would-be Olympic torch parade protesters as several groups, including "Free Tibet" activists, are aiming to protest as the torch passes through the territory on Friday. (Reporting by Manny Mogato; editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Jeremy Laurence) http://www.chinapost.com.tw/asia/philippines/2008/05/01/154413/RP%2Dsees.htm RP sees China abuses protest Reuters Thursday, May 1, 2008 MANILA -- Dozens of Philippine activists held a mock Olympic torch relay parade outside the Chinese consulate in Manila's financial district on Wednesday, protesting against what they called political repression in China. Carrying placards saying "No to Political Harassment", the protesters marched behind a man in running gear and holding a symbol of an Olympic torch, but were blocked by a group of anti-riot police officers outside the consulate building. "We hope that the Chinese government will really address issues of internet censorship, arrest of peaceful protesters, as well as summary execution," Aurora Parong, a leader of the Amnesty International chapter in the Philippines, told reporters. "We would like to appeal to the Chinese government to choose human rights as a legacy of the Beijing Olympics." Some legs of the Olympics torch relay have been marred by protests in Athens, Paris, San Francisco and Nagano in Japan. Thousands of Australians joined a pro Beijing rally to drown out anti-China protests while pro-China supporters clashed with some South Korean protesters in Seoul. In Hong Kong, authorities have barred would-be Olympic torch parade protesters as several groups, including "Free Tibet" activists, are aiming to protest as the torch passes through the territory on Friday. http://www.stuff.co.nz/4499625a6479.html?source=RSSdominionpost/localnews_20080428 Protesters clash at rally to back China (+video) NZPA | Monday, 28 April 2008 Scuffles broke out between pro-Tibet campaigners and supporters of China and the Beijing Olympics at a rally in Auckland's Aotea Square. View video: Pro Chinese rally ends in scuffle An estimated 3000 Chinese supporters filled the square yesterday afternoon, waving flags and singing patriotic songs during the two-hour rally. It was believed there had not been such a big gathering of Chinese people in New Zealand for 10 years. Some of the crowd became aggressive, taunting four protesters holding Tibetan flags during the rally. It was the second demonstration in support of China and the Olympics in two days. Yesterday, several hundred Chinese people took to the streets of Wellington to support their country in its hosting of this year's Olympics. The protesters, mostly Victoria University students, said they were upset at perceived media bias in the reporting of human rights issues in China and the strife between China and Tibet. They denied the Chinese Government was behind the march. "Oh no, no, this is all student-made," one protester said. "Support China, support Chinese, support Olympics," she chanted. Yesterday, the Olympic torch arrived in South Korea on the latest leg of its world tour, with demonstrators vowing to disrupt its run through Seoul, which hosted the 1988 Olympics. About 8000 riot police have been deployed to guard the flame, along with about 100 officers with marathon- running experience to follow the torch relay in shifts. http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,3325643,00.html?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf 09.05.2008 Activists Stage Olympics Protest at Adidas Meeting Gro?ansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: "Clean Clothes Campaign" activists protested against the exploitation of low-pay labor Activist groups staged protests during the annual shareholders meeting of sportswear giant Adidas on Thursday to protest the German company's sponsorship of the Beijing Olympics. Media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) gained the right to attend the shareholders' meeting in the central German town of Fuerth by buying shares in the company. RSF called company executives to consider the implications of its brand being linked with human rights violations in China. "Adidas has a moral responsibility," said RSF executive officer Elke Schaefter. Adidas chief executive Herbert Hainer said he took human rights very seriously, according to the text of his speech at the meeting. He nevertheless criticized human rights organisations as "moralists who just emit rhetoric." The Paris-based RSF used the same tactic in order to attend the annual general meeting of Coca-Cola last month in the United States. The company is also sponsoring this summer's Olympics. Business or politics? The CEO of the International Campaign for Tibet in Germany, Kai Mueller, said Adidas should work on improving human rights in Tibet. The Adidas chief, however, said that his company was combining profitable growth with social and environmental responsibility. "I don't think that what's going on in China is good," Hainer said. "But Adidas has nothing to do with it." Earlier this week, the brand with the three stripes reported a big jump in profits for the first quarter of 2008, driven by double-digit growth in sales. Net income attributable to shareholders increased 32 percent from the same period a year ago to 169 million euros ($260 million), the company said in a statement. First-quarter sales in Asia increased 25 percent on a currency-neutral basis, driven by particularly strong growth in China and Korea, the company said. In addition to sponsoring the Olympic Games in Beijing, Adidas will be represented at this year's European soccer championship to be held in Austria and in Switzerland, as well. http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=95309 Protest against Repressions in China Staged in Sofia 20 July 2008, Sunday "Olympics and crimes against humanity cannot exist simultaneously in China," reads the poster. Photo by Nadya Kotseva (Sofia Photo Agency) Demonstrators staged a protest against repressions of human rights in China during the official send-off ceremony for the Bulgarian Olympic athletes in Sofia on Sunday. Protesters called for end of the repressions against practitioners of Falun Gong and spread a report into allegations of organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners in China. Falun Gong is a spiritual practice that was founded in 1992 and has millions of followers in China. It has sets of meditation exercises and seeks to develop the human character according to the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=95959 Bulgarians Stage Protest Rally Before China's Embassy in Sofia 9 August 2008, Saturday Dozens of Bulgarians took part Saturday in rally before the Chinese Embassy in Sofia protesting against the human rights abuses and censorship in the People's Republic of China. Photo by BGNES Several dozens of persons from the Bulgarian Falun Dafa Association, the Bulgarian Organization for a Free Tibet, and the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee took part in a protest rally before the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Sofia on Saturday. The participants in the initiative protested against the media and Internet censorship in China and insisted that detained 80 detained journalists be freed, and that foreign media be allowed free access to the investigation of certain cases, mostly regarding human rights abuses. The protest is part of the initiative of the Reporters without Borders organization, which has called for massive protests before Chinese Embassies all over the world during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, is a Chinese spiritual practice founded by Li Hongzhi in 1992. It was banned by the Chinese government of Jiang Zemin in 1999 after ten thousand of its follower protested human rights abuses, and has been prosecuted in China ever since. http://en.epochtimes.com/news/8-6-1/71261.html Tables Turned on Pro-Communist Protesters in Flushing By Evan Mantyk and Cary Dunst Epoch Times StaffJun 01, 2008 Chen Yonglin, who defected from his position as first secretary at the Chinese Consulate-General in Sydney in late May 2005, calls the Flushing incidents "one of the CCP's biggest diplomatic scandals since its establishment as a regime." (The Epoch Times) Related Articles - 'I don't hate them,' Says Falun Dafa Association President About Attackers Saturday, May 31, 2008 - Chinese Mob Attempts to Intimidate Falun Gong During Rally Sunday, June 01, 2008 - Expel Chinese Consul Who Rallied New York Mobs, Says Lawyer Saturday, May 31, 2008 FLUSHING, New York?The Flushing Chinatown was host to close to 1,000 Falun Gong practitioners Saturday as members of the spiritual practice and supporters rallied to encourage the area's Chinese community to quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The event, which featured triumphant marching-band style music and speakers from pro-democracy groups, sent a clear message to the community that the CCP is responsible for recent disruptions in Flushing and that Chinese-language media's claims that Falun Gong practitioners oppose Sichuan earthquake relief donations are groundless. Meanwhile, across the street, close to a dozen Chinese people protested against Falun Gong practitioners, apparently for criticizing the regime that rules their motherland. The scene stood in stark contrast to the situation in Flushing two weeks ago when as many as 500 local Chinese gathered in an angry mob around 20 Falun Gong practitioners who regularly staff the Service Center for Quitting the CCP in a public area. In a recorded phone conversation obtained by The Epoch Times , New York Chinese Consul General Keyu Peng admitted to having incited the mob to disrupt, intimidate, and attack Falun Gong practitioners in Flushing. "It's actually only a small group of Chinese who support what the CCP is doing. The majority know it is wrong and support Falun Gong in opposing the CCP," said Wei Jingsheng, a prominent Chinese pro-democracy activist, in his speech at the rally. "After all, why did Chinese people come here to the United States in the first place? To get away from the violence of the CCP. What Falun Gong is doing I applaud. They represent all Chinese people," said Wei. Many Chinese-language media outlets, which are known to be either directly owned or influenced by the CCP, initially carried heavy coverage of the anti-Falun Gong protests. For full coverage of the Flushing disturbances please see CCP Incites Flushing Mobs Their reports claimed Falun Gong practitioners at the Service Center for Quitting the CCP, "do not care about the victims of the Sichuan earthquake," and "do not love China." Their reports also claimed that Falun Gong practitioners had disrupted donations for Sichuan earthquake relief. "They told lies about Falun Gong not supporting the earthquake victims, but Chinese people know the truth," said Chairman of the China Peace and Democracy Alliance Tang Baiqiao in his speech at the event. Tang, as well as other speakers, highlighted the CCP's reluctance to inform the public about warnings it had received from seismologists before the Sichuan earthquake on May 12 that has killed at least 70,000 people. Tang and others also spoke of the poor construction of school buildings? often referred to as "Jell-O buildings"?that led to a large number of children being killed during the catastrophe. "They build Jell-O buildings for schools and then no warnings were properly given to the people, despite the government knowing of the earthquake," said Mr. Zhisheng, who is also a member of the China Peace and Democracy Federation. "I feel that people withdrawing from the CCP will eventually save more lives than the rescue workers could," he said. http://en.epochtimes.com/news/8-6-23/72282.html Activists Protest Olympics Sponsors By Joshua Philipp Epoch Times New York StaffJun 23, 2008 VOICES HEARD: Human rights activists protest Coca-Cola, one of the sponsors for the Beijing Olympics. Olympic Corporate Sponsors' Position on Human Rights Questioned (Exclusive NTDTV Video) NEW YORK?As the Beijing Olympics grow closer, calls for human rights grow louder. On Friday, activists gathered with signs and megaphones to protest Coca-Cola, one of the sponsors of the Beijing Olympics, for failing to address China's ties with the genocide in Sudan, Darfur. The protest was held outside the Coca-Cola headquarters on Fifth Ave. in Manhattan. According to organizers, similar protests took place across the nation against such Olympics sponsors as Swatch, Volkswagen, and General Electric. The protest focused on the fact that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) not only provides weapons to the Sudanese government, but is also Sudan's main financial advisor, and advocates for them in the United Nations Security Council. China has leverage over the government of Sudan, which it can use to possibly end the genocide in Darfur, protesters argue. The protest of Coca-Cola took place to ask the Olympic sponsor to call on China to help end the genocide in Darfur, which the U.N. has estimated has cost over 300,000 lives. The CCP "has the most influence, the most sway over Omar Hassan Al Bashir, the dictator from Sudan," said Jeremy Taylor, 43, a filmmaker who joined the day's protest. "Sudan also exports 80 percent of their oil to China." "Coca-Cola sponsored the 1936 Berlin Nazi Olympics," added Taylor. "Coca-Cola is sponsoring the 2008 Chinese Communist Party Olympics. That's what we're doing here." Ellen Freudenheim, the director of corporate outreach for Dream for Darfur talked about why she feels the Olympics sponsors have done so little in approaching China about the genocide in Darfur. "They don't want to do it because they're afraid of risking the ire of the Chinese government, because they want those 1.3 billion Chinese to buy their products. Something stinks about that, something is wrong about that," said Freudenheim. "We want them to use their leverage and their connections in China to make it known to the Chinese government that the world is watching, that genocide is not business as usual, and that it isn't acceptable in the 21st Century," said Freudenheim. http://en.epochtimes.com/news/8-6-22/72267.html Tibet Activists Hold Three-day Protest Outside Toronto Chinese Consulate By Matthew Little Epoch Times Toronto StaffJun 22, 2008 Chinese democracy activist Sheng Xue speaks to Tibet supporters outside the Chinese consulate on Saturday. Activists held three days of events outside the consulate while the Olympic Torch made its way through Tibet. (Matthew Little/Epoch Times) TORONTO?While the Olympic torch was run through Lhasa on Saturday, half a world a way supporters of human rights in Tibet lined the street four-people deep in front of the Chinese consulate in Toronto from Friday to Sunday. Some of the Tibet supporters were Chinese democracy activists, some were Falun Gong practitioners, others were just people that wanted to see human dignity respected in the mountainous Tibetan region. In the crowd was former Tibetan Buddhist monk Kunga Chodak, who fled China in 1997 because he could no longer bear to have his prayers censored or see his fellow monks disappear. "We don't know where they are," he said. "If they are dead or alive?we don't know." In some places, like Kaza Kam monastery, in East Tibet, Chodak says a temple that once had over 300 monks now has only 30. "We don't know how many people died," he said. This year two of his cousins in Tibet were killed but the Chinese military refuses to release their bodies and allow the family to give their lost ones a proper burial, he said. Although Chinese authorities say that Tibetan Buddhists can practice freely in the region, Chodak says prayers are tightly controlled and any acknowledgement of their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, is prohibited. "If I pray 'long live the Dalai Lama' they put me in jail." A Tibetan demonstrator walks in front of the Chinese consulate with a placard around his neck showing Chinese military shooting Tibetans with exploding bullets. (Matthew Little/EpochTimes) Some at the rally described how the communist regime locked Lhasa down and conducted a tightly scripted Olympic torch run through the city. "They had a tonne of security," said Tsering Lama, National Director, Students for a Free Tibet Canada. "They just closed off the area." Other speakers described how the spectators of the torch run in Lhasa were hand picked by Chinese authorities. People not picked were warned to stay away. "The slogan of the Beijing Olympic Games is 'one world, one dream," said exiled democracy activist Sheng Xue. "But so many people in this world do not enjoy the dream. For them it is an endless nightmare." Xue went on to speak of Tibetans being jailed for having pictures of the Dalai Lama, Tibetan nuns being tortured and raped in prison, refugees fleeing Tibet and nearly freezing to death crossing the Himalayas, child workers from Lianshan toiling 18 hours a day and girls being forced into prostitution and other victims of China's communist regime. Xue urged people to stay away from the Games and not participate in what she described as a "bloody banquet." Although she sympathized with athletes who were eager for their once in a lifetime opportunity to compete, she insisted such a choice should be tempered by a deeper respect for human rights. "Human rights always, above all." http://news.indiainfo.com/2008/07/30/0807300949_dalai.html Candlelight protest against repression in Tibet Wednesday, July 30, 2008 09:39 [IST] Dharam Shourie New York: People in several countries are expected to light a candle on August 7, the eve of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics in a campaign organized by Unity Network to protest against repression in Tibet and for freedom of mankind. The organizers said "Sad Smoky Mountains" teams will fire flares with red smoke from skyscrapers, monuments and major buildings and from the summit of a hundred mountains synchronizing with the opening of the Olympics in the action called "The Greatest Light Protest on Earth." The organizers called on people attending the opening ceremony to light candles, lighters and flashlights to coincide with entrance of the Chinese delegation into the Olympic arena and asked motorists to drive with headlights on August 8. They named 14 countries, including the United States, Britain, Germany, the Philippines, Greece and Brazil where the protests would be held. The organizers said the Dalai Lama has endorsed the campaign and quoted his representative Tsering Tashi as expressing the hope that the campaign would inspire the Chinese authorities to appreciate the value of freedom for all mankind and the importance of Tibetan Buddhist culture which has the "potential to serve all mankind." The Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government in exile, he said, are not against the Beijing Olympics. "We are also not against the Chinese people, who also do not enjoy genuine human rights and freedoms that the people in the free world take for granted," he added. http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/July2008/28/c7830.html Olympic campaign protest greets Tour de France arrival in Paris MONTREAL, July 28 /CNW Telbec/ - With less than two weeks to go to the start of the Beijing Olympic Games, a large flag showing the Olympic rings as handcuffs was unfurled today by members of Reporters Without Borders in the Tuileries Garden in Paris as the Tour de France cyclists went by on the last leg of the annual bicycle race. "The support shown by the Parisian spectators for our protest is evidence of the exasperation that sports lovers feel about the human rights situation in China and Tibet," Reporters Without Borders said. "With just 12 days to go to the 8 August opening ceremony in Beijing, we appeal to sports fans to protest against the crackdown on free speech activists in China." The Olympic rings turned into handcuffs are the symbol of the Reporters Without Borders Beijing 2008 campaign. Around 100 journalists, cyber-dissidents, bloggers and netizens are still imprisoned in China. The Chinese government has not kept the promises to improve respect for human rights that it made in 2001, when Beijing was chosen to host the 2008 Olympics. http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080815184254.3hcd8fc6&show_article=1Pro-Tibet 'flash mob' protest planned in NYCAug 15 02:43 PM USSome 200 pro-Tibet demonstrators geared up for a "flash mob" protest onFriday in New York City's Grand Central Station, a statement by theorganizers said.The demonstrators plan to converge on the station's immense center hallbetween 5:45 and 6:00 pm (2145 and 2200 GMT), brandishing flags and raisingtheir fists to protest China's "illegal occupation of Tibet," Students for aFree Tibet said."As the Olympic Games continue in Beijing during the month of August,thousands of activists around the world are expressing their solidarity withthe Tibetan people with a series of coordinated rallies and protests takingplace around the world inside and outside of China," the group said.New York's Grand Central Station is one of the largest railway stations inthe world and considered one of America's architectural treasures.http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuId=28&ContentID=90152Falun Gong protests China's human rights record9th August 2008, 13:00 WSTFollowers of a spiritual movement banned in China rallied in Melbournetoday, calling on the public not to forget the Olympic host's human rightsrecord.The Falun Gong has been outlawed in China since 1999 when it was accused ofengaging in illegal activities, jeopardising social stability, advocatingsuperstition and spreading fallacies.Its Melbourne spokeswoman Ana Vereshaka described the movement as an ancientspiritual practice that involved exercises to cultivate the mind and bodythat also promoted peacefulness and tranquility.Members who said they directly experienced persecution in China attendedtoday's rally at the Melbourne City Square.?Our main message is to remember that behind the opening of the OlympicGames there are labour camps within walking distance of Olympic venues whereFalun Gong practitioners are tortured and persecuted,? Ms Vereshaka said.The group wants the Chinese Communist Party to immediately release all FalunGong followers, end their persecution and investigate both the disappearanceof thousands of practitioners in China and claims of organ harvesting.http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/australian-news/4877353Protesters accuse China of ilegal organ harvestingABC - August 10, 2008, 3:04 pmAbout 80 members of the Falun Gong sect have gathered at Sydney's DarlingHarbour to protest against what they say is China's killing of Falun Gongpractictioners for organ donation.The Falon Gong are outside the venue where the International Congress of theTransplantation Society is taking place.The sect's members say they are appealing to the Congress to help stop theillegal harvesting of organs.http://en.epochtimes.com/n2/united-states/team-tibet-on-union-square-after-beijing-protest-2491.htmlTeam Tibet on Union Square After Beijing ProtestBy Shaoshao ChenEpoch Times Staff Aug 10, 2008Johnathan Siblings-Uss (left) and other members of Team Tibet speak at aCounter-Olympics rally at Union Square Park on August 10, 2008. The groupwas deported from China on August 9 for displaying the Tibetan national flagin front of the Olympics stadium during the opening ceremony. SHAOSHAOCHEN/THE EPOCH TIMESNEW YORK?Protestors braved heavy rain at Union Square on Sunday to hold a?Counter-Olympics.?Dozens of protestors gathered decrying China?s continuing and escalatinghuman rights violations. The protest was part of a series of protests byTibetan activists in New York City since the opening of the BeijingOlympics.Joining the demonstration were members of Team Tibet, a sportingorganization advocating the participation of exiled Tibetans in the OlympicGames.An hour before the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, three membersof the group unfurled the Tibetan flag in front of the Beijing NationalStadium, also known as the Birds Nest. They were tackled to the ground anddetained by security officials.?When I was down on the ground, I remembered the Tibetan people all over theworld,? said Jonathan Stribling-Uss, one of the deported Team Tibet members,told supporters at the Union Square rally.The three members were deported from China on August 9.?We proudly displayed the Tibetan flag in Beijing yesterday to shine aspotlight on the Chinese government's lethal military crackdown inside Tibetand its attempt to use the Beijing Olympics to cover up its human rightsabuses there,? said Kalaya?an Mendoza a New York City resident and one ofthe three protestors.?As long as people of conscience actively support Tibetans in their strugglefor freedom and human rights, pressure on China to resolve the issue willcontinue to grow.?After months of protests leading up to the Beijing Olympics, human rightsactivists have continued their efforts in calling for the end of China?shuman rights atrocities.Tibetan groups have planned ongoing protests throughout the duration of theGames, while other groups have been holding similar protests throughout theworld.Most of the protestors have been from the activist group Students for a FreeTibet (STF). Since the start of the games, at least half-dozen members ofSTF have held demonstrations in Beijing.http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Page/document/v5/content/subscribe?user_URL=http://www.theglobeandmail.com%2Fservlet%2Fstory%2FRTGAM.20080812.wbcprotest12%2FBNStory%2FNational%2Fhome&ord=171811227&brand=theglobeandmail&force_login=trueFalun Gong protest site to remain in place until trialSUNNY DHILLONFrom Tuesday's Globe and MailVANCOUVER ? Its bright blue walls, round-the-clock vigils and pleas fortruthfulness, compassion and tolerance have made it a Vancouver landmark.Nowthe Falun Gong protest site, located outside the Chinese consulate in the3300-block of Granville Street since 2001, will live to see another dayafter the city of Vancouver yesterday backed off on its request for animmediate injunction.http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-tibet-china-protest-web-aug09,0,3335737.story?track=rssPro-Tibet protest held at Chinese Consulate in ChicagoBy Deanese Williams-Harris and Peter Mueller | Chicago Tribune reporters11:47 PM CDT, August 8, 2008Protesters march down Michigan Avenue. (Tribune photo by Michael Tercha /August 8, 2008)As China celebrated the opening day of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, more than500 protesters marched through the streets of Chicago against the country's57-year occupation of Tibet.Carrying makeshift black coffins and Tibetan flags, the group marched fromWater Tower Place to the Chinese Consulate at 100 W. Erie St. shouting"Shame on China." Many supporters said Friday that Tibet's cries for freedomare ignored because of economics."We are here to let the world know that they are feeding a sleeping giant,"said Jigme Norbu, a nephew of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader. "By2020, China will be the superpower and if the world doesn't wake up, one dayeven America will be under its rule."Norbu asked people to boycott products made in China and spoke about recentdangers of such products including toys and medicine.Norbu was part of a group of 15 core protesters who started a 180-mile walkJuly 25 in Madison, Wis., after the Dalai Lama finished a session ofteachings in the Wisconsin capital. The walk ended at the Chinese ConsulateFriday.The protest was largely peaceful, but police arrested a man who stormed intothe crowd while holding up a picture as he yelled repeatedly in Chinese.Demonstrators said the man was yelling "Long live the Chinese." Someone inthe crowd snatched the photo from the man's hands but before a scuffledensued, police arrested Lian Run Xiong, 20. He was charged with disorderlyconduct, said police spokeswoman JoAnn Taylor.Dozens of police officers on foot and horseback monitored the protesters asthey prayed and chanted while sitting in the streets.Pema Chinyam, 16, a student from Minnesota, said she hopes the protest willshed light on human rights violations against the Tibetan people."The occupation of Tibet is brutal," she said. "Not only are theyimprisoning and killing innocent people, they are trying to destroy ourculture."Palden Gyatso, 77, a monk who spent 33 years in a Chinese prison, came outto speak to the crowd. Gyatso urged the protesters to follow the teachingsof the Dalai Lama and take the middle path."The Dalai Lama's offer of full autonomy for Tibet is a good offer for theChinese government. Now it is time to listen to his holiness and solve thesituation," Gyatso said. "We have no military, but power. Our calm willprevail."The group's organizer, Larry Gerstein, read a list of demands on aloudspeaker aimed at the consulate.They included: withdrawal of troops from Tibet, release of politicalprisoners and religious freedom for Tibetans.Consular officials did not respond to calls Friday.http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=25711Witnesses Say Someone Cut Rope of Rappelling Protester at Chinese ConsulateBreitbart TVA rappelling protester fell two stories from the roof of the ChineseConsulate in San Francisco Wednesday, two days before the Olympic Gamesbegin in Beijing and amid worldwide protest against China?s human rightsrecord in Tibet.San Francisco police and the State Department are conducting a jointinvestigation into the incident, including claims that the protester?s ropesmay have been intentionally cut.http://en.epochtimes.com/n2/united-states/student-falls-san-francisco-olympics-protest-2387.htmlStudent Falls from Chinese Consulate at Olympics ProtestBy Ivan VelinovEpoch Times Staff Aug 8, 2008Share: Facebook Digg del.icio.us StumbleUponRelated articles: United States > WestSAN FRANCISCO?A pro-Tibet female protester who climbed onto the roof of theChinese Consulate in San Francisco on Wednesday. Aug. 6 to stage a mockhanging to protest the Chinese regime?s treatment of Tibetans fell when hersuspension ropes were allegedly cut by consulate personnel.Two students, Nyendak Wangden, 22, and Brianne Morgan, 26, scaled to theroof of the Chinese Consulate during a peaceful pre-Olympics demonstrationin support of Tibet. Staging a mock hanging, Wangden hung suspended a fewfeet from the roof on climbing ropes. She wore a black monk?s robe and helda sign that read ?Stop the killing in Tibet!?Morgan tended Wangden?s ropes when she said she was attacked by a member ofthe Chinese Consulate security who allegedly cut the anchor ropes whichcaused Wangden?s fall from more than 15 feet off the building.?I was yelling that Nyendak [Wangden] was being supported by only her linesand that cutting the lines would mean that she would fall and die,? saidMorgan on Thursday, Aug. 7 outside the San Francisco Federal Court.Wangden, who suffered a fractured wrist and a fractured radius bone from thefall, received treatment at the San Francisco General Hospital.?I?m lucky to be alive,? said Wangden.Wangden said that if the Chinese Consulate can cut her rope and let herfall, she fears of what might be happening inside Tibet. She said that as aTibetan who lives outside Tibet she stood up for the people struggling inTibet.Both women, members of Students for a Free Tibet, were accused of ?forciblythrusting? themselves on a building used as a foreign diplomatic mission. Ifconvicted, the protesters face a maximum penalty of six months in prison.Wangden?s attorney Derek St. Pierre, said that he had the chance to inspectthe anchor and the climbing ropes. The ropes weren?t frayed, but both werecut with a sharp object, either a knife or scissors, according to Pierre.A Chinese Consulate spokesman condemned the intrusion.Wangden and Morgan were released on $25,000 bail, and will return in courton Aug. 20. http://www.breitbart.com/image.php?id=iafp080808170458.cdrrye4gp1&show_article=1Pro-Tibet protesters and human rights activists demonstrate near theChamps-Elysees in ParisPro-Tibet protesters and human rights activists demonstrate near theChamps-Elysees in Paris to condemn the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Francesaid Friday that its previously tense relations with China have turned acorner following talks between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chineseleaders in Beijing.http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=5542218Turkish Man Sets Self on Fire in Anti-China ProtestAugust 8, 2008ANKARA (Reuters) - A Turkish man set himself on fire during a protest byethnic Uighurs in front of the Chinese embassy in Turkey on Friday againstChina's rule in the region of Xinjiang as Beijing opened the Olympics.The man was sent to an Ankara hospital after police put out the flames,state Anatolian news agency said.Uighurs are a Turkic people who share linguistic and cultural bonds withcentral Asia.Xinjiang is home to 8 million Muslim Uighurs, many of whom resent thegrowing presence and economic grip of Han Chinese.Exiled Uighurs have campaigned for an independent country.http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/08/23/2344670.htmPhotojournalists arrested at Paris pro-Tibet protestPosted Sat Aug 23, 2008 11:49pm AESTFrench police have arrested three photojournalists after the menphotographed pro-Tibet protesters unfurling a banner near the Chineseembassy in Paris.The three, including one from Agence France-Presse (AFP), had their camerasconfiscated but were later released after being questioned for nearly threehours, one of them said.One of the protesters was also arrested, said the police. He was still incustody after the photographers' release.The pro-Tibet demonstrators climbed onto the roof of a property next to theChinese embassy and dropped the banner, reading China Lives - Tibetans die,down the front of the adjacent building, the AFP photographer said.Police officers later took the banner down.- AFPhttp://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/0805/breaking47.htmAugust 5, 2008, 13:34Dublin protesters call end to Tibet crackdownGENEVIEVE CARBERYA demonstration was held in Dublin this morning ahead of the opening of theBeijing Olympics on Friday calling on the Chinese government to stop itscrackdown on Tibetan protesters.Approximately one dozen members of the Tibetan community in Irelandprotested outside the Chinese Embassy to demand that thousands of arrestedprotesters be released.Draped in Tibetan flags they sang the Tibetan national anthem and chanted"we want a free Tibet". They also urged the international community to putpressure on the Chinese government during the games.Protesters said the situation in Tibet remains serious following a crackdownlast March and arrests of protesters last month and are fearful that thesituation will get worse once the Olympics is over."The worst is still to come after the Olympics when attention of world movesaway from China" Namgyal Damdul, Chairman of the Tibetan Community inIreland said."We fear the worst might happen to those in prisons and they might be giventhe death penalty" he said "We are urging all government's around the worldto press China to release all these prisoners"Pro-Tibetan supporters had urged international leaders to boycott theopening ceremony of the Olympic Games.This morning the protesters called on leaders attending the openingceremony, particularly Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism Martin Cullen"to put pressure on and talk directly to the Chinese leadership and ask themto release all prisoners, stop the ongoing repression in Tibet and resolvethe issue as soon as possible".http://www.thenational.ae/article/20080805/FOREIGN/695787172/1042/ARTTibetan protesters in New Delhi arrestedChristian Cotroneo, Foreign CorrespondentLast Updated: August 06. 2008 12:03AM UAE / August 5. 2008 8:03PM GMTA Tibetan monk in exile participating in a hunger strike is checked by thedoctor on the ninth day of the hunger strike in New Delhi. Hours later,police officers descended on the protesters, bringing the nine-day stand-offto a decisive end. AFPNEW DELHI // Under the cover of night, an army of police officers todaydescended on Tibetans protesting against the occupation of their homeland byChina, bringing the nine-day stand-off to a decisive end.More than 100 Tibetans supporting six monks, who had abstained from food andwater since July 28, had vowed to form a human wall to prevent any policeintervention at the protest site in central New Delhi.But the end came quickly. At about 10pm, as many as 500 police officers withtwo buses and two heavy lorries converged on the site, with orders to removethe activists. The monks locked arms to try to prevent the police breakingthrough but did not put up a fight.Moments later, all that remained was a mountain of shoes and blankets leftbehind by monks as they were herded onto the buses ? and a couple of dozenshell-shocked Tibetan supporters.?It?s very sad,? said Konchok Yangphel, a spokesman for the Tibetan YouthCongress, which organised the hunger strike. ?We don?t have freedom insideTibet. We were striking through non-violent means, but police treated uslike criminals.?The six monks were taken out of the tent where they had lain for the pastnine days, on stretchers, to waiting ambulances and whisked away to a nearbyhospital for forced rehydration, witnesses and police said.The six had vowed to fast until death in order to highlight the plight oftheir fellow six million Tibetans, many of whom live in exile in northernIndia after escaping their homeland following a failed uprising againstChinese rule in 1959. The strike came ahead of the start of the BeijingOlympics on Aug 8, which the Tibetans have protested against because ofChina?s human rights record and the military reaction to an uprising inTibet in March this year.The wages of hunger had taken a toll on their bodies, with each having lostan average 11kg, unable to rise from their beds and registering perilouslylow blood pressure.The Tibetan Youth Congress is known for spearheading high-profile ralliessuch as last year?s storming of the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi.But this was the first time Tibetan demonstrators had declined water as wellas food. Without medical intervention, they were not expected to live beyondthis week.A doctor who examined the monks earlier this week said three were incritical condition and needed urgent medical attention. Today, he addedanother two to the list and insisted they be taken to hospital.?Their health was deteriorating so we took them to hospital,? said BK Singh,the deputy superintendent of New Delhi district police, who oversaw theoperation.Mr Singh said the six would be charged with ?attempting to commit suicide?.?You have no liberty to die,? he said.Mr Singh said the 130 protesters who had formed the human chain put up ?alittle bit of resistance?. He said they had been taken into protectivecustody, not arrested.The Tibetan Youth Congress had vowed that for every striker that dies,another would take his place.?Tomorrow, we will start our second batch,? Mr Yangphel said.http://story.indiagazette.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/b8de8e630faf3631/id/386872/cs/1/Siliguri Tibetans protest Chinese repression in homelandIndia GazetteSunday 27th July, 2008(ANI)Siliguri, July 27 : Tibetans living in exile in Siliguri took out a rally toseek international attention on their freedom struggle.Holding flags, around 500 Tibetans including school children took part inthe protest rally.As the Beijing Olympics approach, the Tibetans are trying to reinvigoratetheir freedom movement and protest against what they see as China's illegaloccupation of their homeland."Our objective is along with the attention that is being focused, theinternational lympics that is being focused on the happening of Olympics inBeijing. We also would like the international attention to go on Tibet thathas been happening since March 10 and also the conditions existing there sothat they know what is happening in Tibet," said Sonum Lamdup, generalsecretary of Himalayan Buddhist Cultural Association.The Tibetans-in-exile across the world have been holding rallies anddemonstrations to protest against Chinese policies in Tibet.China resumed fence-mending talks with envoys of Tibet's exiled spiritualleader, the Dalai Lama, on July 1 in a move that could burnish itsinternational image weeks before the Chinese capital hosts the Olympics.It is the second closed-door meeting between the representatives of theDalai Lama and the Chinese Government since rioting erupted in Tibet inMarch and heaped international pressure on China to deal with the Nobellaureate.http://www.newscloud.com/read/Tibetan_Monks_Storm_Chinese_Embassy_In_India_To_Protest_GamesTibetan Monks Storm Chinese Embassy In India To Protest GamesNEW DELHI ? More than a thousand Tibetan exiles held protests in pouringrain Friday in New Delhi, chanting anti-China slogans and demanding freedomfor Tibet hours ahead of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.The protesters chanted "Free Tibet" and "Down with China" and waved Tibetanflags and a large banner that said, "Time is running out, stop theOlympics."The protests were held in the heart of New Delhi amid tight security, withIndia reluctant to embarrass Beijing ahead of the games.Hundreds of police and armed paramilitary soldiers surrounded the marchersand stood by with tear gas canisters and water canons.Later, heavily armed police stopped dozens of protesters who tried to stormthe Chinese Embassy to coincide with the games' opening ceremony. The troopsand barricades erected earlier kept the three busloads of activists far fromthe Chinese mission.More than 2,000 protesters also marched in Dharmsala, the north Indian hilltown that is home to the Tibetan government-in-exile.All shops and businesses run by Tibetans stayed closed Friday.India is home to the largest Tibetan exile community and their exiledspiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.The protesters say that China's often harsh rule of Tibet goes against theOlympic spirit.While China shows the world the progress it has made with a "grand openingceremony, in Tibet a few thousand Tibetans will be in prison for merelypracticing their freedom of expression," said Chimi Youngdrung, the head ofthe National Democratic Party of Tibet, one the dozens of rights groupsbased in Dharmsala."With protests around the world and in Beijing, the festival of peacefulactivism has begun," he added.In recent months, Tibetan exiles in India have been staging protests andtrying to march to Tibet to show their support for the uprising that eruptedin the Tibetan capital of Lhasa in March, and to protest China being allowedto stage the games.The violent March protests were some of the biggest against almost 50 yearsof Chinese rule in Tibet. Many Tibetans insist they were an independentnation before communist troops invaded in 1950, while Beijing says theHimalayan region has been part of its territory for centuries.The Dalai Lama has been vilified by Chinese authorities, who blame him forthe recent unrest and claim he is trying to split the Himalayan region fromthe rest of China.Nevertheless, the Dalai Lama has not joined calls to boycott the Olympics,saying he supports China hosting the games.On Wednesday he issued a statement offering his "greetings to the People'sRepublic of China, the organizers and the athletes participating in theforthcoming Olympic Games in Beijing."http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=392584Tibetan exiles in India continue to protest against Beijing OlympicsANI Sunday 10th August, 2008Manali/Dharamsala, August 10 : Tibetan exiles in Manali and Dharamsala stepup their protests against the alleged Chinese suppression in their homelandeven as Beijing hosts Olympics 2008.While the people in Beijing are rejoicing the Olympic games, the TibetanWomen's Association in Manali organized mourning for the Tibetans killed inLhasa.The Tibetan women exiles wore black clothes and tied black bands on theirmouths to mourn what they said were brutal killings of protesters in Tibetin March."We are totally against the China Olympics that are taking place in China.Lots of people were killed since March 10th. We are mourning here that's whywe are wearing black clothes and black bands for all the Tibetans who diedin Tibet," said Tenzin Sangmo, a Tibetan women.The protesters said that China had no right to organize the games afterhaving committed "so many brutalities in Tibet".Meanwhile, thousands of Buddhist monks and Tibetan exiles took part in asit-in protest in Dharamsala, home to Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetanspiritual leader.Buddhist monks and nuns dressed in maroon robes gathered to protest againstthe alleged Chinese suppression.They said that the Tibetans across the globe would be stepping up protestsagainst China's oppressive policies in Tibet.India has been a centre of regular protests for months by Tibetan exiles whoeven scaled the walls of the Chinese embassy in New Delhi at least twice.Tibetans are trying to reinvigorate their freedom movement and protestagainst what they see as China's illegal occupation of their homeland asBeijing is staging the Olympics 2008.China has controlled Tibet since the People's Liberation Army troops marchedinto the region in 1950 with Beijing considering Tibet as an integral partof its territory.China says it has spent billions of dollars developing the impoverishedHimalayan region, and raised its living standards.The Beijing Games torch relay was dogged by protests over Chinese rule inTibet when it made its way through Paris, London and other cities earlierthis year.China has accused followers of the Dalai Lama of stirring the riots andprotests in the Tibetan regions in March in a bid to upstage Olympicpreparations.http://www.newkerala.com/topstory-fullnews-7261.htmlTibetan protest against china continuesNew Delhi, August 5 : Tibetans living in exile in India continued theirprotest in New Delhi on Tuesday to voice their anger against Chineseatrocities in Tibet even as the condition of six protesters sitting onindefinite fast deteriorated.The 'Indefinite fast for Tibet-without Food and Water' has entered its ninthday today.The aim of the movement is to attract the attention of the internationalcommunity towards the Tibetan cause.The Tibetans have been pressing for Chinese withdrawal from Tibet andrelease of their leaders who have been allegedly detained by the Chineseauthorities."The protest is going on in support of our struggle and in support of ourdemands that the Chinese government should stop its atrocities in Tibet,"said Tsewang Rigzin, president, Tibetan Youth CongressHe demanded that political prisoners should be released and Panchen Lama,whom the Chinese abducted in 1995, should be freed.China has controlled Tibet since People's Liberation Army troops marchedinto the region in 1950 and Beijing considers Tibet as an integral part ofits territory.As the Olympics approach, Tibetans are trying to reinvigorate their freedommovement and protest against what they see as China's illegal occupation oftheir homeland.Over 25,000 Tibetans are expected to gather in New Delhi on August 8 toparticipate in a mass demonstration campaign and appeal to the worldcommunity to boycott the Beijing Olympics.http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/20/stories/2008072059060500.htmAndhra PradeshSilent protestPhoto: Mohd.YousufCalling attention: Tibetan Refugee?s Welfare Association activists raise aprotest against China at Tibetan Freedom Torch Relay in city on Saturday..http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=398162Tibetan exiles stage protest demonstration in New DelhiANI Saturday 23rd August, 2008New Delhi, August 23 : Scores of Tibetan exiles on Saturday gathered in NewDelhi, to protest against violation of human rights by Chinese authoritiesinside Tibet.The protesters gathered at the historical site of 'Jantar Mantar' in theCapital.Swaying the Tibetan flag and shouting slogans like 'Free Tibet' and 'LongLive Dalai Lama' they tried to motivate the fellow protestors.The police forcibly took away the four Tibetan exiles, who were sitting onhunger strike for the past few days, to the hospital.The protesters were on an indefinite hunger strike under the 'Indefinitefast for Tibet-without Food and Water' movement, to attract the attention ofthe international community towards the Tibetan cause."Today is the eighth day of indefinite fast for Tibet without food and waterand the third batch has entered the eighth day. Four of the hunger strikershealth has become very critical. The doctors at Ram Manohar Lohia hospitalhave advised that the hunger strikers need immediate admission otherwisethere is a risk to their life. So, the police have forcibly, without ourknowledge taken all the hunger strikers except one," said Thundukorje, VicePresident,Tibetan Youth Congress.China has accused followers of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader, ofstirring riots and protests in Tibetan region in March in a bid to upstageOlympic preparations. The Dalai Lama has denied the charge and said he doesnot oppose the Games.The Dalai Lama has rejected accusations that he is behind the unrest and hassupported the Chinese right to host the Olympics.But groups campaigning for Tibetan independence have said they will use theGames to voice their demands and concerns over the alleged Chineseatrocities in Tibet.With the Olympic Games concluding on Sunday the Tibetans in exile assertthat more intensified campaigns would be organised in the near future.http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=355525Tibetans in exile stage protest in LucknowANI Sunday 4th May, 2008Lucknow, May 4 : Tibetans in exile residing in Lucknow staged ademonstration on Sunday to keep their protest against the Beijing Olympicsalive.Tibetans protestors resorted to sloganeering on city's street to demonstratetheir resentment against the mass killings of their fellow countrymen inTibet last month.The protesters, holding placards, portraits of the Dalai Lama, the pictureof the 'youngest prisoner of world' and flag of Tibet staged the march togather support of government and the citizens in India against the 'Chineserepression'."The aim of this march is to pay our tributes to our dead brothers. Besideswe are striving to amass support of Indian government and citizens of Indiawhile making them aware of issues in Tibet. Regarding the mass protest thatis happening all over the world against Olympics, we believe until Tibet isset free, Olympics should not happen in China," said Sonam Dochi, member,Tibetan Youth Congress.Coinciding with massive protests by the Tibetan Diaspora all over the worldin the run up to the Beijing Olympics, the exiles in India are seeking anend to Chinese repression in Tibet and have staged a wave of protests acrossthe country especially in New Delhi and in Dharamsala, home of the Tibetanspiritual leader, the Dalai Lama in India.http://www.ibnlive.com/news/buddhism-and-its-place-in-tibetan-protests/64495-3.html?xmlBuddhism and its place in Tibetan protestsAasim Khan / CNN-IBNPublished on Sat, May 03, 2008 at 23:16 in Nation sectionQUESTION ON NOTIONS: Do set ideas about Buddhism hold true in contemporaryIndia?Dharamshala (Himachal Pradesh): Buddhism is often seen as a religion thatdoes not have place for politics. A faith that many believe shuns the powerplay of everyday life. But do these notions about Buddhism hold true incontemporary India? How are Buddhism and its followers changing?To understand the issues facing Buddhism today, there is no better place tobegin than Dharamshala ? ground zero for Tibetans-in-exile fighting forfreedom. It is also home to thousands of Buddha?s warriors.Lhasa Tsering is an angry poet. By his own admission his writings are morepropaganda than poetry. As Lhasa reads, it's not difficult to see that likethe wrinkles on his face, his anger and frustration run deep.?These days whenever I speak, I begin by saying that I hope I am wrong,?Tsering says.An active campaigner for free Tibet for over four decades, Lhasa hastravelled around the world, speaking for his cause. But unlike the 15,000other Tibetans-in-exile, who live in Dharamshala, Lhasa's reverence for theDalai Lama and his middle path ends at the temple walls.?The bare fact is that the Chinese came to Tibet to stay and until we throwthem out, they will never leave. I think Dalai Lama's middle way policy isnothing but wishful thinking,? the poet fumes.What upsets Tsering most is the message of non-violence the Dalai Lamapreaches.?A military man is raping a young girl. In her attempt to save herself, sheflings something at soldier's face and he gets hurt. Can you call thatviolence? If there is any violence in Tibet, the Chinese do it. They useviolence like in genocide,? Tsering says.Disturbing as they may sound, Tsering's words are inspiring young blood inDharamshala, youth who have yet to see the Tibet they are fighting for.What's happened since March 10 may, perhaps, vindicate Tsering's beliefs.?We were on our way to India when we stopped in Lhasa. The Chinese Policehad beaten two monks. We were there when Tibetans came out on the streets,?a Tibetan refugee says.?There was a lot of Chinese police on the border. We had to cross fivemountains on foot. My seven-year-old friend was with me. We felt veryscared,? says a Tibetan young woman who was in Lhasa on that fateful day.She and a seven-year-old girl were lucky to cross into India even asviolence carried on.It was on March 10 in 1959 when Tibetans first stood up against the Chineserule. Every year the day is marked in Dharamshala with prayers and protests.But what happened on March 10 2008 was something completely different bothin its character and scale. It was like a spark that set off a fire thatwent far beyond the corners of the otherwise quiet hill town.Leading the charge of the protest were men and women like Tensing Tsundue, arising star in the Tibetan struggle. With his red bandanna, Tsundue almostlooks like a Tibetan Rambo, taking on the Chinese.?This red band that I?m wearing, for me this red band is the mark of mypledge that I will work for ?Free Tibet? and until and unless Tibet is notfree, I will not take this off,? Tsundue says.Tsundue's weapon is not violence, but spectacle. He has gone to incredibleheights to embarrass the Chinese in the past.So when protests broke out inside Tibet, Tsundue lost no time in starting anagitation ? a march from Dharamshala to Tibet on foot. He says that thistime, it's the Chinese who have their backs to the wall.?So, they [Chinese] are paranoid. They are criticising Germany for lettingtheir President meet His Holiness. They are criticising America for awardinggold medal to His Holiness. They are criticising India for allowing Tibetanprotest. They are getting paranoid! They are losing sleep,? he says.At Tsundue's home in Dharamshala, photos pasted on the walls tell the storyof a young literature student who evolved into an aggressive campaigner.His long-time friend and mentor, author Jane Perkins sees young protestorslike Tsundue as warriors in the army of believers led by the Dalai Lama.?This incredible force in robes ? I see Dalai Lama as the commander-in-chiefof an army of believers, with each monk having his rank fixed. And thencomes along Tsundue who inspires those without robes. The lay people and themonks together form His Holiness? army of warriors,? she says.But even as the struggle for free Tibet continues on the ground, newbattlefields have opened up elsewhere. On the Internet, for instance,Tibetans are now waging a war of words against what they call is the Chinesepropaganda online.A 28-year-old Tibetan activist, who prefers to stay anonymous, is one suchvirtual warrior, taking on the mighty Chinese using his keyboard.A firm believer, he often goes to the Dalai Lama's temple to seek divinehelp. His laptop, of course, goes with him. Sitting alone in his office hefights what he calls the Chinese war of misinformation.?On March 13, I was trying to do some online chatting with some Chinese, tosee what their reaction is, but the first reaction was how could Dalai Lamado this. I was surprised,? he says.Working for an American NGO he often blogs in Chinese, and uses it tocommunicate with Tibetan sympathisers inside china.?At times it makes us really sad, because these Chinese are really selfishwhen it comes to our ethnic issues and that the Chinese governmentdeliberately diverts purpose,? the online activist adds.Provocative poetry, fierce activism, and ingenious online warfare ? this isthe new face of the Tibetan struggle for freedom. But where does all thisleave Buddhism and its principles?Tsering answers this question without a moment of thought.?Before I am a Buddhist, I am Tibetan. Before I am a Tibetan, I am a humanand before I am a human, I am just another animal. The fight for Tibet isnot just about freedom. For Tibetans like me, it's a battle for survival. It?s now or never,? Tsering replies.http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/international_politics/the+other+antichinese+protestors+/2096047?intcmp=rss_news_perspectives_rise_in_chinaThe other anti-Chinese protestorsWatch the reportPrint this pageLast Modified: 28 Apr 2008By: Lindsey HilsumTibet is the main focus of protests targeting the Olympic torch as it makesits way to China, but some demonstrators are also championing China's UighurMuslim minority.The Chinese government says some Uighurs have been involved in a terroristplot to disrupt the Games in Beijing in August.Human rights campaigners say that like the Tibetans to their south, theUighurs are simply protesting against heavy-handed tactics and ethnicdiscrimination.In recent weeks the border with Pakistan and Afghanistan has seendemonstrations and arrests. In a rare report from this remote region, ourChina correspondent Lindsey Hilsum went to investigate.http://www.reuters.com/article/inDepthNews/idUSN2731462220080722?feedType=RSS&feedName=inDepthNewsProtests, ambush marketing hurt Olympic brandMon Jul 21, 2008 10:01pm EDTBy Ben KlaymanCHICAGO (Reuters) - Protests against China's policies at home and abroad, aswell as marketing techniques used by companies that are not official Olympicsponsors, have made the Beijing games a risky proposition for some sponsors."When any corporation wants to hitch its wagon onto an event, they're doingit because it is perceived to have a certain popularity and charm," saidAndrew Zimbalist, a professor of economics at Smith College inMassachusetts."If the event loses some of that -- because of pollution or domesticrepression or because they're sponsoring a genocidal regime in Sudan --there's no question some of the shine wears off," he added.The Beijing Games, which start next month, and the 2006 Winter Olympics inItaly, have already brought in about $4.4 billion in rights and sponsorshipdeals. Contracts for so-called "top partners" span at least four years toinclude both winter and summer games.The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has 12 global sponsors -- payingup to $100 million apiece -- including Coke; General Electric, which ownsNBC Universal, the holder of exclusive U.S. TV broadcast rights for theGames; and McDonald's.In China, sponsors are not getting what they pay for, according to ShaunRein, managing director of China Market Research Group in Shanghai. His firmpolled Chinese consumers and found most do not know or care who the Olympicsponsors are."Most sponsors are going feel very disappointed with the return oninvestment for their sponsorships," Rein said. "There is so much clutter.It's unbelievable how many Olympic-themed messages are popping up all overthe place."Ambush marketing, in which companies try to identify themselves with theOlympics even if they are not official sponsors, does not make it any easierfor the official partners.Germany's Adidas may be the national Olympic sponsor in China, but Reinpointed out Chinese rival Li Ning arranged for the sportscasters of CCTV,China's largest TV network, to wear its apparel during the Games.Nevertheless, Chinese officials earlier this month dismissed critics, sayingcomplaints of human rights abuses were just so much "noise pollution."Coke officials dismiss critics as uninformed, pointing out that the companyis working with nonprofit groups to deliver relief supplies and health careservices in Darfur. It said it also has committed at least $5 million toaddress the need for clean water in Sudan."As a business, we recognize that our role is important, but it is alsoinherently and appropriately limited," Coke spokesman Petro Kacur said in ane-mail. "We are neither a government, nor the United Nations."Coke is the longest continuous Olympic corporate sponsor, dating back to1928, and it recently signed a deal to extend that relationship through2020.Many say sports and politics should not mix."The Olympics should be about the athletes. It should not be politicized,"GE spokeswoman Deirdre Latour said. "In every single country we operate in,we influence change by how we conduct business in that country."GE has rung up $700 million in infrastructure sales in China and istargeting more than $1 billion in advertising sales on NBC Universal'snetworks related to the Games, she said.But, despite the dangers, selling to China's 1.3 billion consumers is toolucrative an opportunity to pass up."There's really nothing else comparable to the Olympics for your branding,"said Ed Hula, editor of Around the Rings, a website devoted to the businessof the Olympics.The cost of a global sponsorship has risen close to $100 million for afour-year period, compared with $30 million to $40 million in the 1990s, heestimated.Others -- such as swimsuit maker Speedo and Nike, the world's largestathletic shoe and apparel maker -- prefer to avoid the big cost of a globalsponsorship, focusing instead on national teams or individual athletes.Not all companies are quiet, however. The chief executive of Germany'sVolkswagen, the first foreign automaker to enter the Chinese market and anational Olympic sponsor in China, in April urged the host nation to open upits society.French retailer Carrefour, not an official Olympic sponsor, said its tradingin China suffered when it became a target of Chinese demonstrations, sparkedby pro-Tibet protests in Paris.Being associated with the Olympics is a must for many companies, which seethe Games as the best known global brand, said Neal Pilson, the former headof CBS Sports at U.S. television network CBS. "In a growing marketplace ofclutter and choice, these major events create greater value because theyvirtually guarantee public attention."(Reporting by Ben Klayman; Editing by Eddie Evans) From ldxar1 at tesco.net Thu Aug 28 11:59:15 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:59:15 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] INDIA: Protests against land grabs, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <005101c90940$2c33f7d0$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * Launch of Tata Nano car factory in Singur marked by protests by dispossessed farmers Farmers demand land back, blockade plant * Protests for compensation in the Greater Capital Region: clashes between farmers and police in which police killed four farmers * Badalpur village in Uttar Pradesh turned into fortress in land dispute * 100 arrested at protest against land grab for port at Bhubaneshwar * Mumbai road blocked by victims of SEZ land grab * Tamil Nadu farmers demonstrate against land grab for industrial estate * Protest in Kurnool over broken promises to displaced people * Posco farming disrupted by shutdown, protests over steel plant land grab * Kochi meeting hears protest views on grab of temple * Sikhs protest desecration during eviction, throw stones * Dharna in Permude, Mangalore, over SEZ land grab * Opposition parties target land auction * Mass application for sale deeds in protest at Mittal land grab * Tamil Nadu protest, arrests over eviction of trader * Madurai protest: documents symbolically burnt in protest at failure of land reform * Tamil Nadu protest: effigy burnt * Coimbatore road blocked in protest at road building land grab * Kannada protest over disputed island, water project * Displaced farmers protest at Kurnool government office * Kochi: evicted farmers blockade office over jobs promise * Dharna and roadblock in Hyderabad over SEZ land grab * Karnataka protest over land grab for bus stand * Karnataka protest against eviction drive * Himachal Pradesh villagers protest against water diversion project * Kurnool protest at land sale at knockdown price * Kochi port evictees protest * Punjab farmers protest land grab for thermal plant * Andhra Pradesh port corridor scheme protested * Mangalore SEZ protested * Maharashtra SEZ protested - road blocked NOTE: SEZ, "Special Economic Zone", refers to specially-built neoliberal export-production areas similar to the Export Processing Zones in China. A dharna is a type of sit-down protest. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/aug/22/tata.nano Protests may delay world's cheapest car Randeep Ramesh in Delhi guardian.co.uk, Friday August 22 2008 15:41 BST Article history Ratan Tata says he is concerned at the violence of protests against the factory. Photograph: AFP/Getty Image Tata Motors will move production of the world's cheapest car from a new factory in India's West Bengal state if violent protests by local farmers - forced to sell their land for the site - continue, its chairman warned today. In a blow to the country's image as an emerging centre of manufacturing might, Ratan Tata told a press conference that demonstrations over the acquisition of farmland threatened to delay the launch of the Nano, scheduled for October. "What has concerned us is the violence, the disruptions, that has led us to be concerned about the safety of our employees, our equipment and investment, and of the viability of the process," he said in the state capital, Kolkata, today. "We need to protect our people. How would we (be able to) bring our managers and their families if they are going to get beaten? . If anybody is under the impression that, because we have made a large investment of 15 billion rupees (?184m), we would not move, then they are wrong, because we would move to protect our people." The Nano, which will be sold at 100,000 rupees (?1,230), was designed to bring motoring to the country's billion-strong masses. Although hailed by the world's press this year, the Nano factory has become a symbol of the simmering confrontation between industry and farmers who are unwilling to part with land in a nation where two-thirds of the population depends on agriculture. In the case of Tata's new car, more than 1,000 acres of luxuriantly fertile fields in West Bengal's Singur district were acquired by the state government to set up the Nano plant. The factory will be able to churn out 250,000 cars a year. Thousands of farmers who once raised four crops a year have been evicted. When the Guardian visited the site this year it found farmers had committed suicide after losing their land and another protestor who had discovered the body of his daughter inside the factory site, strangled and burned. The heavy-handed actions have resulted in repeated clashes - this week a strike shut the factory and thousands marched, blocking access to the site. The backlash is embarrassing for West Bengal's communist government, which has been in power for more than three decades and saw the Nano project as key to rebranding itself as a regime friendly to capitalism. Some analysts say Tata may be using the threat to force the state government to face down the protests, something it has been noticeably reluctant to do since losing crucial local elections. Opposition parties demand the return of 400 acres of land, which the company says is impossible. "Tata say they have no Plan B. But the factory is nearly complete and the money is spent in West Bengal. If they start again somewhere else it will take time and there will be a cost implication. However Nano will be loss-making at this price so Tata may save some money in that way," said Mahantesh Sabarad of Mumbai's Centrum Broking. Commentators say that, whatever the calculation, there is no doubt this is a "huge blow" for West Bengal, which has long been plagued by labour unrest. "It's disastrous. The real problem is the way that land was acquired - by government strong-arming people into selling their land," said Gurcharan Das, a prominent business columnist. "I think the real question here is whether Indians want to remain starving peasants or part of an urban proletariat. My bet is the latter." Economists say that at the heart of the argument is that land is one of India's scarcest resources, and its acquisition is key to balancing industrial growth with the needs of rural farmers. The tensions signal an economic transformation that is likely to be as jarring as China's - which has seen a number of "peasant revolts" over land grabbed for new industries. However some say the Indian system will give rise to a "negotiated industrialisation". "I think we are seeing local people having a say in the process. And sometimes projects are pulled. Just recently 11 dams were cancelled after local protests in Sikkim. Industrialisation has been violent in other countries but I think Indian democracy can accommodate it without the violence," said Sunita Narain, head of Delhi's Centre for Science and Technology. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/engineering/article4602376.ece August 25, 2008 Indian farmers' anger poses threat to launch of the Tata Nano Local politicians have called for an indefinite siege of the factory and analysts fear the Nano launch will be delayed Rhys Blakely The high-profile launch of the world's cheapest car - the ?1,250 Tata Nano - was in jeopardy last night after tens of thousands of protesters gathered at the factory being built to produce the vehicle, complaining that the land had been taken illegally from small farmers. Demonstrators blocked roads leading to the plant at Singur, about 20 miles from Calcutta in the northern Indian state of West Bengal. About 4,000 riot police were drafted in to protect the factory, which is due to start producing the Nano this autumn. Security was tight and water cannons were on standby amid fears that the protests could turn violent. Activists at Singur said that they would call off their protest only if the state government handed back about 400 acres to farmers - a move that could derail the Nano project. Tensions in the area earmarked for the Nano factory have been simmering for two years amid allegations that the communist-led state government of West Bengal had seized land illegally from local small farmers. Related Links Nano costs could leave Tata out of pocket Tata's little car makes big impact Mamata Banerjee, the head of the main opposition Trinamool Congress party in West Bengal, called for an indefinite siege of the factory. Farmers have not accepted any compensation. Kajal Das, the wife of a farmer who lost land to the project, said: "We have gathered today to get back our land. Money cannot compensate our loss." The demonstrations threaten to ruin the commercial debut of the Nano, one of the most closely watched launches in the car industry in decades. At its unveiling in January, the Nano was lauded as marking a revolution in the industry, allowing millions in India's emerging middle classes to buy a car for the first time. On Friday, Ratan Tata, the Tata chief executive, said that he was ready to abandon the Singur plant if the long-running series of demonstrations did not abate. Such a decision would involve the company writing off up to $350 million (?189 million) in investment. Already there are fears that the car's ultra-low-cost business model could be scrambled by sharp increases in raw materials and that Tata will make heavy losses on the first batch of Nanos sold. Indian analysts forecast that Tata will need to produce nearly 400,000 Nanos a year to make a profit, well above a planned initial capacity of 250,000. Any delay to production capacity coming online, therefore, could prove hugely expensive for the conglomerate. Tata has not commented on the margins that it expects to make on the Nano. It has said only that the car will be profitable over the long term. The economics underpinning the Nano make it especially vulnerable to price movements in the commodity markets. Since Tata began to develop the Nano in 2003, raw material costs have increased from about 13 per cent to about 23 per cent of its price before taxes, according to an estimate by Global Insight, the consultants. By contrast, raw materials account for about 7 per cent of the cost of an average American car - or about $1,600, up from about $800 five years ago. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/9/story.cfm?c_id=9&objectid=10528826&ref=rss Protestors tell Tata - 'give us back our land' 8:27AM Monday August 25, 2008 Protestors block Calcutta-Delhi national highway during a peaceful sit-in-demonstration in front of Tata Motors small car factory at Singur. Photo / AP CALCUTTA - Thousands of angry farmers protested outside a factory that manufactures the world's cheapest car in India's West Bengal state yesterday, to demand the return of land they say was taken from them without proper compensation. The farmers claim that India's Tata Motors has not paid them proper compensation for the 997 acres (405 hectares) the company acquired in Singur, a village 20 miles (30 kilometres) northwest of Calcutta, the state capital. The land is now the site of a factory producing the Nano automobile, which is scheduled to go on sale by the end of the year for US$2,500. Repeated protests, however, could delay the launch. Nearly 3,000 armed police surrounded the factory Sunday as thousands of farmers gathered, but no violence had been reported. "We have water cannons ready to cope with any eventuality," said the area's superintendent of police, Rajiv Mishra. Protesters with posters, banners and flags lined both sides of the highway leading to the factory. "We want our land back. Money cannot compensate our losses. We are farmers and we want to live by farming," said Bibekanada Das, a farmer who said he lost about two acres (less than a hectare) of land. "The Tatas should bow down before people's power and return the land," Mamta Banerjee, chief of the opposition Trinamool Congress party, told reporters as she joined the protesters. Banerjee's party has led the fight against Tata and last week called for the company to return 400 acres (160 hectares) of land to the farmers. On Friday the chairman of the Tata Group, Ratan Tata, threatened to move the factory out of West Bengal if the protests persist. "If the state for any reason ... feels that we are exploiting them, if that is the feeling, we will exit," Tata told reporters in Calcutta. "We can't operate the plant with police protection," he said, adding that protesters had attacked Tata employees and stolen equipment from the factory site. Tata did not say when he would decide whether to leave the state, and did not address how the possible move would affect production of the Nano. West Bengal has been the centre of a national debate about acquiring farmland for factories in India, where about two-thirds of the more than 1 billion people live off agriculture. The controversy came to a head last year when police gunned down 14 protesters in Nandigram, a nearby district in West Bengal, causing an outcry that eventually scuttled a planned special economic zone designed to draw foreign investment. Tata has the support of the Communist government that has ruled West Bengal for three decades, but a coalition of opposition parties has strongly fought the project because it opposes using fertile farmland for industry. Tata Group, founded in 1868, is one of India's largest business conglomerates, with interests spanning steel, software services, hotels, chemicals and insurance. - AP http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/080824/business/india_economy_auto_politics_unrest_tata_nano Siege protest at India's Nano car plant Module body Sun Aug 24, 8:50 AM SINGUR, India (AFP) - About 40,000 protesters on Sunday surrounded the Indian factory slated to produce the world's cheapest car, alleging land for the site was forcibly taken from local farmers, police said. Demonstrators blocked main roads near the plant at Singur, 35 kilometres (20 miles) northwest of the state capital Kolkata, as riot police protected the factory premises, authorities said. "Security has been tightened in and around Tata's small car project. More than 4,000 policemen have been deployed," Raj Kanojia, a senior police official of West Bengal state, told AFP. The gates of the factory, which is still under construction, have been fenced off, Kanojia said, as an October deadline for the first 2,500-dollar Nano car to roll off the assembly line appeared under severe threat. Kanojia put the number of protesters at 40,000, though activists said they expected as many as 200,000 to join the action in the coming days. West Bengal opposition chief Mamata Banerjee, who called the protest, demanded that the land -- much of which has not been built on -- be returned to farmers. "Our party will fight to the finish to get the land back," Banerjee said to thunderous applause on Sunday. "Our agitation will remain peaceful unless we are provoked". On Friday, Ratan Tata, whose Tata Motors is India's top vehicle-maker, warned he would move the plant out of the state if the demonstrations kept up, although his company has already invested 350 million dollars in the project. But activists at Singur say they will only call off protests if the government hands back 400 acres (160 hectares) forcibly taken from farmers, who have not accepted any compensation. "The government acquired 997 acres of land for the project. The project needs about 600 acres," said Partha Chatterjee, a senior opposition politician. West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, whose communist-controlled government brought the plant to the state, said the protests would fail. "The project will be a reality," said Bhattacharjee late Saturday. "Nobody can obstruct it. "It is totally impractical to give back the land as demanded. Returning the 400 acres means scrapping the entire project." Tensions were high across West Bengal, which has been at the forefront of recent battles over land rights in India. The struggles have pitted the interests of farmers who say they will starve without their land against those of business and India's government, which say the country needs to industrialise rapidly. For more than two years the Tata factory site has seen protests by activists and villagers who say many poor farmers were forced to part with their land. Elsewhere in the state, at Nandigram village, where the state government acquired land for a petrochemical hub, police in March 2007 shot dead 14 farmers opposing the move. http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=398385 Mamata kicks off indefinite protest at Singur IANS Sunday 24th August, 2008 Opposition Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Sunday kicked off an indefinite protest by thousands near the Tata Motors small car factory site in Singur in West Bengal to demand return of 400 acres of farmland acquired for the project. The Trinamool chief reached Singur at 2 p.m., accompanied by Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh, social activist Medha Patkar, former Congress leader Soumen Mitra, Krishi Jami Jiban Jibika Raksha Committee (Save Farmland Committee) Convenor Purnendu Bose and other political and social activists. Banerjee appealed to the protesters to abstain from any violence. 'I would like to request all of you to abstain from any violence. This agitation is for the cause of common people,' she said. Around 200,000 people were expected to join the demonstration organised mainly by the Trinamool Congress, said Becharam Manna, a farm leader. Security forces were deployed to prevent possible violence at Singur, 40 km from here. The Trinamool-led Krishijami Jiban Jibika Raksha Committee, which opposes the takeover of farmland for the Tata project, has called for indefinite protests at the Nano factory site from Sunday. The protesters want the Left Front government to return 400 acres of the total taken from what they say are 'unwilling farmers' to build ancillary industries adjacent to the main auto plant. A total of 997.11 acre was acquired for the project, of which 691.66 acre belong to farmers who have given their land willingly. 'I am going to express my solidarity with the people of Singur. The Tatas should not use their corporate power for wrong purposes,' Patkar said. The protesters have set up 21 camps around the factory site. Security arrangements have been tightened in and around Singur, said Inspector General of Police (law and order) Raj Kanojia. 'We have deployed around 3,000 policemen. But they will not do anything unless the situation arises,' said Rajiv Mishra, the Hooghly district police superintendent. Tata Motors took up the project to build the small car factory in Singur two years back. Since then the firm has faced resistance from sections of the farmers and political parties over the farmland acquisition. 'We want our land back and we will continue to agitate till our demand is met,' said Laxman Das, a farmer in Singur. http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=398550 Trinamool protest chokes highway in West Bengal IANS Monday 25th August, 2008 The indefinite siege by West Bengal's opposition Trinamool Congress in front of the Tata Motors small car factory site in Singur Monday caused a traffic gridlock on the national highway and hampered the movement of vehicles entering the state. 'There's a huge traffic snarl on NH-2 because of the Trinamool Congress agitation. Several long distance vehicles coming from other states were diverted,' Hooghly district police superintendent Rajiv Mishra told IANS. He said the entire Durgapur expressway in Hooghly district was clogged due to the siege. 'Many trucks had to stop before entering the district,' Mishra said. The Trinamool-led Krishijami Jiban Jibika Raksha Committee (KJJRC), which opposed the takeover of farmland for the Tata project, had called for an indefinite protest at the Nano factory site from Sunday. The protesters are demanding the return of 400 acres of land which they allege was forcibly taken from 'unwilling farmers' to build ancillary industries adjacent to the Tata Motors' main plant. A total of 997.11 acres was acquired for the project, of which 691.66 acres belonged to farmers who gave their land willingly. 'We don't accept this claim that the traffic jam was caused because of our political programme. We are constantly allowing all emergency vehicles through the Durgapur expressway. But we would request people to kindly bear with us during this crucial point of our movement,' senior Trinamool Congress leader Madan Mitra said. He said the problem of Singur farmers, whose land was forcibly acquired by the state government, was much more critical than the troubled passengers who were stuck on the way. http://www.newkerala.com/topstory-fullnews-5513.html Farmers block train movement to protest Singur land acquisition Singur, Aug 2 : A 500-strong mob, led by local Trinamool Congress leader Tapan Dasgupta, blocked train movement in the Howrah-Bardhaman section for about two hours today to demand return of the land acquired 'forcibly' for the Tata Motors small car project at Singur. Dhaniakhali police station Officer Incharge Biswajeet Ghoshal said farmers raised a blockade at the Belmuri level crossing from 0900 hours to 1100 hours following which the Howrah-bound Rajdhani Express, Benaras-Howrah Bibhuti Express and several local trains were delayed. Later, police and GRP personnel managed to lift the blockade and the train movement was resumed. The agitators also protested against the nosedive in prices of potatoes which was resulting in huge losses for the farmers. The Singur Krishi Jami Raksha Committee (SKJRC) announced that it would organise a rally throughout the Hooghly district tomorrow to demand the return of the land acquired for the Tata Motors project. They would also organise road blockades throughout the district from 1000 hours to 1200 hours tomorrow in support of their demand. The outfit had put up posters and banners at various areas, asking the workers and other service and construction engineers arriving here from outside, not to work for the project. Meanwhile, the Hooghly district committee of the CPI(M) announced to organise a rally this evening in support of the small car project. Singur CPI(M) leader Dibakar Das said, ''The people of this region want industrialisation. The Tata Motors project is being opposed only by those who do not want the rapid development of this area.'' But SKJRC convener Becharam Manna said the movement would be intensified unless the land, 'forcibly' acquired from the farmers, was returned. Hooghly Superintendent of Police (SP) Rajeev Mishra said huge contingents of security forces had been deployed in and around the Tata Motors project site as well as on all the roads leading up to the factory. ''Altogether 800 police personnel have been deployed to provide security to the workers. Besides, plain clothes policemen have been patrolling the entire region. Security at the Singur and Kamarkundu railway stations has also been stepped up for the safety of the workforce arriving here from various parts of the state,'' the SP added. Reports have been pouring in of the workers and security guards at the Tata Motors being allegedly assualted and threatened by the SKJRC and Trinamool activists. On Tuesday, construction engineer Manish Khatua was left critically injured after he was severely assaulted. The SKJRC and Trinamool cadres were also allegedly threatening the workforce to leave the place immediately or ''face the consequences''. --- UNI http://story.indiagazette.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/701ee96610c884a6/id/389822/cs/1/ Protests continue in Singur over land row India Gazette Sunday 3rd August, 2008 (IANS) Protests against Tata Motors' small car project at Singur for allegedly forceful acquisition of farmland continued Sunday as the Congress blocked roads and a Trinamool Congress-supported group took out a big rally in the town. Demanding that the West Bengal government and the Tata Motors return 400 acres taken from 'unwilling' farmers, around 1,000 rallyists covered a two-km stretch of Singur - an affluent rural belt of Hooghly district - raising slogans against the state's Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)-led Left Front government. 'We are not against industrialisation. We just don't want industries to come up on fertile land. We want factories on infertile land, low lands and unutilised lands of closed down factories,' Singur Krishi Jami Raksha Committee (Singur Save Farmland Committee) convenor Becharam Manna told reporters. Referring to Tata Motors managing director Ravi Kant's remarks that the company would continue in Singur, 40 km from here, as long as its patience did not wear off, Manna said: 'The LF government is responsible for investors backing out.' Manna said had the government not given fertile land to Tata Motors, the situation would not have taken a turn for the worse. Congress activists led by assembly member Abdul Mannan set up road blocks at various spots of the busy Durgapur Expressway, affecting vehicular movement. Security has been beefed up in Singur after the committee stepped up its agitation since July 27 and ordered workers at the factory who come from outside Singur not to report for duty. The situation worsened when an engineer of the construction firm Shapoorji Pallonji was roughed up by women protesters Tuesday night. A day later, Ravi Kant said in Mumbai there were 'elements' trying to create tension, and conceded the situation had turned bad in Singur. On Friday, peasants clashed with the police after a handful of locals tried to break the factory wall with shovels. Two security men were also beaten up, but no police complaint has been lodged so far. Committee members squatted on the railway tracks Saturday, detaining several mail and express trains. Following resentment among a substantial section of peasants from whom the state government has acquired the lands for the project, the committee along with the civil society has spearheaded an agitation since mid-2006 against setting up of the plant. The government acquired 997.11 acres, triggering protests across the three panchayats - Gopalnagar, KGD (Kamarkundu, Gopalnagar, Doluigachcha) and Beraberi - that comprise the project area. The Singur factory is working on manufacturing Nano, universally hailed as a feat in automobile engineering and expected to be the world's cheapest car costing just Rs.100,000 (less than $2,500). http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?col=§ion=subcontinent&xfile=data/subcontinent/2008/August/subcontinent_August703.xml India state starts talks to end Tata car plant protests (Reuters) 20 August 2008 PrintE-mail KOLKATA, India- Officials in an eastern Indian state began negotiations with opposition politicians on Wednesday to end protests against a Tata Motors factory building the Nano, billed the world's cheapest car. The 100,000-rupee ($2,380) snub-nosed Nano was unveiled in January to a popstar reception, but violent protests and political opposition against land seizures for the factory in West Bengal state threatened to delay its long-awaited launch. Protesters have occasionally tried to stop work at the factory and fought with workers. An engineer had to be taken to hospital after his car was stoned last month. West Bengal's communist government began talking to leaders of Trinamool Congress, the state's main opposition, which has been championing a movement by farmers unwilling to give their land. "We have got a letter from the Tatas as well for a solution," Mamata Banerjee, the Trinamool's chief, said. State government officials said Wednesday's talks could set the stage for a tripartite meeting soon between the government, Trinamool and Tata. Tata Motors, a unit of Indian conglomerate Tata group, plans to launch the Nano later this year from its new factory at a 1,000-acre (400-ha) complex in Singur, a cluster of villages near Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal state. The protests that Tata faces reflect a larger stand-off between industry in India and farmers unwilling to part with land in a country where two-thirds of a billion-plus population depend on agriculture. For Tata, trouble started after the communist government took over the farmland for the factory. The state offered compensation in return, but some villagers complained they did not receive their dues. Others refused to obey the state and are declining compensation, many of them farmers with smaller land holdings. In all, around 400 acres of seized land are still being fiercely disputed, threatening the planned October launch of the Nano, which is timed to coincide with India's festival season. Relocation of units Banerjee said she could talk to Tata provided the company agreed to relocate the ancillary units out of the disputed land. "If the ancillary units are shifted to land available nearby the crisis can be resolved," Banerjee told reporters on Tuesday. But Tata Ryerson, a Tata group company which is investing more than $20 million for an ancillary unit to supply Nano components, said relocating would be impractical. "Any relocation would make it impossible for us to hold the cost line and consequently the 100,000-rupee price line," Sandipan Chakraborty, managing director of Tata Ryerson, told Reuters. http://story.indiagazette.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/701ee96610c884a6/id/396882/cs/1/ Activists in Mumbai protest TATA's upcoming port in Orissa India Gazette Wednesday 20th August, 2008 (ANI) Mumbai, August 20 : Greenpeace activists in Mumbai staged a demonstration outside the headquarters of Tata company on Wednesday against a port that the company is planning to set up in Orissa. The activists claimed that the building of the port would adversely affect the turtle population in the region. The building of the mega port at Dhamra in Orissa will destroy the turtles taking an entire fragile and significant eco system with them. "He (Ratan Tata) made a commitment that the Dhamra port which Tata Steel is building right now in Orissa, if there is any likelihood of damage to the environment, he will reconsider the location of the port. There is every evidence now which proves that it will not only push turtles one step closer to extinction, it will also upset the fragile bio diversity there," said Areeba Hamid, Campaigner. The protesters said they had written numerous letters to Ratan Tata, Chairman of the Tata Group requesting him to change the location of the port but in vain and therefore they were forced to form a human chain in front of Tata headquarters. Around 90,000 Tata customers and over 200 international scientists and academics and other international groups have written to Ratan Tata asking him to change the location of the port. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/BOM54906.htm Protesters clash with police near India car plant 21 Aug 2008 11:55:02 GMT Source: Reuters By Sujoy Dhar KOLKATA, India, Aug 21 (Reuters) - At least 1,000 protesters opposing the seizure of farmland for a Tata Motors plant, due to assemble what has been billed the world's cheapest car, clashed with police in eastern India on Thursday. Protesters said several people were beaten up by police when they tried to march towards the plant in Singur, an hour's drive from Kolkata. Police said no one was injured in the demonstration. The 100,000-rupee ($2,380) snub-nosed Nano was unveiled in January to a popstar reception, but violent protests and political opposition against land seizures for the factory in West Bengal state threatened to delay its long-awaited launch. "No one was injured. They blocked a highway near the project for hours and then dispersed," senior police official Raj Kanojia said. The protesters were organised by supporters of India's ruling Congress party, which opposes the communist-run government in West Bengal. TV footage showed protesters with sticks clashing with police. "Police rained batons on us leaving dozens of us injured," said Abdul Mannan, the Congress party leader who led the march. The protests that Tata faces reflect a larger stand-off between industry in India and farmers unwilling to part with land in a country where two-thirds of the billion-plus population depend on agriculture. In Singur, protesters have occasionally tried to stop work at the factory and fought with workers. An engineer had to be taken to hospital after his car was stoned last month. West Bengal's communist government on Tuesday began talking to leaders of Trinamool Congress, the state's main opposition, which has been championing a movement by farmers unwilling to give their land. Tata Motors, a unit of conglomerate Tata group, plans to launch the Nano later this year from its new factory at a 1,000-acre (400-ha) complex in Singur. http://www.mathaba.net/rss/?x=602166 India: 4 killed, 50 injured in farmers' protest in Greater Noida Posted: 2008/08/14 From: MNN Four persons were killed and 50 others, including 15 cops, injured in police firing and clashes on Wednesday after agitating farmers demanding adequate compensation for their acquired land in National Capital Region (NCR) Greater Noida, turned violent. Farmers were on protest mode for the past few days demanding enhanced compensation for their land acquired in 2006 by the Uttar Pradesh government and the crowd turned violent this afternoon pelting stones at policemen. Security personnel present at the spot, who tried to control the mob, resorted to baton charge and lobbed teargas shells to rein in the mob, SSP Noida R K Chaturvedi told reporters. As violence continued, police opened fire. "Four persons were killed and about 50 people were injured in the incident," Chaturvedi said. At least 15 police personnel, including Chaturvedi, were injured in the stone pelting, Greater Noida District Magistrate S K Sharma said. There were unconfirmed reports that there was firing from the protesters' side also. --IRNA http://www.indianexpress.com/story/347230.html Farmers protest 'land grab', Maya village turns fortress AanchalBansal Posted online: Monday, August 11, 2008 at 0205 hrs Print Email BADALPUR (UP), AUGUST 10: Sealed from all sides, Badalpur village, nearly 35 km from Delhi and better known as UP Chief Minister Mayawati's parental village, resembled a fortress on Sunday. With Samajwadi Party (SP) leaders threatening to enter the village to support farmers of the Kisan Sangharsh Committee protesting against the rate of compensation offered by the Mayawati Government for acquiring nearly 400 hectare of land in the area. About 100 police personnel deployed by the Noida police kept vigil throughout the day. Related Stories Raja Ram, Maya's 'heir', sackedLeft divided over going with MayaMaya can't become PM by winning UP alone: CongPaswan to take war against Maya to her doorstepPersonnel dept asked to look into charges of CBI seeking BSP votes Ad Links Mayawati Punjab India BJP Delhi Nearly 800 farmers from Badalpur and three other villages - Bishnuli, Sadulpur and Achenja - have been protesting against the state Government's step to acquire land for developing a green belt of 400 hectare around a recreation centre being built by Mayawati on a property spread across 47 bighas in the village. While Badalpur alone contributes 230 hectare, the other three contribute around 170 hectare. While the Government is offering the farmers Rs 711 per square metre, they claim that the market rate is Rs 4,500-5,000 per square metre. "There was no permission to hold any demonstration or agitation in the area so we had to impose restrictions. We had deployed police personnel and vans on all routes leading to the village right from the Delhi-UP border," said SSP R K Chaturvedi, adding that the police arrested four MPs and three MLAs of the SP near Ghazipur Sabzi Mandi. The SP leaders taken into custody included Dharmendar Yadav, Ashok Chauhan and Madan Chauhan amongst others. While the administration met with the agitating group of about 200-odd farmers to find a solution, the situation remained tense with talks being scheduled for Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Sangharsh Committee has said the farmers will not ally with any political party. Jasvir Numberdar, the head of the agitating group, said, "This is our fight with the administration and Mayawati because they are taking our land by paying less and not offering any employment security. We do not want any support from any political party." With the Congress and BSP drifting apart after the former joined hands with Mulayam Singh Yadav and the third front declaring Mayawati as the leader, the protesting farmers have found support from both the Congress and SP. The Noida police had earlier foiled a protest rally planned by the Congress to support the agitating farmers by arresting Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh, party MP Sachin Pilot and UPCC president Rita Bahuguna Joshi on July 29 at the Delhi-UP border when they were on their way to join a rally organised by the protesting committee. Triggered by the Congress support and agitation on July 29, the Government has now set up base camps to give out the compensation for the land. According to the figures given by the Dadri Tehsil, 575 of the 800 farmers have come forward so far. BSP's district head Kartar Singh whose residence alone was fortified by about 25 police personnel, said, "The agitation is unjustified as it is being fuelled by rival parties and the property dealer lobby. We are convincing people to come forward." ? 2008: Indian Express Newspapers (Mumbai) Ltd. All rights reserved throughout the world. http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1180378 Cong plans protest outside Maya home Javed M Ansari Tuesday, July 29, 2008 03:31 IST NEW DELHI: The Congress plans to take its battle against Mayawati to the Uttar Pradesh chief minister's house. Quite literally. On Tuesday, the party plans to demonstrate outside her ancestral home in Badalpur village in Guatam Bodhnagar near Delhi against the UP government's plans to forcibly acquire farmland. Coming close on the heels of the confrontation between the two parties during last week's vote of confidence, the move is likely to escalate tension. Digvijay Singh, AICC general secretary in charge of UP, Rita Bahuguna, UPCC chief, and Congress MP Sachin Pilot will lead the demonstration. According to the Congress, she has built a palatial home over 47 bighas and the state government is now in the process of acquiring hundreds of bighas from nearby villages at throwaway prices for a picnic spot. Villagers, protesting the acquisition, have set up a Village Sangharsh Samiti. The Congress has linked up with the Sangharsh Samiti and plans to cash in on the issue against the CM. The BSP chief is already under investigation by the CBI for accumulating wealth in excess of her known sources of income. http://www.dawn.com/2008/04/28/rss.htm#20 Indian villagers protest deep-sea port, 100 arrested BHUBANESWAR, April 28 (Reuters): Authorities in eastern India arrested at least 100 villagers and deployed a huge police force to quell a protest against a proposed deep-sea port, officials said on Monday. Villagers in Orissa state, fearing they will lose their land without adequate compensation, forced officials to suspend construction work late on Sunday in Dhamra, where India is planning to build one of its biggest ports. (Posted @ 14:45 PST ) http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/18/stories/2008061855411200.htm SEZ: Raigad farmers continue protest Special Correspondent One farmer injured in lathicharge Government went back on its word: protesters MUMBAI: Farmers affected by the Reliance group's Mumbai Special Economic Zone (MSEZ) blocked the Mumbai-Goa highway at Vashi Naka near Pen in Raigad district for over two hours on Tuesday alleging that the government went back on its assurances. The protesters led by senior Peasants and Workers Party (PWP) leader N.D. Patil were later arrested. According to Vaishali Patil of the SEZ Virodhi Sangharsh Samiti, over 100 protesters were arrested by the police and released later. While those arrested were being brought to the police station, farmers protested and there was a lathicharge by the police in which one farmer was injured. "Exclude 22 villages" Ms. Patil said that last year the government assured farmers that 22 villages in Pen taluka would be excluded from the MSEZ. These villages are in the command area of the Hetawane dam and the Irrigation Department had agreed that these same villages could not be acquired for the MSEZ. It had also issued a letter to the District Collector in this regard. Ms. Patil said the government had not yet notified the exclusion of these villages. In protest, N.D. Patil will go on a hunger strike on July 24. Land acquisition The land acquisition process for the MSEZ was still continuing despite opposition from the people, she said. Reliance had acquired barely 20 per cent of the land for the project, she said. Farmers also protested the fact that the government last month approved the rehabilitation package announced by Reliance. The MSEZ is offering Rs.5 lakh an acre of varkas (unproductive) land and Rs.10 lakh an acre of paddy land. The farmers say that when they are opposed to the project, why should the government even consider the rehabilitation package. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/17/stories/2008061752290300.htm Farmers protest land acquisition for SIPCOT Staff Reporter They urge the administration to drop the move Rights: Members of Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangam staging a demonstration in Tuticorin on Monday. - Photo: N. Rajesh Tuticorin: Farmers affiliated to Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangam staged a demonstration in front of the Collectorate here on Monday. They urged the district administration to drop the proposed move to acquire agricultural land at Valasamudram, Sinthalakattai and Venkateswarapuram areas for the expansion of SIPCOT Industrial Estate. M. Saravanan, president of Valasamudram village panchayat, said that the acquisition of 2,083 acres from the region would jeopardise the livelihood of the farmers since they were been able to get attractive remuneration from the cultivation of pulses, chilly and vegetables, for the past few decades. K. Kanagaraj, district secretary of Communist Party of India (Marxist), and A. Mohanraj, district secretary of Communist Party of India, spoke. A group of residents from Vallinayakapuram submitted a memorandum to the Collector (in-charge), P. Anbarasu, urging the administration to restore bus services from Tuticorin to Vilathikulam through their village. According to them, both the state-owned as well as private public transport buses were not plying through the route for the last 27 days. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/22/stories/2008052250230300.htm Protest against SIPCOT expansion plans Staff Reporter ERODE: Residents of villages around SIPCOT industrial estate in Perundurai staged a day-long fast on Wednesday protesting against the estate expansion plans. The residents, the majority of whom were from Kambuliampatty village, said if the State Government went ahead with its plans to expand the estate by 1,256 acres, they would be affected the most, as they had already lost their land and livelihood when the Government set up the estate. Further, after the Government set up the estate and industries established factories there, the water quality had taken a turn for the worse. For, the 72 dyeing and processing factories, 18 chemical factories and others, the villagers alleged, let out untreated effluents. The land too was affected as 50 acres had been allotted for use as landfill. Such pollution of water, land and air had made life difficult for them, they said. In their estimate, the expansion plan would affect 3,500 persons in 1,000 families that were spread across 1,500 acres. Nearly 800 acres of fertile agriculture lands, 271 farmers, 1,500 agriculture labourers, 10,000 coconut trees, 5,000 cattle would also stand affected, they claimed. The villagers suggested that the Government could instead use 720 acres of land and THADCO shed on around 200 acres that hitherto remain unused. Urging the Government to reconsider the decision, the villager said if their pleas went unheeded, they would, as next step, court arrest. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/17/stories/2008061754530500.htm Project-affected stage protest Special Correspondent KURNOOL: The members of families displaced by the Srisailam project staged a demonstration at Pothireddypadu in Kurnool district on Monday resenting the delay in giving jobs to the victims as promised earlier. Nearly 700 victims staged a demonstration urging the government to implement the GO No. 98. They said the displaced families in Mahabubnagar district were given employment but the families in Kurnool were neglected. CPI (M) district secretary T. Shadrak said the government had taken the displaced families for a ride by not giving to them what was promised earlier. He said the sacrifices of the displaced families should not be ignored as they gave up everything including hearth and home. He said all parties would support the victims. Association president Kesavulu and others were present. http://www.rxpgnews.com/business/Posco-protests-cripple-Orissas-betel-leaf-farming_33323.shtml Posco protests cripple Orissa's betel leaf farming May 21, 2007 - 9:24:05 AM Posco wants over 4,000 acres of land for the project. While 430 acres is private land, the rest belongs to the government. The state government recently provided 1,500 acres to the company on paper. However, the company is yet to get its physical possession. By Jatindra Dash, IANS, [RxPG] Jagatsinghpur -, May 21 - As thousands of people continue their stir against the proposed Posco steel plant to protest displacement, betel leaf farming - the main economic activity in the area - has been severely affected. Orissa's betel leaf, especially the 'kujang pan' variety, is popularly not only in different parts of India but is also exported to other countries like Pakistan and the Middle East. But its cultivation is now under threat. Posco, one of the world's biggest steel makers, signed a deal with the state government in June 2005 to set up a plant near the port town of Paradeep in this coastal district, some 120 km from Bhubaneswar, by 2016. But since then over 20,000 people from around 15 nearby villages, including Dhinikia, Gada Kujang and Nuagaon, have been protesting the project saying it will take away their homes and their betel leaf farms. Villagers have erected at least nine wooden gates in the Dhinikia and Gada Kujang panchayats to prevent government and company officials from entering into these areas, virtually amounting to an economic blockade. 'Even betel leaf farmers who have chosen to stay away from the protests are not getting access to their farms because they need to cross the entry gates. As a result, betel leaf farming has been severely damaged,' says Kasinath Mudli of Patna village. More than 400 families in the region depend on the betel leaf business. While in other regions of the state the farmers produce green betel leaf, kujang cultivators grow a yellowish variety. There are more than 50 betel marts in the Posco-affected regions. But growers have sustained huge losses because traders have not been able to enter the villages nor have local farmers been able to go out to sell their product. Some anti-Posco activists have also destroyed the betel vine marts owned by pro-Posco groups. Many women who were traditionally engaged in the plucking and packing of betel leaf have now been taking part in the anti-Posco movement. 'The livelihood of hundreds of betel farmers has been completely paralysed due to the stir, the erection of entry gates and the economic blockade in the Posco affected area by protesters since one year,' said B.N. Naik, president of Kujang Pan Farmer's Association, told IANS. Farmers send nearly two truckloads of betel leaves out of the region every week. Betel leaves produced in the region are not only popular in the state but also in other parts of the country such as Mumbai, Solapur, Varnasi, Ahmedabad, Kolkata and New Delhi. 'Some Mumbai-based betel leaf traders even export kujang pan to Pakistan, Singapore, Thailand and the Middle East,' said Naik. 'This area boasts of nearly 400 odd betel leaf farms. The total betel leaf business in the region could be nearly Rs.80-100 million annually,' Naik said. Posco wants over 4,000 acres of land for the project. While 430 acres is private land, the rest belongs to the government. The state government recently provided 1,500 acres to the company on paper. However, the company is yet to get its physical possession. While Posco says the plant would affect only 500 families, protesters say the figure is much higher. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/06/stories/2008050650650200.htm Protest against land acquisition Staff Reporter KOCHI: A meeting was held by District Collector M. Beena on Monday to hear the objections and demands being made by the authorities of a temple against the acquisition of part of its land for the highway connectivity of the proposed Vallarpadam International Container Terminal. The temple situated on the land owned by FACT at Amabalamedu has protested the acquisition on the ground that it would lose its compound wall, a bhajan math, where the temple priest lives, and the banyan tree within its premises in the acquisition process. The temple authorities demanded adequate compensation for the loss of compound wall and bhajan math as also additional charges towards meeting the expenses of felling and removing the banyan tree. Dr. Beena told the temple authorities that adequate compensation, as per the guidelines set by the government, would be paid. She, however, said that it would be difficult to meet the temple's demand to be paid the value of the land to be acquired. Since the land belongs to FACT, a public sector undertaking, technically there was no need to pay land value, the Collector said. The temple authorities agreed to get back to the Collector within two days after placing the outcome of the meeting before the temple committee to be convened on Tuesday. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/02/stories/2008050261870300.htm Sikhs protest against alleged blasphemy NEW DELHI: A large number of Sikhs staged a protest at Model Town here on Thursday against alleged desecration of their holy book. The protesters gathered near a gurdwara demanding action against a landlord who had thrown the holy book belonging to his tenant from the second storey of his building in Model Town on Wednesday. The incident allegedly took place when the landlord was forcibly evicting his tenant. Taking the matter seriously, the protesters gathered on Thursday demanding arrest of the landlord. They also blocked traffic on G.T. Karnal Road and allegedly pelted stones at buses, damaging four vehicles. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/12/stories/2008051259260300.htm Protest over MSEZ in Permude Staff Correspondent MANGALORE: Four people were arrested by the Bajpe police on Saturday and released on bail later the same day, after a flare-up the previous day in the Cross Padavu area of Permude village. It is one of the four villages notified for the Phase II of the 3,835- acre Mangalore Special Economic Zone Ltd. The arrests were made following a complaint by an official of the MSEZ, who alleged that he had been assaulted by members of the Krishi Bhoomi Samrakshana Samiti (KBSS). Hundreds of people led by the KBSS, staged a dharna on the premises of the police station from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday. Speaking to The Hindu, the protesters said that the officials of the company had entered their land forcibly with the help of anti-social elements. The agitators were demanding that the police register a complaint from their side as well. However, the local police have not registered any complaint, as yet. Superintendent of Police N. Sathish Kumar said: "We will register a case from the protesters." Officials of the MSEZ were not available for comment. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/23/stories/2008052353970300.htm Some 100 activists of TDP, CPI(M) and BJP arrested Photo: K.R. Deepak Acting tough: Police restraining a CPI(M) activist from staging a protest at the venue of the bulk land auction by VUDA in Visakhapatnam on Thursday. - VISAKHAPATNAM: The Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority's first bid during current fiscal to mobilise funds by selling lands to bridge the budgetary deficit of the State received a setback on Thursday with no response to the much-hyped bulk auction of land in prime areas. The attempt to auction was marred by protests by the Opposition and the police bundled protesters on noticing them, irrespective of their number, into waiting jeeps and mini-lorries. At one point of time, TDP corporator Kona Tata Rao was seen pleading with the police that he did not come for staging a protest. However, his pleadings fell on deaf ears as he was loaded into a jeep. Over 100 activists of the TDP, the CPI(M) and the BJP were arrested in separate batches. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/27/stories/2008052757910300.htm Novel protest by TNHB allottees Staff Reporter Photo: M. Periasamy VOICING RESENTMENT: Members of the Tamizhaga Veetu Vasathi Vaariya Orunkinaintha Othukeetalargal Nala Sangham staging a demonstration at TNHB office in the city on Monday. - Coimbatore: The members of the Tamizhaga Veetu Vasathi Vaariya Orunkinaintha Othukeetalargal Nala Sangham on Monday staged a novel agitation by filing applications en-masse seeking information relating to sale deeds under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. According to K. Jeyachandran, Additional General Secretary of the Sangham, the decision to throng the TNHB offices en-mass across the State and filing of applications seeking individual accounts and status regarding issue of sale deed invoking the provisions of the RTI Act were taken at the recent general body meeting of the association. More than 150 members of the association thronged the TNHB office filing applications raising more than 30 questions. The questions related to the justification behind the inordinate delay of more than two decades in issue of sale deeds, even after the repayment of dues and instalments. The allottees also questioned the TNHB authorities for imposing penalty, interest and penal interest on the accrued outstanding against every individual allottee. Delay The allottees said that delay in disbursement of sale deeds was especially because of the failure of the authorities in disposing land acquisition cases and pointed out that sale deeds had not been given even for houses on sites which were not involved in any land acquisition case. Administrative delay led to such a huge financial burden and should be borne by the officials and the government, they said. All the allottees filed individual applications under the RTI Act. that the project will ensure a better life for them,' Sanak Mishra, CEO for ArcelorMittal's greenfield steel projects in Jharkhand and Orissa, said. http://story.indiagazette.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/701ee96610c884a6/id/363638/cs/1/ Orissa tribals protest Rs.400 bn Arcelor Mittal project India Gazette Monday 26th May, 2008 (IANS) Hundreds of tribals Monday staged a demonstration to protest the proposed Rs.400-billion steel plant by global major ArcelorMittal in Keonjhar district of Orissa. The protestors shouted slogans like 'Go back Mittal', 'We will not give an inch of land for the plant', in front of a hall at district headquarter of Keonjhar, some 150 km from here, where a meeting organized by the company officials was on, a senior district police official told IANS. The company held a meeting inviting villagers, NGOs and government officials to seek their suggestions on the rehabilitation package for the tribals. Although the company officials also invited the leaders of the protestors to join the meeting, they refused, the police official said. ArcelorMittal signed a deal with the Orissa government, two years ago, to set up a 12 million tonne capacity steel plant at a proposed investment of Rs.400 billion on nearly 8,000 acres of land in the tribal populated Keonjhar district. 'We will make efforts to convince people http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/25/stories/2008052558860400.htm Protest against eviction of trader, 32 held Special Correspondent TAMBARAM: Thirtytwo persons, including Tamil Nadu Vanigar Sangangalin Peravai president T.Vellaiyan, were arrested on Saturday when they attempted to stage a demonstration in West Tambaram to protest the eviction of a tenant from a commercial complex two days ago. Members of the traders' body, led by Mr. Vellaiyan, were taking out a procession towards Shanmugham Road, when the police arrested them. They were detained in a marriage hall in Alandur and released in the evening, the police said. The peravai's call to the shopkeepers to down shutters in the southern suburbs met with partial response. Trouble began on Thursday afternoon when a group of men barged into the textile store run by A. Loganathan, who had taken two shops - one on the ground floor and another on the first - on rent in a complex owned by Veeraraghavan on Ramakrishnan Street. The men entered the shop on the ground floor measuring about 200 square feet, bundled up clothes and racks and threw them outside, before closing down the shutters. As news about the incident spread, members of the Tambaram unit of the peravai rushed to the spot. Sometime later, Mr. Vellaiyan visited the shop. Traders alleged that the group of men who barged into the shop was employed by the owner of the complex. But, the relatives and friends of the owner said that the tenant was allowed to occupy the first floor and was asked to vacate only the ground floor so that relatives of the owner could move in. Though the owner was requesting the tenant for several months to vacate, he did not budge. Complaints were lodged by both sides at the Tambaram police station. A case under Section 145 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (dispute concerning land likely cause breach of peace) was registered, the police said, adding the incident would be probed by the Revenue Divisional Officer of Chengalpattu. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/24/stories/2008052459140300.htm Protest staged against non-demarcation of land - Photo: G. Moorthy Against delay: Cadres of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi burning photocopies of 'pattas' in front of the Collectorate on Friday. MADURAI: Cadres of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi staged a protest in front of the Collectorate here on Friday against delay in demarcation of land though pattas were given to beneficiaries decades back. According to a release, Mo. Ellalan, district secretary, said that in various villages in the State, people from downtrodden sections were given only pattas and they have not taken possession of the land. Blaming the State Government, he said that it did not check whether beneficiaries who were given pattas were living in the land allotted to them. In Madurai, at least 3,500 people residing in places such as Theerthakadu near Vandiyur and Chokkathevanpatti near Usilampatti have had their land encroached or had not been properly demarcated. He noted that the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989, can be invoked against those people encroaching or buying the land allotted to the beneficiaries. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/01/stories/2008060154300400.htm Kannada activists stage protest CHAMARAJANAGAR: Members of the Zilla Kannada Sanghatana Okkuta in association with pro-Kannada organisations here on Friday burnt an effigy of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi in protest against his statement that work on the Hogenakkal water project would be resumed soon. Okkuta president Sha. Murali alleged that Mr. Karunanidhi was provoking Kannadigas with such statements. - Correspondent http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/11/stories/2008061151260600.htm Protest against proposed land acquisition Staff Reporter Farmers, residents oppose proposed Neelambur-Mettuppalayam bypass road Photo: M. Periasamy VOICING PROTEST: Residents, farmers and small industries owners staging a demonstration in front of the Red Cross Society buildings in Coimbatore on Tuesday.- Coimbatore: The farmers, residents and small industries owners who are likely to be affected by the land acquisition for the proposed Neelambur - Mettuppalayam bypass road on Tuesday staged a demonstration in front of Red Cross Society building on Huzur Road in the city. The demonstrators led by Tamilaga Vivasayigal Sangham president M.R. Sivasamy said that only through agitations the proposed land acquisitions could be stopped. The demonstrators urged the Government to convert the existing Mettuppalayam Road into a four-lane road rather than laying a bypass road acquiring agricultural lands, residential colonies and industrial units. The victims have resolved to strengthen their struggle through series of agitations. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/28/stories/2008062857840300.htm Karnataka Protest against Hogenakkal project Correspondent Kannada organisations urge Union Government to stop the drinking water project CHAMARAJANAGAR: Members of the Kannada Kala Rakshana Vedike, in association with other Kannada organisations, staged an agitation by beating a drum in front of the district office complex here on Friday to urge the Union Government to stop the drinking water project being taken up the Tamil Nadu Government at Hogenakkal. The protesters raised slogans against the Union Government and the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M. Karunanidhi. They urged the Union Government to restart the joint survey of the disputed island. Members of various Kannada organisations have been staging agitations here for the last three days. They have decided to continue their till the Union Government takes steps to solve the Hogenakkal issue. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/28/stories/2008062857350300.htm Andhra Pradesh - Kurnool Displaced farmers protest at DRC Special Correspondent KURNOOL: The farmers from Gadivemula, whose lands were needed for the Jindal cement plant, staged a demonstration at the Collectorate here on Friday demanding a higher compensation. The farmers, led by CPI(M) leaders, staged a sit-in for nearly three hours demanding an audience with Minister Incharge of the district Kasu Venkata Krishna Reddy who was here to attend the District Review Committee. The Minister spoke to the leaders and farmers at around noon and promised to bring the issue to the notice of the government. The farmers demanded Rs. 3 lakh for dry land and Rs. 6 lakh per acre for land with irrigation. Snatching land They alleged that the factory management, supported by the local leaders, was snatching the land from them and constructing a compound wall without paying proper compensation to them. MLA M.A. Gafoor, CPI(M) district secretary T. Shadrak, Congress MLA Erasu Pratap Reddy and others were present. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/22/stories/2008062258450300.htm Kerala - Kochi Evictees' protest KOCHI: The management authorities of the Kochi Refineries would be blocked on the road by the evictees' association on June 27 in protest against the alleged failure of the company to fulfil the demand for giving jobs. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/08/stories/2008070858510400.htm Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad Goud squats in protest Special Correspondent Submits plea on behalf of Polepalli evacuees HYDERABAD: Former Telugu Desam leader T. Devender Goud squatted on the road opposite Parisrama Bhavan here on Monday afternoon while leading a dharna by land evacuees of the special economic zone (SEZ) at Polepalli in Mahbubnagar district. On behalf of a group of women demonstrators from Polepalli gathered there, Mr. Goud submitted a memorandum to senior officials of the AP Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) inside the bhavan. The women demanded land-for-land in addition to Rs. 10 lakh an acre as compensation. Mr. Goud demanded that the State government scrap its SEZ policy as it amounted to hoodwinking the poor villagers who surrendered their land. The APIIC and the HUDA have turned into 'broking arms' of the government, he said. The HUDA extended its jurisdiction up to Mahabubnagar, Nalgonda and Medak, thanks to the policy, he added.He warned of an intensified agitation to be led by him, in Telangana districts against the SEZs. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/16/stories/2008071651240300.htm Tamil Nadu Protest against land acquisition Staff Reporter Hosur: Members of Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangam (TNVS) led by president M.R. Sivasamy staged a demonstration on Tuesday urging the State Government not to acquire fertile lands for Special Economic Zone (SEZ). http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/15/stories/2008071558920300.htm Karnataka - Mangalore People protest against land acquisition Staff Correspondent MANGALORE: Residents of Rama Nagar, Vasanth Nagar and Lower Maroli, staged a protest in front of the Deputy Commissioner's office here on Monday. They were urging the Government to drop the move to acquire a 12-acre plot in the area purportedly for constructing a private bus stand. The areas are in the vicinity of Pumpwell Circle here. The protest was organised by Maroli Mattu Kadri B. Gramada Nagarika Hitharakshana Samiti. The protesters, including women, shouted slogans that they would part their houses to facilitate the construction of a bus stand there. They withdrew the protest after N. Yogish Bhat, MLA, who arrived at the spot, promised to look into the issue. They submitted a memorandum to K.A. Prabhakar Sharma, Headquarter's Assistant to the Deputy Commissioner. K. Purushothama Suvarna, president of the samithi, said that the corporation had sent a notice to the owners of over 200 houses in the area, inviting their objections, if any, to the land acquisition. They had been asked to approach the corporation on August 4, he said. James D'Souza, councillor of Maroli ward, said that he would not allow the land acquisition as it would be displacing the residents of the area. M. Arvind, resident of the area, told The Hindu that the corporation had permitted the people there to build houses there. It had provided water connection and electricity. It had given door numbers to the houses. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/12/stories/2008081258540300.htm Karnataka Protest against eviction drive in Chikmagalur Correspondent CHIKMAGALUR: People living in huts on land belonging to Someshwara temple in Basavanahalli extension in Chikmagalur staged a demonstration in front of the district offices here on Monday to protest against being evicted from their dwellings. In a memorandum submitted to R. Narayanaswamy, Deputy Commissioner of Chikmagalur district, they complained that municipal authorities evicted them from their huts at 6 a.m. on Sunday without issuing any notice. They complained that their belongings were taken in a truck and dumped in Shantinagar on the outskirts of the city near Ashraya houses. The municipal authorities allegedly broke open locks of some houses which were occupied and instructed them to stay there. When the occupants of the houses returned home in the evening there were altercations. Mr. Narayanaswamy made arrangements for supply of foodgrains to the affected families. He instructed officials to identify Ashraya houses that were illegally occupied for relocation of the evicted families. The City Municipal Council president Krishna has clarified in a press release that 21 huts were constructed on the land belong to the Muzrai Department and the municipality. http://story.indiagazette.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/701ee96610c884a6/id/392170/cs/1/ Himachal project to provide water to Delhi faces protest India Gazette Saturday 9th August, 2008 (IANS) The Himachal Pradesh government's decision to provide water to Delhi through the proposed 40-MW Renuka dam is likely to hit a roadblock, with people in the area protesting land acquisition for the project. Around 500 residents under the Renuka Dam Jan Sangharsh Committee are protesting the construction of the dam - on a tributary of the Yamuna river in Sirmaur district - that will displace people in over a dozen villages. Residents say the government has not taken them into confidence about the project that will submerge their fertile lands. They have also expressed apprehension that it will threaten the existence of the Renuka wetlands, which lie downstream. 'We have decided that until all oustees get residential and agricultural areas of their choice, they will not vacate their villages,' said Ram Singh, whose fields and houses will be submerged with the construction of the dam. Another villager, Naresh Kumar, said: 'For quenching the thirst of Delhiites, the government is hell bent upon taking away our livelihood. 'We would prefer a watery grave to surrendering to the government our land that has been tilled by our forefathers.' Yoginder Kapila, the convenor of the Sangharsh Samiti, told IANS that 'every affected family must get at least 10 bighas of agriculture land at the new settlement and the compensation should be decided by taking us into confidence'. He rued that the state government had started the land acquisition process without taking the affected families into confidence. The proposed Rs.24-billion project will not only supply water to Delhi but also generate 40 MW of power for Himachal Pradesh. The idea of the Renuka dam was first mooted in 1990 at an estimated cost of Rs.4 billion, but the project was delayed for many reasons. Recently, the Delhi Jal Board agreed to initially provide Rs.3 billion to the hill state so that construction work could be initiated. Sirmaur's deputy commissioner Pushpinder Rajput said a survey had been started to ascertain the area that would be submerged in the dam waters. He said the affected families would be taken into confidence before starting the land acquisition process. 'The process to identify the land where the affected villagers will be rehabilitated is also going on,' Rajput added. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/20/stories/2008082054150300.htm Andhra Pradesh - Kurnool TD leader protests land allotment Special Correspondent KURNOOL: TDP leader Bangi Ananthaiah protested against allotment of APCC for setting Human Resource Development centre at throw away price at Hyderabad. Mr. Ananthaiah and his supporters walked to the collectorate half-naked and shouted slogans saying the government had indulged in misuse of position. He said the land would cost nearly Rs. 100 crore but the government transferred it for a price of Rs 20 lakh only. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/17/stories/2008081759660300.htm Kerala - Kochi Evictees' protest KOCHI: Some people who were evicted from Moolampilly and other areas for establishing rail and road connectivity for the Vallarpadam terminal project held a protest demonstration at Menaka on Saturday. Inaugurating it, C.R. Neelakandan, socio-environmental activist, said that land from which people were evicted was handed over to Dubai Port World, without ensuring rehabilitation of the evictees. http://www.zeenews.com/articles.asp?aid=462587&sid=REG Punjab farmers protest land acquisition for thermal plant Patiala, Aug 16: Hundreds of farmers in the district are protesting acquisition of 1078.16 acres of land by the Punjab government for setting up a super thermal power plant near Nalash village. The protesters gheraoed the house of Rajpura BJP MLA Raj Khurana by over two hours today morning and demanded a higher compensation of Rs 1.5 crore against Rs 34 lakh per acre alloted by the government. Capt Rachpal Singh, convener of the agitation committee, said since Khurana was a member of district price fixation committee and also the chief parliamentary secretary, he could impress upon Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to accept their demands. "When government has given Rs 1.5 crore per acre for Jheurheri village for construction of airport near Mohali, why were we given step-motherly treatment," Singh said. Hundreds of farmers have been staging dharna against the acquisition in front of the sub-divisional magistrate office in Rajpura for the last few days. The government has proposed to set up a 1320 MW supercritical thermal power plant and lands have been acquired in seven villages of the district for the purpose. Deputy Commissioner Dharamjit Singh Grewal said the land had already been acquired and the rate was fixed based on prevailing rate in the area. The seven villages are Suralkalah (with 330.12 acres), Suralkhurd (262.98 acres), Nalaskhurd (221.58 acres), Nalaskalan (37.60 acres), Raimajra (27.26 acres), Sadhror (174.84 acres) and Rangian (23.78 acres). http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/08/stories/2008080855350500.htm Andhra Pradesh - Guntur Villagers stage protest at Collectorate Staff Reporter Proposed coastal corridor will damage coastal ecosystem: CPI leaders Left parties form body to take up the issue Plan to lay siege to Assembly on August 28 - Photo: T. Vijaya Kumar On the warpath: Toddy tappers demonstrate against the proposed coastal corridor in Guntur on Thursday. GUNTUR: ``The State Government wants to take your land at a throwaway price leaving you landless. The chemical pollutants released from the factories will enter the sea and cause death of fish leaving you jobless." The words coming from Ramakrishna, member State CPI Polit Bburo, at a protest meet against the proposed coastal corridor are making 50-year-old Narsaraju from Allur village near Pittlavanipalem anxious. He holds about 10 acres of land in the village using it for cultivation of paddy in addition to aqua culture ponds and leasing out some land for growing other crops. A few days ago, he had seen a notification in newspapers calling for objections to the land acquisition process in 13 villages in Repalle and Bapatla mandals. "The Government will take our lands by paying a nominal amount and that meagre amount will not be sufficient even to buy a cent of land in these times of spiralling land prices," he said. On Thursday, he was one among about 1,000 of them who came in lorries and staged a demonstration outside the collectorate. His predicament is shared by scores of small farmers, toddy-tappers and others living in about 13 villages where the proposed coastal corridor would come up. "They say that many jobs will be available in the factories, but we are illiterate. We have been dependant on our professions for decades," says Jonna Venkateswara Rao from Dindi village. He said that people had become restless ever since they had seen a newspaper notification worrying about the pains of displacement and trauma of being jobless. The State Government on January 4 issued a G.O notifying setting up a coastal corridor between the sea ports of Nizampatnam and Vodarevu in Prakasam districts and awarded the contract to Rass Al Khaimah (RAK) Investment Authority of the United Arab Emirates and Matrix Export Private Ltd. A body consisting of Communist Party of India and other left parties, trade unions and farmers belonging to those regions called `Coastal Teera Pranta Parirakshana Samithi' has been formed to take up the cause of scores of displaced families with the State Government. On Thursday members of the Samithi held demonstrations at all the costal districts headquarters. In Guntur, TDP district president P. Pulla Rao, general secretary Ziauddin, and CPI secretary M. Nageswara Rao were present on the occasion. The leaders vowed that they would continue the agitation until the Government came down. They would lay siege to the Assembly on August 28, they added. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/28/stories/2008062857610300.htm Karnataka - Mangalore Vedike protests against PCPIR, SEZ Staff Correspondent 'Farmers will be the biggest losers if these projects are implemented' - Photo: R. Eswarraj Raising slogans: People protesting against setting up of mega projects, in Mangalore on Friday. MANGALORE: A large number of people staged a protest in front of the Deputy Commissioner's office here on Friday against the proposal to set up a Petroleum Chemicals and Petrochemical Investment Region (PCPIR) and Mangalore Special Economic Zone (MSEZ). The agitators included students, members of various organisations and farmers from 70 villages to be affected by these proposed projects. The protest was held under the banner of Karavali Karnataka Janabhivriddhi Vedike, a federation of 80 organisations. The agitators faxed a memorandum in support of their demands to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from outside the Deputy Commissioner's office. Addressing the agitators, activist Natesh Ullal said that the PCPIR project and MSEZ were export-oriented and their benefits to local people or nation's economy would be minimal. "The oil refined at PCPIR is for the countries that do not want to undertake the highly polluting job of refining the crude," he said. Speaking on behalf of St. Aloysius College, which is affiliated to the All India Catholic Universities' Federation, Vinod Mascarenhas said that small and medium farmers would be the biggest losers if the two projects were implemented. "By taking away the land of small farmers, the proponents of these mega projects will only drive poor people to destitution," he added. He urged the politicians to take up the people's causes. Mohammed Kunhi, district head of Jamat-e-Islami Hind, said that the two projects were part of globalisation and liberalisation. "Projects such as these are part of the imperialist designs of the capitalist West," he added. Several government-sponsored studies had warned against industrialisation of this ecologically sensitive zone. "There is data suggesting that a mega project such as PCPIR is detrimental to the region. The reason for the Government going ahead with the project is that it is under the clutches of vested interest groups from the West," he said. The agitators said that they would intensify their agitation against the two projects in the next few weeks. http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=372108 Farmers block highway to protest Raigad SEZ IANS Tuesday 17th June, 2008 Mumbai/Over 2,000 farmers in Maharashtra's Raigad district Tuesday blocked the Mumbai-Goa national highway to protest against land acquisition for the proposed Special Economic Zone (SEZ) being developed by Mukesh Ambani's Reliance group. Led by former minister and Peasants and Workers Party leader N.D. Patil under the banner of Jagatikaran Virodhi Kriti Samiti (anti-globalization action committee), the farmers blockaded the busy highway at Vashi Naka near Vadkhal for about four hours during which the police had to resort to cane-charge. Though the blockade did not lead to disruption of traffic on the highway as the police had diverted the traffic via other routes, tension mounted around the sit-in venue as the protesters refused to budge, necessitating a cane-charge, police inspector Ramesh Khade said. The farmers, mainly from 22 villages in the district coming under the command area of the Hetavane irrigation project, were protesting a 'breach of promise' by the government that their irrigated land would not be acquired for the 14,000 hectare SEZ, committee spokesperson Vaishali Patil told IANS. 'The promise was made by the state rehabilitation minister Patangrao Kadam after 15 representative farmers had resorted to an indefinite fast last July protesting the threatened acquisition of their irrigated land,' Patil said. Relief and Rehabilitation Secretary V.V. Gaikwad told IANS that the 'complicated' issue was with Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh for a final decision. 'The command area of the Hetavane project is getting shrunk as the dam water is being diverted to the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) and a few industries; this being the case, it is not certain how much land will remain under irrigation,' he explained. Among those who led the protest, were Raigad district council president Neelima Patil and rehabilitation authority member Pratibha Shinde, Vaishali Patil said, adding that Shinde had raised the issue in the authority's meeting. The state government's rehabilitation authority - Maharashtra is the only state in the country to have set up such an authority to oversee the rehabilitation of project affected people - has accepted the rehabilitation package submitted by the Reliance Group for the proposed SEZ. Vaishali Patil, who has been spearheading the agitation against 'the biggest SEZ in Asia' said, hundreds of farmers have submitted objections to the acquisition of their land. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Thu Aug 28 12:18:35 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2008 20:18:35 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Global protests and unrest: land grabs, land rights and squatters, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <005201c90942$dfa517c0$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ NOTE: Apologies that I've accidentally split South African township protests between two or three different sections. * SOUTH AFRICA: Four injured as police attack anti-eviction protest * TRINIDAD: Politician arrested during land grab protest * PAKISTAN: Cops injured in land dispute * NIGERIA: Toge residents prevent shack demolitions * PAKISTAN: Protest in Rawalpindi about land grab, irregularities * ISRAEL: Druze minority protesters target police over land grab * TRINIDAD: Protesters replant on disputed land * GERMANY: Week of unrest over gentrification of Mitte, Berlin * UGANDA: "Encroachers" protest planting * CAMBODIA: Minority protesters oppose forest clearance * US: Homeless protest at City Hall, set up tent camp * US: Nikisi residents protest beach closure * CAMBODIA: Port building stalled by protests * PHILIPPINES: Rally against land seizure * PARAGUAY: Landless protest * TRINIDAD: Protests for "promised" land * CHINA: Police kill two at protest over gold mine * SOUTH AFRICA: Roadblocks, looting, attack on minister's house at settlement near Lenasia * PAKISTAN: Protest against demolitions at historic village * PHILIPPINES: Farmers rally at court against land grab * VENEZUELA: Road to Brazil blocked over plan to remove miners * SOUTH AFRICA: Winelands protesters march for land redistribution * PHILIPPINES: Farmers protest against land grab for tourism * KENYA: Protest over land fee * BAHRAIN: Several protests over land rights * EGYPT: Hundreds protest killing of Copt in land dispute * US: Protesters want pig farm, not water tower * US: Historically rooted family protest road route land grab * MALAYSIA: Squatters protest against eviction orders * UK: Protest at Stoke Newington police station after police attack on squat * IRELAND: Romany land rights protest features self-immolation * US: Community residents oppose Miami development plan * US: Mural in land grab protest becomes focus for dispute * US: Protest at cabin removal in park * THAILAND: Traders protest at threat of explusion * CYPRUS/UK: One-man protest over land dispute * US: Upset over threat to campsite * INDONESIA: Mudslide survivors protest over land rights, compensation * KENYA: Protests over airport expansion * PHILIPPINES: Farmers rally against ranching * MALAYSIA: Farmers protest at threat from logging http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2157154,00.html Four injured in protest 01/08/2007 16:10 - (SA) Johannesburg - Pretoria police say at least four people have been injured when the police fired rubber bullets at protesters in Hammanskraal. Spokesperson Richard Makhene said the Kanana village residents were protesting on Wednesday against the Tshwane council's decision to demolish their shacks. He said the council was granted a court order to evict the residents as the place was not suitable for people to live there. The residents were given until August 7 to respond and state why they should not be evicted. Makhene said: "The Red Ants and metro police acted before time." He said Hammanskraal police refused to be part of the operation and Roslyn police were called in. One protester, who was hit by a rubber bullet, opened a case of assault. Three others were taken to hospital, said Makhene. http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161324485 UNC councillor arrested in protest Julien Neaves jneaves at trinidadexpress.com Saturday, May 17th 2008 UNITED National Congress-Alliance councillor for Valsayn South/Carapo Khadijah Ameen was arrested yesterday during a protest by residents of Spring Village, Valsayn, over a Housing Development Corporation (HDC) project. At around 6 a.m. a number of residents began protesting on Southern Main Road, Valsayn. Police and fire officers were quickly on the scene. Half an hour later 19-year-old Daniel Benny from Curepe was arrested for obscene language. Police say that during the protest Ameen was repeatedly cautioned to stop blocking traffic on the Southern Main Road; the protest caused traffic to be backed up to the Caroni Bridge at one point. Police report that 27-year-old Ameen indicated she was not going to stop and at 8 a.m. she was arrested for obstruction of the free passageway by Acting Corporal Nirmal Ramjattan. She appeared at the Tunapuna Second Magistrates' Court before Justice of the Peace Kavita Mahadeo. Ameen pleaded not guilty and was released on $10,000 bail. Benny was released on $5,000 bail and both are scheduled to reappear in Court on May 20. She emerged from the Court to loud cheers and whistles from supporters. She told members of the media that they planned to seek legal advice following their "rough" treatment by the police, saying that a number of senior citizens, including a pundit, were shoved. She said that they would continue fighting for a recreational ground in Spring Village that had been promised for more than 28 years, for the farmers to be allowed to use land for agriculture and for the squatters to be regularised. HDC said in release yesterday that it was disappointed by the protest, as Minister in the Ministry of Planning, Housing and the Environment Tina Gronlund-Nunez, HDC and LSA officials met with a delegation from Spring Village on Thursday, including Ameen. HDC corporate communications manager Lesley John reported that assurances were given by the officials that no residents would be displaced during the regularisation exercise, and that recreational facilities and green space would be provided with any development. They were also advised that work on the site was at a very preliminary stage and that plans would be shared with the villagers when they became available. Residents, however, have charged that acres of vegetable crops were being destroyed by bulldozing, but HDC has denied this. Villagers told the Express that they were not being communicated with by the officials and protests would continue. Gronlund-Nunez, who at the meeting apologised that villagers had not been communicated with prior to the exercise, agreed to hold a public meeting with all residents early next week. http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=130605 Protesters resort to rioting; several cops injured Monday, August 18, 2008 By our correspondent Karachi A violent protest reportedly erupted over the old disputed Gutter Bagheecha land over which two groups had been disputing since long. On Sunday, the ?Nisaar group? blocked the Mewa Shah Road and resorted to firing at the police. The police managed to control the situation after some hours, during which time a Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) MNA was also caught in the crossfire. He, however, escaped unhurt. Several constables including the SHO SITE sustained injuries during the protest. According to sources, a dispute was going on between various parties, including the Nisaar Baloch group, for the past many months regarding the ownership of Gattar Bagheecha land. Recently, a court issued orders in favour of one such group to construct the KMC Society. However, the opponent Nisaar Baloch group started disputing the claim. SSP Ishfaq Alam of SITE Town said that negotiations were underway for the past 10 to 15 days between various parties and Nisaar was asked to produce ownership papers of the plot. He refused to do so, but continued disputing the rival group?s claim. Several FIRs were also being lodged in this regard, SSP Alam mentioned. According to eyewitnesses and police sources, the Nisaar Baloch group blocked the Pak Colony Road adjacent to the Mewa Shah graveyard on Sunday afternoon. Since it was the eve of Shab-e-Baraat, there was an unusual rush of people and heavy movement of vehicles at the graveyard. In the meantime, a heavy contingent of police reached the spot and asked the protestors to clear the road. The mob, however, threw stones at the police and later resorted to aerial firing. The police lobbed teargas shells to disperse the mob, which refused to budge. Meanwhile, SP SITE Town reached the spot and stopped the police from tear gassing. He asked the leaders of the protesting group to come in for talks but they refused and again opened fire. Sensing danger, SSP Alam moved away in his car and the police again started shelling. Following this violent act by the Nisaar Baloch group, SSP Alam immediately asked the traffic police to block the road from Bara Board and divert traffic. The protesters, however, continued to fire at the police during which SHO SITE Liaquat Ali Dogar and several other policemen were injuted. Later, the elders of the community approached the police and pacified the situation. But after a few minutes the mob again came on to the road and resorted to pelting stones and aerial firing. The SP SITE said that during the firing incident, MQM MNA Hyder Abbas Rizvi also came under attack due to which an escort constable Mohammed Younus got injured. However, the police kept on resisting the protesters and the situation was brought under control after several hours. http://allafrica.com/stories/200806120393.html Nigeria: Protesters Halt Demolition At Toge Community Daily Trust (Abuja) 12 June 2008 Posted to the web 12 June 2008 Hamisu Kabir Matazu and Haruna Mohammed Yusuf Abuja Angry protesters Tuesday stopped officials of the Department of Development Control from demolishing structures at Toge community, a suburb town along airport road Abuja. The clash took place in the morning when the residents sighted three bulldozers enter their community and immediately started shouting that they would not allow the bulldozers to pull down their structures until they are compensated. "We are not going to leave this place until government compensates us and by the way, where do they expect us to go?" a spokesperson in the community wondered aloud. The spokesperson disclosed that a court injunction has been served on the FCTA, restricting them from demolishing their houses. He said the simple thing for government to do is to find them money and alternative plots to build on instead of throwing them to the streets. Muhammed Adamu Ategba, one of the residents said residents obeyed the rules of FCTA in building their houses by observing the 150 meters distance from the road warning. Abubakar Aminu Abbo another resident lamented that many people would become destitute if the demolition takes place. An official of the development control department said they were not aware of the court injunction. "Nobody can stop the FCTA from clean-up the Federal Capital Territory," he said. http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C05%5C12%5Cstory_12-5-2008_pg11_7 Katchi abadi residents protest demolition of houses by CCB * Cantonment board officials accused of defying stay order, misbehaving with women By Terence J Sigamony RAWALPINDI: Residents of a katchi abadi adjacent to Army Public School, Tulsa Road, held a demonstration near Kutheri bas stop here on Sunday against demolition of their houses by the Chaklala Cantonment Board (CCB). They urged Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani and Rawalpindi corps commander to take notice of the operation and give them their houses back. The residents told Daily Times that around 40 the CCB workers and police entered the locality at 9:00 am on Saturday when all male members of their families were out on job. ?They started throwing away our belongings. The residents of the locality are mostly sanitary workers who leave their homes at 5:00 am and come back by 1:00 pm,? said Rakhsanda Begum. Stay order: She alleged that the board workers also misbehaved with women and abused them. They also tore the court?s stay order and defying court orders demolished all houses in the locality, she added. ?Now we are living in the open beside the road without any shelter, food and water. We have no place to go,? she said. ?Almost all residents are the CCB employees. Three days ago they got the salaries and bought edibles for the whole month, but all things have been buried under debris,? the residents said. When contacted an official of the CCB on the condition of anonymity said the board had given notice to the residents of the katchi abadi three years ago to vacate the government land, but they approached the court which granted them stay order. He said the stay period expired on Saturday and action was taken to get back the government land. The katchi adabi comprising 15 houses was built between the backside of the residential area and the Army Public Girls School on Tulsa Road. The residents said they had been living there before 1947. They said they had collected things with great difficulties and meagre income over the years. Sakina Bibi said she had been collecting her daughter?s dowry for the last seven years, but every thing now had been buried under the debris. She said why the authorities concerned did not take action against those who had encroached government land in busy markets and elsewhere in the city. Waqar Bhatti, counsel for the residents, told Daily Times that about five years ago also the authorities tried to vacate these houses but the residents approached Civil Judge Sheikh Javed, who granted stay and after hearing both the parties confirmed the stay order. The court disposed of the case after assurance from the cantonment lawyer that occupants would not be forced to vacate the houses. He said at the beginning of this month the board authorities again started harassing them. They approached the court of Civil Judge Basit Aleem. After hearing them the court granted stay order, which was binding, and hearing was fixed next week. http://www.worldpress.org/feed.cfm?http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/147155 Druze Protestors Block Police Station, Damage Cars (IsraelNN.com) Approximately 300 Druze protestors surrounded police stations in Daliat el-Carmel and Isfiya on Sunday and blocked a road nearby. Protestors blocked access to the stations, and police suspect they were responsible for damaging six police vehicles. The protestors were rallying against plans to appropriate nearby lands for a natural gas pipeline set to pass through the north. Community leaders attempted to calm the protestors, telling them to fight the government and not local police officers. Police referred to the protest as ?routine,? and said there had been no need to call up additional forces to deal with the incident. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1208870495333&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull Apr 26, 2008 15:00 | Updated Apr 27, 2008 0:08 Druse protest against land expropriation By GREER FAY CASHMAN AND JERUSALEM POST STAFF "We won't respect a law that doesn't respect us," Carmel City Mayor Dr. Akram Hasson said Saturday during a protest by dozens of Druse in the North against Israel's plans to expropriate 2,000 dunams of land from their community on the east Carmel Mountains. A Druse shepherd with his herd in the North. [file] Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski Slideshow: Pictures of the week The plans are intended for several national projects, including the construction of a cross-country road, laying a gas pipeline and assembling the Hamemek railway tracks. The Druse erected a protest tent on the land, near Yokne'am. Also attending the demonstration were Israeli Arab MKs Ahmad Tibi (UAL), Jamal Zahalka (Balad) and Muhammad Barakei (Hadash). Carmel City represents a merger of Daliat al-Carmel and Usfiya. Owners of the lands set to be expropriated warned of violence more severe that the riots in the Druse village of Peki'in on October 30, in which 29 police officers and 13 civilians were injured. Druse spiritual leader Sheikh Muafak Tarif said that the national projects must be frozen and spoke of the need to act with logic and decisiveness, but without violence. Earlier Saturday, Tarif told Army Radio that "the Druse community supports national projects but not our expense." He said that in contrast to Arabs, no land was being offered as a replacement, adding that Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz and National Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer had said that the projects would not begin until a deal is reached with the Druse leaders. President Shimon Peres on Friday was the guest of the Druse community near the grave of Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses. Though still optimistic that Israel would one day make peace with the Palestinians, Peres condemned the acts of terror that create difficulties for the peace process and for coexistence. Murder leads to murder... and achieves nothing, said Peres, adding that senseless bloodshed was an obstacle to peace. Peres was reacting to the murder of two security guards in the Nitzanei Shalom Industrial Zone near Tulkarm. Nonetheless, he said, if Israel was able to achieve peace with Egypt and Jordan, he was confident that Israel could reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians and even with Syria, "providing that the Syrians proceed towards peace in the proper manner." Expressing pride in the Druse community, Peres invited its members to join in the peace effort. Sensitive to some of their frustrations, Peres said: "I pray with you that in the next decade we will know peace with full equality, full freedom and unity." Peres also paid a condolence call on the family of St.-Sgt. Sayef Bisan, a Druse soldier killed earlier this month in an ambush in Gaza. http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161327198 Spring Village protesters replant on disputed land Jensen LaVende jlavende at trinidadexpress.com Friday, May 23rd 2008 FIRST TREE: MP for the area Vasant Bharath plants the first tree at Bassie Extension Road, Spring Village, Valsayn, yesterday. The farming area was buldozed by the HDC two weeks ago. -Photo: ANISTO ALVES RESIDENTS of Spring Village, Valsayn, continued the tradition of planting on Corpus Christi Day yesterday, after they claimed all of their crops were bulldozed by the Housing Development Corporation two weeks ago. The residents who came out in their numbers, planted coconut, pimentos, bodi and melongene, in what was described as a "defiant act of protest" by Member of Parliament for the area Vasant Bharath. Bharath was the first to plant on the bulldozed parcel of land, which residents claim was over 12 acres, located off Bassie Street Extension. There he planted two coconut trees while residents applauded him. Bharath also planted other smaller trees which he said represented the youth of the nation. "As fast as they bulldoze we would re-plant," he added. On Wednesday, Housing Minister Emily Gaynor Dick-Forde announced that development at the Spring Village site would be halted to investigate the level of farming in the area and reports of crops being bulldozed after meeting with Bharath and a group of residents at the HDC's Port of Spain headquarters. The Agricultural Society of Trinidad and Tobago also gave its support to the residents, bringing corn and pigeon peas seeds and a host of other seedlings that the residents readily accepted. The dust from vehicles passing over the newly cleared area did not stop villagers from burying seedlings and seeds beneath the parched, clay-like earth. One resident said this was the best birthday gift that he had ever received and thanked those who came out to support the planting protest. The villagers called on the HDC to regularise the farmers and when the houses are erected that people from the area are given first preference. Afterwards the community came together and enjoyed a game of cricket on a lot of land which they said had been promised to them to house a savannah and a playing field. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/01/europe/EU-GEN-Germany-Berlin-Protests.php Berliners protest gentrification of eastern neighborhoods The Associated Press Published: June 1, 2008 BERLIN: Hundreds of people demonstrated near two new high-end housing developments in downtown Berlin on Sunday, capping a week of scattered violence and rallies against the gentrification of the area. The protests began after police removed squatters from a house in the Mitte district on Tuesday, where they had been staying to protest the rapid development and reconstruction in central East Berlin. Rioters torched 30 cars on Wednesday, and another on Saturday. On Sunday, some 500 people packed a closed-off street across from the city's Mauerpark, which sits along the route of the former Berlin Wall in Prenzlauer Berg. After the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the neighborhood as well as other districts became favorite stomping grounds for artists, anarchists and students, with thousands setting up impromptu clubs, meeting spaces and squats in abandoned buildings. Nearly two decades later, most of the buildings have been renovated, attracting well-heeled residents and driving up rents ? while at the same time driving out many who can no longer afford to live there. Patrik Technau, a Prenzlauer Berg native, said he organized Sunday's rally near two new high-end housing developments that are under way as part of a new kind of "culture war." "It's people who have always lived in Berlin against people coming in ? yuppies, people with money ? who want to change the neighborhoods," Technau, 26, told reporters on Friday. Hundreds of police stood guard near the area, but did not interfere with the demonstration. Still, the rally seemed more of a summer festival than a demonstration, with people dancing in the sun as DJs and bands played at either end of the street. "Remain dirty Berlin," read one of the few protest placards, held aloft by Horst Ungaern, a 24-year-old from Berlin's Neukoelln district. "I'm here because I don't have much money myself, and I think it's crap that I can't afford to live in the city I grew up in," Ungaern said. The group later marched peacefully through the area, occasionally chanting "yuppies out." No incidents were reported. http://allafrica.com/stories/200808250428.html Uganda: NFA Plants Trees Amidst Protests From Encroachers New Vision (Kampala) 24 August 2008 Posted to the web 25 August 2008 Gerald Tenywa Kampala THE National Forestry authority (NFA) has continued with the restoration of Wambabya forest despite resistance from the local people in Hoima district. In a recent clash outside the forest reserve, a group of local people armed with arrows and spears attacked policemen who were providing security to the NFA team. The Police is holding three suspects over the incident. "At the time of the shooting, the team of forestry and district officials and the people contracted to plant the trees were inspecting the areas to be replanted," said David Mununuzi, a forestry official. In an interview with The New Vision on Thursday, Mununuzi said the encroachers had taken over 2,000 hectares of the 9,000 hectares of the forest. They were growing cassava and tobacco in the forest and some of them had set up homes there, he said. He added that the encroachers would be allowed to harvest their crops before leaving. The forest is a catchment area for R. Wambabya on which a hydro-power dam is to be built. Because of the destruction of the forest, the river has been heavily silted. http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2008081521232/National-news/Ethnic-minorities-to-protest-clearing-of-their-ancestral-lands.html Ethnic minorities to protest clearing of their ancestral lands Written by Chrann Chamroeun Friday, 15 August 2008 Ratanakkiri community claims their forest has been stolen by a local businessman and fear that they will lose more if he is not stopped AFP A minority tribe woman enjoys a pipe in Ratanakkiri province in this file photo. A GROUP of 50 ethnic minority Tampoun and Kreung villagers have said they will stage a demonstration today at the provincial governor's office in Ratanakkiri province to protest the clearing of 10 hectares of forest by a local businessman, according to Vin Sokhin, a community representative in Dong Kampoul village. "Ten of the 20 hectares have been cleared of trees, and we are afraid that we will lose the rest of it if we don't protest," Vin Sokhin said. He added that 46 families, or nearly 250 people, rely on the lands for collecting wood, vegetables and other supplies, and that since July they have been warned by labourers to stay away. Legal title to the land The local businessman, Seng Piseth, claims to have purchased the land legally from O'Chum District Governor Bean Thveun. "They can protest or go to the courts if they choose, but I have all the necessary documents to prove my case," he said. The district governor said the deal was accepted by members of the community in return for a payment of US$2,000, to be used for the benefit of all the villagers. "We have received the $2,000 dollars and are using it for the benefit of the whole community," said Vong Doung, a village chief involved in the deal. But Vin Sokhin disputed the claim that the villagers have received any benefit from the sale. "We are protesting this deal, made between only a few community members," he said. "We have not received any of this money and we don't want it. We want the land back," he added. http://www.montanasnewsstation.com/global/story.asp?s=8451654 Homeless advocates protest at Seattle City Hall Associated Press - June 9, 2008 12:25 PM ET SEATTLE (AP) - About 20 homeless advocates have blocked a downtown Seattle intersection near City Hall to protest sweeps that have removed transient camps. The protesters planned to be arrested Monday following an overnight camp-out at the City Hall Plaza. The demonstration was organized by the group Real Change. It says the city needs to add shelters for the homeless before cracks down on camps. The city removes transient camps from greenbelts and underpasses to prevent health and safety problems. Residents are given advance warning and offered social services. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004468026_homeless10m.html?syndication=rss Tuesday, June 10, 2008 - Page updated at 12:00 AM ELLEN M. BANNER / THE SEATTLE TIMES Police arrest a protester who refused to clear the street north of Seattle City Hall on Tuesday morning. Fifteen people were briefly taken into custody. Related Archive | Dozens protest homeless sweeps with City Hall camp-out Fifteen people protesting the sweeps of homeless encampments in Seattle parks were arrested Monday morning after they blocked Cherry Street on the north side of City Hall in Seattle by pitching a tent in the street and standing in the road. The protesters, who included homeless people and their supporters, including at least two clergymen, were arrested before 9:35 a.m. The 15 were interviewed and released, according to police spokesman Sean Whitcomb. He said it will be up to the City Attorney's office whether to file charges of pedestrian interference. The last to be arrested was Dana Sutliffe, with the Real Change Organizing Project. She yelled, "Stop the sweeps!" as she was led away. Sutliffe said she is from Norway, and "to see people on the street here is just an atrocity for me." John Moorehead, a homeless man who works construction jobs, said he participated in the blockade because "my camps have been raided three or four times when I'm trying to get ahead. How can you get ahead when they're taking your stuff?" The Rev. Rich Lang, pastor of Trinity Methodist Church in Ballard, was wearing his clerical vestments when he was arrested in the rain. He said Mayor Greg Nickels "has chosen the side of the developers and people with financial interests. That's not bad, but he's forgotten the people on the lower rung." "It's my understanding everybody was cooperative. It went fairly smoothly. This was a planned event," said Seattle police spokesman Mark Jamieson. After the last person was arrested, officers took down the tent that was blocking traffic. Protesters chanted, "Sweep Nickels, not the homeless," referring to a homeless sweeps policy initiated by the mayor. Sunday night, the homeless, their supporters and activists had pitched tents in front of City Hall in protest. It was the third annual overnight protest camp-out, and organizer Timothy Harris said advocates are frustrated, calling the policy unfair and inadequate. Alex Fryer, a spokesman for Nickels, said the sweeps policy tries to balance the needs of the homeless with protecting city parks. http://newsminer.com/news/2008/jun/29/nikiski-residents-protest-beach-closure/ Nikiski residents protest beach closure Published Sunday, June 29, 2008 KENAI -- Residents of Nikiski turned out to protest closure of a beach that many have used for decades. Karen McGahan has enjoyed Nikishka Beach every summer since before Alaska Statehood but she's been denied this year by Offshore Systems Kenai, a ship-loading company following security plans required by the federal government. A company spokesman said new access may be available within days, but members of the McGahan family and other Nikiski residents frustrated with the closure protested Saturday with homemade signs. "We're getting our freedom taken away step by step and it isn't fair," said Nadine Gabbett, who has used Nikishka Beach since 1965. Residents use the beach to fly kites, roast marshmallows and search for agates. "We use this beach for education, recreation and relaxation," said lifelong Nikiski resident Leah Jackson. Signs read, "We're not terrorists just rock collectors," and "We're not against security just the level of it." Protesters marched from Nikiski High School to Offshore Systems Kenai. They shouted, "Free the beach," and stood at the company's gate and guard shack that blocks beach access. Protesters moved aside for supply trucks. Except for filming the event with two video cameras, security guards acted as if no one was there. Protesters also gathered at Nikishka Beach Road and the Kenai Spur Highway to shout out their message. Company operations manager Mike Peek said he wants to see people allowed to used the beach again but he does not a choice under the federal mandate. "I have to follow federal regulations or I'll be shut down," he said. A lawsuit has been filed concerning beach access. "If it can be taken away overnight, they can give us our access overnight," said Katrina Nelson. http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/20071214255/Siem-Reap-Insider/Plan-to-build-new-Siem-Reap-port-stalled-by-protests.html Plan to build new Siem Reap port stalled by protests Written by Cat Barton and Cheang Sokha Friday, 14 December 2007 A huge billboard depicts what could be the future of Chong Kneas. A $2 million plan to develop a "tourist port" south of Siem Reap town in the floating village of Chong Kneas has stalled because of opposition from the people who live there. The project was approved by the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) in May, but when a South Korean investment company began bringing in its bulldozers later that month, the villagers erupted by blocking the gates. They said it was the first they'd heard of the tourist port. Now, eight months after receiving the green light from the CDC, the Sou Ching Investment Co. Ltd project appears dead in the water. "When the Sou Ching Company got their license, they did not talk to the people or the community leaders," said Minh Bunly, project officer for the Fisheries Action Coalition Team (FACT) a local NGO which works with fishing communities. "There is currently no solution to the problem." Bunly said that many of the residents of the village make a living taking tourists out onto the Tonle Sap lake, but the tourist port would do away with that and set up a centralized boat rental system where all tourists would go through Sou Ching. Bunly said the company hasn't been trying to solve the problem fairly. "Now there is no activity on the company's part," he said. "They refuse to negotiate with the people. The people are very angry." The company could not be reached for comment. According to Korean-language media reports, Sou Ching Port Investment is part of a large investment fund established by two major Korean companies - SK Securities and Golden Bridge Asset Management. In September the two companies established the first of two planned funds to invest in Cambodia with a focus on developing tourist infrastructure. Although details of the investments were not disclosed, SK Securities asset manager, Yim Yeo Ngijin, was quoted as saying that the companies were expecting returns on their investment of up to $1 trillion. He described the Sou Ching Port Investment as part of a "cultural exchange package." Sou Ching received approval May 4, 2007 in a letter from Suon Sethy, secretary general of the Cambodian Investment Board, which is part of the CDC. The letter stated that the Sou Ching company's office in Tnal village, Sronger commune, Siem Reap province, proved it had necessary capital investment of $2.7 million and it could begin construction immediately. The company moved several old yellow bulldozers into the area and put up billboards depicting the architectural plans. According to an April 2007 tourism working group meeting at the Ministry of Tourism (MoT), about 60,000 tourists now visit the Chong Kneas area each month in high season. By charging $1 dollar per tourist, the working group estimated that revenues of $120,000 every two months could be achieved rapidly. Sou Ching requested the rights to invest in road construction, channel restoration and to charge a toll fee, parking fee, and pier fee. The company also asked to charge an entrance fee to the Tonle Sap. The MoT said these requests, especially the entrance fee, were "a problem." The port issue came up most recently at a tourism working group meeting at the MoT on August 7th, where the MoT noted that 'Sou Ching' company had been granted these rights and obtained its concession on the basis it would also develop the area by building a road and a new port. The MoT voiced concern that, as of August, Sou Ching was already charging tourists $1 per visit but no infrastructure development had occurred. The proposed port spans several communes including Chong Kneas commune and Siem Reap commune in the Phnom Krom area. Siem Reap governor Sou Phirin has given his seal of approval to the port. His approval is contained in official correspondence dated May 21 in which Phirin answered a letter from the developer's director Ros Chhoudeth saying the provincial authorities supported the project. Chhoudeth's letter was asking for help with the "illegal occupation of the concerned area" - in other words - evictions. "Sou Ching can start port construction in the Chong Kneas area," the letter from the governor said. "But we suggest the establishment of a provincial coalition committee in order to make sure construction goes smoothly." Such a committee was set up May 25, according to documents obtained by the Post. But no villagers are on it. The committee includes Siem Reap deputy Chan Sophal, other members linked to the provincial government and Sou Ching officials. An official from the CDC who asked not to be identified, said that just because the CDC approves of the new port doesn't mean that Sou Ching has the right to evict residents from the area against their will. "They must find a solution to this problem that is in accordance with the law," the official said. "Their license to develop the port is not equivalent to an official deed to the land in question." The residents of the floating village said they oppose the port because it will damage the area's flooded forests and rice fields. They live mostly in small one-room wooden boats. They could move the boats, but they are worried the developer will either block them from moving in and out or make them pay if they want to enter or leave the new port area. They said that if the company's port monopolizes the tourist trade it would put them out of work. They also said the larger boats that the port would cater to could damage their floating houses with their wake and make it dangerous for small boats to navigate the entrance to the Tonle Sap Lake. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/regions/view/20080802-152260/Hundreds-stage-protest-in-rain-soaked-beach-paradise Hundreds stage protest in rain-soaked beach paradise By Nestor P. Burgos Jr. Visayas Bureau First Posted 17:20:00 08/02/2008 BORACAY ISLAND, Aklan -- Braving persistent rains, around 700 residents, resort owners, land occupants, including foreigners, joined a protest rally here on Friday to oppose legislation that categorizes more than half of the island as public agricultural land open for disposition. The protesters, many wearing red shirts, converged on the plaza of Barangay (village) Balabag, one of three villages on the island at around 5 p.m., calling for the junking of House Bill 1109 that seeks to declare "certain parcels of the public domain within Boracay Island, Malay, Aklan as agricultural land open to disposition." Speakers took turns denouncing the bill and vowed to defend their land, which they have occupied for decades. Some of them belonged to families living on the island for generations. The bill, authored by Aklan Representative Florencio Miraflores, categorizes 626.59 hectares of the 1,006-ha island as public domain. Another 337.68 ha will be categorized as forestland or protected zones, while the remaining areas will be considered buffer zones and easements. The bill was passed by the House on April 29, 2008 and has been transmitted to the Senate. Property owners and land occupants opposing the bill have criticized it as unconstitutional and said it would deprive them of their "vested rights" over lots they have occupied for years. They claimed the bill would open up their properties to acquisition by other investors. Investor Chito Ta?ada, who decided to settle on the island early this year, said he was shocked to know that his property, which he is developing as a condominium complex, is sitting on an area classified as forest land under HB 1109. "The bill must be opposed or amended so that it will favor property owners," he said in a press conference before the protest rally. "As it is, (the bill) is unconstitutional because it assails our vested rights." Ta?ada said the reclassification of the island into forest land, agricultural land, and buffer zones is incorrect because areas categorized as forest land have long been inhabited by people in organized communities for years. "Almost every part of Boracay has been occupied for more than 30 years," said Ta?ada. He also pointed out that 30 percent of the island had already been titled even before President Ferdinand Marcos issued Proclamation 1801 in 1978 declaring Boracay and other islands as tourist zones and marine reserves. The decree forbids development projects without the approval of the government and, in effect, the issuance of new titles. Most of the business owners and residents have been occupying other lots for around 30 years through tax declarations. Property owner Lara Salaver said that under the bill's land classification, around 199 ha of the Shangri-La-owned property on the northern end of the island would be considered forest land. The $60-million Shangri-La Resort and Spa in Boracay's Yapak village is scheduled to open late this year. Salaver said the bill is "confiscatory" because the government would have control over their property. "This bill is another insecurity for us because we can lose our properties that have been with our families since we we're born here," said Socorro Ruchanie Gadon, a long-time resident and resort owner. The opponents of the bill have asked the Senate to block the passage of the bill. On Wednesday, a group of resort owners held a dialogue with some senators and presented a manifesto signed by 2,400 island stakeholders. Salaver said they were calling on Miraflores to recall the bill. She said Miraflores should have waited for the Supreme Court to rule on a pending appeal of a lower court ruling that recognized the right of occupants to have their properties titled through judicial confirmation. Miraflores earlier defended the bill, saying this would actually safeguard the properties of the occupants. Miraflores said the bill provides for the issuance of patents to occupants who have been continuously occupying their lots for the last 30 years. The patent is limited to a maximum of 12 hectares per applicant. The 30-year period would also include the occupancy of previous occupants of the property being applied for patent. But Salaver said application for free patent would require that they recognize that their properties are part of the public domain. Their application could also be rejected, belying Miraflores?s claimed of guarantees, she said. http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Landless_poor_protest_for_parcels_in_0803.html Landless poor protest for parcels in Paraguay Associated Press Published: Sunday August 3, 2008 CAPIIBARY, Paraguay -- Just outside the rickety wire fence that guards the rich, red soil of this vast hacienda, dozens of peasants have camped for weeks under a patchwork of thatched shelters and tarpaulin-covered tents. They are demanding a slice of the wealthy landowner's property to grow food for their families. And if Paraguay president-elect Fernando Lugo doesn't help them get it, they plan to swarm the private property, just as thousands of other landless farmers have done throughout the country. "The Paraguayan people are awakening," said Salomon Ruiz Diaz, 29, a protest leader. Land reform is the single biggest issue in this tiny nation of just under 7 million people, where 1 percent of the population controls 77 percent of the arable fields. It is also the biggest challenge facing Lugo, a bearded, sandal-clad former Roman Catholic bishop who won election in April when Paraguay joined the continent's swing to the left and ended six decades of conservative single-party rule. With the Aug. 15 inauguration of the man known as "the bishop of the poor," peasants like Ruiz Diaz see Paraguay's first real chance to address an age-old land dilemma. The way Lugo deals with the land issue will go a long way toward determining whether he will govern as a revolutionary leftist, like Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, or more of a middle-of-the-road pragmatist, like Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Across Latin America, land reform has been the battle cry of generations of populist leaders. But results have generally been modest, as in Mexico and Brazil. In Bolivia, President Evo Morales has provoked a constitutional crisis with his efforts to seize land from large agribusiness for the poor indigenous majority. In Paraguay, South America's second poorest nation after Bolivia, land ownership is the key to wealth, or even survival. The country has very little industry, and as much as 42 percent of its people live in poverty. By most accounts, the land gap dates back nearly 140 years to a war Paraguay lost to Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. Devastated and saddled with crushing war debt, Paraguay began selling off its government holdings that at the time amounted to 95 percent of the country. Over the years, the most fertile parcels went to political cronies, and many profited by reselling land to wealthy foreigners. Privatization accelerated under the dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner from 1954 to 1989 and into the early 1990s. A 2004 government study found that some 17 million acres ended up in the hands of just 1,877 people. The hope of land reform helped drive Lugo's election, and now the pressure is on him to deliver. In dozens of land invasions since the election, peasant groups have burned tractors, briefly taken hostages and helped themselves to tools and cell phones before retreating. Nationwide, an estimated 150,000 to 225,000 Paraguayans claim some affiliation with the various, scattered land groups, and some 50,000 are camped illegally on soy farms and ranches. So far Lugo has managed to balance both sides. He has persuaded most peasant leaders to stop invading property by promising priority for land relief. He has also assured private landowners that he'll respect their holdings. And he has studiously avoided the kind of revolutionary rhetoric that elevated class tensions and spooked investors in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, taking pains to say that both landowners and the landless have legitimate claims. "The constitution guarantees private property," Lugo said shortly after the election, "but it also guarantees the right of all Paraguayans to have access to a piece of land." Lugo, who has spent many years ministering to poor farmers, has asked for patience. He says he plans to buy or expropriate abandoned or illegally acquired land and redistribute it to peasant farmers, along with property the government already holds. His supporters plan a national survey to determine who owns what land _ a project would take at least two years, and require help from international lending organizations. But actually pushing through land reform is a different matter. Lugo will have to contend with government bureaucracies still dominated by political patronage hires, and avoid alienating the soy growers and cattle ranchers who keep Paraguay's economy sputtering along. Land redistribution has been the law in Paraguay for decades, but the agencies charged with carrying it out have been accused of inefficiency and corruption. Hector Daniel Cardoso, president of the National Institute of Rural and Land Development, says his agency does the best it can, considering it has a woefully outdated land registry and is nearly bankrupt. ad_icon Lugo has also given few specifics of how he plans to implement reform, other than promising loans, technical assistance, schools and public health programs _ all of which already are government policy. "The law isn't the problem," said Sen. Emilio Camacho, a Lugo ally. "It's the political will." Camacho predicted that Lugo would not take radical action because he is essentially a pragmatic man. Lugo will also be hampered by having only a tenuous majority coalition in Congress, which by law must approve all land expropriations. And landowners can appeal takeovers, but the courts are dominated by judges appointed by the long-ruling Colorado Party. So despite his best intentions, Paraguay's political establishment will likely allow only conservative land reform, said Miguel Carter, an American University expert on land issues in South America. "There is a pent-up demand in Paraguay that has been barely satisfied," Carter said. "I'm concerned there may be a little wishful thinking as to how easily it can be done." Along a highway outside the sweltering rural town of Capiibary _ "straw juice" in the indigenous Guarani language still spoken by most Paraguayans _ that demand is clear. Under a thatched shelter, people listen to a young man in a red "Che" Guevara beret explain their claim to the fertile land, saying it should be redistributed because it is unproductive and possibly ill-gotten. The estate is controlled by Jose Raimundo Bogarin, a large soy grower with an auto-import business who is known as a collector of antique cars. Attempts by The Associated Press to reach Bogarin for comment were unsuccessful. There are "no original documents" describing the title history of the land, according to Belarmino Balbuena, a leader of a coalition of Paraguayan landless groups. Balbuena said that of the hacienda's estimated 100,000 acres, there's enough acreage in questionable ownership to satisfy the protesters' demands for about 20,000 acres to divide among themselves for subsistence farming. What happens next will depend on Lugo. "If a month passes, or a month and a half, or two months ..." Ruiz Diaz said, his voice trailing off as he leaned on the wire fence. "We've heard his speeches, but we're waiting for results." http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_business?id=161314766 Wallerfield farmers hold protest for 'promised' land -GG Friday, April 25th 2008 making their voices heard: Displaced Wallerfield farmers display placards offering words of wisdom and advice during their protest yesterday at the Queen's Park Savannah, Port of Spain, opposite Whitehall. -Photo: ANISTO ALVES AMID global food shortages, several farmers who once toiled the land at Wallerfield, staged a small protest outside Whitehall, Port of Spain, yesterday. They were demanding answers from the Agriculture Ministry for lands they were promised since 2003. Farmer Baldeo Ramroop led a party of about 30 "dislocated" farmers around midday. "We need some answers from the Ministry of Agriculture," he said, since some of their farms were shut down to make way for the University of Trinidad and Tobago campus. Ramroop, who is the general secretary of the Wallerfield Farmers and Allied Welfare Association, said since they were evicted in 2003, they were promised that they would be relocated. He said there were 15 remaining farmers at Wallerfield and they were told that they have to leave by June. http://www.stuff.co.nz/4492427a12.html China police 'shoot two' in land protest Reuters | Tuesday, 22 April 2008 Chinese police opened fire during a clash over land use between villagers and employees of China's number two gold miner, killing two and wounding more than 20, a Hong Kong newspaper has said. Beijing, terrified of social unrest ahead of the Olympics in August, has cracked down on recent protests over the arbitrary use of land by powerful local interests. Ming Pao cited unidentified sources as saying riot police in the southwestern province of Yunnan were sent in on Sunday after almost 100 villagers clashed with Zijin Mining workers. The villagers were angry with offers of compensation and relocations when Zijin was trying to buy up small mines in the area, the newspaper said. An unidentified police official told the newspaper the shooting was in self-defence and that just one person was killed. The paper quoted a Zijin Mining official as saying the company's investments in the area were in accordance with local rules and regulations. He was unaware of the exact situation in Yunnan. http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1401167.php/At_least_one_farmer_killed_in_land_protest_in_China At least one farmer killed in land protest in China Apr 22, 2008, 8:52 GMT Beijing - At least one person was killed in clashes between farmers and police in south-western China in a land dispute involving a mine, local sources said Tuesday in telephone interviews. More than a dozen people were hurt Monday, some of them suffering life-threatening injuries, in the town of Saixi in Yunnan province's Malipo county, they said. The dispute involves the Zijin mining company, which has begun mining operations on the land of Saixi residents, who belong to the Miao ethnic minority. 'It is not the first violent confrontation between the farmers and authorities in the past year and a half,' a bank employee said. The Chinese Human Rights Defenders group said police opened fire on the protesters, killing one farmer and injuring five others. A doctor working in the intensive care unit of the Wenshan hospital said two of the injured had life-threatening injuries. Zijin wants to open a tungsten mine on the site, but the farmers have rejected an offer of compensation for their land. Land disputes have become common in China in recent years with residents often objecting to low compensation offered in deals negotiated between business and the government. http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2309718,00.html 100s protest for housing, water 21/04/2008 17:04 - (SA) Johannesburg - About 500 protesters from an informal settlement blocked the entrance to a street in Lenasia South on Monday, Johannesburg police said. Spokesperson Inspector Mpho Kgafoane said residents from the Hospital Hills informal settlement have started gathering again on Sheffield Street and have blocked the road once again. "No one can enter the street at this stage. There have been no stoning incidents and the protesters are relatively quiet." "There is a heavy police presence at the scene," she said. On Monday protesters torched a security vehicle and robbed a butchery of all its meat. The protests began on Sunday over the service delivery of the local ward councillor, Paul Molutsi. "Molutsi was having a meeting with the residents of the informal settlement when the crowd became angry. "They were unhappy that their electricity, housing and water needs had not been met," she said. According to the police, residents started protesting by blocking off Sheffield Street and stoning police and police vehicles. Two police vehicles were damaged on Sunday and some police officers sustained minor injuries. "Twenty-three people were arrested during protests on Sunday," Kgafoane said. Those arrested were to be charged with causing a public disturbance and would appear in the Vereeniging Magistrate's Court soon, police said. http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2340985,00.html Protesters block Jhb roads 15/06/2008 14:35 - (SA) Johannesburg - About 200 residents in Lawley, Lenasia, staged a protest on Sunday, demanding that the local council develop their informal settlements, Johannesburg police said. "They started protesting this morning, demanding that the Lawley Station squatter camps be developed," said Constable Edwin Ntsheo. He said they blocked roads with rocks from Lawley to Ennerdale, and were not letting traffic through. They were also singing and chanting. "They are not being violent, but police are monitoring the situation." He said the council had promised residents that development would occur in the area by June 1, but they were told last Thursday that soil tests were still being conducted, thus delaying the development. "The residents claim that soil tests have already been done six times in the area," Ntsheo said. http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Development&set_id=1&click_id=124&art_id=nw20080615132009871C236599 Protesting residents demand development June 15 2008 at 01:38PM About 200 residents in Lawley, Lenasia, staged a protest on Sunday, demanding that the local council develop their informal settlements, Johannesburg police said. "They started protesting this morning, demanding that the Lawley Station squatter camps be developed," said Constable Edwin Ntsheo. He said they blocked roads with rocks from Lawley to Ennerdale, and were not letting traffic through. They were also singing and chanting. "They are not being violent, but police are monitoring the situation." He said the council had promised residents that development would occur in the area by June 1, but they were told last Thursday that soil tests were still being conducted, thus delaying the development. "The residents claim that soil tests have already been done six times in the area," Ntsheo said. - Sapa http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/04/21/Stores_looted_in_lack_of_services_protest/UPI-68001208794259/ Stores looted in lack of services protest Published: April 21, 2008 at 12:10 PM Order reprints | Print Story | Email to a Friend | Post a Comment Close JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, April 21 (UPI) -- South African police reported calm Monday following a night of looting and burning by residents of the Hospital Hill settlement in Johannesburg. Some 300 people turned out to protest the government's delay in providing housing, electricity, water and sanitation facilities in Lenasia South, The Star newspaper of Gauteng Province reported. Police said residents barricaded roads leading to the area and looted shops, carrying away everything from meat to broken refrigerators and computers. Authorities believe the protests were sparked by an address Sunday by local councilor Paul Molutsi who was providing residents with a quarterly update. Many of the residents have been living in the informal Hospital Hill settlement for as long as 20 years. The newspaper says at last count there were more than 3,000 shacks in the area. http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_South%20Africa&set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20080421061051286C144687 Lenasia protesters try raze councillor's home Bhavna Sookha April 21 2008 at 07:24AM Police and demonstrators have clashed, leaving rubber-bullet casings and debris littering the streets at an informal settlement near Lenasia, south of Joburg. Thirty residents of Hospital Hill settlement, near Lenasia South, were arrested after the house of the local councillor was set on fire after a meeting on service delivery on Sunday. Residents had gathered early in the morning to hear the councillor give them a progress report on service delivery issues when tempers flared. The group were unhappy with the delays in the provision of housing, electricity, water and sanitary facilities. 'Police returned to the settlement with reinforcements to disperse the crowd' Police, who had escorted the councillor into the area for the meeting, hastily withdrew him when residents started getting disruptive. The crowd dispersed but later gathered on their own to continue the meeting, and police were alerted. The unhappy residents have been living in the informal settlement for more than 20 years. At the last count there were at least 3 200 shacks in the area, housing four to five people per corrugated iron home. Police returned to the settlement with reinforcements to disperse the crowd, which had regrouped deep in the settlement. Rocks, broken glass, rubbish bags and tree branches littered roads after police had dispersed the protesters. Some cement manhole covers had been broken and large holes were left exposed on the sides of the road. Groups of between six and eight police officers continued to patrol the settlement late on Sunday as tensions ran high. They occasionally stopped residents to question and search them. The police's Director Ronnie Rajin said: "After the crowd scattered, they went to the councillor's house and set it on fire." He added that 30 people had been arrested for public disturbance, damage to public property and assault. A resident from the area said money was being spent to tar roads in Lenasia South when it could have been used to build houses for residents of the informal settlement. "I don't blame them one bit. I also would have been angry if empty promises were made to me," he said. http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=110817 Residents protest demolition of old village Tuesday, May 06, 2008 Residents of Orangi Town held a demonstration on Monday outside the Karachi Press Club (KPC) against the town administration for demolishing around 500 houses in an old village called Hawa Goth. Protestors, including old women and children, carried banners inscribed with slogans against the town administration and the local police. They urged authorities concerned to provide them with justice. ?My husband Rasool Bux and my son-in-law, Maskan, were killed when our house was destroyed,? an old woman, Mehnaz, told The News. ?I need justice.? Mehnaz is a mother of six. She said her son-in-law had left behind three children. Another old woman, Hawa, said they had been living there for the past 45 years. She claimed that the town administration had demanded Rs5 million from them in return for not destroying their houses. One protester, Akbar, claimed that their village was also included in the first plan of the city, which dates back to 1915. ?I constructed the house with my hard-earned money but the town administration destroyed it,? an outraged Baloch woman said. In 1993, Akbar said, the then-deputy commissioner Karachi West had given them lease for the village which is spread over 60 acres. He claimed that the slain Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairperson, Benazir Bhutto, had also visited their village. Residents of Hawa Goth have been demanding justice for the past five months, Akbar said. Participants at Monday?s demonstration threatened to stage a hunger strike outside the KPC if their demands were not fulfilled soon. http://www.gmanews.tv/story/92941/Calatagan-farmers-stage-protest-at-SC-to-push-land-rights Calatagan farmers stage protest at SC to push land rights 05/02/2008 | 01:10 PM Email this | Email the Editor | Print | Digg this | Add to del.icio.us MANILA, Philippines - Farmers from Calatagan, Batangas on Friday staged a protest rally in front of the Supreme Court to ask for the return of their farmland which the government declared a mining land, QTV's Balitanghali reported. The television report said police immediately dispersed the placard-bearing protesters minutes after they assembled in the vicinity of the High Tribunal. In a press statement, Rufina Nolasco, chairperson of Samahan at Ugnayan ng Magsasaka at Mamamayan sa Calatagan (SUMAMACA), said they are asking the Supreme Court to implement its en banc decision dated March 25, 1988 under then Chief Justice Claudio Teehankee ordering the return of the land to the farmers. ?From the beginning it was our forefathers who tilled the land and we are the ones who first inhabited and developed the coast lines. We were evicted but the Supreme Court decided on our favor. Unfortunately since the issuance of the decision up till now the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has not done the resurvey of the land," Nolasco said. The peasants have started their vigil in front f the Department of Environment and Natural Resources since April 30. The farmers said they will continue their protests until their land is returned to them. At least 60 farmers marched from Calatagan, Batangas to Manila last week as a protest to a government decision reclassifying an agricultural area into a mining area. According to the Task Force Baha-Talibayog, the farmer-beneficiaries have already received Emancipation Patents under Presidential Decree 27, when the property?s former owner, Ceferino Ascue, ?illegally sold" the land to the Asturias Industries Inc. in 1995. In 1997, Asturias Industries Inc. entered into a Mineral Production Sharing Agreement (MPSA) with the government and obtained an environmental compliance certificate (ECC) from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to conduct mining activities in the area on the basis of a 1965 Bureau of Mines findings that the area is ?mineralized." - Amita Legaspi, GMANews.TV http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2008/05/03/3424218.htm [May 03, 2008] Venezuelan miners block road to Brazil to protest removal plan (EFE Ingles Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Caracas, May 3 (EFE).- Miners in southeastern Venezuela were blockading a road linking the country with Brazil to protest a government plan to forcibly evacuate 5,000 of them from the area, a mine workers' leader said. Workforce Management: At the Heart of the Contact Center Learn more, download free white paper. The Modern Contact Center and Workforce Management?s Vital Role Learn more, download free white paper. Realizing the Full Promise of Workforce Management Technology: Avoiding Mistakes That Short-Change Your Investment Learn more, download free white paper. President Hugo Chavez's government "plans to remove more than 5,000 small miners from the Las Cristinas sector" of Bolivar state, "and when 24 hours had passed today (Friday) since the beginning of the blockade two army convoys arrived that supposedly are going to try" to remove them, labor leader Abelardo Diaz said from the area. The president of the Federation of Bolivar Gold and Diamond Miners' Cooperatives and Associations added in telephone statements to Caracas broadcaster Globovision that the blockade eventually will be complemented this weekend by "an initial 24-hour strike" by residents of the town of Santa Elena de Uairen and other nearby municipalities. Other workers in Santa Elena said they would back the potential strike, Diaz said, adding that Basic Industry and Mining Minister Rodolfo Sanz told them on two occasions in recent weeks that the miners must carry out their work elsewhere in the country. He showed them which other areas, but "there are no schools, hospitals" in those places, Diaz said. "There's nothing." "The situation is very worrisome, because they plan to remove all the miners from the upper basin of the Caroni River," which would mean the disappearance of almost the entire mining population of Bolivar, he said. He acknowledged that the minister recently backed off a threat to "remove them with C-4 (plastic explosives), as they are accustomed to doing," apparently referring to army soldiers. He accused the official, however, of "trying to wear the miners down" and said he did not attend two meetings last week to outline his plan and hear the workers' concerns. "We're waiting for the arrival of the minister, who supposedly will come tomorrow, Saturday; if he doesn't, we'll immediately shut down the entire town of Santa Elena de Uairen," Diaz warned. The Las Cristinas development is home to one of South America's largest gold deposits. According to Sanz's office, it is estimated to contain some 323 million tons of provable and probable reserves. According to press reports from Caracas released this week, the Environment Ministry this month denied Canadian mining firm Crystallex a permit to begin exploiting the mine, alleging "sensitive issues related to indigenous populations, small miners and the environment." A communique from the Toronto-based company cited by the Caracas daily El Universal said the Venezuelan government "seems to be opposed to all mining in the region." Crystallex was awarded a concession to exploit the mine in 2002 and was awaiting an environmental permit to begin carrying out operations. EFE http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Development&set_id=1&click_id=124&art_id=vn20080429120407286C663899 Winelands protesters march for land April 29 2008 at 12:16PM Hundreds of poor people from the Breede River Winelands region took to the streets in Robertson on Monday to demand that the municipality speed up land redistribution. The protesters included members of the Mawubuye Land Rights Forum, small-scale farmers, the landless and the poor. The protesters chanted songs demanding land outside the Breede River Winelands municipality. In a memorandum submitted to mayor John Ngonyama, the demands included transparency about the land the municipality held and measures taken to make it accessible to the poor, the non-renewal of contracts for commercial farmers leasing municipal land, and an immediate stop to the sale of land to developers. "There has been no help from the municipality in reducing poverty. Instead, people are constantly discouraged and prevented from utilising unused pieces of land to feed their families. "We demand to know the municipality's contribution and role in the land reform programme that targets 30 percent of commercial land by 2014 for redistribution. "There should be free access to information about development plans and strict adherence to policy of developmental local government where the municipality worked together with communities to address development challenges," read the memorandum in part. Mawubuye Land Rights Forum vice-chairperson Dulcie Winegaard said: "We are the indigenous people and we have nothing. We want land to support ourselves and families." Accepting the petition, Ngonyama promised to report back to the people after a month. He said there were farms in the municipality that had been identified for allocation to the poor and landless. "If the municipality does not meet our demands, we plan mass action again," said Mawubuye Land Rights Forum president Henry Michaels. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/regions/view/20080513-136239/Farmers-protest-conversion-of-agricultural-land-for-tourism Farmers protest conversion of agricultural land for tourism By Abigail Kwok INQUIRER.net First Posted 13:28:00 05/13/2008 MANILA, Philippines -- Members of a leftist farmers? group staged a picket at the Department of Tourism (DoT) in Manila on Tuesday to demand an end to the conversion of agricultural lands for tourism, specifically in Nasugbu, Batangas. The Kalipunan ng Samahang Magsasaka sa Timog Katagalugan (Kasama-TK, Federation of Farmers? Associations in Southern Tagalog) demanded the scrapping of Executive Order 647, which authorizes an ?eminent persons group? to ?oversee the sustainable development of Nasugbu tourism in behalf of the President of the Philippines and the Secretary of Tourism.? Kasama-TK secretary general Orly Marcellana said stopping land conversion is crucial to solving the food crisis the country is facing. ?The people of Southern Tagalog pose a challenge to [President] Gloria [Macapagal] Arroyo to?immediately act on the case in Nasugbu by stopping the land use conversion. We also call on this department [DoT] to stop converting our lands, intended for agriculture and fisheries, especially [since] we are in the middle of a food crisis,? Marcellana said. Samahang Magbubukid ng Batangas (SAMBAT, Batangas Farmers? Association) chairman Romy Cayao said EO 647 ?strengthens and caters the interest of the ?eminent person,? which, from our simple understanding, is the few capitalists and landlords,? at the expense of farmers and fisherfolk. http://allafrica.com/stories/200806020112.html Kenya: Activists Protest Over Fee for Land The Nation (Nairobi) 31 May 2008 Posted to the web 2 June 2008 Jonathan Manyindo Nairobi A condition requiring people to pay a Sh2,000 application fee for plots in the 15,000-acre farm, previously owned by former Taveta MP, Basil Criticos, has sparked a major rift between a Cabinet minister and human rights activists. Whereas Special Programmes minister, Naomi Shabaan, who is also Taveta MP, insists the fee must be paid for the 2,000 plots, activists from Coast Land Alliance and Darubini ya Haki Taveta want the town council to stop collecting the money, saying the Government already spent tax payers' money to purchase the land. The Government bought the land from the National Bank of Kenya, which had repossessed it from Mr Criticos for defaulting on a loan. The council is charging a Sh2,000 non-refundable application fee per plot and successful applicants are required to develop the plots within two years, failure to which the land will be repossessed. Darubini ya Haki chairman, Jasper Muruttu claimed the Government paid for 15,000 acres yet the minister was pushing for the sub-division of only 2,000 acres. And Taita Taveta Human Rights Network chairman, Haji Mwakio warned that the Taveta community was likely to lose the land to outsiders if local councillors were left to carry out the allocation. "We would not like the situation experienced in Shimba Hills and Mpeketoni repeated in Taveta," he said. However, Dr Shabaan said the land is not for free and asked those who do not want to pay the fee to keep off. Speaking at Kimala during a public meeting, the minister accused the human rights activists of jeopardising the process for their own personal interests. Personal war She said the remaining 13,000 acres would be distributed to the public later. Dr Shabaan said the community will have to blame itself if they failed "to take the golden opportunity to own land that they have fought for for many decades." Dr Shabaan said plans were underway to take over all the land owned by Mr Criticos, including Grogan Castle where the former MP has shifted his residence. She also said another large-scale land owner in the area had agreed to surrender 15,000 acres to the local community. Mr Criticos, when reached for comment, accused the MP of a personal war against him by targeting his land. http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7011256504 Bahrains Protestors Find Quiet Ways To Make Their Points ShareThis June 12, 2008 8:58 p.m. EST Sandeep Singh Grewal - AHN Middle East Correspondent Manama, Bahrain (AHN) - Peace is the new formula for protestors in the Kingdom, one of the few liberal states in the Gulf Cooperation Council that encourages outspokenness. And these days, protestors are saying it with flowers. An example is the Nuwaidarat housing protest that has been going on for more than 100 days. It is the longest peaceful protest in the country. The residents of four villages-Asker, Ma'ameer, Nuwaidarat and Sanad-are demanding the government allocate 230 new housing units to them rather than to outsiders. The villagers are protesting in style, with a range of tactics from billiard or table tennis tournaments to film screenings and pony rides to spice up their protest. "Every day someone is protesting. The villagers take turns to spend the night in our hut. We will continue our protest till the authorities hand over the keys of these new housing units. They belong to us and not to people who do not live here," a protestor told AHN. This protest without a pause gets even bigger during the weekends, with lawmakers invited to deliver speeches and express solidarity to the protesters. Another ongoing protest is by Arad residents in Muharraq, the second largest city, over a land grab issue. The organizers hold their customary Friday protest outside the Muharraq Club after prayers. The common factor between them and the Nuwaidarat protest is that they too are battling to gain control in their own soil. They allege the land near the Arad Fort was grabbed by the Muharraq Club for construction of a commercial complex. They send text messages to all their supporters and political groups to participate in the protest. The seriousness behind the issues has not been diluted as the protestors want to send their message without raising the white flag. The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) established last year a center, the first of its kind in the Middle East, under the theme "Youth Against Violence," to help prevent violent demonstrations. Some of their strategies included presenting bouquets to riot police before a protest, balloon campaigns and wearing common color attire as a symbol of protest. BYSHR President Mohammed Al Maskati told AHN, "We cannot change everything but are trying to introduce non-violent ways of protesting. We have trained so far 65 youth from different villages and will continue our training." The society has tied up with the Centre for Applied Non-Violent Action and Strategies (CANVAS) in Serbia to send trainers to Bahrain for their program. He said this time they would screen films about Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela to the youth across the country. Some of the other popular protests held last year included a black ribbon protest by about 9,500 teachers from government schools who were demanding salary increments, bonus and overtime and an umbrella protest by unionists of a telecom company calling for the reinstatement of two leaders. Seeing the popularity of these soft protests, UNESCO is organizing a regional meet of more than 100 young people and key speakers from around the world to discuss ways to dissuade youth from engaging in violent and radical behavior. The three-day event here, which begins Sunday, is held under the patronage of the Foreign Ministry, which would provide a platform to tackle the global challenge of violent radicalization of youth. Last year, 324 rallies were held in the country, of which only 104 were approved by the Ministry of Interior. There are regular reports in the local media of illegal gatherings by miscreants that turned violent. A policeman in Karzakan was killed by a masked men in an illegal gathering who threw Molotov Cocktails at the patrol jeep. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/06/africa/ME-GEN-Egypt-Sectarian-Tensions.php Police: Coptic Christian killed in dispute over land in Egypt, hundreds protest slaying The Associated Press Published: June 6, 2008 CAIRO, Egypt: Police unleashed tear gas Friday to disperse hundreds of villagers who were protesting the killing of a fellow Christian in southern Egypt, police official said Friday. Police arrested a 25-year-old Muslim man for allegedly stabbing to death Milad Farag Ibrahim, 22, after a dispute erupted Friday between the two over a piece of land in the town of Dafash in Minya province, the official said. Hundreds of angry relatives and neighbors later gathered in the town's streets, protesting his death and calling for revenge, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Police officials rushed to the area to control the situation and used tear gas to disperse the crowd, the official said. On Saturday, a Muslim man was killed and three Christians were injured when villagers clashed over the expansion of a monastery in another village in Minya, which is located about 130 miles (210 kilometers) south of Cairo. Coptic Christians make up an estimated 10 percent of Egypt's 76.5 million people. They generally live in peace with the Muslim majority, though occasional clashes occur. http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1420884/protesters_prefer_pigs_over_pricey_water_tower_well/index.html?source=r_science Protesters Prefer Pigs Over Pricey Water Tower, Well Posted on: Friday, 6 June 2008, 21:00 CDT By Georgia Garvey ggarvey@@dailyherald.com A handful of Island Lake residents lent an oink of support Thursday night to a man fighting a village proposal for a water tower and well next to his home. In recognition of Wauconda Township resident Robert Wargaski's planned pig farm, the residents sported plastic pig noses and carried signs at the village board meeting. "This board stinks," resident Laurie Rabattini said. "We're trying to send a message." Wargaski has been fighting for years against a planned Island Lake water well and tower next door to his property. Now Wargaski is saying he plans to do some building of his own: a containment facility and manure lagoon for the 50 to 100 pigs he's planning to farm on his five acres of land. Environmental regulations forbid animal manure too close to public water sources. Rabattini said she supports Wargaski's fight against the village but says the conflict is due to flawed leadership "This is an example of larger problems," she said. "I'd be more pro a pig farm than I am a $5 million water tower." Cassie Martin, who also wore the nose and carried some of the signs, agreed. "We're willing to fight for what's right," she said. "We need to be here." The women planned to stand up with their noses on and signs up during public comment period, which did not come until late Thursday. Wargaski, who was not present Thursday, has argued the planned well would lower his property values and force him to dig his well deeper. He has also sought an injunction in Lake County court to stop the construction of the well and tower. Wargaski's land is zoned as agricultural, but the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has already issued the village a permit to build the tower. Mayor Tom Hyde has said he's not certain what will happen with the proposed pig farm but doesn't believe the IEPA will take away a permit it has already granted. (c) 2008 Daily Herald; Arlington Heights, Ill.. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved. http://seguingazette.com/story.lasso?ewcd=53dff8262189b091 Altwein family protests pathway of Outer Loop By Michael Cary The Gazette-Enterprise Published June 25, 2008 SCHUMANNSVILLE ? Johann Gotthulf and Wilhelmine Altwein moved from Prussia to Texas in 1851. They settled on a farm on the west bank of the Guadalupe River, which today is a narrow section of the waterway below Lake Dunlap dam and Lake McQueeney Dam. An Altwein family cemetery was established in 1853 when Johann died of a heat stroke while working to clear land. His great-grandson, Kermit, and Kermit?s wife, Marilyn, obtained a historical marker for the cemetery from the Texas Historical Commission. The Texas Department of Agriculture?s Family Land Heritage Program honored the Altwein Ranch for a century or more of continuous ownership and operation as a family agricultural enterprise. Today, the Altweins have maintained their 139-acre farm for the past 155 years. Their daughter, Susan, lives in the 1910 farmhouse with her husband, Ben Thibodeaux and their children. The Altweins and the Thibodeauxs are worried about the effect the proposed New Braunfels Outer Loop will have when it impacts their family farm. It seems that the Texas Department of Transportation has laid out a plan for the road and a river crossing that will miss the farmhouse but will include the Altwein river bottom property. ?Taking this land in the name of progress is a travesty. The proposed route will take almost all of our river frontage,? Kermit Altwein wrote to TxDOT. The New Braunfels Outer Loop is a preliminary plan to identify a general corridor for a proposed outer loop, according to www.nbolstudy.com . The 800-ft. wide loop may or may not be built, and it is not currently funded. The plan for funding if it is built 20 years from now will be through charging tolls to drive on it. A meeting concerning the planned route for the New Braunfels Outer Loop is set for 6:30 p.m. today at Canyon High School in New Braunfels. Another meeting is set for 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the same location for property owners who will be affected by recent revisions to the 40-mile loop. Marilyn and Kermit Altwein have supported the efforts of New Braunfels area property owners who formed the group Citizens Alliance for Smart Expansion. CASE members question why an expected population of 170,000 in 30 years needs a 6-lane loop the size of San Antonio?s Loop 410, which they contend was built when the population reached 600,000. CASE meets at 5:30 p.m. every Thursday at Faith United Church, 970 N. Loop 337 (at Common Street) in New Braunfels. The Altweins say their river bottom is sort of a bottleneck along the river, with gravel bars up and downriver of their ranch, which makes it passable only by canoe, kayak or flat-bottomed boat. There is abundant wildlife on the property and the Altweins are participating in a Wildlife Management Association preservation program. ?We got the TxDOT notice about the outer loop, but we thought it was junk mail,? Marilyn said. ?We?ve never seen a clear map of the loop,? she said. Altwein, who is the broker for Altwein Realty, said the outer loop puts their property in limbo. ?Your land is saddled with it, and you can?t sell your property,? Altwein said. ?We?re going to try to change their minds,? Susan Thibodeaux said. ?Our kids are sixth generation and they want to keep living here,? Thibodeaux said. http://www.nst.com.my/Monday/National/2274727/Article/index_html 2008/06/23 150 squatters protest against eviction notices KUALA LUMPUR: Some 200 police personnel were put on standby during a peaceful demonstration in Kampung Pandan yesterday morning. About 150 squatters were protesting against notices of eviction issued to them by City Hall. Cheras police chief Assistant Commissioner Ahmad Amir Mohd Hashim said no untoward incident occurred during the half-hour illegal gathering at 10am at the Kampung Pandan Indian Settlement. He said police were there to observe and control traffic flow along Jalan Delapan, next to SJK (Tamil) Kampung Pandan, where the crowd gathered. "We allowed them to assemble and protest for 30 minutes before asking them to disperse," he said. Kampung Pandan Indian Settlement Action Committee chairman Suresh Kumar said the protesters were not objecting to the notices, but they want more time to further discuss the issue with City Hall. "How can they serve us a one-month notice on June 10, asking about 3,000 people to move out by July 8? The 270 houses have been here for 51 years," he said. "They offered us rented units in the DBKL low-cost flats in Kampung Muhibbah, Puchong, in the past but we declined because it was too far away." He said there were several issues they wanted to discuss with City Hall, adding that they wanted to know what the plans for the redevelopment of the squatter land were. They want City Hall to build low-cost flats where their houses are located and give them the units for free as compensation. They also want compensation for the demolished temples and for them to be rebuilt by City Hall. Hindu Rights Action Force coordinator S. Jayathas and Pas officials were present. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/07/404111.html Squatter's Protest at Stoke Newington Police Station Dominic | 18.07.2008 23:17 | Free Spaces | London Two people were arrested as police evicted a squat in Hackney today. Friends and supporters gathered at Stoke Newington Police station to demand their release. The police said that both people were arrested for criminal damage and abstracting electricity, but they decided not to charge either. One was released, but the other was said to be wanted over a separate allegation in Poland, and is facing extradition. A flyer distributed at the protest said: Today police illegally evicted a squat in Hackney and arrested our two friends inside. We are calling for their immediate release! Hackney council and the metropolitan police have been working together to evict squatters, families and the poor. We are loosing our homes to the aggressive gentrification of hackney: we aren't going without a fight. We are increasingly harassed, searched, beaten and arrested, and this has become a common experience across the board with policing in Hackney. We oppose police brutality and repression. Dominic http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0716/dublin.html Man suffers burns at Dublin protest Wednesday, 16 July 2008 11:24 A man is being treated for burn injuries following an incident during a protest in Dublin last night. The incident happened during a demonstration by members of the Travelling community at Coolock Lane at about 8pm last night. It is understood residents of an unofficial halting site were protesting over plans by the local authority to move them from the area. Advertisement Garda? were called to the scene after a man carrying petrol threatened to set himself on fire. Officers were attempting to defuse the situation when another man became engulfed in flames. The injured man was taken to Beaumont Hospital for treatment for second degree burns. He was transferred to the burns unit of St James's Hospital last night. http://www.local10.com/news/16861867/detail.html?rss=mia&psp=news Community Activists To Protest Miami's Mega Plan POSTED: 8:09 am EDT July 12, 2008 UPDATED: 8:45 am EDT July 12, 2008 MIAMI -- Community activists against Miami's Mega Plan will take to the streets of Watson Island Saturday morning. Miami City Commissioner Tomas Regalado, County Commission candidate Val Screen, Miami Neighborhoods United president Grace Solares, Environmental Law and Public Interest Attorney Frank Schnidman and others will protest the $3 billion plan. Attorneys for billionaire plaintiff Norman Braman and for Miami-Dade County could not move toward a compromise on Friday. This after a judge asked them to negotiate. One attorney called the meeting "a waste of time". The trial is expected to start Monday. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-mural13-2008jul13,0,3421808.story Political protest hits a brick wall St. Louis officials say the mural is too big. Its author says they're against the message, not the medium. By P.J. Huffstutter, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer 7:46 PM PDT, July 12, 2008 ST. LOUIS -- When this city declared the aging Bohemian Hill neighborhood blighted and opened the door to the possibility of using eminent domain to redevelop it, social activist Jim Roos decided to protest in a big way. He hired an artist to paint a two-story-high mural on the outside of a duplex, turning a late-1800s brick facade into a massive declaration of outrage easily spotted from the city's major arteries. The mural, which says "End Eminent Domain Abuse" inside a red circle with a slash through it, has annoyed civic leaders and led to a legal battle. The city is asking a federal judge to order Roos to get rid of the painting. The city's attorneys say it isn't art or constitutionally protected free speech but simply a sign that's too big. Local codes restrict signs in the city's residential areas to 30 square feet in total size, said Matthew Moak, an associate city attorney. The mural is 24 feet across -- 15 times the maximum. "I don't care what it says. . . . If it had been dogs playing pokeron the side of the building, it'd still be a problem," Moak said. "You cannot erect what amounts to a two-story piece of graffiti." Roos -- who runs a company that manages rental units for low-income residents, including the Bohemian Hills duplex -- acknowledges that he didn't apply for a city permit before commissioning the mural. When he tried to get one after the fact, the city denied his application. Roos believes it's the painting's message -- not its size -- that St. Louis lawmakers truly object to. "If this were advertising McDonald's or beer or the Cardinals, there'd be no discussion or debate," said Roos. "The city just can't stand that someone is protesting what they're doing in such a loud way." The lawsuit is to be heard in the spring. Since the 2005 Supreme Court ruling that local governments could seize private property and hand it over to developers, the battle over the practice of eminent domain has led to a slew of state legislation over the issue. Some states, such as California, have few restrictions, said Larry Morandi, director of state policy research for the National Conference of State Legislatures. Last year, lawmakers in Sacramento failed to pass a measure that would have prohibited local governments from acquiring homes, churches and farmland through eminent domain. Last month, California voters shot down a proposition that would have phased out rent control and limited the government's ability to take private property. (Voters did, however, pass a measure protecting owner-occupied homes from eminent domain.) Missouri's law prevents governments from using the process solely for the purpose of economic gain or to increase the tax base, "but that adverb -- solely -- gives cities some wiggle room," Morandi said. "It tells local governments: 'You'd better make sure you've done your homework before you try to take a property.' " City officials say the measure has helped St. Louis. Like many Midwestern cities with old housing stock and numerous abandoned properties, St. Louis has used eminent domain as part of a broader effort to redevelop neighborhoods. And the city has faced the legal battles that often follow. For Roos, who is spearheading a grass-roots effort to have a measure further restricting eminent domain placed on the November ballot, this fight goes back decades. When he unsuccessfully ran for alderman here in 1987, his campaign focused on letting neighborhoods revitalize naturally, rather than "be rushed by a bunch of developers," Roos said. Several years ago, the issue became personal when the city invoked eminent domain to acquire and tear down two dozen buildings managed by Roos' group, Neighborhood Enterprises Inc. "When some of our tenants started getting letters from the city last year saying, once again, the city was interested in acquiring their homes, I felt like something drastic needed to be done," Roos said. The mural is on a building in a wedge-shaped residential area on the city's near south side that faces the point where interstates 44 and 55 merge. In the 19th century, Bohemian Hill was home to Eastern European immigrants drawn to the city's industrial boom. It later fell into decay and was partially cleared to make room for the merging interstates. Today the area is a hodgepodge of elegantly rehabbed condominiums, modest low-income housing, and rows of boarded-up brick homes that date to the turn of the 20th century. "I've had city officials tell me that if [the mural] were smaller and painted on the front of the building, then it'd be OK," Roos said. "But then what's the point? No one would see it." p.j.huffstutter at latimes.com http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008083004_cabins31.html?syndication=rss Group protests cabin removal at Lake Roosevelt National Recreational Area A land-rights group is outraged that the National Park Service is studying whether to terminate leases on 26 vacation cabins in the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area. By Nicholas K. Geranios The Associated Press SPOKANE ? A land-rights group is outraged that the National Park Service is studying whether to terminate leases on 26 vacation cabins in the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area. The American Land Rights Association, of Battle Ground, Clark County, calls the study a "land grab." "Please do your part to help the cabin owners at Lake Roosevelt save their cabins from the National Park Service," the group said in a mailing to supporters. "The key here is to work together." This week is the deadline for people to file comments to the service about the cabins. Debbie Bird, superintendent of the Lake Roosevelt recreation area, said it's too early to predict whether the cabins are in danger of removal. "We are doing an environmental assessment," Bird said. "It's premature to predict the outcome." Bird rejected the notion of a "land grab," primarily because the federal government already owns the land the cabins were built on. The 26 vacation cabins are a legacy of a 1950s-era program in which people were encouraged to lease land along the Columbia River reservoir created by Grand Coulee Dam and build simple cabins, not primary residences, Bird said. The leases, which cost $4,500 per year, run for five years, she said. Now the Park Service is studying whether it wants to continue having the cabins, which are at the Rickey Point and Sherman Creek areas of the 150-mile-long lake. Federal law requires the environmental assessment to determine whether the cabins should be allowed and under what lease conditions, the park service said. The American Land Rights Association is calling on its supporters to deluge the service with demands that the cabins be retained. It has sent a standard comment form, along with instructions to alter the form to look more like it is from an individual rather than part of a mass effort. "The Park Service will try to discount this questionnaire," the group told supporters. "You can prevent them from doing that by personalizing it as much as you can. "Please make sure you write in some personal comments." Lake Roosevelt is a popular recreation area, especially with boaters, but relatively few people live along its banks. New homes have not been allowed on the shoreline for decades. The land-rights association believes the Park Service should encourage more cabins to be built in the recreation area, to discourage people from abusing the shoreline. "The superintendent should make it a priority to develop sites ... to distribute the use of the lake, broaden the carrying capacity and create additional opportunity for those who wish to have a more removed or remote recreational opportunity," the association said. Copyright ? 2008 The Seattle Times Company http://www.bangkokpost.com/250708_News/25Jul2008_news15.php KLONG TOEY MARKET Vendors protest against PAT plans AMORNRAT MAHITTHIROOK Anurak: Admits rents will go up About 3,000 vendors from Klong Toey market protested outside the Port Authority of Thailand (PAT) yesterday, fearing a planned renovation of the ageing market area would mean their expulsion. The group, led by Klong Toey market community head Sompong Tangskulwiwatana, blocked Kasemrat road from the Customs Department intersection to the PAT building and beyond, nearly to the Tha Ruea expressway ramp. They blocked the entrance to the PAT building, denying access to vehicles, causing a serious traffic jam on nearby roads until they dispersed in late afternoon. The protesters were dissatisfied with the PAT's decision not to renew contracts with three companies which manage areas in the market. The contracts expired on March 31. They worry the decision will lead to their eviction to allow for the building of a yet another shopping mall. PAT director-general Sunida Skulratana assured them all vendors would be still allowed to sell at Klong Toey market. There would be only a change in market managers, she said. ''The companies have enticed the vendors to stage the rally to pressure the PAT to renew their contracts,'' Mrs Sunida said. ''We can't agree to that. Our evaluation shows those companies did not manage the market effectively.'' Klong Toey market vendors wave the national flag as they rally in front of the Port Authority of Thailand yesterday in protest against its plan to renovate the market, which could result in their losing selling space. The PAT would continue accepting tenders from new companies to run the market until Aug 4. The bids would be opened on Sept 17. The tenders are for the management of a market area of 8.49 rai (appraised value 350 million baht) opposite Sacred Heart Convent school and another area of 14.32 rai (appraised value 591 million baht) by Rama IV road. Deputy Transport Minister Anurak Jureemart said there had been no major improvements at Klong Toey market for a very long time. The PAT wanted to make it a cleaner market by installing a better drainage system and a waste water treatment facility, and build a parking lot to attract more customers, said Mr Anurak. He admitted the existing vendors would have to pay higher rents after the changes, but they would have first right to the selling area. The protesting vendors dispersed in late afternoon after the PAT executives agreed to consider their proposals within five days http://www.cyprus-mail.com/news/main.php?id=40876&cat_id=1 Tent protest aims to shame Cyprus in dispute with developers By Jean Christou BRITISH home buyer Conor O?Dwyer marked his 39th birthday yesterday far away from his wife and children as he continued his indefinite protest outside the Cyprus High Commission in London. O?Dwyer began his protest camping outside the Cypriot diplomatic mission this month because August marks two years since he was due to move his family to Cyprus, and August marks the anniversary of when the Minister of the Interior told the media he was looking into the unlawful selling of O?Dwyer?s house. In two years, no progress has been made on O?Dwyer?s case outlined on his website www.lyingbuilder.com, and he has now set up a new site www.ShameOnCyprus.com, which will focus initially on his protest in London. ?I am still getting the same rhetoric that I was getting two years ago,? O?Dwyer said yesterday. ?That?s why I?m protesting. I?m not going anywhere until they drag this case to court and take the developers off to jail. I deserve my day in court.? O?Dwyer spent a week in Larnaca hospital last January after he was beaten up in Frenaros when he went to take pictures of the house he had bought and over which he later came into dispute with the developers. They have been charged by police in connection with the attack on O?Dwyer in Frenaros, but the case has yet to reach the courts. He says the developers unilaterally cancelled his contract and kept his money, some ?75,000 sterling, because he had pulled them up over what he saw as a misrepresentation of their deal. That case is also pending at court. The developers have accused O?Dwyer of allegedly masterminding a plan to extort a newer more expensive property, and exorbitant damages from the company. ?My case is undeniable,? said O?Dwyer who, said that if anyone bothered to look at it, it could be solved in an afternoon. ?It doesn?t take Sherlock Holmes to figure it out. This whole thing stinks.? O?Dwyer did receive a visit from an official at the Cyprus High Commission on Friday but the official only gave him ?the same old story?, he said. A new High Commissioner is due to be in place next week, whom O?Dwyer hopes might listen to him. Since the indefinite protest began, O?Dwyer has been sleeping in a tent and spends his day updating his new website and talking to passers-by, including, he said, potential British property buyers for Cyprus. ?A few have now been put off buying in Cyprus when they heard what happened to me,? he said. ?I?m not going to stay quiet any more and watch other people lose their savings. I?m sleeping in a tent. That?s what I got for my ?75,000. I?ve lost my home but I?m not moving from here until I let everyone know what a corrupt society Cyprus is.? http://www.beloblog.com/ProJo_Blogs/newsblog/2008/08/campers-protest.html Campers protest campsite move in Westport 11:30 AM Mon, Aug 11, 2008 | Permalink Jack Perry Email WESTPORT, Mass. (AP) -- Campers who regularly use the waterfront RV campsites at Horseneck Beach in Westport are upset that the state is moving them. Camper Betty Weeden of Portsmouth, R.I., says she plans to send a petition she has circulated with more than 700 signatures to lawmakers and Gov. Deval Patrick to get the state Department of Conservation and Recreation to reconsider the decision. The plan to move the 32 campsites with views of Buzzards Bay farther inland is part of a master plan for the park. The department says the campsites are being moved to protect dunes. State Rep. Michael Rodrigues, D-Westport, thinks the campsites should stay where they are. A DCR spokeswoman says there have already been numerous public hearings about the plan. http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1426751.php/Victims_of_Indonesian_mud_volcano_protest_for_compensation Victims of Indonesian mud volcano protest for compensation Asia-Pacific News Aug 25, 2008, 9:54 GMT vote nowBuzz up! Jakarta - Hundreds of homeless residents from East Java province demanded compensation for their properties destroyed by a massive mudflow caused by an industrial accident. More than 14,000 homes, 33 schools, 65 mosques and an orphanage have been buried since May 2006 when a 'mud volcano' began oozing to the surface following an oil-drilling accident in East Java district of Sidoardjo, an industrial suburb. 'Our two-year housing rents is running out, but so far we don't know yet when they would pay the remaining 80 per cent of compensation. Now, we have no place to stay,' said Heri Iswandi, one of the protest leaders, was quoted as saying by the state-run Antara news agency. 'This land still belong to us. We will continue to block the BPLS' works from continuing to built dams here until we get full payment of the compensation money,' Iswandi said. BPLS is the government-sanctioned Sidoarjo Mud Mitigation Agency, which has been working to stem the flow with a network of dams and by channelling some of it into the sea, but with little success so far. Gas leaks are increasingly common around the site as the weight of the mud causes the ground to sink and trapped gas makes its way to the surface. The sludge also buried railway tracks and toll roads, causing serious traffic disruption. The drilling operation, operated by the Indonesian company PT Lapindo Brantas, apparently hit an underground volcanic mud flow while drilling at a depth of 3,000 metres, allowing the sludge to spew to the surface. Geologists, scientists, non-governmental organizations and many victims blame the company for irresponsible drilling. Lapindo is backed by two court rulings that said an earthquake near Yogyakarta, 250 kilometres away, triggered the mud volcano. The government accepted responsibility last year for costs related to the disaster's social impact on people living outside swamped areas. But it ordered Lapindo to pay 3.8 trillion rupiah (425 million dollars) in partial compensation for the mud disaster. Jakarta - Hundreds of homeless residents from East Java province demanded compensation for their properties destroyed by a massive mudflow caused by an industrial accident. More than 14,000 homes, 33 schools, 65 mosques and an orphanage have been buried since May 2006 when a 'mud volcano' began oozing to the surface following an oil-drilling accident in East Java district of Sidoardjo, an industrial suburb. 'Our two-year housing rents is running out, but so far we don't know yet when they would pay the remaining 80 per cent of compensation. Now, we have no place to stay,' said Heri Iswandi, one of the protest leaders, was quoted as saying by the state-run Antara news agency. 'This land still belong to us. We will continue to block the BPLS' works from continuing to built dams here until we get full payment of the compensation money,' Iswandi said. BPLS is the government-sanctioned Sidoarjo Mud Mitigation Agency, which has been working to stem the flow with a network of dams and by channelling some of it into the sea, but with little success so far. Gas leaks are increasingly common around the site as the weight of the mud causes the ground to sink and trapped gas makes its way to the surface. The sludge also buried railway tracks and toll roads, causing serious traffic disruption. The drilling operation, operated by the Indonesian company PT Lapindo Brantas, apparently hit an underground volcanic mud flow while drilling at a depth of 3,000 metres, allowing the sludge to spew to the surface. Geologists, scientists, non-governmental organizations and many victims blame the company for irresponsible drilling. Lapindo is backed by two court rulings that said an earthquake near Yogyakarta, 250 kilometres away, triggered the mud volcano. The government accepted responsibility last year for costs related to the disaster's social impact on people living outside swamped areas. But it ordered Lapindo to pay 3.8 trillion rupiah (425 million dollars) in partial compensation for the mud disaster. http://allafrica.com/stories/200808180836.html Kenya: Protests As KAA Hands Over Airport The Nation (Nairobi) 16 August 2008 Posted to the web 18 August 2008 Cosmas Butunyi Nairobi The Kenya Airports Authority on Friday handed over Kisumu Airport to a contractor to begin its upgrading and expansion amid protests from the local community. KAA project manager Philemon Chamwada said that work on the Sh2.6 billion project would start after Chinese Overseas Engineering Company gets the green light in two weeks. As the handover ceremony was going on, members of the Kogony community demonstrated outside the airport and had to be restrained by anti-riot police. The secretary general of the Kogony Clan Land Council of Elders, Mr Ayub Onyango Ogindo, said the community would not allow the project to take off unless they were fully compensated. He said that the Sh15 million KAA had paid was a token and for compensation for developments on the land. "We want proper compensation commensurate with the value of our land," he said. Mr Ogindo also demanded that the project's environmental impact assessment (EIA) be made public. The community also wants jobs to be earmarked for locals and a memorandum of understanding drawn up on how the community will benefit after its completion. "We have received an assurance from the Government that pertinent issues are being addressed," Mr Chamwada said in response to the demands. He said that KAA had received the land's title deed from the Government. Mr Chamwada said the EIA report had been submitted to the National Environmental Management Authority and a licence granted. "Relevant notices were issued during the process," he said. He said unskilled labour would be hired from the community but the contractor would use his discretion to hire skilled manpower. "We cannot compromise on the quality of work, which has to meet international aviation standards," he said. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/regions/view/20080807-153226/Bukidnon-farmers-stage-protest-at-DENR Bukidnon farmers stage protest at DENR By Katherine Evangelista INQUIRER.net First Posted 13:10:00 08/07/2008 MANILA, Philippines -- Some 30 farmers held a rally outside the Department of Natural Resources (DENR) central office in Quezon City on Thursday calling for the cancellation of the lease contracts of six cattle ranch operators in Bukidnon. Wealthy ranch operators, all belonging to different political clans, have allegedly violated the Forest Land Grazing Lease Agreement (FLGLA) they had with the DENR, said Jane Neri, spokesperson of the Alliance of Landless Farmers and Rural Poor in Bukidnon-Task Force Mapalad (Alyansa-TFM). The FLGLA allows for only 20 hectares of land to be used for food production for the cattles being raised and not for exportable crop plantations. However, ranch operators have converted most of the 3,548 hectares of land that they have occupied into fields for various crops like pineapple and sugarcane, Neri said. One of the ranches under question is the 456-hectare Manzano Ranch operated by the former mayor of Don Carlos, Felix Manzano who was alleged using majority of the land for planting sugarcanes and another portion for raising fighting cocks. Similarly, the 820-hectare Ocaya Ranch is also being questioned since aside from allegedly violating the land-usage provision in their FLGLA, ranch operator Circle T Development Corporation, the family business of the late governor Timoteo Ocaya, has failed to pay rental and surcharges and has not submitted annual grazing report. A letter from DENR Assistant Secretary General Legal Services signed by Mylene Albano has recommended the cancellation of the Ocaya Ranch FLGLA, but the ranch was still operating, Neri said. She added that they were laid off from their employment in the farms and were forced to live outside the perimeter of the lands they used to work on after they filed the petition for the cancellation of the FLGLAs some 10 years ago. "Matagal na itong isyung ito. Dati sa DENR Region 10 office kami pero sabi sa amin hindi daw sila may hawak ng cancellation ng FLGLA kaya pumunta na kami dito sa Maynila [This issue is old. We used to go to the DENR Region 10 office but now they?ve told us that they were not responsible for the petition to cancel the FLGLA that?s why we went to Manila]," Neri said. She added that there was a fact-finding team formed to investigate the alleged violations but the results were questionable since these were biased against the farmers. "Kitang-kita naman dun na konti na lang 'yung mga baka tapos ang lalawak na nung mga tubuhan pero hindi pa rin nila kinansela yung FLGLA [Everyone cam see that there are not enough cows and the lands for sugarcane are growing and yet they have not cancelled the FLGLA)," Neri lamented. Alyansa-TFM called on to DENR Secretary Lito Atienza to immediately cancel the FLGLAs of to give way for displaced farm laborers to file for a community-based Forest Management (CBFM) which is similar to the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program for farmers, Neri said. "These rich ranch owners have profited more than enough while we dirt poor farmers need to labor on the field in order to buy NFA rice and dried fish. Farmers as pillar of economic survival is a major reason why DENR should cancel these FLGLAs and distribute the lands to qualified farmer beneficiaries," said Metodio Alindajao, president of Alayon sa Buayan Association, Inc. which is also affiliated with the TFM. Giving the land to the farm laborers will allow them to plant staple food products like rice and corn and help protect the forest by planting trees, said Oscar Ma?iego, chairperson of Alyansa-TFM. "Hunger triggered us to camp at the DENR national office because hundreds of hectares of fertile land in Bukidnon now devoted to export crop plantation can be cultivated for staple food production," Maniego added. The CBFM has duration of 25 years and is renewable for another 25 years thereafter, Ma?iego said. http://www.nst.com.my/Friday/National/2272371/Article/index_html 2008/06/20 Padi farmers protest MB's logging threat By : Noor Adzman Baharuddin ALOR STAR: Some 63,000 padi farmers in Kedah and Perlis are angry with Menteri Besar Azizan Abdul Razak for his decision to log timber in water catchment areas in Kedah. Their spokesman, Ahmad Radin, described the decision announced by Azizan on Wednesday as "an attempt to kill off our livelihood". "The trees are there to help retain water in the ground. "If you remove them, there will be no more water for our padi fields and everyone knows this. "We are talking about the livelihood of more than 63,000 farmers and this does not include their families and children," he said when asked to comment on Azizan's announcement that the Pas-led state government would log timber, valued at about RM16 billion, in water catchment areas in Kedah if the Federal Government does not compensate the loss of revenue for maintaining them. Azizan claimed the Federal Government had ignored the state's request for RM100 million in compensation on numerous occasions and that logging permits would be issued soon. He said for many years Kedah had never been compensated for providing raw water for irrigation, industrial and domestic uses to Penang and Perlis. Ahmad, who is also chairman of the coordinating committee for area farmers' organisation under the Muda Agricultural Development Authority, said most of the farmers only learnt about the matter yesterday after reading it in the newspapers . "I chaired a meeting with all the 27 area farmers' organisations from Kedah and Perlis and we discussed Azizan's announcement. "He had gone back on his word about settling any problem with the Federal Government through discussions. "I remembered him saying so only a few days after he was appointed Kedah Menteri Besar." He said Azizan or his representatives should have held discussions with the padi farmers before making the decision. "We are talking about the livelihood and future of many people but our views were not sought before they made the decision. "We are very upset and disappointed with Azizan." He said Azizan should not hold the Federal Government to ransom but resolve the matter through discussion. "It appears he is trying to pelingkopkan kita (destroy us) while getting even with the Federal Government." From ldxar1 at tesco.net Thu Aug 28 13:03:57 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2008 21:03:57 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Workers' protests, Asia, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <005301c90949$36261da0$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * IRAN: Workers walk out at paper mill, hold sit-in * IRAN: Textile workers protest in Kurdistan * IRAN: Sugar cane workers protest in Khuzestan * PHILIPPINES: Power workers warn of protests * PHILIPPINES: Health workers protest merger * TURKEY: Dockers strike over deaths * BAHRAIN: Protests over dismissal of telecom workers * JORDAN: Professional associations hold sit-in * PHILIPPINES: Workers block road over salary arrears, management abuse * HONG KONG: Foreign maids protest for more money * PHILIPPINES: Council disrupted over privatisation of slaughterhouse * THAILAND: Airline workers protest corruption * TAIWAN: Media workers protest at party office * SRI LANKA: Unions hold strikes and protests over pay * PHILIPPINES: Insurance workers protest transfer of functions * PHILIPPINES: Guard pulls gun at anti-corruption protest * PHILIPPINES: Psychiatric tests for migrants protested http://www.ncr-iran.org/content/view/5316/128/ Iran: More than 1,300 workers protest in Pars paper mill factory Monday, 23 June 2008 NCRI - On Saturday morning, more than 1,300 Pars paper mill factory workers walked out and staged a sit-in outside the management office in the southern city of Shoosh. They were protesting to three months of their unpaid salaries and chanted slogans against the factory's management. Mullahs' regime hand picked management in the factory cut out the power lines to the factory's facility which also houses the families of the striking workers. Considering the scorching heat of Khuzestan Province in the summer, the management tried to pressure the families to make the workers end their walkout. Separately, on Saturday, the angry workers at Haft-Tapeh Sugar Cane Factory continued their strike by holding a demonstration outside the factory's management office in Shoosh. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Special Units moved in to prevent the workers from marching in the streets. Units of the IRGC were dispatched late last week to suppress the worker protests in Haft-Tapeh. The mullahs' regime in its faltering state in fear of increasing popular uprisings by workers, students, women and youths has turned to more suppressive tactics. The Iranian Resistance calls on labor organizations and unions and the International Labor Organization (ILO) in particular to condemn the anti-labor policies of the clerical regime and suppression of the workers in Iran. Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran June 23, 2008 http://ncr-iran.org/content/view/5489/105/ Iran: More than 200 workers protest in Sanandaj Monday, 11 August 2008 NCRI - This morning, more than 200 protesting workers of Zarbaft Textile Factory of Kurdistan gathered outside social security office in the western city of Sanandaj. The participants demanded their unpaid salaries and benefits. The State Security Forces (SSF) - mullahs' suppressive police - fearing the spread of demonstration to other parts of the city cordoned the protesting workers. "I have worked in the textile factory for 18 years. After all, I have to sit outside the factory and go home at the end of the day empty handed," said a worker at the gathering. In the past year, it has been the workers who are facing pay cuts by the hand picked managements in the usually privatized factories. However, it is rapidly catching up with the other sectors of the Iranian work force. Over past year thousands of workers went on strike over unpaid salaries in major Iranian factories such as Sugar Cane factory in the southern city of Shoosh, Iran Khodro and Kiyan-tire in suburban Tehran. http://www.ncr-iran.org/content/view/5189/128/ Iran: Workers' protest in southern Iranian city Tuesday, 06 May 2008 NCRI - On Tuesday workers of the state-owned Haft Tappeh Sugar Cane Company in southwestern Khuzistan province near the city of Shoush, staged a protest to demand their unpaid salaries and called for an end to the harassment of their co-workers. More than 2,000 workers of the company demonstrated in front of its management offices. The protesters did not permit the company's deputy manager to enter his office. In the past few days at least five labor activists who had participated in last years' protests have been summoned by Iranian regime's judiciary. The workers sought the resignation of company's management and the official in charge of security, who is involved in harassing the workers. According to striking workers of Haft Tappeh, the Iranian regime's Ministry of Information and security has dispatched plain cloth agents to prevent the spread of protest to the city. The company's failure to pay wages, the management's decision to sell company lands and other properties as well as a threat to dismiss 2,000 out of the 5,000 employees, led to an extensive two-week strike late September and early October. Over 3,000 of the workers marched out of the company premises and demonstrated in front of Shoush city governor's office, sometimes even blocking the road to the city. The State Security Forces were dispatched to the area to contain the angry workers and there were clashes on several occasions. A number of workers' leaders were arrested. Some of them were wounded in clashes between protesters and government forces. http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/cag/2008/05/29/news/full.blown.protest.in.the.offing.at.cepalco.html Thursday, May 29, 2008 Full-blown protest in the offing at Cepalco By Mark D. Francisco THE workers' union of the local power utility Cepalco has warned of a full-blown protest if their demands for higher wages are not met. Amor Sanchez, president of the nearly 200-member Cepalco Employees Labor Union (Celu), said they have no plans to hamper power services, but a drawn out dispute will force them to the picket lines. Arroyo Watch: Sun.Star blog on President Arroyo Celu declared a deadlock early this week, after both sides failed to agree on a fresh Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). The union is asking for a P2,200 increase in monthly wages, among other benefits. Marilyn Chavez, Cepalco corporate communications officer, said the company was optimistic in reaching a deal with Celu, and assured the unhampered delivery of electricity despite the labor row with its union. Chavez said Cepalco was leaving the matter for the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) to resolve. "This has happened before and NCMB was able to settle the labor disputes between us and the union. We are confident it will be resolved soonest," she told Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro in a phone interview. Sanchez said a long-drawn labor dispute was the last thing that the workers want, but insisted on their demands, saying their demands are reasonable and within the company's capacity to address. Celu filed Wednesday a notice of strike before NCMB, followed by an after-work "peace rally" outside the Cepalco compound in Chaves Street. A full-blown protest, Sanchez said, is possible should the government-brokered negotiations fail. For his part, Vice Mayor Vicente Emano appealed Wednesday for Celu not to disrupt the delivery of power services in its franchise areas. Emano expressed concern that the labor row may jeopardize the operations of businesses in the city, which he said may result to losses. "Dako nga perwisyo kung mawad-an sa sugang dagitabnon ang katawhan ug dako nga katalagman kung ang mga balay-patigayon ug mga paktorya dili makapadayon sa ilang mga negosyo," he pointed out. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/metro/view/20080603-140504/Lung-Center-workers-protest-donation-to-NKTIA Lung Center workers protest donation to NKTIA By Katherine Evangelista INQUIRER.net First Posted 15:43:00 06/03/2008 MANILA, Philippines -- Workers of the Lung Center of the Philippines (LCP) on Tuesday staged a protest during their lunch break against the impending donation of a building and a piece of land owned by their institution to the National Kidney Transplant Institute (NKTI). After a rally at the LCP, members of the Employees Association (LCPEA) and the Lung Center of the Philippines Nurses Association (LCPNA) marched to the NKTI to air their sentiments against a resolution of the Government-Owned and Controlled Corporation (GOCC) Hospital Board of Trustees ordering the LPC to give a building and 11,150 square meters of their land to the neighboring health institute. They said they were willing to take their case to the Department of Health (DoH) and Malaca?ang. "The DoH and Malaca?ang should be responsible enough to act on our issue," LCPEA president Emmanuel Asis said. The LCPEA, in a position paper, said the transfer of the property is part of a plan for the "integration" of GOCC hospitals. It said this would threaten both the security of tenure of LCP employees as well as the welfare of its patients. It said the property the LCP has been told to give was to be transformed into a ward for poor patients. The group also claimed the hospital board has no jurisdiction over the LCP's 121,463-square meter land since it was donated by the National Housing Authority. They added that the LCP was created through a Presidential Decree deliberated by the Congress, thus any change or amendment to the institute must go through the same process. The LCP workers also questioned the NKTI's authority to use two of the LCP building's wings since this was done only through a verbal instruction from former First Lady Imelda Marcos. They added that the NKTI owes the LCP P4 billion in rent, but which the board of trustees allegedly reduced to P300 million. LCPEA pointed out that their institution has just begun recovering from a fire that struck in 1998 while the NKTI has been earning over the past year but has continuously failed to provide its employees proper benefits. Instead of taking the LCP building and land, the NKTI should instead pay its debts to augment the budget for LCP patients. http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=106816 Workers to go on strike in protest to deaths Tuesday, June 10, 2008 SHIPYARD: After the last death on Sunday, unions and workers call for a strike.TDN photo, Hasan Altinisik One of the major unions in Turkey's shipping industry yesterday protested the death of another worker in a shipyard in Tuzla on Sunday and announced that the union will go on strike against work-related accidents on June 16, the Anatolia news agency reported. Education institutions are set to get involved in the issue as well, to find solutions to ongoing deaths in shipyards. Ihsan Turan, 35, who worked in Selahattin Aslan shipyards, was injured severely as a damper fell on him Sunday. He received first aid at the shipyard and was then taken to the Tuzla State Hospital in an ambulance but did not survive. The number of deaths has increased to 25 in the last 11 months. "Workers for the first time go to strike to not die," said Cem Din?, the head of the Port, Shipyard, Ship Construction and Repair Workers Trade Union, or Limter Is. Shipyard workers should not work Sundays according to the law regulating heavy industry, said Din?. "Although Sunday is the day of compulsory holiday, we work on Saturdays and Sundays too. If the regulations were implemented, Ihsan Turan would be with us today," he said. The deaths in Tuzla shipyards cannot be stopped despite inspections by officials and the closure of some shipyards. The Selah Shipyard in Istanbul's Tuzla region was shut down after an increase in deaths among workers due to work-related accidents. Many people were critical as the shipyard reopened on May 26 after being shut down for only six days. Since two workers died due to accidents in Selah Shipyard within the space of eight days in May, the six days of closure have been criticized as too short period to make the necessary changes. Meanwhile, self-imposed controls in shipyards will be increased, said Metin Kalkavan, the head of Sea Commerce Chamber, adding that new standards will be determined for the shipyards as well, the CNN-T?rk news site reported. Calling the work-related deaths a complete coincidence and unluckiness, Kalkavan said the [fatal accident] rates are not above the world average. "We left it a little bit uncontrolled too. But we can issue fines from now on," he said. On June 12, Istanbul Sea Commerce Chamber will organize a wide-ranging meeting about the issue. Searching for solutions abroad As deaths due to work-related accidents continue to occur in shipyards, a joint commission of Turk Loydu, a classification and certification society of the shipping sector, Istanbul Technical University Ship Building and Maritime Faculty and Piri Reis University will prepare a report on countries that succeeded in decreasing the number of deaths in shipyards, business daily Referans reported. Professor Y?cel Odabasi, the honorary head of Turk Loydu, is at the same time the head of the commission established with contribution from the Sea Commerce Chamber. The commission will first examine the case in Turkey and then compare the situation with shipyards in the world, where deaths were common in past years, but by implementing measures, the death rates were reduced. The commission will prepare reports at the end of their examinations and present them to shipyard owners and advise solutions, said professor Osman Kamil Sag, the rector of Piri Reis University. The commission will examine shipyards in the United States. Sag stated they could also evaluate the invitation of Jurong Shipyard in Singapore. Piri Reis University will attempt to educate workers as well, Sag said. The project will be effective together with other measure they would take, added Kalkavan. "We are going to examine the shipyards in other countries as we believe that this would contribute to reduce the number of deaths," Kalkavan said. http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=150588 Workers protest fatal accidents at Tuzla shipyards A group of shipyard workers marched against work-related accidents at Tuzla shipyards yesterday. A group of workers has protested the series of fatal work-related accidents at shipyards in Istanbul's Tuzla district, where most recently three workers were killed while testing out a lifeboat. Approximately 200 workers walked from Taksim Square to Galatasaray in Istanbul on Sunday with a coffin to protest the deaths of the three workers on Aug. 11 during a lifeboat test and the numerous other work-related deaths that have occurred in Tuzla. Their signs read "We no longer want to die," "Shipyard workers not slaves," "Safety measures for dangerous work should be implemented" and "Contractor system should be abolished." Meanwhile, four people, including a woman holding a sign on the Bosporus Bridge saying "End murders at shipyards," were detained Sunday as they attempted to block traffic on the bridge. In a lifeboat freefall test on a tanker that had recently been built at Tuzla's Gisan shipyard, 16 workers were placed on the lifeboat while it was lowered to the water. But one of the cables supporting the lifeboat snapped and the boat crashed into the tanker, killing Ramazan Erg?n, Ramazan ?etinkaya and Emrah Varol and injuring the rest. A prosecutor has launched an investigation into the accident while the Labor and Social Security Ministry appointed an inspector to investigate it. Several workers at other shipyards in Tuzla claimed that refusing to take part in such tests is considered by their employers as reason for dismissal. Mehmet Oyar, founder of the Gisan shipyard, said his staff take precautions but "accidents happen." He noted that he has been in the shipyard business for 48 years and has never seen sandbags placed in the lifeboats for testing, as some claim should have been done instead of using people. "Accidents occur because employers are uninformed," he was quoted by NTV-MSNBC as saying. The Gisan shipyard resumed operations only two days after three of its workers were killed during the lifeboat test. The accident of the three workers took place shortly after a parliamentary commission investigating industrial accidents indicated that most shipyards disregard safety regulations and force their employees to work in unsafe conditions. More than two dozen workers have died this year at the Tuzla shipyards. http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/080805/world/bahrain_labour_media_protest Bahrain state broadcast staff in pay protest Module body Tue Aug 5, 1:32 PM MANAMA (AFP) - Some 150 staff of Bahrain's state-run television and radio staged a sit-in on Tuesday to demand pay increases and a halt to cuts in overtime payments. The protesters, who rallied for two hours at the information ministry compound in Issa Town, south of the capital Manama, "are demanding a halt to all measures related to overtime, the reshuffling of jobs and compensation until a new organisational structure is approved," an organiser told AFP. "The employees are also demanding a wage hike and the payment of compensation for certain jobs as well as for their recalling (from holiday). They also want to discuss overtime and regular working hours," he said. The protesters have been angered by measures introduced by the new head of state radio and television, Ahmad Najm, who has imposed limits on overtime hours and moved some employees from their jobs. "We notified the (information) ministry undersecretary and the executive president of the radio and television authority during the sit-in that we expect a response to our demands next week, and that if a response is not forthcoming or is negative, we will stage another sit-in," the protest organiser said. In remarks published by the Al-Waqt newspaper on Tuesday, Najm defended the measures, saying he had not taken charge in order to "deprive people of their livelihoods" but in order to reorganise the state broadcast authority, which he said had suffered from "mismanagement." http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7011409866 Unionists and Families March In Protest Against Dismissal Of Bahraini Workers ShareThis June 27, 2008 10:34 p.m. EST Sandeep Singh Grewal - AHN Middle East Correspondent Manama, Bahrain (AHN) - Sacked unionists, families, political groups, physically challenged and even children protested peacefully as they marched on Friday in the heart of capital. In a show of solidarity, over 500 people came out in the intense summer heat to support the sacked 44 Bahrain Telecommunication Company (Batelco) workers. The national march was organized by the General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions (GFBTU) and backed by political parties such as the Al Wefaq National Islamic Society and the National Democratic Action Society. The march comes in the wake of the firing of 44 Bahraini workers who include 10 women. The Batelco Trade Union (BTU) and company management are at loggerheads over a retirement scheme. The union claims they are pushing for voluntary early retirement (VER) but the company is implementing an employee redeployment program (ERP). Karim Radhi, GFBTU general assistant secretary of activities and projects, told AHN during the protest that workers were insecure as they feared they could also lose their jobs. "Workers whether Bahraini or non-Bahraini feel they could have the same fate like the Batelco workers. We will take our protest to another level and this march aims to send the right message to the authorities." Since the open market policy adopted by the government, several telecommunication companies have entered the market, breaking the monopoly Batelco has enjoyed for years. It provides mobile services, broadband internet and other services to its customers in Bahrain, the Middle East and North African countries. Women joined hands with unionists as they wore red ribbons and carried banners protesting the unfair dismissal of unionists. "NO to dismissal YES to right to work," "NO to hire and fire law YES to job security," "Batelco Boycottelco" read some of the banners. Protestors peacefully marched about two kilometers from the Ras Ruman mosque to Bab Al Bahrain in the downtown of this capital city. The hour-long demonstration ended in front of the Batelco building. Shaikh Ali Salman, of Al Wefaq bloc (Conservative Shia), led the march. He told AHN, "Batelco is generating profit, they should be hiring more Bahrainis rather than sacking them. I am against the Batelco decision to sack Bahraini workers which has affected their families." There have been several protests against the national telecom company by unionists this month. The workers have already announced a red ribbon protest and threat to fast. A switchoff protest organised by unionists and BTU on Thursday urged customers to switch off their phones for an hour. Friday's protest could be seen as the first step of a total boycott of products and services. GFBTU Chief Salman Mahfoodh said, "We have formed a committee in the federation which is studying on the possibility of boycott Batelco's product and services. We have already received support from unions in Jordan and Yemen against the sackings." The General Federation of Yemen Worker's Trade Union (GFYTU) is calling upon the United Nations and international unions to pressure Batelco to reinstate the sacked Bahraini workers. The case of the Batelco workers was taken up recently at the International Labor Organization (ILO) Conference held in Geneva this month. Batelco said in a statement the decision to end the services of their 44 employees "was not taken haphazardly." A statement from the Batelco Corporate Affairs Department stated the company introduced the ERP on a voluntary basis for one month. It said none of the concerned 44 staff applied for the ERP during the allowed period. "The staff was officially approached in October 2007 to explain them ERP details. They were informed if they couldn't find alternative suitable positions during a specified three month period, they would have to accept the package offered by the company," the company statement said. Batelco aims to double its users in Jordan to 2.4 million, and more than triple numbers in Yemen to 5 million from 1.6 million. In Bahrain, which has a population of 1.05 million, the company aims to raise its users from 42 per cent to 1 million. http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/080627/world/bahrain_strike_demo_telecom Bahrainis protest dismissal of 44 telecom workers Module body Fri Jun 27, 3:03 PM MANAMA (AFP) - Hundreds of Bahraini workers and activists demonstrated Friday protesting the laying off of 44 employees from the leading mobile telephone operator Batelco. The federation of Bahrain trade unions which led the demonstration called on mobile phone users to boycott the mostly government-owned company for two hours on Sunday by not using their phones. "This step will be a warning to the company," the head of the federation, Sayyed Salman Mahfouz, told participants who gathered outside Batelco offices after marching through streets of Manama. The demonstrators urged Batelco to reinstate the workers, slamming what they described as forced retirement. "The labour union demands the reinstatement of the 44 dismissed workers... It demands an end to forced retirement and setting up a programme for voluntary retirement," Mahfouz told AFP. The workers have apparently been made redundant under an early retirement scheme. They received letters telling them that their last day at work will be June 29, union officials said. The government and individual shareholders hold 80 percent of Batelco, while British company Cable and Wireless holds the remaining shares. http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=9140 Five associations to go ahead with planned protest By Hani Hazaimeh AMMAN - Representatives of five professional associations have decided to go ahead with their planned sit-in on Tuesday. Last month, members of the veterinary, press, pharmacists, agricultural engineers and geologists associations staged a protest in front the Agriculture Ministry to urge the government to increase their professional allowances from 120 to 150 per cent. Jordan Agricultural Engineers Association (JAEA) President Abdul Hadi Falahat told The Jordan Times on Sunday that their decision to proceed with the protest was taken after they did not receive any positive response from the government. Although Finance Minister Hamad Kasasbeh announced that the associations' demand will be considered in the 2009 state budget, Falahat said it was not enough or convincing for the associations to call off the protest. "We want the government to make a decision in writing to increase the association members' professional allowance from 120 per cent to 150 per cent," he added. Falahat said the one-hour sit-in will be conducted in the Kingdom's 12 governorates from 2:30pm-3:30pm in front of each governorate's headquarters. He said if the government continues to turn a deaf ear to their demand, the associations will call on their members to stage a sit-in on August 5 in front of the Prime Ministry. Falahat noted that presidents the of the five associations will take part in tomorrow's sit-in. 7 July 2008 http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=44321 Published On: 2008-07-05 Metropolitan RMG workers protest delay in salary payment Staff Correspondent Several hundred workers of a garment factory in the city's Rampura area staged a demonstration blocking the busy DIT Road to protest the delay in payment of their salary and misbehaviour of factory officials. Witnesses said the agitated workers of Megastar Apparels took to the streets at around 8:30am. They staged a demonstration and blocked the DIT Road for around one hour. Commuters had to suffer a lot as hundreds of vehicles got stranded on the road. Khilgaon police said the workers first staged a demonstration inside the factory and later they came out to the road. The workers demanded the factory authorities pay their salary within seven days of the month, they added. The police further said that the authorities later agreed to meet the demand of the workers. http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/218647,foreign-maids-in-hong-kong-stage-protest-to-demand-more.html Foreign maids in Hong Kong stage protest to demand more money Posted : Sun, 13 Jul 2008 14:02:05 GMT Author : DPA Category : Asia (World) Hong Kong - Around 200 foreign maids working in Hong Kong staged a protest Sunday to demand a bigger pay rise after the government increased their pay by 12.8 US dollars a month. Shouting slogans and holding up placards, they described the annual pay rise as inadequate and called for a minimum wage of at least 500 US dollars a month at the rally in central Hong Kong. The pay rise announced last week increases the minimum pay for foreign live-in maids in the wealthy former British colony, most of them from the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand, to 458 US dollars a month. The move was welcomed by the Philippines consul general to Hong Kong Alejandrino Vicente who said it would help workers cope with rising living costs. However, groups representing the maids say the pay rise is too little after the women had their pay slashed by 51 US dollars a month in 2003 to help employers cope with the crisis caused by the outbreak of the respiratory illness SARS. After a similar small increase in pay rates last year, overseas maids in Hong Kong are currently paid around 12 US dollars a month less than they were before the SARS crisis. A spokeswoman for Sunday's protestors said demonstrations would continue until maids were paid at least 500 US dollars a month to keep pace with inflation in the wealthy city of 6.9 million. "We will continue with our demands," the spokeswoman said. "We will never stop until we get a significant increase. The government gives us a piecemeal amount every year despite rising inflation." Last week's rise in minimum pay only applies to new contracts between employers and maids, which are usually signed for periods of two years. More than 200,000 foreign women work as live-in maids for working Hong Kong families, doing housework and child care duties. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/metro/view/20080714-148329/Commotion-at-Manila-city-hall-as-abattoir-workers-protest Commotion at Manila city hall as abattoir workers protest INQUIRER.net First Posted 11:07:00 07/14/2008 MANILA, Philippines -- (UPDATE) A commotion broke out at the Manila city hall during a protest by what police estimated are 200 workers of the Vitas Slaughterhouse in Tondo, Manila, a government owned facility leased to a private concessionaire, Dealco Farms Inc., in 2001. Dealco stands for Delfin Alcoreza, father of Manila Councilor Dennis Alcoreza. The workers say they fear for their jobs after the city government took over the slaughterhouse last Friday for alleged violations of the lease contract and failure to pay taxes. During the takeover, Councilor Alcoreza was dragged out of the building after adamantly refusing to turn over the facility. In a bid to pacify the protesters, Manila police chief Roberto Rosales said Mayor Alfredo Lim's chief of staff, Ricardo de Guzman, informed him that the city government has vowed to absorb the 600 employees of Dealco Farms Inc., most of them residents of Tondo. After the announcement, the protesters were allowed to hold a program at the Bonifacio Shrine Freedom Park. But in a press conference, Lim said the protesters must settle their concerns with their employer and not the city government. "They [employees] are Dealco's responsibility," Lim said. He added that they will reinstate former employees of the Vitas Slaughterhouse who were reassigned to the Manila North Cemetery after the facility was leased in 2001. http://www.bangkokpost.com/100708_News/10Jul2008_news14.php Staff protest, allege management graft AMORNRAT MAHITTHIROOK Many allegations of corruption involving the management of Thai Airways International (THAI) were made at the airline's headquarters yesterday, including in the purchase of new aircraft. A group of about 20 THAI engineers rallied at the airline's headquarters on Vibhavadi Rangsit road just before its board meeting. They criticised board chairman Chaisawat Kittipornpaiboon for overruling the resolution by other board members to suspend airline president Apinan Sumanaseni on June 26 to allow a corruption investigation. The engineers also criticised the THAI labour union for failing to examine corruption allegations surrounding the airline president. Then THAI shareholder Prasert Lertyaso showed up and complained that the management's decision to buy eight Airbus A330-300 aircraft violated a cabinet resolution that the national airline should lease them. He said the purchase decision could affect the financial liquidity of the airline. He also complained that the THAI management opted to buy Rolls-Royce jet engines for six Airbus A380 aircraft and eight Airbus A330-300 aircraft instead of the board's choice of GE engines that THAI engineers could maintain. The deal with Rolls-Royce required that THAI have those engines maintained in Hong Kong or Singapore, he said. Mr Prasert also claimed the THAI management rented 45 hotel rooms for its crew in Australia although the number should be capped at 35 rooms. The shareholder demanded the THAI board explain why Mr Apinan was not suspended as it had initially resolved. Another group of THAI staff members showed up at the Transport Ministry in the afternoon to demand Minister Santi Promphat refrain from interfering with the decisions of the board. The group claimed that most board members had decided to remove Mr Apinan but the minister intervened and influenced the board to reinstate him. Mr Santi later denied he had meddled in the decision. It was reported the THAI board yesterday confirmed its approval for the airline's plan to buy 20 Airbus A320 aircraft and ordered the management to review its 10-year corporate plan because of the radical changes in fuel prices. http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=94582 TAIWAN: CTV union stages protest outside KMT headquarters Union members blame KMT for selling CTV to Jungli Investment Co., who plan to cancel the network's 15-year early retirement program Taipei Times Thursday, July 10, 2008 By Mo Yan-chih In response to China Television Co's plan to cancel its early retirement program, a group of CTV union members yesterday staged a protest in front of the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) headquarters, urging the former owner of the company to assist CTV workers in negotiations with the company. Chanting "Ma Ying-jeou assumes office, we become unemployed" in front of the building, CTV union members blamed CTV's decision to cancel the retirement program on the KMT for selling the company. "The union voted for President Ma during the presidential election, but the KMT has not promised us anything or offered any help. Ma has cheated us of our votes," said a union member, who asked to remain anonymous. The KMT-owned Central Investment Co sold Broadcasting Corporation of China, Central Motion Picture Co and China Television Co to China Times Group subsidiary Jungli Investment Co in 2005 for NT$9.3 billion (US$280.7 million). The transaction was facilitated by Hua Hsia, an investment firm owned by the KMT, and the relationship between Jungli Investment Co and Hua Hsia Investment Holding Co has led some to question whether the two companies and the KMT are still working together. CTV is planning to cancel its 15-year early retirement program and return to a standard retirement plan under the regulations of the Labor Standards Act. The law stipulates that employees must have worked at the same company for more than 25 years, or be more than 55 years old and have worked for 15 years, in order to retire and receive a full pension. The change would affect more than 200 employees at CTV if implemented. The CTV plan follows recent layoffs at Chinese-language newspaper the China Times, with the China Times Group claiming that financial considerations forced it to cut the size of the newspaper. KMT Secretary-General Wu Den-yi later appeared and received the union's statement on behalf of KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung, but did not offer any promises. "The KMT is facing a difficult financial situation, too... But we will let the Presidential Office know about your situation," he said. KMT Central Standing Committee member Yao Chiang-lin later promised the union that he would make sure their voices were heard. http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jul2008/sril-j22.shtml Sri Lankan unions call for further strikes and protests over pay By W.A. Sunil 22 July 2008 Despite a relatively low turnout for a one-day general strike on July 10, Sri Lankan trade unions are calling for further action in support of their demands for a 5,000-rupee rise in monthly pay, cost-of-living allowances and reduced railway and bus fares. Tens of thousands of public sector employees including in the hospitals, railways, the Government Press, Government Factory, Ceylon Transport Board and Ceylon Electricity Board, as well as teachers and plantation workers, took part in the July 10 strike. The limited character of the stoppage was not due to a lack of support for the demands-broad layers of working people have been hit by soaring inflation of more than 30 percent. Rather there is a widespread lack of confidence in the unions, which have repeatedly caved in to the government over the past two years. Prior to the strike, President Mahinda Rajapakse summarily rejected the pay demands, declaring that any rises would undermine the war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). He accused the trade unions and workers of engaging in strikes to help the "Tiger terrorists". The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), whose National Trade Union Centre (NTUC) spearheaded the strike, fully backs Rajapakse's renewed communal war. Far from calling for an end to the war, the NTUC leaders insisted that the strike would not disrupt the war effort. They called no rallies or protests on July 10. Following a union meeting on July 16, NTUC leader K. D. Lalkantha, who is also a JVP parliamentarian, announced a further three-day strike to force the government to grant the 5,000-rupee rise. Lalkantha indicated that the NTUC would approach other unions to participate. No date has been fixed. A leaflet issued by the NTUC pledged "to continue the struggle until we get complete victory". Clutching at straws, it listed a series of empty government promises, and in some cases rumours, as "gains". These included a government offer, prior to the stoppage, of a small 625-rupee allowance and another "promise" to lift private sector wages by between 15 and 45 percent. No private employers have agreed to any increase. Irida Lakbima reported on July 13 that a presidential secretariat official said the government would give 2,000-rupee wage increase in its November budget. Despite the lack of any official confirmation, the NTUC listed the rise as another gain for strikers. All this bluster about "victories achieved" and "struggle to the end" is to obscure the fact that the NTUC is desperate for a face-saving deal to put an end to the campaign. The decision to call the strike was not in response to the increasingly desperate situation facing workers, but to bolster the JVP's declining support in urban and rural areas. While the JVP proclaims its sympathy for working people, its MPs voted last November for the government's war budget, which included a record 166 billion rupees for defence at the expense of the jobs and wages of its employees, and cutbacks for welfare, education and health. A trade union alliance known as the "August 4 movement" has also called for further action in support of the pay demands. The grouping includes the Health Services Trade Union Alliance, as well as several other public sector unions, including several associated with middle class radical outfits such as the Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP). At a meeting on July 19, these unions called for a day of protest on September 9 and again on October 7. Far from challenging the NTUC perspective, the NSSP is promoting the dangerous illusion that the JVP is being pressured by the masses to wage a genuine struggle for their interests and against the war. Their only criticism of the NTUC was that it had failed to collaborate closely enough with their alliance and unions associated with the main opposition party-the right-wing United National Party (UNP). While posturing as opponents of the war, the NSSP issues futile appeals to the Rajapakse government to reenter peace talks with the LTTE as the means of ending the conflict. Rajapakse, however, was directly responsible for destroying the so-called peace process, sponsored by the major powers, when he plunged the country back to war in July 2006 and tore up the 2002 ceasefire this January. Following the strike, the government has again made clear that it has no intention of backing down. Far from paying higher wages to public sector employees, it is looking for more money for its communal war. Government defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella told Reuters just before the strike that the government would need an extra 50 billion rupees this year for the military. President Rajapakse has ratcheted up the pressure on the unions by effectively denouncing them as traitors. At a meeting with provincial councillors on July 11, he declared that the strike was "organised by reactionary indigenous and alien conspirators, at a decisive moment for the Motherland". He hailed the low turnout as proof that workers had done their patriotic duty in "thwarting the strike". Addressing the Federation of Self-Employees on July 14, the president said: "The LTTE must be crushed militarily. The government has brought down the LTTE from a fighting force to the level of useless rhetoric. However, the strikes in the south give the terrorists a breathing space." Directly referring to the July 10 strike, he declared menacingly that "this is the first time in Sri Lanka certain anti-government elements got together with the LTTE to destabilise the south". The government is preparing to step up its campaign of intimidation against workers. On the eve of the strike, it directed officials to collect information and take disciplinary action against the workers who went on strike the following day. Explanations were to be demanded from permanent employees and casual employees dismissed if they were unable to give acceptable reasons for their "absence" on July 10. In public hospitals, most non-medical staff went on strike. The government deployed personnel from the security forces to carry out work in several hospitals. Letters demanding a formal explanation have now been sent to employees in the medical supply department and health education bureau. Teachers, rail workers and other transport workers also report that officials are compiling details of those who went on strike. At the Ceylon Transport Board, security officers have been directed to take statements from strikers. Workers have reacted angrily to the threats of victimisation. On July 14, several hundred health workers from government hospitals, including Colombo National, Kalubowila and Kandy hospitals, held a lunchtime demonstration in protest. A worker from Kalubowila hospital told the WSWS: "Prior to the strike, the government attempted to intimidate workers. On strike day, provincial government politicians came here with their thugs and threatened us. The government also deployed security personnel to do the work of strikers. "When we ask for a salary hike, the government says it cannot grant demands because it has to finance the war. However, there is no such limit regarding politicians and high officials. How many years has this war been going on? You cannot see an end of this war under capitalist governments. "Workers must fight for their rights. However, the trade union leaders have no proper program. They were unable to mobilise the full strength of workers for the strike. Now the government is seeking to take advantage." If the campaign is left in the hands of the unions, its outcome is a forgone conclusion. The NTUC and JVP, which have repeatedly declared that the war is the first priority, will buckle to government pressure, with the "August 4 movement" trailing along behind as their left apologists. We encourage all workers to seriously consider the political issues raised by the Socialist Equality Party statement entitled "A socialist program to fight for wages and conditions", which establishes the basis for the independent mobilisation of the working class against the war and deepening economic crisis. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/metro/view/20080725-150552/Insurance-workers-protest-GSIS-proposal Insurance workers protest GSIS proposal By Marlon Ramos Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 04:16:00 07/25/2008 MANILA, Philippines - More than 3,000 agents and employees of insurance companies picketed Thursday the Land Transportation Office (LTO) in Quezon City to protest a plan giving the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) control of the vehicle insurance system in the country. The Bukluran ng mga Manggagawang Umaasa sa Industriya ng Seguro (BMIS) and Philippine Insurers and Reinsurers Association (Pira) called for the resignation of GSIS president Winston Garcia and LTO chief Alberto Suansing. Malou Pilar, BMIS-Pasay chapter spokesperson, claimed Garcia's plan would displace more than 60,000 workers and deprive more than one million Filipinos, who benefit from the CTPL insurance industry, of their livelihood. Garcia claimed the government was losing some P2 billion a year from fake CTPL policies. He also alleged a cartel of nine non-life insurance firms monopolized the CTPL business. Wearing white T-shirts printed with the words "No to GSIS-DOTC Monopoly," the protesters accused Garcia and Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza of collusion to monopolize the issuance of Compulsory Third Party Liability (CTPL) insurance policies to vehicle owners. The mid-morning rally that ended at noon snarled traffic along East Avenue in Barangay Pinyahan. But motorists affected by the slowdown blew their horns to show support for the protesters. "Ganid talaga yang si Garcia," a driver of a passenger jeepney shouted. Protesters said the plan of the GSIS, a state-run pension fund, was unconstitutional as it would legalize the monopoly of the multi-billion CTPL insurance industry. They appealed to President Macapagal-Arroyo to help resolve the issue and stop the GSIS from taking over the CTPL business. "The President said during her last Sona (State of the Nation Address) that she wanted to provide jobs for poor Filipinos like us. But, in reality, her government is doing the opposite," said Pilar. She added: "The plan of GSIS to monopolize the issuance of CTPL will definitely kill poor workers like us. It's an anti-people policy." The LTO requires a CTPL insurance policy before an owner can register his vehicle to ensure there are funds to cover damages resulting from the use of the vehicle. Under the present system, motorists can choose from any non-life insurance company offering a CTPL policy. Garcia said the GSIS-proposed system would ensure that motorists would not get bogus insurance policies. Pira officials denied Garcia's allegations, saying reforms implemented by insurance companies and the LTO made it impossible for anybody to falsify CTPL policies. http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/ceb/2008/08/15/news/masked.protesters.prompted.display.of.shotgun.html Friday, August 15, 2008 Masked protesters prompted display of shotgun THE anti-graft office is "inviting" union members to file a complaint if they are aggrieved by how Mayor Tomas Osme?a, with an open-holstered sidearm, faced their picket in downtown Cebu City. "It is better if somebody actually comes out and files a complaint," Deputy Ombudsman Pelagio Apostol said in an interview over dyLA. The anti-graft office is authorized to begin investigations even in the absence of complaints. The mayor confronted a picket line outside the Gaisano South last Wednesday morning, carrying a Glock 9mm compact pistol. The Associated Labor Union-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) has complained about his "Rambo-like attitude." At City Hall, Osme?a said he anticipated lawsuits from the Associated Labor Union (ALU), but it won't stop him from doing his job and responding to calls for help from Gaisano management and their employees who were harassed last Wednesday. The mayor admitted getting a shotgun from his car when he saw the number of protesters he was up against. He also admitted having a pistol with him but said he never pulled it out from its holster, clipped on the right side of his waistband. He denied pushing any of the protesters. The firearms, he said, were intended for self-defense, especially because only two policemen were present at that time. "What alarmed me was the sight of a mass demonstration where many were wearing masks. And I don't believe in being another martyr. I had to protect myself because I was outnumbered, 30 to one. But I never pulled out the pistol. It's standard police procedure to hold the pistol with your right hand so you can easily pull it out when you're attacked," he said. Capitol security consultant Byron Garcia criticized the mayor for his move, saying it was "cowardly" that he wielded a gun when he confronted the workers. Legitimate The Capitol consultant said the picket was legitimate since they were merely airing their grievances against their employer, and the mayor is supposed to mediate in the conflict, and not to intimidate them. Osme?a, however, explained that without using force, he asked the protesting workers to move back. When asked if he would want to mediate between the management and ALU, Osme?a said he would not do so after seeing the protesting workers' insincerity when they wore masks during the strike. Meanwhile, Councilor Eduardo Rama Jr. met with the Cebu City Tripartite Industrial Peace Council to discuss how they can resolve the row between the management and the workers. "This is a very complicated matter because apparently there are problems with the unions. There are two unions that claim to be the bargaining unit. Even Dole and NCMB (the National Conciliation and Mediation Board) can't determine who the legitimate union is, so we have to find out before we take the next step," Rama told Sun.Star Cebu. Word of last Wednesday's incident reached the anti-graft office, and Apostol invited "any aggrieved party" to come to his office and make a statement. Nobody came. 'Get out' In the case involving the protesting union members, the mayor said he was merely "establishing his presence" because "the workers were rowdy." "If the mayor is enforcing the law and carrying a gun, he is actually just doing his job," said a lawyer at the anti-graft office, who asked not to be named. The protesters said that the mayor pushed two of them while trying to disperse the crowd. "Nakalitan mi sa iya. Nakuyawan pud mi kay gi-ingnan mi nga 'Get out, get out,'" said Sylvie Osabel, president of the Independent Labor Association of Workers, ALU-TUCP. Osabel told Sun.Star Cebu that the mayor pulled a scarf off Janete Morandarte's face and pushed her to the side while she held her placard. "Si Janette nagpabilin lang sad siya og barog bisag nabira na iyang scarf. Dayun niingon siya ngadto ni mayor, 'Mayor man unta ka, nganong nag apil-apil man ka?' (Janette didn't budge, but instead told Osme?a he had no business being there)," said Osabel. While Osabel understood why Osme?a wanted the picket to stop, it was the way he did it that she didn't like, she added. (KNR/LCR/EPB/GMD) http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2008/aug/24/yehey/top_stories/20080824top4.html Sunday, August 24, 2008 Protests mount vs. psychiatric tests plan for Pinay domestics Former Senator Ernesto F. Herrera, General Secretary of the Trade Union Council of the Philippines (TUCP), on Saturday August 23 added the voice of his federation of unions to the growing clamor against the proposal made by a foreign affairs department undersecretary in charge of migrant workers to give psychiatric tests to Filipina domestic workers. DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Esteban Conejos Jr. proposed the mandatory psychiatric testing of women aspiring to work abroad as domestic workers. He wants all DH-to-be to first pass a mandatory psychiatric test before they may qualify for recruitment. "The proposal is downright ridiculous. The number of foreign-bound Filipino domestic helpers with potential psychiatric issues is insignificant compared to the overall volume," Herrera said. "A number of them develop behavioral issues on the job overseas, but this is mainly due to vicious foreign employers who practically enslave their maids, and force them to work and live under inhuman conditions," Herrera added. "Some abusive employers resort to basically detaining their domestic staff, and denying them normal access to the outside world. Naturally, the maids risk developing behavioral issues over time," he said. "Thus, their psychiatric problems are largely environmentally induced, not necessarily organic," added Herrera, former chairman of the Senate committee on labor, employment and human resources development. The Department of Foreign Affairs' Office of Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs (OUMWA) has "strongly recommended" the mandatory psychiatric test to the governing board of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration. The OUMWA, created by the 1995 Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act, made the recommendation after it gathered that seven out of 10 Filipino maids on death row in the Middle East have had a history of mental illness. Herrera, however, doubts that any psychiatric test could be properly administered on a large scale, considering the volume of outbound Filipino domestic staff. "We simply do not have the competence. What will happen is that untrained personnel of diagnostic centers will end up administering and interpreting the test results. Thus, the tests won't be effective," he said. "We do not have adequate behavioral health care services here. We do not have enough psychiatrists and mental health professionals to conduct the tests and process the results correctly," he pointed out. Herrera suspects that unscrupulous recruiters and their patrons in the bureaucracy are simply looking to make extra money out of the psychiatric tests, at the expense of domestic helpers. "This could be a big racket for them. The test could mean additional income on the side for recruiters and their allied diagnostic centers," he said. Every month, the Philippines deploys some 8,500 domestic helpers to various countries around the world. Their top destinations are Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and the Middle East. They get minimum monthly pay of $400 or about P18,400. Last week, the DFA proposal came to the fore because two OFWs returning from Jordan were said to be delusional if not mentally ill by a diplomatic officer in Amman. ABS-CBN's ANC cable channel reported last Friday that four Filipino domestic helpers were forced to seek jobs overseas hoping to find their luck. But in Jordan they were abused. One of the returned maids said, "Inuutusan niya akong paliguan ko siya. Gusto niya hawakan ang ari ko. Sabi ko ayoko sir, ayoko sir, sabi ko sa kanya. [He ordered me to give him a bath. He wanted to hold my private part. I said I don't want to, sir, I don't want to, sir, I don't want to]," said the OFW. The OFW said they almost lost their sanity. The DFA has been saying that domestic helpers face a number of risks and dangers of physical abuse. So they must be strong enough to escape being deeply traumatized. To prevent this from happening, DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Esteban Conejos Jr. proposed that a mandatory psychiatric test be given to domestic workers before they are deployed overseas. "Domestic workers should be assessed if they are able to respond, be able to take this type of stress," Conejos said. The NGO Center for Migrant Advocacy (CMA) voiced its strong opposition to Conejos's idea. "Bakit hindi mo ayusin yung conditions na yan so that yung mga Filipina will not undergo yung mga ganyang working and living conditions?" CMA's Rodora Abanyo asked. "Bakit ang nasisisi ang mga domestic helper? Ang sisihin ang kondisyon nila sa ibang bansa. [Why don't they fix the working conditions so the poor domestic workers don't undergo these horrible living and working conditions? Why blame the domestic worker? They should blame the conditions in the receiving country.]" The CMA said a psychiatric test would be useless when domestic helpers are molested or abused by their employers. Migrante International and its affiliates worldwide attacked the DFA plan. Connie Bragas-Regalado, Migrante chairman, said, "It's the heads of the DFA officials, not the OFWs, that should be examined. They must be crazy if they think mandatory psychiatric tests could help prevent abused OFWs from snapping out of their mind in the workplace." In the Migrante statement, the Migrante chairman said: "For the Arroyo government, those they have hailed as 'bagong bayani [new heroes]' are lunatics . . . By refusing to acknowledge these realities [of abuse, oppression and other sufferings of the workers] and by conveniently glossing over the fact that most of the time OFWs commit crimes to defend themselves, while others are just plain victims of frame-up [by abusive employers]; the DFA, in essence, is condemning our OFWs." "If we're to follow the DFA's rationale, then OFWs like Sarah Balabagan, Mary Jane Ramos and Joselito Alejo are lunatics and not heroes as they were hailed when they arrived home after their ordeal overseas," said Regalado, referring to OFWs who have been jailed for committing crimes, but escaped execution because they were eventually acquitted or pardoned. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Thu Aug 28 13:21:22 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2008 21:21:22 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Workers' protests, India, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <005401c9094b$a5236fd0$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ India workers' protests news clippings * Teachers * Weavers * Train drivers * Dismissed conductor * Washing workers * Plantation workers * Council workers * Benefits workers * Retail workers * Tax workers * Linemen * Education workers * Rail workers * Kashmir govt workers * Teachers and local govt workers * Electricity workers * Housing Corp workers * Station masters * Agricultural labourers * Anganwadi (childcare) workers * Various workers * Weavers * Government workers * Airline workers * Oil mill workers * Bank workers * Industrial workers * State employees * Railway workers * Childcare workers * Rural workers * Artisans * Ministerial staff * Electricity workers * Civic workers * Autorickshaw and bank workers * Plantation workers * Major unions * Anganwadi (childcare) workers * Bank workers * Vets http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/04/stories/2008080455920400.htm Teachers protest 'raw deal' HYDERABAD: The A.P. State Teachers' Union has protested against the 'raw deal' meted out to teachers in the report of the Rangachary Committee which looked into the PRC anomalies. The union in a statement issued here expressed displeasure that its various representations to set right the anomalies in respect of teachers were ignored by the committee. -Special Correspondent http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/20/stories/2008062055000600.htm Weavers strike work; stage protest against increase in prices of yarn Staff Reporter They hold demonstration at Jakkampatti in Theni district THENI: Over 1,000 weavers and owners of powerlooms and allied industries struck work and a staged demonstration on Thursday at Jakkampatti, a major powerloom centre in the district, to protest increase prices of yarn and other raw materials. All shops and business establishments, in support of powerlooms, joined the stir. Later, the protesters marched to the taluk office at Andipatti and handed over a petition to the revenue officials seeking intervention of the government in controlling prices of yarn, the main raw material for powerlooms. Yarn prices would go up further in the coming months, feared powerloom owners (hovering at Rs.560 a bundle four days ago, it shot up to Rs.590 on Tuesday). At the same time, prices of raw materials for processing also had increased. Even if we were prepared to pay higher prices, short supply of chemicals had hit the production. Chemical traders could not keep stock owing to massive fluctuation of prices in the market. No credit facility Already, yarn manufacturers had stopped supplying yarn to weavers on credit and insist on down payment for purchase of every bundle. Even weavers' cooperative societies also were not supplying yarn to us, they added. "Our future is very bleak. We do not know what to do and how to proceed. "No one knows when this precarious situation will change." Rs.40-lakh loss Total loss due to stoppage of production of powerlooms is estimated at Rs.40 lakh a day. Over 4,000 powerlooms in the district did not function. Andipatti, Jakkampatti, T. Subbulapuram and nearby areas in the district are the major power loom centres that offer jobs directly and indirectly to over 20,000 workers. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/18/stories/2008061860020300.htm Train engine drivers stage protest Staff Reporter KOCHI: The All India Loco Running Staff Association held protest demonstrations in different centres of Southern Railway on Tuesday, to protest against what the Association termed as moves to dismiss some engine drivers who took part in a flash strike held in December 2007. The national vice-president of the Association K. A. S. Mani inaugurated the protest held at the Ernakulam Junction railway station. The Association has warned of indefinite strike if the Divisional Railway Manager went ahead with dismissal plans. It demanded that their daily working time be restricted to eight hours. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/18/stories/2008061852060300.htm Dismissed conductor stages protest Staff Correspondent He was charged with continued absence from work DAVANGERE: The former Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) conductor Oblappa, who was dismissed from service recently, staged a dharna along with his wife and children in front of the bus depot here on Tuesday, threatening to consume poison if he was not reinstated. Senior officials of the KSRTC, Davangere division, made a futile attempt to pacify the protesters and later complained to the police. The police rushed to the spot and asked Mr. Oblappa to handover the poison bottle lest he be arrested. Meanwhile, Mayakonda MLA Basavaraj Naika also came to the spot and took Mr. Oblappa to KSRTC Divisional Controller Venkata Reddy. Mr. Venkata Reddy told the MLA that the conductor had been given sufficient warnings before being dismissed. He said Mr. Oblappa had been continuously absent from work for months together without prior permission. He suggested that he make an appeal before a committee that dealt with the welfare of the road transport corporation officials. Later Mr. Oblappa returned home along with family, deciding to plead his case before the committee. Continued absence Mr. Venkata Reddy told The Hindu that as many as 80 conductors were dismissed for continued absence from work and asked how buses could be operated without the required staff. The head office would not sanction additional posts as it had already recruited several conductors, he said and added that he had instructed the habitual absentees to take voluntary retirement if they could not work. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/26/stories/2008042651380300.htm Washermen protest PUDUCHERRY: A group of washermen from Nellithope on Friday staged a demonstration in front of the municipality to protest the lack of availability of water in Nellithope for their work. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/06/stories/2008050651950300.htm Plantation staff protest on June 16 Staff Reporter 'Black day' to be observed; token strike on July 2 'Plantation managements trying to subvert minimum wages' Salary revision from January 1, 2005 sought KOTTAYAM: The Joint Council of Plantation Staff which met here on Sunday has alleged that the plantation managements were trying to subvert the minimum wage and dearness allowance fixed by the State government. In a press note issued after the conclave, the Council leaders said they would observe June 16 as 'black day' if the managements refused to implement the order till then. This will be followed by a token strike on July 2, they added. The leaders said that during the last three decades the service and remuneration package of the plantation staff in Kerala have not been scientifically reviewed. Instead, plantation managements had followed a policy of imposing the contracts that they had entered with their staff in Tamil Nadu on their Kerala colleagues, they alleged. Last year the government had issued an order revising the remuneration and service condition of the plantation labourers, but the managements had succeeded in obtaining an interim stay order from the court. But, on account of sustained struggle by the labourers, the managements were forced to implement the government decision, they said. However, in the case of the plantation staff, the managements have refused to implement the government decision, they pointed out. The leaders said that this was because of the fact that the strength of the plantation staff was less than 5,000, against the four lakh plantation labourers. Though the Labour Commissioner had called meetings nearly a dozen times, the managements had refused to attend. They said. "This was a planned strategy to impose their contractual terms with Tamil Nadu counterparts, after obtaining a stay order against the government notification," the leaders alleged. The starting salary of the plantation staff in the private sector has been put at Rs.3,330, while that of the staff in public sector plantations get three times the salary. They asked the managements and the government to take necessary corrective steps and to implement the same with effect from January 1, 2005. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/20/stories/2008052053910400.htm Joint Council protest Thiruvananthapuram: The Joint Council on Monday took out a march to the Higher Secondary Directorate here and organised a dharna before it to protest against the seniority list of employees finalised by the department "irresponsibly and in violation of all norms". It wanted a fresh list to be prepared removing the anomalies and maintaining the 1:1:1 ratio which was in force. - Special Correspondent http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/16/stories/2008051661270600.htm Central staff plan protest Staff Reporter BANGALORE: Union Government employees will stage a dharna in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue on Mahatma Gandhi Road in the city on Friday pressing for various demands, as per the call given by the Confederation of Central Government Employees and Workers, New Delhi. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/14/stories/2008051454650300.htm BSNL staff protest KOCHI: Executive and non-executive employees of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd held demonstrations on Tuesday against the management's delay in merging 50 per cent of the Dearness Allowance with the basic pay as was proposed for the public sector employees. Protests in Ernakulam Telecom district were held in front of BSNL Bhavan, Catholic Centre Telecom Exchange, CTO, Kochi, Palluruthy, Wellingdon Island, Panampilly Nagar, Aluva, Kizhakambalam, Angamaly, Perumbavur, Muvattupuzha and Thodupuzha exchanges. A.V. Kuriakose, K. K. Gopakumar, K. D. Sebastian, K. N. Mohanan, P. M. Damodaran, P. G. Suresh. T.P. George, P. S. Peethambaran and C. P. Narayanan Nair led the protests-Staff Reporter http://www.katu.com/news/local/19293949.html Supplyco staff stage protest against 'harassment' Special Correspondent Thiruvananthapuram: The Supplyco Employees' Association took out a demonstration to the Regional Office here and held a dharna in front of it on Tuesday to protest against what it described as the harassment of employees through transfers violating norms and misbehaviour towards employees in the name of inspection. At a meeting held after the dharna, the leaders of the organisation charged the regional authorities with trying to wreck the public distribution system and promote the entry of monopolies into the retail field. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/23/stories/2008052361880300.htm I-T employees protest over fund distribution NEW DELHI: The Delhi Income Tax Employees' Federation organised a sit-in outside the office of the Chief Commissioner of Income Tax (Cadre Controlling Authority) on Thursday to call upon the Central Board of Direct Taxes to immediately rescind the decision to give a huge portion of the infrastructure fund worth Rs.195 crore meant for the Income Tax Department to a few senior officials alone. The Federation also submitted a memorandum. Federation president Ashok Kumar Kanojia said following the record tax collection in the previous year the Finance Ministry had recently announced a surprise package of Rs.195 crore for the welfare of IT Department officials and improvement of the infrastructure. Mr. Kanojia said the CBDT was entrusted the task but its officials announced certain welfare measures mainly for the officer cadre, overlooking the remaining workforce of the IT Department. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/04/stories/2008060459370300.htm Contract linemen protest Staff Reporter HYDERABAD: Fearing that the APTransco might terminate the services of the contract junior linemen, the United Electricity Employees' Union under the aegis of CITU organised a demonstration in front of the Vidyut Soudha on Tuesday. The junior linemen in question numbering 7,114 were recruited a year ago to work within the jurisdiction of the four State-run power distribution companies (Discoms) at Visakhapatnam, Tirupati, Warangal and Hyderabad. Their contract would terminate by June end sans regularisation. The A.P. High Court upon a petition, issued orders to the Government asking it not to extend the contract of the junior linemen and to fill the posts by conducting fresh interviews on the basis of merit. "We are asking the government to retain the services of the existing employees even while recruiting fresh candidates as there are many more vacant posts," said the regional secretary of the union K. Eeswar Rao. The union's major demand is for an appeal by Transco against the previous ruling. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/12/stories/2008061255180200.htm Protest by OPEPA staff BHUBANESWAR: More than a 1,000 employees engaged on contractual basis with the Orissa Primary Education Programme Authority (OPEPA) staged a demonstration in Bhubaneswar drawing the atten tion on insecurities, which were associated with their jobs on Wednes- day. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/11/stories/2008061158290200.htm Tamil Nadu - Chennai Protest by railway employees Special Correspondent CHENNAI: Members of the Southern Railway Mazdoor Union on Monday staged a demonstration in front of the Station Manager's office in Chennai Central protesting against alleged harassment of employees by Vigilance Department officials. According to the union, the employees, working in commercial, ticket checking and reservation departments, were being victimised by the Vigilance Department on flimsy grounds. Some employees were transferred to other divisions without any valid reason. http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=369159 Srinagar government workers hold protest march, dispersed IANS Tuesday 10th June, 2008 Hundreds of government employees held a protest march to the civil secretariat here Tuesday, demanding higher salaries and better designations. Police used batons and water cannons to disperse the demonstrators. The protesters wanted a pay hike, redesignation of Class four employees like orderlies and an increase in the superannuation age from the present 58 to 60 years. They were intercepted by the police at Jahangir Chowk, barely 100 metres from the civil secretariat. 'Police used batons and high speed water jets to stop our protest march. Dozens of employees have been taken into custody while nearly half a dozen sustained injuries during the police action,' said one of the protesters. Government employees in the state have been on a path of confrontation with the administration as they claim their demands, which Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had earlier agreed to meet, were still hanging fire. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/08/stories/2008060855411200.htm Kerala Call to make 'protest day' a success Staff Reporter KOLLAM: The district unit of the Federation of State Employees and Teachers' Organisations has called upon State employees and teachers to ensure the success of the protest day being observed on Tuesday against the alleged neo-liberal policies being implemented in the country. In a statement, Basil Joseph, district secretary of the federation, said the call for the nationwide protest was given by the All India State Government Employees Federation. Employees and teachers would join duty wearing black badges on the day. A demonstration would be held in front of the Civil Station complex here during the afternoon break, he said. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/08/stories/2008060853700400.htm KSEB union plans protest THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The pro-CPI Kerala Electricity Workers Federation will take out marches to Central government offices and organise dharnas on June 11 to protest against the move to convert the Kerala State Electricity Board into a company. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/01/stories/2008070154000300.htm Andhra Pradesh - Kurnool Housing corporation staff stage protest KURNOOL: Employees of State Housing Corporation staged a demonstration here on Monday demanding regularisation of their services. -Special Correspondent http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/30/stories/2008063050540300.htm Station masters' protest PALAKKAD: Station masters of the Palakkad Railway Division will stage a 24-hour token hunger fast on Monday in front of the Divisional Railway Manager's (DRM) office at Olavakkode raising various demands. In a statement here, chairman of the Divisional Action Committee G. Premkumar said that the fast would be inaugurated by S. Ajayakumar, MP. - Staff Reporter http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/27/stories/2008062752310300.htm Workers protest delay in payment of wages Special Correspondent GULBARGA: Landless agriculture workers from different parts of Gulbarga district picketed the office of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Gulbarga Zilla Panchayat here on Thursday to protest against delay in payment of wages and failure of some gram panchayats to provide them employment despite making a request under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). They withdrew their agitation after CEO of the zilla panchayat assured them that the wages would be paid within a week and action would be initiated to take up works. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/24/stories/2008062450480200.htm Karnataka A day of protests in Chitradurga Staff Correspondent Anganwadi workers demand a hike in their honorarium In full force: Anganwadi workers taking out a protest rally in Chitradurga on Monday. Chitradurga: The city on Monday witnessed four protests by various organisations on diverse issues. In a protest organised by the Karnataka State Anganwadi Workers and Assistants' Federation under the aegis of the Communist Party of India (CPI), the anganwadi workers of the district demanded an increase in the honorarium paid to them. The protest march by the workers stated from the Mahatma Gandhi Circle here and culminated at the Deputy Commissioner's office. District president of the CPI, H.K. Ramchandrappa, said that over 1 lakh anganwadi workers were working in the State for a meagre monthly honorarium. "Though a marginal hike was given recently, but given the spiralling prices of essential commodities, the hike was too small," he said. Mr. Ramchandrappa demanded that the Government provide a monthly honorarium of Rs. 3,000 to anganwadi workers and Rs. 2,000 to the assistants. He urged the Government to extend retirement benefits to the workers by paying them a pension of Rs. 1,200 a month. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/08/stories/2008070852450300.htm Karnataka - Bellary Anganwadi workers stage protest Staff Correspondent Memorandum submitted to official BELLARY: The district unit of the Karnataka State Anganwadi Workers Federation staged a demonstration in front of the Deputy Commissioner's office here on Monday seeking implementation of several demands. Shot slogans The workers, who came in a procession shouting slogans, submitted a memorandum addressed to P.M. Narendraswamy, Minister for Women and Child Development, through the headquarters assistant to the Deputy Commissioner, urging him to find solutions to their problems. They have sought increase in honorarium, better retirement benefits and pension, withdrawal of the order entrusting Stree Shakti groups with supplying nutritious food, enactment of a special provision to appoint already selected anganwadi workers , housing facilities and cooking gas connections. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/08/stories/2008070853030300.htm HARWAD: It was a day of protests in Dharwad on Monday. Five separate agitations on different issues were held on Monday. There was a huge protest rally by anganwadi workers held under the aegis of Karnataka Rajya Anganawadi Karyakarteyaru Mattu Sahayakiyara Federation, affiliated to the All India Trade Union Congress. Hundreds of anganwadi workers marched to the Deputy Commissioner's office to press for their various demands including increase in the remuneration paid to them. The protestors demanded pension for anganwadi workers, a minimum remuneration of Rs. 3,000 to anganwadi workers and Rs. 2,000 to anganwadi assistants and pressed the Government to fulfil their other demands. They then submitted a memorandum to the authorities. There was another protest march by Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad members in Dharwad demanding better facilities at hostels for students of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The protestors said that the food allowance sanctioned per student was meagre and should be increased from Rs. 500 to Rs. 1,000 month. They also demanded special grants for development of the SC/ST hostels. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/08/stories/2008070851120300.htm Andhra Pradesh - Anantapur Weavers take out protest rally Staff Reporter Demand implementation of State and Central schemes Seeking justice: Handloom weavers staging a dharna in front of the collectorate in Anantapur on Monday. ANANTAPUR: Silk handloom weavers from different parts of the district took out a protest rally from Arts College to the Collectorate and staged a dharna here on Monday under the aegis of All-India United Trade Union Centre (AIUTUC), affiliated to the SUCI. SUCI district secretary B.S. Amarnath stated that the handloom weavers in the district had been leading pathetic lives for long in the absence of any support from the government. The schemes being implemented by the State and Central governments were being exploited by middlemen with the connivance of the officials of Handlooms and Textiles Department, he alleged. Plea for loans He requested the banks to sanction loans to weavers for construction of houses, setting up of looms and purchase of raw material. State convener of the trade unions' body L.V. Sudheer urged the government to sanction scholarships for children of weavers, medical facility, pension for workers, etc. He also asked the Handlooms Department to make the schemes public with proper publicity. Handloom weavers from Nethulapalli, Yarragunta, Tirumaladevarapalli, Srirangarajupalli, Kaluvapalli, Melapuram, Nyamaddela and others participated in the protest. Later, they submitted a memorandum to DRO. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/05/stories/2008070552400300.htm Karnataka - Belgaum Government staff take out protest march in Belgaum Staff Correspondent Various organisations condemn attack on irrigation official Protest was organised by Karnataka State Engineering Service Association Associations seek action against policemen for remaining mute to the attack Belgaum: A large number of employees of the Irrigation, Public Works and other State Government departments on Friday took out a procession in protest against the attack on S.S. Khanagavi, Chief Engineer of Irrigation, North Zone, and seeking the arrest of BJP MLA Abhay Kumar Patil here on Friday. Mr. Patil had allegedly led the attack on the official by his supporters on Thursday. Even as the employees were getting ready for the procession, the police arrested Mr. Patil and produced in the local court. Four other accused in the case were also arrested and produced in the court. The court released Mr. Patil and four others on bail. The protest was organised by the Karnataka State Engineering Service Association. The procession passed through Club Road, College Road, Bogarves, Kirloskar Road and Rani Channamma Circle and ended at the Deputy Commissioner's office where they submitted a memorandum addressed to the Chief Minister. Branches of Institution of Engineers, Government Employees' Housing Development Association, All India Karnataka State Government Employees' Association, Treasury Employees' Association, The Buddhist Society of India, Bhim Sena, Karnataka State Government SC/ST Employees' Association, employees of Public Works Department and the Belgaum District Contractors' Association participated in the protest. Members of the district unit of Karnataka Rakshana Vedike of the Narayana Gowda faction also joined the procession and condemned the attack. These associations also sought action against the policemen who allegedly remained mute when Mr. Khanagavi was being beaten up by Mr. Patil's henchmen. They alleged that Mr. Patil's supporters had entered the chamber of Mr. Khanagavi and spoke in foul language while asking him to close his office in support of "Bharat bandh" called by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. Subsequently, they dragged him out of his chamber and started assaulting him. Employees of the Irrigation Department, North Zone, would stay away from work till the Government took action against Mr. Patil and the policemen, the protesters said. Karnataka Engineering Service Association's president Shivanand Hugar and vice-president of Karnataka Engineers' Association R.T. Jungal were among those who participated in the protest. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/06/stories/2008070661350300.htm Kerala Protest rally against airline labour policy A Correspondent NEDUMBASSERY: The CITU area committee held a rally of party workers at the Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) against the Air India management here on Saturday. They were registering their support to the labourers of the Air India Casual Employees Association (ACEA). The march, which began from the central gate of the airport moved to the Air India office located inside the CIAL complex, was blocked at the cargo gate by a team of police. Later, the protestors sat down on the road and a meeting was held. Inaugurating the meeting, M.M. Lawrence, CITU state secretary, urged the airline management to meet the demands raised by the casual labourers at the earliest. CPI(M) central committee member M.C. Josephine and P.S. Shyla, district panchayat president, were also among those who addressed the gathering. The ACEA has been on a relay hunger strike at the central gate of the airport since June 21 in protest against the apparent indifference of the Air India management to meet their demands of better pay and working environment. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/19/stories/2008071951180300.htm Karnataka Protest against bid to close oil mill Staff Correspondent Chitradurga: Protesting against the alleged attempts to shut down Sri Murugharajendra Oil Mill here, members of the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) and mill workers staged a dharna outside the Deputy Commissioner's office on Friday. Addressing the protesters, AITUC district president G. Chandrappa said that in drought-prone district like Chitradurga, there were a few industries that were providing a livelihood to poor families. "Earlier some of the factories in the district were shut down leaving numerous workers unemployed," he said. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/13/stories/2008071352610300.htm Kerala Protest against dismissal Family concern: Members of the Bank Deposit Collectors' Union (Kerala) staging a dharna along with their family members as part of a nation-wide protest against the dismissal of deposit collectors from service, in the city on Saturday http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/09/stories/2008070952290300.htm Andhra Pradesh - Tirupati Protest rally against Chiru Staff Reporter In protest: TDP leaders take out protest rally against actor Chiranjeevi in Chittoor on Tuesday TIRUPATI: Chittoor town on Tuesday witnessed what could be the first ever protest programme against film star Chiranjeevi even before he could jump into active politics. March Protesting against the "anti-worker" stand taken by an industrial unit in Nagari, run by Mr. Chiranjeevi's kin, the affected labourers led by Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leaders took out a protest march in Chittoor town, laid siege to the Collectorate and presented a memorandum to Joint Collector in-charge Mr. Chandramouli. L.V.R. Dong-In-Granites, a 100 per cent export-oriented unit (EOU) in Nagari run by Chiranjeevi's elder son-in-law L.Vishnu Prasad and his father L. R. Sivaprasad since 1986, had announced a lockout and layoff last April. The management had even decided to close down operations from July 26 and dispatched termination notices to the workers by post, causing heartburn to the latter. Addressing workers at a protest rally, Nagari-based TDP youth leader Ramanujam Chalapathi said that even as the yet-to-be-launched political outfit was touted as a champion of masses, the mega star's close relatives had brought dozens of labourers on to the streets. "Instead of making sensational announcements every day in the media, Mr. Chiranjeevi could do well to come down to Nagari to render justice to the masses," he suggested. The company's union president M. Prabhakar alleged that the management had either deliberately abstained from the meeting scheduled to be held in the presence of labour officials or failed to arrive at a consensus with the union. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/10/stories/2008071054690500.htm Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram Capital city teems with protesters Staff Reporter Thiruvananthapuram: Protest marches and demonstrations disrupted traffic for several hours in the city for the third consecutive day on Wednesday. The Bharatiya Janata Party, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, Kerala State Employees Association, Youth Congress and All Indian Youth Federation held almost simultaneous demonstrations in front of the Kerala Legislative Assembly and the Secretariat. Hundreds of persons participated in the demonstrations. The situation is likely to be the same on Thursday, when the police expect over 20,000 traders to participate in the Kerala Vyapari Vyavasaya Samithi protest march. The police diverted vehicles and public transport buses from the arterial M.G. Road, forcing motorists and two-wheeler riders to take long detours to reach their destinations. Hundreds of passengers had to wait for several hours in bus stops. Much of the city remained off limits for citizens. Many people found it difficult to access key government offices, banks and commercial institutions situated in the city centre. A section of autorickshaw drivers refused to ferry passengers to Statue, Palayam, P.M.G. and Ayurveda College areas. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/12/stories/2008071253470400.htm Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad SCR staff stage protests HYDERABAD: The South Central Railway Mazdoor Union (SCRMU) held demonstrations, lunch-hour and gate meetings on Friday demanding implementation of the Sixth Central Pay Commission recommendations without any delay. A press release from SCRMU said more than 1,500 railway employees demonstrated before the Rail Nilayam. - Special Correspondent http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=384805 Care centre workers protest in Chandigarh IANS Monday 21st July, 2008 Over 200 workers of daytime child care centres from across Punjab Monday held a protest march on the busy roads of Chandigarh despite allotment of a fixed site for public conventions and rallies. The march was held from sector 34 to Sector 22 and then to the busy road dividing Sectors 16 and 17 in the afternoon. The incensed Anganwadi workers demanded an immediate increase in the salaries, provision of travelling allowance (TA) and daily allowance (DA), promotions according to seniority, pension scheme and summer holidays for the employees. They also raised slogans against the Punjab government. The Chandigarh police made arrangements to control the situation and blocked the sectors 16-17 road for users. As a result, traffic suffered heavily due to these diversions at peak hours leading to traffic jams in the adjoining sectors of 17, 16, 22, 23 and 34. 'We are sitting on a relay fast since June 7 to press our demands. Every day, 51 members of our union sit there on fast, but the authorities are not moved at all so we are forced to take this extreme step,' Surjit Kaur, one of the agitators, told IANS. The road dividing Sectors 16-17 has become a favourite site for protesters to hold rallies leading to traffic snarls. The inaction of administration to ensure the free flow of traffic during such events is in violation of the Punjab and Haryana High Court's directions. It is also contrary to the Chandigarh administration's decision to mark a site in sector 25 for protests and rallies. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/22/stories/2008072256550300.htm Tamil Nadu - Ramanathapuram Workers protest against "low wages" Special Correspondent They said though they executed work as per the norms, they were paid very low RAMANATHAPURAM: A group of 200 persons of T. Nagani panchayat near Thiruvadanai thronged the Collectorate here on Monday protesting against low wages for working under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. The crowd utilised the opportunity to "surround" K. Hasan Ali, MLA of Ramanathapuram constituency, when he came to the Collector's office. They dispersed from the scene after he told them that he was not the MLA of their constituency and inform their grievances to the MLA concerned. The villagers later met the Collector, R. Kirlosh Kumar, and presented a petition that though they executed work as per the norms, they were paid very low as against Rs.80 for a day's work. He assured that he would look into the issue and take necessary action. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/24/stories/2008072451680300.htm Artisans' protest Pressing demands: Artisans belonging to various organisations staging a dharna in front of the Doordarshan Kendra in Malappuram on Wednesday. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/24/stories/2008072452060300.htm Other States - Puducherry Ministerial staff to stage protest PUDUCHERRY: The Pondicherry Ministerial Staff Association on Wednesday announced that its members would stage a 'dharna' before the Chief Secretariat from 5 pm to 7 pm on Thursday in support of their demand for filling vacancies to the posts of junior and senior accountants. The association said in a release that the protest was also aimed at urging the government to release the amended recruitment rules for the appointment of superintendents. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/15/stories/2008081553430300.htm Kerala - Kozhikode Employees' protest Kozhikode: A 'human chain' was organised in front of the Vaiduthi Bhavan in the city on Thursday as part of a State-wide protest organised by the Kerala State Electricity Board Employees' Confederation against the move to convert the board into a company. KPCC vice-president Mullappally Ramachandran spoke http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/13/stories/2008081358010300.htm Andhra Pradesh - Karimnagar Civic workers beg for alms in protest Staff Reporter Karimnagar Municipal Corporation has not paid wages for five months - Photo: Uppu Damodar Novel protest: Sanitation workers collect alms from people in Karimnagar town on Tuesday. KARIMNAGAR: The sanitary workers of Karimnagar Municipal Corporation have come on to the roads and collected alms from the people to eke out their living on Tuesday in protest against the non-payment of their wages by the corporation since last five months. Several hundreds of sanitation workers have participated in a rally from the Corporation office to the Indira Chowk in the town and collected alms from the passersby. They appealed the locals to provide some assistance through their donations so that they could eke out their livelihood. It may be recalled that Karimnagar Mayor D. Shankar had assured to take measures for the payment of wages to the sanitation workers on August 11 during the municipal corporation general body on August 7. Contrary to the claims made by the Mayor, the municipal authorities have failed to provide the salaries to the sanitation workers. The Karimnagar municipal corporation sanitation workers association district president B Ailaiah said that they had requested the corporation for the payment of their wages since last five months, but in vain. He said that the sanitation workers were facing starvation and forced to make huge debts because of non-payment of wages. He demanded the corporation authorities to provide wages to all the sanitation workers through bank payment, ESI facilities and other welfare schemes. He threatened to intensify their agitation programme by launching indefinite relay hunger strike in Karimnagar town from Independence day onwards. He said that the sanitation workers would protest against the municipal authorities' attitude by wearing black badges on Wednesday and Thursday. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/21/stories/2008082153410300.htm Karnataka - Shimoga It was a day of protests Special Correspondent Autorickshaws were off the road in Shimoga Airing demands: Insurance and postal employees staging a protest in Shimoga on Wednesday. SHIMOGA: It was a day of protests in Shimoga city on Wednesday as employees of banks, insurance companies, and those of the Central Government, and autorickshaw drivers observed strike in support of their demands. Bank employees abstained from work in response to a call given by the All India Bank Employees' Association and the All India Bank Officers' Association. They demanded that the Government should not go ahead with its plans of privatising nationalised banks. They also opposed merger of 27 public sector banks and foreign investment in the banking sector. They said that public sector banks should expand their area of operation by opening more branches, particularly in rural areas. Postal and insurance employees condemned the "anti-labour" policy of the Union Government. They also criticised the Government for its "failure" to keep the prices of essential commodities under control. They demanded greater job security to the them. Autorickshaws were off the road in the city on Wednesday. Autorickshaw divers demanded that the Government provide them below poverty line (BPL) ration cards, earmark 25 per cent of sites under the Ashraya scheme to them, launch a pension scheme for autorickshaw drivers aged above 60, cancel green cards, waive loans obtained by them from the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes Development Corporation, and stop issuing fresh autorickshaw licences. Members of the National Students' Union of India held a demonstration to urge the Government to observe the 93rd birth anniversary of the former Chief Minister D. Devaraj Urs in a befitting manner. They demanded revival of work on the Devaraj Urs Memorial Hall. Non-teaching staff of the Sahyadri College staged a dharna demanding implementation of the University Grants Commission pay scale. Dharna Chikmagalur Correspondent writes: Members of the Communist Party of India (CPI) organised a demonstration here on Wednesday to protest against the policies of the Union Government, in response to a nationwide call. They took out a procession from the taluk office to the district offices and staged "rasta roko" near Hanumanthappa Circle. They shouted slogans against the Union and the State governments and staged a dharna in front of the district offices. Later, they presented a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner of Chikmagalur district. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/21/stories/2008082153370300.htm Karnataka - Madikeri Labour union members take out protest march, stage dharna Staff Correspondent Their demands include payment of minimum wage to plantation workers 'Scrap contract system of labour in plantations' Centre urged to reduce prices of petrol, diesel Show of strength: Workers affiliated to various organisations and trade unions holding a protest in Madikeri on Wednesday. Madikeri: Members of several labour unions in Kodagu took out a march in Madikeri and staged a dharna on the Deputy Commissioner's office premises at the Fort here on Wednesday pressing for their demands and protesting against price rise and anomalies in the public distribution system (PDS). The dharna was staged as part of the nationwide strike being observed by trade unions. A large number of plantation workers; members of trade unions, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Karnataka Pranta Raitha Sangha, Kodagu District General Workers' Union, Kodagu District Construction Workers' Union, Loaders' Association, Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) and employees' unions of LIC and BSNL came out in support of the strike here. President of the General Workers' Union Durgaprasad; general secretary of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions, Kodagu, Mahadev; the former president of Kodagu DYFI Vasant Kumar Hosmani; president of the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India Employees' Union Gopal and secretary of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) Employees' Association Anthony were present at the Fort. Leaders, who addressed the workers, said minimum wage be given to plantation workers in the district. Below poverty line (BPL) cards should be distributed to the workers without delay, they said. They demanded scrapping of the contract system of labour in plantations, daily wage system and outsourcing, which they said would deprive workers of livelihood. Labour laws should be strengthened and actions initiated against those violating them. Withdrawal of stakes from public sector institutions such as banks, telecom companies, ports and harbours should be given up with a view to stop privatisation of the enterprises and steps taken to revive sick industries, the leaders demanded. They wanted the Government to scrap the unit system in the PDS and pay remunerative price to agricultural produce. The trade unions opposed moves to privatise the LIC and sell shares of BSNL to private parties, the leaders said. Anganwadi workers should be paid gratuity of Rs. 1 lakh and assistants Rs. 50,000 at retirement, they said. The leaders urged the Union Government to bring down prices of petrol and diesel, and appoint a judge to the Labour Court here to expedite trials. The Government must put an end to future trading and initiate stringent action against hoarders, they said. A memorandum addressed to Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa was handed over to the district administration authorities. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/21/stories/2008082157110300.htm Karnataka - Bidar Major unions protest against rising inflation, Pension Bill Staff Correspondent Cancellation of contract jobs and filling of about 50 lakh vacant posts sought SFI demands more fund allocation to education sector Nationalised banks did not function in Raichur BIDAR: Members of the All-India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) and the Akhila Karnataka State Government Employees' Union took out a rally here on Wednesday urging the Union Government to control inflation and strengthen of public distribution system (PDS). In a memorandum, they sought the withdrawal of Pension Bill and providing the pension facility to all employees appointed after January, 2004. It demanded cancellation of contract jobs and filling of about 50 lakh vacant posts. Regularisation of services of daily wage earners in the State was also sought. Right to protest The memorandum said all government employees should get trade union rights, including the right to stage protests. It said there should be strict implementation of labour laws, and social security should be provided to workers. The memorandum said payment of minimum wages and the working hours should be strictly followed. The Government should take steps to check farmers' suicide in the country and encourage farmers to take up organic farming, it said. Pay hike The protesters sought pay hike for employees of anganwadis, gram panchayats, those involved in midday meal scheme and for librarians. They also urged the Government to provide land to a polytechnic on the Industrial Training Institute premises and take steps to construct a for the ITI. The rally was taken out from Ganesh Maidan to the Deputy Commissioner's office. District unit secretary of AITUC Baburao Honna and district unit president of AKSGEU Shankar Shivgonda led the protest rally. Schools and colleges closed Schools and colleges in Bidar city remained closed on Wednesday after a bandh call was given by members of the district unit of the Students Federation of India. In a memorandum addressed to Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, district unit vice-president of the SFI Uttamkumar Hivoore said the bandh was called to protest against setting up of foreign and private universities in the country. Their other demands are elections for students' union in colleges and universities according to Supreme Court's directions, appointment of teachers in vacant posts, constitution of a committee against sexual harassment in educational institutions, and increase in fund allocation to education sector. The members submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner. Raichur staff correspondent reports: The bandh in Raichur was peaceful. Except for petty shops, fruit stalls and medical shops, most of the business establishments in the city were closed. Schools and colleges were closed. Most of the nationalised banks did not function. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/22/stories/2008082257650300.htm Karnataka Protest march CHAMARAJANAGAR: A large number of anganwadi workers took out a procession here on Thursday urging the Government to fulfil their demands, including regularisation of their service. The workers submitted a memorandum to Deputy Commissioner Manoj Kumar Meena. They urged the State Government to fix a minimum salary of Rs. 4,080 to them and extend maternity leave and other benefits on par with government employees. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=aO9dJDSEMWOg&refer=india State Bank of India Officers Strike to Protest Merger Plan By Sumit Sharma Aug. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Staff at State Bank of India, the nation's biggest bank, and its seven subsidiaries went on strike today, protesting the merger of subsidiary State Bank of Saurashtra with the bank, a union official said. About 60,000 officers of State Bank and another 20,000 at seven subsidiary banks will stay away from almost 15,000 branches today, G.D. Nadaf, the general secretary at All India State Bank of India Officers' Federation said by phone from Bangalore. ``It will affect the bank's operations as no transaction can pass through without the approval of an officer,'' Nadaf said. ``We are demanding that officers at the subsidiaries be given the same superannuation benefits as those at the State Bank of India.'' The more than 200 year-old bank is seeking to bolster its size and strength as the central bank reviews policies to permit overseas banks to acquire local private banks. The bank has more than 130 million customers and plans to absorb all seven units. The 59.73 percent government-owned bank got approval to absorb the subsidiary, according a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange on Aug. 14. State Bank of India owns between 75 percent and 100 percent of its seven subsidiaries. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/18/stories/2008081853910400.htm Karnataka - Bangalore Protest by SBI officials today BANGALORE: Normal business transactions in branches of State Bank of India and its associate banks will be affected on Monday with over 80,000 officers observing a nation-wide strike in protest against the merger of State Bank of Saurashtra with SBI. The officers of associate banks are also demanding extension of superannuation benefits as available to officers of State Bank of India. - Staff Reporter http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/08/stories/2008080852070300.htm Andhra Pradesh - Kurnool Veterinarians protest pay disparity Special Correspondent KURNOOL: AP Veterinary Assistants Surgeons Service Association members took out a rally here on Thursday seeking parity in pay-scale with medical doctors. The association leaders said the Pay Commission fixed a basic pay of Rs. 10,285 for medical doctors and Rs. 9,285 for veterinarians. They said both doctors discharged same duties and had equal qualifications but in different disciplines. One treated human beings and other animals. They said the veterinarians discharges their duties in remote areas and helping the rural communities. Vacancies On account of the poor wages, most of the veterinary graduates were reluctant to join the service. Out of 2,023 posts nearly 550 posts were vacant in the State. They urged the government to remove wage anomalies in order to provide quality veterinary service in rural areas From ldxar1 at tesco.net Thu Aug 28 13:32:24 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2008 21:32:24 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Workers' protests, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <005501c9094d$2f710e80$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * PERU: Protest hits copper trade * ZAMBIA: Striking workers deported * TRINIDAD: Telecom workers protest * GUYANA: Sugar workers protest, bosses complain * NIGERIA: Sacking of oil workers leads to ultimatum * CHAD: Aid groups strike over killing of aid worker * SOUTH AFRICA: Municipal workers protest at Mandela statue * SOUTH AFRICA: Durban municipal workers march * SOUTH AFRICA: Water board staff protest * SOUTH AFRICA: Unrest as angry crowd protests dismissals at stadium * BARBADOS: Sanitation workers protest dismissal of boss * SOUTH AFRICA: Legal aid workers protest * SOUTH AFRICA: Metalworkers protest interest rate hike * CHILE: Agricultural workers block factory in protest * MEXICO: Miners protest for union recognition * NIGERIA: Local government union protests reorganisation * ZAMBIA: Copper mine shut down during protest * SOUTH AFRICA: Mine workers strike over deaths, safety * ARGENTINA: Bus drivers strike * ETHIOPIA, SUDAN, DJIBOUTI: Shell workers protest "being sold", company transfer * RWANDA: Telecom workers protest conditions http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601116&sid=amNLHnGh0ZVg&refer=africa Copper Trades Near Record on Peru Protest, Crude Oil, Dollar By Glenys Sim July 3 (Bloomberg) -- Copper rose for a third day in Asia, trading near the highest ever, as an ongoing strike in Peru raised concerns that supplies may be cut. Copper also climbed as a slumping dollar, record oil prices and falling equities boosted demand for alternative investments. The metal has advanced 32 percent this year partly on output disruptions at mines in Latin America. `Strike action has affected most of the base metals, but it is copper that is understandably wielding the most support given the extreme tightness mine supply is facing this year,'' analysts at Barclays Capital Inc. said in a report yesterday. Copper for delivery in three months rose as much as $160, or 1.8 percent, to $8,880 a metric ton on the London Metal Exchange, and traded at $8,810 at 9:28 a.m. Singapore time. The contract reached a record of $8,940 yesterday. Copper for September delivery on the Shanghai Futures Exchange added as much as 1.8 percent to 64,830 yuan ($9,282), the highest for a most-active contract since May 7. It stood at 64,740 yuan at 9:33 a.m. local time. Peruvian workers are on strike at mines run by Barrick Gold Corp., Southern Copper Corp., Renco Group Inc.'s Doe Run Peru unit, Shougang Corp.'s Hierroperu iron unit, Cia. Minera Antamina and Volcan Cia. Minera SA, according to the country's Mining Federation. Copper is also being ``dragged higher'' by crude oil prices and the soft U.S. dollar, said Darren Gibbs, chief economist at Deutsche Bank AG in Auckland. Oil gained to a record $144.44 a barrel after a U.S. government report showed an unexpected decline in inventories, while the dollar traded near a two-month low against the euro ahead of the European Central Bank interest rate decision and U.S. jobs report. Among other LME-traded metals, aluminum was up 0.6 percent at $3,218 a ton, zinc gained 1.8 percent to $1,898, lead rose 0.9 percent to $1,720, and nickel added 1 percent to trade at $21,350. Tin had not traded as of 9:36 a.m. in Singapore. http://allafrica.com/stories/200804230580.html Zambia: 24 Protesting Indian Workers Sent Back Home The Times of Zambia (Ndola) 23 April 2008 Posted to the web 23 April 2008 Ndola Twenty-Four Onshore Construction Company employees in Chingola have been sent back to India for gross misconduct and inciting fellow employees to strike. This follows Monday's protest and strike action by Onshore employees who were demanding better conditions of service. For the sake of maintaining peace and order, police from Chingola escorted the 24 to Lusaka International Airport. Meanwhile, the strike action has reached day four and all the employees have maintained that they will not return to work until their demands are met. They said if their demands were not met, they would stay in their guest houses and plan the next step. According to a letter obtained in Chingola, assistant general manager responsible for projects, Denesh Shetty, said the company had no option but to send the ring leaders back to India. Mr Shetty said following discussions on Monday afternoon in the presence of some labour and immigration officers and the employees, after which the employees' guest houses were visited, the company management resolved to send the protest masterminds back to their country of origin. "Even after our repeated requests along with the mentioned authorities during the visit to the guest houses, our workmen are not willing to commence the job at the site. We are sending them back to India according to the availability of tickets. "The first lot we are sending today (yesterday) are as per the attached list. The same will follow as and when the tickets are available," he said Onshore Construction is one of the companies contracted by Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) in Chingola to build a new multi-billion Kwacha smelter. More than 360 employees on Monday morning downed tools and later staged a protest. This was after management refused to meet their terms for new conditions of service. The workers, who claimed they worked 12 hours a day and were paid only K1 million per month, complained about being crammed into one shabbily-furnished house which had no running water with only one toilet. They demanded leave days bonus, actual bonus, and their salaries to be paid in the Indian currency. They also complained that they ate the same type of food and that they were not entitled to tea or lunch breaks despite working for longer periods of time. Subhas Chandra Mallick on Monday said they were not given medical claims, identity cards to access the plant, and that they could not go out of Chingola because they did not have immigration cards which management had withdrawn from them. Mr Mallick said the strike started on Saturday when the workers asked to meet the company managers but were not allowed to. He said one guest house was accommodating more than 60 workers and described the situation as a danger to their health.However, Onshore administrative manager, Iyer Ramachandran, on Monday said the management was guided by an agreement the company signed with the workers before they came to Zambia. Mr Ramachandran said the company would not make any adjustments to the agreement and advised those aggrieved to return to India. He said the company was spending over K10 million on each worker for travel, work permits, and other necessary documents. He said the company did not recover any money that went into importing labour into Zambia, hence, it would not bend to the workers' demands. The number of those to be sent back to India was likely to increase as many said they would rather return to India than continue working under the current conditions. And Mr Shetty said the 24 Indian employees were paid between K800,000 and K1 million, depending on one's position. He said the air fares between Lusaka and India would be met by the company. Copperbelt police commanding officer, Antoneil Mutentwa, confirmed the departure of the 24 employees. Mr Mutentwa said the police escorted them to Lusaka International Airport to prevent any possible misconduct. Meanwhile, Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee chairperson, Charles Milupi, has urged the Government to quickly terminate the contract for Onshore Construction Company to allow Zambians an opportunity to undertake such jobs. Mr Milupi, an engineer who worked in the former Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines, said it was a well-known fact that Zambian engineers in other countries were holding senior positions, an indication that they could not fail their country. "It is disappointing that the Government can allow 360 employees to work at Onshore. What I know is that there are 600 workers at Onshore when there are many Zambians out of employment and can undertake the works done by the Indians. Everybody knows that Zambia has better expertise than some foreigners. "For many years, Zambians managed to run the copper smelter in Mufulira, Nkana, and Luanshya. Zambians managed to run the cobalt smelter, the kilns in Kabwe and Ndola, in short we have more than enough expertise to deal with smelters." http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_business?id=161314134 TSTT to take action against protesters Curtis Rampersad and Rohandra John Thursday, April 24th 2008 taking a stand: Members of the Communications Workers Union outside the Crowne Plaza Hotel yesterday. -Photo: ANISTO ALVES Telecommunications provider TSTT intends to take disciplinary action against a number of employees if they are found to be guilty of participating in industrial action outside a Port of Spain hotel. TSTT alleged that dozens of its staff members lined the entrance of the Crowne Plaza hotel yesterday morning as the company held what was scheduled to be an all-day meeting with the Communications Workers Union to discuss the upcoming retrenchment of 85 workers. When TSTT management and union members returned to continue the session after lunch, the hotel's management asked both parties to leave as they had disrupted the operations of the hotel and bothered guests. The disturbance comes as the company-which posted a multi-million dollar loss last year-continues to restructure its organisation which could result in more job cuts. Edghill Messiah, vice president, Human Resources and Administration at TSTT, told the Express that the owners of the hotel wanted TSTT out because employees outside the entrance of the hotel and in the parking lot had disrupted services. Messiah said the employees' actions were in breach of the Industrial Relations Act as TSTT provided a necessary service to the country. He said a number of TSTT's vehicles were also at the hotel and the company was investigating if the vehicles and the employees outside the building should have been on duty yesterday. Messiah said the investigation into the workers' actions would be completed within days after which action would be taken. The CWU said yesterday it would not support any disciplinary action against the TSTT employees who were outside the hotel, because as far as the union was concerned, the workers did nothing wrong. CWU president John Julien said it was customary for workers to assemble outside any establishment where the union was engaged in talks with the company on industrial relation issues and this was why they gathered outside Crowne Plaza yesterday. Scores of workers gathered in solidarity outside the hotel where they again protested against the company's plan to retrench some 85 employees. The meeting between the union and TSTT's management to discuss the retrenchment ended on a sour note yesterday after Crowne Plaza's management asked the parties to leave its compound as a result of the protest. http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/news-7279--13-13--.html Protest action threatens sugar industry viability in Guyana Published on Saturday, April 19, 2008Email To Friend Print Version GEORGETOWN, Guyana (GINA): The Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) has expressed its disappointment with the protest staged by employees of the Rosehall, Blairmont and Albion estates over issues that are not related to the corporation. In a press release on Friday, the corporation stated that "the action of the workers is hampering the reputation of GuySuCo in the international markets. We have customers both in the Caribbean and Europe whom we have contracted to deliver sugar and if the workers don't come back to work immediately we will be in danger of failing to meet our markets." It added that the situation further aggravates the low labour turn-out as some estates have experienced difficulties in attracting the required workforce on a regular basis. There has been a reduction in the average weekly turnout by workers which has affected some estates' production level. According to GuySuCo, the production target for the first crop has already been reduced from 124,000 to 108,000 tonnes as a result of erratic weather conditions earlier this year. It is possible that the new target may not be achieved due to the actions of the workers at most of the Berbice estates. It further stated that, the loss of production to date is 1,308 tonnes over the three estates and is equivalent to US$1 million or $200 million in revenue. This is likely to double if the protest is not brought to a speedy conclusion and production resumed, the release stated. It added that, "the workers have ignored and blatantly disregarded the established grievance procedures, which require workers to follow due process before proceeding on strike, leaving burnt canes in the fields and punts full in dock, unable to be crushed further adding to the losses of the corporation. This type of action will affect the company's ability to guarantee employment opportunities." In addition, it was clearly stated that the corporation has no control over the factors which the workers are striking about and it is therefore beyond the comprehension that workers should harm the company that provides them with employment. The workers are expected to return to work immediately or face the possibility of serious disciplinary action consistent with the collective labour agreements signed with the Unions. It was also pointed out that approximately US$180 million has been recently invested in the new factory and estate expansion at Skeldon, which is expected to be commissioned in the second crop of this year. Additionally, there has been significant spending in agriculture toward mechanization. The additional investments in agricultural and factory during the past two years is valued in excess of $3 billion and the consideration may no be given to additional investments in mechanization to address the general labour issues affecting the industry. http://allafrica.com/stories/200804211139.html Nigeria: Pengassan Protests Sack of Members Leadership (Abuja) 21 April 2008 Posted to the web 21 April 2008 Abuja The PENGASSAN at Qua Iboe oil fields has issued a seven-day ultimatum to the management of Mobil Producing Nigeria over the sack of 41 members. The union is protesting the sack of the workers without compliance with the terms of their contract. According to PENGASSAN, the contract stipulates the participation of the labour union in the exercise whenever the need arises. The oil company last week commenced a staff rationalisation to trim the workforce by 250 between April and June at the Quo Iboe Oil Export Terminal in Ibeno, Akwa Ibom. The affected workers told NAN in Eket yesterday that they were embarrassed that their contracts were terminated while labour leaders were still negotiating with management on the modality to adopt for the exercise. Mr Isaac Umanah, one of the affected workers' faulted the appraisal system used as criteria for the staff rationalisation. "Elsewhere appraisals are used as a tool for improving performance and the employee is privy to his scores,but here our supervisors do it in isolation and use it for punishment. Chairman of PENGASSAN, contract workers branch, Mr Peter Akpenka, said that the management carried out the policy without regard to the agreements signed with the company He said PENGASSAN would commence a strike at the expiration of the ultimatum on Monday.(NAN) http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-05-02-chad-aid-groups-strike-after-killing-of-worker Chad aid groups strike after killing of worker NDJAMENA, CHAD May 02 2008 13:31 Aid groups in Chad on Friday began a two-day suspension of all humanitarian operations in the country to protest the slaying of a French aid worker the previous day, a United Nations statement said. "The humanitarian community decided to recommend a suspension of humanitarian activities, apart from emergency ones," said a statement from the UN humanitarian coordinator in Chad, Kingsley Amaning. The move aimed to "protest the deteriorating security in eastern Chad and to reiterate our solidarity with the families and colleagues of all victims of this insecurity", the statement said. A group of armed men shot dead Pascal Marlinge (49), a member of the London-based charity Save the Children, as he was driving in a convoy in Chad's war-stricken eastern region, his employer said on Thursday. -- AFP http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_South%20Africa&set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=nw20080513125002618C925946 Protesters gather at Mandela function May 13 2008 at 01:33PM Striking SA Municipal Workers Union members on Tuesday descended on proceedings at Pretoria's Church Square where hundreds of people were witnessing the bestowal of the Freedom of the City on former president Nelson Mandela. About 100 members of the union protested around the square, singing derogatory songs and saying they wanted Mandela to hear their call for better working conditions. "We want Mandela to hear our call," said union member Thomas Paledi. Union members have been on strike since last week, demanding that the city halt its restructuring process, employ all its workers directly and stop investigations into outsourcing the bus service. Tshwane mayor Gwen Ramokgopa is expected to bestow the award to Mandela at a private ceremony in Johannesburg. The presentation of the award will be broadcast to the square and Pretoria City Hall. - Sapa http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_South%20Africa&set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=nw20080522140958669C196257Samwu announces Durban protest May 22 2008 at 05:13PMeThekwini municipal workers on Thursday announced a planned march throughcentral Durban in protest against current salary increases, privatisationand a host of other issues.Julius Mkwanyana, the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) branchchairperson, said at least 6 500 municipal workers would converge at Botha'sPark at 9am on Friday and would march to the City Hall where a memorandumdetailing their concerns would be handed over to the eThekwini Municipality.A statement released by Samwu said an 8.3 percent wage increase was an"insult considering the rising prices of food and petrol".The union is also demanding an end to privatisation and the outsourcing ofvarious municipal services.The union has demanded that the city's bus service operated by the RemantAlton bus company be returned to the control of the city.It also demanded that the municipality "should deflate increases on water,lights and rates to accommodate food and petrol hikes currently beingexperienced by our communities."It is Samwu's view that communities have a right to these basic services."Municipal manager Mike Sutcliffe could not immediately be reached forcomment. - Sapahttp://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Finance%20And%20Labour&set_id=1&click_id=594&art_id=nw20080523140456713C519337Samwu stage a peaceful protest May 23 2008 at 02:15PMAt least 500 eThekwini municipal workers marched through Durban centralstreets on Friday over salary increases and privatisation.Metro police spokesperson Superintendent John Tyala said no violence wasreported during the South African Municipal Worker's Union (Samwu) protest."The march was peaceful and a memorandum was handed over to city officialsat noon," he said.Samwu branch chairman Julius Mkwanyana said at least 6 500 municipal workerswere unhappy with the eThekwini Municipality.In a statement released on Thursday, Samwu said an 8,3 percent pay increasewas an "insult considering the rising prices of food and petrol".The union is also demanding an end to privatisation and the outsourcing ofvarious municipal services, and that control of the city's bus service,operated by the Remant Alton bus company, be returned to the city. - Sapahttp://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_South%20Africa&set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=nw20080625092039234C802600Rand Water staff hold protest June 25 2008 at 09:25AMAdministration staff at the Rand Water Board's head office in Johannesburgheld a protest outside its offices on Wednesday morning as wage negotiationscontinued, the SA Municipal Workers' Union said.Provincial organiser Silas Letsimo said the protest was held between 7am and8am and more than 100 staff members took part.Samwu and the Rand Water Board will hold a meeting on Wednesday to discusswage increases.The "deadlock breaking" meeting was scheduled to finish by 1pm, Letsimosaid. - Sapahttp://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Development&set_id=1&click_id=124&art_id=nw20080625124619457C865282Dismissed Mbombela workers hold protest June 25 2008 at 12:53PMFour former workers from the Mbombela 2010 stadium in Nelspruit werearrested for violent protests against their dismissal, Mpumalanga policesaid on Wednesday.Spokesperson Inspector Dawie Pretorius said several workers gathered outsidethe stadium on Wednesday morning."The angry protesters burnt a heavy duty truck, two motorbikes and a mobileguard house."Police managed to disperse the angry crowd and the situation is calm at themoment. Police are still at the stadium to maintain calm," he said.Cases of malicious damage to property, arson and public violence have beenopened.The four are expected to appear in the Nelspruit magistrate's court soon.About 500 Mbombela stadium workers was dismissed on Monday by the Basil Readand Bouygues Civil Works joint venture.The workers were dismissed after an illegal strike, the SABC reported.They were demanding nightshift allowances, bonuses and better workingconditions.Spokesperson for the workers, James Maseko said the protest followedmanagement's refusal to pay them an R800 nightshift allowance, thebroadcaster said."We have an agreement in place which says they are supposed to pay us R1 500and then, now they decide to pay us R500 ... They say if we don't want towork nightshift then they are going to pay us R500.Basil Read spokeperson Frikkie Botha said Mbombela Stadium Joint Venturetook the decision to terminate the employment of all the employeesparticipating in an unlawful and unprotected strike action at the stadium."These employees have persisted with repeated unlawful and unprotectedstrike action since April 2008""Employees have gone on another unprotected strike in pursuit of theirdemands in breach of the final ultimatum. The strike has also been marred byviolence," he said.The Building and Wood Workers International (BWI) said they were dismayed bythe dismissal of the workers.Spokesperson Eddie Cottle said most of the workers had worked tirelessly onthe project which was only months away from completion in March 2009."It is even more surprising that Basil Read, SA's leading black-empoweredconstruction company which is chaired by Bulelani Ngcuka is the first of all2010 construction companies to undertake this drastic and shameful path,"Cottle said. - Sapahttp://www.nationnews.com/story/353606555102834.phpSSA workers protest boss' firingPublished on: 6/25/08.A United front: NUPW president Walter Maloney (right) speaking to the newsmedia, while the union's assistant general secretary, Roslyn Smith (secondleft) listens attentively.by MARIA BRADSHAWEMPLOYEES at the Sanitation Service Authority are protesting yesterday'sfiring of acting general manager Stanton Alleyne.But by this morning they will be informed by the National Union of PublicWorkers (NUPW) what form of industrial action will be taken.Several workers parked trucks and put down their tools yesterday morning asword spread that Alleyne had been dismissed.Many gathered at the National Union of Public Workers headquarters for ascheduled 2 p.m meeting where they vocally announced their support forAlleyne and condemnation for the way he was treated.General secretary of the NUPW, Dennis Clarke, met with the workers from allsections of the SSA and updated them on the situation.He told the workers that due process was not followed."We did not anticipate that the Sanitation Service Authority would behave insuch a manner, especially arising out of yesterday's promises that we wouldhave a meeting to resolve the matter," Clarke stated.He explained that he had received a message informing him about a meetingwith the union at 10:30 a.m on Monday."We are still waiting for that meeting. We understand that the board held ameeting at 4 p.m, but they did not get back to us. And at 10 a.m today MrAlleyne received his letter of dismissal."Clarke said there was a fundamental principle where public servants deservedthe right to a hearing."This is a serious miscarriage of justice," he said, adding that Alleyne wasalso being denied a pension and gratuity."They want us to go to court, but we are not going to any law court we willhave it at the court at Dalkeith," he said to loud applause from theworkers.He accused Government of setting a dangerous precedent and said it wasparticularly "disgusting" given that two trade union members were on theboard."They know that if you are charging a worker you should have chargesproperly drawn up and brought against that worker. We cannot allow anyGovernment in this country to develop a regime by summarily dismissingpeople like that."Meanwhile, Alleyne's attorney-at-law Hal Gollop told the DAILY NATIONyesterday that he was looking forward to an amicable settlement in thematter.He said he was in the process of taking instructions from his client and inassociation with the NUPW was negotiating to have the matter resolved.With reference to Alleyne's termination, he said there were a number ofobvious breaches in the rules of natural justice, but believed an amicableconclusion could be achieved.http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Finance%20And%20Labour&set_id=1&click_id=594&art_id=vn20080623110147525C978888Legal Aid pay protest widens Staff Reporter June 23 2008 at 03:48PMState prosecutors have joined forces with Legal Aid Board lawyers in protestaction this week.Legal aid lawyers last week threatened to bring the justice system to a haltunless Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla took urgent steps to improve thepay of the Legal Aid Board's professional and administrative staff.A process of ensuring alignment of salaries of legal professionals withingovernment departments, headed by a task team led by the Department ofPublic Service and Administration, led to trade unions signing agreement inNovember 2007.But the union representing the disgruntled lawyers is concerned that almostseven months later the justice department has not implemented the new"occupational specific dispensation". After a special mass meeting in CapeTown on Saturday legal aid lawyers and state prosecutors decided on awork-to-rule this week.This would include not preparing cases outside official work hours as is thenorm, not consulting clients and witnesses during lunch and tea breaks, onlycompleting administrative duties on SAPS dockets and legal aid files duringofficial working hours and not booking more than one case for plea and triala day.Prosecutors would also not be available for after-hours bail hearings, theSouth African Parastatal Union said in a press release on Sunday.Legal aid lawyers and prosecutors are demanding that the new salarystructures be implemented, that back pay accrued from July be calculated andmade known, and a 15 percent cost of living increase for legal aid lawyers -the lowest-paid legal professionals in the sector.http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Business%20Report&fArticleId=4494477Union members to protest possible rate hikeJuly 7, 2008Johannesburg - The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa)will stage a national strike next month to protest against an expectedinterest rate hike, it said on Monday.Numsa spokesman Mziwakhe Hlangani said the union wanted the government to"unveil creative and constructive plans" to deal with rising petrol and foodprices."It is also worrying that [the Reserve Bank] is expected to push for furtherinterest rate increases in August, 2008, causing considerable distress onsmall and medium-sized businesses which create more jobs," said Hlangani.The protest action would start with a one-day strike in the Western Cape,Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal on July 9, Mpumalanga, Free State andNorthern Cape on July 16, Gauteng, Limpopo and North West on July 23 andthen culminate in a national stay away on August 6. - Sapahttp://www.santiagotimes.cl/santiagotimes/2008070314104/news/business-news/employees-protest-agrosuper-in-rancagua.htmlEMPLOYEES PROTEST AGROSUPER IN RANCAGUAFriday, 04 July 2008Thirty-eight employees from giant food processor Agrosuper were arrestedearly Wednesday while blocking off the entrance to the company's porkfactory in Rosario, Region VI. Workers were demanding higher wages andprotesting a collective bargaining process they felt would not representtheir interests. An estimated 400 or the company\s 2,600 workers have beendemonstrating this week."Until now, the collective bargaining that has taken place has not beensatisfactory," said the Rosario plant union leader Ariel Donoso. "We aredemanding a 12 percent real increase in the base salary and a CP$315.000[US$620] average salary."Protesters blocked the coming and going of the company's delivery trucks byburning tires in the middle of the road.Rosario plant manager Juan Esteban Pizarro said the protest did not causesignificant delay in production."These violent acts are executed by people that want to manipulate thenegotiating table," said Agrosuper officials. "Behaviour like this impedesthe freedom of speech of the majority of employees, who are fighting forbetter working conditions and salaries."Workers from the Agrosuper plant Lo Miranda and Candelaria, also located inRegion VI, joined the protesters.SOURCE: EL RANGUINOBy Alice Gastinehttp://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7011511644Mexican Miners Protest Government's Refusal To Recognize Union OfficialShareThisJuly 5, 2008 10:02 a.m. ESTJupiter Kalambakal - AHN News WriterMexico City, Mexico (AHN) - Workers of Mexico's largest labor union in themining sector held a series of one-hour walk outs on Friday in protest ofthe government's rejection to recognize the re-election of a labor unionofficial.Miners returned to work after a walkout at 7 a.m., while the other walk outswere held again in 3 p.m. and 11 p.m, local time.The labor ministry refused to recognize the re-election of Napoleon GomezUrrutia, secretary-general of the National Mining and Metal Workers Union,as Gomez Urrutia, who is on self imposed exile in Canada since 2006, facesarrest warrants on charges of misappropriating union funds.The union downplayed the charges claiming that it was part of a blackpropaganda to expel Gomez Urrutia, who has been at odds with copper miningcompany Grupo Mexico SAB for the past years.A July 30, 2007, strike has halted operations of Grupo Mexico's Cananeacopper mine, the country's largest. Grupo Mexico plans to buyout workers outand re-start operations of the mine in 2009. Aside from Cananea, the unionhas been on strike for the past 11 months at two other mines.http://allafrica.com/stories/200807180961.htmlNigeria: Nulge Protests Move to Abolish LG SystemVanguard (Lagos)18 July 2008Posted to the web 18 July 2008Dennis AgboAbakalikiMEMBERS of the Ebonyi state chapter of Nigeria Union of Local GovernmentEmployees (NULGE), yesterday, marched round major streets of Abakaliki,protesting against the move by some state Governors to abolish the localgovernment system in the country.The NULGE members, who converged at their secretariat in the state capital,arrived in large numbers from all the 13 local government areas, includingthe rest of 64 Development council centres in the state, carried placards,obstructed traffic and terminated their protest march at the GovernmentHouse where they delivered their protest letter to Governor Martin Elechi.Some of the placards read: "leave local governments to exist"; "localgovernment is the 3rd tier"; "protect the local governments at thegrassroots"; No LG, no democracy."In his address at the rally, the acting state President of NULGE ComradeLeonard Nkah said they were gathered to express their opposition to theabolition of the local government system in Nigeria, ventilate theirgrievances and protest against the injustice and malignant problemsbedeviling the local government as the third tier of government.Nkah added that the rally was also to protest the continuous tinkering withthe local government statutory allocation by some states and their contemptfor the landmark judgment of the Supreme Court on the funding of primaryeducation in the country.On the call for abolition of the local government system in Nigeria , Nkahsaid "NULGE was bemused, to say the least, by the recent calls by some stateGovernors for constitutional de-recognition of the local government in theproposed amendment of Nigeria constitution."The initial response of the union was to dismiss such calls since we areconvinced that the calls for abolition of local government do not flow frompatriotism."The union said it is dismayed that calls for abolition of the LGs which wasdismissed alongside tenure elongation project of former President Obasanjoby the national assembly, could be coming again from some governors at atime when the nation is consolidating on the huge gains already recorded bythe system.http://www.iii.co.uk/shares/?type=news&articleid=6806733&action=articleZambia's Konkola shuts down plant after protestLUSAKA, July 14 (Reuters) - Zambia's Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) said onMonday it had shut down a plant in its Nkana business unit as a precautionafter a labour protest by some of its workers."A small section of workers at the Nkana Business Unit of Konkola CopperMines Plc. today staged an illegal assembly in connection with the justconcluded negotiations for a new collective agreement between the two unionsthat represent mine workers and KCM management," a KCM spokesman said in astatement."The plant was shut down as a precaution."http://allafrica.com/stories/200807150306.htmlZambia: Konkola Copper Mines Workers Protest The Times of Zambia (Ndola)15 July 2008Posted to the web 15 July 2008Moffat ChazingwaNdolaMiners at Konkola Copper Mines (KCM)'s Nkana integrated business unit (IBU)in Kitwe yesterday downed tools to protest a 15 per cent salary incrementreportedly awarded to them by management.The workers downed tools after word went round that management had awardedthem 15 per cent salary increase.A Times of Zambia reporter, who went to the plant around 15:00 hours, foundworkers for both morning and afternoon shifts milling around the loading baywaiting to be addressed by their union officials.The workers, who assembled at the loading bay at 10:00 hours, only dispersedaround 16:00 hours after National Union of Miners and Allied Workers (NUMAW)branch officials addressed them.NUMAW branch official, Angel Chibuye, who advised the workers to returnhome, refused to comment on the protest referring comments to the nationalleadership.But workers talked to said they were protesting the 15 per cent salaryincrement.The workers, who vowed to continue with the protest today, said it wasmockery for management to award them 15 per cent because it did nottranslate to the amount of work they were doing.NUMAW president, Mundia Sikufele, said by Press time that he could notcomment because he had not yet received an official report from union branchofficials.KCM said in a statement that a small section of workers staged an illegalassembly in connection with the just concluded negotiations for a newcollective agreement between the two unions and KCM management.A spokesman for KCM said the assembly was staged even before the workerscould be briefed by union representatives on the results of negotiations.KCM, the Mineworkers Union of Zambia and NUMAW, recently concludednegotiations and had embarked on a series of meetings to brief members.KCM said workers at Nkana, however, decided to protest even before hearingdetails of the concluded negotiations.http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_South%20Africa&set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=nw20080715133224253C126072 Workers protest against mine deaths July 15 2008 at 01:35PMAbout 6 500 mineworkers downed tools at the Harmony Gold Mine in Virginia inthe Free State on Tuesday morning in protest against the recent deaths ofmineworkers, the National Union of Mineworkers said.Num spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka said workers were sending a message aboutdeaths at the mines that "enough is enough".This comes in the wake of the death of another mineworker at the ElandsrandGold mine in Mpumalanga on Tuesday.Harmony gold spokesperson Amelia Soares said the mineworker was killed in anaccident involving a scraper."We do not know all the details and a full investigation has been launched.More information will be released later this week," she said.She said the work stoppage at Harmony's Virginia operations was related to adeath of a mineworker last Friday at the Unisel mine."The employee was killed after accidentaly injuring himself with a water jetthat he was operating. "Harmony deeply regretted the loss of life and would continue to do all toeliminate fatal accidents at the mines, Soares said. - Sapahttp://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Business%20Report&fArticleId=4507885Harmony workers protest mine safetyJuly 15, 2008Johannesburg - About 6 500 mineworkers downed tools at the Harmony Gold minein Virginia in the Free State on Tuesday morning in protest against therecent deaths of mineworkers, the National Union of Mineworkers said.NUM spokesman Lesiba Seshoka said workers were sending a message aboutdeaths at the mines that "enough is enough".This comes in the wake of the death of another mineworker at the ElandsrandGold mine in Mpumalanga on Tuesday.Harmony gold spokeswoman Amelia Soares said the mineworker was killed in anaccident involving a scraper."We do not know all the details and a full investigation has been launched.More information will be released later this week," she said.She said the work stoppage at Harmony's Virginia operations was related to adeath of a mineworker last Friday at the Unisel mine."The employee was killed after accidentally injuring himself with a waterjet that he was operating. "Harmony deeply regretted the loss of life and would continue to do all toeliminate fatal accidents at the mines, Soares said. - Sapahttp://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Finance%20And%20Labour&set_id=1&click_id=594&art_id=nw20080716170956942C728165Unions protest in Kimberley July 16 2008 at 05:19PMAbout 2 000 workers marched through the streets of Kimberley on Wednesday toprotest against high electricity prices.The march formed part of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu)national protest action against high electricity, food and fuel prices.Protest action also took place in two other provinces.Cosatu provincial secretary in the Northern Cape William Sikali said twomemorandums were handed over by workers."The first was at the offices of Eskom in Kimberley."Cosatu General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi addressed the crowd at Eskom'soffices before the marchers moved to the buildings of the old Northern Capelegislature in Kimberley.Northern Cape MEC for Agriculture and Land Reform Tina Joemat-Petterssonreceived the second memorandum on behalf of the province's premier. - Sapahttp://www.buenosairesherald.com/argentina/note.jsp?idContent=514917UTA union meets gov't officials but fail to reach agreementBus drivers strike, subway joins protest The UTA transport union yesterday ratified a strike for the third night ina row in the Greater Buenos Aires area after they failed to reach anagreement during meetings with officials from the Buenos Aires provincialgovernment.http://www.bloggernews.net/116968Shell Employees in Africa Protest Against Being 'Sold' by ShellPosted on July 29th, 2008by John Donovan in All News, Breaking NewsShell employees in Africa protest against being "sold" by ShellBy John Donovan29 July 2008Shell has confirmed the sale of its downstream businesses in Ethiopia, Sudanand Djibouti to Oil Libya. Completion of the transfer is expected before theend of 2008. Until then, Shell continues to manage the business.Details were confirmed to Shell employees in Shell internal emails dated 10July 2008, printed below.The sale is at variance with an assurance given as recently as 19 January2008 by the External Affairs Manager for Ethiopia and Djibouti, BahiruTemesgen, who was quoted in "The Ethiopian Reporter" as saying "there was nosuch deal going on regarding the sale of Shell Ethiopia that he was awareof." http://en.ethiopianreporter.com/content/view/113/2/Shell employees in Ethiopia had already initiated legal proceedings againstShell for an alleged fraud in the amendment of employee retirement termswithout the consent of employees. The case has been submitted to theEthiopian "EMPLOYER AND EMPLOYEE AFFAIRS DECIDING BOARD". The board has beenreviewing and hearing the argument of both sides for the past two months.Last week, the board advised both parties that it is ready to pass judgment,but it will gave one chance for both parties to settle the case amicablythrough negotiation. If no agreement is reached the Board will pass judgmenttomorrow, 30 July 2008.Matters are made worse because Shell employees in Ethiopia and Djiboutistrongly believe they have been discriminated against in the business salearrangements, compared with employees of Shell Sudan.Shell Djibouti staff held a demonstration outside their office a few daysago and head office based staff of Shell Ethiopia held a demonstrationoutside the main entrance of Shell Ethiopia Ltd head office. The staffcarried banners stating "WE ASK SHELL TO RESPECT ITS VALUES". The staffcalled the General Manager, Mr. Jean Pierre Wyns, and informed him thatShell must stop treating them as domestic animals and abide with Shell'sclaimed values, which supposedly includes respect for Shell employees.Shell employee protesters outside the HQ building of Shell Ethiopia(Shell employees carrying out a demonstration in Djibouti)In this connection, tempers flared during a meeting of Shell Ethiopianemployees, when an HR Manager from London, Mr Douglas, allegedly said thatall Shell Ethiopia employees were being SOLD to Oil Libya. We understandthat staff at the demonstration expressed their disgust at the word "SOLD"being used, saying that they are human beings with dignity, not commoditiesto be traded.In addition to the photographs of protests by Shell employees in AfricanCountries, we have also featured a photograph of Shell employees in Malaysiacurrently engaged in litigation with Shell over more alleged fraud, alsoinvolving retirement funds.(Members of the 399 "Team A" former employees of Shell Malaysia suing Shellfor unlawful deductions from their retirement funds)Apparently Shell employees from Western Countries have not found itnecessary to protest, as there are no white faces among any of the numerouscurrent and former Shell employees shown in any of the photographs.We will shortly publish an article about another matter involving a Shellemployee, which also has racist overtones. The individual in question wassacked and put on a plane out of Nigeria on the same day of the sacking,without any satisfactory explanation. He had expressed his concern over hispersonal security. Since returning to the UK he has been batted back andforth between Shell operating companies, none of which is willing to answerhis legitimate questions about the extraordinary treatment he has beensubjected to without proper explanation. A Shell game is in progressinvolving Shell Nigeria, Shell UK Limited and Shell in Poland, all duckingresponsibility. We are awaiting supply of all emails and associatedcorrespondence before revealing the whole sorry tale.It is notable that for over four years Shell has been suing a former ShellMalaysia employee, Dr John Huong for alleged defamation. This is despiteknowing within days of issuing proceedings in June 2004, that the author ofthis article and my father Alfred Donovan, both Englishman, have admittedbeing solely responsible for the relevant publication which contained wellfounded comment about Shell. There is no libel if what is stated is true.The oil giant preferred to bury an innocent Malaysian national in multipleinjunctions rather than suing the Brits who have owned up to the allegedlibellous publication.It is obscene that Shell is treating hard working employees so meanly andruthlessly in some third world Countries while earning billions of dollarsin profits and paying multimillion remuneration packages to fat cat Shellexecutives. Shell knows that it would not get away with such ruthless,unethical and unfair conduct towards its employees in Europe, the USA, orAustralasia.http://allafrica.com/stories/200807210225.htmlRwanda: Rwacom Workers Protest Poor ConditionsThe New Times (Kigali)19 July 2008Posted to the web 21 July 2008Dan Ngabonziza And Frank KagaboKigaliWorkers at RWACOM plastic industries in Kigali have complained against whatthey call poor working conditions at the company's plant.An employee of the company who spoke to The New Times on condition ofanonymity for fear of losing his job, said that they are subjected to harshworking conditions and are paid peanuts.Most workers are paid a minimum salary of between Frw20,000 and Frw60.000.The male worker said that their bosses sometimes delay paying their monthlysalaries, something that affects their livelihoods."Some of us have big families to look after and children to send to school,but our boss does not seem to understand our situation," he cried.The employee said that they work twelve hours at night, locked inside awarehouse which has no toilet.Said the worker: "We work from 6 p.m. in the evening up to 7 a.m. in themorning; and for all this period, our boss locks us inside the factory withmachines running."He added that the machines in the factory are very hot and there isn'tenough ventilation. He said that many employers fear they will contractTuberculosis from exposure to industrial fumes.Another employee of the company said that they have complained to the policebut no action has been taken. The employees further complained that thecompany does not offer them medical insurance, yet the nature of their workexposes them to risks such as industrial accidents.They also allege that even when they have accidents while on duty, they arenot given transport to hospital. They claim that some of them lose fingerswhile on duty while others faint due to working for long hours without food."Locked up to stop them stealing oil"Contacted for comment, RWACOM's Managing Director, Hitesh Shah said thatsome of the problems came up because he had been admitted to hospital inIndia since January with brain cancer.Speaking to The New Times in his office in downtown Kigali, Shah said thatevery worker is paid according to the nature of work they do. He furthersaid that every worker is entitled to a 4 percent salary increment per year.He explained: "If you are a manager, you get paid as a manager, and if youare a casual labourer, you get paid as such."Shah refuted claims that the industry produces fumes because it is a plasticmaking industry. He defended his policy of locking the workers inside thefactory at night saying that it was a measure taken to stop the workers fromstealing oil from the industry.About non-provision of health insurance to his workers, Shah claimed thatthe policy has always been reserved for government employees.But when challenged that there are private companies offering healthinsurance, he said that it must be a new policy for "private smallcompanies" like RWACOM.The co-director of the company, Nennah Shah who was also present during theinterview, was less charitable to the workers complaints."If they are working under very harsh conditions, how come they have notleft?" she wondered.She added that anyone who wants to leave is free to go and they will give agood recommendation to any worker who chooses to leave. She said that allthese complaints are engineered by jealous competitors whom she did notmention. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Thu Aug 28 14:50:41 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:50:41 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Workers' protests, USA, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <005801c90958$1f0b3510$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * California: local workers protest despotic layoffs * Detroit, Michigan: teachers protest layoffs * Portland, Oregon: one-man protest and arrest at day labour centre * Detroit, Michigan: American Axle workers protest at board meeting despite police intimidation * Texas: Airline workers protest at penny-pinching bosses * New London, New Hampshire: Union protest * Arizona: Librarians rally against cuts * New Hampshire: Bridgeport job cuts protested * Kansas City, Mo.: Firefighters protest at mayor's comments * Connecticut: Trade unionists protest casino over union ban * Denver, Colorado: Teachers stage mass sick-in * Florida: Volusia teachers protest cuts * Las Vegas, Nevada: Workers protest on Vegas Strip over construction site safety * Boston, Mass.: Airline workers protest no-tips policy * Hawaii: Carpenters protest low pay by development agencies * Baltimore: Newspaper guild holds protest at Baltimore Sun * Dallas, Texas: Wriers' guild protest draws small numbers * Kentucky: Workers protest Ellis Park opening over contracts * California: vehicle agency workers protest cuts * Seattle: metro drivers protest layoffs, rehiring * Atlanta: pilots protest UPS over job loss risk * California: State workers protest wage cuts * St. Louis: Auto-workers protest factory closure * California: Disneyland workers arrested at costumed entrance http://www.10news.com/news/17052441/detail.html?rss=sand&psp=news Local Workers Protest Governor's Executive Order POSTED: 11:51 am PDT July 31, 2008 UPDATED: 6:44 pm PDT July 31, 2008 SAN DIEGO -- State employees protested in San Diego and Chula Vista Thursday after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed an executive order authorizing layoffs and wage cuts in response to the state's budget crisis. The Legislature is a month late approving a budget. California has a $15.2 billion deficit, and Democrats and Republicans have been unable to agree on how to balance the budget. Because the state is running out of money, Schwarzenegger signed an executive order Thursday that lays off about 22,000 part-time, temporary and contract workers and temporarily lowers the salaries of more than 200,000 full-time state employees to the federal minimum wage of $6.55 an hour. The order also freezes hiring, bans overtime except for emergency and health care workers, and suspends personal services contracts. "This is not an action I take lightly," Schwarzenegger said. The governor acknowledged that his action comes at a "tough time" economically, and he apologized to state employees. In San Diego County, members of the Service Employees International Union Local 1000 protested at two locations. About 50 mostly female workers gathered in front of the downtown State Building, walking back and forth carrying signs that read "Pass a budget now," "I'm worth more than minimum wage," and "We do our job, now do yours." Lisa Davis, a program technician with the State Workers Compensation Insurance Fund, said she expects pink slips to be handed out by the end of Thursday or Friday. "Most state workers' morale is very poor," Davis said. That the state will reimburse employees for the difference between their salaries and minimum wage once a budget is enacted doesn't make things easier, she said. "How are we supposed to survive if the budget isn't signed soon?" Davis asked. SEIU members also picketed in front of the Employment Development Department office in Chula Vista, and other locations around the state. http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/16599024/detail.html DPS Teachers Protest Layoffs POSTED: 11:55 am EDT June 13, 2008 UPDATED: 7:44 pm EDT June 19, 2008 DETROIT -- The Detroit teachers' union protested a school district proposal to lay off 818 of its members and delay raises Thursday. Detroit Public Schools officials held a budget hearing Thursday and outlined plans to avoid a shortfall of $408 million heading into the 2009 fiscal year. Federation of Teachers Executive Vice President Gregory Johnson says the layoffs would cut the district's teaching ranks to about 6,000 and force larger class sizes. Some Detroit school teachers said cutting teachers is not the answer to the difficult deficit question. Others are calling the plan ridiculous, adding that the school district could save money by not being careless with its spending. Detroit Federation of Teachers President Virginia Cantwell said, "I'm angry and upset They need to find that money someplace else and leave the classroom alone. Let the teachers teach and let the children learn." The district argues that teachers' cuts have not kept pace with declining enrollment which is expected to dip to about 98,000 by this fall. District spokesman Steve Wasko says 300 teachers already have received layoff notices and another 518 could get them in August. He says the school board could vote on the plan Thursday night. http://www.katu.com/news/local/20188434.html Lone protestor arrested at day labor center Story Published: Jun 17, 2008 at 8:19 PM PDT Story Updated: Jun 18, 2008 at 6:47 PM PDT By KATU Web Staff Video PORTLAND, Ore. - A man vowed to get arrested while protesting Portland's controversial new day labor center and on Tuesday he got his wish. Tom Wenning staged a one-man protest this week outside the city-subsidized center. On Monday, officers gave Wenning a warning for blocking the driveway. He said he would return on Tuesday and force police to arrest him and that's what happened at 8 a.m. Wenning has a court date to fight the criminal trespassing charge. http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/apr2008/axle-a25.shtml Detroit: American Axle workers hold protest amidst heavy police presence By Shannon Jones 25 April 2008 Use this version to print | Send this link by email | Email the author Striking American Axle workers held a picket outside the company's headquarters Thursday afternoon ahead of a scheduled stockholders meeting. The UAW local at the striking plants in Detroit called the protest, which drew about five hundred American Axle workers and supporters. The demonstration followed the cancellation by the UAW of a strike support rally set for last Friday in downtown Detroit. Workers briefly blocked the entrance to American Axle headquarters before dozens of heavily armed police cleared the street. The crowd regrouped on the sidewalk in front of the headquarters before dispersing after about one hour. There were no reports of arrests. The police presence, however, was extremely heavy, in an evident attempt to intimidate the workers. About 3,600 American Axle workers in Michigan and western New York have been on strike since late February. They are resisting demands by the auto parts supplier for wage cuts of up to 50 percent and a reduction in benefits. Those participating in the protest evinced the determination of the working class not to surrender its hard won gains. However, local level UAW officials who attended the rally offered no policy to fight the attacks by American Axle other than hurling insults at CEO Richard Dauch. Workers continue to express frustration over the fact that they get no information from either the local or the international union about the content of negotiations. Reports in the media demonstrate that even prior to the strike the UAW had agreed to substantial concessions to the auto parts manufacturer. The decision by the UAW to call off last week's scheduled rally has evidently emboldened American Axle to take an even harder line. In a press statement Tuesday the company demanded concessions equivalent to those granted by the UAW to other parts suppliers and restated its threat to shut down production at the striking plants. "If the International UAW is not willing to consider a US market labor agreement...AAM will be forced to plan for the potential closure of some, or all of these uncompetitive facilities," the statement declared. WSWS supporters distributed a leaflet at the rally titled, "Appeal to working class, not corporate shareholders, to back American Axle strike." The statement called on American Axle workers to make a direct appeal to workers in the auto industry to carry out a struggle against the concessions accepted by the UAW. The WSWS interviewed workers who attended the rally. Scott, a worker with 14 years seniority, told the WSWS that the turnout was "only a small percentage of what we could have gotten. We needed this demonstration to boost up morale, but I know that the shareholders don't care; they are with Dauch." "They brought in the two-tier contract on us in 2004 and look at what is happening to the Big Three workers. They have it now. If we accept more concessions the same thing will happen to other workers. We have to take a stand against this." Scott spoke about his previous experience in the auto parts industry. "I used to work for ITT Automotive. They went out of business in 1994. GM came in and said they were unprofitable. But what was happening was they were shifting production to other plants; we were paying for all the other plants they were building. They shut us down and moved all their operations to Ohio. Scott said that workers saw signs that GM was preparing to resume operations at plants idled by the strike. "What is making it bad is that GM is getting parts from other plants. I heard that Dana is retooling to make our axles. The truck plant in Arlington, Texas, is going back up. They say they are getting parts from an undisclosed source." "Sometimes I look at it and I think the union is selling us out," Scott added. "They are walking this line and they are teetering, tottering. I heard they even accepted the $14 before the strike. The only gripe was the buydown." Latanya Richardson, an American Axle worker with 13 years, told the WSWS, "What happens to us will have a major impact on what happens overall. Next they will go after others." Like many workers we spoke to, Latanya was angered by the decision of the UAW to call off the strike support rally set for last week. "It was a smack in the face. We were told we were close to something - then they cancelled it. I think it was to limit the exposure to us." She was also unhappy about the lack of information from the UAW. "We should know what we are getting into. The cost of living is getting worse. A lot of us are sole providers; we have a lot to lose. We want to maintain what we have established over the years. No one is getting rich. It just allows us to be comfortable. "It is definite that they want to eliminate the middle class. They want to pay poverty wages for the working class." Alex Clements said there was growing frustration and tension among American Axle workers. "People are getting upset. We go back in there, and we won't be able to buy the products we make. "They cancelled the rally for no reason, they said they were close to an agreement-and then they said there was no agreement. I think it was a ploy or a trick." Alex felt that strike pay should be increased, given that the UAW had close to $750 million in its strike fund. "What are they saving it for? An emergency? This is an emergency." A worker from Chrysler Sterling Heights Assembly came to show his support for the American Axle workers. He noted the provocative police presence outside the American Axle corporate headquarters. "I think they are trying to incite something." He said that many workers had been prepared to attend the strike support rally in Detroit the previous week. "They cancelled that day's rally and they would have had people from all over the country there." Latoya, who has worked at AAM for 10 years, said she would not accept having her standard of living cut in half, which would happen if the UAW accepted the cuts proposed by American Axle. "I am not willing to settle for just having a job," she said. "We need jobs with decent wages." http://www.kxan.com/global/story.asp?s=8206049 Workers for American Airlines pilots union protest Posted: April 22, 2008 04:07 AM FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -- Unionized workers employed by the Allied Pilots Association stood in picket lines Monday to protest what they say is the penny-pinching ways of their managers. Those managers are American Airlines pilots, the same ones who last week stood in picket lines to bring attention to their fight to restore wage concessions made five years ago to airline management. The Allied Pilots Staff Employee Association represents 23 employees who work for the pilots union. They include paralegals, graphic artists, administrative assistants and other hourly employees. The staff employees have been working without a contract for about 300 days, said union spokeswoman Kathy Schroeder, a paralegal. The union agreed to concessions in the last contract, which was signed five years ago, and now wants those wage cuts restored, she said. "It's sad that a union would treat its own loyal, unionized employees this way," Schroeder said. The pilots association "needs to put our bargaining on a fast track and restore our contract now," she said. Allied Pilots Association spokesman Gregg Overman said negotiators for both groups have been meeting for months to reach a new deal. "We have tremendous respect for the contributions of our staff employees ... and we absolutely support their right to collectively bargain," Overman said. Last week, pilots protested from London to San Francisco, with the picketing ranging from a dozen pilots in some places to nearly 200 in others. The pilots union and American, owned by AMR Corp., appear deadlocked in the early stages of negotiations for a new contract, with pilots wanting 2003 wage concessions restored. Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. http://www.wtnh.com/global/story.asp?s=8204538 City workers protest in New London Posted Apr. 21, 2008 5:30 PM New London (WTNH) _ Dozens of union workers gathered on the steps of City Hall in New London on Monday. The city wants to eliminate almost all of the Office of Development and Planning, a total of 12 jobs. City Councilor Michael Buscetto proposed the idea and says there is too many plans and not enough development and feels the city needs to do more with less. Buscetto's plan would also create 10 new positions in Public Works, police and fire departments. The proposal is expected to save the city $2 million. Among those slated to lose their jobs is 18-year veteran, Judy Cox, who helps provide loans to fix up some of the city's most blighted properties. "The programs are all income based so they go to families that are low income and just can't afford to hardly keep their house, let alone fix up their house. So it would be a severe impact to the city," Cox said. "Personally, it would be very bad. I'm a single mother, I've been a single mother for 11 years. It would change a lot of lives, not just mine." The proposed cuts have gotten the nod from the city's finance committee and will be discussed at tonight's city council meeting. A public hearing on the budget is scheduled for May 7. http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/04/21/20080421mr-rally0422-on.html School librarians plan rally to protest cuts 3 comments by Ray Parker - Apr. 21, 2008 11:05 AM The Arizona Republic Mesa Public School librarians and their supporters will rally at 6 p.m. Tuesday, an hour before the school board meeting, to protest media specialists being cut in the district. Grappling to cut about $20 million from next year's budget, Superintendent Debra Duvall and her team recently met with employees in three areas and told them that librarians, nurses and speech experts will be cut over the next three years and replaced with assistants and aides in an effort to save millions. Ann Ewbank, an Arizona State University librarian, said a group of Mesa librarians met over the weekend to organize the protest, which includes the rally, a new Web site (fundourfuturearizona.org), and an online petition (gopetition.com/online/18626.html). "It's not just about Mesa, but nationwide librarians are disappearing because of budget cuts," Ewbank said. Although the employee cuts are not on the meeting agenda, the Mesa school board meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday to vote on another cost-saving measure: whether to close Jordan Elementary. Kirk Hinsey, president of the Mesa Education Association, which represents about 4,500 district employees, said, "(The media specialists') biggest concern is that they were not part of the process." The savings associated with the new changes are unclear because that will depend on personnel changes over the next few weeks, as employees are reassigned. Librarians Now, there are media specialists at every school regardless of its size. They are certified teachers, so they will be asked to move back into classrooms. http://www.wtnh.com/global/story.asp?s=8274786 Proposed job cuts met with protest in Bridgeport By News Channel 8's Crystal Haynes Posted May 05, 2008 5:55 PM Bridgeport (WTNH) _ Connecticut cities are struggling to make ends meet. And, Monday, proposed job and service cuts are being met with protest. Emotions are running high as dozens gather ahead of Monday's city council meeting. Inside, they'll discuss the mayor's budget but outside they're ready to wage war for the city's children. The raging budget battle has hit radio airwaves and a coalition of healthcare workers, teachers and library staff hope the ad campaign delivers the mighty blow needed to stop proposed cuts they say hurt children. "We understand there need to be cuts but we should be sharing the pain and not dumping them on the people who are the least able to defend themselves and need the most help," Deborah Chernoff, of New England Health Care Employees Union, stated. The city's new fiscal budget includes cuts like $5 million to school budget. "We're facing a horrible situation," Gary Peluchette, said. "We're facing the possibility of the elimination of teaching jobs, not opening three new schools that are near completion. Going back to half day kindergarten when we have full day kindergarten throughout the district." Plus, 90 proposed city layoffs would cut 20 school nurses and close school-based health centers. This is a resource uninsured families say is fundamental for proper healthcare. Also on the chopping block are the four library branches and the renovation of the Black Rock branch that would come to a halt. Scott Hughes, of the Bridgeport Public Library, said, "It's not good, because it's going to have negative impact on the quality of life. We have all ages use the library so it's going to have an impact on the children." Mayor Bill Finch says the impact of budget cuts is not lost on his office. He says he is trying to make up a $10 million dollar deficit he inherited. "Our budget deficit from the previously budget is so high that it requires both a tax increase and a cut of services," Mayor Finch said. "It's unfortunate that this happened. But we have to look at getting the kids safe a different way, so that their parents don't have to lose their house because they can't afford the taxes." And the ads Mayor Finch calls 'politics' won't change that fact. He is planning to announce how he will take the sting out of the cuts, by holding a press conference Tuesday which will detail how he says the city may be able to save school-based health centers and keep the libraries open. http://www.kctv5.com/news/16118949/detail.html?rss=kan&psp=news Firefighters Stand In Protest At City Hall Firefighters Upset About Mayor's Pension Remarks POSTED: 5:14 pm CDT May 1, 2008 UPDATED: 6:10 pm CDT May 1, 2008 KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Hundreds of Kansas City, Mo., firefighters swarmed City Hall Thursday and stood in protest, upset about comments the mayor made during a recent state of the city address. The mayor discussed the possibility of doing away with pension plans for future employees and implementing a newer contribution plan, something the firefighters' union said was a surprise. The firefighters were not scheduled to speak at Thursday's council meeting, and the mayor did not address their concerns. "Part of the compact with the city workers is to be able to retire with an element of security and dignity," said Louie Wright, president of Local 42 IAFF. "The data is in. The most cost effective way to do that is through a defined benefit system." Funkhouser respected their right to assemble, he said, but said, "I also have the right to bring up an issue that I think the community needs to decide." http://www.nbc30.com/news/16315734/detail.html?rss=har&psp=news Workers To Protest MGM Grand Opening POSTED: 10:02 am EDT May 17, 2008 UPDATED: 3:29 pm EDT May 17, 2008 MASHANTUCKET, Conn. -- Workers are scheduled to demonstrate on Saturday and Sunday in protest against the weekend opening of a new MGM Grand casino at Foxwoods. Attorney General Dick Blumenthal's office facilitated an agreement between the UAW, the Department of Transportation (DOT) and state police regarding the protests after DOT initially denied UAW's permit requests, according to a UAW statement. The rallies will be held from 12 p.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Sunday at Route 2 outside of Foxwoods. UAW members and labor and community allies are demonstrating because of management's refusal to bargain a union contract, according to a UAW statement. Working conditions have worsened since casino dealers voted to unionize in November 2007, workers said. "We're glad we could reach an agreement on this event that works for everyone," said Bob Madore, director of UAW Region 9A, in a statement. "We're going to be there, we protected our first amendment rights, and we are confident we will get our message out." ? Related Story: Conn. Casinos Expand As Economy Slows Some stars also will be in attendance for the grand opening, with Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta Jones, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Jenny McCarthy and Salt 'n Pepa among those slated to walk the red carpet. The red-carpet walk, which takes place at 240 MGM Grand Drive in Mashantucket, begins at 7 p.m. Saturday, followed by an evening of performances featuring John Mayer, Josh Groban and additional Grammy Award-winning artists. Sean "Diddy" Combs is slated to host the after party at Shrine Nightclub. http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20080528/NEWS/832087448/-1/rss02 Dozens of Denver teachers call in sick in apparent protest DENVER - Dozens of teachers in two Denver public schools called in sick Tuesday in an apparent protest over contract negotiations. Every teacher at Academia Ana Marie Sandoval called in sick, including the music teacher and a librarian, and 12 of the 30 teachers at McGlone Elementary were also absent, school officials said. Denver Public Schools Superintendent Michael Bennet said he was unaware of other schools having the same problem and that the district would investigate whether teachers were abusing their sick-day privileges. Denver Classroom Teachers Association President Kim Ursetta said the union is not encouraging teachers to call in sick. Disagreements over pay between teachers and Denver Public Schools stalled contract negotiations on May 16. Thursday is the last day of school for most DPS students. "I think everyone's time would be better spent making sure our kids finish the year well," Bennet said. Sandoval Elementary Principal Debra Lucero Kraft said she found substitute teachers for almost all of the 16 teachers who were absent but had to get an administrative assistant, the school psychologist and a literacy coach to pitch in for the rest. Kraft said she didn't know what the teachers were trying to accomplish. "But certainly I'm not sure if leaving your students without a teacher is a way to address contract negotiations," she said. McGlone Elementary Principal Ann Alley-Walker said she was able to find substitutes to cover all the school's classes. --- Information from: Rocky Mountain News, http://insidedenver.com/ http://www.cfnews13.com/News/Local/2008/5/22/teachers_plan_protest_in_wake_of_layoffs.html?refresh=1 Teachers Plan Protest Impending Layoffs Friday, May 23, 2008 12:09:29 AM VOLUSIA COUNTY -- Teachers said they feel deceived by district officials. Andrew Sparr, the teacher's union president, told News 13 teachers were first told there would be few layoffs, but said now all that has changed. The teachers are now planning a major protest next week, calling on three different unions and parents to demonstrate against school district officials. "We're now hearing the number could be as high as a hundred. A hundred teachers will get a pink slip," said Sparr. A spokesperson with the school district told News 13 the district had warned 500 positions would be eliminated. Those cuts include unfilled positions as well as teachers who planned to retire. The union said the district should let them know by June 9 what teachers will stay and which ones will go. http://www.cfnews13.com/News/Local/2008/5/27/volusia_teachers_protest_potential_school_closings_job_cuts.html?refresh=1 Volusia Teachers Protest Potential School Closings, Job Cuts Tuesday, May 27, 2008 1:29:22 AM Tools: E-mail | Print | Feedback | DELAND -- Teachers planned to against the way the county was handing massive budget cuts. The Volusia County School District said up to 500 positions could be eliminated, because of funding cuts from Tallahassee and declining enrollment. Several schools were already set to close this summer. The three unions representing school workers in the county said they would rally outside school board headquarters during the group's meeting Tuesday. The board was expected to decide on many of the planned cuts at the meeting, scheduled to start at 4:30 p.m. http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jun/04/business/fi-vegas4 Archive for Wednesday, June 04, 2008 Workers walk out to protest safety at Vegas Strip project June 04, 2008 LAS VEGAS - Construction workers picketed on the Las Vegas Strip today after walking off a massive casino construction project over safety concerns at the site where six workers have died since 2006. Dozens of workers at each corner of MGM Mirage Inc.'s CityCenter site chanted "No more deaths" and called for cars to honk their horns, while leaders of the Southern Nevada Building and Construction Trades Council negotiated with the project's general contractor, Perini Building Co. Work was halted as the various building trades honored the picket line at the $9.2 billion complex, which company officials have called the most expensive private commercial development in U.S. history. Talks broke down Monday night, and most of the workers left the 66-acre site at midnight, said Steve Ross, the council's secretary treasurer. "We've been moving in the right direction," Ross said Tuesday. "It's time to kick it up a notch." Union officials were seeking safety training for workers, an immediate inspection of the site and full access for safety and union officials. A Perini official in Las Vegas had no comment and referred questions to Doug Mure, the company's vice president of human resources and risk management at Perini's headquarters in Framingham, Mass. Mure did not immediately return a call seeking comment. A spokesman for MGM Mirage said the matter was between the workers and the contractor. "We fully support Perini, its subcontractors and unions all continuing their work together to encourage individual adherence to workplace safety practices," MGM Mirage spokesman Alan Feldman said. Ross and union consultant Steve Redlinger said a Tuesday afternoon meeting had been set with Perini to continue negotiations. Both said the sides seemed to agree on major principles, but not on enough details to end the strike. "There are no major sticking points," Ross said. The latest death came Saturday when a 39-year-old crane maintenance worker was crushed between the track of a construction crane and its counterweight system, authorities said. "A lot of people have died - too many," said Paul Jones, 47, an electrician walking the picket line near the construction offices at the back of the nearby New York-New York Hotel and Casino. "They need to tighten safety up," Jones said. CityCenter is expected to open in 2009 with a 4,000-room hotel-casino, condominiums, boutique hotels and a retail, dining and entertainment complex. Dubai World, the investment arm of the Persian Gulf state of Dubai, spent almost $5 billion to buy half ownership in CityCenter and acquire 9.4% of MGM Mirage. http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/2008/05/26/daily27.html?ana=from_rss Thursday, May 29, 2008 Boston skycaps protest American's no tip policy Dallas Business Journal American Airlines skycaps in Boston on Thursday launched a protest at Logan International Airport calling for the airline to reverse its ban on tips. Skycaps handed out leaflets at terminal entrances asking for public support in their efforts to get American and other airlines to change their policy of charging $2 per bag for curbside check-in and demanding an end to American's "no tip" policy. The skycaps claim they have lost tips because many passengers mistake the fee for a tip, or will not tip in addition to paying the charge. A federal judge in Boston is expected hold a hearing Thursday on the skycaps' request that the court order the "no tip" policy to be lifted. Earlier this month, American said it would no longer allow tips for skycaps at Logan Airport after a federal jury last month ordered the Fort Worth-based airline to pay $325,000 in back wages to nine Boston-based skycaps. The airline is appealing the verdict. Skycaps protesting Thursday charge that American installed its "no tip" policy in retaliation against the skycaps who won the suit. "In light of American Airlines' announcement last week that it will begin charging $15 for the first bag checked by every passenger, it does not make sense that American would insist on continuing to charge $2 in cash for every bag checked by a skycap," said Shannon Liss-Riordan, the lead attorney in the skycaps' lawsuit. "After skycaps in Boston sued the airline over this policy and won, you would think American would reconsider this charge that has devastated skycaps, who earn less than minimum wage," said Liss-Riordan. "While passengers may understand the airline's need to raise ticket prices in light of rising fuel costs, they do not understand why the airlines need to nickel and dime them with ridiculous charges that hurt hard working employees." American has said it decided to ban skycap tips at Logan Airport to comply with a Massachusetts tips law. The airline said G2 Services, the vendor that provides skycap and other services to American Airlines at Logan Airport, would give Boston skycaps immediate hourly wage increases. However, a Boston Globe newspaper report on Thursday said the skycaps have not yet received those raises. Groups representing the skycaps said they will continue to hand out leaflets next week and plan to expand the protest to other airports in the country. "We are appealing to travelers, as they are the ones ultimately hurt by the airlines' anti-worker policies," said Russ Davis, executive director of Jobs With Justice which is organizing support for the skycaps. "Customer services have languished while fees that only support airline greed skyrocket." Hurt by soaring jet fuel prices, American Airlines last week said it is trying to cut costs by charging $15 per checked bag, reducing its domestic flight schedule by about 12 percent, retiring aircraft and laying off thousands of workers. American is owned by AMR Corp. (NYSE: AMR) http://www.khon2.com/news/local/22212314.html Hawaii Carpenters Protest Developers By Olena Rubin Over 150 members of the carpenters union held a march through downtown Honolulu Friday, they say its all about getting paid what they are worth and what they think is fair. "You don't care, pay us fair," protestors said. Men and women who are members of the Hawaii Carpenters Union say jobs are becoming harder to find...they say Canadian based developer Ledcor U.S. Pacific Construction is cutting the standard rate of pay. "They taking our money, they taking our wages, they taking our future," a protestor said. "They are cutting corners not paying area standard wages to their workers," Hawaii Carpenters Union Lance Yoshimura said. Union members complain workers are being subcontracted at sites which include luxury downtown high-rise The Pinnacle and Cook Street and Kapiolani Boulevard development The Vanguard Lofts, they say they reduce workers pay. "How can a person adjust his lifestyle at one time making the standard wage and then one moment getting it cut by 30-40% it's a hard way to live," Yoshimura said. "We deserve to get paid for the work we do," Yoshimura said. Pacific Resource Management, which represents the Carpenters Union says Ledcor has been cited in the past for a number of issues. In February a piece of rebar fell 17 stories injuring two women...the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations cited Ledcor for 5 violations and fined the company more than $13,000. 10 months later an immigration bust at the same location, six illegal immigrants were removed from the job site. At another location in Mililani two incidences, a steel frame collapsed nearly injuring 6 workers...then another immigration bust in June 2008 where several people were arrested for not having proper identification. Officials from Ledcor say "the allegations are inaccurate and irresponsible.they strictly adhere to U.S. Immigration Law. The developer for The Vanguard Lofts say they hire based on who is most qualified for the job. Story Updated: Jun 27, 2008 at 5:35 PM HDT http://baltimore.bizjournals.com/baltimore/stories/2008/07/14/daily39.html?jst=b_ln_hl Thursday, July 17, 2008 Newspaper guild protests job cuts at Baltimore Sun Baltimore Business Journal - by Julekha Dash Staff More than 100 Baltimore Sun employees protested the newspaper's imminent job cuts Thursday in a move to rally support from the community. Members of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild set up 100 black chairs affixed with pink slips outside the paper's office at 501 N. Calvert St. Newspaper executives said last month that it will eliminate 100 positions, including 60 in the newsroom, through buyouts, layoffs and attrition. The cuts come on the heels of a reorganization by its parent company the Tribune Co., which went private last year after an $8.2 billion buyout led by Chicago real estate investor Sam Zell. The announcement is the latest round of cuts at the daily newspaper. Earlier this year, the Sun eliminated 45 positions through buyouts. Last year, the newspaper eliminated 41 jobs through buyouts and laid off three employees. "We know the managers were paying attention" at the protest, said Tanika White, co-chair of the Sun's Guild unit. "Some managers were wearing black in solidarity." But the bigger goal, White said, was to engage the community and make them aware of the ramification of 100 job losses at their local newspaper. "A lot of people were driving by, honking and waving," White said. The union still does not know how many employees have accepted the buyout and how many job losses will occur in the form of layoffs. White said morale is low in the newsroom. The Sun will debut a redesigned newspaper in August that is more concise, features more local news and more graphics. In April, the newspaper launched a free daily publication, called b, aimed at younger readers. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/fea/breakroom/stories/DN-protest_1214gl.ART.State.Edition1.377603d.html Dallas demonstration to support Writers Guild draws small group TV: Marchers in support of writers protest quietly 09:43 AM CST on Friday, December 14, 2007 By TOM MAURSTAD Media Critic tmaurstad at dallasnews.com What if you organized a picket line and (almost) no one came? The answer to that question was on display to pedestrians and drivers who passed by the Griffin Street sidewalk outside the KDFW-TV (Channel 4) station in downtown Dallas on Thursday afternoon. A small group of protesters stood in support of the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike, waving signs and, occasionally, yelling rally cries - "Bring your shows back." Also Online Video: Writers Guild members picketing in downtown Dallas "Dallas isn't Hollywood," says actress Lar Park Lincoln, gesturing at a scene that, but for a few signs and protesters, looked like any downtown street corner in the middle of an uneventful afternoon. This prompts a question: Why picket here and now, in front of this TV station on this day at this time? She thinks for a minute. "I really don't know. Our district rep told us the time and location, that's really all I know about it. They're picketing today in Austin, too. But they're out in front of the Paramount Theatre. That's a location that makes a little more sense, you know, symbolically." A few feet away from Ms. Lincoln stands a youthful-looking man. He looks too young to be a Hollywood writer, then again, what's too young in Hollywood? And he is holding a striker's sign. "That's Trevor, my son. He's 14. But I got him out of school and brought him down here because I want him to see how things work." Sure enough, his sign reads: "I was raised on union wages." The half-dozen who showed up Thursday afternoon to march for two hours, with their protest signs and T-shirts, formed less of a picket line than a picket squiggle. Passing cars didn't slow down, pedestrians walking by barely seemed to notice. But Ken Harrison, a guild member for 18 years, wasn't worried. "The strike hasn't really hit home yet," he says. "Once we get through the holidays and people's favorite shows start running out, then people will be paying attention." Meanwhile, back in Hollywood, union officials representing the striking writers said Thursday they have filed an unfair labor practices complaint claiming studios violated federal law by breaking off negotiations Dec. 7. http://www.14wfie.com/global/story.asp?s=8664099 Ellis Park opening marked by protestors Posted: July 12, 2008 03:25 AM Updated: July 16, 2008 08:14 PM By Brandon Bartlett Posted by Melissa Greathouse It's a week late, but Ellis park finally opened today. The first race of the season is always a big one -- often times drawing the largest crowds of the year. It's always a fun day for everyone involved, but one local group says it's a day they didn't want to see. If you've driven past Ellis park anytime since January, chances are you've seen them out there. They're not there to welcome you but hope instead to turn you away. "This is opening day and I'm not a part of it," said union Local 541 member Abe Holtz. He worked at Ellis Park for 40 years and was there today, "Tying to turn the business away," just as Holtz says track owner Ron Geary did to him and other Mutuel clerks. "Mr. Geary offered us a 40 percent cut in pay, removal of all benefits, an offer that was totally unacceptable to us," Holtz said. Holtz says his union wanted to extend the existing contract it had with Ellis park. In that contract Mutuel clerks, who were part-time season employees, were paid $16 an hour. Union members say the new contract Geary offered them called for a pay cut, only paying them $12 an hour. The union plans to continue its strike, mainly because Geary worked out a deal with the Horsemen's union so why not them? "We weren't asking for more money, nothing like that," said Union VP Brenda Lynn. "The horsemen asked for more money and they got it for some reason, he doesn't want a union." "This union that is out there is not even authorized, sanctioned, or approved by the National Labor Relations Board," said Ellis Park owner Ron Geary. "This is not a real union." Nevertheless Geary said he tried working with them. He confirmed the new contract called for a pay cut but says the amount offered is in line with other tracks in Kentucky. "They all made less than $3,000 and only nine of them made $11,000 and from my perspective, they're just upset they made some mistakes by walking out of their job and being replaced and now all they are trying to do is harm Ellis Park," Geary said. Geary said Friday he was worried about protesters getting inside and disrupting today's races but that didn't happen thanks to extra security on hand for opening day. http://www.cbs8.com/story.php?id=136117 DMV Workers Rally To Protest Executive Order Last Updated: 07-30-08 at 5:43PM More than 100 state Department of Motor Vehicles workers in San Diego County today protested threats by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to eliminate their jobs if legislators fail to reach a budget agreement. Schwarzenegger has threatened to cut 200,000 part-time, temporary and contract jobs, institute a hiring freeze and lower the salaries of other employees if a deal is not in place by Thursday, the start of the state's pay period. The budget is nearly a month late. Many of the affected workers are DMV employees. If they're not laid off, their pay will be reduced to the federal minimum wage of $6.55 per hour. "The prices of fuel are going up, food is going up, everything is going up," DMV employee Jeffrey Levy told KGTV. "I will struggle," a female DMV worker said. Brian Polejes, a union representative with the Service Employees International Union Local 1000, said DMV personnel picketed outside offices in Clairemont, Escondido, El Cajon, Chula Vista and Otay Mesa. DMV workers in other parts of the state protested as well, he said. "These workers can't afford to live on $6.55 an hour," Polejes said. While DMV employees might bear the brunt of the governor's executive order, workers at other agencies will also be impacted. Lisa Davis, a San Diego employee of the state Worker's Compensation carrier, said she's also slated for a reduction in her salary to the federal minimum wage. "It would really affect our livelihood," Davis said. California is faced with a $15.2 billion deficit in the current fiscal year, which began July 1. Democratic legislators want to close the gap with a combination of increasing revenue and cutting services, but Republicans don't want to raise taxes during uncertain economic conditions. Another protest is scheduled for Thursday at the State Building in downtown San Diego. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008079599_webbuscontract29m.html?syndication=rss July 29, 2008 - Page updated at 12:52 PM Picket protests pay cuts for Metro Access van drivers About 140 of King County Metro's Access van drivers will lose their jobs next week and are being rehired for less money, following a cost-cutting move by Metro. By Mike Lindblom Seattle Times transportation reporter About 140 King County Metro Access van drivers will lose their jobs next week and are being rehired for less money, following a cost-cutting move by Metro. About 25 people took part in a brief informational picket this morning. The protest, by members of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 587, took place at Metro headquarters near King Street Station. Metro had contracted with three providers to run the Access van service for elderly and disabled riders. This spring, Metro didn't renew its contract with the company that paid the highest salaries. MV Transportation lost a bidding competition and will cease operating Access vans after Saturday. The displaced MV Transportation drivers, who have been earning up to $19.90 an hour, will get $17.50 to $18 an hour, at the most, working for the other two providers, said Paul Neil, financial secretary for Local 587. MV Transportation's now-defunct union contract would have boosted wages above $23 about four years from now, the union says. Metro estimates it will save about $1 million a year under the new arrangement. Mike Lindblom: 206-515-5631 or mlindblom at seattletimes.com http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/stories/2008/07/24/dhl_ups_protest.html Pilots protest DHL cargo deal at UPS headquarters By RACHEL TOBIN RAMOS The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 07/24/08 About 50 pilots who fly for DHL showed up outside UPS' Sandy Springs headquarters this morning to protest a proposed air cargo deal between the two large shippers. One pilot, John Nolan, drove seven hours from Blue Ridge, Va., with his wife, Carrie, and children, 7-year-old Cameron and 7-month-old Jack. Rich Addicks/raddicks at ajc.com (ENLARGE) Outside UPS headquarters in Sandy Springs, pilots show their disapproval for a deal that would allow UPS to fly DHL cargo in North America. "I'm worried about my daddy's job," Cameron said. The pilots (and family) marched outside UPS' entrance, holding bright red placards that read: "UPS/DHL destroying 10,000 American jobs." Overhead, a yellow biplane flew a banner blasting the deal, and on the street, a billboard truck explained further: "UPS: delivering pink slips." The pilots, part of the Air Line Pilots Association union, are upset because the proposed deal will put them out of work. The pilots fly for ASTAR, which almost exclusively carriers cargo for DHL, the German post office owned carrier that in 2003 made an aggressive bid to compete with UPS and FedEx on their home turf by expanding its U.S. hub in Wilmington, Ohio. But five years later, DHL has cried uncle, saying its U.S. operations are losing money. To stave off further losses, the company has proposed allowing one of its main competitors, UPS, to fly its cargo into and throughout North America. For UPS, it would be a $1 billion annual contract. But for two DHL cargo contractors, ASTAR and ABX, about 1,150 pilots would lose their jobs, plus about 8,000 other Wilmington, Ohio, workers. In Ohio, a congressional delegation has persuaded the White House to appoint a representative to monitor the deal. Karl Zinsmeister, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, President Bush's chief domestic policy adviser, will keep on eye on the proposal, which could still be months away from completion. The ALPA pilots have claimed the deal could violate antitrust laws. UPS spokesman Norman Black, who was also outside of UPS headquarters this morning watching the protest, said, "Every lawyer for the two companies that has examined this has concluded there are no antitrust implications." UPS provided cold bottled water to the pilots, because, as Black said, he wasn't sure they'd be prepared for Georgia's hot summers. The day proved mild. "That was very nice of them," said Capt. Pat Walsh, who represents the ASTAR pilots in ALPA. "I hope they'll also save our jobs by walking away from this deal." http://www.kcra.com/politics/16974454/detail.html?rss=sac&psp=news State Workers Protest Plan To Cut Wages State Controller Opposes Governor's Plan POSTED: 6:01 am PDT July 24, 2008 UPDATED: 8:32 pm PDT July 24, 2008 SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- State workers protested Thursday at the state Capitol against a plan to roll back their wages, but the state's controller said he opposes the idea and will continue to pay them in full. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is threatening to defer wages for 200,000 state employees, paying them federal minimum wage until lawmakers reach a budget deal. A spokesman for State Controller John Chiang said Thursday that he will continue to pay workers their normal wages until the issue is resolved. "This is a cynical attempt by a governor who has spent the past few weeks going up and down the state criticizing others for political posturing," Chiang said in a statement. "Such an executive order is unnecessary and nothing more than a poorly devised strategy to put pressure on the Legislature to enact a budget." Chiang also said that "the constitutional and statutory authority require the controller to pay warrants." "So ultimately, I'm the decision maker and I'm going to pay state employees, dedicated public servants, their full wage," Chiang said. The plan has state workers upset with Schwarzenegger. "He's turning a budget process into a budget catastrophe," said Yvonne Walker, president of the Service Employees International Union. Walker called the plan "ill-advised." "It will throw us, you know, if we're not already in a recession, it'll throw us deeper into a recession," she said. "I have made it crystal clear that we have, and will continue to have, sufficient cash to make all payments, including state payroll, through September." - State Controller John Chiang A spokesman for the governor, Aaron McLear, said the idea is one of several options Schwarzenegger is considering as California faces a cash shortfall. "Everybody agrees that we're going to run out of cash very soon," McLear said. The governor is contemplating signing an executive order next week that would pay state workers the federal minimum of $6.55 an hour. That amount is $1.45 an hour less than California's minimum wage. This move, along with some other measures, would possibly save the state $500 million a month in the near term. But state workers said they would suffer. "I'm already really struggling, and it's all I can do to get by each month," one worker said. Some speculated that the plan may just be a bluff by the governor to get lawmakers to resolve the lingering budget battle. "That makes me even more angry, because the reality is, why would you have people going through this kind of panic if it's not something that's real?" Walker added. Dave Hart, president of the California State Employees Association, calls the order "blackmail." "We suggest instead that the state Legislature must come back to Sacramento, that the governor cease his barnstorming the state from one photo op to another, and work out a budget that combines reasonable economies, new revenues and structural change to make sure this sad cycle does not repeat itself," Hart said in a news release. Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata spoke at the protest, and said the governor "should not have done this unless he was intending to do something with it." But the governor's staff said the plan is not a ploy, adding that the state faces a very real money crunch. The order would also put a hiring freeze in place for state government, ban non-essential overtime and lay off about 22,000 temporary state workers. The State Employment Development Department said that in Sacramento, Placer and El Dorado counties alone, 122,500 people have state jobs, 84,300 are in state government and the other 38,200 are in state government education. Statewide, there are 502,600 people in state government jobs. However, workers in government education are exempt from the proposed action, the department said. If the order is signed, changes would go into effect on Aug. 1. http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080815/BUSINESS01/808150322/1002/RSS02 St. Louis workers protest closure BY TIM HIGGINS . FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER . August 15, 2008 More than 450 UAW members from St. Louis protested outside Chrysler LLC's Auburn Hills headquarters Thursday morning, unhappy with the automaker's decision to shut down the minivan plant in that community. "I am not just going to stand idle," said UAW Local 110 President Joe Shields. "We're an American car company but they're taking all of our work outside the company." Local 110 represents workers at the St. Louis minivan plant. Jeff Hagler, president of UAW Local 412, encouraged his Detroit-area members to help support the protest. "Local 110 is having some of the same problems that many" of "us are having," Hagler wrote in an e-mail obtained by the Free Press. "Chrysler is outsourcing our work to many other countries including some of it going" to "third-world nations at the expense of our children's and grandchildren's futures. We must send a strong message that enough is enough. We at Local 412 have made it perfectly clear to the company that we know that we can be a world-class workforce at a competitive cost." Mary Beth Halprin, a Chrysler spokeswoman, said the company worked with UAW organizers to ensure a safe demonstration. "We understand their disappointment and concerns over the difficult decision to idle the St. Louis South Assembly Plant and reduce a shift at the St. Louis North Assembly Plant," Halprin said in an e-mail. http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/foreign/display.var.2426958.0.Messing_with_the_Mouse_Disney_hotel_workers_protest_conditions.php Messing with the Mouse: Disney hotel workers protest conditions Cinderella, Snow White, Tinkerbell and other fictional fixtures of modern-day childhood were handcuffed, frisked and loaded into police vans at the culmination of an industrial protest that brought a touch of reality to the Happiest Place on Earth. The arrest of the 32 protesters, many of whom wore costumes representing famous Disney characters, came at the end of an hour-long march to the gates of Disneyland in California from one of three Disney-owned hotels at the centre of a labour dispute. Those who were arrested sat in a circle on a busy junction outside the park holding hands until they were placed in plastic handcuffs and led to two police vans while hundreds of hotel workers cheered and chanted. advertisement The protesters were arrested on a charge of failing to obey a police officer and two traffic infractions, and were expected to be booked and released later, said Sergeant Rick Martinez of the Anaheim police. Bewildered tourists in Disney T-shirts and caps filed past the commotion and gawked at the costumed pickets as they were hauled away. The protest shut down a main thoroughfare outside Disneyland and California Adventure for nearly an hour. "It's changing my opinion of Disneyland," said tourist Amanda Kosato, who was visiting from north of Melbourne, Australia. "Taking away entitlements stinks." The dispute involves about 2300 maids, bell boys, cooks and dishwashers at three Disney-owned hotels: the Paradise Pier, the Grand Californian and the Disneyland Hotel. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Thu Aug 28 15:58:40 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2008 23:58:40 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Health protests, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <005901c90961$9e23e500$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * IRELAND: Protest over waiting lists at Waterford hospital * US: Louisville protest for healthcare * AUSTRALIA: Rural doctors protest changes * AUSTRIA: Doctors strike over "reform" * IRELAND: 4000 rally against Sligo cancer care withdrawal * US: North Carolina "mental health" workers protest unsafe conditions * INDIA: Protests over health policies, drug taxes, shortages * INDIA: Protest of privatisation of cleaning at medical college * US: Protest over closure of therapeutic pool * US: Nursing home cuts opposed * AUSTRALIA: Workers wear black in "mental health" protest; "demand exceeds supply" * CZECH REPUBLIC: Protests against health "reform" * INDIA: Protest after deaths * PHILIPPINES: Village protests loss of health centre, market * SCOTLAND: Protest saves hospital bus service * UK: Massive petition opposes "supersurgeries" * IRELAND: Health workers protest cutbacks * UGANDA: MP camps at hospital to highlight poor conditions * ZAMBIA: Pregnant women protest withdrawal of night sevices * US, Florida: McCain fundraiser targeted over healthcare * INDIA: Snakebite death, lack of antivenom protested * UK: Stafford vigil for NHS * INDIA: Death sparks protest at railway hospital * CANADA: Protest against closure of emergency room * INDIA: Protests for vaccine production * INDIA: Relatives protest at hospital * AUSTRALIA: Protest over health reform * AUSTRALIA: Paramedics give free rides in protest * US, California: Asian-Americans protest for medical benefits * BULGARIA: Doctors plan nationwide protests * AUSTRALIA: Paramedics protest at NSW parliament * AUSTRALIA: Children, MP protest for smoking restrictions * INDIA: Paramedics in protest fast for regularisation * UGANDA: HIV/AIDS survivors protest murder * US: New Mexico protest for pain therapy * INDIA: Government doctors protest * US, Boston: Nurses protest low pay, staffing http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0512/waterford.html Protest over wait lists at Waterford hospital Monday, 12 May 2008 16:27 Protestors gathered outside the gates of Waterford Regional Hospital this morning. The peaceful protest was being held in frustration at long waiting lists at the hospital. The father of an 11-year-old girl, who was among the protestors, says his daughter has already been waiting two-and-a-half years to get her tonsils removed. The girl is currently in hospital receiving treatment for severe tonsillitis, which could be relieved if her tonsils were removed. She has asked Health Minister Mary Harney to come to her bedside and explain to her why she must wait another possible two to three years to have her operation. http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080620/NEWS01/806200442/1008/rss01 Louisville protest calls for single-payer health-care system Say government gives insurance companies too much power on care By J.D. Williams . jdwilliams at courier-journal.com . June 20, 2008 With the assistance of crutches, Steve Skvari walked with demonstrators gathered on Main Street across from Humana's corporate headquarters. An auto accident left the 61-year-old with a compound fracture in one of his knees and reliant on the crutches. While he has health insurance, he said his wife does not. Skvari joined more than 50 demonstrators who want health insurance to be available for all Americans regardless of economic status or employment. Skvari said the American people are at fault for letting the government fail to provide health coverage to all citizens and instead give health insurance corporations too much power in deciding who gets health care. The gathering was part of National Day of Protest Against Health Insurance Corporations, an event sponsored by a collaboration of groups that support a national health insurance program. The demonstration was timed to coincide with America's Health Insurance Plans' national convention in San Francisco. The group is a "national association representing nearly 1,300 insurance companies," the group's Web site said. Demonstrations like the one in Louisville were planned in more than a dozen cities, including New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh, according to a press release from Physicians for a National Health Program, one of the group's backing the events. In Louisville, demonstrators used signs and their voices to express support for a single-payer health-care system. "It's a desperate need because people are hurting so badly," said Dr. Garrett Adams, the Kentucky coordinator for Physicians for a National Heath Program who was at the demonstration. Adams said that more than 20,000 Americans die every year "because they can't afford to get to a doctor." "It's a crying shame," Adams said. Tom Noland, a spokesman for Humana, said the company also believes that all Americans should have affordable and quality health insurance. "That appears to be the position taken by protesters," he said. Humana, however, does not support a single-payer health-care system. Noland said that "Americans should have choices rather than a one-size-fits-all government system." http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/18/2278852.htm Country doctors protest in Adelaide Posted Wed Jun 18, 2008 4:49pm AEST Updated Wed Jun 18, 2008 7:13pm AEST Several hundred rural doctors and community members have protested against proposed changes to the rural health system. (ABC News: Angela Cordon) Map: Adelaide 5000 Related Story: PM's intervention urged in country health plan The Rural Doctors Association claims ambulance services will be overwhelmed with patients if the South Australian country health system is restructured. Several hundred doctors and community members protested against the proposed changes outside Parliament House today. The State Government wants to centralise health services to four major regional centres - Whyalla, Berri, Port Lincoln and Mount Gambier. But the Association's vice president, Dr Peter Rischbieth, says the plan lacks clinical standards. "If we lose our hospitals they are downgraded, we lose our procedural services, other doctors, nurses and other health professionals will leave our communities and in the end the patients in the communities will be the ones who will suffer," he said. "So please everybody this is about communities and health care and health outcomes, we must stop this plan immediately." http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/16/europe/EU-GEN-Austria-Doctors-Strike.php Austrian doctors on strike to protest healthcare reform The Associated Press Published: June 16, 2008 VIENNA, Austria: Austrian doctors are staging a one-day strike to protest the government's attempts to overhaul the health care system. Organizers say some 15,000 doctors' offices are staying closed during Monday's walkout. But they say that patients requiring emergency care will not be jeopardized. Physicians are trying to pressure lawmakers to abandon a plan to restructure the state-run health insurance system. They say the reforms would result in more bureaucratic hurdles and put pressure on hospitals. Doctors also say the reforms would cut their contracts with the national system to five years at a time and disregard the notion that everyone, regardless of age or economic status, should have access to the best possible medical care. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/26/europe/EU-GEN-Austria-Doctors-Strike.php Austrian doctors resume strike to protest health care reform The Associated Press Published: June 26, 2008 VIENNA, Austria: Doctors are on a two-day strike across Austria to protest government plans to overhaul the health care system. Organizers say about 15,000 doctors' offices will stay closed Thursday and Friday, though some physicians will treat patients needing emergency care. Dentists are not participating in the strike. Physicians want lawmakers to abandon a plan to restructure the state-run health insurance system. They say the reforms would result in more bureaucratic hurdles and pressure on hospitals that could jeopardize the notion that everyone regardless of income is entitled to the best possible medical care. Doctors first went on strike June 16. http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0426/health.html 4,000 in Sligo cancer care protest Saturday, 26 April 2008 About 4,000 people have attended a protest march and rally in Sligo calling for the retention and improvement of cancer services at Sligo General Hospital. The organisers say they are buoyed by the turnout and now intend to intensify the campaign. People marched from Sligo Institute of Technology to O'Connell Street for the rally and concert with leading artists including Dervish lending their support. Advertisement The aim of the march is to send a message to Government that people in the northwest will not stand for the removal of cancer services already in existence in Sligo General. Protestors are complaining that under the National Cancer Strategy there will be no centre of excellence for cancer care north of a line from Galway to Dublin. This means that very ill people will be forced to travel lengthy journeys to Dublin or Galway for their treatment, organisers say. The move would have a major impact on people in Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim and Roscommon, they add. http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1049851.html Mental health workers hold protest By David Bracken, Staff WriterComment on this story RALEIGH - About 20 state mental health workers picketed at the entrance to Dorothea Dix Hospital today, saying they face unsafe conditions in North Carolina's psychiatric hospitals. The workers demanded increased staffing and pay, and they said they would not be scapegoated for the problems caused by the state's attempt to reform its mental-health system. In the seven years since the state decided to reform the system, "things haven't gotten better," said Larsene Taylor, 58, a health technician at Cherry Hospital in Goldsboro. "Injuries have increased among employees and patients. We're not going to take the blame for it." Taylor said employees are required to work overtime to make up for the lack of staffing, which is hurting morale and causing experienced people to leave. Workers also complained of the uncertainty created by the state's plan to close Dix. Dix's closing has been delayed several times. "They can't keep peoples lives on hold," said Steve Hardison, 44, a health technician at Dix. Today's event was organized by the N.C. Public Service Workers Union, which represents more than 500 employees at the state's psychiatric hospitals. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/25/stories/2008042553220300.htm Medical representatives protest against Centre's policies Staff Correspondent Seeking a better deal: Medical representatives, under the aegis of the Karnataka State Medical and Sales Representatives' Association, staging a protest in Hubli on Thursday. HUBLI: Members of the Karnataka State Medical and Sales Representatives' Association and the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) staged a demonstration here on Thursday to protest against what they termed as "unfair" policies of the Union Government. The demonstration was held in response to the nationwide protest call given by the Federation of Medical and Sales Representatives' Association to press for its demands. Later, the protesters took out a rally to highlight their demands. They demanded to the Government to cut the excise duty on essential drugs, and stop proliferation of spurious drugs and unfair trade and marketing practices. They criticised the Government for not taking steps to check the spiralling prices of medicines. They also demanded framing of stringent laws to punish companies manufacturing spurious drugs and those involved in unfair trading of medicines. The medical and sales representatives also demanded framing of rules restricting their working hours to eight hours a day. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/25/stories/2008042551030300.htm Medical reps hold protest rally Special Correspondent Nationwide agitation for comprehensive drug policy Tax rate of 16 per cent imposed on life-saving drugs Some States given exemption from tax including income tax KURNOOL: Medical representatives led by Medical and Sales Representatives Union took out a rally here on Thursday as part of the nationwide strike for comprehensive drug policy. Addressing the meeting, the union leaders said the UPA government promised to ensure proper supply of essential drugs in the common minimum programme but nothing had happened. The government had imposed a tax rate of 16 per cent on life-saving drugs. Now, the tax was calculated against the maximum retail price (MRP) instead of the previous system of production cost. As a result, whenever the MRP was revised the tax rate had also gone up. They said some of the States were given exemption from tax including income tax. The drug companies from the low-cost States were dumping their products in other places causing serious problem to the companies, which complied with the tax rates. Above all, the government and the agencies had failed to contain marketing of spurious drugs. Apart from the issues concerning the common man, the sales representatives also faced serious trouble as sales promotion was not considered an industry. No work schedule was fixed for the sales staff. The demands of the union include lifting of excise duty on life-saving drugs, reduction in excise duty to four per cent on other drugs, review of concession to certain States, tax calculation on production cost, steps to check spurious drugs and action against the companies which influenced doctors to improve sales. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/22/stories/2008052251370300.htm All-India Youth Federation plans protest tomorrow Correspondent 'UPA Government has not honoured any of its promises' VIZIANAGARAM: The All-India Youth Federation (AIYF) will stage protests in all district headquarters and municipal corporations against the policies of the UPA Government on May 23. At a press conference on Wednesday, federation's State general secretary G. Eswaraiah said that the protests were planned on the day when the UPA Government would be completing four years in office. The government did not honour any of the promises it made during its four-year rule, he said, and asked the youth to sport black badges on that day. Mr. Eswaraiah said that the AIYF would also be conducting round-table and group meetings next month as part of the federation's golden jubilee celebrations and also stage protests at all the Drug Control Offices in districts against its failure to control sale of spurious drugs in the market. In accordance with the findings of World Health Organisation, the sale of bogus drugs was to the tune of Rs.400 crores in the State and Rs. 38,000 crores across the nation, he said. AISF district general-secretary B. Ashok was present. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/25/stories/2008042553370300.htm KSMSRA stages protest Staff Correspondent Centre urged to withdraw excise duty on medicines Raising slogans: Members of the Karnataka State Medical and Sales Representatives' Association staging a protest in Mysore on Thursday. MYSORE: Members of the Karnataka State Medical and Sales Representatives' Association (KSMSRA) staged a protest here on Thursday in response to a call given by the Federation of Medical and Sales Representatives' Association of India (FMRAI) for a nation-wide agitation in support of their demands. The members took out a procession and submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner. In a statement issued here, the association said that more than 65 per cent of the people of the country were deprived of modern medicines. "Prices of medicines are rising due to faulty policy of the Union Government," it alleged. It said that many medicines were beyond the reach of the common man. Medicines had been kept on the higher slab of 16 per cent excise duty. Not only this, excise duty fixation had been changed by the Government from cost-based to MRP-based in 2005. Because of this, minimum excise duty on essential medicines had touched 19.2 per cent as proportion of excise duty went up with the increase of MRP, the association said. The association urged the Centre to withdraw the excise duty on essential medicines and cut excise duty to four per cent on other medicines. It also urged the Government to review the excise duty policy and income tax exemption on medicines in some States. The statement said that the other demands of the association included steps to check fake drugs and law to punish manufacturers and sellers of fake drugs. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/23/stories/2008042353320300.htm Protest against privatisation BERHAMPUR: The MKCG Medical College unit of the Orissa Medical Workers' Union (OMWU) protested against the process of privatisation of cleaning of the medical college on Tuesday. They submitted a memorandum with a charter of 11 demands to the Revenue Divisional Commissioner (RDC), southern division. The secretary of the union, Sukanta Mukhi, said the privatisation process would mar the livelihood of sanitary workers employed in the medical college till now. http://www.theolympian.com/breakingnews/story/440158.html 50 people, many disabled, eldery, protest closing of therapeutic pool By KERI BRENNER | . Published May 06, 2008 Comments (10) OLYMPIA - Thurston County will decide in two weeks whether to grant a permit that would lead to the Discover Aquatics indoor saltwater swimming pool being turned into a medical office building. More than 50 residents protested the move today at a public hearing. The residents, many of them disbled or elderly, said they depend on the facility for their only exercise because of its warmer 88-degree temperature and lack of chlorine. County hearing examiner Jim Driscoll said the lease contract for the pool, at 110 Delphi Road N.W., was a private matter between tenants Discover Aquatics, operated by Holly and Brian Nichols, and building owners Dr. Eric and Jeanette Klein. Driscoll said he could only rule on whether the special-use permit met county zoning code guidelines -- not whether the pool could continue to operate. The Kleins intend to convert the 8,000-square-foot building into three medical offices. They said they tried to find a way to save the pool and still have the operation be financially feasible but could not find a partner interested in the project. http://www.projo.com/news/content/nursing_home_protest_04-30-08_SR9V32H_v29.3733185.html Nursing home cuts decried 01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 By Jennifer D. Jordan Journal Staff Writer Sisters Barbara, left, and Elaine Cenci, of Providence, attend a rally in the State House to voice opposition to proposed budget cuts to nursing home care. At right is Fred Cafaro, of Providence, a volunteer at Elmhurst Extended Care. The Providence Journal / Connie Grosch PROVIDENCE - Ninety-four-year-old Marie Baton trekked to the State House yesterday afternoon, possibly the oldest of several hundred advocates for the elderly who rallied to protest proposed cuts to nursing homes. "I think we need more money, not less," Baton said as she stood on the rotunda steps clutching a blue and white sign that said, "Save our seniors! No cuts to nursing home care!" She was one of just two of the 112 residents at the South Kingstown Nursing and Rehabilitation Center who was up to making the trip, said nursing home administrator Clarissa B. Reynolds. "The proposed cuts, for us, would be devastating," Reynolds said. "I would have to cut $70,000 from my facility and we would have to cut back on the hours of nursing care we provide. The quality of care would go down." In an effort to bridge a projected $385-million deficit for the coming fiscal year, Republican Governor Carcieri has proposed a series of cuts across virtually all areas of state government. Nursing home advocates say that two areas targeted for reduction in their budget are untenable and would result in the loss of matching federal money: delaying payment of an annual inflationary increase and reducing the labor reimbursement that nursing homes receive. The proposed cuts are now in the hands of the Democratic-led state legislature, which must hash out its own spending plan. "What these cuts mean is that nursing home residents will have to wait a little longer for help," said Virginia M. Burke, president of the Rhode Island Health Care Association, as hundreds of protesters assembled on the steps of the rotunda and filled the second-floor balcony. "These cuts will have a real human impact." Approximately 9,000 Rhode Islanders live in nursing homes. Under the governor's spending plan, the state would save $1.9 million of state money by delaying the inflation increase. Nursing home advocates point out that by doing so, the nursing homes would lose an additional $2.1 million in matching Medicaid funds - a net decrease of $4 million. And since the inflationary increase comes one to two years after nursing homes have already paid their bills, the nursing homes are not being reimbursed for money they have already spent, Burke said.Last year, a similar delay cost Rhode Island nursing homes $7 million, "in money they've already spent and will never get back," Burke said. The other proposed cut would save the state $2.4 million by lowering the amount that nursing homes are reimbursed for labor costs. Advocates say the nursing homes would lose an equal amount in matching federal money. One local nursing home would have to lay off 12 percent of its staff in order to break even after the cuts, said Richard Gamache, administrator of the Elmhurst Extended Care Facility. "When elders call the bell for help, who will be there? Who will help them get to a bathroom or help with meals or soiled sheets," Gamache asked the cheering crowd. "Is that acceptable to you? These cuts are not only unacceptable - they are insane." Earlier in the day, the issue of nursing home spending came up during the Revenue Estimating Conference at the State House. The news on state savings was mixed. Budget writers had anticipated a larger dip in the number of people receiving cash aid from the state's Family Independence Program. While banking on a 13.5-percent drop in the program's caseload, legislators only got an 8.8-percent decline and spending is running $2.3 million over the $53.6 million for the program in the current-year budget, a shortfall not addressed in the deficit-closing bill passed by the House last week. However, the state Department of Human Services projects $23.9 million in Medicaid savings - assuming the state takes controversial cost-savings steps, including one that helped ignite yesterday's protest rally. That move would reduce nursing home reimbursements for labor from 125 percent to 110 percent of the statewide median cost. Other savings are attributable to a drop in RIte Care enrollments. Department of Human Services expected a drop-off in the state subsidized health-insurance program for families after the state last year required proof of identity and documentation of citizenship. DHS Deputy Director John Young said 5,000 applications were denied for lack of documentation, but that only partially explains the drop-off. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/05/19/2248539.htm Workers don black in mental health protest Posted Mon May 19, 2008 9:29am AEST Map: Wollongong 2500 Illawarra Mental Health service workers will this week highlight problems in the local system by wearing black all week. Illawarra Mental Health workers are taking the action in support the region's chief psychiatrist, Associate Professor Dr Irwin Pakula, who resigned in protest earlier this month. The New South Wales Nurses Association assistant secretary, Judith Keijda, says heavy demand on the system is making it difficult to provide good care for patients. "The demand for services is far outweighing the ability to provide those services and those in control of delivering those services have to pull their heads out of the sand, work out what the issues are [and] put systems in place to ensure patients are getting good quality care for their mental illnesses," she said. http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/news/index_view.php?id=313070 European doctors support protests against Czech health reform Prague- The European Federation of Salaried Doctors (FEMS) today supported the protest of Czech doctors and nurses against the planned reform of the Czech health care system, FEMS head Claude Wetzel told journalists in Prague. FEMS has over one million members. Its representatives unanimously agreed with the criticism of the Czech reform plans. Czech Health Minister Tomas Julinek challenged FEMS's competence to assess the reform. "They are union activists...If they received false information from Czech union leaders, they of course warn about something that is not threatening," Julinek told CTK in reaction. Wetzel said FEMS was seriously concerned about the planned privatisation in Czech health care and feared that the quality of health care services would worsen. FEMS considers the planned health reform of the Czech government an untested experiment that goes against the European tradition of health care provided on the basis of solidarity. Wetzel warned about the sale of health insurance companies and teaching hospitals, saying the project was unprecedented in Europe. He pointed out that health care cannot be controlled only by market mechanisms as it is considered a service performed in public interest. Wetzel, who is French, recalled that the World Health Organisation (WHO) named France as the country with the best health care system. France developed such a system also by removing the competition between the public and private sectors and by keeping the responsibility for health care provision with the state, he said. As far as health care was concerned, FEMS trusted organisations of patients and health care personnel rather than politicians. Marian Kollar from the Slovak Unions Club warned the Czech Republic not to take the path of Slovakia that had big problems though it implemented only a part of the planned health care reform of the former right-wing government, including the privatisation of health insurance companies. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/21/stories/2008052162060300.htm Death of woman, baby sparks protest Staff Reporter BANGALORE: Tension prevailed for a while in a Bhruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) hospital near Bhashyam Circle following a death of a 20-year-old woman and a new born child. According to police, Sangeeta (20), a resident of Gangondanahalli, got admitted to the hospital two days ago and delivered a baby girl on Tuesday. Both mother and the child died later. The relatives of Sangeeta got angry over the attitude of the hospital staff and destroyed some furniture. They sat on protest demanding action against some of the hospital staff. Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Harishekaran went to hospital and called the jurisdictional BBMP Joint Commissioner. The BBMP Joint Commissioner promised to action and urged Ms. Sangeeta's relatives to end their protest. The BBMP has initiated a disciplinary inquiry against the hospital staff. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/metro/view/20080603-140466/Intramuros-villages-protest-loss-of-market-health-center Intramuros villages protest loss of market, health center Harper: Protesters being 'used' by debtor By Izah Morales, Katherine Evangelista INQUIRER.net First Posted 12:52:00 06/03/2008 MANILA, Philippines -- (UPDATE) Residents and officials of five barangay (villages) in Intramuros, Manila staged a picket against Intramuros administrator Anna Maria "Bambi" Harper, who they blame for the loss of their market and health center. Reporters on their way to interview Harper on preparations for Independence Day chanced on the protest by some 100 persons outside the office of the Intramuros Administration. According to chairman June Yacob of Barangay 655, Zone 69, District 5, Harper, who is also a columnist of the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net), allegedly ordered the demolition of the Intramuros Talipapa (wet market) and the transfer of the Intramuros Health Center (IHC) to Baseco without the consent of barangay captains in the area. But Harper belied Yacob's claim, saying she scheduled two meetings but the chairman was unavailable on both occasions. Harper added that the wet market that was demolished was situated in the middle of the road and was obstructing the traffic in the area. The IHC, on the other hand, was transferred because it was located in a flood-prone area, Harper said. She added that the IHC would serve more people now that it is in Baseco since the area has a bigger population. Harper said she suspects the residents are being used by a person the Intramuros Administration is suing for unpaid debts of P12 to the government. However, Harper refused to disclose the person's identity. She added that the Intramuros Businessmen Association and Intramuros Residents' Association are planning to file a request for the removal of illegal settlers in private properties within the historic quarter. "It [Intramuros] does not belong to me and neither does it belong to them," Harper said. "It belongs to the Filipino people." http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/39Vital39-hospital-bus-service-is.4139291.jp 'Vital' hospital bus service is saved in U-turn after protest Published Date: 31 May 2008 By ALAN RODEN A BUS service to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary has been saved from the axe after 2000 residents backed a local campaign. The Lothian Buses number 18 Sunday service was described as a "vital link" for residents in south Edinburgh who need to travel to the hospital or the Gyle shopping centre. The U-turn by the Lib Dem/SNP administration, which had planned to withdraw the council's subsidy, means buses will run for at least another six months - at a cost of around ?12,000 - while alternative ways to safeguard their long-term future are examined. At the same time, city councillors have voted to secure the number 13 service in north Edinburgh until at least next March. Earlier this year it was decided to stop serving Blackhall outside peak hours, which also sparked protests. The local community council said elderly people would struggle to get to the shops, library or chemist. The future of both bus services has repeatedly been put at risk in recent years, as they are not profitable for Lothian Buses. The number 18 service was saved at this week's full council meeting, following a plea from Colinton and Fairmilehead Tory councillor Jason Rust, who helped gather 2000 signatures for a petition. He said today: "This is a victory for common sense and great news for my constituents. The 18 bus Sunday service is a vital, socially necessary service of real importance to the people of south Edinburgh." The Sunday service ceased last weekend but Lothian Buses will now write to the Traffic Commissioner and ask to reinstate it. Local campaigner Irene Paterson, 66, neighbourhood watch co-ordinator for Hunter's Tryst, said: "I'm delighted that the bus company have agreed to return the service." Campaigners also welcomed the vote on the number 13 service, which followed a motion by Inverleith Labour councillor Lesley Hinds. Lothian Buses originally said the service cost ?8.20 subsidy per passenger, but passenger numbers have recently more than doubled. The new annual subsidy will be ?49,130. Blackhall Community Association chairwoman Tina Woolnough said: "Research has shown the community relies on this bus service and I hope we can build on the passenger numbers." City transport leader Phil Wheeler said: "I agreed to reinstate the subsidy for six months. But I must stress that if patronage does not increase it is unlikely the subsidy will continue." http://itn.co.uk/news/556b9a177c4084f588a8c9d12e05e44e.html Supersurgery protest goes to No 10 Updated 13.58 Thu Jun 12 2008 Keywords: bma, polyclinics, supersurgery More than a million patients have signed a petition against so-called supersurgeries. Representatives from the British Medical Association are handing it in to Downing Street later. "People want to be treated as patients, not customers" - Dr Laurence Buckman The BMA is angry at proposals to introduce one-stop polyclinics which they claim could mark the end of local GP clinics as we know them. But Health Minister Ben Bradshaw accused it of "misleading and mendacious" behaviour in amassing 1.2 million signatories on its petition. The doctors' body rejected the claims and challenged the Government to forward any instances of inaccuracies or pressure on patients to support its campaign. According to the BMA, GP practices will close as new "supersurgeries", housing GPs and other services such as blood tests and X-rays, are created. Its petition also calls on ministers to stop encouraging use of private firms to deliver primary care - something the BMA calls "creeping commercialisation". Dr Laurence Buckman, chairman of the BMA's GPs Committee, will hand the petition in to Downing Street after making a speech to the BMA's Local Medical Committee (LMC) conference. He is expected to tell delegates: "We will deliver a stark message to the Prime Minister. "If the Government won't listen to you, their doctors, then surely it will listen to the 1.2 million men and women who call for a halt to the plans to promote the use of commercial companies in general practice. "Voters don't want funding to move from GP practices to commercial companies who are accountable primarily to shareholders rather than patients. They want to be treated as patients, not customers. "My message to Gordon Brown is this: 'Whatever you think of GPs, take note of what your electorate thinks. Work with us to improve the service, not against us, and ignore at your peril the wishes of the most important people in the NHS - the patients'." http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/mhgbojgbcwau/rss2/ 30,000 health workers protest over HSE cutbacks 11/06/2008 - 16:10:17 Almost 30,000 health workers staged lunchtime protests around the country today over HSE cutbacks. Since last month IMPACT members have been working to rule to highlight the effect staffing shortages are having on the health service. The protests come as IMPACT officials warn of further serious cuts over the coming months including the loss of a hundred posts in the Dublin and Mid Leinster region and a region-wide overtime ban. http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0611/health.html?rss Lunchtime protests by health workers Wednesday, 11 June 2008 22:25 Health service workers belonging to the IMPACT trade union held lunchtime protests at 28 venues nationwide. 28,000 workers staged lunchtime protests today to highlight their dispute over staffing levels, which the IMPACT trade union claims is affecting patient services. The staff, including therapists, managerial and administrative grades, claim that a recruitment embargo by the HSE has left 2,700 jobs unfilled and is affecting patient services. Advertisement The HSE has said there is no embargo on recruitment in the health service. It has invited IMPACT to talks on Monday in a bid to resolve the dispute. The HSE has also warned staff that they could face disciplinary measures if the protests escalate. Since last month, 28,000 IMPACT members in the health service have been working to rule over staffing levels. They have refused to co-operate with management systems, but insist they are avoiding any effect on patient care. Last Monday, they escalated their non-cooperation to include reporting procedures. Today, they began protests at 12.30pm at 28 venues nationwide. IMPACT insisted that the protests, which ran until 2pm, would not compromise patient care. However, last Friday the HSE wrote to individual staff warning them that if their work to rule worsens, they could face disciplinary measures - including suspension. IMPACT retaliated by warning that any attempt by the HSE to penalise its members for obeying union instructions would result in an immediate response without further warning. So far no such disciplinary action has been taken. It is understood that if the protest starts to affect the core duties of staff, that could change. http://allafrica.com/stories/200806110805.html Uganda: Lyomoki Camps At Hospital to Protests Poor Conditions The Monitor (Kampala) 11 June 2008 Posted to the web 11 June 2008 David Mafabi Mbale Workers MP Sam Lyomoki on Tuesday defied orders by Mbale Hospital administration and camped at the hospital throughout the night protesting what he calls deteriorating health conditions in the country. Dr Lyomoki, who slept at the hospital's Masaba Wing on Tuesday, is expected to leave the hospital today after sleeping in different wards. The hospital principle administrator, Mr Henry Lwigale, while meeting Dr Lyomoki asked him not to camp at the hospital, saying it was not the right way of solving the problems surrounding the health sector. "True the health situation is bad but the approach is not good. The hospital authorities are not aware of your presence and we cannot allow you to camp here to inconvenience the patients," Mr Lwigale told the minister. Efforts by the Mbale RDC, Mr Lubowa and the Diso, Mr Bigabwa Kasaija, to have Dr Lyomoki leave the hospital fell on deaf ears. "We are advising you to keep out of this hospital for security reasons. I have enough personnel to drag you out of here. I have only allowed you to be in the hospital up to 9pm. After that, I will forcefully carry you out," Mr Kasaija said. A determined Dr Lyomoki insisted he would stay at the hospital and talk to the patients as well as study how patients are attended to after 2am. "I am ready to stay here without security and if your problem is my sleeping here, then I am going to work the whole night, this is a public place and I am a legislator," Dr Lyomoki said. Intervention by the District Police Commander, Mr Abbey Kisubi, did not yield much. "We have given up. Let him stay but he will be monitored throughout the night," a statement issued by the security bosses said. "If the hospital administration thinks there is nothing bad taking place here, they should allow me to stay, talk to the patients and monitor the work of the medical staff," said Dr Lyomoki. Dr Lyomoki said he intended to mobilize patients and health workers against the poor conditions and cause reform. He said although there are many problems affecting the health sector, the government has merely window staged the service provision to impress donors but that on the real ground people are dying of preventable disease like flu and cough. He criticised the government for using social indicators like infant mortality rates and life expectancy for political propaganda instead of tackling the problems affecting the entire health sector in the country. He revealed that although the problems of the health system like inadequate medical staff, medicine, poor remuneration for health workers, poor funding from the central government and poor communication have been analysed and remedies recommended, the government has done nothing to change the situation. Dr Lyomoki while touring the hospital said non performance by health workers was escalating the death rate. He said from Mbale, he would camp in Bududa, Tororo, Bugiri, Soroti, Lira, Gulu, Arua, Masindi, Fortpotal, Kabale, Masaka and conclude with Mulago Hospital where a petition signed by patients would be delivered to the Speaker of Parliament Edward Ssekandi. http://allafrica.com/stories/200806060658.html Zambia: Insecure Pregnant Women Protest in Kitwe The Times of Zambia (Ndola) 6 June 2008 Posted to the web 6 June 2008 Ndola MORE than 50 pregnant women from Kitwe's Kawama Township yesterday morning protested over lack of security at Kawama Clinic which has forced nurses and health personnel to stop working at night. Nurses at Kawama Clinic have withdrawn from night shifts after an April incidence in which armed robbers attacked and stole a number of items from the institution before stripping them naked. The women abandoned an ante-natal clinic yesterday and marched to Mindolo police station to protest over the lack of security at the clinic. One woman gave birth on a road on Wednesday night and her baby later died. Speaking on behalf of the protesting women, Margaret Mulenga said they decided to march to the police station to register their displeasure at the lack of security in the area. Mrs Mulenga said the women wanted the Zambia Police Service to deploy armed police officers to guard the health institution so that nurses could resume their night shifts at the clinic. "We are protesting because we had a very unfortunate incident last night when one pregnant woman gave birth on a road and the baby later died. This whole thing has come up because of lack of security at Kawama Clinic," Mrs Mulenga said. Zambia Union of Nurses Organisation Kitwe District chairperson, Priscilla Chitambala, said the nurses had resolved to stop conducting night duties after being attacked by armed robbers. Mrs Chitambala said the union was concerned at the insecurity in the area and would only allow its members to start night shifts when armed security personnel are deployed at the clinic. She said apart from the lack of security, residents were also hostile towards nurses and other health personnel. Kitwe District health director, Chikafuna Banda, also complained about the lack of security in the area and the hostile nature of the residents towards the health personnel. Dr Banda said he was surprised that of all the areas that received computers and other items, only Kawama Clinic had recorded attacks by armed robbers. He said Kawama Township was a problematic area and advised the residents to co-operate with the health personnel for 24-hour services to be resumed. He said the primary role of the district health management board was to provide quality health care and that it has no money to pay armed security personnel to guard the clinic. Copperbelt police commanding officer, Antoneil Mutentwa, said the police would work with the Kitwe district health management board to find a solution to the problem. He said the problem at Kawama Clinic arose from the aggravated robbery in April in when thieves stole equipment and stripped naked the nurses on duty. Mr Mutentwa said the whole township should be protected from criminal elements. http://www.local10.com/politics/16513525/detail.html?rss=mia&psp=news Protest Held Outside McCain Fundraiser McCain Attends Fundraiser At St. Regis Fort Lauderdale Resort POSTED: 4:07 pm EDT June 5, 2008 UPDATED: 6:36 pm EDT June 5, 2008 FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- While presumptive Republican presidential candidate John McCain prepared to attend a fundraiser at the St. Regis Fort Lauderdale Resort, a small group of labor union members gathered outside to protest his proposed health care plan. The Fort Lauderdale chapter of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations is calling on McCain to abandon his proposed health care plan, which they claim will saddle working families with an additional tax, give insurance company's more control of people's health care and do nothing to expand coverage to the uninsured. AFL-CIO members are also challenging the Arizona senator's claim that his proposal represents a departure from President George W. Bush's administration. "John McCain may say he stands for responsible reform, but his health care plan to enrich big insurance companies while continuing the Bush policy of ignoring the 47 million Americans who cannot afford health insurance says otherwise," Broward County Central Labor Council President Dan Reynolds said in a statement. "Florida working families need health care reform that will give them a leg up in the souring economy, not another break for corporations and lobbyists." McCain is in South Florida as part of a three-day tour of the state. He held a fundraiser Wednesday night in St. Petersburg and spoke at a meeting of Florida newspaper editors Thursday in Orlando. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/01/stories/2008070155140100.htm Death of woman sparks protest Staff Reporter PUDUCHERRY: The death of a 23-year-old woman due to snake bite on Monday sparked an immediate protest by her relatives and activists belonging to the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) in front of the Assembly. Her relatives and activists belonging to the VCK staged the demonstration carrying the body to protest against the non-availability of anti-venom vaccine at the Public Health Centre (PHC) in Nettapakkam. According to police, the deceased, Jyothi, a resident of Kariamanikkam in Nettapakkam, succumbed to the snake bite after being admitted to the Indira Gandhi Government General Hospital and Postgraduate Institute here. She was brought to the GH after the PHC staff informed her relatives about non-availability of anti-venom vaccine. The activists withdrew their protest after officials from the Revenue and Health Departments held talks with them. When contacted, Director of Health and Family Welfare Dilip Kumar Baliga said the victim was brought to the hospital after "considerable delay." He said anti-venom vaccine had to be administered by a doctor or qualified nurse and PHCs did not have such a facility. The Community Health Centres at Karikkalampakkam and Mannadipet have the facility to administer anti-venom vaccine. http://www.expressandstar.com/2008/06/23/protesters-in-hospital-vigil/ Protesters in hospital vigil Health campaigners lay floral tributes and lit candles in memory of loved ones at a protest rally outside Stafford Hospital. Members of the "Cure the NHS" group braved the cold, wet, windy weather to gather for the event on Saturday. Nearly 40 people stood just inside the gates of the hospital in Weston Road to wave banners in a bid to raise awareness of their campaign. They also lit candles and lay flowers as they remembered relatives who have died in hospital. The rally aimed to raise awareness of the group's drive to improve services at Stafford and Cannock hospitals. Group founder Julie Bailey said: "The weather didn't help but it all went off well, and peacefully. Most of the people who came along are still grieving for relatives who have died in hospital. "Despite the weather, we were there for about two hours. "The idea of the protest was to let people know that they need to be keeping an eye on their relatives in hospital. My family did and we still lost my mum.. "Everyone thinks they are safe in a hospital but that isn't the case. People are dying needlessly." Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust is under investigation by the Healthcare Commission over apparently high mortality rates. The findings will be published next spring. http://www.keralanext.com/news/?id=1274216 Patient's death sparks off protest at railway hospital Monday, July 14, 2008 BURDWAN, India: The death of a woman patient, allegedly due to negligence by doctors, sparked off protest at Asansol Railway Hospital in Burdwan district, even as the railway authorities suspended two staff doctors and one nurse on charge of "mistreatment." Uma Bhadra, wife of railway employee Gopal Bhadra of Domahoni locality, admitted to the hospital with fever on Friday was not given proper treatment," her family members alleged. After she expired yesterday, the family said repeated pleas to give her basic treatment, including oxygen, fell on deaf ears and they refused to take away the body unless those "responsible" for the death were punished. As a mob gathered and ransacked the premises, a high level team from the railways reached the spot to persuaded the family to take away the body, police said. Additional Divisional Railway Manager Girish Kumar later told reporters that two staff doctors and a nurse were placed under suspension. However, the family took away the body this afternoon following intervention of the railway officials. Kumar said a committee has been formed to look into the death. One of the suspended doctors was identified as S S Haq and the nurse as Rita Kundu. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2008/07/17/nb-rally.html?ref=rss 300 rally to protest ER closure Last Updated: Thursday, July 17, 2008 | 9:10 AM AT Comments13Recommend11 CBC News More than 300 people from the Plaster Rock, N.B., area rallied on Wednesday night calling for Health Minister Mike Murphy to reopen the emergency room at the local hospital. Ann Drost clutched an urn holding the remains of her mother Ginger DeWitt while standing outside a meeting where Murphy was discussing the future of the Tobique Valley Hospital with local officials in Plaster Rock. DeWitt died on the night of July 9 while being transported by ambulance from her home near Plaster Rock to a hospital in Grand Falls. After her death, physician Dr. Barry Wecker said he believed the woman could have been saved had the hospital not been ordered to shut down its emergency services. The River Valley Hospital Corp. decided to close the 15-bed hospital's emergency department and in-patient services in June because not enough doctors were available. Wecker is the only remaining emergency physician at the facility, where there previously had been four. A 24-hour nursing care service remains available on a walk-in basis. Other services, including blood work, X-rays and physiotherapy, also continue to be provided at the facility. But patients requiring emergency care must now travel about 40 kilometres to hospitals in Grand Falls or Perth-Andover. That's not acceptable for citizens in the area, said Marcia Harding, who attended the rally. "I have a son who's allergic to bees - highly allergic to bees," Harding said. "He has 15 minutes and he dies. We have no hospital - 40 minutes to Grand Falls, 40 minutes to Perth. What happens to my son?" Murphy was in the meeting with the local planning committee for two hours before coming outside to address the crowd. The minister said there are no plans to reopen the emergency room but that government officials will discuss the residents' concerns. Some extra beds will also be added to the facility to provide temporary out-patient care, Murphy said. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/11/stories/2008071160791100.htm Tamil Nadu - Chennai CPI (M) workers stage protest Special Correspondent CHENNAI: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) staged demonstration across the State on Thursday, demanding resumption of vaccine production in the BCG Vaccine Laboratory, Guindy, the Pasteur Institute of India, Coonoor, and CDL, Kasauli. Addressing party workers at Saidapet, CPI (M) central committee member A.K. Padmanabhan said the Centre's decision to close down the units would lead to marginalisation of the public sector and allow the private sector, especially the multinational companies, a toehold in the manufacture. "They will reap huge profits and deny the poor access to lifesaving drugs." CPI(M) MP T.K. Rengarajan asked why the Pattali Makkal Katchi, which was concerned about Sri Lankan Tamils and Kachatheevu, remained silent on the closure of these institutes. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/10/stories/2008071058970300.htm Andhra Pradesh - Visakhapatnam Patient's relatives stage protest at hospital Staff Reporter Police officials visited the spot and pacified the warring groups VISAKHAPATNAM: Tense situation prevailed at a private hospital near the King George Hospital on Wednesday when relatives of a patient staged a protest alleging that the patient was put on a ventilator though they knew for sure that he was going to die. The victim Mutyala Rao, an autorickshaw driver, sustained severe head injury in a clash with some other drivers at Railway New Colony in the wee hours of Tuesday. He was shifted to the KGH in EMRI ambulance. A doctor there suggested to the relatives to shift him to a private hospital as the patient needed ventilator support that was not available at the KGH. He was put on a ventilator and was given some medicines. The hospital management reportedly charged Rs.9,000 as ventilator charges and Rs.11,000 towards the cost of drugs. After the relatives paid the amount they were told that there was no use treating the patient further as he would die as soon as the ventilator was removed. Mutyala Rao's relatives were irked by the behaviour of the hospital staff. The relatives alleged that the hospital management had 'pretended' to treat the victim only for money and staged a protest outside the hospital hindering the movement of traffic on the Main Road for sometime. Assistant Commissioner of Police Konda Reddy, Circle Inspectors M. Srinivasa Rao (IV Town) and Bhima Rao (Two Town) visited the scene and pacified the warring groups. Mr. Bhima Rao said that no case was registered as both the parties had agreed to settle the issue amicably. http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/local/4831047 Kerin joins country health plan protest ABC - July 28, 2008, 2:31 pm The leader of the South Australian Opposition's country health task force, Rob Kerin, says he now has a clearer indication of the level of concern about the country health plan. Mr Kerin attended a protest of more than 200 people in the Adelaide suburb of Norwood on Saturday. The country health plan would see smaller hospitals downgraded and key services made available from four main hubs at Whyalla, Mount Gambier, Port Lincoln and Berri. Mr Kerin says the strong turnout indicates city people are just as concerned about the plan as country residents. "What worries me is that even if they throw the plan in the bin the agenda's become clear and what we need to do is keep a real watching brief that they don't remove services by cutting budgets or pulling back on equipment," he said. "There's a whole range of ways that they can rationalise country health services and we need keep a real close eye that they just don't do it by attrition." The Loxton and Districts Health Advisory Council says a public meeting on Thursday will allow locals to raise their concerns about the country health plan. The council's presiding member, Ruth Firstbrook, says her main fear is potential budget cuts to the Loxton hospital if the Government's plan goes ahead. Ms Firstbrook says while she met Health Minister John Hill last week, the issue is far from being resolved. "Whilst our meeting with the Minister on Friday was very good, it was positive, he did answer our questions, I don't believe he should have been having to do that if this had been well thought out," she said. http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/local/4824225 Paramedics urged to end free rides protest ABC - July 25, 2008, 2:27 pm ABC ? [Enlarge photo] The Industrial Relations Commission has recommended that New South Wales ambulance officers stop giving patients free rides in their push for their chief to be sacked. Paramedics have been refusing to charge patients for trips to hospital, after the State Government refused to meet their demands by 11:00am yesterday. They have threatened to continue the industrial action until the Government hires 360 more ambulance officers and fires the Ambulance Service's management, including chief executive Greg Rochford. Ambulance officers already have a pay claim before the Industrial Relations Commission but say this industrial action is unrelated. The protest will cost the State Government $1 million a week. The Health Service Union says problems with the Ambulance Service, including a culture of bullying, have grown since Mr Rochford took over as chief executive. The union says ambulance officers want a uniformed officer to head the service, as is the case with police and the Fire Brigade. It says Mr Rochford has failed to respond to 10 reviews and there are doubts the current parliamentary inquiry into the NSW Ambulance Service will have any impact. The Ambulance Service says it is committed to working with the Health Services Union through the Industrial Relations Commission to achieve a good outcome. http://kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=53491 Coverage, Access and Quality | Asian Immigrants in California Continue To Protest Proposed Medi-Cal Cuts [Jul 24, 2008] Asian-American immigrants at a town hall discussion in California on Wednesday continued to protest proposed cuts to Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program, that would eliminate some health services to documented immigrants, the Oakland Tribune reports (Hill, Oakland Tribune, 7/23). Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's (R) proposal seeks to save about $87 million by cutting some health care services to roughly 91,000 immigrants each month. The proposal is part of a plan to reduce the state's $15 billion budget deficit. Schwarzenegger's plan would affect preventive health care services for documented immigrants who have had green cards for fewer than five years. The changes would give documented immigrants the same Medi-Cal benefits as undocumented immigrants -- coverage for emergency care, prenatal care and nursing home coverage. In addition, the state would save about $42 million by requiring undocumented immigrants to obtain new Medi-Cal cards for emergency services each month, rather than annually. The proposal also would eliminate monthly cash aid to about 10,300 documented immigrants and dental benefits for three million indigent, disabled and elderly residents enrolled in Denti-Cal, a state program that covers diagnostic and preventive dental services (Kaiser Health Disparities Report, 6/24). More than 500 people attended the town hall meeting held at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center auditorium to express opposition to the proposal, many speaking through translators. The attendees also signed petitions calling for a tax increase on corporations to address the budget deficit instead of cutting services to immigrants. Sherry Hirota -- CEO of Asian Health Services, which sponsored the event -- said, "With this budget, Asian Health Services alone would lose up to $1.5 million and be forced to close some clinics and lay off staff." She added, "This is unfair to the Asian community. More than 75% of Asian and Pacific Islanders in California are foreign-born. These cuts aimed at new legal immigrants will disproportionately impact the Asian community" (Oakland Tribune, 7/23). http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=95305 Bulgaria's GPs Prepare Nationwide Protests 20 July 2008, Sunday The general practitioners in Bulgaria are to start nationwide protests in September if their demands for a higher budget are not granted. File photo by Yuliana Nikolova (Sofia Photo Agency) The general practitioners in Bulgaria are to start nationwide protests in September if their demands for a higher budget are not granted, chair of the doctors' association Lyubomir Kirov announced. Mr Kirov said that the decision for launching a strike was made during Friday's meeting of the National Council of the General Practitioners. The GPs are to send Monday a letter to the healthcare commission within the parliament to notify them about their intentions and demands. Concrete proposition for changes in the legislature are also to be included in the letter, doctors said and added that the budget for the GPs in 2009 must be at least BGN 320 M. Doctors assured that even if there is a nationwide protest they would still take care of their patients. http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Paramedics_protest_outside_New_South_Wales_parliament Paramedics protest outside New South Wales parliament >From Wikinews, the free news source you can write! Current revision (unreviewed) Jump to: navigation, search Tuesday, July 22, 2008 Paramedics employed by the Ambulance Service of New South Wales in Australia marched on the New South Wales parliament today. They called for the Government to sack Ambulance Service of New South Wales CEO Greg Rochford, hire 300 additional ambulance officers and 60 patient transport officers. Paramedics gave the Government 48 hours to agree to the proposed staffing levels or face industrial action. "We are currently at the same levels of staffing that we had in 2002 and these not withstanding, also there's been an increase in workload of 5 per cent per year every year since then," said Health Services Union general secretary Michael Williamson. The union also called for chief executive Greg Roachford and other senior management to be sacked over what has been described as a culture of bullying. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0808/S00290.htm Green MP joins school kids for tobacco protest Wednesday, 20 August 2008, 9:38 am Press Release: Green Party 20 August 2008 Green MP joins school kids for tobacco protest The Green Party is supporting the call from Christchurch children for all tobacco retail displays to be removed from the sight of children and young people in dairies, supermarkets and petrol stations around New Zealand. Green Party MP Sue Kedgley will speak at the "Tear Down the Wall' launch in Cathedral Square in Christchurch at noon today. "It is inspiring to see a group of nine to 12 year olds take on a campaign like this, and I hope New Zealanders from all walks of life will support their campaign," Ms Kedgley says. "The Green Party certainly does, and we want the Government to move quickly to require all tobacco retail displays removed from sight." Ms Kedgley says more than 10,000 retail outlets around New Zealand use tobacco displays, and most are in a highly visible position behind the sales counter, right next to sweets and confectionary. "This means every time children and young people enter a store, they are confronted by these displays of cigarettes. "Research shows these displays can encourage young people to smoke, and can trigger impulse purchasing in people who have just quit smoking. They are a constant temptation to children and young people," Ms Kedgley says. "We need to remember that cigarettes are not an ordinary commodity but a highly addictive and harmful substance. We should not be promoting cigarettes in a way that encourages and tempts young people to buy them or to start smoking. "Smoking related illnesses cost between $300 million and $350 million every year, and the overall economic costs are much higher still," Ms Kedgley says. ENDS http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/19/stories/2008081951710300.htm Andhra Pradesh Contract para medical staff stage protest Correspondent VIZIANAGARAM: Contract para-medical staff affiliated to United Medical and Health Employees' Union on Monday observed token fast at the Collector's Office in protest against the government's indifference to their demand for regularisation of services. Union State secretary G.V. Prasada Rao and district secretary S. Lakshmana Rao said that they would go on an indefinite fast from August 28 if the demand was not conceded by then. Mr. Prasada Rao said in a release that male health assistants, ANMs, lab technicians, pharmacists and staff nurses who were selected in the written test in 2001 and appointed on consolidated salary were not regularised till date. Memorandum Though ANMs working on contract were regularised elsewhere in the State, in Vizianagaram district 101 ANMs had not been given posting orders even after the counselling was conducted on September 7, 2007, he said. They submitted a memorandum to Joint Collector B. Ramaiah. http://allafrica.com/stories/200808170090.html Uganda: People Living With HIV in Protest March Over Murder The Monitor (Kampala) 17 August 2008 Posted to the web 17 August 2008 Jane Nafula Kampala People living with HIV/Aids yesterday marched through Kampala's streets to protest the murder of a woman by a husband for allegedly infecting him with the virus that causes Aids. The procession was joined by human rights activists and it started from Kampala Pentecostal Church, through Grand Imperial Hotel, Kimathi Avenue before the protestors gathered at City Hall to condemn the tragedy that took place in Rukungiri last Tuesday. Mr Julius Tumwesigye ,30, hacked his wife, Glorius Kyarikunda, 25, to death after accusing her of infecting him with HIV. Dr Lydia Mungherera, one of the people living with HIV said as the government pushes for criminalisation of deliberate transmission of HIV/Aids, it should also consider passing a law to protect people living with HIV/Aids. Dr Mungherera said that many women living with HIV/Aids are dying at the brutal hands of their husbands and also suffer from all sorts of violence. She said that in December last year a veteran soldier hacked his wife to death in Kinawataka, a Kampala suburb, after he found that they were in a discordant situation. A discordant couple is where one partner is negative while the other is positive. In this case, the woman was negative while the man was HIV positive. "The man cut off her head in the presence of the children. For how long are we going to suffer with no one to protect us from brutality," she said. The Coordinator of People Living with HIV/Aids in Rukungiri district, Mr Dickens Rwabwogo said this is the second woman in Rukungiri to be murdered by a husband over HIV. Mr Rwabwogo said that in 2006 a woman from Buhunga village, who was in a discordant relationship was murdered by her husband for telling him to practice safe sex as she had been advised by the Aids experts. The couple was advised to use condoms after it was found that the man was HIV positive while the woman was HIV negative. He said many cases of that kind are happening in communities but they go unreported. "This is horrible. How do you kill your wife before knowing your status? You could be the source of infection and you blame it on a woman who has gone for a test. Killing somebody doesn't mean that you are going to get rid of HIV," said the National Cordinator of people living with HIV/Aids, Mr Samuel James Kibanga. Mr Kibanga said the murder of this woman indicates that ignorance about Aids is still widespread. Members threatened to sue government if people living with HIV are not protected from brutality. Meanwhile, soldiers in the Presidential Guard Brigade (PGB) and their spouses have been called upon to combine efforts in the fight against HIV/Aids. The call was made on Saturday by Deputy Mayor of Entebbe Municipality Peninah Kasaija who was chief guest on the occasion when PGB members marked HIV/Aids Awareness Day at Lunnyo Barracks. The theme of the occasion was "HIV/AIDS Prevention is Another War to Fight; Together we share the challenge" with special focus on married couples to remain faithful to one another. http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1523317/patients_protest_for_pain_therapy/index.html?source=r_health Patients Protest for Pain Therapy Posted on: Sunday, 17 August 2008, 12:00 CDT By Journal Northern Bureau SANTA FE -- The New Mexico Pain Support and Advocacy Group is planning to gather on the steps of the Roundhouse today to protest recent actions of the New Mexico Board of Medical Examiners regarding Albuquerque-based physician Joan Lewis, who practices pain management. The group, which represents 408 patients throughout New Mexico who are patients of Lewis, wants the board to set aside an agreement the board recently signed with Lewis stating that she will stop practicing pain management. Lewis was charged by the board in 2001 with "injudicious subscribing" of narcotics. She and her patients say her pain protocol is part of a pioneering program. Members of the New Mexico Pain Support and Advocacy Group say Gov. Bill Richardson's recent reactions to their plight has not been sympathetic. Bill MacLeod, of Socorro, said that when some 13 pain patients from the group went to see Richardson on Aug. 8 during open office hours in Albuquerque, the governor didn't seem to understand their problem. "My wife was spokesperson and she was trying to explain how all of us were patients of Dr. Joan Lewis," MacLeod said. The governor's spokesman Allan Oliver said Richardson met with some 75 constituents during the afternoon session in question. "He doesn't recall the specifics of the conversation with this group, but does recall meeting this group as well as receiving their letters," said Oliver. "Governor Richardson recognizes these individuals are in great and serious pain, and has directed his staff to work with the New Mexico Medical Board to look into the situation." Effective Sept. 1, Lewis has been ordered by the board not to treat her patients' chronic pain conditions for more than 30 days. The order states that if Lewis breaches the conditions, her license to practice as a physician in New Mexico could be immediately suspended. Both Lewis and the New Mexico Pain Support and Advocacy Group have written the Medical Board asking that the order against her be set aside. In her letter, Lewis wrote: "I feel I was unfairly and substantially coerced into agreeing to this order." Lynn Hart, executive director of the New Mexico Medical Board, said the board has approved putting Lewis' case on the agenda at its next meeting, Aug. 21. "The board is going to listen to Dr. Lewis and consider setting aside the settlement she signed, and we'll go from there," Hart said. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/18/stories/2008081857510400.htm Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad Government doctors to protest today HYDERABAD: The A.P. Government Doctors' Association has decided to launch a protest programme demanding implementation of the recommendations made by a high-power committee on their demands. A council meeting decided to wear black badges on Monday and go on mass casual leave on August 25. M. Neelakanteswara Rao, general secretary, said the committee had submitted its report more than one-and-half months ago, recommending a fitment allowance of Rs.4,000 to all government doctors. - Special Correspondent http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1529493/boston_medical_nurses_protest_low_pay_staffing/index.html?source=r_health Boston Medical Nurses Protest Low Pay, Staffing Posted on: Thursday, 21 August 2008, 21:00 CDT By CHRISTINE McCONVILLE Hundreds of frustrated nurses picketed outside Boston Medical Center yesterday, as union leaders criticized the hospital for stalling contract talks. Nurses at the city's busiest hospital said they want competitive pay, respectful working conditions and appropriate staffing levels. They said working conditions at the nonprofit medical center have plummeted in recent years. "It's a fearful environment and a hostile environment," said Joe- Ann Fergus, spokeswoman for the nurses' union. "And now, when there is a lot of competition for nurses, the medical center is losing valuable nursing talent." Boston Medical Center has two separate nurses' groups. The group picketing yesterday work at the center's East Newton Street campus and are represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association. Their contract was set to expire six months ago but has been extended during contract talks. Ellen Berlin, spokeswoman for Boston Medical Center, said in a prepared statement that "the hospital has already reached agreement with the MNA on many important and substantive issues and we are hopeful that we will soon reach agreement with the MNA nurses on the issues that remain unresolved." The nurses' chief complaint is that the administrators at the medical center require nurses to float from one highly specialized area to another, often without adequate knowledge to properly care for patients. The nurses are seeking a post-retirement health insurance program to bridge the time between retirement and government assistance and a larger pay raise. Although Boston Medical Center has posted record profits of more than $74 million in the last 18 months and recently awarded its chief executive, Elaine Ullian, a 46 percent pay increase, nurses at the East Newton Street campus say they are paid less than nurses at other Boston teaching hospitals. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Thu Aug 28 15:58:47 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2008 23:58:47 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Welfare protests, Apr-Aug 2008 - benefits, pensions, prices, electricity, housing, etc Message-ID: <005a01c90961$a2e64f10$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * IRAN: Workers break power company windows over cuts * GREECE: Protesters oppose rising prices, demand salary increases * INDIA: Dharna at power board over cuts * INDIA: Naxalites protest prices, blow up railway * PAKISTAN: Protest in Karachi over water supply * BOSNIA: War veterans protest for unpaid benefits * SOUTH AFRICA: Cosatu demands lowering of interest rates * SERBIA: War veterans protest for benefits, healthcare * US: Pittsburgh protest over rise in sewer rates * PAKISTAN: Job applicants hold impromptu demo * SCOTLAND: Housing protesters occupy Parliament, oppose ban on student homes * INDIA: Ex-soldiers in protest for pensions in Bangalore, Jalandar * INDIA: District in Kerala protests at cut in rice quota * US: Arizona librarians protest against cuts * PHILIPPINES: Emergency benefits denounced as "anti-worker" * US: Protests in Seattle against foreclosures * PAKISTAN: Demonstrations, roadblocks about power outages * INDIA: Protests over power supply at various sites * INDIA: Protest against hoarding * PAKISTAN: Growers protest water shortage * INDIA: Communists protest against water and electricity shortage in Bihar * INDIA: Residents protest for amenities * US: Princeton protest over foreclosure * NIGERIA: Residents protest power cuts * US: Daytona presidents protest against unnecessary "safety centre" * IRELAND: Pensioners protest * PHILIPPINES: Lights-out protest over electricity price, tax * CZECH REPUBLIC: Protests save culture funding * INDIA: Protest in Kerala over water supply * US: Pittsburgh anti-foreclosure protest * US: Residents protest library closures * INDIA: Hindu groups protest temple on top of gas pipe * UK: Ninety-year-old holds protest for river defences * INDIA: Protest for port development * INDIA: Tamil Nadu protest to plug water leak * US: Protest camp opposes paragliders * UK: Protest against post office closure in Manchester * INDIA: Protest over late arrival of milk truck * INDIA: Residents protest about water tank delay * PUNTLAND/SOMALIA: Refugees protest unfair food distribution * UK: Barefoot protest to save Rochdale post office * US: Protest over New York homelessness policies * PHILIPPINES: Leftists stage protest for better benefits * US: Power price increase protested * PAKISTAN: Homeless rally in Islamabad * US: Central Falls protest against budget cuts * INDIA: Tamil Nadu protest over "maladministration", poor roads, sewage * SCOTLAND: Protesters seek to save squash courts * UK: Somerset protesters hold ancient ritual to save post office * TAIWAN: Protest over benefits "black hole" * US: Atlanta mayor booed over fire station closure * INDIA: Girijans protest for facilities * US: World Trade Center survivors protest firing of health official * SPAIN: Residents release cockroaches to protest sanitation * US: McCain protested over home buyout links * INDIA: Puducherry protest for welfare, development * INDIA: Youth forum protests to save playground * INDIA: Nursery workers protest privatisation of child food benefit * INDIA: Unemployed graduates protest raise in retirement age * NIGERIA: Athletes protest lack of support * US, CALIFORNIA: Action plan over budget crisis * INDIA: Lantern protest over power cuts * INDIA: Bijapur road blocks over water supply * INDIA: Orissa protests over poverty line registration irregularities * UK: Villagers stage midnight noise protest * PERU: Earthquake survivors protest response a year on * TAIWAN: Unemployed people protest * INDIA: Flash protest over amenities * US: Garland library closure protested * INDIA: Protest at local kerosene shortage * US: Luzerne County protest at house rates reassessment * INDIA: Protest over inadequate distribution of ration cards * TRINIDAD: Success in protest for water supply * INDIA: Karnataka protest for free folk art * UK: Walkers protest against post office closures * UK: Protest over loss of gifts in company closure http://ncr-iran.org/content/view/5471/105/ Iran: Citizens in the port city of Rig protest against power outage Tuesday, 05 August 2008 NCRI ? Citizens in the southern port city of Rig broke the windows to the power company protesting to repeated power cut. Angry residents caught with the scorching heat of the Persian Gulf region in the summer, gathered outside the local power company demanding more electricity in the day. "Power is out most of the day. We will be back if the power cut continuous," said one demonstrator. Power outage has become a major problem in the Iranian cities especially with the summer's heat. People in the central city of Shahinshahr were beaten and arrested over their protest to the power outage in their area. The State Security Forces (SSF) ? mullahs' suppressive police ? fired tear gas into a crowd of local shopkeepers protesting to power outage on July 30. Eyewitness reports from the scene indicate that some local shopkeepers were gathered outside the governor's office carrying banners protesting to 5 hours of power outage causing their businesses huge damage. "When SSF agents arrived, they opened fire into the crowd indiscriminately wounding some protesters," a bystander said. "Close to 30 people were also arrested by the SSF," she added. A shopkeeper's wife, taking part in the gathering said, "They [police] did not pay any attention to the age of participants and began shooting." On July 16, the semi-official news agency Fars website devoted an entire section to power outages in different parts of the country, including Bandar Abbas, a port city in the south, Sistan-Baluchestan, a province in the east, Isfahan and Shiraz in south-central Iran and Mazandaran province in the north. The outage is so painful that according to Fars "several lawmakers have warned the government and the energy minister on the frequent blackouts and power outages in the capital and many other cities and called for urgent action due to summer." The energy ministry has announced that as of June 21, the media will publicize blackout timetables so that people can adjust their daily routines. "Total electricity production of the nationwide grid is 32,000 megawatts but the consumption is 34,000, so the discrepancy should be removed by less consumption," said Parviz Fattah, the energy minister. Ahmadinejad's response to Iranian people's daily needs, as in the case of Shahinshahr, is violent and suppressive. He has no regards for what the ordinary citizens go throw everyday to pay for his ambitions for obtaining a nuclear bomb under the pretext of nuclear "energy for electricity." http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/19/europe/EU-GEN-Greece-Price-Protest.php Greece: More than 1,000 people protest rising consumer prices The Associated Press Published: June 19, 2008 ATHENS, Greece: Hundreds of Greeks are demonstrating in central Athens to demand salary increases amid rising consumer prices. Greek labor unions, consumer protection groups and a Communist-affiliated group that organized the protests are calling for government action against monopolies, a two-year freeze on utility charges and state aid for low salary earners and pensioners. They say Greek salaries are among the lowest in the European Union, while prices for basic consumer goods exceed the EU average. An estimated 1,300 people attended two demonstrations on Thursday. Protesters in front of Parliament held banners reading "Raise salaries, control prices" and "Stop cartels." http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/05/stories/2008080553060300.htm Protest against erratic power supply Staff Correspondent Bijapur: Members of the Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI), staged a dharna in front of the office of Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Ltd. in protest against erratic power supply in the district, here on Monday. The protesters said that businesses and government employees were finding it difficult to carry out their work because of power cuts for more than six hours. Production in small and medium factories had come down drastically in the past two months, they said. Owing to good rainfall in many parts of the State, the Government had issued orders to cancel power cuts from August 1, but the authorities in the district had not implemented the order, they alleged. The authorities concerned should take immediate steps to stop the power cuts and provide electricity to people, they said. The protesters threatened that they would intensify their agitation if the authorities concerned failed to take immediate steps in this regard. A memorandum addressed to Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa was submitted to Deputy Commissioner S.M. Sonnad. http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Maoists-protest-price-hike-blow-up-railway-tracks/325764/ Maoists protest price hike, blow up railway tracks Reuters Posted online: Saturday , June 21, 2008 at 08:25:58 Updated: Saturday , June 21, 2008 at 08:25:58 Ranchi, June 21: Maoist rebels blew up railway tracks and tried to enforce a strike in the eastern region ravaged by Naxalite violence to protest against rising inflation, police said. The day-long strike in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Bihar evoked some response in the countryside where the Maoists wield strong influence, but failed in urban areas. The strike came on a day India's wholesale price index rose 11.05% in the 12 months to June 7, the highest rate in 13 years as the effects of a hike in fuel prices hit inflation. Rising prices are a major headache for the UPA government with less than a year to go to elections, although protests called by the main opposition and the Left front over fuel price hikes have now tapered off. Police in Jharkhand said Maoist rebels blew up portions of railway tracks, causing a goods train to derail and disrupting rail traffic. Maoists distributed fliers asking villagers to support the strike, which shut down shops, hit traffic and disrupted mining operations in the mineral-rich region. "The strike has affected life especially in the rural areas and local businessmen downed their shutters out of fear of being attacked," a police spokesman said from Bihar. The Maoist rebels say they are fighting for the rights of poor peasants and landless labourers and routinely call strikes, attack government property and target local politicians. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described the four-decade-old Maoist rebellion, which has killed thousands of people, as the biggest threat to the country's internal security. Protests over rising fuel prices also continued in the neighbouring republic of Nepal, where student activists stoned several vehicles in the capital Kathmandu, disrupting rush-hour traffic for a third day in a row on Friday, police said. Nepal raised petrol and diesel prices by about 25 percent last week, prompting transport operators to hike fares between 25 and 35 percent for taxis and buses. http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=119253 Protest against severance of water supply Thursday, June 19, 2008 Residents of United Colony, Gutter Baghicha, staged a protest demonstration and a sit-in on Wednesday at the Karachi Press Club (KPC) against the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) and the Site Town Administration for disconnecting the water supply connection to their colony. Addressing the protesters, Karamat Bhatti, Michael Javed, and others said that administration was harassing the residents of their colony. They said that their water pipeline was disconnected to supply their share of water to marble factories of the area. They also expressed concern over the dumping of waste from Saddar town in their colony. They demanded that the government take notice of these issues and solve them at the earliest. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/17/europe/EU-GEN-Bosnia-Veterans-Protest.php Thousands of Bosnian war veterans protest over months of unpaid welfare payments The Associated Press Published: June 17, 2008 SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina: Several thousand unemployed Bosnian war veterans have staged an anti-government protest in Sarajevo demanding months of welfare payments they say have not been paid. The protesters say they have not received three ?75 (US$116) monthly payments. The country's average monthly salary is ?315 (US$486) and unemployment is about 40 percent. The protesters also want the Bosniak-Croat Federation's leadership to resign. A peace agreement that ended the 1992-95 Bosnian war divided the country into a Bosniak-Croat Federation and a Bosnian Serb mini-state. Mehmed Sisic, the head of a war veterans association, says he hopes the dispute would be resolved Tuesday. A government minister is quoted in a newspaper saying new laws should ensure timely payment. http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Finance%20And%20Labour&set_id=1&click_id=594&art_id=nw20080613115701503C611668 Cosatu to protest against rates in July June 13 2008 at 11:58AM South Africa's powerful labour federation, Cosatu, will demand lower interest rates as part of a planned protest campaign and one-day national strike next month, it said on Friday. Cosatu said this week it would embark on mass action from July 2, including a national strike on July 30, to protest job losses related to the country's power crisis. South Africa's central bank increased its key repo rate by 50 basis points on Thursday - a move Cosatu said it condemned. "We shall definitely now be adding rising interest rates to the issues to be raised and will be demanding lower interest rates as one of the central demands of the campaign," Cosatu said in a statement. (Reporting by Marius Bosch) - Reuters http://www.b92.net//eng/news/society-article.php?yyyy=2008&mm=04&dd=24&nav_id=49709 Veterans renew protest outside govt. 24 April 2008 | 12:16 | Source: B92 BELGRADE -- Around 1000 veterans of the Yugoslav wars from 90 municipalities have gathered to protest in front of the government building. The veterans are demanding from the authorities ?the same treatment for all veterans in exercising their rights and receiving compensation, as well as free health care for themselves and their families." They also seek priority in employment under equal conditions, improvement to their social position, and the status of military pensioners, say the protest organizers, the Serbian Veterans? Movement. They are calling for the government to take urgent action in meeting its debts to homeless veterans. http://www.b92.net//eng/news/society-article.php?yyyy=2008&mm=08&dd=14&nav_id=52688 War veterans set for mass protest 14 August 2008 | 10:29 | Source: B92 BELGRADE -- War veterans from the Third Army District will hold a mass protest today in front of the government building. Last year's protests (Beta, archive) They are calling for their demands to be met once and for all, namely payment of wages owed to them dating back to the 1999 Kosovo conflict, strike leader Du?an Nikoli? told B92. ?What we?re doing should bring an end to this business that we began seven months ago. It?s taking too long, we?re at our wit?s end, materially and in terms of time?it?s costing us a lot of money,? he said. ?If, by some chance, no-one wants to receive us in the government, not to speak to us, we?ll set up tents in the park outside the government building. We don?t want to go on the rampage, we don?t want any incidents, we just want to exercise our rights,? Nikoli? explained. The veterans want their wages reimbursed according to the same system adopted for their colleagues from the Topli?ki district, who received EUR 2,600 on average, paid out in six equal monthly installments. http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_563929.html?source=rss&feed=7 Penn Hills residents protest 20 percent sewer hike By Tony LaRussa TRIBUNE-REVIEW Thursday, April 24, 2008 Dozens of Penn Hills residents miffed about a more than 20 percent spike in sewage rates on first-quarter bills turned out for Monday's council meeting to protest. But municipal officials said raising the rates was a difficult decision that needed to be made, and the time to raise objections was in December when the budget was approved. This year's budget included an increase of $1.69 per thousand gallons of water used, which hiked rates from $8.38 per thousand gallons to $10.07 per thousand gallons. A $10 monthly surcharge was added. Customers who use 5,000 gallons of water a month will pay an additional $18.45, or $221.40 a year. Penn Hills has about 18,600 residential and commercial customers. There was no increase in water rates. http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=110810 Irked job aspirants erupt into impromptu protest at Civic Centre Tuesday, May 06, 2008 Karachi At least 15,000 people thronged to the Civic Centre on Monday, seeking jobs in the health and education department of city district government Karachi (CDGK). The absence of the EDO health enraged the crowd, resulting in an impromptu protest. These people had come over for walk-in interviews for CDGK health department jobs announced by the Sindh government. When they were told that the EDO health was not present, they snatched the official rifle of a security guard, Kamal. A female security officer, Saira, was also injured in the ensuing rumpus. The Chief Security Officer (CSO), Tahir Jamil Durrani, meanwhile stuck to an ?official version? of events and told The News that hooligans had stormed the Civic Centre Monday morning. They started gathering on the sixth floor of the building around 08:45 a.m. Within 15 to 20 minutes, more than 6,000 people were present on the packed floor, leading to ?a law-and-order situation,? Durrani claimed, adding that as a result, a dispensary, some glass doors and windows and furniture were damaged on the fifth and sixth floors. The security staff immediately informed the CSO, and the crowed was dispersed without any ?major untoward incident,? Durrani said. Other officials told The News that the present government had advertised jobs for which people had rushed to the Civic Centre but returned frustrated because no one was there to interview them. This first-ever demonstration for jobs under the present government materialised when job applicants found out at the last moment that the interview date had been changed. They chanted slogans of ?Jeay Bhutto? and ?Benazir zinda hai.? Durrani said that the demonstrators were calmed after a lot of hectic efforts. He personally collected more than 8,000 applications, and the protestors left around 03:00 p.m. A sense of insecurity and fear prevailed among the officers and staff at the Civic Centre, however, and no work was conducted on Monday. Durrani also said that the EDO health had not provided him prior information about the interviews and the security staff was taken by surprise. EDO Health Dr A.D. Sanjnani said meanwhile, that he had informed the DCO Karachi, Javed Hanif, about the interviews. The latter however, completely denied it. DCO Hanif further said that it was not humanly possible to conduct interviews of thousands of people in a day, but promised to call both the EDO health and the EDO education to sort the situation out. Also surprising is the fact that the DCO Karachi, who is responsible for the administration of the Civic Centre, was not present at the venue during the demonstration on Monday. He said he was in a meeting with acting City Nazim Nasreen Jalil at her office and was not aware that thousands of people were waiting to be interviewed at the Civic Centre. When the EDO health got to the Civic Centre later, he and his staff took refuge in the conference room in the Nazim?s secretariat. http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Housing-protestors-evicted-from-Scottish.4032868.jp Housing protestors evicted from Scottish Parliament A GROUP of protesters were today removed from the chamber of the Scottish Parliament over a housing demo. The group draped a makeshift banner over the side of the public gallery demanding a financial investigation into the Glasgow Housing Association (GHA). Two security guards wrestled the sheet from them, before police escorted the group of seven out of the chamber. It came as MSPs were considering the Commonwealth Games Bill. The business of Parliament was not interrupted by the incident. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/28/stories/2008042853420800.htm Ex-servicemen stage protest Staff Reporter Bangalore: As many as 85 ex-servicemen staged a protest at Minsk Square here on Sunday demanding that the Union Government resolve their long-standing problems, including enhancement of pension. The ex-servicemen paid homage to martyrs and said a silent prayer holding candles before staging the protest. They said that a soldier or an officer who has spent his entire life serving the Defence forces of the country expects suitable pension to enable him to lead a dignified life, and that his pension is enhanced periodically. They said that most of the political parties include the issue of one-rank-one pension in their manifesto but ignore it [the issue] after the elections. Stating that the sixth pay commission has rejected this demand, the ex-servicemen demanded that one-rank-one-pension plea be fulfilled without any delay. The ex-servicemen said that the recommendations of the sixth pay commission relating to the armed forces should be scrapped as the review by the Cabinet Secretary was unfair. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/28/stories/2008042852540300.htm Ex-Servicemen hold protest rally in Jalandhar Separate Pay Commission for defence forces demanded ?Ex-Servicemen have no confidence in the so-called empowered committee? Ex-Servicemen also demand ?One Rank One Pension? Jalandhar: After the opposition of the report of 6th Pay Commission by all the three forces? Chiefs, Ex-servicemen of Punjab on Sunday held a protest rally here at War Memorial and demanded separate Pay Commission for the defence forces. ?Ex-Servicemen have no confidence in the so-called empowered committee, even if an odd person from the military is added to it. Only constitution of separate Pay Commission can resolve the anomalies in the pay commission?s report?, Brig K S Kahlon, president of the Ex-Servicemen Wing of ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) said while addressing the protestors. It was highly deplorable that in spite of Prime Minister?s assurance that armed forces would be suitably compensated and even instructed to appoint a special committee for the purpose, but on the contrary, Union Finance Minister P Chidambram category ruled out constitution of any separate pay commission for the defence forces. The government must constitute either a separate pay commission or an Armed Forces Pay Review Board (AFPRB), with a serving member each from the three services and one retired person among others to resolve the issue once for all, he demanded adding that the AFPRB should complete its task expeditiously to extend the financial relief to the armed forces at the earliest. Pay and pension Apart from constitution of separate pay commission, Ex-Servicemen also demanded ?One Rank One Pension?, as whenever pay and pension of service personnel are enhanced, older pensioners are left out in the cold, Lt Gen S S Sangra said. - PTI http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/28/stories/2008042852640300.htm Protest against cut in State?s rice quota Special Correspondent District panchayat terms move as unfair No justification, says district development panel Immediate restoration of quota sought Kozhikode: The reduction in the Centre?s rice quota meant for distribution through ration shops in the State has been condemned by the District panchayat and the District Development Committee. The District panchayat at its meeting demanded immediate restoration of the State?s share of rice from the Central pool. District panchayat Health standing committee chairman M. Radhakrishnan, who moved a motion raising this demand, said the slashing of the quota was unfair as the State was promised sufficient quantities of food grain way back in 1964 in view of the fact that large tracts of farm land had been used for growing cash crops that fetched valuable foreign exchange for the country. Breaking this promise, the State?s quota has been slashed by as much as 82 per cent while the quota of States like Andhra Pradesh, which produced food grains in excess, had been increased, the resolution said. The District Development Committee, at its meeting on Saturday, said in a resolution that there was no justification in reducing the quota when only 15 per cent of the requirement was produced locally. A resolution moved by George M. Thomas on the issue pointed out that only 17,000 tonnes of rice was available for the 49.51 lakh ration-card holders in the above poverty line (APL http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/05/14/20080514mr-librarians0515.html Librarians protest proposed cuts again 9 comments by Ray Parker - May. 14, 2008 12:12 PM The Arizona Republic Mesa Public School librarians and their supporters demonstrated again Tuesday over job cuts and what they called the "dumbing down" of services for students. Chants and placards welcomed passersby for an hour as 60 demonstrators marched before the regular school board meeting at district offices near Stapley and University drives. The district, facing $13 million in cuts to the budget, plans to move librarians back to the classroom and replace them with aides. The district also plans to replace some nurses and speech experts with aides and assistants over the next three years, saving an estimated $3 million. Protest organizer Ann Ewbank said she and others met with board president Rich Crandall and Superintendent Debra Duvall on Monday to voice concerns about the new plan. Ewbank said the new advocacy group, Fund Our Future Arizona, would propose alternative librarian models before the next Mesa school board meeting, May 27 . "I'm very positive about the reception from the board and the administration," Ewbank said. Mesa librarians and supporters first protested the cuts April 22, when they also launched a statewide petition in support of school libraries and information technology. They have gathered more than 1,200 signatures on the petition, which can be found at gopetition.com/online/18626.html. On Tuesday, protester and parent Denise Lubbock said the new librarian aides will not be professionals and that Mesa schools will deliver "dumbed-down services to students." "I know they have to cut back on the budget but this will affect student academics," she said. School districts across Arizona have been reducing library services in order to balance their budgets, including Creighton Elementary, Tempe Elementary, Tempe Union High School, Paradise Valley Unified, Humboldt Unified, Tucson Unified and Grand Canyon Unified. "The bottom line is this is a state funding issue," Ewbank said. "We want to work with legislators to dedicate funding specifically for school librarians." http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/regions/view/20080528-139391/Western-Visayas-labor-to-protest-P15-emergency-allowance Western Visayas labor to protest P15 emergency allowance By Carla Gomez Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 22:55:00 05/28/2008 BACOLOD CITY, Philippines -- The labor representatives on the regional wage board decried the granting of the P15 emergency relief allowance (ERA), calling the move as "anti-labor" and perpetuating misery among the workforce. Labor representatives Wennie Sancho and Hernane Braza filed their formal opposition to the new wage order of the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) in Western Visayas granting the P15 ERA, which would be given to workers from June 1 to October 15 only. "As a collective voice of labor, we vehemently oppose the issuance of Wage Order No. 16, by not affixing our signatures as a symbol of protest to this added form of injustice to the destitute workers. We cannot in conscience accept a wage order that is anti-labor," Sancho said in their consolidated workers' opposition. Sancho urged the members of wage board who voted for the granting of the P15 ERA to start looking at wage as an instrument of progress. Denying the workers their plea for a P50-wage increase would make the wage board "appear as a symbol of greed of capital instead of a collegium of men and women of wisdom," Sancho added. Braza said the partial implementation of the previous wage order "was immaterial" to another wage increase. RTWPB-8 chair Aida Estabillo earlier said the Wage Order No. 15 has to be fully implemented before they could deliberate on a new wage increase. Wage Order No. 16, which will take effect from June 1 to October 15, will peg the minimum wage in Region 6 from P208 to 250 per day, inclusive of the P15 ERA. Non-agriculture and retail/service establishment workers will receive between P240 to P250 daily while those in the agriculture sector will receive P208 to P218. Existing daily minimum wage rates in Western Visayas are set at P225 to 235 for non-agriculture workers, and P193 and P203 for non-plantation and plantation agriculture workers, respectively. Estabillo said the National Wages and Productivity Commission would have to decide on the opposition filed by the labor sector because the wage board could no longer revise its decision, Estabillo said. "Majority rules but we have to respect their (labor?s) opinion," she said. http://www.komonews.com/news/local/18783769.html Protesters march on WaMu's Seattle headquarters Protesters hold signs at the demonstration inside Washington Mutual's Seattle headquarters. Story Published: May 8, 2008 at 5:19 PM PDT Story Updated: May 8, 2008 at 5:40 PM PDT By KOMO Staff SEATTLE - As curious onlookers stared, housing protesters created a scene at Washington Mutual's headquarters in downtown Seattle. The demonstrators, aligned with a community action group called ACORN, claimed WaMu isn't doing enough to help cash-strapped families save their homes. It's a classic case of the little guy vs. corporate America. As the protesters marched into Washington Mutual's lobby, the didn't exactly get the red carpet treatment. "We find out that low-income people are not welcome in your establishment," ACORN President John Weber Jones told Washington Mutual's senior vice president as the group filled the lobby. The WaMu executive senior vice president greeted the crowd and instead of blocking the lobby, offered to meet one on one with customers who need help with their mortages. But ACORN's president wanted more. "We want the same commitment that you have to do redo those loans as you took to building the power of Washington Mutual," he told bank officials. Washington Mutual's Reza Aghamirzadeh said, "We've been in active dialogue with ACORN as recent as yesterday we were on the phone, and we will continue to have a dialogue to come up with solutions." As the demonstration continued, it drew a lot of curious stares from onlookers. Julio Santos is one Washington Mutual customer who joined the protest, because he's about to lose his house. "See the thing is, our income hasn't really gone higher but everything has gone higher," Santos said. "Seventy percent of my income is going into my mortgage." Santos is not alone in his predicament. Donna Dziak of the advocacy group Solid Ground says, "What we're finding is folks that have fairly steady employment but no safety net available to them." She and other experts say that homeowners should keep about three months worth of salary in a savings account in case they are hurt or ill and can't work. In the meantime, the city of Seattle is working on a proposal to give some families in need of that safety net about $5,000 to help them keep their homes. The Seattle City Council is tsking up the issue on Monday. And Washington Mutual did make good on their promise to take Julio Santos and a few others at the protest upstairs to meet with their experts to see if they can help them avoid foreclosure. http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=111648 Protests against power outages, water shortage Saturday, May 10, 2008 HYDERABAD: The residents of different localities of the city here on Friday staged demonstrations and blocked main roads of their respective areas against the water shortage and frequent power outages. The residents of Pinjra Poll staged a protest and blocked the road at the Pakistan Chowk to protest power outages and raised slogans against the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco). The enraged protestors complained that power supply to their locality remained suspended for several hours during the day. Later, the protestors also staged a protest outside the office concerned of Hesco and demanded immediate end to load-shedding in the area. Meanwhile, residents of Latifabad Unit-12 staged a protest against the water shortage in their area persisting for the last few days. They blocked the road and demanded of the authorities concerned to resolve their problem at the earliest. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/10/stories/2008051057680600.htm Parties protest against power cuts Special Correspondent VILLUPURAM: Activists of several political parties came together to stage a demonstration at the Kottakuppam town panchayat grounds near here on Friday, protesting frequent and unscheduled power cuts. The activists blamed the situation on the ?inefficient and indifferent officials of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board.? Members of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), Indian Union Muslim League, Pattali Makkal Katchi, Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, and Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam participated. Representatives of trading community and women?s organisations also took part. They said that power cuts were too frequent that they had become hamstrung to carry on the daily chores. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/28/stories/2008052851950300.htm Residents stage protest against erratic power supply Staff Correspondent Demand: The residents of Virajpet and members of the town panchayat staging a dharna in Madikeri on Tuesday. Madikeri: The residents of Virajpet, and members of the town panchayat led by president Kanti Belliappa, staged a dharna at the Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation (CESC) office here on Tuesday. They were protesting against the erratic power supply in Virajpet town. Kodagu district has had extended power cuts in the past eight days due to the 33 kV substation in Virajpet being upgraded to a 66 kV substation. Members of the panchayat alleged that the work had been launched without providing an alternative power line to Virajpet town. The Ramanathapuram-Ponnampet-Virajpet line has been shut down. The members alleged that there was no coordination between Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Ltd. (KPTCL), which is upgrading the station, and the CESC, which is in charge of power supply. The residents of Virajpet have been fending for themselves as there has been no supply of drinking water for eight days. According to the announced schedule, power cuts were to last four hours a day. However, often there is no power for more than 12 hours. The protesters demanded that the Executive Engineer of CESC, Kodagu, Venugopal, be present. K.G. Bopaiah, MLA, arrived at the spot in the morning to take stock of the situation. Mr. Bopaiah spoke to the CESC Managing Director and the Superintending Engineer to ascertain the situation. ?We have been suffering from power cuts for one and a half months. We met the Deputy Commissioner who warned the CESC, but to no avail,? Ms. Belliappa said. Ms. Belliappa said that if the problem was not solved within two days, the residents would not pay their electricity bills. Mr. Venugopal arrived on the scene later. He explained the gravity of the situation to the protesters and suggested that the panchayat switch off the high-mast lights in the town for some time. Mr. Bopaiah asked the panchayat to set up a diesel generator set to tide over the crisis. The agitation was called off later. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/21/stories/2008052151600300.htm Protest against hoarding Kozhikode: The workers of ?Kerala Janapaksham? staged a dharna, carrying ?empty bags,? in front of the Income Tax Office here on Tuesday in protest against rampant hoarding that causes a rise in prices of essential commodities. ? Staff Reporter http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=114811 Growers of Manehro Canal protest against water shortage Monday, May 26, 2008 By our correspondent NAWABSHAH: Growers cultivating their lands on the Manehro Canal on Sunday staged a protest against the Irrigation officials for allegedly creating an acute shortage of water in the canal. The growers were chanting slogans against the Irrigation engineer and his staff, accusing them of demanding bribe against their due share of the irrigation water. They alleged that the engineer and his staff had created artificial shortage of canal water because the growers could not pay them rupees two lacs as bribe money. The growers alleged that when they approached the engineer concerned and submitted their complaint regarding the shortage of canal water, he advised them to first meet his front man, who, according to the growers, demanded rupees two lac for opening the canal for eight days only. The growers demanded of the government to resolve the water shortage issue in the Manehro Canal. http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=362785 Communists protest against water and electricity shortage in Bihar ANI Saturday 24th May, 2008 Patna, May 24 : Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) activists disrupted traffic and set up road blockages with the help of burnt tyres and water containers in protest against the Bihar Government's inability to end the shortage of water and electricity across the state. Raising slogans against State Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the activists claimed that the general public has been suffering for almost a week, and inspite repeated written reminders, the State Administration had not budged to rectify what was an alarming situation. "It has been five days now since we have been suffering without water. As far as electricity is concerned, we just get one to two hours in a day. People here are facing a severe problem in so far as managing even a glass of water. We have written so many times to the administration of the Nitish Kumar Government, but nobody is taking any action," claimed Murtaza Ali, a CPI (ML) leader. Summer months have always brought misery to people across the country, particularly in Bihar. Power and water shortage hit several million households in the months of May and June. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/05/stories/2008060552320300.htm Residents protest for basic amenities Special Correspondent GULBARGA: Residents of Netaji Nagar in Dr. Navani Layout on the outskirts of Gulbarga city on Wednesday staged a demonstration outside the administrative office of the Gulbarga City Corporation against its ? indifferent attitude? in providing basic amenities. The protesters, who included women, came in a procession to the city corporation office submitted a memorandum to the corporation authorities. Approach road The memorandum said there was no concrete road to Netaji Nagar from Sai Temple. During the rainy season, people found it difficult to use the mud road. After several requests, the corporation authorities took up work on the approach road, but left it incomplete, it alleged. The residents said that although some streets and approach roads to Netaji Nagar had streetlights, not all of them were functional. Corporation authorities should initiate steps to replace the fused tubelights, they added. The memorandum said Netaji Nagar had so far not been included in the drinking water supply scheme of the city, and the people were dependent on borewells. But water from it was not fit for consumption. They urged the administration to ensure supply of water through tankers for the present. http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=512588 Man pitches tent on Capitol lawn to protest veto A Princeton man who narrowly avoided foreclosure has pitched a tent with his four young children on the Minnesota Capitol lawn to express his disappointment over a day-old veto. The bill that Governor Tim Pawlenty blocked Thursday would have helped borrowers with certain kinds of loans put off their home foreclosures. Their lenders would have had to delay action until they proved they made a good-faith effort to rework the loan terms. Steve Triebernig says he faced a Monday foreclosure until he recently went public with his hardship story. Now he's working on a new loan and expects to be able to keep his home. He says he's worried that others might not be as fortunate and he wants Pawlenty to explain to him face-to-face why he opposed the bill. Sponsors say they'll try to pass it again next year. Pawlenty says it would have allowed the government too much interference with existing private contracts. http://allafrica.com/stories/200806120504.html Nigeria: Ogoja, Okuku Residents Protest Power Outage Leadership (Abuja) 12 June 2008 Posted to the web 12 June 2008 Edem Edem Cross River Ogoja and Okuku residents in Cross River State have staged peaceful demonstration, apparently reacting to prolonged periods of living without electricity supply from the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN). The residents of the these areas while walking round some major streets vowed that they would not pay electricity bills any longer. The residents who reached the decision on Wednesday, June 4, sent young men on Okada with loudspeakers to announce to those who were not in the meeting that "no one should pay electricity bill again. Any one caught at the PHCN office in the name of paying bill would be fined N10, 000 along with the provision of a live goat". According to Sebastine Unyi, the Ogoja Youths president, "It is better to stay without electricity, after all in a month of thirty days, we cannot boast of having electricity for six hours. Is it then not better to save the money with which to pay PHCN and buy a generator?". The youths who threatened to gather all electricity bills for the months of May and burn them if PHCN went ahead to distribute them said it was meaningless to continue to pay the bills because it "amounts to encouraging PHCN to continue to defraud our people". At the PHCN office Ogoja, the Business Manager, G.N Bavure, was said to have gone to Abakaliki. A source said the fault was not that of Ogoja office of Power Holding Company but from the national electricity distributive office at Osogbo which has drastically reduced the amount of power supply to Ogoja. He said Osogbo does not supply power to Abakaliki, which supplies Ogoja, and without power supply from Abakaliki, there is nothing they can do. He displayed a memo from the distribution centre at Osogbo dated May 4 which called for limitation of power supply to all power stations across the country owing to "low gas supply to all our Thermal Stations, and low water supply level which is below 2000 level in our hydro station generators, the system is being constantly operated at alert state. This has called for drastic load allocation to all regions in order to sustain the system". The source said this situation has left Ogoja station with practically no electricity that accounts for the absence of power in the area. http://www.cfnews13.com/News/Local/2008/6/10/deltona_homeowners_protest_plans_for_new_safety_complex.html?refresh=1 Deltona Homeowners Protest Plans For New Safety Complex Wednesday, June 11, 2008 1:00:29 PM DELTONA -- City leaders said Tuesday that they wanted to build a multimillion dollar complex that would house multiple agencies on the spot of the existing safety complex, which only housed a fire department. "Plus it's going to house a new law enforcement center, whether it's a sheriff's office, or a police department," said city spokesman Lee Lopez. However, homeowners had a problem with the concept of a new police department because they never voted to have one. The city has been patrolled by Volusia County Sheriff's deputies. Homeowners said they also had a problem with emergency traffic in a residential area, plus a new city hall, when they did not need one -- issues they said needed to be discussed openly with voters. "Not behind closed doors. This needs to be discussed with the people," said Shirley Sneperger, a Deltona homeowner. The existing city hall was dedicated March 16, 2002, making the building just a little more than six years old. A spokesman with the city said the new safety complex would not house a new city hall. Commission chambers have been doubling as the city's Emergency Operations Center. "That's what they're going to relocate to the new safety complex, the Emergency Operations Center," Lopez said. Lopez said some city offices could also possibly be moved to the new complex eventually. Sneperger and her neighbors planned to pack commission chambers Tuesday night to make sure their voices were heard. Sneperger and other homeowners passed out leaflets over the weekend to try to get as many homeowners as they could into commission chambers for the city's commission meeting. http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0609/protest.html?rss Protest over Bord na M?na pensions Monday, 9 June 2008 14:35 More than 200 Bord na M?na pensioners protested at a function attended by Taoiseach Brian Cowen in Co Offaly this morning. They were demonstrating over a ?15m deficit in the semi-State peat company's superannuation scheme. Mr Cowen was in Tullamore attending the 13th International Peat Congress, a week-long event attended by 500 delegates from over 20 countries. Advertisement The pensioners from Offaly, Westmeath, Kildare, Laois and Longford protested outside the Tullamore Court Hotel. They are claiming that their pensions have lost 25% in value due to inflation over the last six years, and Bord na M?na has failed to invest in the scheme. The Taoiseach said the pensioners' dispute is a matter for Bord na M?na to resolve, but on leaving the conference he stopped and spoke to pensioners protesting at the entrance to the hotel. A spokesperson for the pensioners' group told RT? News that the Taoiseach had promised them that he would ask officials in his department to raise the issue with the company and try to expedite the matter. The Managing Director of Bord na M?na, Gabriel D'Arcy, has said the company is in the middle of reforming the two pension schemes it operates. Mr D'Arcy said it will honour losses made in the general employee superannuation scheme, but wants to meet with the pensioners who protested this morning. He said he was disappointed that the protest had taken place at an event that was not even organised by Bord na M?na, and that the pensioners had declined an invitation to meet with management of the company at lunchtime today. The pensioners said they had declined the invitation because the company had taken 10 weeks to respond to the last piece of correspondence sent to it. http://www.gmanews.tv/story/100130/Militants-hold-lights-out-protest-noise-barrage-in-QC Militants hold lights out protest, noise barrage in QC 06/09/2008 | 07:32 PM Email this | Email the Editor | Print | Digg this | Add to del.icio.us MANILA, Philippines - Militant groups held a 30-minute lights out protest and noise barrage Monday night to protest continued high electricity rates and the continued imposition of value-added tax on it. Radio dzBB's Rowena Salvacion reported that the protest started 7 p.m. Residents along Agham Road in San Roque village in Quezon City participated by turning off their lights and beating pots and pans. They called for the removal of the value added tax (VAT) on power and branded as useless the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA), which was passed in 2001. Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) secretary general Renato Reyes Jr, whose group led the event, said no amount of amendments to EPIRA can make it useful because the VAT is always there. Earlier, Bayan noted the "lights out" protest is the first of its kind this year. It added it expects more widespread protests in the future. "Organizers expect more widespread community based protests in the coming weeks as oil, power and rice prices go up," it said. - GMANews.TV http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20080609-141727/Leftwing-groups-stage-lights-out-protest-against-EPIRA Leftwing groups stage lights-out protest against EPIRA By Jeannette Andrade Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 23:28:00 06/09/2008 MANILA, Philippines -- Militants and residents of a squatter community in Quezon City participated in a lights-out rally to commemorate the 7th year of the passage of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) and to express their outrage over the high electricity rates. At exactly 7 p.m., darkness covered households along Agham Road in Sitio San Roque, Barangay (Village) Bagong Pag-asa in North Triangle, while members of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan and groups opposed to what they called unjustified electricity rates staged a noise barrage. The community is several meters away from the National Power Corp. Among their demands is the removal of the 12 percent Expanded Value-Added Tax (EVAT) on power rates charged to households and on oil. "It has been seven years since the EPIRA was enacted into law. The promises of lower rates have not been felt. The so-called benefits have not materialized. Because of the EPIRA, the power sector has somehow mutated into a complicated, profit-driven enterprise," the group BAYAN said in a statement. http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/news/index_view.php?id=317310 Prague to allot same sum to culture as in 2007 after protests Prague- The Prague culture organisations that this year received less money from the City Hall than last year will after audits get another subsidy to reach the 2007 level, Prague Mayor Pavel Bem and councillor for culture Milan Richter said today, after long disputes about the grant system. The additional funding is conditioned by an economic, personnel and organisational audit in the culture organisations that receive grants for several years. The city will also cancel the grant commission and will transform the current grant system. Bem and Richter (both Civic Democrats, ODS) also said that the transformation of Prague theatres, that now work as subsidised organisations, would be temporarily halted. A number of cultural personalities criticised the grant system as well as the transformation of municipal theatres and competitions for theatre directors and staged demonstrations against it. The protests by dissatisfied theatre artists culminated by the Days of Unrest in late May. The protesters were supported by former Czech president Vaclav Havel who called on voters not to support the ODS, which has dominated the City Hall for years, in the next elections. Bem also confirmed that the City Assembly would scrap the system of subsidies theatres receive according to the number of tickets sold. The system, recently launched by Richter, raised massive protests of theatre artists as it made no difference between commercial and non-profit theatres. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/08/stories/2008060855461200.htm Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram DCC to protest against water supply disruption Special Correspondent Thiruvananthapuram: The District Congress Committee which met here on Saturday decided to launch an agitation against the frequent disruption in water supply. DCC leaders accused the government of ?abject failure to find a permanent solution to the water crisis.? Alternative measures They said the administration could not come up with alternative measures even when large parts of the city were forced to go without water for days. They also protested against the alleged move by the LDF to sabotage a decision to name the proposed International Convention Centre at Aakulam after former President K.R. Narayanan. The meeting decided to organise family gatherings and public meetings next month to mobilise party machinery. DCC president V.S. Sivakumar presided over the meeting. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08180/893285-53.stm?cmpid=localstate.xml Group marches to protest mortgage foreclosures Saturday, June 28, 2008 By Dan Majors, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The 40 or so protesters marching through East Liberty yesterday morning traveled only five blocks. But they're hoping that the effort will be a step toward stopping the foreclosures that are throwing people out of their homes. The Allegheny County chapter of ACORN -- the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now -- used the case of a local family to draw attention to the plight of people in need of mortgage relief. ACORN members, wearing T-shirts and carrying signs, marched from the group's headquarters on Penn Avenue to a National City bank branch on North Highland Avenue and disrupted business there for about 10 minutes by blowing whistles and chanting "Criminal offenders, predatory lenders." The group peacefully dispersed when police arrived and asked the protesters to leave. No one was arrested. ACORN spokeswoman Jennifer England said National City bank was targeted on behalf of the family of steelworker Shawn Abbott, who faces losing his Ambridge home because he cannot make the escalating mortgage payments. "When he got the loan three years ago, it was an adjustable rate mortgage and they knew that and they were told it might go up," Ms. England said. "But they were also told it might go down. And they expected [any change] would be within a few percentage points." The mortgage loan -- taken out with First Franklin Bank, which was then owned by National City -- originally cost the Abbotts $340 a month. "Within three years, it's over $1,200 a month, not including taxes and fees," Ms. England said. "And he makes about $2,000 a month." Ms. England said "because National City owned First Franklin when a lot of these loans were made, they have an obligation to help these homeowners renegotiate the terms of their loans so they have fair loans and don't lose their homes." National City employees said they could not comment on the protest. Despite the Abbotts' failure to find a solution yesterday, Ms. England called the protest a success because it helped spread awareness of the problem -- and the work toward a solution. "It's not just this family, but many families like them," she said. "These are working people. They're not trying to get out of their loans. They have been put in a bad situation by a bank that has behaved fairly unethically." ACORN is a national nonprofit group that provides free counseling to low- and moderate-income home buyers. Ms. England said the local chapter's next effort will be a town hall meeting with Sheriff William P. Mullen at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Teamsters Temple at 4701 Butler St. in Lawrenceville. "We're going to ask Sheriff Mullen to stop foreclosures for six months on all owner-occupied homes so families have a chance to negotiate a settlement with their bank and save their homes," Ms. England said. "It doesn't help anybody when families are put out of their homes. It's actually bad for all the neighborhood. When houses are foreclosed upon, all the property values actually go down." Ms. England said ACORN representatives would be at the meeting to take information from homeowners seeking help with their mortgage payments. http://www.nbc30.com/news/16751775/detail.html?rss=har&psp=news Residents Protest Hartford Library Closures POSTED: 5:52 pm EDT June 30, 2008 UPDATED: 6:22 pm EDT June 30, 2008 HARTFORD, Conn. -- Dozens of area residents are protesting Monday over the library board's decision to close two Hartford Public Library branches. A crowd outside of one library said it is outraged the library board plans to close the Mark Twain branch and the Blue Hills branch, NBC 30 reported. Library officials said the closures are due to an $870,000 budget gap in the library system. The chief librarian said the closures are expected in a matter of days. Officials said the cost to keep the libraries running is about a $500,000. The board chair said they had hoped to get that money from the city, but last week the mayor encouraged the library to tap into its unrestricted endowment or reduce programming and hours around the system. Library officials said the endowment is restricted and that the other options won't work. "This neighborhood loves its library, needs its library, and we're just here gathering because we feel that it's ours and most importantly it's necessary for the children," said Hartford resident Susan Hood. The Hartford Public Library is sending a letter out to the community about the planned closures. They're also notifying the 40 workers who are expected to be laid off because of the budget gap. Library officials said system's adult learning program, teen services and immigration services will also be affected. http://www.indianmuslims.info/news/2008/jun/29/hindu_groups_protest_haj_house_construction_ghaziabad.html Hindu groups protest Haj House construction in Ghaziabad Submitted by Mudassir Rizwan on Sun, 06/29/2008 - 13:44. Indian Muslim By IANS, Ghaziabad : At least 11 activists of the Shiv Sena and Hindu Mahasabha were arrested here Sunday as they tried to disrupt work at the under construction Haj House, which is proposed to be a halting place for Haj pilgrims from Uttar Pradesh. The foundation stone of the Haj House, to be built on the banks of Hindon River here, was laid by then chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav March 30, 2005. Hindu groups led by the Bharatiya Janta Party, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Shiv Sena and Hindu Maha Sabha oppose the choice of the site saying that gas pipe lines of public sector companies pass below it. "Haj House would be a public place accessible to all types of people and since gas pipe lines to the filling stations are passing through the same place, a small spark could explode the whole thing," said Mahesh Ahuja, organizing secretary of Shiv Sena. The activists also alleged that the work was going on despite a Allahabad High Court's stay order. "When the court has stopped the construction activities then how is the work still being allowed on the site," asked Raj Kumar Tyagi, leader of Hindu Maha Sabha. But the police officials said the stay order has been vacated by the high court. Ghaziabad Superintendent Of Police Vijay Bhushan said: "There is no stay on the construction activities, we will not allow any one to disrupt work at the site." http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/general/water_cooler_moments/nonagenarians+river+protest/2301582?intcmp=rss_news_perspectives_water_cooler_moments Nonagenarian's river protest Print this page Last Modified: 26 Jun 2008 Source: PA News A 91-year-old was among flood victims who mounted a demonstration in a river with the level down in support of demands for urban flood defences. A year on from floods which caused ?5 million damage to homes and businesses in Pickering, North Yorkshire, pensioner Topsy Clinch, along with fellow flood victims Gordon Clitheroe and Kath Grayston, set up a living room in Pickering Beck. The protest happened at 10am next to the Beck Isle Museum which was one of 100 homes and businesses devastated by flooding a year ago. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/28/stories/2008062850970300.htm Kerala - Kozhikode Protest over delay in port development Staff Reporter KOZHIKODE: The Malabar Chamber of Commerce (MCC) will hold a mass dharna at the Beypore Port premises on June 30, to highlight the undue delay being experienced in the development of the major port in Malabar. K.P. Abubacker, secretary, MCC said people from all sections including trade union and Beypore Port Development Committee will participate in the protest programme. The Chamber pointed out that successive governments have failed to initiate measures for developing the port that was now in a pathetic state. Although it was decided to appoint a consultant more than a year back to prepare the project report for the port development scheme, it was only a few days back that the consultant was appointed. Three cranes in use at Beypore were more than 40 years old though the effective usage of a crane was limited to 20 years. Of the two tugs at the port, one was not operational. While the prescribed depth of the port channel was 12 metres, in Beypore it was only three metres deep. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/28/stories/2008062858470300.htm Tamil Nadu - Tuticorin Novel protest to draw attention Staff Reporter Tuticorin: Members of the Democratic Youth Federation of India staged a novel demonstration here on Friday. They had asked the municipal administration to plug a leak in the drinking water pipe line at Thimmayar Colony a few days ago. Owing to the leak, water had been stagnating on the road and caused hardship to residents. Though they lodged a complaint with the officials concerned many times, their grievance remained unanswered. The DYFI men washed clothes in the stagnant water to register their protest. M. S. Muthu, district secretary, led the agitation. http://www.kirotv.com/news/16674872/detail.html?rss=sea&psp=news Neighbors Set Up Camp To Protest Paragliders Some neighbors along Issaquah-Hobart Road staged a protest of sorts Friday night against paragliders who they say are taking over a county park and making traffic conditions dangerous. For years, local paragliders have launched from Tiger Mountain and have landed at a county park just below. The group set up lawn chairs and tables to prove a point and they said about the impact paragliders have on the park. "It looks like they've taken it over and it?s hard for anybody else to use the park," said demonstrator Leeanna Hayes. Hayes' big concern is parking and congestion. There aren?t many spaces in the lot, so people often park along Issaquah-Hobart Road and Hayes said that creates dangerous conditions. As part of her demonstration, Hayes parked six of her family's cars in the lot. Marc Chirico is a leader in the paragliding community and runs an outfitting company. He said paragliders act as stewards of the park by providing port potties and a dumpster and taking out the trash. Chirico said paragliders are also concerned about parking and even asked no parking signs to be put up to make the road safer. Chirico guesses half of the cars here are usually hikers, especially earlier in the day. ?I would suggest that the majority of the public usage is hikers,? said Chirico. King County Parks Director Kevin Brown said he hadn't heard about the complaints from neighbors until the last couple of days. He said the county has a longstanding good relationship with the paragliders and that there are thousands of acres of public land around here for all kinds of uses. Hayes has no relation to the Hayes Nursery near the park. http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/community/s/1055135_protest_against_po_closure?rss=yes Protest against P.O. closure Don Frame 23/ 6/2008 A MASSIVE campaign has been launched to try and save a local post office in Levenshulme from closure. The post office in Barlow Road has been earmarked for closure under government plans to axe 67 of 380 branches in Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Derbyshire. Residents turned out with banners and placards at the weekend to stage a demonstration outside the premises and vowed to fight on until the very end. A petition has been raised which has already been signed by more than 700 local people, and Liberal Democrats on Manchester City Council have pledged their support to the cause. Pat Walsh 46, a spokesman for Friends of Levenshulme said: "People are furious that the post office has been targeted for closure. "It is a local facility, and it is going to be incredibly difficult for older and disabled people, if it does shut. The nearest alternative according to the post office itself is 15 minutes away, which is too far to walk for many people, and there is no direct bus route." He said: "I'm incredibly angry at what is being proposed - particularly when it has just been revealed that the head of the Post Office is now being paid ?3 million for running the business.. "This is just part of the decline of local mail services. We are down to one postal delivery a day, which can come at any time, and it can never even be guaranteed to arrive the next day. "Local post offices deal with a whole host of services on which local people rely. A lot more money should be invested in the service, rather than closing them down." Residents are planning to tackle local Labour MP Gerald Kaufman about the plan next weekend, and his spokesman Julie Reid, who was at the demo said: "He's furious about it, and plans to give his full support to the residents' case." Local Liberal Democrat councillor Charles Glover said: "This is an incredibly well-used business dealing with in excess of 1,000 transactions per week. "It serves around 21,000 people in the community, and new housing is underway which will bring it even more custom. It's madness to close it." Bitter end He said: "We have written to around 3000 homes in the area about the plans, and we are determined to fight until the bitter end." Pensioners Dorothy Trail and Nancy Smith, both 79, have been using the Barlow Road Post Office for decades and say they can't imagine life without it. Dorothy, who was born a few hundred yards away, and has lived in the community all her life, said: "We feel absolutely devastated. "We wouldn't be able to use the nearest alternative post office on Levenshulme Road, because it's too far away. They say it's just over half a mile, but that must be as the crow flies." Nancy, who has mobility problems and walks with a stick, said: "We use the Post Office for so many different reasons, and it will leave a huge gap if it closes. "It's not just the business side of things however. The post office is the hub of the community where people naturally meet and have a chat about what's going on." Nasreen Choudhary, a trainee counter clerk at the post office said: "It would be a real shame if it closed. Older people in particular love coming here, and we provide a vital service. "We talk to a lot of elderly people who have been coming here for years and years. They depend on us, and would find it difficult to find the same facilities elsewhere." The planned 67 Post Office closures include 11 in Stockport, eight in Oldham, five in Manchester, seven in Bolton, five in Bury, seven in Rochdale, three in Salford, six in Tameside, three in Trafford and one in Wigan. Two weeks ago Greater Manchester's four Liberal Democrat MP's launched a petition outside Spring Gardens Post Office in the city centre - Mark Hunter (Cheadle), John Leech (Withington), Paul Rowen (Rochdale) and Andrew Stunell (Hazel Grove.) Manchester council says it recognises the vital role played by local post offices as supported by research it commissioned from the New Economics Foundation. A spokesman said: "The report demonstrated the social and economic contribution which urban post offices make. It provided robust evidence that showed the significant knock-on impacts of closures for local businesses, schools, community groups, the local economy and for local people - particularly the most vulnerable. "The loss of a post office can trigger a downward cycle in urban areas. The danger is that when amenities like the post office or banking facilities disappear from a community, the financially mobile are more likely to leave, leaving higher concentrations of deprivations, which can in turn lead to further loss of amenities." http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/07/stories/2008070759050400.htm Tamil Nadu Pallavaram residents protest late arrival of Aavin milk truck Special Correspondent TAMBARAM: Sore over the delay in the arrival of trucks bringing Aavin milk packets, residents of Pallavaram staged a protest blocking the vehicle on Sunday morning. The truck carrying milk normally reaches the distribution point on Dargah Road at 5 a.m. everyday. Residents complained that it had been regularly coming late by more than an hour. When the vehicle arrived at 7 a.m. on Sunday, the residents blocked its way it and refused to buy the milk packets as a mark of protest. Senior officials from Aavin and the Police Department intervened and dispersed the residents. The Aavin officials said the vehicle reached the distribution point in Pallavaram late on two occasions last week owing to the problems created by diesel shortage across the city. And early on Sunday morning, the regular truck carrying the milk packets to Pallavaram broke down. They had to arrange a spare vehicle and hence the delay, the officials said. A total of 900 litres of Aavin milk were brought back without being distributed to the residents, they said. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/08/stories/2008070853030300.htm Delay in project Residents of Hulikeri village in Dharwad taluk staged another demonstration in Dharwad on Monday protesting against the delay in the development of Indiramma Tank in the village, which could irrigate around seven to eight adjacent villages. They also said that they had been deprived of the benefits of the debt waiver scheme of the Central Government and demanded that appropriate amendments in the guidelines of the scheme so that they got relief. BPL cards The main issue for the protest by Republic Party of India (RPI) was the delay in the issue of BPL ration cards. Led by president of the women?s wing of city unit of the party, the protestors complained that the delay was causing hardships to the public, especially the poor and demanded issue of BPL cards at the earliest. After staging a demonstration before the Deputy Commissioner?s office, they submitted a memorandum addressed to the Chief Minister. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/08/stories/2008070851130300.htm Andhra Pradesh - Kadapa CPI protest KADAPA: CPI activists on Monday besieged the Municipal Corporation office demanding Indiramma scheme benefit for the deserving poor. ?Staff Reporter http://allafrica.com/stories/200807080015.html Somalia: IDPs Stage Protest in Puntland Garowe Online (Garowe) 7 July 2008 Posted to the web 8 July 2008 Hundreds of protestors gathered in front of the main government building in the port city of Bossaso, in northern Somalia' s region of Puntland, Radio Garowe reported Monday. The protestors were mostly composed of internally displaced peoples who fled war in south Somalia. One of the protest organizers said they were demonstrating against food aid that was "distributed unfairly" and also against hyperinflation, which he accused the Puntland government of involvement. The demonstrators marched in front of the money changer offices in Bossaso, where local police fired gunshots in the air and dispersed the crowd. There were reports of some arrests. Meanwhile, Puntland President Mohamud "Adde" Muse arrived in the city of Galkayo, the capital of Mudug region and Puntland's southernmost town. The Puntland leader was welcomed by Galkayo regional and city officials, as well as local supporters. He reportedly held private meetings with local officials and traditional elders, with the talks centered on improving security. President Muse's trip to Galkayo was not previously announced, with insiders suggesting the visit was hidden for security-related reasons. In recent weeks, there have been deadly car bombings and assassinations in Galkayo, prompting city officials to enact a nighttime curfew last week. http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1056490_barefoot_post_office_protest?rss=yes Barefoot post office protest 3/ 7/2008 CAMPAIGNERS are to go barefoot in a bid to save their post office - with a protest march through the pain barrier. The demonstrators are trying to highlight the suffering they say the closure of Buersil Post Office in Rochdale will inflict on its elderly customers. The office is one of 67 in Manchester, Cheshire and Derbyshire earmarked for closure by the government. Marchers will discard their shoes and socks tomorrow for their walk from the Buersil office to the nearest alternative branch, more than a mile away. Organisers say they are expecting a big turnout after more than 150 people packed a public meeting on the issue. They will hear an update on the campaign from postmaster Jay Patel. Jay hit the headlines in 2006 alongside his father Kantilal, 64, after the pair tackled gunmen during a raid at their now-threatened business. He said: "The reason for walking barefooted is to reflect the hardship that many of my elderly customers will have to go through to get to the nearest alternative, which is at Lowerplace, on Oldham Road. "This will be a peaceful march - and we'll toe the legal line. If we close, then it will be another nail in the coffin of vital community services." The march is being backed by the town's MP, Paul Rowen, who has written to the Post Office asking for `clarification' over their reasons for closure. Mr Rowen said: "Petitions are coming in every day and we appreciate the support that we are receiving. Many of our most vulnerable residents will experience particular hardship with these suggested closures. "That is why this march is an extremely imaginative idea and will give participants some idea of the problems faced by customers." The march, which starts at 1pm tomorrow, comes on the same day a government minister faces a grilling over the planned closures. Oldham East and Saddleworth MP Phil Woolas will face a question-and-answer session at Lees Library - a stone's throw from the village's threatened post office. His constituency is home to eight post offices earmarked for closure. But the minister, whose brother runs a post office in Cumbria, says he is to create a dossier of evidence in a bid to save some of them. http://www.workers.org/2008/us/homeless_0710/ LGBT & straight protest NY mayor?s homeless policies Published Jul 2, 2008 10:09 PM Members of Picture the Homeless and the Radical Homosexual Agenda joined forces on June 24 for a protest at the Gracie Mansion where billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg was hosting a dinner and reception in honor of LGBT Pride Month. The date of the event was the fourth anniversary of Bloomberg?s Five-Year Plan on Homelessness. Protesters chanted, ?Homeless people, straight and gay, we need housing right away!? An e-mail from the Radical Homosexual Agenda posted on progressive LGBT listserve describes Bloomberg?s program: ?In 2004, he had promised that his policies of privatization would drastically reduce homelessness in New York City within five years. But on this, the four-year mark of his program, the number of homeless people remains extremely high.... In fact, shelters are so full?approximately 34,000 people a night at last count?they?re turning people away.... ?Mayor Bloomberg could learn a lot from Picture the Homeless if he sat down to talk with them. Recently, PTH worked with Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer to conduct a survey of the city?they found that there are more than enough empty buildings to house each and every homeless person in New York. PTH advocates not only opening these buildings for housing, but also shifting Department of Homeless Service budgets from shelters to rent assistance.? Despite the event being billed as an LGBT pride reception, RHA reports their queer delegates were turned away from Gracie Mansion when they attempted to attend the dinner. They urge people to get involved by visiting www.picturethehomeless.org or www.homelessyouthservices.org, a Web site listing services for homeless LGBT youth. ?LeiLani Dowell Articles copyright 1995-2008 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/metro/view/20080718-149224/Militants-stage-protest-at-SSS-in-Quezon-City Militants stage protest at SSS in Quezon City INQUIRER.net First Posted 11:40:00 07/18/2008 MANILA, Philippines -- Militants protested in front of the Social Security System building in Quezon City Friday against the government?s national social welfare program for the poor, a radio report said. The activists managed to vandalize the walls of the SSS building before they could be stopped by security, footage on ABS-CBN?s Teleradyo showed. They also protested the takeover of Commission on Higher Education chairman Romulo Neri as head of SSS in August. Neri, who was former socioeconomic planning secretary of the National Economic Development Authority, has been criticized for refusing to implicate President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the allegedly anomalous national broadband network (NBN) agreement forged with a Chinese telecommunications firm. Neri?s move to SSS has been opposed by various sectors. http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews/stories/wfaa080718_wz_weatherfordpower.69fa97c1.html Weatherford residents protest power price surge 01:27 PM CDT on Friday, July 18, 2008 By JIM DOUGLAS / WFAA-TV Video WEATHERFORD ? Residents of Weatherford are up-in-arms about the high price of power from their city-owned utility company. Rates went up 40 percent after the city switched to electricity generated by natural gas. Weatherford Electric blames power cost adjustment charges, which are necessary to cover the cost of buying natural gas and other fuels. Angry citizens crowded a meeting of the Weatherford Utility Board at City Hall Friday afternoon to ask questions and to file complaints. Many are now facing tough decisions about how to allocate their paycheck for the necessities of life: groceries, medicine and power. "If I'm in a two-income family, and I'm worried about being able to pay my electric bill, what about the disabled who are on a fixed income?" asked Weatheford Electric customer Paige Grassman, whose bill went up $250 in a single month. "I didn't see Social Security giving anybody a raise this month," Grassman said. "What about the elderly people who are already choosing between medicine and electricity as it is now? What are they going to do?" http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=125084 Homeless people stage protest rally Saturday, July 19, 2008 Noor Aftab Islamabad A large number of homeless people held a protest rally here Friday with an aim to highlight their plight and sufferings and press the government to take immediate steps to help them lead an honourable life. The participants of the rally including women, children, and even handicapped and ailing people were carrying placards and banners inscribed with their demand for a respectable living. They also chanted slogans for early implementation of the scheme announced by the prime minister to allot a plot to every homeless person in the country. Former federal minister Julius Salik led the protest rally that started from Rawalpindi-Islamabad Press Club (Camp Office) and culminated at the Melody Chowk where speakers addressed the gathering. J. Salik while speaking on the occasion said he has been struggling for the cause of shelterless people and marginalised segments of the society in order to prevent them from taking extreme steps like committing suicides and selling their children and even their kidneys to make their both ends meet. Condemning the attitude of the bureaucrats and politicians he said these people were living a luxurious life in their palaces and bungalows and the poor people who despite paying taxes were left with no option but to suffer each and every moment of their life. He alleged that the aid provided by foreign donors were usually spent in the schemes that could benefit the elite segments but the poor masses were yearning for flour, ghee and electricity. ?Hundreds of thousands of people were compelled to live in inhuman and shameful conditions as they lacked the basic human facilities like clean drinking water, electricity, sanitation and sewerage,? he said. J. Salik expressed his disappointment over the non-representation of minorities in the Parliament which has been a source of serious concern and resentment amongst the minority groups. http://www.beloblog.com/ProJo_Blogs/newsblog/archives/2008/07/rally_planned_t.html July 1, 2008 Rally in Central Falls planned to protest budget cuts CENTRAL FALLS -- Several community groups will gather in Central Falls this afternoon to protest millions of dollars in budget cuts that take effect today, the first day of the state's fiscal year. The rally, which is being organized by the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless, starts at 2 p.m. Speakers will include adults slated to lose health care coverage, welfare recipients who will be subject to tighten time limits, and representatives from nonprofit groups whose state funding was cut in half in the state budget approved by the General Assembly and signed by the governor late last month. Seeking to close a $425-million budget deficit, lawmakers cut in half state funding for programs such as Meals on Wheels, the Rhode Island Community Food Bank and the Crossroads homeless shelter. -- Steve Peoples, Journal State House Bureau http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/02/stories/2008070250750300.htm Tamil Nadu AIADMK protests ?maladministration? Staff Reporter Says local body has failed to provide basic amenities Photo: N. Bashkaran United: All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam activists staging a demonstration in front of the Krishnagiri Municipality on Tuesday. ? Krishnagiri: All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) staged a demonstration on Gandhi Road here on Tuesday in protest against the ?maladminstration of Krishnagiri Municipality.? M. Thambidurai, MLA, led the demonstration. He alleged that the local body had failed to implement development works and it was evident from the battered roads and overflowing drainages within the municipal limits. The municipal authorities were deliberately creating problems in wards from which AIADMK councillors were elected.District secretary Thennarasu was among those who were present. http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Squash-courts-will-go-warn.4288099.jp Squash courts will go warn protesters SAVE Meadowbank campaigners warn that the squash courts at the city's sports facility will be lost when the current centre is demolished. They claim thousands of people will disagree with the city council's plans not to include squash courts in the new "mini-Meadowbank". Save Meadowbank spokesman Kevin Connor said: "Squash is not part of the council's plan for mini-Meadowbank. "It's one of many sports the council has decided not to provide. Thousands of people disagree with this council vision. "We call on the council to listen to what their citizens are telling them and retain the entire Meadowbank site for sports use." Mark Wishart, who has been playing squash for two decades says there are not enough courts at the centre as it is. He added: "When I asked what other council courts are available I was directed to Craiglockhart. "But they told me their courts are now closed and are expected to remain so for at least a year. "Two squash courts for a city the size of Edinburgh is simply ridiculous." The Save Meadowbank campaign, which was formed in March last year, was set up to oppose plans to demolish the current stadium and sell off land to private developers. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/2008/jul/15/mangelwurzels.protest?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront Ancient chant sung to save post office Somerset villagers carrying mangelwurzel lanterns visited No 10 Downing Street to protest against the closure of rural post offices http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2008/07/18/2003417786 ?Youth Anti-Debt Alliance? protests bill By Loa Iok-Sin STAFF REPORTER Friday, Jul 18, 2008, Page 3 Various civic groups forming the ?Youth Anti-Debt Alliance? voiced their concern yesterday, claiming that the new labor insurance system may cause a ?financial black hole? and damage their right to collect payments when they retire. Under the new system, the monthly labor insurance premium will be raised year by year from 7.5 percent of an employee?s monthly salary to 13 percent. The insurance payment collection mechanism will also change from a single lump sum payment to a series of monthly payments after retirement at the age of 65. ?The new plan means that the younger you are, the more you have to pay,? Vincent Chou (???), chairman of the Taiwan Young Democratic Union, told a news conference at the legislature. ?For example, I was born in the 1970s, I started working at 25, and when I reach my legal retirement age of 65, I will have paid NT$1.46 million [US$48,000],? he said. ?Under the same set of circumstances, someone who is born in the 1980s will have paid NT$1.69 million, while my son, who is only 13 months old, will be paying a total of NT$1.83 million.? However, there is no guarantee that an insured individual will be able to collect the payment after he or she retires. ?Under the old labor insurance plan which allows someone to collect a one-time payment after he or she retires, someone who makes NT$30,000 [US$990] per month will be collecting a total of NT$1.4 million,? said Lee Huai-jen (???), a spokesman for the anti-debt alliance. ?However, under the new system which allows one to collect the payment monthly, the longer you live, the more you would collect,? he said. ?So for one who makes NT$30,000 a month, retires at 65 and lives until 78 ? the average life expectancy ? he or she will be collecting a total of around NT$2 million instead.? Lee said that a ?financial black hole? would thus be created. The group?s worries are not baseless. The Council of Labor Affairs admitted that, under the new plan, the labor insurance program may be broke within 19 years. ?What we need is inside-out labor insurance reform,? said Huang Yi-ling (???), a member of the alliance. ?Under the new plan, we don?t see any economic security for our old age.? Taiwan Labor Front (TLF), on the other hand, yesterday praised the adoption of the new labor insurance pension system. TLF secretary-general Son Yu-lian (???) said in a statement that he believed a pension system, rather than a one-time insurance payment collection ?could better take care of laborers? life in retirement,? while also pointing out some ideas for improvement. ?We expect that further amendments will require all workers ? regardless of occupation ? to be included in the labor insurance pension system,? he said. ?And the options laborers have vis-a-vis the labor pension and the national pension systems must be explained to them so that they can make an informed decision,? Son said. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2008/07/14/atlanta_fire_station_protest.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=13 Mayor booed as Atlanta's oldest fire station is closed By ERIC STIRGUS The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 07/14/08 It was supposed to be a solemn ceremony to say farewell to Atlanta's oldest fire station. Instead, it was overshadowed by a verbal confrontation between Mayor Shirley Franklin and about a dozen demonstrators who did not want Fire Station 7 closed. "This is wrong!" the protesters chanted, prompting the mayor to stop her remarks. "This is the best we can do under a bizarre set of circumstances," Franklin said amid boos and name-calling. At one point, Franklin left the podium and confronted the protesters, who peppered the mayor with questions about why she was closing the station, located in the West End neighborhood. One man holding an infant yelled that the city was endangering area children, insisting response times to fires will slow. "We're not proud right now," said community activist Deborah Scott, taking a page from Franklin's campaign slogan "If you make me mayor, I'll make you proud." "I'm not proud of the way you are behaving," the mayor replied as about three dozen firefighters and paramedics watched. Franklin announced Friday that she was closing the fire station as part of a plan to plug a $14.6 million budget gap. The mayor also laid off 78 city workers and left vacant 112 positions, including 53 for sworn police officers. In all, the cuts totaled $21.6 million, which is $7 million more than the City Council recommended the mayor trim from the city's $583 million budget for the fiscal year that started July 1. Council members, such as Ceasar Mitchell, said Monday that Franklin should have considered employee buyouts and eliminating more vacant positions instead of the job cuts. The mayor says the council "punted" the task of making the cuts to her and insists her budget-balancing plan of raising property taxes would have avoided the job cuts. Franklin laid off 441 city workers and eliminated 788 vacancies earlier this year to help fill Atlanta's $140 million projected budget shortfall. Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran reiterated Monday that response times would not slow in the West End, noting there are four fire stations within three miles of Fire Station 7. The chief said he recommended closing the station after a response time analysis showed it could best withstand being shuttered. Cochran said the city may reopen the station if and when Atlanta's budget situation improves. The firefighters who worked there were transferred to other stations. Community leaders and residents eulogized the cream-colored, two-story building as the place they visited to get blood-pressure screenings or learned how to install child-safety seats. They had recently begun an effort to raise money to fix the station house, with its ceiling cracks and worn furniture. Merry Ford, who works at the nearby West End Medical Clinic, stood among the crowd Monday, worrying if it will take paramedics longer to get to the patients they treat. "It's not minutes that count," she said. "It's seconds." Amid the shouting, the firefighters said goodbye to the station. They read a eulogy about the lives they saved and the difficulty of leaving. They prayed, recited the pledge of allegiance climbed into their trucks and then drove away to waves from the crowd. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2008/07/24/fire_station_rally.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=13 Protesters will demand that fire station re-open By KEN SUGIURA The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 07/24/08 Leaders in the Summerhill neighborhood near Turner Field will hold a rally tonight (Thursday July 24) to call for the re-opening of Fire Station 7 in the West End. The rally will be at 5 p.m. in front of the Ormond Street home of Summerhill activist Mattie Jackson, whose home burned down last Friday. Atlanta's oldest fire house was closed earlier this month to help the city meet its $14.6 million budget shortfall. Douglas Dean, president of the Summerhill Neighborhood Development Corporation, said he is calling on Mayor Shirley Franklin and the City Council to work to restore police and fire department funding that has been cut to meet the budget. Atlanta Fire Department investigators said that the fire, which started at a house under construction next to Jackson's and damaged a total of five houses, was started by arson. Jackson, 86, had lived in the home for 42 years. Said Gary Lamb, a neighbor of Jackson's, "7" would have gotten here a lot quicker." The fire department said that fire engines were dispatched at 5:26 and reached the scene at 5:30. A fund to assist Jackson has been set up. Donors can go to any Bank of America branch and can make contributions to the Mattie A. Jackson Contribution Fund. A bank spokeswoman said that donors must also specify that the fund is based in Georgia. Said Dean, ???White and black, rich and poor, people are coming from everywhere??? to help Jackson. http://www.wsbtv.com/news/16881305/detail.html?rss=atl&psp=news Atlanta Mayor In Loud Shouting Match With Fire Station Protesters Mayor Tells Angry Crowd: 'You've Never Seen The Philadelphia Side Of Me' POSTED: 5:24 pm EDT July 14, 2008 UPDATED: 6:41 pm EDT July 14, 2008 ATLANTA -- Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin was less than a minute into her speech at the official closing ceremony of one of the city?s oldest fire stations when she was booed and shouted down by protesters. ?I decided it was important for me to come as the mayor of this city to add my thanks to those who have served at station number seven,? said Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin. One protester yelled ?What about the children?? while others chanted ?Save Number Seven.? Many protesters believe closing the station, located on Whitehall Street in southwest Atlanta, will put residents at risk and possibly create a delayed response time for emergencies. ?Now you know what?s going to happen, these ladies and gentlemen have never seen the Philadelphia side of me; I?m going to come over there and have the conversation,? said Franklin to the crowd of angry protesters. WATCH: Atlanta Mayor Goes Head To Head With Angry Crowd But the crowd wasn?t in a mood to talk. ?Why fire station seven; why this community?? said a protester. ?This is wrong!? ?The easy thing for me to do was not to come. I chose to come because I understand your frustration. I am disappointed we don?t have all the funds we need too,? said Franklin. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/15/stories/2008071551990300.htm Andhra Pradesh Protest rally by Girijans CHITTOOR: Members of the District Girijan Association took out a rally here on Monday in protest against the indifferent attitude of the government in providing basic facilities in their villages. The members sought street lights, drinking water and roads besides sanctioning house site pattas and construction of houses. They later submitted a memorandum to district Collector M. Ravi Chandra, who promised to look into their demands.- Correspondent http://en.epochtimes.com/news/8-7-9/73172.html World Trade Center Crowd Protest Firing of 9/11 Official By Shaoshao Chen Epoch Times New York StaffJul 09, 2008 Congressman Jerrold Nadler at a press conference in New York. Congressman Nadler spoke out against the departure of John Howard, director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. (The Epoch Times) NEW YORK?A group of sick and injured World Trade Center responders, members of Congress, and the governor are up in arms over the departure of a federally appointed bureaucrat. As the final date for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Director John Howard's departure draws near, the chorus of voices calling for his reappointment is growing. At the heart of the controversy is the shock over Howard's departure after six years of serving as the director of NIOSH. He has been lauded for his federally funded health plans for workers claiming to suffer illness after the 9/11 terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center site. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) gathered at the site of the World Trade Centers on July 8 to demand the return of Howard, whose current term is set to end on July 14. "One of the few Administration officials working on 9/11 health issues has been fired," said Nadler. Howard's policies have been known to clash with the Bush administration's worker's health plan. The conflict is rumored to be a main reason for his sudden departure, and inquiries have been made by organizations such as the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) over the issue. "Dr. John Howard has been instrumental in unleashing a wealth of talent at NIOSH and helping bring together the research and educational resources of NIOSH," wrote the ASSE in a statement. "We do not know why such a highly competent leader and administrator of an agency?should not be reappointed." In the press conference at the WTC site, both Nadler and Maloney raised similar questions and lambasted the Bush administration's role in terminating Howard's position. "The Bush Administration?and in particular the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention?has made a grave mistake in its decision not to reappoint Dr. Howard," said Nadler, who accuses the president of refusing to take action in health issues involving 9/11 initial responders. In a separate letter written on Tuesday to the Secretary of U.S. Department of Health and Services, New York senators Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton raised similar questions. "Failing to maintain [Howard's] leadership at NIOSH will unnecessarily jeopardize the currently existing 9/11 health programs," stated the letter. In a public statement announcing Howard's departure as director, CDC director Julie Gerberding said there will be a temporary replacement until a new director is located. The statement however, fails to offer any further explanation. Advocates for 9/11 health plans fear that Howard's departure may jeopardize future funding for treatment of sick workers. http://en.rian.ru/world/20080710/113709905.html Protesters unleash cockroaches on local authorities in Madrid 18:16|10/ 07/ 2008 MADRID, July 10 (RIA Novosti) - Residents of a low-rent district in southern Madrid have released cockroaches near a local government building to protest against poor sanitation, Spain's ABC paper reported on its website Thursday. Dozens of residents from the Orcasitas district held a march to protest against the inaction of local authorities, who have failed to improve sanitation in the district. The residents say the area is swamped by cockroaches and rodents. The paper said most protestors had brought containers of cockroaches and let the insects go near the municipal building when officials came out for talks. The Orcasitas district developed in the late 1950s and was first inhabited by poor people, who had relocated from southern Spain in search of jobs. The district has also become home to impoverished Latin Americans and North Americans in the past few years. Neighborhood associations have been active in the district since the 1960s. They have been pressurizing the local administration to improve living standards. http://interestalert.com/story/07110004aaa03356.prn/siteia/POLITICS/politics.html Activists Converge on McCain HQ to Protest Campaign's Ties to Buyout Industry Protest Part of Global Day of Action to Take Back the Economy ARLINGTON, Va., July 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Activists concerned about the ties between Sen. John McCain and the private equity buyout industry will converge on his northern Virginia headquarters Thursday, July 17, at 11 a.m. Protestors, noting that Sen. McCain's self-proclaimed favorite band is Abba, plan on serenading the campaign staff with the Loophole King, a parody of Abba's classic hit the Dancing Queen. An SEIU online video promoting the day of action and featuring Godzilla taking on McCain for his links to the industry can be viewed at www.July17action.org. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/31/stories/2008073153290300.htm Other States - Puducherry NCP to stage protest PUDUCHERRY: President of the Puducherry unit of the Nationalist Congress Party on Wednesday said that the party activists would hold street-corner meetings from August 5 to 8 in protest against the government?s ?failure? to implement welfare and development schemes. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/30/stories/2008073060470500.htm Tamil Nadu - Chennai Youth Forum holds protest meeting Staff Reporter CHENNAI: The Kotturpuram Youth Forum organised a meeting recently to protest the Chennai Corporation?s proposal to convert the Corporation playground located on Kotturpuram Gardens 1st Cross Street, Kotturpuram, into a park. The members of the forum said that the playground popularly called the ?ABCD Park? is the only space available for the children and youth to play in the locality and wanted the civic agency to abandon the plan. R. Ganesh Krish, secretary of the forum, said that the children in Kotturpuram Gardens, which consists of five streets, have only one playground and the move to develop a park did not make sense, as the locality already has a few parks. The members of the forum alleged that the civic agency had not been coming out with details of what it proposed to do about the indoor stadium, which was closed for the public in 2006. When the residents enquired with the civic agency about the reason for closing down the indoor stadium, equipped with a badminton court, the authorities said that the badminton court was to be renovated. But suddenly the authorities announced that a portion of the stadium was allotted to women?s self- help group in the locality, the forum alleged. The indoor stadium constructed at the cost of Rs. 40 lakh from MP?s Local Area Development Fund and inaugurated by the then Mayor, M.K. Stalin, in 2001 needs to be renovated, the forum members said. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/30/stories/2008073054970800.htm Karnataka - Bangalore Anganwadi workers stage protest Staff Repoter BANGALORE: Over 100 anganwadi workers staged a protest in front of Mahatma Gandhi statue here urging the Government to withdraw its decision on privatising distribution of food under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS). Speaking to The Hindu, the president of the Karnataka State Samyuktha Anganwadi Workers? Association, K. Somashekhar, said that anganwadi workers were poorly paid. He said a monthly honorarium of only Rs. 1,000 and Rs. 500 are given to an anganwadi worker and her assistant, respectively. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/30/stories/2008073053450300.htm Karnataka Unemployed graduates to stage protests Staff Correspondent DAVANGERE: The Unemployed Graduates? Forum has decided to stage protests across the State against the ?ill-conceived? move to increase the retirement age of State government employees to 60. Members of the forum condemned the decision at a meeting held on the ITI college campus here on Monday. Instead of opening up job avenues, Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa had taken a step that was detrimental to the interests of unemployed graduates. It had dashed their hopes of getting employment, the forum members said. The decision had also created panic among college students,the forum members said. Some members of the forum said that they had thought they would get employment when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government had come to power. The forum demanded that the Government withdraw its decision and retain the retirement age of government employees at 58. The forum said that it will launch an agitation if the Government failed to withdraw the decision in 10 days. http://allafrica.com/stories/200807250317.html Nigeria: Athletes Protest Minister's Action Vanguard (Lagos) 25 July 2008 Posted to the web 25 July 2008 Onochie Anibeze Lagos Beijing bound Olympic Athletes yesterday marched to the Sports ministry to protest to sports Minister Abdulrahaman Gimba over some of his actions. It was a mild protest that could be likened to a plea as the athletes were guided out of the premises and prevented from going violent. They were enraged that they were still in Nigeria wasting when they should have been intensifying training. They also grumbled over their allowances which had not been paid and the general attitude of the minister towards their Olympic campaign. The minister had drastically reduced the number of the contingent to the Games in keeping with his plan which is to ensure Nigeria does not make the Olympics a jamboree. He was actually indifferent to Nigeria's participation and made such representation to the Presidency. However, the Federal Government ruled that Nigeria must participate but added that a bogus representation was not necessary. And Gimba is ensuring that. But when he reduced the number of doctors for the entire Nigerian contingent to three and said that foreign doctors could be hired on arrival in China, the athletes felt that it was time to talk to him themselves after it appeared the position of his directors was ignored. They did so yesterday and pleaded that the minister see reason to reverse his decision on their medical team. They appreciated the fact that the minister did not come from a sports background and must not been properly advised. "We are freer with our own doctors. It may not even be cheaper to hire foreign doctor there if the idea is to cut costs," one athlete said. Another said that "hiring a doctor who may not know the medical history of the athletes may not be good especially when we are not talking about emergency cases," another said. One official simply said there were security implications that the minister might not have known. The minister was also indifferent to sports associations traveling out for qualifying events. He probably was not told that different sports had to qualify for the Olympics so funding them was difficult. But there are sources that insist that the minister was just being prudent with financial allocations aside the fact that they did receive money in time to ensure adequate preparation for the Games. The minister was said to be reviewing his position on the medical doctors at press time. At the time other countries are concentrating on training and putting final touches to their strategies, Nigeria is still debating who goes to the games or not. Opening ceremony is on August 8 but the football event starts 24 hours before this show that promises to be a world spectacle. http://www.news10.net/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=45366 Protesters Carry Message to Lawmakers' Doors Posted By: Will Frampton 1 month ago FAIR OAKS, CA - Becca Gonzales is tired of reading about state budget issues in the papers, waiting for something to happen. That's why she went door to door, talking to whoever would listen. In the Curragh Downs neighborhood off Hazel Avenue, she and seven others gave out fliers, hoping to persuade action from residents there to help push lawmakers to action. "Unless (people are) confronted more, they're not really forced to think about it," said Gonzales. Her group's message hopes to motivate Californians to action and not just think about the budget crisis, but do something. The group recommends contacting a state representative; telling them to mix budget cuts with more taxes, so that schools and health care can be saved. The fliers had the numbers and addresses for Sen. Dave Cox and Assemblyman Roger Niello. And it was no coincidence that both politicians live in the neighborhood. "We just happen to be ... at Assemblyman Roger Niello's house," said Gonzales with a grin as she approached the property with her flier. The modest protest was preceded by a bigger one several hours earlier. At the State Capitol, hundreds of state workers protested Gov. Schwarzenegger's plan to cut their pay to the minimum, thereby urging a resolution on the budget. Democrat Don Perata called it an act of war, while State Controller John Chiang said he would not authorize the proposed cuts. Lawmakers weren't at the capitol Thursday. The body has adjourned for July recess. In Fair Oaks, Gonzales said she doesn't think there's time to wait on lawmakers. She and her group believe ordinary taxpayers need to help push the issue before it's too late. "If we pass a budget that only focuses on cuts, then it's really going to hurt our school children. It's really going to hurt our seniors," Gonzales said. http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=386989 Trinamool takes out lantern rallies to protest power cuts IANS Sunday 27th July, 2008 Holding aloft lanterns and candles, Trinamool Congress activists hit the streets here Sunday, protesting against the frequent power cuts in West Bengal. 'We decided to take out lantern rallies in and around Kolkata to protest against the ruling Left Front's failure to provide the people with even a basic necessity like electricity,' senior Trinamool leader Madan Mitra, who led the rally, told IANS. 'The rallies are being organised by local party leaders to create awareness among people about the state of affairs under the Left Front's misrule. We will also organise a central rally here Monday,' Mitra said. After incessant downpour and inundation in some West Bengal districts, the state is now reeling under severe power shortage with wet and poor quality coal impacting power generation at thermal power stations. The supply of coal has also drastically fallen forcing the power companies to resort to phased power cuts to spread the shortage evenly. 'There will be around 45 rallies across Kolkata Sunday. Our party supremo Mamata Banerjee could also lead tomorrow's (Monday) central rally from the city hub - Esplanade. Many people from Kolkata's adjoining districts will also participate in the rally,' he said. 'We're carrying lanterns, candles and posters with us in the rally to project the dismal power situation in the state. The protest programme against power cuts will continue for next three days across West Bengal,' Mitra said. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/27/stories/2008072751200300.htm Karnataka - Bijapur Protest BIJAPUR: The residents of Chalukya Nagar staged ?rasta roko? at Solhapur road to protest against irregular supply of drinking water here on Saturday. The protesters burnt tyres on the roads and raised slogans against the City Municipal Authorities (CMC). They alleged that water has not been supplied to their area since 10 days and the authorities concerned have not responded to their pleas. They demanded that CMC commissioner Shrikant Kattimani come to the spot and take steps in this regard. Mr. Kattimani, who visited the spot, assured the agitators that steps would be taken to improve drinking water supply. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/22/stories/2008072257640300.htm Other States - Orissa NCP protests against BPL card ?irregularities? Correspondent Collector assures action against erring officials CUTTACK: The Cuttack unit of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) took the district police administration unaware on Monday when over hundreds of party activists stormed into the district Collector?s office in the morning protesting against what they called ?irregularities? in the BPL card distribution in the district. Led by the city unit leader Suvendu Mohanty, the NCP activists had gathered at the Collectorate to gherao the Collector. But soon the activists pushed their way into the Collector?s cabin putting the local police in an embarrassing position. The newly appointed Collector Kishore Kumar Mohanty who took charge only on Sunday, however, welcomed a delegate of the party for a discussion. The party alleged that BPL card distribution in the entire district has been stopped since January 2004. During this period at least more than 40,000 families have been registered under below poverty line (BPL) but they have not received the BPL cards, allege Mohanty. The city NCP corporator Sheshadev Nanda participating in the discussion told the Collector that the public distribution system (PDS) in the city has gone wayward. The residents are getting the PDS items regularly whereas the poor slum dwellers are deprived of any poverty alleviation programme for lack of BPL card, he added. While only some 17,000 persons were identified to be under below poverty line in January 2004, the number increased to some 55,000 by the end of 2004. But since then there has been no survey in the city and the poor people continue to suffer, the NCP leaders alleged. The Collector however, taking note of all the allegations of the NCP leaders assured that there would be no further deviation of BPL card distribution. He also asserted that if any irregularities come to the notice of the district administration, they would soon be rectified by initiating action against the erring official. http://www.eadt.co.uk/content/eadt/news/story.aspx?brand=EADOnline&category=News&tBrand=EADOnline&tCategory=News&itemid=IPED24%20Jul%202008%2000%3A23%3A42%3A773 Villagers' midnight protest over noise 24 July 2008 | 08:00 LAURENCE CAWLEY RESIDENTS in a row of cottages who staged a midnight blockade after claiming their lives were being ruined by a new farming operation may have won a partial victory. Families living in Broom Hill, Fakenham Magna, near Bury St Edmunds, say a good night's sleep became an impossibility after a chicken rearing unit for more than 30,000 birds was set up just yards from their homes on the edge of the village. The protesters claimed that lorries arrived throughout the early hours of the morning and the noise from their engines, a forklift truck and thousands of chickens meant sleep was hard to find. Teacher Stuart Fidler was one of those who decided on direct action after frequent attempts to reduce the racket - that often went on from 1am to 5am - failed. Mr Fidler, who lives in an end of terrace cottage with his wife Esther, the clerk to Fakenham Magna Parish Council, and their two daughters aged six and four, said: ?We were at the end of our tether - we had gone nights with being woken up by the noise. ?We had tried contacting the farmer and Euston Estates who own the land but with no success. We felt there was no other choice but to take positive direct action." The angry residents set up a human barrier to prevent the lorries going onto the site which now has 30 giant chicken arks on it - each one holding 1,200 young birds. ?My wife and I are both local and my family have been involved in farming around here for generations so it is not as if we are townies who move to the country and then complain." added 34-year-old Mr Fidler. ?But the arrival of the chickens nearly drove us to tears - we were exhausted because it became impossible to sleep while they were operating.? Mr Fidler, who's family background is in farming, said that following the early-hours-of-the-morning protest the families had now spoken to the tenant farmer, Harry Irwin, who had said it was necessary to collect the birds in the early hours of the morning to fit in with schedules at the processing factories. However he did say that he would try and arrange for the collections to take place earlier in the day if possible, A spokesman for the Duke of Grafton's Euston estate that owns the land declined to comment yesterday and it was not possible to contact Mr Irwin, who comes from Saxilby, Lincolnshire. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2008/08/2008815201817738527.html Peru earthquake survivors protest Thousands of Peruvians remain in temporary shelters [Reuters] Hundreds of Peruvians have protested against what they say is a poor response to a massive earthquake that killed more than 500 people a year ago. Residents of Pisco, Ica and Chincha, the three cities hit hardest by the earthquake, held strikes and demonstrations on Friday to demand faster and more efficient reconstruction. The quake destroyed more than 40,000 homes on the southern coast and many residents are are still living in temporary shelters. Alan Garcia, the Peruvian president, said his government invested $382 million in reconstruction, but only 850 homes have been rebuilt, according to Romulo Triveno, president of Ica province. "Alan is a liar!" protesters shouted while banging pots and pans in Pisco, the hardest-hit city, 250km south of Lima. They have complained that millions of dollars in reconstruction funds have never reached them, saying they have been diverted or gone missing. 'Unfair' criticism Jose Navarro, 29, brought flowers to the graves of his daughter and wife, who was eight months pregnant when the quake struck. "What can you do? You have to face reality." he said. "It's hard, but with the support of everyone, I have to move forward." Garcia, whose free market policies have left him unpopular with the electorate, said on Tuesday Peruvians were being "unfair" in their criticisms of his response to the earthquake. He also said people were being too demanding."It's okay to ask for help, but don't exaggerate." Garcia also challenged anyone to provide evidence to back up allegations of corruption in the earthquake budget. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2008/08/11/2003420028 Jobless protesters appeal to Ma NOT WORKING: A crowd of demonstrators called on the president to make good on his campaign vow to extend the period an unemployed person is eligible for benefits By Loa Iok-sin STAFF REPORTER Monday, Aug 11, 2008, Page 2 A group of protesters and their children holding images of President Ma Ying-jeou and signs gather in front of the presidential office in Taipei yesterday to protest rising unemployment rates. The placards read "Sympathize with People's Suffering" and "Refuse Unemployment." The unemployment rate rose to 3.95 percent in June from 3.84 percent in May as the number of first-time jobseekers increased, government statistics showed. PHOTO: AFP Dozens of unemployed people and their children staged a demonstration on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office yesterday, urging President Ma Ying-jeou (???) and his administration to help the jobless find employment. ?Being jobless is not just a problem for the unemployed worker, it also affects their circle of friends and their families,? Hsiao Chung-han (???) of the Association for Rights of the Unemployed told the demonstrators, many of whom held placards showing images of Ma above the words ?feel the pain of the people.? Huang Yao-hung (???), 58, was one of the protesters. Huang, from Taichung, used to work for a machinery manufacturer, but lost his job when the company moved its factory to China several years ago. ?Now I only work low-paying part-time jobs, but I have five kids to feed ? all college students,? Huang said, adding that he needed to spend more than NT$100,000 on tuition fees for his children twice a year. ?All I want is for the government to help me find a stable job,? he said. Another protester, Liao Mei-jung (???), whose husband was laid off when Chunghwa Telecom was privatized several years ago, agreed. ?Social welfare resources should be spent on taking care of those who can?t work,? Liao said. ?Since we?re still capable of working, providing job opportunities for us should be the priority.? Aside from economic pressure, she said, ?the psychological pressure [of being jobless] is the most troubling.? In addition to offering help with finding stable employment, the demonstrators said the president should fulfill his campaign promise of extending the period of time an unemployed person is eligible to receive unemployment benefits from six months to one year. They urged Ma to set up an unemployment rights commission under the Presidential Office ?to periodically check employment promotion policies,? Hsiao said. The demonstrators? request to meet officials from the Presidential Office was not met yesterday as it was a weekend day. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/25/stories/2008082557920200.htm Tamil Nadu Selaiyur residents resort to protest Special Correspondent TAMBARAM: A few hundred residents of Selaiyur near Tambaram staged a flash protest on Sunday evening against the pathetic state of amenities in their locality, including the discharge of sewage in the open by apartment complexes, encroachments on a road that was 100-foot wide and poor road conditions. Pointing out to the stagnation of sewage on either sides of the 100 feet Road in Sriram Nagar, residents of Ward No. 19 of Tambaram Municipality said that they had appealed to the government machinery at various levels but none of their demands was met. Fed up with the response of government agencies, they resorted to the protest said Usha Nandini, a resident. Builders of the apartment complexes ought to have made provisions for proper collection and disposal of sewage, Sriram Nagar residents said, calling for a swift response from the Tambaram Municipality. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/garland/stories/DN-garbudgetfolo_23met.ART0.East.Edition1.4d971c3.html Garland residents protest proposal to close library branch 12:00 AM CDT on Saturday, August 23, 2008 By FRANK TREJO / The Dallas Morning News ftrejo at dallasnews.com The proposed closing of a Garland library branch and "mothballing" of two fire engines have drawn impassioned pleas from residents who say such services helped the city land a spot in a recent CNN/Money magazine list of 100 best places to live. MIKE STONE/Special Contributor Santiago Rodriguez (left), 14, and Deion Richardson, 12, spend time at the Ridgewood Branch Library, which may close to help cover a $5 million budget shortfall. Council members say they will listen to all arguments as they put together the 2008-09 budget, but faced with a $5 million shortfall, options are limited. The proposed budget is $590.3 million, including $133.1 million for the general fund. It includes a 1.1-cent tax hike for debt service. That would bring the city's tax rate to 69.96 cents per $100 of property value. At Tuesday's first public hearing on the budget, about two dozen supporters wearing red T-shirts crowded into the council chambers to plead their case for keeping the Ridgewood Branch Library. "It's time to actually raise our taxes a little bit," said Alan Smith, who said his family often uses the branch. "We're willing to pay a penny or more to keep the library open." Mr. Smith and others said the Ridgewood branch is truly a neighborhood library that is well-used, especially by low- and moderate-income families. "My biggest concern is that it is in an area where a lot of low-income people live, and many of them really don't have transportation, so it is very convenient for people to walk to the library," Mr. Smith said. Kymberlaine Banks said she wants to see the branch remain open because libraries are places where residents can really see their tax dollars at work. "It breaks my heart that there's a library that is being closed. It's shameful," Ms. Banks said. City Council member John Willis said he recognizes that closing Ridgewood is a difficult decision. "I love books, and I love libraries," Mr. Willis said. "But I have a responsibility to consider decisions that are in the best interest of all Garland taxpayers." The Ridgewood branch, at West Kingsley Road and South First Street, is the smallest of Garland's five libraries at about 6,000 square feet. The 1964 building originally housed a bank but became a library branch in 1974. Claire Bausch, director of the library system, said last fiscal year it served 75,181 visitors, averaging 295 per day. A total of 95,382 books or items of media were checked out during that time. Mr. Willis and others noted that closing Ridgewood has been part of a 10-year plan adopted in 2006 for the Nicholson Memorial Library system. He said the building needs repairs and renovation and questioned whether it is wise to spend close to $1 million to make those improvements. Council member Laura Perkins Cox agreed. "In spending taxpayer dollars we need to make sure we're spending them wisely," Ms. Cox said. "I just continue to study the financial realities of the continued operation and renovation of the Ridgewood branch." A second public hearing is scheduled for Thursday. Meanwhile some residents and fire department employees have voiced concern about a budget proposal to take two fire engines out of service. City officials noted that almost 80 percent of the calls the fire department responds to are for emergency medical care and that three additional ambulances are being put into service. Some residents and fire department employees questioned whether safety might be compromised. Chad Purcell, president of the Garland Firefighters Association, said that by removing two engines from service, the city will essentially leave itself without backup engines that could respond if others are already on calls. "We feel like it's a gamble," Mr. Purcell said. "It's a fire safety issue not only for residents but for us." He acknowledged that a majority of the department's calls are for medical service. "But we can respond to an EMS call with a fire truck and stabilize a person while waiting for an ambulance," Mr. Purcell said. "It's hard to put out fires with ambulances." http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/21/stories/2008082158790300.htm Tamil Nadu Residents protest Residents of Alandur staged a protest in front of a fair price shop in their locality, alleging inadequate supply of kerosene. . When residents and municipal councillors checked a container transporting kerosene to the ration shop on Wednesday, they found the vehicle carrying only 3,600 litres against the stipulated 4,000 litres. They sought action against staff of the fair price shop and the agency supplying kerosene. http://www.wnep.com/global/story.asp?s=8859447 Reassessment Protest in Luzerne County Posted: Aug 18, 2008 08:38 PM Last Updated: Aug 18, 2008 11:27 PM Reassessment Protest in Luzerne County - 7 p.m. Reassessment Protest in Luzerne County - 5 p.m. By Julie Sidoni More than 100 angry taxpayers gathered in front of Luzerne County courthouse to voice their displeasure of the county's reassessment of property values. The reassessment mess in Luzerne County boiled over Monday as commissioners argued with each other and residents protested by the hundreds outside the courthouse. Protestors in front of a giant, pink blow-up pig did what they could to let the Luzerne County commissioners know just where they stand on the reassessment issue. With sheriff's deputies on guard, members of the crowd brought their homemade signs and their enthusiasm to loudly protest. The county has been taking a look at property values for the first time since 1965 and many homeowners aren't too happy with the results. At one point, Commissioner Maryanne Petrilla attempted to address the crowd. "You never called me back, Maryanne," called one protestor. "Look, I just want to thank you all for coming. I respect your," Petrilla tried to respond but was drowned out by the booing crowd. What they wanted was for Commissioner Petrilla or Commissioner Steve Urban to second a motion made by Commissioner Greg Skrepenak during the public work session. He wants to halt the implementation of the reassessment process, saying now, when the price of just about everything is up, is not the right time. "People today, in a recession, are being asked to do more with less, and on top of it, now they have to bear the burden of reassessment. I think it's the county's time to provide a little hope for these people," Skrepenak said. "I am a commissioner. I am entitled to ask for things to go on the agenda. I'm entitled to call for things to the floor if so needed. If the other commissioners disagree or disagree with me, that's their prerogative. That's what they got elected to do." Clearly the crowd was there to support that message but Petrilla accused Skrepenak of just playing politics and said after the $9 million the taxpayers have already spent on the process, it's only fair to wait till the October 31 deadline to make any decisions. "I've said all along, if those corrections can't be made by then, I'll be the first one to make a motion to delay it," Petrilla said. "I've got an obligation to the taxpayers. People are threatening me, screaming at me, saying I'll never get reelected. I don't base my decisions on the opportunity to get reelected. I base my decisions on what's best for the taxpayers and that's what I'm going to continue to do." The actual commissioners meeting will be held Wednesday, and reassessment is likely to be a hot topic. The meeting is expected to be held at Luzerne County Community College because officials think so many people will attend. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/22/stories/2008082252340300.htm Karnataka - Shimoga Congress workers stage protest Special Correspondent Ensure that all eligible families are given ration cards, Government urged IN PROTEST: Congress workers staging a demonstration in Shimoga on Thursday in support of their demands. SHIMOGA: Congress workers staged a demonstration here on Thursday in support of their demands, including distribution of nearly two lakh ration cards in the district. The party workers staged a dharna on the premises of the Deputy Commissioner?s office and presented the memorandum to the Shimoga district administration urging the Government to concede their demands immediately. In the memorandum, they have urged the Government to see that all the eligible families were given ration cards under the public distribution system. Objection They also took objection to the collection of Rs. 45 each from the below poverty line families for photos to be used for the ration cards by holding a photo session at the hobli level. They said that the cost could be reduced drastically if the photos were taken at the village level. Expressing anguish over the tardy implementation of the flood relief measures, the demonstrators said that the recent incessant rain had left a large number of families homeless apart from causing heavy damage to the standing crops. The Congress workers suggested that a comprehensive survey be taken up on the extent of the damage and loss caused by the floods and demanded that at least Rs. 50 crore be released to take up relief work in an effective manner. The demonstrators said that the Government should make arrangements for the distribution of seeds and chemical fertilizers to enable farmers to take up alternative cultivation as they had suffered loss due to rain. They warned that they would intensify their protest if the Government did not fulfil their demands within 10 days. Former Minister Kagodu Thimmappa, president of the District Congress Committee R. Prasannakumar, president of the District Youth Congress Committee S. Ravikumar, president of the District Congress Women?s Wing Shashikala Chandrasekhar and president of the district unit of the National Students? Union of India Devendrappa and councillors belonging to the party led the demonstration. http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161365657 Protest pays off Barrackpore residents to get water twice a week Keino Swamber South Bureau Tuesday, August 19th 2008 WE WANT IT!: A youngster displays a placard as Barrackpore residents protest outside WASA's office at Mon Chagrin Street, San Fernando, yesterday. The residents were calling for a regular supply of pipe-borne water. -Photo: KRISHNA MAHARAJ OROPOUCHE East Member of Parliament, Roodal Moonilal, yesterday described as "a tragedy", women and children having to leave Barrackpore in his constituency to travel to San Fernando to protest for a regular supply of water. But it has paid off. He said yesterday, the villagers scored a victory when they managed to get officials of the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) to commit to providing them with water on Mondays and Thursdays. The protesters, mainly from Lower Barrackpore and Monkey Town, gathered in front of WASA's south office on Mon Chagrin Street, San Fernando. "We are a banana republic," Moonilal said. "It is sad to say that in a country that aspires to developed country status by 2020, you have a situation where these people are begging, not for water every day and not for water 24 hours a day, but for water once or twice per week." He said there were cases in which people had not received water for "two to three weeks" and that had caused "enormous distress and hardship and inconvenience". Moonilal added: "In the context of a possible dengue outbreak, we don't have water to clean and wash down premises. There were a lot of women there complaining that they could not bathe their babies and cook and wash and so on." He said he wrote several letters to WASA but nothing was done to ease the plight of those affected. The commitment by WASA to provide two days of pipe-borne water every week came after a meeting with Anand Jaggernath -acting manager of the South office. The villagers without access to a pipe-borne supply have also been promised an increased truck-borne supply. In release issued late yesterday, WASA said it had to repair a 16-inch main on Cottage Road, Barrackpore, on August 14. The main, it added, had been damaged during works being carried out by the Housing development Corporation there. This work caused an interruption in the water supply to the Barrackpore, Monkey Town and Congo Hill, which are served by the Navet Water Treatment Plant. WASA noted, however, that due to the increase in demand for water, improvements are being made to the Navet Trunk Main and are expected to take some 18 months. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/17/stories/2008081753110300.htm Karnataka Vibrant protest ? Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy Plea: Yakshagana artistes staging a demonstration in front of Ravindra Kalakshetra in Bangalore on Saturday. They have urged the Government to let out the kalakshetra for performances of the folk art free of cost or at nominal rates. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7547225.stm Thursday, 7 August 2008 15:06 UK Walkers protest over post offices The post office is a focal point, say residents at Talwrn, Anglesey Public protests have been sparked by plans to close Welsh post offices. The latest demonstrations come as the Welsh Assembly Government announced its intention to reinstate a post office development fund. On Anglesey, Plaid Cymru campaigner Dylan Rees has begun a walk around the island visiting seven threatened sites. Meanwhile, in Ceredigion, residents staged a three mile (4.8km) walk from Pontsian near Llandysul to the next nearest branch. In the past year, nearly 200 Welsh branches have been earmarked for closure or replacement by mobile services. The Pontsian branch is expected to shut in around three weeks, and about 30 people joined in the march, including the Ceredigion MP Mark Williams. Local county councillor Peter Davies said: ""We want the Pontsian branch to stay open. "In the short-term the closure should be deferred because Penrhiwllan post office currently doesn't have a postmaster. "We have every justification to keep Pontsian open." If the post office closes then the shop will inevitably follow and the heart of the community will disappear Dylan Rees In July it was announced that 52 branches across north Wales would shut, with another 14 replaced by "outreach services", including visiting mobile post offices. On Thursday, more than 30 residents of the Anglesey village of Talwrn, near Llangefni, protested outside their branch, with a live band. Village shop It was also the starting point for a walk to other threatened branches on Anglesey by the Plaid Cymru prospective parliamentary candidate Dylan Rees. "By going on this march I am hoping to raise island-wide support for the campaign to keep our post offices open," said Mr Rees. "In many of the communities that I will be visiting the post office is also part of the only village shop. "If the post office closes then the shop will inevitably follow and the heart of the community will disappear." The closures across Wales are part of the Post Office's "network change" plan which will see 2,500 branches shut across the UK. However, the organisation insists that when the programme is completed, 99% of the UK population will still live within three miles of a branch, and 90% still within a mile of their post office. 'Essential service' The assembly government's post office development fund offers cash help to ensure branches in deprived or isolated communities can remain viable. The original fund was closed in 2004, but will now be re-opened at the start of 2009, after a three month consultation period. Deputy Regeneration Minister Leighton Andrews said: "We want to see post offices thrive so that they can continue to provide an essential service in the communities they serve. "To help achieve this we need to help individual sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses have sustainable and viable businesses in the future. "The proposals I have set out today will help us to realise this aim. I look forward to seeing the responses to the consultation and launching the new fund in January." http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/aug/06/planningyourwedding.consumeraffairs1?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront Wrapit couples to stage HSBC protest Hilary Osborne and agencies guardian.co.uk, Wednesday August 06 2008 11:02 BST Article history Couples who lost their wedding presents when online gift service Wrapit went into administration are planning to demonstrate outside the head office of HSBC this afternoon. The gift list firm closed on Monday after it failed to find a rescue deal, leaving up to 2,000 couples without presents that had been paid for by their wedding guests. In a letter to customers, Wrapit's managing director, Peter Gelardi, blamed HSBC for withholding credit card and debit card income and claimed it would be cheaper for the bank to buy the outstanding gifts than to refund guests. He said that while refunds to up to 100,000 guests would cost the bank ?4m, supplying the gifts would cost ?3m. Couples who had already been discussing delays to gift deliveries on internet forums have arranged to protest outside the bank's Canary Wharf headquarters from 4pm this afternoon. Michael O'Sullivan, who organised the march, said he had only received 10% of his gifts since he got married 10 months ago. O'Sullivan, 33, from Kennington, south London, said: "This is not a blame game. All we want is for HSBC to facilitate the delivery of our presents. "We believe this would be easily achieved and could actually be cheaper than organising refunds. The deliveries could be organised at cost price and would be a huge publicity coup for them. It could save them money as well." The protestors plan to hand in a petition calling for HSBC to offer customers the option to receive gifts instead of a refund. In a Facebook page set up to organise the march, O'Sullivan calls on protestors to wear their wedding dress or suit and bring an empty gift-wrapped box. He says couples that cannot attend should send friends or family instead. So far, 31 people have stated on the page that they intend to protest. "We're going to remind [HSBC] that there is more than just numbers involved and that they have an opportunity to do the right thing and help everybody including themselves," said O'Sullivan. A spokesman for HSBC said the bank was working with the administrators KPMG to agree a way forward, but refuted Wrapit's claims that it had precipitated the company's closure. "HSBC's view is that this should never have happened, and had the directors acted sooner to address their financial difficulties and appointed administrators when HSBC recommended, it may not have [happened]," he said. "HSBC fully appreciates how Wrapit's customers feel about this issue and understands their distress and concern that a resolution be found quickly." From ldxar1 at tesco.net Thu Aug 28 16:12:14 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:12:14 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Transport and roads protests, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <005b01c90963$91ef4840$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * TAIWAN: Motorcyclists protest over parking spaces, fines * US: Maine residents protest toll plaza * UK: Toll road blocked by driver over misleading signs * NIGERIA: Protest over American airline's treatment of passengers * INDIA: Protest over shoddy bridge * INDIA: Protest over island buses, state of roads * INDIA: Bus passengers block road after breakdown * PAKISTAN: Islanders, villagers protest ships unloading * INDIA: Protest on train after passengers robbed * INDIA: Protest over canal, roundabout journey * INDIA: Protest at bad road, potholes * INDIA: Rail passengers protest delay * US: Protest at proposed I80 tolls * KENYA: Protest at rerouting of public transport * INDIA: Protest over road conditions, flooding in Bhubaneswar * US: Protest at proposal to privatise Alligator Alley * INDIA: Chennai protest over disrepair of highway * PHILIPPINES: Protest at cancellation of flight * INDIA: Road death triggers protest * UK: Ditching of bus route causes protests * CANADA: Protesters occupy ferry over reduced service * INDIA/ASSAM: Protests over delayed rail services * INDIA: Protest over bus pass rate increase * US: Protest over dangerous intersection * US: Knoxville protesters support bus routes * INDIA: Mumbai rail blocks, property damage over cuts * INDIA: Protest at transport office over unregulated movement of minerals * CANADA: Truckers protest condition of highway * INDIA: Protests after bus accident * SCOTLAND: Pram ban on buses leads to protest card campaign http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/local/taipei/2008/04/22/152999/Taipei%2Dmotorcyclists.htm Taipei motorcyclists protest limited parking space, fines The China Post news staff Tuesday, April 22, 2008 TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Taipei City Council members and motorcyclists have stepped up pressure on the city government to solve the shortage of parking space and change the practice of only issuing fines on motorcycle riders. There are presently 1.06 million registered motorcycle in the city. But only 130,000 parking spaces for motorcyclists, according to the latest statistics. City Council members Hsu Shu-hua and Lee Wen-ying and motorcyclists held a press conference to criticize the city government for taking motorcyclists as the ATMs (automated teller machines) by fining them for illegal parking but making no effort to solve the problem. They blasted the officials and traffic police for not understanding and attacking the root of the problem, but have instead squeezing the people for their hard-earned money. The council members said the city government has in recently years imposed ban on parking of motorcycles on the sidewalks of 335 roads and streets. The well-meant measure will be expanded to an additional 16 streets by the end of June. However, the city government has failed to find new places for motorcycle parking, forcing the motorcyclists to leave their bikes in alleys or narrow lanes. This can pose serious safety hazards, especially when blocking the fire engines, they said. They pointed out the city government inaugurated eight new parking lots so far this year with space for more than 1,000 cars. But there are only 300 spaces for motorcycles. They urged the city government to make the effort to solve the parking problem for motorcyclists. Riding motorcycles remains the most popular transport means for people living and working in the Greater Taipei area, that includes also the adjacent Taipei County and Keelung City. As high as 28.8 percent of people choose motorcycles for working and other transport purposes for convenience, high mobility and relatively lower maintenance costs, followed by the mass rapid transit (MRT) networks, 25 percent; and buses and private cars, 21.1 percent each. The number of motorcyclists is expected to continue to increase as more motorists said they consider to switch to motorbikes for lower fuel cost. http://www.wcax.com/global/story.asp?s=8202413 Maine residents protest toll plaza plan Associated Press - April 21, 2008 12:05 PM ET YORK, Maine (AP) - About 75 Maine residents have taken to the streets to protest the relocation and improvement of a toll plaza near the New Hampshire border. Members of Think Again, the opposition group, say relocating the York Toll Plaza will destroy a neighborhood. They suggest renovating the existing plaza. They protested the plan yesterday. Turnpike Authority officials say the current toll plaza was built on wetlands. It was only meant to last 25 years and is sinking an inch a year. It cannot accommodate technology allowing EZ Pass users to pay tolls while driving at highway speed. The new $35 million facility is designed to be more mortorist-friendy. Think Again members have convinced the town to schedule a nonbinding referendum on the issue May 17. http://www.expressandstar.com/2008/05/06/van-driver-in-m6-toll-protest/ Van driver in M6 Toll protest A van driver blocked a booth on the M6 Toll protesting that misleading signs had left him on the motorway by accident. Frank Patterson used his van to block a kiosk on the main carriageway plaza at Great Wyrley for almost an hour yesterday. Mr Patterson was eventually moved on by police. He was heading home to Chorley, Lancashire, at around 12.30pm on the A5 trying to avoid the toll and planning to get on to the M6 near Cannock. As he headed toward Brownhills he turned right at the traffic lights following a sign saying "M6 North, M6 Toll" thinking he would end up on the M6. Instead he ended up joining the toll road at junction T6 and before he knew it was at the main carriageway toll plaza. At first he refused to pay the ?9 charge and blocked a kiosk booth. He was ordered to pay and was moved on by the police at around 1.35pm. Mr Patterson said: "I ended up on the M6 toll road because the junction at the traffic lights were mis-signed and misleading." Max Estevez, a spokesman for Midland Expressway Limited, said all signage on the approaches to the M6 Toll was designed and approved by the Highways Agency and was correct and legal. He added that the agency was in the process of a redesign scheme for the signs. http://allafrica.com/stories/200805020395.html Nigeria: Citizens On U.S.-Bound Flight Protest Leadership (Abuja) 2 May 2008 Posted to the web 2 May 2008 Some US-bound Nigerian passengers yesterday at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Ikeja, protested against their treatment by an American carrier, Delta Airline. The chaotic situation took place at the airline's MMIA office as numerous passengers, booked on the airline's 11.45 am flight to the US, were suddenly dropped. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that in protest, the passengers took over the airline's office even as no reason was offered for the airline's action. It took the intervention of the police, the NCAA officials and some other senior officials of the airline to calm frayed nerves. A supervisor at the airline's office, Mr Idrissa Bassoum, told newsmen that the incident arose because the passengers turned up late for check-in. Bassoum said that the affected passengers had been re-booked for future flights. An affected passenger, Prince Leye Bodunde, told NAN that he had booked for the flight since March 30 and arrived three hours before departure time. "It is bad to treat us this way," said Bodunde, who eventually booked for a future flight. Another passenger, Dr Babatunde Oke, who said he had been in the U.S. for 33 years, expressed regrets over the development . He said the airline's action would affect a major engagement which he had in the US on May 1. Oke's son, Tola, who was with him, said it was a horrible experience for him in Nigeria, coming home for the first time. NAN reports that the action came as the federal government awaits a report from British Airways on its poor treatment of Nigerians. The government has repeatedly said that it would not accept shabby treatment of Nigerians by foreign carriers. North American Airlines (NAA), the second U.S. carrier on the Lagos-US route, is winding up its operation in Nigeria in May, due to what it attributed to high fuel price. (NAN) http://allafrica.com/stories/200805010269.html Nigeria: Pandemonium At MMIA As Passengers Protest This Day (Lagos) 1 May 2008 Posted to the web 1 May 2008 Chinedu Eze Lagos Pandemonium broke out yesterday at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos as stranded passengers of a Delta airline scheduled flight to the United States openly protested the treatment meted out to them by the airline. The 30 intending passengers who were billed to travel to the United States on the flight, became outraged by the airline's refusal to allow them board the flight without any reason, as they insisted that they had the right to travel on the flight. Looking enraged, one of the passengers told THISDAY that he had already checked in only to be asked to disembark after a few minutes by officials of the airline. According to him, the only explanation the management of the airline gave was that it could not take them because of the weight of the aircraft, adding that some passengers who were billed to travel the previous day were also turned back the same way they were treated yesterday. According to an eye witness account,the passengers wanted to beat up some of the officials of the airline who quickly requested for police protection. One of the passengers, Prince Leye said that he bought his ticket since March 30, 2008 ,adding that he was at the airport three hours before the check-in and that the airline did not give reason for preventing the passengers from boarding. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/28/stories/2008042854920300.htm Protest at bridge today KOCHI: Residents and motorists will lay siege to the Thevara-Kundanoor bridge on Monday morning, to protest against the shabby construction of the kilometre-long bridge. The undulations on the bridge surface, said to be because of the uneven spread of bitumen and metal, have been causing accidents on a regular basis. No agency has repaired the bridge, despite the government collecting hefty toll from vehicles. - Staff Reporter http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/19/stories/2008051961390300.htm Bus entry: Goshree samithi protests Staff Reporter KOCHI: The Goshree Manushyavakasha Samrakshana Samithi observed Sunday as protest day, to highlight the 'negative' attitude of the Government in permitting private buses from the Goshree islands into Kochi. The General convener of the samithi Paul J. Mampilly said that this was among the electoral promises made by the LDF during the 2006 Assembly election. Neither Chief Minister V. S. Achuthanandan nor Transport Minister Mathew T. Thomas have taken the issue seriously, he said. More protests would soon be held. The vehicles of non-residents in the islands would be stopped on the bridge, if buses are not allowed into Kochi city, he said. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/15/stories/2008051551280300.htm Bus passengers block road in protest Staff Reporter SALEM: Traffic on the Salem Bangalore National Highways was affected for awhile, when angry passengers of a State Transport Corporation bus blocked the road near Omalur on Tuesday night. Police said the bus proceeding to Bommidi broke down near Omalur. Officials at the nearby TNSTC depot are said to have turned down a request to operate another bus to Bommidi. Annoyed, passengers blocked the traffic on the National highways. Police personnel rushed to the spot, pacified the agitators and arrested two of them. http://story.indiagazette.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/701ee96610c884a6/id/357407/cs/1/ Passengers detain train to protest robbery India Gazette Friday 9th May, 2008 (IANS) Angry passengers held up the Jodhpur-Bangaluru Express at Miraj, near here, Friday following a daytime robbery in a crowded compartment. Eye witnesses said five robbers, armed with knives and country-made pistols, entered the train around 10 a.m. somewhere between Pune and Karad stations. They looted a few passengers of their ornaments, cash and ATM cards. Some passengers caught the robbers but they managed to fight them off and escape. Irate passengers held up the train to protest the railway officials' alleged failure to check frequent thefts on the Pune-Miraj section of the route. "While the earlier incidents of robbery have occurred at night, due to the ineptitude of the railway police the robbers were emboldened to strike during daytime," a passenger said. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/26/stories/2008052651390300.htm Villagers protest over Indira Sagar Canal G. Nagaraja Villagers face problem as APSRTC suspends its services Students have to take a round about journey Agency failed to construct a bridge, allege agitators ELURU: The criss-crossing Indira Sagar Right Canal, billed as a harbinger of development and prosperity into West Godavari and Krishna districts, hardly cheer the people from a cluster of villages in Gopalapuram mandal. Instead, the locals feel denial of transport link by the meandering canal. A large number of people from Bhimole, Guddigudem, Kovvurupadu, Sagipadu and Dondapudi registered their strong protest with the personnel at the office of a contracting agency entrusted with the canal execution near Gopalapuram on Saturday, leading to tension in the area. The agitators alleged that the failure of the agency in building a bridge near Bhimole was the reason for their suffering for want of transport link. The road, which was a link for several villages on its either side, was cut off a couple of years ago, facilitating the canal execution. As a result, the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) has suspended its services in the Bhimole-Guddigudem section. Autorickshaws are only the mode of transport in this section now. "We hoped we benefit from the canal to some extent. But it turns out to be a major obstacle for our day-to-day life", says G. Srinivasa Rao, sarpanch of Bhimole, who led the protest. "Children in our village are facing lot of problems to go to school at Kovvurupadu 5 km. away from our village due to suspension of services by the APSRTC", he adds. The students are constrained to travel 14 km. round about via Sagipadu daily in the absence of a bridge at Bhimole. Journey in two-wheelers and autorickshaws crossing the canal was quite risky, he said while recalling that an autorickshaw turned turtle while crossing the canal with passengers a few days ago. The sarpanch said life for the people from surrounding villages would become quite miserable as the rainy season set in. Transport link on either side of the canal would get cut-off during every rainy season it was filled with water and silt, blocking the passage. Expressing serious concern over the alleged indifference on the part of the contracting agency to construct a bridge linking the Bhimole-Guddigudem road, he wanted the administration to find a way out for the problem faced by the school children for want of transport facility by the time of re-opening of schools in June second week. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/04/stories/2008060452490300.htm Protest against bad road Staff Correspondent DYFI blames authorities for neglect Dissatisfied: Members of the Democratic Youth Federation of India staging a dharna on Gorur Road in Hassan on Wednesday. HASSAN: Members of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) staged a dharna on Gorur road near Santhepete on Tuesday to protest against the bad condition of the road. They said that the Hassan-Arakalgud-Madikeri road, also known as Gorur road, was full of potholes. During rains the potholes resembled puddles. Several two-wheeler riders had skidded on the road, they added. People from neighbouring villages who come to Hassan on Tuesdays for the weekly market were put to hardship, they said. 'Rasta roko' They protesters also staged "rasta roko" for sometime. Addressing the protesters president of the DYFI Girish said that they had repeatedly urged the authorities concerned to repair the road, but in vain. He said that the road was in bad shape owing to the neglect of the authorities concerned. Local DYFI leaders Krishna, Shivanna and Vasu led the dharna. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/02/stories/2008060253140300.htm Rail passengers' march in protest against delay Staff Reporter KOLLAM: Protesting against the continuing delay of peak hour morning trains from Kollam Junction, the Railway Passengers Association (RPA) will march to the Kollam station on Tuesday. RPA president S. Ulhas Kumar said here on Sunday that under the banner of the RPA, commuters will hold a demonstration at the railway station. Changing of engine Changing the electric engine of the Kanyakumari-bound Jayanti Janata Express to attach a diesel engine is the main cause for the delay, he said. It affects the schedule of the Thiruvananthapuram-bound Inter City Express and Vanchinad Express, which office-goers and students depend upon. The RPA demanded that the engine change over process of the Jayanti Janata Express be shifted to Thiruvananthapyuram. http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/breaking/s_571801.html?source=rss&feed=7 Protesters rally against proposed I-80 tolls By Christopher Wink TRIBUNE-REVIEW Monday, June 9, 2008 HARRISBURG -- Tolling Pennsylvania's portion of Interstate 80 would create an "economic Chernobyl" in areas along the interstate, a Bloomsburg businessman said. Paul Eyerly, president of Press Enterprises, was one of the two dozen people who rallied at the state Capitol Monday to oppose tolling I-80. "We're going to drive people away from Pennsylvania," state Sen. John Eichelberger, R-Altoona, said. A few of the rally's 25 attendees attacked Act 44 -- a transportation funding law from last July that would institute I-80 tolls. The groups, including truckers, cited congestion and loss of business as reasons to repeal Act 44. Under Act 44, I-80 tolls would help raise nearly $1 billion annually for transportation infrastructure. Lawmakers would need to find a funding source if Act 44 is overturned. The federal government hasn't approved tolling the interstate. "I have never seen legislation that so threatened my business," said Pat Kahle, whose grandfather founded Zacherl Motor Truck Sales in 1940. His company is just off I-80 in Clarion, and he fears truckers will find ways to avoid I-80 and so choose other truck parts providers. "Customers will absolutely bypass us." http://allafrica.com/stories/200806090214.html Kenya: Matatu Owners in Protest At New Route The Nation (Nairobi) 9 June 2008 Posted to the web 9 June 2008 Amina Kibirige Nairobi Matatu owners have protested over plans by the Mombasa municipal council to re-route public service vehicles from the town centre. In a press release by the Matatu Owners Association's Mombasa branch's secretary, Mr Salim Mbarak Salim said the move was unrealistic, and they were not support the decision. They also denied allegations that matatus were the main cause of congestion in the town, and instead called for better town planning. Traffic lights "Traffic lights have not been installed at busy roundabouts while several country buses pack on major roads in town like Abdel Nasser in Bondeni," said Mr Salim. He said hawkers occupying pavements had also contributed to congestion, forcing pedestrians to wait for matatus on the road. Mr Salim further complained of lack of designated pick and drop points as the town was full of yellow cab lines. He called for the repainting of the lines and zebra crossings to save drivers from breaking the law. Mr Salim said it would be unfair for a person who cannot afford essential commodities to pay fare twice once the matatus left the town. Take taxis On Madaraka Day, deputy mayor John Mcharo hinted that matatus from Changamwe, Tudor, Mtwapa, Bombolulu and Nyali would be re-routed. He said commuters from these areas would be dropped at designated areas and either walk or take taxis into town when the order takes effect. The move is similar to the order issued by the then Local Government minister Uhuru Kenyatta in April, stopping Eastlands matatus from entering the Nairobi town centre. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/10/stories/2008061057750300.htm Sahid Nagar residents plan silent protest Staff Reporter BHUBANESWAR: Irritated over inaction of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) on their repeated pleas pertaining to precarious road conditions, Sahid Nagar Residents' Welfare Association (SANRWA) finally decided to take photographs of hazardous roads every fortnight and send those to authorities as "reminders." Residents of Sahid Nagar including academicians, doctors and lawyers had planned a silent protest and a photo exhibition on Sunday depicting miserable roads crisscrossing the posh locality of the city. The unique demonstration was deferred following the assurance from Rural Development Minister Biswa Bhushan Harichandan, who is also the local MLA. He promised to take up the matter at highest level. However, unperturbed residents did not carry away by the promise and stumbled upon the novel idea to keep reminding authorities through photographs. "After a little shower during last two days, several road stretches were filled with water. We had taken about 20 photographs to show how precarious roads are," SANRWA Secretary H. Balakrishnan said. He said about 10 per cent of population of Sahid Nagar were senior citizens and they were afraid of using the streets during rainy days. Even some septuagenarians and octogenarians were present in the meeting convened by SANRWA. For last past two years, the residents have been drawing attention on dismal conditions of about 20 roads passing through Sahid Nagar. Mr. Balakrishnan said representations on the issue had been submitted to authorities through different fora every month. While one main entrance road to Sahid Nagar was taken up for repairing recently, other passages were still dangerous to tread. http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2008/jun/06/naples-group-protests-proposal-lease-alligator-all/ Naples group protests proposal to lease Alligator Alley to private company Daily News staff 12:07 p.m., Friday, June 6, 2008 Submitted by R.L. Caron About 35 demonstrators gathered Friday morning at the U.S. 41 entrance to the Pelican Marsh development to protest the proposed leasing of Alligator Alley to private interests. About 35 demonstrators gathered Friday morning at the U.S. 41 entrance to the Pelican Marsh development in Naples to protest the proposed leasing of Alligator Alley to a private company. The group, from the Citizens Transportation Coalition, chose that location because Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottcamp was guest speaker at the breakfast meeting of the Republican Men's Club of Collier County at the Pelican Marsh Golf Club. Eight bidders competing for the right to control Alligator Alley for the next 50 to 75 years submitted Statements of Qualification by Tuesday's deadline. A Florida Department of Transportation schedule calls for the list to be pared down by June 30. At that time, the firms will be asked to submit proposals for a lease of the 78-mile alley, which runs from Naples to Weston. A leasing firm could be announced by September, making the alley the first state-owned toll road leased to a private firm. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/01/stories/2008070154190400.htm AIADMK protest CHENNAI: The AIADMK will hold demonstrations at Adhamangalamputhur in Thiruvannamalai district on July 2 to protest against "the DMK government's failure to repair the N.C. Veeralur highway." In a statement, party general secretary Jayalalithaa said the 17-km highway was badly damaged and causing traffic congestion. "People from 50 villages using the highway are not able to reach any place in time." - Special Correspondent http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=43102 2008-06-27 Metropolitan Passengers protest cancellation of Biman flight Staff Correspondent Angry passengers, mostly migrant workers, staged a demonstration at Zia International Airport in the capital last night protesting the cancellation of a Malaysia-bound Biman flight. The flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines was scheduled to take off at 9:30pm, but the authorities cancelled it as they did not get permission from the civil aviation ministry of Malaysia, Biman officials said. Biman also cancelled another Malaysia-bound flight scheduled to depart tomorrow due to the same reason. "Earlier, we got permission from the civil aviation authority of Malaysia and the Malaysian Airlines. So, we decided to operate the two flights, but the civil aviation ministry of Malaysia finally did not give its permission," a high official of Biman told The Daily Star last night. "We sympathise with the passengers for their suffering," he said. "However, we will make arrangements for the stay of the passengers in hotels," he added. The angry passengers chanted slogans and strongly criticised the Biman officials after they were informed of the cancellation of the flight, airport sources said. "If we cannot reach Malaysia in time, we might lose our job," said Alamgir Sarder, a passenger of the flight. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/23/stories/2008062358860300.htm Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada Death of old man in accident triggers protest Staff Reporter Traffic on NH 9 paralysed for over seven hours VIJAYAWADA: Vehicular traffic came to a standstill for over seven hours between Kanuru and Gosala on National Highway Number 9 on the city outskirts on Sunday after a 50-year-old man hit by a speeding car at Poranki. Residents of Poranki staged a dharna on the road demanding immediate arrest of the accused, whom they alleged was a close relative of a leader of the Telugu Desam Party, and justice to the victim's family. Tannuru Pandu Ranga Rao, a smalltime businessman from Kankipadu, was on his way to the city on his motorcycle in the afternoon. At 12.55 p.m. a cement-coloured Honda car coming from the city in the opposite direction hit the motorcycle, killing Rao on the spot. The driver turned the car around and sped back into the city. A few residents of the surrounding areas, who witnessed the accident, blocked the road. They alleged that a constable, who was on the spot, helped the car driver to escape from the spot. Even as the Penamaluru police reached the spot and tried to pacify the crowd, people continued to came on to the road and blocked the traffic. It took two hours for the traffic police to launch traffic diversion, as it became a challenging task for them to found an alternative route. Though the police assured the irate public that they would settle the issue in the police station by summoning the accused, people demanded that the issue should be settled on the spot. Though the police managed to seize the car, they could not take the accused into custody. However, MLAs Devineni Rajasekhar (Nehru) and K. Parthasarathi pacified the public around 8 p.m. and put an end to the agitation. http://www.expressandstar.com/2008/06/23/next-stop-in-sight-on-bus-protest-route/ Next stop in sight on bus protest route Campaigners fighting to reinstate an axed bus route to a Black Country hospital will hand over a petition to travel bosses tomorrow. More than 1,000 people have put their names to a campaign to restore the 261 service to Dudley's Russells Hall Hospital and those spearheading the bid will present the petition to representatives from National Express West Midlands. Wall Heath councillors Dave Tyler, Lynn Boleyn and Kathryn Shuttleworth will hand over the document at the HQ in Graham Street, Birmingham. The number of signatures reached four figures this week as protestors take the fight to the bus company, which axed the route in April claiming it was "not financially viable." Passengers say it is a vital service for patients and their relatives in Wall Heath, Swindon and Wombourne. The ditching of the 261 means people living in these villages now have to get two buses when travelling to and from the hospital. The response to the petition is no surprise given the level of public feeling on the issue. Hundreds of furious residents packed into a meeting with travel bosses before the route was axed. Councillor Boleyn said the bus network was struggling to cope without the service, causing great inconvenience to passengers. She said: "The new system doesn't seem to be working. You ask people waiting for connections and it's taking ages to get to the hospital. "There's also been a case of someone on crutches having to change buses." The campaigners have asked the bus company to consider extending the 205 bus route - which runs from Russells Hall to Kingswinford - into Wall Heath, creating a direct route to the hospital, if it is not possible to reinstate the 261. Other suggestions include reintroducing the 261 with subsidies from Dudley Council and others. The withdrawal of the service was part of a review to make buses in the borough more reliable. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2008/07/04/protest-continues.html?ref=rss Handful of protesters occupy Newfoundland's Long Island ferry Last Updated: Friday, July 4, 2008 | 5:48 PM NT Comments9Recommend5 CBC News The ferry Island Joiner remained tied up Friday evening after protesters from the northeast coast community of Long Island refused to get off the boat. A small number of protesters have been aboard since Thursday evening in an effort to stop the provincial ferry service from temporarily moving the ferry to the St. Brendan's service in Bonavista Bay. They're demanding a meeting with Premier Danny Williams, but his office said the government won't meet with people who make threats or illegally hold up public services. In the meantime, St. Brendan's is without any ferry service. Mayor Kevin O'Reilly said it's disappointing that his community is stuck in the middle of the dispute. "I heard the people this morning on the radio there, talking about not getting their causeway and talking reduced service and all that kind of stuff. But I mean, we've had reduced service for a week - no service. Make no bones about it, if I were in the situation where I could take reduced service, and give someone else some service, I would do that," he said. O'Reilly said the lack of a ferry has already created a travel nightmare for people who were trying to get to St. John's to attend a wedding. He said he doesn't have much hope the protest will end soon. The provincial transportation department announced in June that Long Island would get a new ferry, angering residents who have been lobbying to have a causeway built for years. Long Island residents will have to share a replacement vessel with nearby Little Bay Islands in the short term. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2008/07/06/protest-over.html?ref=rss Newfoundland ferry protest ends, service restored Last Updated: Sunday, July 6, 2008 | 2:19 PM CBC News A protest by a group of residents upset over ferry-service interruption on Newfoundland's northeast coast ended peacefully Friday night. A small number of people from the community of Long Island had boarded the ferry Island Joiner Thursday night and refused to disembark. They were angry that one of the two ferries servicing the community was sent to a nearby town to replace another ferry which was out of service. However, the disabled vessel has since been repaired, and Long Island now has its regular two-ferry service back on schedule. http://story.indiagazette.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/701ee96610c884a6/id/379036/cs/1/ Assam set for protests over delayed rail projects India Gazette Sunday 6th July, 2008 (IANS) Political parties and pressure groups in southern Assam's Barak Valley have announced a series of agitational programmes demanding expansion of railway lines and protesting delay in ongoing rail projects. 'People are getting restive following the prolonged delay and indifference towards implementation of vital projects along with the expansion of railway lines,' said Rupam Nandi Purkayastha, president of the All Cachar-Karimganj-Hailakandi Students' Association (ACKHSA). The foundation stone for the 201-km Lumding-Silchar gauge conversion project was laid in 1996 by former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda and work was supposed to be over by 2006. The gauge conversion project was declared a national project by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and is considered as the lifeline for southern Assam, Tripura, Mizoram and parts of Manipur. The ACKHSA, along with the All Dimasa Students' Union (ADSU), has been jointly spearheading a campaign for expediting the railway projects since last month. The leaders of ACKHSA and ADSU last week met Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar and Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga to seek their support in launching a mass movement. As part of their agitational programme, the two organisations supported by Left parties, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other parties have called a 12-hour shutdown on Aug 8 in southern Assam comprising Cachar, Karimganj, Hailakandi and North Cachar hills districts. Purkayastha and ADSU president Prafulla Hafila said they would organise protest demonstrations at the Boat club in New Delhi during the next session of parliament in August. The two associations will also organise a sit-in demonstration in Guwahati during the monsoon session of the Assam assembly next week. Early completion of the East-West corridor and restoration of the Karimganj (southern Assam)-Sylhet (Bangladesh) railway line are their other demands. 'The Centre had decided to convert all metre gauge lines to broad gauge lines in India and allocated Rs.45 billion in 1993 for the purpose, but nothing was allocated for the conversion of the Lumding-Silchar metre gauge line to broad gauge line,' said Basudeb Acharya, chairman of the railways parliamentary standing committee. Lok Sabha MP from Tripura, Khagen Das told IANS: 'In the 201-km Lumding-Silchar rail line, there are 130 big bridges, 654 small bridges and 10,480 metres of tunnels and only about 30 percent work on the entire project was completed. 'If work goes on at this pace, the project cannot be completed even by 2011.' According to the Northeast Frontier Railway, so far 50 people, including construction workers and Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel have been killed by militants in southern Assam after the Lumding-Silchar gauge conversion project was undertaken. 'Militancy and acquiring of land besides shortage of funds are the main problems for the gauge conversion project,' a Northeast Frontier railway official said on condition of anonymity. The Northeast Frontier railway authorities suspended train services in the Lumding-Badarpur Section May 15 and also evacuated about 1,200 railway staff from 13 railway stations of the NC Hills district following the spurt in violence by the Dima Halam Daogah (Jewel faction), also known as Black Widow. The construction companies have estimated a loss of about Rs.500 million during April-May due to the spurt in insurgency. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/03/stories/2008070357570300.htm Karnataka - Bangalore Protest against bus pass rate increase BANGALORE: The Karnataka Pradesh Vidyarthi Janata Dal (S) on Wednesday staged a protest here against the anti-student policies of the Government. The protestors raised slogans against the increase in rates of monthly and yearly bus passes and urged the Government to withdraw the decision. Vidyarthi JD(S) State unit president D.K. Devaraj said poor students could not afford to pay higher rates. http://www.cbs8.com/story.php?id=134233 Residents Protest Over Dangerous Intersection Watch Video Last Updated: 07-13-08 at 11:15AM Residents of the Bird Rock community took to the streets Saturday night to protest the absence of a stop sign at a dangerous intersection, where a woman was hit by a truck and killed Tuesday morning. The accident occurred Tuesday morning at the intersection of La Jolla Mesa Drive and Van Nuys. Residents said they had been asking the city to install a stop sign at the dangerous intersection for months. A crosswalk was added to the intersection recently, but residents cited the number of children walking to schools in the area, and the speed of motorists through the intersection as reasons a stop sign is needed. The protesters said they will continue to speak out until something is done. http://www.volunteertv.com/news/headlines/25881194.html KAT riders protest route cancellations Posted: 11:00 PM Jul 24, 2008 Last Updated: 10:23 PM Jul 24, 2008 Reporter: Lauren Davis Knoxville (WVLT) - Knoxville transit riders filled the city county building Thursday night to show their support for the KAT bus routes. Dozens of people from the Halls community showed up to protest the cancellation of the Halls route. Knox County commissioner Larry Smith stood up and spoke on behalf of his constituents. Another rider said this is the worst time to drop the route with gas prices as high as they are. "I have a 21-month-old and a stay at home wife with only one vehicle. The route is critical for my wife to have the car for emergencies," said Richard Hertzog, who is against route cancellations. Riders said they would rather pay an increased fee than eliminate the route all together. http://www.zeenews.com/articles.asp?aid=456940&sid=REG Protesters disrupt rail traffic in Mumbai Mumbai, July 21: Locals of Nallasopara and Virar suburbs on Monday disrupted rail services during morning peak hours on the Western Railway line seeking additional services and protesting against loadshedding in the area, railway officials said. Protestors blocked tracks between Nallasopara and Virar, located in neighbouring Thane and the last station on the suburban line of Western Railways. Protestors blocked the tracks at around 0845 hrs and indulged in stone throwing, they said, adding that services began to limp to normal by afternoon. "They damaged property at the Nallasopara station and we are still to ascertain the amount of damage," SS Gupta, Chief Public Relations Officer for Western Railways said. Trains were being operated till the stations of Bhayander and Vasai since morning and railway officials had been rushed there to ensure that services are restored at the earliest, he said. Personnel from the government railway police and State Reserve Police Force were also rushed to the area but were able to restore peace by afternoon. A photojournalist from a national daily was assaulted by the mob and was taken to a local hospital for medical treatment. A few police personnel also sustained injuries while dispersing the mob. The protestors were demanding additional suburban rail services to Virar while some groups of protestors were also protesting against electricity loadshedding in the area, railway sources said. Services to Virar have been a bone of contention between passenger organisations and railway authorities for years now with violent protests in the past. Additional tracks have been laid between Borivali to Virar but passenger organisations have stated that it has not resulted in a proportional increase in services. A passenger organisation had also carried out a boycott of rail services last year with passengers being forced off trains from Virar. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Commuter_protest_halts_train_services_in_Mumbai/rssarticleshow/3260903.cms Commuter protest halts train services in Mumbai 21 Jul 2008, 1942 hrs IST, Vasundhara Sanger,TIMESOFINDIA.COM Print EMail Discuss New Bookmark/Share Save Write to Editor MUMBAI: Fed up with the lax attitude of the administration in arresting massive power cuts and delay in trains services, harried commuters in Virar on the western suburbs in Mumbai resorted to an impromptu protest on Monday morning by sitting on the tracks that resulted in halting of services to and from Churchgate station on the western railway line in the city. Outstation services towards Gujarat, Rajasthan and Delhi were affected, too. Shailendra Kamble of DYFI that is usually in the forefront of such protests said, "We have not organised this agitation. It's a spontaneous outburst of the people who are fed up with the daily rigours of travel compounded by harassment caused to them by massive power cuts in the Vasai-Virar region." He assured that the protest was, however, peaceful and added he had requested the local leader Hitendra Thakur to talk with the commuters and ease the situation. Earlier there were rumours that the commuters in Virar had beaten up the western railway motorman and so train services were disrupted. Kamble denied saying that no one was beaten up. Western Railway PRO said that the commuters in Virar were protesting because the commuters at Nallasopara, which is the station before Virar, were occupying the seats in the down trains, preventing the Virar commuters space to board the trains or occupy seats. Kamble said that people were fed up with frequent power cuts through out last night and the delay in trains' services aggravated the situation further. The western railway tried to run services from Vasai to Churchgate but the frequency was very less. Meanwhile, passengers who take the trains towards Virar and Nallsopara were seen walking on the railway tracks towards Nallasopara and Virar, as since 10 am in the morning there were no services. The Virar commuters sat on the tracks and blocked the services till mid afternoon, on Monday. The situation eased after a hectic pacification exercise by the railway authorities, police and local political leaders. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/24/stories/2008072459000300.htm Karnataka - Mangalore KRV protests RTO 'neglect' Staff Correspondent Drivers said to be handing over the wheel to cleaners Ban sought on lorry movement between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. MANGALORE: The Regional Transport Office here was out of -bounds to people for nearly an hour on Wednesday as activists of the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike staged a dharna in front of it. They were protesting against the alleged lackadaisical attitude of the authorities regarding regulating the movement of lorries carrying iron ore and manganese, and the resultant problems faced by people on account of lorry traffic on National Highways 17 and 48. The chief district convener of the vedike, Annayya Kulal, said repeated pleas to the district administration to regulate the movement of the lorries had gone unheeded. Referring to a memorandum submitted to Deputy Commissioner M. Maheshwar Rao on July 10, Mr. Kulal said the administration had not taken any action on it so far. Ore transporting lorries were endangering the lives of road users, he added. Mr. Kulal said the district administration should immediately intervene and prevent the movement of all lorries from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Noting that some lorries were not displaying their registration plates, Mr. Kulal said others were transporting ore without covering it with a tarpaulin. He also alleged that in most other cases, drivers were asking cleaners to take charge of the wheel, making the roads unsafe for travel. The protesters at one stage insisted that RTO D. Sadashiva, who was away on official work, come and make known the steps taken by the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) to regulate lorry movement. Subsequently, the activists presented a memorandum to Assistant Regional Transport Officer (ARTO) S.B. Surendrappa, who said he would apprise Mr. Sadashiva of their demands. The ARTO also promised that the RTA would act on the list of demands given by the vedike. Guerrilla warfare President of the unit Shashidhar Shetty said if the authorities failed to take corrective steps to solve their problems within the next 10 days, the vedike activists would resort to guerrilla warfare and ambush lorries operating along the national highways. "The district administration will be held solely responsible for the resultant law and order problems," he said and demanded that Mr. Rao, the police and the RTO take steps to stop the menace. To a claim from the activists that Mr. Rao had issued orders banning the movement of ore-carrying lorries from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Mr. Surendrappa said he would recheck with Mr. Sadashiva if the Deputy Commissioner had issued such orders. Mr. Rao, however, told The Hindu that the district administration would consider regulating lorry movement after discussing with the neighbouring district administration. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2008/08/12/dempster-truckers.html?ref=rss Truckers threaten blockade to protest Dempster Highway's condition Last Updated: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 | 5:07 PM CT CBC News Angry northern truckers say they're fed up with a lack of maintenance on the Dempster Highway, with some suggesting a blockade to grab politicians' attentions if road conditions don't improve. The Dempster Highway is generally known to be a bumpy ride, but truckers say it's now putting drivers' safety at risk. (CBC)The 735-kilometre gravel road from Dawson City, Yukon, to Inuvik, N.W.T., is a lifeline, particularly to those living in Inuvik and the Beaufort Delta, as trucks deliver food and mail to people in the area. The western Arctic town also attracts tourists who brave the bumpy, dusty road. But truckers say the Dempster road is in rougher shape this year than ever before, with huge potholes and ruts. They say a lack of maintenance by governments in the Yukon and the Northwest Territories are putting drivers' safety at risk. "It's amazing that there hasn't been somebody killed out there," Bill Rutherford, who brings fresh produce from Whitehorse to Inuvik every three weeks, told CBC News on Monday. 'There's something wrong with the picture here' "If our trucks were unsafe, we'd be pulled off the road. But we have to drive on a road that's not safe," he added. "There's something wrong with the picture there." Some truckers have already been making angry calls to politicians in both territories. Rutherford said some have even started talking about taking further action. "There's talk of a blockade," he said. "Nobody wants to see that happen, but if we can't get the work done on the road, then it probably will happen." The N.W.T. government defended its side of the highway, claiming recent rainfall - not a lack of maintenance - is responsible for the road's rough sections. "Because it's a gravel highway, the water gets into the highway, you know, into the surface. It's the nature of the gravel highway," Gurdev Jagpal, Inuvik regional superintendent for the Transportation Department, said Tuesday. "Slow down and be careful. Watch for potholes and loose gravel, and drive to the situation." Conditions add 12 hours to truckers' trips Jagpal said road graders work as fast as they can to repair the Dempster following bad weather. Meanwhile, he said he cannot speak for the Yukon side of the highway. Yukon government officials have not been available for comment. The state of the Dempster has also hit truck drivers like those at Matco Transportation. Inuvik branch manager Jordan Fedosoff said the road's condition has added 12 hours to each round trip from Whitehorse to Inuvik. It has also resulted in late deliveries, damaged goods, more fuel burned, and skyrocketing overtime payouts, he added. "It's supposed to be an all-weather highway. Right now, it's more like a goat path," Fedosoff said. Rutherford said he would like to see more regular maintenance on the Dempster, especially on the southern Yukon section of the road. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/24/stories/2008082451920300.htm Andhra Pradesh - Nalgonda Girl knocked down by bus, students protest Staff Reporter NALGONDA: An eighth class student of a private school, Ashvani, was knocked down by an RTC bus in the Valigonda bus stand triggering protest from the students on Saturday. According to the information reaching here, Ashwani was hit by the bus when she tried to hurriedly board it in an attempt to occupy a seat. She died instantaneously while another boy Akhil, a sixth class student, suffered minor injures in the mishap. Both of them hailed from Pulijala of Valigonda mandal and they were on their way back home after attending their school in the mandal headquarters. Enraged by the girl's death, students of various organisations staged a dharna demanding action against the driver and Rs.5 lakh as compensation for the victim's family. The protest was going on till reports last came in. http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Protest-cards-to-be-given.4399828.jp Protest cards to be given to drivers over bus pram ban Published Date: 18 August 2008 By HAZEL MOLLISON CAMPAIGNERS will be handing out protest cards to Lothian Buses drivers in their attempt to overturn the controversial ban on prams. They are protesting against the company's policy of refusing to allow parents on board with prams or buggies that cannot be folded. Disability campaigners have also criticised Lothian Buses' inflexibility, saying there is no reason mothers with prams cannot use the disabled space if it is vacant. And they also hit out at the company's refusal to carry a mother with a disabled baby daughter in a pram, as reported in last week's Evening News. Caroline Docherty was stunned when she was told she couldn't get on several buses with her five-month-old baby Sophie, who has brain damage and requires a special pram. However, she said she has now been offered a special badge to show to drivers. The mum-of-two said: "I'm just relieved I'll be able to get on the bus again. "I phoned them up and they said they'd send one out to me to show drivers. I think every mother who asks for one now will get one if they phone up." Lothian Buses began enforcing the ban on non-folding prams in June, which they say is in line with the Disability Discrimination Act. They have issued drivers with guidance as to what types of prams and buggies should be refused. But councillors, parents and campaigners are calling on the company to back down and show some "common sense". They say that most parents are happy to vacate the space if it is needed by a wheelchair user. Kate Joester, a mother-of-two from Lower Granton Road, has designed the cards. She has won the support of dozens of parents. She said: "I'd like people to hand one to the driver of every bus they get on, saying they object to this policy whether they push a buggy or not. "We don't want to behave in a hostile way to drivers or hold anyone up, but we just want to make it clear how many people, their customers, think this is outrageous. It's so intimidating waiting for a bus, and not knowing whether you'll be allowed on. "What are you supposed to do if you've got a six-week-old baby who can't go in a foldable buggy? It's not possible to carry your baby all the time. "It can be very hard for mothers with young children to get around as it is. The last thing Lothian Buses should be doing is alienating so many passengers. "Most parents are happy to get off a bus if a wheelchair users needs the space." Nikki McIntosh Lewis, a mother-of-two, has helped set up a Facebook group with nearly 150 members who oppose the ban. She is also organising a petition. She said: "I would definitely support this. I think handing out cards is a good way for people to show Lothian Buses what they think." Mothers are also planning a delegation to go and confront managers at Lothian Buses. They have won the support of Malcolm Chisholm, the MSP for Edinburgh North and Leith. No one from Lothian Buses was available for comment. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Thu Aug 28 17:44:16 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2008 01:44:16 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Global South and Global: Anti-racism, minority rights, castes and religious minorities Message-ID: <007b01c90970$5f2335e0$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * INDIA: Muslim group protests over scheduled caste quotas * MALAYSIA: Protest over anti-Indian slurs in school * INDIA: Barbers' caste protests against denigrating remarks * INDIA: Sikhs protest against caricatures * INDIA: Dalits protest wall, exclusion from temple * US/JAPAN: Buddhists protest fundamentalist group * TURKEY/KURDISTAN: Kurdish politicians skip speech in protest * EGYPT: Coptic Christians protest attacks in land dispute * US/EGYPT: Coptic solidarity demo * PAKISTAN: Protests over killings of Shi'ite Muslims * INDIA: Protest for better conditions at scheduled caste hostels * INDIA: Protest against discrimination against Dalits * INDIA: Karnataka Dalits urge budget quota, hostels * INDIA: Protest for Kannadi preference in hiring * INDIA: Muslims protest killing of Shi'ites in Pakistan * INDIA: Dalits protest death at residential school * SOUTH KOREA: Buddhists protest alleged discrimination by government * INDIA: Kannada activists demand language status * SERBIA: American book withdrawn after Muslim protests * INDIA: Christians protest against fake cases * CANADA/INDIA: Sikh protesters target Indian parade, demand homeland * INDIA: Protest over alleged murder of Dalit * US: Sikhs protest haircut assault * INDIA: Attack on Dalit sparks protests http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/30/stories/2008073053700400.htm Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram Association's protest Thiruvananthapuram: The Muslim Employees' Cultural Association has expressed its protest against what it described as the 'freezing of the reservation for students belonging to the backward communities for degree and postgraduate courses.' In a memorandum submitted to Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan on Tuesday, with copy to the Education Minister, they urged the State government to restore the reservation immediately. - Special Correspondent http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=&id=6f5a4766-6909-4165-bae3-cda57e4245cf&&Headline=Protest+over+racial+slurs+against+Indians+in+Malaysia&strParent=strParentID Protest over racial slurs against Indians in Malaysian school Kula Lumpur, August 05, 2008 First Published: 00:48 IST(5/8/2008) Last Updated: 00:56 IST(5/8/2008) About 500 angry ethic-Indians on Monday staged a protest outside a school demanding action against a teacher who allegedly hurled racial slurs against students from the community in western Malaysia's Selangaon state. According to the police report, a woman history teacher had allegedly called Indian students in a Class four and five 'Negro', 'black monkeys' and other derogatory names. The crowd began gathering outside the Banting school's main entrance near here at noon and staged a protest for two hours. The teacher had also allegedly said that "Indians came from dogs" and the community members were stupid and prone to thuggery and thievery, the Star daily reported on its website. The alleged incidents took place on July 17 and 22 when the teacher had allegedly beaten up some Indians students. A students also alleged in his report that the teacher had written the word 'keling pariah' on the board and lost her cool when the Indian students told her that they did not like being called names, it said. Coalition of Malaysian Indian NGOs secretary Gunaraj George, who was among the protesters, said such abuse would only breed hatred and racial polarisation in schools. "No one in his or her right frame of mind would have said these things. Given this, the best option would be for the teacher to be assigned to a desk job and not be allowed to be near youngsters anymore," he said. Meanwhile, Deputy Education Minister Wee Ka Siong said the schoolteacher might be sacked if the allegations proved true. "The allegations were serious as no one was allowed to insult others, especially in a school environment," said Wee, who was asked to comment. The ministry was awaiting an official report before taking any action, he added. http://story.indiagazette.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/303b19022816233b/id/377065/cs/1/ Malay Indians protest against racial slur India Gazette Tuesday 1st July, 2008 (ANI) Sungai Siput (Malaysia), July 1 : The Indian community in Malaysia protested against the prominent legislator for the Malay-majority Barisan Nasional coalition or the National Front, Hamidah Osman, for saying that Indians are worse than snakes in front of a State Assembly Speaker. A group of about 50 people from the Indian community staged a 75-minute peaceful demonstration in fro nt of the Sungai Siput police station to call for her resignation. The demonstration, which began at 5.45 p.m. on Monday, saw the group holding up placards and asking passing motorists to sound their horns as a show of support. The group dispersed at 7p.m., but not before five participants lodged a joint police report against her. The Malaysian Government fearing a backlash from the Indian community to a racist insult from a prominent legislator has forced Hamidah Osman to tender an immediate apology to the community. Osman, the Malaya legislator had said, "There's a well-known Malay saying that goes 'If you see a snake and an Indian, kill the Indian first.' Do you agree or disagree with it?" The Malaysian government took redressed before the Indian government could lodge a complaint. The government was forced to retract after strong protest from Malay Indians, the NST Online reported. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/02/stories/2008080252050300.htm Nayee Brahmins' protest rocks Tirupati Special Correspondent - Photo: K.V. Poornachandra Kumar On warpath: Nayee Brahmins protesting against J.C. Prabhakar Reddy's comments in Tirupati on Friday. TIRUPATI: Nadaswaram and Dolu artistes who belong to the 'Nayee Brahmin' (barbers) community on Friday chosen a novel method to register their resentment over the intemperate outbursts of J. C. Prabhakar Reddy, brother of Panchayat Raj Minister J.C. Diwakar Reddy against denigrating their caste. They were highly critical about the Minister's brother abusing Deputy Transport Commissioner, Gandhi, using his caste name and said his action smacked of his arrogance and 'caste hegemony'. To register their protest against Mr. Prabhakar Reddy, heaping choicest of the epithets at the Deputy Transport Commissioner and other senior officials who were present during the unsavoury incident, the members of the community took a march through the main streets playing in chorus their nadaswaram and beating their traditional percussion instrument, dolu in concert. The protest march with nearly 2,000 demonstrators started from the statue of social reformist Jyothirao Phule and culminated at the busy 'Nalagukalla Mandapam' where they concluded their 'concert' and held a mid-road protest meeting. http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1165347 Members of Sikh community stage protest PTI Monday, May 19, 2008 20:39 IST BANGALORE: Members belonging to the Sikh community staged a protest in the city, raising serious objection to jokes and caricatures printed on the menu card of a restaurant, which offended the 'sentiments' of the Sikh community, a spokesperson of the community said. "About 60 members belonging to our community staged a peaceful protest in front of the restaurant yesterday and also lodged a complaint with the Cubbon Park police station against the owner of the restaurant", Raj Kamal Singh, Manager, Ulsoor Gurudwara said on Monday. "Our Sikh bretheren who had been visiting this restaurant "Angeethi" owned by a Sindhi, noticed that each and every page of the menu card not only had jokes on Sikhs, portraying them as dumb, but also their caricatures, sporting a turban and a sword along with shoes, which is very offensive", he said. "The turban (Pagadi) and sword (kirpan) have been bestowed upon us by our Guru, Guru Nanak Dev and is an essential part of the Sikh identity. The Kirpan specially is never sported along with shoes. It really hurts the sentiments of the community, which is basically peace loving", he said. "While the manager of the hotel assured us that he would withdraw the menu card and get new ones printed, we are yet to speak to the owner, who is out of town", Singh said. "In case the hotel authorities do not comply with our appeal, we will then decide about the further course of action", he added. The cosmopolitan city has a Sikh population of nearly 10,000. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/20/stories/2008052054110600.htm Dalits protest against construction of wall Special Correspondent SALEM: Dalits of Sandhiyur village near here have protested against the attempt by caste Hindus to construct a compound wall around the Sri Periya Mariamman Temple. They said that they had been offering prayers at the temple standing outside. Even during the annual festivals the Dalits were not permitted to enter the temple, they claimed. But a week back the caste Hindus had started constructing a wall around the temple with the intension of denying the Dalits to have the darshan of the deity even from standing outside. M. Matheswaran, a Dalit, told The Hindu that the caste Hindus had also encroached upon the village maidan (ground), which is common for all castes.The ground incidentally has village TV room and a school. http://www.columbiaspectator.com/node/55134 Protesting Nichiren Shoshu's Use of Miller Theatre By Lisa Kawai PUBLISHED MARCH 17, 2008 On Sunday, May 18, the fundamentalist "Nichiren Shoshu"-or The True Sect of Nichiren-Buddhist Temple will be holding a 1 p.m. meeting at Miller Theatre. As a member of Columbia's Buddhism for Global Peace club, I am concerned about this event and will be in front of Miller Theatre in protest. Nichiren Shoshu preaches the doctrine that "the living essence" of Buddhism exists solely within the lives of its anointed priests. Stemming from this untenable doctrine-so inimical to the contention of the Lotus Sutra that all beings are inherently respectworthy and equal-senior Nichiren Shoshu priests have issued numerous incendiary remarks about other religions. In fact, the Web site of the Nichiren Shoshu temple in Washington, D.C. clearly condemns the very concept of religious tolerance which, it bemoans, has "penetrated and become fixed in society" and is "actually hypocrisy and will definitely lead to ruin." It is difficult to document what Nichiren Shoshu priests say behind the closed doors of their temples (the event at Miller Theatre is closed to the Columbia community.) However, snippets of their remarks have occasionally surfaced on Web postings. For example, in his posting of a monthly sermon, a local New York Nichiren Shoshu priest urged his congregants to "discard the imperfect precepts of imperfect religions and ideas such as the Judeo-Christian Ten Commandments." In a rare, publicly transcribed question-and-answer session, a priest from Argentina characterized Mother Teresa as "a Jihi Ma (literally "devil incarnate") leading people to hell. Nichiren Shoshu priests, however, have reserved their most offensive remarks for Islam. In 1997 a senior priest referred to God and Allah as "heartless and uncharitable gods" who are mere figments of the imagination. "Religions that force people to believe in gods who do not exist," he continued, are "arrogant faiths that lack compassion." On the second anniversary of Sept. 11th, 2001, ignoring the extreme duress experienced at that time by Muslims, a New York priest concluded, "Just as Indian Buddhism was destroyed by Islam . all slanderous religions, including Islam, will be defeated by true Buddhism." This remark caught the attention of the local chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which protested with a petition drive and a press conference in front of the priest's Flushing temple on July 9, 2003. The priest refused to apologize-how can someone touched by "the living essence" of Buddhism make a mistake?-and just removed the objectionable passages from his Web site. Laughable? Easily dismissed as the fodder of the ignorant? Yes, but it is important to remember the lessons of history which clearly teach that extremism must be immediately and strongly confronted whenever it emerges. The warning of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is clear on this point: "History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people." Certainly the bar of verbal challenge to the Nichiren Shoshu priests should be no lower than the one raised when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke at Columbia on Sept. 24, 2007: "People of intolerance can speak but people of conscience must react," said University President Lee Bollinger. "To commit oneself to a life-and a civil society-prepared to examine critically all ideas arises from a deep faith in the myriad benefits of a long-term process of meeting bad beliefs with better beliefs and hateful words with wiser words." As a member of the Buddhism for Global Peace club at Columbia, I must stress that our members do not support the intolerance and authoritarianism shown by the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood-such qualities are inimical to the beliefs and traditions of mainstream Buddhism. In particular, the life of Nichiren, a 13th century Japanese freedom fighter, exemplified the broad social activism, humanistic compassion, intellectual pursuit, and, above all, commitment to dialogue characteristic of the Mahayana teachings of engaged Buddhism. Our club is affiliated with the Soka Gakkai International-USA, an international lay Buddhist organization dedicated to peace, culture and education. Our commitment to these goals is well illustrated by the efforts of our president, Daisaku Ikeda, one of the world's foremost advocates of intercultural dialogue. In recognition of his efforts to support higher education, he has been the recipient of over 230 honorary doctorates from universities all over the world. Whereas Nichiren Shoshu is renting Miller Theatre and along with it the imprimatur of Columbia, Dr. Ikeda's relationship with Columbia University has lasted for 33 years. He visited the Columbia campus in 1975, presenting a collection of rare books to the C.V. Starr East Asian Library and conducting a dialogue about higher education with prominent Columbia professors and administrators. He lectured at Teachers College in 1996 and articulated a vision to revitalize schooling based on the paradigm of education for global citizenship. He has conducted dialogues on Buddhism with professor Robert Thurman. With Dr. Ikeda's support, Columbia University Press was able to publish a definitive English translation of the Lotus Sutra by professor Burton Watson. In collaboration with the Boston Research Center for the 21st Century, a research institution founded by Dr. Ikeda, Teachers College Press published two volumes of essays, Educating Citizens for Global Awareness and Ethical Visions of Education, edited respectively by professors Nel Noddings and David Hansen. Clearly, Dr. Ikeda fully understands the unique significance of Columbia and its students. Please join me at 1 p.m. in front of Miller Theatre to hold Nichiren Shoshu priests visiting our campus publicly accountable to standards of tolerance, decency, and broadmindedness. The author is a graduate student in the School of Social Work. http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=143101 Kurdish politicians skip Turkish prime minister's speech to protest government policies Kurdish politicians have skipped a major speech by Turkey's prime minister to protest the government's refusal to recognize the country's Kurdish minority. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was giving details about plans unveiled in March for economic and cultural initiatives in the largely Kurdish southeast. He suggests spending US$12 billion (?8 billion) over five years to improve the region's agriculture, and says a TV channel with Kurdish-language programing will soon be launched. The Kurdish politicians say the incentives do not go far enough. Pro-Kurdish Mayor Osman Baydemir and other Kurdish politicians boycotted Erdogan's speech Tuesday in Diyarbakir to underline their demand that Kurds be fully recognized. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2008/06/200861503810963616.html Egypt Copts protest against attacks The Abu Fana monastery was damaged during clashes between Muslims and Copts over a land dispute [AFP] Calm has returned to Deir Abu Fana, a village 210km south of Egypt's capital, Cairo, after the release of three monks abducted amid tensions between Muslims and Coptic Christians. Violence erupted on Saturday when local Muslims claimed the expansion of a Coptic monastery was being carried out illegally on state property. In Mallawi, a nearby town, on Sunday Coptic Christian protesters chanted: "With our blood and soul, we will defend the cross." They appealed to Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, to intervene because "Coptic hearts are on fire". Father Bulous, a priest at the Mallawi church who managed to visit the three freed monks in hospital on Sunday, said: "They said they were tortured, tied up and beaten and humiliated. "One monk was hit with the back of a rifle and had his leg broken." Deir Abu Fana, in the province of Minya, has a high proportion of Coptic Christians and contains several monasteries particularly sacred to the community. A similar incident took place in Minya in October, resulting in 20 people receiving injuries. Deir Abu Fana clash A Muslim resident of Deir Abu Fana was killed during Saturday's inter-communal clashes. Two Coptic Christian workers at the monastery suffered bullet wounds and were admitted to hospital in a critical condition, while two monks suffered injuries. Father Dumadius, who witnessed the attack, said that at least 60 men carrying weapons stormed the Abu Fana monastery on Saturday. "They split into several groups. One group proceeded to destroy the wall. Others entered a chapel used by the monks and destroyed and burned property," he said. Muslim residents of the area claim the agricultural land on which the monastery's wall is being built as theirs, and say it is damaging their crops. Shops robbed The developments in Deir Abu Fana came against a backdrop of attacks against Christian jewellers over the past week that prompted one Coptic member of Egypt's parliament to claim on Thursday that police were not adequately protecting the community. Armed men stormed a jewelry shop in Cairo on Wednesday and killed the Coptic Christian owner and three of his assistants, but did not steal anything. The suspected assailant was arrested on Sunday, but another Coptic-owned jewelry store was targeted the same day, this time in the port city of Alexandria. No one was killed, but about $28,000 worth of merchandise was stolen. Police claim the incidents are entirely criminal in nature and not sectarian. http://www.bosnewslife.com/index.php?//page.newsPayment&id=3700 Coptic Groups Protest At White House Against Killing Egypt Christians Thursday, 10 July 2008 BosNewsLife Middle East Service CAIRO/WASHINGTON (BosNewsLife)-- Organizations of Coptic Christians said Thursday, July 10, they will demonstrate in front of the White House in Washington DC to protest against increased "persecution" of Coptic Christians in Egypt by the "government and Muslim extremists" following recent killings and attacks on Christian shops and institutions. http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=376114 Jafferia Alliance of Pakistan protests killings of Shia Muslims ANI Saturday 28th June, 2008 Karachi, June 28 : The Jafferia Alliance of Pakistan (JAP) held protests outside different mosques against the killing of Shia Muslims in the Kurram Agency and in Parachinar. Addressing a protest rally outside the Masjid Shah-e-Najaf, Martin Quarters, Jamshed Town, the JAP president Allama Abbas Kumeli said the government should take immediate action against the Taliban for regularly killing Shia Muslims. "Leaving more than 500,000 Shias at the mercy of the Taliban is a conspiracy against the country. We will have a worse situation than Afghanistan if the government and the Pakistan Army fail to stop the Taliban from spreading terrorism in the area," he added. Kumeli claimed the Taliban have no concern with Islam or it's preaching, but are working in the interest of America. They are creating a false image of Islam in the world, the Daily Times reported. http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/southasia/news/article_1425553.php/Pakistans_Shiite_community_protests_deadly_hospital_bombing Pakistan's Shiite community protests deadly hospital bombing South Asia News Aug 20, 2008, 9:50 GMT Islamabad - Shiite Muslims on Wednesday protested a suicide bombing outside a hospital in north-western Pakistan, calling the attack a conspiracy against the country that aimed to fan sectarian hatred. A suicide bomber on Tuesday detonated explosives he was carrying after infiltrating a crowd of Shiite Muslims in Dera Ismail Khan, killing 32 people and injuring at least 20. The crowd had gathered at the hospital where the body of a local Shiite leader was brought after he was gunned down earlier in the day. A Shiite umbrella organization Tuesday night announced three days of mourning, called for peaceful protests throughout the country and appealed for forging unity 'to save the country.' Markets remained closed as a tense calm prevailed in the Pashtun-dominated town about 300 kilometres south of North-West Frontier Province's capital, Peshawar. 'The situation is very tense in the town,' District Police Officer Nasir Satti said. 'However, police and paramilitary troops have been deployed in large numbers to avoid any untoward incident.' Shiite activists rallied in several cities to condemn the 'cowardly act' and demanded security for the religious minority. Meanwhile, police were searching for leads on the identity of the attacker, who is believed to have come from the adjoining lawless tribal region. 'We have found the severed head and limbs of the suspected bomber, which have been sent to the forensic lab for DNA testing,' Satti said. Some analysts linked the deadly strike with the sectarian conflict in a tribal district where rival Shiite and Sunni tribes have been engaged in running battles that have killed up to 250 people in the past two weeks. Pro-Taliban militants entrenched in the restive Waziristan region have joined the Sunni tribesmen, intensifying the fighting in the Kurram tribal district bordering Afghanistan. A spokesman for Pakistan's Taliban Movement, Maulvi Omar, on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the suicide attack and said it was carried out to avenge the government's military operations against militants in the north-western district of Bajaur and Swat. Pakistan's new government launched peace talks with the militants in March, bringing a brief lull in the violence, but the clashes re-erupted within months with the militants accusing security forces of violating the terms of a sketchy truce. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/08/stories/2008070853030300.htm There was another protest march by Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad members in Dharwad demanding better facilities at hostels for students of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The protestors said that the food allowance sanctioned per student was meagre and should be increased from Rs. 500 to Rs. 1,000 month. They also demanded special grants for development of the SC/ST hostels. Dharna Members of the Dharwad district unit of Karnataka Dalit Sangharsha Samiti (Ambedkar Vaada) staged a dharna in front of the Deputy Commissioner's office demanding steps for protecting the rights of Dalits and their social development. The protestors urged the BJP Government to launch more welfare measures for the Dalit communities and sought a single window system for implementation of various schemes under 18 per cent programmes. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/13/stories/2008071354550500.htm Other States - Puducherry DYFI to stage protest condemning discrimination against Dalits S. Dorairaj PUDUCHERRY: With different forms of untouchability such as the two-tumbler system and denial of entry to temples and streets still prevailing in some villages of Tamil Nadu, the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) will revive the spirit of the Vaikkom Satyagraha to protect the rights of the Dalits. DYFI Tamil Nadu unit secretary S. Kannan told The Hindu here on Saturday that the State conference of the organisation, to be held at Villupuram from September 27 to 29, would focus on this issue, besides employment with social security, education and health in rural areas. To start with, the DYFI would stage a protest on August 15 in three villages in Namakkal district and four villages in Sivaganga district where, he said, several forms of discrimination were being practised. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/13/stories/2008071354650500.htm Karnataka - Bangalore DSS protest BANGALORE: Dalit Sangharsh Samithi (N. Murthy faction) will stage a protest in Bangalore on Monday, urging the Government to allocate 23 per cent funds in the Budget for the welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Addressing presspersons here on Saturday, samithi's State unit president N. Murthy said the funds allocated for the community should be used only for Dalit welfare, through a single-window system. In another press conference, Karnataka Rajya Dalit Sangharsha Samiti too sought 23 per cent budgetary allocation for the community. - Special Correspondent Printer friendly page http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/11/stories/2008071152370300.htm Karnataka - Bidar Protest rally BIDAR: Members of the district unit of the Karnataka State Dalit Sanghrash Samiti took out a protest rally in the city on Thursday, asking the State Government to start SC/ST hostels in the State. In a memorandum addressed to Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, the samiti members made certain demands including separate buildings for all SC/ST hostels at district headquarters and release of scholarship amount pending for two years. District unit convener of the samiti Maruti Boude led the protest. - Staff Correspondent http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/11/stories/2008071152350300.htm Karnataka - Gulbarga Members of KRV stage protest in Gulbarga Staff Correspondent GULBARGA: Members of the district unit of the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (Praveen Shetty faction) staged a protest here on Thursday. They were demanding preference for Kannadigas while hiring people to work in the Rajashri and Vasavadatta cement factories in the district. In a memorandum submitted to the Deputy Commissioner here, the vedike members alleged that the Rajashri factory located in Malkhed and the Vasavadatta factory in Sedam preferred persons from Andhra Pradesh when hiring workers. They also alleged that the factories were polluting agricultural fields by releasing waste material into them. The members demanded that suitable compensation be given to farmers whose crops had been damaged by this. The members urged the managements of the two factories to make suitable arrangements for releasing the waste material. The protest was led by the district unit president of the vedike, Arunkumar S. Patil. Leaders Malliakrjun Subedar and Sharanu Gaduge participated. http://www2.irna.com/en/news/view/menu-234/0807201016185708.htm Indian Muslims protest against killing of Shias in Pakistan New Delhi, July 20, IRNA India-Pakistan-Protest Hundreds of Indian Muslims mainly Shias took to the streets on Sunday to protest the recent killings of innocent Shias in Pakistan at Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The protest, organized by Imamia Student Society (ISS) of Delhi, took place at Jantar Mantar in Central Delhi area. Around ten innocent Shias of Turi tribesmen were brutally beheaded and mutilated after abduction by local Taliban terrorists on June 19 at Pir Qauoom and Saddaare of Pakistan-Afghanistan border area. Condemning the silence of the Pakistani government over the killings Swami Agnivesh, prominent scholar and president of the World Council of Arya Samaj (Society of Nobles) said, "The Pakistani government and democratic forces in the country should take immediate notice of the killings of innocent Shias by Taliban". Maulana Zeeshan Hidayati, a prominent Shia Scholar and Director of Safeena Charitable Hospital in Delhi who led the demonstration condemned the killing of innocent Shias in Pir Qauoom. He also demanded the arrest of those involved in the killing. Holding banners and placards condemning the brutal killings of innocent Shias, the protestors were chanting slogans against Pakistan, America, Israel, Taliban and Al-Qaeda. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/15/stories/2008081554440500.htm Karnataka Girl's death: DSS stages protest KOLAR: Activists of Dalit Sangharsha Samiti (DSS) and Human Rights Forum for Dalit Liberation (HRFDL) staged a dharna in front of the Social Welfare Office at Bangarpet on Wednesday. They demanded action against the Bangarpet taluk social welfare officer and the warden of the residential school run by the Social Welfare Department. Holding these officials responsible for the death of Kavya, a Class 2 student of the school, the Dalit outfits urged the Government to initiate disciplinary action against them. Delay in providing timely medical care had caused Kavya's death, they alleged. - Staff Correspondent http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200808/200808120011.html Buddhists Protest against Gov't 'Discrimination' The Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, the largest Buddhist group in the country, launched a campaign Monday against what it says is the Lee Myung-bak administration's religious bias with a solemn ceremony at the Jogye Temple in Jongno-gu, Seoul. The Ven. Hyegyeong takes on the first leg of a relay hunger strike that will continue until Aug. 23. The Jogye Order also plans to stage one-man relay demonstrations in front of Cheong Wa Dae and the central government complex in Sejongno, Seoul, for the same period. Leaders of other Buddhist sects and organizations on Monday held an urgent meeting to discuss a response to what they say is religious discrimination by the government, including a congress of Buddhists to be held at the Jogye Temple on Aug. 23. President Lee is a devout evangelical Christian. Earlier, the Jogye Order launched a complaint center for religious discrimination cases on its website. It vowed to "build religious peace and achieve national harmony by realizing the freedom of religion as guaranteed by the Constitution and preventing public servants from discriminating against certain religions." The online center will accept reports on complaints about religious bias or discrimination suffered by Buddhists and other ordinary people in their daily lives, it said. The complaints will be handled by the Jogye Order's Religious Peace Council. In a bid to defuse the situation, Maeng Hyung-kyu, the senior presidential secretary for political affairs, and Kang Yoon-koo, the senior presidential secretary for social policy, visited the headquarters of the Jogye Order and met with its supreme leader. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/13/stories/2008081353400300.htm Karnataka - Hassan KRV protest HASSAN: Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (Narayana Gowda group) activists led by district president Satish Patel staged a dharna in front of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. office here on Tuesday demanding that the Centre accord classical language status to Kannada. The protesters went inside the BSNL office and requested the staff to come out and support their agitation. The staff came out for a while but later returned to work. - Staff Correspondent http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/080820/world/book_islamic_protest Publisher withdraws book by U.S. author after Muslim protests in Serbia Module body Wed Aug 20, 2:42 PM By The Associated Press BELGRADE, Serbia - A Serbian publisher says it has withdrawn a controversial book by American writer Sherry Jones because of protests from the local Islamic community. The book "Jewel of Medina" is about Aisha, one of the Prophet Muhammad's wives. It gained worldwide attention after the original publisher, Random House cancelled its publication, fearing an uproar in the Islamic world. Serbian publisher BeoBook released the book but has decided to withdraw it because of protests from local Islamic leaders who said it insulted Muhammad and his family. The publisher expressed its "apology and regret" to the Islamic community in a statement published on the company website Wednesday. The company says the book was withdrawn from all the book stores where it was initially distributed. http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=130516 Protest against police, landlord Monday, August 18, 2008 By our correspondent HYDERABAD: Members of the Christian community staged a protest against the alleged highhandedness of the police and an influential landlord here on Sunday. The villagers from a nearby village of Hyderabad gathered here outside the press club and complained that the Hatri police had arrested one of their relatives on the instigation of a local landlord who wanted to occupy his land. The protesting villagers, led by Rehmat Masih, Younus Masih and Yousuf Masih, also addressed a news conference at the press club. Father John Murad of Justice and Peace Commission, Hyderabad Chapter, was also present during the press conference. Rehmat Masih, along with his wife and children, told newsmen that his son Shahzad, alias Nakoon Masih, was arrested and sent to the central jail by the Hatri police, which implicated him in false cases at the behest of influential people Asif Khokhar, Akram Arain, Zafar Arain and others. He said that Shahzad Masih was a law-abiding resident of Hyderabad and he was implicated in fake cases. They appealed to the government to take notice of the situation and provided them justice. http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/aug/11can.htm Canada: Pro-Khalistan demonstrators stage protest at Indian I-Day parade Police officers had to intervene in the arguments between some Indo-Canadians, who were marching in the Independence Day parade on August 10 in downtown Toronto, and a handful of pro-Khalistani demonstrators. The parade was organised by the Indian Consulate-General and Panorama India, a community organisation. Before the parade started from the Dundas Square, downtown Toronto, Indian Consul-General Satish Mehta spoke briefly about India's Independence, its economy, etc. Also present were a number of Ontario politicians like Minister for Small Business Harinder Takhar and Minister for Education Kathleen O Wynne. On the other side of the road, nearly 40 turbaned Sikihs were holding placards in support of Khalistan and shouting slogans like 'Down with the government of India' and 'Long Live Khalistan'. They included a dozen kids also. As the parade started, there was a sort of brush with these demonstrators and a couple of persons from the parade shouted, "You guys, you should be ashamed of yourself, shouting slogans for what here, better go back home" and three-four 4 people among the demonstrators started shouting back calling them 'turncoats' and 'puppets' and some unprintable expressions. There were nearly 40 Metro police officers on bicycles and three/four of them quickly jumped in to keep them apart. They prevented it from becoming physical, but for a few minutes the participants in the parade and the protestors kept shouting at each other. Tempers were high, but the police were in full force to ensure peace. Before it happened, retired Major of the Indian Army [Images] Harbans S Dhatt was called to the podium with Consul-General Mehta and Minster Takhar also standing on the stage. He had his walking stick that he raised addressing the demonstrators: "You guys don't have any sense of shame shouting these anti-India slogans from the foreign soil! Better go back to India and take up your fight for Khalistan there." In an interview with RediffIndiaAbroad on August 11, Dhatt said, "I firmly believe there's no sense shouting slogans here. I have met them several times and I have always told them 'if you want Khalistan, go back to India and shout slogans there. Why are you making these kinds of demands living in another country? It's insulting for India. It's insulting for the Sikh community. If you have any problem, it is with the government of India and not with the Canadian government. Canada [Images] has such good friendly relations with India'." Dhatt is president of the Indian Ex-servicemen Association of Ontario that has 200 members. He repeatedly mentioned as to what Manmohan Singh [Images] as prime minister of India has done for the Sikh community: "Sikhs are now known all over the world, thanks to the fact that Dr Singh, the first Sikh ever in the history of independent India, is the prime minister of the country." He also referred to recent nomination of General J J Singh as chief of India's Army staff. "These people (demonstrators) forget that 25 per cent of the Indian Army comprises of Sikhs and Sikhs protect the borders between India and Pakistan where Sikhs also live. "Why do these people want to live in a small well than to be part of the ocean so that they could prosper?" Dhatt asked. One of demonstrators included Sukhminder Singh Hansra, who's the founder of Punjabi Daily. When asked by this reporter as to what problems Sikhs have in India, his response was "problems are the same as in 1984. They have done nothing against the people behind the killing of thousands of Sikhs during that period." When pointed out that India has a sikh prime minister, Hansra called him "a puppet of the Congress Party and that they are keeping peace in Punjab with the help of the guns." The protestors circulated a one-page petition on behalf of the 'Untied Front for Khalistan'. "We make an appeal to the international community to take notice of the denial of human rights in India' and that 'due to all the injustice that the minorities in India face, the Untied Front for Khalistan is committed to helping the Sikh people of India to establish their own country,' it said. Dhatt said he would request "these demonstrators and Sikhs in general 'not to raise slogans on a foreign land. They forget what if Khalistan doesn't work like Pakistan. Would they then ask for 'Nakhalistan'?" http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/19/stories/2008071953670500.htm Karnataka Alleged murder of Dalit triggers protest KOLAR: Scores of Dalits staged a protest at Chintamani in Chickballapur district on Thursday demanding the arrest of the accused in an alleged murder of a Dalit, Venkatarayappa (40), of Rampur, who belongs to the Scheduled Caste Bovi community. Rampur is situated near Kambalapalli where seven Dalits of a family were burnt to death about eight years ago. The body was found on Thursday. According to the protesters, Venkatara-yappa was murdered for not repaying his loan. - Staff Correspondent http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/religion/story/405374.html NEW YORK: Sikhs protest recent harassment in schools THE NEWS TRIBUNE Published: July 5th, 2008 01:00 AM The Sikh community joined Friday in protesting an attack on a 12-year-old girl who had her hair cut off by a fellow student. The June 9 incident was the third in two months targeting a Sikh student in Queens. Hair cutting violates Sikh beliefs. Sikhs and elected officials planned a march through Queens on Monday. The Associated Press http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/23/stories/2008062353210400.htm Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad Attack on Dalits triggers all-round protests Special Correspondent Minister says stern action will be taken; several organisations demand a probe into the incident Photo: S. Rambabu At crossroads: Family of Dalit youth Veerapandu, who died in an attack at Pottilanka village in Kadiyam mandal of East Godavari. - HYDERABAD: Marketing Minister M. Mareppa has demanded that the government take stern action against those responsible for attack on Dalits in Pottilanka village in Kadiyam mandal of East Godavari district. Reacting to the incident, Mr. Mareppa said it was unfortunate that Dalits and those belonging to the weaker sections were still suffering at the hands of the influential persons in the society. Even before people could forget the incidents in Karamchedu, Neerukonda and Tsundur, the latest incident has only showed the insecurity faced by Dalits, he added. Compensation sought Meanwhile, the Committee Against Caste Discrimination demanded stringent action under the SC, ST Atrocities (prevention)Act against persons belonging to upper castes for the fatal attack on a Dalit, Iripandu, of Pottilanka, in East Godvari district. John Wesley, general secretary, in a statement issued here wanted Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy to visit the village and initiate suitable steps. He demanded suspension of DSP for his alleged 'irresponsible' behaviour, protection to the seriously injured Dalits and payment of compensation of Rs.5 lakh to the victim's family and Rs.3 lakh to the seriously injured. According to the statement, the attack was a sequel to Dalits questioning caste discrimination allegedly taking place in local hotels. Dalit Stree Shakti, an organisation working for Dalit women empowerment, has demanded that the government set up special court to try all cases of atrocities on Dalits in East Godavari district in the last two years. Convenor of the organisation Jhansi Geddam in a press note said that during a fact-finding visit to Pottilanka village in Kadiyam mandal of East Godavari district, the victims said people belonging to a dominant caste had led the attack to terrorise the Dalits. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Thu Aug 28 17:44:23 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2008 01:44:23 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Global North: Anti-racist protests, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <007c01c90970$6503ba20$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * US: Thousands protest CNN "goons and thugs" remarks about Chinese * US: Dakota Jews protest alleged anti-Semitism, swastika * UK: BT staff protest anti-Irish discrimination * US: Hassidic Jews protest assault on teenager * US: Protests over "racist" Obama monkey T-shirts * US: Tension in Idaho over Cinco de Mayo flag seizure * ITALY: Roma protest prejudice, crackdown * SPAIN: Roma solidarity demo * NEW ZEALAND: 10,000 protest anti-Asian violence, some form vigilante groups * CANADA: Protests over racist police incident in Digby, Nova Scotia * US: Protest against racial profiling of Hispanic-Americans * US: Fox News protested over racist comments about Obama * US: Protest to save name of Booker T Washington school, sign removed http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/90883/6399778.html Thousands protest over CNN commentator's anti-China remarks in San Francisco +-14:04, April 27, 2008 Thousands of Chinese Americans gathered in San Francisco Saturday to protest against CNN commentator Jack Cafferty's controversial remarks about Chinese products and people, and the network's supposed distorted reports on the recent riots in Tibet. Some 5,000 people from the Chinese community in San Francisco and surrounding areas participated in the two-hour mass rally in front of CNN's local office building, calling for the firing of Cafferty and a sincere apology by CNN to ethnic Chinese people allover the world. Holding U.S. and Chinese flags and banners accusing the CNN commentator of making racist remarks and the network of biased Tibet coverage, the demonstrators chanted slogans like "CNN liar, Cafferty fire," and marched along a stretch of a downtown street after the rally. "Chinese people tend to live peaceful and modest lives. The Chinese here in the United States are law-abiding and hard-working people," said Guobao Wu, a local Chinese community leader who helped organize the event. "The CNN guy's comments really hurt the feelings of the Chinese American community, we strongly protest and condemn his remarks," he added. Saturday's event was the latest in a series of protests by Chinese Americans across the United States after Cafferty said in a live show earlier this month that Chinese products were "junk" and the Chinese were "basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they've been for the last 50 years." In a later statement he said his comments were about the Chinese government not the Chinese people. Protests against CNN and Cafferty by Chinese Americans would not stop until they make acceptable apologies, said organizers of the San Francisco demonstration. Cafferty's remarks infuriated Chinese people around the world, especially those living in the United States, where demonstrations against CNN had been staged earlier in major cities like Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C. Source: Xinhua http://www.forward.com/articles/13290/ Jewish Students Protest Bias in North Dakota By Anthony Weiss Thu. May 01, 2008 Jewish students at a midwestern university are accusing the administration of ignoring antisemitic incidents. Jewish students at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks say the university ignored weeks of complaints about antisemitic incidents on campus until the news was reported in local newspapers. One Jewish student has moved off-campus to escape harassment, and two others say that when they presented the university president with photographic proof of one of the incidents, he refused to acknowledge that the image depicted was a swastika. Someone has now been charged in one of the incidents, but several other episodes are still under investigation. The Jewish students say they are waiting for an apology from the university. The allegations are the latest for a university that has been plagued for the past several years by charges of insensitivity toward racial and ethnic minorities. UND has been embroiled in a struggle with the National Collegiate Athletic Association over objections by Native American tribes to the university's athletic mascot, the Fighting Sioux. The university also made headlines several years ago when it accepted a $100 million donation from a casino mogul who reportedly celebrated Hitler's birthday and stocked his office with Nazi paraphernalia. Now, Jewish students and their faculty adviser are saying that the university continues to demonstrate that it can't, or won't, protect minorities on campus. "The fact that this blindsided them so much shows that there's almost a denial that any of this exists on campus," said Shannon Neegard, president of UND's Jewish Student Organization. Jews make up a tiny proportion of this Midwestern campus, with an estimated 15 to 20 Jews out of a student body of nearly 13,000 students, almost all of them white and Christian. Jack Weinstein, a professor of philosophy and religion and the faculty adviser of the university's JSO, said that overt antisemitism on campus has not historically been an issue. Rather, he says, there is a "climate of uncomfortableness" embodied in myriad small gestures, including occasional attempts by students to proselytize, and professors who refuse to make allowances for Jewish holidays. The atmosphere changed this year when Scott Lebovitz, a freshman in the university's aviation program, came across a pair of swastikas drawn in the stairwell of his dormitory. Lebovitz says employees of UND's residential services promised to report the incident to campus police. More incidents followed in the weeks thereafter, as Lebovitz says other students in his dorm taunted him, chased him, brandished pellet guns and wrote "Scott is a Jew" in ice cream on the elevator door. When he went back to the police in late March to report another complaint, he found that the first complaint was never filed. Lebovitz says he became so intimidated that he began locking himself in his dorm room, afraid even to use the bathroom. Finally, in mid-April, he moved out of the dorm room and into his fraternity house. Weinstein, Lebovitz and other JSO students complained to the administration, but after finding the university's response unsatisfactory, the students decided to take their story to the media. After the story broke in the campus newspaper and in the local Grand Forks Herald newspaper, Weinstein and two students met with UND's president, Charles Kupchella. When they showed Kupchella a photograph of one of the scrawlings found in a dorm, Kupchella refused to call the image a swastika, or even to say the word "swastika" during the meeting. "He refused to say it was a swastika. He said, 'I have no idea what that is,'" said Martin Rottler, a former president of JSO who attended the meeting. UND spokesman Peter Johnson said that Kupchella refused to label the image because he didn't have enough information about the incidents and didn't want to prejudge the issue. Kupchella was also the president in 2000, when casino magnate Ralph Engelstad threatened to withdraw a $100 million gift to the university if it acceded to the wishes of Native American tribes and dropped its Fighting Sioux mascot. Engelstad had already brought the university under fire a decade earlier, when media reports appeared saying that had had thrown parties on Hitler's birthday and that his office featured matching portraits of himself and Hitler in uniform. A university commission that vetted the gift declared that Engelstad was guilty only of "bad taste." In both instances, UND accepted the gift. Weinstein argues that the recent battles with the NCAA over the Fighting Sioux logo have left UND officials so cautious about the university's image that they will not acknowledge bias for fear of giving fuel to the school's critics. Johnson said the university was simply waiting for police investigations to play out before taking its own actions. Based on findings by the university police, the Grand Forks County state's attorney's office announced on April 29 that it was charging a UND student, Spencer Garness, with a misdemeanor for the ice cream incident. Meanwhile, the police continued to investigate several other bias incidents on campus. Lebovitz and the other students say they want UND to issue an apology and comprehensive hate-crime policies. Lebovitz is also considering legal action. Weinstein said that every year, he gets e-mails from Jewish parents asking if their children will feel comfortable at UND. He has always responded that though it is difficult, the Jewish community is strong and whatever problems exist are tolerable. "I can't write that anymore. I cannot in good conscience encourage students to come to UND," he told the Forward. "That breaks my heart." http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/04/397843.html BT staff protest against anti-Irish discrimination Hands across the Water | 29.04.2008 20:06 | Anti-racism | Globalisation | Workers' Movements On Tuesday April 22nd a large group of BT Ireland staff, with support from other CWU members, held a public protest at the corporate head office for British Telecom in Dublin BT Ireland workers protest against anti-Irish discrimination The protest was held to publicly highlight the fact that British Telecom is refusing to give collective bargaining rights to a large group of its staff simply because they are Irish. The company, which runs its business on an all-Ireland basis, deals with the CWU in Northern Ireland and staff there enjoy the benefits of independent collective representation. In recent years staff in the Republic of Ireland have sought equal treatment with their colleagues elsewhere in the business and, through the CWU and internal company mechanisms, they have asked to be given the same right to collective bargaining as their colleagues. To date the company has refused to honour this legitimate request and in doing so is not only denying staff a basic human right but is doing so on the basis that they are Irish. BT staff felt the company's position on this issue was completely unacceptable as it was effectively a form of discrimination. Members wanted to highlight their cause as part of a campaign to try and get management to engage in meaningful dialogue with their Union. Commenting on the protest the CWU's Head of Organising, Ian McArdle said 'The facts in this issue are simple - staff want equal treatment and the right to union representation which their colleagues in Northern Irelandd enjoy. They do not want to be treated like second class citizens simply because they are Irish.' As part of the campaign the CWU has rented billboard advertisements around Dublin city centre as well as a number of ad mobiles that will be active over the coming weeks with the message - 'Disconnect Discrimination'. In addition to this the Union is running an email campaign which can be accessed from http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=367http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/17/nyregion/17protest.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=sloginCrowd Protests an Assault on a Jewish TeenagerBy ANNIE CORREAL and CHRISTINE HAUSERPublished: May 17, 2008A crowd of more than 300 Hasidic Jews, some shouting "We want justice!"marched in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, on Friday afternoon to protest theassault and robbery of a Jewish teenager early that morning.Skip to next paragraphPost a CommentThe protesters marched from the scene of the assault, at Empire Boulevardand Albany Avenue, to the 71st Precinct station, and then up New York Avenueto Eastern Parkway, where they blocked traffic. They were briefly stopped atKingston Avenue by a line of police officers who stood arm to arm.Traffic was reopened on Eastern Parkway at 6:10 p.m., and the crowdgradually dispersed around 6:45 p.m.According to the police, the teenager, 16, left his house in Crown Heightsaround 12:10 a.m. on Friday and was attacked and robbed a short while later.He sustained a concussion and cuts on his face and hands, and his bicycle,watch and cellphone were stolen, the police said.The beating of the teenager, identified by the protesters as Alon Sherman,is being investigated as a possible hate crime, and officers are looking forwitnesses, the police said.The protest was an outburst of tension in a neighborhood that erupted in1991 with unrest and violence among Jews and blacks, who have coexisted inthe area, usually peacefully, for decades.Recently, black leaders expressed anger after a 20-year-old black collegestudent, Andrew Charles, was attacked in the neighborhood on April 14 by twoJewish men, in what the police have described as a hate crime. On Friday,the police released a photograph of a man, Yitzhak Shuchat, 25, who is beingsought as a "person of interest" in the attack on Mr. Charles.Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said at a news conference Fridaymorning that the police were investigating reports that Mr. Shuchat was amember of an unofficial Hasidic security group."There has been talk of a group that is not officially sanctioned orrecognized," he said. "If that is the case, we certainly frown on that."http://www.wsbtv.com/news/16255301/detail.html?rss=atl&psp=newsPublisher Mulls Legal Action To Stop Sales Of 'Racist' Obama T-ShirtsPOSTED: 3:38 pm EDT May 13, 2008UPDATED: 2:50 pm EDT May 14, 2008ATLANTA -- The publishing company that owns the rights to Curious George isconsidering legal action to stop the sale of T-shirts that show presidentialcandidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. as the cartoon monkey.Representatives of Houghton Mifflin said Wednesday they have not authorizedthe use of the image by Marietta tavern owner Mike Norman. He is selling theshirts that feature Curious George peeling a banana with the words "Obama'08" at his Mulligan's Tavern."We find it offensive and obviously utterly out of keeping with the valueCurious George represents," Houghton Mifflin spokesman Rick Blake told theAtlanta Journal-Constitution. "We're monitoring the situation and weighingour options with respect to legal action."Norman said he got the shirts from someone in Alabama and he insists theyaren't racist."This is 2008. If this was 1940-something, maybe. I don't see the big deal,I really don't," Norman told Channel 2.But many people do think it's a big deal. Critics say the shirts are anoffensive stereotype from generations past."GALEO condemns the t-shirt as racist and highly offensive. As a privatebusiness, Mulligan's is free to conduct business as it chooses. However, asa community, we must unite against such intolerance. The t-shirt being soldis highly offensive and should not be sold any further," said JerryGonzalez, Executive Director for the Georgia Association of Latino ElectedOfficials in a statement.The Anti-Defamation League also condemned the T-shirt being sold, sayingit's, "An outrageous slur against Barack Obama and all African Americans.""Mike Norman - the bar's owner - pretends he is shocked that people would beoffended by the T-shirt," said Bill Nigut, ADL's Southeast RegionalDirector. "But he knows full well that the characterization of AfricanAmericans as monkeys is a highly offensive stereotype. Every time he sellsone of the shirts he is happily sending a racist message out the door."Channel 2's Manuel Bojorquez asked Norman why he chose Curious George. "Ithought, man, look at those ears and his hair line and that's what I saw. Ididn't see anything offensive," Norman said. He said he was not a racist.Norman added the money from the sale of the shirts was being donated to theMuscular Dystrophy Association."It's their right to protest my right to have that to say," Norman said."I've had a lot of threatening calls. It's just a lot of stupidity."http://www.chinapost.com.tw/international/americas/2008/05/11/155944/Idaho%2Dstudent.htmIdaho student arrested during flag protestsAPSunday, May 11, 2008BOISE, Idaho -- A student was arrested and security tightened at a highschool in Idaho following a week of racial tension that began when a teacherconfiscated the Mexican flag of a student celebrating Cinco de Mayo.Student protests and counterprotests, faculty sanctions, desecration ofMexican and American flags and threats of legal action have rocked MinicoHigh School in Rupert, a town of 5,600 people in southern Idaho. As aprecaution, security was increased Friday when about 40 students planned aprotest over school administration treatment of two teachers at the centerof the controversy.http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/08/europe/italy.phpGypsies in Italy protest prejudiceBy Elisabetta PovoledoPublished: June 8, 2008ROME: The first national demonstration of Gypsies brought hundreds of peopleto the capital Sunday to protest recent episodes of racism in Italy thathave targeted Roma and Sinti people, as they prefer to be called."We're being used as scapegoats" to gain political advantage, saidStoyanovic Vojislav, a Serbian Roma and one of the organizers of thecolorful demonstration, which involved about a dozen organizations.Roma communities and illegal immigrants are increasingly blamed for risingcrime in Italy, although statistics do not reflect a marked change overprevious years.The demonstration, Vojislav said, will make Italians understand "that theRoma are very different from how we are depicted" in the media and by somecenter-right politicians. More than half of the estimated 160,000 Roma inthis country are Italian citizens, while most of the remainder are fromRomania - since 2007 part of the European Union - or from the formerYugoslavia. But they are usually treated as foreigners."This is the first time in six centuries that we are demanding our rights,"said Santino Spinelli, another organizer, who is a popular Gypsy musicianand a professor of Roma culture at the University of Trieste. "We aredemanding to be integrated because we are citizens like any others."Violent episodes against the Roma in Italy have increased in the past year.The worst violence took place in Naples nearly a month ago, when Romaencampments were set on fire. Last week, protesters from the rightistNorthern League party managed to halt work on the construction of a newhousing project in Venice, and a Roma camp in central Rome was evacuated.Silvio Berlusconi's center-right government has promised tough legislationthat would allow the police to shut down unauthorized Roma camps. Thegovernment also wants to carry out a census of people living in the camps.Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said last week that the issue of the Romacamps would be resolved by the end of the year.Many of the demonstrators on Sunday wore black triangles, like those thatthe Nazis forced the Roma to wear in concentration camps."Today is a great day for the Rom," said Gina, a Roma from Romania who didnot want to give her last name. "Remember that if you forget history, it canrepeat itself."http://www.italymag.co.uk/italy/immigration/spanish-gypsies-protest-against-italian-immigration-lawsSpanish gypsies protest against Italian immigration lawsPublished on the 03-06-2008Spanish gypsies staged a demonstration outside the Italian embassy here onTuesday to protest against Italy's plans to adopt tough new laws againstillegal immigration.They also protested against the recent wave of violence against Romaencampments in Naples and other Italian cities.The demonstration came after the United Nations High Commissioner for HumanRights, Louise Arbour, and the Holy See at the weekend criticised plans bythe center-right government of Premier Silvio Berlusconi to make illegalimmigration a punishable criminal offense.The Italian foreign ministry responded by observing that the criticism waspremature given that the proposed law has yet to be presented to parliament,where it must clear both the House and Senate.The demonstration in Madrid was organized by the Fondazione Gitanos, whichclaims to represent some 700,000 Spanish gypsies.''We oppose the Berlusconi laws. One cannot generalize and judge everyonethe same. If someone commits a crime, they should pay for it. Individualsshould be punished, not a whole people,'' observed foundation head Jose'Eugenio Serrano.According to foundation director Isidro Rodriques, gypsies came to Spain inthe XV century and are fullY integrated into the community.In recent years, he added, the Roma from Bulgaria and Romania have beencoming to Spain ''and it cannot be ruled out that the tough measures adoptedin Italy will force other Roma to go to other countries, including Spain''.''The problem in Italy is that for a long time very little attention waspaid to the Roma. In Spain, on the other hand, many communities adoptedsocial measures to integrate them into society''.In reply to the criticism from the UN and the Vatican, the Italian foreignministry said that the proposed laws on immigration had nothing to do withxenophobia or racial discrimination.The aim of the new legislation, the ministry explained, was to combatillegal immigration in full accordance with European Union laws.http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10520221&ref=rssVigilante mobs 'in training', claims protest organiser12:00PM Sunday July 06, 2008Triad gangs and vigilante groups of concerned citizens, trained in martialarts, will soon be roaming the streets of south Auckland looking fortrouble-makers, it's been reported today.The organiser of yesterday's huge south Auckland protest against anti-Asianviolence says he has vigilantes in training to stop further attacks.A crowd estimated at more than 10,000 turned out in cold, wet conditions insouth Auckland yesterday to demonstrate against recent attacks on members ofthe Asian community.Organiser Peter Low from the Asian Anti-Crime Group (AAG) said politicianscould not ignore the strong message sent out by the marchers.The east Auckland importer said if authorities tried to stop his vigilanteslooking after their own, then the AAG would consider hiring local Triads toprotect his people from violent attacks."We are a vigilante group and are training now," he told a Sunday newspaper."We are training people in hand-to-hand combat and how to handle situations."I want this group to be legalised. If they (the police) don't allow it,that's when we might have to employ Triads to protect our community," hesaid.Mr Low, 55, said he had been organising his team of vigilantes for monthsbut brought forward the start date because of the recent violent deaths ofthree Asians.Liquor store owner Navtej Singh, 30, was fatally shot at his shop on June 7.A week later, Yan Ping Yang, 80, died after having been attacked by anintruder in her home three days earlier.On June 16, Joanne Wang, 39, was knocked down by a stolen vehicle in ashopping mall car park after her handbag was snatched. She died in hospital.Mr Low said Asians had become targets because many did not speak goodEnglish and criminals thought they had lots of money."My wife is frightened to go to the supermarket now and I'm always worryingabout my daughter going to the bank."Is this the kind of place we want our families living in?"We live in fear. We live in anger."Mr Low said many Asians had lost faith in the police's ability to protectthem."New Zealand is promoted as a green and peaceful country. That's not true,"he said."We don't deserve to be humiliated by this crime while the Government doesnothing about it."I have gotten fed up because the police response is not good enough."Mr Low said yesterday's march through east Auckland, which has a heavyconcentration of Asians gave a voice to members of the community who wantaction by the Government, the justice system and the police.Until such action came, he was preparing trained patrols to be able toanswer calls for help.Mr Low, who admitted there was opposition from within the Asian community tothe concept of a vigilante force, is funding the AAG from his own pocket.Manukau Acting Mayor Gary Troup said month it would be concerning if suchgroups were set up."Rather than creating vigilante groups and trying to distinguish isolatedincidents we've really got to work together and make it work long-term."- NZPAhttp://networks.org/?src=abcau:2008:07:05:229546310,000 protest against violence towards Asians in NZPosted Sat Jul 5, 2008 6:40pm AESTAn estimated 10,000 people took part in a rally in pouring rain in Aucklandon Saturday to protest against violence against Asians in the city.Police said the demonstration stretched about 2.5 kilometres through thestreets of south Auckland where three people of Asian descent have beenkilled in the past month.The march was organised by the Asian Anti-Crime group and included peoplecarrying coffins and placards with pictures of those killed.Others carried New Zealand flags and signs calling for tougher sentencingand zero tolerance for crime.Liquor store owner Navtej Singh was shot and killed during a robbery at hisshop on June 7, a week later 80-year-old Yan Ping Yang died after beingattacked by an intruder in her home.Joanne Wang, 39, died in hospital in late June after being knocked down by astolen vehicle in a shopping mall car park after her handbag was snatched.-AFPhttp://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/080713/national/police_fightProtest planned over alleged racism, taunts by N.S. police against blackyouthModule bodySun Jul 13, 5:15 PMBy Michael Tutton, The Canadian PressYARMOUTH, N.S. - Angie Lawrence is 67 and has never attended a protest, butafter hearing allegations that off-duty police officers insulted andprovoked a fight with two black youths, she's gathering a carload of blackchurch women to attend an anti-racism demonstration on Monday in Digby, N.S.The soft spoken former nursing home worker decided to attend on Sunday,while listening to an impassioned account from Rev. Michael Alden Fells ofhow his son Nathaniel, 19, and William Drummond, 20, fought with off-dutypolice officers in Digby's town's centre on June 22."I never went before (to a protest), but I surely feel that this time it's amust that we should stand with one another," she said as she left the150-year-old Sharon Assembly church in Yarmouth, about 100 kilometres southof Digby.The fist fight in Digby has drawn frustrated reactions across severalgenerations and communities of Nova Scotia's black minority.The RCMP has launched an inquiry into the incident to see if charges shouldbe laid and determine if on-duty officers who used a stun gun that knockeddown Drummond took the proper steps to control the situation.Darlene Lawrence, a black member of Digby's race relations committee, saidshe's seen enough from a video recording taken by a street camera to believeNathaniel Fells's allegation that he was racially insulted and that officersprovoked the fight."These two young men were backing up, with their hands up and there was agroup moving towards them," said Lawrence, a distant relative of AngieLawrence, in an interview."This needs to be addressed. The black community has been traumatized. Thisincident is another in a series of incidents over the last several years."Lawrence said the black community in southwestern Nova Scotia has painfulmemories of a previous RCMP detachment commander who was accused in 2005 ofracist and sexist treatment of female staff.In January 2008, RCMP assistant commissioner Ian Atkins apologized to theblack community at a full-house public meeting, saying the force was"disappointed and embarrassed" by the incidents.Rev. Fells says the RCMP must back up its apology with action."God has given us a responsibility, we must make a difference," he told theYarmouth congregation, one of two he ministers to in the area."We are saying to them, you have a responsibility. We're all royalCanadians, not just those in uniform, and I want to be treated like a royalCanadian."The fight began shortly after Nathaniel Fells and Drummond walked by a blackvan filled with off-duty police officers from police departments in Halifaxand New Glasgow, as well as from the RCMP.Fells and Drummond say they were racially insulted by a man who appeared tobe drunk and was leaning against the van.They say they were then taunted into fighting by five or six off-duty policeofficers who emerged from the vehicle and pursued them down the street.In Digby on Sunday outside the Bethel Temple church, Nathaniel Fells and agroup of his friends prepared for the protest by making signs.He and Drummond were joined by several other black youth, who allege theyhave been mistreated by police as well. They expect about 40 people toattend the protest."There's a van load coming from Halifax. They're coming from Annapolis, afew from Digby. We're going to make it loud and clear that what happenedthat night isn't acceptable by any means," said Nathaniel."We're not having it any more."Drummond said he still suffers pain from the stun gun shots to his side, legand stomach."I'd like to see it stopped and have a racist-free world," he said.In a previous interview, RCMP Staff Sgt. Phil Barrett, the new commander ofthe Digby detachment, said he has hired an almost entirely new staff and isplanning to set up cameras and audio recorders in every police car to seehow incidents are handled.RCMP Cpl. Joe Taplin, the force's spokesman in Halifax, said Barrett wasn'twilling to comment further until he "sees how the public protest turned out"on Monday.Taplin said officers in Digby have received race relations andmulticulturalism training.And he said the video of the incident hasn't changed the Mounties' position."We believe the on-duty RCMP officers conducted themselves in a veryprofessional manner," Taplin said.The Halifax and New Glasgow police departments are doing internal reviews ofhow their off-duty officers behaved. There's been no indication of whetheroff-duty RCMP officers will be the subject of an internal review.Halifax police will also look into why a van belonging to the force was usedby the group of officers in Digby. The van was loaned to the officers, whorode motorcycles to the Digby area to participate in a charity event.Last Monday before the internal review was announced, the police departmentin Halifax said its officers had done nothing wrong during the incident.Darlene Lawrence said she has asked the police to bring in Raymond Winbush,an expert in race relations from Morgan University in Baltimore, Md., tohelp suggest longer-term solutions to the racial conflicts in the community.She wants funding to create a black community centre for youth, along withdetailed race relations workshops for the police."At the end of the day, we will submit a five-year plan to address some ofthese issues for black youth," she said.http://www.novanewsnow.com/article-231942-Plan-protest-at-noon-outside-RCMP-detachment.htmlPlan protest at noon outside RCMP detachmentby John DeMingsView all articles from John DeMingsArticle online since July 13rd 2008, 16:00Read all 2 comments about this article / Comment on this articlePlan protest at noon outside RCMP detachmentRev. Alden Fells of Digby says a protest is planned outside the local RCMPdetachment for noon Monday.Fells' 19-year-old son Nathaniel and a second young black man, WilliamDrummond, 20, of Halifax, were involved June 22 in a scuffle that led toDrummond being shot with a Taser by a member of the Digby RCMP.As well, Halifax and New Glasgow police departments and the major crimesunit of the RCMP are looking into the matter that involved a number ofoff-duty police from Halifax and one from New Glasgow.http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/story/2008/07/14/digby-protest.html?ref=rssDigby protesters demand independent review of fightLast Updated: Monday, July 14, 2008 | 3:35 PM AT Comments41Recommend25CBC NewsAbout 25 people took part in the peaceful protest in Digby, a small town insouthwestern Nova Scotia. (CBC)Demonstrators braved heavy rain Monday in a march to the RCMP detachment inDigby to protest what they call the unfair treatment of two black men at thehands of police.Rev. Michael Fells renewed his call for an independent inquiry as he ledabout two dozen people in the march from Bethel Temple Church."We're asking for a public inquiry," said Fells, adding he plans to file ahuman rights complaint.The demonstrators included the reverend's son, Nathaniel Fells, and WilliamDrummond, who say off-duty police goaded them into a fight by yelling racialslurs as they left a Digby bar on June 22.A member of the Halifax Regional Police, one of several off-duty officersfrom central Nova Scotia in town for a charity event, was knockedunconscious.Drummond was shocked with a stun gun and was the only one arrested. He hasnot been charged.The marchers sang hymns and protest songs, and carried signs around theirnecks that read, "Racism is abuse" and "Stop victimizing the victim."The demonstration "means a lot," said Drummond.Once the demonstrators left, RCMP spokesman Cpl. Joe Taplin told reportersthe investigation by the RCMP's major crimes division is continuing and is"unbiased."So far, he said, investigators have found that the on-duty Mounties workingthat night acted appropriately."We're still asking anybody who may have seen the incident if they couldcome forward to the Digby detachment here and we'll put them in touch withthe appropriate investigators," Taplin said.The Digby detachment commander, Staff Sgt. Phil Barrett, called for theinvestigation, telling CBC News last week he worried about the integrity ofthe detachment and its relationship with the community.Earlier this year, Nova Scotia's top Mountie, Assistant Commissioner IanAtkins, apologized for sexist and racist remarks made by a former detachmentcommander. He said the problems at the detachment were the result of theactions of one person, and were not systemic.The Halifax police department and New Glasgow police have launched their owninvestigations to review the actions of their off-duty officers.http://www.novanewsnow.com/article-235321-Taking-protest-to-Halifax.htmlTaking protest to HalifaxBy Robyn Young - Metro HalifaxArticle online since July 25th 2008, 15:55Taking protest to HalifaxBy Robyn Young - Metro HalifaxRev. Michael Alden Fells of Digby will travel to Halifax with his son and adozen or so supporters next Tuesday to protest by the Halifax RegionalPolice station on Gottingen Street.Fells's son Nathaniel Fells, 19, and his friend William Drummond, 20, allegea group of Halifax Regional Police officers, along with some Digby policeofficers, started a fight with them in downtown Digby.They say the officers confronted them and hurled racial slurs and insults atthe two young black men.Halifax Regional Police acknowledge that five or six of their officers wereinvolved in an altercation that night in Digby, but they've started aninternal investigation into what role the officers played.The major crime unit of the RCMP is also investigating the incident and theHalifax and Digby officers who were involved.Fells said he's tried to do everything he can to get help in this situationand has even written Prime Minister Stephen Harper.The Halifax police department has stated Fells and Drummond have never fileda formal complaint against any of their officers.So that's what they intend to do in Halifax, Fells said, adding they willalso protest in front of the police station for what they believe was racistand criminal behaviour.Both Jeff Carr with the Halifax Regional Police and RCMP's Joe Taplin saidinvestigations are ongoing.http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-flbraids0731sbjul31,0,7526642.story?track=rssAdvocates protest Hispanic 'profiling' by government agentsBy Luis F. Perez | South Florida Sun-SentinelJuly 31, 2008West Palm Beach - After Border Patrol agents detained two men in aneighborhood laundromat, business at the aptly named Mexican Restaurant nextdoor fell off some 30 percent, said Juan Jose Ramirez, a cook at therestaurant,A few doors down at Intercapitales Courier Express on Broadway Street, it'sdown 50 percent, said Henry Rivas, an owner. In the same plaza, the owner ofCheers Supermarket said his business is off by about the same."I've been here since April 1998," said Amon Hawija, Cheers' owner. "This isthe worst I've seen."Immigrant advocates and business owners blame the loss of income on whatthey say are a recent spate of arrests by immigration agents improperlytargeting Hispanics. Advocates plan a know-your-rights workshop to educateimmigrants in the area. Immigrants in the area, many who admit they are herewithout authorization, say they are scared. Day laborers said they to havelost work because employers are hesitant to hire them.During a news conference on the steps of City Hall on Wednesday, theImmigrants' Rights Coalition of Palm Beach County called for aninvestigation and for federal agents to stop profiling Hispanics by race andethnicity. On Tuesday, the group filed a formal complaint with theDepartment of Homeland Security's Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Office.Officials with Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and CustomsEnforcement denied the allegations.Nonetheless, said Victor Colon, assistant chief patrol agent for the BorderPatrol's Miami Sector, "We take any complaint seriously. We'll look at it."Nicole Navas, an ICE spokeswoman, said her agency was not involved in theWest Palm Beach raids advocates mentioned."However, I can say that [ICE] agents and officers conduct targetedenforcement operations and arrest those in violation of both immigration andcustoms laws," she said. "ICE does not conduct random arrests."Andrea Ortega, of the immigrants' rights group, spent part of Wednesdayhanding out fliers detailing the Saturday workshop at area homes andbusinesses, and to day laborers on Broadway Street"All they want to do is work," she said. "They're not criminals. They'rehuman beings. And they just want to take care of their families at home."Ortega encouraged day laborers standing in front of the Broadway Market toattend the workshop.One of them, who said his name was Efrain but declined to give his last namesince he is undocumented, said he is 39 years old and has six children and awife to support back in Guatemala. He sends them money when he can. But workhas been scarce as of late, he said.He has seen Border Patrol agents pick up many friends. Agents intimidate,discriminate and don't regard immigrants' rights, he said."When we see them, all us of run," Efrain said. "If you don't run, you getdeported. That's our fear."Luis F. Perez can be reached atlfperez at sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4553.http://networks.org/?src=reuters:idUSN2342214420080723Protesters denounce Fox News as racistWed Jul 23, 2008 6:52pm EDTNEW YORK (Reuters) - Protesters gathered on Wednesday outside Fox NewsChannel to denounce what they claim is its racist campaign coverage,including a pundit who called Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama aterrorist.The crowd of some 150 people wielded a petition with more than 600,000signatures objecting to news coverage by Fox, owned by Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp, organizers said.Some demonstrators held signs that crossed out the network's "Fair andBalanced" slogan and replaced it with the words "Fairly Racist!"Led by activist groups MoveOn.org and ColorOfChange.org, protesters citedincidents on Fox including an on-screen graphic calling Michelle Obama"Obama's baby mama" and a pundit who confused Obama with Osama bin Laden andjoked they should both be assassinated.Another anchor called a televised fist bump between Obama and his wife a"terrorist fist jab," they said, and talk show host Bill O'Reilly discussedcalling a "lynching party" to deal with Michelle Obama after criticizing herpatriotism."Putting racism on national television and calling it news is never funny,"said Andre Banks of ColorOfChange.Joining the protest was hip hop star Nas, who said the Fox coverage inspireda song "Sly Fox" on his new album."Fox poisons this country every time they air racist propaganda and try andcall it news," he said.A spokeswoman for Fox said: "Fox News believes in all protesters exercisingtheir right to free speech, including Nas, who has an album to promote."(Reporting by Nancy Leinfuss, Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Eric Beech)http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/education/stories/081408dnmetbookert.43bb1271.htmlProtesters rally around Booker T. Washington High School in Dallas07:49 PM CDT on Wednesday, August 13, 2008By MARISSA ALANIS / The Dallas Morning Newsmalanis at dallasnews.comAbout 25 protesters turned out at the Dallas school district's headquartersWednesday to urge officials not to rename Booker T. Washington High Schoolfor the Performing and Visual Arts.District leaders later said they have no plans to rename the school.The dispute stems from the district's recent decision to post a sign on thebuilding's new wing calling it the "Hamon Arts Magnet" in honor of residentNancy Hamon, who donated $10 million for the school's renovation.District officials removed the sign - and all other signs on the outside ofthe high school - after many residents spoke out because they felt theschool's name was being changed.Members of the Concerned Citizens for the Preservation of the Booker T.Washington High School Name said Wednesday that they wanted reassurancesfrom the district that leaders won't change the name of the school."I wanted to come out here because I feel that the history of the school isvery important," said Afi Rawlings, a 2000 Booker T. Washington graduate."The name of the school conveys that history. And so all of that isattached together."School officials said they plan to clear up the issue by posting new BookerT. Washington signs on all sides of the building, but it's unclear when thesigns will be installed."There is no move afoot by anyone to change the name of the school," saidJon Dahlander, district spokesman. "I know everyone understands thehistorical significance of that school. The idea that it would be changedis far-fetched."Mr. Dahlander said the district plans to honor Ms. Hamoninside the building - a plan the protesters said they support. "We are very grateful to her," Illona Sheffey-Rawlings said. "We want asuitably large and noticeable tribute.she is our benefactress. But it needsto be interior so the only name on the outside needs to be Booker T.Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts." From ldxar1 at tesco.net Thu Aug 28 17:44:29 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2008 01:44:29 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Uprisings and protests by migrants and refugees, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <007d01c90970$69642e10$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * BELGIUM: 130 arrested at protest for migrant rights * BELGIUM: Migrants occupy cranes in protest for rights * SOUTH AFRICA: Protests against xenophobic violence, migrants set up protest camp * Protests against South Africa pogroms in UK, Mozambique, Nigeria, Uganda * AUSTRALIA: Protests against removal at Villawood, before and after death of Chinese refugee * US: Protests against border fence * US: Immigration "Gestapo tactics", raids condemned * US: Racist cop chief Arpaio draws protests on book tour * Protests also target shock jock * KENYA: Internally displaced refugees protest at lack of food * UK: Blockade of North Shields deportation site to halt snatch squads * US: Protests over deportation raids * US: Iowa factory raid, conditions protested * TURKEY: Child refugees protest at camp * INDONESIA/AUSTRALIA: Indonesian fisherfolk protest boat seizures at Darwin camp * FRANCE: Undocumented migrants speak out * THAILAND: Protest by Hmong at deportation bid * UK: Nottingham protest for detained Burundi refugee * CANADA: Wife protests deportation of imam * UK: Tyneside protest for refugee facing deportation * MEXICO/US: Mexicans plant trees at border to protest fence * DOMINICAN REP/HAITI/US: Protest at consulate over mistreatment of Haitians in Dom.Rep. * US/ISRAEL: Messianic Jews protest Israeli discrimination * CAMBODIA: Vietnamese Montagnard refugees protest against deportations * UK: Protest against abuse of refugees in Leeds * TURKEY: Uprising at migrant detention centre, one killed by guards * UK: Uprising at Campsfield detention centre * MALAYSIA: Burmese refugees stage uprising at detention camp, torch building * BELGIUM: Uprising at detention centre after death of refugee * UK: Protesters hit company ISS after immigration attack on strikers * GREECE: Seasonal migrant workers protest, clash with farmers http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3302276,00.html 30.04.2008 Police Arrest 130 in Brussels Protest for Migrants' Release Gro?ansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Police said protesters did not heed calls to disperse Several hundred people demonstrated into the early hours of Wednesday, April 30, outside the Palace of Justice in central Brussels, demanding the release of undocumented migrants. Police had used force to break up an unlicensed protest when it began on Tuesday outside the city offices that deal with the registration of foreigners. They arrested 130 people. "We approve demonstrations when we can," a spokesperson for Brussels' mayor's office said. "But in this case we did not receive a request. The demonstrators setup tents with the intention of staying for 24 hours. The security and sanitary conditions were not respected." Demonstrators, mainly foreigners, have regularly protested in Brussels to start a political dialogue aimed at providing legal status to foreigners without Belgian residency permits. This is the first time the protests ended with a large number of arrests. The majority of those taken into custody were held overnight in the Palace of Justice, Belgian media reported. Two lawyers accompanying the demonstrators were also manhandled by police, according to media reports. The migrants face penalties for taking part in the unlicensed demonstration and they could also be deported, according to a spokesman for an organization that defends the rights of foreigners in Belgium. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=94621 Moroccans take to cranes in Brussels protest By Agence France Presse (AFP) Wednesday, July 30, 2008 BRUSSELS: Perched on two construction cranes in front of the European Commission, six Moroccans living illegally in Belgium sought Tuesday to make a high-profile protest against EU policy on illegal immigrants. The six were among about 40 illegal immigrants who climbed construction cranes around Brussels early Tuesday in a growing campaign to win residency permits. "We chose the European quarter to tell Europeans we are against what Europe has in the works for immigrants," said Rachid Moumni, a young Belgian of Moroccan origin speaking on behalf of the six protesters. While the Moroccans took to cranes in the heart of Brussels' European quarter, others chose cranes at the construction site of a casino in the city center. The protesters said they were on a hunger strike and were not drinking liquids either. "There's a European agreement that says that illegal immigrants must be deported," said Moumni. EU countries have been cracking down on illegal immigration recently, agreeing tough new rules forcing the 27 member nations to give residency permits or send them home. "We're humans. Give us residency permits so that we can legally work on the construction sites where we are employed. We don't want to work like slaves," added Moumni. Some of the six Moroccans, aged between 20 and 30, toil illegally on construction sites as tilers or painters, paid between 20 and 25 euros ($31 and $39) for a day of back-breaking work starting at 5:00 a.m. and ending at 8:00 p.m. With the summer holidays, they found themselves unemployed with only a promise to be hired back when the site gets going again. Although illegal immigrants and their supporters often demonstrate and hold sit-ins in Brussels, the cranes protest began last week with three Iranians who were already on a hunger strike. One of the three, a young woman, had to come down because of her weak condition on Friday and a day later the other two followed. Campaign groups that help illegal immigrants estimate that 100,000 foreigners reside illegally in Belgium, which has a population of around 10 million people. Last year, Belgium deported 9,000 illegal immigrants and helped arrange for 2,500 others to leave the country voluntarily. The issue of illegal immigration divides Belgium's governing coalition between those in favor of more flexibility and those wanting a harder line. Until the government takes a position, however, Belgian authorities are driving a hard line with the protesters. "We are not discussing with people who hold actions [protests]. There is no dialogue and there will be no dialogue," said the head of the Bureau for Foreigners Freddy Roosemont. Likewise, Migration and Refugee Minister Annemie Turtelboom's spokesman insisted "we are not negotiating." - AFP http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/29/europe/EU-Belgium-Asylum-Protest.php Asylum seekers occupy construction cranes across Belgian capital in protest action The Associated Press Published: July 29, 2008 BRUSSELS, Belgium: Thirty asylum seekers are staging a sit-in on top of six cranes at construction sites across Brussels demanding rights to work and live in Belgium. The group of mostly Algerian nationals started to occupy cranes Sunday evening at a site near the city's historic Grand Place market square. They are also occupying two cranes near European Union headquarters. The protesters are frustrated with delays in processing their application to stay in the country, which they entered illegally. Freddy Roosemont, from the government's immigration affairs office, told VRT television Tuesday the protest is dangerous and won't force authorities to grant the demonstrators automatic rights to stay. Construction unions are warning the protests could hold up their work. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20080728-1252-southafrica-migrants.html SAfrican authorities remove protesting migrants from roadside camp ASSOCIATED PRESS 12:52 p.m. July 28, 2008 JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Armored police trucks on Monday removed several hundred migrants who camped by a busy road for four days to highlight their mistrust of South Africa and disgust with how they've been treated. The migrants - many from Congo and Burundi - were among thousands who fled their homes in the Johannesburg area because of xenophobic violence in May and June. They were housed in a tent camp for the displaced, but refused to register with government officials, apparently fearing that this might jeopardize their right to stay in South Africa. Some held out for the U.N. to resettle them abroad. All said they were afraid to return to the communities they fled during the violence. The government last week lost patience and moved them to the department of Home Affairs Lindela camp, which detains illegal immigrants before they are deported. More than 400 foreigners refused to go into the Lindela center, as their documents were in order, and instead they camped out by a freeway. Authorities said they had no power to deport refugees and immigrants with valid papers - but could not let them stay by the side of the road. South African television and the South African Press Association said Monday that six armored police trucks had removed women and children to a family care center and took the men to police stations. It said the "roadside refugees" offered no resistance and were visibly exhausted. Local government official Jorrie Jordaan said the refugees might be charged with a road traffic offense, of allegedly occupying land by the roadside, endangering traffic as well as endangering their own lives, according to SAPA. SAPA said officials of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees were at the site registering asylum seekers and refugees who wanted to return to their home countries. More than 60 people died in the attacks, which erupted from Johannesburg to Cape Town out of anger that migrants were taking scarce jobs and housing from poor South Africans. At the height of the crisis, 20,000 people were in government tent camps. http://www.newser.com/story/28394/thousands-protest-south-african-violence.html Thousands Protest South African Violence Posted May 25, 08 6:55 AM CDT in World (Newser) - Thousands of South Africans marched through Johannesburg yesterday to protest anti-immigrant rampages that have claimed at least 50 lives. Carrying placards comparing the violence to apartheid, marchers brought traffic to a standstill, Reuters reports. The action was organized by labor unions and churches. The nation's largest newspaper today called for the resignation of President Thabo Mbeki for failing to stop the mob violence. Throughout this crisis-arguably the most grave, dark and repulsive moment in the life of our young nation-Mbeki has demonstrated he no longer has the heart to lead,'' said the Sunday Times. " He has shown himself to be not only uncaring but utterly incompetent.'' http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=568948&rss=yes Thousands protest South Africa violence 10:34 AEST Sun May 25 2008 76 days 22 hours 57 minutes ago SAfrican protesters against xenophobia marched Saturday. By Marius Bosch Thousands of people marched through South Africa's biggest city on Saturday, calling for an end to the violence that has killed at least 50 African migrants and forced tens of thousands to flee their homes. Demonstrators carrying placards saying "Xenophobia hurts like apartheid" and "We stand against xenophobia" brought traffic to a standstill in Johannesburg's city centre. People in the Hillbrow district, home to many African immigrants, cheered the march, which was organised by churches and labour unions. Police said townships around Johannesburg were quiet but shops were looted and burnt outside Cape Town late on Friday. The South African government has been criticised for its slow reaction to the violence, the worst since apartheid ended 14 years ago, and for not addressing the poverty that is widely blamed for the bloodshed. President Thabo Mbeki said South Africans should not turn on other Africans and pledged that his government was committed to ending the violence. "Today we are faced with a disgrace, a humiliation as a nation in that we have allowed a handful of people to commit crimes against other Africans living in our country," Mbeki said on visit to a mission school in the Eastern Cape province. The violence started in Johannesburg's Alexandra township on May 11, and has spread to Cape Town and the eastern port city of Durban. Police said at least 50 people had been killed in areas around Johannesburg. More than 25,000 had been driven from their homes in 13 days of attacks by mobs who have stabbed, clubbed and burnt migrants from other parts of Africa whom they accuse of taking jobs and fuelling crime. Police said townships around Johannesburg were quiet today and in South Africa's premier tourism destination of Cape Town security forces were monitoring several flashpoints after anti-foreigner violence continued during the night. Superintendent Andre Traut said shops were looted and burnt in Du Noon squatter settlement and in Kraaifontein outside Cape Town, as well as the city's largest township, Khayelitsha, where an estimated one million people live. "Most of the incidents (on Friday night) occurred in Khayelitsha, where we had our hands full to protect the community," Traut said. Most foreigners left the area voluntarily or were escorted by police. South Africa's foreign minister said yesterday the violence was embarrassing for the government and created a "very bad image" for the country. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma told Reuters in Moscow that the government would deal decisively with it. Manala Manzini, head of the National Intelligence Agency, has said that people linked to former apartheid security forces are stoking the violence. Earlier this week, Mbeki authorised the army to help quell the violence, which comes amid power shortages and growing social discontent which have rattled investors in Africa's biggest economy. Officials in the tourism industry fear overseas visitors will stay away from a country that hopes to draw half a million extra tourists for the 2010 soccer World Cup. http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_South%20Africa&set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20080611113721772C200840 Protesters ask for refuge in 'white areas' June 11 2008 at 02:04PM By Niemah Davids About 60 members of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), and the Aids Law Project, as well as refugees, protested outside Mayor Helen Zille's Rosebank home on Tuesday night in a bid to get the city to make more community halls available to house displaced foreigners. This comes after the provincial government obtained a court interdict at midnight on Monday to force the City to open community halls to ref- ugees from the seven safe sites. TAC representatives said the halls that had been made available were still in "high risk areas" in the townships. "These people are still too scared to go back there in fear that violence will resurface," said the Aids Law Project's Fatima Hassan. "No halls were opened in so-called white areas." At least four more halls were needed in town, she said. Zille, who is in Johannesburg, said on Wednesday: "Only the UN can deliver to refugees what they want and that is to leave the country." She is due to meet UN officials this afternoon. http://allafrica.com/stories/200806120943.html Africa: Exiled Zimbabweans Protest in London Against South Africa's Policy SW Radio Africa (London) 12 June 2008 Posted to the web 12 June 2008 Alex Bell A crowd of exiled Zimbabweans gathered outside the South African High Commission in London Thursday to demonstrate against the South African government's policy on Zimbabwe, as well as the recent xenophobic violence that has forced thousands of foreigners out of South Africa. The group of about forty demonstrators staged the protest this afternoon and presented a petition expressing horror at the recent attacks that left more than 60 foreigners in South Africa dead. The violence there came as thousands of Zimbabweans were forced to flee their homes and take refuge in South Africa, after the disputed March 29 presidential polls saw an upsurge of attacks on opposition supporters and a climbing death toll. A copy of the petition was handed to Nobel Peace Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu in London on Monday, where he asked forgiveness on behalf of the people of South Africa for the violence against foreigners. The petition reads: "A Petition to Thabo Mbeki: Following the recent attacks on Zimbabweans and other foreign nationals in South Africa we, the undersigned, call on President Mbeki to take action to ensure the safety of these endangered people and bring the perpetrators to justice. We urge President Mbeki to end his support of President Mugabe, allowing a resolution of the Zimbabwe crisis and the return home of exiled Zimbabweans. "Zimbabwean blood is at your door." Thursday's protest came as the political violence in Zimbabwe was once again blocked by South Africa from being placed on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council. The Council met Thursday to discuss Zimbabwe, but as a concession to South Africa they agreed only to discuss the humanitarian crisis and not the political one. Mbeki has been widely criticised for his quiet support of Mugabe, and for not taking stronger action against the economic, political and humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe. On Wednesday Mbeki publicly denounced Zimbabwe's violence for the first time, calling it a matter of 'serious concern', but he opened the doors for further criticism by failing to lay the blame on the Mugabe regime. Rose Benton from the the Zimbabwe Vigil , the group that organised Thursday's demonstration said it is 'unacceptable' that Mbeki's condemnation has come so late after the violence in Zimbabwe started and that the South African President's 'quiet diplomacy' can no longer be tolerated. Benton said she hopes their petition will force Mbeki to start taking action to prevent not only violence in Zimbabwe, but also attacks on foreigners in his own country. She said: 'More and more Zimbabweans will have no choice but to flee. We believe there is a crisis in Zimbabwe and that he (Mbeki) can help resolve it'. http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/210792,protestors-in-mozambique-seek-compensation-for-xenophobia-victims.html Protestors in Mozambique seek compensation for xenophobia victims Posted : Sat, 07 Jun 2008 17:26:02 GMT Author : DPA Category : Africa (World) Maputo - Thousand of people marched through Mozambique's capital Maputo Saturday to urge that their government demand neighbouring South Africa pay compensation to Mozambican victims of a recent spate of xenophobic attacks. At least 62 people were killed and hundreds injured in the anti- immigrant violence that swept through poor communities across South Africa last month. At least 23 Mozambicans were among the victims, most of whom were Africans. Human rights activist Alice Mabota, who was among the around 1,000 demonstrators, said: "Mozambique's government must activate mechanisms with the South African authorities in order to have our compatriots rapidly compensated and the authors of the heinous acts brought to justice." Carrying banners with slogans such as "xenophobia is selfishness" and "down with intolerance and hatred," the demonstrators assembled in Maputo's Independence Square. Some of the protestors recalled that Mozambicans, who fled the violence in their tens of thousands - many returning home with the help of their government - had been staunch allies of South Africans during apartheid. http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_2332415,00.html Nigerians protest over attacks 31/05/2008 14:04 - (SA) Lagos - A group of Nigerians have staged a peaceful protest outside the South African High Commission in Lagos against attacks on their compatriots resident in that country, witnesses said. The protesters, made up mostly of members of civil society groups, staged the protest on Friday outside the deputy high commissioner's office in the Victoria Island district of Lagos, carrying placards and chanting slogans. Some of the placards read "other Africans supported your independence. Stop this madness", "South African madness must be tamed", "attack against Nigerians is unjustifiable" and "Nigerians must be treated with dignity in South Africa." Nigeria played a major role in South Africa's anti-apartheid struggle, providing funds, food and other forms of assistance. Security was beefed up around the mission to prevent a breakdown of law and order. President Umaru Yar'Adua on Thursday ruled out official retaliatory measures against South Africa over attacks on Nigerian citizens in that country. "I am going to South Africa next week on a state visit. Nigeria is playing a very critical and important role on the African continent... so the issue of retaliation does not arise," he said in a live television interview to mark his first anniversary in office. The visit begins on Monday, officials said. "What we need to do is to resolve these problems through dialogue. We are trying to bring Africans together... to integrate our economies," Yar'Adua said. Nigeria previously said on Tuesday it would press for compensation from the South African government for its citizens who were victims of anti-immigrant attacks in that country. More than 50 people have been killed and tens of thousands of foreigners left homeless, mainly around Johannesburg, following two weeks of attacks which later spread to most parts of South Africa. The state-run News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported last week that dozens of Nigerians resident in Hillbrow, Berea and Yeoville districts in Johannesburg had been attacked and their shops vandalised or looted. The Super Eagles of Nigeria and South Africa's Bafana Bafana are playing on Sunday in Abuja in a 2010 African Nations Cup football qualifier. http://allafrica.com/stories/200805310004.html Nigeria/South Africa: Protesters Picket South African Deputy High Commission This Day (Lagos) 31 May 2008 Posted to the web 31 May 2008 Yemi Adebowale Lagos Following the on going xenophobic violence on foreigners in South Africa by Black South Africans, a selection of civil society organisations yesterday in Lagos staged a protest at the South African Deputy High Commission in Lagos. The protesters, who arrived the Deputy High Commission around midday, denounced the xenophobic attacks and called on the Nigerian government to take punitive action against the South African government. Some of the placards read: "South African madness must be tamed," and "other Africans supported your independence, stop this madness," while the protesters sang war songs round the Deputy High Commission. Security at the mission in Lagos had been tightened ahead of the protest, with an unusual large number of security men seen at the premises. Despite heavy presence of security men during the protest march, an official of the Deputy High Commission who asked not to be named said, "our security is no longer guaranteed." However, members of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) did not join in the protest as earlier indicated. NANS had earlier distributed pamphlets in Abuja and sent copies to the South African High Commission demanding for the immediate closure of the office and all South African businesses in Nigeria. The students also called for the South African national football team (Bafana Bafana) which arrived in Nigeria on Friday, to return home. Bafana Bafana are scheduled to play in a crucial game against Nigeria as the nations on the continent vie for a place in the FIFA World Cup in 2010. A South Africa Deputy High Commission official in Lagos told THISDAY: "There was indeed a protest at the Deputy High Commission today. But we suspect that touts hijacked it because NANS had written to say they were putting off the protest till next week Tuesday. Happily, the protesters dispersed without violent incident. There was no violence of any sort." The protest is coming ahead of President Umaru Yar'Adua's visit to South Africa on Tuesday for the World Economic Summit on Africa. Both countries have moved fast to ease tensions. Just on Thursday, Yar'Adua down-played calls for retaliation, saying it was unnecessary. Yar'Adua said the South African government had taken adequate measures by deploying its military personnel to the troubled areas. He said: "by next week I will be going to South Africa on state visit and will use the opportunity of the visit to resolve the problem through dialogue." South Africa Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said yesterday: "We would like to draw attention to the fact that both South Africa and the Federal Republic of Nigeria enjoy fraternal diplomatic relations, which enables discussion of issues of mutual interest and concern between the two countries through existing bilateral mechanisms." Also last week, the deputy president of South Africa, Her Excellency, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, tendered unreserved apologises to the government and people of Nigeria over the violence against foreigners. The South African deputy president tendered the apology at the end of the 7th Nigeria-South Africa Bi-National Commission, held in Abuja. The Deputy President who led her country's delegation to the Bi-National Commission said, though no Nigerian was killed, the action was regrettable and shocking and also added that her government was determined to get to the root of the crisis with a view to preventing a recurrence. She said the violence was being perpetrated by hoodlums whose main aim was to destabilise South Africa and promised that they would be stopped. http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/19/631981 Ugandans protest South Africa killings Thursday, 5th June, 2008 Chiliza (left) talks to Tumusiime and Godi at the South African High Commission By Godfrey Kimono DRAMA ensued on Wednesday at the South African High Commission in Kampala when demonstrators blocked the commissioner, Henry Thanduyise Chiliza, from accessing the premises. Under their umbrella organisation, Concerned African Patriots, the demonstrators were protesting against the recent attacks on African immigrants in South Africa. The ambassador, who was out when the protesters gathered at his offices, had to alight from his car and address the group, which held placards reading: "South Africa stop Black Apartheid", "P. W. Botha is gone", "We condemn black apartheid" and "Where is the plan for African Unity?" The demonstrators, led by Arua Municipality MP Akbar Godi and president of the Forum for Integrity Party, Emmanuel Tumusime, called upon African leaders to condemn the xenophobic attacks. South Africans, they added, should remember that most of Africa stood by them during the anti-apartheid struggle. "It was a great pain to see our fellow Africans being hunted down by South African blacks like animals, yet countries like Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Nigeria have unselectively opened up to receive South African businessmen," Godi said. The demonstrators handed over a petition to Chiliza addressed to South African President Thabo Mbeki and copied to presidents Museveni and Jakayi Kikwete, who chairs the African Union. They demanded that the perpetuators of violence and killings be brought to book. Citing several South African companies that have taken up opportunities in Uganda, they said it was unfair for South Africans to hunt and burn fellow Africans. Godi added that the various jobs held by South Africans in other countries could have been reserved for the murdered Africans. But Chiliza said South Africa was not against foreign blacks. "This is just a group of six to 10 people who move from place to place causing commotion." http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=582144&rss=yes Sydney asylum seekers protest over death 16:38 AEST Wed Jun 18 2008 48 days 14 hours 3 minutes ago Asylum seekers protest deportation at Villawood. Asylum seekers at Sydney's Villawood Detention Centre have peacefully protested against forced deportations following the suicide of a former detainee sent back to China. The man, referred to only as Mr Zhang, claimed before being sent home in April last year that he would be persecuted due to his involvement with a pro-democracy group. He committed suicide after being detained and tortured by Chinese authorities when he returned, the Refugee Action Coalition said. Immigration Minister Chris Evans said earlier this week he would be seeking further information about the "tragic" incident. Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul said a ministerial review of long-term detainees at Villawood decided to deport 24 people, five of whom have already left the country. "The asylum seekers are demanding an end to forced deportation and for a fair assessment of their cases," Mr Rintoul said in a statement on Wednesday. "Zhang's death is an absolute tragedy ... but it highlights the flaws in the refugee determination system and the need for the minister to seriously adhere to Australia's obligation not to return asylum seekers to danger." The Immigration Department confirmed a peaceful protest was underway at Villawood. "The department ... can confirm that a peaceful demonstration is continuing inside the Villawood Detention Centre," an immigration spokesman told AAP. "The demonstration started about 2pm (AEST) yesterday in the recreation room with varying levels of participation. "The centre remains calm and normal operations continue." Mr Rintoul said asylum seekers were preparing a petition calling for a reassessment of their cases, which will be sent to Mr Evans. http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=600018&rss=yes Villawood detainee injured in protest 18:45 AEST Fri Jul 18 2008 A Villawood detainee injured in a rooftop "protest" at the Sydney detention centre has been taken to hospital. The Department of Immigration says the man, whose details could not be confirmed, was injured climbing onto the roof about 2pm (AEST) Friday and again when coming down 20 minutes later. Two members of centre's staff were also hurt as they tried to bring him down. None of the injuries were said to be life-threatening. "The decision was taken to assist him down from the roof and while (the staff) brought him down they became caught in security wire," an immigration spokesman told AAP. "One cut their finger and was treated on site. The other had more serious injuries and was sent to hospital for further treatment." The detainee was also taken to hospital. The immigration spokesman said the incident was not a suicide attempt. The incident occurred on the roof of Stage One of the centre, the highest security area and the only part of the facility that has security wire. Jamal Daoud, a member of the Refugee Action Coalition of NSW, was at the centre at the time of the incident and said the atmosphere at the facility was "depressing". "Many people there have been in detention for more than six months, some more than two years," he said. "They are just counting incidents like these and have reached their limit. They are very depressed." Investigations are continuing. http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=569757&rss=yes Villawood protest won't stop deportation 11:13 AEST Tue May 27 2008 74 days 21 hours 2 minutes ago Two protesters will stay atop Villawood indefinitely. Two Chinese nationals will continue on the path to deportation when they end their rooftop protest at Sydney's Villawood detention centre, immigration officials say. The men entered the second day of their protest, which began when they climbed on to the roof at about 8.45am (AEST) on Monday. They have been in detention for more than three years and have exhausted every option to be granted a permanent visa. Refugee Action Coalition (RAC) spokesman Ian Rintoul says the men will remain on the roof indefinitely until the Immigration Minister Chris Evans reconsiders their cases. He said one of the men is a Falun Gong practitioner who fears for his life if he returns to China. "It's indefinite at this stage," Mr Rintoul told AAP. "I think they'll be up there hopefully until they get their cases reconsidered. Coming down for them is no option." The men were among a group of 19 people in long-term detention whose applications to remain in Australia were rejected by Immigration Minister Chris Evans last week. They have accepted food and blankets during their protest but have indicated they will not come down unless their demands are met. However the government says they have nothing to gain by maintaining their protest. "They're on the pathway to removal at this stage and clearly we've got to get them off the roof in order to take the next steps," an Immigration Department spokesman told AAP. The spokesman could not specify when the men are scheduled to leave the country. Mr Rintoul said the RAC would protest outside the department's offices in Sydney to highlight the plight of the detainees who face deportation. "For the people who have been rejected, then the only alternative is deportation, which means we're going to see more protests and more desperate acts at Villawood," he said. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/05/26/2255883.htm Detainees climb Villawood roof in deportation protest Posted Mon May 26, 2008 3:02pm AEST Map: Villawood 2163 The Department of Immigration has confirmed two Chinese nationals have climbed on to the roof of Sydney's Villawood Detention Centre. The Refugee Action Coalition says the men are protesting against a decision to send them back to China. Last week, federal Immigration Minister Chris Evans announced there would be 24 deportations from Villawood. Staff at the centre, including an interpreter, are talking with the men, who are yet to make any formal demands. http://www.latinalista.net/palabrafinal/2008/06/resistance-at-usmexico-border-heats-up-in-anticipation-of-next-months-fence-construction.html Resistance at US/Mexico border heats up in anticipation of next month's fence construction Categorized under | Tags: Today, all eyes are fixed on Washington DC and ears glued for the latest hint at what was discussed at a late-night meeting between Obama and Clinton but the real action is happening outside the Beltway - at the US/Mexico border. Things are heating up and it promises to be a long, hot summer showdown between border residents and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). By now, the story is old. Opponents of a border barrier gather on the Mexican side of the fence in San Diego as part of a binational protest to the construction of a border fence. (Source: Proyecto Fronterizo) DHS is determined to construct as much fencing as they can accomplish along the US/Mexico border while the Bush Administration is in office. They've been stymied because they underestimated the sophistication of our nation's border residents when it came to organizing themselves against being railroaded to comply with an order that would rob them of familial and public lands for a project that is bound to be known throughout history as Bush's Blunder. Yet, like cactus flowers growing in a waterless desert, there are little signs that resistance is growing. In a significant sign of binational opposition to the border fence, a special vigil along the southern border called "From Friendship to Hope" (Friendship Park in San Diego to Hope Park in South Texas) took place last weekend. Young girl at binational border protest at Friendship Park passes candy to children on the Mexican side of the fence. (Source: J. Holslin) John Fanestil, executive director of the San Diego-based Foundation for Change was present and shared some notes about the event: Laurie Lynn Silvan Nogaim, of Fundacion La Puerta, shared how odd it was for Mexican environmental advocates like her - who have so long envied their U.S. counterparts because of the U.S. government's openness and transparency and commitment to environmental protection - to find themselves seeing the U.S. government abandon these historic commitments. Testimonies were shared. One man was deported last December after living 35 years in Los Angeles. With all his family still in LA, he has decided to make the best of it in Tijuana. He has landed a job, but complained about the salary - six days a week, eight hours a day, take-home pay: $70 per week. One Border Patrol agent greeted a group of participants on their way out, addressed them warmly and invited them on a tour of the border so he could explain the challenges they face and why he feels they need the border fence. Some law enforcement officers spent the period of our vigil running the license plates of all the cars in the State Parks parking lot. One student's vehicle with expired registration was towed. When the professor who had invited the student asked the officer if there was any way the student could be spared the inconvenience of having the car towed, the officer told him that the decision was already made. "It's like shooting fish in a barrel," he said. Border Patrol presence at Friendship Park was very high - at least a dozen officers were surveying our gathering at one point - in marked contrast to the low-key presence that has been typical at our gatherings in years past. These mild confrontations between the Border Patrol and residents are in all likelihood going to escalate into passive disobedience as the government physically starts to erect the fencing. It's being reported by The Rio Grande Guardian newspaper that some border residents opposed to the fence are planning acts of civil disobedience late next month when construction is scheduled to start. "There are people ready to do civil disobedience, people who have experience in doing civil disobedience, who are not afraid to do that," said No Border Wall coalition member Ann Cass. "We are going to gear up our actions through July 27, that's when they said they will start building the fence." Asked what civil disobedience is, Cass responded: "Civil disobedience is when you are willing to break a law and you know in your conscience that the law is a bad law and what they (the government) are doing is bad." Are recreations of what happened at Tiananmen Square 19 years ago too farfetched to be a reality in South Texas and in more spots along the border? Hardly. What this administration has been able to accomplish with this issue, versus all of its other failed policies, is unite diverse groups, who would never have before joined forces, to counter an enforcement policy that has nothing to do with national security as much as it has to do with exercising government control - not because it has to but simply because it can. http://politicom.moldova.org/stiri/eng/134193/ Texas protest aimed at border wall Nearly 200 people gathered in Edinburg, Texas, to protest a proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexican border, activists say. Activist Jay Johnson Castro said Saturday's protest by Rio Grande Valley residents was in opposition to the proposal aimed at halting the ongoing wave of illegal immigrants from Mexico, the San Antonio (Texas) Express-News said Sunday. Texas is the last stand against the border wall, Castro said. It's a shame. It's a criminal shame what has happened. It's a criminal regime that is doing this to this country, he added. The Department of Homeland Security has proposed that 370 miles of pedestrian fence be completed by the year's end, the newspaper said. That news does not sit well with those in Saturday's protest, who argue such efforts will only cause future immigrants to try riskier border crossings. That is the only impact the wall has had -- to cause people to die, No Border Wall activist Scott Nicol told the Express-News. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/07/14/10342/ Published on Monday, July 14, 2008 by Associated Press Paddlers Protesting Border Fence Boaters Don't Want Lower Rio Grande Blocked by Christopher Sherman MISSION, Texas - The federal government's border fence plans in South Texas have been attacked by property owners, wildlife advocates and land conservationists. The next wave of opponents could come from the water - and they're carrying paddles. Kayakers and canoeists will descend on the lower Rio Grande for events this fall aimed at raising the river's profile as a recreation hub and at drawing attention to the impact the border fence could have by blocking access to the river. The Rio Grande forms Texas' 1,255-mile border with Mexico from El Paso to the Gulf of Mexico. But most of the river, with the notable exception of Big Bend National Park, is forgotten by the state's tens of thousands of recreational paddlers. Those who do use the river share the water with Border Patrol agents patrolling in bulletproof vests and with smugglers of drugs and people. In a recent letter to Roma Mayor Rogelio Ybarra, the president of the Texas Rivers Protection Association expressed his support for a planned river festival and his concern about the border fence. But perhaps most telling was the clear illustration of how novel the idea of using the lower Rio Grande was even for people dedicated to the state's rivers. "It has come to our attention recently that the Lower Rio Grande is indeed a safe and legal place to paddle, and that rights for all U.S. citizens to do so are guaranteed by the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo," association president Tom Goynes wrote. "It's ironic that we only learned that the resource was available to us as a result of the government's plans to take it away." Los Caminos del Rio, a nonprofit group based in McAllen, recognizes that its Healthy Living Festival planned for Nov. 1 - to capitalize on any attention the border could receive before the national election three days later - is unlikely to affect the 85 miles of border fence slated for completion in Texas this year. While not backing off its fence plans, the Border Patrol supports Los Caminos's efforts to get more people on the river. "The more eyes we have out there, the better job we can do," said Dan Doty, spokesman for the local Border Patrol sector. For Los Caminos del Rio, more legal activity on the river - kayaking, canoeing, fishing - will discourage the illegal smuggling activity. Executive director Eric Ellman says Friends of Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge have been giving canoe tours for years without incident, and his own group has had hundreds on the river in the past couple years without problem. Mexicans have a tradition of using the Rio Grande for recreation. Already, anyone traveling the river is more likely to see people on the Mexican shoreline - fishing, swimming, boating. There are more public access points and someone has even opened a water skiing academy upriver from Mission on the Mexican side. Aleida Flores Garcia is trying to get something going on the U.S. side as well, but the border fence could kill it. She and her husband, Jorge Garcia, have been working on their property along the river in Los Ebanos for years. They've cleared brush, put in a park and built a boat ramp. They plan to build a large thatched pavilion and hold fishing tournaments and dances. Garcia recently incorporated her business as the La Paloma Ranch Retreat. But the federal government has sent her a condemnation letter. The border fence is planned to run across her property, leaving most of it in the no man's land between the fence and river. Garcia has a lawyer and is fighting the government, but other challenges have so far been unsuccessful. "I need to fight for this little town," she said. "The nature itself is just too beautiful to be blocked by a wall." http://www.projo.com/news/content/ILLEGAL_IMMIGRANT_ARRESTS_06-14-08_2SAGV9G_v25.372f5f0.html Advocates protest immigration raids that ne42 01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, June 14, 2008 By Karen Lee Ziner Journal Staff Writer NEWPORT - Community advocates yesterday denounced a two-day immigration sweep on Aquidneck Island as an inhumane and deliberate effort to spread fear, and they said the raids on Wednesday and Thursday had already pushed people into hiding. At a news conference in Washington Square, half a dozen speakers said agents for Immigration and Customs Enforcement had gone into restaurants, stores and apartments during the sweep, but in some cases appeared to be targeting people because they appeared foreign and were driving landscaping trucks. "This is nothing less than Gestapo tactics, and it has to stop," said Alison Foley, a Providence lawyer. She said she and others are trying to get legal aid and other assistance to detainees and their families. Immigration agents, assisted by state and local police, arrested 42 people from Brazil, Guatemala and Mexico in Newport and Middletown, according to Paula Grenier, spokeswoman for ICE in Boston. She said 21 had ignored final orders of deportation, 12 had illegally re-entered the country after being deported, and 9 others were determined to be in the country illegally. Grenier said the agents are members of ICE's Rhode Island Fugitive Operations Team. Bruce E. Chadbourne, field office director for the ICE Office of Detention and Removal in Boston, said the agency "is committed to restoring integrity to our nation's immigration system, and one way to do that is to ensure removal orders are carried out." Chadbourne said, "The United States welcomes law-abiding immigrants, but foreign nationals who violate our laws and who commit crimes against those in our communities will not be allowed to stay. Rest assured, ICE will use all available resources to remove from the country those not legally allowed to be here." But the Rev. Raymond Tetreault, pastor of St. Teresa D'Avila Church in Providence, called for hiatus. "They should call for a cessation of deportations right now, until Congress passes immigration reform," the priest said. "They shouldn't make the raids to begin with." Tetreault acknowledged that the detainees were in the country illegally, "but they are coming to work. They're supporting the economy. They're doing what we want people to do." Carlos Escobedo, consul general for Guatemala in Providence, said he has asked ICE for a list of detainees, and their whereabouts. "I will ask to visit them," Escobedo said at the news conference. "We are worried about the families, especially about the children. Somebody told me there are six children without protection." (That could not be confirmed). Escobedo said he wants to ensure that eligible detainees get their rightful hearing before an immigration judge. Francesco Hernandez, who owns a landscaping company, said one of his employees alleged that ICE agents took down the license plate number of his truck, when they happened upon it at a local gas station. He said the truck has his company's name on the side. "A worker for me was driving the truck, and he was putting gas in the truck at the Shell station," Hernandez said. "ICE came to put gas in their car, too." Hernandez said his worker told him that when the agents spotted the truck, they got into an argument over trying to figure out "who is illegal" in the vehicle. That's when one of the agents copied the plate number, Fernandez said. "I was thinking they are going to come to my house," Hernandez said. "But I have nothing to hide." The news conference on the steps of the Newport Old Colony House was just blocks from St. Joseph Church, which hosted forums two years ago in which immigrants complained they were being targeted by police and federal agents. Yesterday afternoon, the church's pastor, the Rev. Hugo Carmona, predicted that the latest sweep will force people underground. "People are going into hiding. People right here don't feel comfortable," Carmona said. "Some families are completely broken. They feel very scared. People are not going to come out. They're not going to go to work. They're staying home." Zoila Valladeres, who owns a convenience store on Broadway that sells Guatemalan and Mexican products, said she learned about the immigration raids from a customer when she opened the store Wednesday morning. "He was as pale as a piece of paper," said Valladeres, of the customer. "He said, 'Do you " at a nearby store? "And I'm like, know Immigration is over there' 'Where?' And he's like, 'Yeah, they've got several of my friends.' He was so nervous." Valladeres said another merchant on her block told her that ICE agents had asked what time her store would be opening. "Maybe they thought I was hiding?" she said. "If they want to come in, let them." Rosanne Sieglar, a Newport artist, said she was supposed to attend the wedding next week of a friend she's known for 10 years, but she learned the ICE agents had arrested and detained him. "He was supposed to be married," she said. "He has a masonry business. He worked so hard. He used to work at the Black Pearl [restaurant]." Sieglar said the man's relatives "are terrified. They're hiding out somewhere." http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/06/21/20080621arpaiosigning0622.html Arpaio book signing draws supporters, protesters by Astrid Galvan - Jun. 21, 2008 05:54 PM The Arizona Republic A book signing by Sheriff Joe Arpaio turned rambunctious Saturday after a few protesters made their way from the 110 degree-plus outdoors into a Barnes & Noble. About 45 people gathered outside the Scottsdale bookstore on Shea Boulevard near Loop 101 on Saturday around 1 p.m., an hour before the sheriff gave a speech about his latest book, "Joe's Law." They held signs on sidewalks of the busy Shea and Pima intersection that read things like, "No human being is illegal" and "Arrest real criminals." Chris Fleischman, a retired engineer from Phoenix, said he's been protesting against the sheriff since last fall. One of the reasons he opposes Arpaio is because of the sheriff's well-publicized immigration sweeps. Fleischman said the sweeps were racist and did not make cities any safer. He also said the sheriff lies about his approval ratings and about the number of arrests made by his office. "It's gonna hurt our safety and our prosperity," he said. Jorge Gonzalez, of Phoenix, said he protests against Arpaio because he feels the Hispanic community is being persecuted. He said the heat wont' stop him from protesting against the sheriff. "Where ever he is, I will be," Gonzalez said. Many of the protestors said they were not representing a particular group, but instead convened as individual citizens. The crowd was significantly smaller then the hundreds who demonstrated at the Board of Supervisors meeting on Thursday, where the Maricopa Citizens for Safety and Accountability, a new group, rallied for better monitoring of public money spent by the sheriff's office. Inside on Saturday, the sheriff entertained at least 100 supporters who showed up to his book signing. He acknowledged the protestors outside, noting they follow him "everywhere" he goes. "I hope they're gonna buy a book," he said. "Think they'll have enough money to buy it?" Some protestors made their way into the bookstore, often interrupting Arpaio's speech. One protester got in front of the sheriff but was escorted out shortly after. Angry supporters yelled at him to leave. Arpaio kept his cool, reminding spectators of the protestors' freedom of speech, but his supporters were visibly irked by the interruptions. Nancy Bechtold, of Scottsdale, has been a supporter for 10 years. She said she thinks Arpaio is the only elected official who has a backbone in law enforcement, and she wasn't too keen on the protestors. "They show themselves to be what they are: ignorant," she said. Jim Bagg, a Phoenix resident and long-time Arpaio supporter, said the demonstrators "irritate" him because he thinks they should be pressing state representatives who have more power to solve immigration issues. "Joe is only doing his job," Bagg said. http://www.workers.org/2008/us/tucson_0807/ Activists protest racist sheriff, shock jock By Paul Teitelbaum Tucson, Ariz. Published Aug 2, 2008 7:47 AM On July 10, arch-racist Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio came to Tucson to promote his new book at a local Barnes & Noble. He was met by a protest of 100 people whose continuous marching and chanting outside the bookstore disrupted his book signing and live radio interview. As part of this protest an empty pi?ata with the likeness of Sheriff Arpaio was smashed to bits by local youth. Arpaio bills himself as "America's Toughest Sheriff." Not only is he racist and xenophobic but inhumane and cruel as well. Arpaio has erected a tent city jail in Phoenix where temperatures have been reported as high as 150 degrees in the summer. Arpaio reportedly serves inmates green bologna for their two meals daily and shackles them into chain gangs for eight hours each day. Approximately 70 percent of the jail population is awaiting trial, which means they have not been convicted of any offense. No wonder his jails have been condemned by Amnesty International. Arpaio is currently named in over 1,500 lawsuits, many of them for wrongful death. On July 11, Tucson right-wing radio talk show host "Jon Justice" of 104.1 FM "The Truth" launched a rabidly racist campaign to have immigrant rights activist and Tucson May 1st Coalition leader Isabel Garcia fired from her position as a Pima County Legal Defender. Beside the lies and fear-mongering that he spews on-air, Jon J posted a YouTube video of himself with a pi?ata with Garcia's likeness, fondling and caressing it and making sexist comments about "wanting to take it home with me" and racist comments about "chorizo" and "viva la raza." Tucson activists led by Derechos Humanos, the organization that Isabel Garcia co-chairs, launched a Stop Hate Radio campaign to show support for Garcia and denounce the racist lies and bigotry that stations like 104.1 FM spew. The radio station is part of the Journal Broadcasting Group which owns 52 newspapers, 35 radio stations, 12 television stations and 121 on-line media services throughout the country. It owns an ABC-affiliate TV station and four radio stations, including 104.1 in Tucson alone. Activists compiled a list of the sponsors who run ads on the Jon Justice show and called them, requesting that they withdraw their advertising. Many businesses were unaware that their advertising package with the Journal Broadcasting Group included 104.1 FM. Enough sponsors withdrew their advertising that the YouTube video was taken down and Jon J no longer screams for the firing of Isabel Garcia on his morning show. By joining together in solidarity, the progressive community here managed to wound a tentacle of a giant media corporation. The Stop Hate Radio campaign will continue until racists like Jon Justice and the right-wing radio stations that reward him are driven out of business. The campaign will be raised at the Tucson Stop War On Iran action Aug. 2nd where it will be linked as part of the war at home to the war abroad. More information on the Stop Hate Radio campaign is available online at derechoshumanosaz.net. http://www.kpho.com/news/16835379/detail.html?rss=pho&psp=news Protestors To Disrupt Arpaio Broadcast POSTED: 2:02 pm MST July 9, 2008 UPDATED: 2:26 pm MST July 9, 2008 PHOENIX -- Open border activists are encouraging protestors to disrupt Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's live radio broadcast from Tucson on Thursday. Coalicion de Derechos Humanos, a grassroots organization that opposes the "militarization" of the southern U.S. border, has demanded that Arpaio stay out of Pima County. "We will not permit hatred and xenophobia in our community," the group announced on its Web site. Arpaio said he is aware of the group's plan but he will not be deterred by its actions. This is the second time the group has protested the sheriff's appearance in Tucson. The first time was when Arpaio visited the city to support Mitt Romney's presidential candidacy. The sheriff plans to discuss his stance on illegal immigration enforcement on air before holding a book signing to promote his second book, "Joe's Law." Recently, protestors disrupted Arpaio's book signing at a Scottsdale Barnes and Noble bookstore. Previous Stories: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/07/11/20080711arpaiotucson0711.html Arpaio's appearance at Tucson bookstore draws protesters 339 comments by Blake Morlock - Jul. 11, 2008 12:00 AM Tucson Citizen About 100 protesters worked to disrupt Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's appearance Thursday at a midtown Tucson bookstore. Arpaio co-hosted a radio show and then signed copies of his new book, Joe's Law: America's Toughest Sheriff Takes on Illegal Immigration, Drugs and Everything Else that Threatens America, at a Barnes & Noble Booksellers location. Demonstrators outside the store challenged Arpaio because of his decision to crack down on illegal immigrants in the Phoenix area. "He's a racist," said Carlos Parma, a 16-year-old Pueblo High School senior. "He discriminates against brown people." The protesters marched in a circle while chanting. They also pummeled a pi?ata meant to resemble Arpaio. Christina Moodie, 56, a retired Sun Tran driver, said she has long opposed Arpaio's get-tough, media-grabbing style and policies. The Rev. John Fife, former pastor of the South Side Presbyterian Church and a longtime immigrant-rights advocate, called the demonstration a show of democracy. "Our basic message is that our Hispanic community in Pima County is valued," Fife said. Arpaio's crackdown on illegal immigration, typically left to federal authorities, is about enforcing the law and not racism, the sheriff said. Conservative radio host John Justice showed up to support Arpaio. "He's such a symbol of people in Tucson, how they wish immigration was handled here," Justice said. "He's enforcing the law." Inside the bookstore and toward the end of the radio show, Arpaio was faced with protests and hecklers. Fred Davis, a 65-year-old truck driver, stewed as he watched the protesters interrupt Arpaio. "They're un-American, and they're rude," Davis said, holding a copy of Arpaio's book. "He's not racist. He's enforcing the law." Arpaio shrugged off his critics. "Every time they blast me, my polls go higher and higher and higher," he said. http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/07/23/20080723protest0723.html 300 protest Arpaio's immigration sweeps Jul. 23, 2008 10:48 AM The Arizona Republic A group of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's critics gathered inside and outside the Maricopa County Supervisors meeting this morning to protest the sheriff's stance against illegal immigration. More than 300 people attended the meeting in hopes of keeping pressure on the supervisors to change Arpaio's immigration policy, including his crime suppression sweeps that have resulted in many arrests of illegal immigrants. This morning's protest saw more than 200 people inside the meeting and almost 100 splintered off to gather near the Wells Fargo building in downtown Phoenix, next to Arpaio's office. That group eventually returned to the supervisors meeting to call a press conference. Arpaio has said that he will continue to arrest illegal immigrants regardless of what critics say or do. http://allafrica.com/stories/200804250072.html Kenya: Internal Refugees Protest At Lack of Food The Nation (Nairobi) 25 April 2008 Posted to the web 25 April 2008 George Munene Nairobi More than 150 internal refugee families are camping at a district officer's offices in Kirinyaga District complaining of hunger and lack of shelter. The starving victims stormed the Mwea administration office compound in Ngurubani Town on Wednesday evening and spent a night in the cold. They want the Government to provide them with food and resettle them as soon as possible to end their suffering. The victims, who included children and elderly women, said they had not eaten anything in the last two days. They said good Samaritans who had been accommodating them since December 29 last year after they were kicked out of their homes were now chasing them away. "We are suffering from hunger and the Government seems to have forgotten us," Peninah Njeri, a mother of two from Nakuru, said. Thursday, the area District Officer, Ms Ronda Rono, said she was shocked when she got to work in the morning only to find the hungry families protesting as administration police kept guard. Eject them The victims told the Nation that they had been harassed and intimidated by APs who threatened to eject them from the compound. They said they would not to leave until their grievances were addressed. The DO tried in vain to convince the victims to disperse to their respective areas as the Government looks for a means of feeding and resettling them. "Plans are at an advanced stage to resettle all those who were displaced by post-election violence and you should disperse," she said. They had been residing at Murubara, Nguka, Thiba and Kerugoya areas after they fled their homes in Rift Valley, Nyanza and Western provinces due to the post-election violence. By the time of going to press, the DO was struggling to get food from well-wishers to feed the victims, who looked weak and exhausted. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/04/397380.html Immigration Reporting Centre is blockaded to protest forced deportations. d.loch | 24.04.2008 05:20 | Migration The Immigration Reporting Centre, Northumberland House, Norfolk Street, North Shields has been blockaded today in protest at a recent spate of brutal raids by immigration "snatch squads". Outside the Immigration Reporting Centre, Northumberland today. Local people have used chains to blockade the car park of the Reporting Centre in an attempt to prevent the unmarked vans used by immigration snatch squads from leaving the car park. The snatch squads carry out brutal raids on the homes of vulnerable families and individual asylum seekers and migrants who have sought a safe home in Newcastle. Residents in other parts of the region are also joining in with actions in key locations around the city. Sophie Ray, a resident of North Shields said, "Families are being taken from their beds at 5am, often after immigration snatch squads have kicked down their door. They are dragged into vans and taken to detention centres before being forcibly deported. I can't believe this happens to vulnerable people who have come to seek refuge in this country". d.loch http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/751/38804 United States: Protests against immigration raids David Bacom 16 May 2008 @intro = Two hundred protesters from churches, unions and community groups marched and picketed outside the office of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in downtown San Francisco on May 5. On May 2, the day after marches took place across the country for immigrants' rights, immigration agents arrested 64 workers at Los Balazos taquerias throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Most of the employees had no criminal records, and were arrested for the crime of working to support their families. On May 6, Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums joined unions and community groups at Stonehurst Elementary School after ICE agents showed up earlier in the morning. Dellums and others protested the ICE activity in Oakland, which is a self-declared "sanctuary city" for "illegal" immigrants, just days after marches took place across the country for immigrants' rights. Dellums talked with concerned parents, as worried children left school at the end of the day. http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080519/NEWS/805190324/1001/ Protesters show support for families of detainees By NIGEL DUARA . nduara at dmreg.com . May 19, 2008 Waterloo, Ia. - Hundreds of people gathered here Sunday to show their support for families affected by last week's immigration raid in Postville and to protest the federal enforcement action. Local clergy and immigration-rights advocates joined about 70 friends and family members of detainees, who were bused in from Postville, at Queen of Peace Parish. They protested a U.S. immigration policy they said is flawed and unfairly punishes immigrant workers. The event came in the wake of the largest single-site immigration raid in U.S. history at the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant in Postville. "This is not the America I knew about growing up," said Kathleen McQuillen of the American Friends Service Committee, who compared immigration policies to the segregation laws before the 1960s civil rights movement. The speakers called the raid a "tragedy," and McQuillen advocated a "new civil rights campaign" to change immigration policy. After the speeches, about 300 people marched the 2miles from the church to a protest in front of the National Cattle Congress grounds, where detainees were initially held after the raid. They chanted, carried signs and held American, Mexican and Guatemalan flags. "We're here to stay," some chanted in Spanish on the march. "If they send us out, we'll return." The sign's messages included pleas - "Let my dad go" - and accusations - "You are criminals for leaving kids without parents. Free us." The rally was preceded by a similar gathering in Minneapolis last week, when about 50 immigration-rights advocates rallied in a heavily Hispanic neighborhood to protest the raid. The issue of immigrant detainees' rights has grown in prominence since the New York Times reported May 5 that 66 immigrants were known to have died in federal custody between 2004 and 2007. At the rally, the Rev. Paul Ouderkirk of St. Bridget's Catholic Church in Postville questioned the commitment of the governor and Iowa's U.S. senators to aiding those who were left jobless or whose family members were detained in the raid. "We have waited too long," Ouderkirk said. "I am tired. We have been pushed around for too long." Ouderkirk said the governor and Legislature had been "silent" on the issue. Gov. Chet Culver last week appointed a multi-agency task force, headed by Lt. Gov. Patty Judge, to address human services needs and other issues related to the May 12 raid. Elmer Gehovany Hernandez Lopez, 17, said he was detained in the raid and released on Wednesday. "They didn't believe I was a minor," Lopez said, until he showed officials a birth certificate. Now, Lopez said, there's no work for him in Postville, although he said no one from Agriprocessors has contacted him to say whether he still has a job. As the youngest member of his family in Guatemala, he said he is expected to provide for his parents. After the raid, with his income cut off, Lopez said he'll probably leave Iowa in search of work elsewhere. When he was released, Lopez said he called his parents. "They were crying," he said. "They said, 'Thank God they let you go.' " http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=111078 Hundreds protest migration raid in US Tuesday, July 29, 2008 Hundreds protest migration raid in US Led by 43 women with electronic tracking bracelets on their ankles, hundreds of people from around the country marched down main street Sunday to protest the biggest immigration raid in U.S. history at a kosher meat plant that has split this tiny Iowa town asunder. The demonstrators marched through Postville's tree-lined streets, drowning out the shouts of about 100 anti-immigration protesters with chants of "No more raids!" http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/28/us/28immig.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1219263236-hbsOnTcx6KElwxq1rJ3+Mg Iowa Rally Protests Raid and Conditions at Plant By JULIA PRESTON Published: July 28, 2008 POSTVILLE, Iowa - About 1,000 people, including Hispanic immigrants, Catholic clergy members, rabbis and activists, marched through the center of this farm town on Sunday and held a rally at the entrance to a kosher meatpacking plant that was raided in May by immigration authorities. Matthew Holst for The New York Times In Postville, Iowa, people protested working conditions at a kosher meatpacking plant that was raided in May by immigration authorities. Matthew Holst for The New York Times Rabbi Harold Kravitz, from Minnetonka, Minn., addressed a rally on Sunday in Postville. The march was called to protest working conditions in the plant, owned by Agriprocessors Inc., and to call for Congressional legislation to give legal status to illegal immigrants. The four rabbis, from Minnesota and Wisconsin, attended the march to publicize proposals to revise kosher food certification to include standards of corporate ethics and treatment of workers. The march drew a counterprotest by about 150 people, organized by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which opposes illegal immigrants and proposals to give them legal status. At one point, tension surged as the two sides shouted slogans at each other through bullhorns from opposite sidewalks of the main street of this town with a population of about 2,200. The marchers said, "Stop the raids!" Protesters across the street responded, "Illegals go home!" No incidents of disorder were reported by the police. The debate over kosher standards has intensified since the May 12 raid at the plant, in which 389 illegal immigrants, the majority from Guatemala, were detained. Reports by many of those workers of widespread labor violations in the plant have been prominent news in the Jewish media, provoking discussion of whether Jews should buy meat and poultry products made there. Agriprocessors, owned and operated by Aaron Rubashkin and his family, is the largest kosher plant in the United States. Its products, sold as Aaron's Best and Rubashkin's, among others, dominate the nation's market for kosher meat and poultry. The plant had been cited for state and federal labor violations before the raid, including inadequate worker safety protections and unpaid overtime. Since the raid, immigrants under 18, the legal age in Iowa for working on a meatpacking floor, have said they worked long hours at Agriprocessors, often at night. Agriprocessors' beef and poultry are killed and packaged using procedures specified by strict Jewish dietary laws, and are certified by rabbis who are recognized authorities on kosher food. In 2006, after reports in The Forward, a Jewish newspaper, of harsh working conditions at Agriprocessors, a commission of inquiry organized by Conservative Jewish leaders criticized the plant's operations and called for more safety training and increased inspections by state labor officials. A member of that commission, Rabbi Morris Allen of Mendota Heights, Minn., proposed a new system of kosher certification that would include consideration of working conditions in plants where the food is produced. Rabbi Harold Kravitz, from the Adath Jeshurun synagogue in Minnetonka, Minn., said on Sunday that the health and safety issues raised by the commission did not appear to have been addressed. Speaking to the rally on a dusty driveway in front of the plant, Rabbi Kravitz said that Jewish laws governing the kosher processing of animals should not be separated from Jewish ethical principles. "Proper business conduct and treatment of workers also are important Jewish values," Rabbi Kravitz said. He and several Jewish community activists met on Sunday morning here with Chaim Abrahams, a top manager of the plant. Aaron Goldsmith, a Postville resident who participated in the meeting, said Mr. Abrahams reported that about 360 of the arrested workers had received all payments that they were owed and that Agriprocessors was making weekly deliveries of food to about 30 immigrant families in Postville. Although Agriprocessors executives have largely avoided speaking to the news media, Getzel Rubashkin, 24, a grandson of Aaron Rubashkin, emerged from the plant and approached the rally. "There's no argument here," said Getzel Rubashkin, who said he works in the plant but was not a representative of Agriprocessors and was speaking for himself. Agriprocessors managers, he said, "treat their workers well and they pay their workers well and there is no other policy." "The company is not on the other side of any of these people," he said, referring to the immigrants lined up behind banners across the street from the plant. Getzel Rubashkin said a large number of illegal immigrants had been hired because they presented identity documents that he called convincing forgeries. "The high number of illegal people who were working here is more a testimony to the quality of their deceit, of their papers," Getzel Rubashkin said. He said the company did not criticize immigration authorities for the raid. "Obviously some of the people here were presenting false documents," Getzel Rubashkin said. "Immigration authorities somehow picked it up and they did what they are supposed to do, they came and picked them up. God bless them for it." On Postville's main street, the protesters opposing the immigrants' march praised Iowa federal prosecutors, who convicted 297 illegal immigrant workers from the plant, most on criminal document fraud charges. "It's a felony when you take someone's identity, and we think that needs to be out there when you talk about the supposed injustices against undocumented workers," said Susan Tully of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, an organizer of the counterprotest. Like the marchers, the protesters were also angry at Agriprocessors managers. To date, the only managers arrested were two floor supervisors, on immigration harboring charges. "It's cheap labor, that's what they're getting away with," said Ruthie Hendrycks, 48, of a group called Minnesotans Seeking Immigration Reform. "I want to see these employers that hired children and illegal aliens do serious jail time." http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080727/NEWS/80727023/1001/ Protesters gather in Postville ASSOCIATED PRESS . July 27, 2008 An immigration rally has kicked off in Postville with protesters shouting "Si se puede," translated in English as "yes, we can." Hundreds of people marched through the small Iowa town of about 2,200 today. Busloads of people from Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul and other nearby cities came to protest a federal immigration raid of the Agriprocessors plant in May. The march, which kicked off with a religious ceremony, is expected to reach the plant on the outskirts of town. Marchers were met by a counter-protest of about 75 anti-immigration activists. Nearly 400 people were arrested during the raid of the plant. http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080726/NEWS/807260340/1001/ Postville rally to protest claims of worker abuse By TONY LEYS . tleys at dmreg.com . July 26, 2008 Several busloads of demonstrators from as far away as Minneapolis and Chicago are expected to arrive in Postville on Sunday to protest alleged treatment of immigrant workers by the Agriprocessors Inc. meatpacking plant and federal immigration authorities. Several local Christian leaders, including Catholic Archbishop Jerome Hanus, are scheduled to appear. Many of the out-of-state participants are being recruited by Jewish groups that have raised concerns about the treatment of workers who process kosher meat, which is purchased by many observant Jews. Nearly 400 workers, mostly from Guatemala or Mexico, were arrested during a federal raid at the plant in May. The raid uncovered numerous allegations of mistreatment of workers, including long hours, poor training and use of underage employees. The company has denied the allegations, but Jewish groups are debating whether their members should buy food produced at the plant. The organizers of Sunday's event expect several hundred participants. Vic Rosenthal, executive director of the Minnesota group Jewish Community Action, said organizers are trying to avoid overwhelming the small town. "We've actually been trying to not have everyone and their mother show up at this," he said. The group has stopped short of calling for a boycott of Agriprocessors' products, Rosenthal said, but it wants to show that many Jews are concerned about the treatment of workers who produce kosher meat. "What we're saying is the Jewish community, like any community, has a lot of sides to it," he said. The participants from Chicago are being recruited by the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs. Jane Ramsey, the group's executive director, said her contingent wants to show support for reform of the country's immigration laws. She said current immigrants are similar to the ancestors of many American Jews. Today's immigrants face more restrictions, she said. "Now they are thanked by being arrested and separated from their families," she said. Ramsey said her contingent of demonstrators will include some Hispanic residents. It will also include Jews from an array of traditions, including a few from the Lubavitch wing of Orthodox Judaism, which is the group to which the plant's owners belong. Ramsey said the demonstration's organizers have asked to meet with plant leaders, but she wasn't sure if the request would be granted. When The Des Moines Register asked a company representative if the meeting would take place, the reply was unclear. "Agriprocessors will selectively meet with leaders of the community at a time and place of its choosing," the representative, Menachem Lubinsky, wrote in an e-mail. He would not give more specifics. The demonstration is scheduled to come a day after a visit to Postville by members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. The delegation, which is to meet with workers and their families today, is to be headed by Rep. Luis Gutierrez, a Chicago Democrat. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100017_15/05/2008_96591 Leros child migrants in protest Dozens of immigrant children who arrived on the island of Leros from neighboring Turkey just over a week ago are refusing food to protest their housing conditions, a medical charity has told Agence France-Presse. The 121 would-be migrants, mostly Afghans aged between 10 and 16, have been accommodated in a hotel and another building but the conditions are "wretched," an official of Medecins du Monde (MDM), also known as Doctors of the World, told AFP. "For the past week the 121 children have been accepting food once every three days," MDM board member Philippos Olympitis was quoted as saying. Olympitis said that the children's health was not in danger. The children are part of a large wave of migrants - some 860 - to have arrived on the island since the beginning of the year. The charity appeared to defend efforts by local authorities. "(They) are doing all they can but the rapid increase in immigrant arrivals - and particularly unattended children - on Greek shores demands urgent mobilization," Olympitis told the agency. http://www.antara.co.id/en/arc/2008/5/15/hundreds-of-indonesian-fishermen-stage-protest-at-darwin-detention-center/ 05/15/08 07:32 Hundreds of Indonesian fishermen stage protest at darwin detention center Brisbane, (ANTARA News) - More than 200 Indonesian fishermen detained in the Darwin Detention Center, Australia, on Wednesday protested the action of Australian officials for having captured their fishing boats in Indonesian territorial waters. Their protest was disclosed by Indonesian Consul in Darwin, Harbangan Napitupulu, to Antara by phone from Brisbane on Wednesday afternoon. Napitupulu said he along with two staff members of the Indonesian Consulate in Darwin met the fishermen to find out what had really happened to them, and their protest amont other to Australian fishery management authority director Peter Vensloves and the authority of the detention center. Due to the unfavorable situation whereas some of the fishermen failed to control their emotion and banged the table, the meeting with the Indonesian consular staff had to be stopped at the request of the detention centre director and the Indonesian consul, he said. Napitupulu said the protest staged by the fishermen was a follow up of their meeting on Tuesday evening (May 13). On Wednesday morning, they unfurled a banner protesting the confiscation of their fishing vessels by Australian patrol boat as they were still in Indonesian territorial waters, he said. "The Australian authority plans to continue the interview with the skipper and fishermen of the fishing vessels on Thursday, while Indonesian consular officials will act translators for the fishermen in the interview," he said.(*) http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/08/europe/immig.php Clandestine workers step forward in French protests By Katrin Bennhold and Caroline Brothers Published: May 8, 2008 NEUILLY-SUR-SEINE, France: The Caf? La Jatte is in many ways a typical Parisian eatery. It has a menu full of culinary promise, a sumptuous wine list and a handful of illegal African immigrants working in the kitchen. It also has a rather atypical former customer: President Nicolas Sarkozy, known for his tough stance on illegal immigration, was a regular when he was mayor of this leafy western suburb until 2002. Caf? La Jatte has become a symbol for an unusually public campaign by clandestine employees in France demanding work permits. Recent kitchen strikes here and at other restaurants have mushroomed into a broader protest movement touching several sectors and spreading fast outside of Paris. Since April 25, when France's largest labor union, the CGT, filed a request to legalize 900 restaurant employees, construction workers and cleaners, hundreds more have lined up to join the initiative. The movement has highlighted an uneasy dilemma facing France and other Western governments: The hard line on immigration that helped leaders like Sarkozy to get elected is increasingly at odds with economic realities. For the first time, the demands of France's illegal workers are backed by a growing number of their employers. Construction and cleaning companies say they cannot get enough legal workers to fill the available jobs. The employers' federation of the restaurant and hotel business has called for the legalization of 50,000 workers in that field alone. And Konex, a technology cabling firm, has rallied dozens of employers to form a lobby dedicated to the matter. "This is a problem of political hypocrisy," said Gilles Caussade, one of the two owners of Caf? La Jatte, as he glanced from his restaurant's sprawling outdoor terrace to the apartment building where Sarkozy used to live. "The economic needs are real," he said. "Manpower is no longer assured by those who are born in the country, and these are jobs that they do not want to do." Every time Caussade advertises a job in the paper, only Africans and Sri Lankans respond, he said. The 10 Malians now working in Caf? La Jatte's kitchen have all been there at least two years - one of them, who started as a dishwasher and is now a cook, since 1994. Employed on work permits borrowed from friends and relatives, they have been earning standard industry wages and paying taxes like regular employees. "That's the irony," Caussade said. "They are completely part of the system and yet, officially, they don't exist." Caussade said he had not known that his employees were illegal and had been caught by surprise when his staff started a five-day strike on April 19. But their battle has become his, he said, recounting how he personally took their applications for work permits to the police. "Now I just have to learn their real names," Caussade quipped. "Baba is no longer Baba, he is Abdouramane. Samba becomes Moussa." Caussade is no exception. At a recent conference organized by the human resources departments of some of France's biggest companies, executives urged the government to make it easier for immigrants to get work permits. Sylvie Brunet, head of human resources at ONET, a company in Marseille that provides cleaning services, said her business could not function without ample immigrant labor. "Even French high school dropouts don't want the jobs we offer," she said. St?phane Vallet of Bouygues, the construction company, concurred. The French Immigration Ministry estimates that there are 200,000 to 400,000 undocumented immigrants in France; reports in the French press suggest that as many as three out of four of them are working. But as employers lobby for the legalization of their workers, the police continue to round them up for expulsion, often targeting train stations in the early morning and late evening, when cleaners and builders commute. The issue is a headache for Sarkozy, who has ordered police chiefs across France to fulfill a strict deportation quota of 26,000 this year but who has also promised to help business alleviate labor shortages. In a high-profile television interview on April 24, Sarkozy defended his policies and accused company bosses employing illegal immigrants of being "hypocrites." "Don't tell me, whether you are the boss of a small company or not, that you have to find yourself a poor illegal worker when there are, among the immigrants who we do welcome and who do have papers, 22 percent unemployed," Sarkozy said, without elaborating on the statistic. The fact that employers have increasingly found themselves the target of criticism may be one reason they appear to be more sympathetic to the current campaign. The movement has been gathering momentum with isolated strikes since July 2007, when Immigration Minister Brice Hortefeux issued a decree obligating employers to verify the legality of their workers with the police. Since then, two further sets of guidelines have been issued, opening the door to legalizing some staff in specific regions and sectors. This has raised hope among workers at a time when surging food prices have often made families in the immigrants' home countries even more dependent on their remittances. The government has ruled out legalization on a mass scale, saying that only a few hundred of those who have applied for papers in the current movement will get papers, on a case-by-case basis. Critics said that only adds to the confusion and that it could result in ad hoc decisions by prefectures, the regional police authorities charged with authorizing migrants to work. "Going case by case is not a policy; it is like saying to the prefectures, 'Work it out yourself,' " said Laurent Giovanonni, secretary general of Cimade, a nongovernmental organization that works in the detention centers where migrants without papers are held. In the case of the Caf? La Jatte workers, there has been some progress. As of Wednesday, 7 of the 10 La Jatte illegals had received three-month work permits; the other three hope to get such papers on Friday. "This has changed our lives," Abdouramane Sarr, the 42-year-old dishwasher-turned-cook, said Thursday in the steaming restaurant kitchen. No longer afraid of police controls, he is planning his first trip to Mali in 10 years. But at Passion Traiteur, an upscale caterer in the nearby suburb of Colombes, 3 of 20 striking workers have been ordered to leave the country. And the movement is spreading. On Wednesday, illegal workers occupied the premises of Adecco and Triangle, two job-placement companies in Creteil, southeast of Paris. In Nanterre, west of Paris, a dozen workers are on hunger strike. Meanwhile, a march of illegal workers that started in Lille several weeks ago will arrive in Paris on Saturday, when the abolition of slavery will be commemorated. One of the more colorful protests is taking place in central Paris, where a few hundred mostly African workers have been occupying a union building for a week. Anzoumane Sissoko, a Malian organizer of the protest, said that in his 15 years in France he had seen clandestine workers come out of the shadows sporadically, but never to this extent and with such self-confidence. "There is something different about this time," said Sissoko, himself illegal until last year. "People really think something could change for them." http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2008/05/22/politics/politics_30073693.php Hmong refugees protest against repatriation bid By Supalak G Khundee The Nation Published on May 22, 2008 More than 30 Hmong refugees are staging a hunger strike in Phetchabun's Ban Huay Nam Khao camp against repatriation plans, a refugee at the camp said yesterday. The protest began in the middle of May after a Hmong leader Lee Xue was detained for giving information of forced repatriation to the international media, accusing the Thai military which oversees almost 8,000 refugees in the camp. Lee Xue told the US-based Radio Free Asia that a group of 67 Hmong returnees had been forced by the military to return to Laos recently. The military has denied the accusation claiming that everyone in the group volunteered to return. The 33 protesters have been admitted to a field clinic in the camp run by Medecins san Frontiers, the single medical service on the site, after they collapsed. "We will continue our strike until the Thai authorities agree to process resettlement in third countries, or at least allow us to live in Thailand," said the Hmong via a phone interview from the camp. The military, under the supervision of the Third Army Region, has refused to allow journalists or observers from outside to enter the camp. Thailand has sheltered the Hmong since late 2004. Some claim they were associates of the Central Intelligence Agency's secret fighters who fought against the Communist movement in the 1960's and 1970's - and fled from suppression in Laos. Laos has rejected the claims and together with Thailand considers most of the group as illegal migrants who were helped by human trafficking gangs to seek better lives in Thailand and perhaps have a chance to resettle in third countries. Thailand has continued to repatriate them. http://www.bangkokpost.com/230608_News/23Jun2008_news08.php Monday June 23, 2008 FORCED REPATRIATION Hmong forced to return to Laos after big protest march Despite recent legislation in the US aimed at stopping the forced repatriation of Hmong people from Thailand to Laos, local authorities forced a large group of the minority hilltribe people to return yesterday. The forced repatriation by Thai officials happened after about 5,000 Hmong marched out of the Huay Nam Khao camp in Phetchabun on Friday, attempting to walk to Bangkok to draw international attention to their plight. Sources in the North said some leaders of the march from the refugee camp were forcibly returned to Laos yesterday, along with a group of Hmong wanted by Lao authorities. The sources said another 800 Hmong will be deported to Laos today _ some allegedly against their will. However, many have accepted money from the government to return to Laos after being in camps in Thailand for several years. United Nations refugee officials were denied access to the camps. The army forcibly broke up the protest march on Saturday and 500 to 600 Hmong have been locked up in provincial jails. Army officers kept reporters away from the stand-off between their troops and the marchers. The Hmong were blocked by riot police and troops on a road about 5km from the village of Khet Noi and forced to spend the night in the open. The repatriation of the Hmong comes only weeks after the US government introduced legislation in Congress in an attempt to prevent them being forcibly returned to Laos. The Hmong claim refugee status _ which they have been denied in Thailand _ and claim they fled persecution in Laos because they were part of a CIA-backed force that fought the communists in the 1960s and 1970s. The government insists the Hmong in Phetchabun are economic migrants. About eight families were reportedly taken to Nong Khai by truck yesterday and then sent to Laos. Another 832 Hmong were put into buses and taken to Nong Khai for deportation. A source said some in the buses were crying and shouting because they did not want to return to Laos. Aid workers at Huay Nam Khao said about 1,600 people, or a third of those who marched out of the camp, had failed to return. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2008/06/24/2003415588 Thailand sends 800 Hmong back to Laos after protest AFP, BANGKOK Tuesday, Jun 24, 2008, Page 5 Thailand has sent 800 members of the Hmong ethnic minority back to Laos, an official said yesterday, despite international concern that the hill tribe could face persecution back home. Colonel Somchai Chaipanich, from the northern region where the Hmong are detained, said the group was deported on Sunday after thousands of Hmong tried to march out of a makeshift camp in Phetchabun Province. "Those 800 Hmong volunteered to return to Laos themselves. They wanted to go home," Somchai said, adding that the latest repatriations left about 6,000 Hmong in the camp near the border with Laos. The Bangkok Post newspaper said thousands of Hmong marched on Friday to highlight their plight, but riot police blocked their path, put up to 600 Hmong in jail and forcibly sent some of the rally leaders back to Laos. Somchai confirmed that about 4,000 Hmong marched out of the camp, but he refused to give any other details about the incident. He said the next group from Huay Nam Khao camp, which once was home to about 8,000 Hmong, would likely be sent back to Laos next week. The Thai government insists the Hmong are economic migrants using Thailand as a base to seek refugee status and travel to rich countries. But Hmong activists, international human rights groups and the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, have warned that some of the Hmong could be at risk of persecution in communist Laos. US lawmakers this month introduced legislation asking Thailand to suspend repatriation of the Hmong and to provide UNHCR access to those seeking asylum. The Hmong fought alongside US forces in the 1960s and 1970s when the Vietnam War spilled into Laos. After the war ended in 1975, many fled to the jungles fearing the communist authorities would hunt them down. Last month a fire at the camp in Phetchabun destroyed hundreds of makeshift homes. At the time, Somchai said the fire could have been set by Hmong trying to avoid repatriation to Laos. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/06/400067.html Nottingham Protests in Support of Detained Resident Notts IMC | 03.06.2008 00:35 | Migration | Repression | Social Struggles | Nottinghamshire The detention and imminent deportation of Amdani Juma, a well-known and widely liked local activist, has generated considerable anger in Nottingham. There have been two well attended demonstrations in the Market Square, one on Saturday 31 May and a second on Monday 2 June. The latter was particularly successful at generating media interest, going out live on Central News. The anger felt by many at Amdani's detention was only compounded by police intimidation of participants in the first demonstration that they should have sought permission and would be expected to do so for the second. This suggests a worrying ignorance of the law on the part of the Sergeant 2471. He told protesters that Section 11 of the Public Order Act 1986 required that they obtain permission for any assemblies, despite the fact that that section clearly relates only to processions and marches and not to static assemblies. When it came to it, the police presence on Monday evening was minimal, although a Community Protection Officer with a CCTV camera attached to his head was prominently visible. Campaigners dubbed both protests major successes. The second attracted a number of high profile supporters including Alan Simpson MP and a (noticeably quieter) Jon Collins. On Saturday there was little conflict with the many passing shoppers. Monday's protest attracted a more varied response with a few hecklers and one "Send him back" banner, although the owner of said article was engaged in an extensive and hopefully fruitful discussion. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2008/06/03/ot-adams-080603.html?ref=rss Wife of deported imam protests on Parliament Hill Last Updated: Tuesday, June 3, 2008 | 1:35 PM ET Comments14Recommend9 CBC News Nancy-Ann Adams said she is struggling to care for three children on her own. (CBC) The wife of a controversial Muslim cleric deported to Tunisia in October is protesting in front of the Parliament Buildings in an effort to push the federal government to allow his return to Canada. Nancy-Ann Adams arrived on Parliament Hill Monday with the couple's six-month-old son and said she will remain there until her husband, Said Jaziri, gets temporary authorization to return. Jaziri, who headed the Al-Qods Mosque in Montreal, was granted refugee status in 1998, but had that status revoked in 2006 after the Immmigration and Refugee Board said he presented false information to get into Canada and lied about having a criminal record in France, where he served jail time. While in Canada, he vocally supported the creation of faith-based Shariah law for Canadian Muslims and has publicly denounced homosexuality as a sin. Adams said she is hoping to meet with Prime Minister Stephen Harper about her situation. She said she is in poor health and struggling to care alone for her three children, including a sick daughter and an infant son. She said paperwork was filed in February requesting authorization for her husband's return and for a temporary visa for him, as the legality of his deportation has been called into question. However, she said she felt a need to act, as the process did not seem to be progressing. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/06/400467.html Video of today's protest against the deportation of Mako and her children Tyneside Community Action for Refugees (TCAR) | 07.06.2008 03:44 | Anti-racism | Migration | Social Struggles | Leeds Bradford A video of today's protest against the deportation of leading TCAR member Mako is online at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcCB-qbafBA , together with some other background footage that was hurriedly put together. A further protest will take place at the Government Offices (opposite St James's Park Metro) in Newcastle on Monday from 9.30-11am, please come along if you can. Despite hostility from the Government Offices and four police vans turning up including cops armed with tasers (which now seem to be standard issue in Newcastle for responding to non-violent refugee protests), protestors occupied the lobby until they had been put on the phone to the regional immigration director at Leeds. Asylum seekers, refugees and supporters showed today that they will not be silenced by intimidation and will not have their means of protest determined by the British state. Many thanks to everyone who came along to today's protest and who sent messages of protest to Jacqui Smith. Mako's solicitor is making fresh representations partly on the basis of this show of support, so please keep the messages coming. Mako has played a leading role in TCAR in standing up for the rights of other refugees, and she deserves all of our support. Hope to see you all at the Northern Conference Against Racism on 21st June. Fight Labour's racist immigration laws! Together we are stronger - Together We Will Win! Tyneside Community Action for Refugees (TCAR) http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-06-27-border_N.htm?csp=34 Mexico plants trees to protest U.S., Mexico border fence Posted 6/27/2008 11:16 PM By Guillermo Arias, AP Overlooking Tijuana, Mexico, a U.S. Border Patrol vehicle stands guard along the border fence dividing Mexico and the U.S. PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Mexico (AP) - The first of 400,000 trees are being planted to form a "green wall" in protest of the fence the U.S. is building along the border with Mexico. The treeline will eventually stretch for 318 miles along the border between the Mexican state of Coahuila and Texas. Coahuila Gov. Humberto Moreira Valdes says "our wall is of life, and it competes with shame and hate." The U.S. government says the fence is critical to security. Critics say it fuels animosity between the two countries and raises environmental and private property concerns. The mayor of a Texas border town attended the tree planting in Piedras Negras. Eagle Pass Mayor Chad Foster opposes the ongoing construction of 670 miles of border fence. http://www.dominicantoday.com/dr/local/2008/6/24/28430/Haitians-to-protest-in-front-of-Dominican-consulate-in-NY 24 June 2008, 1:33 PM Text size: Smaller Bigger Haitians to protest in front of Dominican consulate in NY Print Email Bookmark Save to my profile 146 Comments - last on Jul 2 at 8:21 PM Close Gallery A protest by Haitians in front of Presidential Palace, Port au Prince. Zoom Picture NEW YORK. - Dozens of Haitians are being organized to mobilize in front of the building housing Dominican Republic's general consulate to protest against the alleged discrimination and mistreatment of immigrants from that country on July 3, one day before the United States celebrates its Independence, newspaper Diario Libre says. The Haitian Roots Solidarity Committee and the Dominican-Haitian Solidarity Network, both based in New York, are organizing the gathering with the support of some Haitian and Dominican organizations in the city, community organizations, clubs, Christian and Episcopal churches, and recognized activists among them. Diario Libre said the protest is to take place form 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., hour in which the Dominican consular offices in New York are closed. "We are calling to all the progressive and fair people to join the protest in front of the building of the Dominican general consulate on July 3. The United States celebrates the 232nd anniversary of July 4 their Independence and we're going to denounce the Dominican authorities' anti-immigrants policies," says a note sent by the Network. Similar protests have been orgazined in previous years in New York, Miami and even in Paris, during the showing of the documentary 'The price of sugar'. http://www.worthynews.com/news/jpost-com-servlet-Satellite-cid-1214132688698-pagename-JPost-JPArticle-Printer/ Messianic Jews to protest 'discrimination' Jun. 26, 2008 Matthew Wagner , THE JERUSALEM POST A contingent of about 300 Messianic Jews from the US will protest this weekend against what they call Israel's discriminatory immigration policy against Jews who believe that Jesus is the messiah. The Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations, an umbrella body for about 80 US congregations, is holding a three-day conference in Jerusalem that starts Thursday. During the conference a number of issues will be discussed - including the recent public burning by haredim of New Testaments distributed by missionaries in Or Akiva, a bomb attack that seriously wounded the son of well-known Messianic Jew in Ariel and the attempt to disqualify a Messianic Jewish high school girl from this year's International Bible Quiz for Jewish youth. "We are planning to call on the Israeli government to address the problem of discrimination against Messianic Jews who wish to make aliya," said Rabbi Russ Resnik, executive director of the US-based Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations. "Messianic Jews see Israel as the place of our past, from the earliest visit by Abraham to the modern rebirth of the Jewish state. And it is the place of our future, which will culminate in the messiah's return," Resnik said. "We are avid supporters of Israel in the present, and that's why we brought our conference here. But we are also concerned about recent expressions of violence against Messianic Jews." Messianic Jews include all people with Jewish ancestry who identify as Jewish but who believe that Jesus is the messiah, Resnik said. Like Reform Judaism, Messianic Jews recognize both matrilineal and patrilineal descent. Orthodox Judaism recognizes only matrilineal descent. There are an estimated 12,000 Messianic Jews living in Israel, most of whom made aliya under the Law of Return. There are about a quarter of a million Messianic Jews living in the US. According to the Law of Return, anyone with a Jewish parent or grandparent is eligible for automatic Israeli citizenship. The law was designed to turn Israel into a safe haven for any Jew in the world who would have suffered persecution under the Nazi regime's Nuremberg racial laws. In principle, the Law of Return grants automatic citizenship to all descendants of Jews, regardless of religion. Nevertheless, in 1962 the Supreme Court ruled that Daniel Rufeisen, a Polish Jew who converted to Catholicism and became a Carmelite monk, could not be granted citizenship under the Law of Return. The court based itself on "common sense" criteria, assuming that the average person would agree that Rufeisen was not Jewish. The Chief Rabbinate argued at the time that Rufeisen should be considered a Jew since according to Halacha a Jew can never repudiate his or her Jewishness. Since then the Supreme Court has ruled that Messianic Jews whose mothers are Jewish can be denied Israeli citizenship. In contrast, those who are Jewish solely through their fathers cannot be denied citizenship. This is based on an interpretation of a 1970 amendment to the Law of Return. "An absurd situation is created in which Messianic Jews have to prove they are not Jewish in order to make aliya," said Calev Myers, a Messianic Jewish attorney who specializes in immigration cases. "The Law of Return as envisioned by David Ben-Gurion was originally created to ensure that if you are Jewish enough to die in Auschwitz you are Jewish enough to be granted automatic Israeli citizenship. But that is no longer true." Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, head of the Ataret Yerushalayim Yeshiva and a leading religious Zionist leader, said Messianic Jews should not be considered Jews. "It is true that a lot of righteous people were persecuted and murdered by the Nazis," Aviner said. "But that does not make them Jewish." He said that Messianic Jews living in Israel should be marginalized and distanced from Jewish communities. "Those people are proselytizers. They should not be allowed to have an influence on Jews who might be too weak to resist," Aviner said. Resnik admitted that he wanted to spread the word about the "good news of the messiah" among the Jews. "People need to hear that message. But just because it is such a vital message does not mean that everything goes. Our way is by showing solidarity with the Jewish people, by being part of the people," he said. http://www.chinapost.com.tw/asia/other/2008/07/19/166189/Vietnam%2Drefugees.htm Vietnam refugees protest in Cambodian capital Reuters Saturday, July 19, 2008 PHNOM PENH -- Ethnic minority asylum seekers protested in the Cambodian capital on Friday against the forced return of their friends and relatives to neighboring Vietnam. Around 60 Montagnards, the mainly Christian tribespeople from Vietnam's Central Highlands, stormed out of their refugee camp in Phnom Penh to stage the demonstration triggered by the repatriation of 28 refugees. The four-hour protest ended when 40 riot police armed with automatic rifles, batons and shields arrived on the scene and threatened to break up the rally. "We do not want to go back to Vietnam because they will imprison us. Some of our friends are dying in Vietnam's jails," Kosal Xuan, 21, told Reuters. The group, including children and woman carrying babies, shouted, "Freedom, freedom!" One of their banners said: "Demonstration! We have the right to ask for freedom and justice." Vietnam's government, accused of rights abuses against the Montagnards who sided with the Americans during the Vietnam War, has given assurances that returnees will not face discrimination. Some 450 Montagnards are in United Nations holding centers in Phnom Penh while their refugee claims are being processed. A spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said 28 had been repatriated to Vietnam early on Friday. "They are upset that their friends have to go back to Vietnam," UNHCR spokesman Toshi Kawauchi said at the scene of the protest. The Montagnards fled to Cambodia in 2001 following anti-Vietnamese government demonstrations in the Central Highlands over their ancestral lands and religious freedoms. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/07/404297.html Protest against the abuse of asylum seekers in Leeds. Leeds No Borders | 21.07.2008 13:18 | Migration | Leeds Bradford A demonstration was held outside Waterside Court Home Office Reporting Centre in Leeds on Friday in response to a report published on Monday 14th July outlining 300 cases of abuse by immigration staff. The report 'Outsourcing Abuse' provides vast amounts of evidence highlighting the violence used against asylum seekers by UK immigration staff. The medical Justice website states that the report 'describes an alarming number of injuries sustained by asylum deportees at the hand of private "escorts" contracted by the Home Office. It reveals evidence of widespread and seemingly systemic abuse of vulnerable people who have fled their own countries seeking safety and refuge, and that assault claims have largely been brushed off by the Home Office'. Dianne Abbot MP has described it as "one of the most shocking reports about our immigration system that I have seen in 20 years as a Member of Parliament. The report "Outsourcing Abuse" catalogues the frightening state-sponsored violence that happens to asylum-seekers when they are being deported" The protest coincided with a PCS Union strike among Immigration Staff calling for more pay (to facilitate dawn raids, detention and forced deportations?). No members of the Union however picketed their work place so it was left to our demonstration to highlight the abuses that take place on a daily basis at Waterside Court. Asylum seekers coming to Waterside face the prospect of being torn from their families, friends, partners, schools and colleges. They face being held indefinitely in 'Removal Centres that are becoming synonymous with inhumane treatment and high levels of self harm. The majority of asylum seekers have no access to adequate legal support. They are denied the right to work, are forced to live in inadequate housing and face the prospect of dawn raids, detention, deportation and destitution. All are welcome to join our regular protests outside the Home Office on Kirkstall Road. Leeds No Borders e-mail: leedsnoborders at riseup.net http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view/20080612-142334/One-dead-in-migrant-centre-riot-in-Turkey----report One dead in migrant centre riot in Turkey -- report Agence France-Presse First Posted 21:28:00 06/12/2008 ANKARA -- A Somali man died of a gunshot wound and four people, among them two police officers, were injured during a riot at a Turkish center for illegal immigrants, Anatolia news agency reported Thursday. The migrants at the center in Kirklareli, in northwestern Turkey, began rioting overnight, attacking and stealing the guns of two police officers trying to quell the unrest, the province's deputy governor Zeki Kocberber was quoted by the agency as saying. The officers locked the rioters in their ward and called in police and paramilitary troop reinforcements, he added. The victim broke down the door and rushed out firing his gun, Kocberber said, adding that security forces fired a warning shot when he refused orders to stop and tried to escape. "Despite this, (the man) began climbing to the top of a phone booth and fell to the ground. An examination at the local hospital revealed that he died of a gunshot wound," the deputy governor said, without elaborating. The local prosecutor has launched an investigation. Turkey lies on a major people-smuggling route from Asia to western Europe and illegal migrants are detained on an almost daily basis. Turkish security forces have come under fire from rights activists over allegations of mistreatment and failing to provide proper accommodation as migrants await deportation in state-run centers. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1026508/Robocop-prison-squad-called-riots-flare-immigrant-centre.html 'Robocop' prison squad called in as riots flare at immigrant centre By Jason Lewis and Barry Wigmore Last updated at 9:01 AM on 15th June 2008 Comments (4) Add to My Stories A special prison service riot unit known as the Tornado Team was sent into a controversial detention centre yesterday to quell a violent stand-off between staff and illegal immigrants awaiting deportation. The 50 elite officers - dressed in Robocop-style black boiler suits and helmets and carrying batons and shields - marched into the Campsfield centre near Kidlington, Oxfordshire, after an initial disturbance when several fires were started. Crews from 15 fire engines tackled the blazes which caused thick black smoke to billow from one of the detention buildings. The Tornado Team was supported by about 50 police officers - some, equipped with riot gear and dogs, entered the camp while others secured the perimeter as a police helicopter hovered overhead. All the 200 inmates were herded into the camp's exercise yard while fire crews took two hours to put out the blazes and make the area safe. But the detainees, all men, then refused to return to their buildings - creating another stand-off. At one point the illegal immigrants could be heard violently hammering on the 25ft high steel fence that surrounds the yard. A senior prison officer said outside: 'No one in there is going anywhere.' The Home Office said last night: 'The UK Border Agency asked police for assistance and officers have secured the perimeter, which has not been breached. 'Specially trained prison officers known as a Tornado Team have been sent to the site in riot gear.' Last August, 26 detainees escaped from Campsfield after a fire was started. But last night all the men were believed to have been accounted for. Tornado Team members are picked from serving prison officers and undergo four months of specialist training. Their boiler suits are fire-resistant, as are their padded gloves and steel-capped Army-style boots. Extra protection comes from plastic protectors on their forearms and shins. Every officer carries an American-style PR-24 sidearms baton. It can be used for defence, held along the forearm, or to attack by using a protruding metal attachment which can be spun round in confined spaces such as cells or corridors to keep assailants at bay. As an additional precaution, squad members wear face protectors to stop flames spreading under their protective suit. They use personal radios to contact their head at the scene, who is known as Silver Commander. He in turn takes orders from a Gold Commander, in charge of the overall operation and based at the Prison Service headquarters in London. Campsfield has been dogged with controversy since it was converted from a youth detention centre to handle illegal immigrants in 1993. Last year alone, there were two other disturbances not including the breakout. It is run by the UK subsidiary of American company the GEO Group, which signed a five-year contract in March, 2006. The Home Office said all the detainees were being escorted back to their accommodation blocks by 7.30pm. A spokesman added: 'The situation has calmed down. There has been no resistance from the detainees to going back to their rooms. The operation is being wound down at the site.' A GEO spokesman was unavailable for comment last night. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/jun/15/immigration?gusrc=rss&feed=uknews Police use dogs and helicopters to control rioters at detention centre Mark Townsend The Observer, Sunday June 15 2008 Riot police were called to one of Britain's most controversial immigration detention centres yesterday after detainees set fire to the complex in a fresh protest over conditions. Smoke was seen billowing from Campsfield House, near Oxford, following another disturbance among the 200 asylum seekers there. The riot is understood to have been started in protest over allegations from detainees that they were being treated like 'criminals'. More than 10 fire engines, 12 police vehicles and a police helicopter were at the scene last night. Baykal Suruk, a solicitor representing six asylum seekers inside the centre, said: 'I have spoken to a couple. The detainees didn't think the conditions were good and they think that they were being treated like criminals which they are not..' In March last year, nine people were hurt in rioting and five months later 26 asylum seekers escaped from the detention centre after a fire was started at the site. Eight are believed to be still on the run. Another 120 detainees rioted in December. Last night a police cordon had been set up and dog handlers were patrolling the perimeters. http://networks.org/?src=stuff:4490963a12 Myanmar detainees riot at holding camp Reuters | Tuesday, 22 April 2008 Email a Friend | Printable View | Have Your Say Related Links Subscribe to Archivestuff Have your say Detainees from Myanmar rioted at a Malaysian holding camp yesterday, torching a building, after hearing they had been denied asylum in a third country, authorities said. Some 72 Myanmarese, who were being held at a camp just outside the capital Kuala Lumpur, forced their way into an administrative block and set it ablaze, the Immigration Department's head of enforcement, Ishak Mohammad, said. "They were disappointed on hearing the UNHCR (the UN Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) couldn't get a placement for them in a third country," he said. Malaysia considers them to be illegal immigrants. Police said the rioters, who were unarmed, would be charged with arson. No one was injured. "They set fire at the ground floor causing damage to office furniture and computers," the local Star newspaper quoted Osman Abdullah, the police chief in the southwestern Negeri Sembilan state, as saying in its online edition. The camp is located at Lenggeng in the state. The camp, housing some 800 illegal immigrants including Bangladeshis and Indonesians, would be closed temporarily, the immigration department said. Malaysia is home to around 3 million foreign workers, 1 million of whom are working illegally, Home Minister Syed Albar said at the weekend. The country currently has about 39,000 refugees registered with the UNHCR, the body said. Of the total, about 13,000 are members of Myanmar's Rohingya Muslim minority and another 12,000 are members of other Myanmar minority ethnic groups. The Rohingyas came in the 1990s from Myanmar, but the government there disputes their origin and refuses to let them return. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/4/21/nation/20080421154128&sec=nation Monday April 21, 2008 Myanmar riot at detention camp, building torched By SARBAN SINGH SEREMBAN: Sixty Myanmar nationals were involved in a riot at the Lenggeng detention camp for illegals near here, apparently after they were told that their application to move to a third country was unsuccessful. The rioters, believed to be political refugees, also torched an administrative building and threatened Immigration and Rela personnel with injury in the 10am incident on Monday. State police chief Datuk Osman Abdullah said the rioters gained entry into the two-storey administrative building which was located in the middle of four blocks housing some 820 male illegals. "They set fire at the ground floor causing damage to office furniture and computers. We were fortunate that the Fire and Rescue team arrived quickly to put out the flames," he said when met at the centre. Osman, who said losses had yet to be estimated, said the authorities were not able to determine who told the rioters that their applications had been rejected. "The group had gathered outside their block first and tried to bring down a parameter fencing about 8am. The authorities tried talking to them but a short while later, they turned violent and then gained entry into the office and set it ablaze," he said. Osman said although there were 218 male Myanmar nationals at the centre, only 60 were involved in the rioting. He said illegals from several other countries living at the camp were not involved. About 100 police and Federal Reserve Unit personnel and another 100 Rela members were called in to bring the situation under control. Also on duty were some 40 Immigration officers. Personnel from the Civil Defence department and the health services were also on standby. However, Osman said there were no reports of injuries. Asked if the rioters were unhappy with the treatement at the centre, Osman said preliminary investigations did not point to this. "We are still investigating the cause, but at this point in time, all I can say is that they were unhappy because they heard that their application to a third country had been rejected," he said. The camp, which also housed 280 female illegals, was handed over by the Prisons Department to the Immigration Dept in January. Osman said the Immigration and police personnel had begun investigations to establish the leaders involved in the melee. "We will conduct a thorough probe and act against those involved in the arson as well. They will be charged under the relevant laws," he said, adding that the rioters were not armed. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/4/22/nation/21019585&sec=nation Tuesday April 22, 2008 Illegals riot at Lenggeng detention facility By SARBAN SINGH SEREMBAN: Sixty foreigners, mostly Myanmar nationals, rioted at the Lenggeng detention camp for illegals apparently after they were told that their application to move to a third country was unsuccessful. The rioters torched an administrative building and threatened the Immigration and Rela personnel with injury in the 10am incident on Monday. Alert status: Security personnel keeping an eye on some of the detainees at the Immigration facility yesterday. - Bernama State police chief Datuk Osman Salleh said six Myanmars, six Indonesians, a Vietnamese and a Cambodian have been arrested. He said the rioters gained entry into the two-storey administrative building located in the middle of four blocks housing some 820 male illegals. "They set fire at the ground floor causing damage to the furniture and computers. We were fortunate that the Fire and Rescue team arrived quickly to put out the flames," he said when met at the centre. Osman said the authorities were not able to determine who told the rioters that their applications had been rejected. "The group first gathered outside their block and tried to bring down a perimeter fencing at about 8am. The authorities tried talking to them but a short while later, they turned violent and gained entry into the office and set it ablaze," he said, adding that the rioters were not armed. About 100 police and Federal Reserve Unit personnel and another 100 Rela members were called in to bring the situation under control. Also on duty were some 40 Immigration officers. Personnel from the Civil Defence Department and health services were also on standby. However, Osman said there were no reports of injuries. Asked if the rioters were unhappy with the treatment at the centre, Osman said preliminary investigations did not point to this. "At this point in time, all I can say is that they were unhappy because they heard that their application to go to a third country had been rejected," he said. Osman could not confirm if the rioters had started a hunger strike on Sunday for alleged poor treatment by camp authorities. The camp, which also houses 280 female illegals, was handed over by the Prisons Department to the Immigration in January. When contacted, a Myanmar Embassy official said they had no knowledge of the incident. "We can't say anything because the police have not sought our assistance and we are not aware of what happened," she said. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7380656.stm Friday, 2 May 2008 16:30 UK E-mail this to a friend Printable version Detained migrants riot in Belgium By Oana Lungescu BBC News, Brussels Migrants at a detention centre in Belgium have rioted after an illegal immigrant from Cameroon was found hanged there on Thursday. Detainees at the centre broke down doors and set fire to TV sets, the director of the centre told the BBC. The migrant's lawyer said the man had been mistreated by the police during a failed repatriation attempt last week. It is the latest case raising concerns about the treatment of illegal immigrants in Belgium. EU rights ruling The 29-year-old man from Cameroon was discovered in a toilet hanged with his bed sheets. Police failed in their attempt to put him on a Brussels Airlines flight last Saturday. A passenger who protested against the repatriation was temporarily arrested and banned from flying with the airline for six months. The director of the detention centre, in the northern town of Merksplas, would not confirm the Cameroon man's identity but said he had been seen by a doctor after the failed repatriation attempt. An inquiry is under way to determine if the police used violent means to restrain the man onboard the flight. A spokesman for the airline told the BBC that involuntary repatriations were a regular occurrence on flights to Africa and illegal immigrants often screamed to attract the attention of other passengers. Belgium is very sensitive to accusations involving deportations after a young Nigerian woman, Semira Adamu, was suffocated by the police with a pillow 10 years ago to stifle her cries. Earlier this year, the European Court of Human Rights ordered Belgium to pay more than $20,000 (?10,000; 13,000 euros) to two Palestinian asylum-seekers for what it called inhuman and degrading treatment while they were waiting to be deported at detention centres. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/406701.html ISS hits migrant tube strikers; protestors hit ISS presente | 14.08.2008 11:10 | Migration | Workers' Movements Yesterday lunchtime around 30 protestors turned up at the Greenwich offices of multinational cleaning company ISS to protest against the letter sent out by the company to dozens of tube cleaners requesting they come in for a 'document check' that day. It is clear to the cleaners' union RMT that this is part of the reprisals against the tube cleaners for the 3-day strike in support of a Living Wage which they held in late July. Activists and reps among the cleaners have been targetted, with a view to break union organization. A lively picket of the 15 Park Vista office was held with people from a variety of groups and unions brought together under the the banner of the Campaign against Immigration Controls. At the same time a number of concerned citizens entered the foyer of the premises in case the ISS managers were unable to hear the message properly. However the managers lost their cool and called the police, while refusing to allow in union reps, who had arrived separately. They argued that the picket was upsetting the neighbourghood peace and quiet, while demonstrators argued back that the detentions and deportations and union busting their paper checks cause is a bit more upsetting. One protestor was arrested and is currently out on bail. Undeterred the cleaners will be on strike again from 21 August at 5.30 am till 23 August. This time support is expected from cleaners in Unite-T&G and coincidentally engineers on Tubelines will be on strike at the same time. A public meeting on these and all current tube disputes is to be held by the RMT union at Friends House Euston Road on Tuesday 19 August at 6pm. http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/newsbriefs/setimes/newsbriefs/2008/05/12/nb-09 Seasonal workers stage new protests in Greece 12/05/2008 ATHENS, Greece -- Hundreds of seasonal farm workers, mostly immigrants, demonstrated on Sunday (May 11th) in Nea Manolada and Vardas, in the southern part of the island of Peloponnese, demanding "humane working conditions". There were similar rallies in early April, when workers in the region staged an unprecedented three-day strike. The immigrants, supported by the Greek Communist Party, protested miserable and unsafe working conditions. Clashes that erupted between the immigrants and farm owners injured three. The workers, most of whom are illegal immigrants from Albania, Bangladesh, Bulgaria and Romania, also demanded an increase of daily wages from 23 euros to 30 euros. (AFP, Focus, Makfax, DPA - 11/05/08) From ldxar1 at tesco.net Thu Aug 28 17:44:35 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2008 01:44:35 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Anti-fascist protests and unrest, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <007e01c90970$6c723160$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * GERMANY: Mass protest at Nazi NPD conference * GERMANY: Jews protest award to former Nazi doctor * US: Holocaust denier Irving protested at Oregon university * GERMANY: Hitler waxwork beheaded * US: New Hampshire neo-Nazi rally outnumbered by counter-protesters * UK: Protest and direct action target BNP event in Derbyshire; roads blocked * UK: Sheffield protesters force cancellation of BNP meeting http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,3357529,00.html?maca=en-rss-en-top-1022-rdf 24.05.2008 Far-Right Conference Prompts Anti Neo-Nazi Protests Gro?ansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Demonstrators gathered in Bamburg and in other German cities to protets against the NPD Germany's main far-right group, the National Democratic Party (NPD), began a two-day annual conference in the city of Bamberg Saturday, May 24, with thousands of demonstrators outside demanding that the NPD be banned. The anti-foreigner party was expected to re-elect its leader Udo Voigt and affirm its extreme nationalist policies. Voigt told supporters the government had failed in 2003 in a law case to ban the NPD and was now trying to undermine the group by "drying up" its income. He said a fine for filing fraudulent accounts had dealt a "serious blow" to the party. The NPD has seats in two of Germany's 16 state assemblies, but has never won seats at federal level because of a rule blocking representation to groups with less than 5 per cent of the national vote. About 2,000 people attended two anti-NPD rallies in Bamberg. After lethal clashes between the opponents on May 1 in Hamburg, riot police kept a close eye on about 450 militant leftists who marched into Bamberg from its railway station to confront the NPD. Police detained 19, but there was no major trouble. Bamberg mayor calls for peaceful protests Bildunterschrift: Gro?ansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Hundreds of protestors gather in Bamburg Mainstream groups attended a "festival for democracy" on Bamberg's main square, where Mayor Andreas Starke said his city had vainly sought by legal means to prevent the NPD conference taking place there. He called for anti-NPD protests to be peaceful. "This party stokes hate and prejudices, it's racist and anti-Semitic. We, on the other hand, avow ourselves to the values of the Constitution, to freedom, tolerance and human rights," he said. Anti-subversion agencies who monitor the NPD estimate its card-carrying membership has grown recently by 1,000 to 7,000 as Germany neo-Nazis rally to it. The NPD denies that it is neo-Nazi. German law outlaws neo-Nazi organizations. In the northern German port city of Kiel, police counted 1,200 demonstrators Saturday at an anti-NPD rally. The protesters were alarmed by poll data suggesting the NPD would win some seats in the Kiel city council in an election on Sunday. http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3357171,00.html 24.05.2008 Thousands Protest German Far-Right NPD's Party Convention Gro?ansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Masses turned out to express their opinions Thousands of people took to the streets in Bamberg on Saturday, May 24, in peaceful protests against the extreme-right wing NPD party convention in the southern German city. Police said 3,000 to 4,000 people took part in the demonstrations, including a bloc of around 300 protesters they classified as being prone to violence. Around 600 NPD delegates came to Bamberg for the conference. Bamberg Mayor Andreas Stark, a Social Democrat, kicked off the "Festival of Democracy" with a call for a federal ban on the NPD. "This party stokes hate and prejudices, it's racist and anti-Semitic. We, on the other hand, avow ourselves to the values of the Constitution, to freedom, tolerance and human rights," he said. Lost in court Around 6,000 people are expected to show up in Bamberg to demonstrate against the NPD over the weekend. The local council had appealed unsuccessfully to the courts to prevent the party convention from taking place in Bamberg, and was forced to rent the city's convention center to the extremists for the two-day function. The focus of the convention is the election a new party chairman. It was unclear whether incumbent chair Udo Voigt would run unopposed or not. http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_2328682,00.html 1000s protest against neo-Nazis 24/05/2008 22:05 - (SA) Bamberg - Up to 4 000 demonstrators on Saturday protested against a congress of the minority neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD), saying there was no place in this Bavarian town for Nazis. A large police turnout prevented incidents after it was feared there could be clashes with left-wing extremists. A police spokesperson said only 10 people were briefly detained on Saturday. Various local associations and several mainstream political parties had called for a major demonstration against the NPD congress with the slogan: "Bamberg is multi-coloured, not brown." Under Nazism in Germany, brown was the colour of Nazi stormtroopers' uniforms, and the colour is still associated in German minds with the Nazis. Shops in the historic centre of this ancient town carried placards in their windows with slogans such as: "Defend democracy, there is no place here for Nazis." Meanwhile some 300 NPD delegates assembled in a concert hall for their two-day meeting. After the failure of attempts to get the courts to ban the congress, the civic authorities were obliged to permit the rental of the hall by the NPD. A fringe group with only 7 300 members, the NPD is the most radical of the extreme right-wing parties in Germany with a policy which is openly anti-foreigner, racist and anti-Semitic. It has no deputies in the Bundestag, Germany's federal lower house in Berlin. But it does have deputies in two regional parliaments, in Saxony and Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, both in former East Germany, where there is a high unemployment rate. Although the media were officially allowed for the first time to attend all debates at an NPD congress, several German journalists were refused any access at all to the hall on Saturday. They included a team from the main television channel ARD. http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=4939921 Jewish Group Condemns Award to Former Nazi Doctor Dr. Hans-Joachim Sewering Has Been a Subject of Controversy for His Association With the Nazi Party By DAVID RISING Associated Press Writer BERLIN May 27, 2008 (AP) An undated file photo shows Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Sewering, chairman of the Professional Association of German Internists. Germany's top Jewish organization on Tuesday, May 27, 2008 condemned a medical organization's decision to bestow its top honor on Sewering, a prominent physician who was once a member of the SS and the Nazi party, saying it was "a scandal." Dr. Hans-Joachim Sewering, 92, was one of four physicians honored with the top award of the Professional Association of German Internists, known as the BDI, on March 30. Der Spiegel magazine then publicized the tribute in this week's edition, noting that Sewering in 1933 _ the year Hitler came to power _ joined the SS, a paramilitary organization loyal to Nazi ideology. He joined the Nazi party a year later. (AP Photo/Bohnert/Neusch, File) Germany's top Jewish organization on Tuesday condemned a medical organization's decision to bestow its top honor on a prominent physician who was once a member of the SS and the Nazi party. Dr. Hans-Joachim Sewering, 92, was one of four physicians honored with the top award of the Professional Association of German Internists, known as the BDI, on March 30. Der Spiegel magazine publicized the tribute in this week's edition, noting that in 1933 Sewering joined the SS, a paramilitary organization loyal to Nazi ideology. He joined the Nazi party a year later. "This is absolutely the wrong signal and it's a scandal," said Stephan Kramer, general secretary of Germany's Central Council of Jews. He said Sewering's Nazi past was well known ? having led him in 1993 to publicly decline the presidency of the World Medical Association. The World Jewish Congress had threatened to lead a boycott of the international association. http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,3366676,00.html?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf 28.05.2008 Protests Erupt Over German Medical Group's Award to Ex-Nazi Gro?ansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Sewering, photographed here in 1977, denies knowledge of the Nazi's euthanasia program Jewish Groups and Nazi hunters have slammed a German medical association?s decision to honor a 92-year-old doctor suspected of participating in Hitler?s euthanasia program. A spokesman for Germany's Central Council of Jews called the decision by the Professional Association of German Internists to honor Nazi doctor Hans-Joachim Sewering ?a scandal.? The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem has also protested the move. On Saturday, May 24, Sewering was honored with the top award of the German internists group, known as the BDI. The award was presented for having ?perfomed unequalled services in the cause of freedom of the practice and the independence of the medical profession, and to the nation's health system," according to a BDI press statement. But Stephen Kramer from the Central Council of Jews said Sewering's Nazi past was well known. In 1993 he was publicly pressured to decline the presidency of the World Medical Association because of his alleged Nazi activities. The BDI, which has some 25,000 members, defended its decision, saying Sewering had been investigated by German prosecutors and was never charged. Magazine: evidence of euthanasia experiments On Wednesday, May 28, the head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, Efraim Zuroff, asked the group to retract the honor, and to take back the Guenther Budelmann medal Sewering was awarded. Bildunterschrift: Gro?ansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Wiesenthal Center's Zuroff is a top Nazi hunter ?It is bad enough that Sewering did not have to stand trial for his involvement in the National Socialist mass murders,? Zuroff told DPA news service. ?It is even worse to honor an SS-man and a liar who has so far avoided justice, despite having taken part in euthanasia experiments.? Since 1978, German news magazine Der Spiegel has published documents testifying that Sewering, while a doctor at tuberculosis clinic at Schoebrunn near Munich, sent a 14-year-old girl to die at a euthanasia center. Sewering denies knowledge of euthanasia Sewering has admitted to being a member of the SS, an elite Nazi formation, but has always denied being responsible for euthanasia. For years, the Wiesenthal Center has been trying to get the Bavarian justice system to pay attention to what it says is proof of Sewering's euthanasia activities. Sewering is now 92 years old. In 1933 he was a member of the SS, and in 1934 he joined the Nazi party. As a doctor in the tuberculosis clinic in Schoenbrunn, near Dachau, in 1942 he is said to have been involved in the euthanasia program, which targeted handicapped children. According to the Wiesenthal center, Sewering directly signed over six to eight patients to the death camp at Eglfing-Haar. Three of them were killed there. Earlier investigations ended The investigations into Sewering's activities stopped because he claimed ignorance about the killings. ?This claim is false,? Wiesenthal Center's Zuroff told dpa. ?The nurses knew they were killing sick people, and the SS doctor didn't? What a joke.? http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,364764,00.html Oregon University Hosts Talk by Notorious Holocaust Denier, Amid Protest Monday, June 09, 2008 By Joseph Abrams AP David Irving, a British historian accused of Holocaust denial, is set to speak at the University of Oregon, prompting protest from a local rights group. The University of Oregon will play host Monday night to Holocaust denier David Irving, prompting protests from a local rights group. The Pacifica Forum, a group that holds weekly meetings on the university?s campus in Euguene, Ore., has invited Irving to make an address about free speech. Irving's presentation is part of a nationwide tour which includes what he calls the "real history" of Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler. Irving is the third accused Holocaust denier who will have spoken to the group on campus. ?They cross the line into being anti-Semitic ? they create such a comfortable environment for bigotry,? said Michael Williams, a board member of the Community Alliance of Lane County, a local social-justice group. Williams is helping organize a Monday-night protest vigil against Irving, a prolific historian who has stated that there were no gas chambers in Auschwitz and routinely downplays the number of Jews killed during the Holocaust. Irving has been barred entry to Austria, Germany, Australia and Canada, and spent 10 months in an Austrian prison for denying the Holocaust. The Anti-Defamation League has called Irving ?one of the world?s most effective purveyors of Holocaust denial.? The university washed its hands of responsibility for the event, saying that it wasn?t sponsoring Irving?s speech and was only serving as a venue. Orval Etter, one of the event's organizers and a former professor at the university, has the authority to reserve a room free of charge. ?The Pacifica Forum is not affiliated with the university ? the space is being used under a campus policy that allows retired professors to rent rooms on campus,? said Julie Brown, director of media relations at the University. Brown said the school would not seek to block Irving?s presence because it has a policy of respecting freedom of speech for all groups. ?The university is really committed to freedom of speech and wanting to make sure that there is a place for groups to be able to express their viewpoints,? she said. Williams told FOXNews.com he respected the school's obligation to protect free speech, but said the university?s campus was not the right place to air the Pacifica Forum?s bigoted views. ?Their [Pacifica Forum] freedom of speech is adequately exercised on a street corner in the rain,? he said. Though he said the vigil was not aimed at ?shutting down? the forum, Williams hoped to ?make it clear that we don?t support the kind of ideology that David Irving represents.? The president of the university, Dave Frohnmayer, agreed. After a different Holocaust denier and self-described white supremacist visited the campus in 2007, Frohnmayer wrote a letter condemning the ?gutter bigotry? of the Pacifica Forum, but defended its right to speak out. ?My own feeling is that these subjects are better expressed . . . than left to fester silently,? he wrote, but stressed that the forum ?[did] not speak for the University of Oregon.? Despite his objection to the content of the presentation Monday, Williams said he wasn?t concerned that students would attend the meeting or be swayed by the forum and David Irving?s anti-Semitic sentiments. ?Students stay away in droves,? he said. http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/hitler-beheaded-in-berlin-as-antiwar-protester-waxes-hysterical/2008/07/06/1215282653596.html Hitler beheaded in Berlin as anti-war protester waxes hysterical Visitor pulls Hitler head off Advertisement David Wroe in Berlin July 7, 2008 SCREAMING "no more war", a 41-year-old German man ripped the head off a controversial wax sculpture of Adolf Hitler at the new Madame Tussauds gallery in Berlin just minutes after the museum had opened to the public. Amid chaotic scenes on Saturday, two guards posted to stop visitors taking pictures of the waxwork wrestled with the man, with one suffering scratches to his legs, a police spokesman said. Bystanders helped subdue and restrain the man until police arrived. The ?200,000 ($326,000) sculpture's head was ruined, staff at the museum told the Herald. The museum said it would examine the remains of the sculpture before deciding on its future. The uninjured guard, who returned to duty watching the now empty desk at which the model of Hitler had been seated, told patrons later in the day that the man had pushed through and leapt over the desk to attack the waxwork. "It was frightening," the young man said. "He just kept saying, 'No more war, no more war."' The Hitler waxwork is part of a large new collection that includes the US President, George Bush, Pope Benedict XVI, the Dalai Lama and the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel. Before the opening, the wax likeness of one of modern history's most notorious figures had attracted heated debate because of sensitivity about Germany's Nazi past. The 25 artists and sculptors who worked on the piece over four months, using more than 2000 pictures and archival documents, had portrayed Hitler as an ageing, broken man, staring into space in his bunker as he contemplated the fall of the Third Reich, while Russian troops entered the ruins of Berlin. The attacker, from the nearby Kreuzberg district, a heartland for radical political activists, was the second visitor to reach the sculpture after the museum opened, said. Police said the man had said he was protesting against the "possibility that Adolf Hitler was once again in Berlin". They said the man was known to police for public transport infringements and stealing electricity by cutting cables and routing power into his flat. The man would be charged with criminal damage and assault, they said. It is illegal in Germany to display Nazi symbols or art glorifying Hitler, which is why the museum took special precautions to stop visitors having their photographs taken in front of the Hitler waxwork. http://www.wcax.com/global/story.asp?s=8624586 'White Pride' protesters outnumbered in N.H. Associated Press - July 6, 2008 10:15 AM ET HUDSON, N.H. (AP) - About 10 people participated in a "White Pride" rally in Hudson, New Hampshire, this weekend, but they were joined by four times as many counter-protesters. A group called North East White Pride held a rally Saturday to protest illegal immigration, holding signs that read "Bring the troops home! Put them on our border!" and "Deport Illegals Now!" On the other side of the street, about 40 people gathered with signs that said "One World." The rally, which lasted more than two hours, was peaceful, with both sides quietly holding signs and waving at passing cars. Information from: The Telegraph, http://www.nashuatelegraph.com http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/nottinghamshire/2008/08/406887.html Six people arrested at BNP rally Six anti-fascist protesters have been arrested at a British National Party festival being held in Derbyshire. About 40 demonstrators clashed with riot police outside the BNP's annual Red, White and Blue event taking place in the village of Denby. The arrests happened during clashes in which police were pelted with stones. Police armed with batons were able to quell the disturbance. A helicopter and dogs were also brought in to deal with the situation. Barricade thwarted About 250 officers were involved in the operation. Earlier some 700 demonstrators from Unite Against Fascism, the TUC and Unison took part in a march from the nearby village of Codnor. Extra officers were drafted in to control the march as a group of protesters tried to break a police cordon which had been put in place. They waved placards as they walked down the village high street to the field where the festival is being held. Assistant Chief Constable Peter Goodman said: "We did have an incident which took place with a small number of people, but the majority of people who have come here today behaved impeccably. "A small group attempted to barricade the road. "We responded quickly and efficiently and they were not successful in creating the barricade." Earlier in the week police in Derbyshire invoked special public order laws to restrict the number of protesters who planned to attend the rally. http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/news/BNP-protestors-descend-Derbyshire-village/article-272444-detail/article.html Anti-BNP activists attack police 09:30 - 16-August-2008 About 40 anti-fascist activists have scuffled with police near to the entrance to this weekend's controversial BNP festival in Denby. The activists, believed to be from Antifa, started the trouble at 11am in Breach Road, at the junction with Denby Common. But police managed to get the situation under control by 11.30am and six arrests were made for public order offences. The activists tried to pile up a barrier of gates, tyres and drums from nearby fields while throwing missles at the police. Officers managed to stop them from creating the barrier, which it is believed was being built to stop BNP members from coming to the festival. Assistant Chief Constable Peter Goodman said: "There were 250 officers involved in the policing operation today. It is unclear how many of these were involved in the scuffle but one officer is believed to have received minor injuries." The activists are separate to the 500 protestors who marched down the A6007 Heanor Road against the BNP Red, White and Blue festival. Demonstrators from Unite Against Fascism, the TUC and Unison were flanked by 150 police officers as they marched through the village of Codnor, Derbyshire, to rally against the BNP. Waving placards bearing slogans such as "Jobs And Homes Not Racism", the protesters walked down the village?s main high street to a farmer?s field where the BNP was holding its festival. The protesters will later be addressed by Bob Crow, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union and Amber Valley MP Judy Mallabar. But there were a number of hold-ups as demonstrators from the various groups argued among themselves about who should be at the front of the march. Ass Ch Con Goodman said: "Only a small number of people were involved in violent protest. The vast majority of protestors behaved impeccably." A police helicopter is being used for the event and is currently hovering over the BNP festival site, while police with sniffer dogs searched nearby fields for activists. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/06/401448.html New paint job for the RWB's fascist farmer Antifascists | 18.06.2008 10:44 | Anti-racism | Leeds Bradford | Nottinghamshire Good morning Farmer Scumbag! We hope that when the BNP farmer hosting this year's 'Red, White & Blue' Nazi-Fest woke up this morning to find he couldn't get out of his front gates as they had been chained shut, he liked the new paint job for his driveway. The bastard can expect a LOT more. Antifascists http://lancasteruaf.blogspot.com/2008/08/red-white-and-blue-protest-pulls-in-700.html August 16, 2008 Red, White and Blue protest pulls in 700 while Martin Reynolds begs police for help Posted by Antifascist Around seven hundred people turned up in Denby today to protest against the BNP's Red, White and Blue booze-fest. Among the organisations represented were members of various unions including NASUWT, Unite, PCS, CWU, and Unison, Notts Stop the BNP, Derby Racial Equality Council, UAF and a whole bunch of locals determined never to have the BNP anywhere near their homes and families again. They may well have got their way. Around two hundred and fifty police officers, some in riot gear, were deployed, plus a helicopter was keeping an eye on things from above for most of the day. The cost must have been astronomical - and all to protect a load of fascists, their minders and scum like Petra Edelmannova, chair of the far-right Czech National Party, who is a guest of the BNP this weekend. The police were pretty much everywhere - though mainly at the gathering-point, where there was a number of speakers throughout the afternoon, and at the entrance to the RWB itself - though that seemed to be well-covered by a number of thugs who looked ready to kill and eat anyone who pissed them off. The march from the village to the site was marred by a brief fracas between anti-fascists and BNP members after the former were attacked by the latter. The groups were separated by police. On several occasions, anti-fascists tried to break through police lines to enter the RWB site itself but were beaten back by riot police and officers with dogs. Apart from these brief interludes, the event went off peacably, with the assistant chief constable of Derbyshire Police Peter Goodman stating: 'We did have an incident which took place with a small number of people, but the majority of people who have come here today behaved impeccably.' Six arrests were made during the attempts to break through police lines (including across the fields behind the site) but a further twenty-seven occurred as the groups began to disperse and return to their homes or vehicles, when they were in many cases set upon by BNP supporters. Some of the more interesting action took place behind the scenes and well out of the public eye. One of our supporters had a receiver that could pick up the police band and we were treated to a breathless step by step account of the chase over the fields that only ended (for us) when the noise from the police helicopter drowned out everything else. Once back on the radio, one of our group pointed out that the police referred to us as 'reds' all the way through the day, including the anarchists - described as a 'bunch of reds' even though they were dressed all in black. Nice to know the police aren't biased in any way. At 1214 a message was sent to BNP security stating, 'security on the front gate, be aware the reds are on their way up'. There were a number of delays which led to the BNP's Head of Security Martin Reynolds getting in a major panic and yelling for help from the police and anyone else in the vicinity, leading to the police having to tell him (at 1310) to 'breathe deep and calm down...there's too many security on the main gate and it's starting to look a bit shabby'. Despite having eight of his official gorillas and numerous vicious-looking thugs with him on the main gate, Reynolds was still in a panic at having to face thirty peaceful anti-fascists and called for help again, only to be told by a clearly angry control 'that's enough'. Having embarrassed Reynolds into silence, the controller wearily ordered another couple of officers to head up to the main gate, just to stop his whining. Shortly after this, the police insisted that BNP security instituted a rota system rather than the current random mess where anyone who is a violent thug is automatically deemed to be a member of the security team. Clearly the current security team in the BNP is full of amateurs who simply create problems for the police. All in all, a fantastic turnout, some excellent speakers, a good march in (mostly) nice weather and the point that the BNP is not welcome in Denby was well and truly made, despite the twat who illegally sells samurai swords, guns, knives and air rifles in his tatty shop sticking pro-BNP flags and posters up all over it. Well done to the organisers and everybody who travelled from afar and let's hope the BNP can take a hint and hold their festival on Nick Griffin's land next year. If he likes the festival so much, let him put up with the noise, the drunkeness, the dodgy toilets and the scum infesting the area around his home. The people of Denby have had enough. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/derbyshire/7565354.stm 16 August 2008 17:53 UK E-mail this to a friend Printable version BNP protests lead to 33 arrests Extra police officers were brought in to control the march Thirty three people have been arrested following protests at a British National Party (BNP) festival being held in Derbyshire. Six arrests were made after about 40 demonstrators clashed with riot police outside the BNP's annual Red, White and Blue event taking place in Denby. Further arrests were made as protesters dispersed in Heanor, police said. About 250 officers, including some armed with batons were deployed, as well as dogs and a force helicopter. Earlier some 700 demonstrators from Unite Against Fascism, the TUC and Unison took part in a march from the nearby village of Codnor. Barricade thwarted Extra officers were drafted in to control the march as a group of protesters tried to break a police cordon which had been put in place. They waved placards as they walked down the village high street to the field where the festival was being held. Assistant Chief Constable Peter Goodman said: "A small number of people who were not part of the main group seemed intent on causing problems. "I think our actions today have shown that we will not tolerate disorder of any kind in Derbyshire. "We will be continuing our inquiries to identify and trace those people who committed offences but were not arrested today." BNP chairman, Nick Griffin, said: "We regard them [protesters] as entitled to have their demonstration. "It's unfortunate that some of them want to try and cause trouble for us. Hence then the police had to inconvenience local people." Earlier in the week police in Derbyshire invoked special public order laws to restrict the number of people who planned to demonstrate in protest at the BNP festival. http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5igZNt7Z_BFzKCjyipkVCD-aIn4UQ Protestors arrested at BNP festival 13 hours ago Thirty-three demonstrators protesting against a BNP festival were arrested following clashes with police. Riot police were called in after 40 anti-fascist protesters dressed in black tried to barricade a road to prevent BNP members reaching their annual Red, White and Blue (RWB) festival. They pelted riot police with stones before officers, armed with batons and supported by dogs moved in to quell the violence. The outbreak took place close to a farmer's field in Denby, Derbyshire, where about 2,500 BNP members had gathered for their annual festival. Derbyshire Constabulary said they arrested six people for violent disorder at the scene. Further arrests were made later in nearby Heanor. There were no serious casualties although one officer suffered minor injuries. Peter Goodman, assistant chief constable of Derbyshire Constabulary, said 250 officers were used in the operation. He said: "A small number of people who were not part of the main group seemed intent on causing problems. Officers responded quickly and effectively to minimise inconvenience to local people and those attending the RWB event. "I acknowledge there were delays for road users travelling between Codnor and Loscoe but the illegal actions of the protesters who blocked the road made those delays inevitable." The main rally against the BNP took place in the nearby village of Codnor. It was organised by Unite Against Fascism and included members of the TUC and Unison. Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT, was also at the rally, which police said was attended by 400 people. Thanks scum 16.08.2008 22:24 To the brave boy in blue who batoned my daughter from behind as she was walking along peacefully, thanks. You're a piece of SCUM. Angie Result 17.08.2008 09:22 The RWB will not be held in Denby next year...job done-total success. F Ryan http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/nottinghamshire/2008/08/407025.html Demo at BNP festival. Pics & report. Guido | 19.08.2008 00:07 | Anti-racism | Nottinghamshire After many weeks of bitter sectarian backbiting the demo against the BNPs Red White and Blue festival (RWB) finally went ahead. Upon reaching the event I was greeted by local IMCer Tash who informed me that there was a clear two way split in the assembled anti fascists. ?Only two?? came my reply. There has never been a single campaign so effective at dividing the left as anti fascism. I suppose if nothing else our modern day Peoples Judean Fronts should be congratulated on their consistency. In the end they did manage to stage an official march on the hate-fest while elsewhere more militant anti fascists took the cross country route? The march itself numbered around 1,000 and proceeded up the hill towards the site of the RWB site. At the entrance to the lane leading to the village the Police stopped the majority only allowing a small delegation through to march passed the entrance of the offending farm. There was a bit of pushing and shoving by the detained marchers but there were no arrests or breaches of the Police line. Meanwhile at the gates of the hate fest an eerie silence was broken only by the sound of the media and BNP security team photographing each other. Its unclear what goes on at the RWB but there were no sounds of laughter or music coming from within. The occasional moaning of festival goers trudging into the gates with heavy bags of booze could be heard. The locals Tescos seems to have been the main beneficiary of the council denying the alcohol license. Griffin conceived the RWB a few years ago after he attended the French FN festival, which takes place in a breathtaking valley and has become the alleged benchmark of Nationalist festivals. By comparison the RWB is a poorly equipped campsite in a field of manure near Heanor, with no bar and some unspeakably crap folk music. Not many people were coming in or out. Those that were, looked more like they were attending a funeral than a festival. A friendly billboard greeted those arriving with the words: ?ABUSE BEATING SEX-SLAVERY RAPE MURDER justice for English victims.? Such cheerful rhetoric for a family event? And what about the Welsh and Scottish ?victims?? Is the BNP about to become the ENP and advocate the rebuilding of Hadrian?s Wall? At one point the BNP ?Department of Security? came waddling out in force when some Anti Fascists appeared in a field opposite. They were being bossed around by Griffins personal bodyguard and walking steroid Martin Reynolds. Martin you may remember graced the pages of the Sunday tabloids not so long ago when he was the subject of a very amateur porn movie. Looking a bit like an orgy organised for sumo wrestlers it did not boost the BNPs family values image. The Anti Fash were stopped from discussing the merits of nationalism with the BNP by riot police. The delegation from the main demo arrived not long after and marched passed the entrance twice, trading insults and chants with the fascists, before heading back to the village for another rally. Reynolds was warned by the cops not to swear again or face arrest. Returning to the smoke by coach, news reached us of 33 arrests over the course of the day. Over ?110.00 was collected for them and given to an Antifa representative. The three hour journey was also livened up by a little competition to determine what RWB might stand for? http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/news/Left-wing-activists-clash-riot-police-anti-BNP-protest/article-273516-detail/article.html Left-wing activists clash with riot police at Denby anti-BNP protest (with audio) 07:30 - 18-August-2008 46 readers have commented on this story. Click here to read their views. MASKED anti-BNP activists fought hand-to-hand with riot officers and pelted them with stones as the party held its controversial Red, White and Blue festival this weekend. The violence happened on Saturday when protesters tried to barricade a road leading to the festival. Police armed with batons moved in to quell the demonstrators, making 27 arrests. Meanwhile, a 400-strong anti-BNP march passed off mostly without incident, apart from a scuffle when protesters wanted to go further than a pre-agreed police cordon. Shops closed, traffic was disrupted and residents said they felt like prisoners in their own homes during the protests. Now, they are pleading for the BNP not to return so the violence does not happen again. Among those who faced disruption was farmer Chris Sewell, who was forced into a violent confrontation with the masked activists as he defended his family's land. The protesters, who chanted "down with the BNP", poured from the farm's fields to a junction with Codnor-Denby Lane at 11am on Saturday, with tyres, poles, gates and horse-jumps they used to build a barrier. Police believe this was an attempt to block vehicle access to the festival. Mr Sewell, 21, desperately struggled to stop activists from re-entering George Farm before riot police arrived. He said: "They were trying to jump back into our fields but I ran along the gate and fence pushing them off. "Then the police arrived with batons and pushed them down the road and they leapt over the fence and into other fields to get away from them. "The police got us to build a barrier so they couldn't come through the gate again." Mr Sewell said the protesters had caused massive damage to his family's farm and called their actions "unfair". He said: "We are still waiting for an assessment of how much damage was done and how much it will cost. "The cows are at the other side of the site so they weren't bothered but the horses are all really spooked." The farmer was not the only person affected by the violence as local residents looked on in horror from windows in cars and houses. John Lumsden, 65, of Codnor-Denby Lane, was on his way home from buying a paper when he saw activists pouring across the road ahead. He said: "I saw masked men charging across with gas bottles, gates, tyres, pretty much anything you would expect to find on a farm. "Two police vans arrived behind me and riot police got out with shields and batons. "They charged the protesters. I saw one-on-one fights and they were throwing stones at the police." Watching from a bedroom window overlooking the road were a retired couple, who asked not to be named. The man, 68, said he feared for his property after seeing some protesters charge into his neighbour's garden. He said: "I think they went in to find more to add to the barrier. A police cordon was formed to hold them back ? not physically though, they just formed a line the people couldn't go beyond. "Then riot police came with their dogs." Police took the barrier apart but could not prevent the junction of Denby Common, Breach Road and Heanor Road being closed for more than half an hour. They said about 40 protesters were involved in this clash, six of whom were arrested for violent disorder. The rest made their getaway across fields. A police helicopter, launched early on Saturday to give a bird's-eye view of events, saw the protesters had joined a footpath which led into Kensington Avenue, Heanor. At noon, three vans of officers were scrambled to the village where they confronted the protesters again. The activists threw stones at officers and tried to escape through back gardens before police managed to subdue them, making 20 arrests of men and women, for violent disorder and breaching bail conditions. Although the battle took place some metres away from houses, residents said they saw the protesters lined up against a fence after their arrest. Rav Kooner, 39, of Kensington Avenue, said: "Some of them were handcuffed on their fronts but the scene was mostly peaceful. Some of the protesters seemed young ? teenagers. "It was a big shock to see something like this on our road because it's normally so quiet." Six people were arrested for breach of the public order act. The police could not say when one further arrest on Saturday was made. As the clashes took place around the site, a mostly peaceful anti-BNP march and rally was held in Codnor, by groups including Stop the BNP, Unite Against Fascism and Derby Racial Equality Council. Buses from across the country brought people into the village from 9am. Police estimated that about 400 people took part while Stop the BNP said the figure was between 500 and 700. The march at midday was largely without incident accept from a scuffle when protesters tried to go beyond its designated finish point at the junction between the A6007 Heanor Road and Codnor-Denby Lane. Police formed a 26-man cordon but some protesters attempted to push through. A scheduled protest by 30 protesters nearer the festival entrance also took place for about 15 minutes in the face of obscenities shouted from cars driven out of the BNP festival site. The march meant Heanor Road was closed to traffic for more than an hour-and-a-half. The executive director of Derby Racial Equality Council, Kirit Mistry, said the official protest was largely successful. He said: "The march was a bit confused, because there were two separate groups which came together for it. It was as peaceful as it could have been. "When we got to the end of the road there was pushing and people weren't responding to instructions. "But the message has been given clearly to the BNP that we don't want them in Derbyshire." Graham Hopkins, of Denby, brought his six-year-old daughter to the protest. The 45-year-old said he did not want the festival near his house again. He said: "The area is totally unsuitable for this kind of event. It causes so much disruption like noise and the traffic from BNP members coming into the site." Other residents and politicians, including most of those disturbed by the violent protests, agreed with him. Peter Murfitt, 60, of Codnor-Denby Lane, described the march past his house as "inconvenient" but said the BNP should not come back. He said: "It used to be a respectable area and we feel the BNP being here is a bit shaming." Other residents said that they had been disturbed by noise from the festival, flashing lights and drunken youths making Nazi-style salutes in the early hours of Friday. Labour MP for Amber Valley Judy Mallaber said noise and traffic caused by the festival disturbed residents. She said: "Before it came to Derbyshire they held it in Lancashire, completely off the beaten track. I'm not suggesting they should have them back, but to hold it in Denby is ridiculous." Her sentiments were echoed by Derbyshire county councillor Eric Lancashire, who said the festival, which also took place on Friday and yesterday, was unfair on residents. Mr Lancashire, whose Horsley ward includes Denby, said: "They've held the festival twice there. Twice is twice too much." Last night, police would not say whether any of the arrested protesters had been charged. They said there had been no disturbances inside the festival. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/407232.html Anti-RWB Protests, A Very Successful Failure. The Long And The Short Of It. | 21.08.2008 12:43 | Analysis | Nottinghamshire A critical look at the events of last weekend. It was less than a day after the RWB festival finished that local news reports in the Denby area started reporting that the residents were adamant the event would not be held on their doorstep next year. The fact that local worries about clashes between the left and right had been building for several months was it seems only recognised by one group of anti-fascists and blatantly missed by others. Indeed the usual suspects of old school trade unionists and ?jump on the bandwagon? Trotskyite groups, who had not even begun to mobilise until a couple of months prior to the event, ultimately seem to be stuck in the old left madness of negotiating with the police for no other reason than then becoming the ?legitimate? state sanctioned protest, guaranteed to do nothing other than portray themselves to be the vanguard in the struggle against British fascism. This tactic is not missed on the majority of the left in Britain, and has created such apathy that a protest today is lucky to bring out less than a fifth of people it would have done a decade ago. Their loss of all radical thinking has led to the inability to form any kind of strategy, such as one that recognised it would take very little effort to sway local feelings to those of outright objection to the RWB being held in the future. This goes way over the heads of it?s instigators who are lost in the illusion that joining the machinations of parliamentary acceptability, somehow still maintains a revolutionary zeal with an ability to actually do anything other than become part of the problem. How these groups, many linked to the SWP in one way or another, can even achieve the pitiful numbers they brought out to march past the RWB, is nothing short of a miracle. It is likely however that even those attending are in the not too distant future most likely to ?burn out?, dejected and disillusioned, with what has become about as radical as a ?walk in the park?. Thankfully however it appears all is not lost. One organisation, Antifa, since it?s birth a few years ago, has constantly harangued and bitten chunks out of British fascist groups. leaving them with a constant headache they appear not to be able to medicate against. The formation of Antifa, built by a handful of ex members from the untimely ?drawing down? of Anti Fascist Action as well as mobilising from the ranks of small but highly politically astute British anarchist groups, has rejuvenated a militant tradition going back to Cable Street, the Spanish Civil War and the 43 Group. Watching their ?tactics? over the last year in the build up to the RWB has been nothing short of watching political genius at work. By appearing to be mobilising a mass group of activists from the UK and abroad it was always going to be a headache for local authorities not willing to take any chances. Successful ?no platform? style actions against the British National Party and the likes of neo-nazi cult group the British Peoples Party, Antifa seemed to know that even by simply turning out a handful of people willing to do nothing more than produce five minutes of chaos, would be more than enough to produce the desired result, a Red White and Blue Festival no longer being held in Denby and the BNP organisers with a major problem on their hands i.e. ?Where do we find a local authority next year willing to take a chance on hosting the RWB?? Amusingly, the fascist and neo-nazis on Stormfront have been having a field day. Their belief that the propaganda put out by Antifa was actually implying the organisation genuinely believed they would shut down this years festival, and the far-rights lack of knowledge of ?left-wing? groups in general, the bigger picture seems to have completely passed them by. So buoyed up with seeing a genuinely vociferous but small protest result in mass arrests they have convinced themselves Antifa have been crushed and those arrested are going to be doing years and years behind bars, which is about as likely as Nick Griffin joining the SWP! Interestingly enough, at the time of writing, Antifa have not even officially confirmed they were actually there, another strategy which shows the level of a political militant awareness that leaves the far-right nervously cackling from the sidelines, convincing themselves all is well in their 'fatherland'. Where the rest of the British ?left? go from here is at present unclear. While the likes of the SWP have already claimed some kind of victory out of actually doing nothing at all, it is of genuine concern that people will still fall for their redundant and impotent style of politics. One thing is for certain. If the SWP and their front groupings such as the UAF are allowed to continue their nonsense, the genuine fervour of many on the so called ?left? will remain untapped. There remains an anti-fascist militancy in Britain that is sitting in the wings just waiting for its chance to ignite. Let?s hope that the likes of Antifa are able to light the spark. Their actions up to now and the likelihood that their inspired militancy has stopped the RWB being held in Denby in the future suggests they are. The Long And The Short Of It. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/07/403691.html UPDATE - Fascist meeting cancelled 15.07.2008 23:37 Pressure from anti-fascist campaigners has resulted in the cancellation of the BNP's meeting in Southey, Sheffield. The fact that the BNP are unable to find a venue in the area willing to host their meeting confirms that the vast majority of people reject their vile race-hate politics. This is a great victory for the campaign to keep Sheffield a BNP free zone. Thank you to those people who contacted the venue to protest against the meeting and who helped arrange the protest (which has now been called off) at such short notice. The next challenge for anti-fascists is to prevent the BNP from winning a seat at the European parliamentary elections in June 2009. Please contact Sheffield UAF to get involved. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Thu Aug 28 18:10:48 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2008 02:10:48 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Gay rights protests, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <009f01c90974$13c147a0$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * UK: Refugee rights group among Gay Pride protesters * US: Day of Silence pits gay rights activists against bigots * GERMANY: Protesters target Christian event over homophobia, abortion * US: Methodists protest homophobia in church * TURKEY: Gay rights protest * RUSSIA: Gay rights event suppressed * UGANDA: Gay activists arrested in protest at AIDS conference * LATVIA: Gay rights activists square off with bigots * US: Army policy on gay men protested * ITALY: Gay pride march targets church, state * FRANCE: Pride march targets discrimination in schools * AUSTRALIA: Gay rights activists, condom supporters protest at Pope event * US: Law school bans army recruiters over homophobia * US: Protest over cancellation of prayer event for gays * HUNGARY: Pride march attacked by neo-Nazis * SOUTH AFRICA: Protest over murders of lesbians * US: Protesters call for boycott of hotel over owner's anti-gay donation * SOUTH AFRICA: Protesters target homophobic columnist * US: Anti-gay speaker protested on two campuses * US: Protests at anti-gay fundraiser * INDIA: Gay pride event calls for repeal of sodomy law http://news.uk.msn.com/Article.aspx?cp-documentid=8801265 Gay refugee protest at Pride parade Gay and lesbian revellers plan to protest against the treatment of gay people from other countries by governments including Britain's at a colourful Pride parade. The theme of this year's event in London is Fairy Tales, Myths And Legends, and organisers promise "a colourful procession of beaux and beauty, princes and prancers, debutantes and dancers." They expect a turnout of more than half a million. Campaigners will use the event to voice their anger about what they see as the Government's failure to give refugee status to the gay victims of persecution in other countries. Harriet Harman, Minister for Women and Equality, will be among the politicians speaking on the main stage in Trafalgar Square at 3pm. But gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell warned that she was likely to be in for a rough ride. He said: "One of the biggest issues will be the Government's mistreatment of lesbian and gay asylum seekers." But the Home Office defended its record on the issue. A UK Border Agency spokesman said: "We consider each case on its individual merits and will continue to provide refuge for those asylum seekers with a genuine need for protection." Festival-goers will also draw attention to the persecution of gay people in countries such as Iran, Jamaica, Nigeria and Uganda. Mr Tatchell himself plans to carry a placard mocking Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in protest against the country's treatment of its gay population. His placard will depict a doctored photo of the Iranian leader wagging his finger while wearing make-up and jewellery, accompanied by a caption accusing him of being a murderer and homophobe. http://www.nwcn.com/topstories/stories/NW_042508WAB_day_silence_protest_LJ.9b00a40a.html Protesters face off outside Snoqualmie, WA high school 10:50 PM PDT on Friday, April 25, 2008 By TRICIA MANNING SMITH / KING 5 News and Associated Press Video: Gay, anti-gay demonstrators face off outside Snoqualmie school Larger screen E-mail this clip SNOQUALMIE, Wash. - Supporters and opponents of a Day of Silence for gay and lesbian students faced off Friday outside Mount Si High School in Snoqualmie and exchanged angry words. Inside the school, students wore t-shirts and arm bands expressing their views about the National Day of Silence in support of gay and lesbian students, but outside, this day of silence was anything but quiet. On one side were supporters of students inside the school expressing their support of gays and lesbians. On the other side were those protesting the school district for allowing the student-lead observance. Police kept both sides apart and tried to control the crowd with yellow tape. "They want to have the day of silence? Be like other clubs. Do it before or after school, not messing up the classroom," said Rev. Ken Hutcherson of Antioch Bible Church in Redmond. "For anyone to say that the Day of Silence does not interrupt the school, they're dead, blind or just plain prejudice." A protest organized by Hutcherson, who has a daughter at the school, drew about 100 followers protesting the student demonstration. Hutcherson made his own t-shirt which expresses his outrage. His also ran an ad in the Snoqualmie Valley Record newspaper inviting a protest of the demonstration. Student organizers say the Day of Silence supports students who fear retaliation because of their sexual orientation. "Once we enter the building we will no longer be speaking," said Austin Anderson, student. Anderson said his silence is in support of gays and lesbians who face discrimination and cannot speak out themselves. The school principal estimated roughly 10 percent of the student population may be gay. He reports no serious harassment issues in the last several months and calls the demonstration a form of expression which does not violate school policy against protests. But many students against the Day of Silence also felt compelled to show their views. Concerns over protests at their school compelled about 500 students - about one-third of the student body - to stay away from Mount Si High School. In response to Hutcherson's ad, the Tolt United Church of Christ advertised its support of the demonstrating students. Students participating in the demonstration were given strict guidelines about how to handle themselves and to report any kind of harassment. If they're asked a question in class, they are required to answer. Teachers are not allowed to take part in the day of silence. http://www.modbee.com/local/story/279699.html Students' silent protest to highlight harassment By MERRILL BALASSONE mbalassone at modbee.com last updated: April 25, 2008 02:47:17 AM Area middle and high school students will help kick off a national protest against harassment of gay and lesbian students today. During the National Day of Silence, students take a vow of silence to bring attention to the name-calling and bullying experienced by many gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students and their supporters. At Enochs High School, students will wear black armbands during the day and set up a "Silent Space" during lunchtime. Students at 6,000 middle and high schools across the nation, including Oakdale and Enochs high schools, have signed up to participate, according to the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. Debbie Adair, Enochs High's Gay-Straight Alliance Club leader, said some parents have threatened to pull their kids from school as a result of the students' silent protest. The day will end with a "Make Some Noise Rally" at 6:30 p.m. at the King-Kennedy Memorial Center, 601 N. Martin Luther King Drive in Modesto. This year's events are held in memory of Lawrence King, an Oxnard eighth-grader who was killed Feb. 12 by a classmate, allegedly targeted because of his sexual orientation. The events are sponsored by the King-Kennedy Board of Directors, the Stanislaus PRIDE Center and local GSA groups. http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/203105,christian-congress-in-germany-ends-after-violent-protests.html Christian congress in Germany ends after violent protests Posted : Sun, 04 May 2008 12:56:07 GMT Author : DPA Category : Europe (World) Bremen, Germany - A congress of devout young Protestant Christians ended in Bremen, Germany on Sunday after being twice invaded by violent pro-gay and pro-abortion protesters. Bremen police said they detained 34 persons who tried to cross police lines on Saturday and break up a panel discussion at which Christians criticized abortion, which has effectively been legalized in Germany. The seminar had the title, "Sex is God's idea, but is abortion God's idea too?" Organizers said about 20,000 people attended the religious service that ended the five-day event for young people from all over Germany on Sunday. Germany has about 25 million Protestants, but fewer than 10 per cent are active church-goers. Earlier, the organizers of the Christival meeting had cancelled a seminar with a Christian perspective, "Understanding Homosexuality," saying they preferred to de-escalate amid rising tension in the city. On the opening day, 500 people from a "No Christival" committee vented their opposition to Christians and one policeman was hurt as they pushed past a crowd barrier and invaded the venue. Bishop Wolfgang Huber, head of Germany's EKD council of Evangelic Churches, defended the fifth Christival since 1976, saying it was unfair to judge a congress with 300 discussions, concerts and workshops on the basis of just two items on its schedule. http://pageoneq.com/news/2008/Methodists_attend_gay_ceremony_in_protest_of_chu_0503.html Methodists attend gay ceremony in protest of church policy by AP News Methodists attend gay union ceremony near church convention Methodists attend gay commitment ceremony to protest church policy unaccepting of couples ANGELA K. BROWN AP News May 02, 2008 18:28 EST More than 200 Methodists attended a lesbian couple's commitment ceremony Friday in defiance of a vote to uphold a church law that says gay relationships are "incompatible with Christian teaching." The ceremony was at a park across from the Fort Worth Convention Center, where some 3,000 people are meeting for the United Methodist Church's general conference. It is held every four years to set church policy. Methodists this week rejected replacing a sentence in its Book of Discipline ? which says the church "does not condone the practice of homosexuality" ? with other phrases, including one saying Christians differ on the issue. The measure to change the language also was rejected at the last conference in 2004. Methodists this week also voted against a proposal to change a policy allowing pastors to keep gays and lesbians from joining the denomination's churches. "There was a lot of robust debate as there has been for 36 years, particularly over the phrase that refers to 'incompatible,'" said the Rev. Gregory V. Palmer, president of the church's Council of Bishops. He also called for finding common ground. At the ceremony, some said that acceptance of gays in some churches encouraged them but that the denomination as a whole had a long way to go. No clergy member presided over the commitment ceremony of Julie Bruno and Sue Laurie of Chicago, a couple for 25 years, although about three dozen ministers attended. Officiating at a same-sex union ceremony violates church rules for clergy and would leave them vulnerable to being charged in Methodist church courts. In 1999, a senior pastor in Omaha, Neb., was defrocked after a church trial for performing a same-sex union. "The United Methodist Church has been and continues to be both blessing and burden to us," said Julie Bruno, one of the women getting married. "When the church turns her back on us, withholds blessing from us, does God withhold blessing? Does God stop loving us? We continue to be the church to and for each other. We continue to be the instruments of God's light and love." The Rev. Julie Todd spoke during the Friday ceremony and led the communion. Afterward, she said she doubted her role would subject her to any church disciplinary action, but if so she was prepared. "I believe so strongly that this is the role of the church and of the ordained clergy in blessing loving relationships that I am not concerned about the consequences," Todd said. After the service, Laurie and Bruno said they turned down many ministers' offers to officiate. "The message was less about upsetting people and more about being role models and for people to know that these ceremonies are going on," Laurie said. Source: AP News http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-7676.html Gay protest in Turkey makes the news in Iran By Tony Grew ? May 19, 2008 - 18:34 Iran is one of a handful of countries that executes people for consenting homosexual acts The state broadcaster of the Islamic Republic of Iran has reported on an International Day Against Homophobia event in Turkey. As reported by PinkNews.co.uk last week, Michael Cashman MEP joined authors, journalists and human rights defenders on a march against homophobia and transphobia in Ankara on Saturday. Mr Cashman is one of only two out gay MEPs in the 785-member European Parliament. The march started at the Human Rights Monument in the Turkish capital and ended at the National Assembly. It was the first International Day Against Homophobia march in Ankara. "Until recent years, due to cultural and social norms of the Turkish society which opposes sexual deviation, homosexuals used to keep a low profile in the country," said a report on official website of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB). "However, in the past two years, members of this group are trying to organise and establish themselves through gatherings and publications. "Meanwhile, some Turkish media have helped the social acceptance of homosexuals by trying to portray the sexual deviation as a normal behaviour." Iran is one of a handful of countries that executes people, including minors, for consenting homosexual acts. Human rights groups claim that as many as 4,000 gay men and lesbians have been executed as a result of their sexual orientation since the Islamic revolution in 1979. Gay groups in Turkey, a secular Islamic state, have faced court action in recent years as the country, which is a candidate for European Union membership, grapples with LGBT rights. Last month police officers in Turkey raided the offices of a leading LGBT organisation on the pretence that "frequent visits by transgender people" were grounds to issue a search warrant. Lawyers for the Lambda Istanbul Cultural Centre later discovered that an accusation had been lodged against the association for "participating in illegal prostitution activities, procuring transgender sex workers and sharing their earnings." More than a dozen plainclothes officers spent two hours at the centre. Government officials have made similar legal moves to shut down lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender organisations in Turkey but failed. Kaos GL faced a demand for closure from Ankara's deputy governor, Selahattin Ekmenoglu, in 2005. The closure petition was dismissed by prosecutors. Turkey is a candidate country for EU membership, but concerns about human rights are one factor frustrating negotiations. The chairman of Netherlands gay rights group COC, Frank van Dalen, has called on the Dutch government to not support their application for EU membership until "basic human rights are fully respected by Turkey." The UK is a vocal supporter of Turkish membership. http://ukgaynews.org.uk/Archive/08/May/1502.htm Moscow Authorities Ban Gay Picket In Support of Criminal Prosecution of Moscow Mayor Pride organizers to conduct a press conference on Friday to coincide with IDAHO day Nikolai Alekseev: ?The ban of Saturday?s event is just more evidence that gays and lesbians are not allowed to conduct any public events in the capital, in any place and with any number of participants?. MOSCOW, May 15, 2008 (GayRussia.ru) ? The Prefecture of the Central Administrative Area of Moscow has refused permission to stage a small demonstration by gay men and women in front of the General Prosecution office in downtown Moscow on Saturday May 17 to coincide with the fourth International Day Against Homophobia. Organisers and participants had planned to demand the starting of criminal investigation against Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov on the basis of Article 149 of Russian Criminal Code for systematic preventing of the conduct of public actions by representatives of the gay community. The organisers had intentionally decreased the number of participants to a maximum of ten hoping to get authorization for the picket with the main slogan ?Article 149 has not been repealed!? The picket was supposed to take place at 1 pm on Saturday. The prefecture of the Central Administrative area of Moscow was notified of the planned event by the organisers in full accordance with the law on May 13. Yesterday, they were informed that their public event was banned ? and no alternative place was offered, in breach of the legislation. Nikolai Alekseev, chief organiser of Moscow Gay Pride, said this morning that the ?lawlessness? of Moscow authorities continues. ?The ban of Saturday?s event is just more evidence that gays and lesbians are not allowed to conduct any public events in the capital, in any place and with any number of participants.? ?On Saturday, many countries in the world will celebrate the International Day Against Homophobia. We wanted to express our civil position and raise the issue of systematic breaches of our rights by Moscow authorities, but we were again denied to right to do it.? ?The decision concerning this action is currently being discussed. It is possible that it will be conducted in the form of one-man pickets which do not need authorisation according to the current Russian legislation?. Mr. Alekseev vowed that ?the ban of Saturday?s picket will be soon appealed to Taganskiy district court of Moscow. We are ready to take this case up to the European Court of Human Rights?. Article 149 of Russian Criminal Code implies criminal penalties for officials who prevent public demonstrations by using their official position. The maximum penalty is up to 3 years in prison. International Day Against Homophobia is celebrated around the world each year on May 17, the day in 1990 the General Assembly of World Health Organization removed homosexuality from the list of psychiatric illnesses. In 1999 Russia adopted the international rules. Tomorrow, organisers of Moscow Pride will give a press conference in Moscow dedicated to the International Day Against Homophobia, 15th Anniversary since decriminalization of homosexuality in Russia and events of third Moscow Pride. It will start at 1 pm at the Independent Press Centre. http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_2334587,00.html Gay protesters held in Uganda 04/06/2008 12:42 - (SA) Kampala - Ugandan police arrested a group of gay activists demanding the right to HIV/Aids treatment at an international Aids conference in Kampala on Wednesday. Hundreds of activists disrupted the morning plenary session of the conference, calling for rights, recognition and access to services and funds extended to groups involved in the fight against the spread of HIV/Aids. "We came to demonstrate because there is a need to include gay Ugandans in HIV programmes," the group's leader, Julian Onziema, 28, said shortly before he was arrested. The number of Ugandan homosexuals was not known, but membership of gay groups was believed to be increasing as activists stepped up their attempts to secure gay rights. Two Spanish tourists held Uganda did not recognise gay rights and people found guilty of homosexual acts could be sentenced to life imprisonment. However, nobody had ever been convicted of the crime. Homosexuality was frowned upon in many African nations. Gambian President Yahya Gammeh recently threatened to "cut off the head" of any homosexual caught in the West African nation. Two Spanish tourists were arrested on Tuesday for making homosexual advances to Gambian taxi drivers, but were believed to have been released. Homosexuality carried a sentence of up to 14 years in Gambia. More than 1 700 delegates were attending the five-day conference that began in Kampala on Tuesday. They were examining the challenges faced by governments, non- governmental organisations and United Nations agencies in the fight against the spread of HIV/Aids. Sapa-dpa http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/31/europe/EU-GEN-Latvia-Gay-Parade.php Gay rights activists, angry protesters square off in downtown Riga The Associated Press Published: May 31, 2008 RIGA, Latvia: Gay rights activists and their opponents have squared off during a parade in downtown Riga. City officials shut a wide boulevard for several hours Saturday to allow a march by about 300 people. Security forces protected the marchers from about 400 anti-gay demonstrators shouting slogans and waving banners. A police spokeswoman said five people were detained including one person on the parade and four protesters. Latvia, as well as its Baltic neighbors Estonia and Lithuania, has been criticized by human rights organizations for intolerance toward sexual minorities. No Latvian politicians showed up to support the marchers but on Friday President Valdis Zatlers called on society to be tolerant toward sexual minorities. http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/30/students-protest-dont-ask-dont-tell-policy/?hp May 30, 2008, 2:19 pm Students Protest ?Don?t Ask, Don?t Tell? Policy By Jennifer 8. Lee Jacob Reitan, right, a gay student from the Harvard Divinity School, was one of two men arrested for trespassing on Friday at the Armed Forces recruiting station in Times Square. (Photo: Annie Tritt for The New York Times) Two students were arrested for trespassing at the Armed Forces recruiting station in Times Square today as part of a series of sit-in protests in the Northeast against the Pentagon?s ?Don?t Ask, Don?t Tell? policy. About 20 people took part in the protest, organized by the Harvard Right to Serve Campaign; most left the scene when the police arrived. The two students arrested were Jacob Reitan, a Harvard Divinity School student, and another man, Shelby Condray, a Boston University graduate student. Fellow protesters and passers-by cheered in their support. They were each given a criminal summons to appear before a judge at a later date, then released. The police said the two spent five minutes in the precinct office. The students staged their protest (video can be seen at YouTube) after Mr. Reitan walked into the recruitment center, surrounded by other protesters holding signs, and tried to enlist while declaring that he was gay. He was arrested for not leaving after the military recruiters told him to, he said. Later, in a phone interview, when a reporter asked why he did not simply enlist without mentioning that he is gay ? as many gays and lesbians serving in the military have done ? Mr. Reitan replied: ?I know what the road ahead is for someone who doesn?t tell. It?s lies and deceit and stress.? The protesters said they only asked students who sincerely wanted to serve to attempt to enlist. ?I can tell you with all honesty: If they took me, I would go,? said Mr. Reitan, 26, whose grandfathers both served in World War II. ?I want to serve because I believe in my country. I want to serve because I believe in public service. I believe it?s a tradition within my family that I honor and greatly respect. I also want to serve because I think it?s every American?s right.? But part of the motivation of wanting to serve was to protest, he explained. ?Did John Lewis really want to have a cup of coffee or a hamburger at the white-only lunch counter ? or did he really want to make a statement?? said Mr. Reitan, referring to the Freedom Rides of the 1960s. ?Part of the human experience is that when humans are told they can?t do something because of who they are, they invariably seek that right ? a woman who can?t vote, an African-American who can?t sit at the lunch counter, a gay person who can?t serve.? He added: ?I feel that in seeking my right to serve. I am trying to seek to win justice for an oppressed group.? The group is trying to pressure United States senators who serve on the Armed Services Committee to introduce a version of the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, which was introduced in the House in 2007 and has more than 140 co-sponsors. The act would forbid discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The protest in New York was intended to pressure Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. The campaign has previously aimed protests at Senator Susan Collins, a Republican, in Portland, Me. (where four people, including Mr. Reitan, were arrested); at Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, an independent, in Hartford (where four people were arrested); and at Senator Edward M. Kennedy, a Democrat, in Boston (where two people were arrested). Mr. Kennedy has been generally sympathetic to the House legislation. The ?Don?t Ask, Don?t Tell? policy was introduced as a compromise measure in 1993 and approved by President Bill Clinton. Since then, an average of about one or two people a day have been discharged for violating the policy, according to a 2004 study by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a group that advocates on behalf of gay military personnel affected by the policy. The group estimates that currently around 12,000 people have been expelled. The policy has been the subject of much litigation and retired generals, who have acknowledged that they are gay, have criticized the policy as ineffective and undermining the military?s core values. In an interview with the Pentagon Channel last year, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates was asked about his views and responded, ?Personal opinion really doesn?t have a place here. What?s important is that we have a law, a statute that governs, ?Don?t ask, don?t tell,? that?s the policy of this department, and it?s my responsibility to execute that policy as effectively as we can. As long as the law is what it is, that?s what we?ll do.? (Read the text of the law in pdf format.) A Pentagon spokesman, Les Melnyk, further elaborated the Pentagon?s position by saying, ?We don?t discharge because of sexual orientation, but because of sexual conduct.? (This is similar to a distinction that the Roman Catholic Church made until it issued a decree in 2005 that banned gay priests.) But that is a vague (and still discriminatory) line, the protesters said. ?It?s not a very well-reasoned argument,? said Andrew Fine, a junior at Harvard College and a spokesman for the Harvard Right-to-Serve campaign. The military regulations [pdf] state ?an applicant shall be rejected for entry if he or she makes a statement that he or she is a homosexual or bisexual.? ?If a public declaration of your sexuality is conduct, then the distinction between conduct and sexual orientation is meaningless,? Mr. Fine said. http://pageoneq.com/news/2008/Italian_revelers_march_for_gay_pride_protest_church_and_gov_0607.html VIDEO: Italian revelers march for gay pride, protest church and government by Reuters North American News Service Italy Gay pride march protests government, Church REUTERS Reuters North American News Service Jun 07, 2008 11:45 EST ROME, June 7 (Reuters) - Some 10,000 dancing and singing homosexuals and gay-rights supporters marched through Rome on Saturday, many of them chanting slogans against the Vatican and Italy's conservative new government. The yearly Gay Pride march took on added political significance because city officials denied a request for the march to end with a rally near the Basilica of St John's in Lateran, the pope's cathedral in his capacity as bishop of Rome. City officials said the march would disturb a concert that had been planned for inside the basilica. The new conservative city administration also refused to give its patronage to the march. "The denial of St John's Square and the patronage of this demonstration were grave decisions that were steps backwards," said Vittoria Franco, equal opportunities minister in the leftist shadow government. The new conservative government of Prime Minister Silivo Berlusconi has made it clear it has no intention of passing legislation that would give gay couples some sort of legal recognition. That promise had been made by the previous centre-left government of Prime Minister Romano Prodi but was blocked by opposition from the Vatican and the Italian Catholic Church. Berlusconi and the Vatican see eye-to-eye on many issues and his government's relationship with Church is much more cordial than that of the previous government. "Berlusconi kisses the pope's slipper and says 'yes' to everything. We risk a theocracy and clerical dictatorship," said Franco Grillini, a homosexual who was a parliamentarian in the previous government. Mock marriages were performed on some of the floats drawn through the city as scantily clad homosexual men danced on other floats. Some of the demonstrators carried placards accusing conservative politicians of being "hypocritical slaves" of the Vatican. Several of the gay men were dressed in papal masks or bishops' garb. (Reporting by Philip Pullella, editing by Mary Gabriel) http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/28/europe/EU-GEN-France-Gay-Pride.php Decked in flags and feathers, French gay pride marchers protest discrimination in schools The Associated Press Published: June 28, 2008 PARIS: Gay soccer players, police officers and bus drivers have joined masses of people waving rainbow flags as they march through Paris and protest anti-gay discrimination in schools. The marchers were dancing along the parade route to a soundtrack of disco mixes, choral music and accordion tunes. The annual event is one of Europe's biggest gay pride parades with hundreds of thousands usually joining in. This year's event is focused on fighting discrimination against gay teachers and students. Organizers say they are protesting racism, sexism and xenophobia in schools, too. Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe along with Arab, Jewish and Asian gay groups are also among those participating in Saturday's procession. http://www.chinapost.com.tw/asia/australia/2008/07/20/166313/Protesters%2Dpelt.htm Protesters pelt pilgrims with condoms By Chris McCall, AFP Sunday, July 20, 2008 SYDNEY -- Protesters pelted Catholic pilgrims with condoms Saturday as they made the most of a court ruling allowing them to "annoy" participants at the church's World Youth Day festival in Sydney. A pilgrimage walk organized for the festival took thousands of worshippers through the city's gay district, where about 500 people demonstrated against Pope Benedict XVI's opposition to homosexuality and contraception. The confrontation was mainly good natured with the only arrest being that of a pilgrim who allegedly lunged at and punched a protester wearing a T-shirt with the slogan "Pope Go Homo." The pilgrim was not charged and was released shortly afterwards, police said. At the protest, pictures depicted Pope Benedict as the devil and as the evil emperor from "Star Wars", while a sign called for people to "debaptize." A loose alliance of groups opposed to the papal visit spoke, including gays, advocates of contraception, victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests and the Raelian cult, which believes Jesus was sent by extraterrestrials. Chanting "Pope go homo, gay is great" and singing "Pope is wrong, put a condom on," the protesters threw condoms at the pilgrims, who were making their way to Randwick race course for an overnight prayer vigil. Among the protesters was a drag queen dressed in pink and going under the moniker of "Pope Alice," while others wore T-shirts with slogans such as "Thank God I'm an atheist" and "Bless me father for I am a homo." There was a heavy police presence at the protest, including officers on horses, and demonstrators were cordoned off from the bulk of the worshippers. But the police actions were limited after a court last week struck down a law aimed at stopping anyone from "annoying" pilgrims. A police officer told AFP the protest had been largely good-natured. The Australian federal court said the law passed by the New South Wales government for the six-day youth celebration undermined free speech because annoyance was such a subjective term. Activists had complained that the law could lead to arrests and fines of up to A$5,500 (US$5,335) for simply wearing a T-shirt with a slogan which could be deemed annoying to those at the festivities. Some protesters said police had still attempted to restrict what could be distributed, however. "I was handing out leaflets of the alternative 10 commandments and he took that away," said Colin Charlton, sporting a T-shirt saying "Pontifex Me Vexat" or 'The pope annoys me' in Latin. The pilgrims, who were attending the prayer vigil ahead of a papal mass Sunday involving an estimated 500,000 people, appeared unfazed by the protest, with some making peace signs as they passed by. Margaret Leatuafi from New Zealand said pilgrims had been advised by World Youth Day organizers not to retaliate if the protesters challenged their faith. "They are allowed to have their say too about what they believe but maybe they need to do a bit more study (about the church)," the 55-year-old said. As the queue of thousands of pilgrims heading towards Randwick petered out, the protesters headed away under close police surveillance, singing the Christian hymn 'Kum-Ba-Ya' to the words 'Put a condom on'. Before dispersing they held an impromptu "Hunky Jesus" competition, led by Australian drag star Tobin Saunders, told pope jokes and held a largely same-sex kiss-in. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2008/07/20/2003417983 Sydney protesters do their best to ?annoy? Catholics ?Pope go homo?: About 500 people protested a procession of Catholic pilgrims in Sydney for World Youth Day events, ?annoying? religious devotees by throwing condoms at them AFP, SYDNEY Sunday, Jul 20, 2008, Page 5 Protesters rally in support of sexual freedom and the use of condoms in Sydney, Australia, yesterday. Hundreds of thousands of Catholic pilgrims are gathered in Sydney for World Youth Day, the largest Christian celebration on earth aimed at battling religious indifference in modern society and shoring up flagging church support. PHOTO: AFP Protesters pelted Catholic pilgrims with condoms yesterday as they made the most of a court ruling allowing them to ?annoy? participants at the church?s World Youth Day festival in Sydney. A pilgrimage walk organized for the festival took many young worshippers through the city?s gay district, where about 500 people demonstrated against Pope Benedict XVI?s opposition to homosexuality and contraception. On the sidelines of the protest, pictures depicted Pope Benedict as the devil and as the evil emperor from Star Wars, while a sign called for people to ?debaptize.? A loose alliance of groups opposed to the papal visit spoke, including gays, advocates of contraception, victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests and the Raelian cult, which believes Jesus was sent by extraterrestrials. Chanting ?Pope go homo, gay is great? and singing ?Pope is wrong, put a condom on,? the protesters threw condoms at the pilgrims, who were making their way to Randwick racecourse for an overnight prayer vigil. Among the protesters was a drag queen dressed in pink and going under the moniker of ?Pope Alice,? while others wore T-shirts with slogans such as ?Thank God I?m an atheist? and ?Bless me father for I am a homo.? There was a heavy police presence at the protest, including officers on horses, and demonstrators were cordoned off from the bulk of the worshippers. Police said they arrested one man after a clash between protesters and pilgrims, but released him without charge. No formal complaint had been lodged. But the police actions were limited after a court last week struck down a law aimed at stopping anyone from ?annoying? pilgrims. A police officer said the protest had been largely good-natured. The Australian federal court said the law passed by the New South Wales government for the six-day youth celebration undermined free speech because annoyance was such a subjective term. Activists had complained that the law could lead to arrests and fines of up to A$5,500 (US$5,335) for simply wearing a T-shirt with a slogan that could be deemed annoying to those at the festivities. Some protesters said police had still attempted to restrict what could be distributed, however. ?I was handing out leaflets of the alternative 10 commandments and he took that away,? said Colin Charlton, sporting a T-shirt saying ?Pontifex Me Vexat? or ?The pope annoys me? in Latin. The pilgrims, who were attending the prayer vigil ahead of a papal mass today involving an estimated 500,000 people, appeared unfazed by the protest, with some making peace signs as they passed by. Margaret Leatuafi from New Zealand said pilgrims had been advised by World Youth day organizers not to retaliate if the protesters challenged their faith. ?They are allowed to have their say too about what they believe but maybe they need to do a bit more study [about the church],? the 55-year-old said. As the line of thousands of pilgrims heading towards Randwick petered out, the protesters headed away under close police surveillance, singing the Christian hymn Kum-Ba-Ya to the words ?Put a condom on.? Before dispersing the protesters held an impromptu ?Hunky Jesus? competition, led by Australian drag star Tobin Saunders, told pope jokes and held a largely same-sex kiss-in. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/19/asia/AS-Australia-Pope-Protest.php Anti-pope activists urge safe sex, toss condoms at Catholic pilgrims in Australia The Associated Press Published: July 19, 2008 SYDNEY, Australia: More than 500 anti-pope activists faced off against happy pilgrims Saturday, shouting their distaste at papal policies as thousands of Catholic youth streamed past on their way to an evening address by Pope Benedict XVI. The NoToPope coalition ? some costumed as nuns, devils and priests ? lined the edge of a park on the route of the pilgrims' march, tightly ringed by police on foot, bicycles and horseback. "The pope is wrong, put a condom on!" they shouted through megaphones. Some threw red-packaged condoms at the passing pilgrims. But the young Catholics were at first merely curious, then smiled and waved and began their own singsong chant that carried down the ranks: "Benedicto! We love you!" The two crowds became testy at one point, and police grabbed and led away one protester who had been throwing condoms toward pilgrims. The activists ? fresh from a court win this week that overturned a temporary state regulation against "annoying" the pilgrims ? followed a mock popemobile to the park after an hourlong rally. "We want to make it clear that we are not anti-religious, and we welcome the Catholic youth to our country," said Rachel Evans, a leader of the coalition. "Our gripe is with Pope Benedict and the hierarchy of the church." The coalition condemns the pope's policies against homosexuality, contraception and abortion. At the rally, costumed activists gave impassioned speeches on safe sex and held a contest for the T-shirt slogan most likely to annoy Roman Catholics. The winner ? judged by crowd applause ? was a crude reference to Mary, Christ's mother. The runner-up: "So many right-wing Christians, so few lions." The burlesque, boisterous protest in central Sydney included wigged drag queens and others draped in rainbow flags, and was in sharp contrast to the solemn papal Mass held earlier at a nearby cathedral. "Jesus loves us all the same," pilgrim Mark Choi shouted at the protesters at one point. "I totally understand why they are here and I'm not going to take it personally," said Choi, 18, from Silver Spring, Maryland. "But they don't understand that we love everyone, homosexual or whatever. Arguing is not the way." The demonstrators waved inflated condoms and hoisted signs reading: "Would Jesus discriminate?" and "Bless me Father, for I am a homo." "It's their right to say these things, and in most of them they are right," said Austrian pilgrim Lukas Nebel, 22. "I also do not agree with the pope on the question of condoms and sex before marriage. They are also right to be concerned about sex abuse." The protest drew attention before it was even held after state officials passed regulations earlier this month that banned anyone from causing "annoyance or inconvenience" to participants in the Catholic festival. Offenders faced fines of up to 5,500 Australian dollars (US$5,300). NoToPope activists argued in court that the regulations infringed on their free speech rights, and the regulation was struck down when they won the case. Tens of thousands of World Youth Day pilgrims marched Saturday through Sydney, where the landmark harbor bridge and other key roadways were closed so they could trek to a horse racetrack in the city where they will camp out for the night. Benedict was due to join them Saturday evening for a few of hours, then return to the track Sunday morning to lead a Mass before an estimated crowd of some 250,000. http://www.projecteye.org/Members/katenic/protestor-attacked-by-pilgrims/view Protestor attacked by pilgrims by Anthony Macdonald A protestor from Queensland was set upon by a group of pilgrims when she held up a sign as the Pope?s convoy passed Dawes Point. The woman, Mary Adams, waited hours for the Pontiff to pass in the boat-a-cade, before holding up her handmade sign that said ?Ratzinger condones paedophilia?. Adams was yelled at by a group of pilgrims as soon as she held up the sign, and was forced to flee the area as the group continued to yell while trying to rip the sign out of her hands and shove her. ?I?ve worked on a sexual abuse hotline and I?ve seen suicides because of the cover-ups Ratzinger has been involved in,? Adams said after fleeing the local area. ?He [Ratizinger] is responsible for this cover up.? A nearby police officer had to step in to separate the pilgrims from Adams, and allow her to get away. ?If there was a God now, he would be crying,? she said. ?If it happened to them [the pilgrims] it would be a different issue. They would understand where I am coming from.? The pilgrims? leader ? a middle-aged man from Lismore in NSW who did not want to be named - said Adams had no right to show her sign in front of the children. ?Get that sign down in front of these kids,? he yelled, before attacking Adams. Adams said she had done nothing wrong and was simply exercising her democratic right to protest. As 150 000 thousand pilgrim headed to Barangaroo for the Pope?s first address, thousands more joined Sydneysiders along the Harbour foreshore to catch a glimpse of the Church leader. Catholics and non-Catholics gathered for the event. The Opera House precinct was packed to capacity, while the western side of Circular Quay and Dawes Point were also crowded. Security was high throughout the city with literally buses of policemen, as well as water police, divers, helicopters and lifesavers. Married couple Elizabeth and John Ritson travelled from Campbelltown to see the Pope, and they said they were typical of many other NSW residents who had come into the Sydney for the day. ?We wanted to see what it was all about,? John Ritson said. ?We are not Catholics, but this is a hugely influential and well respected man who holds great influence and position in our society.? After a long wait, the crowd was not disappointed, as the boat carrying the Pope turned and did a lap of Circular Quay. Thousands of people waved vigorously and took photos of Pope Benedict?s boat, while the Pontiff appeared comfortable on board the Captain Cook Cruises' ship. The Church leader sailed under the harbour bridge and into a rock-star welcome at Barangaroo. http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/215840,gay-catholics-to-protest-against-pope-on-sydneys-world-youth.html Gay Catholics to protest against pope on Sydney's World Youth Day Posted : Mon, 30 Jun 2008 09:40:01 GMT Author : DPA Category : Religion (General) Sydney - Gay and lesbian Catholics will demonstrate against Pope Benedict XVI when he visits Sydney next month for the World Youth Day celebrations, an advocacy group said Monday. The NoToPope Coalition said it hoped to organize 15,000 people to protest the "homophobic and antiquated ideas" of the pontiff, who will be on his first visit to Australia. The protesters plan to distribute condoms as they march to the racecourse venue where the pope will hold a Mass for up to 500,000 pilgrims. "He has said same-sex marriage, abortion and birth control are threats to world peace, yet without birth control and condoms we have a situation in South Africa with up to 1,000 people dying every day from AIDS," coalition spokeswoman Rachel Evans told Australia's AAP news agency. "We think the Catholic youth will be very interested in what we have to say." Police permission for the march has been sought. "We are going to save some lives and stop someone getting STI (sexually transmitted infections) by handing out condoms," Evans said. "It will be a very fun event as well, a lot of performances. We are looking at hopefully 10,000 to 15,000 involved, but it's very difficult to say at this stage." Pope Benedict will be in Australia July 13-21. http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/condom-protest-for-pilgrim-march/2008/06/24/1214073246965.html Condom protest for pilgrim march Rallying ? NoToPope members at St Mary's Cathedral. Photo: Jon Reid Advertisement Joel Gibson June 25, 2008 PILGRIMS will be handed condoms en route to the papal Mass at Randwick racecourse for World Youth Day as part of a protest against the Pope's views on homosexuality, contraception and abortion. NoToPope, a coalition of religious, atheist, gay and lesbian groups will hold a rally in Taylor Square from midday on Saturday, July 19. Protest organisers expect between 1000 and 5000 people. The Mass will be on July 20, after an overnight vigil. While the groups want the protest to be peaceful, they say they cannot guarantee there will be no confrontations with police or pilgrims. "We will say to them, 'take up the campaign within the Catholic Church to promote condoms'," said Rachel Evans, from Community Action Against Homophobia. "We're not planning to get into any trouble, we don't want to condemn Catholic youth for being Catholics. We want to condemn the Pope for being homophobic and 'anti-condom'. "We think Catholic youth are social justice-minded, we think they are taking up issues against poverty and world debt and we want to engage with them on the key question for the day for people in Third World countries, the health issue, which is HIV/AIDS." Ms Evans, 33, whose father was a Uniting Church minister, said the coalition would notify police of its route but she feared the NSW Government would be heavy-handed with protesters. Karl Hand, the pastor of the 200-strong Metropolitan Community Church, said he hoped Sydney's gay and lesbian community would show only love to pilgrims and police but he would not be surprised if confrontations occurred. He said the Catholic Church misrepresented Christianity and was "uncompassionate towards people who need condoms, abortions, recognition of their relationship". Other groups in the NoToPope Coalition include the Socialist Alliance, Resistance and Atheists Sydney. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/29/9974/ Published on Sunday, June 29, 2008 by the New York Times Law School Pays the Price in ???Don???t Ask??? Rule Protest by Katie Zezima SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. - A renewed fight over the military?s ?don?t ask, don?t tell? policy is being watched closely here on the campus of the Vermont Law School, a 600-student institution on the banks of the White River. The Vermont Law School is one of two law schools in the nation that bar military recruiters, as a protest against the 15-year-old rule that prevents openly gay men and lesbians from serving in the military. As a result, the school is denied some federal research money - $300,000 to $500,000 a year by one outside analyst?s estimate. ?Every once in a while an issue comes to a community and, despite a cost, it comes to the conclusion that it has to stand up for its principles,? said Jeff Shields, president and dean of the law school. ?It has to do with speaking truth to power, and it?s one of those roles that those of us lucky enough to be trained as lawyers hopefully take from time to time.? Last week, an advocacy group urging the repeal of the policy released a report saying the Army and Air Force had discharged a disproportionate number of women in 2007 because of the rule. And in May, a California appeals court reinstated a lawsuit challenging the policy, while a federal appeals court in Boston upheld it a month later. In 2006, the Supreme Court, in a unanimous ruling, upheld a law that withholds some federal money from law schools and universities that do not give military recruiters the same access to campus as other employers. ?If the Department of Defense finds a school is doing this, it notifies other federal agencies and funding gets cut off,? said Lt. Col. Les Melnyk, a department spokesman. The law, the Solomon Amendment, was challenged by a consortium of law schools and professors. Here in Vermont, the prospect of losing federal grants mattered to the small, independent law school, which has an endowment of $14 million. The fact that the school is not affiliated with a university, however, made the decision to forgo the money easier, because other programs are not affected. At most universities, federal grants help finance dozens of scientific and other research programs. The William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul also bars recruiters from its campus. The school is not losing any federal money, however, because its research is not financed out of four spending bills affected by the Solomon Amendment. ?It was a pretty simple application of our nondiscrimination policy,? said Eric S. Janus, president and dean of William Mitchell. ?It really arises out of our desire to make sure that all of our students have equal access to all opportunities, including the opportunity to serve in the military.? Paula C. Johnson, a professor at the Syracuse University College of Law and a co-president of the Society of American Law Teachers, one of the plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case, said the two institutions were keeping alive the issue of ?don?t ask, don?t tell? and its impact on law schools. ?They are the only institutions that have taken as dramatic and as principled a stance as they have, so it?s certainly put in the category of profiles in courage,? Professor Johnson said. ?They have done things that other schools have not done.? On campus here, the policy is often a topic of conversation. The college also sends students to Washington each year for lobby day, when they protest ?don?t ask, don?t tell.? Richard Eckley, a former marine and a second-year student, does not agree with the school?s decision to bar military recruiters, saying it is not constructive. But Kathy Stickel, a student who served in the Army and who is also a lesbian, does not think the school should change its policy. ?There?s great value in doing something right when there?s a cost attached to it,? Ms. Stickel said. ?You shouldn?t change because someone is waving money in front of you.? Alison Share, who graduated this year, said even though the school had not made a big splash with the decision, it had taught her a valuable lesson. ?It?s important to stand up, even when no one is watching,? Ms. Share said. http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/faith/20740299.html?location_refer=Local%20+%20Metro:highlightModules:1Uproar over prayer service for gays growsJoey McLeister, Star TribuneMichael Bayly is planning a lay service and a rally tonight outside St. Joanof Arc Catholic Church because the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapoliswon?t allow a prayer service to be focused on gays and lesbians. ?Thearchdiocese is now dictating to people who they can and cannot pray for,?Bayly said.By HER?N M?RQUEZ ESTRADA, Star TribuneLast update: June 25, 2008 - 6:18 AMFeatured commentStraight thinking???The archdiocese is now dictating to people who they can and cannot prayfor,??? Bayly said. Bayly is grandtsanding. People can pray ? read moreanything they want. The Church says you can hold a prayer service on Churchproperty that is focused on LGBT, clearly understood as sanctioning what theChurch holds is disordered behavior. Let's tell the truth. The Church is notdictating. "Archbishop Nienstedt's reign of homophobic hatred," DavidMcCaffrey ... said. again, political grandstanding. To believe other thanLGBT is to be homophobic (sic). How is that straight thinking? Were is theargument for LGBT beliefs? Dictums galore, but no reason, no logic.And ifone examines many other statements in the article, one sees easily thefailure of reason to carry the day for LGBT ideas.As he has done for a number of years, Michael Bayly will arrive tonight atSt. Joan of Arc Church ready to celebrate his God, his faith and hishomosexuality.But this year, Bayly and other Catholic gays and lesbians will not beallowed to celebrate their lifestyle in the church sanctuary following anedict handed down by Archbishop John Nienstedt, who has barred the annualgay pride prayer service at the south Minneapolis church.In protest, Bayly and others have decided to hold their own lay serviceoutside the church tonight. They are also calling for a mass rally at thechurch tonight to condemn the archdiocese.The annual gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender service, designed tocoincide with gay pride week celebrations, instead will be characterized asa "peace" service, said Dennis McGrath, a spokesman for Nienstedt and theArchdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis."Celebrating the GLBT lifestyle is contrary to the teachings of ourchurch -- plain and simple," McGrath said.The ban has caused an uproar inside and outside the church, which for yearshas been known as a liberal bastion supporting GLBT people.Most of the anger has been focused on Nienstedt, who took over as archbishoprecently and almost immediately angered local gays.This is "yet another volley of dehumanizing spiritual violence directed atGLBT persons and their families under Archbishop Nienstedt's reign ofhomophobic hatred," David McCaffrey, a board member of the Catholic PastoralCommittee on Sexual Minorities (CPCSM), said in an e-mail Monday to members."The archdiocese is now dictating to people who they can and cannot prayfor, and that deeply concerns me," said Bayly, executive director of theCPCSM. "This certainly does not celebrate the presence of God in the livesof gay people. They are dictating to gay people how to have a good life."http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/06/europe/gays.phpNationalist protesters disrupt gay march in BudapestThe Associated PressPublished: July 6, 2008BUDAPEST: Dozens of protesters clashed with police officers escorting amarch by gays and lesbians through the center of Budapest.At least 45 protesters were detained and two police officers injured in theclashes on Saturday, said Eva Tafferner, a police spokeswoman.The protesters pelted the marchers with eggs, bottles and rocks, and threwcobblestones and gasoline bombs at the police, setting fire to a police van.Police officers used water cannons and tear gas to disperse the protestersat several points along Andrassy Avenue, a boulevard in central Budapest.Katalin Levai, a member of the European Parliament for the HungarianSocialist Party, told the Hungarian state news agency MTI that protestersbroke the window of a police car in which she was riding in with GaborSzetey, a former state secretary in Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany'scabinet, who last year became the first government official to announce hewas gay.Levai and Szetey took part in the gay march and were leaving the area nearHeroes' Square, a large open space at the edge of City Park, in the policecar when it was attacked.There were no reports of anyone in the car being injured.The "Dignity March," which was organized by gay groups, began at one end ofAndrassy Avenue, while the protesters gathered at the opposite end and atother intersections.The police tried to protect the march by setting up high metal barriers onboth sides of the avenue and by restricting access to the areas where themarch took place.Most of the clashes took place at Heroes' Square, where a monument tohistoric Hungarian leaders is flanked by two arts museums.Skirmishes between the protesters and the police lasted at least three hoursbefore appearing to wind down by about 7 p.m.Gay groups had said that they were marching in part to repudiate severalrecent attacks against them.A gay bar and a massage parlor were attacked with Molotov cocktails, but noone was injured and little damage was done to the buildings.The protesters, many of them from ultra-nationalist groups, said the gaymarch was "disgusting" and "shameful," and they vowed to "clean up thefilth."Starting in January, all Hungarians involved in long-term relationships willbe allowed to register their partnerships and enjoy some of the benefits ofmarried couples, such as inheriting from each other. This will apply toheterosexuals and gays.http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_South%20Africa&set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20080708055915348C466768Protest against lesbian killings July 08 2008 at 07:41AMBy Mziwandile NkosiA year ago their bodies were found dumped in the veld. They had both beenshot.But today the families of lesbians Sizakele Sigasa and Salome Maoosa arestill no closer to finding their children's killers.Instead they spent the day taking part in the 07-07-07 Campaign march to endhate, which was organised in commemoration of the deaths.Sigasa and Maoosa were allegedly raped and then shot dead before theirbodies were dumped in Zone 1 Meadowlands, Soweto.To date police have not arrested anyone for the murders, promptingyesterday's march, which formed part of the organisation's campaign againstthe slowness of the police in investigating crimes committed against gaysand lesbians in South Africa.The year-long investigation into the deaths of the two women suffered a blowwhen the main suspect allegedly shot himself before the police could takehim in for questioning.Meadowlands police Director Vuyokazi Ndebele said an inquest docket had beenopened into the man's death.He added that they were were awaiting DNA results which could possibly linkthe man to the murders."This has been a year of horror for us, knowing that a year has passed andno one has been convicted of the crimes," said Mpumi Mathabela, of the Forumfor Empowerment of Women.Sigasa and Maoosa are not the only homosexuals to have been killed.Among many others, former Banyana Banyana soccer player Eudy Simelane wasgang-raped and murdered in April this year at KwaThema in Ekurhuleni.Dorcas Lynch, spokesperson for the Masooa family, said: "It was terrible towake up this morning knowing that the murderers are still at large."And by coming out here today we are exposing ourselves to unknown attacks.It is difficult for families to stand up for their gay children in thecommunity."http://www.cbs8.com/story.php?id=134946Protesters Encourage Boycott of Manchester Grand HyattWatch VideoLast Updated:07-19-08 at 12:20PMOpposing groups of protesters gathered outside the Manchester Grand Hyattdowntown Friday, as the gay marriage debate focused on the hotel owner'spolitical activity.At issue was Doug Manchester's $125,000 donation to back a measure banningsame-sex marriage on the November ballot.Those in favor of the proposition showed their support for Manchester, whilegay and lesbian activists carried signs across the street and encouraged aboycott against the Manchester Grand Hyatt.Despite Manchester's donation, a spokesperson for the hotel says it isgay-friendly.http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2364274,00.htmlProtest over gay comments25/07/2008 15:33 - (SA)Tasneem SolomonsCape Town - Cape Town Pride held a protest outside the Media24 building inCape Town on Friday in response to the comments by Sunday Sun columnist JonQwelane.Qwelane angered the gay community by writing that he could only praypoliticians would one day have "the balls" to scrap the sections in theConstitution that sanctioned gay and lesbian marriages.He also predicted that soon people would start demanding the right to marryanimals.Protesters, sporting pink cowboy hats, shouted slogans like: "Fire Qwelane","We are wild, but we are not animals", "Down with hate speech" and "We arenot Zimbabwe".Organiser of the peaceful protest and chairperson of Cape Town Pride, IanMcMahon, handed a petition to the CEO of Media24's newspaper publishingdivision Abraham van Zyl, calling for an apology and for the media house tosuspend ties with Qwelane.McMahon also urged editors to be more sensitised to homophobia.When asked what action will be taken if their demands are not met, McMahonresponded by saying that "no battle plan had been set yet," as the decisionto protest happened so quickly.Glenn De Swardt, director of Cape Town Pride, added that "freedom of speechshouldn't infringe on human rights".De Swardt said that editors should take responsibility for what is publishedand, if they don't, then it should become the responsibility of thepublishing houses.Media24 statementVan Zyl issued a statement to McMahon, which reads:Media24 acknowledges the protest arising from Jon Qwelane's column in SundaySun dated 20 July 2008 and does not associate itself with the contents ofthe article.We respect the rights of complainants to express themselves freely in thismatter and the recourse they may have.Media24 also respects the editorial integrity of its titles and therefore itmust be the prerogative of the editor of the Sunday Sun to respond to thecomplaints.http://membracid.wordpress.com/2008/05/01/how-to-constructively-protest-hate-speech/How to Constructively Protest Hate SpeechMichigan, unfortunately, has become a home to many neo-nazi types recently.So I?ve had to deal with not only noose incidents, but an actual, bona fide,student hate group. Ugh.The student hate group invited Ryan Sorba, author of a (unpublished) bookcalled ?The Born Gay Hoax?, to Michigan State University. (The talk wasadvertised with flyers proclaiming ?Gays Spread AIDS?, by the way.)Sorba repeatedly makes a connection between homosexuality and childmolestation, and uses some very distorted readings of some very speciouspapers to try to prove that homosexuality is an unnatural choice. He?d alsolike to recriminalize sodomy.He?s obviously full of BS, so I won?t go into debunking that here. Shortversion: He?s nasty and hateful.Sorba also recently visited Smith College, and the two visits couldn?t bemore different.At Smith College: (Via Pam?s House Blend)?After about twenty minutes he was forced to abandon his speech afterprotesters forced their way into the room and drowned him out.?From MSU: (Via HateWatch)?About 100 MSU students made it to the talk. At least two-thirds wereanti-YAF demonstrators who silently protested Sorba?s message by wearingbrightly colored ?I Have a Story? T-shirts and holding signs aloftthroughout Sorba?s 90-minute presentation.?There also was a ?Seven Nights for Equal Rights? series of programs thatfocused on bringing positive speakers, and a showing of the film ?For theBible Tells me So.? And a fundraiser where people pledged a penny for eachWord of Hate uttered by Sorba to the Michigan Equality Campaign.Same hate speech; two very different treatments. Which is better?Discusshttp://www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=5225http://www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=A322700D69FD357E7DADC06B6E1CBCFD?diaryId=5225Smith College students give 'Born Gay Hoax' author a piece of their mindsby: Pam SpauldingWed Apr 30, 2008 at 10:00:00 AM EDT(UPDATE (5/1): I haven't been in this thread since I posted it, and it'sinteresting to see the steelcage match going on in here. I personally thinkthat shouting down someone like Sorba isn't particularly useful; I'd ratherhear the speech and rip on it after the fact, simply because you'll get theex-gay crowd making statements about free speech and suppression of theirbeliefs. After all, we wouldn't have that completely unhinged speech ofSorba's from Cali if he had been shouted down. And to the emailer whoaccused me of "shutting down the comments", that's absurd. I don't seeanyone having difficulty commenting.)From a reader up at Smith College, Annie R., who passed along this video ofa protest against a recloseted homosexual author of an anti-gay :The Smith College Republicans sponsored a speaking event featuring RyanSorba, author of the upcoming book The Born Gay Hoax. After about twentyminutes he was forced to abandon his speech after protesters forced theirway into the room and drowned him out. I'll send videos and articles whenthey are available, but I thought I'd give you a heads up and ask you toplease cover this action. I couldn't be more proud to be a Smithie rightnow, after I saw so many amazing young feminists come together to stand upagainst this asshat and his hate.http://www.sandiego6.com/political/story.aspx?content_id=603d6965-bb44-4137-b999-7f45fcf422a8Anti-Gay Marriage Fundraiser in Rancho Santa Fe Attracts ProtestersReported by: San Diego 6 News TeamEmail: newstips at sandiego6.comLast Update: 8/20 5:23 pmProtesters gathered outside a Rancho Sante Fe home Saturday afternoon wherethe Republican Party of San Diego sponsored a fundraiser for supporters of aconstitutional amendment to end gay marriage in California.About 25 protesters held up signs at people driving into the event at theSouth Pointe Farms development, said protest organizer Fred Karger from thegroup Californians Against Hate.The event was held at the home of Charles and Barbara LiMandri. CharlesLiMandri is an attorney who is active in Catholic and GOP circles, and aleader in the battle to save the Mount Soledad Cross. LiMandri is also thegeneral counsel for the National Organization for Marriage California.Among the speakers were Salvatore Cordileone, auxiliary bishop of theCatholic Diocese of San Diego; Brian Brown, executive director of theNational Organization for Marriage; and Ron Prentice, the chairman ofProtectMarriage.com.Protesters tried to give attendees a fact sheet with quotes on civil rightsfrom such Republicans as Ronald Reagan, Barry Goldwater, Gov. ArnoldSchwarzenegger and San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, said protest organizerFred Karger.About half the attendees took the fact sheet and everyone was polite, hesaid."I gave one to (KOGO radio talk show host) Roger Hedgecock personally, whois the emcee,'' Karger said. "He kind of smiled.''Recently the state Supreme Court ruled an earlier ballot measure thatoutlawed same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, prompting the effort tochange the constitution to make it illegal again.The fundraiser also and featured congressional candidates Duncan D. Hunterand Michael Crimmins and San Diego City Council candidate Phil Thalheimer."This is truly the fringe element of the Republican Party,? saidCalifornians Against Hate Founder Fred Karger. ?These people are out ofstep with the Republican Party.""We hope to inform those attending about the rich history and philosophiesof so many Republican leaders who fought for equality and againstdiscrimination and hate," said Karger.An invitation to the "Yes on Prop. 8" fundraiser asked participants to "joinus in the battle to save marriage."Congressional candidate Hunter stated his opposition to gay marriage whenthe California Supreme Court made it legal."The Court brazenly disregarded the will of the people and sent Californiadown a road that will destroy traditional family values," said Hunter inMay. "I am committed to working to make sure this decision is overturned andthat these liberal judges understand the gravity of what they have done."The Californians Against Hate group has also mounted a boycott of theManchester Grand Hyatt in downtown San Diego and two other hotels owned byProposition 8 financial backer Doug Manchester.http://www.365gay.com/news/081808-india-gay-protest/India gays protest for sodomy law repeal08.18.2008 12:44pm EDT(Mumbai, India) More than 600 people - three times the number organizersexpected - marched through Mumbai on the weekend in the city?s first gaypride parade.Send / ShareAdd Comment"LGBT rights groups have been campaigning for repeal of the sodomy law fornearly a decade."While the parade had the marking of most Western pride celebrations,marchers also carried a strong message to the government - repeal the lawsagainst sodomy.Homosexuality is illegal in India, punishable by up to 10 yearsimprisonment. People living with HIV/AIDS are frequently shunned by theirfamilies.The sodomy law was enacted during British rule over India. Ater independencein 1947, the law remained on the books and police regularly enforce it.LGBT rights groups have been campaigning for repeal of the law for nearly adecade. A legal challenge to the law is expected to be heard later thisyear by the Supreme Court.Among the marchers were several high profile Indian film and televisioncelebrities and a handful of lawmakers.Prior to the parade, there were concerns police would deny a permit for themarch. The form was signed and delivered to organizers just hours before itwas scheduled to begin.?Closets are for clothes,? marchers chanted. Many of them were wearingmasks.Organizers of the parade also called on Britain to officially apologize forintroducing the sodomy law in the first place.?We call on the British government to apologize for the immense sufferingthat has resulted from their imposition of Section 377. And we call on theIndian government to abandon this abhorrent alien legacy of the Raj thatshould have left our shores when the British did,? said a statement releasedto the media by parade organizers. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Thu Aug 28 20:19:54 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2008 04:19:54 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Ecological protests, global South and East, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <00a401c90986$1d265990$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * CHINA: March against petrochemical plant over pollution * CHINA: Protests as Three Gorges Dam completed, one protester jumps in dam * EGYPT: Protests against fertiliser plant succeed: plant cancelled * GLOBAL: Via Campesina protests at biodiversity conference * PHILIPPINES: Protest at Korean embassy over controversial mine * SOUTH AFRICA: Police stop protest cycle ride * KENYA: Politicians protest destruction of forest * BULGARIA: Activists protest resort development, threats to national park * PHILIPPINES: Protest to save mountain from miners * INDIA: Orissa anti-mining protest * HAWAII: Protests at landfill * PHILIPPINES: Iloilo coal site protested by Greenpeace * BANGLADESH: Tree felling in capital opposed * THAILAND: Villagers launch paper lanterns over airport in noise protest * INDIA: After ongoing campaign, partial success for Bhopal protesters * SOUTH AFRICA: Protests over water pollution from mining * INDIA: Rallies against destruction of coastal areas for corridor * INDIA: Protest in Kerala against granite quarry * INDIA: Villagers protest development which threatens shrine * INDIA: Protests in Karnataka for and against conservation officer * US: Boaters fight to save lower Rio Grande from border fence * INDIA: Greenpeace climate change protest in New Delhi * PHILIPPINES: Protests grow over logging go-ahead * INDIA: Protests stall tree-cutting in Kerala * INDIA: Lakeside road protested * CZECH REPUBLIC: Greens protest over new building project * CZECH REPUBLIC: Greenpeace protests over nuclear power * PERU: Greenpeace protests biofuels at Machu Picchu * INDIA: Ganga anti-dam protesters chased off by locals, move to capital * PAKISTAN: Protest over unloading of cement and coal, pollution of villages, islands * TAIWAN: Environmental groups protest road-building * BANGLADESH: Sit-in protest against university building project * NAMIBIA: Ecological group protests plans for regular concert in green area * UGANDA: DDT spraying causes controversy * PHILIPPINES: Farmers protest GM crops * INDIA: Bangalore residents protest against traffic intrusion, hazard * INDIA: Protest against bauxite mining by bow-wielding protesters * INDIA: Women clean diamond tank in novel protest * LEBANON: Greenpeace protests Sidon rubbish heap * PAKISTAN: Tuticorn fisherfolk protest commercialisation * TAIWAN: Protest against electromagnetic radiation as PM visits WiMAX convention * PHILIPPINES: Greenpeace holds protest at energy ministry against coal * INDIA: Dharna against thermal power plant * PHILIPPINES: Activists climb off-limits mountain to oppose oil extraction threat * ISRAEL: School students protest condition of Acre beaches * NIGERIA: Community Protests Sale of Burial Ground * TURKEY: Nuclear power plant plan protested * LEBANON: High-voltage power lines draw protest over health risk * INDIA: Greenpeace protest to save olives, oppose steel company * BRAZIL, MEXICO: Nude cyclists protest pollution, danger in Sao Paolo and Mexico City http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/05/asia/AS-GEN-China-Environment-Protest.php Report: 200 demonstrate in southwest China against petrochemical plant The Associated Press Published: May 5, 2008 BEIJING: About 200 people demonstrated in southwestern China against the building of a petrochemical plant they say will pollute their city, state media reported Monday. The Beijing News said the protest march Sunday in Pengzhou, near the provincial capital of Chengdu in Sichuan province, lasted two hours and was peaceful. The protesters oppose plans to build an 800,000-ton-a-year ethylene plant and oil refinery, it said. The refinery would process 10 million tons of crude a year, the newspaper said. "Because they are concerned that these two plants will seriously pollute Chengdu's air and water, the people of Chengdu used today's walk as a way to protest," the newspaper quoted one unidentified resident as saying. China's National Development and Reform Commission approved the refinery's construction at the end of April. The contract was signed in March 2007 with the local government. A spokesman for the Sichuan Environmental Protection bureau defended the project, saying it meets government environmental standards. "Scientists and experts have already researched the potential impact the project will have on the environment and have determined that the factory will not harm its surrounding environment," said the official, who gave only his surname, Peng. "Public and media concern over the issue is a positive thing, but they are not the experts, and we must respect the opinion of these experts," he said. Ethylene is a common industrial chemical that can be fatal in high concentrations. A spokesman for the Pengzhou government who refused to give his name said he had not heard of the protest. Officials who answered the telephone at the Chengdu police and government offices also said they had not heard of it. Environmental protests have grown in China, especially among members of the growing middle class concerned about the effect of pollution on their quality of life. Last May, Tenglong Aromatic PX (Xiamen) Co. Ltd. was forced to halt construction of a US$1.4 billion (?910 million) facility to produce the petrochemical paraxylene in the southern port city of Xiamen after residents sent more than 1 million text messages warning of possible pollution problems. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/06/world/asia/06china.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin In China City, Protesters See Pollution Risk of New Plant Associated Press Protesters wore masks as a symbolic gesture against the construction of a polyethylene chemical factory in Chengdu, China, on Sunday. By EDWARD WONG Published: May 6, 2008 Correction Appended BEIJING ? Residents took to the streets of a provincial capital over the weekend to protest a multibillion-dollar petrochemical plant backed by China?s leading state-run oil company, in the latest instance of popular discontent over an environmental threat in a major city. The protest, against a $5.5 billion ethylene plant under construction by PetroChina in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, reflected a surge in environmental awareness by urban, middle-class Chinese determined to protect their health and the value of their property. A similar protest last year, against a Taiwanese-financed petrochemical venture in Xiamen, in China?s southeast, left that project in limbo. The recent protest, which was peaceful, was organized through Web sites, blogs and cellphone text messages, illustrating how some Chinese are using digital technology to start civic movements, which are usually banned by the police. Organizers also used text messages to publicize their cause nationally. The protesters walked calmly through downtown Chengdu for several hours on Sunday afternoon to criticize the building of a combined ethylene plant and oil refinery in Pengzhou, 18 miles northwest of the city center. Some protesters wore white masks over their mouths to evoke the dangers of pollution. About 400 to 500 protesters took part in the march, witnesses said. Organizers circumvented a national law that requires protesters to apply for a permit by saying they were only out for a ?stroll.? Critics of the Pengzhou plan said in interviews on Monday that the government had not done proper environmental reviews of the project, which could pollute the air and water and lead to health hazards. ?We?re not dissidents,? said Wen Di, an independent blogger and former journalist living in Chengdu. ?We?re just people who care about our homeland. What we?re saying is that if you want to have this project, you need to follow certain procedures: for example, a public hearing and independent environmental assessment. We want a fair and open process.? Fan Xiao, an environmental advocate who is a geologist with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Chengdu, sent out a mass cellphone message that had been written by one of the movement?s leaders and was being widely circulated across the country. ?Protect our Chengdu, safeguard our homeland,? it said. ?Stay away from the threat of pollution. Restore the clear water and green mountains of Sichuan.? In an interview, Mr. Fan said, ?People have been hoping this issue would get more attention.? The protest captured the national spotlight on Monday when it was reported in The Beijing News, a newspaper that is popular with intellectuals and sometimes reports on issues that other state-run publications do not mention. The plant is a joint venture of the Sichuan provincial government and PetroChina, the publicly traded subsidiary of the state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation, the country?s main oil producer. Approved last year, the plant is expected to produce 800,000 tons of ethylene and refine 10 million tons of crude oil a year, according to a Web site set up by the Pengzhou city government. Ethylene is widely used in the production of goods like packaging and trash liners. Repeated calls to the joint venture company, PetroChina Sichuan Petrochem Industry, went unanswered. The project?s Web site said that $565 million of the total investment would be dedicated to environmental protection. The march appears to have put government officials on the defensive. A brief front-page article arguing the merits of the project appeared Monday in a state-controlled newspaper, Chengdu Business News. The article said the project had been approved by the National Development and Reform Commission as part of a long-term plan to expand the country?s refining industry. ?The Sichuan refinery project will install advanced equipment and improve environmental protection facilities with strict pollution prevention,? the article said. Police officials in Chengdu, reached by telephone, declined to comment on the march. Rural protests by farmers have taken place for years, sometimes prompting heavy-handed suppression. Civil action by wealthier urban residents are still relatively rare, but the movement in Chengdu is at least the third widely publicized groundswell in the past year. Construction of a Taiwanese-financed chemical plant outside the city of Xiamen, a port in Fujian Province, was halted last year after thousands of residents held street protests. Last winter, residents in Shanghai protested construction of an extension to the high-speed rail line called the Maglev, forcing officials to put that project on hold as well. In each of those cases, residents complained that the project was situated too close to a major population center and had received only cursory environmental review despite serious environmental and health risks. The protests in Xiamen and Shanghai got prominent attention on Web sites and in the Chinese news media, which, despite state control, have sometimes encouraged more public participation in environmental issues. Protest organizers in each city appear to have no formal links, but they have formed a tight-knit blogging network that they use to trade ideas in an online world that the police, particularly at the local level, have trouble trying to control. One outspoken critic of the Chengdu project posts regularly on one site that is frequented by Lian Yue, a blogger who was instrumental in organizing the Xiamen protests. ?We?re definitely inspired by the events in Xiamen and Shanghai,? said the critic, who asked to be identified only by her family name, Wu, because she said she worried about attracting the attention of the authorities. ?Chengdu is in a basin,? she said. ?If there?s a chemical plant there, it?ll bring pollutants. Also, Pengzhou is upstream from Chengdu, and the river provides the city?s drinking water.? On Sunday night and Monday, a flurry of messages and photos from protesters excited by the march appeared across the Internet. One person calling himself Devil Xiaomi seemed to sum up the complaints of Chengdu residents. ?What Chengdu people demand is very simple,? he said. ?This is a policy closely related to people?s interests, so why was it not open to the public?? http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2008/07/25/2003418411 Police fish protester from Three Gorges Dam site AFP, BEIJING Friday, Jul 25, 2008, Page 5 Chinese authorities had to drag a woman from the water as she protested the evacuation of the last town to be submerged by the Three Gorges Dam project, a local campaigner said yesterday. The last residents in Gaoyang, Hubei Province, were removed from their homes on Tuesday to make way for the reservoir that will expand behind the giant dam that sits astride the Yangtze river. They are the last of the more than 1.4 million people the government says have been displaced by the dam. ?A few hundred people came to dismantle the houses from [July] 18 to the 22nd [of July],? said a resident of Gaoyang by telephone, who did not want to be named for fear of reprisals by authorities. The final evacuees were deeply unhappy about moving, said the resident, who is also a leading campaigner for the rights of the displaced people. ?Many people have no place to stay now. We have to stay at relatives? places. The compensation is not what we expected, it is not enough,? the campaigner said. ?One local resident was too upset, she jumped into the water and was rescued by government officials and is still recovering in the hospital,? he said. Xinhua news agency said Gaoyang, with 988 households, had been cleared to make way for the water to rise, saying it was the last town to be evacuated. http://www.khaleejtimes.com/darticlen.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2008/July/theworld_July1331.xml§ion=theworld&col= The evacuation will allow the water level behind the 22-billion-dollar dam to rise from 156 metres to 175 metres (512 to 574 feet), and the campaigner said it had already started to climb into the village. At least 1.4 million people have been forced to resettle from now-submerged areas, according to official figures. A further four million have been ?encouraged? to move by 2020, officials said last year, although the government now insists those relocations are unrelated to the dam. Critics of the dam have long alleged massive corruption in the resettlement programme, while many displaced people have been forced to leave their rural lifestyles to live in cities without adequate training or compensation. At 2,309 metres wide and 185 metres high, the Three Gorges Dam is the world's largest and is set to become fully operational in 2009. http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/223665,egypt-cancels-fertilizer-plant-dogged-by-protests.html Egypt cancels fertilizer plant dogged by protests Posted : Tue, 05 Aug 2008 18:53:36 GMT Author : DPA Category : Middle East (World) Cairo - Egypt cancelled Tuesday a nitrogen fertilizer plant that Canadian company Agrium was planning to build near a beach resort on the Mediterranean coast after months of protest by residents, the official MENA news agency reported. The Egyptian Supreme Council for Energy (SCE) decided to cancel the controversial industrial project and never to build another without the approval of civil society in Damietta governorate. The council said after a meeting chaired by Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif that "no industrial projects will be allowed on the site previously allocated to Agrium. Tourist projects should be given first priority." Agrium, Canada's second largest fertilizer producer, announced in May 2007 that it would build the Egyptian plant which will boost its nitrogen production by 20 per cent by 2010. However, the local community was alarmed by what it perceived as potential hazards to public health. The public, joined by local environmental campaigners, staged protests to stop the construction of the 850-million-dollar Egyptian-Canadian project. Protestors also said the plant, which would have produced 1.2 million tonnes of urea a year, would have harmed the environment of the resort which is hugely popular among middle-class Egyptians who flock to it for their summer holidays. Although a parliamentary committee said earlier that the plant would be safe, it recommended the project be moved to another site. The SCE said state-owned Misr Oil Processing Co. (MOPCO) would acquire the shares of the Agrium Egypt subsidiary and carry out Agrium's plans on another site. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42739 EGYPT: Protests Rise Against Fertiliser Plant By Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani CAIRO, Jun 11 (IPS) - For the last two months, controversy has raged over planned construction of a massive fertiliser plant near the port city of Damietta. Residents fear the plant could adversely affect the local environment. With a popular campaign against the project gaining momentum, some critics blame poor planning on the part of the government. "The government should never have approved construction of an industrial zone only six kilometres from the city," Hamdi Abdelazim, economist and former head of the Cairo-based Sadat Academy told IPS. "Industrial areas should be built at least 40 kilometres from population centres." Last year, the government initially approved the project, which is to be built and operated by Canadian-Egyptian joint venture firm E Agrium at a total cost of 850 million dollars. Construction began on the nearby island of Ras al-Barr, about 200 km from Cairo, shortly afterwards. In April, however, residents began voicing concern over the plant's potentially negative impact on public health and the local environment. Civil society groups expressed fears that factory emissions could cause cancer among those living nearby, and damage the coastal area's fragile marine ecosystem. Such concerns quickly led to a popular campaign against the project, which was soon joined -- with the help of popular networking website Facebook -- by a number of local political activists and environmentalist groups. In late April, with most homes in Damietta draped with black banners reading 'No to the factory of death', thousands of residents held demonstrations demanding that the plant be relocated. Company officials hastened to vouch for the project's environmental friendliness. "Our plant achieves the highest environmental safety levels," E Agrium managing director Craig McGlown was quoted as saying in the local press. "Emissions from the plant will be half the maximum stipulated in (Egyptian) environmental laws." Company officials pointed out that some 500 million dollars had already been spent during the project's initial phase of construction. Should the factory be relocated, they said, the firm would expect substantial reimbursements from the government. According to Abdelazim, relocating the plant at this stage would have disastrous effects on the country's image as a safe destination for foreign investment. "Moving a major industrial project after construction has begun would further undermine Egypt's imperfect reputation," he said. "The local investment climate is already hampered by an overabundance of red tape and administrative corruption." Along with trade 'liberalisation' and the privatisation of state assets, attracting foreign investment to Egypt remains a central plank of the government, which -- under pro-business PM Ahmed Nazif -- includes a number of prominent businessmen. In a recent policy statement, Nazif announced that Egypt had lured a total of 11 billion dollars worth of foreign investment capital over the course of 2007. Abdelazim blamed government mismanagement rather than the Canadian firm, or the local population, for the impasse. "The coastal region around Damietta should be slated for tourism, not industrial investment," he said. "That the government chose the area for a heavy industrial project shows a lack of intelligent overall investment strategy." Despite rumours that the factory would be moved elsewhere, Damietta residents were disappointed last month when company officials reaffirmed their intention to complete the project at the original location. "The people of Damietta have expressed their concern over the plant's impact on public health, and we listened carefully to them," McGlown said at a press conference in mid-May. Nevertheless, he added, construction of the factory in Damietta was set to continue, as relocation would require "starting from scratch." An environmental consultant for the company went on to stress that the project did not represent a danger to public health or the environment, noting that the firm had obtained the approval of "all concerned governmental agencies." The row, however, did not end there. In the weeks since, residents and environmentalist groups have sent numerous petitions to the office of President Hosni Mubarak, urging him to call off the project. One member of Damietta's municipal council reportedly filed a lawsuit against the company alleging it had secured approval for the factory by paying kickbacks to government officials. Meanwhile, popular demonstrations against perceived government unwillingness to halt the project continue to be held both in Damietta and Cairo. On Friday (Jun. 6), thousands of Damietta residents participated in another major protest organised by the recently established Popular Committee to Protect the Environment. "If the factory isn't removed, we'll remove it with our own hands," demonstrators chanted, according to the Jun. 7 edition of independent daily al-Dustour. The issue has served to highlight the widening fissure between the pro-business orientation of Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party and public exasperation with a government seen to be out of touch with public interest. "It's as if the government were in a coma," Magdi Hussein, general secretary of the frozen Labour party who participated in Friday's demonstration told IPS. "It appears to be completely unaware of the public mood on this issue." "The entire episode proves the failure of this government of businessmen," said Abdelazim. "Its policies work in the interests of a small ruling elite -- not for the average citizen." (END/2008) http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/05/399514.html Via Campesina protests at the Convention on Biological Diversity Almuth Ernsting | 25.05.2008 11:54 | Bio-technology | Ecology | Globalisation | World During the current Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) conference in Bonn, Via Campesina and other social movements and activists have been organising a series of protests under the motto "Nature for people, not for business". 22nd May saw a banner protest, with noise and leafletting during the official celebrations of Biodiversity and at an agribusiness industry lunch. On 'Biodiversity Day', members and supporters of Via Campesina held a banner protest during the official celebrations at the CBD Conference, following a message by UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon which was read out by the Programme Officer of the Secretariat of the CBD. The banners read "No Agrodiversity Without Farmers" and "Nature for People, Not for business." Earlier in the day, a lunch sponsored by agribusiness was disrupted by a 'party' where "agro-industrialists" congratulated each other for their excellent job at monopolising farm seeds and destroying biodiversity. See here for more information and photos: http://www.globaljusticeecology.org/connections.php?ID=133 Throughout the past two weeks, social movements, including Via Campesina, and activist networks have been protesting against corporations using the biodiversity negotiations to increase their control over natural resources. There have been protests against against biopiracy, the commodification of nature, against agrofuels and genetic engineering. See here for more: http://biotech.indymedia.org/ http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryID=121380 Protestors picket S. Korean embassy in Manila over mine Agence France-Presse Environmentalists picketed the South Korean embassy in Manila on Wednesday to demand the closure of a controversial Korean-controlled mine in the eastern Philippines, witnesses said. The protesters urged LG International and Seoul's investment arm, the Korean Resources Corp. (Kores) to pull out of the project. The South Koreans took over control of the project in April after its previous operator, Lafayette of Australia, pulled out over environmental issues. "There is no reason to continue the Lafayette mining project. It's three-year operation in Rapu-rapu island has brought so much environmental destruction, community displacements, human rights violations and livelihood loss," the environmental group Kalikasan claimed in a statement. Officials of the mission ignored the protest, which later dispersed peacefully, an Agence France-Presse photographer said. The LG Group and Kores acquired Lafayette's majority stake shortly after the mine was fined for spills which contaminated surrounding waters in 2005. The Rapu-rapu project was the first foreign-operated Philippine project to reach the production stage after the Supreme Court upheld the legality of a 1995 mining law which opened the sector to foreign investment. President Gloria Arroyo has called for more foreign capital into the sector, which she says has huge potential to reduce poverty in hinterland areas where most of the Philippines' mineral wealth is located. http://www.thestar.co.za/?fSectionId=129&fArticleId=nw20080805121830688C737306 Metro cops stop cycle protest ride 5 August 2008, 12:23 Related Articles Hit-and-run driver still on the run The plight of cyclists Dead cyclist described as a gentleman Metro police attempted to stop cyclists who converged at Durban's King's Park pool on Tuesday for a "protest ride" which police said was illegal. The protest action by Cyclesafe comes after retired dentist Willem van Heerden was killed in a hit and run last week, while another four cyclists were injured in a similar incident days later. The organisation's Lyndon Kelly said they wanted government to create a safer environment for all in the cycle community. Kelly said the protest ride would end at city hall where a memorandum detailing their concerns would be handed to the municipality. The Daily News reported that city authorities had denied cyclists the right to stage the protest ride as cyclists gathered for it on Tuesday morning. In a letter sent to Cyclesafe KwaZulu-Natal, the municipality's health, safety and social services cluster advised the cyclists that should the protest ride go ahead, it would be deemed illegal because the city had not been given the adequate seven-day notice. Newly appointed metro police spokesperson Superintendent Joyce Khuzwayo was not available for comment. A police officer at metro police radio control confirmed that attempts had been made to stop the cyclists from proceeding with their protest ride. "We barricaded certain parts near Kings Park pool but some of them managed to go through," the police officer said. - Sapa http://allafrica.com/stories/200807240113.html Kenya: Protests Over Mau Invasion The Nation (Nairobi) 24 July 2008 Posted to the web 24 July 2008 George Sayagie And Kennedy Masibo Nairobi Sixty councillors on Wednesday called for urgent action to stop the destruction of Mau Forest. Led by Narok county council chairman Solomon Moriaso, the civic leaders said the rape of the water catchment was an ecological disaster that must be stopped. They also supported plans to evict farmers from the Mau. The group claimed that illegal settlers were trooping to the forest hoping to be resettled alongside genuine squatters. "If more illegal immigrants are allowed into the catchment area and those who were settled are not evicted, Tourism at the Masaai Mara Game Reserve and the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania will collapse in a short period," said Mr Moriaso at a Press conference in Molo Town. The councillors said more than 10 million people in Ololongoi, Olpusimoru, Olokurto, Ololulunga, Ewaso Nyiro, Mulot, Bomet and other areas depended directly on the 12 rivers originating from the Mau Forest and would be adversely affected by the destruction. Task force Meanwhile, the Ogiek Welfare Council has criticised the newly-formed taskforce on the Mau, saying it ought to have included more interest groups. The coordinator of the lobby group, Mr Kimaiyo Towett, said the taskforce's report would have far reaching effects on communities such as the Ogiek. The community is already represented in the team picked by Prime Minister Raila Odinga. Mr Towett said the various individuals in the taskforce had competing interests which were bound to affect its mission. The official also suggested that the names of the beneficiaries be made public and that genuine squatters be given alternative land. He said that some parts of the Mau were not water catchment areas and could be used as farmland. According to him, the Government should also give those affected reasonable time to move out. Compensated He agreed with National Heritage minister William ole Ntimama that speculators were trooping to Western Mau and Masaai Mau following the Government's directive that settlers in the forest would be compensated. "We suspect the influx has got to do with the pending eviction so that there is a huge population to deal with in the affected area," Mr Towett said. The taskforce is expected to give its report before October, by which time settlers are required to have left the forest. http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=95661 Eco Activists Stage New Protests against Tsarevo Sea Resort Development Plan 31 July 2008, Thursday Eco Activists Stage New Protests against Tsarevo Sea Resort Development Plan: About 60 eco-activists gathered Thursday in front of the Environment Ministry building in Sofia to stage a protest against a plan for development of Bulgaria's Black Sea resort of Tsarevo. The protesters insist that all illegal construction on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast and in the areas included in the NATURA 2000 ecological network is immediately stopped. They say that the new plan for development of Tsarevo contradicts European directives. If the plan is approved that would mean the natural park of Strandzha will be destroyed, the ecologists say. http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=95536 Bulgaria Environmental Activists Protest in Rila National Park 27 July 2008, Sunday Members of "Citizens for Rila" and "For the Nature" participated Sunday in a protest in "Rila" National Park Photo by forthenature.org Representatives of two non-governmental organizations organized Sunday a protest demonstration against violators of environmental laws in the "Rila " National Park. Members of "Citizens for Rila" and "For the Nature" participated in the protest, which has been triggered by signals that trees have been cut in the area of the park. At 12:00 pm bout 50 citizens and rangers from the park blocked automobile assess at the park's entrance between the chalets "Pionerska" and Rislki Ezera" where there is a sign prohibiting such access. According to the protesters, the Ploice not only did not assist them, but had sabotaged their actions against the violators of the law. Attorney Svilen Ovcharov has prepared photo materials with evidence, which will be given to the Park's management so that the can penalize the violators. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/regions/view/20080726-150768/Group-protests-destruction-of-mountain-in-Zambales Group protests destruction of mountain in Zambales By Robert Gonzaga Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 02:59:00 07/26/2008 PALAUIG, ZAMBALES ? The Olongapo-Zambales civil society network, composed of nongovernment organizations pushing Mt. Tapulao here as a mining-free area, staged a protest march in this town on Wednesday to save the mountain from miners and turn it into an ecotourism site. Mayor Generoso Amog said he is leading moves to declare Tapulao, which Americans used to call ?High Peak,? into a ?protected area or protected landscape.? Local officials said pine trees abound in Tapulao, one of the highest peaks in Central Luzon, and its unspoiled environment could rival the attractions of Baguio and Tagaytay cities. They said the mountain has at least eight waterfalls. Amog said because of mining activities in some of its sections, Tapulao is now ?in grave danger.? ?Right now, the miners are tunneling all over the mountain in search for ore and they are putting the summit in danger of collapsing,? he said. Councilor Eric Alba said mining companies have long been in the area because of chromite ore abundant in Mt. Tapulao. Amog said the local government and other groups are appealing for the cancellation of the license issued to the C-Square Mining Co., which, he said, has been operating in Mt. Tapulao since he was a boy. ?We are trying to move [to] declare the area a ?mine-free area,?? he said. Amog said he hopes to turn Mt. Tapulao into an ecotourism site when C-Square?s permit expires next month. ?That?s why we are appealing to President Macapagal-Arroyo to declare Mt. Tapulao as a protected area so we can turn this into an eco-site for future generations,? he said. ?If we lose Mt. Tapulao to miners, then we would lose a very beautiful spot in Zambales. I hope it doesn?t go to waste,? he said. Zambales Gov. Amor Deloso said the mining permit granted to C-Square came ?from the national level.? ?They have been there for a long, long time,? he said http://story.londonmercury.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/15665b944045da4a/id/393492/cs/1/ Desperate villagers in Orissa stage anti-mining protest London Mercury Tuesday 12th August, 2008 (ANI) Gandhmardhan (Orissa), August 12 : Desperate villagers in the famous Gandhmardhan hills of Orissa protested to prevent mining in the area by London based Vedanta Group who got the green signal from the Supreme Court to go ahead with its 800 million dollars project to mine bauxite from the area. About 500 people living in the foothills of Gandhmardhan hill staged a protest against mining in the hills by offering water to Lord Shiva on Tuesday. The activists of Gandhmardhan Suraksha Yuva Parishad fear that the opencast mine would wreck the rich biodiversity of the hills and disrupt key water sources that supply springs and streams in the area and feed two rivers, which irrigate a large area of farmlands. The activists believe that nothing can deter them from stopping Vedanta to set up the mine. "This is a war of the people," said Pradeep Kumar Purohit, Advisor Gandhmardhan Suraksha Samiti. Purohit also said that they would not allow any company to enter the area. But, both the state and the central government back the mining project by the Vedanta Group, as efforts to industrialise and exploit the mineral resources of Orissa. Earlier also, demonstrations were held when Bharat Aluminium Company (Balco) tried to take the lease for bauxite mining in the region. http://www.kitv.com/health/16633892/detail.html?rss=hon&psp=news Group Protests Nanakuli Landfill Some Residents Concerned About Dust's Impact On Health POSTED: 8:58 am HST June 17, 2008 UPDATED: 9:30 am HST June 17, 2008 NANAKULI, Hawaii -- Some Nanakuli residents on Monday protested outside a construction waste landfill in Nanakuli that they are concerned poses a health risk. They want the landfill to cut down on dust. They are worried about the health of people who live only a few feet away from the property. The landfill is owned by PVT Land Co. It is located on Lualualei Naval Road, just off Farrington Highway. It is not Waimanalo Gulch Landfill, where the city dumps garbage. This landfill is a few minutes away from that one. People in Nanakuli said they are tired of having all the island's landfills in their community. Children from a summer youth program protested outside the PVT landfill at midmorning as a steady stream of trucks brought in construction and demolition waste. The 100-acre landfill is also licensed to accept materials with asbestos and dirt. "All of the dumps are here in our community, and enough is enough for our Nanakuli people," Nanakuli Hawaiian Homestead President Kamaki Kanahele said. Some people who live nearby said dust and debris from the landfill is making them sick, giving them rashes and upper respiratory problems. A 2005 state Department of Health study found dust and soil from the landfill do not pose a "significant health risk" to neighboring residents. State lawmakers met with the landfill's general manager at midmorning. Among their concern are dust barriers full of big holes that are just a few feet from homes. "Perhaps, I'd like to see a little bit more in the way of the dust barriers. There are large holes in the dust barriers," Rep. Karen Awana said. The company said it used wiliwili trees to block the dust before. Now, only stumps remain because small wasps are killing the trees statewide. So the company said it plans to plant new trees. However, it is waiting on permits to install electricity for an irrigation system along its property line. The landfill said it is using a portable machine to spray water mist to keep dust on the ground. Area lawmakers said there are other concerns. "We want to see the records, for example, car batteries. We're talking not one or two, probably hundreds. We want to see who's dropping it off, if they receive it, what do they do with it," Rep. John Mizuno said. A landfill spokesman called the location a "relatively benign" landfill, since it is mostly construction waste like old concrete and drywall. He said up to 30 percent of the materials are recycled and is not buried there. The company has a state health permit to continue operating in Nanakuli until February 2010. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/topstories/topstories/view/20080616-142960/Greenpeace-dumps-charcoal-to-protest-Iloilo-coal-plant Greenpeace dumps charcoal to protest Iloilo coal plant BI: Foreigners can?t take part in protests in RP By Nestor P. Burgos Jr. Visayas Bureau First Posted 14:11:00 06/16/2008 ILOILO CITY -- (UPDATE) Greenpeace activists dumped around 20 sacks of charcoal in front of a Metrobank branch in Iloilo City Monday to protest a proposed coal-fired power plant project here. The Bureau of Immigration (BI) reacted to the protest, saying it is investigating the possible involvement of foreigners in the actions against a proposed coal-fired power plant in this city. BID regional director Francisco Artuz inspected the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior on Sunday to check whether members of the ship's crew have violated regulations and laws governing foreigners. "We received reports that foreigners and crew members were seen joining the protest actions and we want to check if their papers are in order," Artuz told the Philippine Daily Inquirer before boarding the ship that was anchored near the shores of Barangay (Village) Ingore in La Paz District here where Greenpeace activists had set up a protest camp at the site of the proposed coal plant. The activists dumped the charcoal in front of the bank along General Luna Street around 10:30 a.m. after they ended a three-day protest camp-out at the site of the proposed coal plant in La Paz District. A Metrobank subsidiary, the Global Business Power Corp (GBPC), together with Panay Power Corp (PPC), is pushing for the construction of a 164-megawatt coal plant, a proposal by energy officials, business groups and most local officials. Energy officials, business groups and most local officials support the power project but environmental and church groups oppose it, citing health and environmental hazards. "We are giving Global Business Power Corp. a taste of what it feels to be dumped with coal even as charcoal is safer than the coal used in coal plants," said Jasper Inventor, Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner. Greenpeace is an international environmental organization that works for environmental conservation and the preservation of endangered species. Artuz said members of the Rainbow Warrior?s crew could not leave the ship without a shore pass and could not join political activities like protest actions. Foreigners joining political activities may be liable for deportation for violations of these regulations, Artuz said. The Rainbow Warrior has 12 crewmembers, 10 of them foreigners, and 15 guests onboard. It has been here since June 7 as part of an international tour to campaign against coal-fired power plants. Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner Jasper Inventor said it was within the authority of the BI to inspect the ship and its crew and to verify their papers. "But we hope this is not meant to pressure us and Greenpeace activists from other countries to stop our protest against the project," said Inventor. http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storyPage.aspx?storyId=119452 Greenpeace calls off protest at Pagbilao coal plant The environmental advocacy group Greenpeace called off its three-day protest at the Pagbilao coal-fired power plant Sunday after it is assured of political support to stop coal-based power expansion in the country. The organization's flagship Rainbow Warrior has been in Pagbilao since Friday as part of its "Quit Coal, Save the Climate" tour of the Philippines, which aims to call government's attention to the effects of coal on climate change. In a statement, the group said they called off their protest because they are assured that they have initiated a "strong political movement" towards a moratorium on coal power expansion in the country. The group is calling on the government to instead tap the "massive potential" of clean, safe, and renewable energy instead of relying on fossil fuels. According to Greenpeace, Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri said he would be seeking for a moratorium on the expansion of coal power in the countries through a resolution, and also expressed his support for the organization's campaign to "quit coal." In a communique to Rainbow Warrior, Zubiri said he will "file a resolution in the Senate seeking to halt the construction of new coal-fired power plants in the country," adding that it will be partnered with a strong Renewable Energy Bill that will allow for a shift to a low carbon economy. "We welcome Senator Zubiri's intervention and call on our decision makers in government to take responsibility and lead us away from this deadly reliance on dirty fossil fuels," Greenpeace Southeast Asia executive director Von Hernandez said in a statement. "In the process of calling attention to the deleterious impacts related to the expansion of this coal plant, we may have committed some infractions, but we believe what is at stake here is more serious than the alleged violations. Our intention is to alert all Filipinos about the hazards posed by coal fired power plant and climate change," Rainbow Warrior Captain Mike Fincken said. On Saturday, activists aboard the ship, anchored near the coal plant, painted the words "Quit Coal" on the hull of the coal transport ship Sam John Spirit, which was on standby to unload a shipment of coal for use by the power plant. The group's ship, however, did not block the operations of the power plant nor the coal supply ship, Greenpeace explained. According to Greenpeace the energy sector is responsible for some two-thirds of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, and cited coal-fired power plants as the biggest offenders. Burning coal, the group said, is the single biggest source of carbon dioxide emissions and a major cause of climate change. Coal emits 29 percent more carbon per unit of energy than oil and 80 percent more than gas. Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior is in the country to spearhead the "Quit Coal Tour" in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, which aims to promote solutions to climate change. The ship's first port of call in the country was Legazpi City, where the province was declared a coal-free zone. http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-06/03/content_8307115.htm Environmentalists protest coal plant expansion in Philippines MANILA, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Greenpeace activists staged a street protest before the seat of Philippine energy authority on Tuesday, calling for a haul of the country's coal plant expansion and speedy passing of a legislation that encourages renewable energy usage. Environmentalists painted the words "Quit Coal" on the driveway of the Department of Energy and unfurled a banner that describes Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes as a "coal lover and climate killer." Greenpeace said under Reyes' term, the Philippines is expected to expand its coal-fired capacity to over 2,000 MW, while new renewable energy projects are projected at less than 100 MW. The burning of coal has been identified by scientists as the main source for climate change. "To lead the Philippines toward a future of reliance on dangerous coal-fired power plants is unacceptable," said Greenpeace Southeast Asia Climate and Energy campaigner Jasper Inventor. Greenpeace said meanwhile, the country's Renewable Energy Bill has been "languishing" in Congress for more than a decade, even though Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo named it as an urgent bill to pass in 2007. Since Congress reconvened in April, the bill has yet to be raised in both Houses of Congress. "As chair of the Task Force on Climate Change, Sec Reyes should end his love affair with coal. He should show clear leadership in stopping climate change, first by canceling all coal-fired power plants currently in the pipeline, and second by putting together a program that would enable the country to move away from fossil fuel dependence towards clean, renewable sources of energy," Inventor said. Also on Tuesday, 500 energy experts, policy makers financiers, and project developers from across Asia-Pacific gathered in Manila for a three-day Asia Clean Energy Forum organized by Asian Development Bank (ADB) to scale up investments in clean energy solutions that enhance energy security and address global warming. http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=47214 Published On: 2008-07-24 Metropolitan DCC move to fell trees protested Staff Correspondent Save The Environment Movement (SEM) and Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers' Association (Bela) yesterday condemned the move of the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) to fell 52 trees at Gulshan, Banani and Baridhara areas in the city. The leaders of the SEM during a visit near Road-89 of Gulshan Avenue, where about six trees were felled, protested the move by chanting slogans. Chairman of SEM Abu Naser Khan who led the visit at the area also met DCC Chief Executive Officer Md Alauddin. Alauddin assured them of taking steps after consulting with environmentalists. Meanwhile, Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers' Association also issued a letter of concern to the DCC Mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka and director general of the Department of Environment to this end yesterday. In the letter they said such activities are against the interest of the people and against the law. They demanded the authorities stop felling the trees and take alternative initiatives to reduce waterlogging. The DCC gave work order to fell 52 trees in Gulshan, Banani and Baridhara on July 17 in the name of beatification and improvement of drainage system. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/24/asia/AS-GEN-Thailand-Airport-Protest.php Thai police arrest 2 for launching paper lanterns near Bangkok's main airport The Associated Press Published: April 24, 2008 BANGKOK, Thailand: Police arrested two Thai villagers for endangering air traffic after they allegedly sent lighted paper lanterns into the night sky near Bangkok's main international airport to protest noise pollution, authorities said Thursday. The men were arrested Wednesday at their village near Suvarnabhumi Airport, a day after three lanterns were spotted floating near the airport, said police Col. Dusit Marengsaeng. The pair denied the charges against them, which carry a five-year jail term, and were released on bail. The airport's control tower spotted the lanterns south of the airport Tuesday evening, said control tower official Warawut Rapipat. "We could not tell how high the lanterns were but we alerted airplanes to what we had seen," Warawut said. Residents who live near the airport, which opened in 2006, have complained about having to endure constant noise and exhaust from planes taking off and landing. The lantern launching followed a Tuesday meeting between residents affected by airport noise and representatives from the Transport Ministry and Airports of Thailand, the Bangkok Post reported. The government has promised to compensate the residents who suffer most from the noise by building new houses and helping to relocate families to quieter neighborhoods. But residents say the compensation is not adequate and only helps a small portion of those affected. Angry residents had threatened in the past to float balloons near the airport to block airplanes but had never followed through. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080808/wl_sthasia_afp/indiabhopalenvironmentaccident Bhopal victims end protest after Indian govt pledge Fri Aug 8, 12:45 PM ET NEW DELHI (AFP) - Victims of India's 1984 Bhopal gas leak which killed thousands of people ended months of sit-in protests on Friday after the government promised new assistance. About 70 people affected by the gas leak had camped on a New Delhi pavement for more than three months after walking 800 kilometres (500 miles) from Bhopal city to the capital. The government would set up a powerful commission to ensure better "rehabilitation" for victims and their families, chemicals minister Ram Vilas Paswan told the protesters. The Bhopal disaster occurred when a storage tank at a pesticide plant spewed deadly cyanide gas into the air, killing more than 3,500 people immediately. The death toll has since climbed to more than 15,000, the government says. Activists and protesters want the site to be cleared of thousands of tonnes of toxic waste embedded in the soil, as well as jobs and compensation. "The government today promised to set up a new panel with more powers to look into medical, environmental and economic support," said Rachna Dhingra, spokeswoman for a Bhopal victims group. Activists said survivors would be represented on the panel. "I was 28-years-old then. Our fight has been going on for 24 years, and we will keep up the pressure on the government," said survivor Hazari Bee. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7384344.stm 5 May 2008 16:39 UK Police detain Bhopal protesters Bhopal protesters say babies born since the disaster suffer illnesses Police in India's capital have detained dozens of protesters demanding more help for victims of the world's worst industrial disaster, at Bhopal in 1984. They were briefly taken into custody after an unauthorised protest outside Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's office. They are demanding more compensation and a better clean-up of the site. Several thousand people died in Bhopal on the night of the gas leak from a Union Carbide factory. Thousands more died in the weeks that followed. Compensation The protesters wanted to meet the prime minister to press their case for more to be done to clean up the site around the former factory, which still contains thousands of tonnes of toxic chemicals. Dozens of demonstrators, including a number of children, were taken to a nearby police station but were freed two hours later. Police said the protesters had no appointment with the prime minister and demonstrations around the official residence were not permitted. Many of the demonstrators have been in Delhi for more than a month, after walking 800km (500 miles) from the site of the 3 December 1984 disaster. The BBC's Chris Morris in Delhi says one key issue is the plight of children born in Bhopal since the disaster who suffer from a variety of mental and physical disorders. Union Carbide was bought by the Dow Chemical Company in 2001. Dow says it is not responsible for cleaning up the site, which sits on land owned by the Madhya Pradesh state government. Union Carbide paid $470m in compensation to victims in 1989. http://news.indiainfo.com/2008/06/10/0806102331_bhopal-protest.html Bhopal gas survivors launch global hunger strike Tuesday, June 10, 2008 23:28 [IST] New Delhi: Bhopal gas survivors today launched an indefinite global hunger strike with Man Booker shortlisted author Indra Sinha joining them from France. Three organisations working for the Bhopal gas survivors have organised the programme in a bid to attract global attention and pressurise the Indian government to fulfil their demands, which include a special empowered commission for rehabilitation. "The Prime Minister underestimates the emotive power of the Bhopal struggle. The hunger strike will catalyse global opinion against the Prime Minister s refusal to yield to the Bhopalis justified demands," Sinha said in a statement from France. Sinha, who won the nomination for his fiction "Animal's People", joined the protesters from his residence in south-west France, a spokesperson for the protesters said. In New Delhi, nine survivors and other activists began their agitation at Jantar Mantar while their supporters in 18 other countries started their hunger strike simultaneously demanding comprehensive rehabilitation plans for the survivors. http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Development&set_id=1&click_id=124&art_id=nw20080526170059556C156831 Residents protest against tainted water May 26 2008 at 05:13PM Communities affected by mining in Limpopo will be filing papers on Tuesday to sue the government for allowing their water to be contaminated, Jubilee South Africa said. Residents claim the water is contaminated by radioactive material in Bekkersdaal and Dominionville. According to Jubilee SA community members would testify on the condition of the water. Residents plan to protest at the PPL mine in Limpopo on Tuesday. Jubilee SA claims that requests and demands of communities affected by mining continue to go unanswered by government and by the mining companies, including Anglo Platinum, Impala, Lonmin, African Rainbow Minerals, and Mmakau Mining. A commemoration service would take place at the river in Ga-Pila which had been the only water source for residents since their water was cut off due to the Amplats PPL Mine, and which was now allegedly contaminated by heavy metals. Mining community representatives from Limpopo, Gauteng, North West and Mpumalanga would talk on water tests, the presence of heavy metals in water, and the cut-off of basic services by the government , said Jubilee SA. ? Sapa http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/15/stories/2008071554430500.htm Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad APRS protest ?jathas? from today Special Correspondent HYDERABAD: Andhra Pradesh Rythu Sangham will launch week-long protest ?jathas? (rallies) in the coastal districts to highlight the impending destruction of coastal areas in the name of coastal corridor. The jathas will commence from Ichapuram in Srikakulam on July 15 and from Tada in Nellore district on July 16. They will conclude with a public meeting at Vijayawada on July 21. The GO.No.34 issued for coastal corridor construction would displace farmers from lakhs of acres of well irrigated farm lands triggering foodgrain crisis in the near future, said Rythu Sangham president K.Ramakrishna and general secretary R.Venkayya in a media conference here on Monday. ?The rallies are a prelude to future course of action against indiscriminate land acquisition for coastal industrial corridor that would do irreparable damage to coastal environment, reserve forest cover and livelihoods of farmers and fishermen,? they added. About five lakh acres were proposed to be acquired in the name of industrial coastal corridor in nine districts. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/30/stories/2008073053310300.htm Kerala - Pathanamthitta Protest against granite quarry at Avolimala Staff Reporter Residents exposed to silicosis due to dust from crusher units - Photo: Leju Kamal Eloquent silence: Members of the People?s Action Council protesting against the granite quarry and crusher unit at Avolimala hills at Chunkappara near Mallappally on Tuesday. PATHANAMTHITTA: Local people under the banner of the People?s Action Council (PAC) at Chunkappara in Kottangal panchayat, near Mallappally, staged a dharna in front of the panchayat office, demanding immediate closure of the granite quarry and crusher unit at Avolimala, on Monday. As many as 125 action council workers, majority of them women, took out a march from the foothills of Avolimala to the panchayat office, their mouths symbolically covered with green cloth. In memoriam According to the organisers, the action council chose the foothills of Avolimala as the starting point of the protest march in memory of a 12-year-old boy who was killed there a year ago when he was hit by a piece of broken granite flying from the quarry in an explosion. Panchayat member Francis George flagged off the march. Renowned environmentalist C.R. Neelakantan inaugurated the dharna. Mr. Neelakantan stressed the grave need to protect the remaining hills, water bodies and forest cover in the State. He said availability of potable water is going to be a big problem facing humanity across the globe and the State, known as a land of rivers, will not be an exception. Violation of all the prevailing laws, rules and regulations have become the order of the day in quarrying granite, sand and other natural resources. Granite crusher units function without taking pollution control and other public safety measures, he alleged. Mr. Neelakantan said the local residents were exposed to the threat of silicosis due to dust from the crusher units. He said local self-government institutions should not shy away from their duty of ensuring the local people?s right to live in a safe and secure environment. Addressing the dharna, PAC secretary Professor George Sebastian alleged that the panchayat was yet to implement the High Court directives in this regard. Advocate K.P. Ramachandran; K.A. Verghese, member of the State-level committee for protection of wetlands and conservation of rivers; Manimalayar Samrakshana Samiti general secretary V.N. Gopinatha Pillai; Haritabhoomi leaders James Kannimala and Joseph Nedumpram also spoke. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/14/stories/2008071452420300.htm Kerala - Pathanamthitta Protest against operation of granite quarry Staff Reporter Action council plans indefinite agitation ?Tahsildar yet to submit report to Rights? panel? Dwellings hit by flying rock pieces: action council PATHANAMTHITTA: The people?s action council at Kombonoly, near Ranni, will launch an indefinite agitation, demanding immediate cancellation of licence given to an ?illegal? granite quarry and crusher unit at Kombonoly-Thekkummala. At a press conference here on Sunday, Human Rights Protection Council president R. Jayamohan and the action council leaders Prasanth V. Kurup and Rajamma Sadanandan alleged that the private quarry and crusher unit had been posing a threat to life and property of the residents of a Scheduled Caste colony. They alleged that the illegal operation of the quarry as well as the crusher unit had been going on for a decade with the patronage of certain political and official quarters. Almost all human dwellings in the surroundings of the quarry had been hit by broken pieces of rocks flying in the blast at one time or the other. Though the Human Rights Commission had sought a report from the Ranni Tahsildar on the details of the quarry and the crusher units a few months ago, the official was yet to provide the details. In this context, the action council had decided to lay siege to the grama panchayat office at Vadasserikkara on Tuesday, demanding immediate closure of the quarry and crusher unit, they said. Mr. Kurup said the agitation would be extended to the district office of the State Pollution Control Board and the Collectorate in Pathanamthitta. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/15/stories/2008051551660300.htm Construction near shrine protested Kishtwar (J&K): Villagers in Kishtwar district on Wednesday held a demonstration against the construction of a road on the foothills of the Sarthal Devi shrine, alleging it was damaging the temple. Hundreds of people hailing from different areas of the district took to the streets and held demonstrations at Sarthal against the alleged threat to the safety of the shrine due to construction of the road. They feared occurrence of landslides near the shrine. A deputation has already met the district Deputy Commissioner and submitted a detailed representation. http://news.indiainfo.com/2008/05/14/0805141457_protest.html Villagers protest construction of road near shrine Wednesday, May 14, 2008 14:56 [IST] Kishtwar, JK: Villagers in the district today held a demonstration against the construction of a road on the foothills of the Sarthal Devi shrine here, alleging it was damaging the temple. Hundreds of people hailing from different areas of the district took to the streets and held demonstrations at Sarthal against the alleged threat to the shrine due to construction of the road. "There is a threat to the safety of shrine due to road construction. The rocks of the mountain have become loose and there are also apprehension of landslides near the shrine," Kuldeep Kumar, one of the activists leading the protestors, said. A deputation has already met the Deputy Commissioner, Kishtwar, and submitted a detailed representation. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/29/stories/2008072950330300.htm Karnataka - Madikeri Protest and counter-protest Staff Correspondent Madikeri: In a strange incident here on Monday, two organisations held a protest and a counter-protest at the Forest Office, with one group demanding the cancellation of the posting of the Conservator of Forests, Kodagu, G.A. Sudarshan, and the other objecting to it. The Cauvery Sene, supported by the Coorg Wildlife Society, staged a protest in front of the Forest Office and demanded that Mr. Sudarshan?s posting should be cancelled as he was ?not an environment-friendly official?. They burnt the effigy of Mr. Sudarshan to vent their ire. On the other hand, representatives of the Kodagu Small Growers Association and the Kodagu Swabhimana Samrakshana Vedike, including Nanda Subbaiah and B.T. Dinesh respectively, staged a counter-protest against the sene, in support of the official. Mr. Sudarshan should stay back in Kodagu as he was a people-friendly officer, they contended. Both groups shouted slogans against one another. When the situation seemed like reaching a flashpoint, the police intervened and averted a clash. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/07/14/10342/ Published on Monday, July 14, 2008 by Associated Press Paddlers Protesting Border Fence Boaters Don?t Want Lower Rio Grande Blocked by Christopher Sherman MISSION, Texas - The federal government?s border fence plans in South Texas have been attacked by property owners, wildlife advocates and land conservationists. The next wave of opponents could come from the water ? and they?re carrying paddles. Kayakers and canoeists will descend on the lower Rio Grande for events this fall aimed at raising the river?s profile as a recreation hub and at drawing attention to the impact the border fence could have by blocking access to the river. The Rio Grande forms Texas? 1,255-mile border with Mexico from El Paso to the Gulf of Mexico. But most of the river, with the notable exception of Big Bend National Park, is forgotten by the state?s tens of thousands of recreational paddlers. Those who do use the river share the water with Border Patrol agents patrolling in bulletproof vests and with smugglers of drugs and people. In a recent letter to Roma Mayor Rogelio Ybarra, the president of the Texas Rivers Protection Association expressed his support for a planned river festival and his concern about the border fence. But perhaps most telling was the clear illustration of how novel the idea of using the lower Rio Grande was even for people dedicated to the state?s rivers. ?It has come to our attention recently that the Lower Rio Grande is indeed a safe and legal place to paddle, and that rights for all U.S. citizens to do so are guaranteed by the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo,? association president Tom Goynes wrote. ?It?s ironic that we only learned that the resource was available to us as a result of the government?s plans to take it away.? Los Caminos del Rio, a nonprofit group based in McAllen, recognizes that its Healthy Living Festival planned for Nov. 1 ? to capitalize on any attention the border could receive before the national election three days later ? is unlikely to affect the 85 miles of border fence slated for completion in Texas this year. While not backing off its fence plans, the Border Patrol supports Los Caminos?s efforts to get more people on the river. ?The more eyes we have out there, the better job we can do,? said Dan Doty, spokesman for the local Border Patrol sector. For Los Caminos del Rio, more legal activity on the river ? kayaking, canoeing, fishing ? will discourage the illegal smuggling activity. Executive director Eric Ellman says Friends of Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge have been giving canoe tours for years without incident, and his own group has had hundreds on the river in the past couple years without problem. Mexicans have a tradition of using the Rio Grande for recreation. Already, anyone traveling the river is more likely to see people on the Mexican shoreline ? fishing, swimming, boating. There are more public access points and someone has even opened a water skiing academy upriver from Mission on the Mexican side. Aleida Flores Garcia is trying to get something going on the U.S. side as well, but the border fence could kill it. She and her husband, Jorge Garcia, have been working on their property along the river in Los Ebanos for years. They?ve cleared brush, put in a park and built a boat ramp. They plan to build a large thatched pavilion and hold fishing tournaments and dances. Garcia recently incorporated her business as the La Paloma Ranch Retreat. But the federal government has sent her a condemnation letter. The border fence is planned to run across her property, leaving most of it in the no man?s land between the fence and river. Garcia has a lawyer and is fighting the government, but other challenges have so far been unsuccessful. ?I need to fight for this little town,? she said. ?The nature itself is just too beautiful to be blocked by a wall.? http://story.indiagazette.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/701ee96610c884a6/id/353706/cs/1/ Greenpeace activists protest against climate change problem India Gazette Tuesday 29th April, 2008 (ANI) New Delhi, Apr 29 : Greenpeace activists on Tuesday staged a doom scenario in the National Capital to depict the problems arising from climate change. "We are depicting the scenario that will unfold in Delhi in 2050. If we don't take steps to control climate change it would surely displace about 120 million people. Basically coastal cities would be affected first because of the rising sea levels, and people will migrate to other cities," said Vinuta Gopal, Greenpeace Climate and Energy campaigner. Demanding to set up a National Climate Action Plan (NCAP) to prevent climate change, they set up a mock migrant colony indicative of the disastrous effects when people would be displaced due to climate change. "We want to say that in the coming few decades, almost 125 million people will be displaced due to climate change. So we demand that a national policy should not adapt with climate change but, rather the policy should avert the possible negative effects and mitigate it," said Rabbi Shergil, a Punjabi singer. Activists fear that in the absence of serious measures, the situation may turn worse. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/regions/view/20080430-133507/Protests-growing-over-Atienza-OK-of-logging Protests growing over Atienza OK of logging Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 00:28:00 04/30/2008 CITY OF SAN FERNANDO ? An information caravan in the nine villages of Dinalungan, Aurora, started to gather support on Monday for the protest against the approval by Environment Secretary Lito Atienza of a five-year logging plan by a firm in the province. Fr. Ceferino Valenzuela, the town?s parish priest, said the caravan mounted by the Concerned Citizens of Dinalungan started at 8 a.m., holding short programs in every village it passed. The 200 participants were expected to reach the logging areas of Industries Development Corp. (IDC) in Barangays Ditawini and Abuleg in Dinalungan, Dinadiawan in Dipaculao town, and at the Aurora-Quirino boundary before dusk. IDC vice president Michael Ong and general manager Isaias Noveras have not replied to the Inquirer?s calls and text messages since Sunday seeking reactions to the protest. Romulo Palma, IDC chief security officer, promised to alert Noveras on the request for interview. Noveras has yet to call on Monday. Registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1961, IDC holds two Integrated Forest Management Agreements (Ifma). Ifma No. 14 covers 9,466 hectares and Ifma No. 2001-06 spans 48,877 hectares in Dinalungan, Casiguran and Dilasag. The areas covered by the two Ifma are more than half of the 110,228 hectares of forests in the three towns, documents showed. Of the nine companies that have obtained Ifma for 150,774 hectares in Aurora, IDC manages a large portion of Aurora?s forest. Following the deadly landslides in the province in November and December 2004, former Environment Secretary Michael Defensor allowed IDC to harvest logs on Aug. 17, 2005, after a review team found its performance ?satisfactory.? Valenzuela said he and the Concerned Citizens of Dinalungan had opposed legal and illegal logging because the town had been suffering from frequent floods and landslides since 1998. The calamities have killed at least five people and buried or washed out about 50 houses, according to Mayor Tito Tubigan in a phone interview on Sunday. Tubigan said he met Atienza on April 17 to appeal for a review of the secretary?s approval on the renewal of the operation plan over the 48,877-hectare area. ?I opposed it because after consultations with various sectors, the overwhelming sentiments of my constituents is that they do not want legal or illegal logging because those degrade our natural environment,? he said. Tubigan said Noveras did not inform him about the plan to renew the operation plan. ?All that [Noveras] showed me were applications for mayor?s permit and business permit. I refused both,? he said. ?We were deprived of our right to be consulted,? Tubigan said. He said the municipal council also opposed the renewal of the operation plan. Tubigan said Atienza promised a review. The environment secretary confirmed that illegal logging had resumed in Dingalan, Aurora in reaction to reports, which quoted a leader of Task Force Sierra Madre. ?I have personally confirmed the report from my independent sources in the area and I have found that it has sufficient basis,? Atienza said in a statement. He said he ordered the immediate relief of Meliton Vicente Jr., the community environment and natural resources officer (Cenro) in Dingalan. Vicente was replaced by Joselito Blanco, former Cenro of Cabanatuan City. ?Like as I always told our officials, Vicente will not only be relieved of his duties but we will also make him answerable for all these charges of illegal logging in his area of responsibility,? Atienza said. He said the resumption of illegal logging in Dingalan ?must be stopped at all costs.? Atienza said a team of legal and law enforcement agents from the DENR would be sent to Dingalan and other areas in Central Luzon to gather more information about illegal logging activities. ?To allow illegal logging to continue is like begging for a catastrophe with epic proportions to happen,? he said. Reports from Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon; and Jocelyn Uy, in Manila http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/18/stories/2008081859110300.htm Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram Protests stall cutting of tree for green cover: The police removing a protester who tried to block the cutting down of an avenue tree in front the University College on Sunday. Thiruvananthapuram: A move to cut down an avenue tree in front of the University College for the development of Mahatma Gandhi Road had to be aborted on Sunday following protests by the Communist Party of India and the Shiv Sena. The protests started in the morning as soon as workers engaged by a contractor started lopping off the lower branches of the tree. The work came to a halt after CPI and Sena activists squatted on the road shouting slogans. Revenue Divisional Officer K. Ramachandran arrived on the spot and tried to negotiate a settlement with the protesters, but the attempt failed. The police later removed the activists. Mr. Ramachandran said the move to cut down the tree was put on hold. The effort would resume only after the issue was sorted out. On the warpath Environmental organisations and political parties have been on the warpath against the efforts to cut down avenue trees for widening the road. Thiruvananthapuram Road Development Company Ltd. (TRDCL), the agency executing the City Roads Improvement Programme, has finalised a compensatory tree-planting programme. But environmentalists point out that not a single sapling was planted on the Pattom-Plamoodu and the Karamana-Killipalam roads developed by the PWD. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/14/stories/2008081454510300.htm Kerala - Kollam Residents protest against axing of trees Staff Reporter KOLLAM: The Kollam Residents? Apex Council and the Kadappakada Nagar Residents? Association on Wednesday submitted a memorandum to District Collector A. Shajahan requesting his intervention in the row over the axing of trees along the Kadappakada-Asramam Road. The memorandum points out that the Kollam Corporation authorities and the Forest Department had unilaterally decided to axe one hundred and fifty three trees along this road to develop it into a four lane one.It also pointed out that the road could be developed without axing the trees. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/26/stories/2008062658030200.htm Road along Medikunta lake draws protest from civic groups Staff Reporter Citizens Coalition for Saving Lakes charges APIIC with breaching norms Lake was given to Wipro Technologies Ltd. APIIC claims road work was approved by State -PHOTO: K. RAMESH BABU Spoilsport: Road under construction alongside the HUDA lake. HYDERABAD: The HUDA road from Rayadurg police station to Gopanapalli is become a bone of contention with civic action groups protesting against it. A part of the road is being built on Medikunta Lake opposite Wipro SEZ at Gachibowli by the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC). The Citizens Coalition for Saving Lakes in Hyderabad, an alliance of civic action groups, and others protesting against the construction, have charged the Government bodies with allowing the work to continue on the road, despite it going against the existing buffer zone rules. The voluntary organisations claimed that the APIIC?s action was nothing but an encroachment since it was breaching the HUDA?s own provision of maintaining a 30 meters buffer zone around water bodies. ?As per the Water, Land and Trees Act and Master Plan norms, a buffer zone has to be maintained all along the lake boundary but it has been approved by HUDA,? said Dr. Jasween Jairath, of the Coalition. Medikunta Lake belongs to HUDA and it had handed over the lake to Wipro Technologies Ltd. for green maintenance. However, the IT giant has been asked to stay out of the issue by the Government last Friday. The organisations are also contesting the Full Tank Level (FTL) boundaries marked. ?HUDA is making mockery of FTL limits as the water flows beyond the FTL poles even before rains come in,? said Umesh Varma from Concerned Citizens, another protesting body. When contacted, the Chief Engineer of APIIC, Parthasarthi Rao, said the road work was approved by Government taking all the issues into consideration. http://aktualne.centrum.cz/czechnews/clanek.phtml?id=603423 Prague 3 to have a new quarter. Green Party protests This is a new "face" of ?i?kov?s freight stationv?t?? obr?zekAutor: Archiv 16:55 | 24.4.2008 | Aktu?ln?.cz national news reporters Praha - The old train freight station in ?i?kov will be replaced with a brand new quarter. ?i?kov?s town hall has been planning to change the quarter but the final version of the plan has caused furore among the town hall politicians. The Green Party representative Ond?eje R?t says the plan has been altered in last minute. "The original intention was to build a park and now they want to build 20-floor buildings. The design does not include any park or trees, neither public services nor school. Its is going to be just full of buildings, no free space," said Ond?ej R?t. However, Civic Democrats? Ond?ej Pecha argues that the urban plann is a result of long-term negotiations between the developers and the town hall. He also says it is not a new version of the plan. "It was an agreement between the town hall and the investor with whom we agreed on a compromise solution," said Pecha. "The requirements for the green are included. We have not cut down anything," added Pecha. The Greens however claim that unlike the orginal plan of 8,000 people, the new homes should accomodate 13,000 people, which is an increase by one fiith. "The number of inhabitants is hard to predict," said Peach. All Prague municipalities have been compiling their ideas and proposals how to develop the city of Prague. They are to send these to Prague's city council that is to draw the urban development plan of Prague with the help of the proposals. Soon the city of Prague will undergo major changes in some localities. http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/news/index_view.php?id=313998 Greenpeace protest at prague castle against nuclear energy Prague- Seven Greenpeace activists yesterday protested against the forthcoming European Nuclear Forum by projecting giant slogans warning of the risks of nuclear energy on the panorama of Hradcany, the Prague Castle that is the seat of Czech heads of state, from the nearby Legii bridge. They wanted to warn of the inadmissible effort of the industrial lobby to influence the forum's conclusions and to weaken nuclear safety standards in the EU. The forum, that starts in Prague on Thursday, is to result in recommendations for the European Commission as far as the future of nuclear energy is concerned. Its participants will include Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, chairman of the European Commission Jose Barroso and other senior officials of the EU and European institutions. Head of the nuclear campaign of Greenpeace Jan Beranek told CTK further protests of similar nature would be staged on Thursday. Greenpeace activists have staged a number of unorthodox protests in the Czech Republic. This April, they occupied the planned site of the U.S. radar in the Brdy mountains. In December 2007, they occupied a 300-metre smokestack of the power plant Prunerov II in protest against global pollution by greenhouse gases. http://www.monstersandcritics.com/science/news/article_1405816.php/Greenpeace_protests_biofuels_at_Machu_Picchu_citadel Greenpeace protests biofuels at Machu Picchu citadel European Union (EU) Commission President, Portuguese Jose Manuel Barroso looks over ruins of Machu Picchu near Cuzco, in Peru, 15 May 2008, during a cultural tour prior the V Latin American, Caribbean and the European Union Summit (LAC-EU). EPA/Sengo Perez May 16, 2008, 12:11 GMT Lima - The environmental organization Greenpeace protested biofuel production at the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, in south- eastern Peru on Thursday, claiming ethanol will have a severe impact on the native forests of Latin America. Ahead of the European Union-Latin America and the Caribbean summit in Lima Friday and Saturday, Greenpeace called upon leaders to protect the Amazon rainforest from the encroachment of farmland due increased farming of sugar cane for ethanol. Members of the organization displayed placards on the ruins - known as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World - with slogans like 'Save the forest, save the planet.' They were later forced to leave by security personnel. Greenpeace said in a statement that cutting down and burning the forest to produce biofuels releases greenhouse gases. The leaders of Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia, which like Peru have rainforest areas, were expected to attend the summit in Lima. German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday signed a deal on biofuels with Brazil, amid criticism within both countries over the deal's possible impact on the rainforest and over the conditions of workers in plantations that grow sugar cane for biofuels. European Commission President Jose Manuel Durao Barroso also visited Machu Picchu on Thursday. http://story.indiagazette.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/701ee96610c884a6/id/373670/cs/1/ Activists against dams on Ganga forced to wind up protest India Gazette Saturday 21st June, 2008 (IANS) Noted environmentalist G.D. Agarwal and fellow activists, on a hunger strike since June 13 to protest construction of dams on the river Ganga, had to wind up their agitation Saturday evening after a crowd of 400 people shouted slogans against them. 'The demonstrators were virtually gheraoed (cricled) by the crowd who claimed themselves to be locals and said stoppage of the dams would harm their interests and of the people of the hill state,' Vyomesh Chitranvansh, a spokesperson for the fasting activists, told IANS on phone. The crowd reportedly consisted of former Uttarakhand chief minister Bhagat Singh Koshiyari's supporters. The demonstrators would leave for Delhi Sunday morning. 'But the agitation would continue and Agarwal says he will continue his fast in the national capital though his health had deteriorated,' he said. The incident followed a media statement by the former chief minister that the suspension of work on two dams as announced by the Uttarakhand government Thursday evening, in the wake of Agarwal's protest, was not in the interest of the people of the state. Agarwal, 76, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and former secretary general to the Central Pollution Control Board, launched his hunger strike against plans to construct six dams over the Ganga in a 100-km stretch from Gangotri, the source of the river, and Uttarkashi in Uttarakhand. He was accompanied by 10 environmentalists, lawyers and rights activists, while many others joined in the demonstrations every day. They believe that damming of the Ganga would restrict the river's natural flow and this would have serious environmental repercussions. Chitravansh said Koshiyari issued his statement after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state Thursday night announced, following Agarwal's protest, that two of the dams on the Ganga would be suspended. Koshiyari, also from the BJP, said the government's decision was not in the interest of the people of the hill state. 'Today evening, some 300 to 400 people claiming to be locals came to the Manikanika Ghat in Uttarkashi where Agarwal and others were on fast and gheraoed them. They shouted slogans against him asking him to go back,' he said. The police soon arrived on the scene and asked Agarwal and others to pack up before things slipped out of hands. All of them had to leave the place and they reached Kuriyal Bhawan at the office of the Ganga Mukti Abhiyan, Chitravansh said. http://www.indianexpress.com/story/326233.html Save Ganga protest shifts to Delhi Express News Service DEHRADUN, JUNE 22: Environmentalists and social activists led by G D Aggarwal are headed for Delhi to continue with their campaign against construction of power projects between Gangotri and Uttarkashi. After the Uttarakhand Government decided to halt work on the Pala Maneri and Bhiron Ghati projects, the campaigners are now targeting the 600-mw Lohari Nagpala project being executed by the National Thermal Power Corporation. Aggarwal?s fast unto death entered its 10th day on Sunday when he left the Manikarnika ghats of Uttarkashi to shift base to Delhi. His departure was preceded by a large scale demonstration on Saturday by some locals angered by the state Government?s decision to stall work on the two projects. The locals shouted slogans against Aggarwal and his supporters asking them to hold their Save Ganga campaign in the plains where the river was most polluted. Locals believe stalling work on the two projects will threaten their livelihood as a large number of them were directly or indirectly employed there. Social activist Pavitra Singh claimed the protests were fuelled by contractors who had invested in the projects. Aggarwal, while on way to Delhi, said that the locals were misled by the materialistic forces present in the area. Earlier, at the start of the agitation, Uttarakhand Chief Minister B C Khanduri had also tried to deflect the matter to the Centre saying his Government was willing to stall the projects if the Centre agreed to compensate for the energy loss incurred by the state. The environmentalists are demanding that no projects be made between Gangotri and Uttarkashi and the river be allowed to flow freely on this 125-km stretch. http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=112522 Protest staged against unloading of dumpers near jetty Wednesday, May 14, 2008 Karachi A large number of youth belonging to Baba, Bhit, Salehabad island villages and Keamari neighbourhood blocked the way of the dumpers near Keamari Jetty on Tuesday. This left the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) authorities with no choice but to stop unloading ships carrying white cement and coal near the old jetty. The youth said that it caused environmental problems and affected the business of the passenger boat owners and created disturbances for the tourists. This was the second time the local people blocked the road in protest to save human lives, who are endangered by the careless drivers of dumpers. Besides they staged a protest against the off-loading ships, carrying white cement and coal near the old Jetty. Around 600 passenger boats are operating from the Keamari Jetty for islands. ?We have written letters to the KPT Chairman, met with the concerned authorities, and presented memorandums to them several times to build a bifurcation wall from the Boating Basin up to the Keamari Groyne. However, they have failed to pay heed to this,? said Asif Bhatti, President of Bona Fide Fishermen and Boat Owners Welfare Association. According to Bhatti, they have also approached the elected national and provincial assembly members of their constituency to take the issue seriously but it seems all is going in vain. ?The authorities are pushing the locals to live or die as they have nothing to do for the betterment of the community people, who have been residing at these scattered islands even long before the independence,? Bhatti reacted. The people on the passenger boats suffer due to the black powder or white cement in the entire area and face breathing problems. Another problem which the activists pointed out is the small passage the local people and visitors use for entering and going out that has been occupied by dumpers carrying coal and cement. People in daytime face problem in crossing the passage to reach main road leading to the Native Jetty Bridge. The KPT authorities in its letter dated March 17, 1992 responding to local people?s cry said, ?Keeping in view the requirements of Baba, Bhit and Manora islands population, the KPT has provided gates in the security wall at Boat Basin near berth No 2 entrance gate. These gates can be utilised day and night without any problem and even the trucks can be taken-in through these gates.? It further said the KPT has spent Rs150 million on the development of Container Complex in the Keamari Groyne area to meet the port?s increased storage requirements for handling containers and other general cargo. Since its completion in 1982, the Keamari Groyne Complex Yard is not being properly utilised due to heavy tank lorries? traffic and unauthorised parking of the vehicles on the Keamari Groyne road, it added. Moreover, the KPT clarified that the inner section of the road about 35-feet-width will be utilised for movement of the containers and cargo from the East Wharves berths to Keamari Container Cargo Complex and vice-versa. The outer section of the road will be used for the vehicular traffic visiting the Oil Installations Area. To implement this scheme, the KPT has also started reconstruction of 80-ft-wide road in front of OP-1 and 50-ft-wide connecting road along plots No 21, 22, 59 and 60. According to the KPT authorities with the construction of all these roads and security wall, a better and effective traffic management with safe truck movement, without any hindrance, will be obtained and the KPT will be able to utilise its 25 acres developed area at Keamari Groyne Container Complex. However, the local people said the KPT is violating the promises it made with the people long ago. Asiya Yousuf, a labour councillor, union council (UC) 4, reminding the KPT authority to keep its promises made in 1992, has written a letter to the KPT Chairman, requesting him not to allow dumpers utilise the small passage, because owing to careless driving several accidents have taken place. The letter also said that the off-loading of ships carrying cements and coal are badly affecting the livelihood of passenger boats. Furthermore, the dumpers should assure proper covering of material it carries in order to avoid environmental pollutions and save the business of passenger boats. Besides this, the off-loading of ships carrying white cement and coal at the Keamari Jetty is creating problems for picnickers and the residents of island villages. The coal and cement is not packed on ships and huge cranes load it openly on trucks and dumpers, creating environmental hazards for visitors and local residents. Meanwhile, the local people have demanded to construct bifurcation wall that the KPT had ensured so that the grievances of local residents, picnickers and passenger boat owners can be removed. http://www.taiwanheadlines.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=126184&CtNode=39 Environmental groups protest alternative road plan 07/08/2008 (Taiwan News) Following environmental groups' protest made against Premier Liu Chao-shiuan's (???) announcement on the "alternative road plan" that belongs to part of the construction of the controversial Suhua Freeway, the Presidential Office came forward on Monday and toned down the disputes by saying Liu's statement was merely a concept rather than an action. "What Liu said was an idea, and it would not be pushed for immediately. Liu's idea would only be realized after the Environmental Protection Administration approves it," said Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Wu-chi on Monday afternoon after President Ma Ying-jeou (???) met with Liu, Vice President Vincent Siew (???), and Kuomintang Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (???) at a lunch appointment on the same day. During a visit to Hualien County Government Sunday, Premier Liu, accompanied by Hualien County Commissioner Hsieh Shen-shan, said the Cabinet decided to begin the construction of the long-stalled, controversial Suha Freeway by upgrading the most dangerous and less controversial sections that is on the planned route of the Suhua Freeway. Liu said the decision was made to help boost the economy of the region and build a safer road for people living in the eastern part of Taiwan, and that the construction is expected to be undertaken before the end of this year, starting with the 18-kilometer Nanao-Heping section. More than 10 environmental groups who have long cared for the development and environment of eastern Taiwan, yesterday protested in front of the Executive Yuan to express their strong opposition to Liu's decision to construct the alternative road, saying the proposal was "old wine in a new bottle." They contended that the premier was simply repacking a controversial plan to build the Suhua Freeway, and criticized that Liu's decision broke Ma's promise made during the presidential campaign that the new government would carefully assess the construction of the controversial Suhua Freeway. "The route of the alternative road plan passes what is outlined in the construction of the Suhua Freeway route. The Executive Yuan's true intention was to let part of the expressway be built first, then the whole freeway can be completed later. The Executive Yuan was just playing with word games," said Pan Han-sheng, secretary-general of the Green Party Taiwan. Pan said the premier considers the EPA's environmental impact assessment panel a rubber stamp if he thinks that the construction project can be started before the end of this year. Robin Winkler, president of the Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association who is a naturalized Taiwanese from the U.S., stressed that the construction of the Suhua Freeway is not a conflict between the economy and the environment, but a conflict between a lack of foresight and long-term development. The construction plan is "meant only to temporarily boost the gross domestic product to benefit a few people, rather than the majority of Hualien people," Winkler claimed. In response, Environmental Protection Administration Minister Shen Shu-hung, stressed during a press conference yesterday afternoon that whether the Ministry of Transportation and Communications submits a new plan for an alternative road or uses the original Suhua Freeway plan, an environmental impact assessment will be required. He also indicated that construction is unlikely to start by the end of the year, but he declined to give a specific timeframe. The plan was rejected by an environmental impact assessment panel last April, leaving the Ma administration to decide whether or not to proceed with the project. The NT$100 billion-project or 86-kilometer Suhua Freeway will connect southern Ilan with Hualien County and will contain 40 kilometers of tunnels and 37 kilometers of bridges. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view/20080707-147020/Protesters-blast-plans-for-Taiwan-freeway Protesters blast plans for Taiwan freeway Agence France-Presse First Posted 22:14:00 07/07/2008 TAIPEI -- Environmental activists protested Monday against a government plan to build a freeway in eastern Taiwan, saying it could do irreparable environmental damage to an area known for its lush parks. About 20 demonstrators chanted slogans outside the cabinet office in Taipei, demanding that Premier Liu Chao-shiuan abandon the plan and threatening bigger rallies if he moves forward. On Sunday, Liu announced plans to build a freeway on the island's east coast to help ease Taipei-bound traffic and divert cars from a section of existing road that is susceptible to landslides. Liu said residents of southeastern Hualien had appealed to the government for a better road, telling reporters: "We must provide them a safe way to go home." Residents often complain about the existing narrow highway that leads up the island's eastern coast from Hualien towards Taipei, saying the dangerous road conditions lead many to opt for a 3.5-hour train journey. But environmentalists say the increased traffic brought by the highway would pollute the area's rivers and ocean waters, and damage the Taroko National Park, a major Taiwanese tourist attraction. "The decision is improper and unacceptable," Chang Tzu-chien of the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union told Agence France-Presse. A previous project to build a longer highway linking Hualien and Suao in the northeast has been shelved http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=36487 Published On: 2008-05-14 Metropolitan New building plan at SAU research plot protested Staff Correspondent Teachers and students of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University (SAU), members of Save the Environment Movement, and Bangladesh Environment Lawyers Association (BELA) jointly organised a seat-in protest programme yesterday protesting the plan of erecting a building in a research plot of the Horticulture department of the university, says a press release. The students and teachers of the university said the authorities have been planning to construct a library building cutting trees of the research plot. But in the master plan of the university there has separate space for the library building. They said destroying trees would hamper the research work of Horticulture department. The sewerage system of the new building, which will be connected with the pond, will hamper the irrigation system for farms of the department. Prof Ruhul Amin, chairman of Horticulture department, Abu Naser Khan, chairman of Save the Environment Movement, Prof AKM Mahtabuddin, Prof MA Mannan Mia, other teachers, students and lawyers form BELA took part at the seat-in programme. http://allafrica.com/stories/200805220634.html Namibia: Earthlife Protests Rock Concert At Spitzkoppe The Namibian (Windhoek) 22 May 2008 Posted to the web 22 May 2008 Windhoek BERTCHEN Kohrs of Earthlife Namibia is asking Government to deter the holding of a planned rock concert in the Spitzkoppe area. The environmental group said it was the fourth time that an event like this would happen there and a huge event was planned with about 300 visitors expected and 13 rock bands performing. "The overall aim of the organisers is to increase the magnitude of this event gradually and eventually create a cultural festival which can be compared with the 'Oppiekoppie' in South Africa", said Kohrs in a press release yesterday. Earthlife added that "protection of our unique environment for present and future generations is Earthlife Namibia's main objective" but what they termed questionable activities of local and foreign companies and individuals, in many cases sanctioned by Government, had destructive and irreversible impacts on our nature. "Take for instance mining in protected areas. How will our once pristine Namib-Naukluft Park look after uranium and other deposits have been exploited by mining companies? As a visitor one needs a permit to enter certain areas of the park while at the same time massive damage is done through mining of uranium, granite and marble. Earthlife members fail to see the logic behind this. "It is most upsetting that the beauty and uniqueness of pristine environment like the protected Namib-Naukluft Park, the Skeleton Coast Park and in fact the whole coastal area, just to name a few, are spoiled by mining and other destroying activities, so-called 'development'. "Earthlife's concern is the massive negative impact the sensitive area of the Spitzkoppe will be exposed to. Visitors will arrive in cars and on motorbikes, they will have to overnight, they will have to be fed, they will have to relieve themselves. It is unavoidable that the presence and activity of so many people will have severe impacts on the natural environment. There will be massive pollution by means of litter - including human excrement - and noise, disturbance to fauna and flora and other major damage to a prime tourist area." Earthlife urgently requested the Ministry of Environment and Tourism to look into the situation and act to stop such destructive activities. http://allafrica.com/stories/200805230851.html Namibia: Enviro Group Protests City Decision to Develop Avis The Namibian (Windhoek) 23 May 2008 Posted to the web 23 May 2008 Brigitte Weidlich Windhoek AN environmental group is up in arms about a Windhoek City Council decision to allow part of the Avis Dam recreation area to be developed for a hotel and restaurant, despite an alternative spot being proposed for such a facility. Last Thursday the Council decided at a meeting, which was called at short notice, to go ahead with the development of the four-hectare Erf 2882 opposite the Windhoek Dog Club, apparently bowing to pressure of eager developers. It might cost up to N$7 million to service the plot with water, sewerage, electricity and an access road. "We deplore the decision and will take the Council to task," said a committee member of the organisation Greenspace, which is leasing the area, except for the plot in question. Greenspace members on Wednesday night decided at their annual general meeting to protest the Council decision. "We asked several times to give a presentation of development proposals to the City Council, but were never granted the opportunity," the member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Namibian yesterday. Greenspace was part of a special committee set up by the municipality about two years ago to jointly map out development proposals for one of the few recreational spots left in the city. People walk their dogs at the dam, a nearby riding club uses the area and the sight of kudus and dozens of bird species delights nature lovers. Council resolved that a hotel should be built on the plot in question although Greenspace and the joint Avis Development Committee proposed that the plot should remain unspoilt and that a small hotel and restaurant rather be built on the northern side of the Avis valley. Council further resolved that no new residential developments would be permitted in the low-lying areas of the valley, as it is flood prone. http://allafrica.com/stories/200805140095.html Uganda: Districts Protest DDT Spray Over Organic Cotton New Vision (Kampala) 13 May 2008 Posted to the web 14 May 2008 Patrick Okino Kampala Lira, Amolatar and Dokolo districts have protested the planned spray of DDT in their area, saying it would affect the production of organic cotton. Johnson Engole, the chairman of Lango Cooperative Union, told the parliamentary committee on tourism, trade and industry last week that the use of DDT in Oyam and Apac districts was expected to reduce the volume of organic cotton this year. "We are urging people in these areas (Oyam and Apac) to grow conventional cotton, not organic, because of the DDT that was sprayed," Engole told the committee headed by Rose Munyira Wabwire at Ngetta ginnery. DDT was sprayed in the districts last month to fight malaria. The MPs were touring cotton ginneries and historical places in Bugisu, Teso and Lango. http://www.breitbart.com/image.php?id=iafp080511175858.th8gydq4p1&show_article=1 File photo shows a farmer protesting at the Department of Agriculture in Manila. With food prices hitting record highs the debate in Asia about whether genetically modified crops can ensure food security remains unsettled http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/23/stories/2008052361360300.htm Residents protest traffic intrusion Staff Reporter Bangalore: Many residents of R.V. Layout on Thursday staged a protest against allowing of traffic from the BDA underpass through their layout, which is a residential locality. While welcoming the underpass built by the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), the residents of the layout demanded that the service road on the left side of the underpass be changed to two-way instead of one-way to avoid vehicles from passing through their area. ?Major hazard? ?We have tolerated this intrusion for as long as we could. The constant traffic, besides being an irritant, also poses a major hazard to the retired citizens of the locality and the children. Two-wheelers zooming around the bends is a source of worry for parents. We do not have a problem with the magic box, in fact it is a commendable project, but it should not be operated at the cost of the resident?s peace of mind,? said Sapna Mahesh, a resident R. V. Layout. ?It is a public road so cars and two-wheelers will use it. The residents should not demand the road to themselves. Trucks and other heavy vehicles have been banned from entering the lane,? said K. Eshwar Prasad, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Traffic-Central division). The police officer told the residents to submit their alternative plan to police which would be considered keeping in mind the interest of public at large. Problems Meanwhile, two-wheelers riders had a tough time riding their vehicles on road over BDA underpass on Thursday as the road had become slippery with gravels spread over it as the Bruhat Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) could not lay final coat of bitumen due to heavy rain on Wednesday evening. The vehicle users also confused on taking turns ? from Sankey Road to Kumara Krupa Road and from Kumara Krupa Road to Sankey Road towards High Grounds ? at Windsor Manor junction as the BBMP had converted it into a signal-free rotary. Movement of vehicles was affected to certain extent. http://andhracafe.com/index.php?m=show&id=33751 CPI launched padayatra protesting bauxite mining Updated: 05-09-2008 Email this Page HYDERABAD : CPI activists launched `maha padayatra? carrying bows and arrows protesting against the proposed bauxite mining at Jerella in G K Veedhi agency mandal in Visakhapatnam district. CPI state secretary, who flagged off the padayatra said that the people would make the ruling party to sit in opposition if it goes ahead with the mining proposal as they did in the case of Telugu Desam. He warned the ruling Congress party asking them to take a clue from the bitter experience of the Telugu Desam party. He said that the TDP tried to mine bauxite in the Visakhapatnam agency area, when they were in power. As a result, he said the people taught them a lesion and now the same TDP leaders are sitting in the opposition. The samd would be the case with the Congress party, if they do not roll back their decision, he said. HE asked the tribals to take inspiration from martyrs like Alluri Sitarama Raju in fighting for their rightful demands and rights. He said that nothing can be achieved without agitations and added that their party was always in the forefront to take up people?s issues and agitate against them for the benefit of poor. Around 50 tribals led by the CPI district secretary, J.V. Satyanarayana Murthy started their marathon at Jerella where the bauxite reserves are said to be in plenty. The padayatra team will reach district collectorate in Visakhapatnam on May 14 passing through various villages those would be affected by the proposed mining. The CPI activists in large numbers would lay siege to the district collectorate on May 14 after the padayatra team reaches the collectorate. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/04/stories/2008060460130300.htm Novel protest by women Staff Reporter They begin to clean up the diamond tank and its environs to protest alleged inaction on the part of the authorities ? Photo: Lingaraj Panda Residents of Gopalrao Gorda, Jayantipetta and others clean up Diamond Tank in Berhampur . BERHAMPUR: A group of women preferred to clean up the diamond tank and its surroundings rather than spending more time pleading before the local municipal authorities to take up the same measures. Large number of women and small children of the area with the help of some youths have started this operation as a mark of protest against inaction of local municipality. This tank is used for bathing by the women of poor section of the area. But since past few years its water and surroundings had become a garbage dump. A. Raju a woman who led the cleaning operation said they had approached the local councillor and municipal authorities several times in the past with the request to clean up the tank and its surroundings. Similar move ?Women who work as menial labourers or domestic help are compelled to use this pond for bathing as tap water is a dream for them in this water scarce city,? said Yashoda another woman of the area. According to these women the municipal authorities can never understand the importance of getting this tank cleaned as they are not compelled to use it. So, they decided to use the Gandhian way and clean up the tank which they use rather than waiting for the municipality to do the job. Bubu Gouda, a resident of the area said they have decided to clean up the tank and its adjoining area regularly as they have lost faith on the local municipality. He hoped their action would spark some insight in the minds of municipal authorities. In a similar move the Cyclerickshaw Trolley Drivers? Association has also decided to donate Rs. 400 each to get the road between Pitagundi street and Desibehera street repaired. Despite several requests the local municipality is not repairing the road which is used by them as it leads to wholesale grocery and vegetable market. They say their vehicles are getting damaged by plying on this extreme unusable stretch of road. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=92800 Greenpeace protests over Sidon's coastal trash heap, state of Mediterranean By Mohammed Zaatari Daily Star staff Friday, June 06, 2008 Greenpeace activists led a peaceful protest on the occasion of World Environment Day Thursday in front of Sidon's sea-side landfill, reminding politicians of the plight of the Mediterranean Sea and demanding the establishment of marine reserves and the closure of all coastal dumps. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/06/stories/2008060651370300.htm Black flag protest by fishermen in Tuticorin Staff Reporter Tuticorin: The National Union of Fishermen (NUF) observed the World Environment Day by hoisting black flags at coastal hamlets across the district on Thursday. The members protested the proposed move by the Centre to replace the Coastal Regulation Zone Notification 1991 with a Coastal Zone Management (CZM) Notification. G. Anton Gomez, president of NUF, said that the new notification would open coastal resources for commercial exploitation, threatening the livelihood of millions of fishermen. He said that instead of showing interest for a new notification, the Government should take steps to take stern action against those who had breached the CRZ Notification 1991 under the Environment Protection Act. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2008/06/04/2003413738 Activists protest as Ma visits WiMAX Expo By Crystal Hsu STAFF REPORTER Wednesday, Jun 04, 2008, Page 12 An environmental group protested outside the WiMAX Expo over the potential health impact of electromagnetic radiation as President Ma Ying-jeou (???) visited the trade show at the Taipei World Trade Center. Ma, who took pride in his efforts to boost wireless Internet service in Taipei during his two terms as mayor, pledged to use Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) technology to bridge the digital divide between urban and rural areas. Over the past three years the government has pumped more than NT$20 billion (US$647.5 million) into developing WiMAX and opened WiMAX frequencies to six operators. But environmentalists yesterday urged more caution, saying electromagnetic radiation linked to WiMAX technology may have a negative impact on human health. ?WiMAX is a policy mistake,? Chen Jiau-hua (???), president of the Taiwan Electromagnetic Radiation Hazard Protection and Control Association, shouted before Ma left Exhibition Hall II of the trade center. Chen, a professor at the Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science, said the government should think twice about boosting WiMAX technology because electric and magnetic fields from power lines, wiring and appliances are harmful to human health. She cited an international study that found exposure to electromagnetic radiation may cause cancer and was likely responsible for an increase in childhood leukemia, although more research was necessary to establish the link. Chen?s association has called on the legislature to pass a law banning the installment of wireless antennas in residential areas or near school campuses. Mike Lin (???), who works for the Taipei Computer Association (TCA, ???????), dismissed the health fears, saying that electromagnetic radiation associated with WiMAX is lower than that for mobile phones. He said the National Communications Commission was of the same opinion. WiMAX can transmit wireless data at high speed over long distances for computers or mobile phones. The wireless Internet service currently in use cannot maintain normal operations if a laptop is being used in a vehicle traveling at a speed of more than 50kph, but WiMAX chipsets enable laptops to remain connected to the Internet while moving as fast as 80kph. http://www.gmanews.tv/story/98864/Greenpeace-holds-protest-outside-DOE-office-to-push-renewable-energy Greenpeace holds protest outside DOE office to push renewable energy 06/03/2008 | 12:48 PM MANILA, Philippines - Environmental activists on Tuesday blocked the driveway to the Department of Energy (DOE) in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City to push the halt in the use of coal to meet the country's energy needs. Radio dzBB reported that members of Greenpeace painted "Quit Coal!" on the driveway of the DOE, temporarily blocking vehicles from entering the compound, as the group reiterated its call on government to switch to alternative forms of energy such as wind, solar and hydro. They also called on both houses of Congress to pass immediately the renewable energy bill. But DOE Sec. Angelo Reyes said that while the government is all for the passage of the renewable energy bill, the reality is that the country is still dependent on coal for its energy needs saying coal-fired plants supply a considerable chunk of the country's power requirements. Meanwhile, in Malaca?ang, at least 10 residents from Metro Manila were chosen to be the first to benefit from a lifeline power subsidy. The subsidy came from some P2 billion in value-added tax (EVAT) for power collected by the government. Radio dzBB's Aileen Intia reported that the beneficiaries came from Metro Manila areas that included Pandacan and Sampaloc in Manila, and Project 4 in Quezon City. - GMANews.TV http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/17/stories/2008081756680300.htm Karnataka - Mysore Protest held against Chamalapura plant Staff Correspondent Demand: Activists of the Mysore Yuva Vedike and members of ACICM staging a dharna in Mysore on Saturday. MYSORE: Activists of the Mysore Yuva Vedike and members of the Association of Concerned and Informed Citizens of Mysore, led by freedom fighter Seetharama Iyengar, staged a dharna in front of the residence of Parliamentary Secretary to the Chief Minister S.A. Ramdas here on Saturday to protest against the proposed thermal power plant at Chamalapura. They urged Mr. Ramdas to prevail upon the Government to drop the controversial project. The protesters held placards that read ?Drop Chamalapura project, save Mysore?, ?Down with anti-people project? and raised slogans urging people to save Mysore from pollution. They demanded that the Government respect the people?s voice on the project and drop it without any second thoughts. A police team rushed to the spot on hearing about the protest. Mr. Iyengar urged Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa to drop the project as it would cause pollution in and around Mysore. Addressing the protesters, Mr. Ramdas reiterated his stand on the issue and said that he would not allow the plant to be set up at Chamalapura. ?It is not appropriate to stage a protest in front of my residence when I have already opposed the project and expressed my stand on it on many occasions,? he said. ACICM Convener M. Lakshmana, who was present, said protests would be held in front of the residences of other elected representatives here. http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storyPage.aspx?storyId=121159 Trekkers climb Mt. Kanlaon to protest PNOC-EDC project At least forty members of the Green Alert Negros held a two-day protest climb at the no-entry zone of Mt. Kanlaon Natural Park. They assailed the local government of Negros Occidental and other government agencies for allowing the Philippine National Oil Company-Energy Development Corporation (PNOC-EDC) to explore at the 169-hectare buffer zone. The environmentalists gathered in front of the San Sebastian Cathedral at about 6 a.m. Friday last week, carrying a flag and their mountaineering equipment. Rusty Bi?as, Green Alert Negros founder, said the protest climb was their way of declaring that the park should only be for recreational, scientific and educational use. Joining the protest was a family of trekkers led by prominent women's leader, Atty. Andrea Si. She brought along three of her children. Si said the province does not need help from PNOC-EDC since it has sufficient power supply. Si?s daughter, Sarah Stephanie, echoed her mother?s sentiments, adding that PNOC?s presence in the area could destroy the forest. After the gathering, the group headed to Minoyan, Murcia where they began the four-hour climb to Kanlaon, even without a permit. Group coordinator Mark Cervanter said what they did was part of "civil disobedience." The climb was concluded on Sunday. The group also launched a similar protest in 1998 to prevent the construction of a geothermal power plant in Barangay Mailum, Bago City. - Nicolas Delfin, ABS-CBN Bacolod http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/regions/view/20080606-141219/Green-protesters-scale-Mt-Kanlaon Green protesters scale Mt. Kanlaon By Carla Gomez Visayas Bureau First Posted 21:22:00 06/06/2008 BACOLOD CITY, Philippines -- About 35 environmentalists carrying Philippine flags and streamers with the message "Mt. Kanlaon is non negotiable" began a protest climb on Friday. "We are entering Mt. Kanlaon Natural Park without a permit from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources as a manifestation of our defiance to the support and submission of DENR to a private corporation like PNOC-EDC," Mark Cervantes of Green Alert said. The environmentalists, along with Bacolod Bishop Vicente Navarra, have opposed the entry of the Philippine National Oil Corp.-Energy Development Co. into the buffer zone of the Mt. Kanlaon Natural Park to tap more geothermal power for its Northern Negros Geothermal Power Plant in Mailum, Murcia. The Department of Energy, DENR and the Negros Occidental Sangguniang Panlalawigan have granted the PNOC-EDC entry into the buffer zone on condition it protects the environment. "This protest climb is also our independence climb. This will be a start of the liberation of our natural resources from the chains of capitalist control. The start of freeing our flora and fauna from any forms of destruction due to unprincipled policy decisions," said Ryan Bancolo, also of Green Alert. The protest climb also elevates outdoor consciousness that is centered on environmental activism and protection contrary to the traditional concept of climbing as a mere sport, Bancolo added. He also urged other mountaineering organizations to join in the efforts to protect the Mt. Kanlaon Natural Park. "We are holding this protest climb to show that we disagree with the decision of the SP, DENR, DOE and PAMB (Protected Area Management Board) in endorsing the project of PNOC-EDC. If DENR and other forces will stop us from entering the park they should also stop PNOC-EDC from entering the buffer zone," Cervantes said. Green Alert, in a statement, said it would not stop in its fight to reclaim Mt. Kanlaon. "We will reach the summit and banner the cause so the whole world will know that small voices like us stood guard to protect and defend it," the Green Alert statement said. http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1451698/hundreds_of_pupils_protest_polluted_acre_beaches/index.html?source=r_science Hundreds of Pupils Protest Polluted Acre Beaches Posted on: Thursday, 26 June 2008, 12:02 CDT By STEPHANIE RUBENSTEIN Hand-in-hand, around 200 elementary school pupils stood along the Acre shoreline on Sunday, in protest of the water pollution that has left the beaches there subject to closures for a second summer. The children, who were joined by other locals, the Zalul Environmental Association of Israel and an organization of 40 environmentalists called the Green Cell, sought to bring attention to environmental damage in the city. Sewage traveling down the Na'aman River from Karmiel to Acre Bay is polluting the area and endangering the health of Acre residents, said Ezer Fischler, deputy manager of the Zalul NGO. The group refused to let the city, which is an UNESCO World Heritage Site, become a "garbage place," Fischler said. "Most of the people in Acre are very poor," he said. "So for them, closing the beach is a huge problem. It is the only place they can have fun. They don't have money to go to a country club or a car to go to another beach... They want the ability to swim and to have a beach like everybody else." Fischler said he sent a letter on Sunday to Karmiel Mayor Adi Eldar, Environmental Protection Minister Gideon Ezra and Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit, to alert them to the problem, but that he thinks the Karmiel Municipality "[doesn't] care about the problem" since it is 25 kilometers from Acre Bay. The pollution was entering Acre Bay because equipment supposed to process it for use in agriculture lacked the capacity to deal with the volume, according to Karmiel Municipality spokeswoman Leviah Shalev-Fisher. "We have a plan to make it bigger," she said. "The problem is that there is a plan, but the government does not give us money to do it." Originally published by STEPHANIE RUBENSTEIN. (c) 2008 The Jerusalem Post. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved. Source: The Jerusalem Post http://allafrica.com/stories/200807180962.html Nigeria: Community Protests Sale of Burial Ground Vanguard (Lagos) 18 July 2008 Posted to the web 18 July 2008 Vincent Ujumadu Awka SOME women and youths in Umunze community in Orumba South local government area of Anambra State, has protested the alleged sale of the town's burial ground by some high placed indigenes of the town. As a result, a large number of police men have been despatched to the area to maintain peace. The protesters wondered why a monument like that which had existed for over 400 years, would be sold to one of the rich sons of the area by those yet to be identified. Traditional ruler of the town, Igwe Promise Eze has however appealed to the people of the community to remain calm as the problem would be sorted out soon. He said that as the custodian of culture and tradition of Umunze, everything possible would be done to ensure protection of lives and property in the area. The royal father commended the Nigerian Police for ensuring that lives and property were not destroyed during the protest. http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/newsbriefs/setimes/newsbriefs/2008/08/24/nb-05 Activists in Turkey arrested during protest over nuclear power plant 24/08/2008 ANKARA, Turkey -- More than 30 activists were arrested on Saturday (August 23rd) during a protest against government plans to build a nuclear power plant in the Black Sea port city of Sinop. All but one of them were foreign nationals, including citizens of the US, Germany and France. Authorities arrested them for "non-sanctioned" organisation of a protest. The government plans to build a nuclear power plant in Sinop, after the first such plant in the country is built near the Mediterranean port of Mersin. (AP, Biamag - 23/08/08) http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/08/23/europe/EU-Turkey-Nuclear-Protest.php 29 foreign protesters detained in Turkey The Associated Press Published: August 23, 2008 ANKARA, Turkey: Turkish police on Saturday detained 29 foreigners and three Turks during a peaceful protest against plans to build a nuclear power plant near a Black Sea port city. The police broke up the protest in front of the governor's office and "forcibly took" the protesters to a police station, said Niklas Hartmann of European Youth for Action, an environmentalist group. Police officers confirmed the detentions during what they called an unauthorized protest. The detained included at least two American citizens and several German and French ones, along with other European nationals, Hartmann said by telephone from Sinop. The group has been camping near Sinop since Aug. 9. The protesters posed as dead bodies on the ground to warn the people about what they consider the dangers of nuclear power plants. "The Turkish state seems to be very afraid of their citizens learning how dangerous nuclear power is. That is why authorities do not tolerate any protest," Hartmann said in a statement. "We are seriously concerned about the denial of freedom of speech in Turkey." Turkey has announced plans to build a nuclear plant near Sinop after the construction of its first nuclear power plant near the Mediterranean port city of Mersin. http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/getstory?openform&3CE195332150201FC22574AB0020CA12 High-Voltage Power Lines Draw Strong Protests in Metn Ain Saadeh-Mansourieh residents in the Metn province kept up their pressure on the government for the fourth day in a row to prevent the installation of high-voltage power lines above residential areas and educational institutions. Residents expressed fear that the power lines could cause cancer, urging the government to install them underground. Change and Reform Bloc MPs Ghassan Mukhaiber and Ibrahim Kanaan, Sami Gemayel from the Phalange Party, Lebanese Forces member Eddy Abi Lamaa and Father Marwan Tabet, the secretary general of Catholic schools in Lebanon also joined the protesters. "We will continue to work with the residents to reach the solution that satisfies them," said Mukhaiber during Tuesday's protest. "We want executive decisions by the Council of Development and Reconstruction and the cabinet." Kanaan said MPs and Metn residents would start meeting with Premier Fouad Saniora, the ministers and the CDR to reach a suitable solution. "This is a humanitarian matter and not a political one," he stressed. Abi Lamaa also urged the water and energy ministry to stop the process of installing the high-voltage lines. Beirut, 20 Aug 08, 09:04 http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/21/stories/2008082160601300.htm Protest to save olive ridleys Rahi Gaikwad Dhamra project in Orissa a threat to environment, says Greenpace ? Photo: Vivek Bendre Environmentalists? concern: Greenpeace activists stage a sit-in outside the Tata Group headquarters in Mumbai on Wednesday in protest against the company?s upcoming port at Dhamra in Orissa. Greenpeace has been campaigning against the port which, it says, is too close to the nesting grounds of the highly endangered Olive Ridley turtles. Mumbai: Greenpeace activists sat in protest outside ?Bombay House?, headquarters of the Tata Group here, on Wednesday to draw the attention of its chairman Ratan Tata to the impact of the Dhamra Deepwater Port project in Orissa on the environment. Tata Steel is in a joint venture in the project which, according to Greenpeace, will endanger olive ridley turtles in the area by damaging their nesting ground and wrecking biodiversity. Around 70 protesters formed a human chain, their hands fastened with thick pipes. Some wore green turtle costumes. With juice bottles strapped to their bodies, they sat at each of the three entrances to the building. They sported the slogans, ?Turtles over Turnover? and ?Extinction is Forever?. The protests lasted for three hours. The police later removed the activists. The activists wanted open talks with Mr. Tata. ?We have sent several mails to the Tatas, but they have been avoiding us,? said an activist. While Greenpeace had been voicing concern over the project for four years, there was no upfront dialogue between the two sides, said Sanjiv Gopal, campaign manager, Oceans, Greenpeace. He said that Tata Steel earlier stated that in the light of due evidence, the project would not go ahead. However, the work was progressing. A Greenpeace study highlighted the ecological threats but the company now said it would try to control damage. This was a harmful shift in position, said Mr. Gopal. Tata Steel statement Tata Steel, however, condemned the protest. In a statement, it said that based on various studies, ?it can be clearly established that the port limits of the upcoming Dhamra port are clearly outside the turtle nesting area as well as the National Marine Sanctuary and the Bhitarkanika National Park. This has also been confirmed by the National Environmental Appellate Authority, who had visited the site. Tata Steel has had discussions with Greenpeace on the Dhamra port and the issue of turtles. All issues stand clarified. Tata Steel would be willing to engage in further discussions, should Greenpeace desire to do so.? Scientists and academicians have petitioned Orissa against the Dhamra project. http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/354202/1/.html Nude cyclists protest car pollution in Brazil's Sao Paulo Posted: 15 June 2008 0828 hrs Photos 1 of 1 An aerial view shows the Itaim Bibi neighbourhood in the middle of Sao Paulo SAO PAULO: Some 200 semi-nude bicycle riders snarled traffic Saturday in downtown Sao Paulo to protest car pollution and dangerous riding conditions in the city. The demonstration drew the attention of motorists and passers-by alike with no incident reported other than the arrest of one of the riders who had decided to take all his clothes off, city traffic officials said. "Our nakedness shows how we feel as cyclists riding in traffic next to motorists well protected inside their vehicles," a demonstrator who preferred to remain anonymous told AFP. The naked pedal pushers were part of the World Naked Bike Ride, an organization holding similar events in some 70 countries to protest "indecent exposure to cars." "We face automobile traffic with our naked bodies as the best way of defending our dignity and exposing the unique dangers faced by cyclists and pedestrians as well as the negative consequences we all face due to dependence on oil, and other forms of non-renewable energy," the group said on its website. - AFP/ac http://www.chinapost.com.tw/international/americas/2008/06/09/160226/Mexico%2DCity.htm Mexico City cyclists ride nude to protest cars By Eduardo Quiros, Reuters Monday, June 9, 2008 MEXICO CITY -- Hundreds of naked cyclists rode through the streets of Mexico's capital on Saturday to demand respect from drivers in a city choked with some 4 million vehicles. More than 500 men and women, half of them nude, pedaled along Mexico City's historic Reforma Avenue to the vast Zocalo Square, chanting, "Save your planet, use a bicycle!" Some had "emission-free vehicle" painted on their backs. "We're riding nude to see if this way they'll see us, so they don't run over any more of us," said student Alejandro Hernandez, standing naked before the ride. "Being naked means we aren't invisible. The motorists don't respect us, they see us as a nuisance," he said. To combat daily gridlock and chronic air pollution in the sprawling metropolis of about 20 million people, the capital's leftist government is promoting bicycle use and has begun building a network of cycling lanes. But the lanes are still few and far between, so the city's growing number of cyclists must ride alongside old buses, trucks and stressed motorists. Mexico City is one of the world's most polluted capitals, along with Beijing, blighted by its thin, high-altitude air and a ring of surrounding mountains that traps exhaust fumes from buses and factories on the city outskirts. Authorities have worked to remove the worst-polluting vehicles from the road. But as the capital's population grows, the city gains up to 250,000 new cars each year. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/Cyclists_ride_nude_in_anti-car_protest/articleshow/3111535.cms Cyclists ride nude in anti-car protest 8 Jun 2008, 1938 hrs IST,REUTERS MEXICO CITY: Hundreds of naked cyclists rode through the streets of Mexico's capital on Saturday to demand respect from drivers in a city choked with some 4 million vehicles. More than 500 men and women, half of them nude, pedaled along Mexico City's historic Reforma Avenue to the vast Zocalo Square, chanting, "Save your planet, use a bicycle!" Some had "emission-free vehicle" painted on their backs. "We're riding nude to see if this way they'll see us, so they don't run over any more of us," said student Alejandro Hernandez, standing naked before the ride. "Being naked means we aren't invisible. The motorists don't respect us, they see us as a nuisance," he said. To combat daily gridlock and chronic air pollution in the sprawling metropolis of about 20 million people, the capital's leftist government is promoting bicycle use and has begun building a network of cycling lanes. But the lanes are still few and far between, so the city's growing number of cyclists must ride alongside old buses, trucks and stressed motorists. Mexico City is one of the world's most polluted capitals, along with Beijing, blighted by its thin, high-altitude air and a ring of surrounding mountains that traps exhaust fumes from buses and factories on the city outskirts. Authorities have worked to remove the worst-polluting vehicles from the road. But as the capital's population grows, the city gains up to 250,000 new cars each year. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Thu Aug 28 20:20:15 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2008 04:20:15 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Ecological protests, USA, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <00a601c90986$2f77fc70$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * Richmond, VA: 12 arrested blocking traffic in power station protest * Ohio: Power group offices blockaded * Berkeley, CA: Tree-sit at Berkeley campus continues * Santa Cruz: Critical Mass "turns ugly" after motorist hits cyclist * St Louis: Near-naked cyclists protest oil dependency * Crawford County: Ban on bike ride leads to protest bike ride * Indiana: Interstate-69 route hit by sabotage, blockades, protests * Austin: Protest over pollution from factory * Boulder: Naked bike ride * Chula Vista: Protest against power station plan * South Blount: Fluoridation protest * Tennessee: Environmentalists protest energy technology * Washington DC: Hospital building project protested * Zanesville, Ohio: Protest over road death of teen * Maryland: New nuclear plant protested * Philadelphia: Protests as museum plan deemed threat to park * Arizona: Protest over massive building project * Atlanta: Residents express concern over bypass project * San Ramon: Oil company Chevron targeted * San Diego: Protests over threat to glider strip from development project * Lakeland: Protest over rail building deal * Washington: Canadian province tour marked by protests * Washington: Ducks dumped in toxic toys protest * Oregon: Annual meeting targeted in natural gas protest * Oregon: Police violence mars rally against chemical spraying * Alabama: Citizens file petitions against nuclear plant * Maryland: Protest against road building over health concerns * California: McCain event draws environmental protesters * Florida: Protest against new power plant in Palm Beach * Oregon: City Hall protest over road bridge building * Tennessee: Greenpeace protest at TVA * Washington DC: Protests over oil company sponsoring sports team * Virginia: Residents protest brewery building * Connecticut: Power plant plan protested * Seattle: Protest to save trees * Florida: Protest at power company * Austin: Protest against building plan * California: Building on South Central Farms site protested http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-07-01-0061.html Protest of power plant leads to 12 arrests Activists, including one dangling from footbridge, block traffic in Richmond Tuesday, Jul 01, 2008 - 12:08 AM Updated: 07:55 AM A protester rappels from the Belle Island Bridge as police wait for him on the ground. (MICHAEL MARTZ/RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH) By MICHAEL MARTZ TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER On the day Dominion Virginia Power began construction of a coal-fired power plant in Southwest Virginia, 12 people were arrested in Richmond for protesting the plant. The protesters yesterday blocked the entrance to the corporate headquarters of Dominion Virginia Power's parent company, Dominion Resources. The activists blocked Tredegar Street for more than two hours, with four college students forming a human chain with their hands encased in containers of concrete and a fifth dangling by a climber's harness from the Lee Bridge footbridge that leads to Belle Isle. The protesters -- all part of a contingent of more than 20 members of Blue Ridge Earth First! -- were arrested on misdemeanor charges. Hannah Morgan, a 19-year-old resident of Appalachia, a town in Wise County, acted as spokeswoman for the group. She said the organization does not have an official membership roll but has attracted involvement from around the state. Last week, the state Air Pollution Control Board approved pollution permits for the $1.8 billion, 585-megawatt power plant in Wise. That was the last regulatory hurdle keeping Dominion Virginia Power from beginning construction. Blue Ridge Earth First! and a group called Mountain Justice say the plant will emit too much mercury and carbon dioxide, promote strip mining for coal in Southwest Virginia and cost consumers too much for electricity. "We've been through the regulatory process -- it's time to take action on our own," Morgan said. "We will not stop until Dominion stops," she said. Also positioned to fight Dominion is the Southern Environmental Law Center, which has an office in Charlottesville. Officials at the center said last week that the organization plans to challenge Virginia Power's project in court. Police yesterday charged the protesters with impeding traffic, spokeswoman Karla Peters said. By 6:30 p.m., Morgan said, all 12 who had been arrested were released after posting bond -- $2,000 for 11 and $3,500 for the protester who suspended himself from the bridge. During the protest, Dominion employees were forced to walk to work after their vehicles were caught in a traffic jam that extended up North Fifth and Byrd streets, and the Downtown Expressway to Powhite Parkway. "Dominion respects peaceful protest," company spokesman Karl Neddenien said yesterday. "However, we do not condone illegal activities, such as the blocking of the road and preventing our employees from getting to work." Dominion employs about 640 people at its corporate headquarters, including the company's top executives. "It did affect the operability at Tredegar. . . . It had a significant effect," Neddenien said. The person with the best view of the traffic jam was Marley Green, a 22-year-old senior at James Madison University in Harrisonburg. It was Green, who grew up in Hamilton in Loudoun County, who climbed to the footbridge and lowered himself to dangle above Tredegar Street. His rope was attached to a 55-gallon drum, filled with concrete, in the middle of the street. "Certainly, it's a risk," Green said in a cell phone conversation before lowering himself to the street about 9:25 a.m. "But it's one I'm willing to take, and one that needs to be taken, to show how reckless Dominion's plans are." Morgan said Green descended out of concern for the safety of police officers who were preparing to climb out and lower him to the street. James Madison students Bethany Spitzer, Alyssa Barrett and Holly Garrett and Virginia Tech student Kaitlyn Hart all had their hands anchored in concrete blocks. The four used climbing carabiners to latch their wrists to bolts inside the concrete, and their arms were protected by a plastic and wire sleeve, said Richmond Fire Department Lt. Michael Oprandy. After firefighters began cutting into the blocks to reach the bolts, the protesters agreed to remove their hands voluntarily, Oprandy said. Among its previous activities, Blue Ridge Earth First! protested Dominion's plans to build a third nuclear reactor at its North Anna power plant in Louisa County. http://stoptarsands.wordpress.com/2008/06/29/ http://www.nbc4i.com/midwest/cmh/news.apx.-content-articles-CMH-2008-07-07-0020.html Women Climb Flagpole In Power Plant Protest Monday, Jul 07, 2008 - 01:43 PM Updated: 04:30 PM By Denise Yost E-mail | Biography COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Police arrested eight protesters on Monday outside a local power building. The group, Earth First!, was protesting American Municipal Power because they have plans to build a coal-burning power plant in Meigs County, NBC 4 reported. Nearly 100 protesters were on hand and two of the protesters climbed a flagpole. The protesters documented their rally on home video. Those arrested were charged with trespassing and resisting arrest. In a statement from AMP Ohio, the business said, "The project has local support in Meigs County. Coal production is much cleaner than in years past, and we're looking for more green sources of energy, but this protest group will not listen to reason." The protest concluded at about 2:20 p.m. http://www.10tv.com/live/content/local/stories/2008/07/07/plant_protest.html?sid=102 Power Plant Protest Ends With Arrests Monday, July 7, 2008 3:34 PM Print Story E-mail Story COLUMBUS, Ohio - Several people were arrested late Monday morning while protesting plans for a proposed coal-fired plant in southeast Ohio. Police were forced to subdue protestors after they entered the headquarters of American Municipal Power, located on Airport Drive in east Columbus, 10TV News reported. SLIDESHOW: Chopper 10 Images Of Protest Dozens of members with the group, Earth First, were at the headquarters protesting plans to build a new power plant in Meigs County. Video from Chopper 10 showed the activities gathering outside the building. According to police, five demonstrators entered the building and chained themselves up. Officers used Mace when the demonstrators refused to leave, 10TV News reported. Eight people were arrested during the demonstration, police said. http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_9809445 Fourth protester occupies a tree at UC Berkeley By Kristin Bender Oakland Tribune Article Last Updated: 07/07/2008 10:10:30 PM PDT BERKELEY - A fourth protester was occupying a tree Monday in an oak grove where three remaining tree sitters were living near UC Berkeley's memorial stadium. University spokesman Dan Mogulof said the man - who has not been identified - climbed into the tree late Sunday afternoon. He told university officials that he is "not part of the other group," Mogulof said. Save the Oaks at the Stadium spokesman Doug Buckwald said the man, who goes by Jeff and is in his 30s, is outside the first chain link fence erected to keep protesters out, but inside the second fence. The university erected two fences last year to control protesters at the site. "He's there to support the cause of the oak trees and why they need to be protected," Buckwald said. "He's interested in doing what he can to fight the good fight." Mogulof said the new protester won't likely be there long. He may not have many supplies and is isolated from the others, he said. This isn't the first time a single person has climbed into a university tree in support of the now 18-month tree-sit to protest the university's plans to build a $140 million sports training center at the grove. In May, a man named Michael Schuck, 23, climbed into a tree on Sproul Plaza and sat there for about three weeks to support the tree-sit and other causes. He eventually came down. Meanwhile, the three remaining tree sitters, who are in one redwood, are receiving water and some food from the university. But the university is still refusing to allow ground supporters to provide extra food and water. Sunday afternoon, about 50 supporters of the tree sitters came to the grove to try and provide supplies, Buckwald said. Supporters put bags of food in the middle of a circle of people, and the tree sitters tossed a rope the ground, hoping to lift the bags to their tree. Police refused to allow this. One person floated a helium balloon with some light snacks attached to a string to the tree sitters, Buckwald said. People have routinely floated handfuls of Fruit Loops, cheese puffs and other stacks on balloon strings to tree sitters. Mogulof said university officials prevented the supporters from providing the supplies because they have a court order barring the tree sitters from being in the tree. "We're just enforcing the law," Mogulof said. When food was not allowed up into the tree, there was a skirmish between protesters and police and one man, David Walton, 56, was arrested for battery on a police officer and resisting arrest, Mogulof said. Videographer L A Wood said this was the third Sunday in a row that tree sitters have been denied food by outside groups. "The community has seen an increase in UC police violence at the endangered oak grove," he said in a statement. "This aggression has even been directed at many of the Grandmothers for the Oaks, a group that has been supplying the tree-sit each Sunday afternoon since Thanksgiving Day last year. Several of their elderly members were knocked to the ground during the three-hour confrontation with the campus police." Buckwald said he is concerned that the tree sitters won't get enough water over the next few days, which are forecasted to be hot. "Water will be the big issue for everyone the next few days," he said. Building the sports training center is on hold until at least July 17 when Alameda County Superior Court Judge Barbara Miller will have a hearing on the lawsuits that were filed and tried in court to stop the training center. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,373327,00.html University of Berkeley Tree-Sitters Hanging On, 18 Months Into Protest Saturday, June 28, 2008 June 18: A protester who calls herself 'dumpster muffin' screams at developers from her perch atop a University of Berkeley tree. BERKELEY, Calif. - In December 2006, protesters angry about campus expansion plans clambered into the branches of a threatened oak grove at the University of California, Berkeley. Since then, Democrats have chosen their first black presidential candidate, the housing market has taken a dive and gasoline prices have boomed. Still, the tree-sitters continue to sit. There had been signs the protest might be coming to an end as a court case challenging a planned multimillion-dollar athletic training facility inched closer to resolution. This month administrators, who won a court order allowing them to evict the protesters at any time, cut supply lines, yanked a few protesters out of the trees and drove the rest into a single redwood. For a while, it looked like campus officials were prepared to starve protesters out. But after the remaining half-dozen or so tree sitters said they were a) not moving and b) rationing water, officials relented and offered sustenance to the protesters aloft. "This misguided effort to preserve a 1923 landscaping project certainly doesn't warrant any action that could cause harm or permanent health consequences for anybody involved," said campus spokesman Dan Mogulof. Protesters and their supporters say they are prepared to hold out. "They're very well-trained tree climbers. They're very experienced and I have trust in them that they're going to keep themselves safe and they're going to keep defending the grove," a ground supporter who would give her name only as Citizyn said this week. UC Berkeley officials say they need the new center to provide safe and up-to-date facilities for their athletes. Once the center is built, the second phase of the project involves upgrading Memorial Stadium - old, dilapidated and sitting right on top of the Hayward fault. Neighborhood residents, the City of Berkeley and the California Oak Foundation have sued to stop the project, saying it violates environmental and earthquake safety regulations. A judge issued an injunction blocking construction while the suits were pending and was expected to make a definitive ruling earlier this month. But that ruling turned out to be a bit mixed, with both sides reading victory into its 129 pages. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Barbara Miller found the new center is mostly legal. However, on the stadium upgrade part of the project, she said the university has to prove some planned work doesn't amount to more than 50 percent of the value of the original building, a state requirement. On Friday, UC Berkeley filed a response saying it is eliminating the items the judge questioned. Administrators also asked the judge to modify the preliminary injunction, saying there are no longer grounds for preventing construction on the new facility. Once the judge has issued a final ruling, it can be appealed. But construction could begin earlier if UC is successful in getting the injunction lifted. On the tree issue, campus officials note that most of the trees were planted by the university in the 1920s. They have promised to plant three trees for every one felled. But tree-sitters say that is not acceptable. Over the past 18 months, protesters had been cycling in and out, using supply lines stretched over a campus-erected barricade. But the stepped-up campus actions stopped that. In the past two weeks, the mood has swung wildly. Protesters howled, flung excrement and shook tree branches as campus-hired arborists cut supply lines and removed gear. But by late this week, campus police were conducting delicate negotiations with tree-sitters, offering to provide food and water if protesters would lower their waste on a daily basis in the interest of hygiene. Campus officials ended up giving up the water without concessions; protesters declined to yield their urine. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/03/BA0V11IR3H.DTL 4 Berkeley tree-sitters end protest Carolyn Jones, Chronicle Staff Writer Thursday, July 3, 2008 (07-02) 16:37 PDT BERKELEY -- Four of the Memorial Stadium tree-sitters left their perches Wednesday and late Tuesday, leaving only three protesters making a stand against UC's plans to build an athletic training center in the grove, UC Berkeley officials said. But the holdouts don't plan to give up just yet, said Eric Eisenberg, who has been part of the tree-sitters' support crew since the protest began Dec. 1, 2006. "Those remaining are strong, steadfast and recommitted to protecting this sacred, beautiful place," Eisenberg said. "Obviously their supplies are dwindling and they need nutrients, but they're rededicating themselves. We're strong and we're going to win." Three of the protesters came down to preserve more food and water for those who remain, Eisenberg said, while the fourth - Amanda "Dumpster Muffin" Tierney, 21 - came down because she was suffering from an undisclosed medical condition, campus spokesman Dan Mogulof said. The fate of the oak grove hinges on the outcome of lawsuits brought against UC by the City of Berkeley, the Panoramic Hill Association and oak tree supporters. A judge is expected to rule in the next few weeks whether the university can proceed with plans to build a $140 million sports training center next to the stadium. Three of the protesters made unannounced descents from the trees late Tuesday night, Mogulof said. Drew Beres, 19, was arrested by campus police while the other two - Pamela "Olive" Zigo, 19, and Travis "Bird" Richey, 19 - climbed back up a different tree apparently to evade arrest, he said. After talking to UC Berkeley Assistant Police Chief Mitch Celaya for about two hours Wednesday morning, Zigo and Richey came down from their perches. Tierney descended a few hours later, saying she had a medical condition. Once on the ground, she collapsed three times and was seen by her doctor and paramedics, who transported her to Highland Hospital, Mogulof said. Beres, Zigo and Richey have been charged with trespassing and violating a court order to abandon the protest in the grove, Mogulof said. Tierney will be arrested after her condition stabilizes. "We're getting very close to ending this long and difficult occupation," Mogulof said. "We want a safe end. This is a 1923 landscaping project," he added, referring to the year the stadium was built, "not an ancient forest. There's nothing here worth getting hurt over." The university has been giving each tree-sitter two or three energy bars a day, plus bottled water, since severing the protesters' support lines two weeks ago. The tree-sitters and Berkeley City Council are trying to find a local clergy member to deliver hot meals to the tree-sitters, some of whom have been in the foliage continuously for more than a year. "There's plenty of people who want to help," Eisenberg said. "The tree-sitters are heroes in this town. It's mean-spirited of the university to try and starve them out." In October, a judge ordered the tree-sitters to leave the grove, saying the university's right to protect its property trumps the protesters' right to free speech. The protest is an ongoing public health and safety problem that has so far cost about $350,000 in extra security, university officials have said. http://politicom.moldova.org/stiri/eng/132075/ More protesters leave Berkeley trees A protester known as Dumpster Muffin collapsed moments after leaving her place in a tree on the University of California at Berkeley campus, officials said. Amanda Tierney, 21, was hospitalized, Dan Mogulof, a university spokesman, told KTVU in Oakland. Once she is discharged from the hospital she can expect to be charged with trespassing, the report said. The protest against cutting down a grove of trees to make space for an athletic training center began in December 2006. The project has been on hold because of legal action by the city of Berkeley and environmental groups. Four tree-sitters came down this week, including Tierney, a reporter for the Daily Californian writing for CNN said. That leaves three protesters still in the tree. Copyright 2008 by United Press International http://origin.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_9226333 Bicyclists swarm streets in Santa Cruz; protest turns ugly By Jennifer Squires Santa Cruz Sentinel Article Launched: 05/11/2008 12:47:19 PM PDT A hundred cyclists who were apparently trying to remind motorists to share the road caused disturbances downtown and near the Municipal Wharf on Friday night, marking the first time in recent years the occasional protest rides have become violent. Police issued no citations, but one cyclist, a 20-year-old Santa Cruz woman, suffered minor injuries when her bicycle collided with a Subaru Legacy on Front Street, police reported. It was that collision, which happened just after 10 p.m. as the Critical Mass-style ride got under way, that sparked arguments between motorists and cyclists. "They've been doing this Friday night laps-around-downtown for probably a few months now," Lt. Rick Martinez said. "Last night, they just decided to step up their presence. There were 100 bicyclists basically taking over the roadway." The rides are usually well-organized and involve cyclists who follow traffic laws and use lights and horns, police said. But on Friday, a group of mostly college-age cyclists impeded traffic downtown, yelled at drivers and put themselves in harm's way, Martinez said. The names of cyclists involved in the ride were not available, and none were cited by police. Piet Canin, who is organizing this week's unrelated Bike to Work event, said he hadn't heard about the protest ride and didn't want to pass judgment without talking to those involved. He acknowledged, however, that the riders probably lost sight of their intended message. "On the surface of it, it kind of exasperates the tensions between cyclists and motorists," he said. "That's not good." Cyclists' safety has been a hot topic in the community recently; three cyclists have been killed in collisions with vehicles on Santa Cruz streets in the past 10 months. Canin said group rides can be a positive way to draw attention to cycling issues, especially the importance of sharing the road. "There's lots of benefits to those group rides and usually cyclists are respectful and safer in those group rides," he said. Police received several calls complaining about the cyclists, who were riding together from about 10-11 p.m. The event reached a tipping point when the 20-year-old woman popped out from between two parked vehicles on Front Street near Soquel Avenue and into the path of the Subaru, making the accident likely her fault, police said. Other cyclists reportedly yelled at the driver as he got out to check on the woman. Medics called in to help the woman radioed for police assistance because cyclists started arguing with a second driver caught in the mass, police said. Someone smashed out the back window of that driver's Nissan Pathfinder. After the altercations, the cyclists continued riding throughout the city, pounding on vehicles, and as Martinez said, "I guess decided to do their best to mix it up with motorists, including lying down in front of the entrance to the wharf." "We even attempted to talk with the organizer of the bicycle ride explaining that we totally support their cause and that we're doing our best to find that common ground," Martinez said. "But it was one of those situations where they certainly weren't going to garner any support from the community from the kind of behavior they displayed." Martinez said police would be on the alert for future rides. "Honestly if they continue to ride throughout the city in the way they did last night, we're probably going to see more bicyclists injured," he said. http://www.postchronicle.com/news/strange/article_212162219.shtml Naked Cyclists Protest Oil Dependence by Staff Hundreds of nearly-nude bikers and curious onlookers have descended on St. Louis for a 10-mile ride protesting U.S. dependence on oil, participants said. The World Naked Bike Ride, which has been held in about 70 cities across the globe since 2004, came to St. Louis for the first time Saturday night as nude and nearly-nude cyclists rode their bikes from the city's Tower Grove Park to the Grove neighborhood, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Monday. http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-odd-mostly-naked-cyclists,0,4557039.story Spectators gather in St. Louis for "naked" bike ride held to protest oil dependence By Associated Press 2:43 PM EDT, August 3, 2008 ST. LOUIS (AP) _ Fewer clothes and lots of skin have made a political point in a public park in St. Louis. Hundreds of mostly nude bicyclists joined curious spectators in the city's Tower Grove Park on Saturday night for a 10-mile "World Naked Bike Ride." The ride has been staged in 70 cities worldwide since 2004 as a way to protest society's dependence on oil. St. Louis police were on hand to ensure the riders wore the bare minimum, which included thongs, pasties, loin cloths, bathing suits and even body painting. However, officers didn't seem to notice one rider wearing nothing but a pink derby hat. http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/20625984.html Bicyclists Stage Protest Ride in Crawford County By Bree'Ann Hildreth Story Created: Jun 21, 2008 at 5:24 AM CDT Story Updated: Jun 21, 2008 at 5:24 AM CDT DES MOINES (AP) - Some bicyclists plan a protest ride in Crawford County this weekend. Today, several hundred people are expected to ride about 40 miles in opposition to the county's decision to ban RAGBRAI, The Register's Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa. Organizer Greg Losh, of Council Bluffs, says they were told they can't use public roads, so they're "doing just the opposite." County supervisors voted to ban the annual ride last fall after settling a lawsuit with the family of a rider who died in 2004. The lawsuit claimed the county was negligent in its road maintenance. Sheriff Mike Bremser says there's no ordinance preventing anyone from bicycling through the county, even as a large group. http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080612/NEWS02/806120482 Protesters damage I-69 office Associated Press Posted: June 12, 2008 BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- About a dozen bandanna-wearing protesters opposed to the Interstate 69 extension through southern Indiana smashed a window pane Wednesday at one of the state Department of Transportation's I-69 project offices, police said. Bloomington police were called to the office at Bloomington's One City Centre just after noon, by which time the protesters had fled. Witnesses told police the men and women were wearing bandannas over their faces and carrying a "Stop I-69" sign when they marched into the building. One protester threw a chunk of concrete, breaking out a glass pane in the entry door, while others used chalk to mark up the sidewalk, steps and the inner and outer walls, police said. Mayor Mark Kruzan, who opposes I-69 himself, released a statement calling their actions "misdirected energy." "Violent action is a disservice to our community's reputation and, in fact, does nothing but hurt the protesters' own cause," according to Kruzan's statement. The proposed extension of I-69 between Evansville and Indianapolis has caused widespread debate in southern Indiana for several years. Earlier this year, the state Department of Transportation expressed concerns about veiled threats to the project, including an Internet posting that stated: "We will never let them build this road." In March, INDOT crews began clearing land for a nearly 2-mile-long stretch in Gibson County that will be the first section built of the 142-mile highway. http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080620/NEWS/806200452 I-69 protestors arrested for trespassing Associated Press Posted: June 20, 2008 HAUBSTADT, Ind. - Police arrested five protesters Friday after they declined to leave a wooded cluster along the planned route of the Interstate 69 extension in southern Indiana. The protesters, including two tree sitters and three people on the ground, were arrested about 20 miles north of Evansville after a month of protest. The protest was on land owned by the state highway department west of Indiana 57 and Indiana 68 for the stretch of I-69 planned to run between Evansville and Indianapolis. The protest began May 19 when two men pitched a tent roughly 30 feet off the ground. During the arrest, protesters claimed police were reckless with their safety, cutting safety ropes and intentionally pushing one protester into a patch of poison ivy. Dick said conservation officers did not intend to harm or threaten those protesting. http://www.14wfie.com/global/story.asp?s=8672965 Sixteen I-69 protestors arrested Posted: July 14, 2008 10:03 PM Updated: July 22, 2008 02:15 PM Posted by Mike Mardis Sixteen people were arrested during an early morning I-69 protest in Gibson County. The Gibson County Sheriff said the protesters were blocking the entrance to the Gohmann Asphalt Plant in Haubstadt. Authorities say five of the protestors were chained together in a device called a Sleeping Dragon and a state police team was called in to remove the chains, a process that took about five hours. The plant has the contract for the first section of the I-69 extension project. Andy Dietrick, Indiana Department if Transportation Spokesperson, said the protests are harming an Indiana business. "It really didn't have to do with I-69 this time," Dietrick said. "It could have been asphalt going to your driveway or some school parking lot. So these folks are keeping an Indiana business from doing their business." There will be an area for protestors across the street from The Centre during Wednesday's groundbreaking. The private events starts at 10:30 a.m. http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080715/NEWS02/807150460/1025/rss02 Interstate 69 extension protesters arrested as groundbreaking nears Ribbon-cutting will be private By Ryan Lenz . Associated Press . July 15, 2008 EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- As crews begin construction on the long-planned Interstate 69 extension and a prominent lobbying group readies for a private ribbon-cutting celebrating it, tensions that have surrounded the project for years show no sign of calming. Police arrested more than a dozen protesters yesterday as they blocked the entrance to an asphalt plant that will supply materials to build the 142-mile highway linking Evansville and Indianapolis. The protesters had chained themselves together, police said. Such resistance is a concern for those organizing the ceremony tomorrow in Evansville -- and part of the reason admission to the gathering will be by invitation only. The ceremony is sponsored by Hoosier Voices for I-69, which promoted the highway project to lawmakers and the public. Gov. Mitch Daniels is scheduled to give the keynote address at The Centre in Evansville. Steve Schaeffer, executive director of Hoosier Voices, said he respects differences of opinion, but the potential for problems would be too great with a public program. "It's really unfortunate that we have to take these measures because of our out-of-town opponents causing problems," Schaeffer said. The decades-long debate over the highway through rural southwestern Indiana cleared a legal hurdle in December when a federal judge ruled against a lawsuit seeking to block construction based on the project's environmental impact. The suit was filed by members of the Hoosier Environmental Council, Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads, the Sassafras Audubon Society and six residents. U.S. District Judge David Hamilton ruled that arguments opposing the route were "reasonable differences of opinion" but did not prove violations of law. Still, environmental advocates who oppose the highway continue to campaign against it. Thomas Tokarski, of Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads, said the project will destroy some 5,000 acres of farmland and 2,000 acres of natural forest when "global climate change is a real concern." "It was never a good idea to begin with, but it makes no sense right now. None at all," Tokarski said. The protesters arrested yesterday in Haubstadt, about 20 miles north of Evansville, had chained themselves together, and officers called in a special team to remove the chains. Each will be charged with trespassing and resisting arrest, police said. Also yesterday, the state's largest independent environmental group protested the private ceremony, calling it a "slap in the face to Hoosier citizens." "All appeals and objections to the route have been done in an open forum and subject to public and media scrutiny," the Hoosier Environmental Council said in a statement. "The course set for groundbreaking on the controversial public project should be no different." http://www.14wfie.com/global/story.asp?s=8687490 Protestors express dislike from a distance Posted: July 16, 2008 11:17 PM Updated: July 22, 2008 02:15 PM By Nicole DiDonato Posted by Mike Mardis Just over a dozen protestors showed up right before the start of the I-69 groundbreaking ceremony carrying signs and walking up and down Locust Street in downtown Evansville. Protestors were allowed to come voice their concerns, but they had to stay behind a fenced in area across from the Centre. Sondra Tokarski, protestor, said the event seems hypocritical. "They want the homes and land of 400 other families, and yet we're not invited," Tokarski said. Bill Boyd with Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads claims I-69 will not only destroy land, but cause a financial burden on taxpayers. "We have greater needs in this state than to build a road we cant afford and maintain," Boyd said. Tokarski said she thinks the event is celebrating the wrong things. "The governor's having a celebration of destruction today and we think it's scandalous," Tokarski said. Tiga Wertz is also against the I-69 project. She's been arrested in the past for protesting the project she claims will cause more pollution and destroy wildlife. Wertz and a few others defended their reasons for protesting at the Four Freedoms Monument Wednesday morning. "Recent acts of civil nonviolent acts have become necessary," Wertz said. "I-69 would facilitate a global economy that would disconnect local communities from resources, jobs and production." For the most part, the demonstration was civil, but police did have to enforce boundaries. http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080622/NEWS07/806220452/-1/NEWS09 Published: June 22, 2008 6:00 a.m. I-69 protesters arrested on state land; chase catches 3 Associated Press Advertisement HAUBSTADT - Police arrested five protesters Friday after they declined to leave a wooded cluster along the planned route of the Interstate 69 extension in southern Indiana. The protesters, including two tree sitters and three people on the ground, were arrested about 20 miles north of Evansville after a month of protest. Three others en route to the protest were arrested after police stopped them for a traffic violation and the driver sped away. A chase followed, and Indiana State Police stopped the car with spikes. State Police Sgt. Chad Dick said protesters had come from as far away as California and that only one was from Indiana. The protest was on land owned by the state highway department west of Indiana 57 and Indiana 68 for the stretch of I-69 planned to run between Evansville and Indianapolis. The protest began May 19 when two men pitched a tent roughly 30 feet off the ground. During the arrest, protesters said police were reckless with their safety, cutting safety ropes and intentionally pushing one protester into a patch of poison ivy. Dick said conservation officers did not intend to harm or threaten those protesting. http://www.news8austin.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=211788 Protesters say neighborhood facility emits hazardous waste 6/18/2008 5:26 PM By: News 8 Austin Staff The owner of the facility says he wants to work with the concerned neighbors. Many concerned citizens want a nearby industrial facility out of their neighborhood. Pure Casting on East Fourth Street makes metal objects from molds. In the process, they emit - what protesters say - is potentially hazardous wastes. Protesters are worried about potential health and safety concerns. "We've done research of what happens when you breathe in those chemicals," Erika Gonzales of People Organized in Defense of Earth (PODER) said. "There's different health effects like cancer, miscarriages, nose bleeds, infertility and learning disabilities. It's located right across the street from an elementary school, a rec center and all these houses, and we just don't think it should be in a residential area." Andy Edgerton is the owner of Pure Casting. He said he operates within state standards and has received very few complaints since they started operating nearly three decades ago. Edgerton said he is willing to work with concerned neighbors or possibly move. "They want us to relocate, and I don't have a problem relocating if they can afford it," Edgerton said. "Because to be quite truthful, I don't have the money to pick up and move this business somewhere else." People at Wednesday's protest want the city to meet with stakeholders and figure out a way to help move the facility. City leaders heard from protestors at Wednesday's city council meeting, but no action was taken. http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/jun/15/boulder-bicyclists-riders-bare-all-protest-oil-dep/ Boulder bicyclists riders bare all to protest oil dependency Vanessa Miller, Daily Camera Originally published 10:23 p.m., June 15, 2008 Updated 10:23 p.m., June 15, 2008 "Less gas, more a--," was painted on the bare backs of many of the 60-some nude cyclists who pedaled through Boulder this afternoon for the city's fifth-annual Naked Bike Ride. "Watch out for road rash," one mostly naked rider shouted as the group took off in their scantily decorated -- if at all -- birthday suits. All the riders, in some way, delivered the message that the United States and the world should reduce its dependency. All the riders, in some way, delivered the message that the United States and the world should reduce its dependency on oil. One man showed off an American-flag-decorated sign that read, "Liberty from oil dependence." Another person's back was painted with this note: "Have some class. Buy less gas." Juanita Gable, 39, of Denver, participated in the naked ride this year for the first time."It seemed like a fun time," Gable said. "And I believe in the cause." Gable, who wore a bra and underwear, said she opted not to go fully nude because, "It's my first time. I'm nervous. "What if I get a flat?" she said. "I might end up in the middle of nowhere looking for someone to help me fix my tire -- naked." Some riders bared it all, some painted their unclothed private areas and others wore tiny coverings -- such as Victor Ferrera's tuxedo-themed thong underwear. "Whatever it takes to get the message out," said Ferrera, 36, of Boulder. Four years ago, Boulder's underground cruisers picked up on an international tradition and organized the once-a-year ride that leaves little to the imagination. It started at 4 p.m. in Boulder's Hawthorn Community Gardens -- near Hawthorn Avenue and 16th Street -- and headed south toward the Pearl Street Mall. Rhiannon Murre, 21, of Wisconsin, was visiting Boulder and was on the mall when the nude riders zoomed past. "Oh my gosh," Murre said to her friends, whipping out her camera. "That is disgusting." Being fully nude in public is illegal in Boulder, and although there has been little police disruption in the past, several people have been ticketed or arrested in connection with the ride. There were some reports today of complaints about the naked riders, including one call after the race had ended about a man who was gardening naked in the Community Gardens -- where the event began. It isn't known at this time, however, if anyone was arrested or ticketed. There have been naked rides in as many as 70 cities in 20 countries, including Austin, Washington D.C., Toronto and London. As Boulder's nude riders took off this afternoon, so did cyclists in London -- where a massive naked ride was planned to start in Hyde Park. Denver's version of the World Naked Bike Ride is planned for July 12. An underground group of Boulder's more eccentric residents also organize an annual Naked Pumpkin Run on Halloween. That event invites people to strip their clothes, don pumpkins on their heads and run down the Pearl Street Mall. http://www.cbs8.com/story.php?id=127890 Chula Vista Residents Protest New Power Plant Watch Video Last Updated: 05-13-08 at 7:54AM Dozens of people came out in force to protest the proposed construction of a new power plant in Chula Vista Monday night. The natural gas plant would replace an existing electric plant near Albany and Main streets. Opponents of the plant said it would be too close to schools and homes and would create more pollution. The City of Chula Vista has yet to take an official position on the project. http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=57621&provider=rss Protesters continue to oppose flouridation plan Updated: 5/6/2008 2:15:34 PM Posted: 5/6/2008 12:58:29 PM Protesters hoping to keep flouride out of their drinking ater took their message to the South Blount Utility Board Tuesday morning. Some opponents have filed a lawsuit trying to prevent the utility from adding the chemical to their water. Lawyers are advising the utility to go forward with the flouridation plan, which is expected to begin Wednesday. http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/may/05/environmental-groups-protest-energy-technology-out/ Environmental groups protest energy technology outside TVA By Larisa Brass (Contact) Originally published 01:34 p.m., May 5, 2008 Updated 05:35 p.m., May 5, 2008 Calling carbon storage technology too expensive and a hollow answer to the environmental issues that surround burning coal, two local environmental groups are opposing federal legislation they say encourages development of coal-based power production. Save Our Cumberland Mountains, a state citizens organization, and Students Promote Environmental Action in Knoxville, a group based at the University of Tennessee, held a press conference in Market Square, beneath the Tennessee Valley Authority headquarter towers in downtown Knoxville to protest what they called a "$424 billion federal boondoggle to promote the continued use of coal to produce electricity," according to a release. The groups cited a study, also released today, by the international environment group Greenpeace criticizing measures that are part of an climate bill introduced by Sens. Joseph Lieberman and John Warner that would provide incentives for development of technologies such as carbon sequestration. This technology, still in development, would pipe carbon dioxide generated for storage underground to prevent the greenhouse gas from being released into the air. Carbon dioxide is believed to be one of the main contributors to global warming. Carrying banners reading, "Out of sight, out of mind is not always true" and "Carbon capture and storage does not make coal clean," group leaders said funds aimed at encouraging clean coal production and electricity generation should be aimed instead at renewable fuel technologies such as wind and solar. "Our position is we need to start phasing out coal as soon as possible," said Cathie Bird, chair of the Save Our Cumberland Mountain, or SOCM, strip mining committee. "Why be putting money into a fossil fuel that's going to be running its course anyway?" added Ann League, also with SOCM. League said in addition to the environmental impacts of mining coal,, the communities in their shadow do not benefit economically from the operations and are often left worse off when the mine is closed. "Sustainable jobs" helping to produce renewable technologies would better serve these "coalfield communities," she said. The groups were to have held the press conference at TVA offices on Summit Hill Drive next to Market Square, but police moved the gathering to Market Square. http://www.examiner.com/a-1397982~Loudoun_County_hospital_proposal_draws_protest.html?cid=rss-Washington_DC Loudoun County hospital proposal draws protest May 19, 2008 3:00 AM (81 days ago) by Dan Genz, The Examiner Loudoun County (Map, News) - Critics of a plan to build a major new hospital along the Dulles Greenway in Loudoun County are gathering today to blast the plan as poorly designed, horribly located and unworthy of consideration. "You're literally force-fitting it into the community," said Bruce Biggs, a Broadlands resident. "After these homes popped up, this for-profit, industrial mammoth came in and saw dollar signs in their eyes." Hospital supporters are fighting back, trying to cast the proposed Broadlands Regional Medical Center as an essential addition to an underserved, fast-growing market. "I wish it was already built," said Tim Butka, another Broadlands resident. "I think there's definitely the need for it in the community and we need the competition." The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors rejected the proposal in 2005, but it was revived after voters swept four of those board members out of office. Inova Lansdowne Hospital, one of the county's economic engines, wants to build a second facility along the Route 50 Corridor in southeastern Loudoun County. That plan would be jeopardized if rival HCA Virginia is allowed to build along the Dulles Greenway. Critics say the hospital was defeated in 2005 because it is a terrible fit for the nearby Broadlands neighborhood and is less than five miles, from the existing hospital. A national nursing organization that contends HCA does not hire enough nurses is joining the protest effort. "If they are going to expand, they should expand in a location where the community wants it and not just bulldoze the community's wishes," said Kathy McGregor, a Tennessee nurse and organizer of the National Nurses Organizing Committee. Supporters contend the hospital would be an economic boon with a central location for a growing region without enough hospital beds. "It's grossly underserved in Loudoun," said Margaret Lewis, president of HCA's Capital Division. "Fifty percent of the residents who live in Loudoun leave Loudoun for their health care." http://www.whiznews.com/article.php?articleId=21476 Protestors Gather on Maple Avenue Sat, May 03, 2008. 04:50 PM Protestors gathered Saturday to express their anger over the death of a Zanesville teenager. The group gathered at the site of the accident that took the girls life earlier this year to protest about the traffic situation. 18-year-old Shayla Ervin was struck by a car at the intersection of Maple Avenue and Brandywine Boulevard on January 26th, she died a few days later at the hospital. Saturday, people joined together to protest for more high-tech devices at pedestrian crossings in the city. "We're going to bring attention to our council and the mayor that something needs to be done with these crossings. There's not enough time for me to get across and they need to for a more high tech signal," says family friend and protest organizer Kenny VanMeter. Mayor Butch Zwelling responded to Saturday's demonstration and says that his heart goes out to the family. He adds that the case has been investigated and the law director found that the city cannot be held liable for this tragedy. http://www.examiner.com/a-1373141~Demonstrators_protest_Maryland_s_new_nuclear_plant.html Demonstrators protest Maryland's new nuclear plant May 3, 2008 3:00 AM (97 days ago) by Len Lazarick, The Examiner (Kristine Buls/Examiner) Anti-nuclear activists opposed to the construction of a third nuclear reactor at Calvert Cliffs protest Friday at Redwood and Paca streets in Baltimore City. Filed under: BALTIMORE , Len Lazarick , Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Protest BALTIMORE (Map, News) - About a dozen anti-nuclear demonstrators Friday took to the streets of downtown Baltimore City to counteract Gov. Martin O'Malley's endorsement of the construction of a third nuclear reactor at Calvert Cliffs in Maryland. "There are cheaper, safer alternatives," said Stephen Soifer, spokesman for the Chesapeake Safe Energy Coalition, which includes the Sierra Club and seven other environmental and anti-nuclear groups. Soifer, an associate professor at the University of Maryland School of Social Work, said, "It's not a moral imperative" as O'Malley said Thursday when he toured Constellation Energy's Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant, a major source of Maryland's electricity. Radioactive waste from the spent nuclear pellets that fuel the Calvert County plant last 10,000 years, Soifer said. "It the only power source" that leaves behind such a toxic residue, he said. Soifer and other demonstrators scoffed at the supposed $4 billion price tag on the new plant that will take about seven years to build. He and other demonstrators said it would be at least double that amount - if not three and four times that amount based on new plants being built in Europe. That money could be better spent on wind, solar or ocean sources, Soifer said. Constellation has not updated its 2005 estimate of $4 billion to $6 billion to build the new reactor because "it's considered a sensitive number," said Maureen Brown, company spokesman. But the final number will be nowhere near as high as the activists project, she said. Even if the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada is finally approved for nuclear waste disposal, "we need a second and possibly third site," Soifer said because of the waste accumulated at nuclear plants during the past five decades. "There isn't a solution to the nuclear waste issue," said Dr. Gwen Dubois, a demonstrator and physician at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore City. In addition to the financial issues, "there's a problem with safety at the plants," she said. The growing stockpile of nuclear waste is a potential source of material for nuclear bombs, Dubois said. "It's the same technology" used to enrich uranium, she said. "We're making nuclear material ubiquitous." http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/philadelphia/20080514_Rally_planned_to_protest_Revolution_museum.htmlRally planned to protest Revolution museumBy Nancy PetersenInquirer Staff WriterA rally protesting plans for the American Revolution Center museum will beheld tomorrow on the steps of the Montgomery County Courthouse inNorristown.The 11:30 a.m. rally comes at a time when a key member of the center's boardof scholars has stepped down, and the federal government has refused toapprove construction of a bridge across the Schuylkill that would link themuseum to key attractions in Valley Forge National Historical Park.Rally organizer Joyce Cluley, a neighbor and opponent of the proposeddevelopment in Lower Providence Township, said she hoped the rally wouldtrigger a wave of national opposition to the plans.Those plans include the museum, up to 99 rooms of lodging, and a conferencecenter on 78 acres that the center owns on the north side of the Schuylkill.The land, bordered by the park on three sides, is within the park's officialboundaries."This will really harm the national park, and that means a lot to mepersonally," Cluley said. "They should not be able to divide the park in thename of history and then pave over the history."Cluley said she had the support of the Friends of Valley Forge Park, theSierra Club, and the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees.Historians believe the park's entire north side, known as the Pawlings Farm,was the site of the commissary that Gen. George Washington established whenthe Continental Army camped at Valley Forge during the winter of 1777-78.The north side was also the staging area for troops on their way to theBattle of Monmouth in New Jersey.Thomas M. Daly, president and chief executive officer of the AmericanRevolution Center, said it should not be a target of opposition."It is a sad irony that this so-called protest is being done againstsomething that is a very positive thing that will give an in-depth historyexperience to the Valley Forge area rather than what people are gettingnow," he said."As I understand it, the label given to the rally is 'Save Valley Forge,'and we are eager to join with anybody who is interested in saving ValleyForge."The museum was originally proposed for a site in the park near the currentWelcome Center as part of a public-private partnership, but Daly'sorganization ended its partnership, saying it could not operate under therestrictions the Park Service imposed.Park officials said the American Revolution Center's failure to comply withthe partnership deal was one reason the U.S. Department of the Interior wasreluctant to approve a proposed jointly constructed pedestrian bridge.Daly said the bridge was not necessary for the success of the museum,although the center has offered to pay $5 million toward its cost. He saidstudies his group commissioned suggested that 725,000 visitors would visitthe museum annually even without the bridge.Montgomery County Board of Commissioners Chairman James R. Matthews saidrecently that without a bridge, the county did not consider the museumproject viable."I think visitors will go to the park to feel it with their feet," he said."You won't get that 'wow' sensation and that same sense of place across theriver."The isolation of the museum site and the American Revolution Center's plansfor it were reasons that University of Pennsylvania historian Richard M.Beeman, an original member of the center's board of scholars, withdrew fromthe board.In a brief interview yesterday, Beeman, a former dean of Penn's College ofArts and Sciences and a board member of the National Constitution Center,said it would be difficult for the center to succeed if its museum was notin the park.Beeman said he was also concerned that plans for the museum were focused toomuch on the war itself and not enough on the principals and ideas that ledto the American Revolution.http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/05/08/20080508neellman0508.htmlNeighbors protest plans for Ellman Cos. project34 comments by Beth Duckett - May. 8, 2008 12:00 AMThe Arizona RepublicA group of Fountain Hills residents are up in arms about extra traffic thatcould spill into their streets from a long-awaited development.But the developer says the outflow of traffic will be less than originallythought when houses crop up in two years in the northeast part of town.Developer Ellman Cos. plans to put 1,450 homes, two parks and a resort onthe 1,276 acres of former state trust land.In already-approved plans, two neighborhood roads would connect on the eastside of the former trust land, serving as passage for drivers in and out ofthe community.But neighbors worry that linking Boulder Drive and Richwood Avenue will openthe door for speeders - and traffic accidents - in their neighborhood.At least a dozen speakers made their case against the plans this week beforethe Planning and Zoning Commission."We cannot tolerate any more traffic," said neighbor Kathryn Jones. "We havea lot of people who walk and bike in our neighborhood."Don Kile, Ellman's president of master-planned communities, said theoutpouring of complaints shows democracy in action."I like it when citizen participation is meaningful and produces a resultthat the neighborhoods find acceptable," Kile said.The commission voted unanimously Tuesday to recommend to the Town Council torelocate a park, trim the number of homes and rezone land for thedevelopment.In a compromise, commissioners requested that Boulder Drive remain acul-de-sac with only gated emergency access, making Richwood Avenue theconnecting road in the area.The Town Council will consider the matter next Thursday.Some neighbors say barricading Boulder is not enough to keep the streetssafe."They really ignored the neighborhood and paid us some lip service," saidEvelyn Munn, who plans to protest to the Town Council next week.http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/fayette/stories/2008/02/28/bypass_0229.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=13Fayette residents express concern over bypass projectBy JOHN HOLLISThe Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionPublished on: 02/28/08The area's peace and quiet attracted Joe Durden and his wife Marilyn tounincorporated Fayette County nearly 10 years ago.But they say their harmonious surroundings will be a thing of the past ifthe county follows through on its current plan for the West FayettevilleBypass."It's just not what we came here for," Joe Durden said prior to Thursdayevening's meeting of the Fayette County Board of Commissioners. "It seemslike somebody's robbing us."The Durdens and others with similar fears over the $50 million project hadhoped for some kind relief Thursday, only to come away disappointed.Board Chairman Jack Smith prefaced things by saying there would be nodiscussion about the project's merits since it was the subject of publichearings a few years back.Instead, Sandy Creek Road residents were left to cite potential traffichazards resulting from the first phase of the project, whose overallintention is to alleviate traffic on busy Ga. 54.Their pleas appeared to fall on deaf ears.The project's first phase will involve the construction of a highway,starting at Huiet and Lester Roads before crossing Ga. 54 near PiedmontFayette Hospital and curving east to connect with Sandy Creek Road.The Durdens, whose home will be close enough to the bypass to throw stonesat the oncoming traffic, and others allege the proposed plan will createmore problems than any it alleviates by disrupting the lives of arearesidents with added traffic and unwanted noise.They contended the road would be best built elsewhere."Don't turn Sandy Creek Road into something it isn't," said the Durdens'neighbor, Lisa Sasser, also citing the rural area's abundant deer and turkeypopulations.County Public Works spokesman Phil Mallon, however, said the number ofproperty owners affected by the Phase I project was "very minimal." Work isto begin this spring and be completed in 18 months.Phase II of the West Fayetteville Bypass project, which would run north fromSandy Creek to Ga. 92, is scheduled to start in the summer of 2009.Construction is expected to take 24 months.No official start date has yet been set for the third and costliest phase ofthe project, Mallon said.Smith insisted there were no plans to make a four-lane highway of eitherSandy Creek Road or the bypass.In other board news, a throng of citizens, including state Rep. Virgil Fludd(D-Fayetteville), spoke passionately in support of district voting. Fluddhas proposed legislation to bring district voting to Fayette. Residentscurrently vote for Fayette County commissioners countywide.http://www.nbc11.com/news/16411703/detail.htmlProtesters Gather Outside Chevron In San RamonPOSTED: 6:17 am PDT May 28, 2008UPDATED: 12:12 pm PDT May 28, 2008SAN RAMON, Calif. -- Activists gathered outside the Chevron headquarters inSan Ramon on the day of their annual shareholders' meeting to protestalleged environmental and human rights abuses.On the eve of the annual shareholder meeting of the San Ramon-based ChevronCorp., human rights activists gathered at San Francisco City Hall to protestalleged human rights and environmental abuses by the oil company.Current and former residents of Nigeria, Ecuador and Burma joined members ofthe group Amazon Watch Tuesday morning, decrying what they claim has been a"deeply rooted" pattern of violations by Chevron and other oil companies,both internationally and locally, in the name of profit.http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20080420-9999-1n20gliders.htmlPilots to protest consortium's construction near gliderportBy Jeff McDonaldUNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERApril 20, 2008Glider pilots who sail into the breeze from the Torrey Pines bluff top arerounding up all the support they can muster to protect the historic airstripfrom nearby development, including the stem cell center proposed by the SanDiego Consortium for Regenerative Medicine.DETAILSCommunity meetingWhen: 6 p.m. tomorrowWhere: Fishman Auditorium at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research,10901 N. Torrey Pines Road, La JollaHost: San Diego Consortium for Regenerative MedicineTopic: Discussion of building a stem cell research lab on UCSD property nearthe gliderport on Torrey Pines Mesa.The four-story laboratory would be within the boundary of the Torrey PinesGliderport property, which is in the National Register of Historic Places.The research facility is planned for the northwest corner of North TorreyPines Road and Torrey Pines Scenic Drive.And to the east, on the other side of Torrey Pines Road, the University ofCalifornia San Diego is building a 14-story dormitory that glider pilots saywill drastically inhibit their ability to land at the popular airport."If they build either of them, we won't be able to fly gliders thereanymore," said Ed Slater, a pilot who has used the Torrey Pines Gliderportfor decades.The research coalition will host a community meeting tomorrow evening at theBurnham Institute for Medical Research.On Wednesday night in Napa, the California State Historical ResourcesCommission will consider whether to expand the borders of the historicallydesignated site.An expansion would increase the size of the historically significantairfield, although it remains uncertain whether it would help preserve theproperty from development.Slater said he expects that glider fans and preservationists can limit theprojects by speaking out at the two meetings, even though the dormitory isalready under construction."San Diego had a long history in aviation," he said. "(UCSD) is a bigcampus; they have lots and lots of land."http://www.cfnews13.com/News/Local/2008/4/21/hundreds_protest_in_lakeland_against_commuter_rail.htmlHundreds Protest In Lakeland Against Commuter RailMonday, April 21, 2008 9:25:50 PMAnti-Rail RallyLAKELAND -- With just weeks left in Tallahassee's legislative session, alocal fight to derail a deal between the state and CSX Transportationshifted into high gear as hundreds of concerned Central Floridians gatheredin downtown Lakeland's Munn Park with signs waving and megaphones blaring amessage for lesiglators."This is a bad deal. We need to stop and start over, and rethink thisproject," said Julie Townsend, with Downtown Lakeland Partnership.The state planned to purchase 61 miles of track from CSX to bring commuterrail to Orlando.The approximately $650 million deal would relocate a massive rail logisticscenter to Winter Haven, and would reroute freight traffic through downtownLakeland.Some Lakeland leaders and residents worried the deal would come at a highcost to their quality of life."We are taking on Orlando's problems. They're just dumping it all on thewest side, which is Polk County," said Wayne Guest, a protester from PolkCounty resident.Many protesters said they wanted commuter rail to come to Central Florida,but did not like the idea of giving hundreds of millions of dollars to aprivate company during a time of budget cutbacks."This is not the way I would like my tax money to be spent," said WandaRamos, a protester from Orlando.The protesters pushed for an impact study to be completed before the stateseals the deal. They also wanted other alternatives for freight lines to bererouted away from downtown areas.http://www.newscloud.com/read/Protests_dog_Alberta_PR_campaignProtests dog Alberta PR campaignConservationists will be rolling out an advertising campaign and dispatchingpolar-bear-suit-clad protesters this week in an attempt to derail Alberta'smission to Washington that is aimed at propping up the province'senvironmental image south of the border. Ron Stevens, Alberta's deputypremier and Minister of International and Intergovernmental Relations, saidhe will stress his province's commitment to "environmentally sustainabledevelopment of the oil sands" when he meets with U.S. government officials,industry representatives and policy analysts this week.http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/may/20/saying-yuck-to-toxins-in-toys-protesters-chuck/Saying yuck to toxins in toys, protesters chuck rubber ducksMothers, children cry foul over use of chemicalsBy Alan Gathright, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)Tuesday, May 20, 2008Barry Gutierrez / The RockyArman Kian, 4, points at rubber ducks that were being dumped in the trash atthe Washington Park playground Tuesday to protest the use of toxic chemicalsin toys.Mothers and their children told Congress how to vote on "toxic toys" Tuesdayby dumping tainted rubber ducks in the trash at the Washington Parkplayground.The protesters are urging a 15-member congressional conference committee,including Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Denver, to ban toxic chemicals in toys andother child-care products."Toys don't come with a list of ingredients," said Nancy Wilhelm, anEvergreen mother of three. "As a mom, I should be able to depend on thegovernment to ensure that the toys I buy aren't toxic."At issue are phthalates (pronounced THA-lates), a class of toxic chemicalsused to make plastic in baby teethers and bath books soft and flexible.Along with other consumer products such as hand lotion, cosmetics andshampoo, phthalates are used in industrial solvents, insecticides andpaints.Cancer-prevention advocates warn that these chemicals have been linked tothe early onset of puberty in girls, a risk factor for breast cancer.Studies also have linked the toxins to birth defects in baby boys andtesticular cancer, advocates say."We're just saying take these toxic chemicals out of toys - period - becausethere are safe alternatives," said Janet Nudelman, a top official at theBreast Cancer Fund.At least 41 nations have outlawed phthalates in toys and child-care productsthat young kids tend to suck or chew on, starting with a 1999 European Unionban. California and Washington State issued similar bans within the lastyear, and a dozen other states are considering action.The Senate banned the chemicals in children's products in its version of theConsumer Product Safety Commission Reform Act. But, because the House billdidn't address phthalates, the pressure is on DeGette and two other HouseDemocrats on the conference panel to back a national ban."Congresswoman DeGette supports banning phthalates in children's products,"said her spokesman, Kristofer Eisenla.After the recalls of contaminated toys last Christmas, DeGette won toughlead restrictions on toys and independent product testing in the consumersafety bill, he noted.At Tuesday's rally, state Rep. Anne McGihon, D-Denver, said that thechild-safety threat requires a federal solution, not a patchwork of statebans."Colorado legislators expect Congress to do its job, so that Denver kids -and kids everywhere - are protected from toxic chemicals in their bathtoys," she said.gathrighta at RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5486http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2008/05/lng_protest_timed_to_nw_natura.htmlLNG protest timed to NW Natural's annual meetingPosted by Ted Sickinger, The Oregonian May 21, 2008 15:25PMOpponents of proposals to site liquefied natural gas terminals in Oregonplan to demonstrate their displeasure at Northwest Natural Gas Co.'s annualmeeting, slated for Thursday afternoon at the company's Portlandheadquarters.Northwest Natural is a big advocate of the terminals. The company saysOregon ratepayers would benefit from having another large supply of naturalgas coming into the region.Its shareholders wouldn't do badly either. An LNG terminal along theColumbia River, where two are proposed, could boost the company's lucrativegas storage business in Mist. NW Natural is also involved in two proposalsto build pipelines to serve the proposed Bradwood Landing terminal, upriverfrom Astoria.-- Ted Sickinger,www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/02/9362/sent by OrpRam since 72 days 18 hours 45 minutes, published about 72 days 16hours 3 minutesTwo University students and a Eugene man were arrested at a downtown rallyFriday afternoon on various charges, including resisting arrest anddisorderly conduct, after police officers' use of a Taser on one provokedangry reactions from the other two. Ornum organized the rally as ademonstration against the Oregon Department of Transportation's use ofpesticide spray on the highways. Ornum was marching with a sign in KeseySquare at the corner of West Broadway and Willamette Street dressed in awhite hazardous materials suit, spraying water from a pesticide can andasking onlookers, "Do you know you're being poisoned?"http://www.wbir.com/news/regional/story.aspx?storyid=59262&provider=rssCitizen groups protest proposed nuclear plant in north Ala.The Associated Press Updated: 6/11/2008 12:12:31 AM Posted:6/11/2008 12:11:33 AMSeveral citizen groups have filed a petition with federal nuclear regulatorsraising concerns over plans to possibly build a nuclear plant in northAlabama.The petition was filed June 6 with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Itsays building a nuclear plant at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Bellfontesite near Scottsboro would cause numerous environmental and safety problems.TVA spokesman Gil Francis said Tuesday he had not seen the petition. He saidTVA is currently applying for a joint construction and operating license fora nuclear plant at Bellefonte but has not decided whether or not to buildthe plant.http://www.wusa9.com/rss/local_article.aspx?storyid=73202Protestors: ICC Hazardous to Your HealthPosted By: Daniel Guzman 2 months agoSILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) -- Students and parents at Drew Elementary School inSilver Spring are demanding that Maryland halt construction of theintercounty connector until the state studies its potential health effects.About three dozen demonstrators gathered at the school Tuesday.The protesters say the highway between Laurel and Gaithersburg will passabout 100 yards from the school grounds. They say the state needs to do moreto guarantee that children, especially those with breathing problems, willbe safe.A spokeswoman for Gov. Martin O'Malley says the governor has no plans tohalt construction. She says the project "is moving forward in the mostenvironmentally sensitive way possible."The State Highway Administration says a study showed the highway would meetfederal pollution limits.http://www.newscloud.com/read/McCain_event_draws_record_number_of_protesters1.o McCain event draws record number of protestersVia Rawstory at 3:48 pm Jun 6, 2008o A John McCain campaign event in Santa Barbara drew about 100protesters. The protest is considered to be the largest yet against theMcCain campaign. Most of the protesters held signs demonstrating againstMcCain's position on allowing offshore oil drilling. Others demonstratedagainst McCain's stance on abortion.http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/06/about-100-prote.htmlAbout 100 Protest McCain in CaliforniaEmailShareJune 24, 2008 12:55 PMABC News' Bret Hovell and James Gerber Report: The largest assemblage ofprotestors to gather at a McCain event this election cycle greeted theArizona Republican this morning in Santa Barbara, California.The group of about 100, largely assembled to protest McCain's environmentalpolicies, awaited him outside the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum,where McCain is set to deliver remarks and receive a briefing on theenvironment.Watch video of the protest HERE.McCain has received flack in recent days for reversing his position on U.S.off-shore oil drilling. The presumptive Republican nominee has long opposedit but switched positions this month, citing the need for relief from highgas-prices for American families.Santa Barbara residents are particularly sensitive to the issue of off-shoredrilling. An oil spill off the city's coastline in 1969 sparked intenseprotests and landmark legislation.Chants of "no new drilling" could be heard, as well as a guy on a bullhorntalking about how "shortsighted" McCain's plan to drill for more oil is.One sign read: "McCain: Some Nerve. Coming here to try to sellEarth-desecrating policies to us!!!"There were also some protesters holding signs about McCain's anti-abortionposition, and one sign read: "Abstinence vows break more easily thancondoms."Once he got past the throng, McCain spoke about the environment. In hisspeech he talked, among other things, about longer term solutions forgetting the country off of fossil fuels. He acknowledged, as he frequentlydoes, that he believes climate change is real and needs to be addressed."We now know that fossil fuel emissions, by retaining heat within theatmosphere, threaten disastrous changes in climate," McCain said. "Nochallenge of energy is to be taken lightly, and least of all the need toavoid the consequences of global warming."McCain has spent the last several weeks talking about energy and theenvironment, promising that if elected, he would propose a $300 millionprize for the development a car battery that weans America off oil.http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080624/NEWS01/806240328/1006/rss01Palm Beach power plant draws protestsFPL plans to fix local facilityBY JIM ASH . FLORIDA TODAY . June 24, 2008Unleashing a barrage of criticism, a pair of environmental activists urgedthe Public Service Commission on Monday to deny a new power plant near theLoxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge.Florida Power & Light Co. says the plant needs to be up and running by 2011to keep enough power in reserve while it replaces two 1960s-era oil andnatural gas plants in Brevard County and Riviera Beach.Brevard officials are banking on the $840 million Cape Canaveral NextGeneration Clean Energy Plant.In addition to $12 million in new tax revenues, the project would bringmuch-needed jobs at a time when NASA is retiring the shuttle and the SpaceCoast will potentially be dealing with thousands of layoffs.The company said the new generating plants will significantly reduce carbondioxide, sulfur dioxide and "particulate" emissions while raking up big fuelsavings for customers at the same time.Combined cycle technology will generate 80 percent more power with 30percent less fuel, FPL says.But Loxahatchee homeowner and environmental activist Sharon Wait called thepower plant swap a false choice.The company should clean up the old plants without adding the new one soclose to the wildlife refuge, she argued."It's your purview to protect us," Wait told commissioners in emotionaltestimony. "They've been rubber-stamped enough."She accused the company of holding regulators "hostage" with the proposal.FPL spokeswoman Patricia Davis said state law requires the new facility nearLoxahatchee, known as the West County Energy Center, because the company hasto maintain a minimum reserve capacity and it won't be able to keep pacewith demand while the two other plants are replaced. The new plants willmeet or exceed all environmental standards, she said."Because of the growth in our state, we are projecting 81,000 new customersper year in our service area for the foreseeable future," she said.One of the biggest concerns for environmentalists is the new plant'sproximity to Palm Beach Aggregates Inc. mining operations.Blasting from the mining operation could damage a natural gas pipeline thatfeeds the facility and put neighbors at risk, warned Alexandria Larson,another Loxahatchee neighbor and environmental activist."Is there any common sense blasting next to a pipeline?" she said.Company experts said the plant will be far enough away not to be disturbedby the mining operations.FPL attorney Bryan Anderson asked commissioners to accept letters fromBrevard County Commission Chairman Truman Scarborough and other localgovernments supporting the project.Anderson predicted the new plant and the conversions would ultimately savecustomers $1.2 billion in lower energy bills, mostly from lower fuel costs.The projects would reduce oil consumption by 1.2 million fewer barrels inthe first year alone, Anderson said.Emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide will be cut by 15.8 millionpounds by the new technology between 2013 and 2040, the company said.The Cape Canaveral plant emits 570 tons of particulates, 3,500 tons ofnitrous oxides and 6,600 tons of sulfur dioxide per year.The new technology will reduce all emissions combined to 400 tons per year,according to company experts.PSC staff members are expected to issue their recommendation tocommissioners by Aug. 7. A final decision could come as soon as Aug. 19. http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2008/07/city_hall_protesters_target_co.htmlCity Hall protesters target Columbia River CrossingPosted by Mark Larabee, The Oregonian July 09, 2008 16:32PMCategories: Breaking NewsOutside City Hall an hour before an afternoon Portland City Council meeting,the activist group Rising Tide North America staged a bit of politicaltheater in protest of the proposed $4.2 billion Interstate 5 bridge linkingPortland and Vancouver.Protesters wore black T-shirts and ball caps that signified they were fromthe Oil Enforcement Agency, a fictitious law enforcement group. They handedout citations to passers-by that accused the City Council of things like"conspiracy to increase Portland's greenhouse gas emissions."Others dressed as petroleum worshipers prayed to a wooden oil derrick. Awoman dressed scantily in black patent leather, net stockings and thigh-highleather boots called herself "Mistress Lubricity." She said she favored thebridge because it would spur global warming. "We are for the apocalypse,"'she said as she played her role. "The I-5 bridge will melt the polar icecaps, kill salmon and destroy neighborhoods. We are for all of that."Ross William Hamilton / The OregonianProtesters from Rising Tide NorthAmerica act out against the Portland City Council's expected approval of anew bridge over the Columbia River linking Portland and Vancouver, Wash.The woman's real name is Stephanie Boston, a 25-year-old Portlander andRising Tide member who said she opposed the bridge because it goes againstPortland's progressive goal of being a the greenest city in the UnitedStates.Eventually, the fake police arrested the fake oil worshipers for "aiding andabetting urban sprawl" -- all under the watch of City Hall security guards.Brian Sloan, one of the protest organizers, said it's unfortunate thatcouncil members made their support of the bridge project clear before takingpublic testimony and he hoped they would change their mind. He said spendingbillions on a new bridge will only increase the city's dependence on oil andcontribute to foreign wars."We need $4.2 billion for public transit and for urban planning that's goingto reduce our oil consumption," he said. "The people who care about theclimate are not going to sit around when it comes to voting time. There willbe a political reckoning on this issue."For complete coverage of the council's action, read Thursday's edition ofThe Oregonian.http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=62173&provider=rssOut-of-staters arrested in Knoxville environmental protestJake Jost Updated: 8/14/2008 7:45:35 PM Posted: 8/14/2008 6:15:39 PMKnoxville Police and TVA Police have arrested a total of seven Greenpeaceprotesters for trespassing in a Thursday morning demonstration againstmanufacturer Kimberly-Clark. None of the protesters lists his or her addressin the state of Tennessee.Tennessee Valley Authority Police have taken four people into custody fortrespassing in a parking garage considered a federal facility because it isowned by TVA. Police said two of the detainees rappelled down the side ofthe garage to hang a banner. The other two detainees were picked up insidethe garage.Those four could have faced federal charges due to the jurisdiction but willinstead be charged with criminal trespassing in state court. They are28-year-old Erica S. Madrid of Washington, DC; 24-year-old Ashley B. Lauthof Riverwood, IL; 31-year-old Scott Cardiff of Washington, DC; and22-year-old Basil George Tsimoyianis of Burlington, VT.Knoxville Police received the call at 10:45 and arrested three protesters.Police said the trio had used bicycle locks to lock the doors of theKimberly-Clark building shut, then locked themselves to the door withanother bicycle lock around their necks.Each has been charged with one count of criminal trespassing. They are28-year-old Charis Lynn Stone-Racer of Asheville, NC; 23-year-old EmmaCassidy of Northport, NY; and 26-year-old Kellen Dunlap of Roundhill, VA.The Knoxville Fire Department considered filing charges of recklessendangerment or a similar charge, because the protesters had locked an exit.However, other exits were available, and the charge is not expected to bebrought.http://www.wusa9.com/rss/local_article.aspx?storyid=74600Protestors Unhappy With Nats AdvertisingPosted By: Danielle RoynestadWASHINGTON, DC (WUSA) - Exxon Mobil reported record profits again thisquarter, making their billions from pollutants. That's why so manyenvironmental and civic groups are outraged to see the company's nameflashed around the new National's stadium in Washington, the first "green"Major League Baseball stadium.The company released its profit numbers Thursday showing revenue of $138billion and a profit of $11.68 billion for the last quarter. Both of thesefigures are actually lower than Wall Street had expected.Still, an outraged group of protestors sponsored by the Chesapeake ClimateAction Network (CCAN), lead by Mike Tidwell, are taking action against themoney-making machine during this season's home games at the park.The protestors call their campaign Strike Out Exxon at Nationals Park. Theystand at the gates to hand out literature on global warming and hold signsasking visiting fans to "boo" during the 7th inning stretch, which issponsored by the oil company.Exxon Mobil is both a producer and a refiner of oil. When prices for barrelsgo up, they are actually finding it difficult to make as much of a profit intheir refining business. This is why their profit was less than expected.While prices for barrels of oil nearly doubled these past two years, pricesof the gas they sold "only" went up by a third.At any rate, many fans are finding it very ironic that the LEED-certified(Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design by the U.S. Green BuildingCouncil) ballpark is being fed money from the largest oil company out there.Alan Jeffers, a spokesman from Exxon Mobil says that the company was askedto advertise at the stadium and took it as an opportunity to show itsattention to environmental issues. A New York Times article quoted Jeffersas saying that "'Its an interesting dilemma. We get criticized for not doingenough for the environment, then get criticized when we do' run anenvironmental campaign."But protestors and other environmentalists suggest Exxon Mobil is merely"greenwashing" their reputation and not actually caring about environmentalissues.Major League Baseball wants people to know that it does care about itthough. There has been a creation of a Team Greening Program by MLBofficials and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). They plan oneducating players, owners and fans on how to live a more green lifestyle.They are also trying to make all 30 clubs more progressive in their effortson the road and at their home stadiums to be eco-friendly.Local bloggers have been commenting on this issue, from both sides of thefence. Some agree with the environmentalists that the irony of a big oilcompany being partnered with something so "green" is just too obvious toignore. Others are simply saying, hey, this is a capitalist country, theNat's just want to make money too. However, on the Nationals website's fanmessage board, it seems most fans only want to talk about how they would fixthe team's losing record.We have contacted the Nationals and they have no comment.Written by Danielle Roynestad9NEWS NOWhttp://www.roanoke.com/news/nrv/wb/172860Protest may cork plans for breweryFour neighbors and a pastor have contested the licensing of Shooting CreekFarm Brewery.By Tonia Moxley 381-1676Pour a pint and listen to the story of Shooting Creek Farm Brewery, someconcerned neighbors and the Virginia Department of Alcoholic BeverageControl.Ray Jones and Brett Nichols had hoped this summer to be luring visitors offthe nearby Blue Ridge Parkway to taste and buy their original recipe alesand stouts. But neighborhood and church opposition has put in limbo theplanned opening of Floyd County's first microbrewery.According to ABC records, four neighbors and one pastor have officiallycontested the state licensing of Shooting Creek Farm Brewery. They are DavidElliott, Jean and Paul Lacoste, Gloria Underwood and the Rev. Warren Brownof Faith Baptist Church in Check.Their objections are many. Among them are fears that more traffic willexacerbate blind spots and other problems along Thomas Farm Road, the narrowdirt thoroughfare that winds through bucolic farmland dotted with old homes.According to ABC documents, the opposition contends that the brewery will"adversely affect real property values or substantially interfere with theusual quietude and tranquility" of the area.Religious objections to alcohol also figure in, and Brown and other localBaptist ministers have gotten involved. The group has gone door-to-door totalk to other neighbors about the issue, Brown said.A recent meeting of the parties at the Floyd library brought them no closerto a compromise. They are scheduled to present their arguments again thismorning at a hearing at the ABC's regional office in Roanoke.According to their application, Jones and Nichols want to brew up to 10,000barrels of beer per year at a 1,000-square-foot facility on Nichols' organicvegetable farm off Thomas Farm Road.The company would sell and ship the hand-bottled beer for off-premisesconsumption out of a small tasting room. Under state rules, patrons of thetasting room would be limited to drinking 4 ounces each of beer on thepremises.To operate, the Shooting Creek brewery must be licensed by ABC, whichregulates and oversees production and distribution of all alcoholicbeverages in the commonwealth. The opposition is contesting Shooting Creek'sABC license."Anytime there is an objection, it immediately goes to a hearing," ABCspokeswoman Kathleen Shaw said. "We literally have seven pages of objectionsthat can disqualify a license. Each case is fully investigated."This kind of small-scale production is common practice at small breweriesand wineries across the state and is considered in many communities to be aboon to tourism and economic development. According to a 2007 study by thebrewers' advocacy group Beer Serves America, brewing and sales of maltbeverages employed about 18,000 people and contributed $2.2 billion toVirginia's economy."Wineries and breweries are an important part of Virginia's tourismproduct," Virginia Tourism Corporation spokesman Richard Lewis wrote in ane-mail.Officials in Nelson County point to Blue Mountain Brewery and Hops Farm, amicrobrewery, restaurant and farm that has stoked tourism there. In fact,artisan brewing and wine-making are part of Nelson County's overall economicdevelopment strategy."We feel that these are the type of businesses that attract a higher-endtraveler," said economic development and tourism director Maureen Corum.Microbrewery patrons are typically baby boomers, who are more likely todrink responsibly and to patronize hotels and restaurants, she said. Thesuccess of Blue Mountain brewery has also paved the way for expansion of theindustry. A new microbrewery and a single malt whisky distillery areexpected to open in Nelson Country in the coming months, Corum said.Locally, beer enthusiasts are eagerly awaiting the opening of two otherstartup breweries, Roanoke Railhouse Brewing Co. and the Bull & Bones brewpub in Blacksburg. But some neighbors of Shooting Creek say they are wary ofthe concept."People drive like crazy on this road," resident Gloria Underwood said. "Andyou get a bunch that's already toured the wineries [Chateau Morrisette andVilla Appalaccia] and then they come over here, and it's going to be a mess."We don't need no more drunks out there. And they can't tell me they can'tget drunk," she said."It's the kind of traffic they really don't want in their area -- quitepossibly inebriated," said Brown, the pastor."We see the other end of this thing," Brown said. "I see the ... dads injail when they've messed up their life because they were drunk one night.Unfortunately, Shooting Creek is really not interested in what the peoplearound there want."Brown also said he believes the brewery owners failed to follow all thestate's notification rules, including posting notice of the licenseapplication at the brewery and running ads in a local newspaper.Responding to the critics, Jones said: "We completely understand theconcerns of the neighbors. We live in the neighborhood. We don't want drunkdriving."Besides, the brewery's ABC license would prohibit them from serving beer tointoxicated customers, Jones pointed out."We could lose our license if we did that," he said.Jones admitted a small clerical error on some paperwork but said thepartners have followed the state's notification rules.Both parties have engaged legal representation for today's hearing, which isopen to the public.http://www.nbc30.com/news/17167377/detail.html?rss=har&psp=newsProtesters Expected At Waterbury Power Plant HearingLast Requirement To Build Is Air Quality PermitPOSTED: 9:36 am EDT August 12, 2008UPDATED: 1:53 pm EDT August 12, 2008WATERBURY, Conn. -- Protesters of a power plant planned for Waterbury areexpected to attend the final public hearing on the plan Tuesday night.Protesters Expected At Waterbury Power Plant HearingThe city has signed off on the plan. The last step needed before FirstLightcan build the plant in the city's South End is an air quality permit fromthe Department of Environmental Protection.Protestors attended last month's hearing and are expected at this hearingand hope to impact the DEP's decision.Opponents said they are concerned about chemicals at the site, traffic andabout their health.The company said it believes that the record shows the plant will not havean adverse impact on public health.The proposed $120 million plant would be used on peak days, perhaps 200 to300 hours per year and would primarily burn natural gas.The city's mayor supports the plan, while alderman Arthur Denze said he doesnot."I'm not against development. I'd like clean development, smart development;it needs to bring jobs," Denze said. For the last seven years, the city hashad a higher rate of unemployment than other areas of the state, he said.FirstLight officials said they hope to break ground on the plant Sept. 1 andbe up and running by next summer.http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008100292_webingraham08m.html?syndication=rssFriday, August 8, 2008 - Page updated at 12:52 PME-mail article Print view Share: Digg NewsvineGroup protests school district's plans to cut down trees at IngrahamA dozen people who live near Ingraham in north Seattle gathered outside thefence today to protest plans by the Seattle school district to cut down morethan 90 trees, many of them decades-old.By Susan GilmoreSeattle Times staff reporterVicky Prestrud carefully taped pictures of a dozen birds on the chain-linkfence surrounding a small forest at Ingraham High School.These are the birds, owls, chickadees and woodpeckers that spend time in agrove of trees at the school slated to be cut down, Prestrud said."I live next door to the school," she said. "I've seen all these birds in myyard or the school yard.A dozen people who live near Ingraham in north Seattle gathered outside thefence today to protest plans by the Seattle school district to cut down morethan 90 trees, many of them decades-old.Supporters said the trees are 25-years older than the high school itself.The protesters, part of Save Our Trees, say they may go to court to blockthe school district's plans and, if the trees are cut down, will launch arecall petition of Seattle School Board members who supported the Ingrahamplan.The district wants to cut down the trees as part of a $24 million renovationproject authorized by voters last year.Residents argue the trees provide a welcome buffer between their homes andthe high school. "This is a terrible example for the students of the city,"said Steve Zemke, a spokesman for Save Our Trees. "The school district isplaying the role of a schoolyard bully."The school district plans to cut down nearly 70 trees, primarily evergreens,from a stand of 133. The district also plans to cut down 30 more treesdeemed to be diseased. It wants to remove portable classrooms and replacethem with an addition to the school.The district plans to remove the trees next Friday and Saturday, whilestudents are not at the school.The school district asserts, in a letter to neighbor's of the high school,that it has already passed the environmental hurdles necessary to remove thetrees, including a city examiner's determination that the tree cutting didnot require a full environmental study and the trees could be cut down.But that doesn't satisfy the residents, who question why the addition can'tbe built on a vacant piece of land at the north end of the school withoutcutting down the trees.The district sent letters to the neighbors this week telling them that theyplan to plant three trees for every one removed.The district also withdrew its pending application for a master-use permitfor the school addition which means it can remove the trees now."As long as these applications are not pending, no city permits are requiredfor removal of the trees, as none of those trees constitute "exceptionaltrees" under city codes," wrote school official Fred Stephens this week. Hesaid the permit will be resubmitted this fall.By then, the residents fret, the trees will be gone.Zemke said that the decision by the district to withdraw the permitapplication is a way to get around the tree-removal dispute, but the groupstill plans to appeal. The appeal must be filed by Aug. 14.http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/west/epaper/2008/08/24/0824fplprotest.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=73FPL protesters returning to site of clash with deputiesClick-2-ListenBy PAUL QUINLANPalm Beach Post Staff WriterSunday, August 24, 2008They're back.Seven months after protesters formed a human chain that blocked theconstruction entrance of Florida Power & Light Co.'s West County EnergyCenter, triggering a clash with sheriff's deputies and 27 arrests, acoalition of environmental activists has announced its encore: a secondprotest at the same site.But the protest planned for Oct. 20 will be different, organizers promise."Legal and family-friendly," the group pledges in an e-mail announcement.Authorities are skeptical. "That's what they said last time," Sheriff RicBradshaw said Friday.The group - which includes some of same players organized under a new name,the Everglades Environmental Coalition - faces increased scrutiny from lawenforcement at a time when they are stepping up efforts to halt constructionof FPL's new gas-powered plant.Early next week, the group's attorney, Barry Silver said, he plans to filean amended federal lawsuit that alleges the plant underwent a slipshodenvironmental permit review and violates the federal Clean Air and WaterActs. The suit, first filed in May, also asserts that the project shouldhalt because it is being built on land that figured into a corruptionscandal that jailed two former county commissioners.The group will seek an injunction to halt construction until the suit goesto trial, Silver said."We're thoroughly convinced that once the general public knows what's goingon and knows the facts, they will join our efforts to pull the plug," saidSilver.Legal troubles have dogged the group.At a May press conference where Silver and Peter "Panagioti" Tsolkas,co-chairman of the Palm Beach County Environmental Coalition and aself-described anarchist, announced the suit, U.S. Marshals showed up,warrant in hand and led Tsolkas away in handcuffs. That Martin Countywarrant, a week old at the time, stemmed from a trespassing charge againstTsolkas, who said he had been photographing construction of the gaspipelines meant to feed the plant.FPL says the West County Energy Center now under construction will beenergy-efficient and low on pollution. The company estimates it will provide$273 million in fuel cost savings to customers in the first two years.But the coalition has dubbed the plant a "Molotov Cocktail" of environmentalrisks, noting that it will belch 12.3 million tons of carbon dioxide andconsume 6.5 billion gallons of water each year to feed growth in the ruralwestern areas.That makes the plant unnecessary encroachment on land that was once part ofthe Everglades, the group argues. Although gas is cleaner than coal, whichhas allayed concerns of some environmental groups, the coalition says thehigh-pressure gas pipelines pose a dangerous threat.At the February protest, armored sheriff's deputies arrested 27 protesters,some of whom used tubes and duct tape to link their arms and then lay in aring at the entrance to the rock mining company Palm Beach Aggregates, offSouthern Boulevard near 20-Mile Bend. The protest blocked trucks attemptingto enter the site and stalled traffic through much of Wellington.Sheriff Bradshaw said deputies would be present on Oct. 20 to monitor theprotest and ensure they remain cordoned off from the roadway."We're going to provide them with a safe environment to do their protest andtheir march," Bradshaw said. "Safely do what you're going to do, and don'tdisrupt the public's right to use the roadway."Silver says the group is trying to broaden its base of support and gatherthe largest crowd possible. Thus, there are no plans to break the law. Atleast this time, he said."The intent now is to try and do nothing in violation of the law or anycivil disobedience," said Silver. "There are other events where that mighthappen, but not for this particular event."http://www.kxan.com/global/story.asp?s=8874604Protestors in Oak Hill speak outAUSTIN, Texas (KXAN) -- Some residents want city council members to rejectthe future land use plan that city staff members have drafted. Residentssaid it will cause environmental harm as it stands now.Neighborhood leaders said the plan would create massive development in theOak Hill area and more specifically in the Barton Springs Watershed. Theyare now asking city council to come up with a new plan that incorporatesprotections for neighborhoods and the environment, such as height limits andother measures."I'm not against development nor are any of us against bringing someammenities in at the major intersections," said Karon Rilling, an Oak HillResident. "What we're asking is that we don't Houstonize or Dallasize theroadways at 290 and 71."Austin City Council will consider this issue at their meeting Thursday.http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/08/18/11063/Published on Monday, August 18, 2008 by the Los Angeles TimesForever 21 Development on South Central Farm Site Protestedby David ZahniserLOS ANGELES - Two years after it was bulldozed, the 14-acre Los Angelescommunity garden known as the South Central Farm is being developed for aclothing chain with strong ties to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.Forever 21, one of the city's fastest-growing women's apparel businesses,wants to operate a warehouse and distribution center on the site owned byreal estate developer Ralph Horowitz.Supporters of the garden - still angry that Horowitz tore it up despitesupport from such Hollywood luminaries as Daryl Hannah and Danny Glover -have been trying for weeks to kill the proposed project by demanding morerigorous environmental review.Villaraigosa, who championed the farm's preservation two years ago, isstaying out of the latest fight.He has received nearly $1.3 million in contributions and commitments fromForever 21 and its executives over the past two years for initiativesranging from tree plantings to his own reelection campaign.That relationship troubles the activist known as Tezozomoc, who has usednoisy protests and persistent lobbying to try to protect the land fromdevelopment. Tezozomoc called Villaraigosa's relationship with Forever 21"distressing for the community" and voiced doubts about the sincerity of themayor's effort to save the farm two years ago.Villaraigosa spokesman Matt Szabo said that the mayor did "absolutelyeverything he could" to save the farm in 2006, but that Horowitz wasunwilling to make a deal. Szabo said the mayor has no opinion on the levelof environmental review needed for the proposed Forever 21 project."It's being treated like every other proposed project in the city," he said.The proposal for Forever 21 is the latest event in a 22-year political sagaover a site once filled with cactus, fruit trees and vegetable gardens. Theeffort to preserve it drew worldwide attention two years ago, attractingcelebrities such as folk singer Joan Baez and serving as the subject of adocumentary film.The development proposal for the farm site could force Villaraigosa tochoose between environmental activists willing to stage protests outside hishome and office, and a business that has a huge effect on the region'seconomy.Forever 21 Senior Vice President Christopher Lee has said the site at 41stand Alameda streets is critical to the expansion of his business, which hasbeen doubling each year.If Forever 21 doesn't find a large expanse of land soon, it could leave LosAngeles - taking important manufacturing jobs with it."That's going to be really detrimental to Los Angeles because we pump inhundreds of millions of dollars here," said Lee, who was recently appointedby the mayor to the city's Industrial Development Authority.Lee and Forever 21 founder Don Chang were two of several business leaderswho accompanied Villaraigosa on his trade mission to Asia in 2006. Sixmonths later, Forever 21 gave $100,000 to Villaraigosa's successful campaignto elect three new school board members. In recent months, the companyagreed to give $1 million to Villaraigosa's Million Trees L.A. initiative,which encourages residents to plant more trees.The company also gave $150,000 to Villaraigosa's staging of the annual U.S.Conference of Mayors meeting in Century City last year, a donation sosignificant that Lee was given a speaking role at the event's closingreception at the Griffith Park Observatory.Tezozomoc said that such contributions make it difficult for Villaraigosa todeal fairly with the former farm site.Szabo, on the other hand, said the mayor has "an absolute obligation" to askbusinesses such as Forever 21 to contribute to such causes as a recentcommunity cleanup on the Westside."I mean, we're talking about planting trees and donating T-shirts for kids,"Szabo said.Supporters of the proposed development say a distribution center wouldcreate much-needed jobs in South Los Angeles. Foes say the neighborhood,which sits near the freight route known as the Alameda Corridor, does notneed more warehouses.A city zoning officer is expected to decide this month whether to require anenvironmental impact report on the proposed distribution center, whichprobably would add a year to the approval process.Opponents have forwarded hundreds of e-mails to the city's planningdepartment, saying the 2,400 daily truck trips expected to be generated bythe project merit a lengthier review."At this point, there is no way any diesel-truck, industrial warehouse isgoing to do any good in that community," said Leslie Radford, spokeswomanfor the South Central Farm support committee.Radford contends the project would add to the neighborhood's air pollutionand create "dead-end jobs."But Faye Washington, executive director of the YWCA of Greater Los Angeles,said she was impressed with the wages the company would pay. Her YWCA's JobCorps program is negotiating with Forever 21 to try to make sure it wouldhire local residents.And City Councilwoman Jan Perry, a longtime supporter of Horowitz's project,argued that Villaraigosa's clean truck program would significantly limit theemissions created by the distribution center, making it less harmful to airquality than it would have been earlier.Perry said most of the trucks driving to the Forever 21 facility would comefrom the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, where trucks will be requiredto have cleaner-burning engines - the kind built in 2007 or later - over thenext 3 1/2 years.The fight over the 14-acre site dates back to 1986, when city officials usedthe power of eminent domain to force Horowitz to sell his land so a cityincinerator could be built there. That plan was abandoned amid communityprotests, and in the wake of the 1992 riots, the land was converted into acommunity garden overseen by the Los Angeles Food Bank across the street.Nearby low-income residents, many of them Spanish-speaking immigrants fromMexico and Central America, carved the site into tiny plots filled withvegetables, herbs and flowers. But with the incinerator plan scrapped,Horowitz sued the city, buying back the land in a settlement.By then, the farm had become one of the largest community gardens in theregion - and a symbol of the city's need for more urban farming, saidOccidental College professor Robert Gottlieb, who heads the Urban andEnvironmental Policy Institute, a research and advocacy group dealing withfood and social justice."What made [the farm] so interesting was it was becoming a community space,"he added. "It wasn't just a series of plots of individual gardeners. Ithosted events; it had festivals. It was a place where families came."Despite last-minute efforts by Villaraigosa to have a nonprofit groupacquire the land, Horowitz had the garden demolished and its gardenersremoved in 2006. It was a media spectacle: Protesters and police squared offas helicopters hovered overhead.After two years of relative calm, Horowitz and the farmers are battlingagain. Horowitz took his development plan for the site to a public hearinglast month. Activists, some carrying baskets filled with fresh fruit,testified against it.http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2008/05/hike_set_to_protest_proposed_l_1.htmlHike set to protest proposed LNG pipelinePosted by Ted Sickinger, The Oregonian May 23, 2008 15:35PMA group of activists that watchdogs issues in Mount Hood forests isorganizing a 40-mile hike along the route of a proposed liquefied naturalgas pipeline that Northwest Natural Gas Co. and TransCanada Corp. hope tobuild through the forest.The group contends the pipeline route, which crosses over steep slopes andmany streams, will require miles of new road-building and pose a threat tothe region's water supply. A group of "groundtruthers" will be surveying the40-mile section of pipeline route that runs through the Mount Hood forests.Bark, the activist group, also is inviting the public to attend the weekendof June 14-15. Click here for more information.-- Ted Sickinger, From ldxar1 at tesco.net Thu Aug 28 20:20:06 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2008 04:20:06 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Ecological protests, Europe, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <00a501c90986$2de2b670$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * UK: "Skirmishes", direct action and police repression at Climate Camp * Action during Camp targets bank in London * GERMANY: Clashes over plans to build new coal-fired power station * GERMANY/GLOBAL: Activists protest at GM discussion summit * GREECE: Protesters occupy power station for 20 days * IRELAND: Protest against pylon plan * IRELAND: Climate change protest in Dublin * UK: Coal train occupied * UK: Plan for new coal stations could spark protest campaign * UK: BASF occupied, shut down over GM * LUXEMBOURG: Mittal faces protests over pollution * UK: Camp Titnore reaches second anniversary; protesters thrown out of election count * BULGARIA: Protest to save park * BELGIUM/GLOBAL: "Flintstones" arrested at European Parliament in fuel protest * SPAIN/KIRIBATI/GLOBAL: Greenpeace stop Spanish tuna hauler * UK: Rural protests over "eco-towns" development scheme * IRELAND: Protesters disrupt dump meeting * UK: Protests against asphalt plant * SPAIN: Nude cyclists call for cycle lanes * UK: Beckton biofuel plant protested * UK: Coal site occupied, evicted * UK: Big protest against Heathrow expansion * UK: Academy protesters defy eviction * FRANCE: Greenpeace scale Eiffel Tower in climate change protest * IRELAND: Protests over dangerous chemicals * IRELAND: Campaigners claim victory over waste centre * IRELAND: Rossport/Corrib protests continue, more clashes with police * UK: Protester glues himself to Prime Minister in climate change protest * UK: Activists occupy incinerator site * ICELAND: Direct action hits heavy industry sites * SCOTLAND: Protests against dock redevelopment * NORTHERN IRELAND: Protest car parked to disrupt Grand Prix * UK: Bank targeted over coal links * IRELAND: Campaign against landfill site http://www.nowpublic.com/environment/coal-plant-protesters-injured-skirmishes-police Coal plant protesters injured in skirmishes with police by LotusFlower | August 10, 2008 at 09:36 am | 118 views | 1 comment As a police helicopter circles warning that unless protesters disperse "police horses, dogs and batons will be used" the huge sound system starts playing 'I've been loving you too long' the pained and wonderful voice of Otis Redding cutting through through the chopper's noise. It's the continuing climate camp protest at Kingsnorth with the weekend family carnival feel to the protest been undercut by the threat of police violence. The protesters are not looking for violence just action on the proposed coal fired power station that they bitterly oppose. This story will not go away and is the biggest protest camp in the UK for many years and is slowly starting to gather momentum towards the kind of media coverage that the Newbury Bypass protest with its hero Swampy had some years ago. The call on China and the developing world not to burn coal seems hollow when the UK is itself proposing to do so a be it with what is claimed to be 'clean burn' coal fired stations. Protesters battled with police yesterday but failed to shut down Kingsnorth coal plant as the climax of the week-long climate camp ended with a series of skirmishes. Only a handful of protesters succeeded in getting inside the site near Rochester, Kent. Around 50 were arrested, bringing the total for the week to more than 90. Climate camp organisers said last night that about 1,500 people took part in the day of direct action and marches. They were matched by nearly 1,500 police officers. The only serious scuffles came when a group of 70 people tried to go into a cornfield. They were met by 100 police, some of whom used batons. Several people were injured. Police also used horses, dogs, trail bikes and helicopters to control demonstrators as they approached the power station across fields and down country lanes. Environmentalists are targeting Kingsnorth because they claim the new plant planned there by its owner, the German energy group E.on - the first for nearly 30 years - will usher in six more and make it almost impossible for the UK to meet its carbon emissions targets. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/aug/10/kingsnorthclimatecamp.activists?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront Coal plant protesters injured in skirmishes with police John Vidal and Tim Webb The Observer, Sunday August 10 2008 Article history Protesters battled with police yesterday but failed to shut down Kingsnorth coal plant as the climax of the week-long climate camp ended with a series of skirmishes. Only a handful of protesters succeeded in getting inside the site near Rochester, Kent. Around 50 were arrested, bringing the total for the week to more than 90. Climate camp organisers said last night that about 1,500 people took part in the day of direct action and marches. They were matched by nearly 1,500 police officers. The only serious scuffles came when a group of 70 people tried to go into a cornfield. They were met by 100 police, some of whom used batons. Several people were injured. Police also used horses, dogs, trail bikes and helicopters to control demonstrators as they approached the power station across fields and down country lanes. Environmentalists are targeting Kingsnorth because they claim the new plant planned there by its owner, the German energy group E.on - the first for nearly 30 years - will usher in six more and make it almost impossible for the UK to meet its carbon emissions targets. Ten protesters commandeered crowd control barriers to scale the southern perimeter fence of the power station. Four people are believed to have crossed the marshy land between the fences and scaled the second, electrified security fence. They were immediately detained by police with dogs. Yesterday a climate camp spokeswoman claimed that more than 20 boats and rafts were launched on the River Medway despite a ban by Medway port authority. The police said that they removed 123 people from boats. 'Most did not get far, but two reached the power station and the crew of one also got over the perimeter fence,' said Madeleine, one of the protesters. 'It was a total success. We stopped any coal getting to the station and disrupted its operation. If the government gives the go ahead for a new plant, we will be back to stop it. This is not a symbolic protest.' While a minority tried to get into Kingsnorth, about 1,000 protesters, including many families with children, formed a carnival-like procession along the three miles from the camp to the plant's main gate. They arrived just before noon when the mood was dampened as it began to rain. Police and coastguard helicopters hovered over the area all day. A great cheer went up as a banner reading 'No new coal' was hoisted on the main gates of the power station. Five mock 'suspect: wanted' boards were also hung up on the gates, each with a silhouette and names of the five key people involved in plans to build the new plant: Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks, Business Secretary John Hutton, Gordon Brown and two E.on chiefs. About 150 police looked on behind crash barriers as speakers gave passionate addresses and protesters sat down for a picnic. Malcolm Hunter, from Leicester, who was dressed in an orang-utan suit, said: 'This protest is about raising awareness. Hopefully it will put pressure on government not to approve new coal plants.' Shortly before lunch, the sound system cranked up 'I've been loving you too long' by Otis Redding when a police helicopter circled and a loudspeaker announced: 'This is a police warning. Please disperse in 10 minutes or police horses, dogs and police batons will be used.' Organisers said that the protest had permission to remain outside the gate only until 1pm. Protesters packed up and turned back towards the camp without any trouble. Curious locals looked on as the action unfolded. Vic Mortley, 75, from Hoo village, who had served in the RAF, said: 'I don't want any part of the protest. We have lived with coal for 75 years. Are we aware of what coal is really doing - can we see the carbon emissions in the air?' Other locals were on the side of the protesters. Jo Barrett, from Stoke village, said: 'Opinions are roughly divided. There's plenty of water round here. There must be a cleaner way of generating electricity.' http://www.nowpublic.com/environment/uk-police-starve-out-climate-camp-protesters UK Police starve out climate camp protesters by LotusFlower | August 5, 2008 at 08:02 am The 'Climate Camp' at Kingsnorth Power Station in the UK has had access to food supplies cut of by UK police as they attempt to starve out environmental protestors who are against plans to build a new coal fueled power station. Action was stepped up when the Drax train protesters who stopped a train in June and were arrested with orders placed on them not to go near any power station rang the police to tell them that they were going to join the camp at Kingsnorth. Despite telling the police of their intentions 4 of them managed to sneak in and now the police decked out in riot gear against these peaceful protesters are attempting to starve the protest to a halt. Drastic action it seems to quell this action. The UK government are uneasy about environmental protests given their own environmental push but such protests against coal might work in favour of the governmnets ultimate plans to reintroduce and expand its nuclear energy programme. Hundreds of riot police pushed back protesters at the Kingsnorth coal power station "climate camp" in Kent yesterday, as officers raided the site and made eight arrests. Kent Police seized four men aged between 24 and 45 for public order offences in dawn skirmishes. A 27-year-old man was also arrested for obstructing police and a 40-year-old man was held on suspicion of possessing a prohibited weapon. Scuffles broke out as shield-carrying officers moved in to surround protesters in the afternoon after the high-profile arrival of five campaigners who are trying to breach a court order banning them from entering the site. Police also stopped food deliveries to the camp. The five protesters ? Paul Morozzo, Jonathan Stevenson, Ellen Potts, Mel Evans and Oli Rodker ? were among 29 that were arrested in June for stopping a coal delivery train outside Drax power station in North Yorkshire. Their bail conditions ban them from going near any British power station and from attending the climate camp but they phoned ahead to warn the local police commander of their arrival aboard the 1.33pm train from London Victoria to Chatham, Kent. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/aug/08/kingsnorthclimatecamp.climatechange?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront Climate protesters arrested after gluing themselves to bank Elizabeth Stewart and agencies guardian.co.uk, Friday August 08 2008 14:02 BST Article history Two environmental activists who glued themselves to the front doors of a bank in London today have been arrested for a breach of the peace, police said. A group of four protesters calling themselves Rising Tide held a banner outside the Royal Bank of Scotland reading: "RBS - cashing in on coal" and handed out leaflets. The protest was part of the week-long camp for climate action, taking place outside Kingsnorth power station in Kent. Protesters are campaigning against a new generation of coal-fired electricity plants. The activists staged the demonstration at the entrance to the RBS oil and gas division to highlight the relationship between the financial sector, the fossil fuel industry and climate change. In another protest, the Eon-sponsored Lego model of Kingsnorth power station at the Legoland Park in Windsor was "occupied" by tiny Lego eco-activists with a banner reading: "Stop climate change." The actions followed a series of protests yesterday when green campaigners blockaded a biofuel depot in Essex, unfurled banners at Gatwick airport and staged a "die-in" at the RBS headquarters by lying in a pool of oil outside the building. Around 1,500 people have now converged on the climate camp site amid a heavy police presence to prepare for tomorrow's day of mass action. Protesters have planned an assault by land, water and air to "shut down" Kingsnorth. One group of campaigners will lead a procession to the power station's main gates, while another will reach it through undergrowth. A third aims to make a secret air approach, while a fourth plans to stage a "great rebel raft regatta" despite moves by police to ban the flotilla on health and safety grounds. Some politicians have expressed concerns over policing at the climate camp, which has been described as "heavyhanded" by protesters. The Green party MEP for the south-east, Dr Caroline Lucas, the Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes, Norman Baker, and the Morley and Rothwell Labour MP, Colin Challen, have written to Kent police calling for action to resolve the "increasingly threatening confrontation". They said the escalating situation had been caused, in part, by "a disproportionate police response". The comments came as Kent police extended stop and search powers for officers policing the protests yesterday. http://www.euronews.net/en/article/24/08/2008/coal-power-ignites-protests-in-germany/ Coal power ignites protests in Germany 24/08 13:42 CET There have been clashes between environmental protestors and police in northern Germany at the proposed location of a new coal-fired power-station. Up to 700 demonstrators turned up at the site at Moorburg, a suburb of Hamburg. The campaigners argue that should the plant go ahead, emissions of carbon dioxide would increase by 40 per cent in the Hamburg area. The power giant Vattenfall has promised to install technology at Moorburg to capture the greenhouse gas by 2013, but opponents point to the fact that there are also 25 other coal-fired power-plants in the pipeline in Germany. Environmentalists say coal-burners produce around twice as much CO2 as gas-fired generators. But the country has a plentiful domestic supply of the dirtiest type of coal, lignite, reducing the need for energy imports. Germany and other EU states have agreed to cut CO2 emissions by a fifth by the year 2020. http://www.mathaba.net/rss/?x=592122 Thousands protest in Germany against GM food as UN summit starts Posted: 2008/05/14 From: Source Campaigners, many waving colorful flags and banners with slogans such as ''Biofuel Creates Hunger'' and ''Good Food Instead Of GM Food'', walked and danced through the western German city. (Reuters) BERLIN - About 5,000 activists marched through the German city of Bonn on Monday to protest against genetically modified food at the start of a U.N. conference to discuss risks linked to the technology. Campaigners, many waving colorful flags and banners with slogans such as ?Biofuel Creates Hunger? and ?Good Food Instead Of GM Food?, walked and danced through the western German city. Some drove tractors and floats. ?We are protesting for biodiversity and against the destruction of nature, against GM, for the protection of biodiversity,? activist Amira Busch told Reuters Television.About 2,000 government and non-governmental officials will attend the five-day U.N. conference in Bonn to discuss global protection measures for the transfer of genetically modified plants, including rice and soya. The issue has become particularly sensitive due to a recent surge in food prices which has sparked anger and protests in some developing countries. The experts will try to agree on ways to help implement a U.N. agreement on the trading of living genetically modified organisms called the Cartagena protocol. In Europe, consumers are fairly skeptical about GM crops but the biotech industry says its products are as safe as non-GM equivalents. The conference, which starts on Monday, precedes a bigger summit next week on biodiversity in Bonn where some 4,000 international experts and government ministers will try to agree on ways to slow the rate of extinctions. ?We want biodiversity to be part of humanity?s wealth and a precondition to overcome hunger,? said Greens EU lawmaker Friedrich-Wilhelm Graefe zu Baringdorf who was on the march. ?We demand that all other activities, which probably boost industry?s profits, do not endanger food security for future generations,? he told Reuters Television. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100014_03/06/2008_97335 Six arrested as police defuse power protest Riot police stormed a power station belonging to the Public Power Corporation (PPC) in Kozani, northern Greece, yesterday and arrested six of the protesters who had taken over the plant for more than 20 days. The protesters had seized control of a conveyor belt carrying lignite into the factory on May 10, protesting against the extensive pollution caused by the power station. Police said they entered the area at 5 a.m. after giving the protesters a final warning. There were no reports of injuries. PPC had warned over the weekend that if the protest action continued, the company would be forced to schedule power cuts across the country. The protesters have vowed to continue their action. http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0804/pylon.html Protest against plans for pylons in NE Monday, 4 August 2008 Farmers have been protesting at plans by Eirgrid to construct new electricity pylons in the northeast. Hundreds of farmers gathered in Kilmainham wood in Co Meath to campaign against two new high voltage energy lines. The North East Pylon Pressure group wants the lines built underground but Eirgrid has rejected this as unworkable. http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/breaking-news/ireland/environmentalists-stage-climate-change-protest-in-dublin-13892764.html Environmentalists stage climate change protest in Dublin Sunday, 15 June 2008 Environmentalists are to stage a protest in Dublin today against what they say is the Government's inaction on climate change. Stop Climate Chaos, which is organising today's event, has accused the Government's of having an appalling record on pollution. The group says ?290m in tax payers' money has already been put aside to cover greenhouse gas emissions. "This figure could easily double before the end of the Kyoto period in 2012," Spokesperson Ciara Gaynor said, "And the money is coming from PAYE tax payments, so it's a stealth tax; there is no incentive for anyone to cut their pollution." http://www.buzzflash.net/story.php?id=55504 Climate Change Protesters Hijack Coal Train: by Martin Wainwright www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/13/activists.climate... sent by OrpRam since 54 days 4 hours 12 minutes, published about 53 days 7 hours 6 minutes Climate change campaigners hijacked a train carrying coal to Britain?s biggest power station this morning, swarming on to the roof of its 20 huge trucks. The 40 protesters stopped the regular delivery service to Drax in Yorkshire disguised as railway workers in yellow warning jackets and waving red flags, having read up on standard railway safety rules. The ambush took place at an iron girder bridge over the river Aire between the villages of Gowdall and Hirst Courteney at 8am GMT. One group then used the bridge girders and climbing equipment to scale the 12ft high trucks.They hoisted a huge banner reading ?Leave it in the ground? - referring to the coal destined for the power station?s furnaces. The protesters carried food, water and even a portable lavatory with the intention of being able to remain on board for several days. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/18/carbonemissions.energy?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront Plans for new coal plants under fire Campaigners seek guarantees of safeguards to prevent the escape of carbon gases Juliette Jowit and Tim Webb The Observer, Sunday May 18 2008 Drax power station. Photograph: Press Association Protesters are to launch one of the hardest-hitting environmental campaigns for more than a decade over plans to build a new generation of coal-fired power stations in the UK. Senior scientists, City investors, international leaders and MPs from all parties have joined environmental groups in condemning plans to approve coal plants before there are guarantees that they will be fitted with equipment to stop the release of harmful greenhouse gases. Supporters of new coal power say Britain desperately needs to fill a looming energy gap and improve security of power supply. But objectors claim it is impossible to build coal stations - the most polluting of all power plants - and still cut pollution. Without a new technology to control carbon emissions, known as 'carbon capture and storage', the eight plants being planned would account for the entire carbon target that the UK has set itself for the middle of this century, say campaigners. As a result, opposition to construction of new plants has hardened recently with new names joining the growing coalition of opposition every week. Activists' plans are aimed at the government and at Eon, the German-owned company proposing to build the first of the new plants at Kingsnorth in Kent, said Matt Phillips of the European Climate Foundation. Eon has already been targeted with protests at its offices and outside the headquarters of the Football Association (the company sponsors the FA Cup). The Climate Camp, which last year organised a high-profile sit-in at Heathrow airport, has said that its 2008 camp will probably be at Kingsnorth. Events targeting other coal plant sites in Essex, Northumberland and Fife are expected. Eon has proposed building two new coal-fired generators next to its current plant at Kingsnorth. The old plant is to be closed because it will fail tough new EU pollution limits that come into force in 2015. The two new 800-megawatt generators would provide the same electricity as the current plant, about enough to supply one and a half million homes. Eon estimates that the new plants, for which it is awaiting government approval, will each generate greenhouse gases equivalent to eight million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year at full capacity. That compares with 10 million tonnes for the existing plant. Approval for the project, which could cost ?1.7bn, would be expected to bring forward applications from other utilities. Campaigners claim there are plans for at least seven new plants - at sites including Tilbury in Essex, Ferrybridge in West Yorkshire and Blyth in Northumberland - generating 10-12 gigawatts of energy, which would pump the equivalent of 50 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year. To help to head off mounting public anger, Eon has entered Kingsnorth for the government-sponsored competition to stage the first commercial trials of carbon capture and storage at the site. Such schemes involve removing carbon dioxide as it is produced by burning coal and then pumping it into spaces under the ground, where it can be stored for thousands of years. Britain is considered to be well suited to such technology, with its many depleted North Sea oil and gas fields. However, when asked when carbon capture could be taken beyond the pilot project stage, Eon's clean coal business development manager, Andy Read, admitted: 'It's a bit of a guessing game ... It depends on government support.' He also admitted that there is no guarantee that carbon capture, even if it is proved to work, would be fitted to Kingsnorth without the necessary subsidies. The British government has also come under fire. In the last few months opponents of its promotion of coal power have ranged from the Royal Society, the world's most prestigious scientific organisation, to the powerful Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change, whose members include BNP Paribas, HSBC and the pension funds of the BBC and the Environment Agency. The UK is looking isolated internationally. Denmark and New Zealand have moratoriums on new coal-fired power stations, Canada has a deadline for new coal generators to have carbon capture fitted by 2018 and California has imposed the same deadline by 2020. US protests have led to 59 of the 151 new coal plants announced last year being dropped and 48 contested in court. http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/20631 Anti-GM protest shuts down BASF UK headquarters (& photos & video links) North West England genetics - crop BASF1.JPG BASF HQ 2 BASF HQ 3 BASF HQ 4 At the crack of dawn, Tuesday, 6th May, after a long night of preparation, Earth First! activists from all across England jumped into two vehicles and speed towards south Manchester, dead set on taking some effective action against the ecologically destructive plans of notorious chemical company BASF. There was no desire for symbolic protest, but simple action that hit hard at the one thing they value the most, their pockets. At 7.20 am they turned hard into the only entrance to BASF?s headquarters in Stockport, vehicles blocking the entrance while various affinity groups piled out and got to work. A team of eleven people with lock-on tubes took the ground in front of the long gate, while others D-locked several side gates that were for pedestrian use only. Meanwhile, some people spoke to the guards and were told that he wanted to shut the gate. Which was excellent news, and there was a rapid change of plan. The arm-tubes were put back in the vehicles, which disappeared off, to be used for the next action, and once the gate was closed a seriously heavy-duty motorbike chain was wrapped around it and one activist D-locked himself to it. And that was us there until 12noon, job done, BASF?s UK headquarters shut down for the morning. A 30x10 foot banner saying Stop GM was hung from a nearby flyover so everyone would get the message as to why were there. Though, given we were on the border with Cheshire, one confused local inhabitant was curious as to what we had against Greater Manchester! The only trouble came from the various BASF executives clearly eager to get to their phone conferences and thought driving at people constitutes acceptable behaviour. With such a casual attitude towards protestors standing in their way it is hardly surprising that they do not give a damn about what effect their products have on the rest of the world. The weather was wonderful, sunny and warm, and we relaxed on the road while all the BASF workers were told to drink coffee in M&S or sit in the B&Q carpark ? which naturally were leafleted so they had something to read while they waited. The police, when they turned up, were polite and clearly outnumbered by the protestors, so let them get on with it. There was a police liaison to keep things happy, and when the blockade was lifted, and everyone left with all their equipment ? including the D-Locks and chains ? and their were no arrests. The only thing they wanted was the large Sainsburys banner which had been redecorated with anti-GM messages, which they wanted to return to Sainsburys in case it had been stolen. We could not say fairer than the police delivering our anti-GM message back to the supermarket chain... Though we were only there for the morning, the activists left on our own terms, knowing that the impact would continue to reverberate through the company. Evidence from other actions shows that the impact does not stop once the blockade is lifted, but the entire day will be lost. Meeting will have to be rescheduled, work-time caught up on, other offices will be furious about not being able to get in touch, and so on. And the bosses will still be paid for the time spent twiddling their thumbs. An excellent day out... if it could not be spent on the allotment, the next best place is lying on a roadway. The pressure on GM companies has not gone away. ------------------ Press release: BASF UK HQ currently completely blockaded by protesters. This morning 30 protesters from Earth First! have shut down the BASF UK headquarters (1) at Cheadle Hulme near Manchester (2), to highlight the company's role in pushing GM onto our plates. BASF is planning to run the UK's only trial of GM crops this year, a trial of blight resistant potatoes.(3) The protesters arrived early in the morning at the flagship offices and have since been blockading the gate by sitting in front of it and locking on using d-locks and other equipment. They are successfully preventing any staff from entering and are demanding the company pull out of GM immediately. They have also hung a giant 30 x 10ft banner reading "No To GM". The protesters are planning to blockade the gate for several hours. Mary Sunderland from Earth First! Said: "GM has no part to play in our future: it's a dangerous, unwanted and unproven technology geared towards maximising profits for multinational corporations such as BASF. It is not the answer to food shortages, hunger or climate change. The real solution is to change now to a sustainable farming system and to distribute resources fairly around the world." The bio-tech industry claims GM will feed the world's poor, but experts disagree. A major new study published in April shows that modified soya produces 10 per cent less food than its conventional equivalent, confirming earlier studies showing the same trend. The study finds that the very process of modification depresses productivity.(4) This revelation came just a week after the biggest study of its kind ever conducted,the International Assessment of Agricultural Science, concluded that GM was not an answer to world hunger. The UN study, conducted by over 400 scientists and approved by over 54 governments is a sobering account of the failure of industrial farming. The key message of the report is that small-scale farmers and agro-ecological methods provide the way forward to avert the current food crisis and deal with the effects of climate change.(5) Neil Ross from Earth First! UK adds: "It's time for everyone who is concerned about the future of our food and environment to stand up again and to say 'No to GM'. When five years ago 86 per cent of the UK public said that they did not want GM foods the government and bio-tech industry brushed those concerns aside as unscientific. Science is now proving that we were right to oppose GM. Thanks to the courage of many ordinary people who ripped up GM crops our countryside has been GM free for the past four years. (6) We are determined to keep it that way. The message to BASF and the government couldn't be clearer. Stop wasting money on GM (7) and start investing in the real solutions to hunger: small-scale organic farming and equitable trade." _ Notes (1)BASF is the world's leading chemical company. (2) Heading south from Manchester on the A34 , turn right onto Stanley Road (B5094). Take the second left onto Earl Road. Continue under the flyover (Manchester Airport Eastern Link Road) and BASF HQ is on your right. (3) The UK trials of BASF's blight resistant potatoes were due to take place from last spring at two locations for a period of five years. One site is a research centre in Cambridge, where last year anti-gm campaigners succeeded in destroying the field during a night time raid. The second trial site was never planted as BASF was unable to find a site for it. Campaigners have already vowed to decontaminate the Cambridge site again, should BASF go ahead with the controversial trial. Many believe that the trials are unnecessary as blight resistant potatoes are already available through conventional breeding. (4) The study was carried out over the past three years by the University of Kansas in the US grain belt and published by Professor B Gordon in the journal 'Better Crops'. He grew a Monsanto GM soy bean resistant to the herbicide Round-up and compared it with a conventional variety. The GM bean produced only 70 bushels per acre compared to 77 bushels for the conventional bean. (5) The report from the United Nations World Food Programme, the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) called for a back-to-basics approach to farming to meet the challenges of climate change and escalating food prices. The authors saw little role for GM technology in feeding the poor. The report was based on a rigorous and peer-reviewed analysis of the empirical evidence by hundreds of scientists and development experts. http://www.agassessment.org/ (6) When GM crop trials started in the UK in 1998, no one could have predicted the public opposition to it. Within just 5 years, all GM companies including Monsanto, Syngenta and Bayer had retreated from Britain, numerous field trials had been destroyed and a moratorium against GM crop growing had been imposed.10 years later, Britain is still free from any commercial growing of GM crops. This opposition has also sparked massive resistance elsewhere in Europe. (7) Using the Freedom of Information Act Friends of the Earth managed to obtained still partial information in October 2007 which shows that the Government gave at least ?50 million a year for research into GM crops and food, compared with ?1.6 million for research into organic agriculture last year, in spite of repeated promises to promote environmentally friendly, sustainable farming. http://www.i-sis.org.uk/dirty_GM_secrets.php manchester[at!]earthfirst.org.uk http://www.earthfirst.org.uk http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_12115.cfm Protestors Shut Down Biotech Company Headquarters in Europe BASF Targeted in GM Protest By Alistair Driver Farmers Guardian, UK, May 6, 2008 Straight to the Source ACTIVISTS prevented staff entering BASF UK's headquarters at Cheadle Hulme, near Manchester, this morning (Tuesday, May 6), in a protest at the company's GM potato trials. Earth First! said 30 of its activist had shut down the offices in order 'to highlight the company's role in pushing GM onto our plates'. BASF is planning to run the UK's only trial of GM crops this year featuring blight resistant potatoes. The protesters arrived early in the morning and blockaded the gate to the headquarters by sitting in front of it and employing d-locks and other equipment. The protesters also hung a 30 x 10ft banner reading "No To GM" No staff were able to enter the building until the protestors left at around midday, having blockaded the gate for several hours. "They are successfully preventing any staff from entering and are demanding the company pull out of GM immediately," a statement released by Earth First! said. Mary Sunderland from Earth First! said: "GM has no part to play in our future: it's a dangerous, unwanted and unproven technology geared towards maximising profits for multinational corporations such as BASF. "It is not the answer to food shortages, hunger or climate change. The real solution is to change now to a sustainable farming system and to distribute resources fairly around the world." Around 200 BASF are based in the building, although none of them are involved in production or research work and none are working on the GM potato trials, according to BASF spokesman Chris Wilson, who, himself was stuck outside the building. BASF issued a statement criticising the methods of the protestors. "We take seriously the concerns that some people have regarding plant biotechnology. We will do everything to provide answers to any questions people have and look for ways to discuss the issues with the public. We are seeking a matter-of-fact dialogue based on scientific fact. ?However, we have been concerned by the actions of protestors on a number of occasions. We are particularly disappointed that activists disrupt our daily business by protesting in front of our site - therewith hindering our colleagues from entering the site.? ?We hope that people will in future voice their concerns in a peaceful and constructive way.? BASF said the potato field trial had received consent from the Government and was being carried out in strict accordance with the regulations laid down. ?There is no reason to expect that the genetically modified potatoes are any less safe than conventionally produced potatoes. ?When approval for a field trial project is granted by the authorities in charge, this approval confirms that the tested crops are safe to be planted using the management procedures to be followed during the trial.? http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15035 LUXEMBOURG: Mittal braced for protests on pollution by Heather Stewart, The Observer May 11th, 2008 Steel giant ArcelorMittal will be accused of leaving a trail of environmental destruction in its wake this week when campaigners descend on Luxembourg to protest at its annual meeting. Run and part-owned by Britain's richest man, Lakshmi Mittal, ArcelorMittal has received more than $500m in taxpayer-backed loans over the past decade, from development lenders including the London-based European Bank of Reconstruction and Development. Bankwatch, a network of local campaign groups that monitors the activities of the EBRD, says the steelmaker has used the cash to boost its bottom line, instead of mitigating the environmental and social impact of its plants. Protestors will present Arcelor's shareholders with a 40-page dossier of evidence about the firm's behaviour across the globe, from Orissa in India to Vanderbijlpark in South Africa. Pippa Gallop of Bankwatch said the firm had grown rapidly by buying up former state-owned steel plants without investing sufficiently in cleaner technologies: 'The main problem is the aggressive cost-cutting strategy of this company.' Jan Syrtr, a Czech lawyer involved in bringing a test case against the company over pollution levels from its Ostrava plant, said people in the local district of Radvanice a Bartovice have to use magnets to clear the steel dust from inside their homes. 'Depending on the state of the weather, you can really smell that you're in Radvanice,' he said. 'We don't want money; we just want this to stop.' Liz Ilg, from Citizen Action in Cleveland, Ohio, will demand the company put more effort into cutting pollution at her local works. She said: 'This is the most urban steel mill in the US: they've got more people living around them than any other plant - 390,000 within five miles.' Mittal took over the plant from International Steel Corporation in 2004. 'The main message is: start to look at pollution prevention at your facilities. The best way to do that is to sit down and talk to community members,' said Ilg. She has collected 34,000 signatures on a petition, but says the company has so far refused to meet local people. A spokeswoman said: 'ArcelorMittal takes health and safety and environmental issues very seriously. During 2007, we spent approximately $500m on health and safety and environment-related projects and since 1990 we have successfully reduced the CO2 footprint of our steelmaking by over 20 per cent.' She added that the company was drawing up plans to reduce emissions from the Czech plant. Gallop said it was difficult for civil society groups to monitor whether the EBRD's loans to ArcelorMittal have been well spent. 'In many cases, the improvements are completely unverifiable, because the action plans have never been released,' she said. An EBRD spokesman said the bank had clear policies 'to assess the impact of our loans'. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/05/398777.html Camp Titnore birthday protest SCIMC | 13.05.2008 19:45 | South Coast CAMP TITNORE, the eco-protest site near Worthing, West Sussex, celebrated its second birthday on Saturday May 24. To mark the occasion, a 'party' was held on the steps of Worthing Town Hall in Chapel Road. Alongside the usual placards and banners were party hats and home-made birthday cakes, as supporters posed for press photos, gave three cheers to the eco-activists who have been protecting our countryside since May 2006 and gave a rendition of 'Happy Birthday to You', as between six and nine police watched on at a distance. There was even a spot of tree climbing. One campaigner said: "The campaign has, of course, being going a lot more than two years, but the extraordinary achievement of those who have kept alive a continued presence in the woods since May 2006 just cannot be over-emphasised." Less cheerful news was that Tesco's plans for its massive expansion on the West Durrington site have now been given outline planning permission by Worthing Borough Council. Mainstream media links BBC report Worthing Herald report The event was given added poignancy by scenes at the recent election count, when heavy-handed security and police threw out Save Titnore Woods! candidate Dawn Smith and her supporters. The incident happened on Friday May 2, when Dawn, who was standing for the Stop Durrington's Overdevelopment - Save Titnore's Trees party, in the borough's Northbrook ward, was arrested after a row at Worthing's Assembly Hall, apparently for "disorderly behaviour". She was thrown to the ground by police, held down with her hands behind her back, knelt on and handcuffed, then held for four hours at Durrington police station - all for objecting to her supporters being violently ejected from the count. Dawn, who has not been charged, explained that there was confusion over the passes for her guests at the count, who included Titnore eco-campers. Names she had registered did not seem to have been recorded, in an official bungle. Other people, considered of "respectable" appearance, were waved through by security but they demanded ID from her supporters. While she went to try and sort the error, some of the campers wandered through into the hall and were attacked and physically thrown out by security staff in what she called a "complete over-reaction". Dawn objected vocally. She said: "I shouted at them. The only reason they did this was because the guys had dreadlocks. I'm not going to stand by and see someone jumped on." http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=92878 Citizens of Bulgaria's Varna Protest against Destruction of Downtown Park 7 May 2008, Wednesday Citizen of Bulgaria?s Varna Protest against Destruction of Downtown Park: About 200 citizens of Bulgaria's sea capital and top tourist destination Varna besieged the Municipal Administration Wednesday morning to protest against the cutting of trees in the downtown Sevastopol garden, which took place during the May 1-6 holidays. "The City Is Not a Playground for Incompetent Politicians", one of the protesters' posters stated according to the report of the Bulgarian private Darik Radio. The civic protest was supported by local environmentalist organizations such as the Zelena Varna ("Green Varna") association. The protesters waited for over an hour to meet with a representative of the municipal administration. After they shouted energetically their slogans, the Deputy Mayor Venelin Zhechev finally showed up before them. Zhechev explained that the firm that had been hired to execute the "sanitary" cutting and pruning of trees had done its job professionally. In his words the activity would continue for two more days. The "sanitary" cutting of the trees in the central Sevastopol garden which started on May 1, was interrupted by resentful citizens and environmentalists. Then the Municipality promised it would not be resumed until a public discussion of the issue took place. The explanation of the Municipal Administration about the cutting of the trees during the non-working days was that it aimed to cultivate the park by cleaning it from old trees and fallen branches, and by planting Indian lilac, red-leaved plum trees, and magnolias. Meanwhile, the Varna environmentalists prepared a protest petition against the mutilation and destruction of the emblematic Sevastopol garden, which has already been signed by over 7000 Varna residents. The organizers announced that official protest letters to the Bulgarian Parliament and the Regional Prosecutor's Office. According to the statements from the technical crew, who pruned the trees, the purpose was to remove dry and old trees by allowing offshoots to grow, and by using the pruned two-meter high tree trunks for woodcarving. According to unofficial information, however, the park has been destroyed so that a parking lot or some sort of an expensive building could be constructed in its place, and the whole activity is related to certain business interests. The environmentalists have placed black bands on the trunks of the pruned trees and signs reading, "They mutilated me!" The Sevastopol garden is located only a two-minute walk away from the building of the Municipal Administration, and a three-minute walk from the Sea Garden and the Black Sea coast. It is across from the famous Cherno More Hotel ("Black See Hotel"). Paradoxically, the affair with the cutting down of the trees in downtown Varna coincided with the visit of the MEP David Hammerstein, who declared that the environmental violations in Bulgaria were shocking. http://uk.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUKL2647405920080526 "Flintstones" arrested in EU car emissions protest Mon May 26, 2008 2:39pm BST BRUSSELS (Reuters) - "Fred and Wilma Flintstone" were arrested as they approached the European Parliament on Monday to protest about the influence of the auto industry on proposals to curb carbon dioxide emissions from cars. Six Greenpeace activists dressed as cavemen and travelling in a Flintstones-style vehicle were detained along with three others for public order offences, police said. A stone tablet accusing car lobbyists of driving climate change was confiscated before it could be delivered to lawmakers, a Greenpeace spokeswoman said. The European Parliament will this week start debating legislation to force down CO2 emissions from cars, with fines on manufacturers that fail to comply. But lawmakers will consider amendments that weaken the original proposals from the EU's executive European Commission by reducing the level of fines and phasing the laws in more slowly than initially envisaged. European carmakers say the proposals threaten their ability to compete in international markets. Germany has vowed to stand by its car sector, which produces powerful luxury vehicles such as Porsche, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. "Our activists and their zero-emission vehicle are raising the alarm about the influence this dinosaur industry exercises over EU climate policy," Greenpeace transport campaigner Melanie Francis said. (Reporting by Pete Harrison) http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSSYD1728120080527?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews Greenpeace protests against Spanish tuna ship Tue May 27, 2008 4:25am EDT By Michael Perry SYDNEY (Reuters) - Greenpeace staged a high-seas protest against a Spanish-owned tuna fishing ship in the South Pacific on Tuesday, dropping a 25 meter (75 feet) floating banner "No Fish, No Future" into its net. Greenpeace ship Esperanza had been tailing the Albatun Ters for five days, claiming it is the biggest tuna catching vessel in the world, and on Tuesday launched a protest as the ship was fishing off the Phoenix Islands in Kiribati. The banner was dropped into the vessel's trawling net in an attempt to stop the ship from retrieving the net and using it again, but the move failed to prevent the ship from hauling the net back in. "Early this morning we caught it fishing inside Kiribati waters and took action," Lagi Toribau, Greenpeace Australia Pacific Oceans Campaigner on board the Esperanza, told Reuters by telephone. Greenpeace said the Albatun Tres can net more than 3,000 tonnes of tuna in a single fishing trip -- almost double the entire annual catch of some Pacific island nations. "Time and tuna are running out. Vessels of this size cannot be left to plunder and empty out the remaining tuna stocks and need to be taken off the water and scrapped immediately in order to address the overcapacity of the world's tuna fleets," Sari Tolvanen of Greenpeace International said in a statement. South Pacific nations decided last week to ban licensed tuna vessels from fishing in international waters between their islands and to require them to always carry fishing observers. The new rules will take effect from June 15, 2008. In February, the island nation Kiribati created the world's largest protected marine reserve, a California-sized watery wilderness covering 410,500 square km (158,500 square miles), to preserve tuna spawning grounds and coral reef biodiversity. Greenpeace said the Albatun Tres was fishing under an EU agreement with Kiribati and called on small Pacific island nations to reject approaches from other European fishing firms for more tuna fishing licenses. Greenpeace said decades of over-exploitation has reduced some of tuna stocks in the Pacific to just 15 percent of what they once were and European fishing firms are now chasing tuna in the Pacific after tuna stocks fell in the Atlantic. "The Albatun Tres has arrived to the Pacific from the Indian Ocean earlier this year. The Pacific tuna stocks are in decline and there simply isn't enough fish in the sea to fill the holds of these huge vessels," said Toribau. "Adding more vessels to those already allowed to fish guarantees that there will be no fish left for the future." Rising fuel prices will likely force Japanese fishermen to suspend some tuna fishing in the Pacific and Indian oceans, officials from Japan's main tuna fishing union said on Tuesday. The union is considering stopping about 80 fishing boats from going to the Pacific and the India Ocean for three months or more to catch bigeye tuna and yellowfin tuna, two common and reasonably priced fish at sushi bars, union officials said. The officials said tuna fishermen in Taiwan, China and South Korea were likely to follow suit. Greenpeace welcomed the news that Asian tuna fishing operations may be reduced but called for a permanent reduction based on environmental grounds. In February, the island nation Kiribati created the world's largest protected marine reserve, a California-sized watery wilderness covering 410,500 square km (158,500 square miles), to preserve tuna spawning grounds and coral reef biodiversity. Greenpeace said the Albatun Tres was fishing under an EU agreement with Kiribati and called on small Pacific island nations to reject approaches from other European fishing firms for more tuna fishing licenses. Greenpeace said decades of over-exploitation has reduced some of tuna stocks in the Pacific to just 15 percent of what they once were and European fishing firms are now chasing tuna in the Pacific after tuna stocks fell in the Atlantic. "The Albatun Tres has arrived to the Pacific from the Indian Ocean earlier this year. The Pacific tuna stocks are in decline and there simply isn't enough fish in the sea to fill the holds of these huge vessels," said Toribau. "Adding more vessels to those already allowed to fish guarantees that there will be no fish left for the future." Rising fuel prices will likely force Japanese fishermen to suspend some tuna fishing in the Pacific and Indian oceans, officials from Japan's main tuna fishing union said on Tuesday. The union is considering stopping about 80 fishing boats from going to the Pacific and the India Ocean for three months or more to catch bigeye tuna and yellowfin tuna, two common and reasonably priced fish at sushi bars, union officials said. The officials said tuna fishermen in Taiwan, China and South Korea were likely to follow suit. Greenpeace welcomed the news that Asian tuna fishing operations may be reduced but called for a permanent reduction based on environmental grounds. http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1399227/ecotown_campaigners_plan_human_ring_protest/index.html?source=r_technology Ecotown Campaigners Plan 'Human Ring' Protest Posted on: Friday, 23 May 2008, 00:00 CDT CAMPAIGNERS against a proposed 15,000-home ecotown in North Yorkshire will start circling the wagons on Saturday when they form a human ring around their parish church. Willow Green, near Kellington, is one of four sites earmarked for the scheme, all of them in the Selby area. It is likely to be one of the most heavily opposed plots because locals regard it as an attractive spot in its own right. Willow Green consists of fields which are normally kept as stubble, rich in flora and fauna and commanding magnificent views of St Edmund's Parish Church. >From 11am on Saturday the historic building will be the scene of a banner-waving protest. Objectors will surround the church, in a symbolic act to show their determination to shield the borders of the village from an "eco-slum". Campaigners against the ecotown recently attracted 550 people and their dogs in a mass dog walk to show that this eco-town proposal was "barking mad". Kellington Church is unique because of its location in the landscape. Celebrated antiquary Roger Dodsworth, who visited Kellington in July 1621, wrote of St Edmund's standing in "splendid isolation" away from the village. its importance is also stressed in Selby Council's Local Plan which says: "St Edmund's Church to the west of Kellington dominates the skyline when viewed from the village and is a particularly fine Grade I listed building. "It contributes significantly to the setting of this village where the contrast between built development and open countryside is particularly apparent. St Edmund's has Norman origins pointing to the long history of settlement at Kellington." Objectors say both the building and the views of the church must be protected from the threat of the new town. Selby councillor John McCartney said: "We know that the Willow Green site is incapable of providing a sustainable ecotown. The rail line to Leeds is full to capacity, with no way that its capacity can be increased. "The Willow Green site is too far away from any major centres of employment. What is the point of providing a huge block of social housing in a site where the low paid simply could not afford to get to work? "The risk is that it could become an eco-slum. The rest of the site will be full of carbon-creating commuters, putting further pressure on the M62 and making a joke of the ecotown image." He argued Willow Green was too close to Knottingley and the other five town areas of Wakefield, much of which needs regeneration which a new town on the Willow Green site would suck away. "We know all that and so do the Government yet they still refuse to rule out this daft scheme," he added. Willow Green is one of four areas in the Leeds city region earmarked as possibles for the environmentally friendly new town. The other three are the existing RAF airstrip at Church Fenton, Burn Airfield or Gascoigne Wood, which includes the former colliery site. All have attracted criticism. Coun Mary McCartney added: "We are confident that we will get a good turnout on Saturday. Over 350 people attended two information meetings that we held last week to update residents on the proposal." The Government has announced a number of other sites around Britain from which 10 ecotowns will be built, including Rossington, near Doncaster. But a plan to build a 9,000-home ecotown using nearly all the green belt land in the Leeds suburb of Rothwell has been withdrawn. (c) 2008 Yorkshire Post. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/sussex/7441799.stm Saturday, 7 June 2008 15:25 UK E-mail this to a friend Printable version Protesters march against eco-town Ben Fogle attended the protest with his father, who lives nearby About 2,000 people have attended a protest rally against plans to build an eco-town at Ford in West Sussex. People from surrounding villages turned out to hear speeches about the plans to build 5,000 homes on the former Ford Airfield site and surrounding farmland. Protesters waved banners and posters and marched three miles along footpaths in countryside surrounding the site. Among them was BBC presenter Ben Fogle, who attended the march with his father and Ford resident, Dr Bruce Fogle. Mr Fogle said it was "wrong" to sacrifice arable countryside for urban development. It's not that we disagree with the concept of affordable and eco-friendly housing, far from it Terry Knott, CAFE co-chairman Ford is one of 15 sites in England to be shortlisted for the 10 new towns. The government announcement in April was met by a storm of protest from MPs and local people. Residents in and around Ford have claimed there will be eight years of "traffic chaos" if the proposal gets the go-ahead. They also fear the development will engulf the nearby villages of Ford, Climping and Yapton and flooding, which often occurs in the area, will be made much worse by the extra houses. The government has said that of the 5,000 homes to be built, 2,000 would be affordable. The plans would include about 4,000 jobs in new business parks, new shops, health and sports centres, and large amounts of green space. Hundreds of people turned out in opposition to the eco-town The eco-town would also help deliver the A27 Arundel bypass. Many of the protesters in Saturday's march were members of local campaign group Communities Against Ford Eco-town (CAFE), which was set up after the government announcement. They heard speeches from local MPs, Nick Gibb and Nick Herbert, while a message of support from former local resident and Olympic swimming champion Duncan Goodhew was read out in his absence. The Duchess of Norfolk, whose family seat is Arundel Castle, and Gordon Roddick, husband of the late Anita Roddick, also took part in the march. CAFE co-chairman and Yapton resident Terry Knott said: "It's not that we disagree with the concept of affordable and eco-friendly housing, far from it. "It's just that there are so many reasons why such a development should not be sited here, and virtually no arguments in favour of doing so. "Eco-towns should in theory provide affordable local housing to meet identified needs, however, there is limited demand for affordable housing in this rural part of West Sussex and restricted demand for employment in and around Ford." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/foyle_and_west/7425071.stm Thursday, 29 May 2008 10:19 UK Protestors disrupt dump meeting A meeting in Coleraine Borough Council's offices about a proposed super-dump in Ringsend near Garvagh has been disrupted by protestors. The North West Regional Waste Management Group had invited community groups to a briefing on Wednesday night. The proposed dump would receive waste from seven council areas. A PSNI spokesperson said between 70 and 80 people gathered to block the road leading from the council's offices. The protestors also prevented two people from leaving the grounds. "We are disappointed that a protest was held illegally and condemn the actions of those involved in intimidating and preventing members of the public from leaving the premises," said the police spokesperson. The super-dump is one of three facilities proposed for the site at Letterloan Road in Ringsend. On Wednesday Coleraine Borough Council voted not to site another dump - for mechanical and biological waste - near Ringsend. http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080612/NEWS01/806120388/1002/NEWS01 Asphalt plant draws protests June 12, 2008 By Brent Curtis Herald Staff What the nose knows seemed like enough evidence to residents who protested a new asphalt plant in Rutland on the grounds that it would turn nearby neighborhoods into virtual road construction sites. But from the point of view of state Air Pollution Control Division officials, monitoring and enforcing odor complaints isn't as easy as passing a sniff test. Doug Elliot, head of the division's air permitting program, said during a public hearing on the plant Wednesday that while the draft permit for Wilk Paving's proposed asphalt plant on Ripley Road includes a condition not to emit nuisance odors, it can be "difficult" to determine whether an odor constitutes a nuisance and whether it's bothersome to a high enough number of people to prompt agency enforcement actions "What's a nuisance? It seems like a vague thing that's weighed toward a corporation's interest," Rutland Town resident Teddy Lovko said. "You're talking about an odor that's not going to stop at property boundaries." Elliot said he didn't disagree. "It is vague," he said. "The largest quantifiable emissions from the plant would be emissions from fuel burning and dust and those emissions would be small." That answer didn't satisfy neighbors who referred to an estimate that Wilk owner Steven Wilk made in the past that the plant wouldn't smell any worse than a typical road paving operation. "If it's an odor like driving by a paving job, I find that odor objectionable," said Rutland resident Frank Smead. "I don't want to see a plant like this in the community." "It might not be quantifiable, but it's significant to me," Rutland resident Thomas Hart added. A number of residents also raised concerns about wind patterns that would blow the smell and emissions from the plant toward the city's downtown and inversion effects ? low smog ceilings that typically develop in valleys where air currents become trapped ? which they argued would make the smell and emissions linger. "I don't object to asphalt plants, but I think it's a bad idea to build one upwind of our little valley," Rutland resident Kevin Kiefaber said. Elliot responded to questions about inversion effects and the cumulative impact of adding the plant's emissions into the industrialized valley in the same manner. Because the plant's projected emission levels are low, Elliot said they don't pass the regulatory threshold that would require inversion testing or the aggregate impact on air quality. While some residents argued on the grounds of odor or weather patterns, Joseph Tilden and Claire Sullivan said the plant could shorten their lives. Sullivan, who said she recently had one of her lungs removed and Tilden, who produced an emergency supply of oxygen he carries with him for his asthma, hay fever and high blood pressure, both said they had serious health concerns. "If you can't breathe, you can't live," Tilden said. Wilk and his attorney were on-hand during the hearing but made no public comment. After the hearing ended, Wilk stayed to talk with those who came. "I still invite anyone with questions to call me," he said. Members of the public who couldn't make the meeting can still weigh in on the plant and the agency's draft permit by sending written comment to the division by 4 p.m. on June 23. Letters should be addressed to the Agency of Natural Resources, Air Pollution Control Division, Building 3 South, 103 South Main St. Waterbury, VT 05671-0402. http://www.chinapost.com.tw/international/europe/2008/06/09/160227/Nude%2Dcyclists.htm Nude cyclists protest in Spain AP Monday, June 9, 2008 MADRID, Spain -- Hundreds of cyclists rode nude through Spain's main cities to promote environmentally friendly transport and to call for cycle lanes to be put in place. Organizers say streets "have been hijacked by private cars," making them "hostile, dangerous places." Cyclists took to the streets in cities including Madrid, Barcelona and Zaragoza during Saturday's protest. One protester, Ignacio Fernandez, had "No Oil" written on his back and said "Spanish cities have few lanes dedicated to cyclists, and it's time that changed." http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/07/europe/EU-GEN-Spain-Nude-Bikers.php Nude cyclists ride through Spanish cities in environmental protest The Associated Press Published: June 7, 2008 MADRID, Spain: Hundreds of cyclists rode nude through Spain's main cities to promote environmentally friendly transport and to call for cycle lanes to be put in place. Organizers say streets "have been hijacked by private cars," making them "hostile, dangerous places." Cyclists took to the streets in cities including Madrid, Barcelona and Zaragoza during Saturday's protest. One protester, Ignacio Fernandez, had "No Oil" written on his back and said "Spanish cities have few lanes dedicated to cyclists, and it's time that changed." http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/06/400635.html Protests against planned agrofuel power plant in Beckton Almuth Ernsting | 09.06.2008 13:46 | Climate Chaos | Ecology | London On 31st May and 4th June, banner protests were held against plans to build the UK's first agrofuel power plant in Beckton, London. Around 500 local residents signed a petition against those plans, which was handed to the mayor on 2nd June (with around 100 further signatures having been added since then). The protests were organised by Biofuewatch and the London Food Not Fuel Group. Beckton protest 4th June Beckton protest 4th June Beckton protest 31st May On 4th June, Newham Council recommended approval of the company Blue NG's planning application for an agrofuel CHP plant which would burn 56,000 litres of virgin vegetable oil per day, despite hundreds of residents having signed a petition against those plans, despite strong warnings that the plant threatens to worsen air pollution and its health impact in an area which already has one of the highest asthma rates in the UK, and despite the strong evidence that agrofuels from monocultures worsen climate change, help to push up food prices, and threaten biodiversity and communities' control over and access to land in the global South. The company plans at least seven further such plants and, according to an article in the Independent on Sunday, as many as 43 in total. The final decision on the Beckton application is expected to be made by the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation this Thursday, 12th June. For further information about the background and how to get involved in the campaign, see www.biofuelwatch.org.uk Almuth Ernsting http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/06/401999.html Leave it in the Ground? in Court and a protest Leave it in the Ground | 26.06.2008 23:51 Under the cover of darkness on 18th June, climate campaigners from ?Leave it in the Ground? occupied the UK Coal?s Lodge House site in Derbyshire by barricading themselves in a disused farm building and taken to the trees on the site of the proposed open cast mine. Activists secured themselves in the Prospect Farm building, on the site which is about to be devastated by huge machines, according to one local we have stopped 30 people from working on the site, who are eagerly waiting for the go ahead to start stripping the earth away so the timing was spot on! The protesters have claimed squatter?s rights. The proposed open cast mine is a 122 hector area and will have 1 million tonnes of coal ripped out of rural Derbyshire For the latest info check the blog http://leaveitintheground.wordpress.com http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/nottinghamshire/2008/08/405652.html Derbyshire Coal Mine Occupation - Eviction Happening Now notts-dispatch | 11.08.2008 11:11 | Ecology | Nottinghamshire It is now confirmed that the police have launched a full eviction attempt at the Bodge House squat in Shipley, Derbyshire. The house is located on the site of a proposed open cast coal mine. Update Sunday 10th August: Eviction is still ongoing at Bodge House, in Derbyshire. This is the 4th day of the operation and 4 people were arrested earlier today. The house is very heavily barricaded and 2-3 people are still reported to be inside. 4 vans of police and bailiffs still in attendence. Update Friday 8th August: (added comment by Jane) - We were there today to give support to those still in the house. We arrived about 11.00am. There were loads of police as would be expected and 3 people were taken out of the house while we were there and taken to Ripley police station. We were not allowed near so could not see who it was. Around 3.00 in the afternoon a chap in a suit and 2 women in inappropriate shoes turned up. We think they were from the bailiff teams. They spoke to the chief inspector in charge and went to the house. All the time the bailiffs on site had been cutting down the trees surrounding the house and trying to get in the front door of the house. They succeeded just before the 'suits' arrived. We left around 4pm to run some film to ITN but I heard later that the bailiffs had started up a generator to get air to the people in the tunnel under the house but left the site around 5.30. they are due back tomorrow (Saturday) to get the 2 people in the tunnel out. Anyone who can get there, please get there to give support. Update Thursday 7th August: Around 7.45am about 60 police and 50 bailliffs arrived at the house. Throughout the day the police have been trying to get through the barricades and defences. Local people and media have been at the scene. So far 3 people have been removed from lockons and a cargo net outside the house and have been arrested. 7 people are still inside and are heavily barricaded in, included being hidden in tunnels under the house. The bailiffs have put up security fences and although they have managed to enter part of the building, the eviction attempt has been stopped for today. It is estimated the eviction will take at least another couple of days. On Friday July 18, UK Coal, who own the site, were granted a possession order for the Squatted farmhouse on the planned Lodge House open cast coal mine site. For some time it has been anticipated that an eviction is imminent, particularly as the climbing team used against road protesters has been seen around the site. It is evident that with the Climate Camp happening at Kingsnorth Power Station, the police saw their oppertunity to move in. A little background: The site was occupied on Tuesday June 18 by climate campaigners from ?Leave it in the Ground?. They barricaded themselves in a disused farm building and took to the trees on the site of the open cast mine. Under the cover of darkness activists secured themselves in the Prospect Farm building, on the site which is about to be devastated by huge machines. and claimed squatter?s rights. Last people evicted - for now. 14.08.2008 21:47 This morning at around 2.30am the two humans in the tunnel under Prospect Farm, the anti-opencast protest site near Shipley were eventually removed and arrested. The tunnel team seemed to have been pushed into working a 19 hour shift by UK Coal and their bosses after a week of hard work. Every day we noticed the increasing pressure on the tunnel team to work faster and faster. By the end it seemed that UK Coal were panicking at the rising cost of the eviction, and the ongoing coverage of the issue by the mainstream media. Despite some rumours circulated in the popular media it was on the whole a comfortable and safe eviction, helped by the solid clay we were digging in. Digging small arc-shaped wormholes and chambers is the safest way to go, as arches are generally made stronger by weight applied to them. It was a good innings really and we hope that people will take inspiration from the positive impact of the site to create many more varied actions all over the place. Certainly the struggle does not end here. We need to celebrate our collective impact and show all vessels of destruction and hatred that we are not prepared to cower back from prosecution or intimidation. They do not know the end of it yet. Good show chaps! anon http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/business_money/huge+heathrow+protest+/2266592?intcmp=rss_news_perspectives_climate_change Huge Heathrow protest Watch the report Print this page Last Modified: 31 May 2008 By: Channel 4 News Thousands of campaigners fighting to prevent a third runway at Heathrow staged a demonstration around the airport today. Many gathered in a field to form a giant 'No', whilst others marched in protest against Heathrow's expansion. Almost 3,000 protestors are thought to have joined the protest, which comes as the government attempts to head off the disquiet of backbenchers over reforms to planning law. Critics say the proposals will make it easier to force through big infrastructure projects like airports and nuclear power stations, against local opinion. The Planning Reform Bill would establish an non-elected Infrastructure Planning Commission which would have the final say on major developments. The government says this will speed up the planning process, but critics say there will be less public involvement. http://www.nowpublic.com/world/thousands-join-protest-against-heathrows-third-runway Thousands join protest against Heathrow's third runway by amyjudd | May 31, 2008 at 05:11 pm | 124 views | 1 comment by ranma_tim by amyjudd slideshow view all 2 Thousands of protestors have taken part today in a carnival-style protest against the proposed expansion of Heathrow. Climate change, increasing noise pollution and congestion have united environmental groups and more than 20 councils against the government-backed BAA plan for a third runway and a sixth terminal. More than 3,000 turned out for what was dubbed the Make A Noise Carnival, walking from Hatton Cross in west London to Sipson, the village that will be obliterated if the planned third runway goes ahead. The mood was jocular and good humoured, despite the strong feelings the proposed expansion has evoked. In a village field, as bands played, the protestors gathered to form a huge NO, which they expected to be visible from passing aircraft. Many came in fancy dress and on stilts and paraded behind brass bands. John Stewart, chairman of Heathrow anti-noise and anti-expansion group Hacan said: "Heathrow has never before seen a spectacle like this. Coaches have come from as far away as Manchester and Southampton and we have been joined by campaigners from Athens in Greece. Heathrow has become a symbol of worldwide resistance against aggressive airport expansion." Tamsin Ormond, who recently scaled the roof of parliament in protest at the proposals and helped organise the event, told a cheering crowd: "Gordon Brown has a real fight on his hands here. "People face losing their homes if he gives the green light to a third runway, and they'll be joined tomorrow by thousands of others who are deeply concerned about increased noise levels and climate change. That's why we are using our bodies to form a NO so big it will be visible from planes circling Heathrow. The mood in west London is pretty angry right now." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7507943.stm Tuesday, 15 July 2008 20:28 UK E-mail this to a friend Printable version Academy protesters defy eviction The council said the area needs Wembley Park City Academy to be built People opposed to plans to build a city academy on a sports ground have refused to leave despite an eviction order. Brent Council obtained the order to have the group of campaigners removed from Wembley Park Sports Ground by 1800 BST on Tuesday. But the protesters, who have occupied the north-west London site since March 2007, have refused to do so. The council said bailiffs would now be sent to the site on Wednesday to remove the demonstrators. The injunction bans Hank Roberts, one of the leaders of the campaign, from the site for two years. After the 1800 BST deadline passed he said: "They've not got me to leave and no-one else has left. "I will not be leaving - they've got to drag me off this roof." Protesters object to the sale of the land for the development of the privately-run Wembley Park City Academy They want it to be built on an alternative site in the south of the borough and for the sports ground to remain intact. Brent Council said the Wembley Park City Academy is needed to meet demand for secondary school places in the area. John Christie, Brent Council's Director of Children and Families said: "The council was left with no choice but to apply for the court injunction and order for possession to evict the squatters. "Work is due to start on the temporary school building next week and the latest illegal occupation could have seriously jeopardised us providing school places for children who are starting in September. "It is staggering what lengths the opposition has gone to in its attempt to stop the building of this urgently needed school, particularly when young people's education is at stake." http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/7/13/worldupdates/2008-07-13T164702Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-344920-1&sec=WorldupdatesSunday July 13, 2008Greenpeace climb Eiffel Tower in nuclear protestPARIS (Reuters) - About 15 environmental activists climbed the Eiffel Toweron Sunday to unfurl a banner protesting against France's nuclear energypolicies, on the day when it hosts a major summit of heads of state.Campaign group Greenpeace said the banner showing the nuclear logo wasplaced in the middle of a circle of stars representing the European Uniondisplayed on the tower to mark France's six-month term as EU president."Since he was elected, President Nicolas Sarkozy has done everything hecould to sell nuclear energy," said Frederic Marillier of the French sectionof Greenpeace in a statement."At the U.N., as head of the European council, or just recently at the G8,he has behaved like a travelling salesman for Areva and has used politicalplatforms to promote French nuclear power," Marillier said, referring to theFrench nuclear energy producer Areva.Sarkozy was hosting over 40 heads of state and government in Paris on Sundayfor a summit on the partnership between the European Union and countriesfrom the Mediterranean region.The issue of nuclear safety has come to the fore in France over the pastweek because of a uranium leak from a nuclear power plant in the southeastof the country.Areva said on Tuesday 30 cubic metres of liquid containing uranium wasaccidentally poured on the ground and into a river at the Tricastin nuclearsite. The incident was classified at level one on the International NuclearEvent Scale, in which the lowest level is zero and the highest is seven.The incident exacerbated anger among environmentalists over Sarkozy's July 3announcement that France would build a second new-generation EuropeanPressurised Reactor (EPR), bringing to 60 the number of nuclear reactors inthe country.France, which took over the rotating EU presidency on July 1, is Europe'sbiggest atomic energy-producing nation.The Greenpeace protest at the Eiffel Tower was the second anti-nucleardemonstration in Paris in as many days. On Saturday, thousands of protestersmarched in the city centre carrying banners with slogans like "Stay inactivetoday and you'll be radioactive tomorrow".http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0709/chemical.htmlProtest over Wicklow chemical destructionWednesday, 9 July 2008 22:36Around 50 people held a protest at Leinster House today over plans todestroy chemicals in the Wicklow mountains.The Co Wicklow residents say they are very concerned at plans to destroyseven canisters of hydrogen cyanide at Manor Kilbride.They handed in a letter of protest to Minister for the Environment JohnGormley.http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Protesters-force-12m-waste-plant.4342412.jpProtesters force ?12m waste plant plan out of PortobelloPublished Date: 31 July 2008By Brian FergusonCAMPAIGNERS yesterday claimed victory over plans to create a ?12 millionwaste plant on Edinburgh's waterfront.Commercial, industrial and household waste from across Edinburgh, EastLothian and Midlothian would have been brought into the proposed site atPortobello.But councillors yesterday voted 9-2 against the waste transfer centre, whichwould have seen up to 350,000 tonnes of waste a year handled before beingtransported to a landfill site in Dunbar, East Lothian.However, the company behind the scheme, which was strongly criticised forchanging key figures its application at the 11th hour, has signalled it willalmost certainly appeal the decision.Viridor, one the UK's leading waste management firms, estimated around 200lorries a day would visit the site, between 6am and 7pm. However, itsplanning application stated more than 900 lorry journeys may have needed tobe accommodated.More than 700 objections were lodged against the proposed plant, which hadoriginally been envisaged as a replacement for the city council'slong-established plant at Powderhall.However, the council has since confirmed it has no plans to close downPowderhall and the Portobello scheme was envisaged purely as a commercialoperation.It was claimed the new site would cut the number of road journeys being madefrom across the Lothians to the landfill site, even though waste from EastLothian was to be transported out of the area by road and then brought backin again by rail.Campaigners and councillors mocked claims that the new plant would have noimpact on traffic congestion levels in the Portobello area, particularly onthe busy Harry Lauder Road.And the company, whose representatives were continually heckled and jeeredthroughout the planning committee meeting, was told that its plans were"totally unsuitable" for a seaside town.Viridor's planning manager, Peter Wishart, insisted the site was the onlyone suitable because its location at a former freight terminal had a directrail link to Dunbar.He told the planning committee: "This is a facility for the whole city whichwill help reduce road journeys and carbon emissions. The proposal complieswith the local structure plan and the site is earmarked for industrial orbusiness use."However, Mr Wishart failed to address concerns over why his company waspursuing the application before local and national waste strategies arecompleted.Labour councillor Lesley Hinds said: "We are being asked to approvesomething in isolation before we know what the Scottish Government's newpolicy is going to be and while work is ongoing into a Lothian-wide wastestrategy."Liberal Democrat councillor Elaine Morris said: "It's completelyunacceptable that key elements of the application have changed at the lastminute. It's simply not on."Diana Cairns, a spokeswoman for the Portobello Opposes New Garbage Sitecampaign, said: "The applicants produced no evidence to support their claimsand this development was just completely inappropriate for Portobello."After the meeting, Viridor's spokesman, Dan Cooke, said: "We will obviouslynow have to examine our options, although an appeal is quite possible."http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0724/corrib.htmlCorrib protestors clash with garda?Thursday, 24 July 2008There have been further protests in Glengad in north Mayo as security staffand garda? clashed with local opponents of the Corrib gas pipeline.The confrontation took place on the beach where the controversial pipelineis planned to come ashore.Local residents are trying to prevent the erection of fencing on the beachby the Corrib gas consortium and have called for a suspension of the work.AdvertisementThis morning they were involved in a series of scuffles as constructionworkers arrived on the site to resume the work, which has been going on forseveral day.The demonstration is continuing but so far there have been no arrests.The Corrib Gas consortium has said work is continuing at the site and itagain re-iterated that it has all the necessary permits and consent for thework.http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0722/corrib.html12 released after Corrib pipeline protestTuesday, 22 July 2008 20:10Twelve people arrested in Co Mayo following a protest against the Corrib gaspipeline have been released without charge.The 11 men and one woman were held over public order offences and were takento Bellmullet Garda Station.Garda? say a file is being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.AdvertisementThe 12, who are members of a newly formed community group, were taking partin a protest at Glengad Beach where the pipeline is due to brought ashore.The group is opposing the location of the ?300m gas refinery 9km inland atBellanboy.The group says it wants the gas refinery relocated to an area on the northcoast of Mayo where they say will present less of a health and safety hazardto the local community and the environmenthttp://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20080723-0839-britain-glueprotest.htmlHappy to be stuck with you: Glue-handed activist claims audience with UKleaderBy Raphael G. SatterASSOCIATED PRESS8:39 a.m. July 23, 2008LONDON ? A climate change activist assured himself a captive audience ? bygluing himself to the prime minister of Britain.Dan Glass, 24, grasped the sleeve of Gordon Brown's suit with a glue-coveredhand at an awards ceremony Tuesday night, according to Plane Stupid, a groupknown primarily for its attention-grabbing stunts and fierce opposition tothe expansion of Heathrow Airport. Brown's spokesman confirmed the incident.Glass had been invited to receive an award for his campaigning activitiesfrom the Sheila McKechnie Foundation, a social justice group.He smuggled glue into Brown's official Downing Street residence in pouchesattached to his underwear and slathered it on his hand as the prime ministergave a speech.Glass clamped his hand onto Brown's suit during the reception and beganlecturing him about climate change. An audio clip posted to the Plane StupidWeb site carries the sound of Glass warning the prime minister he is beingtaken captive.?I've just glued myself to the buttons of the prime minister, but do notworry. It's a nonviolent protest,? he says, as Brown is heard laughing. ?Butif you do pull your sleeve away it will really hurt me so please don't.?This is just to say that: We cannot shake away climate change just like youcannot shake away my arm.?Brown shook Glass off rather easily, according to a Downing Streetspokesman. ?The glue wasn't that sticky,? the spokesman said while speakingon condition of anonymity in line with office policy. He added that theincident was ?all very lighthearted? and that Glass had not been punished.http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/07/404345.htmlActivists Squat Newhaven Incinerator Site in ProtestFRANCESCA CORVINO | 22.07.2008 08:27 | Ecology | South Coast'Stop Incineration Now!' protestors demonstrate their fury now thatconstruction on the highly controversial incinerator plant has begun.Activists have taken over the site of the proposed new incinerator plant inNewhaven. They entered the premises under the cover of darkness last nightin an organised attempt at non-violent direct action, after resistancethrough democratic means failed them. Several protestors formed a barricadeby superglue-ing themselves to the road in an attempt to prevent vehicleaccess, whilst on the site itself, other members of the group 'locked-on' tomachinery in order to halt further activity. They claim to be exercisingtheir democratic right to protest non-violently in a last-ditch attempt topromote their concerns about the consequences of incinerators on publichealth and safety.Amidst a storm of controversy and fierce opposition from local residentsconcerned about pollution and health risks, construction of the incineratorby Veolia (Onyx) began early in June this year despite the fact thatplanning permission had not been officially approved and a judicial reviewof the process was still incomplete. Angry at what they saw as a directattack on the health of the public and a lack of transparency throughout theplanning process, local Newhaven campaign group Dove2000 fought to keep theissue in the public eye and generated 15,000 written objections to thescheme. It claimed that, falling way short of providing a necessary solutionto waste management, the plant instead would be responsible for theinevitable contamination of the local area, the release of highly dangeroustoxins into the atmosphere and the disastrous consequences of toxic ashdisposal.The devastating health implications for the environment and those living orworking within the (10-15 mile radius) fallout zone of the incinerator planthave been well documented by groups like Dove2000, and according to Dr. NeilCatman (former incinerator inspector and internationally recognised experton toxic waste incineration),'in licensing these incineration operations, the government is creatingzones of sacrifice....I'm not just talking about people getting sick. I'veseen them die. If the wind would blow the smoke towards the school on aMonday you'd see the children being at home sick on Tuesday and Wednesday.The schools near the incinerators had the highest absentee rates in thedistrict. I met a lot of these children. I've seen them die of leukaemia,brain cancer and a host of other disorders'.It is claimed* that incinerators emit some of the most toxic andbioaccumulative air pollutants including acidic gases and fine dustparticles which penetrate deep into the lungs causing respiratory diseaseand asthma; dioxins which suppress the immune system, cause cancer, and posea particular problem for pregnant or breastfeeding mothers as they passthrough to babies, readily reducing the rate of male births, causinghormonal disruption, learning difficulties and behavioural problems. Alsoemitted are nanoparticles and 2.5 micron particles which are knowncarcinogens able to migrate around the body, and a variety of dangerousheavy metals which affect the kidney and lungs, cause nerve and brain damageand adversely affect the central nervous system.* (www.dove2000.org.uk). The decision to use incinerators for burningradioactive waste from nuclear power stations is also being considered.By last year alone the cost of the project had soared to ?145.7 million,with Brighton and Hove City Council and East Sussex County Council havingcollectively invested at least ?2 million in legal fees to bring the projectbeyond the planning stage. There are a further 100-168 incinerators plannedfor use in the UK, though it appears that the Stop Incineration Now! networkof protestors are determined to assert their belief that this money could bemore advantageously spent on recycling initiatives to combat wastemanagement problems more sustainably without creating further environmentalproblems for present and future generations.The activists from Stop Incineration Now! continue to occupy the sitedetermined to bring the discussion to the national forum.http://www.indymedia.org/en/2008/08/911330.shtmlDirect Action Shuts Down Heavy Industry Projects in Iceland12 Aug 2008 21:14 GMTIceland has a reputation for clean energy, and is usually the textbookexample of clean, green geothermal energy. But recently, aluminiumcorporations ALCOA, RioTinto-Alcan and Century Aluminium are pushing forlarge scale, intensive geothermal development to power new smelters on thesubartic island, destroying large tracts of silent, empty, undevelopedwilderness. And this is not enough. If all the heavy industry plans areexecuted, all major glacial rivers would also be dammed.Saving Iceland is holding it's fourth direct action camp in the Icelandicwilderness. Over the last weeks, work on the Century Aluminum Helguviksmelter construction site was stopped for a day. Century's existing smelteras well as a steel factory were blockaded, holding up a shift change forseveral hours. A Reykjavik Energy geothermal drill site at Hellisheidi,being built for Century, was completely shut down for a day as activistslocked to machines, climbed the drill and occupied the power control room.The national power company Landsvirkjun had it's office invaded, and it'sCEO Fridrik Sophusson had his home visited. Saving Iceland nailed aneviction notice to his door. Landsvirkjun want to remove farmers from theThjorsa river valley to build a number of dams to provide energy to a RioTinto Alcan smelter. In the north of Iceland, they are deep drillinggeothermal boreholes for an ALCOA smelter in the north, affecting largetracts of wilderness. Outside Iceland, there were demonstrations atIcelandic embassies and consulates and the Glencore, ALCOA and Impregiloheadquarters in Switzerland and Italy.[IMC DE] [IMC NL] [IMC UK] [IMC Oost-Vlaanderen][Images] [Videos]Aluminium is used for packing, construction, car and plain manufacturing butit's largest consumer is the arms industry, producing tanks, missiles,small-arms and jets used on a large scale in every modern war. The industryis highly profitable while demand for 'lighter, faster and stronger'(ALCOA's slogan) equipment is soaring. Ironically, aluminium cars are soldas 'eco-friendly': lighter, so more fuel-efficient. The reality is thatbauxite mining destroys rainforests in the Caribbean and displacestribal people in India, while smelting produces large amounts of greenhousegases. Large dams for electricity generation is threatening to destroy notonly Iceland's highland wilderness but also the central African rainforestin Congo and large tracts of the Amazon.http://news.scotsman.com/edinburgh/Docks-revamp-plan-protesters-given.4394906.jpDocks revamp plan protesters given the slipA PROTEST group set up to challenge plans to revamp Leith Docks failed toget its message across to councillors on a site visit.Joined-Up Master Planning (JUMP) wanted to stage a protest at theheadquarters of Forth Ports, the company behind the application, yesterday,but councillors sold them a dummy. JUMP members wanted to put on ahigh-profile demonstration and hand councillors leaflets, but didn't haveenough people to cover all the entrances to Forth Ports' offices and membersof the planning committee passed through the Salamander Street entrance.Co-founder of the group Shaeron Averbuch said: "JUMP also tried to issue asummary of information to the planning committee prior to their embarkationon to the bus from the City Chambers ? this had also been unsuccessful asdespite being given one set of information by council staff, departure planswere not as to information provided."Councillors are due to rule on the outline planning application forthousands of homes and offices, as well as leisure facilities, later thisyear.http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/motorbikes/7560788.stmThursday, 14 August 2008 12:28 UKProtest holds up Ulster GP ridersRyan Farquhar is one of the riders in the Ulster Grand PrixThursday morning's Ulster Grand Prix practice session was held up after anangry local resident parked her car close to the course in a protest.The woman left her vehicle on her own property close to the Budore sectionof the Dundrod circuit in a dispute with race officials.The Dundrod 150 road races were held as scheduled later on Thursday with anumber of extra safety measures.Hay bales were put around the vehicle and yellow flags used to warn riders.http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/RBS-faces-coal-loans-protest.4376805.jpRBS faces coal loans protestTHE Royal Bank of Scotland is set to face a raft of protest after details ofits loans to coal companies emerged, environmental groups have warned.Green protesters said today that RBS would face boycotts and possibly directprotests if it continues to pump cash into the industry.A report has shown that over two years the Edinburgh-based banking giantparticipated in 27 different loans to coal projects, worth ?8 billion.And while RBS pointed out it was one of the biggest funders of renewableenergy projects across the globe, campaigners warned of a "public backlash".Friends of the Earth Scotland's chief executive Duncan McLaren reportedlysaid: "Coal is the dirtiest and most inefficient fossil fuel there is."http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=15066Protesters angry at landfill site awardProtestors complained about smells from landfillA waste management firm that became the first in Ireland to be awarded thePeel Cup was subject to a protest at one of its landfill sites.On the day Greenstar were to receive the Peel Cup, which is awarded by theChartered Institute of Waste Management (CIWM), for its Ballynagran ResidualLandfill site in Co Wicklow, residents protested to mar the celebrations.Some 16 protesters handed visitors arriving to the award ceremony and openday copies of two letters of non-compliance issued by the EnvironmentalProtection Agency (EPA) over odours emanating from the site."We are annoyed at the idea of Greenstar throwing a big party over the awardwhen we have been asking and waiting for over a year and a half to talk torepresentatives about our concerns," protestor Michael Mulvihill told theWicklow People."We have to live with the moist foul odour. It's stomach churning."The judging panel reportedly had not heard of the letters of non-compliance. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Thu Aug 28 20:20:25 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2008 04:20:25 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Ecological protests, Australia, Canada, NZ/Aotearoa, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <00a701c90986$2fde8670$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * CANADA: Tofield residents fight coal mine with campaign, music festival * NEW ZEALAND: Poison left in park as part of protest * AUSTRALIA: Kayaker reaches end of protest marathon * AUSTRALIA: Kurnell residents protest pipeline, test drilling * AUSTRALIA: Logging disrupted in Tasmania, again * AUSTRALIA: Gunn mill protesters pack meeting * AUSTRALIA: Vigil backs coal protesters in court * NEW ZEALAND: Protest against crackdown on alternative medicines * AUSTRALIA: Farmers protest water pipeline * AUSTRALIA: Protests against cross-city tunnel plan * AUSTRALIA: Sydney protest against desalination plant * NEW ZEALAND: Protest at symposium * CANADA: Police close road to herd cycling protesters * AUSTRALIA: Protesters vow to halt Gunns' funding * CANADA: Nude cycle protest in Ottawa, Vancouver; arrest of child at latter * AUSTRALIA: Minister booed by dam protesters * AUSTRALIA: Activists target coal conference * AUSTRALIA: Forum urges action on climate change * AUSTRALIA: Greenpeace occupy power station * CANADA: Protest disrupts tree felling * AOTEAROA/NZ: Protesters call off marina occupation "in good faith" * CANADA: Anger at power line installation * AUSTRALIA: Protests at park decimation for event * AUSTRALIA: Protesters blockade coal terminal at port * AUSTRALIA: Activists paint slogans on ships * AUSTRALIA: Water pipeline protesters back off from farm after police threats * CANADA: Greenpeace targets Alberta mine * AUSTRALIA: Protesters mark "death" of Murray River * CANADA: Protests at Saskatchewan legislature over oilsands auction * AUSTRALIA: Tent protest against pulp mill http://edmonton.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20080628/EDM_coal_080628/20080628/?hub=EdmontonHome Residents near Tofield raise funds to fight proposed coal mine Sonia Sunger, Updated: Sat Jun. 28 2008 17:34:47 ctvedmonton.ca Oats and Notes to Stop Proposed Mine Posted by mhudema on June 29, 2008 Dozens of residents who oppose a coal gasification project being proposed by Sherritt International and Epcor gathered at an outdoor festival south of Tofield on Saturday to raise awareness and money to fight the project. "We're saying no we don't want this project," said Bill Sears whose 1,000 acre farm is threatened by the project. "We don't want to see our yards destroyed, our farms destroyed, our homes destroyed." The Sears family has farmed the same plot of land for generations and they say the thought of it turning into an open-pit coal mine is heart-wrenching. The project is planned for a massive plot of land south of Tofield. It would take up 312 square kilometres of farmland, roughly half the size of Edmonton. "It just boggles my mind that the government of Alberta and Sherritt would even consider tearing up that much farm land," said area resident May Korobko. Critics of the project recently put up a billboard near Tofield which opposes the project. They hope money raised from the festival will help keep area residents informed about the project. "A majority of the money will be for what we term as 'keeping the public up to speed' on things we feel they should know about," said critic Brian Schultz. However, some people believe the project would revitalize the area with new jobs. "I think the coal mine around here might do a lot of good," said Owen Jones. Other's, like Bill Sears' family who've built a history on their land, see it as a short term gain that has the potential to create problems for the future. "All of a sudden our future here is in question and that puts real stresses on us, especially for the next generation," said Sears. If the project goes ahead, the coal from the mine would go to produce synthetic gas to power tar sands upgraders. Sherritt and Epcor say the land would be reclaimed after the 40-year project is complete. If the project goes ahead landowners will be forced to sell their land outright or be relocated while the mining takes place. With files from Scott Roberts Music Festival Mobilizes Support to Stop Coal Project Posted by mhudema on June 29, 2008 http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Alberta/2008/06/29/6018311-sun.html Sun, June 29, 2008 Sounds of protest By GLENN KAUTH, SUN MEDIA An annual Tofield music festival has morphed into a polite show of protest against a controversial coal project. Owen Forster, a volunteer with the Wild Oats and Notes Music Festival, said the event will celebrate rural living. "It's an opportunity for people to come out and see where their food comes from," said Forster, whose farm is under threat from the coal gasification project proposed by Sherritt International Corp. During the three-day festival, farmer Brian Schultz will host 25 acts on his property near Tofield, 68 km east of Edmonton. Schultz expected up to 1,000 people to show up yesterday and today for the event, whose proceeds will go to the Voice of Community and Land Society, an organization opposed to the Sherritt project. Schultz declined to say how much he expected to raise from the event. Instead, he said the goal is more about spreading awareness of Sherritt's proposal for a facility that will produce hydrogen for the upgraders planned for Fort Saskatchewan. The development would involve a large strip mine that farmers fear would alter the character of Tofield by permanently displacing them from their land. "We think that the higher use of the land in the long run is agriculture," said Schultz, who calls the project "very, very short-sighted and very, very invasive." Opponents are particularly concerned that city-owned utility Epcor might be involved with Sherritt under a proposal to provide power, water and wastewater treatment facilities to the plant, called the Dodds-Roundhill coal gasification project. "One of the things for the community is Epcor is involved, and a fair amount of water would be coming out of the North Saskatchewan River," said Forster. But Epcor spokesman Mike Gibbs said the company's participation in Dodds-Roundhill is up in the air. The move comes after Sherritt announced last month it was putting the project on hold as it investigates how government carbon-dioxide regulations might affect its plans. "At this point, we're stopping our involvement with the project until Sherritt assesses the project," said Gibbs. However, Sherritt said in a statement yesterday that, despite those developments, it is still pushing ahead with Dodds-Roundhill. Copyright ? 2008, Canoe Inc. All rights reserved. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10517617&ref=rss Poison left as 1080 protest in park 2:43PM Saturday June 21, 2008 Protesters against the use of 1080 poison are believed to have dumped what appear to be 1080 pellets in Christchurch's Hagley Park. The pellets were found this morning in an area of the park near Harper Avenue. The protestors had written signs along the pathways warning of 1080 poison. A Christchurch City Council spokeswoman said council staff recovered the poison and had put up warning signs. "Council staff have checked the park and believe there are no other affected areas." - NZPA http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23605779-1248,00.html?from=public_rss Protest kayaker reaches dam site April 27, 2008 03:52pm Article from: AAP Font size: + - Send this article: Print Email KAYAKER Steve Posselt's marathon trek up Queensland's Mary River reached it's symbolic zenith today when the environmental campaigner arrived at the site of the controversial Traveston dam. Mr Posselt, flanked by a flotilla of about 90 kayaks, this morning arrived at Traveston Crossing, north of Brisbane, exactly two years after the State Government announced plans to construct a dam on the site. The civil engineer set off from the Brisbane River on April 12, reached the mouth of the Mary yesterday and is now on his way back to Brisbane, where he is scheduled to arrive on May 10. Along the way, he has tried to spread his message "Don't Murray the Mary" referring to the depleted Murray Darling river system, along which he completed a similar trek last year. He said his journey up the Brisbane River made clear one didn't need to look as far as the Murray River to see the environmental impact of a dam. Mr Posselt said parts of the Brisbane River were so overrun with weeds, it was impossible to find a way through with his kayak. "The Brisbane River is an environmental catastrophe, I would have to say. There is no river in places, it flows underneath a foot-deep mat of hyacinth," he said. "The Mary doesn't have that problem because the water hyacinth gets flushed out to sea. When a dam gets built that flushing will not occur and the Mary will disintegrate to the obscenity that they call the mid-Brisbane river." http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuId=28&ContentID=72432 Kayaker ends dam protest marathon 10th May 2008, 13:15 WST Exhausted environmental campaigner Steve Posselt has completed a gruelling kayak marathon hoping for more support ... and a cold beer. A crowd of wellwishers and onlookers cheered as Mr Posselt arrived back at Brisbane's West End jetty from a round-trip to Maryborough to protest against the building of the controversial Traveston Crossing Dam. He set out on the 861-kilometre paddle on April 12 to raise awareness of the environmental consequences of damming the Mary River, near Gympie. Supporters waved placards and shouted "Don't Murray the Mary", while Gubbi Gubbi senior elder Eve Fesl pleaded with the Queensland government to reconsider damming the home of her ancestors. "Our whole history and culture will be washed out if that dam is built. But not only that, a number of threatened species could be wiped out," Dr Fesl said. Mr Posselt, a civil engineer, last year completed a four-month journey along the Murray-Darling river system by kayak to heighten environmental awareness. His latest journey was aimed at drawing attention to what he believes could turn out to be an environmental disaster. "We have got to stop the dam because if we don't stop this dam our children and grandchildren would not forgive us," he told reporters. "It's a shallow dam and I can't see anywhere where the sums have been done on greenhouse gas emissions. "It looks like we may be going back into an el nino pattern so it won't be any good anyway." Mr Posselt said he would like to meet federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett and the state government to discuss alternative options to the dam. "I would like to explain what I have seen. I've been this industry since 1971 and I've been to university for 10 years so I have a bit of an idea what is going on," he said. "It's certainly touched my heartstrings and the fight is not over." Mr Posselt admitted he was also looking forward to a bit of rest and a cold beer. "A beer would be good - a beer would be excellent." http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/22/2224032.htm Kurnell residents protest pipeline, test drilling Posted Tue Apr 22, 2008 12:00pm AEST Map: Kurnell 2231 It is not yet known when construction will resume on Sydney's desalination pipeline at Kurnell. A spokesman for Sydney Water says external experts are looking at results from yesterday's test drilling. Federal Member for Cook Scott Morrison, who was at this morning's protest, says around 50 residents gathered at the site in a continuing protest against the construction of the pipeline, particularly the drilling. Mr Morrison says residents were alarmed at yesterday's test drilling, which saw their houses shake, kettles falling off stoves, and windows rattling. He says residents are also concerned about the environmental impacts the project is having, after the silt net collapsed, spilling debris into the bay. He says despite Sydney Water's assurances of alternative accommodation yesterday, they are not satisfied. "The protest was successful at stopping work on the site this morning and they were seeking assurances that the work on the site would continue to be shut down until their questions are answered," he said. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/21/2222828.htm Tas forest protesters stop logging Posted Mon Apr 21, 2008 12:00pm AEST A giant cardboard figure featuring the face of the Federal Climate Change Minister, Penny Wong, has been used in Tasmanian forests to highlight air pollution caused by regeneration burns. (Peter van der Pasch) Map: Maydena 7140 A protester suspended in a tree-sit connected to forestry machinery has halted logging in Tasmania's Styx Valley. The action is part of a protest against the logging of old growth forest at Mount Mueller. Spokeswoman, Ula Majewski, says 11 protesters set up camp there early this morning. "We would just like to broadcast the message that in this era of dangerous climate change it is completely unacceptable that Forestry Tasmania, the Tasmanian Government and the Rudd Government continue to endorse the logging and burning of our ancient forest," she said. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/11/2271224.htm Protesters stop logging in southern forest Posted Wed Jun 11, 2008 12:24pm AEST Updated Wed Jun 11, 2008 12:23pm AEST Map: Geeveston 7116 Environmentalists have established a tree sit in the Weld Valley in southern Tasmania to protest at what they say is the construction of a new road. Spokeswoman for the Huon Valley Environment Centre, Jenny Weber, says the Fletcher's Eddy area is under immediate threat from the new logging road and subsequent logging operations. In a statement, Forestry Tasmania said the Weld Valley including access to Glovers Bluff remains accessible to the public. Spokesman, Mike Farrow says Forestry Tasmania operates according the Forest Practices Code under the scrutiny of the Forest Practices Authority and has its operations certified under the independent and internationally recognised Australian Forestry Standard. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/06/25/1961616.htm More anti-logging protests Posted Mon Jun 25, 2007 6:31pm AEST Map: Strathgordon 7139 Forest protesters have disrupted logging operations in an area west of the Upper Florentine Valley, known as the Wedge. Ula Majewski from the group Still Wild Still Threatened, says about 15 activists went into the area near Lake Gordon early this morning to protest against cable logging of the forest. Representatives of the same group signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Forestry Tasmania last month, ending a six-month blockade in the Upper Florentine Valley. But Ms Majewski denies today's protest undermines the MOU. "The Wedge is quite a different area. It's a different patch of forest which we believe is of World Heritage value and should be protected and not be subjected to industrial scale clearfellling," she said. But Forestry Tasmania has dismissed today's action as a misguided stunt. District Forest Manager Steve Whitley says he's disappointed a protest has taken place so soon after the MOU was signed. "Even though it's a different area, it's certainly not keeping faith with the sort of approach we'd taken in the Upper Florentine." Mr Whitely says Forestry will continue to honour the MOU. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/06/21/1957316.htm Anti mill protesters pack hall Posted Thu Jun 21, 2007 5:47am AEST Map: Hobart 7000 More than 1,100 people have demanded the Launceston City Council not back down on its previous concerns about Gunns' proposed pulp mill. A public meeting in the Albert hall last night resolved that the council should oppose the pulp mill on the grounds of possible damage to air and water quality and residents' health. There were speeches from more than a dozen people who had sent submissions to the council opposing the project. The only words in favour of the mill were from the meeting chair Lyn Mason, who read a letter from Gunns. "The project has been designed to ensure it meets the stringent environmental guidelines," the letter said. One of the mill opponents, Jeremy Ball received a standing ovation when he called on the council to stick by its submission to the Resource Planning and Development Commission. The council will consider decisions of the meeting next month. http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/751/38834 Vigil backs coal protesters Niko Leka, Newcastle 17 May 2008 Thirty people held a Quaker-initiated vigil at the steps of Newcastle Local Courthouse on May 13 in support of the "Kooragang 16". The 16 faced charges for trespassing on the construction site of a new coal-loader being built in Newcastle. Eleven of the activists will be required to do community service. The remaining five each were fined $70-$200 in court costs. On July 10-15, the Camp for Climate action will be held at Kooragang, and will include protest actions targeting Newcastle's coal-export industry. Visit for more information. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0805/S00452.htm Protest On Parliament Against Medsafe's Witch Hunt Wednesday, 28 May 2008, 9:58 am Press Release: Health Freedom FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday 27th May Protest On Parliament Against Medsafe's Witch Hunt Consumers of Natural Health products rally at the steps of Parliament Thursday 12 noon to present a petition of over 7,000 signatures calling on the Minister of Health to stop Medsafe's witch hunt in the natural products industry. Medsafe have been making demands of businesses to remove information from their websites that pertain to a recently broadened definition of therapeutic claims. According to Medsafe's recent interpretation of the 1981 Medicines Act it is now illegal to have research, clinical trials and testimonials on your website if they imply a therapeutic benefit for natural products. You may not even place links on your website to other sites with research, clinical trials or scientific studies relating to the ingredients in your products. SEARCH NZ JOBS Search Businesses FindA For all your PROPERTY needs Spokesperson for Health Freedom NZ, Nicola Grace says "this is nothing short of a gag order and needs to be stopped". She will present the petition on behalf of consumers to Sue Kedgley as head of the Health Select committee. The petition also calls on the Ministry of Health to get back to the negotiating table with the natural health industry who have been working on an appropriate New Zealand based model of regulation. At 12.15 MPs will come down to receive the petition and give a speech about this back lash by the Ministry of Health for not accepting the "Anti-Vitamin" Bill last year. The head of Medsafe, Stewart Jessamine stated on National Radio earlier in the year that "This is part of a campaign to educate people that the (1981) legislation isn't perfect and that we agree there is a need for new legislation in this area". Sue Kedgley from the Greens, Rodney Hide from Act, Jackie Blue from National, and Gordon Copeland, who cast one of the deciding votes against the Bill when he became Independent from United Future will be available for interview by press at 12.15 The exact wording of the petition being presented is: We, the undersigned, do respectfully call on the House to urge the Government to: . STOP Medsafe's harassment of the natural products industry. . BEGIN working with the natural products industry on a New Zealand regulatory model that will regulate dietary supplements and natural remedies appropriately, and protect consumers at the same time. . LEGISLATE to remove natural products from Schedule 1 of the Medicines Act of 1981 because it is inappropriate to regulate dietary supplements and natural products as if they were high risk medicines. . DEVELOP a separate classification and regulation for dietary supplements which allows properly justifiable claims to be made. http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23802606-2862,00.html Farmers protest plan to take water from Goulburn Murray Jane Metlikovec June 03, 2008 03:01pm A CITY thoroughfare was brought to a standstill as protesters called for the Government to build a water pipeline from Tasmania. More than 300 angry farmers and their trucks blocked Bourke St to protest the Government's north-south pipeline, which they say will drive them off the land. The Government plans to send 75 billion litres of water a year from the northern food bowl district through the pipeline to Melbourne in 2010. The farmers are outraged at the plan to take water from the Goulburn Murray irrigation system, which they say was signed off without community consultation. Independent civil engineer Geoff Croker told the crowd a pipe from Tasmania would be more feasible. The pipe would run 350km from Burnie in Tasmania, under the bass strait, and into Western Port Bay. "It is not engineering magic, it is basic plumbing,'' Mr Croker said. "Melbourne Water are quite capable of designing a pipeline from Tasmania.'' Mr Croker said he had sought meetings with both federal and state ministers to flag his pipe design, but had been knocked back. Opposition leader Ted Baillieu was greeted with cheers from the crowd saying the north-south pipeline was a project which lacked common sense, labelling it "a dumb idea". "Melbourne's reserves are at 30 per cent, the Eildon reserves are at 13 per cent. It makes no sense to steal from the 13 per cent to top up the 30 per cent,'' Mr Baillieu said. Fourth-generation grower Christine Argiro, from Yelta near Mildura, said the pipeline would drive her off her 100 acres. "We grow table and wine grapes and right now we have a zero per cent water allocation,'' Ms Argiro, 38, said. "It makes me so angry that Melbourne will be taking our water that we need, even though the natural rainfall in Melbourne is much higher than what we get. "Of course we will have to leave our land if we can't get any water.'' The north-south pipeline project is part of the government's $5 billion water strategy which includes a desalination plant on the south-east coast. Premier John Brumby said the water from the food bowl district will be "new water'' created from savings made by fixing leaky irrigation infrastructure. The remainder of the expected water savings, initially 225 gigalitres a year, are to be shared by farmers and the environment. The federal government has also committed to funding a share of the project. But critics doubt the State Government's projections, saying there is not enough water lost in the system, particularly during drought conditions, to make those savings. A report last year revealed water would be drawn from existing projects and the Lake Eildon water quality reserve if the promised 75 gigalitres for Melbourne are not created by 2010/11. Mr Brumby is spending the day in the western regional city of Ballarat. Water Minister Tim Holding will be at parliament house, giving evidence to the public accounts and estimates committee. -with AAP http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/03/2263383.htm Pipeline protest travels to Melbourne Posted Tue Jun 3, 2008 10:44am AEST Updated Tue Jun 3, 2008 10:57am AEST Protesters are gathering in Northern Victoria for a march on Parliament. (ABC TV) Map: Melbourne 3000 Related Story: North-south pipeline protesters to march on Parliament A convoy of about 500 vehicles is heading down the Hume Freeway for a a protest at State Parliament in Melbourne to oppose the north-south water pipeline. The convoy is being led by lobby group Plug the Pipe, who argue the pipeline will damage food production in the Murray Darling Basin. Plug the Pipe spokesman John Pattison says he expects hundreds of people to make the trip to Parliament House. "We intend to put pressure on (Brumby) and his Ministers. To just say: look, Melbourne, we believe there are a lot of far better ways than taking water out of the dry Murray Darling catchment." This morning Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu and National Party Leader Peter Ryan handed out pamphlets and milk at Melbourne's Parliament Station. Mr Ryan said the pipeline was bad science, and will push up food prices, including that of milk. "Here we are in the smart state and the best they can do is build a dirty great big 85 kilometre long garden hose and pipe water from a region that can't supply its own needs in to Melbourne. It is just a ridiculous proposition," he said. Mr Baillieu said the pipeline was a panic announcement. "The Auditor General said so, the CSIRO has said so, almost every expert I've spoken to in the water industry says this is a bad idea," he said. But the Water Minister, Tim Holding, has defended the pipeline. He says it is in the best interest of all Victorians. "Our irrigation systems in the state's north lose hundreds of billions of litres of water every year so we need to invest substantially to capture those water losses and the only way to do so is if we share that investment across the state," he said. "We understand their scepticism around the (water) savings and that's why we have indicated that the savings will be verified and audited." The $700-million pipeline will run from the Goulburn River to Sugarloaf Reservoir. It has garnered a lot of opposition in country Victoria. More than 1,000 members of the Victorian Country Women's Association (CWA) has publicly declared their opposition to the proposal. The Murray-Darling Basin produces food for 73 per cent of Australia's population. http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23756278-2862,00.html Protests at cross-city tunnel plan John Ferguson and Mary Bolling May 26, 2008 12:00am MORE than 200 people protested against plans for an east-west road tunnel, as the State Government debates dumping parts of the review that made the proposal. Controversial transport academic Paul Mees told yesterday's Flemington rally that tunnel plans in the Eddington review failed cost-benefit analysis. Mr Mees accused the State Government of "wasting more money than has ever been wasted before in the history of this state". Rally organiser Gab Pretto said the tunnel would "create an urban traffic nightmare for five Melbourne suburbs". Senior Labor figures have also expressed alarm at the cost, and growing internal unease at the potential fallout over plans to spend as much as $18 billion on opening up the east and the west of the city. Nervous inner-city MPs are concerned that Greens' support in key seats will grow together with a campaign of opposition against a tunnel linking the Eastern Freeway with the city's west. The concern was on public show at the weekend when the party's ruling Right-wing grouping was forced to exercise its majority at Labor's state conference to kill off a push to dump Sir Rod Eddington's East-West Needs Assessment. The Government is expected to report back before the end of the year on what aspects of the Eddington report it will choose to support. Crucial to any decisions will be the amount of federal backing the Eddington agenda gets. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/06/26/1961950.htm Protests planned over desalination plant Posted Tue Jun 26, 2007 9:24am AEST Updated Tue Jun 26, 2007 11:34am AEST Sydneysiders walk to work in heavy rain in central Sydney. (ABC News Online: Caro Meldrum) Map: Kurnell 2231 Related Story: Sydney desalination plant to double in size Related Story: Gov desalination plan needs a rethink: council Community action groups in southern Sydney have threatened large protests against the decision by the New South Wales Government to go ahead with the desalination plant in Kurnell. The Government yesterday announced that a consortium had been awarded the tender to build and maintain the plant, which will be twice the originally planned size. About 60 people took part in a meeting held last night by the Kurnell Progress Association, to discuss how they would respond to the announcement. A spokeswoman for the group, Susan Davis, says residents are worried about the effect the plant will have on the environment. "We're going to have to go through all of this pain and hardship and all the destruction in the bay for what?" she said. "It doesn't matter how many times we've asked, how many objections we've made, the Government has still gone ahead and done this." Ms Davis also says more research needs to be done on the plant's potential environmental impact. "Put it on hold and then wait until you have done the proper environmental studies on everything. Not this rushed thing where you just give a few details here and there, but a really in depth discussion [is needed]." The NSW member for Cronulla, Malcolm Kerr, says the protesters are doing the right thing. "There is furious opposition. Kurnell is the birthplace of modern Australia," he said. "However it's not only Kurnell residents who will be losers. Sydney residents will be losers." "They stand to have a water bill that will go up $100, and this is an environmental and economic disaster." Council says it's being ignored Sutherland Shire Council has also reacted angrily to the announcement. The council says it wrote to the Premier, Morris Iemma, asking him to take into account recent rainfalls and environmental studies before proceeding any further with the plant. But Councillor Lorraine Kelly says there has been no reply, and they were all surprised by yesterday's announcement. "Once again we've been kept in the dark," she said. "The council was only notified by the media. We had no idea the plant or the tender had been assigned. "I don't think the community will be very happy in view of dam levels going up. In fact I think they'll be pretty outraged." Desalination is unnecessary The opposition says the recent rainfall across Sydney negates the need for the desalination plant. The Opposition Leader, Barry O'Farrell, says the Premier appears to be obsessed with the plan to open the plant. "[He] ignored two months of record rainfall, and is still determined to put billions of dollars into this desalination plant," he said. "The reality is [that] this desalination plant will still provide only a fraction of Sydney's ongoing water supply." "It does nothing to increase the use of stormwater. It's just again an example of Morris Iemma's obsession with desalination." Tender 'on the nose' The Greens say the four companies awarded the contract all donate money to the NSW Labor Party. The Greens MP, Lee Rhiannon, says she does not know why the contract was awarded to these companies, but she says it does raise questions about political donations. "We don't know if there is any link with the donations that these companies give, but when you consider that large amounts of money are handed to a political party and then when that political party is in government [and] it makes decisions that benefit that company, we know that that's on the nose," she said. "It certainly turns people off the democratic process and it's why it's time to ban corporate donations to political parties." Government defends the tender process Mr Iemma has dismissed the criticism by the Greens as nonsense. "That's just rubbish. These contracts, these tenders are done at arms length from politicians and political parties [and] there are probity officers appointed," he said. "New South Wales has a reputation for integrity that is beyond reproach when it comes to these sorts of matters." http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0806/S00017.htm Protest at Environment Day Business Symposium Tuesday, 3 June 2008, 11:10 am Press Release: Get Across Campaign Press Release: Members of the "Get Across" campaign will staging a peaceful protest at Helen Clark's arrival to the World Environment Day Business Symposium Cycle Action chair, Bevan Woodward says "We want to see real commitment to meaningful "Kick the Carbon Habit" projects, such as the Auckland Harbour Bridge walk/cycle way, rather than seminars which risk becoming 'talk-fests'." "Get Across" campaign members will their banner outside the Business Symposium venue (RNZYS building at Westhaven) from at 8:45 am, Wed, June 4. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Page/document/v5/content/subscribe?user_URL=http://www.theglobeandmail.com%2Fservlet%2Fstory%2FLAC.20080531.TORBRIEF%2FTPStory%2FTPNational%2F%3Fpage%3Drss%26id%3DGAM.20080531.TORBRIEF&ord=105781169&brand=theglobeandmail&force_login=true Posted on 31/05/08 Gardiner closed as police herd cycling protesters UNNATI GANDHI About 250 cyclists rode onto the westbound Gardiner Expressway yesterday evening, forcing police to shut it down as they herded the cyclists off. Police said they received a call at 7:41 p.m. about the bicyclists merging onto the highway at Jameson Avenue. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/05/30/2260882.htm Protesters vow to stop Gunns funding Posted Fri May 30, 2008 5:27pm AEST The ANZ has walked away from financing the mill. (ABC News: file photo) Map: Launceston 7250 Groups opposed to the planned Gunns pulp mill are vowing to pressure overseas banks not to fund the controversial project. Gunns chairman John Gay is looking for finance outside Australia, after the ANZ walked away from financing the $2 billion pulp mill. The Wilderness Society and the Greens say the ANZ's decision sends a strong message to other banks. The Wilderness Society's Geoff Law says other banks in Australia will not go near the project now. "None of the other big four retail banks in Australia will touch the Gunns pulp mill with a barge pole," he said. The Greens' Peg Putt says the mill is in trouble and it is less likely to go ahead now the bank has pulled out. The Greens are vowing to lobby Australian and overseas banks not to fund the mill. The lobby group Get Up is taking out full-page ads in local and national newspapers, warning off potential financiers. Tasmanian Environment Minister Michelle O'Byrne says the pulp mill's future is in the hands of Gunns and its bankers. http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080607/OTT_nude_bikers_080607/20080607?hub=Canada Bikers in the buff protest oil dependency Updated Sat. Jun. 7 2008 9:38 PM ET ctvottawa.ca Dozens of cheeky bike riders startled pedestrians and drivers in one of the Capital's busiest tourist spots Saturday as they rode their bikes naked to "expose" the issue of oil dependency. About 75 cyclists rode through the ByWard Market as part of the annual World Naked Bike Rides that are held across Canada and 20 other countries. The nude cyclists were protesting oil dependency, as well as the danger they feel riding their bikes on busy city streets. Many spectators used their cell phones to photograph and video the event. Although there were many raised eyebrows, many people seemed to see the humour in the bike riders in the buff. Most riders were careful to wear their helmets. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26370574/ Nude cyclists protest naked arrest in Canada Police had hauled off man and his son during earlier group ride VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Naked cyclists converged on Vancouver's main police station Saturday to protest the arrest of a fellow cyclist who had taken his 3-year-old son on a nude ride earlier in the day. Naked Bike Ride spokesman Conrad Schmidt said it all began when six squad cars and a paddy wagon showed up as the group of about 75 naked cyclists arrived along the city's English Bay. Vancouver Police Constable Jana McGuinness told The Canadian Press that several bystanders had called police, concerned about the child's well-being. Police arrived and spoke with the man, who agreed that both he and his child would wear underwear during the ride. But as he left to join the other riders, the man stripped his and his son's clothes off. Officers arrested him on the spot, citing public nudity laws. Schmidt said the boy was in tears as police took him and his father away, and the arrest prompted the group to cycle through downtown Vancouver to the police station. McGuinness said it appeared the man afterward regretted his actions. "When they were leaving (the scene) it was under the understanding that perhaps he hadn't shown the best judgment; there were a number of people that took offense to the child being naked in the group and subjected to people's scrutiny," she said. "It sounds like it's been a good lesson all around." http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,20797,23941035-3102,00.html?from=public_rss Traveston Dam protesters boo Anna Bligh June 30, 2008 12:00am PREMIER Anna Bligh has vowed to push ahead with the Traveston Dam, despite being heckled by hundreds of protesters in Hervey Bay. Arriving at the Fraser Coast for a community cabinet meeting, Ms Bligh was jeered by about 300 screaming anti-dam protesters demanding the Government reverse its decision to build the $1.7 billion dam. Several uniformed and plain-clothes police escorted her inside the venue of the meeting at the Wide Bay Tafe as the crowd vented their rage. Waving "Save the Mary" placards, the group also demanded she "Sack Andy Mac", a reference to Sustainability Minister and local MP Andrew McNamara, who they have accused of failing to represent their views. However Ms Bligh yesterday said the Government remained committed to building the dam, provided it satisfied the environmental hurdles. "If it passes the environmental tests, then this dam will go ahead," she said. "I'm not going to shy away from this decision. "It's a very important decision for the water security of Australia's fastest-growing area." The final environmental impact statement on the dam is expected to be released within months. Mr McNamara also fended off suggestions he was ignoring the wishes of the majority of his constituents. "I always said I would support the Traveston Dam if the EIS stacks up," he said. Ms Bligh also yesterday expressed sympathy for former minister Pat Purcell, whose son Daniel has been charged with drug trafficking and possession. "The news that Daniel Purcell will be facing court on drug charges is very sad news," she said. Purcell, 23, was arrested at a Fortitude Valley nightclub on Friday night. If convicted he could face up to 25 years in jail. http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/756/39054 Protesters target coal criminals Paul Benedek, Brisbane 20 June 2008 Fifteen activists calling for a rapid conversion to renewable energy protested at the $2600-a-head Queensland Coal Conference 08 on June 16. The coal conference inside the plush Stamford Plaza was focused on "expanding exports" and dealing with "labour shortages". Meanwhile, outside, the People's Renewable Energy Conference 08 discussed the need to phase-out coal - the fossil fuel with the greatest impact on climate change. Not everyone supported the protest, however. "Billionaires for coal" held up placards that read: "Dig coal, forget climate change", and "Clean coal keeps me rich!". The protesters, from Resistance, Friends of the Earth, the Australian Student Environment Network, the Queensland Environment Action Network and the Socialist Alliance, vowed to continue to challenge the climate vandals. http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuId=77&ContentID=83222 Time to act on climate change, forum told 7th July 2008, 14:00 WST Australia needs to act immediately on climate change research if it is to avoid a severe impact on its economy and environment, Professor Ross Garnaut told a public forum in Perth today. More than 200 people packed Perth Town Hall to hear Prof Garnaut address his draft report on climate change, which was released on Friday. Professor Garnaut called for bold decisions to be made by the current Australian government and warned that it was already too late to avoid the costs of climate change. "Australia needs to do something now. That's why we call this a diabolical policy problem," Professor Garnaut said. "When you look at the daily debate we've had over the last couple of days, it sometimes suggests that this issue is too hard for national policy making," he said. "Over the next few years Australia and the world will make fateful decisions and afterwards will know whether the issue was too hard." Professor Garnaut said that Australian history showed governments that made bold decisions in the national interest were respected and rewarded in subsequent polls. He said the 2010 timetable was demanding on administrative grounds and would be hard work for the officials who would have to deliver it. "I don't think there is any reason to put back the date simply because it's going to be hard. "It's very important that we do this right. This is a big change and a big structural adjustment for Australia. "If we botch the implementation, then there will be risks. The key to getting this right is to careful work through all the implementation issues to base it on clear principles, and that's what we have done in this report." Professor Garnaut said the report struck a good balance between the costs of climate change and the cost of mitigation. He called for an international agreement for each country to make a commitment on climate change research, and recommended Australia's contribution be $3billion per year. His thoughts were backed by WA Sustainable Energy Association CEO Dr Ray Wills, who said the 2010 timetable was easily achievable. "We've been well prepared for this for a long time," Dr Wills said. "In terms of the costs, Garnaut is talking about $3 or $4 billion a year which is really quite small change. "If we look at that compared to the tax cuts we're about to receive, we're about to receive eight billion tax cuts this year. "The naysayers are saying at the moment this is going to break the economy. But the numbers we're talking about are really quite small." Former Federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell said it was important Australia took leadership on the issue of an emissions trading scheme. "The introduction of an emissions trading scheme is vital to Australia's future and future of the world," Mr Campbell said. "It is appropriate to take some leadership here. It is imperative we get the policy right and I think this sort of widespread consultation makes getting the policy right more likely. "There has been discussion about emissions trading scheme for a long time now and getting it in on time is incredibly important both economically and environmentally. But getting it right is incredibly important. "It is in our advantage to get a trading scheme sooner rather than later because if Australians can understand how a carbon constrained world and how carbon pricing and dating works, we'll be a generation ahead of most of the rest of the world." Earlier today members of campaigners group Make Poverty History rallied outside the city's Town Hall ahead of Professor Garnaut's forum. Make Poverty History spokesman Paddy Cullen said there were many good elements to Professor Garnaut's report and he supported Professor Garnaut's belief that Australia should help its pacific neighbours deal with climate change. "We're trying to make a point to the government that it's not enough just to mitigate the pollution from Australia, there are people suffering all around the world," Mr Cullen said. "The pollution that's been caused by the rich countries is affecting the poorer countries the most so we really have a responsibility to help poorer countries adapt to climate change." PERTH JAYNE RICKARD for nearly 10 years due to environmental concerns. http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/411366/1887655 Protest at Australia power plant Jul 3, 2008 8:28 PM Protesters chained themselves to a coal conveyor at one of Australia's largest power stations on Thursday in a protest against climate policies ahead of a major report on emissions trading. Greenpeace said the dawn protest by 27 activists at the Eraring Power Station north of Sydney was the latest in an ongoing campaign to reduce Australia's carbon emissions. Police rescuers cut the chains from 12 protesters to free them from the conveyor belt. A police spokeswoman said 27 people would face a range of trespass charges. "Renewable energy is the future and it's bright," protester and retired coal miner Graham Brown said in a Greenpeace statement. The state-owned Eraring Power Station, which has a generating capacity of 2,640 megawatts, said it reduced output as a safety measure during the protest, but did not shut down, and resumed normal output by late morning. The protest came a day before the Australian government's key adviser on climate change, prominent economist Ross Garnaut, releases a report on carbon trading, which is due to start in Australia in 2010. His report is expected to recommend a cap-and-trade scheme, to cover as much of Australia's economy as possible, which experts say will make it one of the world's most comprehensive trading regimes. But another prominent economist and central bank board member Warwick McKibbin on Thursday warned the government to avoid firm targets and timetables for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. McKibbin said unforeseen events, such as the rise in oil prices or increased demand from Asia for beef and dairy products, could make it impossible for countries to meet their targets and would then undermine global efforts to cut emissions. Instead, McKibbin, from the Australian National University, and Peter Wilcoxen from Syracuse University in the United States, propose a hybrid system of a fixed supply of long-term carbon permits, and an flexible supply of annual permits. "A hybrid policy with a modest annual permit price would generate larger investment incentives than a more draconian, but less credible emissions target imposed by a system of targets and timetables," McKibbin said in a speech on Thursday. Australia is responsible for about 1.5% of global carbon emissions, but is one of the highest per-capita polluters because of the nation's position as the world's biggest coal exporter and its heavy reliance on fossil fuels for energy. Australia emits 28.1 tonnes of carbon per person, due to reliance on coal for electricity, down from 32.6 tonnes in 1990. http://networks.org/?src=abcau:2008:07:03:2293102 Police arrest 27 Greenpeace protesters Posted Thu Jul 3, 2008 10:30am AEST Map: Eraring 2264 Police have arrested 27 Greenpeace activists during a protest at the Eraring power station, south of Newcastle. The protesters went into the site just after 5:00am (AEDT) and locked themselves onto coal conveyors. The move forced the power station to reduce its output as a safety precaution. Senior Constable Tony Tamplin says the protest was conducted peacefully. "Twenty-seven intruders have now been located by police and security officers inside the power station's grounds and have placed in custody. Twelves of those intruders have chained themselves to the machinery," he said. "Once released, all 27 will be brought to Newcastle Police Station where a determination made in relation to the charges." http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24010443-1248,00.html?from=public_rss 15 arrests after smokestack protest By David Barbeler July 12, 2008 08:29pm Article from: AAP Font size: + - Send this article: Print Email THREE Sydney-based Greenpeace activists protesting against coal-fired power have been charged by police after spending a cold 34 hours atop a 140m high smokestack west of Brisbane. A fourth female member of the group, 24, from Edinburgh, Scotland has also been charged. All four activists were charged with two counts of wilful damage, unlawfully climbing a structure and trespass. The activist's vigil took place on Swanbank Power Station, west of Brisbane and ended around 3.30pm today. The campaigners were arguing the power station was a major greenhouse polluter and that Queensland urgently needed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by going solar. Despite the arrests, Greenpeace campaigner Jason Collins said the operation had been very successful. "We wanted to get out a strong message about going solar," Mr Collins said. "Queensland being the sunshine state should be taking advantage of the shift to go towards solar energy." This morning two of the men abseiled down the side of the smokestack and painted "go solar". Nine other protesters who broke into the station around 5.30am (AEST) yesterday have also been arrested and charged. Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said while she encouraged Greenpeace protesters to make their point, she wanted them to do so in a way that did not endangers themselves or others. "I understand why people from Greenpeace are feeling passionately about this issue," Ms Bligh said. "I would certainly re-assure them that our Government is investing more than has ever been invested in Queensland in renewable energy, particularly solar as well as putting into research to make coal a much cleaner low emission fuel. "I welcome public debate on the issue of climate change and while I think the people from Greenpeace have a legitimate point to make, making it in a way that endangers their lives and puts the safety of workers at risk is something I don't welcome." However, Mr Collins defended Greenpeace's protesting methods, arguing they had taken safe measures. "All of our activists that were involved in the action over the last two days had industrial rope access training, so they knew what they were doing up there and were very safe," he said. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/story/2008/07/04/chebucto-arrests.html?ref=rss Protesters arrested as tree felled on Chebucto Road Last Updated: Friday, July 4, 2008 | 6:13 PM AT Comments59Recommend40 CBC News Police arrested six people Friday after protesters climbed trees to prevent the start of a contentious road expansion in Halifax. The four men and two women face charges ranging from mischief to obstructing police to assaulting a police officer, police said. About 60 protesters gathered on Chebucto Road as workers with chainsaws prepared to cut down trees, the first step in widening the road. Police officers pushed back the crowd to keep everyone away from falling tree limbs. Halifax police arrested several people at the protest on Chebucto Road. (CBC) Some people cried and others yelled as a grinder chopped up branches. It took about 20 minutes to take down the first tree. Workers say they will be back Monday to cut down the remaining six trees. The plan to widen Chebucto Road calls for a third lane to allow for an extra 300 cars every hour, a development the municipality says will ease traffic coming off the nearby Armdale roundabout. The expansion, approved by Halifax regional council, has been fiercely opposed by some local residents and their supporters. On Wednesday, opponents called for a seven-day moratorium on construction, however, the municipality said work would go ahead as planned. Police said the six people arrested would be released once they determined individual charges. None of them live in the neighbourhood affected by the street widening, police said. http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/newsdetail1.asp?storyID=140910 Pic: NZ Herald Protestors call off occupation "in good faith" 18/07/2008 13:06:56 Protesters have called off their occupation of the site of a planned marina at Whangamata in the Coromandel Maori, surfers and boaties occupied the site for 18 days in protest at the development of a $20 million, 205-berth marina. The project has been a 15-year battle by the Whangamata Marina Society. Protest spokesman Nathan Kennedy says they have been given an undertaking that Environment Minister Trevor Mallard will conduct an audit of the project. "We'll all be moving off, we're vacating completely and taking the tents away. The site will be left exactly as it was when we came here. We'll take a holding position in good faith while we await the response from Trevor Mallard." Mr Kennedy says they have not ruled out reoccupying the land. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/07/14/bc-tsawwassen-power-line-arrest.html?ref=rss Man arrested at Tsawwassen power line protest Last Updated: Monday, July 14, 2008 | 7:15 PM ET A Tsawwassen man was arrested on Monday morning after angry residents confronted BC Transmission Corporation workers who showed up to finish erecting a pole for a power line. When crews first arrived at the work site in the suburb south of Vancouver, dozens of residents were blocking their access to the construction site. After being asked by police to move, all but one of the protesters moved outside a fence erected around the site by the BCTC. The male protester who refused to leave remained perched on top of the roughly three-metre-high concrete base built for the new power pole. The man climbed down after police read him a court order, issued by a judge last month, which was intended to stop protesters from blocking the construction site. As the man was being led away, he bent down and pulled out a survey marker. Police then arrested him and put him in handcuffs. It was not immediately known whether the man was charged with anything following his arrest. Last week, a B.C. Supreme Court judge warned residents for a second time not to interfere with the power line construction, after BCTC lawyers said protesters continued to obstruct the installation of new poles, despite the judge's earlier court order. Tina Ryan, the owner of the property where crews were installing the new power pole on Monday, told CBC News most of the protesters don't want to break the law, but they consider the planned power line to be a health risk to area residents. "No one wants to go to jail at this point . The point of all these people here today is to show them that we are not going to back down . We are going to do everything we can within the law to stop this project," Ryan said. BCTC has said it needs to upgrade the power line - which runs through several residential properties along a 50-year-old right-of-way - to meet increased demands for power from customers on Vancouver Island. http://www.smh.com.au/news/world-youth-day/pilgrims-progress-through-park-protest/2008/07/17/1216163011078.html Pilgrims progress through park protest The park on Parkham Street in Surry Hills. Photo: Peter Rae Arjun Ramachandran July 17, 2008 - 2:15PM A handful of angry Surry Hills residents have been forced from a park being cleared for the pilgrimage walk this weekend. World Youth Day organisers, with help from police, are clearing plants from the park at Parkham Street in Surry Hills - including trimming the branches of a macadamia nut tree - to build a two-metre wide ramp over the park for pilgrims to walk across on their way to Randwick racecourse. But residents have resisted the move, saying it is over the top and will damage the treasured five- by 10-metre park. A handful of locals are still standing by after being moved out of the park when WorkCover inspectors arrived at 1.30pm "They're now cutting down great big hunks off our beloved macadamia nut tree. I feel pretty ashamed of our state at the moment,'' said Lyn Cessna, who lives in a terrace right next to the park. Police told the residents that the roped-off construction area was an authorised work zone. One officer warned the residents that WorkCover could fine the residents for being inside the zone. After clearing a rose bush and other plants, the World Youth Day workers reached an impasse about 9am when five residents refused to move. "We are not for this ridiculous private party and we don't want this ramp," said Ms Cessna. "This [macadamia] tree was planted in memory of an elderly lady that died about 17 years ago. It has great significance for people here in memory of that lady." A World Youth Day worker, who did not wished to be named, said the ramp was necessary to allow 50,000 people to pass through the street on Saturday and 90,000 on Sunday. It was not deemed feasible for the crowd to split and walk along a two-metre wide path on either side of the park. But Surry Hills resident Angela Wawn said the street regularly handled large crowds when there were matches at the nearby cricket and football stadiums. "But somehow these fit young people [World Youth Day pilgrims] can't be trusted to divide into two lines [and walk around the park]," she said. The residents were also supported by Cr Chris Harris and Greens MP Sylvia Hale. "They're pretty upset about the fact that their backyard is being invaded by this authority called the World Youth Day authority for no real purpose," said Cr Harris. Ms Hale said she was concerned about "the spiralling of cost of World Youth Day". "The fact is this is obviously going to be quite an expensive exercise to facilitate one afternoon of walking down one laneway and walking back again." The World Youth Day worker said that the park would be restored to its current state after the event. "Everything is being reinstated to exactly how you saw it two hours ago. All these plants will be repotted [and the branches will grow back]." http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24013123-1242,00.html?from=public_rss 37 arrests at climate change protest July 13, 2008 04:56pm Article from: AAP Font size: + - Send this article: Print Email NSW police have arrested 37 protesters who chained themselves to a train and rail tracks at the world's biggest coal export port in Newcastle to protest against climate change. About 1000 people today joined a march to the Carrington coal terminal at Newcastle Port where about 100 protesters scaled or cut through fences to enter the rail corridor, bringing the busy coal terminal to a standstill. Friends of the Earth Australia spokesman Damien Lawson said up to 50 of the protesters then chained themselves onto rail tracks and a train, or sat on top of the train, stopping production. By 2.30pm (AEST) 37 protesters had been arrested for a range of offences, police said. Mr Lawson said industrial cutting equipment had to be used to cut the protesters from the train and tracks. The protest was still continuing in spite of the arrests, with another three activists climbing on top of the train shortly before 4pm. "The protest has been a fantastic success," said Mr Lawson, who was himself arrested. "We said we would shut down the rail lines into the world's biggest coal port and we did. "We've had an enormous economic impact on the coal industry today and sent a message world wide about the need for urgent action on climate change." Organisers claim the action would have cost the mining companies at least $1.3 million. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=adTmg_p1DWcc&refer=home Newcastle Port Coal Ship Loading Halted by Protesters (Update3) By Jesse Riseborough July 14 (Bloomberg) -- Coal ship loading at the largest terminal at Australia's Newcastle port, the world's biggest export harbor for the fuel, was temporarily halted after protesters chained themselves to a conveyor as part of a six-day campaign. Loading of thermal coal at the Kooragang Terminal was halted between 6:00 a.m. and about 8:30 a.m. local time because of safety concerns, Graham Davidson, general manager of Port Waratah Coal Services Pty, operator of the two coal terminals, said today by phone. Operations have returned to normal, he said. Thermal coal prices from Newcastle have more than doubled this year on increased demand from Asian utilities and as rail and port bottlenecks in Australia and South Africa curb supplies. Australia is the world's biggest coal exporter and Xstrata Plc and Rio Tinto Group are among companies that ship through the port. ``Newcastle is the key thermal coal port in Australia so this market, like oil, is very sensitive to supply issues,'' Mark Pervan, senior commodity analyst at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd., said today. ``We will see prices bounce'' on any prolonged disruptions caused by the protests, he said. The price of coal from Newcastle, a benchmark for Asia, fell for the first time in 12 weeks, dropping 3.5 percent to $188 a metric ton in the week ended July 11, according to the globalCOAL NEWC Index. Climate Change Coal exports are Australia's biggest contribution to global warming, according to the Web site of the six-day Camp for Climate Action protesting against the use of the fuel. The nation generates more than 80 percent of its electricity from the fuel. Protesters yesterday temporarily blocked three trains scheduled to deliver 20,000 metric tons of coal to the Carrington terminal at Newcastle. Rail deliveries to the terminal resumed at about 4:30 a.m. today, Davidson said. The Kooragang terminal is the larger of two terminals at the port with annual capacity of 77 million metric tons, he said. The five protesters that chained themselves to the Kooragang conveyor were arrested by police and have now been released, Joanne Ferris, a spokeswoman for the protester's group, said today by phone. The protest shut down the terminal until about 11:00 a.m. as police were required to search the site for remaining protesters, she said. Chain Disruption ``We effectively disrupted the coal chain for about five hours,'' Ferris, a spokeswoman for Camp for Climate Action, said from the camp at Newcastle. A total of 40 protesters were arrested yesterday with as many as 1,000 demonstrators involved in the protests, the group said yesterday. Port Waratah is not aware of any further protests planned today, Davidson said. Newcastle shipped 84.8 million metric tons of coal last year, up 6.3 percent from a year earlier, and export capacity is set to rise to 140 million tons a year after 2010. Mining companies including Xstrata, the world's largest exporter, won a 125 percent increase in annual contract prices in the year that started April 1 to $125 a ton. The price may rise to a record next year of $150 a ton because of continuing supply constraints, Goldman Sachs JBWere Pty said in a July 11 report. said in a July 11 report. ``We believe coal is now emulating oil,'' said analysts led by Melbourne-based Malcolm Southwood, who predict the price will be settled at $140 a ton in 2010 and 2011. ``In a world of limited spare capacity and sluggish supply growth, prices are rising to ration demand down to the levels of available supply.'' Crude oil has gained 50 percent this year as the sliding dollar and falling U.S. equities prompted investors to buy commodities. The contract price for thermal coal may rise to $180 a ton next year, Macquarie Group Ltd. analysts said in a separate report today. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24088057-1248,00.html?from=public_rss Activists arrested over paint protest July 28, 2008 10:37am Article from: AAP ENVIRONMENTAL group Greenpeace says nine of its activists have been arrested after painting slogans on about 20 ships queuing at a central Queensland port in protest against Australia's coal exports. Campaigner Simon Roz said activists in inflatable boats had painted messages including "Rudd Exporting CO2", "Barrier Reef Gone", "Ice Caps Gone" and "Stop Coal Expansion" on ships queuing at Hay Point, near Mackay. The protest began about 6am (AEST) today and continued until a police boat arrived abotu 9.30am. Mr Roz said three of the boats had been intercepted and nine activists arrested. He said the action was intended to draw attention to the environmental concerns linked to Australia's growing coal export industry "The action was all about trying to highlight the contradiction between Prime Minister (Kevin) Rudd and Premier (Anna) Bligh's stated intention to urgently reduce greenhouse pollution while presiding over a doubling of Australia's coal exports," he said. "Greenhouse pollution doesn't know any borders so coal burnt anywhere will be destroying pristine environments all around the globe including the Great Barrier Reef and the Murray Darling." http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24064231-2862,00.html Water pipeline protesters back down on entering Premier Brumby's farm Article from: Font size: Decrease Increase Email article: Email Print article: Print Submit comment: Submit comment Staff writers with AAP July 23, 2008 03:56pm ANTI-pipeline protesters are claiming a moral victory following their aborted plans to invade Premier John Brumby's family farm. About 30 protesters were set to storm Mr Brumby's country property, near Bendigo, this morning in opposition to a planned pipeline to pump water from the state's north to Melbourne. But they backed down when threatened with arrest, amid pressure from Mr Brumby's distressed wife and on advice from his political rivals. Plug the Pipe chairman Ken Pattison said the stunt was a "major win" for the group, who were law-abiding citizens and had listened to the voice of disapproval. "The point was made, we didn't have to carry it any further to get the point across," Mr Pattison said. "We were advised by people from all walks of life that to go onto the property was going too far. We listened to that advice. We are not radical ratbags, we're concerned about the environmental health of our rivers. "We believe we have got our message across and the security and the privacy of the Premier and his family have not been impinged." The protesters planned the stunt because they claim Government workers are illegally entering properties along the planned route of the pipeline. Mr Pattison said Mr Brumby now knew how that intrusion felt and landowners expected the same right to privacy as the Premier did. Mr Brumby dismissed the argument, saying there was a long-standing process for laying infrastructure, including gas and electricity pipelines. The protesters apologised to the Premier's wife, Rosemary McKenzie, who expressed fears for her safety amid demonstrators' plans to enter the farm. Ms McKenzie, who often stays at the farm alone, got up at 6am this morning to move sheep for fear they would be attacked by protesters planning to invade the property at 11am. Mr Brumby said his wife had a sleepless night after learning yesterday the protesters planned to invade their property. When asked about Ms McKenzie's fears, Mr Pattison said: "I do apologise for that". "His wife is actually a local girl. "The target is the Premier of the state." The protesters called off the protest after speaking with police outside a pub in Ravenswood, near Bendigo, where they had planned to organise a convoy. Plug the Pipe spokeswoman Jan Beer stood on the back of a ute and told the crowd: "John Brumby is not worth getting arrested for". She refused to apologise to the Premier, and said the fear and disbelief expressed by his wife was what the protesters - landowners from country Victoria - had been feeling for the past 10 months about the pipeline to be built from the state's north to Melbourne. The demonstrators said they hoped they wouldn't lose support because of their actions, and hoped people would understand the issue and not focus on the planned farm protest. Mr Brumby today said his wife had been intimidated and disturbed by the protesters plans. "I take exception to people coming over the fence, I take exception to people trespassing on private property, and I take exception to people intimidating my wife," he told 3AW Radio. Mr Brumby read from a statement from Ms McKenzie that said she was at the property several times a week, often alone, and the proposed action directly affected her privacy, her right to peaceful enjoyment, and "quite possibly" her safety. "It certainly disturbs my peace of mind," she said. Ms McKenzie said the action would bring the level of public debate in Victoria to a new low. "It means that henceforth, the private spaces of politicians, their homes, their gardens, their farms, the places they go with their families will never be places of private sanctuary again. "Anyone with a gripe with the government will now have a precedent for taking their dissent to private spaces in a way that impinges directly and deeply on the lives of politician's families." When asked whether the protesters' plan was "crossing a line", Victoria Police deputy commissioner Keiran Walshe said: "Well, I think it is". "They certainly don't have the right to cross into any person's property," he told 3AW. Ms Beer said the water pipeline was the premier's fault and the protesters planned to enter his paddocks so he knew how it felt to have his property and privacy invaded. One anti-pipeline protester 'Sally' told 3AW Mr Brumby should listen to the country people. "He came up here and he never listened to what we said," she said. "Now we've no water and he wants to take it to Melbourne. Go and dig a bloody big dam." Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu said entering the farm was the wrong thing to do and as far as he was concerned politicians' families and properties were off limits. http://www.financialpost.com/reports/oil-watch/story.html?id=677523 Greenpeace says oil sands mine targeted by protesters Reuters Published: Thursday, July 24, 2008 CALGARY -- Protesters blocked a pipe to a waste-water pond at an Alberta oil sands mine operated by Syncrude Canada Ltd Thursday and demanded a halt to rising production that critics say is devastating the region's environment, Greenpeace said Thursday. Greenpeace said in a release that 10 activists put a cap on the pipe at the Aurora North mine at Syncrude's project site near Fort McMurray in northern Alberta. Protesters also raised a banner that read "World's Dirtiest Oil: Stop the Tar Sands," and put a skull-and-crossbones flag atop yet another pipe into the tailings pond. The environmental group is calling for the Alberta government to stop approving new projects to exploit the region's oil sands, which hold the biggest petroleum reserves outside the Middle East. Oil companies are expected to spend more than $100 billion to nearly triple production from the region -- to more than 3 million barrels day -- by 2015. "It's time for the government to step in and start saying no to these companies and to put the brakes on development," said Mike Hudema, a tar sands campaigner at Greenpeace. The tailings pond at the mine owned by Syncrude, the biggest oil sands producer, focused global attention on the environmental costs of producing the region's tarry bitumen deposits when 500 ducks died after landing on the pond earlier this year. Heavy metals and other toxins are a byproduct when the tarry bitumen is separated out from oil sands using water, which is sent to settle in waste-water, or tailing, ponds. Alberta regulators plan to tighten rules for the toxic ponds, requiring developers of oil-sands projects to prepare operations and abandonment plans for the ponds and submit them for the regulator will review. It would also force companies to file schedules for pond construction, use, closure and other milestones with regulators, or face penalties if the rules are broken. However Greenpeace is also calling rules requiring the clean up of existing tailings ponds and stiffer penalties for environmental infractions. Syncrude could not immediately reached for comment. Syncrude is a joint venture owned by Canadian Oil Sands Trust, Imperial Oil Ltd, Petro-Canada , ConocoPhillips, Nexen Inc., Nippon Oil Corp. unit Mocal Energy Ltd. and Murphy Oil Corp. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/07/25/10589/ Published on Friday, July 25, 2008 by Environmental News Service Greenpeace Activists Arrested Protesting Oil Sands in Northern Alberta FORT MCMURRAY, Alberta, Canada - Eleven Greenpeace activists entered Syncrude's Aurora North Tar Sands facility north of Fort McMurray today, erecting a banner that transformed the opening of a tailings pond pipe into the "mouth" of a giant skull, spewing toxic sludge. Shortly after 8:00 am, two Greenpeaceers blocked the pipe by shutting down the valve before chaining and locking themselves to the control box. Two other activists hung a banner reading "World's Dirtiest Oil: Stop the Tar Sands," on the bank of the tailings pond. Before they could completely block the second pipe, Syncrude security took the 11 activists into custody and handed them over to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Charges are pending against all the demonstrators. Syncrude confirms that the Greenpeace activists entered the Aurora site today without permission. The company believes they gained access by breaking through a locked gate. The protestors were "escorted to another area on the site to ensure their safety," the company said in a statement, adding that there were no environmental impacts or operational upsets as a result of the incident. "We are thankful no one was hurt," said Syncrude President and CEO Tom Katinas. "While we encourage debate and dialogue about the environmental impacts of oil sands development, we do expect it to be conducted in a lawful and professional manner." "The action of the protestors put themselves at risk of injury given their unfamiliarity with the operations of a large and complex industrial site," Katinas said. "Big oil companies are pillaging Alberta's natural resources, robbing freshwater from the Athabasca River to make giant lakes of toxic sludge that are killing wildlife and poisoning local communities," said Mike Hudema, a tar sands campaigner with Greenpeace. "Today we brought our message to the perpetrators of this environmental crime with a clear message to put the brakes on the tar sands," Hudema said. The tar sands use more water than any other Alberta user. Current projects are licensed to remove more than 450 million cubic meters of water from the Athabasca River each year, about two and a half times the amount of water used by the city of Calgary each year. After use, the water is so contaminated with toxic chemicals that it is stored in toxic tailings ponds so large that they can be seen from space. With today's demonstration, the Greenpeacers targeted the same sludgy six-square-kilometer tailings pond where 500 ducks drowned in April, despite environmental regulations that require Syncrude to have wildlife deterrents in place. "We take a lot of pride in having systems in place to prevent birds from landing on settling basins and storage ponds," Syncrude's Katinas said at the time. "So we're very saddened and sorry that this occurred." It was the first time a large flock of birds landed on a settling basin in Syncrude's 30 years of operation, Katinas said. Syncrude uses propane-fired noisemakers to deter birds from entering the settling ponds and they had already been deployed on all other ponds by April 28, the date the birds died. But Syncrude says extreme winter weather conditions had delayed the deployment of the noisemakers on the Aurora Settling Basin. After an investigation, Alberta is still deciding whether or not to charge Syncrude under the province's environmental laws. The Syncrude tar sands facility lies about five hours drive north of Edmonton, Alberta. (Photo courtesy Dominion Blog) Greenpeace says tar sands pollution also has been associated with embryonic deformity and death of fish in the Athabasca River. The tar sands are taking their toll on the health of the area's human residents too, Greenpeace and indigenous leaders believe. Elevated levels of rare cancers have been reported in the First Nation community of Fort Chipewyan, downstream of the tar sands production site. Elders in the community of some 1,200 people say residents fell ill after production started near their homes on the southwestern end of Lake Athabasca. In May, the Alberta Cancer Board and Health Canada promised a "comprehensive" study into the high incidences of colon, liver, blood and bile-duct cancers reported in Fort Chipewyan. "For dozens of Alberta communities, the Athabasca River is their lifeline and when it is threatened, the health and the way of life of those communities is put at risk," said Greenpeace Tar Sands Campaigner Heather Milton-Lightening. "Our activists feel that the risk these communities face daily is far more significant than the risk we took today," she said. "If the government refuses to stand up for their rights, we will." Tar sands production contributes to global warming, the activists believe. Greenpeace said today that greenhouse gases from the tar sands are roughly equal to the emissions of all the cars on the road in Canada. Boreal forests, wetlands and wildlife are being wiped out by the tar sands, the campaigners warn. "An area the size of Vancouver Island has already been devastated for tar sands oil. If current runaway development is allowed to proceed unchecked, an area as big as the state of Florida could be destroyed," the group said today in a statement. Greenpeace is calling for no new approvals for tar sands projects as a first step. They group also wants assurances that no new tailings ponds will be built or existing ponds expanded, and that all existing ponds will be cleaned up and reclaimed. Finally, the activists say stiffer penalties should be implemented for oil companies that fail to meet environmental regulations. The Syncrude Project is a joint venture operated by Syncrude Canada Ltd. and owned by Canadian Oil Sands Limited, ConocoPhillips Oilsands Partnership II, Imperial Oil Resources, Mocal Energy Limited, Murphy Oil Company Ltd., Nexen Oil Sands Partnership, and Petro-Canada Oil and Gas. Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2008 http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/08/10/2330257.htm Protesters mark 'death of Murray' Posted Sun Aug 10, 2008 12:24pm AEST Updated Sun Aug 10, 2008 12:36pm AEST The protesters marked 'the death' of the Murray River. (ABC News) Map: Goolwa 5214 Related Story: States shouldn't have veto power over Murray-Darling: Greens Thousands of people have taken part in a protest at Goolwa south of Adelaide to demonstrate about the state of the lower lakes. The protesters observed a two-minute silence to mark the death of the Murray River. Protesters say the town of Goolwa at the base of the Murray is facing an environmental and social disaster and needs at least 250 gigalitres released downstream immediately to buy it more time and give it a chance of surviving. Faces in the crowd of several thousand included South Australian Opposition Leader Martin Hamilton-Smith, independent Senator Nick Xenophon and Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young. The crowd booed Premier Mike Rann and water ministers Karlene Maywald and Penny Wong for declining invitations to speak. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/2008/08/11/oilsands-protesters.html?ref=rss Oilsands bidding draws protesters to legislature Last Updated: Monday, August 11, 2008 | 5:59 PM CT Comments10Recommend8 CBC News Protesters opposed to oilsands development picketed the Saskatchewan legislature on Monday. (Stefani Langenegger/CBC) Protesters were outside the Saskatchewan legislature Monday, a day when the province was accepting bids on its oilsands land. "This is a very sad day for me," said Larissa Shasko, a member of the Green Party. "I cannot . stand idly by while this Saskatchewan government puts this province for sale to the oil and gas corporations." The province has had record land sales so far this year, with oil companies offering millions of dollars to explore for oil and gas. To a lesser but growing extent, companies have also been searching for oilsands, with hundreds of thousands of hectares in Saskatchewan up for bids. The protesters argue that extracting oil from oilsands requires enormous amounts of energy and will make it harder to meet climate change goals. Some of the Alberta oilsands have been stripmining operations, but Saskatchewan Energy Minister Bill Boyd said that won't be the case in Saskatchewan. Under the kind of "in situ" mining proposed for northern Saskatchewan, steam would be injected deep into the ground to liquify the oilsands enough to transport it through pipelines, the industry has proposed. "We feel that this will be no more intrusive than a conventional oil field," Boyd said. "Therefore, we think it's being done in a very responsible fashion." Longtime Saskatchewan environmentalists such as Jim Elliot aren't so sure. "Most tar sands will still need water, will still need energy, will still need natural gas to heat the stuff up," Elliot said. Elliot wants a moratorium on oilsands development until a full environmental assessment can be done; the provincial government says that's not necessary. http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/australian-news/4932539 Tent protest against pulp mill ABC - August 19, 2008, 7:31 pm Anti-pulp mill campaigners have set up a tent outside parliament in Launceston. Tasmanians Against the Pulp Mill (TAP) says the tent will stay in City Park for the two weeks of the parliamentary sitting. Parliament has moved from Hobart while renovations are done on Parliament
House. TAP spokesman, Tony Saddington, says the tent it will give people access to information on the proposed pulp mill and will highlight section 11 of the project's assessment act. He said the section prohibits anyone from claiming damages against Gunns. "If you own a farm, property or business or a normal householder and suffer adverse effects from Gunns pulp mill you've got no common law claim." Mr Saddington says TAP has been told by lawyers the section is without precedent. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Thu Aug 28 21:07:53 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2008 05:07:53 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Animal rights, welfare and conservation, part 1 of 2 Message-ID: <00b301c9098c$d0e352c0$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * JAPAN: Anti-whaling protests continue * US: Protester chains self to tree in protest over dog chaining * ITALY: Footballer protested over alleged cat killing * UK: Anti-fur protest "getting louder" * US: Opposition to sending elephant to Mexico * SERBIA: Protest against bearskin at British embassy * NEW ZEALAND: Vivisection conference protested * SURINAME: Protests over support for whaling * SOUTH AFRICA: Protest at university over animal testing * INDIA: Protest against cosmetic tests on animals * UK: Unilever targeted over threat to orang-utan * US: Protest over killing of sealions * SWEDEN/AUSTRALIA: Boycott victories in mulesing campaign * PHILIPPINES: Celebrity joins foie gras protest * CANADA: Fur protest at fashion show * TAIWAN: Dog-burning case sparks protests * AUSTRALIA: Kangaroo cull targeted * UK: Cambridge "go veg" protest * CYPRUS: Conservationists protest bird shooting * NEW ZEALAND: Protests target Procter and Gamble * AUSTRALIA: Live dog research angers vet students * AUSTRALIA: Sydney naked protest against animal exports, fur * US, Florida: Protest against Daytona Beach greyhound track http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=589337&rss=yes Paper whales in latest Japanese protest 19:08 AEST Mon Jun 30 2008 46 days 2 hours 6 minutes ago VIEWS: 0 | FLOCKS: 0 | 0 comments so far Anti-whaling protesters have paid a surprise visit to the Japanese Consulate in Sydney, leaving behind thousands of origami paper whales in a plea to have the country end its slaughter of the mammals. Federal police officers were quickly at the scene of Monday's protest where placards reading 'justice for whales' were held by people wearing T-shirts which read: 'I love Japan but whaling breaks my heart'. Greenpeace Australia CEO Steve Shallhorn was joined by crew members of the Greenpeace anti-whaling vessel the Esperanza, when he walked into the consulate on Monday morning. The group met with the Deputy Consular General Kazutoshi Inadome. "He received a petition of 50,000 signatures of people, many from Australia, but from around the world, asking for Japan to stop whaling in the Southern Ocean," Mr Shallhorn told reporters outside the consulate. Monday's action was also a show of anger over the detention of two Japanese Greenpeace activists who have been held without charge for 11 days. "Japan has failed to give any assurance at the International Whaling Commission meeting that they will halt their whaling program," Mr Shallhorn said. "The unjust behaviour towards Greenpeace activists who were exposing large scale corruption within the whaling program is causing concern around the world." Head of Consular security Nobushiro Oiwa accepted bagfuls of handmade paper origami whales. The 10,000 paper whales contain the names the 50,000 people who signed a petition. http://www.breakingnews.ie/world/mhgbgbqlcwid/rss2/ Japan: Whale protesters arrested over meat 'theft' 20/06/2008 - 08:14:21 Japanese police have arrested two environmentalists on suspicion of stealing a box of whale meat that they attempted to use as evidence of embezzlement by government-backed whalers. Police said in a statement today members from the environmental group Greenpeace Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki allegedly stole the box from a storage of a private postal company in Aomori, northern Japan, in April. Japan kills about 1,000 whales a year under a scientific whaling programme allowed under international rules, and sells the meat as food. Greenpeace and other opponents say the programme is just a cover for commercial whaling, which has been banned for major species since 1986. The group presented the box of meat last month as evidence of this. http://www.cbs7kosa.com/news/details.asp?ID=6917 Man Chained to Tree in Protest-07-06-08 Kara Lee Man Chained to Tree in Protest 07-06-08 CBS 7 News San Antonio, TX.-It is definitely something park visitors don't see often. An animal rights advocate in San Antonio, Texas chained himself to a tree in a local dog park this weekend. Adam Moran reportedly planned to stay there for 24 hours as part of a demonstration sponsored by the non-profit group, Dogs Deserve Better. The organization hopes to raise awareness about the harm of chaining dogs to trees and doghouses. For more information log onto dogsdeservebetter.com http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/1947037/Inter-Milan's-Luis-Figo-faces-black-cat-protest.html Inter Milan's Luis Figo faces black cat protest The Inter Milan footballer Luis Figo has faced protests from fans after he was accused of deliberately running over a black cat following a string of bad results. >From Nick Pisa in Rome Last Updated: 10:53PM BST 11 May 2008 The Portuguese star was booed as he arrived for training. Banners were held up bearing slogans including: "Figo, shame for Inter, justice for the cat". The controversy erupted after Vittorio Feltri, the editor of Libero, said Figo, 35, ran over the cat because it was bringing the team bad luck. The footballer, whose team is top of the Serie A league, denies the allegation. Inter's misfortune continued on Sunday when they drew 2-2 against Siena, leaving them one point ahead of Roma with one game to play. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/07/405092.html Anti-Fur Protests At Nauticalia Getting Louder SARC | 31.07.2008 22:25 | Animal Liberation | Ecology | South Coast SARC were out again today in Portsmouth to name and shame Nauticalia because of their unethical choice to keep selling toy cats made from real rabbit fur. We had a really strong turnout with activists from all over the South and West and beyond out being vocal about the horrific toys Nauticalia sell. A volunteer approached the shop to make sure they were still selling the barbaric toys and was suprised to find that they had been put on a half price offer because after all, who would pay the extreme prices Nauticalia were charging for murder in a basket? The protesters brought with them Nauticalia placards and a couple of megaphones today to inform everyone in the local area and outside the shop exactly why they were there. We had a great response from the speeches which were given with people remarking time and time again that they could hear us ever us loud and clear outside the shop and it was convincing people not to shop in a place which sells a souvenir so cruel, that the farms which produce fur were banned in the UK in 2003. The SARC bunny even had a go letting everyone know exactly what the Portsmouth Tourist scene tucks away in this dingy little corner of the Historic Dockyard, she also bounced around teaching children why respecting animals is important and posing for tourist photographs. The protesters (and the bunny) passed out hundreds of leaflets over the lunchtime rush and filled pages and pages of petitions. The heat is now on, not only for Nauticalia to take the vile creatures off their shelves, but for The Portsmouth Historic Dockyard to adopt a fur free policy. Campaigns like this don't fizzle out. They get stronger, until all the fur is gone. SARC http://www.statesman.com/news/content/gen/ap/TX_Elephant_Fight.html Plans to send elephant to Mexico stirs debate By ANA LEY Associated Press Writer DALLAS ? Jenny the elephant lazily poked her trunk into a bucket of fruit as her keepers at the Dallas Zoo hosed her during her morning bath, seemingly oblivious to the fact that she's about to be shipped far from her home of the past 22 years. She's also certainly unaware of the controversy her departure has stirred. Zoo officials are planning to send Jenny, who became the zoo's lone elephant when her companion died in May, to a drive-through wildlife park in Mexico because African elephants become unhappy when left alone. Activists say it's a terrible decision, and that Jenny is a nervous 9,000-pounder who fears cars and would be miserable there. "It would be inherently cruel to move her to Mexico," said Margaret Morin, a registered nurse who heads a group called Concerned Citizens for Jenny. "We've grown up with Jenny. She's our family. She deserves better than getting sent to a drive-through tourist attraction in Mexico." The group and dozens of other activists gathered in front of the Dallas Zoo last weekend protesting the move, and this week Dallas City Councilwoman Angela Hunt wrote a commentary in The Dallas Morning News criticizing the decision. They want Jenny to go to a much larger park in Tennessee. Hunt said she's concerned because the Mexican zoo is not subject to annual inspections and regulations by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and elephants in Mexico are also not protected by the U.S. Animal Welfare Act. "Jenny's situation is of great concern to many people I represent," Hunt told The Associated Press. "This is not an indictment of the zoo in Mexico, but Jenny deserves to be somewhere she will be happy." Officials at the Dallas Zoo, the Africam Safari Park near Puebla, Mexico, and even celebrity zookeeper Jack Hanna all say Africam is a top-notch facility where 32-year-old Jenny will be well cared for. "We know she is a nervous elephant, and with protected contact, she can approach people if she wants to and we can monitor her stress levels easily without anyone getting hurt or killed," said Africam owner Amy Camacho. Camacho said Jenny and her future companion, a female named Shanty, would share about five acres in a new African elephant exhibit at the park 80 miles southeast of Mexico City. Camacho said Africam would be a good place for the 32-year-old Jenny because she is an older animal and she is used to being in captivity. On Tuesday, Hanna released a statement supporting the zoo's decision. "These animals need our help to protect their natural habitat, as well as facilitate conservation programs throughout the country that are helping new generations of wildlife stewards and conservationists," his statement said. But Hunt and the other activists think Jenny would be much better off at the Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tenn., a much larger area where elephants can roam freely for hundreds of acres. Jenny's current home in Dallas is about one-sixth of an acre. The 2,700-acre refuge in Tennessee facility is home to 17 elephants and is known as a haven for troubled elephants. While the Elephant Sanctuary is not a member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, it is approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It is the nation's largest natural-habitat refuge. At the elephant sanctuary, Jenny would share a 300-acre enclosure with three other African elephants. Carol Buckley, who co-founded the haven in 1995, said the refuge would take Jenny, but the sanctuary is not supporting activists to persuade the zoo. Dallas Zoo spokeswoman Susan Eckert said the zoo has no plans to move Jenny to Tennessee. Instead, they plan to continue inspecting Africam Safari Park near Puebla, Mexico to ensure it is the right fit. Africam, founded in 1972, is considered one of the top zoos in Latin America and is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. On Tuesday, Dallas Zoo director Gregg Hudson visited the Mexico facility. The Dallas Zoo will consider bringing the animal back once its habitat for African animals is built, Eckert said, but officials are not yet sure whether she will return. Since the zoo will retain ownership of the animal, they will monitor her behavior at Africam to determine whether she would be happier in Dallas. The habitat is slated for completion in three years. For now, though, Jenny continues to frolic in the Texas heat until a final decision comes in the fall to move her to Mexico. Zoo officials say they will continue preparing to send her to Africam, although they would reconsider if they encounter a major problem with the facility. "Whenever you deal with children or animals, you have to consider a lot of options," Eckert said. "We're still trying to go through our plans, and we usually have time to consider our options, but with all the furor that we've had to go through, we've had to be a little more outspoken about our choices." http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/072808dnmetjenny.4329302.html Protesters want elephant Jenny to go to sanctuary 01:01 AM CDT on Monday, July 28, 2008 By JOANNA CATTANACH / The Dallas Morning News jcattanach at dallasnews.com Waving homemade signs reading "Sanctuary for Jenny" and "No to Mexico," more than 100 people rallied Sunday afternoon for Jenny, the Dallas Zoo's lone elephant. Video Mexican park director defends site for Dallas Zoo's Jenny July 27th, 2008 A group calling itself Concerned Citizens for Jenny organized the protest after zoo officials announced plans to move Jenny to the Africam Safari Park near Puebla, Mexico, in the fall. "Her life will be a hell in Mexico," said Margaret Morin, founder of the group. She said it has about 1,000 members. Zoo officials reject the criticism. "We don't want to put her in a facility that's sub-par," zoo director Gregg Hudson said. Also Online Owner says Mexican zoo 'good option' for Jenny The protesters say Jenny should be sent to the Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tenn. Animals there "are not exposed to the trauma of people and loud noises," said protester Katherine Schlund. She held a photo of Jenny taken nearly 20 years ago, when Ms. Schlund was a first-grader visiting the zoo. High school and college students also attended the protest, held just outside the zoo. Many said they have patronized the zoo for years and also want Jenny in Tennessee. JIM MAHONEY/DMN Jenny, a 9,000-pound female elephant was out of her quarters and available for viewing for the first time since KeKe, the zoo's oldest elephant died. View larger Photography Photo store "After 22 years of serving in this community, she deserves to retire," said protester Daniel Webb, a Southern Methodist University senior. Hunt's visits Dallas City Council member Angela Hunt supports the move to Tennessee. Her visit to the sanctuary this month far outshined her tour of Africam, she said. She saw three Asian elephants there in an enclosure that she estimated was less than one acre. Ms. Hunt did not attend the Sunday rally. Jenny's current home in Dallas is about one-sixth of an acre. The Tennessee sanctuary was featured Friday on the ABC news show 20/20 . Founded in 1995 by Carol Buckley and Scott Blais, the 2,700-acre refuge is home to 17 elephants and is known as a haven for troubled elephants. At the elephant sanctuary, Jenny would share a 300-acre enclosure with three other African elephants. Africam, founded in 1972, is considered one of the top zoos in Latin America and is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. The Tennessee sanctuary is accredited by the Association of Sanctuaries. Mr. Hudson, the zoo director, visited the sanctuary this month. He said the issue isn't about zoo versus sanctuary. It's about "who's going to be the best equipped to take care of Jenny every day," he said. Expansion He said Africam is that place, assuming it finishes expanding its elephant enclosure to nearly five acres and provides a companion for Jenny. Jenny would share a portion of the expanded enclosure with Shanty, a female African elephant. The majority of City Council members and Mayor Tom Leppert support the zoo's decision. But Ms. Morin and others say if Jenny moves to Mexico, they'll no longer patronize the zoo. "We feel betrayed by the zoo," said Ms. Morin. The protesters' concerns are "not falling on deaf ears," said Mr. Hudson. "No one is going to be as particular or as demanding as we are," he said. http://www.b92.net//eng/news/society-article.php?yyyy=2008&mm=08&dd=01&nav_id=52357 PETA protest at British embassy 1 August 2008 | 09:22 | Source: B92 BELGRADE -- An animal rights group protested in front of the British embassy in Belgrade on Thursday. Bare Skin, not Bear Skin (FoNet) PETA activists were denouncing the killing of Canadian black bares as part of the "Spare a Bear" initiative. The bear pelts are used to make headpieces for a British army regiment. Accordingly, PETA?s slogan is ?Bare Skin, not Bear Skin.? A European tour to promote the cause made a stop in Serbia yesterday. The female activists appeared in front of the embassy wearing nothing but luxurious hats made out of faux fur and Union Jack flags. They did not hide their surprise when a large number of news crews and photo reporters appeared to cover their protest. ?We hope that the people will visit our web site and we want to say to the [UK] Ministry of Defense that killing bears for making headpieces in the 21st century is unjustifiable, to say the least." "The feeling is fantastic. And if we needed to do it this way, in order to get the attention and protect the bears, then, we would have no problems to take our clothes off,? PETA?s Lauren Bowie said. Soon after Sean Moran, the UK consul to Serbia, visited the PETA activists. ?British Ministry of Defense has been considering the possibility to use artificial fur for the last ten years. PETA offered the alternative materials, which did not comply with the standards,? is what Moran, had to say. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0806/S00267.htm Anti-Vivisection Conference Protests in Auckland Friday, 20 June 2008, 10:54 am Press Release: Animal Rights Collective Anti-Vivisection Conference Protests in Auckland Animal Rights activists will be descending on Auckland to protest against a conference promoting animal experimentation. ANZCCART (the Australian and New Zealand Council for the Care of Animals in Research and Teaching) is the main pro-vivisection lobby group in Australasia. This year their annual conference will be held in Auckland from Sunday June 29th to Tuesday July 1st at the Ellerslie Events Centre, 100 Ascot Avenue, Greenlane, Auckland. SEARCH NZ JOBS Search Businesses FindA For all your PROPERTY needs Over 300,000 animals are used in vivisection each year in New Zealand. Organisations including the National Anti Vivisection Campaign (NAVC), Animal Rights Legal Advocacy Network (ARLAN), Save the Beagles Campaign and the Auckland Animal Rights Collective (AARC) are coming together to organise actions and events to highlight the plight of these animals used and abused in the name of science. TIMETABLE OF EVENTS AND ACTIONS: LIBERATE 08 - animal rights benefit shows Friday June 27th - R18 show at The Kings Arms Featuring.... Hellatosis Shitripper Blackout Army of Darkness Brick vs Face >From 8.00pm Saturday June 28th - all ages show at Ellen Melville Hall Featuring... Cry Wolf Strangers Brick vs Face Army of Darkness Antagonist Tourettes >From 5pm $10 on the door each night. All proceeds to go to outreach and animal rescue. Come along and make your voice heard for the animals! Public meeting & short film screening - Lifting the Veil of Secrecy: Animal Experimentation in New Zealand WHEN: Saturday 28th June, 7pm WHERE: Grey Lynn Community Centre Animal experimentation in New Zealand is regulated by Section 6 of the Animal Welfare Act 1999 entitled 'The Use of Animals in Research,Testing and Teaching'. This section exempts persons who experiment on live animals from all the other requirements of the Animal Welfare Act. Most importantly, it exempts animal researchers who experiment on live animals from being prosecuted for animal cruelty. Of the 300,000live animals are experimented on each year in New Zealand,approximately 17, 000 of those are subject to very severe suffering. Is this ethically acceptable in our society? Hear speakers from the National Anti Vivisection Campaign (NAVC), Save the Beagles Campaign and the Animal Rights Legal Advocacy Network (ARLAN) discuss the veil of secrecy surrounding animal experimentation in New Zealand. Also short film screening: Wasted Lives. This film makes a powerful moral and scientific case against animal experiments. It unravels the science question - making plain that animal experiments produce data that can't be reliably applied across the species. Information stalls on site. Tea, coffee and vegan cake provided. When: Saturday 28th June Time: 7:00pm - 8:30pm Where: Grey Lynn Community Centre: 510 Richmond Road, Grey Lynn Email nzarinfo at gmail.com for more information about this event. Rally at opening of ANZCCART conference WHEN: Sunday 29th June, 1pm WHERE: Ellerslie Event Centre, 100 Ascot Avenue, Greenlane, Auckland. Meet outside the conference venue at 1pm to hear anti-vivisection speakers and to protest against the unethical and unnecessary use of animals in scientific experimentation in New Zealand. Come along and bring your friends! This is your chance to speak out for the thousands of animals in vivisection labs in New Zealand (and for the millions across the world) that cannot speak for themselves! Protests on Monday 30th June and Tuesday 1st July On Monday and Tuesday, we will be holding a range of protests aimed at disrupting the ANZCCART conference, as well as raising awareness about the plight of animals maimed, tortured and killed every year in New Zealand animal testing laboratories. Monday 30th June: 7.00am: Morning protest as people go in to conference 6.45pm: Protest the conference dinner! Tuesday 1st July (last day of ANZCCART): 12 mid-day: lunchtime protest, give the vivisectors the send off they deserve! We will be meeting before each protest at 100 Ascott Ave, Greenlane, Auckland. We want these protests to be as visible and loud as possible so please bring: Placards, Drums, Noise-Makers, Banners etc. http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/newsdetail1.asp?storyID=139912 Waipuna Hotel draws protest 29/06/2008 14:32:01 Animal activists have gathered outside the Waipuna Hotel in Auckland, protesting against an animal research conference being held there. Anti-vivisection spokesman Mark Eden says the conference was moved when the Ellerslie Events Centre cancelled the booking after it was misled over the nature of the conference. He says pro-vivisection lobby groups are not welcome here, and his group is planning to cause as much disruption to the conference as possible. He says more than 300,000 live animals are experimented on each year, and 17,000 suffer severely. Mr Eden views vivisection as disgusting and ethically unacceptable. http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/news-8556--36-36--.html Environmentalists protest Suriname's pro-whaling position Published on Monday, June 16, 2008Email To Friend Print Version Demonstrators holding banners in front of the Surinamese embassy in Brazil protesting Suriname's pro-whaling position. By Ivan Cairo Caribbean Net News Suriname Correspondent Email: ivan at caribbeannetnews.com PARAMARIBO, Suriname: Activists from Greenpeace and other environmental groups held a demonstration Thursday in Brazil and Chile against Suriname?s pro-whaling voting at the International Whaling Commission (IWC). The activists are urging the Suriname government to start voting for the whales instead of for those who are hunting them for commercial reasons. During the protest in front of the Suriname embassy in Brasilia and at the venue of this month?s IWC-meeting in Santiago, Chile, demonstrators were holding banners calling on Suriname ?not to shame Latin-America? and to ?vote for the whales?. Currently this Caricom member state is the only country in South America that is cooperating with Japan to end the decades-long moratorium on commercial whaling. In Brazil protesters presented a petition to the Surinamese embassy, denouncing the country?s position on commercial whaling. A Greenpeace activist hands over a petition to an official of the Suriname embassy in Brazil during protest urging the Suriname government not to support Japan in its bid to resume commercial whaling. In an interview with Caribbean Net News, Greenpeace activist Farah Obaidullah, maintained that the Surinamese government has no plausible explanation why it is voting to resume commercial whaling. Surinamese officials however argue that since whaling is believed to be an ancient Japanese tradition and whale meat is part of the menu in several Japanese communities Suriname will not stand in the way of Japan for observing that tradition. They also indicate that whales are threatening fish stocks therefore sustainable whaling should be allowed, in order to safe guard the fishing industries worldwide. ?Suriname is supports preservation of the environment and biodiversity, but it also respects the cultures of other nations,? Kermechend Raghoebarsing, minister of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries said recently during a press conference. Greenpeace refutes these claims, however, saying that there?s no scientific proof that whales are a threat to the fishing industry. According to Obaidullah, the Surinamese government doesn?t have a unified position on the whaling issue. Following discussions she had in March with several ministries, it is evident, she said, that only the ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries supports whaling. ?It seems like only the ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries supports commercial whaling. The discussions I had here with officials revealed that other ministries which also have a stake in this matter don?t have a clue what?s going on,? she said. She maintains that possibly there is more at hand than securing development aid from Japan by supporting the call for resumption of commercial whaling. ?There are several countries such as Brazil which receive development aid from Japan but still vote against whaling at the IWC.? According to the Greenpeace activist, Suriname should follow in Dominica?s steps, which announced this week that it would abstain from voting this month at the IWC meeting in Chile. ?Whales form an integral part of our marine ecosystems and it is important that we protect them," says Leandra Goncalves from Greenpeace Brazil. ?Suriname is well-known for its pro-active position with respect to safeguarding its own environment. Its policy at the IWC is therefore all the more hypocritical and puts Suriname to shame amongst other Latin-American countries,? said Samuel Leiva from Greenpeace Chile. In January 2007 Japan granted US$7 million to Suriname for the construction of a small-scale fisheries centre in Paramaribo. Responding to questions from reporters, Foreign Affairs minister Lygia Kraag-Keteldijk then denied that the donation was a favour from Japan in exchange for Suriname's vote to resume commercial whaling at the meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in May that year. ?This project fits within the framework of the cooperation between the two countries. It has nothing to do with the whaling issue,? the minister said. Suriname have constantly sided with Japan and other pro-whaling nations and voted to end the moratorium on commercial whaling at last year's IWC meeting, since it became an IWC-member in 2003. Japan, along with a number of countries, including Norway, Nicaragua and Iceland, advocates the lift of a 20-year-old ban, while other nations, including Brazil, Spain, Chile and Peru are against. http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Medical&set_id=1&click_id=117&art_id=vn20080425070822281C223074 Protest over lab tests on animals April 25 2008 at 04:14PM By Kanina Foss Every second, about five animals die in laboratories around the world. They are dissected, infected, scalded, drowned, electrocuted, poisoned, de-limbed and brain-damaged, often without the benefit of anaesthesia or painkillers. Thursday was World Dayfor Laboratory Animals. In Joburg, animal rights activists gathered to protest outside Wits, one of the universities in South Africa that conducts animal tests. Scientists argue that the benefit to humans justifies the suffering inflicted on animals "We believe that animals shouldn't be exploited the way they are," said Animal Rights Africa trustee Alan Rolstone. Animals are used to test cosmetics, medical drugs, tobacco, and commercial products such as household cleaners. Beauty Without Cruelty spokesperson Anne van Vliet said she had spoken to a vet who had been in attendance during a test on cats for painkillers. The scientists took two cats, one of which had been administered the painkiller, burnt their paws on a hot plate and compared their reactions. Scientists argue that the benefit to humans justifies the suffering inflicted on animals. But activists say animal testing is a fraudulent practice because it's unreliable, as animals are too different from humans. "It has been proved time and time again that results from animal-based research are not reliable," said Van Vliet. "You cannot extrapolate animal research results onto human beings." Van Vliet added that the conditions in research laboratories, where animals live in terror, contributed to false results. http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=351729 PETA activists protest against animal killing for testing cosmetics ANI Wednesday 23rd April, 2008 Mumbai, Apr 23 : Activists of People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) on Monday staged a protest against animal killing for testing cosmetics. "We are here to try and bring an awareness amongst the people about the cruelty endured by the animals that are used for cosmetic testing around the world. Progressive countries around the world have given up cosmetic testing but countries such as India continue with such pre-historic thing," said an activist. "There are so many new things that have been developed, people can use DNA technique, they can use Computer models to test the animals. There is no need to put your shampoo into rabbit eyes or make a hamster or a rat eat some lipsticks so that we look beautiful," said Jaya Sinha, campaign manager PETA. PETA activists displayed a huge dinosaur with words "cosmetic testing on animals is prehistoric." "We are here to tell that this (Animal testing on animals) is a very old technique. Since there are new techniques available we should not test on animals," said Simran, Member PETA http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7358071.stm Ape protest at Unilever factory Some of the protesters were dressed as orang-utans About 50 Greenpeace campaigners, some dressed as apes, have staged a protest at two Unilever sites over the company's use of palm oil. The protesters went into the plant at Port Sunlight, Wirral, and Unilever House, London, early on Monday. Campaigners left both sites about nine hours later after talks with managers. Greenpeace claims the use of palm oil is damaging the Indonesian rainforest, but Unilever says it is leading the search for a sustainable product. In November, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) - which Unilever chairs - agreed criteria for sustainable palm oil production which addresses many of Greenpeace's concerns, the company said. "The problem is simply that demand of palm oil has exploded," a spokesperson said. "It is essential that all those involved sign up to agreed criteria to make sustainability work on the ground - but this is not an easy process and is taking longer than we would all like. It was a frank exchange of views but very amicable and grown up Unilever spokesman "Nevertheless, we remain absolutely committed to finding a solution." A spokeswoman for Merseyside Police said officers monitored the protesters during the demonstration, which she described as "peaceful". A Greenpeace spokesman said the group arrived in two vans at the front and back entrance of the Wirral site at about 0640 BST and simply walked in. Later at 0735 BST, campaigners dressed as orang-utans scaled ladders on to a balcony at the headquarters in London. Campaigners left both sites at about 1545 BST after a meeting with a senior Unilever manager from London. Andy Tait, a campaign manager for Greenpeace at the Wirral protest site, said: "Unilever have promised a substantive response in the next couple of weeks and during that time we will look at other ways to keep up the pressure. "Today has been a success in terms of keeping it on the public's and Unilever's agenda but the real success will be when Unilever changes their policies by not dealing with suppliers who destroy the rainforest." A Unilever spokesman said production at the plant in the Wirral had not been affected by the action. "It was all very peaceful and amicable," said the spokesman. "One of our senior managers in London met with a Greenpeace representative today. It was a frank exchange of views but very amicable and grown up." Greenpeace is urging Unilever to use its influence to stop palm oil suppliers clearing areas of rainforest - the natural habitat of orang-utans in Indonesia - to support the crop. Palm oil is an ingredient in foods, soaps and detergents and a bio-fuel added to diesel for cars. http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2008/05/animal_rights_activists_protes.html Animal rights activists protest as wildlife officials investigate killing of sea lions In The Oregonian's news podcast, Today in Oregon, for Monday, May 5, 2008: ? Animal rights activists protested today near Bonneville Dam while fisheries officials investigated the illegal killing of six sea lions http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/05/06/2236987.htm Mulesing protesters have boycott win Posted Tue May 6, 2008 3:17pm AEST International animal rights organisation People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) says it is hopeful more companies will boycott Australian wool producers who still use the controversial mulesing process on their sheep. PETA has convinced two Swedish retailers to stop buying wool from Australian farmers who cut skin from their sheep's backside to prevent fly strike. AB Lindex which has almost 350 retail outlets in Europe and RNB Retail and Brands, which has 450 shops in 12 countries say they will only sell wool products from Australian farmers who refuse to use the procedure. The director of PETA's Asia Pacific branch, Jason Baker, says retailers will continue to send a strong message to farmers, until they abandon mulesing. "A lot of retailers are talking to the wool industry and they're not really trusting what the wool industry is telling them," he said. "They first told them they would stop all mulesing by 2010, then it was the end of 2010, then they're calling it a target date, instead of a deadline." "So the retailers didn't feel they had a strong enough goal from the industry and so they're putting it in writing themselves." Mr Baker says there are more effective and humane methods of preventing fly strike. "Australia is really the only country in the world that does mulesing. It doesn't happen in other countries and that's why there's so much pressure on the industry." Another animal rights group says the Federal Government needs to intervene to stop farmers using the controversial mulesing process. Glenys Oogjes from Animals Australia says the Federal Government needs to put more pressure on wool producers. "The Rudd Government, as the previous government did, have left it to the wool industry, that is they've said it's an industry issue," she said. "I actually think that that's a bit of a cop out. I think governments are there to do public good and to ensure that we're forward thinking here in Australia." The peak Australian body - Wool Producers has so far been unavailable for comment. http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/man/2008/04/30/feat/pinoy.stars.join.protest.v..foie.gras.production.html Wednesday, April 30, 2008 Pinoy stars join protest v. foie gras production WHAT do top model Isabel Roces, actor and Senator Ramon "Bong" Revilla Jr. and comedian and cover girl Rufa Mae Quinto have in common? They -- along with actress and singer Yasmien Kurdi and veteran actor Eddie Gutierrez -- have all signed People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) Asia-Pacific's pledge never to eat or buy foie gras and to encourage their millions of fans to do the same. Why? Because foie gras is the enlarged, diseased liver of ducks and geese who are painfully -- and often fatally -- force-fed using pipes that are plunged down their throats up to three times per day. Other movie performers who have signed the pledge include Arci Munoz, Alicia Mayer and K Brosas; models Corey Wills, Raya Mananquil and Bianca Valerio; and Jack TV's The Peep Show host Karen "Dylan" Vizcarra. Foie gras is made from the livers of ducks and geese who are force-fed and develop a painful liver disease. Foie gras farms in the US, Europe and Canada have documented sick, dead, and dying animals. Some animals had holes in their necks from pipe injuries. Dead birds were dangling from wires as bloods pilled from their neck wounds onto the live birds beneath them. "Force-feeding birds until their organs explode is one of the most violent forms of cruelty to animals on factory farms today," said crusade manager Rochelle Regodon. "All Filipinos can protect ducks and geese from this torture simply by refusing to buy or eat foie gras," Regodon said. Foie gras has been banned in 15 countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Israel, and Switzerland, as well as in the US in the state of California and the City of Chicago. Pope Benedict XVI once referred to foie gras production as the "degrading of living creatures to a commodity" and added that it "contradict(s) the relationship of mutuality that comes across in the Bible." For more information and to sign the pledge, visit PETAAsiaPacific.com. (Press release) http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080429/peta_protest_080429/20080429?hub=Canada Nearly naked anti-fur protesters visit trade show Updated Tue. Apr. 29 2008 10:42 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff Nearly naked, green-painted anti-fur campaigners converged on a Montreal trade show Tuesday, hoping to convince passers-by that no matter what their thoughts may be on animal cruelty, fur is bad for the environment. Lucas Solowey, a member of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and president of the Concordia University Animal Rights Association, was one of about 15 people who protested outside the Fur Council of Canada's annual event in downtown Montreal. Of those, three were nearly naked, wearing green spray paint and dressed in nothing but underwear and wigs. The stunt was meant to call attention to what PETA sees as the deception of the Fur Council's recent "Fur Is Green" media campaign, which calls fur the "ultimate eco-clothing." "There's nothing green about fur," said Solowey, who said chemical preservatives are required to condition fur that is going to be used for clothing. "Those toxic chemicals run into our waterways." The Fur Council's executive vice-president called PETA's angle "misinformation," saying harsh chemicals are more often used to treat leather than fur, which is too delicate to be treated with strong substances. "Fur dressing is really quite gentle," Alan Herscovici told CTV.ca. "It's mostly treated with alum salts, lanolin, table salts... They're fishing at a red herring." He called fur a sustainable clothing option, noting the fur trade has been going on since Canada's early days without impacting beaver populations. PETA's endorsement of fake fur over the real stuff indicates a lack of understanding of conservation, since most fake furs are made with petroleum-based products which are costly to the environment and difficult to break down, Herscovici said. Solowey has a hard time believing the fur industry's claim to sustainability, noting many Canadian furs come from farmed animals, not from the wild. The manure run-off from such farms is another cause of pollution, he said. Herscovici said the Canadian industry produces farmed fur over wild fur at a two to one ratio. "The fur industry is misleading people," said Solowey. "If people... see the cruelty and toxic waste involved they might take a second glance at their actions. Tradition doesn't justify cruelty." He said his group has filed a complaint with Canada's Competition Bureau over the Fur Is Green campaign. PETA's parallel "Fur Is Dead" site says the Fur Council deliberately misleads consumers into thinking that buying fur helps the environment. "The fur industry pollutes the environment with highly toxic chemicals, including sulfuric acid, formaldehyde, and ammonia," states the website. "Dressing and dyeing furs is classified as high-polluting by Canada's National Environment Protection Bureau." When asked his thoughts on the current debate in the European Union on a potential seal pelt ban, Herscovici called the anti-sealing campaign in another example of manipulation of the public by special interest groups. "A lot of governments in Europe are coalition governments and they have to have something to pay off their left wing or their green wing," he said, noting most countries in the world participate in some kind of wildlife harvesting. Herscovici, the author of a book titled "Second Nature: The Animal-Rights Controversy," appeared at a news conference in support of the industry Tuesday morning alongside Quebec Industry Minister Raymond Bachand and NWT Sustainable Development Minister Bob McLeod. "The more we dig into it, the more we come back to nature -- and fur is nature," Bachand told CTV Montreal in an interview. On Monday, the Newfoundland and Labrador government called on Ottawa to help prevent the EU's proposed ban on seal pelts. http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/local/kaohsiung/2008/04/29/154048/Burning%2Ddog.htm Burning dog case draws protests The China Post news staff Tuesday, April 29, 2008 KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan -- More than 200 dog lovers gathered at a junior high school in Kaohsiung yesterday to protest two school students' act of burning dogs with alcohol. Wearing dark clothes, the protesters held placards with slogans showing their anger and calling for more humane treatment of dogs and other animals. This was part of a series of protests after the reports of two students at the junior high school and two more students at a senior high school in Kaohsiung recently used alcohol to burn dogs. The protesters stressed that they were not seeking penalties against the students, but they wanted to use the case to remind people in the largest city in southern Taiwan to show care for dogs and other pets. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004382161_sealion30m.html?syndication=rss Trapping protests rise after sea lion dies By The Associated Press Related Archive | Court rules partly in favor of sea lions PORTLAND ? One of seven sea lions trapped at Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River and sent to the Port Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma has died while undergoing medical inspection before transfer to a Sea World park, the Humane Society of the United States said Tuesday. The society, which is mounting a federal appeals-court challenge to federal authorization to kill or capture some of the animals, demanded a moratorium on the captures until a full investigation can be held. "Given that sea lions eat so few of the salmon compared to overfishing and other impacts, there should be no rush to remove these animals from the wild, especially in light of the apparent problems with capture and relocation," said Michael Markarian, the group's executive vice president. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesman Rick Hargrave confirmed the death, saying the sea lion "went under anesthesia and never came back." Hargrave added that the department's marine-mammal specialist, Robin Brown, said such deaths are neither common nor unusual among marine mammals. Hargrave said plans are to continue trapping on Mondays and Thursdays. The sea lion, branded as B198, was anesthetized so blood samples and other biological work could be done to make sure it was healthy, said Sharon Young, who directs the marine-mammal program for the Humane Society. Oregon and Washington fish and wildlife authorities started trapping the animals on Thursday after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said federally authorized captures could proceed but said no animals could be killed pending the outcome of a hearing the court has scheduled for May 8. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), at the request of Oregon and Washington, authorized the killing or capture of up to 85 sea lions a year for five years at the base of the dam, where they feed on salmon headed upriver to spawn. The NMFS recommended that the total number be closer to 30 and that emphasis be placed on live trapping. State wildlife officials say they have confirmed commitments for homes for 19 or 20 of the animals. Those sent to Tacoma were branded or otherwise identifiable as being among about 60 animals known to be problems and targeted for immediate removal. Several others, including some threatened Steller's sea lions, have been caught at the dam but were not on the "wanted" list and were released on the spot or taken to the mouth of the river near Astoria, Ore., and freed. The sea lions are not endangered or threatened, but are protected under the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act. An amendment to the act allows selected animals to be captured or killed under some circumstances if states request it. The Humane Society contends the NMFS has not proved the required "significant negative impact" from sea lions on the salmon runs. It seeks an injunction barring trapping or killing for this year until the case can get through the courts. The government contends the animals do major damage to fish runs that are supported at heavy public cost. It is backed by Columbia River Indian tribes and commercial- and sport-fishing interests. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SYD44767.htm Protesters fail to disrupt Australia kangaroo cull 20 May 2008 07:36:20 GMT Source: Reuters CANBERRA, May 20 (Reuters) - Protesters failed on Tuesday to stop the controversial cull of hundreds of kangaroos on a military base near the Australian capital, Canberra, which animal rights activists had branded as "barbaric". Two protesters who broke through security and police lines in a bid to free kangaroos penned inside a screened enclosure reached the wrong animals, with vets tranquillising and killing almost 400 kangaroos in a separate area, the military said. "The actions of these protesters stressed a small number of kangaroos that had been capture-darted," said defence spokesman Brigadier Andrew Nikolic. Authorities said the 400 eastern grey kangaroos, which feature on Australia's coat of arms, threatened other endangered local species through overgrazing. A total of 600 kangaroos lived on the 200-hectare (495-acre) military communications base on the outskirts of Canberra, and the military said they would all have starved had not 400 of them been darted and killed with barbiturates. Foreign Minister Stephen Smith denied the cull would damage Australia's overseas reputation as local newspapers carried cartoons of the coat of arms on the parliament peppered with bullet holes where the kangaroo usually sits. "Culls have occurred in the past in Australia. They may well occur in the future, and the scientific and public policy assessment will stand and fall on its merits," Smith said. Up to 4 million wild kangaroos are culled each year in Australia from a total population of 50 million to control population and prevent overbreeding. Animal activists have written to former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney and his recently divorced wife Heather Mills asking them to fund a A$750,000 ($714,000) relocation of the animals ruled out by the government as too expensive. "(Mills) said that she will donate all the money from her divorce proceedings to animal welfare groups," Animal Liberation NSW spokeswoman Angie Stephenson told local media. In March McCartney appeared on a Web site set up by the British animal welfare group Viva! to condemn the cull and protect the kangaroos from "shameful massacre". In 2004 there was an international outcry over the shooting of 900 kangaroos at a dam supplying water to Canberra. The animals were causing erosion problems through grazing. ($1=A$1.05) (Reporting by Rob Taylor; editing by Roger Crabb) http://www.stuff.co.nz/4554931a12.html Protesters frighten wrong kangaroos after break-in AAP | Wednesday, 21 May 2008 Protesters have broken into a Canberra defence property in a bid to disrupt the controversial culling of more than 400 kangaroos ? but targeted the wrong animals. But instead of stopping the cull they frightened and agitated a group of kangaroos which had been sedated and were due for release from a fertility trial, defence said. The culling resumed this afternoon after an estimated 40 eastern-grey kangaroos were euthanased by defence contractors yesterday. The roos are being gathered in a pen at the former naval communications property at Lawson, in northern Canberra, then moved into an enclosed area where they are put down. Two protesters gained access to the property and tried to disrupt the cull. "The actions of these protesters stressed a small number of kangaroos that had been capture darted," defence spokesman Brigadier Andrew Nikolic said. "These particular kangaroos are part of the defence fertility trial and were recovering from sedation prior to release. "The actions of the protesters frightened and agitated the kangaroos." Defence has called on the protesters, gathered outside the site, to act in a peaceful and law-abiding way. Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett asked protesters to accept the cull is also for the benefit of other species at the site, some of them endangered. "A properly-administered humane cull, difficult as it is, is the right course of action," he said, recognising that some people were passionate about the issue. "As a regrettable last option, these kinds of actions have to be taken. "You have to look at other species that are being affected by those kangaroos. "These's no doubt that the authorities have to undertake this in a way which is appropriate and is humane, and I'm sure they will do that." Foreign Minister Stephen Smith was quizzed about the cull's possible damage to Australia's image overseas and whether it would empower the pro-whaling lobby. "I don't think it will," he told reporters. "Culls have occurred in the past in Australia, they may well occur in the future. "And the scientific and public policy assessment will stand and fall on its merits." ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope, who has long supported the cull, said it should have been done earlier. Up to 4,000 roos were culled every year in the ACT alone, he said. "Private land owners cull every year in the ACT to control eastern grey kangaroos," he told reporters. "There's no controversy, there's no media interest and there's no demonstrations until the land manager turns out to be a government (department)." Defence had no option but to undertake the cull, he said. Animal Liberation NSW has asked the Rudd government to allow it time to raise the $750,000 ($NZ936,563.43) needed to relocate the kangaroos. But spokeswoman Angie Stephenson said she was yet to receive a reply. "I've put to them that if it's too expensive for the defence force to pay for the relocation ? and that's the only reason they are killing them ? then Animal Liberation and the other wildlife groups will gladly take the relocation on board and do it for them," she said. "We are going to put it to (Sir) Paul McCartney and (his ex-wife) Heather Mills as well. "(She's) said that she will donate all the money from her divorce proceedings to animal welfare groups." Calls to the office of parliamentary secretary for defence Mike Kelly were not returned. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23713387-1242,00.html?from=public_rss Wet weather dampens kangaroo cull protests May 17, 2008 02:39pm Article from: AAP WET weather seems to have dampened expected protests against the Canberra kangaroo cull. Only a small number of protesters turned out on day one of a process which is expected to run for some weeks. The cull was announced yesterday afternoon when defence spokesman Brigadier Andrew Nikolic said the Federal Government had withdrawn support for research into relocating some 400 surplus kangaroos from the former navy transmitting station in Belconnen in Canberra's north. "Defence therefore has no option but to undertake a cull," he said. That prompted an outcry from animal welfare activists who said hundreds would turn out today. But in the face of wet weather the turnout was more modest. ACT Animal Liberation spokesman Bernard Brennan said today all was quiet because the weather had really closed in. "So we are saving our energy. We have just got a dozen or so people at various points around the place, just keeping an eye on it," he told Sky News. But he said many more could be called upon once the cull started. Mr Brennan said there were some 600 kangaroos on the 200-hectare site which was too many. He said a figure of $3.5 million had been cited as the cost of relocating the kangaroos from Belconnen into NSW. "The problem is, it's going to cost a lot of money no matter what they do. Because it is in suburbia they can't use firearms," he said. "It doesn't matter whether they tranquilise these kangaroos and kill them or dart these kangaroos and move them, the cost is going to be very high. "They are saying it is going to cost too much to move the kangaroos but the cost to move them is not going to be much different than the cost to kill them." Defence plans to cull around 400 kangaroos and has contracted a private firm Cumberland Ecology which has expertise in kangaroo population management. The kangaroos will be tranquilised with a dart gun then injected with the deadly chemical Lethabarb. The cull was initially planned for earlier this year but was postponed to allow consideration of alternatives. It drew international condemnation by animal activists including British group Viva!, which has the support of celebrity rock stars Sir Paul McCartney and Chrissie Hynde. http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=566645&rss=yes Roo protesters charged in Canberra 18:25 AEST Wed May 21 2008 80 days 13 hours 12 minutes ago Land where a roo cull is taking place has been claimed. By Julian Drape and Susanna Dunkerley Eight people protesting against Canberra's kangaroo cull have been charged with trespass and banned from the commonwealth site where it's taking place. The Defence department has also accused animal welfare activists of again attempting to free kangaroos which weren't going to be culled. Four men and four women, indigenous elders among them, were taken away in police vans on Wednesday after they jumped the boundary fence at the former naval site and tried to light a ceremonial fire. They were later charged with trespassing on commonwealth land. The protesters have been prohibited from returning to the site in Canberra's north until their court appearance early next month. "There are bail conditions involved and one of those is that they're not allowed to return to the area," an ACT Policing spokesman said. "We support people's right to protest as long as it's done lawfully and peacefully." Defence contractors began culling about 400 eastern grey kangaroos on Monday after the federal government refused to cover the estimated $3.5 million cost of relocating the animals. Ngunnawal people spokeswoman Isobel Coe said the protesters were reclaiming the land. "We are Aboriginal people and we have come here to claim our land," Ms Coe told police. "We are claiming our land and that's what our sacred fire means." Other protesters say their vigil will continue indefinitely. "As far as we are concerned it's never finished," Wildcare's Pat O'Brien said. "We will be back here for the next year, the next two years, the next four years, putting up signs to remind people of the kangaroos that have been murdered." But Defence says it is acting responsibly and the protesters are misguided. Two internal fences were cut late Tuesday night allowing six kangaroos to escape from a recovery yard. Defence spokesman Brigadier Andrew Nikolic said those animals weren't earmarked for culling. "These particular kangaroos are part of Defence's fertility control project and were not to be euthanased," Brigadier Nikolic said in a statement. "The action was dangerous because the animals were partly sedated and following release could have drowned in the dam." Protesters also mistakenly agitated sedated kangaroos involved in the fertility trial on Tuesday, Defence said. The cull, which involves the kangaroos being tranquillised with darts and then injected with a lethal drug, is expected to take about three to four weeks to complete. http://en.epochtimes.com/news/8-5-22/70914.html Whale and Roo Killing Protests Coincide in Canberra AAPMay 22, 2008 Pro-whaling groups in Japan have defended their hunting of the mammals by pointing to Australia's killing of kangaroos. (Attila Kisbenedek/AFP/Getty Images) CANBERRA?Greenpeace stepped up its campaign against Japan's killing of whales in Canberra today as protesters a few kilometres away continued their fight against a controversial kangaroo cull. Greenpeace representatives sought to deliver a letter to the Japanese ambassador demanding an open and thorough investigation into an alleged whale meat embezzlement scandal. The environment group has accused Japanese whalers of stealing meat from the country's annual research hunt in the Antarctic and selling it on the black market. A criminal complaint has been filed with the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office against 12 crew members, the group said. Its four-month investigation had found that crew of the Nisshin Maru factory ship had smuggled the meat ashore in bags designated as personal luggage and passed it to traders to be sold illegally. Pro-whaling groups in Japan have defended their hunting of the mammals by pointing to Australia's killing of kangaroos. Japanese TV and radio have covered protests against the culling of more than 400 kangaroos on defence land in Canberra, which finally got under way late last week and was to continue today . Protesters today continued a vigil at the site of the cull after eight demonstrators were yesterday charged with trespass. Meanwhile, activists who gathered outside the Japanese embassy in Canberra today displayed a large banner in Japanese and English characters, saying: "Stolen whale meat. Scandal." The letter asked that the Japanese public prosecutor's investigation into the meat scandal be as open and thorough as possible. The investigation should not merely scapegoat some members of the ship's crew and reveal how high up the command ladder it reached," Greenpeace whales campaigner Rob Nicoll told reporters. "We're also asking the Japanese government, given that there is this controversy and possible corruption within the whaling program, that all scientific permits are revoked and includes both the north Pacific scientific whaling program and the scientific program that takes place down in the Southern Ocean. Delivery of the letter was part of coordinated action at sites around the world. Mr Nicoll wants Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to raise the issue with Japan at the July meeting of G8 leaders in Tokyo. "We expect ... this issue is broached and that we get some movement and hopefully an agreement by the Japanese government to end whaling in the Southern Ocean," he said. http://www.chinapost.com.tw/asia/australia/2008/05/22/157576/Australian%2Dpolice.htm Australian police arrest kangaroo cull protesters Reuters Thursday, May 22, 2008 CANBERRA -- Police arrested eight protesters on Wednesday as they tried to stop a cull of hundreds of kangaroos on a military base near the Australian capital, and local Aborigines joined the campaign against the slaughter. Elders from the local indigenous Ngunnawal clan said they were reclaiming the land from the Australian Defence Force, lighting a small ceremonial fire which they attempted to carry onto the defence communications site. "We are claiming our land and that's what our sacred fire means," elder Isobel Coe shouted at police as protesters forced their way to the site of the cull. Police arrested four men and four women, who will face trespass charges. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,356849,00.html Aborigines Arrested for Protesting Kangaroo Cull in Australian Capital Wednesday, May 21, 2008 CANBERRA, Australia ? Police arrested eight Aboriginal activists after they climbed a fence into a government site Wednesday to protest the culling of 400 kangaroos, which are viewed as sacred symbols by Australia's indigenous people. The four men and four women were charged with trespassing and released on bail. They were scheduled to appear in court next month, police said. The eight Aboriginal protesters, led by renowned activist Isabel Coe, climbed over a gate to enter the abandoned military site in Canberra. They carried the black, red and yellow Aboriginal flag and smoldering eucalyptus leaves to light what Coe called a "sacred fire," which the activists sat around. "We're here to claim our land today and to save the kangaroos," Coe said. ? Click here for photos. The activists did not resist when police arrested them about an hour after the protest began. Some 30 protesters who remained outside the fence jeered the police. The protest was out of sight of the pens where kangaroos have been corralled before being killed with lethal injections. Australians are divided on the merits of a mass killing of an iconic animal featured in their national coat of arms. Defense Department authorities began the cull on Monday on the site where about 600 kangaroos live. Scientists say the kangaroos' growing population threatens the animals' own survival, as well as that of endangered native species of reptiles and insects. Officials have refused to comment on how many kangaroos had so far been killed in an operation that was expected to take two to three weeks. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was monitoring the cull and said inspectors at the site Monday found animal welfare standards were met. Defense officials reported Wednesday that intruders had cut through two internal fences overnight on the site, freeing six kangaroos from a yard where they had been recovering from the effects of tranquilizer darts. These kangaroos had been sedated as part of fertility experiments and were not to be killed with lethal injections, Defense spokesman Brigadier Andrew Nikolic said in a statement. Five of the kangaroos were recaptured but one had escaped to the free kangaroo population on the site, Nikolic said. "The cull is being undertaken in the most humane manner possible and under the guidance of animal management experts," he said. A police statement said that the eight activists were released on bail on condition that they do not again enter the site. They will make their first court appearance on June 6 on the trespass charges, which carry a maximum fine of $1,050. But a protest leader Pat O'Brien, who was not arrested, said the Aborigines plan to apply for a court injunction preventing the slaughter of any more kangaroos while they fight the charges. http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/roo-protest-rock-thrower-arrested/2008/05/23/1211183054954.html?s_cid=rss_news Roo protest 'rock thrower' arrested May 23, 2008 - 11:05AM ACT police have arrested a woman accused of throwing rocks at security staff at the site of a controversial kangaroo cull in Canberra. Police said officers called to the site about 7pm (AEST) yesterday arrested a 53-year-old woman from the inner-south Canberra suburb of Deakin. She was granted bail and is due to face the ACT Magistrates Court on June 6, charged with using a weapon or missile likely to injure another person. The latest incident brings to 10 the number of people arrested at the cull site on defence land in northern Canberra. Defence contractors are culling more than 400 eastern grey kangaroos at the former naval communications base property at Lawson. The kangaroos are being tranquillised with darts and then injected with a lethal drug. The cull, which started on Monday, is expected to take about three to four weeks. Yesterday, a 57-year-old man was taken away by police after allegedly damaging property at the site. Earlier, four men and four women were charged with trespassing on commonwealth land. AAP http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23720894-421,00.html?from=public_rss Protesters fight roo cull as human shields By Peter Jean May 19, 2008 03:00am ANIMAL liberationists are threatening to act as human shields to prevent a kangaroo cull on military land. Killing pens and refrigerated trucks were in place yesterday at a former navy transmission station in Canberra, ahead of the planned culling of about 400 kangaroos over the next few days. The cull will be carried out to protect rare grasslands and plants and the threatened perunga grasshopper and golden sun moth. The kangaroos will be stunned with tranquilliser darts and then given lethal injections. The cull has earned the ire of international vegetarian group Viva! (Vegetarians International Voice for Animals) and its celebrity backers, including Sir Paul McCartney. Animal Liberation spokesman Bernard Brennan said yesterday that protesters, who were heading to Canberra from Melbourne, Sydney and Queensland, were willing to act as human shields to protect the kangaroos. "We're talking about professional people and housewives," he said. "We're talking about lovely ladies in their 50s and 60s who haven't been very (politically) active in their lives, and now they're talking about walking out in front of dart guns." About 200 kangaroos will be spared and allowed to remain on the site. The Defence Department considered relocating kangaroos to another site but said the estimated $3.5 million cost was too expensive. But protesters believe culling will be almost as costly. Studies carried out for the ACT Government recommended against relocation because of the potential distress it could cause kangaroos. The timing of the culling operation is likely to be dependent on the weather because dart weapons lose accuracy in windy conditions. Canberra police have forbidden the use of firearms during the cull because the site is close to homes. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/05/399593.html Midsummer Common Cows Protest ? Go Veg! Animal Rights Cambridge | 26.05.2008 23:12 | Animal Liberation | Climate Chaos | Ecology | Cambridge Protest held on the Saturday 24th May 08. See the video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDzxStU8DMg Following an article in the Cambridge Evening News regarding peoples concerns about the promotion of the meat from the Midsummer Common cows at Waller & Sons butchers, local animal rights campaigners protested to ask concerned people to have compassion for all animals and switch to a plant based diet. According to Animal Rights Cambridge "It is upsetting, we agree, but then so is killing any farmed animal just for our taste buds. If people are truly offended about this it's time for them to give up eating animals." The campaigners are calling for people to try out a vegetarian diet. "Even if it's only for a week. Give it a go! There are fantastic veggie options available these days, it's just about finding what's right for you." The protesters also point out the environmental argument for leaving animal products off your plates. "The UN is now saying that animal agriculture causes more greenhouse gases than all the cars and trucks in the world put together! If we want to save the planet going veggie is an excellent start!" "The threat from animal agriculture must be a key environmental issue no two ways about it." -Animal Rights Cambridge meets on the fourth Monday of every month at the Bath House, Gywdir Street (off Mill Road) 8 p.m., ?1 hall hire per person. For more on Animal Rights Cambridge http://animalrightscambridge.bravehost.com - The UN report regarding animal agriculture can be found here: http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006/1000448/index.html Get a FREE veggie starter kit here: http://www.goveg.com/order.asp (more) See the video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDzxStU8DMg Animal Rights Cambridge http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L30937605.htm Bird lovers protest at Cyprus spring hunt plans 30 Apr 2008 18:53:52 GMT Source: Reuters NICOSIA, April 30 (Reuters) - Conservationists in Cyprus accused authorities on Wednesday of allowing the spring bird-shooting season to go ahead despite a ban by the European Union. Birdlife Cyprus, a local branch of Birdlife International, said Cyprus would permit hunters to shoot magpies and crows from May 1. Conservationists fear that hunters will also take the opportunity to shoot turtle doves, a popular delicacy. Birdlife filed a complaint to the European Commission on Wednesday. "There should be no shooting of any birds during this sensitive migration period," said Martin Hellicar, Birdlife Cyprus's Executive Manager. "This is a crucial period when birds are migrating ... we feel this is an excuse to give hunters the spring shooting they have been clamouring for," he told Reuters. Hunters would be permitted to shoot magpies and crows over a six-day period from May 1 as means of controlling their numbers. Authorities said there was nothing untoward about the shoot, denying it was a guise for hunting other bird species. "The government sets different dates for crow shooting every year, sometimes late April, sometimes late June ... it is nothing suspicious," said Pantelis Hadjiyerou, head of the island's Game Service. "The hunters, as should always be the case, have to abide by the law. Any hunter falling out of line and who is caught by the Game Service will be charged." An EU directive prohibits the shooting of birds in spring to ensure reproduction and sustainability in numbers. The European Commission forced Cyprus to curtail its spring hunting period last year. Hunting is a popular pastime on the east Mediterranean island, which lies on a migratory route for birds. (Reporting by John Leonidou; editing by Giles Elgood) http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0805/S00263.htm Global Protest Against Animal Testing Company Sunday, 18 May 2008, 11:10 am Press Release: SAFE 16 May 2008 New Zealand Joins Global Protest Against Animal Testing Company New Zealand campaigners against animal testing will take to the streets tomorrow urging shoppers to avoid cruelly produced cosmetics, toiletries and household products. SAFE, New Zealand?s second largest animal advocacy organisation, will specifically target products made by Procter & Gamble (P&G), one of the worlds largest companies still crudely testing products on animals. The action is part of the 12th annual Global Boycott Procter & Gamble Day, led by British-based international animal protection group Uncaged, in partnership with animal protection groups around the world ? including SAFE. Christchurch, Auckland, Palmerston North, Dunedin, Whangarei, Nelson and the Hawkes Bay will be part of over 140 cities taking place across the world, from Sydney to Stockholm. The campaign is supported by stars such as Sir Paul McCartney, Pretenders lead singer Chrissie Hynde, poet and musician Benjamin Zephaniah, and singer Morrissey. P&G admit conducting poisoning tests on animals to assess chemicals in their brands which include Olay, Pantene, Pringles, Vicks and Herbal Essences. Cruelty free campaigners argue that if hundreds of other companies can produce cosmetics and household products without animal testing, so can P&G. Dr Dan Lyons, head of Uncaged Campaigns, adds: ?Typically, each animal test involves force-feeding chemicals via a tube inserted down the throats of scores of animals. This can easily damage the throat and organs of the animals, as well as cause suffering due to the toxic effects of the chemical. Those animals that survive to the end of the test are then killed for tissue analysis.? Hans Kriek, campaign director of SAFE explains: ?Tomorrow SAFE will alert the public to the suffering behind famous brands such as Olay, Head & Shoulders and even IAMS ?pet? food. It cannot be right to abuse animals for the sake of ?whiter whites? and ?younger-looking skin?.? ?Once they are made aware we find ethically conscious consumers want nothing to do with animal cruelty and will change their buying habits. As more people join in on the boycott we will get closer to saving thousands of animals from P&G's painful and lethal tests. Each person can make a difference by avoiding P&G,? says Mr Kriek. Tomorrow SAFE campaigners will lie together in piles under bloodied sheets to represent discarded laboratory animals on the streets of Christchurch, Auckland, Palmerston North, Dunedin, Whangarei, Nelson and the Hawkes Bay. http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,20797,23713386-3102,00.html?from=public_rss YouTube video protest at live dog research angers vet students Hannah Martin May 18, 2008 12:00am A YOUTUBE video urging local authorities not to make pound dogs available for live research has angered veterinary school staff. The emotive video, see right, encourages site visitors to write to three southeast Queensland councils, asking them to stop sending dogs to the University of Queensland. Vet students operate on live dogs and cadavers as part of their study. UQ School of Vet Science associate professor Dr Lucio Filippich said the university received unclaimed dogs from Brisbane City, Logan and the former Caboolture (now part of Moreton Bay Regional) councils. However, public reaction to the YouTube video, posted by a Buddhist animal rights vegan group, has already prompted at least one council to stop giving dogs to UQ. The move has angered Dr Filippich, who said the practice was essential to student learning. "They are given to us on the understanding that they would otherwise be euthanased," he said. "When we do take them, we don't necessarily euthanase them. We will rehome some. "The YouTube video is counter-productive to the work we do and causing unnecessary anxiety. "We'd love these people to get the facts. They only have half the story. It's offensive." Dr Filippich said the number of live animals used in classes was strictly controlled by a university ethics committee. Animal Welfare League spokeswoman Joy Verinder, who spoke on behalf of the group which posted the YouTube video, said practising on live dogs was outdated. "In British veterinary colleges they don't use live animals and in Sydney University they don't, so it can be done well," Ms Verinder said. "Human doctors don't practise on real children." Logan City Council has been supplying UQ with dogs since August last year, but it said the agreement would not be renewed when it expires next month. http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=560685&rss=yes Animal protesters get naked for shoppers 16:39 AEST Sat May 10 2008 91 days 10 hours 31 minutes ago By Simon Kirby Shoppers in Sydney's CBD have copped an eyeful with a group of animal rights activists stripping off for a naked protest against live animal exports. Heads turned as 24 young men and women wearing only skimpy green satin dressing gowns sauntered out into the middle of Pitt Street Mall at 1pm (AEST). The group quickly disrobed and draped themselves on the cold paving slabs around a placard stating "Animals suffer and die in live export". No doubt to the disappointment of some onlookers, all naughty bits remained covered by flesh-coloured sticky tape above and g-strings below. The protesters endured the cold, occasional sniggers and a barrage of photographs from media, tourists and the voyeuristic alike in the hope some might see past the skin on show and heed their message. Kate Monroe, 30, said it was an easy decision to strip off to raise awareness about the cruelty of live animal exports. "I think it's a very worthy cause. There's millions of animals that die in horrendous conditions," Ms Monroe told AAP. "Any attention we can bring to the problem to try to get people to do something about it is why I am here today." Angie Stephenson of Animal Liberation NSW, which organised the protest with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), called for an end to "death ships" that carry millions of live sheep and cattle from Australia to the Middle East. The animals were packed inside the ships for up to three gruelling weeks and endured terrible conditions, she said. Live exporters factored into their business that a percentage of the animals would die, she said. "What we are asking (Prime Minister) Kevin Rudd today is to think about each and every animal that is exported overseas and to stop this cruel, barbaric trade," Ms Stephenson said. Ms Stephenson said naked protest was a non-threatening way to highlight the issue of live exports. The public would be very confronted if they saw images of what happened aboard the ships, she said. "Live export is very cruel. You see sheep having their throats slit, being dragged across bloody floors and being killed in front of their fellow travel-mates," Ms Stephenson said. The Livestock Export Animal Welfare Group said the naked protest was a stunt that showed the activists were out of touch. LiveCorp chief executive Cameron Hall, a member of the group, said the Australian industry invested $1.6 million each year to improve animal welfare around the world. "Australia is the only country involved in the livestock export trade that is dedicated to improving animal welfare standards to the countries we export to," Mr Hall said. "Our commitment ... is something for Australians to be proud of." http://www.stuff.co.nz/4570039a1860.html Naked protest over fur industry (+pics) AAP | Tuesday, 03 June 2008 Email a Friend | Printable View | Have Your Say Reuters CHILLY PROTEST: Australian Animal Liberation protesters pose for photographers during the launch of an anti-fur campaign in a central Sydney Reuters COVER UP: Australian Animal Liberation protesters pose for photographers during the launch of an anti-fur campaign in a central Sydney park. Photo 2 of 3 NO FUR: Australian Animal Liberation protesters pose for photographers during the launch of an anti-fur campaign in a central Sydney park. Naked men and women have posed in a Sydney park to launch Animal Liberation's winter campaign against fur. The three-month long campaign aims to draw attention to the cruelty of the fur industry over the winter months. Campaign manager Nicole Brown said the group, whose naked protest took place in the city's Wynyard Park, hoped to draw people's attention to the ethical issues surrounding the use of fur for clothing. "Despite the glamour associated with wearing fur we want to show people the cruelty behind the industry," Ms Brown said. "There are a lot of really good quality synthetic furs out there now and we would encourage people to wear them instead." Ms Brown said animals held in fur farms were kept in appalling conditions and killed at a very young age. Undercover footage obtained by Animal Liberation revealed that many animals were still conscious whilst they were skinned and remained alive for several minutes afterwards. Ms Brown said the campaign would include protests outside shops selling fur products, fashion police walking the streets of Sydney and approaching people wearing fur, and further naked actions around the city. Special actions were planned for August during the Beijing Olympics. "As the fur industry is very big in China, we will be protesting around Chinatown during August and may also approach the Chinese embassy." Ms Brown said there had been an increase in fur imports in Australia since last year, from 37,500kg in March 2007 to 65,500kg in March this year. She said Animal Liberation had decided not to follow in the footsteps of high-profile overseas campaigns and enlist celebrities, because they wanted their message to appeal to the average person on the street. "We did have discussions as to whether we would use celebrities or models, but we thought that wouldn't appeal to the average person. "We decided to use activities and average representatives of the public so it doesn't seem it's just the celebrities who are wearing fur, because it is average people wearing it as well. "We used the average person on the street to appeal to the person on the street." http://www.wftv.com/news/16375587/detail.html Activists Plan To Protest New Dog Racing Track In Daytona Beach POSTED: 12:51 pm EDT May 23, 2008 DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- A brand new dog racing track opened Friday morning in Daytona Beach. The Daytona Beach Kennel Club moved out of its old facility next to the Daytona International Speedway earlier this week. The new $30 million complex is about two miles away. It includes a 50-table poker room and a simulcast gallery for wagering on horse races. Members of the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida plan to be on hand to protest the new track Friday night for the first races. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Thu Aug 28 21:08:00 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2008 05:08:00 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Animal rights, welfare and conservation, part 2 of 2 Message-ID: <00b401c9098c$d79a60e0$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * TURKEY/GERMANY: Killing of street dogs protested * US, Iowa: PETA plan naked protest * US, New York: Protests to save airport cats * CANADA: Victory for PETA campaign as KFC reforms * CANADA: Europeans deported after seal hunt protest * INDIA: PETA target KFC * US: PETA promote vegetarianism with naked protest in Dayton * US, Long Island: Shark fishing tournament protested * US, California: Lab workers get home visits * US: PETA protest over snakeskin harvesting * US: PETA protest targets American Kennel Club * US, Oregon: Protesters target last fur store in town * UK: Rolf Harris racecourse appearance protested * US, Texas, Delaware: Dog chaining protested * SWITZERLAND/NEPAL: Protest at UN over monkey trade * UK: Harrods hit by anti-fur protest * SPAIN: Protesters target Pamplona bull run * FRANCE: Mulesing protest at fashion event * US, Hawaii: Army training on pigs protested * UK: Vivisection firm's allies targeted * EU: Protesters demand ban on seal imports * AUSTRALIA: Protest against chicken farming * LATVIA: Protest targets British embassy over bearskin helmets * UK: Protests at HLS continue * AUSTRALIA: Naked PETA protesters arrested * US, Indiana: Puppy mills protested * US, California: PETA targets circus * AUSTRALIA: Celebrity in KFC protest * BULGARIA: UK embassy targeted over bearskins * UK: Protests continue at Novartis * UK: Foie gras protest in Winchester * CZECH REPUBLIC: Protest against chicken factory farming * BELGIUM/MAURITIUS: Protest over export of monkeys * US, Topeka: PETA targets KFC * IRELAND: Protest against conference by animal abusers * US: Man injured in sabotage action over death of whale * US, Colorado: Protesters seek to save "pit bull" from execution * US, Iowa: Protest over puppy mills targets pet store * AUSTRALIA: Whale killed despite protests * CANADA: "Chicken massacre" party cancelled after protests * UK: HLS, Barclays, Novartis, AstraZeneca protested * CHINA: US swimmer stages animal rights protest despite ban * IRELAND: Dublin protest targets Novartis http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=105378 Animal rights group protests in front of Turkish embassy Saturday, May 24, 2008 ISTANBUL ? TDN with wire dispatches Turkey's mistreatment of street dogs was the subject of a protest in Germany Thursday. Members of animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, held a protest in front of the Turkish Embassy in Berlin. The activists were protesting the killing by Turkish authorities of hundreds of stray dogs in Turkey. The protestors, four women, had their bodies painted in red and bore crescent and star stickers on their faces and chests. Carrying photographs of dead stray dogs, the women opened a banner that read, ?Europe is watching you! Turkey, stop killing dogs!? and shouted slogans. PETA Germany Spokeswoman Magdalena Schrek said Turkey was violating the Animal Protection Law that was passed in 2004. She added they had received information that stray dogs were left to starve and even poisoned. Schrek said dogs' corpses were disposed of in junkyards in Istanbul, which will become European Cultural Capital in 2010. She suggested sterilization if reproduction of stray dogs wanted to be prevented. Most recently, 15 stray dogs were found poisoned in the forested area of Istanbul's Sar?yer district in February. The dogs were found and then cared for by volunteers. All of the dogs were shot with poison using the same Blow Pipe syringe device used mainly by municipalities as a way to ?clean? the city of unwanted dogs. Based in the United States, PETA has 1.8 million members and supporters worldwide. PETA is best known for its highly visible, often controversial campaigns. The ?Lettuce Ladies,? young women dressed in bikinis which appear to be made of lettuce, gather in city centers to hand out leaflets about veganism. Every year the "Running of the Nudes" campaign sees PETA activists run naked through Pamplona, Spain, parodying the annual Running of the Bulls tradition. Supermodels such as Christy Turlington and Naomi Campbell have posed naked on billboards with the slogan "I'd Rather Go Naked than Wear Fur" emblazoned across their chests. http://www.kcci.com/news/16490978/detail.html PETA Plans Naked Downtown Protest POSTED: 9:25 am CDT June 4, 2008 UPDATED: 2:20 pm CDT June 5, 2008 DES MOINES, Iowa -- PETA officials announced Wednesday they're planning a "nearly naked" protest in downtown Des Moines on Thursday. The "Meat is Murder" protest is scheduled for 3 p.m. at Nollen Plaza. PETA officials said the protest will include nearly naked people lying on large trays. The people will be covered in clear plastic wrap and signs reading "Meat is Murder." PETA officials said the protest is a response to the 20th annual World Pork Expo happening this week at the State Fairgrounds. "We are challenging people to really think about what 'meat' is," said PETA Manager of Vegan Campaigns Lindsay Rajt, in a press release. "Eating flesh means eating the corpse of a tortured animal who did not want to die. We're encouraging kind consumers to give vegetarianism a try." http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/03/airport-cat-roundups-resume-as-do-protests/index.html?partner=BREITBART&ei=5123 June 3, 2008, 2:36 pm Airport Cat Roundups Resume, as Do Protests By Jennifer 8. Lee Members of animal rescue groups demonstrated today outside the Port Authority headquarters to prevent the trapping of feral cats at J.F.K. Airport. (Photo: Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times) After a hiatus of several months, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has started to round up feral cats at Kennedy International Airport again, drawing protests from animal advocacy groups. The Humane Society, which had been in discussions with the agency since an outcry stalled the practice last fall, said it was notified on Memorial Day with a 9:30 a.m. phone call. ?We know they have trapped three cats already,? said Patrick Kwan, the New York State director of the Humane Society of the United States. In response, the society held a demonstration today in front of the Port Authority?s offices near Union Square that drew more than 50 people. The protesters chanted: ?Don?t kill the cats at J.F.K.! Neuter the cats at J.F.K.!? ?We resumed trapping,? Pasquale DiFulco, a spokesman for the Port Authority, confirmed. The agency refused to comment further, instead releasing a November 2007 letter [pdf] from the Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates airports. The letter was sent to the manager of Kennedy Airport by A. Harvey DeGraw, manager of safety standards for the F.A.A., and states, ?A feral cats colony in the airport environment is not acceptable and needs to be removed prior to an incident happening and not after the fact.? It said that the airport?s certification manual and other policies go into great detail on how wildlife is handled and treated on the airport: Domestic animals are treated with care, returned to their owners or sent to the local animal shelters whenever possible. Other procedures used to control wildlife include harassment, capture or lethal control. The letter also attaches a section of the code of federal airport regulations dealing with wildlife hazard management [pdf], which states plans must ?provide measures to alleviate or eliminate wildlife hazards to air carrier operations.? Mr. Kwan, who was aware of the letter, said that if the goal is to eliminate the feral cat colonies, rounding them up is not the most effective policy. ?There is no way they can capture and round up hundreds of cats,? he said. ?The animals are still going to breed.? The feral cats are descendants from domesticated pets that may have escaped or were intentionally released on the airport grounds. (Dozens of pets escape every year coming in and out of the airport, including the still missing purebred Vivi.) ?I think it?s incredibly short-sighted,? Jane Hoffman, the president and chairwoman of the Mayor?s Alliance for NYC?s Animals, said of the situation at J.F.K. Airport. ?We have a pretty innovative, accepted, and more important, effective way to control and reduce feral cat population.? Ms. Hoffman, who is a lawyer, has looked at the F.A.A. regulations on wildlife and said: ?I don?t think it really applies. Cats are not wildlife.? Estimates put the current population of feral cats on the 5,000 acres of J.F.K. Airport in the hundreds. Some cats sleep in makeshift cubicles made of plastic packing containers nestled in cargo carts that once carried transcontinental luggage but have been retired from the runways. The Port Authority will probably end up juggling cat roundups ? no, not that kind of juggling ? while focusing on limiting any increases through births and new strays. Many animal groups advocate a ?Trap-Neuter-Return? program as the most effective way of dealing with a feral cat colony, one that has apparently reduced the population of feral cats at Rikers Island by half over five years. The strategy involves trapping the cats in a colony, having them neutered and vaccinated for rabies, then returning the ones that cannot be adopted to their original territory. Caretakers monitor the colony to remove any new cats. ?It would leave some of the cats there,? Mr. Kwan said, ?and as part of the program it would remove kittens and new animals as they join the colony.? In contrast, trying to capture feral cats is a Sisyphean venture. ?They?ve only trapped three cats so far in a week,? Mr. Kwan said. ?We?re talking about hundreds of cats. These cats are going to continue breeding until someone spays and neuters the animals.? Animal advocates point out that spaying and releasing is also more humane in another way. Capturing cats and putting the feral cats into the overwhelmed animal shelter system is tantamount to death. ?Feral cats cannot be adopted out,? Mr. Kwan said. So, the animals end up being killed. http://www.wtkr.com/global/story.asp?s=8417171 PETA Ends Protest Of KFC Posted: June 3, 2008 04:10 PM NORFOLK, Va. (AP) - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has ended its protest campaign against KFC in Canada, which pledged to improve treatment of chickens purchased for its restaurants. Norfolk-based PETA said it stopped its five-year campaign this week because KFC Canada plans to buy from suppliers that slaughter chickens by removing oxygen from their atmosphere so they die painlessly, rather than slitting their throats. KFC Canada also will add a vegan option to its menu. KFC Canada President Steve Langford said in a statement that ethical treatment of chickens is important to the company. PETA will continue its campaign against KFC outside Canada. It is calling on KFC's parent company in the United States, Yum Brands, to make the same changes. http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=657f1d2a-6583-4662-a6a8-41dcbff906a0 Nova Scotia. European seal hunt protesters to be deported Canwest News Service Published: Thursday, April 17, 2008 Two European seal hunt protesters will be deported to their home countries tomorrow after being arrested earlier this week and jailed for allegedly getting too close to the seal hunt in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, one of the protesters said yesterday. "I'm still a bit shocked by the whole sort of ordeal," said Peter Hammarstedt, 23, the first officer of the anti-sealing vessel, the Farley Mowat. "Once again, the thing we're being accused of doing is allegedly being within a half a nautical mile of someone skinning a seal alive and for that Canada deports us." Mr. Hammarstedt is a Swedish national and Alexander Cornelissen, of Amsterdam, is the captain of the Farley Mowat. Last week, the ship was carrying 17 members of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. The group, whose head office is in Washington, D.C., maintains it was in international waters legally observing Canada's seal hunt. The Dutch-registered ship remains docked in Sydney, in the possession of the Canadian government. http://story.indiagazette.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/701ee96610c884a6/id/370186/cs/1/ Animal welfare body protests at fast food outlet India Gazette Thursday 12th June, 2008 (IANS) The People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Thursday protested against slaughtering and serving of chicken at the Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet in Chennai City Center at Mylapore. Demanding strict observance of animal welfare norms at KFC outlets across India, PETA activists wore skeleton costumes and held signs that read: 'I'd rather be dead than eat KFC.' PETA members distributed leaflets highlighting KFC's cruelty against chickens in India. The Chennai protest is one of over 12,000 PETA protests that have taken place at KFC restaurants around the world since January 2003. PETA mounted a similar protest in Chennai in March 2007. Chennai has two KFC outlets while it has about 30 restaurants in eight cities across India. http://story.indiagazette.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/701ee96610c884a6/id/383365/cs/1/ Two PETA activists protest but express ignorance about cause India Gazette Thursday 17th July, 2008 (IANS) Two activists of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) held a protest outside a Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) restaurant here but expressed ignorance about the cause and said they 'do not know much about the campaign'. The 15-minute protest was carried out by two Chandigarh-based girls, who were clad in heart shaped banners that read 'KFC breaks chicks' hearts'. The girls, who appeared nervous, said they were the cousins of one of the coordinator and do not know much about the campaign. They slipped away from the venue when reporters tried to ask some questions, leaving their banners behind in the parking area in front of the KFC restaurant. 'We have enough proof in the form of video footage against KFC, showing their workers kicking, throwing and giving terrifying deaths to chickens. They inject steroids in chicken's body to grow it large that cripples the chicken due to its heavy weight,' Tajinder Singh, campaign coordinator of PETA, told IANS. 'We have demonstrated all over the country protesting against the KFC's chain and are also preaching the message among the masses to go vegetarian,' he said. However, he kept quite when asked about the whereabouts of the girls whom he earlier introduced as PETA activists from the region. http://www.daytondailynews.com/localnews/content/oh/story/news/local/2008/06/12/ddn061208petaweb.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=16 Nearly naked PETA protest scheduled for today Thursday, June 12, 2008 DAYTON ? PETA protestors plan to lie nearly naked on large trays and covered with clear plastic in downtown Dayton today, June 12 to protest the meat industry and encourage people to become vegetarians. The protestors plan to show up at Third and Main streets at noon to "demonstrate that all animals?not just humans?are made of flesh, blood, and bone; that humans and other animals have the same senses and range of emotions; and that eating meat is eating a corpse." Extras "We are challenging people to really think about what meat is," says PETA Manager of Vegan Campaigns Lindsay Rajt. "Eating flesh means eating the corpse of a tortured animal who did not want to die. We're encouraging kind consumers to give vegetarianism a try." http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/12/america/NA-GEN-US-Shark-Fishing.php Despite animal rights protests, shark fishing tournaments thrive on eastern Long Island The Associated Press Published: June 12, 2008 GARDEN CITY, New York: More than 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of Manhattan, out past the Hamptons, sits a tiny village where thousands converge at the docks on summer evenings to ogle at and revere the massive creatures brought back from the sea. Montauk remains an epicenter for shark fishing tournaments, a half-century after legendary shark hunter Frank Mundus practically invented the sport and became the inspiration for the Captain Quint character in the movie "Jaws." Despite protests from animal advocacy groups that decry the events as inhumane, the tournaments are thriving. For the first time, this weekend's Star Island Yacht Club tournament boasts US$1 million in prizes. And Mundus, who retired to Hawaii nearly two decades ago, promises to attend the event, signing his books and selling souvenirs. But protesters will also be there, along with airplanes flying overhead with anti-shark fishing banners trailing behind. Similar complaints echo at shark tournaments around the country. William Crain of the East Hampton Group for the Wildlife denounces what he calls "glorifying the killing of sharks. ... I don't like to see any animal abused or suffer needlessly. There is no reason to kill sharks." John Grandy, senior vice president of wildlife programs for Humane Society of the United States, said: "It is time for a change in the way we view sharks and their protection." Rich Janis, general manager of the Star Island Yacht Club, contends the protests are unwarranted. Federal fishing regulations limit the daily catch to one shark per boat, and minimum weight requirements call for many of the sharks to be thrown back because they are too small. Last year's Star Island tournament had 244 boats contending for US$715,000 in prize money over two days, Janis said. In the end, only 44 sharks were brought into the docks, while 325 were caught and released. Janis said 1,200 pounds (545 kilograms) of shark meat was donated to the Long Island Council of Churches to supply its local food pantry programs. The Rev. Thomas W. Goodhue, executive director of the council of churches, said he has been urged by animal rights groups to reject the donations but said no. Another Long Island food bank agreed not to accept shark meat after being contacted by the Humane Society. "Telling us 'don't accept free food' is a tough issue," Goodhue said. Locals also brush aside the protests by pointing out that shark fishing is a rich part of Montauk's history. "I don't think there's much to (the protests)," said Stret Whitting, president of the Montauk Boatmen & Captain's Association. "I've never seen more than a handful of people out there protesting." Whitting first came to Montauk with friends in the 1960s and encountered Mundus, the legendary shark hunter. He hired Mundus to take him shark fishing several times and was hooked. "Mundus was the guy that started it, and this was before 'Jaws,'" Whitting recalled. "He was the guy that got it going and made it popular." When he retired in 2002, Whitting and his wife moved to Long Island's eastern tip, where he now captains his own charter boat. "God put these creatures on the Earth for man to eat; not to be abused, but to eat," he said. "I think fishermen and hunters are probably the most conservation-minded people you will meet." Star Island may be the biggest shark tournament in Montauk, but it's hardly the only one. Many weekends throughout the summer feature tournaments run by various organizations. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/06/400893.html Protests at animal-lab workers' homes, Berkeley Animal Liberation Press Office | 12.06.2008 01:04 | Animal Liberation | World Officials have been trying to keep it quiet, but 24 UC Berkeley researchers and seven staffers have been harassed by animal rights activists in recent months, in some cases having their homes or cars vandalized. "What they all have in common is that they all work in animal research," UC Berkeley spokesman Robert Sanders said of the targeted employees. In several instances, the activists have shown up outside researchers' homes in the middle of the night with bullhorns and chanting, "Animal killers." Sometimes they have scrawled slogans on the sidewalk in chalk. On more than one occasion, rocks have been thrown through the researchers' windows and their cars have been scratched up. "Sometimes (the activists) go up to the door," Sanders said... According to UC, there have been 20 reports of damage to researchers' homes in Berkeley, Oakland and El Cerrito since August, including seven broken house windows and three vandalized cars.Thirteen researchers have been harassed on more than one occasion, authorities said. One researcher, who studies how cat brains work for epilepsy research, has reported seven incidents at his home. No specific group has been identified as being behind the harassment. The actions appear to be coordinated through an animal rights Web site that includes photos of researchers, descriptions and photos of their experiments, plus their home addresses and phone numbers - along with the disclaimer, "Please keep communications with the individuals legal and nonthreatening." However, it doesn't appear that activists are always following those instructions. "As you can imagine," he added, "some of these faculty members are pretty freaked out." By the time the cops show up, the protesters are usually gone. As a result, there have been no arrests - only an occasional citation issued for disturbing the peace. Officials have been trying to keep the protests quiet, in part out of concern that publicity will only cause more incidents and an escalation in violence. At UCLA, animal rights protests have included attempted firebombings and one instance in which a researcher's home was flooded with a garden hose. Looking at the numbers, it's pretty clear that keeping things quiet in the press hasn't toned down the protesters much. Animal Liberation Press Office Homepage: http://animalliberationpressoffice.org The article above sounds as if it was written by a vivisector At UC Berkeley primates have been held without water in restraining chairs. At UC Davis, public outrage ended the breeding of primates at the San Diego Zoo for lives of hell upstate. At UCLA vivisection continues as well Under the guise of helping tsunami victims, UC Davis vets were in India scouting for primates Hanuman Shakti Homepage: http://www.worldanimalnet.org http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/257201/Protesters_for_Animal_Rights_Bite_Back_at_Researchers Protesters for Animal Rights Bite Back at Researchers Posted Jul 9, 2008 by Kathryn Reynolds in Politics In the hills behind California?s Berkeley campus, nine protesters, with their head covered, gathered in front of the home of a toxicology professor. One placed a bullhorn to his lips and announced; ?Your neighbour kills animals,? while another one printed ?Killer? on the front steps. Someone else threw an object shattering a window, along with other insults. Animal Rights Activists are taking their rage right to the front doors of the scientists. Over the past two years more and more researchers, who experiment on animals, have been terrorized in their homes with weapons, including fire-bombs, flooding and acid. The scientists say the intimidation not only affects them, but their families as well. They have also stated that the future of medical research, especially in the fields of addiction, eye-sight and the aging brain could be in jeopardy. ?It used to be everyone was worried about their laboratories being broken into, their data being destroyed and their animals taken away,? said Jeffery Kordower, head of the Neuroscience Animal Research Committee. ?What they?ve decided to do now is make things more personal.? In an interview with The Associated Press, Dr. Jerry Viasak representing the Animal Liberation Front said he is not encouraging anyone to commit murder, but ?if you had to hurt someone, intimidate or kill them, it would be morally justifiable.? Biomedical Research (Washington based) claims researchers were harassed or victimized more than seventy times in 2003, up ten times from the year before. The number of attacks continues to rise, as stated in the Desert Dispatch (AP) July 8, 2008. Activists say the rise in attacks are due to their frustration and desperation that the non-violent attempts have failed to stop the needless torture and killing of defenceless animals. During one two-year long onslaught, a UCLA scientist informed protesters that he had stopped doing research involving animals. In an e-mail to the protesters group responsible, Dario Ringach wrote; ?Effective immediately, I am no longer doing animal research, please don?t bother me anymore.? Jacob Black, an organizer of the home attacks of UC Berkeley Researchers sums it up; ?Animals have as much right to live as we do. To name and to shame these people as morally bankrupt individuals in our society is key.? http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/jun/10/peta-mounts-slithering-protest-st-pete-pier/?news-breaking PETA Mounts Slithering Protest At St. Pete Pier Tribune photo by CHRIS URSO PETA Campaigner Cassandra Curbelo wipes Christine Perry's face as she lies on the Pier in St. Petersburg in snake-like body paint. PETA staged a protest along the pier to bring attention to the way snake skins are harvested. http://www.peta.org/mc/NewsItem.asp?id=11510 PETA Protest Likens American Kennel Club to KKK Breeding 'Pure' Bloodlines and Master Pedigrees While Pound Pups Die Makes the AKC a Ku Klux Klan for Dogs For Immediate Release: June 6, 2008 Contact: Melissa Karpel 757-622-7382 Quincy, Mass. - Holding signs that read, "The AKC is the KKK for Animals," PETA members will protest in Quincy on Sunday outside a meeting of delegates and directors of the American Kennel Club (AKC). PETA's point? It's cruel and irresponsible to promote bloodline dog breeding and spur interest in "purebreds" while animal shelters overflow with unwanted mutts who are dying for lack of good homes. Protestors will show video from a PETA TV spot that shows a KKK member making himself right at home at an AKC meeting. (Click here to view.) The ad has aired in various cities, coinciding with AKC-sponsored dog shows: Date: Sunday, June 8 Time: 12 noon-1 p.m. Place: Boston Marriott Quincy, 1200 Marriott Dr., Quincy For every dog or cat purchased from a breeder or a pet store, an animal awaiting adoption in an animal shelter loses his or her chance of finding a loving home. And because breeders and pet stores almost never require that the animals that they sell be sterilized, many of those animals will have litters of their own--creating even more unwanted animals. Nearly 8 million animals--many of them purebreds--are abandoned at animal shelters every year in the U.S., and about 4 million of them must be euthanized for lack of good homes. The AKC not only promotes breeding but also vigorously opposes lifesaving spay-and-neuter legislation designed to combat the animal overpopulation crisis and reduce euthanasia rates. "When it comes to contempt for 'mixed breeds' and an obsession with 'pure bloodlines,' the KKK and the AKC have a lot in common," says PETA Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. "All dogs should be created equal, yet millions of wonderful dogs in animal shelters across the country are paying with their lives because of purebred supremacy." http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2008/06/schumachers_gone_activists_tar.html Protesters target the last downtown Portland fur shop Posted by Joseph Rose, The Oregonian June 06, 2008 08:43AM Categories: Breaking News, Portland Joel Davis/The OregonianA scene from one of the intense Saturday protests that ended with Schumacher Furs and Outwear shuttering its downtown Portland business. With Schumacher Furs and Outwear gone, animal-rights activists now say they are working to drive downtown Portland's last remaining fur salon out of business. Saturday protests led by a fledgling group called the Portland Animal Defense League outside Nicholas Ungar Furs at 1137 S.W. Yamhill St. have intensified in recent weeks. The next one is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. tomorrow. And unlike the rancorous 15-month campaign against Schumacher's, which activists insisted was about education and outreach, the group says the prime objective this time is ridding downtown of "an outdated industry." "Basically 20 years ago, there were about 20 full-service fur salons," said Tim Fox, an Animal Defense League spokesman. "Now downtown Portland only has one left. As the public learns the truth about the cruelty of the fur industry, I think most people will want them out too." Unlike Greg and Linda Schumacher, who were eager to confront the protestors and talk to the press about what they saw as an unfair attack on their business on Southwest Morrison Street, Ungar Furs owner Horst Grimm declined to comment. Someone calling himself only "the manager" said, "Our general policy is not to make comments." Sgt. Brian Schmautz, a Portland police spokesman, said the protests have yet to generate a single disturbance complaint that he knew of. "No one has come up to me and said this a problem," Schmautz said, noting that the Schumachers' aggressive reaction to demonstrators outside their store led to much of the tension there. Among other things, demonstrators say they're protesting what they claim is Ungar's practice of selling fur from animals that have been gassed, anally electrocuted, had their necks snapped and have been skinned in inhumane ways. Fox also contends that the store has in the past sold illicit animal pelts. As proof, he cites the $40,000 fine that Nicholas Ungar Furs paid to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2005 for allegedly selling coats and other items made from endangered or banned species, such as Alaska seals, jaguars and leopards. Animal-rights activists have aggressively targeted the fur industry in recent years, arguing that animals suffer solely for nothing more than vanity of the rich. Although they have concerns with the meat industry's practices, many say those animals are raised and killed for food rather than just for their pelts. Since last winter, the protests outside Nicholas Ungar Furs with signs, chants and at least one heated exchange with Grimm has grown from a handful of demonstrators to up to a few dozen every weekend. The store was closed for the Memorial Day weekend last weekend. But a group still showed up to write "educational messages" on the sidewalk in chalk. A message on Portland's Indymedia site read: "The animals used for Ungar's unethical products do not get holidays off, and Ungar Furs will not get any Saturdays off." At the same time, In Defense of Animals, one of the driving forces in the epic Schumacher's face-off, has decided to sit out this one. Matt Rossell, spokesman for In Defense of Animals, said he doesn't agree with the new protest's ultimate drive-'em-out-of-business mission. "Our goal was never to shut down Schumacher's," Rossell said. "We're watching what's happening, but we felt a lot of education has already been accomplished because of the Schumacher protests. A lot of people in Portland have formed their opinions one way or another." He also said Ungar Fur's location, away from most of downtown's shopping and heavy foot traffic, "isn't as advantageous" as Schumacher's. After the Schumacher's protests, Rossell said he intended to "create a dialogue" with Nicholas Ungar Furs. The store wasn't interested. Rossell said the people gathering outside of Ungar Furs are an off-shot of the always-loud, sometimes-massive rallies at Schumacher's. Fox agrees that his group was born from that experience. When those demonstrations ended with the shuttering of Schumacher's, Fox said the natural question for many activists was, "What next?" "We felt there was a momentum coming out of Schumacher's," he said. "We wanted to take advantage of that." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/7439844.stm Friday, 6 June 2008 12:48 UK Rolf faces animal rights protest Rolf Harris has fronted several animal-themed television shows Animal rights activists plan to protest against the appearance of entertainer Rolf Harris at a Bath racecourse event. The artist and TV presenter is to sing some of his hits at an Aussie beach party after Friday's racing. Animal Aid claims the host of the BBC's Animal Hospital show should not be endorsing horse racing, which they described as "ruthless and exploitive". Racecourse manager John Williams said: "The Rolf Harris element is going to be entertainment as opposed to the sport." Harris, who has fronted several animal-themed TV shows, will be performing for an hour after the racing. Safety record A Bath Animal Aid spokeswoman said: "Rolf Harris has spoken out in favour of animal welfare on numerous occasions. "Animal Aid realises that it is difficult for Rolf to cancel engagements, but hopes that the peaceful protest at the racecourse will highlight for Rolf - and the considerable crowd he will draw by his appearance - that racing is a ruthless and exploitative industry." Mr Williams defended the course's safety record and said the entertainer would not be involved in the racing at all. "We've had evenings like this before," he said. "The Wurzels have entertained after the racing and the same will be with Rolf Harris on Friday night. "So we were quite surprised the link was made in the first place, it certainly wasn't one we thought of when we decided to put the event on." A spokeswoman for Harris said she expected the show would go on, regardless of the protest. http://www.news8austin.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=213010 Nonprofit group protests chaining of dogs 6/29/2008 5:57 PM By: News 8 Austin Staff Protesters chain themselves to a fence Sunday. A national nonprofit group put itself in the doghouse Sunday. Members chained themselves up at the State Capitol. The organization, Dogs Deserve Better, organized a nationwide protest to raise awareness about the cruelty of chaining dogs 24 hours a day. Volunteers said they now know what it feels like to be a dog chained up for long periods of time. "People just walk by you and they ignore you. It's like you don't even exist and I can only imagine how a chained dog in a back yard feels," protester Cheryl Kaminski said. The group is in its sixth year of protesting the chaining of animals. Texas is one of two states that set time limits on chaining. The group said the City of Austin does well by banning the practice altogether. http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080629/NEWS/806290358/1006/NEWS Pair chain selves to doghouses in protest Campaign seeks to halt all-day restraint of pets By AMOS MORALE ? The News Journal ? June 29, 2008 The 27-year-old New Castle resident and her friend Chris Cattie, 30, of Smyrna, are linked to the business on Delaware Avenue in Wilmington that specializes in healthy dog treats. In fact, they're chained to doghouses in front of it. Callahan and Cattie are spending 24 hours chained to the houses as part of Chain Off 2008, a national effort to draw attention to what organizers consider the cruelty of chaining dogs outside. "People who chain dogs outside for an hour or so, because they don't have a fenced in yard, that's fine. They come back in, they are part of the family," Callahan said. "We are targeting people who chain their dogs outside 24/7." She said Mason was rescued from a chain and has lived with her for a little more than a week. The dog is still startled by normal household activity, she said. To draw additional attention to their cause, Callahan is wearing the collar of a dog named Echo, who was rescued after two years of being chained. Cattie is wearing the collar of Max, one of his three dogs. Though none of his dogs was rescued from a chain, Cattie said he has witnessed the effects through A Buddy For Life Inc., the organization sponsoring the event. "It just breaks your heart when you see it," Cattie said. Chained dogs often are not fed enough and lack the social skills that normal dogs gain from interaction with people, he said. Callahan said that even though other animals live outside in nature, dogs should live inside. "We have domesticated dogs. We have made them a member of the family," she said. "There is no reason a dog needs to live outside, void of any companionship, any socialization, because we have domesticated them. It is our responsibility, since we domesticated them, to take care of them properly." Crystal Litteral, 32, of New Castle, and president of A Buddy For Life, said she hopes the event will make people consider bringing their dogs inside. "Even if one person does it, that is worth it to me," she said. Litteral did not chain herself but is instead caring for Callahan's dogs. Callahan said she decided to chain herself for 24 hours because it was the most time allowed under the event guidelines. During that time, food and water is being provided for them. They are allowed off the chains only for restroom visits. "Tomorrow there will be an end for me," Callahan said. "There won't be an end for them." http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2008/jun/jun26/news03.php Protests at UN against monkey business A group of international campaigners against the breeding of Nepali monkeys for primate research reached the United Nations this week for protests. A protestor at the UN headquarters in Geneva to protest the export of Nepalese rhesus monkeys to US research labs. Photo courtesy: SMB Coalition. A group of protesters visited the UN headquarters in Geneva, as well as the Nepali embassy in Switzerland to express their protest. In Switzerland the campaigners against the export of Nepali monkeys to US research centres were joined by over twenty protesters. The group included a 'monkey' holding a placard reading "Stop all this Monkey Business Right Now!" According to campaigners, the Nepali envoy said he could hardly believe his country would export sacred monkeys and promised to send a letter to Nepal government on the issue. The campaign against the trade of Nepali rhesus monkeys for research is growing, with protests across Europe. The demonstrators have vowed to continue their protests until Nepal cancels the monkey breeding licenses. The licenses were issued after the government passed a controversial wildlife breeding act in 2003. In Europe, demonstrations have been held in Holland, Belgium, France, Switzerland and the UK. Some groups have call for a tourism ban until the Nepal government changes its policies on sale of monkeys. nepalnews.com ia June 26 08 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/06/401703.html Anti-fur protest for Harrods Summer Sale opening? CAFT | 22.06.2008 17:46 | Animal Liberation | Ecology | London Monday 30th June, from 8am to 9am Morning protest at the Harrods Summer Sale Opening Knightsbridge, London SW1 Last year's Summer Sale opening with Sarah Michelle Gellar Next Monday 30th June, 9am, sees the opening of the Harrods Summer Sale, one of the three big events of the year for the only department store in the country which continues to sell real fur. With just a week to go, Harrods is yet to announce which celebrity has been given the dubious honour of cutting the ribbon and being personally greeted by the store's owner, we'll put a contact alert out when we know. We have been informed that at least one famous celebrity has refused to open the sale because of the fur campaign, and another for unknown reasons. Some of you will remember the very successful protest from last year's Summer Sale Opening on July 2nd, where the guest was American actress Sarah Michelle Gellar (from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series) see picture above, which appeared on the BBC website. We managed to get across a very strong anti-fur message to the media who are always there in large numbers. We repeated the success at the Winter Sale opening in December when Lily Allen was the guest, and recently when Victoria Beckham launched one of her products at the store. Indeed so sensitive are Harrods about this event, that they recently went back to the High Court for a variation of the injunction which they were granted over two years ago to regulate fur protests at the store. The High Court hearing lasted a whole day, and almost all of it was taken up with arguments by Harrods' lawyers about the conduct of the protest at the Summer Sale opening on 30th June. Although there were some restrictions imposed, for this event only, the court accepted our right to be present at the event and to be visible to the public and the media. If you are planning to attend, it may be worth contacting us at london at caft.org.uk for an explanation and how this will affect the protest. This is a great opportunity to get the anti-fur message to a huge audience and to remind Harrods that the campaign will continue as long as they continue to sell fur. We'll be gathering from before 8am, but please turn up any time between then and 9am, when the opening ceremony takes place. Harrods is the only UK department store still selling fur, among the fur seen on sale at the store are garments made from beavers, chinchillas, red and arctic foxes, mink, muskrats, rabbits, wolves, coyotes and squirrels. Whether or not you can make the protest, please take time to contact Harrods by phone, email and/or fax to request they stop selling fur. Address and contact details for Harrods. Harrods Ltd 87-135 Brompton Road Knightsbridge London SW1X 7XL Telephone 020 7730 1234 Fax 020 7581 0470 customer.services at harrods.com To get to Harrods, take the tube to Knightsbridge (Picadilly Line), look for exit marked Brompton Rd/Harrods. The protest is planned for door number 5. CAFT e-mail: london at caft.org.uk Homepage: http://caft.org.uk/harrods/harrods.htm http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/06/spain?gusrc=rss&feed=worldnews Spanish animal protesters target bull run in Pamplona Graham Keeley in Madrid The Observer, Sunday July 6 2008 Article history Campaigners against bullfighting are planning to step up activities in an effort to mobilise the majority of Spaniards who claim to have no interest in the sport. The annual running of the bulls begins in Pamplona today and is certain to attract thousands of tourists from around the world, though a recent poll for Gallup in 2006 found that 72 per cent of Spaniards have no interest in bullfights. In the past the festival of San Ferm?n has attracted nude protests from activists. But within Spain a radical wing of the anti-bullfighting movement has begun to stage more confrontational demonstrations in the hope of gaining a higher profile. Two groups, Equanimal and Igualidad Animal, have invaded Spanish bullrings for the first time, in a new tactic that they intend to repeat throughout the bull-fighting season. Previous protests have been limited to placard-waving outside the bullrings. Demonstrators invaded the ring at Madrid's prestigious Las Ventas during the Festival of San Isidro, the biggest date on the bullfighting calendar. At the El Monumental ring in Barcelona last month four protesters carrying signs saying 'Abolition' jumped over the perimeter wall to get into the ring after the bull was killed. Igualidad Animal supporters claimed they were attacked by workers at the ring before police and security could intervene. San Ferm?n in Pamplona, which runs until 14 July, attracts hundreds of willing 'runners' from across the world, many inspired by Hemingway's book The Sun Also Rises, which is largely responsible for its fame. After the bulls run through the narrow streets of Pamplona, they face the matador in the ring. Anti-bullfighting campaigners claim invading bullrings will not lead to violent clashes and damage their cause. Jordi Casamitjana, of the Anti-Bullfighting Committee, said: 'I don't think this is heading towards extremism. It is still non-violent. If you said to Gandhi that he could not stage his protests, where would we be today? This helps keep people aware of this cruelty.' But Luis Corrales, director of the pro-bullfighting Platform for the Defence of the National Festival, said: 'If they want to make a point to society about bullfighting that is up to them, and we have no problem with that. But invading the bullring is pure provocation.' http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/05/2295363.htm Mulesing protesters target Paris fashion bash Posted Sat Jul 5, 2008 12:11pm AEST PETA has launched another protest against mulesing (ABC: File photo) Outside a major wool awards ceremony in one of the most fashionable cities in the world, angry animal rights protesters waved posters of lambs with bloodied backsides to get a point across to the wool and fashion industries. Animal rights group PETA (the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) attempted to upstage the major wool industry promotion night in Paris as the peak industry group, Australian Wool Innovation (AWI), launched a new fashion industry award to promote its Woolmark brand. However the fashionistas that were at the event seemed uninterested in the small but vocal protest. "This is Australia's shame," one protester said. "We want people in the fashion industry to understand the cruelty involved with the Australian wool industry." International designers were in the French capital to help celebrate the new $400,000 Woolmark prize, which recognises an emerging designer using merino wool. But where wool travels, so does the radical animals rights group PETA. It is continuing to campaign against the practice of mulesing sheep, where skin is stripped from the backside of a lamb to reduce any chance of death by blowfly strike. Fashion editor of Vogue China Gabriele Hackworthy says mulesing is not on their radar. "I understand it's very controversial at the moment, but I don't' know that much about it," she said. "I think fur is more of a focus for protesters and the fashion industry. Mulesing - I haven't noticed any protesters at shows or any fashion events." Pascal Senkoff from the wool industry group AWI says the issue of mulesing has not infiltrated the European fashion world. "To be honest I don't want to disregard that but in Paris, in the fashion world it doesn't have a big impact," he said. "I've been in that business for the past 10 years now, and of course most people in Paris do not know what PETA is or what mulesing is." But vice-president of PETA Bruce Friedrich says that will not stop its protests. He says the wool industry should be doing much more before its 2010 deadline to stop mulesing. "They could eliminate mulesing now, if they simply were cleaner - if they had better animal husbandry," he said. "I know taking the equivalent of garden shears and slicing the rear ends off of living animals, they feel that pain in exactly the same way you would feel that pain or I would feel that pain and it's not acceptable." Mulesing alternatives PETA says it is also fighting the wool industry's golden alternative to mulesing - a biodegradable clip that mimics the mulesing process but does not create an open wound. It is part of AWI's $10 million investment of wool growers' money to find an alterative to mulesing. But Mr Friedrich says it has not passed the welfare test. "Right now the AWI is putting most of its money into the clips, which is still mulesing," he said. "It is still animal mutilation and according to veterinarians and animal scientists, it's extremely cruel and extremely painful to the animals. "The clips are just another form of mulesing." Back home in Australia, AWI's chairman Brian van Rooyen says that is just not true. "That is absolute rubbish," he said. "They haven't seen or done any scientific research in this area. "We have got the science here and we will be releasing this data in the next couple of weeks. "I've actually seen someone put a clip on the skin on their arm, and there's none of that sort of pain that PETA are talking about. "Quite frankly it's really disappointing when there is a innovative new technique with minimal pain associated with it, to try and improve the animal welfare of sheep and resist the blowfly strike situation." http://www.kentucky.com/216/story/465633.html Army shoots, treats pigs despite protest by PETA By Jaymes Song Associated Press HONOLULU ? The Army says it's critical to saving the lives of wounded soldiers. Animal-rights activists call the training cruel and outdated. Despite opposition by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the Army shot live pigs and treated their gunshot wounds in a medical trauma exercise Friday at Schofield Barracks for soldiers headed to Iraq. Maj. Derrick Cheng, spokesman for the 25th Infantry Division, said the training was conducted under a U.S. Department of Agriculture license and the careful supervision of veterinarians and a military Animal Care and Use Committee. ?It's to teach Army personnel how to manage critically injured patients within the first few hours of their injury,? Cheng said. The soldiers are learning emergency lifesaving skills needed on the battlefield when there are no medics, doctors or facilities nearby, he said. PETA, however, said more advanced and humane options are available, including high-tech human simulators. In a letter, PETA urged the Army to end all use of animals, ?as the overwhelming majority of North American medical schools have already done.? ?Shooting and maiming pigs is outdated as Civil War rifles,? said Kathy Guillermo, director of PETA's Laboratory Investigations Department. The Norfolk, Va.-based group demanded the exercise be halted after it was notified by a ?distraught? soldier from the unit, who disclosed a plan to shoot the animals with M4 carbines and M16 rifles. ?There's absolutely no reason why they have to shoot live pigs,? PETA spokeswoman Holly Beal said. The bloody exercise, she said, is difficult for soldiers because they sometimes associate the animals with their own pets. Cheng said the exercise is conducted in a controlled environment with the pigs anesthetized the entire time. He had ?no doubt whatsoever? in the effectiveness of the instruction, which he called the best option available at the base. ?Those alternative methods just can't replicate what the troops are going to face when we use live-tissue training,? he said. ?What we're doing is unique to what the soldiers are going to actually experience.? Cheng didn't have details about the number of pigs, how they were acquired or the weapons involved in the training. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/07/404214.html HLS Financial Allies & AstraZeneca Protests in London SHAC London | 20.07.2008 00:18 | Animal Liberation | Health | London On the back of the brilliant news that Raymond James (Eagle Asset Management) had sold their 500,000 odd shares in HLS, the day started with a letter from them confirming this. This was a fantastic result after only approximately 2 weeks and 5 demonstrations. HLS's shareholders predominantly exist solely in the United States, so shareholder targets in the UK are few and far between. However, just 5 minute walk from Raymond James is Old Mutual, of 2 Lambeth Hill. Old Mutual own a company called Acadian Asset Management who have about 15,000 shares in HLS. With about 18 of us, we arrived at Old Mutual. We hadn't demonstrated for more than about 5 minutes before a couple of members of SHAC were invited into the building to talk about why we were there. A most welcome change from almost all the other companies who generally order more security to prevent a dialogue taking place. Obviously Old Mutual are a bit wiser and haven't been coerced by the mass media into thinking we're unreasonable people. After a constructive talk with a couple of senior members of staff, we explained what we wanted (them to sell HLS shares) and explained that the demonstrations would continue until they do. The tone of the whole conversation was very positive though and it would not be a surprise if these shares were sold in the near future. We still proceeded to demonstrate at Old Mutual, explaining the horrors of Huntingdon Life Sciences. We stayed about an hour and a half. Then we moved on to a couple of more familiar locations, Goldman Sachs and AstraZeneca. Goldman Sachs were first and we shamed them for their involvement in HLS through their ally NYSE/Euronext. We demonstrated at this location for about 1 hour or so before moving off to AstraZeneca. At AstraZeneca we demonstrated for about an hour again, telling staff, nearby workers, passers-by and a couple of police officers exactly what a disgusting company AstraZeneca are in continuing to use HLS to test their dodgy drugs. SHACtivists continue knocking out shareholders one by one! SHAC London http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2008-07/2008-07-01-voa58.cfm?CFID=27414047&CFTOKEN=32976955 Protesters Outside EU Headquarters Demand a Ban on Import of Seal Products By VOA News 01 July 2008 People dressed as seals stand during an anti-seal hunt demonstration in front of EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, 01 Jul 2008 Hundreds of protesters have demonstrated outside European Union headquarters in Brussels, demanding a total ban on imports of seal products. Animal rights groups are pressuring EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas to quickly issue rules banning the sale of products made from seals that have been inhumanely killed. However, many of the activists insist that it is impossible to guarantee that killing of seals is carried out in a humane manner. Instead they are calling for a total ban on use of seal products. The demonstrators are also seeking a total ban on seal hunting in Canada, Russia, Finland and Greenland. Canada has the world's largest commercial seal hunt, an occasion often marked by confrontations between animal rights protesters and hunters. http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/local/4750936 Activists stage protest against chicken farming ABC - July 2, 2008, 3:07 pm ABC ? [Enlarge photo] Animal rights supporters gathered in Brisbane's CBD to protest against the factory farming of chickens in Australia. The protest was staged across the river from the World Poultry Congress, which is being held in Brisbane this week. The protesters were dressed in black and lying next to each other in Brisbane Square to signify the death of more than 400 million broiler, or meat chickens, in Australia every year. Annette Guice from Animal Liberation Queensland says factory farming is cruel to chickens and the industry should rethink how they produce the meat. "They die from heart attack, they can't walk on their own legs," she said. "Many thousands die in the sheds and that's just considered part of the business." Experts speaking at the poultry conference yesterday said Australian chicken is some of the best in the world. More than 2,000 delegates are at the conference, which ends on Friday. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/7/15/worldupdates/2008-07-15T184135Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-345258-1&sec=Worldupdates Tuesday July 15, 2008 Protesters bare skin against British bear skins RIGA (Reuters Life!) - A small group of animal rights activists in Latvia demonstrated in front of the British embassy on Tuesday to protest against the use of bear fur in the ceremonial headgear of some British army regiments. Three young women and a man held a banner that said "Bare skin, not bear skin". Animal rights activists protest outside the British embassy in Riga July 15, 2008, against the use of bear skin used to make hats worn by the British army's household regiment. (REUTERS/Ints Kalnins) The quartet were wearing copies of bearskin helmets, their underwear and had union jacks, the British flag, painted on their exposed backsides. Real bearskin hats, which are about half a metre high, are worn by soldiers on specific occasions, such as when guarding Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace. "We are not against the hats, just against the material they are using and as far as I know a majority of Brits are against this too," Solvita Viba of Latvian animal rights organization Animal Friends told Reuters in the capital Riga. The protesters from Latvia's Animal Friends, known internationally as People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), stood silently for half an hour before leaving the embassy area without incident. "We decided not to go out and comment on this. The British government is considering alternatives and different possibilities, but so far none of the suggestions received by the Defence Ministry have proven adequate," British embassy spokeswoman Lelde Pfafrode said. This is not the first time animal rights groups have protested against the use of Canadian Black Bear skin in military headgear across the world. A number of armies use the furs for military hats. In Britain wearing bearskins is thought to have been a tradition of some regiments since 1815 when the monarch granted the right to don the headgear in recognition of the defeat of Napoleon's bearskin-wearing Imperial Guard at the Battle of Waterloo. http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/uk/animal+rights+activists+protest/2333567?intcmp=rss_news_itnnews Animal rights activists protest Print this page Last Modified: 12 Jul 2008 Source: PA News Around 200 animal rights supporters staged a demonstration outside the headquarters of a firm which uses animals for drug tests. The protest was part of a lengthy campaign aimed at closing Huntingdon Life Sciences, which is based near Huntingdon, Cambs. Police said the demonstration, which began in Peterborough, Cambs, and ended near Huntingdon passed peacefully. http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuId=28&ContentID=84752 Topless arrests in KFC protest 14th July 2008, 15:45 WST It's not known whether World Youth Day pilgrims found the sight of semi-naked women protesting in a cage annoying, but three women have been arrested for doing just that outside a KFC restaurant in Sydney. The topless women from animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) were arrested this afternoon while protesting outside the CBD restaurant over KFC's alleged treatment of chickens in factories and slaughterhouses. The women - naked apart from lacy, yellow bikini bottoms - were inside a large cage, holding signs that read ?Chicks Agree: Boycott KFC?. One of the protesters claimed they were ?roughly-handled? by police, and said this was due to increased police powers, which came into force on July 1 and will remain in place until the 31st. But police have denied special powers brought in for this week's Catholic World Youth Day (WYD) were the catalyst for the arrests. ?We didn't expect such harsh treatment from the police,? PETA protester Ashley Fruno, 22, said. ?In our experience police here in Australia have been very lenient towards protesters, so we certainly didn't expect this. ?It looks like it was due to the World Youth Day events going on and the new regulations,? she said. Under the laws, emergency and rural fire service volunteers have the right to move on people deemed to be causing ?inconvenience or annoyance? to pilgrims during WYD celebrations and face fines of up to $5,500. But NSW police, who said the protesters were ?causing a stir among passers-by?, denied using any new powers on the KFC protesters. The three women - Ms Fruno, 22, Fawn Porter, 20, and Carla Lobos, 32 - protested for about 40 minutes before being arrested about 1pm (AEST). ?People were shocked, but we think we went a long way in educating people about the way KFC treats its chickens,? Ms Fruno said. ?And of course, the discomfort of the protest, being arrested and the chaos is certainly nothing compared to what the animals go through.? The three women were held for about 90 minutes for questioning but were later released without being charged. KFC later released a pun-laden statement, making light of the protesters' action. The fast food giant's operations general manager Angus Armstrong said ?it was clear that recent protests were not abreast of chicken farming practices in Australia.? ?This issue was overexposed before today's protest,? he said in the statement. ?We do not own or operate chicken farms, but work closely with reputable suppliers, government and industry bodies regarding humane farming methods in accordance with Australia's high standards.? The protest follows former Baywatch babe and PETA supporter Pamela Anderson's (non-topless) protest at a Gold Coast KFC last week and is part of a four-year global campaign against the fast food chain over the way chickens are raised, slaughtered and transported. Activists have labelled the new special powers granted to NSW police and volunteers for WYD a ?one-way street? designed to silence dissent. The Federal Court in Sydney is due to decide tomorrow - when WYD officially begins - on whether powers in the regulations are legally valid, after a legal challenge from protesters last week. SYDNEY AAP http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080709/NEWS/80709043 Group protests on Circle against dog abuse By Christine Won Posted: July 9, 2008 More than 100 people gathered on the steps of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument today to protest against ?puppy mills? in Indiana. Demonstrators contend that many dogs are bred in facilities in which the animals live in crowded, wire cages, receive almost no medical care or human contact and are forced to reproduce for their entire lives. Anne Sterling, Indiana State Director with The Humane Society of the United States, said there are about 150,000 pairs of breeding dogs in puppy mills throughout the United States, including Indiana. ?These dogs are not pets,? Sterling said. ?They?re literally cash crops.? Diane Richards, with petshoppuppies.org at the protest, said their goals are to raise public awareness about the puppy mill dogs sold in pet stores and on the Internet and to have puppy mills abolished in Indiana. http://www.peta.org/mc/NewsItem.asp?id=11643 Wearing Nothing but Tiger Stripes, PETA Beauty Bares the Truth About Circus's Abuse of Animals For Immediate Release: July 9, 2008 Contact: Melissa Karpel 757-622-7382 Los Angeles - Confined to a cage with her nude body painted like a tiger and a banner above her reading, "Wild Animals Don't Belong Behind Bars," PETA member Erin Armstrong will protest the impending arrival of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Los Angeles. Date: Thursday, July 10 Time: 12 noon Place: Intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and N. Highlands Avenue, Los Angeles What's wrong with Ringling? If you're the caged tiger who was shot to death by a Ringling trainer, the young lion who died unattended in a stiflingly hot railway boxcar, or one of the circus's elephants who is constantly chained and disciplined with steel-tipped bullhooks, everything. "I'll gladly bare my skin if it will help expose Ringling's abusive treatment of animals," says Armstrong. "The best way to stop this abuse is for people to boycott Ringling and other circuses that use animals." http://www.worldpress.org/feed.cfm?http://www.breakingnews.ie/Entertainment/mhgbsncwgbql/rss2/ Anderson stages KFC protest Print 11/07/2008 - 08:27:16 Pamela Anderson staged an animal rights protest outside a KFC eaterie in Australia on Thursday - after discovering her guest spot on a reality show was part-sponsored by the fast food chain. The former 'Baywatch' star has been criticised for her decision to take part in the Australian version of 'Big Brother' because of the show's links to KFC, a company Anderson has previously accused of animal cruelty. However, the strict vegetarian insists she had no idea the programme was sponsored by the fried chicken restaurant, calling it a "coincidence". Now the blonde bombshell has staged a protest outside a Sydney-based KFC outlet - and even compared her time on the show to the battery chickens who are allegedly farmed by the company for their meat. She told Australian reporters: "I've been in Australia filming Big Brother House, in which my housemates and I are confined and sealed off from the outside world, much like the chickens who are crammed inside barns for KFC. "Fortunately, I won't be stomped to death, have my legs broken or be scalded to death in a tank of hot water, yet as PETA's (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) undercover videos have revealed, the chickens raised for KFC's restaurants in Australia often suffer these abuses." http://www.newkerala.com/topstory-fullnews-3144.html PETA protests 'animal sacrifice' by Samajwadi Party leader New Delhi, July 29 : Protesting a reported case of animal sacrifice carried out by a Samajwadi Party leader, the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has written to the party's leaders that the act 'tarnishes their triumph' in the recent floor test in parliament. PETA-India chief functionary Anuradha Sawhney in her letter to Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and its general secretary Amar Singh said: ?We hope that you will consider the enormous influence you have over masses and, in the future, refrain from cruel acts that your followers might be inspired to imitate." She said: ?Our office has been flooded with phone calls and emails from people who are horrified by reports that Samajwadi Party Madhya Pradesh unit secretary Kishore Samrite sacrificed animals on your behalf at the Kamakhya temple at Guwahati." ?Killing an animal to celebrate your victory in parliament hardly seems to adhere to the spirit of this law,? Sawhney's letter said. The Samajwadi Party supported the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in the floor test July 21-22. The Manmohan Singh government won the crucial trust vote. ?I hope that, upon reflection, you have come to regret your party member's decision to sacrifice animals, which will only tarnish your triumph in the past parliament trust vote with this blatant show of cruelty to animals,? she said. Noting that animal sacrifice has no place in Indian culture, she said that even "sacrifices" that claim to be ancient practices like sati, child marriage and caste differentiation have been strictly banned because they are seen as ?cruel and exploitative?. She said animal sacrifices have been specifically banned in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Kerala, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. Sawhney said: ?Individuals should show kindness and compassion towards all living beings.? She added that PETA would be ?more than happy to partner? with the party ?to spread the message of compassion to the masses?. http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=95563 Animal Rights Activists Stage Naked Protest over UK Royal Guards' Caps 28 July 2008, Monday British eco-activists from the PETA organization protested naked in front of the UK Embassy in Sofia. Photo by Nadya Kotseva(Sofia Photo Agency) Eco-activists from the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) organization have staged a naked protest in front of the UK Embassy in Sofia on Monday over the use of bearskin caps by the British Royal Guards. The PETA members protest against the killing of black bears in Canada in order to use their fur for the making of the guards' busbies. One black bear has to be killed for every cap produced, the environmentalists say. PETA Europe say also that 80% of the British oppose using the money from their taxes for the hunting of black bears in Canada, and for the production of the fur hats of the Royal Guard. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/07/404800.html Protests Continue At Novartis HQ In Horsham, Sussex PC Bacon | 28.07.2008 11:04 | Animal Liberation | Health | South Coast On Friday 25/07/08 a small but very noisy protest was held outside the Horsham facility of Novartis who are not only content with paying HLS to Kill, Torture and Maim 500 animals every single day of the year but who also have their own torture centre on the premises that they use to carry out their so called essential tests on Primates and Guinea Pigs while all the time the people of Horsham think that the premises is used as a packaging and production facility. Well not any longer NOVARTIS we have done and will continue to inform everyone what a sick and vile company HLS is and by dealing with them that you are complicit in the death of every single animal that dies at HLS. We had only been protesting for a short time when the local police turned up and walked up to us to ask how long we intended to stay. After not getting the straight reply they wanted they left with their tails between their legs looking so bored with being called to every protest when their presence is not needed. During the protest quite a few unmarked vehicles (vans and trucks) came out of the main gate which could indicate that Novartis and their contractors are starting to run scarred of the fact that we know what they are doing and want to hide their faces and identities from the protestors. At the end of the protest a van belonging to Strand Transport came out of the gate. We all know what a disgusting company Strand are and this shows that they still deal with Novartis and could still be dealing with HLS. We will be back Novartis with more people making more noise and informing them what a sick and vile company HLS is. PC Bacon Homepage: http://shac.net http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/07/404832.html Foie Gras protest in Winchester Anon | 28.07.2008 16:08 | Animal Liberation | South Coast Wacky the Duck assists protesters to gently persuade James Martin to ditch pate de foie gras. On Saturday 26 July local people joined ?Wacky the Duck? to protest against celebrity chef James Martin?s delicatessen ?Cadogan and James? in Winchester. Cadogan and James are one of the few remaining businesses in the South who still sell foie gras, made from the livers of ducks and geese force fed so their livers accumulate fat and swell to up to ten times their natural size. Even the people of Winchester were unable to turn a blind eye as Wacky was brutally force fed by the protesters. Highly visual placards showing scenes of foie gras cruelty, and a large banner depicting a human being force fed, with the words, ?Foie Gras: how would you like to be force fed? helped to drive home the message. Wacky represented the millions of his kind who are held in foie gras farms, confined in cages and forced to stand and sleep on wire mesh floors. During force feeding a metal tube is pushed down the throat and an air pump pushes up to 2 pounds of corn into the bird. Under cover investigations have revealed de-beaking, sick and dying birds, birds eaten alive by rats, birds with bleeding and infested wounds in their necks caused by force feeding, tumour-like lumps in birds? throats, and birds with lacerated livers. Saturday?s event was part of an ongoing campaign aimed at Cadogan and James in the hope that, knowing the cruelty involved, James Martin will no longer allow his businesses to stock the product. Encouraging compassion towards other species is an essential step towards saving the planet: humankind's obsession with eating animals is a major cause of climate change, deforestation, desertification, water pollution, and starvation. http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/news/index_view.php?id=324911 Czech activists protest against large chicken farms outside KFC Prague- Activists fighting for animal protection protested against cruelty to chicken at large farms outside the Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) restaurant in Prague centre today. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/406777.html Protest against monkey export in Belgium Gateway To Hell | 15.08.2008 13:34 | Animal Liberation | Bio-technology | Health | World Once again on the doorstep of the Belgian embassy of the island of Mauritius, in solidarity with Shac prisoner Dan Amos http://myspace.com/supportdan It is not because this Gateway to Hell campaign is now focusing rightfully so on Nepal, that we forget the horror of the monkey trade from Mauritius. Last week the embassador, Mr. Gunessee, stated in a Belgian newspaper how frustrated he was with the continuation of our protest. Mr. Gunessee, you can complain as much as you want, this protest only stops when your sick government stops the monkey trade to Western vivisection labs. For more than 1 hour we stood outside the embassy, Rue Bollandistes 68, Brussels. Mauritius, we will never forget the pain you inflict on monkeys. Gateway To Hell Homepage: http://www.gatewaytohell.net http://www.wibw.com/13newsat6/headlines/26851249.html PETA Protests at KFC Posted: 8:53 PM Aug 11, 2008 Last Updated: 8:53 PM Aug 11, 2008 Protesters from the animal rights orgnization PETA, gathered in front of the KFC on north Topeka Boulevard Monday. The protesters were asking customers to think twice before buying their meals. PETA says that kfc treat their chicken inhumanly and that their low cost meals may seem like a bargain, but come with high ethical costs. 13 news tried to contact someone with KFC's corporate office, but were unable to reach them for an official statement. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/406549.html Animal Rights groups protest against seminar by cruelty lobby vegan agenda | 12.08.2008 18:32 | Animal Liberation | Ecology | Repression Animal Rights groups were tipped off that the Hunting Association of Ireland was going to be hosting a breakfast seminar this morning to unite groups and companies which have been the subject of protest for their treatment of animals. The main speaker at the event was Lt. Col. Dennis Foster (US Army, ret'd) who was described as an ''expert on animal rights terrorists" . See video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz9b9rmhavI A number of groups and individuals decided to have a protest outside the hotel, and see who showed up. Representatives of restaurants which sell torture foods like foie gras, fur farms, animal circuses, hunts, greyhound and horse racing groups, animal experimenters and others who are involved in cruelty of various sorts were invited. The organisers had also tried to convince Padraig Walshe, the President of the Irish Farmers' Association to attend, but he had the good sense to stay well away from these extremists. In the event, the protest outside seemed better attended than the seminar itself, with very few people wanting to get involved with the animal cruelty lobby. (An attempt was made to get a few pictures of the inside for indymedia.ie, but the organisers came all over shy...) In the autumn the D?il will debate a new animal welfare bill, and many people are speculating on which way the Green Party will go, given their record in government so far. In a radio interview on rt? this morning, the organiser of the event, Gavin Duffy, claimed that the protesters were actually being paid by shadowy groups from outside Ireland. From the experience of the protesters this morning, it's clear that the only remuneration received was half a bar of vegan chocolate and an apple. At that rate, for a protest which started at 7.30AM and ended at 11, there are definitely better ways of making a living... vegan agenda Homepage: http://ireland.indymedia.org/article/88615 http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008108338_weborca12m.html?syndication=rss August 12, 2008 - Page updated at 02:56 PM E-mail article Print view Share: Digg Newsvine Man injured in whale protest expected to plead guilty By The Associated Press A man who was injured when he cut a power line on Orcas Island to avenge a killer whale's death is expected to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge. Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Miyake says the government won't seek any prison time for 26-year-old Gabriel Mondragon, who lost an arm and a couple toes when he was cut the high-voltage line March 15. Miyake says the defendant has "suffered quite a bit already." Mondragon told authorities he cut the high-voltage line to protest the death of an orca named Luna, who was killed in 2006 by a boat propeller. He said he blamed "rich white people" for the whale's death and the depletion of rain forests. About 4,000 Orcas Power and Light customers lost service for about 90 minutes. Mondragon is expected to plead guilty by next week to the misdemeanor charge, which was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Seattle. http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/aug/24/protesters-trying-to-protect-canine-from/ Protesters trying to protect canine from euthanasia By Marc Shulgold, Rocky Mountain News (Contact) Sunday, August 24, 2008 Silvia Razgova / Special To The Rocky Azelea Bullock of Denver, left, and Chris McGahey, of Commerce City, hold signs at Alameda Avenue and Jason Street on Sunday. Protesters are trying to keep Forrest - a dog that McGahey refers to as his son - from being put to death under Denver's pit bull ordinance. McGahey and his allies say the dog is not a pit bull. What the law says City animal ordinance, section 8-55, bans the ownership of pit bulls within the city borders, defining the animal as "any dog that is an American Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, or any dog displaying the majority of physical traits of any one or more of the above breeds, or any dog exhibiting those distinguishing characteristics which substantially conform to the standards established by the American Kennel Club or United Kennel Club for any of the above breeds." Far from downtown's madding crowds, another group of passionate protesters lines Alameda Avenue near Jason Street. Just up the block sits a condemned prisoner they hope to set free. Forrest the dog. Holding signs imploring the city of Denver to save Forrest from euthanasia, a dozen or so animal lovers wave to motorists, many of whom honk in support of a cause that has generated a nationwide reaction. "The furthest out we've heard from people has been Canada," said Chris McGahey, 25, a construction worker who refers to Forrest as his son. The city, however, has labeled the dog as a violator of the 2005 ban on pit bulls, and has ordered his execution. Despite the city's claims, McGahey and his allies insist that Forrest is not a pit bull. In fact, the dog's owner isn't sure what mix of breeds the animal is. "I got him when he was 4 weeks old," McGahey said of Forrest, now 19 months old and residing at the Denver Municipal Animal Shelter. "He's never hurt anyone." The dog is named for mild- mannered Forrest Gump. Though not a purebred, the animal bears enough of a resemblance to a pit bull to send it to death row, according to the city's interpretation of the ordinance. That fine line is only one of several reasons that dog lovers have rallied to Forrest's defense. Some have come from out of state, including Idaho resident Jeramie Dreyfuss. The former wife of actor Richard Dreyfuss flew in to join the protest. Aside from his bloodline, a point of contention is that the dog and his owner are not even residents of Denver. "Chris lives in Adams County," said Paula Terifaj, a California-based supporter who stood at the entrance to the shelter. She was waving a placard for ROVERlution.org, which is fighting breed-specific legislation. According to Terifaj, Forrest left his Commerce City home twice - the second infraction resulting in a death sentence. She and others have offered to take the dog with them to safety beyond Colorado's borders. McGahey said he has plans to move to Fort Collins. Determined to save the dog, "even if it has to go to the Supreme Court," McGahey hired two lawyers. His side was stung by a ruling on Friday by hearing officer Ann Cisneros, confirming Forrest's genetic roots. Euthanizing the dog could be carried out any time. Terifaj remains optimistic. "They haven't killed the dog yet. They don't want to back down, but they're feeling the heat." McGahey plans to file an appeal this week. Attorney Karen Breslin said on Sunday that she aims to confirm her reading of the City Charter that Cisneros' decision is appealable. "This is a pretty extreme use of government power - to be able to knock on someone's door, take their dog away and kill it, just because of its breed," Breslin said. "The chances (of success) are 99 to 1," McGahey admitted. "But in my mind, it's 50-50. Whatever I have to do to save my son." Should the city's ruling be reversed, he suggested he might consider leaving Colorado. "I'm too scared to have Forrest anywhere in this state," he said. http://aspcacommunity.ning.com/group/animalcrueltypetitions/forum/topic/show?id=658300%3ATopic%3A614882&page=1&commentId=658300%3AComment%3A614946&x=1#658300Comment614946 Forrest the Denver Pit Bull is Saved from Euthanasia Posted by Renee` on August 28, 2008 Forrest, the dog who has been on death row for violating Denver's pit bull ban, is getting a reprieve and will go out of state to an animal sanctuary in Utah. Doug Kelley, the director of the Denver Municipal Animal Shelter, said the Best Friends Animal Shelter in Kanab, Utah, has agreed to take in Forrest. Kelley said Forrest, named after Forrest Gump, likely will leave the state on Friday. In the future, the city likely will continue to ship non-violent pit bulls out of state rather than euthanize them as it has in the past, Kelley said. Kelley said the shelter is the same one that agreed to care for some of the dogs seized in the investigation of Michael Vick, a former NFL quarterback, who is serving a 23-month federal sentence after admitting to bankrolling a dogfighting operation and helping kill six to eight dogs. Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper's office helped come up with the solution, Kelley said. Forrest has been at the city's animal shelter after he was found wandering the city streets for the second time in about four months. Kelley said the dog has exhibited no violent tendencies, and that dog lovers throughout the world have pleaded for his release. Forrest's owner, Chris McGahey, said Forrest escaped from a dog kennel at his home in Adams County after exiting through a hole another dog had dug. "I hope to take him to the airport and take pictures of him getting on the plane," said McGahey, who said he plans to move to wherever Denver sends his dog. http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080824/NEWS/808240344/1001/ Activists protest puppy mills at West Des Moines pet store By CYNTHIA REYNAUD ? creynaud at dmreg.com ? August 24, 2008 Mary LaHay sought the perfect puppy six months ago. She found a calling as an animal rights activist. LaHay read online about puppy mills. The stories described dogs who were overbred and underloved by breeders who made money selling the puppies to unknowing customers through pet shops and newspaper ads, LaHay said. A few weeks later, LaHay adopted a miniature poodle, which she named Eddie, from an animal shelter. She also became an advocate against puppy mills in Iowa. On Saturday, LaHay staged her first protest of the mills and organizations affiliated with them outside Petland in West Des Moines. She was joined by a dozen others who represented animal rescue organizations and shelters in the area. "Franchises are making a fortune off the misery of these dogs," said Joe Pundzak, a volunteer for the Raccoon Valley Animal Sanctuary and Rescue. "You go in and fall in love with a puppy. What they don't tell you is the conditions the (puppy's) parents are living in." The Humane Society of the United States has long identified Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Ohio and Pennsylvania as major puppy mill states, outreach director Stephanie Shain told the Associated Press last year. The West Des Moines Petland location opened at 6305 Mills Civic Parkway in January and is owned by Tim Mohrfeld. The shop is a national franchise that sells a variety of pets including mixed breed and registered puppies and kittens. General Manager Scott Berger started as a salesperson and took over with his wife, Karrie, in May. "Our heart is behind these animals. I would stand down on the corner with them when it comes to real puppy mills," Karrie Berger said. "But we don't feel we're doing anything wrong here. We're taking these puppies and giving them a home." The Bergers said they have changed some practices regarding where they obtain puppies since taking over the store. They have committed to visit all the breeders they buy from and say they will refuse business with anyone they find mistreating the dogs. "I'm not all about the dollar," Scott Berger said. "The welfare and health of our animals comes first." http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/nationworld/story/456465.html SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA: Humpback whale calf euthanized despite protests THE NEWS TRIBUNE Published: August 23rd, 2008 01:00 AM The baby humpback whale was starving, injured and near death. So despite anguished cries of ?Murder!? and ?Shame!? from protesters who thought it could still be saved, wildlife officials on Friday euthanized the animal, which had strayed into waters off north Sydney nearly a week ago. The decision to end the calf?s life, first sighted in the inlet Sunday, closed a story that exposed divided opinions over what should have been done for the whale, nicknamed Colin. Attempts to tow the 1- to 2-month-old calf out to sea failed, as it tried to suckle from boats it apparently mistook for its mother. Officials deemed artificial nursing impossible. The Associated Press http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2008/08/20/mtl-thetfordchicken0820.html?ref=rss Quebec cottage poultry slaughter cancelled after PETA protests Last Updated: Wednesday, August 20, 2008 | 3:18 PM ET Comments52Recommend19 CBC News Participants cut the head off a turkey at the annual chicken massacre in Thetford, Que. The event was cancelled this year after animal welfare activists condemned the tradition. (Canadian Press) A controversial chicken slaughter betting game in Quebec has been cancelled, after an animal rights group contacted police. The "Thetford Chicken Massacre" organizer, Dr. Gaston Dorval, announced he won't hold the event this year, after PETA publicy criticized the annual tradition. The Labour Day weekend event involves a game in which people bet on squares in a white grid drawn on the lawn. Chickens and turkeys are beheaded and set free on the grid. The square they die on wins the bet. The chickens are then barbecued. Between two and three chickens are killed over the course of the weekend. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals called the game barbaric, and contacted provincial police to request an investigation. Dorval is defending the game, and says the chickens and turkeys suffer less than they would at a slaughterhouse. The eight-year-old event is part of an annual weekend at Dorval's cottage outside Thetford Mines, south of Quebec City. PETA caught wind of the event on Facebook, a web-based social networking site. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/407100.html HLS, Gates of Hell Weekly Protest SHAC | 19.08.2008 17:14 | Animal Liberation | Health | Cambridge A car load of fantastic protestors who travelled for 7 - 8 hours today to protest at the site joined local protestors at the weekly demonstration. >From noon to 5.30pm it was non stop chanting to the workers who scurried across the paths in front of us to avoid hearing the truth! The steady flow of traffic in and out of this animal torture chamber were continually reminded of what they are part of and many hung their heads in shame as they drove past. We stood at this root of evil and saw the dregs of society with no compassion or conscience trying to shut our protest out but they will never be able to hide from what they are involved in. Why not join us on the weekly demo (normally on Fridays at noon) - contact info at shac for more details. Thank you again you wonderful Liverpool people for the support today. SHAC http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/406936.html SHAC Protest Outside of Barclays Bank SHAC Brum | 17.08.2008 07:20 | Animal Liberation | Birmingham Friday 15th August Around 6 activists lead a protest outside of Barclays Bank.Informing the public and confronting another HLS collaborator.. We arrived at Barclays with plenty of the passing public unaware of what they fund.That was until the demo began! People passing we're genuinely shocked,and in disbelief,that a "respected" bank could fund such atrocities. Many vowed to cancel their Barclays account and never open an account with them.One lady went into the bank to give them a peice of her mind. The police arrived with their usual anti democratic dictates.Tellin' us we needed a permit to do a demo,the placards were "offensive" & that we were making noise near a residential area(we were in the center of town where there is no residents!). Laughably,as the police were postering,they had to suddenly run off to fight real crime,whilst the public(around us) laughed at them. Eventually,Barclays decided to shut their front door! Customers wanted to get in but Barclarys weren't allowing it.No customer respect,really.They directed the people who wanted to get in,to the side door,but we soon spread over there too.Informing every customer who went in there. Smash HLS! SHAC Brum e-mail: info at shac.net Homepage: http://www.shac.net/ http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/406916.html Weekly protests continue at Novartis HQ, Horsham SHAC Horsham | 17.08.2008 02:28 | Animal Liberation | Health | South Coast Friday 8th August Novartis Horsham saw a good turnout out of activists who created quite a presence with their sea of banners. Public support of the the campaign appears to be increasing, with many cars hooting as they pass by the noisy and visual demo. Novartis draconia injunction will not deter us, we will carry on naming and shaming you Novartis, for your involvement in animal abuse and torture. Since the national march in April, the people of Horsham are learning more about you and are becoming to realise your PR lies and secrets are not stoping people finding out what sort of 'experiments' you do. We will carry on with this campaign, until all are free. SHAC Horsham e-mail: info at shac.net Homepage: http://www.shac.net http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/406906.html Barclays and AstraZeneca Protests in London SHAC London | 17.08.2008 02:12 | Animal Liberation | Health | London | World Friday 15th August A group of about 15 activists met at 11am to start the day of demonstrations against the allies of HLS. Barclays was first, second and third on the list. First up was the Barclays at 128 Moorgate. This is an excellent location right on the crossroad, with the demonstration visible from several directions. Megaphones were used to convey exactly Barclays' involvement in animal torture in HLS, and to put pressure on with loud chanting of "blood on your hands" and "Barclays Bank, sell your shares!". We stayed at this location until 1 o'clock, before moving onto another branch. Next was the Barclays Branch at 1-7 King Street. This is another good location for a demonstration. The Barclays branches seem to be situated in places that are easy for customers to find, but this often means that they're good places for demonstrations as well. This Barclays last week put up a notice in the window apologising to their customers about the "disruption", and they did the same here this time, again failing to mention why we were there: because they support the torture of sentient animals for profit! We also mention on Barclays demonstrations all the other murky investments they have, such as in the arms trade, and the fact that they make billions of pounds out of the wars in the Middle East. They have no ethical policy. They only policy they have is to make as much money as possible. After about an hour, we moved onto Barclays at 81 Fleet Street. Another excellent location for a demo (nearly opposite regular target Goldman Sachs) where there are always many people walking passed. This, again, was a loud and forceful demonstration. This was the second demo in two days at this branch and a couple of the staff were visibly irritated by our repeated presence. We stayed here for about an hour, before paying a visit to our old friends, AstraZeneca. We arrived at AstraZeneca at about quarter past 5 and stayed until after 6pm, to see the workers off home. We used megaphones and our voices to tell AZ exactly what we think of them, continuing to contract experiments in HLS, paying good money to see animals get tortured just so they can make money from their dodgy drugs. If it the pharmaceutical companies really wanted to help humans, they why do they not share data? The pharmaceutical industry is a complete fraud. Companies like AZ are not interested in saving any lives, they just want to make billions of dollars. That's why we see drugs constantly taken off the market, and recently very popular pharmaceutical anti-depressants have been proven to be no better than placebos. What does this tell you about the real motives of pharmaceutical companies? Have you paid your $millions fine to the Alabama courts yet AZ, for over charging doctors for your drugs? The fight continues. SHAC London http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSPEK10464420080806?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews U.S. nude swimmer defies ban on animal rights protest Wed Aug 6, 2008 7:22am EDT BEIJING (Reuters) - U.S. swimmer Amanda Beard unveiled a demure nude photograph of herself urging women "Don't wear fur" on Wednesday, hours after Chinese authorities had prevented her from her staging a news conference for "safety" reasons. The Athens 2004 Olympic gold medalist said she was determined to carry on even after plainclothes police banned her scheduled news conference at a Beijing hotel "for our safety". Beard, 26, declined to say if she believed that was the real motive for the ban. She went ahead with her campaign, only at a different location. Instead of the hotel, she appeared in front of reporters and TV cameras outside the heavily fenced Olympic athletes' village. "What happens with animals when their skin is ripped from their bodies when they are still alive, it's heartbreaking for me," she said. The Olympics provided a great platform for making those views known, she added. Chinese Olympic security guards watched the media scrum from the South Gate of the village but did not intervene. The German Olympic cycling team, heading out for training in hot, muggy weather, stopped for a look. PETA spokesman Jason Baker said eight Chinese security officials in plain clothes showed up at the group's hotel late on Tuesday to announce the planned press conference would not be permitted. They cited safety concerns, he said. "I think they just didn't understand what we had planned," he told Reuters. "We are not protesting against China. We just want to promote compassion for animals. "We know they don't like talking about animal rights. I guess they didn't want to take any chances right ahead of the opening of the Olympics," Baker added. But there would be no protest, he said. "Five years ago we wouldn't even have considered doing this here." (Editing by Jeremy Laurence) http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/405619.html Protests at Novartis in Dublin Continue NARA | 06.08.2008 22:52 | Animal Liberation | Health For the past few weeks we've been having regular demonstrations outside Novartis in Dublin (Regus House, Harcourt Road, Dublin 2). Upon our arrival at Novartis, the doors of the building are locked immediately, and staff stand staring at us, for the duration of the protests. We've had a lot of support from passers-by, with a few people even interested in joining the campaign to close HLS. On one occassion, Novartis employees threw water at us from their windows - as if that would deter us! An incident which only further proves the mindset of these people! The Gardai have always only arrived as we are finishing, which means Novartis has felt the full blast of our megaphones time and time again - without interuption. We'll be making weekly visits to Novartis for at least the next month, so if you are in Dublin, do come and join us! Keep up the fight, NARA Homepage: http://www.naracampaigns.org From ldxar1 at tesco.net Thu Aug 28 21:40:20 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2008 05:40:20 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Peace protests, global South and East, Apr-Aug 2008, part 1 of 2 Message-ID: <00b501c90991$5968ad30$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * PERU: Protest against US presence * UKRAINE: NATO "war games" protested, blockaded * RUSSIA/GEORGIA: Peace protest in St Petersburg; human rights protest in Moscow * GEORGIA: Locals protest Russian presence in port * GEORGIA/GLOBAL: 300 protest at UN over Russian aggression * Georgian solidarity protests in UK, Sweden, Belgium, Canada, several American cities, Israel, Lithuania and China * KYRGYZSTAN: Short protest against American base * NIGERIA: Niger Delta children protest kidnappings; women protest violence * UGANDA: Students protest against ongoing war in the north * CZECH REPUBLIC: Rice visit and US-backed radar base protested http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20080602&articleId=9160 Peruvians to Protest US Military Presence Global Research, June 2, 2008 Prensa Latina Social organizations called to a general strike to protest against the presence of US troops in Ayacucho, in central Peru. The general strike will take place on July 8, according to a decision taken by the Ayacucho Defense Front after it was announced that 70 US American soldiers had been deployed in the area. Another 350 military troops will arrive soon. Front chairman Iver Maravi said protesters will demand the withdrawal of the foreign troops, because its presence, which was approved by congressional conservative forces, goes against national sovereignty and dignity. Army chief Gen. Edwin Donayre claimed the US troops will only perform humanitarian tasks, without settling a permanent base in Peru. However, former Army officer and opposition leader Ollanta Humala ruled out Donayre's words. Humala said the water wells and school classrooms to be built by the American troops can be built by Peruvian workers and engineers. Former Minister of Defense and Congressman David Waisman agreed with military analyst Jose Robles on that the Ministry of Defense is lacking transparency regarding the number of US military troops that has been authorized to enter Peru. http://www.russiatoday.ru/news/news/26316 June 18, 2008, 0:27 Ukrainian protesters say 'NATO go home!' NATO's Secretary General has sparked protests during a visit to Ukraine where he has pledged to do all he can to help the country's bid for membership. The comments from Jaap de Hoop Scheffer came at a news conference in Kiev as Ukraine's government continues its push to join. The government's stance differs from opinion polls which suggest the majority of the population are against the plan. Mr de Hoop Scheffer reiterated NATO's position on the matter. He once again stressed that whatever political course Ukraine chooses the final decision will remain with the Ukrainian public. He said: "The NATO ambassadors are coming into areas where there is, perhaps, a more critical attitude vis-?-vis NATO, to explain what the modern NATO is and that nobody has anything to fear from the North Atlantic alliance. The Ukrainian people will decide themselves what course they want to follow, and that is the only right way." According to the local laws there has to be a public referendum - people have to vote on whether they want to see their country within the alliance or not. The NATO chief also reiterated that nobody should fear the alliance's eastward expansion. "Let's not forget that never in its history has NATO been directed against a nation or against somebody," he said. He also added that the decision to send Ukrainian servicemen to take part in NATO operations will rest with Ukraine. This is something President Viktor Yushchenko confirmed. "I want to stress once again that Ukraine has no plans to locate any foreign military bases on its territory. I would also like to dismantle the myth that if Ukraine joins NATO membership action plan, it will make Ukrainian military forces obliged to participate in all NATO operations. This is total nonsense," said Mr Yushchenko. However, many countries do not share this position, including Russia. It sees the ambitions of Ukraine and Georgia to join NATO as a direct threat to its national security. Meanwhile, several hundred anti-NATO protesters took to the streets on Monday and Tuesday, protesting against Mr. De Hoop Scheffer's arrival. The campaigners are against Ukraine joining. They were carrying flags and chanting anti-NATO slogans. The NATO chief said during the press conference that he sees these protests as a sign of democracy in Ukraine showing that people can freely speak their mind. http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=230058&version=1&template_id=39 Ukrainians protest Nato war games Published: Tuesday, 15 July, 2008, 01:16 AM Doha Time A British auxiliary navy ship passing a sculpture and lighthouse in the Odessa port before the opening ceremony of Ukrainian-US Navy exercise Sea Breeze 2008 in Odessa yesterday KIEV: Several dozen Ukrainians yesterday protested the launch of Nato military exercises in ex-Soviet Ukraine as US forces prepared for separate war games in Georgia amid tensions between Moscow and Washington. Dozens of protesters scuffled with police as they attempted to surround a hall hosting the launch of the Sea Breeze-2008 Nato exercise in Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odessa, television pictures showed. A smaller group of demonstrators waved flags and chanted "Nato stop!" as a Turkish vessel pulled into Odessa's harbour, Russia's NTV television reported. The Nato exercises "will increase political and military tensions in Europe as a whole," Sergei Mironov, speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament, was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency in Moscow. Sea Breeze-2008, which lasts until July 26, will also include forces from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Latvia, Macedonia and Turkey, officials said. Separate military exercises dubbed Immediate Response-2008 are due to start in Georgia today with Armenian, Azerbaijani, Ukrainian and US troops taking part, a Georgian defence ministry spokeswoman said. "The US-Georgia joint exercises will be held at the Vaziani military base" less than 100km from the Russian border with a total of 1,650 servicemen taking part, said the spokeswoman, Nana Intskirveli. Meanwhile, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak said yesterday in Moscow that its military is ready to "neutralise" any threat to its nuclear deterrent from US missile defence sites in Europe, Interfax news agency reports. "If we see the development of systems that could reduce our deterrent potential, our military will have to take steps to neutralise the threat," Kislyak was quoted as saying at a briefing in Moscow. He did not specify the steps that would be taken, saying "this will be decided by military specialists." "We would prefer not to have to do this," he added. Kislyak said US proposals to ease Russian concerns about the missile shield, which Washington claims is aimed at countering possible threats from states such as Iran, remained in doubt. "There are misunderstandings between what the US foreign and defence ministers said here (in Moscow) and what their Czech and Polish partners say. So this still remains in question," Kislyak said. - AFP http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/220265,communist-protestors-block-nato-warships-in-ukraine-harbour.html Communist protestors block NATO warships in Ukraine harbour Posted : Mon, 21 Jul 2008 08:21:02 GMT Author : DPA Category : Europe (World) Kiev - Ten Communist rowboats blocked the exit of a squadron of NATO warships from a Ukrainian harbour, Channel 5 television reported Monday. Demonstrators manning the craft had set up a patrol line in Odessa bay between the vessels and the open Black Sea, preventing NATO combat vessels from departing to participate in the US-led Sea Breeze 2008 international naval exercise. Port officials had taken three boats into custody by mid-morning, but the blockade was continuing as Ukrainian police attempted to convince the protestors to move out of the way. The anti-NATO activists were members of three extreme left-wing groups opposed to Ukrainian cooperation with the Western alliance. "The remaining seven boats are heroically continuing their blockade (of Odessa port and the NATO warships)," a statement from the nationalist Bratsvo group claimed. The Sea Breeze maneuvers practicing peacekeeping operations had been scheduled to begin on Monday. The multi-national naval exercise, scheduled to take place from July 14 to 26, includes warships from the US, Belgium, Germany, Turkey, Latvia, Denmark, Canada, and Greece; as well as non-NATO members Macedonia, Georgia, and Ukraine. More than 1,000 NATO ground troops, 30 warships, and dozens maritime helicopters and aircraft will practice landings and ship-to-shore operations. Ukraine's contribution to the training is the largest in the 11-year history of the exercises and includes 15 warships, four planes, ten helicopters, and 500 soldiers and sailors. NATO has helped the Ukrainians participate in the annual naval exercises by providing money to help Kiev pay for fuel and food for its cash-strapped military. Ukraine's pro-West government strongly favours membership in NATO, despite a luke-warm to antagonistic attitude towards the alliance by most Ukrainians. Some 200 anti-NATO demonstrators gathered near the House of Officers building in Odessa carrying signs saying, among other comments, "NATO is worse than Gestapo!," "Ukraine and Russia - Brothers!," and "Odessa will not invite NATO into its house!" Russian officials have spoken out against the Sea Breeze training, arguing that intensified Ukrainian association with NATO is threatens Russian national security. Ukrainian officials have alleged that local left-wing groups routinely protesting Ukraine-NATO training are funded by the Kremlin, a charge denied by Moscow. http://www.macroworldinvestor.com/m/m.w?lp=GetStory&id=314701521 Protesters block Ukraine NATO exercises Released : Monday, July 21, 2008 2:03 PM Ukrainian protesters said Monday they had blocked NATO warships from participating in a military exercise in the Black Sea. The Bratstvo, or Brotherhood Party, issued a press release Monday saying its members had moved boats into positions blocking the exits from the port of Odessa, preventing NATO ships from participating in the Sea Breeze 2008 exercise, RIA Novosti reported. The left-wing group said three of its boats were detained, but the others continued the blocking operation. The NATO drill in Odessa is being accompanied by numerous protests by local residents. This demonstrates the public mood in Ukraine over the government's course toward early admission to the alliance, the news agency reported the group as saying. Ukrainian politicians opposed to the government's moves to join NATO said during the run-up to Sea Breeze they would organize mass protests to disrupt the drills, and last week protesters set up a camp in western Crimea to picket the exercises, RIA Novosti said. http://en.rian.ru/photolents/20080725/114888065.html Ukrainians protest Sea Breeze 2008 in Crimea The NATO-led military exercise Sea Breeze 2008 began July 14 in the Odessa region and will continue through July 26. The drills will be held on training grounds in the Odessa region, Crimea and the Black Sea. http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/27618 July 17, 2008, 13:05 Protests dog NATO-Ukraine war games Fresh protests in Ukraine have hit the NATO-led naval exercise underway in the Black Sea off the coast of the Crimean peninsula. The two week exercise, known as Sea Breeze, involves 17 countries that want to build co-operation and develop greater maritime security. But it's attracted controversy, and sporadic opposition, from Ukrainians who are against the country's plans to join NATO. But at the site of the exercise itself, in waters next to Russia's Black Sea fleet, the protests have done little to trouble the crew of most of the servicemen taking part. A Ukrainian flag on a U.S. vessel is the unusual sight on board the USS McFaul, one of the youngest destroyers in the American fleet, which has docked at Odessa's harbour. The battleship - equipped with multiple guns, torpedoes, two rocket-launching systems and manned by several hundred men- is made for combat operations at sea. But it has come to the Ukrainian port on a peaceful mission. Mark Postill, Command Systems Officer on USS McFaul, says: "The exercise is based on an evacuation, basically to help people in different countries, either evacuate or support them in case of natural disasters - floods or hurricanes." The experienced crew immediately got down to what they came for, putting on the first practical display of the military exercise. Fortunately, they've never had to deal with this situation for real: extinguishing a fire on a damaged helicopter and rescuing an injured pilot. Their colleagues from 15 countries who were also on board, including Turkey, France and Greece, seemed impressed. Something that would hardly have been possible three or four decades ago, the fleet of the hosts stands just several hundred meters away from USS McFaul. The Ukrainians have yet to start their practical exercises but are now getting ready to begin. Their ships might not be as big or well equipped as the NATO vessels, but the crews insist they can hold their own. Young sailor Dmitry Livak said: "We've got guided missiles and torpedo launchers. These weapons look good and they are really powerful. In fact, the whole ship is a weapon". http://en.for-ua.com/news/2008/08/22/131048.html News / 22 August 2008 | 13:10 Sevastopol holding protest actions against Ukraine's involvement into military conflicts Representatives of youth public organizations, the National Movement party, the congress of Ukrainian nationalists and Ukrainian People's party are holding a protest action in the center of Sevastopol against the Ukraine's involvement into military conflicts and usage of Russian symbols on he territory of Ukraine. About one thousand representatives of organizations from of Kyiv, Odesa, Mykolayev, Kharkiv and other cities are taking part in the protest action. The participants are holding banners "Sevastopol is not Tskhinvali", "War with Georgia is not a feat, but crime against humanity", "Medvedev, Ukraine does not need your peacemakers." The activists are also distributing papers and photos made in the region of military operations in Georgia. http://www.sptimesrussia.com/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=26842 Anti-War Protestors Gather in Central St. Petersburg By Sergey Chernov Staff Writer Sergey Chernov / The St. Petersburg Times Anti-war protestors gathering at Maly Konyushennaya Ulitsa on Tuesday. An anti-war rally drew dozens of protesters to central St. Petersburg on Tuesday despite government-controlled media presenting Russians as unanimous in supporting the invasion of Georgia. Russian media has been waging an anti-Georgian campaign since hostilities between Georgia and Russia began last week. Around 60 people gathered on Malaya Konyushennaya Ulitsa, next to a statue of writer Nikolai Gogol, with about 40 holding banners, on Tuesday evening. One of the posters criticized the Russian media's response to the conflict with the slogan, "We Need Information, Not Propaganda." Others read, "Stop the War" and "Human Life Is Priceless." Organized by the youth wing of the democratic party Yabloko, the rally called for the "cessation of military action and the establishment of peace in the South Ossetian conflict zone." "The organizers will refrain from apportioning blame about who started the war," a news release about the rally stated. "There will be neither words of support nor words of condemnation directed to the conflict's participants. The action's participants intend to call both sides to stop killing peaceful citizens and to sit down at the negotiating table." The organizers brought blank sheets of paper and markers to allow participants who had no posters to create their own on the spot. People squatted on the ground to write such slogans as "All People Are Brothers, War Is a Crime," and "We Are With Those Who Are Being Killed, Not With Those Who Are Killing." Although the protesters had secured permission from the authorities, there was a police van and an OMON special-task police force truck parked close to the site on nearby Nevsky Prospekt. But the police did not interfere. Nevertheless, one police officer recorded protesters on a video camera, while another copied down what was written on the posters in a notebook. Olga Kurnosova, the local leader of Garry Kasparov's United Civil Front, part of pro-democracy coalition The Other Russia, took part in the rally and held aloft a handwritten poster that said, "No to War!" The United Civil Front issued a statement blaming President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for violating the Constitution by starting military action without the necessary sanction from the Federation Council and called for immediate negotiations, troop withdrawal and an end to the war. The war in Georgia will also be addressed by musicians and speakers at a United Civil Front-promoted outdoor concert, "Rock for Freedom," due to take place on Ploshchad Sakharova on Aug. 22, the movement's spokesman said on Thursday. Televizor, SP Babai and other bands have been scheduled to perform in the concert, which marks the anniversary of the failed 1991 coup d'etat by Soviet hardliners. Meanwhile, Alexei Nikonov, the frontman of local punk band Posledniye Tanki v Parizhe (Last Tanks in Paris), also known as PTVP, announced that his band's next concert, at Mod on Aug. 27, would be against the war in Georgia. "This is war," he said in a statement this week. "The crisis was inevitable. They need a small victorious war... Oil pipes, imperial hallucinations, but the main thing is the money, it's always the same... Inflation? Poverty? The power of the oligarchy? The war for them is a solution to every problem. This is how the state acts. Imperialism hypnotizes through aggression. We are responding the only way we know how." http://www.nowpublic.com/world/protest-action-against-systematic-violation-human-rights-north-caucasus Protest action against systematic violation of human rights in the North Caucasus by Babel-Fish | August 22, 2008 at 01:24 am | 73 views | add comment Russia has a deep history of violating human rights, these people however are protesting and they now have the rights to do so and rightly so. RUSSIA, Moscow. On July 10 in Moscow at Novopushkinsky Square, the Moscow department of the United Civil Front conducted a protest meeting against the systematic violation of human rights in the North Caucasus. Participants included representatives from the Committee on Anti-War actions, the human rights center "Memorial", and the "Defense" movement - a total of about 30 people. The organizers' statement said: "Do not believe deceitful propaganda! Violence in the North Caucasus continues as before. Instead of proposing social projects to Russian citizens of this region, the Putin - Medvedev regime prefers to solve problems by shootings and by repression. Hostage-taking by intelligence agencies and unjustified aggression with respect to people who are only suspected of connections with fighters in the North Caucasus long ago became standard. In Moscow and throughout central Russia, people do not understand to what extent the prevailing situation is monstrous. What exactly is occurring in the North-Caucasian republics? http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKLN22026420080823 Georgians protest against Russian soldiers at port Sat Aug 23, 2008 11:11am BST POTI, Georgia, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Up to 1,000 Georgians protested angrily on Saturday against the presence of about 20 Russian soldiers at a post just outside the strategic Black Sea port of Poti, insisting they had no right to stay there. Earlier, a senior Russian general in Moscow said Russian forces would patrol the town -- vital for Georgia's economy -- even though it lies outside the buffer zone with breakaway Abkhazia and where Moscow says its peacekeepers will operate. The soldiers, who had been digging trenches at the post, told the crowd they were peacekeepers. They wore peacekeeping badges. The protesters honked car horns and waved Georgian flags. (Reporting by Niko Mchedishvili; writing by Matt Robinson; editing by Gareth Jones) (matt.robinson at thomsonreuters.com: +995 32 999 370)) http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-nygeor155802042aug15,0,3040066.story?track=rss 300 gather at UN to protest Russian forces in Georgia BY MARIA ALVAREZ | Special to Newsday August 15, 2008 More than 300 people chanting "Stop Russian aggression" protested Russian forces in Georgia at the UN and the Russian consulate yesterday. "The mission here is to inform the American people what is happening and what Russia is doing," said Nick Chkheidze, 38, of Great Neck, who led the march up Third Avenue. The rush-hour demonstration yesterday demanded Russian forces retreat from Georgia, where a Russian offensive forced back Georgian troops seeking control over the breakaway region of South Ossetia. Russian forces have since plunged deeper into Georgia. "It's a tragedy for us. Russia is spreading its borders," Chkheidze said as protesters chanted "Russia out of Georgia." He said his parents still live in Tbilisi, the capital, where he was a doctor and an organizer of Georgia's 1990s nationalist movement. "Russians are still killing civilians at this moment," said Chkheidze, who moved to the U.S. eight years ago and works as a radiologist in Queens. Duda Kvitsian, 32, of Huntington, said his father and brother-in-law are stranded in the remote mountain village of Racha-Ambrolauri. He said they went to rescue his 4-year-old nephew, who was vacationing with his grandparents. "They had to turn back when they reached Gori. There were too many explosions and bombings," Kvitsian said. About 15 of Kvitsian's relatives are holed up in the village waiting for the bombings to stop. He said his family told him that the Russian army was still bombing Gori and its outskirts. "They are scared because they don't know if they will have enough food, and they are scared that Russians tanks will enter Tbilisi," Kvitsian said. "I have not slept," he added. "My friends and family are psychologically devastated. I feel their horror." He was shaking his head in disbelief. "It's outrageous," said Naria Vassilidze, of Elizabeth, N.J. Her brother and sister-in-law live in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi. Her sister-in-law is from South Ossetia. "We are all Georgians," Vassilidze said. "It's been that way for 2,000 years until the Russians came in." http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008107158_localgeorgia12m.html?syndication=rss Local Georgians protest The Seattle area's Georgian community - small in size at maybe a couple dozen families - raised its voice forcefully Monday... By Leslie Anne Jones and Stuart Eskenazi Seattle Times staff reporter PREV of NEXT ELLEN M. BANNER / THE SEATTLE TIMES Marika Abuashvili, of Issaquah, protests with others in the local Georgian community. The Seattle area's Georgian community - small in size at maybe a couple dozen families - raised its voice forcefully Monday to condemn the Russian invasion that has displaced tens of thousands of Georgians and threatens to eviscerate an emerging democracy. As Pacific Northwest-based relief agencies World Vision and Mercy Corps mobilized in and around the capital of Tbilisi to assist refugees, a group of about 40 people demonstrated in front of the Russian Consulate in downtown Seattle. They held red-and-white Georgian flags and signs that read "Stop Russian Invasion" and "Russia is Destroying Georgian Democracy," while waving to honking motorists. Representatives of the Russian Consulate declined to comment. Some protesters were anxiously awaiting word from relatives. Marika Abuashvili, 46, who attended the protest with her sons, said she couldn't locate her three aunts and their families. With her boys, Abuashvili came to the U.S. in 1992 as a refugee after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the conflict that ensued. "Being a political refugee, this is a horrendous d?j? vu," she said. Over the weekend, the University of Washington's Office of International Programs & Exchanges canceled a four-week seminar visit to Georgia for a small group of students. The trip was to begin Aug. 25. "Few countries offer the opportunity to witness and study the trials and tribulations of the transition to democracy and market economy that Georgia does today," a description of the seminar said. Archil Kublashvili, a programmer with Microsoft who has accounted for the safety of his family in Georgia, said the Georgian community in the Seattle area is disparate, with no church or community center at which to congregate. Kublashvili arrived in the U.S. as a student in 1994 and moved here for a job in 1999. Others sought asylum during the war with Russia in the early 1990s; others are married to Americans. "People here need to wake up - this is fascism in the 21st century," Kublashvili said. "If Georgia folds, and no one helps us, Ukraine is next and then the Baltic States. There is simply no stopping of Russia." Lia Shartava, who has lived in the U.S. for nine years, spent three hours Monday morning phoning friends and relatives in Georgia to make sure her 13-year-old daughter was safe. The girl lives in Tbilisi but was vacationing in the western part of the country and can't return home because the route back to the capital is blocked, her mother said. "I'm so terrified she's going to be on a train and it starts bombing," she said. Relief workers assigned to projects to help the developing country have switched their focus to assisting refugees. World Vision, based in Federal Way, has been in Georgia since 1994, said Rachel Wolff, communications director for disaster response. Currently, 155 staffers - almost all Georgian nationals - manage several projects, including loans to poor entrepreneurs, HIV/AIDS prevention and support for disabled children and children living on the streets. Wolff said the staffers have turned their attention to assisting refugees with food and other essentials. Some have gone to Tbilisi, which has a high concentration of refugees. Wolff said that World Vision plans to recruit another 150 or so workers in Georgia and surrounding countries to assist in relief efforts. Mercy Corps, based in Portland, has been working in Georgia since 2000, with 15 staffers currently, all Georgian citizens. The organization was in the process of hiring Georgians for a program to nurture peaceful and respectful interaction among youth of different ethnicities in the separatist province of South Ossetia, where the most intense fighting has occurred. "It's sad to see any of our programs put on the back burner, but particularly when that program was trying to head off exactly what happened," said Joy Portella of Mercy Corps' Seattle office. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3583370,00.html Israeli hurls bottles at Russian embassy in protest of Georgia war (VIDEO) Jerusalem resident detained after throwing bottles at Russian embassy in Tel Aviv; investigation into incident continues Raanan Ben-Zur Published: 08.16.08, 21:16 / Israel News VIDEO - Police arrested Saturday a 47-year-old Israeli man who hurled empty bottles in the direction of a security guard at the Russian embassy in Tel Aviv in protest of the war in Georgia. photos: Yaron Brener Embassy employees notified the Lev Tel Aviv police station, and officers dispatched to the scene located the suspect, a resident of Jerusalem, and took him in for questioning. The initial investigation into the incident revealed that the man, a new immigrant from Russia, made the trip from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, collected several empty bottles and hurled them at the embassy in protest of the Russian invasion of Georgia. The man has been released on bail, but police are continuing the investigation against him. Last week several dozen Israelis of Georgian descent staged a demonstration outside the Russian embassy in Tel Aviv to protest the war. http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/368855/1/.html Georgians stage protests in European capitals Posted: 17 August 2008 0523 hrs Pro-Georgians in Kiev, Ukraine, protest against Russia's military actions in Georgia. LONDON: Georgians took to the streets in European capitals on Saturday to protest the conflict with Russia, with demonstrations in London, Brussels and Stockholm. In the British capital, about 200 Georgians rallied opposite the Houses of Parliament, with many waving the Georgian flags, while others held placards and peace flags. "We don't want it to be war. We just want our land back," said Paata Kharauli, 20, a Georgian student studying English. "We're waiting for the United States and Britain but they don't help us. We would like them to bring their armies to put in the middle so the Russians don't come any more," he told AFP. Asked how he thought Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili is handling the crisis, he said: "I don't think Saakashvili is doing very good things because he knew Russia has very big power and he knew we can't win with Russia." Demonstrators on Parliament Square, in the shadow of Big Ben, waved placards - one reading "Give peace a chance" and another saying "Honk if you support Georgia". Another student, aged 29, who gave his name only as Nicholas, said: "We need just peace and our territorial integrity." He said Georgia wanted "moral support" from Western countries. Asked what he thought of the French-brokered peace deal, he said: "We hope that it will work because the whole progressive population of the world supports Georgia and understands what is the real reason for this conflict." "War and blood is not our purpose. We just want peace and our territories back." In Brussels, members of the Georgian community dressed the Manneken Pis, the Belgian capital's landmark statuette of a boy urinating in a fountain, in Georgian red-and-white national costume. "For us, the national costume is very important," a Georgian told Belgium's RTBF public television. "To wear it in the days of the Russian Empire was to defy authority." Another pro-Georgian protest took place nearby outside the Brussels stock exchange. In Stockholm, protesters gathered in front of the Russian embassy. Police said 100 people were involved, while organisers claimed that up to 200 demonstrated. The protest was staged by the the liberal Swedish political magazine Neo and the youth wings of moderate political parties. Neo editor Sofia Nerbrand urged the Kremlin to "respect the choice of Russia's neighbours - former Soviet colonies which are trying to install democracy in their countries". - AFP/de http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/12/BATM129441.DTL&feed=rss.news Worried Georgians protest at Russian Consulate in S.F. Carl Nolte, Chronicle Staff Writer Tuesday, August 12, 2008 More in sadness than in anger, about a hundred men, women and children from the Bay Area's Georgian community staged a peaceful protest in bright sunshine Monday at the Russian Consulate in San Francisco. Their small nation, they say, is being crushed by the Russian army and their families are in danger. "We need help now," said David Kharadze, who delivered an impassioned speech to the crowd. "We need help now," he said again, his voice rising, "Not tomorrow, or the day afterward." Kharadze, who is an importer of Georgian wine and has an office in San Francisco, said the aim of the demonstration was to pressure the Russians to accept international mediation to stop the Russian invasion, which began late last week. Russian forces have rolled over the much weaker Georgian military, and Russian planes have bombed Georgian cities. Kharadze and others in the crowd see the invasion, which was sparked by a long dispute over two small separatist regions, is a pretext to re-establish Russian power over the small nation on the Black Sea. "It happened to Czechoslovakia and Poland and Afghanistan in the last century," Kharadze told the crowd, "and it's happening in Georgia right now." "We are fighting for democracy and for our freedom," he said. The Russian Consulate in San Francisco did not return calls seeking comment, but George Avisov, president of the San Francisco-based Congress of Russian Americans, offered another view. He believes the Georgians had oppressed ethnic Russians in their country. "The situation is complex," he said, not easily explained in headlines and on television. He thinks the United States has been supporting the Georgians and their government as a way to weaken Russia. "The Russians are America's competitors," he said, and the media's coverage has been "biased and unfair" to the Russian position. Georgia, a country that has an elected government and has close relations with the United States, was dominated by Russia for over 200 years; after the czarist regime fell, Georgia declared its independence but was forced to join the Soviet Union in 1921. The most famous Georgian was Josef Stalin. When the Soviet Union broke up, Georgia became independent again. Now, the Georgians say, the Russians have used the pretext of a dispute over two breakaway regions - South Ossetia and Abkhazia - to launch an invasion. "If we let them get away with this," Kharadze said, "next time it will be Ukraine or the Baltic states. The Soviet Union is coming back." The dispute is an old one, say Vakhtang Crikoveni and his wife, Shorena Kurtsikiolze, who teach at UC Berkeley. They feel the dispute over the two separatist regions has been stirred up by the Russians for their own purposes. "It is as if some foreign country came to San Francisco's Chinatown and tried to get the Chinese to break away from the United States," Kurtsikiolze said. Meanwhile, at the consulate, the Georgians shouted slogans, waved signs and asked Americans to sign a petition to California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer. Several police officers stood by, but the protest remained orderly. "What else can we do?" said Lasha Tsatava, a San Francisco financial adviser, who had wrapped himself in the red and white Georgian flag. "We are trying to get the world aware of this issue." http://www.breitbart.com/image.php?id=iafp080809200416.myrhof44p3&show_article=1 People protest against Russia in Vilnius PREV LARGER VERSION NEXT People protest with Georgian flags against Russia and demand Russia stop its incursion into Georgian territory, outside the Russian embassy in Vilnius. US President George W. Bush led western calls Saturday for Russia to end its military onslaught against Georgia and Poland demanded an emergency European Union summit to discuss the conflict over South Ossetia. http://www.nbc5.com/news/17173700/detail.html Georgians In Chicago Protest Russian Military Action Priests At Russian Orthodox Churches Counseling Both Sides POSTED: 6:31 pm CDT August 12, 2008 UPDATED: 7:06 pm CDT August 12, 2008 CHICAGO -- Georgian-Americans on Tuesday took to the streets to protest Russian military action in the former Soviet republic. NBC5's Dick Johnson reported that the protest grew larger in size and visibility, moving to Michigan Avenue. Priests at the Chicago area's Russian Orthodox churches found themselves counseling both sides of the conflict, Johnson reported. At Holy Trinity Orthodox church on the West Side, parishioners include those who were born in both Georgia and Russia. "With the hostilities that were going on, we took special petitions and special prayers to ask God to intercede for no more loss of life or a peaceful resolution on all sides," said the Rev. John Adamcio of Holy Trinity. One of those parishioners, Alla Garklays, said she empathizes with the Northwestern University researcher interviewed by Johnson on Monday, whose Georgian wife and American-born daughter have spent the summer in Georgia and now trapped in the unrest. "It is hard, you feel tension," she said. "It's also sad at the same time, because we teach our children to love each other, no matter which color you are, which nationality you are." On Tuesday, Russia agreed to a ceasefire proposed by the European Union, but in the same breath, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev claimed, "the aggressor is punished, its military forces demoralized." Those words haunted the protestors, Johnson reported. Protestors said they were worried that the cease-fire between the two sides would not last. "We need long-term peace," said Anna Oniani, who was at the protest on Tuesday. "They need to get the message that this is our territory." Georgians said they feared this would not be the last time Russia tried to compromise the country's democratically elected president and force a regime change. President George W. Bush has said that would be "unacceptable." The New York Times reported evidence of a first-ever cyber attack that apparently preceded the Russian bombing, during which it appears there was an effort to disable Georgian computers and the Web site of its American-educated president. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/georgia/2535382/Anti-Russian-protest-by-pro-Georgians-outside-London-embassy.html Anti-Russian protest by pro-Georgians outside London embassy Dozens of pro-Georgian protesters gathered outside the Russian Embassy in west London, some breaking down in tears. By Andy Bloxham Last Updated: 4:13PM BST 11 Aug 2008 The group, aged between about seven and 60, chanted in Georgian and waved placards which denounced Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as a war criminal. One woman, who appeared to be in her 50s, cried as she shouted slogans against Russia's bombing of the former Soviet state. A handful of police officers kept an eye on the protest which was generally peaceful. One man who attempted to climb over a barrier into the grounds of the embassy but was pulled back by officers. The banners included the demands 'Red Army get out from (sic) Georgia', 'Stop Russian Aggression' and 'Putin terrorist stop terrorising civilians'. British expatriates in the battered region of South Ossetia reported that the Georgian troops appeared to have withdrawn from the area and a ceasefire appeared to be in effect. Richard Delaney, 29, a property consultant originally from Hereford who works in the Georgian capital Tbilisi, said: "The Georgians are just getting on with things. It's business as usual, it's only some of the charity workers who have evacuated. "The people who seem to be most affected are the Georgian businessmen who are worried that foreign investors will now stop coming here." http://kyrgyzstan.neweurasia.net/2008/04/22/small-protest-action-against-us-base Short Protest Action Against US base Posted by Elena Skochilo | in Click on Pic, Protests, Politics | on April 22nd, 2008 Tags: No Tags Communist party and Foundation of Sergiy Radonezhskiy and Manas have held a short protest action against the American airbase today. http://allafrica.com/stories/200805200298.html Nigeria: Children Protest Kidnaps Vanguard (Lagos) 20 May 2008 Posted to the web 20 May 2008 John Abayomi CHILDREN in Port Harcourt protested weeks back about the series of kidnaps in which they are victims. Barely out of their diapers, unaware of the intrigues of the world, they have become targets of criminals, who are exploiting the insensitivities of the authorities have reduced issues of the Niger Delta to rhetoric. Since May last year, the cases of children (some infants) being kidnapped, have risen. Some are taken from their parents' homes, others have fallen victims of domestic aides, who connive with other criminals to snatch them on their way to school. Parents have invested heavily in the security of their children. The measures are hardly successful, since persons detailed to cater for the children, may be the ones to kidnap them. Why are the children the current target of kidnappers? The main reason could be parents' emotional attachment to them. They are soft targets yet promised ransoms on them arrive quicker, as their parents cannot bear hearing their children narrating their ordeals. Security measures also seem to have been improved around foreigner, the former targets, increasing the risks of taking them, and the chances of being caught. The best security most children get are the drivers who take them to school, and in rare cases a policeman, whose arms, on attack, might harm the child. Kidnappers have redirected their attention to Port Harcourt's prosperous business class and politicians whose wealth is obvious. They reckon that each of their children is worth millions of Naira and there is no parent who would not value a child more than millions of Naira. With this assumption, they pick their victims, snatch the children and start making the calls to their parents. Efforts of security agencies have paled beside the enormity of the problem. Many families do not bother with reporting the incidents. They pay to have their children back. Others make agreed payments to criminals for protection from attacks by other groups. Either way, it is a flourishing business for the criminals. The protesting children in a letter they delivered to the Rivers State Government alluded to the reasons for the thriving kidnapping business - high unemployment among young people and the despoliation of the Niger Delta, which governments have elected to treat with words. Kidnaps began as tools to gain global attention for the environmental degradation that oil exploration and government's insolence have poured on the region. Then the victims were mostly foreign oil workers, whose organisations were largely held responsible for the decay of the Niger Delta. Things have changed. Kidnapping has become business, with high possibilities that the criminals are not all from the Niger Delta. Now that children have joined the protests against kidnaps and the state of the Niger Delta, governments may pay attention to this issue, which they delight in ignoring. Kidnap cases are resolved under hazy conditions. Claims of no ransom payments are unconvincing. Criminals do not engage in unprofitable ventures. http://allafrica.com/stories/200805051299.html Nigeria: Women Protest Against Militants Leadership (Abuja) 5 May 2008 Posted to the web 5 May 2008 Austine Unoarumi Hundreds of women in Bayelsa State embarked on a protest rally weekend against perceived engagement of youths and women in political violence in the Niger Delta states, calling on politicians to desist from the act and give peace a chance. The women, under the aegis of the Bayelsa Women for Peace, were in their hundreds and led by the state chairperson of the National Council for Women Societies, Mrs. Abosede Apere. Delivering their position before the wife of the acting governor, Mrs. Iyorozeti Seibarogu, the women said though election violence could not be totally ruled out in the region, the resultant effect is on women, who become victims of the arms and ammunition provided for the youths used during an election. They said over the years, the youths hired by these politicians eventually returned to the creeks with guns and become dangerous specie to the riverine communities. "I must say the rivers are no longer safe for the women due to the activities of these sea pirates. We are tired of political crises and we need peace in the state," Mrs. Apere stated. Responding, Mrs Seibarugu appealed to politicians and youths to shun violence and reject all forms of indiscipline so as to enable the government achieve some progress. She expressed dismay that women and children bear the brunt during violent situations, such as elections; praying that the forthcoming re-run governorship poll would be free and fair and devoid of violence. "We the people of Bayelsa State deserve the best that the government can offer, and we can only achieve this if we live in peace and harmony. I implore all the women here to go back home and advise our children not to allow themselves to be used to cause trouble. Let us Bayelsans show to the rest of the nation that something good can come out of Bayelsa and Niger Delta as a whole, that it is possible to achieve peaceful campaigns during the forthcoming elections." She argued that peace could be achieved if their husbands and children are not fighting each other, stressing that the women should not be tired of preaching peace from now on. Meanwhile, the militants over the weekend launched an attack on an oil ship off the coast of the country and took two people hostage. A military spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Sagir Musa, who confirmed the attack yesterday, said that the two hostages were the captain of the ship, a foreigner and a Nigerian, whose full identities were still not known at the time of the report . "The captain, a white man whose identity is still unknown and the Nigerian engineer of the ship, were abducted by the gunmen," Musar told AFP. "The attack took place 15 nautical miles northwest from the Bonny channel," he said, adding that the military have launched a manhunt for the attackers. The incident, which occurred a day earlier, came after an attack on Shell oil wells and a flow station in southern Bayelsa State, leading to a cut in the company's output. Nigeria, Africa's largest oil producer exporting 2.14 million barrels of crude per day, has seen an upsurge in violent attacks on the oil and related industry in the past two years, a situation that has resulted into a hike in oil price at the international market. Meanwhile, the wife of a notable Niger Delta militant, Mr Henry Okah, has accused the Federal Government of a fresh plot to exterminate the life of her husband who is currently facing a secret trial at the Federal High Court in Jos, Plateau State. According to a three-page statement made available to LEADERSHIP in Port Harcourt, Mrs. Azuka Okah, whose husband is being charged to court on ground of cultism and treasonable felony, alleged that during her recent visit to her husband, the suspect disclosed that he has narrowly escaped poison on three occasions. She said: "On my first visit to the venue of the trial at the Federal High Court, Jos, I was allowed to see and meet my husband for only ten minutes since he was illegally extradited to Nigeria from Angola. While speaking with him I was pointedly sandwiched by three SSS men listening to all our discussions. "My husband informed me that the SSS men assured him that he would be kept in the military underground cell in the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) for one year without anyone knowing he was brought into the country. The SSS has refused/failed to obey the court order that my husband be kept in the custody of the civilian SSS and be accessible to his lawyers and family. "That for that 10 minutes, my husband informed me that he is kept in a military formation up northern Nigeria in an underground cell . The said underground cell has searchlights on him 24 hours hence he does not know day or night. He informed me that he suspected he was poisoned thrice and was stolling continuously with an excruciating abdominal pain. He said he went on eight days of hunger strike and was eventually taken to an unknown hospital. "Also, that twice, two venomous snakes mysteriously attacked him in his underground cell. That at every given time, 10 spy hidden cameras plus a microphone implanted in the small square cell watch over him 24/7. "He said that in the last three months since he was brought to Nigeria on the 14th February 2008, he has seen sunlight only three times; these were only during court days. "That he has been able to consult with his lawyers for only 30 minutes in total: i .e 30 seconds for each of the 55 charges levelled against him. Invariably, his lawyers have had no access to him. "This is contrast to the DPP and his over 1000 team of ministry/SSS lawyers and federal operative who have been preparing there prosecution without let or hindrance. "I observed that all the soldiers, police, prosecutors, the judge, the Attorney General (both from Benue) are all from the North. Same for the venue. "I want the world to know that this is the most one sided trial the world will witness. Not even Adolf Hitler's men were subjected to the inquisitorial, oppressive and one-sided mode of trial. Our constitution provides for accusitorial criminal trial system. "I have personally read the 1999 Nigerian constitution: section 36 provides that an accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty; that he shall be availed all facilities for a fair trial. The opposite is the case in my husband's matter. "From the small cubicle at the gate were I was confined, I saw that the prosecution team, the SSS legal team and officials plus all other Federal agents with the yellow arm band drive into the premises with their vehicles and take their phones into the court freely, while my husband's lawyers are searched, restricted and their phones and materials all seized. "This is manifestly a violation of their legal rights to conduct this defence in a conducive atmosphere; this is the most hostile trial environment to behold in the history of this country, not even in the worst, fascist Abacha regime. Even Charles Taylor, who allegedly committed heinous war crimes, was availed all his rights and facility by our government. "My children's letters, Bible tracks I sent to my husband and bank instructions he wrote, have all been confiscated. As it stands, none was delivered to him nor returned to me... "My husband informed me that they equally want to ensure that he becomes insane like Edward Atatah, who, despite being discharged by Jos court, is still being held; this is to keep him away from the press and the public so as to hide his insanity and the consequent public outcry. "Edward Atatah became insane after the 7th day in Nigeria because of the level of torture; this contrasts to even the Banana Republic of Angola where they had access to a library, TV and other facilities. His insanity attests to the psychological and otherwise tortures emitted. There are documents to testify on their soundness of mind while in Angola despite their unjustiful detention there. "This is the same Edward Atatah that has been dicharged by the court for the same crimes the Government alleged they jointly committed in Angola. "The vice president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in a presidential jet with other top government officials and other Niger Delta stakeholders visited my husband on the 7th of July, 2007. They had a four-hour long meeting at Sheraton Hotel in Pretoria . There is a disparity between this visit and my husband's arrest at 1400hrs on the 3rd of September in Luanda, Angola, and the reason for his illegal extradition to Nigeria. "Some time in August 2007, before he traveled, my husband informed me that President Yar'Adua phoned him in finding a lasting solution to the Niger Delta crisis. My husband will also avail at the main trail the taped telephone conversation he had on him on that fateful day the 7th of July 2007 in Pretoria, South Africa, and every taped telephone conversation he held with all politicians and stakeholders of the Niger Delta. He has instructed me that this must be done to avail the political cloud that befalls him unjustly. "My husband had told me back then that the discussion having hinged on the Niger Delta crisis, that he had bluntly refused any and all monetary inducement, including oil blocks. He stated that the lasting solution for him was fiscal federalism and the 50% derivation as obtained in the 1960/1963 Nigerian constitutions. "In my presence, my husband received a phone call from Mr. Godsday Orubebe, now minister of special duties, who profusely pleaded to be the chief negotiator for my husband in the reconcilation process. Why arrest this same man? At the appropriate time the defence lawyers shall be availed the above taped phone call of the 6thh of July 2007 by Mr. Orubebe and the taped conversation/ meeting with the Vice President on that fateful day of the 7th of july 2007. "Also on Thursday , June 14, 2007 same Mr. Godsday Orubebe visited the Vice President at the Presidential Villa on behalf of Henry Okah regarding the peace and reconciliation process. "By World Bank official report, 400 billion US Dollars of the Niger Delta oil wealth has been stolen by less than 1% of Nigerians in name of governance. Another 400 billion US Dollars is also unofficially stolen. Of this, $12.2 billion disappeared during Gulf wind fall. "A retired General appropriated Niger Delta oil blocks and sold them in one day for 2 billion US Dollars; yet the ruling cabal in Abuja, the Omnibus Emperors, continue to kill our deprived sons of the oil-rich soil daily. The North, with all its arable land mass, is yet to sell same and share to all the 36 states and 774 local governments to keep this most expensive, yet least productive, Nigerian presidential system/sydicate. "Ordinarily, the oil wealth is enough for all Nigerians to live confortably as obtains in Norway, UAE, Kuwait and other progressive oil nations. Justice is a floater; the Nigerian government is treading the path of all African governments who have plunged their countries in conflicts. "Once again, I see the pattern of a divide and rule strategy. We must not sell our birth rights and kinsmen for political advancement that we will eventually get with unity and focus." http://allafrica.com/stories/200808140305.html Uganda: Mapeera Students Protest Against War New Vision (Kampala) 13 August 2008 Posted to the web 14 August 2008 Joseph Kariuki Kampala They came in large numbers. The mood was somber. There was no fanfare. For how can we celebrate when Uganda has lost many lives to the insecurity in northern region? This was how Kisubi Mapeera High school on Entebbe Road celebrated their peace day with the focus on finding a solution to the insecurity in the north. Some favored a political settlement with Kony and others preferred the involvement of religious leaders. "Power belongs to the people and therefore the people should solve their own problems," John Katongole roared amidst cheers from about 300 students. Supporting Katongole was Irene Awujo who said that peace clubs like their Jazz Peace Club should be used to solve the insecurity in northern Uganda. But the two faced opposition from Caesar Olweny. He said that power-sharing was the only solution to the 20-year old war. "We need to sign a power agreement and disarm the rebels," said Olweny. He had more ammunition added to his gun by Winnie Arinaitwe who said that there is need for equal distribution of the national pie. After the debate, the drama group acted a skit on war in northern Uganda. There was also a Swahili peace song by Arnest Nyenze Amani na kupenda. Nakupenda wewe which loosely translates "I love peace, I love you peace". The five judges, from Shoreline an organisation that preaches peace in schools had a hard time choosing the winner. And the winners were ..opposers meaning that, Kisubi Mapeera favors people-driven peace talks in northern Uganda. http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/news/index_view.php?id=322047 Protest prepared against Rice's visit to Prague Prague- Several thousand protesters are expected to come to the Tuesday demonstration against a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Prague on Tuesday morning, activists Jan Tamas and Jan Majicek told CTK today. Rice will visit the Czech Republic to sign the Czech-U.S. treaty on the stationing of a U.S. radar base on Czech soil. Tamas and Majicek said the signing of the treaty by Rice and her Czech counterpart Karel Schwarzenberg did not mean the end of protests and their No to Bases group wanted to focus on the autumn regional and Senate elections. Tamas said No to Bases only planned a rally at Prague's Wenceslas Square at 18:00 on Tuesday and no other events were being prepared. "I have sent a request for a meeting with Rice to U.S. ambassador Richard Graber," Tamas said. "We'd like to meet her and pass our position to her. We'd like to tell her that roughly two-thirds of Czechs are against the stay of foreign troops on Czech soil," he added. He said the protesters would march from the Wenceslas Square across the Mustek and Malostranska streets to the U.S. embassy. Tamas said the protest would be peaceful and no conflict with police was expected. Polls say some 70 percent of Czechs are against the project. The United States wants to build the radar base at the Brdy military district, some 90km southwest of Prague, and a base for ten interceptor missiles in Poland within its missile shield. The Central European elements are to protect the United States and a large part of the European continent against missiles that states like Iran might launch. On Wednesday morning, Rice will fly to Poland. http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/peace/czech-police-attack-peaceland-20080613 Czech police attack Peaceland protest camp Posted by saunvedan on 13 June 2008. Our peaceful efforts to keep the nuclear arms race at bay were crushed by Czech military police this week. Peaceland, a newly formed state sits on a site earmarked for a radar station for US anti-missile defence on Czech soil. Dubbed as part of the 'Son of Star Wars' project, this American anti-missile circuit is apparently intended to destroy enemy rockets headed for the US, and Greenpeace activists responded to this ludicrous plan by inhabiting the proposed site and declaring independence, thus forming the new country. But the peace didn't last for long as on Monday, Czech military police stormed the region and arrested all citizens including those high up in the trees. Greenpeace activists put up a passive resistance and didn't leave, even though they had known of the imminent attack. The fact that Condoleezza Rice, US Secretary of State, is visiting Prague in July to sign treaties on the planned radar base may have prompted the Czech government to round up our activists. We believe in defending the natural world and promoting peace, both of which the 'Son of Star Wars' project denies as it promotes aggression and US military dominance. This will lead to the development of increasingly advanced weapons to overcome the defence thus sparking an arms race. It will also make the Czech Republic a potential target if an 'enemy' decides to take out the proposed radar based in the Brdy region. Incredibly, there isn't even an existing threat to justify building the radar station as no missile has the range to reach the US from its supposed enemies. Greenpeace activists created Peaceland in response to global safety concerns and the Czech government buckling under US pressure. Greenpeace Czech boss Jir? Tutter, who is also a citizen of Peaceland, said, "We are convinced that the whole project of national missile defense, including locating one of the components on Czech territory, brings with it serious risks like global imbalance, rising international tension and the start of new nuclear arms race. We don't consider this missile defense project the right tool to solve the serious problem before us." After the crackdown this week on Peaceland citizens, Jan Freidinger, Greenpeace coordinator of the Radar project said: "We are strongly protesting against the intervention of the Czech military police. They had no authority to arrest within the borders of Peaceland. The Czech prime minister, Mirek Topol?nek, whom we officially informed of the new state's establishment and invited to Peaceland, said he had known about the attack in advance. He must be crazy if he thinks of this attack as a friendly visit." http://www.mathaba.net/rss/?x=593126 Prague activists stage hunger protest against planned U.S. base Posted: 2008/05/24 After two years of anti-base activism that included numerous marches and an online petition, Humanist movement members Jan Tamas and Jan Bednar are now staging a hunger strike to urge the government to stop radar base negotiations with the United States and to hold a public referendum on the issue. Humanist movement members Jan Tam?s and Jan Bedn?r are taking their protest of the planned U.S. radar base on Czech soil to a new level this week. After two years of anti-base activism that included numerous marches and an online petition, they are now staging a hunger strike to urge the government to stop radar base negotiations with the United States and to hold a public referendum on the issue. The strike, which started May 13, is being held at a Prague 2 headquarters, complete with anti-armament exhibits, free information pamphlets and a small living space. Tam?s, a Prague IT consultant, and Bedn?r, a graphic designer, are both members of the No Bases Initiative, and are staging the protest with the help of Humanist movement volunteers. During the strike they'll be living onsite, posting daily Web updates and welcoming the public to stop by and discuss the issue. At the same time, solidarity strikes and other protest activities are being held by peace organizations in Turin, Milan, Rome, Berlin, Budapest and Copenhagen. Tam?s hopes the strike will last into June, when Czech and U.S. officials are expected to sign a treaty to build the radar base as an extension of the European missile-defense shield 90 miles southwest of Prague. http://www.praguepost.com/articles/2008/06/04/radar-protest-gains-ground.php Radar protest gains ground Hunger strike becomes a chain effort By Mark?ta Hulpachov? Staff Writer, The Prague Post June 4th, 2008 issue Three weeks after launching an internationally followed hunger strike to protest the planned installment of a U.S. radar base some 90 kilometers (56 miles) from Prague, activists Jan Tam?s and Jan Bedn?r suspended their fast June 3. The pair is now organizing a series of protesters to continue the demonstration in the form of a chain hunger strike. Despite their appeals to the government urging an end to the radar negotiations with the United States, none of the conditions Tam?s and Bedn?r set for the end of the hunger strike had been met. "Even if we carried on with the hunger strike, the government would continue to ignore us and our compromised health or even death would not change their arrogance," said Tam?s. His statement comes one day after President V?clav Klaus dismissed Tam?s and Bedn?r's requests for a meeting. Calling the hunger strike an "extortion," Klaus told journalists June 2 that such practices have no place in modern democracy. "We are living in a standard parliamentary democracy," he said. "Hunger strikes are suitable for totalitarian regimes." While Prime Minister Mirek Topol?nek and Defense Minister Vlasta Parkanov? echoed Klaus' stance toward Tam?s and Bedn?r, Foreign Affairs Minister Karel Schwarzenberg met the pair for a discussion, but did not agree to their proposals. The chain strike will be undertaken by local luminaries including former dissident Petr Uhl and actress Anna Geislerov?, who will take turns holding one-day fasts. The radar's installment depends on the ratification of two Czech-U.S. treaties in a parliamentary vote this fall. In a May 29 interview with The Washington Times, Klaus admitted that pushing these treaties through Parliament will be difficult. "It will not be easy," Klaus told the paper after meeting with U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney to discuss missile defense. He said local support for the radar reciprocated the growing opposition of the Russian government, adding that Czechs were "extremely sensitive to any patronizing from that part of the world." While unsuccessful in changing the government's position, Tam?s said the hunger strike launched "a wave of protests" that he hopes will influence members of Parliament during the upcoming vote. Mark?ta Hulpachov? can be reached at mhulpachova at praguepost.com http://www.workers.org/2008/world/czechs_0724/ Czechs protest Rice visit over radar base treaty By John Catalinotto Published Jul 18, 2008 12:05 AM U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's idea of the Czech Republic's "moving to democracy" is for the rightist Czech regime to sign a treaty allowing U.S. radar bases that 70 percent of the Czech population reject and for Czech troops to follow the U.S. lead in occupying countries all over the world. The Czech people disagree. When Rice was in Prague July 8 to sign the treaty, people were out in the street protesting her visit. The Czech parliament has not yet approved the treaty, and Communist Party and most Social Democratic members of the parliamentary opposition have pledged to vote against it. Even some Green Party members, who are in the government coalition, oppose the treaty. The radar base is part of a U.S. weapons system that includes interceptor missiles to be located in neighboring Poland, where the population also opposes the bases and where the rightist government is demanding billions in military aid before signing on. The U.S. claims the task of the missile system is to intercept nuclear missiles from Iran aimed at Europe. The Russian government has called the bases a threat to Russia. The Communist Youth Union (KSM), which has been actively campaigning against the bases, was one of the groups mobilizing July 8 against Rice's visit. The rightist Czech government has been using repressive measures to try to ban the KSM, but the young communists are fighting not only to stay in existence but also in anti-imperialist action. According to a July 15 KSM statement, signing the treaty contradicts "the opinion of the majority of the people in Czech Republic and is a clear expression of the fully pro-imperialist policy of the government of the Czech Republic." The KSM sees the base as developing "the domination of the U.S. imperialism not only in Middle Europe but ... far to the east." "The petition against the placement of the U.S. military base in Czech Republic launched by the KSM has been signed by more than 180,000 people so far," the KSM statement continues. "The Communist Youth Union together with other progressive and democratic organizations expressed its clear 'No' to all these steps of the state pro-imperialist policy including the presence of the Czech troops in Afghanistan, Iraq, in the Balkans and possibly in African Chad." Articles copyright 1995-2008 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved. http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/news/index_view.php?id=311646 Greenpeace protesters open bridge of meetings at Czech radar site Misov- Activists from the Greenpeace movement and the No to Bases group today opened a 15-metre-long wooden "bridge of meetings" within their protest against the planned U.S. radar in the Brdy military district, southwest of Prague. Several Greenpeace activists have stayed at the spot height 718, the site where the radar, part of the U.S. missile shield, is to be built, since April 28. They say they have built the bridge as a symbol that unites people, unlike the radar. A total of 150 visitors turned up in the protesters' camp in Brdy today and singer Monika Naceva, along with British guitar player Justin Lavash gave a concert there, the Greenpeace campaign head Jan Friedinger said. "We will stay at the spot height, we're preparing further events," he said. He said that several mayors of towns situated near the Brdy district visited the protesters today, but no politician, not even deputies for the junior ruling Green Party (SZ) whom the protesters had especially invited to come. In the past days, several MPs for the opposition Social Democrats (CSSD) reportedly visited the protesters. Vaclav Novotny from No to Bases group said that the group's petition against the radar has already been signed by about 100,000 people from all over the country. Greenpeace invite the public to visit the spot height 718 though it is situated in the military district closed to the public, which people are banned to enter without a special permit. Those entering the area do so illegally and could be fined up to 3,000 crowns. All access paths to the "radar site" were sealed by military police patrols today, and the visitors had to go through the forest to reach the protest camp. The Czech centre-right government has been negotiating with the USA about the radar for more than a year now, though a majority of Czechs and the left-wing opposition are against the plan. The two bilateral treaties concerning the radar might be signed in July at the latest, Czech officials said this week. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Thu Aug 28 21:43:19 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2008 05:43:19 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Peace protests, global South and East, Apr-Aug 2008 part 2 of 2 Message-ID: <00be01c90991$c3dbf550$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * PHILIPPINES: US presence protested * PHILIPPINES: Protests as Mindanao peace deal collapses * TAJIKISTAN: Troops to Afghan border spark rare protest * PAKISTAN: Student publicly refuses Harvard scholarship from US ambassador over Mehmand bombing * PAKISTAN: Protest at US role in northwest at journalists' agency * BULGARIA: Residents protest for compensation over arms dump explosion * MALAYSIA: Protest at defence exhibition, "buy food not arms" * TURKEY: Greenpeace protest US missile defence programme * TURKEY: Tens of thousands protest Kurdistan war * MANIPUR: Children burn toy guns in protest against regional violence * MANIPUR: Naked protest over rebel abductions of children * CROATIA: Protests target Bush in Zagreb * JAPAN: Protest against attempts to amend pacifist constitution * JAPAN: Residents march on US base to protest nuclear-powered warship * INDIA: Protests against Indo-US defence treaty, nuclear deal * EL SALVADOR: Peace rally * MACEDONIA: Protests against NATO in Skopje * INDIA: Convention opposes "war on terror" * PHILIPPINES, JAPAN: Protests target US over rapes on Okinawa * BAHRAIN: Sunni Muslims protest "war on terror" * SOMALIA: Huge protest against US bombing * YEMEN: Protest after mosque bombing * SOUTH KOREA: Protests against kamikaze memorial http://globalnation.inquirer.net/news/breakingnews/view/20080704-146462/Activists-mark-Filipino-American-Friendship-Day-with-protest Activists mark Filipino-American Friendship Day with protest Associated Press First Posted 16:43:00 07/04/2008 MANILA, Philippines -- Leftwing activists are marking Filipino-American Friendship Day with a protest at the US Embassy to denounce the alleged rape of a Filipino woman in Japan and the continuing presence of US soldiers in the Philippines. In May, a prosecutor in Okinawa dismissed charges against the US soldier after finding insufficient evidence of violence and intimidation. The Gabriela Women's Party issued a statement Friday deploring what it calls Philippine government inaction in the case and the "travesty against a people and a nation." The activists also pressed for an end to agreements allowing joint military exercises in the country. The Philippines holds several military exercises each year with the United States, its longtime ally. http://www.taiwannews.com.tw/etn/news_content.php?id=707478&lang=eng_news&cate_img=logo_world&cate_rss=WORLD_eng Muslims, Catholics protest as deal halted in Philippines Rebels accuse Manila of lacking capability of entering into peace pact Reuters Page 7 2008-08-06 01:32 AM Members of the Philippine National Police Special Action Force gesture during a send-off ceremony inside a police headquarters in Taguig city, south of Manila, Philippines yesterday. Reuters Malaysia called yesterday for maintaining peace in the Philippines, as an order by the latter's Supreme Court that halted a deal between Manila and Muslim rebels failed to halt opponents' protests. The latest setback for peace in the Philippines' volatile south came just a day before the agreement between Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the country's largest Muslim rebel group, was set to be signed in Kuala Lumpur after more than 10 years of stop-start talks. The MILF insisted the agreement was still binding despite the court order and accused Manila of lacking the capability of entering into a peace pact. "Our official position is that the agreement on ancestral domain has been signed, so it's a done deal," Ghadzali Jaafar, MILF vice chairman for political affairs, told reporters by phone from his base on Mindanao island in the south. Jaafar said the court decision to stop the signing ceremony was "purely an internal problem of the government." "We are not bound by that order," he said. "It's an internal process in the government. What was committed by the government cannot be taken back." Under the territorial agreement, an existing autonomous region for Muslims in the south of the largely Catholic country would be expanded and they would get broad political and economic powers. Catholic politicians in the south had asked the Supreme Court to halt the signing, arguing they had not been consulted on the deal. They fear it will carve up Mindanao into Muslim enclaves. In Mindanao some 5,000 people, mostly Catholics, in red shirts took to the streets in Kidapawan city in North Cotabato province yesterday to protest the deal despite the restraining order. "This is not a fight between the Muslims and the Christians," Rolando Dillera, a local official in North Cotabato province, told the rally. "But, we Christians are doing what is just right and due us. We'll defend our communities." The proposed deal was meant to formally re-open negotiations to end a near 40-year conflict that has killed more than 120,000 people, displaced 2 million, and kept the country's most resource-rich region dirt poor. Malaysian Foreign Minister Rais Yatim, who held talks with his Philippine counterpart Alberto Romulo, called for peace in Mindanao. "There ought not to be violence," he told reporters in Malaysia's administrative capital Putrajaya. Malaysia has been brokering peace talks between Manila and the MILF. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/B590652.htm State troops decision sparks rare Tajik protest 20 Jun 2008 14:00:50 GMT Source: Reuters DUSHANBE, June 20 (Reuters) - About 200 people held a rare protest in eastern Tajikistan on Friday against a state decision to send more troops to their province to guard its border with Afghanistan. Tajikistan, whose stability is key to Western efforts to build law and order in Afghanistan, has been calm since the end of a brutal civil war in the 1990s. But Western powers worry that poverty and drug related crime could undermine stability. The mountainous Gorno-Badakhshan region lies on one of the main drugs trafficking routes from Afghanistan to western Europe. It also borders China and Kyrgyzstan. Defence Minister Sherali Khairulloyev told the Tajik Asia Plus news agency on Friday the government was deploying additional troops to the Gorno-Badakhshan region to reinforce its border with Afghanistan. A local witness told Reuters by telephone from the regional centre Khorog that the decision sparked a protest in the city, adding that the demonstrators were against more troops in their province. "They have been on the square since this morning, but the town is quiet and I can't see more military than usual," said Mirambakhsh Khudobakhsh. He said about 200 people were protesting on the square, but Asia Plus put the number at 300. Tajik President Imomali Rakhmon has ruled the Muslim nation with an iron fist since 1992 and tightened the screws further after a 1997 peace accord with an alliance of Islamists and liberals who were defeated by his forces. He tolerates little dissent and public shows of discontent with state policies are rare. About 100,000 people died in the 1992-1997 war. The defence minister did not say how many troops the government had sent. "We need to strengthen the border in the region where it is virtually unguarded," he told Asia-Plus without elaborating. (Reporting by Roman Kozhevnikov; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov) http://paktribune.com/news/index.shtml?202073 Pakistani student refuses Harvard Scholarship as protest against American attacks on Mehmand Wednesday June 18, 2008 (2238 PST) ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani student, Samad Khurram vociferously refused his Harvard University scholarship award presented to him by the American Ambassador Anne W. Patterson, which simply awed her into a terrible confusion. The said student refused the award, which was presented in an event held by a private collage at the National Art Gallery, as a protest against the recently carried out American attacks on Mehmand Agency. The American Ambassador greatly regretted these attacks, terming them as a "terrible misunderstanding", and stoutly refuted the notion that the student was refusing the award, maintaining that currently there were 5400 Pakistani students studying in America The entire hall resounded with thunderous clapping for the student, who was later on restricted by management to talk to any media member. In her speech the U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan, Anne W. Patterson, underscored the need for "people to people ties" to strengthen the relationship between Pakistan and the U.S. while speaking at the Annual Student Recognition Day of Roots College International at the National Art Gallery here today. "There is a myth that American universities are hesitant to accept students from Pakistan," Ambassador Patterson told graduates of the Roots Schools system who have received private scholarships to study in the United States and other countries. "All together, 5,400 students from Pakistan studied at U.S. colleges and universities last year." Congratulating the management of the Roots School System for "twenty years of outstanding service in educating young people in Pakistan," the Ambassador said she is impressed that Roots students have earned full scholarships to selective universities such as Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Dartmouth. "With your educational opportunities, you are the natural future leaders in whatever profession you may choose," Ambassador Patterson told the students. She urged them to "focus not only on getting top grades but also on broadening your vision and finding how you can best serve society after you obtain your degree." End. http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=124628 IJT holds protest demo at KPC Thursday, July 17, 2008 By our correspondent A protest demonstration against the attacks by the NATO and US forces on the tribal areas of Pakistan was held at the Karachi Press Club on Wednesday urging the government to discontinue the appeasement policy for the aggressors. The protest was organised by Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (IJT) to condemn the continuous aggression against Pakistan and the eerie silence by the government. A large number of IJT activists, joined by several others from the general public, chanted slogans against the US and vowed to fight the US and European forces if government continued to play the role of a silent spectator. Mohsin Akhtar, Nazim South Zone, IJT, said, "Aggression cannot be perpetual. We, the students, will fight against the aggressors if government fails to perform its paramount duty. It is a good omen that three million people from the tribal region have begun their war against the US and European forces and millions of students and other patriots will not lag behind." http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=95326 Citizens Protest over Unpaid Compensations after Chelopechene Blasts 21 July 2008, Monday Citizens of Sofia Chepintsi district staged a protest Monday as they have not yet received compensations to cover damages on their houses destroyed after the explosions in Chelopechene military storehouses. Photo by Yuliana Nikolova (Sofia Photo Agency) | buy photo | Citizens of Sofia Chepintsi district staged a protest Monday as they have not yet received compensations to cover damages on their houses destroyed after the explosions in Chelopechene military storehouses some 20 days ago. The people demanded immediate evaluation of the damages to done. They insisted also that the Defense Ministry should issue certificates proving their agriculture lands are not contaminated. The protesters threatened they are going to block Sofia's ring-road if their demands are not met. The rally came despite the fact that Chepintsi Mayor Sonya Stoyanova promised a total of BGN 20,000 will be allocated to the district on Monday. The Bulgarian capital was shaken by powerful gunpowder explosions, which were heard and felt in the whole city after the Chelopechene military facility, where tons of ammo and TNT were stored, burst into flames on July 3. http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20080425085654831 Malaysia: 'Buy food, not arms' protest at defence exhibition Friday, April 25 2008 @ 08:56 AM CDT Contributed by: Admin Views: 215 About 10 protesters made their presence felt at a defence and security exhibition in Kuala Lumpur, handing out brochures and sandwiches to reinforce their core message - spend the nation's money on food, not arms. An hour into their peaceful protest, however, several police personnel and a representative of the organisers told the group to leave the lobby of the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) where the four-day event began today. Apr 22, 2008 'Buy food, not arms' protest at defence exhibition from Malaysiakini.com Azreen Madzlan | Apr 21, 08 5:55pm About 10 protesters made their presence felt at a defence and security exhibition in Kuala Lumpur, handing out brochures and sandwiches to reinforce their core message - spend the nation's money on food, not arms. An hour into their peaceful protest, however, several police personnel and a representative of the organisers told the group to leave the lobby of the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) where the four-day event began today. "It's shameful for Malaysians to do this kind of thing at a big event. Why don't you protest to the minister of defence?" the representative told the protesters from the 'Food Not Bombs' Kuala Lumpur chapter of the global movement. The group has served vegetarian food to the homeless every Sunday in Bukit Nenas over the past seven years, as a way of protesting military spending by the government and to help the poor. Its volunteers began the protest at 10am in front of The Mall shopping complex before moving to the PWTC, the venue for the 11th Defence Service Asia Exhibition (DSA), the world's second biggest exhibition of its kind. It is organised by DSA Exhibition and Conference Sdn Bhd. Protester Mirdza Kamal told Malaysiakini that the group's intention was to exercise freedom of speech and raise public awareness of the current global food crisis. "Some of the countries participating in this exhibition are poor and conflict-afflicted countries. Because of the global arms trade, the food crisis situation in these countries will get worsen," he said. "Malaysia is also in the middle of food crisis. I believe the large amount of money spent on militarism should be channelled towards the increase of food production to ease the price hikes for food items." He added that Malaysians should stand up against the arms industry and trade, as it is the root cause of such global issues such as poverty. Another volunteer, Yew Hun Ng, said organisers of military exhibitions claim that such events are aimed at boosting security. "Capitalists have been profiteering from the arms trade and war for a very long time. This is often the backdrop to global issues (such as poverty). People are against war, but they don't realise who are suppliers of weapons," he said. "Some companies can supply weapons to both sides in a conflict. They don't care, they just want to profit from this." He urged Malaysia to end its involvement with events that allow the buying and selling of weapons here. "At the moment, this country needs more attention to social issues. We pay too much attention to defence and security which only benefit people in the industry. I also pity the soldiers who have to go through war." 9MP defence spending DSA Exhibition and Conference chairperson Asmat Kamaluddin said in a press statement that the Asia Pacific region is the second-largest market for the defence industry. "Global military expenditure (last year) exceeded US$1.3 trillion and the figure according to industry estimates is expected to continue growing in the coming years," he said. The DSA website states that, under the 9th Malaysia Plan (2006-2010), Malaysia plans to spend RM16.8 billion on defence (7.6% of the total spending), of which the defence ministry allocation amounts to RM14.5 billion. This is slightly less than what was allocated under the 8th Malaysia Plan (2001-2005), at RM17.3 billion. The 10th DSA in 2006, saw RM1.1 billion worth of contracts signed by the government with local and international companies. The biennial exhibition showcases the most comprehensive range of cutting-edge technology for the army, navy and air force, as well as the security and homeland enforcement agencies. Among the 712 companies participating from 49 countries are major defence technology producers from the US, United Kingdom, Germany and France. The King spent two hours at the exhibition today, accompanied by deputy premier and defence minister Najib Abdul Razak. More info: http://www.fnbkl.cjb.net/ http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/archives.php?id=24490+rel= Greenpeace activists in Turkey protest U.S. missile defense program Police detained 11 Greenpeace activists Monday who were protesting the U.S. missile defense program by blocking the entrance to an air base where U.S. forces are deployed. The environmental activists stood in front of the gates of Incirlik air base, near the southern city of Adana, from where American and British planes have patrolled a no-fly zone over northern Iraq since after the Gulf War ended in 1991. Wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the words "Stop Star Wars," the protesters unfurled a banner with the same message while a man representing the Angel of Death and wearing a U.S. flag like a cloak, looked on. Another protester stood in a small cage. Paramilitary police officers detained them and barred journalists from filming the protest. The protest was timed to coincide with the 56th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The United States plans to deploy a missile defense system capable of protecting the United States and its allies from attacks by so-called rogue states. "The world stands to gain nothing by a nuclear arms race, which the United States' Star Wars program is threatening to ignite," said Melda Keskin of Greenpeace Mediterranean, before being taken away. Ankara - Turkish Daily News http://www.panarmenian.net/news/eng/?nid=26217 Tens of thousands of Turks protest war against Kurds 03.06.2008 13:56 GMT+04:00 /PanARMENIAN.Net/ Tens of thousands of people gathered yesterday in Kadikoy district on Istanbul's Anatolian side demanding a peaceful solution to the Kurdish problem. Many demonstrators at the gathering highlighted their demands for peace, while saying they do not believe that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is sincere in his desire to solve the problem. The demonstration was held by the Peace Assembly, a civil society organization consisting of academics, journalists, trade union representatives, intellectuals and political parties, the Turkish Daily News reports. http://www1.wsvn.com/news/articles/world/MI86367/ Children in India's northeast burn toy guns to protest violence that surrounds them GAUHATI, India (AP) -- Hundreds of children from a village in India's insurgency-wracked northeast have burned their toy guns in a symbolic protest against the violence that surrounds them, activists said Thursday. The children, all younger than 13, held their protest Wednesday, carrying placards reading "We hate toy guns, We love football" as they marched to the local high school playground to light the bonfire. "The children happily threw their toy guns, mostly look-alikes of AK-47 and M-16 rifles and 9mm pistols, and clapped as they went up in flames," said Amarjit Yumnam, one of the local peace activists who organized the event in Keinou, a village in Manipur state. Keinou is some 25 miles south of state capital of Imphal. Villagers said the protest was a reaction to the violence in Manipur, where at least 17 rebel groups have been fighting for independent homelands or autonomy. More than 5,000 people have been killed in the fighting in the past 10 years. The violence has taken a toll on villagers, with rebels often demanding money and threatening or killing civilians seen as loyal to the state. The bonfire was also seen as a way to stop children from playing violent war games and imitating the violence in their society. "This was an important first step to protect children from the impact of violence in the state," said Pradip Phanjoubam, editor of the Imphal Free Press, an English daily. Nearly all of India's seven northeastern states are battling rebels, but Manipur is the only one that has not begun peace talks with any of the insurgent groups. The militants say the national government exploits the region's rich natural resources while doing little for its indigenous people, most of whom are ethnically closer to people in nearby Myanmar and China than to the rest of India. http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEP20080729015724&Page=P&Title=Nation&Topic=0 Naked protest by Manipur kids against rebel abductions Tuesday July 29 2008 12:18 IST IANS IMPHAL: Stung by the continuing abduction of children by separatists in Manipur, a group of school students stripped and marched on the streets here to protest the rebels' drive to forcibly induct child soldiers. The naked protest Monday by a group of nearly 20 boys between four and eight years of age in Imphal East reminded the locals of the naked protest by a group of elderly women in Imphal in 2004 to protest the custodial death of 24-year-old girl Manorama Devi. The children, many of them only in their underwear, carried placards that read, "We don't want to be separated from our mothers", "We want pens, not guns". Students in large numbers, most of them in school uniforms, marched along with the naked protesters to express their disgust at the latest trend of militant groups abducting children to swell their ranks. Security forces in Manipur have meanwhile arrested seven people said to be involved in the sensational kidnapping of children since May, creating panic in the state ravaged by insurgency with 19 active militant outfits operating. "The seven arrested belong to different militant groups and they were involved in the kidnapping of children for recruitment in rebel groups," a spokesperson of the paramilitary Assam Rifles said Tuesday. Since May 6, when the first two cases of disappearance of children came to light, militants have abducted up to 30 children from various parts of the Imphal valley, mostly from the vicinity of state capital Imphal. Some of the rebel groups, mainly the two factions of the People's Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK), have admitted having children in their ranks and claimed the kids have joined the group of their own volition. The authorities in Manipur have rejected rebel claims of the children joining them on their own. "The kidnapping of children by militant groups indicate they are getting desperate. It clearly means the rebel groups are not getting mature people to join their ranks," Manipur Director General of Police Y. Joykumar Singh said. The action by the militants has led to widespread condemnation with women's organisations and parents resorting to sit-in demonstrations and other forms of protest across Manipur. The state authorities have already asked parents not to let their children go out unaccompanied by adults. http://see.oneworldsee.org/article/view/150806/1/3194 Protests to Greet Bush in Zagreb Alert Magazine 04 April 2008 The Green List, Centre for Peace Studies, Zelena akcija and Documenta Centre will greet today U.S. President George Bush with noisy protests on Zagreb`s Cvjetni Trg (Floral Square), starting at 19:00 hours. - We organize the protests because of the direct responsibility of Bush administration for numerous human rights violations all over the world, warmongering policies and start of unnecessary wars and intensified climate changes in the world. Our protests will get the logistic support by Fade In, Autonomous Cultural Centre and Food not Bombs associations, says the invitation of the organizers. Before that, at 17:00 hours, the Anti-Imperialist Coalition will hold protests of its own at the French Revolution Square. The `Back off Bush` rally protests the humiliation that Croatian Government has imposed on its citizens with the decision to organize a gathering of its own on St. Mark Square, where U.S. President will give his own, as they say Urbi et Orbi speech. The Coalition emphasizes that Government's rally is, in fact, illegal, having in mind that there is a Law that prohibits all public gatherings and demonstrations in St. Mark Square, where all the leading offices of the state are located. - We invite the public, all citizens and media to join us on the French Republic Square and support our rally against American and NATO's imperialist policies. They should bring their banners, whistles, drums and everything they think will make the rally as noisy as possible, so that Bush will not be overwhelmed by the impression of humility of the carefully selected posse on St. Mark, says the Coalition. In spite of the fears expressed yesterday that, on basis of official and unofficial information they received from the Police Department, there was a danger for protests to be banned at the last possible moment, there was no such ban issued and the protests will take place as planned. http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2008/05/japan-activists-protest-against-calls.php Sunday, May 04, 2008 Japan activists protest against calls for constitutional reform Jeannie Shawl at 9:58 PM ET [JURIST] Thousands of activists protested in Japan on Sunday in opposition to efforts to amend the country's pacifist constitution [text; JURIST news archive]. Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, drafted during the American occupation of Japan after World War II, states: Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes. (2) In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized. Organizers of the rally called the provision "a world class model for peace" and renounced a recent move to amend the provision to allow Japan to take a larger role in the global war on terror. Similar protests are planned for Monday and Tuesday. AP has more. Last May, the upper house of the Japanese parliament approved legislation [JURIST report] establishing procedures to facilitate a national constitutional referendum. Under the legislation, possible constitutional amendments must be approved by both houses of the National Diet by a two-thirds vote after a three-year public consultation period on the proposed amendment. The change must then be approved by a majority of voters in a national referendum. Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had called for constitutional reform [JURIST report], arguing that the pacifist constitution does not reflect changes in the country's foreign and security policies. Last month, a Japanese court ruled that the country's dispatch of air force troops in Kuwait is unconstitutional [JURIST report], but did not order the government to redeploy the personnel. http://www.chinapost.com.tw/asia/japan/2008/07/20/166318/Japan%2Dresidents.htm Japan residents protest U.S. warship plan Reuters Sunday, July 20, 2008 TOKYO -- More than 10,000 people marched by a U.S. navy base near Tokyo on Saturday, calling for the Japanese government to stop the deployment of a nuclear-powered warship for the first time to Japan, rally organizers said. The protest by local residents and activists against basing the aircraft carrier USS George Washington in Yokosuka, 45 km (28 miles) southwest of Tokyo, came amid growing concerns safety after a fire on the ship in May. "The U.S military does not disclose any information on the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier's structure, as well as its navigation and accident records," said Masahiko Goto, a lawyer who participated in the protest. "This is the same as bringing a nuclear reactor into another country. Something is wrong here. The Japanese government is sacrificing the local residents' safety for its national interests." The USS George Washington was originally scheduled to be deployed to Yokosuka in August, but its arrival is likely to be delayed due to the fire, which left one sailor with minor burns, Japanese media have reported. It will become the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to be stationed in Japan, the only country to suffer atomic bombing at the end of World War II. Earlier in the week, the commander of U.S. forces in Japan acknowledged local concerns but said those voices were a minority. "I think that the majority of the Japanese people and the majority of the people where it will be home ported... are looking forward to the arrival of this very significant improvement in our capability to defend Japan," Lt. Gen. Edward Rice told reporters Tuesday. Nearly 50,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Japan under the U.S.-Japan security alliance, a pillar of Tokyo diplomacy, but friction with local communities often occurs. Residents were angered earlier this year in Yokosuka, where about 2,800 U.S. military personnel are stationed, after a sailor was arrested in April on suspicion of murdering and robbing a taxi driver. http://www.mathaba.net/rss/?x=599135 Thousands continue to protest U.S. warship deployment in Japan Posted: 2008/07/20 From: MNN Over 10,000 local residents rallied on Saturday in protesting against the deployment of a nuclear-powered U.S. warship at the U.S. navy base near Tokyo. TOKYO, July 19 (Xinhua) -- The protesters called for the Japanese government to stop the deployment of the aircraft carrier USS George Washington in Yokosuka, 45 km southwest of Tokyo. The aircraft carrier was originally scheduled to be deployed to Yokosuka in August, but following a fire on the ship in May, its arrival may be delayed. It would be the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to be stationed in Japan. Local people are very concerned about the safety of the USS George Washington after the fire. At present some 50,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Japan under the U.S.-Japan security alliance. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/20/stories/2008072053270300.htm Kerala - Kozhikode VS to address protest meet Staff Reporter Kozhikode: The district committee of Left Democratic Front (LDF) will take out a rally in the city and hold a public meeting at Muthalakkulam Grounds here on July 22 in protest against the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government's decision to sign the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal. Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan will inaugurate the public meeting and State leaders of various political parties are slated to attend it, LDF district convener M. Kelappan and former MLA Balan Vaidyar said at a press meet here on Saturday. The LDF is protesting against the 'inability' of the UPA government to check the soaring prices of essential commodities, the leaders said. The UPA government had no 'sense of priority' in their 'blind enthusiasm' to toe the U.S. line. "The Manmohan government has only scant regard for the weaker sections of society who are reeling under the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities," they said. Mr. Vaidyar said no one with some sense of patriotism and concern for the country's sovereignty can turn their back to this protest call. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/20/stories/2008072051230300.htm Karnataka - Bellary SUCI members protest against nuclear deal Staff Correspondent BELLARY: A protest was organised by the members of the district unit of the Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) here on Friday against the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal and the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities. Speaking on the occasion, K. Radhakrishna, secretary of the State unit of the SUCI, said the deal would be detrimental to the country. He strongly criticised the Left parties for withdrawing support to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government and sought to know why a decision to this effect had not been taken earlier though talks with regard to the deal had been going on for a long time. In Mr. Radhakrishna's opinion, amendments to the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee Act were enabling multinational companies to intervene in the market and purchase agricultural produce and export them, resulting in shortages. He called upon the people to fight against what he termed the pro-capitalist Government. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/12/stories/2008071257490300.htm Karnataka - Hassan SFI stages protest Staff Correspondent HASSAN: The Students Federation of India (SFI), Hassan district unit, staged a protest here on Friday against the 123 agreement and burnt an effigy of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Addressing presspersons, district unit president M.G. Pruthvi and secretary Ravi Sanenahalli said that despite heading a minority Government, the Prime Minister was going ahead with the deal with the U.S. at the cost India's sovereignty. "Instead of controlling price rise, Mr. Singh was putting the sovereignty of the country at stake," they said. They said the SFI knew that power generation was important, but the deal was not the only solution. The SFI leaders said they would intensify their agitation if the Union Government did not change its stand. http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=385270 Maoists shutdown in Jharkhand to protest India-US nuke deal ANI Tuesday 22nd July, 2008 Singbhum (Jharkhand), July 22 : Maoists in Jharkhand observed a dawn to dusk shutdown on Tuesday against the civil nuclear deal between India and the United States. The banned Maoists threatened the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) against supporting the ruling United Progressive Alliance in the vote of confidence in Parliament. The JMM, which has five MPs in parliament, decided to support the government in the voting. Scant traffic plied on the roads in the state's Singhbhum District with trucks stranded along the roads. "We were told that there is a shutdown so we are not allowed to unload the goods and therefore we are stationed here. How long can we stand here like this without food?" said Shankar Chavan, a truck driver. The locals felt that the success of the shutdown was largely due to the fear of the Maoists. "People are scared. They don't go out for fear of life, if caught on the road, they will be killed by the rebels," said Sheru Khan, a bus agent. The police, however, said they are equipped to deal with any untoward incident during the shutdown. "We have taken all precautions. We have deployed forces in the areas where we anticipate Maoists will try to disrupt road and rail traffic," said S.N.Pradhan, Inspector General of Jharkhand Police. Similar shutdowns have also been called in West Bengal and Orissa. The Maoists say they are fighting for the rights of poor peasants and landless labourers. They operate in a large swathe of India stretching from the east to some southern states, mostly in the countryside, and routinely arrange protests, kill policemen, attack government property and target local politicians. The government is facing a confidence vote on Tuesday to prove its parliamentary majority after its Communist allies withdrew support earlier this month over a controversial nuclear deal with the United States. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/12/stories/2008071259870600.htm Karnataka Protest against deal KOLAR: Under the banner of Students Federation of India, scores of students formed a human chain at College Circle here on Friday to protest against the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal. The students raised slogans against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his alleged haste. The agitators burnt an effigy of Mr. Singh. Traffic was affected for some time owing to the protest. - Staff Correspondent http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/22/stories/2008072256840400.htm CPI(M) to continue protest against n-deal: Yechury Staff Reporter "Unethical practices by UPA Govt. to survive trust vote" - Photo: Shanker Chakravarty Left protest: CPI (M) leader Sitaram Yechury addressesing DYFI and SFI activists protesting against the nuclear deal at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Monday. NEW DELHI: Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury on Monday said his party would continue to protest against the proposed Indo-US nuclear deal irrespective of the outcome of Tuesday's trust vote in the Lok Sabha. Addressing a protest march on Parliament Street organised by the Students' Federation of India and the Democratic Youth Federation of India, Mr. Yechury criticised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for showing eagerness to honour his commitment to US President George Bush on the nuclear deal than honour his commitment to his own countrymen. Accusing the United Progressive Alliance government of indulging in unethical practices to ensure its survival in the trust vote, the senior CPI (M) leader said the government had gone back on its assurance over the deal. "We will now strengthen our protests if the government still remains adamant about pursuing the deal after the trust vote," Mr. Yechury added. Explaining with detailed statistics the cost of energy production, Mr. Yechury said instead of wasting money on buying high-cost nuclear reactors from foreign countries if this money was spent on the education sector, crores of Indian students would benefit. Stating that he agrees with the Prime Minister that the country needs to generate an additional 20,000 MW of power, the CPI (M) leader said: "When none of our resources are scarce in the country, then what is the need for going nuclear?" Exhorting youngsters to carry forward the rich legacy of the freedom struggle and join the anti-imperialist struggle, Mr. Yechury said: "Fifty-four per cent of our population is young and it is on their shoulders that the future of our country rests." http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=379488 Dalit, progressive groups plan protest against n-deal IANS Monday 7th July, 2008 Dalit and backward class intellectuals and political activists in Maharashtra have come together to oppose the India-US nuclear deal and are planning to organise nationwide protest demonstrations against it. Feroze Mithiborwala, national vice-president of the Rashtriya Samaj Paksh (RSP), a party espousing the backward community cause in Maharahstra, Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and other states, said that Dalit parties like Republican Party of India (RPI - Prakash Ambedkar faction) and Left groups like Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist (CPI-ML) have already given their support. 'We are going to Delhi tomorrow and will hold meetings with Left parties so as to form a common platform for opposing this deal,' Mithiborwala told mediapersons here Monday. 'We feel that India is playing straight into the hands of US corporate forces. We are not against nuclear energy per se but we certainly are against the 123 agreement and the Hyde Act which we feel can jeopardize our sovereignty.' Elaborating on the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government's argument that nuclear power fill in the energy vacuum against the backdrop of rising oil prices, Mithiborwala said: 'The world over, the use of oil for power generation comes to a mere four percent. Even if the statement doled out by UPA is taken at face value, why is it that UPA is not going ahead with the India-Pakistan-Iran pipeline project? This project will not only bring down fuel price drastically in the Indian subcontinent but will also help in improving relationships with neighbouring countries.' RSP (advisory committee member) Kishor Jagtap said that through the proposed front, 'we intend to bring all Dalits, other backward classes (OBCs) and other deprived and marginalized communities together on one platform and make them aware of the perils of India-US nuclear deal. 'Majority of Dalit and backward class political parties have become reservation-centric parties. We intend to broaden this perspective. Prakash Ambedkar whose RPI faction is a force to reckon with in Maharashtra has already extended his support to our plans to hold protest demonstrations and picketing.' http://aaron-ortiz.blogspot.com/2008/05/peace-rally-in-san-pedro-sula.html Wednesday, May 21, 2008 Peace Rally in San Pedro Sula This is a peace rally in San Pedro Sula, which impressed me in it's numbers. I'm not sure when it occurred. The song is by a Guillermo Anderson, who I know because his wife, Lastenia was my math teacher in High School. I only wish the rally wasn't so overtly Catholic...about 40% of the population in the cities is now evangelical, myself included. http://see.oneworldsee.org/article/view/150782/1/3193 Anti-NATO Protests in Skopje Dnevnik MK 28 March 2008 The Against NATO! Against Macedonia in NATO! peace initiative organizes a protest rally against Macedonian membership in the North-Atlantic Alliance, on Saturday, March 29, at 13:00 hours. The protests will start in front of the Army Club, and will continue with a protest walk to the Macedonia Square, where the activists of the initaitive will distribute pamphlets with arguments why Macedonia doesn`t need NATO membership. The Initiative believes that the information on the character and mandate of NATO offered to the Macedonian public is one-sided and biased, and that the decision to join NATO was reached without proper public debate on advantages and disadvantages of that move. - The protests will mean a voice against decision-making restricted to closed Government circles, says the organizers. http://see.oneworldsee.org/article/view/150799/1/3193 Protests in Skopje: No Full Social Consensus on NATO in Macedonia Dejan Georgievski 03 April 2008 About fifty activists of the informal initiative Against Macedonia in NATO! protested yesterday, April 2, on the eve of the NATO Summit in Bucharest, the eventual Macedonian membership in NATO, in front of the Government Building in Skopje. Protesters in front of Government Building (Photo: Dejan Georgievski) The activists believe that, although few in number, the protests are necessary to show that there is no such total social consensus on NATO membership in the country as claimed by the political leadership and the mainstream media. They also believe it is not too late to open a true public debate and to call for a referendum on the potential membership, convinced that such a public debate would make it clear that not all citizens of Macedonia promote the values of militarism, imperialism and neo-colonisation. In a declaration they distributed to the citizens, they dispute a number of claims, they call them `lies` regarding the NATO membership, such as the accelerated membership in EU, reduced sovereignty and greater gap between the ruling class and the ruled in the country, and the possibility for the membership to actually undermine Macedonian security. The initiative also disputes the claims that the membership will bring economic benefits and higher standards of living to the citizens, noting that it may be true of the stock exchange traders and those who believe that foreign investments and profits earned by multinational corporations will truly improve their lives. Zdravko Savevski, activist of Against Macedonia in NATO! says that the funds that all citizens pay through their taxes should be directed, instead of the military and defense, to the deteriorating healthcare and education in the country and towards upgraded infrastructure. On the behalf of the initiative, he demanded that, should Macedonia not get the invitation to join NATO (and the latest news from Bucharest, by the time of the writing of this article, say that there will be no such invitation) the Government should recall all its soldiers currently serving in missions in Afghanistan and Iraq. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/21/stories/2008052156840500.htm Call to protest against 'war on terror' Staff Reporter Kozhikode: A convention organised by a group of social activists here on Tuesday appealed to all those who believe in democracy to "raise their voices and resist all kinds of terror unleashed by the State and Central governments." The convention saw the meeting of Maoists forces and the National Development Front (NDF). Inaugurating the convention, K.S. Madhusoodanan, advocate and human rights activist, said that the NDF and the Maoists could unite to fight against the common enemy putting aside differences in their ideologies. The organisers believe that the "war on terror" by the Central and State governments is only a pretext to crush Maoists and Muslims. However, representatives of prominent Muslim organisations were conspicuous by their absence. The former Supreme Court Judge V.R. Krishna Iyer, a patron of the reception committee of the function, said in his message read out at the convention that jailing of Naxalites and Maoists reminded him of the fact that history repeated itself. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/07/asia/AS-GEN-Philippines-Womens-Day.php Filipino, Japanese activists protest alleged rapes by U.S. servicemen in Okinawa The Associated Press Published: March 7, 2008 MANILA, Philippines: Filipino and Japanese activists marked International Women's Day a day early by marching to the U.S. Embassy in Manila to demand the prosecution of American servicemen accused of raping a Japanese girl and a Filipino woman in Okinawa. About 100 members of the Unity of Women group and four Japanese activists protested the U.S. military presence in their countries Friday, saying American troops pose a threat to women and children. "Abuse of women and children abounds where U.S. military personnel are stationed - this is true in Japan and Korea as well as Mindanao," said group spokeswoman Virginia Suarez Pinlac, referring to the southern Philippine region where U.S. counterterrorism troops arm and train Filipino soldiers battling al-Qaida-linked militants. Japanese activist Susumu Omori, a member of the Santama Peace Cycle group, said it was angered by the alleged rapes in Okinawa. "The criminals should be punished by Philippine law and Japanese law," he said. The U.S. courts-martial protect their own soldiers, evading the judgments of the Philippine or Japanese courts, he added. Riot police blocked the protesters' march about two blocks from the embassy. Last month, American and Japanese officials said a U.S. serviceman was under investigation for the alleged sexual assault of a Filipino woman on the southern island of Okinawa, where a U.S. Marine also was arrested on suspicion of raping a 14-year-old Japanese girl. The Japanese girl later withdrew her complaint against the Marine, and Okinawa police released him into U.S. custody last week. The Filipino woman's case was still being investigated, officials said. The cases added to a string of accusations that have fueled anger over the heavy U.S. military presence in Okinawa. About 50,000 U.S. troops are based in Japan under a security pact between the two countries. Many Japanese complain of crime, pollution and noise associated with the bases. In 2006 a U.S. Marine was convicted of raping a Filipino woman near Manila. He has been detained at the U.S. Embassy instead of a local jail, triggering protests by left-wing activists. http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7010799143 Bahrain Official Slams Protesters Bearing Bin Laden Images ShareThis April 29, 2008 6:31 p.m. EST Sandeep Singh Grewal - AHN Middle East Correspondent Manama, Bahrain (AHN) - A hardline Sunni political group in Bahrain, the National Adala Movement, has been criticized for carrying pictures of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden during a protest on Saturday. Brigadier Tariq Bin Daina, deputy chief of Public Security and Forensic Science at the Ministry of Interior, said on Tuesday that protesters who carried pictures of the terror group's leader violated free speech laws. The Adala Movement organized a peaceful protest condemning Bahrain's decision to open an embassy in Iraq. "We hold the Bahrain authorities responsible if our envoy is injured in Baghdad," National Adala Movement Secretary-General Abdulla Hashim told AHN in Manama. Adala protesters chanted slogans as they placed an effigy of a U.S. soldier on a coffin while some wore T-shirts and carried placards depicting bin Laden. Pictures of the the burning World Trade Center's twin towers in New York was also carried by some participants. The protest was peaceful and no one was arrested. Bin Daina said in a statement that the world considers al-Qaeda an international terror organization and the action by the protesters contradicted Bahrain's effort to combat global terror. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20080509&articleId=8901 Somalian Protest over US Bombing Global Research, May 5, 2008 GRANMA A huge protest took place on Sunday in the Somali capital of Mogadishu to protest the US aerial bombing that killed 25 civilians last week. An AP report quoted 13-year-old Nur Ahmed Nur: "The US attack killed by brother, my sister and my grandmother. We are refugees and we fled from Mogadishu. "Since when did we become terrorists?" The demonstrators, mostly women and children, took to the streets of the central Somali town of Dusamareeb shouting slogans such as "Down with the Bush administration" and "Down with their stooges." Abdi-risaq Molim Ahmed, head of education for the town, said that three students died and a fourth was seriously wounded in the US attack against the home of Aden Hashi Ayro. He added that the students were between the ages of 13 and 19. http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2008-05/2008-05-04-voa11.cfm?CFID=23128775&CFTOKEN=87830584 Central Somali Town Residents Protest US Airstrike By VOA News 04 May 2008 More than a thousand people demonstrated in central Somalia Sunday against the U.S. airstrike that killed the alleged head of al-Qaida in the country and at least 11 other people. The protest took place in the town of Dusamareb, where the U.S. attack killed Aden Hashi Ayro on Thursday. Ayro was a leader of the Islamist militant group al-Shabab, and was believed to have trained with al-Qaida in Afghanistan in the 1990s. In the Somali capital, Mogadishu, witnesses say three Ethiopian soldiers have been killed in a clash with Islamist fighters. Witnesses say say the sides exchanged gunfire Sunday after the insurgents launched an attack. Ethiopian troops backing Somalia's interim government come under frequent assault from the Islamists, who receive support from Ethiopia's rival Eritrea. In an unrelated incident, fighting between clans in western Somalia has killed at least 10 people and injured others. Residents in the town of Luq say the fighting broke out late Saturday and was sparked by a dispute over land. Clan disputes and the Islamist insurgency have complicated the government's effort to stabilize the Horn of Africa country. Somalia has not had an effective central government in 17 years. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L03560809.htm Yemenis protest mosque bomb as northern truce falters 03 May 2008 14:02:53 GMT Source: Reuters By Mohammed Sudam SANAA, May 3 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Yemenis demonstrated in the northern city of Saada on Saturday in a outpouring of anger after a bombing killed 15 people outside a mosque and threatened to drag the volatile region into a renewed bout of violence. Yemen has witnessed attacks by different groups targeting everything from tourists to government offices in recent years, but attacks on mosques were virtually unheard of until Friday. Among the dead were a woman and two children, though the attack appeared to target officials and army officers known to frequent the Bin Salman Mosque, a security source said. A security source said several suspects had been detained at a checkpoint in Saada and investigations suggested that rebels led by Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, a member of the Zaydi sect of Shi'ite Islam, were behind the attack. Houthi denies the charge but fighting has raged on and off in Saada since a conflict broke out in 2004 between government forces and the rebels he leads. A Qatari-brokered truce ended six months of intense fighting in June but violence has increased in recent weeks as disagreements over the release of prisoners and handover of arms threat to undermine the deal. Friday's bomb, which was hidden in a motorcycle outside the door of the Bin Salman Mosque and detonated as worshippers left, came as a Qatari delegation was meeting officials in Yemen to try to prevent a total collapse of the ceasefire. "These crimes and violations are virtually daily and their perpetrators, the insurgent elements, have not implemented any terms of the agreement to end the strife of the insurgency but have refused to hand in their arms or come down from their positions in the mountains," the governor of Saada, Motahhar Rashad, told Yemen's Saba news agency. The ceasefire agreement committed Yemen to reconstruct rebel areas and required rebels to give up their heavy weapons. Hundreds of people have been killed and thousands have fled their homes in Saada since the conflict began. Seven Yemeni troops were killed on Tuesday in an ambush by the rebels and two were wounded on Friday in renewed clashes. Gunmen killed Yemeni lawmaker Saleh al-Hindi last month who was known to support government efforts to subdue the rebels. Sunni Muslims form a majority of Yemen's 19 million population, while most of the rest are Zaydis. Yemeni officials say the rebels want to return to a form of clerical rule prevalent in the country until the 1960s. The rebels say they are defending their villages against what they call government aggression. One of the poorest countries outside Africa, Yemen is struggling with several conflicts on top of its economic ills. As well as fighting the Houthi revolt, the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden has cooperated with the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities. In the south, anger over perceived northern depredations exploded into riots this year that threatened to weaken the 1990 accord that united traditionalist north Yemen with the Marxist south. (Writing by Lin Noueihed; Editing by Dominic Evans) http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20080512a7.html Monday, May 12, 2008 Protests stop kamikaze ceremony in South Korea Compiled from Kyodo, AP SACHEON, South Korea - A ceremony to unveil a stone memorial dedicated to Korean pilots who flew kamikaze missions for Japan during World War II was canceled Saturday in Sacheon due to strong opposition from residents, city officials said. Waving the flag: A rally is held against a ceremony planned for Saturday in Sacheon, South Korea, to unveil a memorial dedicated to Korean pilots who flew kamikaze missions for Japan during World War II. KYODO PHOTO In an unprecedented move to honor Koreans who died for Japan - who have been viewed as traitors at home - the city of Sacheon, the hometown of one Korean kamikaze, has built a 4.6-meter-tall stone memorial. The unveiling ceremony was scheduled for Saturday, but in the week leading up to the event residents and activists escalated their protests, forcing the city to cancel, an official said, adding that the city will keep the memorial somewhere. "There were strong protests as to why we need to build a memorial for those who died as Japanese," the official said. "The event was to build mutual friendship and trust between the two countries, but it was difficult to get people's support." The Korean Peninsula was a Japanese colony from 1910 to 1945. One of the protesters said he could never accept a memorial for Koreans who cooperated with Japan during the colonial era. Japanese actress Fukumi Kuroda was to unveil the stone memorial and some 40 Japanese tourists were to attend the event. "It's regrettable that it's been canceled," Kuroda said. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Thu Aug 28 22:05:33 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2008 06:05:33 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Peace protests, America, Europe and the west, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <00bf01c90994$e2116390$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * GERMANY: Conscientious objector goes on hunger strike * SCOTLAND: Company offices trashed in anti-war protest * US: Arms firm targeted in sit-down protest * US: Protester grows peace sign on lawn * US, North Carolina: Protest opposes war with Iran * US, Washington: Arrests at protest against Stryker deployment * US, California: Pension scheme asked to divest Iraq * UK: Human chain protest at Faslane * US: Protest at gunmaker * NORTHERN IRELAND: Bush visit protested * ITALY: Small protests as Bush meets Berlusconi * SLOVENIA: Protests planned against Bush visit * GERMANY: Bush protests "lose appeal", visit unprotested * UK: Protesters target Hechler and Koch * US, Albany: War spending protested * US, DC: Student groups protest on war anniversary * NEW ZEALAND: Protest at spy base court case * US, Pittsburgh: War protesters "frustrated by apathy" * US, Vermont: Protesters occupy General Dynamics office * US: Peace activists refuse to pay taxes * NEW ZEALAND: Peace protesters occupy, sabotage spy base [NOTE: The "sabotage" charges were later dropped. Not sure how politicians can call trying to stop war "senseless" - maybe they need new dictionaries.] * UK: Trident protesters arrested at Rolls Royce, Derby * UK: Protest at US base in Britain * US, Colorado: Peace protesters interrupt McCain speech * IRELAND: Die-in against cluster bombs * US, Florida: "New generation of protesters" against Iraq war * US: Blair heckled in visit to Yale * US, Grand Rapids: Lie-down protest against war * US, California, San Diego: Blackwater facility protested * US, Washington: Protest against nuclear weapons * US: Impeachment protest * US, California: Peace protest targets Schwarzenegger * US: "Iconic voice of protest" keeps protesting war at 69 * CANADA: Census refusers at risk of imprisonment; protesting Lockheed Martin role * US: Nationwide protests say "no Iran war" * US, Anoka: Protest at ammo maker * CANADA: Protest at plan to deport war resister * INDIA/US: Protest against nuclear deal * US: Rallies "for an oil-free president" target McCain * US, California: Peace protesters target McCain * US, Florida: Students protest war * US: War resister withholds taxes * US, Wisconsin: Peace activists on long march; seek to enter base * US, California: Nuclear tech at lab protested * US, Massachusetts: Protest at psychology conference over interrogation role * UK: Anti-nuclear protest at dockyard http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,3340979,00.html?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf Bundeswehr | 16.05.2008 Conscientious Objector Protests Conscription with Hunger Strike Gro?ansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Matthias Schirmer wants no part of this A 21-year-old man has begun a hunger strike to protest his conscription into the army. The case throws the spotlight anew on Germany's conscription policy, which many view as unfair. Mathias Schirmer, stationed at a Bundeswehr base in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pommerania, has refused to eat for a week, saying conscription is "not compatible with democracy and freedom as well as with human rights." According to the German Peace Society, Schirmer was ordered to report to the Bundeswehr on April 1. When he did not show up, he was picked up by military police and sent to a base in the town of Viereck in north-eastern Germany. But Schirmer refused to wear a uniform or conform to other Bundeswehr requirements, such as shaving. He rejects both military service or civilian alternative service, which is an option for conscripts who do not want to serve in the armed forces. After 12 days of confinement to his quarters, Schirmer was sentenced to a further 21 days of detention. As his standpoint did not change, the military imposed a 21-day arrest sentence on him, which began on May 9. It was then that he began the hunger strike. A spokesman for the army in Koblenz reports that Schirmer's condition is "good, considering the circumstances" and that force feeding has not yet become necessary. Schirmer is seen once a day by a doctor and army officials check on his condition every three hours. The Bundeswehr has said releasing Schirmer from his duty can only be decided once his 21-day sentence is completed, or if "other circumstances" arise. Fairness question There is one other conscientious objector serving a sentence in Germany, although he is not on a hunger strike. The cases are likely to again raise the question of the fairness of Germany's conscription program. For years, fewer then one-third of those of draft age are called into the armed forces. Calls regularly go out that the Bundeswehr should be converted into a voluntary, professional body. Most of Germany's major NATO partners have done away with mandatory service. However, the federal government in Berlin has resisted calls to do away with conscription all together, arguing that it creates a force made up of all sections of society. Purely professional militaries tend to be recruited largely from underprivileged groups. In two other cases similar to Schirmer's last year, conscientious objectors were let out of the army after serving short sentences. Courts imposed fines and sentenced them to community service. http://news.scotsman.com/edinburgh/War-protest-group-trashes-firm39s.4159923.jp War protest group trashes firm's offices ANTI-WAR campaigners have targeted a city business for a second time, smashing its windows and daubing graffiti. Members of the F*** the War Coalition claimed to have hit the Selex offices on the city's Ferry Road. In a statement they said they wouldn't let up in their campaign against the company because it produces technology used by the armed forces in Iraq. It is understood windows at the factory were smashed while the phrases War Profiteers Work Here and Smash The Arms Trade were painted on walls and billboards. It is the second time the company has been targeted. In March the windows were smashed, while the US Consulate and an Army recruitment centre was also hit. A spokesman for the organisation said: "Once again we have struck out at the weapons company Selex letting people know what really goes on inside the slick, shiny building." The group have vowed not to stop until the forces pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan. http://www.abcnewspapers.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3207&Itemid=26 War protest at Federal Cartridge Wednesday, 02 July 2008 Eight Project to Stop the War Industry (PSWI) members laid down their law outside Federal Cartridge Company Wednesday morning. (Photo by Sue Austreng) by Sue AustrengThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Staff writer The Project to Stop the War Industry (PSWI) laid down their law outside Federal Cartridge Company's Anoka entrance Wednesday morning, staging a protest and blocking the company's entrance at the intersection of Main Street and Wedgewood Drive. At 7:50 a.m., eight members of the Project lined up, handcuffed themselves together, wrapped their outstretched arms in PVC tubes wrapped in black electrician's tape and lay down on the asphalt road. Personnel from Anoka and Coon Rapids police departments, the Coon Rapids Fire Department, and the Anoka-Champlin Fire Department responded to the incident. "If you choose not to disperse you will be under arrest," police warned the protesters. To see slide show, go to Photo Gallery By 8:44 a.m., protesters failed to move and police responded. "At this point, you are all under arrest," a police officer announced. Then work began to remove the PVC tubes and release the protesters from their self-induced bondage. PSWI members at each end of the lay-down had been secured to a metal Federal Cartridge sign on one end and a sand barrel on the other. Police and fire personnel used scissors, wire cutters and, finally, a Sawzall to release the eight protesters who were then escorted to squad cars and taken to the Anoka County Jail. Anoka Police Capt. Scott Nolan said police arrested eight adults and one juvenile, charging them with unlawful assembly, disorderly conduct and disobeying a lawful order. PSWI released a statement at the protest site claiming that Federal Cartridge is part of Alliant Techsystems, a weapons manufacturer, and Minnesota's largest military contractor. "Federal Cartridge Company...won a $30 million contract to produce frangible ammunition for the U.S. military in 2003," the statement read. "It is currently manufacturing ammunition for...its current $9 million contract for ammunition for use by the U.S. military." Those supporting the protest stood at the intersection of Main Street and Wedgewood Drive, waving signs bearing messages of protest. A few passing motorists gave their honking support as they slowed to view the scene. After police and fire exited the scene, a PSWI supporter launched a kite festooned with a peace sign and a dove, the international symbol of peace. http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/08/02/20080802tr-peace0726.html Protester sprouts peace sign in lawn by Paula Hassler - Aug. 2, 2008 07:00 AM Special for The Republic Meet Edward "Jack" Lowell: age 59, Arizona State University graduate, geologist, gemologist, Tempe resident and tireless war protester since the Vietnam era. Lowell achieved some notoriety about four years ago when he built a 10-foot-diameter peace symbol made of plastic pipe covered with 200 shiny CDs. His home is due east of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, so he figured people in approaching aircraft could see the glittering design strung up on his roof with the help of some backyard trees. Last month, Lowell devised a watering technique that enabled him to grow grass in his front yard in a way that formed three large peace signs and the words "Out of Iraq." "My lawn was brown and pretty much dying of thirst at that time, so I watered the designs and not the rest of the grass," he said. "I had gotten in trouble for letting my lawn go totally dead and I figured this might be one tactic, to say it was an art project." The grassy symbols stood out boldly until recent storms greened up the entire lawn. "My work was looking fine until the rains came and sort of erased it on me, but when the monsoons are over I'll reseed the designs and make them larger and more visible," he said. "I know how to use my weed eater to sharpen up the image, and it will be a permanent fixture in my front yard. When Google Earth retakes its satellite pictures in our area, my symbols will show up to the whole world that I do not like our government making war for bad reasons." Lowell said he appreciates the folks who honk in approval of his work as they drive past his home. "The neighbors are cool with it, and it could give people the idea to express themselves," he said. "If you see someone do something that you believe in, and it's a novel idea, then you might go out and also do something creative. It's sort of suggesting to the world that you expressed your feelings and your beliefs in any way you can that's not hurting anyone else." Lowell keeps busy these days with his Web site, writing letters to newspapers and tending to his home-based gemology business. His 1982 Toyota pickup, usually parked in his driveway, is plastered with anti-war bumper stickers and political slogans. Thinking back to his treetop peace-symbol project of 2004, Lowell regrets that it didn't last very long. "The sun ruined the CDs after a period of time, and replacing all 200 of them was not an option," he said. But he did find a way to recycle it. People who drive by his home in December will see the plastic-pipe peace sign festooned with Christmas lights on his roof - or propped up by his front door. http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/3321010/ N.C. group protests war with Iran Posted: Aug. 2, 2008 Updated: Aug. 3, 2008 Raleigh, N.C. - A group protesting against a possible war with Iran demonstrated in Raleigh Saturday. The North Carolina Coalition to Stop War on Iran held a march and rally to protest the growing threat of western-led attacks on Iran. Similar protests took place in 60 cities across the country. A group supporting United States troops also protested in Raleigh. http://www.theolympian.com/breakingnews/story/530203.html 3 arrested protesting movement of Stryker vehicles The Olympian . Published August 04, 2008 Comments (17) Police arrested three anti-war activists - including two South Sound residents - early Sunday morning for blocking the Fort Lewis main gate. Lakewood Police spokeswoman Heidi Hoffman said the three were arrested on suspicion of disorderly conduct at about 2:40 a.m. at the Interstate 5 onramp at Milepost 120. Protestors have been trying to block the return of Stryker combat vehicles from Iraq via the Port of Tacoma. So far nine people have been arrested, Hoffman said. About 900 vehicles - including Stryker vehicles, trucks and Humvees - are being convoyed to Fort Lewis following the return of the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division Strykers after more than a year in Iraq. http://www.thenewstribune.com/front/topphoto/story/429228.html Protest at Port of Tacoma leads to arrest Ian Demsky; ian.demsky at thenewstribune.com Published: July 30th, 2008 11:54 PM | Updated: July 31st, 2008 06:09 AM A handful of people showed up at the Port of Tacoma on Wednesday night to protest the return of Stryker combat vehicles, which had been in Iraq. The members of the Port Militarization Resistance group said the returning vehicles were part of a cycle, which would eventually see them sent back to war again. . RELATED STORY Police, others prepare for new anti-war protests "We're opposed to the cycle at all points," said Wally Cuddeford. Unlike past protests in Tacoma and Olympia, the protesters mostly stood around. They didn't chant. They didn't hold signs. One man was arrested on suspicion of obstructing a police officer. Two others were given trespassing warnings. The two who were given warnings declined to talk about their encounter with police. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008094651_portprotests06m0.html?syndication=rss August 6, 2008 - Page updated at 12:00 AM 12 anti-war protesters arrested at Tacoma-area demonstration Clashes between Tacoma-area police and anti-war protesters trying to gum up a military transport operation have resulted in at least 12 arrests in the past week. By Noelene Clark Seattle Times staff reporter Clashes between Tacoma-area police and anti-war protesters trying to gum up a military transport operation have resulted in at least 12 arrests in the past week. The protesters, who began demonstrations at the Port of Tacoma and Fort Lewis on Thursday night, are part of a movement targeting civilian ports used to support the Iraq war. The 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division Strykers - armored combat vehicles recently returned from Iraq - were being moved from a transport ship to Fort Lewis. The same group of protesters, the Port Militarization Resistance, was responsible for demonstrations at the Tacoma port in March 2007 that ended with three arrests and police launching tear gas. The group also protested at Olympia's port in May 2006, in which paramedics treated protesters after police fired pepper spray, and again in November 2007, when police used pepper spray and arrested more than 40. This week's protests were much tamer, police said. "It wasn't like last year," Tacoma police spokesman Tom Williams said. "There was nowhere near the volume of protesters out there. It was relatively calm this year." Protesters estimate about 50 people demonstrated each night between Thursday and Monday, compared with 200 people in March 2007 when the Strykers were transported to Iraq. Patrick Edelbacher, who is part of the Port Militarization Resistance, said the protesters briefly delayed some military transport vehicles by linking arms to block roadways. The equipment - more than 260 Stryker vehicles, more than 400 other vehicles such as Humvees and trucks, and almost 700 containers - was transported according to schedule, said Fort Lewis spokesman Joe Piek. Edelbacher said the recent demonstrations were a victory for the anti-war movement because of how costly it is for the government to manage protests. "We want cities to say, 'We don't want to be involved with this anymore because it's economically ineffective and disastrous when it comes to police activity and conflicts with protesters,' " Edelbacher said. Local law-enforcement agencies and the Port of Tacoma spent $500,000 to $800,000 on extra support during last year's protests, said Port spokeswoman Tara Mattina. "It's definitely a security expense for the surrounding cities, the military and for the port," she said. This year's protest was more orderly, Mattina said, partly because communication among police, the military and port security has been improved. "There were some lessons that we learned from the last time about how best to handle this kind of situation," she said. Lakewood police arrested nine people, three each on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, on suspicion of disorderly conduct and failure to disperse, said spokeswoman Heidi Hoffman. The protesters were blocking the roadway, Hoffman said. Tacoma police arrested three protesters, one of whom was struck with a Taser, hospitalized and later booked on suspicion of third-degree assault, Williams said. That man, 20-year-old Forest Student, was part of a group of protesters surrounding a police vehicle and making threats, Williams said. An officer struck Student in the chest with a Taser after he and other protesters ignored repeated warnings to back off, Williams said. Edelbacher said demonstrators approached the vehicle and asked the officer to leave but that he wasn't acting in a threatening manner. All arrested protesters have been released from the Pierce County Jail. It wasn't clear Tuesday if charges would be filed. http://www.kcra.com/news/16658792/detail.html?rss=sac&psp=news Protestors Ask CalPERS To Divest In Iraq Pension Fund Invested Millions In War Contractor POSTED: 4:30 pm PDT June 19, 2008 UPDATED: 6:21 pm PDT June 19, 2008 SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Protestors said Thursday they want the California Public Employees Retirement System to divest from the war in Iraq. "We feel now that this is immoral, unpatriotic and treasonous," Karen Bernal from truemajority.org said. CalPERS, the largest public pension fund in the country, has approximately $27 million invested in a company called KBR, Inc. The company is considered to be one of the nation's largest war contractors. Armed with petitions bearing 20,000 signatures, a small band of war protestors was determined Thursday to make a point to the CalPERS Board. "Our government is wasting billions of dollars of my tax money and CalPERS is profiting from that money, which is being used illegally, unethically to continue the operation of Iraq," retired state employee Maggie Coulter said. CalPERS has an investment portfolio of nearly $250 billion in assets, so any decision to divest from Iraq would have worldwide implications. But if the protestors are looking for any sort of immediate action, they're likely to be very disappointed. "Divestment is always a slippery slope. We take this as a last-resort measure. What we're interested in today is to just receive the information ... We've never divested for political reasons, let me make that very clear," CalPERS spokesman Pat Macht said. CalPERS recently divested from tobacco companies after numerous lawsuits changed the market conditions, making cigarettes an unhealthy investment. The protesters said they were triggered to speak out Thursday after a New York Times article filed this week raised serious questions about the role of KBR, Inc. in Iraq http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/15/nuclear.scotland?gusrc=rss&feed=uknews Hundreds protest in Faslane human chain Paul Kelbie The Observer, Sunday June 15 2008 Article history Up to 500 demonstrators formed a 2,000-metre long human chain alongside the fence of the Faslane Naval Base on the Clyde yesterday as part of a protest against nuclear weapons The protest took place on the 40th anniversary of the first nuclear submarine patrol from the base, and marked one year since a vote in the Scottish Parliament against the replacement of Trident. MSPs taking part included the SNP's Bill Kidd, Marlyn Glen of Labour and Green Robin Harper. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-gun-protest_web_15jun15,0,1884762.story Jackson leads protest at Lake Barrington manufacturer of semiautomatic weapons Assault rifles turning Chicago into war zone, he says By Robert Channick | Special to the Tribune 8:40 PM CDT, June 14, 2008 Vowing to intensify his campaign against gun violence, Rev. Jesse Jackson held a protest rally Saturday at a Lake Barrington semiautomatic rifle manufacturer. Leading 80 supporters to the remote industrial park that houses D.S. Arms, Jackson said assault weapons were turning Chicago into a war zone. "It does not stand to reason that we'll fight a war to end weapons of mass destruction from flowing in Iraq and increase the flow of weapons at home," he said. Notably absent from the protest was Rev. Michael Pfleger, who often joins Jackson's protests against gun violence. Both were arrested last June after a confrontation during a protest at a south suburban gun store. Criminal charges of trespassing were dropped. Pfleger is on a mandated leave from his parish at St. Sabina Catholic Church following incendiary comments he made last month about Sen. Hillary Clinton during a guest sermon at Trinity United Church of Christ. Last summer, Jackson, accompanied by Pfleger, first visited D.S. Arms, the closest gun manufacturer to Chicago. The company has a catalog of 20- to 30-round semiautomatic rifles geared mostly for military and police use. "We're a very convenient target, even though we don't manufacture any of the type of weapon systems that are used by the gangbangers in the city of Chicago," said Michael Danforth, an attorney for D.S. Arms. The company has been in business for more than 20 years, the last eight on Industrial Avenue in Lake Barrington. The company's 25 employees work in the gray, aluminum-sided building with temporary placards reading, "Support Our Troops and Law Enforcement Professionals." "They can't manufacture guns in Chicago because it's illegal," Jackson said. "So they come to the suburbs to hide in the sanctuary of a very peaceful community." Marching to the beat of shakers, Jackson led his supporters on a 30-minute march, carrying signs and circling the sleepy street in front of two dozen Lake County sheriff's police and a small gaggle of onlookers. Setting up on the curb in front of D.S. Arms, which was cordoned off by yellow police tape and a row of officers, Jackson took the microphone and called for a ban on assault weapons, universal screening and a limit on the number of guns an individual can purchase. His speech rang ever stronger for some in the crowd who lost relatives to gun violence. "This is a cancer, and it's got to be removed," said Stephen Young of Evanston, a spokesman for the Illinois Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence whose son was shot to death 12 years ago. "We don't need these weapons; things have got to change." Alice Norris of Hillside, a member of the Million Mom March, which is part of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said her daughter was killed by a semiautomatic weapon in Chicago 15 years ago. "When I got there, there were bullet casings all over the ground," she said. "It's a war weapon, and why would honest, decent citizens need the right to have that kind of weaponry?" Though Danforth acknowledged that the company's weapons are available for purchase at the retail level, he said they have never been linked to a crime in Chicago. Undeterred, Jackson said he would return again soon and enlist many more supporters. "We're going to visit the churches in this area, and meet the city councils in this area, and meet with students in this area, and build a mass demonstration," Jackson said. "We shall march in big numbers in this place, across the state and across the nation." Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran Jr. said Saturday in a statement that his office provided a security detail for last year's visit by Jackson and Pfleger that cost county taxpayers $5,200. The cost of Saturday's visit has yet to be determined, the release said. http://www.indymedia.ie/article/88005 Protests in Belfast against Bush Visit. antrim | anti-war | news report Monday June 16, 2008 22:05 by Paula Geraghty The Union Jack no where to be seen, replaced, bravely and daringly with an Iraqi flag over City Hall. Hundreds protested at the lunchtime protest. The protests continued at Stormont. More reports to follow. Bush, a president on the way out, finished his last European tour today in Belfast. Hundreds commemorated the struggle for peace and justice in the world at City Hall, calling to mind the Civil Rights struggle in the 6 counties. Eamon McCann one of the Raytheon 9 acquitted of criminal damage against the arms manufacturer Raytheon spoke of how we are told we live in a global village and thus Iraqi, Iranian, Lebanese, Palestinian and all nationalities are now are neighbours. There was much celebration as the Iraqi flag was to be seen, raised over City Hall, replacing the Union Jack, a brave gesture and symbol of solidarity. An Iraqi man spoke of his gratitude for the solidarity shown by those present in Belfast. Many Trade Unions were represented; Unison Unite and there was a spokesperson from NIPSA. ?irig?, the Workers Party, some ?gra Sinn F?in, Socialist Party, SWP and SDLP were all in attendance. It was made quite clear that those who desire peace should not invite the world's greatest terrorist to Belfast. http://www2.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-239/0806161578145528.htm Protests in Belfast ahead of Bush visit London, June 16, IRNA UK-Bush Visit US President George W Bush was being greeted Monday with a renewed series of anti-war protests against his visit to Northern Ireland. Ahead of his visit, human rights activists staged a protest outside Belfast City Hall on Sunday calling on the First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness to confront Bush on the US abuse of terror suspects. Director of Amnesty International's Belfast branch, Patrick Corrigan, said protestors took the opportunity to send a message to the US president ahead of a major security clamp-down on the visit. Bush was greeted on Sunday with customary anti-war protesters during his farewell visit to London on Sunday before he steps down from office in January. Despite the whole area of Belfast's assembly at Stormont being closed to the public since Saturday and a no-fly zone has been imposed, a whole series of anti-war demonstrations were planned across Northern Ireland's capital on Monday. The US president was flying for his second visit to Belfast since 2003 with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on the final leg of his tour of Europe. Apart from Robinson and McGuinness, they were being accompanied during the visit with Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen to assess progress one year after the restoration of the region's devolved administration. Later in the day, Bush was due to visit an integrated school in Belfast where he will meet Protestant and Catholic pupils who are educated alongside each other. http://www.myantiwar.org/view/154163.html Bush shrugs off protests to meet with Berlusconi Bush to meet with Italian Premier Berlusconi and Pope Benedict XVI in Rome; hundreds protest DEB RIECHMANN AP News Jun 12, 2008 06:06 EST President Bush can look forward to a hearty welcome from his old friend, the charismatic Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, and Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to Rome. That's not what was found on the streets, however, where anti-Bush sentiment over the war in Iraq still lingers. Anti-war activists and hundreds of other demonstrators marched through the Italian capital on Wednesday as Bush arrived for a visit that was to include meetings with Berlusconi on Thursday and the pope on Friday. The president, as usual, kept about his business. He encountered scant signs of protest on his motorcade route on Thursday. At the elegant hillside Villa Aurelia, part of the American Academy in Rome, Bush met with young Italian entrepreneurs who receive training in the United States through an exchange program. He encouraged them to come get the "firsthand truth about America" and disputed what he called misinformation and propaganda about the United States. "We are compassionate, we are an open country, we care about people, we are entrepreneurial," Bush said. "We love the entrepreneurial spirit." A short time later, Bush was greeted by Italian President Georgio Napolitano at Quirinale Palace, situated atop the highest hill in Rome. Originally built as a summer home for popes at the end of the 16th century, the palace is now the official residence of the president. Security is extremely tight for Bush's two-day stay in Rome. Commercial flights have been banned over the city. Dozens of buses and trams have been rerouted. Thousands of policemen have been deployed as part of a plan to monitor any further protests, though Wednesday's march drew far fewer demonstrators than previous visits by Bush. Slovenia and Germany, the first two stops on Bush's trip, were devoid of demonstrators. That was evidence that trans-Atlantic relations, fractured over the U.S.-led invasion in Iraq, are on the mend, that European leaders have moved beyond their anger over the war. The Rome protests are evidence that the Italian public still opposes the Bush administration. Unlike other European leaders, such as former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and former French President Jacques Chirac, Berlusconi supported Bush on Iraq from the start. The 71-year-old media mogul defied domestic opposition and dispatched about 3,000 troops to Iraq after the fall of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Those troops came home, and Berlusconi, recently elected to his third stint in power since 1994, has pledged not to send any back. More than 2,000 Italian troops, however, are deployed as part of the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan. Italy, along with Germany, France and Spain, have restricted their troops to less dangerous areas in northern Afghanistan. That has caused a rift because other NATO members are deployed in the more violent regions of the nation. The Italian government is reviewing the restrictions and Berlusconi's office said the premier would talk to Bush about that when they meet. Bush's wife, first lady Laura Bush, on Wednesday pledged $10.2 billion on behalf of the United States to Afghanistan's reconstruction. She spoke at an international donors conference in Paris, where the president himself will be headed on Friday. Berlusconi and Bush also were expected to discuss Italy's interest in joining with the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany that are making a diplomatic push to get Iran to give up what the West believes is an effort to develop nuclear weapons. That might seem unusual for Italy, which recently surpassed Germany as Iran's largest trading partner. But to show Italy's strong opposition to Iran's suspected nuclear ambitions, Berlusconi and his government refused to meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was in Rome for a U.N.-sponsored food summit. Bush will meet with the pope on Friday before departing to Paris to continue his farewell European tour. It will be Bush's third meeting with Benedict. The two last met in April at the White House in Washington. http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-06/10/content_8340920.htm Protests planned against Bush's visit in Slovenia BRDO, Slovenia, June 10 (Xinhua) -- Several Slovenian groups have planned to stage protests against U.S. President George W. Bush on Tuesday as the EU-U.S. summit gets under way in Brdo just outside the country's capital of Ljubljana. In Ljubljana, the Youth Party will stage a peace rally in front of the U.S. Embassy Tuesday morning, to protest against the Bush administration's policies on environment, human rights, minority rights and democracy, according to Slovenia's STA news agency. A loosely-connected student group, the "society for the rehabilitation of rock 'n' roll," will protest in Kranj, some 10 km from the venue of the summit. Various leftist and anarchist groups also announced protests in cities such as Maribor and Koper, but they have not reported the rallies to police, according to STA. Security has been tightened for the summit, with a motorway section passing the venue being closed along with a number of local roads around Brdo, some 30 km northwest of Ljubljana. Hundreds of policemen have been deployed for the occasion. During Bush's previous visit in 2001 to Slovenia, some 2,000 Slovenian police officers were deployed. Traffic was diverted away from Brdo and a no-fly zone was declared over the area. Bush started his week-long European tour Monday morning in Ljubljana, which will also take him to Germany, Italy, France and Britain. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/11/world/europe/11germany.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss In Germany, Bush Protests Lose Appeal By NICHOLAS KULISH Published: June 11, 2008 BERLIN - The young anarchists, middle-aged peace activists and established left-wing politicians here have at least one thing in common: none bothered to keep a six-year tradition alive by organizing a protest against President Bush's arrival here Tuesday. Skip to next paragraph Enlarge This Image Herbert Knosowski/Associated Press President Bush arrived in Germany on Tuesday, where he was greeted by Chancellor Angela Merkel but, oddly, no protesters. "Bush is not even popular in the role of the enemy anymore," wrote Der Tagesspiegel newspaper. As in many other parts of Europe, Mr. Bush was a popular villain here even before the Iraq invasion, in part because of his steadfast rejection of the Kyoto Protocol limits on greenhouse-gas emissions. His visits to Germany have reliably drawn thousands into the streets to denounce him and his policies, beginning with his first visit to Berlin in May 2002. In February 2005, the police essentially shut down the city of Mainz for Mr. Bush's visit, closing six highways and stopping river traffic on the Rhine, out of fear of enormous demonstrations. Two summers ago, Mr. Bush came for a barbecue with Chancellor Angela Merkel in her east German electoral district, Stralsund, and almost exactly a year ago he attended the Group of 8 summit meeting at the Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm. The protesters turned out in force both times. Monty Sch?del, one of the organizers behind both the Stralsund and the Heiligendamm protests, said the absence of public protests this time went beyond Mr. Bush's often-cited lame-duck status. There has been a noticeable shift here, he said, toward wrestling with German issues rather than focusing judgment on the United States. "The theme of U.S. war policy is no longer the biggest one," Mr. Sch?del said, emphasizing German deployments to Afghanistan rather than American troops in Iraq. "German war policy is now the most important. We need to return to our own doorstep." Yet local residents say Berlin has lost none of its radical heartbeat. "We're constantly demonstrating," said Zara Blumenstingl, 30, a D.J., as she walked down Schlesische Street in the longtime counterculture neighborhood of Kreuzberg. Ms. Blumenstingl said she protested repeatedly against the opening last year of a McDonald's here and is part of the group fighting a development of nearby office buildings along the Spree River. "That affects our everyday life," she said. Instead of painting banners on Tuesday, Berliners were enjoying the cloudless skies, sunbathing and bicycling and debating the tournament for the European soccer championship that began over the weekend. Mr. Bush, it seemed, was an afterthought, if that. "It just isn't worth it anymore," said Mike Steuer, 30, a student at Berlin's Technical University and a Bush opponent, as he soaked up the rays with a friend on a bench in G?rlitzer Park in Kreuzberg. "He isn't president much longer anyway." http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/06/401263.html Protesters back at Nottingham arms company Shut Down H&K | 16.06.2008 12:05 | Anti-militarism | Nottinghamshire On Tuesday June 10th around 40 protesters returned to Lenton Lane to picket arms company Heckler & Koch. Protesters were entertained by music in the sunshine while distributing hundreds of leaflets to workers and passers by. Heckler & Koch is the world's second-largest manufacturer of assault rifles and submachine guns. Millions of H&K weapons are in use and have caused 1.5 million deaths around the world. The company's international sales office is based in Nottingham. Now local anti-arms-trade activists have set up a campaign against Heckler & Koch. For more information, see the website and join the Notts Anti-Militarism mailing list by sending an e-mail to nottsantimilitarism-subscribe at lists.riseup.net. Shut Down H&K Homepage: http://nottsantimilitarism.wordpress.com/heckler-koch/ http://wnyt.com/article/stories/s424001.shtml?cat=300 Group protests spending on war ALBANY - Long thought to be the key issue in the 2008 Presidential Election, the fighting in Iraq seems to have moved down on the attention scale in the past couple of months. MoveOn.org's first battle Thursday was talking down the federal building manager because the group did not have a demonstration permit. 30 people gathered outside the Leo O'Brien Federal Building to protest all the money spent on Iraq. One protester said the end to our recession is to bring the soldiers home. Also Thursday, the Finance Chairman of the John McCain Presidential campaign flew into the area for a Republican gathering this evening. McCain has been one of the most outspoken supporters of the continued fighting in Iraq, famously saying we may be in the country for the next 100 years. "First of all, he didn't mean in a literal sense to be there 100 years, that's a fact," said Tom Loeffler, McCain Finance Chairman. "Number two, John McCain is a man who believes very strongly, as I do, that in Iraq, we cannot suffer a defeat. We must win." It isn't Iraq... But neighboring Iran that has the attention of the Women Against War. They showed off the third billboard they've purchased in the last two years. It says the US should use diplomacy and negotiations... Not planes and bombs with Iran. The Women Against War billboard is located on Central Avenue, just west of Route 155. http://www.columbiaspectator.com/node/30627 Student Groups Join to Protest Five Years of Iraq War By Alix Pianin PUBLISHED APRIL 22, 2008 At both the figurative and literal center of this week's anti-war efforts are two figures standing atop the College Walk sundial, with one sounding a hand-held gong as another reads off the names of the dead in Iraq. While the fifth anniversary of the Iraq War in March came and went with little on-campus attention, student groups are now working to turn the spotlight back on the American presence in Iraq with a week of anti-war action intended to spark community discussion. The effort, dubbed "5 Years of Occupation-5 Days of Action," is the end-product of two months of planning from several student groups, including the Columbia Coalition Against the War, Students for Justice in the Middle East, the College Democrats, and Lucha. The ad-hoc campus coalition has planned a week of events including a teach-in, documentary and panel discussions, a walkout Thursday, and a final "Mourn-In," which will take place on Low Steps Friday afternoon. The centerpiece of the effort-the reading of the names of the American soldiers and Iraqi citizens killed during the five years since the United States invaded Iraq in March 2003-will continue all week, with numerous participants serving rotating shifts on the sundial on College Walk from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. each day. Darryl Wilkinson, a second-year Graduate School of Arts and Sciences student who helped organize the event, said the name reading was intended to mark the hundreds of thousands of deaths in a "civil" manner, and bring the efforts of those who died-both Iraqi and American-to the literal forefront. "We wanted to create a dialogue on campus about the human cost of the war in Iraq," Wilkinson said. "One of the key things we were trying to get at was the scale of the deaths involved." College Democrats media director Jonathan Backer, CC '10, said the fifth anniversary of the invasion was "a time for deeper thinking." But some wonder if the reading of the names of the dead sends an inappropriate message. Brian Quillen, CC '11, said he felt such a reading was an act usually reserved for a memorial service, and that the protesters were "sending the message the war, in and of itself, is a crime." "They seem to ignore and not really acknowledge any justification for the war in Iraq," Quillen said. But perhaps the most controversial activity planned is the one scheduled for Tuesday on Low Plaza. There, the College Democrats will wash American flags in a symbolic gesture of cleansing the blood supporters believe has been illegitimately spilled in the war. "They are free to criticize the war and the country," College Republicans President Chris Kulawik, CC '08, said, "But I don't need 20-year-old College Democrats telling me that my flag is so disgusting that they need to wash it down." He said of the name reading, "I respect that far more." Kulawik emphasized that he did not speak on behalf of all campus Republicans. Elizabeth Feldmeier, CC '09 and a cadet in the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program, said she was neutral on the week of action. "A soldier always prays for peace," Feldmeier said, quoting a traditional adage. But she added that it seemed most of the participants in the events "weren't members of the Columbia community." Despite the criticism, Backer emphasized that the goal of the week was to open discussion, not shut it down. "The point of this is to have a dialogue," Backer said. http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/newsdetail1.asp?storyID=136872 Protesters outside Blenheim courthouse 5/05/2008 13:04:02 Around 20 protesters marched through Blenheim this morning in support of the men who are charged with vandalising Waihopai Spy base. Dominican friar Peter Murnane, Otaki organic gardener Adrian Leason and Hokianga farmer Sam Land, appeared in the Blenheim District Court this morning. The trio have been released on bail and a pre depositions hearing takes place on June 9 ? their attendance at the hearing has been excused. Protestors outside the courthouse carried banners saying, Peace and Justice, Swords into Ploughshares, War is the Real Crime, Ban Bush's NZ Bases, and No Balls U.S. The Addington Women's Revolutionary Craft Circle staged action outside the US Military Base at Hareward in Christchurch to coincide with this morning's court appearance. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08126/879189-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml War protesters frustrated by apathy Monday, May 05, 2008 By Jerome L. Sherman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette VWH Campbell/Post-Gazette Marty O'Malley, a Forest Hills council member and Vietnam veteran, paces outside the Downtown office of U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle on Thursday. He was waiting for an anti-war petition that he planned to present to the congressman's office, but the person with it did not show. Three protesters, a half-dozen signs and a missing petition. "People walk past and say, 'I'm glad you're doing something,' " said Marty O'Malley, a Forest Hills council member who has attended more than 100 anti-Iraq war events, as he stood in front of Democratic U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle's Downtown office last week with the small gathering of activists. "I want to shake them and say, 'Why aren't you doing something!?' " After $500 billion in spending and 4,000 military deaths, this was supposed to be an election year dominated by the war. Both Democratic presidential candidates, Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, support a withdrawal, while Sen. John McCain, a Republican, argues that the U.S. risks losing Iraq to terrorist groups and Iranian influence if troops leave before the country is stable. In Washington, D.C., Congress is preparing to consider President Bush's latest emergency funding package for the fighting, with a price tag of $108 billion. But a worsening economy has easily overtaken Iraq as the top concern for voters, according to a New York Times/CBS poll released last week. Only 17 percent of respondents picked the war as the "one issue" they'd like to hear the candidates discuss more. Americans still have strong feelings about the conflict: 62 percent want the next president to pull out of Iraq within a year or two of taking office, the poll said. Yet war opponents and supporters are having trouble getting the public's -- and the media's -- attention. A March survey from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press discovered that just 28 percent of Americans knew the approximate number of U.S. deaths in the war. "Obviously, I wish that the American people were more engaged in understanding what's at stake in Iraq," said Pete Hegseth, who served there with the 101st Airborne Division and is now executive director of Vets for Freedom. "I think it's unfortunate that here on the homefront we're not interested in what's going on overseas." A year ago, the situation was very different. In the face of growing public angst, President Bush committed nearly 30,000 additional troops to the war. News coverage was then absorbed by a showdown between the new congressional Democratic majority and the president over war funding. With Democrats unable to gather enough votes to overcome a presidential veto, attention turned to September, when Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker delivered a positive progress report on President Bush's troop "surge." The media's focus on the war then began a steady decline. In February, only 3 percent of print, television and online coverage was dedicated to Iraq, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism, or PEJ, a Washington-based organization. That's down from 22 percent a year before. Mr. Hegseth faulted media organizations for covering bombings and the death count in the war's early years, while ignoring the steady drop in violence that accompanied the U.S. troop increase in Iraq. But two other issues loom larger in the decline in coverage: a sinking economy and a presidential campaign that has tended to revolve around questions of personality, such Mr. Obama's relationship with his former pastor and his decision not to wear a flag pin. "[The candidates] are talking about Iraq," said Tom Andrews, a former Democratic congressman from Maine and the national director of Win Without War. "Unfortunately, the press coverage seems to be more focused on lapel pins than on the war." All three major candidates do bring up Iraq in their stump speeches. Still, none is willing to make the war a centerpiece issue. Mr. Obama emphasizes his opposition from the war's beginning; yet he faces concerns about his lack of experience on the international stage. Mr. McCain focuses on his criticism of the Bush administration's early handling of the war and cites his backing of the surge; but he needs to contend with a strong majority of Americans who want to see a change of course. And Mrs. Clinton highlights her experience as first lady and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee; but scores of anti-war Democrats remain angry about her 2002 vote to give President Bush the power to invade Iraq. "It's a tough topic for all candidates involved," said Amy Mitchell, PEJ's deputy director. "They all have potentially problematic views." Some observers say the war will resume a prominent place in the campaign once the Democrats settle on a nominee and can stress Mr. McCain's unpopular stance. The Democratic National Committee is already trying to do that. A week ago, the party started a nationwide airing of an advertisement that attacks Mr. McCain for telling a town hall meeting in January that staying in Iraq for 100 years "would be fine with me." Republicans have called the ad dishonest because it cuts off the rest of the senator's quote: "As long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed, it's fine with me, and I hope it would be fine with you, if we maintain a presence in a very volatile part of the world where al-Qaida is training, recruiting, equipping and motivating people every single day." In response, DNC Chairman Howard Dean said Americans weren't willing to stay in Iraq for that long under any circumstances. "Think of the hundreds of billions of dollars that are being spent in Iraq which we need right here at home right now to preserve American jobs," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press." At the grassroots level, anti-war activists are also trying to keep the war in the public eye. Last month, nine protesters gathered in front of the Regional Enterprise Tower, Downtown, where U.S. Sens. Arlen Specter and Bob Casey have offices. "Please think about this. It's important," Lynne Flavin, 60, of Lawrenceville, told passersby. She held a blood red sign that said, "Support the Troops. End the War." Few people gave more than a glance. In an interview last week, Mr. Casey said he shared the frustrations of Pennsylvanians who want to see a change in Iraq. "People have a profound concern about this war," said Mr. Casey, a supporter of Mr. Obama. "If there's anything we can all come together on, the one area of resounding consensus is that we need a new president." Both he and Mr. Specter, a Republican who backs Mr. McCain, have been critics of the war, but they've been reluctant to tamper with funding for troops who are already on the battlefield. "Had we known that Saddam did not have weapons of mass destruction, we would not have gone in," Mr. Specter said last week. "Now that we're there, we don't want to destabilize the situation by leaving precipitously." Last Thursday marked the fifth anniversary of President Bush's speech in front of a "Mission Accomplished" banner on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln. Anti-war groups had planned events across the region to bring attention to the continued cost of the American presence in Iraq. Mr. O'Malley stood outside Mr. Doyle's Downtown office, wearing a Vietnam veteran hat and seven Obama buttons. He blamed last-minute organization efforts for the poor turnout. As he and two other protesters waited, Maddie Smith, a student at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, approached Mr. O'Malley and asked for a sign for her lawn in Brookline. He gladly gave her one. He also gave her instructions: "Put it so it's facing traffic. Otherwise no one will see it." Jerome L. Sherman can be reached at jsherman at post-gazette.com or 412-263-1183. First published on May 5, 2008 at 1:48 pm http://www.democracynow.org/2008/5/5/10_arrested_at_general_dynamics_protest May 05, 2008 10 Arrested at General Dynamics Protest in Vermont On May 1, activists locked themselves together in the lobby of weapons manufacturer General Dynamics in Burlington, Vermont. The activists were demanding "General Dynamics stop giving campaign contributions to the politicians responsible for regulating it, stop making Gatling guns, missiles and other weapons of mass destruction, and give back the $3.6 million in Vermont tax breaks General Dynamics received in 2007." AMY GOODMAN: In Vermont, ten activists were arrested Thursday during a protest at a General Dynamics office in Burlington. Sam Mayfield produced this report. PROTESTERS: No justice, no peace! PROTESTER: There are nine of us here today inside General Dynamics, and we are locked together with lockboxes. So we're not leaving until they take us out of here. PROTESTER: We are here protesting General Dynamics. We have three demands. First is that General Dynamics stop contributing to political campaigns. Second is that General Dynamics stop producing Gatling guns and rockets and weapons of mass destruction. And the third is that General Dynamics give back the $3.6 million in tax breaks. PROTESTER: It's the fifth anniversary of when George Bush said "Mission accomplished," which is not, in our eyes, a mission accomplished. There's been 1.2 million Iraqis killed and over 4,000 American troops. A mission accomplished for us would be all US troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan and an end to this war and paying reparations to the Iraqi people. And we want General Dynamics out of this war and to stop producing weapons of mass destruction. PROTESTER: The US is now spending $720 million a day on this war. And right now in Vermont, there's 65,000 uninsured Vermonters. and there's more than that across the country. This money can be used for our education, for our healthcare. And right now we're in economic crisis. We need that money here, not overseas killing other people. PROTESTER: We're interested in an economy that supports working people who are working to make the state a better place, a more productive place, a place that's better prepared to take care of its people and to support life, versus creating arms that perpetuate war and war profiteering. PROTESTERS: We are the people. Two, you can't ignore us. Three, GD are accountable. One, we are the people. Two, you can't ignore us. Three, GD are accountable. POLICE OFFICER: We're preparing to come and reach a formal statement that says General Dynamics has indicated that you're trespassing. They've asked us to have you leave. We don't have a whole lot of choice but to ask you to leave. If you choose to do that, that's great. If you don't, you're subject to arrest for trespassing. PROTESTER: We would happily leave if someone from General Dynamics would come to talk to us. AMY GOODMAN: That report by Sam Mayfield. The ten activists were arrested when they refused to leave General Dynamics's office. http://www.wcax.com/global/story.asp?s=8259685 Police Arrest War Protestors Burlington, Vermont - May 1, 2008 Police arrested a group of people for protesting inside a Burlington business. Ten protestors chained themselves together inside the General Dynamics weapons manufacturing facility on Lakeside Avenue. They were demonstrating against funding the Iraq War. Nearly 24 other people marched outside the building. The group claims General Dynamics is the sixth largest profiteer in the Iraq War. A similar protest took place outside the facility last month. http://newsblaze.com/story/20080430180252tsop.nb/topstory.html Peace Activists Protest War by Refusing Taxes On Sat., May 3, in Birmingham, AL, $93,000 of unpaid "war taxes" - federal income taxes - will be publicly redirected away from the Internal Revenue Service to a New Orleans health clinic and to a group in the Middle East aiding Iraqi refugees. This redirection ceremony will take place during a meeting of the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee. For reasons of conscience, over 520 people from 44 states have "boycotted" $325,000 of their 2007 federal taxes. Of that total, $50,000 has been designated for the Common Ground Health Clinic in New Orleans and the Direct Aid Initiative will receive $43,000. The remaining $232,000 has been designated for scores of other humanitarian projects in the United States and around the world. These taxpayers are committing civil disobedience to demonstrate to Congress how to cut off the funds for this war and redirect resources to the pressing needs of people. The money will provide healthcare to survivors of Katrina and refugees from the Iraq war, living in Jordan and Syria. (For details on each project, see www.cghc.org or www.directaidiraq.org.). The National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee is a 25-year-old coalition of groups who support war tax resisters. http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=455128&rss=yes Anti-war protesters breach NZ security 16:39 AEST Wed Apr 30 2008 100 days 6 hours 59 minutes ago VIEWS: 0 | FLOCKS: 0 | 0 comments so far An anti-war group has embarrassed the New Zealand government by breaking into a high-security global communications centre, and vandalising the facilities in a protest against the US war on terror. The group, calling itself Anzac Ploughshares, hacked its way through fences around the Waihopai base on South Island operated by the Government Communications Security Bureau and deflated one of two 30-metre rubberised domes covering satellite interception dishes, officials said. GCSB chief Air Marshal Bruce Ferguson described Wednesday's attack as "a very serious breach" of security, and New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark called it a senseless act of criminal vandalism that was "just imposing a cost on the taxpayer." Ferguson said security alarms had failed to operate and perimeter monitoring cameras had been "no help" because of heavy fog surrounding the base. The domes acted purely as a waterproof jacket to protect the antennae from bad weather, Ferguson said. A statement by Anzac Ploughshares said its action was in response to US President George W Bush saying intelligence gathering was the most important tool in the war on global terrorism. "This war will have no end until citizens of the world refuse to let it continue," the group said, vowing to spread its disarmament message by disabling warplanes and military equipment. Three group members were detained and later appeared in Blenheim District Court, where Judge Richard Russell ordered them held in police custody because he could not rule out further attacks on military facilities by the group. He said police estimated the cost of damage to Waihopai base at more than $NZ1 million ($A830,841). The Waihopai base is a satellite communications monitoring facility. Opponents claim it is part of Echelon, a worldwide network of signals interception facilities run by the US and British intelligence agencies. Ploughshares spokesman Manu Caddie said three group protesters took about 30 minutes to cut through three fences and deflate the dome with two sickles. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10507404&ref=rss Waihopai spy base protesters on hunger strike (+ photos) 5:24PM Thursday May 01, 2008 Two of the three protesters who are accused of damaging a protective dome over a satellite dish at Waihopai Valley spy base are on a hunger strike. Dominican friar Peter Murnane, 67, along with farmer Samuel Land, 24, and organic gardener Adrian Leason, 42, were arrested after allegedly breaking into the spy base early yesterday morning. A Blenheim police spokesman today told NZPA that since yesterday afternoon Land and Leason were only taking water and Murnane was only eating dry food. It was not clear if they were planning on continuing the hunger strike until Monday when they were due to reappear at court, the spokesman said. "They are being treated in a human fashion and we've involved our police medical officer in keeping an eye on the prisoners to make sure they are in good health." The trio allegedly used sickles to deflate one of the distinctive orbs at the Waihopai satellite communications interception station, near Blenheim. Calling themselves the Anzac Ploughshares, the group said on their website they wanted to draw attention to the war in Iraq. They attacked the spy base in reaction to United States President George Bush's statement that intercepting communications was one of the key weapons in the so-called "war on terror". They have all been charged with intentionally damaging a satellite dish, the property of the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB), and entering a building with the intention to commit a crime. Police told Blenheim District Court yesterday they were considering charging the men with sabotage under the Crimes Act, an offence which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years' jail. Damage to the Marlborough base was estimated at more than $1 million. GCSB director Bruce Ferguson said the security breach was "deeply disturbing" and remedial measures would be put in place to ensure it did not happen again. Two 2m cuts were sufficient to deflate the dome. Then the activists ran around the base of the aerial randomly slicing at other areas, he said. The domes, made of a rubberised material, acted purely as a "waterproof jacket" to protect the antennae from adverse weather. Prime Minister Helen Clark has called the incident an act of "senseless vandalism". http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/04/397755.html trident protesters arrested out side rolls royce derby peter ambler | 28.04.2008 15:38 | Climate Chaos | Terror War | Nottinghamshire | World dorothy skrytek arrested out side rolls royce with foe comrades in derby foe cordinator dorothy and comrades made concreete blocs with thier arms inside weighing about 250 kile were placed outside rolls royce gate .another 2 prottesters chained thierselves to other gates ,police with specailist equip ment spent 4 hours chisseling away at the concreete .it was obvious they were not used to this hard work .they strugled the prottesters were uncomfotable as it was wet but enjoyed thier bacon cobs and chocolate .while the polie strugled on to free them.it may have been the beautiful smell of the bacon .that made the chiselers sweat whie the prottesters relaxed with a smile of content .good luck prottesters keep up the good work .we dont want trident or newclear .were already a dumping ground for its waste 4 america pete derby peter ambler 29.04.2008 11:39 UPDATE: 10 arrests, all under SOCPA legislation. All released late last night, most with bail conditions banishing them from Debyshire. One vehicle (which is used by its owner for his livelihood) had been impounded. The 10 have been bailed to return to Derby police HQ on the 6th and 8th May For five and a half hours, Trident Ploughshares blockaded the Derby Rolls Royce Raynesway site which houses a nuclear reactor which is used to assemble the reactor core for Trident submarines. Workers were offered leaflets exploring the concept of illegal weapons of mass destruction and war crimes. Workers in their turn offered helpful personal advice to the blockaders. Strong media coverage on local TV, radio (full spectrum domination through the morning) and the main evening paper. After the success of Faslane 365 and the strident oppostion in Scotland, some Trident Ploughshares affinity groups are focusing on one of the UK's most famous brands - a brand which is profiting from weapons which are illegal in international law. And an inland site which houses a rickety old Vulcan (corroding parts-r-us) reactor. There are plans to hold monthly protests and to escalate the campaign. It might not be long before we see a Rolls Royce 365. Thanks for the bacon butties and choclate, Pete - yes, the veggies appreciated the thought but just scoffed all the chocs. Malcolm And oh what lovely lock-ons: the main gate blocked for over 5 hours. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/suffolk/7407268.stm Sunday, 18 May 2008 15:56 UK Four arrests at USAF base protest Lakenheath Action Group has held regular protests at the base Four people have been arrested after more than 100 people demonstrated against nuclear weapons at a US airbase in Suffolk. The protest at RAF Lakenheath, near Bury St Edmunds, was organised by the Lakenheath Action Group - which has campaigned at the base for six years. Police said the protest was generally peaceful, but four people were arrested for breaching bail conditions. Police added the four had been taken to Bury St Edmunds Police Station. http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/05/27/war-protesters-interrupt-john-mccains-foreign-policy-speech-in-colorado/ War protesters interrupt John McCain's foreign policy speech in Colorado: Updated By: John Amato on Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 at 9:31 AM - PDT As John McCain was speaking at the Cable Center at the University of Denver, giving a speech on foreign policy issues, including nukes-war protesters shouted, "endless war, endless war," and I believe, "end this war, end this war, "causing him to pause his speech a few times.His supporters then started to yell John McCain. Download | Play Download | Play McCain: Forty five years ago, President John F Kennedy asked the American people to imagine, what the world would look like if Nuclear weapons spread beyond the few powers that then held them. To the many other nations that sought them. Stop and think for a moment he said, what it would mean to have nuclear weapons in so many hands large and small. Protester: Endless war, endless war, Endless war, endless war.. end this war, end this war. Crowd: John McCain, John McCain. McCain: You know ahhh, it's not too important, but I have town hall meetings all the time, I'll be having one tomorrow where people are allowed to come and state their views and we exchange them and the one thing we don't do is interfere with other people's right to free speech, but that doesn't seem to be the case with these people Weren't these people exercising their right to free speech, Mr McCain? It happened a total of four times from what I've heard so far. They were removed peacefully. John is proud of the fact that he has town hall meetings and let's people speak-well-he better buckle up. I imagine they'll go to the Bush/Cheney loyalty oath pledges soon enough..McCain actually uses part of a John F. Kennedy speech to try and scare the nation into voting for him. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/27/9230/ Published on Tuesday, May 27, 2008 by The Denver Channel (ABC News affiliate) Protesters Interrupt McCain Speech In Denver DENVER - A least three groups of protesters interrupted the beginning of Republican presidential candidate John McCain's campaign speech at the University of Denver campus Tuesday morning. His speech was billed as a foreign policy address. Two minutes after he started his prepared speech, a protester with a large sign was escorted from the room. It read, "Iraq Vets Against The War." A few minutes later, a second group of hecklers started yelling and were escorted out. A few minutes after that, a third group started chanting, "No more war." They held up a banner, which could not be read from the back of the room and they were also escorted out. "I will never surrender in Iraq," McCain said in response to the protesters. "Our American troops will come home with victory and with honor, and they are winning." The crowd gave him a standing ovation. "We must continue to deploy a safe and reliable nuclear deterrent. I will seek to reduce the size of our nuclear arsenal to the lowest possible number," he told the crowd. Regarding the threat of nuclear proliferation, McCain said, "The civilized nations of the world must act as one." TheDenverChannel has his entire address online. McCain concluded his speech about 30 minutes after he started and shook a few hands be exiting the Cable Center. Later in the day, McCain will attend fundraisers in the metro area. McCain said that Western states like Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada will be critical to winning the White House. And he says that as a senator from Arizona he'll enjoy a political advantage over the Democratic nominee. On Wednesday, Democratic front runner Barack Obama will visit the metro area. Obama plans to talk about urban high school reform at a town hall meeting in Thornton. Mike Johnston of the Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts in Thornton says Obama will tour the school before the town hall meeting. Both Obama events are by invitation only. President George W. Bush will also be in Colorado Wednesday. Bush will be delivering the commencement address to 950 graduating cadets at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. Bush last spoke to graduates at the Academy in 2004. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/0522/breaking39.htm Thursday, May 22, 2008, 11:40 Lie-down protest targets cluster bombs Jason Michael More than 100 campaigners against cluster bombs staged a lie-down protest in the middle of O'Connell Street in Dublin this morning. According to garda?, the protest started at 7am and lasted about an hour. Campaigners, including survivors injured by cluster bombs, laid down in the median of O'Connell Street close to the Spire. The protest was as part of the campaign to secure an international agreement banning cluster bombs. An international conference taking place this week in Croke Park aims to ban the manufacture and use of cluster munitions. Representatives of more than 100 states are attending the conference, although the United States, Russia and Britain - some of the most prolific users of the small munitions - are not attending. Cluster bombs open in mid-air and scatter as many as several hundred "bomblets" over wide areas. They often fail to explode, creating minefields that can kill or injure anyone who comes across them. The UN Development Programme says cluster munitions have caused more than 13,000 confirmed injuries and deaths around the world, the great majority of them in Laos, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon. http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/local_news/epaper/2008/05/26/m1a_peace_0527.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=76 New generation of protesters unites against Iraq war By STACEY SINGER Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Monday, May 26, 2008 They stand vigil close to traffic: a new generation of antiwar protesters, urging motorists to "Honk for peace," "Send the troops home now!" and "Invest in health care, not war!" In West Palm Beach, they stand at Parker Avenue and Okeechobee Boulevard or at the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial on Flagler Drive. In south Palm Beach County, they're at St. Andrews Boulevard and Glades Road in Boca Raton, and Old School Square in Delray Beach. Some belong to organized political and religious groups such as Move On, the Greens and Pax Christi. Many drop by on their own, from no affiliation at all. Unlike the teenage flower children of another war, these activists tend to be middle-aged parents and retirees, hoping to feel less alone, less powerless, in their opposition to the war in Iraq. Each Saturday since August 2005 in Boca Raton, a dozen or more activists have stood during the noon hour near the Town Center mall. They came together after a few members of the nearby Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Boca Raton organized a candlelight vigil in support of Cindy Sheehan, the bereaved mother who demanded that President Bush explain why her son Casey, a soldier, had died in Iraq. More than 200 people came to that first vigil and left their e-mail addresses, wanting to do more. The Boca Peace Corner was born. 'It gives people courage' Susan Caruso organized the first vigil at a time when her youngest son was 19, and she simply felt empathy for Sheehan's loss. Now, still protesting, she's a mother of a soldier. The irony tears at her. Steven Caruso, 22, enlisted in the Army on Mother's Day two years ago. A helicopter mechanic, he is to be deployed to Iraq this summer. "I think that he was really distressed that it was all these guys who had no other choice who were signing up to go out there," his mother said. "He said, 'If they're risking their lives to go up in those helicopters, I'm going to make sure their helicopters are being maintained by someone as good as me.' " Susan Caruso is a flutist who copes with her worries for her son by playing a Bach sonata in A minor, alone, just for herself. In her 40s, she manages an early childhood education and parenting program in Boca Raton. She introduces small children to theater and music, and imparts conflict resolution lessons in the hope that they will grow into empathetic adults. She believes that her Saturday vigils are having an effect, if only by helping like-minded people realize they are not alone. "Because we're there, I think it gives people courage to vote the way they need to vote," Caruso said. Her son understands that her activism is in support of the troops, she said. She is deeply distressed at the number of repeat tours his fellow soldiers have served in Iraq. "They've been asked to do something pretty impossible, but because of their honor and their caring about their country and each other, they are carrying on. It is the responsibility of our leaders to only ask for these sacrifices in the most dire of circumstances." A momentary connection Betsy Angert, 53, is the one who stands by herself at the peace corner. She tries to catch the eye of each passing driver. She's hoping for a smile, a nod, some sort of acknowledgment as her sign implores, "Love! Not war, love!" She's an educator and avid blogger who moved to Boca Raton from California two years ago. The daughter of a psychotherapist, she stands on the corner nearly every Saturday analyzing each car, hoping to make contact, even if it's for only a second. "Sometimes I'll see people read the sign and talk to the other people in the car," Angert said. "It still does make me cry, to see that they're reflecting." Angert grew up in Milwaukee and marched in her first civil rights protest at 13. For her, it's part of participating in democracy. Most passersby honk or give a thumbs up, including bus drivers and police cars. It sustains her. But she's urged on, too, by those who react to her message angrily. "Occasionally you get people who are unkind," she said. "You get people who will swear at you. One person threw a bottle. Some give us the finger or the thumbs down. I often look at this from a psychological point of view. People will try to justify whatever it is they believe." Compelled to act Jill and Scott Liberto run a computer repair and service business out of their Boca Raton home. Neither has done much protesting. But from the day they attended the vigil for Sheehan in 2005, they have been regulars at the peace corner. "It just was so obviously wrong," said Scott, 40. "And when I looked around, nobody was protesting and I felt we needed to stand on the side of a street corner and do something." Both have found a sense of community at the corner. "We have some very fun discussions out there," said Jill, 41. "We have Republicans and Democrats alike, some conservatives and some real hippies. We agree on one thing: This war is ridiculous and it's got to stop." One of the regulars was an 80-year-old whose e-mail address was "Contraryone." She never got his name and knows little about him, except that he was usually the first one out on the corner, holding a sign and waving a Mickey Mouse hand puppet. One day he called Jill and said he was sick, and could she carry his sign? That was the last she heard from him. "It says, 'Stop the killing in Iraq,' with blood dripping on it," Jill said. "He's too sick to go to the corner anymore, so I hold that sign for him." Scott Liberto grew up in Florida, never thinking much about protest. But when public sentiment equated war opposition with a lack of patriotism, he grew frustrated. "Once people realize that it's OK to protest your government, then things can change," he said. Veteran stands out Mike Budd makes sure to wear a shirt identifying himself as a veteran when he goes to the peace corner. "I felt it was important for me as a veteran to speak up, because there's this confusion that if you're for the troops, then you must support the war," said Budd, 63, who teaches film at Florida Atlantic University. "You know, veterans are not a monolithic group. There are a lot of veterans who are antiwar." He was midway through graduate school in Boston when he was drafted in 1968, during the Vietnam War. "I was stationed in Long Binh, a very large Army base right outside of Saigon," he recalled. "My son was born while I was over there, just as I was born while my father was in Europe," fighting World War II. Budd said he always felt that his father's war was the "just war," one of heroism. "It has taken people of my generation a long time to understand what was going on in Vietnam," he said. Part of what bothers him about the war in Iraq is that people go on with their daily lives as if there were no war. Which is why the corner of a shopping mall is the ideal place to protest, he said. "What did the president say when people asked, 'What should we do to support the war?' He said, 'Go to the mall, go shopping,' " Budd said. "The problem is, we don't seem to be paying the price. There is a price, but it is being hidden, because all the money is being borrowed from our children." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1021935/Tony-Blair-barracked-Iraq-students-Yale.html Tony Blair is barracked over Iraq by students at Yale University By Daily Mail Reporter Last updated at 3:07 PM on 26th May 2008 Comments (9) Add to My Stories Tony Blair was left reeling last night after students disrupted his debut speech at Yale University to protest at his role in taking Britain and America to war in Iraq. The former Prime Minister, who is normally immensely popular in the US for his support for President George W Bush's 'war on terror', faced an unexpected protest from anti-war protesters when he arrived to give his lecture at the Ivy League university. Some smuggled banners bearing anti-war slogans into the venue which they held up as Mr Blair was speaking and when he had finished boos could be heard amid the applause. Mr Blair's arrival was met by a small but vocal contingent of protestors waving placards that read "No to Blair" and "Yale! Don't Support a War Criminal", but police held them back from the ceremony, which was held in a large gated garden. But as he took to the podium, Mr Blair, 54, was met with dozens of red signs that students had hidden under their graduation robes, reading "Peace Now" and "No War". One student, a young woman wearing a headscarf, stood throughout the ceremony, holding a "Peace Now" sign above her head just 10ft in front of the former Prime Minister, who appeared to be doing his best to avoid looking at her. Mr Blair also avoided referring to Iraq by name as he talked about the rise of India and China as future world superpowers, the problem of climate change, and the threat of "terrorism fueled by religion". "Each new generation finds the world they enter," said Mr Blair, who is returning to Yale next year as a lecturer on issues of faith and globalisation. "But they fashion the world they leave." Staff from the university took photographs of those holding signs, prompting some to hide them under their chairs, but as the parents stood to give a standing ovation following the 20-minute speech, several boos were heard from the students as the protest signs came out again. The incident was especially embarrassing for Mr Blair because Yale is the university from which his son, Euan, has recently graduated. The identity of the 2008 guest speaker at Yale had been confirmed in February, but was kept secret until just a few weeks ago because of "security concerns", claimed the university newspaper. It is the second time in two months that Mr Blair has been the focus of protests over his role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq by American and British forces on the false pretext that Saddam Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. In early April hundreds of anti-war protesters converged on Westminster Cathedral, London, where they tried to drown out Mr Blair's words as he delivered his debut speech on religion at the invitation of Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, who had received him into the Catholic Church at Christmas. The presence of anti-war protesters in American as well as Britain suggests that Mr Blair's decisions on military intervention in Iraq could haunt him for years to come. Soon after leaving Downing Street last June, after a decade in office, Mr Blair accepted the role of the Middle East peace envoy of the quartet of the UN, EU, America and Russia. Then in March he accepted a job at Yale University - one of the top three universities in America - giving seminars on 'faith and globalisation' in which he will focus on how religion can be used to further international relations. In London this summer he will launch the Tony Blair Faith Foundation which will have similar objectives. "Be prepared to fail and to succeed," said Mr Blair in his closing comments. "I tried for years to be a politician, and failed, and nearly gave up - some would say I should have." Now pursuing a life in the lucrative private sector, Mr Blair added: "No one ever died saying; 'I wish I had one more day in the office'." http://www.wzzm13.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=92748 People Lie Down in Protest of Iraq War Web Editor: Joshua Aldredge 3 months ago One group in Grand Rapids used chalk outlines of bodies to help get their point about the Iraq War across. About 200 people took part in the Bodies Against the War protest in Clader Plaza Saturday afternoon. The participants dressed in white shirts painted with a number representing how many have died in the Iraq war, both Iraqi and American. They then laid down in the plaza and drew chalk outlines around the bodies. the group says they want people to think critically about the war and question the intent behind it. "What we're trying to accomplish is people walking by can realize this is what it looks like to have people lying on the street every day," said Justin Krenselewski, one of the protesters. "This is what it looks like to go to work next to dead bodies every day." "We get told by soldiers all the time that they really appreciate us doing this," said Juliea Paige, one of the organizers. "We also get told that this is what they're fight for, the freedom to do things like this and to stand up and say what we see as an injustice and to question what's going on. This isn't about a disrespect for our soldiers, this is about a respect for them and questioning whether their lives should be risked for the politicians' agenda, basically." The Grand Rapids portest was modeled after a similar one done in California. http://www.10news.com/news/16516942/detail.html?rss=sand&psp=news Blackwater Opens South Bay Facility Despite Protests POSTED: 5:33 pm PDT June 5, 2008 UPDATED: 6:25 pm PDT June 5, 2008 SAN DIEGO -- On Thursday, Blackwater was in Otay Mesa at a non-descript building that is a stone's throw from the U.S.-Mexico border. "You know, we're not getting a lot of protesters from this area. It's an industrial area," said Brian Bonfiglio, vice president of Blackwater Worldwide. The private security company did get an earful last Friday as protestors demonstrated outside a federal court. Despite the protest, a judge gave the company a temporary thumbs up that allows them to begin training 24 Navy sailors Thursday morning. "There needed to be another level of training, if you will, beyond what they learned in boot camp and that's what we provide here," said Bonfiglio. While training has been going on inside the facility for several hours, there are still people trying to actively kick Blackwater out of Otay Mesa. Anti-Blackwater activist Ray Lutz said, "It's not a done deal for me." Lutz has actively campaigned against Blackwater, saying the company is illegally training a private army in the South Bay. "And we want this addressed. And if they're not going to address it then well have to go to state court," said Lutz. "Blackwater also has a reputation for being a shoot first, ask-questions-never type of company." Bonfiglio said that is not true. He said the facility is only being used to train American sailors. "If we weren't Blackwater, if we were any other company then we would have come right in here and there wouldn't have been any issues," said Bonfiglio. San Diego city officials have tried blocking Blackwater's opening. However, a federal judge said the company had enough permits approved to open on Thursday. Both sides said they expect more lawsuits to be filed. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004451767_apwabangorprotest.html Sunday, June 1, 2008 - Page updated at 07:55 PM 12 arrested at Bangor anti-nuclear protest POULSBO, Wash. - Twelve people were arrested during an anti-nuclear weapon demonstration at the Navy's Trident submarine base at Bangor. The demonstration Saturday was peaceful. But five people were arrested by deputies on a sidewalk that had been closed for security when they attempted to hang a banner from an overpass. They were booked into jail for investigation of disorderly conduct and failure to disperse. They were then released. The other seven arrestees were apprehended by base security officers for trespassing, attempting to deliver a letter to the base commander. They were released at the scene, said Glen Milner, a member of Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action. That group organizes demonstrations at the base, usually three times a year, to draw attention to nuclear weapons at the site. Milner says Saturday's demonstration was an additional protest, organized with the Tacoma Catholic Worker group. Milner says about 75 demonstrators showed up; Wilson estimated about 50 to 60. The Trident sub base, officially Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, is on Hood Canal about 20 miles west of Seattle. http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/34026 Veterans for Peace Demand Impeachment of President Bush and Protest in John Conyers' Office Submitted by davidswanson on Thu, 2008-06-12 01:27. Impeachment Nonviolent Resistance On June 11, 2008, members of the Veterans for Peace (VFP) organization held a press conference, at 1 PM, on Capitol Hill, demanding the impeachment of President George W. Bush. The event took place in room 1629 of the Longworth House Office building. Later in the day, the activists planned to meet with House Judiciary Chairman, Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), to personally deliver to him their "Petition for Impeachment" which, according to VFP's President, Elliott Adams, contains "over 22,000 signatures." Please check the VFP's web site, at: http://www.veteransforpeace.org for the result of that session and for future updates. The VFP was founded in 1985. It now has 7,000 members and 120 chapters around the country. This video contains excerpts from the press conference. A longer version of it will appear on Google later tonight. http://newsblaze.com/story/20080627062233tsop.nb/topstory.html Published: June 27, 2008 Send to a friend Six Arrested in Front of Schwarzenegger's Office During Anti-War Protest Six people were arrested at a demonstration opposing the war in Iraq THURSDAY about 12:15 p.m. at the State Capitol near Gov. Schwarzenegger's office. The California Highway Patrol charged the activists with several misdemeanors, including allegedly demonstrating without a permit and illegally entering the Capitol, and released them. The demonstrators have a July 23 court date. The arrests took place following a "Freeze-In for Peace," where about two dozen people participated in a demonstration that required them to freeze in place for five minutes. Similar "freeze-in" actions for peace are popping up all over the country. "This is absolutely linked the budget deficit mess in California. Our share of the war in Iraq is $67 billion," said Maggie Coulter, one of those arrested. "In fact, just spending the money for these officers to arrest peaceful demonstrators doing little more than what happens in a legislative hearing is also a waste of taxpayers' money," she added. judythpiazza at newsblaze.com http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2008/06/23/2003415446 Iconic voice of protest keeps a roadside vigil Most Saturdays, Pete Seeger protests against the war in Iraq. It's a long road from 1969, when to protest the Vietnam War he sang John Lennon's 'Give Peace a Chance' at the foot of the Washington Monument By Dennis Gaffney NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE, WAPPINGERS FALLS, NEW YORK Monday, Jun 23, 2008, Page 13 Pete Seeger at his post at Route 9 and Route 9D in Wappingers Falls, New York, June 7. The area is the site of weekly vigils against the war in Iraq. PHOTO: NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE Pete Seeger pulled his black Toyota Highlander into the Staples parking lot here and plucked some signs from the back seat, including one with "Peace" spray-painted in large orange letters. With that, he slung his banjo over his shoulder like an old musket and marched toward the intersection of Routes 9, a bustling six-lane thoroughfare, and 9D, the "Hudson Valley POW-MIA Memorial Highway." But before the 89-year-old folk singer flashed his anti-war signs to passing drivers from this no-man's land - a patch of green about an hour north of New York City on the Hudson River - he bent over again and again, picking up litter. "This is my religion now," said Seeger. "Picking up trash. You do a little bit wherever you are." Seeger, the man behind the founding of the Clearwater Festival, which was held over the weekend at Croton Point Park, appeared there yesterday. But for the last four years, most Saturdays he has been keeping his vigil in Wappingers Falls, New York. "This is my religion now ... Picking up trash. You do a little bit wherever you are." He is usually not recognized by the hundreds of drivers who whiz by. It is a long road from 1969, when to protest the Vietnam War he sang John Lennon's Give Peace a Chance at the foot of the Washington Monument. "After two minutes, thousands were singing," he recalled. "After three minutes, four minutes, a hundred thousand were singing. At the end of eight minutes, all five hundred thousand were singing." These days, fewer than a dozen protesters usually participate, while nearly as many who support the war in Iraq hold a counterdemonstration across Route 9. Seeger, a political activist who has traveled the world, rarely ventures farther than the few kilometers from here to his home in Beacon, New York. He stays close to his wife, Toshi Seeger, 85, who fractured vertebrae in a fall a few years ago. On this particular Saturday, Seeger chatted easily with Chris Miller of Poughkeepsie. "He's an ex-Army member," Seeger said, "and they're trying to send him over again." Miller, 38, served as a therapist for four years before receiving an honorable discharge in January 2006. But on Dec. 22, 2007, he said, he received orders to return to Iraq. Miller said he had spent countless hours listening to Seeger's stories, like the one about how his car windows were shattered in Peekskill in 1949 as he and his family left a performance he had given with the singer Paul Robeson, who was thought to have Communist sympathies. Or the one about the Vietnam veteran who said he had come to a concert in the Catskills to kill Seeger because of his anti-war stance, but was turned around by the performance and made his way backstage to tell of his transformation. "I smiled and shook his hand," Seeger said. "I had my banjo. We sat down and sang, Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" Afterward, Seeger said, the man told him, "I feel clean now." Seeger said he wrote that song in the mid-1950s accompanied by the same banjo he totes around today. As for Miller: "Seeing what Pete has gone through and always standing up for what he believed in, despite the consequences, made my decision easier to resist the war. It made me comfortable that in the long run I'll be all right." At one point, Seeger looked across the highway to the knot of counterdemonstrators. "They always have more flags," Seeger said. "But our signs are more fun." He said he crossed the street once about a year ago and talked to a veteran. "I shook his hand and said, 'I'm glad we live in a country where we can disagree with each other without shooting at each other.' He had to shake my hand. He didn't know what to say. I even picked up a little litter over there." He said that working for peace was like adding sand to a basket on one side of a large scale, trying to tip it one way despite enormous weight on the opposite side. "Some of us try to add more sand by teaspoons," he explained. "It's leaking out as fast as it goes in, and they're all laughing at us. But we're still getting people with teaspoons. I get letters from people saying, 'I'm still on the teaspoon brigade.'" http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080705/census_jail_/20080705?hub=Canada Man, woman face jail time in census protest Updated Sat. Jul. 5 2008 4:06 PM ET The Canadian Press TORONTO -- At least two people who defiantly refused to complete the 2006 Canadian census in protest of a software contract awarded to an arms manufacturer say they are willing to go to prison over the issue. Todd Stelmach and Sandra Findley have never met, but are linked both by their cause and subsequent legal fight. The two refused to hand in their 2006 census forms because Lockheed Martin won the contract to upgrade Statistics Canada's software. The billion-dollar American arms dealer supplies weapons to armies around the world, including for the war in Iraq. Findley, 59, said she first heard about Lockheed Martin's potential bid for the software contract in 2003 and immediately got in touch with Statistics Canada to voice her displeasure. "(Lockheed Martin) makes billions of dollars through the business of killing people, and destroying the environment in the process of killing people," Findley said from her home in Saskatoon. "So there's no way that I'm going to see my tax dollars go to help enrich them." Stelmach's decision to protest the company's involvement in gathering Canadian data was quite different. The 32-year-old Kingston, Ont., resident actually filled out his form before he and his wife heard about a census opposition group called Count Me Out. "We discovered Lockheed Martin was outsourced by (Statistics Canada) to upgrade their software and do a lot of the processing of the 2006 census," said Stelmach. "This just shocked me and at first I thought it was a bit of a hoax." Failing to complete the national census is a federal offence. Findley and Stelmach both face a maximum penalty of three months in jail and a $500 fine. Stelmach said he met with Crown lawyers on Friday and was offered the opportunity to fill out the form and receive a reduced fine with no jail time. Stelmach has already refused similar offers and said he will plead not guilty in court Aug. 8. Findley's court date is set for early 2009. Statistics Canada forwards the files of people who refuse to fill out the form to federal authorities, who then decide if charges should be laid. Census branch director-general Peter Morrison said charges are only laid against someone "who has made a very conscious decision numerous times not to comply with the legal requirement of the census." "It is the law." The federal government uses the census to determine the level of funding jurisdictions across the country receive. In 2007/2008 nearly $70 billion was transferred, Morrison said. Most of the 65 people charged for not filing the 2006 census have now complied, he said. Morrison called the response to the census a "resounding success," especially on Canada's native reserves. Still, residents of 22 reserves failed to complete the form, but Morrison blamed the number on rural access. "You're not going to charge everybody on the reserve because you can't get access to it," he said. Fifty-two cases of incomplete forms were referred to the federal Justice Department after the 2001 census, with seven people being convicted. Because of trade agreements such as NAFTA the bidding process for government contracts is open internationally to companies like Lockheed Martin. Morrison also said concerns the arms dealer would be handling Canadians' personal information is unfounded. He likened the company's role to that of a programmer upgrading a personal computer. "Under no circumstances does anyone other than a Stats Can employee, sworn in under the Statistics Act ever have access to any confidential census information," he said. Findley and Stelmach both said they've received resounding support from family, friends and co-workers -- many of whom had no idea Lockheed Martin was involved in the census. Both say they're comfortable with their decision and hope the Canadian government will be more "ethical" in the contracts it awards in the future. "There's no reason on Earth that the Canadian census, any part of it, needed to be contracted out to enrich (Lockheed Martin)," said Findley The next census is in 2011, with the bidding for the next software contract currently underway. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/07/19/10473/ Published on Saturday, July 19, 2008 by OneWorld.net Nationwide Protests to Oppose War with Iran by Alison Raphael WASHINGTON - Street demonstrations, teach-ins, vigils, and "freezes" are among the events planned for this weekend as part of a nationwide protest against what are widely perceived to be moves by the George W. Bush administration toward military conflict with Iran. "Freezes," involving a large number of people standing in place for five minutes, are planned for key locations in New York City such as Grand Central Station and Penn Station, as well as Chicago's Millennium Park and Santa Monica, California. The term and new form of street action derive from the state of U.S.-Iran relations. The Bush administration says Iran must freeze its uranium enrichment program in order to "defrost" relations between the two countries and avoid further sanctions. Elsewhere anti-war and religious groups, students, trade unions, and others will participate in "Call to Action: No War with Iran" co-sponsored by New York-based United for Peace and Justice and Washington, D.C.-based Peace Action. Actions are planned in such diverse locations as Champaign-Urbana, Illinois; Melbourne, Florida; Philadelphia; San Francisco; and Waterloo, Iowa. Two thirds of Americans asked during a recent Gallup poll whether they favor diplomatic initiatives or military action against Iran said they wanted the U.S. government to pursue peaceful negotiations. While demonstrators around the United States drive home that point, a high-ranking U.S. diplomat will attend a meeting Saturday in Switzerland with an Iranian diplomat - a rare break with Bush administration practice that has largely shunned direct talks with Iranian officials. William Burns will attend the Geneva meeting involving Iran and a group of European Union countries trying to break through the current impasse, but White House spokesperson Dana Perino has characterized Burns' presence as a "one-time U.S. participation." The meeting is aimed at convincing Iran to accept a package of incentives offered last month by Western nations, in exchange for ceasing to enrich uranium. To date Iran has rejected the package, and earlier this month held highly publicized missile tests to show its level of seriousness. At the same time, rumors were rife that Washington is working behind the scenes with Israel to prepare a military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. Some experts argue that these rumors, whether or not they are true, have a negative impact by fueling Iranian nationalism, entrenching the stance of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, heightening tensions, and ultimately leading to intransigence and events such as the Iranian missile tests. Media reports suggest that a pro-Israel lobby group is pressuring Congress to impose a naval blockade on Iran, which would be considered an act of war. In response, protestors in Columbus, Ohio plan a "Peace Boat Blockade" for Monday, involving a march on the offices of Republican Congressman Patrick Tiberi, who supports the blockade, carrying toy boats, submarines, and airplanes to "demonstrate the crazy policy that this blockade symbolizes." The demonstrations are scheduled for Jul. 19-21. Following the series of street actions planned for Saturday and Sunday, Monday has been designated "Congressional Education Day." Protestors will lobby Congress to hold back plans for war with Iran. http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=516970 9 protestors arrested at Anoka ammo plant War protestors locked down the ATK offices and blocked traffic in Anoka Wednesday morning. Activists protested outside the ATK facility by taping their arms together. Police had to use a saws and wire cutters to break the protestors free from each other. Anoka Police say 8 adults and one juvenile were arrested. The protest shut down traffic for about an hour near Wedgewood Drive and East Main Street in Anoka. ATK is an aerospace and defense company with its corporate headquarters in Minneapolis. The protest happened near the ATK - Federal Cartridge Company in Anoka. (Copyright 2008 by KARE. All Rights Reserved.) http://www.nationalpost.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=656709 Supporters of U.S. war resister to protest deportation order Linda Nguyen, Canwest News Service Published: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 Don MacKinnon/Canwest News ServiceU.S. war resister Robin Long An anti-war demonstration was to be set up at the Vancouver-Seattle international border crossing Tuesday morning to condemn Ottawa's decision to deport American army deserter Robin Long. The deportation order was upheld Monday by Canada's Federal Court. If the order is carried out Tuesday, it is believed that Mr. Long would become the first American war resister to be sent back to the United States. Sarah Bjorknas, co-ordinator for the Vancouver chapter of War Resisters Support Campaign, said the group has spent the hours since the judge's decision to organize a protest at the Canada-U.S. Peace Arch border crossing. Demonstrators were expected from Vancouver, Washington State and Nelson, B.C., Mr. Long's last place of residence. "We know we're going to have a strong response," she predicted Tuesday. "We have placards and banners. It's going to be a show of solidarity to the government that they made a faulty decision on this [deportation order]." There are an estimated 200 American army deserters who have sought refugee status in Canada. Long lived in Ontario before moving to Nelson, about 700 kilometres west of Vancouver. The 25-year-old filed a refugee claim in 2005, arguing that he was going to suffer irreparable harm if he is deported back to the United States. He argued that he was going to be forced to participate in war crimes if he was sent to Iraq as a soldier. Mr. Long's claim has since been struck down by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. The board ruled there was insufficient evidence to support the allegations. He was ordered out of the country. Immigration officials issued a Canada-wide warrant for his arrest last October. Ms. Bjorknas said her group and Mr. Long's lawyer have both lost contact with the war resister in the past few days. He is currently in the custody of Canada Border Services Agency and is thought to be held in the Vancouver area. The agency's policy is that they do not reveal when deportations will take place and have not confirmed that Mr. Long was to be deported Tuesday. A message to the agency was not returned. Mr. Long's supporters, however, believe the deportation will happen quickly. "They seem to be in an awful hurry to get him out of here [Canada]," Ms. Bjorknas said. It's not clear where Mr. Long would be taken to once he arrives back on American soil. However, because he is still considered a soldier, he would most likely be returned to his army base at Fort Knox in Kentucky. American war resisters in Canada have garnered considerable attention in Canada recently. Last week, Canadian courts granted deserter Corey Glass a stay of removal and, in a separate case, ordered the Immigration and Refugee Board to reconsider the failed refugee claim of another resister, Joshua Key. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/12/stories/2008071253220400.htm Karnataka Protest against nuclear deal KOLAR: Under the banner of Students Federation of India, scores of students formed a human chain at College Circle here on Friday to protest against the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal. The students raised slogans against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his alleged haste. The agitators burnt an effigy of Mr. Singh. Traffic was affected for some time owing to the protest. - Staff Correspondent http://blogs.timesunion.com/localpolitics/?p=1638 Rallies for an oil-free president July 8, 2008 at 9:38 am by Dennis Yusko Area MoveOn.org members will hold rallies across the Capital Region for an "Oil-free President" on Wednesday. The events will profile John McCain's close ties to Big Oil. They are: 4 p.m. in Albany at the Mobil Station at Lark Street and Madison Avenue; 4:15 p.m. in Troy at the Stewarts Shops at Congress Street and Pawling Avenue; 5 p.m. in Saratoga Springs at the Mobil at Broadway and Lincoln Avenue; and in Hudson at 5:15 p.m. at the Stewarts at Route 9 and Green Street. The events are part of hundreds around the country. "John McCain's close ties to Big Oil mean he can't be trusted to lead our country toward real relief at the gas pump," said Lauren Turczak of Greenwich. "Most Americans are struggling to make ends meet, but oil companies are making record profits. We need a President who will stand up to Big Oil, not protect their profits like John McCain." http://www.nbc11.com/news/17006562/detail.html?rss=bay&psp=news War Protesters Primed For McCain Fundraiser At Fairmont Hotel Organizer: 'Americans, Iraqis Can't Afford 4 More Years Of Mistakes' POSTED: 11:22 am PDT July 27, 2008 UPDATED: 11:46 am PDT July 27, 2008 SAN FRANCISCO -- Grassroots campaigners plan to protest the continuation of the Iraq war Monday outside a fundraising event at a San Francisco hotel for presumed Republican presidential nominee Arizona Sen. John McCain. Members of No Soldier Left Behind will rally outside the campaign fundraiser and collect petition signatures calling for a responsible end to the war, according to Peace Action West, an organization that fosters civic activism. Protesters will hold signs advocating the end of the war and the well being of Iraqis and Americans in the region. "Sen. McCain is here raising money in support of an Iraq policy that will be a continuation of the president's fail strategy," Peace Action West's executive director, Jon Rainwater, said. "Americans and Iraqis can't afford four more years of mistakes, so we are insisting that the next president bring a responsible end to the war in their first year." The protestors will assemble in front of the Fairmont hotel at 6:30 p.m. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbprotest0720sbjul20,0,2084839.story Students hit Weston streets to protest wars By Jennifer Gollan | South Florida Sun-Sentinel July 20, 2008 WESTON - At 16, Lili Stander barely remembers the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. But five years of war have tainted her teenage years all the same. "Seeing people die in the Iraq war touches you personally," said Stander, of Southwest Ranches, waving a placard that read "Bush lied, people died" at an anti-war protest Saturday. "Now I'm inspired to speak out and push for change." She's among a growing number of teenagers who belong to Direct Action Weston, a loose-knit group of students, who held their third rally at the corner of Weston and Griffin roads to protest the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The group plans to demonstrate on the same corner each month until the presidential election in November. Their goal: raise awareness about America's role in the Middle East. Judging by the cacophony of honks and cheers from passing drivers, many feel anything but apathetic. "Seeing us here gives people something to think about," said Debbie Rozanski, who at 55 was among the eldest of the protesters. "Such as, why are we still in this war?" Rozanski, an import specialist for the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, said she was a "child of the '60s and '70s," who felt guilty when she raced past the effervescent, budding protesters one afternoon last month. She turned her car around and took her place among the demonstrators. Hunter Althschul, 17, of Southwest Ranches, agreed. "It becomes our duty to let people know that they need to stand up against the government's wrongs," said Althschul, who will be a senior in the fall at Cypress Bay High School. "These wars are costing us tax dollars we don't have, and we're fueling these private contractors with money. We can't afford to keep doing that." Despite the withering heat, Althschul and the others said they planned to soldier on with chants of "no more war" through the afternoon. "I'm sweating, but it's worth it," said Stander, who will be a junior in the fall at Pembroke Pines Charter High School. "When I was younger, I wouldn't have had the courage to come out here." Jennifer Gollan can be reached at jgollan at sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7920. http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080813/NEWS03/808130371/1019/RSS0102 War protester withholds taxes; IRS collects with interest By Randi Weiner The Journal News . August 13, 2008 UPPER NYACK - Ethan Vesely-Flad and his wife stopped paying a portion of their taxes two years ago as a protest against the U.S. participation in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Internal Revenue Service collected the missing funds from their 2006 taxes, along with about $500 in penalties and interest, by withholding money from Ethan Vesely-Flad's paycheck for six months this year. In a sense, it was a moral victory, Vesely-Flad told members of the Rockland Coalition for Peace and Justice last night during the organization's operating committee meeting at the Fellowship of Reconciliation's headquarters. "It was about trying to do something that would deal with our conscience," Vesely-Flad said to the 14 people at the meeting. "It's a very minor thing and may not have done much, but we are educating ourselves. If others are inspired to do likewise, it could help to clog up" the system. Vesely-Flad is co-director of communications for FOR and edits its magazine. He and his wife, Rima, are connected with nonprofit social justice organizations, he said. The two had discussed what they could do to protest the use of their taxes for military reasons and decided to withhold slightly more than half of what they owed. The War Resisters League estimated that 51 percent of income tax money goes for past and current military uses, Vesely-Flad said. So they decided to withhold 51 percent of what they owed the IRS for 2006 taxes. Over the past two years, the couple put nearly $5,000 in an escrow account held by Quakers, who maintain similar accounts on behalf of tax protesters. They took out a portion of that money to recoup what the government took from them, but are getting help from friends and groups to pay the penalties and fees. The IRS already is sending them letters asking for 2007 taxes. Elaine Plenert, 79, of West Nyack said that what Vesely-Flad talked about sounded intriguing. "I love the idea of doing something," she said. Fran Greenspan, 77, of New Hempstead,said she admired the Vesely-Flads for their stance. "So much is going for the war," she said. "I think we want to help him out tonight as much as we can." http://lacrossetribune.com/articles/2008/08/13/news/04march.txt Wednesday, August 13, 2008 Protesters march against wars By CHRIS HUBBUCH / La Crosse Tribune . Eleven weary war protesters ambled off the La Crosse River Trail on Tuesday, 371 miles from their starting point and still more than 100 miles from their destination. They aren't walking for exercise, or because they can't all fit on the blue, green and yellow 1979 school bus that serves as their support vehicle. A group of protesters walk the bike trail from Bangor,Wi. to West Salem Tuesday morning as part of their walk acrosse Wisconsin to protest the war in Iraq. Dick Riniker photo Their goal is to stop the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, bring troops home and press the country to fund reconstruction of Iraq. They left Chicago on July 21 and plan to arrive in St. Paul, Minn., on Aug. 31, the day before the Republican National Convention begins. After walking the rest of the way into La Crosse today, the protesters plan to visit U.S. Rep. Ron Kind's district office. They will make a presentation Thursday at the La Crosse Public Library before heading Sunday to Winona, Minn. About half a dozen have made the entire walk, though others join for a day or a week. Along the way, they've enjoyed the hospitality of friends and strangers. In three weeks on the road, they've only had to camp five nights, said Dan Pearson, one of the walk's coordinators. Tuesday, they ate sandwiches loaded with spinach, pickles and hummus made by their last host family. Leah Patriarco has filled five pages in her notebook with the names of people she's met. They've gotten moral support, too, from motorists. But not everyone has been so welcoming. Thirteen protesters were arrested Sunday at Fort McCoy in a peaceful attempt to enter the Army installation. "It was one of the gentlest arrests I've experienced," said Brian Terrell, a 52-year-old director of Catholic Peace Ministry in Des Moines, Iowa, who has lost track of how many times he's been arrested in 30 years of peace activism. All were ticketed for trespassing and released, except for Kathy Kelly, who was held in the Monroe County Jail on a warrant stemming from a protest a decade ago. The group wasn't sure when she would be able to rejoin the walk. Several have been to Iraq. Gene Stoltzfus went in 2003 and 2004 as the director of Christian Peacemaker teams. The 68-year-old, now retired and living in Canada, joined the walk a few days ago and plans to go to Winona. Paul Melling went in 2003-04 with his Army unit. He said he didn't see any reason for U.S. troops to be there. "I never really understood (the war) in the first place," said the 27-year-old from Melrose, Minn. He later met with Iraq Veterans Against War and got involved in peace activism. Melling, who has made the entire walk from Chicago, said opposing the war has been easier since he was discharged from the Army in 2006. "The vast majority of guys I know think the war is a bunch of crap," he said. "Speaking out against it. . It's really tough." http://www.channel3000.com/news/17157567/detail.html?rss=c3k&psp=news 13 Arrested At Fort McCoy War Protest Protesters Cited For Trespassing POSTED: 10:02 am CDT August 11, 2008 FORT MCCOY, Wis. -- Thirteen people protesting the Iraq war were arrested after authorities said they tried to enter the Fort McCoy military installation in western Wisconsin. The protesters delivered a letter seeking an end to the war Sunday afternoon and asked to enter the fort to talk with soldiers. They were denied access and asked to leave. Authorities said the 13 people were arrested after going beyond secured boundaries. Fort McCoy spokeswoman Linda Fournier said the demonstrators have a right to express their opinion but not to breach security. The protesters were cited for trespassing, fingerprinted and escorted off the base. Authorities told them if they attempted to re-enter, they would be taken into federal custody. http://www.lacrossetribune.com/articles/2008/08/09/news/z05protest09.txt War protesters on march to RNC stopping at Fort McCoy By Tribune staff . A group walking across the state to protest the war in Iraq will arrive at Fort McCoy this weekend. Protesters with the Witness Against War project say they hope to foster dialogues along the 450-mile route. They plan Sunday to attempt to enter the Army base between Tomah and Sparta. Walkers left July 21 from Chicago and plan to reach St. Paul, Minn., on Aug. 31, the day before the start of the Republican National Convention. They plan to arrive in La Crosse on Wednesday and host a meeting at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the La Crosse Public Library, 800 Main St. About a dozen people have been on the road for each segment of the walk, said spokesman Dan Pearson. Participants sign agreements not to use violence or damage property. http://www.ktvu.com/news/17145891/detail.html Protestors Denounce Nuclear Weaponry At Livermore Lab POSTED: 5:27 pm PDT August 9, 2008 LIVERMORE -- On the 63rd anniversary of the last time an atomic bomb was used in warfare, anti-war activists gathered outside the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Saturday to protest the facilities work on nuclear weapons. The protests centered around a speech by Nobuaki Hanaoka, a retired Methodist minister from San Francisco, who lived in Nagasaki with his family at the time of the bombing. "I was seven-and-a-half months old when the bomb fell," said Hanaoka. Our family was spared from the effects of the blast and the heat, but we were exposed to the radiation." Hanaoka's mother, sister and brother all died from leukemia in the years following the bombing. Anti-nuclear activists are critical of weapon's research at the Lawrence Livermore lab, which they claim could endanger the Bay Area after a major accident or terrorist attack. http://www.myantiwar.org/view/159965.html 200 protest psychologists' interrogation role Updated 8/16/2008 3:03 PM By Sharon Jayson, USA TODAY BOSTON - About 200 demonstrators rallied Saturday outside the convention hall where some 14,000 are attending the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association to protest the role of psychologists in military interrogations. Psychologists have traditionally played a part in questioning of U.S. captives done by the military or intelligence agencies. Some psychologists have criticized such work during the Bush administration's anti-terrorism effort as a code of ethics violation, while others say eliminating the psychologists' participation would make the interrogations more harmful for detainees. At the two-hour rally, groups of psychologists, including Psychologists for an Ethical APA and Psychologists for Social Responsibility, as well as human rights organizations, including representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International, blasted those psychologists for their part in the Bush administration's practices. And they say they're outraged over the APA's acceptance of psychologists' participation because of what they say are human rights violations by the government. "Who would have thought that the APA - whose code of ethics mandates a respect for basic principles of human rights and holds psychologists 'to a higher standard of conduct than is required by the law' - would be so reluctant to prohibit psychologists from participating in interrogations from Guant?namo to Abu-Ghraib," Nancy Murray of the American Civil Liberties Union in Massachusetts told the crowd. "The APA has justified this 'policy of engagement' by stating its involvement is intended to stop unethical interrogations." The APA approved a policy last year that defined parameters for psychologists, prohibiting 19 coercive procedures, including waterboarding, the use of hoods and any physical assault. In a statement issued Saturday, the APA re-iterated its position by saying "No psychologist - APA member or not - should be directly or indirectly involved in any form of detention or interrogation that could lead to psychological or physical harm to a detainee. ... Doing so would be a clear violation of the profession's ethical standards." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/7576219.stm Friday, 22 August 2008 12:43 UK Anti-nuclear protest at dockyard Some protesters chained themselves to crash barriers The entrance to Devonport Dockyard has been barricaded by a group of anti-nuclear campaigners. Police were called to the dockyard's Camel's Head gate in Plymouth at 0720 BST after protesters tied ladders together to block the entrance. Campaign group Trident Ploughshares said they were protesting about money being spent on renewing the UK's Trident nuclear fleet. Dockyard traffic was redirected until the barricade was removed. 'Safety issue' About 14 people were involved in the protest. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) told BBC News there had been a safety issue as some of the protesters had chained themselves to crash barriers. One man was arrested by MoD Police on suspicion of obstruction of a highway. The 33-year-old, from Plymouth, was arrested after repeatedly lying in the road and refusing to move on. He is being held in custody at Charles Cross police station. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Fri Aug 29 16:30:26 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:30:26 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Pro-democracy, anti-corruption and rights protests, India Message-ID: <005301c90a2f$38a2e4f0$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * Orissa: Arrest of party activist triggers protest * New Delhi: Journalists protest against sedition charges * Mumbai: Black armband protest over attack on newspaper * Orissa: Journalists protest police violence while covering event * Andhra Pradesh: State-wide protests over arrest of journalists for burning effigy * Bangalore: Protest against persecution of bars, for extending hours, dancing * Karnataka: Farmers protest corruption at government office, demands for bribes * Congress women demand investigation into death * Karnataka: Congress activists protest MPs' defections * Andhra Pradesh: TDP opposition party stages protest alleging corruption * Madhya Pradesh: Congress activists protest leaders' arrests * Madhya Pradesh: Leader goes on hunger strike over corruption * Tamil Nadu: Human rights protest over malicious police charges * Kozhikode: Congress protests against charges of activists * Protests, counter-protests against secularist textbooks; teachers rally for freedom * Gujarat: Journalists protest against attacks by Sikh protesters * Orissa: Maoists hold protest week, shutdown over repression * Dharwad: Villagers demand action over police atrocity * Bhopal: Congress plans protest over local corruption * Chandigarh: Protesters get warm welcome from politician * Suspicious death in custody leads to protest * Amritsar: Local Congress activists protest at imposition of candidate * Gujarat: Woman protests in nude against cops * Andhra Pradesh: Muslims protest over police shooting, storm office * Andhra Pradesh: Dharna against attack on media office * Dharampur: Protesters block road over police "inaction" in suspicious "suicide" * Kerala: Youth group protests at Congress, BJP "violence" * Youth dharna over government failings * Bangalore; Bellary: Congress workers protest selection of candidates * Bangalore: Kannada activists protest defections * Chennai: Protest for release of film maker * Auto-rickshaw drivers protest mistreatment * Raichur: Protesting Congress workers lock party office * Gulbarga: Protests at exclusion of candidate * Manjeri: Youths protest police mistreatment * Kerala: Protest over police violence at women's protest * Erode: Protest against phone tapping * PAKISTAN/INDIA: Protests in Pakistan over Indian fake visa charges http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/25/stories/2008062559320300.htm Orissa Arrest of CPI(M) activist triggers protest Staff Reporter CPI(M), CPI and SP to hold demo on June 27 BERHAMPUR: The CPI(M), CPI and the Samajwadi Party cadres would demonstrate in front of the Malkangiri Collectorate on June 27 against the arrest of a CPI(M) activist after being branded as a naxal activist. Malkangiri district police had arrested 37-year-old CPI(M) activist Raghunath Majhi from the MV 79 village on June 6. The police claimed that he had links with naxals and was the mastermind behind the murder of a BJD leader and lawyer Prabir Mohanty. As per the police he was active with the Maoists' frontal organisations for the past many years. But according to State secretariat member of the CPI(M), Ali Kishore Patnaik, who is in-charge of party affairs in south Orissa, the past activities of Raghunath proves that he was active member of the mainstream political party with participation in electoral politics. It may be noted that naxals and naxal sympathisers are opposed to elections and democracy. But Raghunath had contested the last panachayat elections as a candidate for the Malkangiri-1 Zilla Parishad zone. "Police claim he was in their wanted list but we had posted over 3,000 posters with his photograph during panchayat polls held in February last year," said Mr Patnaik. As per the party, Raghunath was falsely implicated as he was fighting against the nexus between traders, touts and officials in remote areas of Malkangiri district. A delegation of CPI(M) leaders has already met the Chief Minister and the Home Minister demanding unconditional release of Majhi. They have decided to hold demonstration at Malkangiri on June 27 if he is not released till then. The Malkangiri units of the CPI and the Samajwadi party have also extended their support to the agitation of the CPI(M). It will be an eye opener for police in Malkangiri to stop atrocities on political activists under false charges of naxal links due to ulterior motives, said Mr Patnaik. http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Scribes-protest-sedition-charge-against-editor-Loksatta-attack/322379/ Scribes protest sedition charge against editor, Loksatta attack Posted online: Friday , June 13, 2008 at 02:34:20 Updated: Friday , June 13, 2008 at 02:34:20 New Delhi, June 13: Journalists in the capital on Friday protested against the sedition charges slapped against three staffers of the Ahmedabad edition of the Times of India for criticising the city police commissioner and the attack on the residence of Loksatta editor Kumar Ketkar. "We express deep anguish over the surprise action of the Gujarat Police in foisting a case of sedition against the Times of India, its Ahmedabad resident editor and two other staffers and also the attack on the residence of editor of 'Loksatta', Kumar Ketkar," Pushpendra Kulshreshta, Secretary General, Press Club of India, told reporters in New Delhi. The journalists, who participated in a peaceful protest march, raised slogans like 'Dont Gag the Press' and 'Truth is our Defence', said that further attack on the fourth democracy would not be tolerated. They said that media has to come forward if democracy has to be cherished and saved, besides criticising the Gujarat government on the issue. Later, they also submitted a memorandum to President Pratibha Patil, seeking her intervention in the matter. "The government should enforce the law to safeguard the fundamental freedoms of the Press," the memorandum said. Noting that sedition was a charge slapped on Indian media by erstwhile colonial rulers, the memorandum said that abuse of the provision against the press negates the freedom granted to citizens by the Constitution. "Pressing charges of such nature clearly smacks of vindictiveness as the newspaper had carried articles criticising the choice of O P Mathur as the police Commissioner," Kulshreshta said. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/11/stories/2008061159841100.htm Protest staged against attack on journalists Special Correspondent MUMBAI: Journalists, human rights activists and civil society groups on Tuesday wore black bands across their mouths to stage a silent protest at the Churchgate station against the recent attack on Loksatta editor Kumar Ketkar's residence. They also demanded that sedition charges against the journalists of The Times of India in Ahmedabad be dropped. Jatin Desai, activist and journalist, said the sedition charges were unwarranted and unjustified. The media fraternity has been demanding action against all those who attacked Mr. Ketkar's residence in Thane last week after his article appeared in Loksatta. The protestors said freedom of expression and speech was under threat all over the country. Mr. Ketkar's house was attacked by around 70 activists of Shiv Sangram Sanghatana . The attackers threw stones, broke windowpanes and smeared black paint on the door of his house. The attack was against Mr. Ketkar questioning the government's decision to instal a statue of Shivaji Maharaj in the Arabian Sea. Bharat Desai and Prashant Dayal, resident editor and correspondent of The Times of India in Ahmedabad and a photographer of another daily have been charged with sedition for questioning the alleged links of Ahmedabad police chief O.P. Mathur with a mafia don. Right to Information activist Shailesh Gandhi and others have demanded immediate action against those who attacked Mr. Ketkar's house; the sacking of the leaders of this gang, who allegedly belonged to Nationalist Congress Party, from the party; and an apology from the Home Minister to Mr. Ketkar and his wife. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/25/stories/2008072557570300.htm Other States - Orissa Journalists take out protest rally Staff Reporter BERHAMPUR: Journalists from the State, Andhra Pradesh and Chhatisgarh held a joint protest rally in Malkangiri town on Thursday. They were protesting against the assault of police constables on some journalists on July 17 during the guard of honour ceremony for the SOG jawans killed in the landmine blast the previous day. The angry police constables who were agonised by the sudden death of 17 of their brethren in the naxal landmine blast near MV-126 village had also damaged the vehicles and cameras of some journalists from outside the State. Around three journalists were injured. Understanding the mental state of the policemen the journalists had not filed any complaint against the erring policemen immediately. But on Thursday the journalists preferred to make people and authorities know about the gravity of the indiscipline behaviour of the policemen through the rally. Journalists of Malkangiri led the rally. http://story.indiagazette.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/701ee96610c884a6/id/375399/cs/1/ Protests continue in Andhra Pradesh over editor's arrest India Gazette Thursday 26th June, 2008 (IANS) The editor and two reporters of a Telugu daily, who were arrested by the police for beating an effigy symbolising a Dalit leader, remained in jail even as journalists continued their state-wide protest for the second day Thursday. The bail petition of the journalists will come up for hearing later Thursday in Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act court, Secunderabad. K. Srinivas, editor of 'Andhra Jyoti' and two reporters, Vamshi Krishna and T. Srinivas, were arrested by the police Tuesday night from their office under SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. They have been charged with beating an effigy symbolising a Dalit leader with footwear during a rally to protest an attack by a Dalit organisation on their office May 24. A magistrate Tuesday night remanded the editor and the two reporters to judicial custody till July 8. Manda Krishna Madiga, leader of Madiga Reservation Porata Samiti (MRPS), which is fighting for classification of SC reservations, had lodged a complaint with the police that his effigy was slapped with footwear by the journalists thus insulting a person belonging to a Scheduled Caste and attracting provisions of the act. The MRPS activists had attacked the Telugu daily's office here to protest against publication of an article, which described backward classes leaders as 'saleable commodities'. Krishna Madiga, who had also lodged a complaint against the newspaper's managing director V. Radhakrishna, has warned that the failure to take action against him could create law and order problems. However, Home Minister K. Jana Reddy Thursday said no action would be taken against Radhakrishna as there was no evidence against him. 'Hundreds like him give warnings but we will not be cowed down,' he said dismissing the Dalit leader's warning. Facing the ire of opposition parties and journalists' unions, the government said it would not oppose the bail petition in the court. The protest against the arrests continued for the second consecutive day. Andhra Pradesh Union of Working Journalists (APUWJ) took out a massive rally here. The union leaders termed the arrests an attack on freedom of the press and demanded the immediate release of the editor and the two reporters. The opposition parties and journalists alleged that the government was trying to stifle the voice of the press. 'Andhra Jyoti' is known for carrying reports critical of the Congress government. http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080060932 Bangloreans protest to extend bar timings Rati Sunday, August 10, 2008, (Bangalore) After years of debating the Cinderella deadline on the city's bars, discos and restaurants, Bangalore's eminent citizens gathered to protest against the lack of cultural expression in the city. Over 200 people gathered on Sunday afternoon to protest against the 11: 30 pm deadline in the city. But they protested in their own unique way, with posters, stickers and a live jam session. Girish Karnad, a filmmaker and theatre personality said, "Lets create a society where the working class can relax and unwind but to stop drinking and the way the police are going about it is ridiculous." Presently, no restaurant, bar, disco or place of public entertainment can function after 11:30 pm in the city. Singing and dancing is not allowed at a place that serves alcohol. Authorities say it's safer for the city to sleep before midnight given the escalating crime rate. But Bangaloreans are not convinced. DJ Ivan said, "We just want the authorities to know we are a united lot, we represent cultural strata of society. We are educated so talk to us tell us the rules, tell us the logic behind it, don't do what you are doing now." Linda, a Banglorean said, "Its time we came together, we need to express ourselves with dance, music and stop pushing us around." For the first time its not just those people who are directly affected by the ban who are protesting but also Bangaloreans who think their city is dying culturally making this movement stronger than the earlier ones. http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=392596 Bangaloreans protest ban on dance, music in pubs IANS Sunday 10th August, 2008 Playwright and Jnanpeeth Award winner Girish Karnad Sunday joined a protest here against ban on live music and dance in the famed pubs and discos of India's IT hub. A group of about 100 people - regular disco-goers, singers, disc jockeys - carried placards saying 'Give us our freedom', 'Bengaluru bleeding' and 'Don't kill creativity', and protested the ban imposed by the police on Aug 3. 'It is tyranny of the police. It is against every artiste,' Karnad said at the protest. The police order says live music performances are not allowed in pubs and discos. However, recorded music can be played. The police justify their decision saying they are following rules which prohibit live music and dance in any public place serving liquor. There is also controversy over the closing timings of pubs and restaurants. A 1976 order had set the 11.30 p.m. deadline for business establishments but this was relaxed in 1987 to allow medical shops, hotels and some other establishments to remain open much later than that. Bangalore civic authorities have been demanding that pubs and restaurants be allowed to function till 1.30 a.m. in view of the growing expatriate, tourist and floating population in the city. The police are resisting this, saying it will push up the crime graph. A committee of officials has been set up to consider the conflicting views of the civic and police authorities and suggest a way out. http://www.indianexpress.com/story/347688.html Bangalore protests as fresh curbs derail nightlife Johnson T A Posted online: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 at 0158 hrs Print Email Bangalore, August 11: Exactly three years ago when the then Dharam Singh-led Congress-JDS government did it, it was called the 'Talibanisation of Bangalore'. Now with the new BJP Government tightening the screws on nightlife in Bangalore, protestors are calling it 'Bangalore bleeding'. With the Bangalore police deciding to go strictly by the book again all restaurants with live bands and dancing have been banned. Over the past two Sundays musicians, artistes, disc jockeys and Bangalore's partying public have been protesting the reinforced ban at the Mahatma Gandhi statue in central Bangalore. Participating in this Sunday's protests, writer and theatre personality Girish Karnad said the decision to ban live music lacked logic. "It will affect artistes adversely. Instead of going after criminals the police are going after musicians," he said. Despite the protests featuring over 1000 people on Sunday, the Bangalore police cracked down on as many as 32 discotheques operating without valid licenses in the city. Nightlife in the city is governed by 'The licensing and controlling of places of public entertainment (Bangalore City) order, 2005' and the Karnataka Excise Act of 1965. The licensing order makes it mandatory for all places offering live entertainment to be licensed by the police after meeting strict standards. The Act prevents places serving alcohol from staying open beyond 11:30 pm and women from dancing in places where alcohol is sold. Though, the state home department has indicated a move to modify the laws to reduce restrictions on nightlife, no legislative action has been taken yet. New Bangalore police commissioner Shankar Bidari has stated that he is willing to consider relaxation of nightlife rules if he receives sufficient representation from the public. The existing laws has resulted in a tussle between owners of lower end dance bars and the upper end lounge bars and discotheques. The introduction of the licensing rules for cabarets, dance bars, discotheques and live bands in June 2005 had resulted in a clampdown on all forms of dancing at public entertainment spots in Bangalore. However, in December 2005, following appeals by owners of establishments, the Supreme Court permitted live bands and dancing in restaurants and hotels on the condition that the establishments didn't encourage prostitution or indecent shows. While the Bangalore police allowed dancing and live music shows at pubs, restaurants, nightclubs and discotheques, they imposed a more stringent curb on dance bars on the grounds that they encouraged prostitution. This discrimination has been challenged by owners of dance bars in the High Court resulting in a complete clampdown on all nightlife. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/25/stories/2008072556300300.htm Karnataka Farmers protest corruption in government offices Staff Correspondent 'Staff demand thousands of rupees to do our work' DAVANGERE: Farmers of several villages staged a snap protest in front of the Deputy Commissioner's office on Thursday against "rampant" corruption in the tahsildar's office and survey office. They alleged that staffs of the offices were demanding thousands of rupees as bribe to issue "sketch copy", encumbrance certificate, and caste and income certificates, and to change Pahani. Deputy Commissioner of Davangere district K. Amaranarayana, who heard from the farmers the problems they were facing to get their work done in these offices, called them for a meeting at his office on Friday. Officials of the tahsildar's office and the survey office would be summoned to the meeting, he said and assured the farmers that he was committed to eradicating corruption in government offices. Mr. Amaranarayana said that he had warned the officials of stringent action if they caused inconvenience to the public who visited their office. Meanwhile, G. Ekanthappa, who was on a fast since a week to protest against corruption in the two offices, was admitted to a hospital on Thursday. Assistant Commissioner of Davangere Janaki told The Hindu that she had initiated steps to curb corruption in the two offices. She asked the people to inform her whenever an official or a clerk demanded bribe or failed to attend to their work without delay. Avaragere Rudrumuni, Guddada Kallappa, M. Nagaraj, Chandrakala and Suvarnamma were among the farmers' leaders who participated in the protest. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/24/stories/2008062452390300.htm Demand The women's wing of the Congress party, led by its president and the former Mayor Chandrika Parameshwar took out a procession in the city demanding a CBI probe into Ms. Padmapriya's death. In a memorandum addressed to Governor Rameshwar Thakur and submitted to the district authorities, Ms. Parameshwar said that the people had lost faith in the State police due to interference by the ruling party leaders in an attempt to hush up the case. http://www.keralanext.com/news/index.asp?id=1274899 Congress to observe protest day today Thursday, July 17, 2008 T'PURAM, Kerala: The state unit of Congress party will observe protest day today against the police excesses on the Youth Congress activists in front of the secretariat yesterday. Protest marches will be staged in all constituencies. The KSU will take out a march towards the secretariat, sources said. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/24/stories/2008072452290300.htm Karnataka Youth Congress protests against defections Correspondent CHIKMAGALUR: Members of the Youth Congress staged a demonstration here on Wednesday to protest against the defection of Congress MLAs to the Bharatiya Janata Party. They criticised Ministers from Bellary district who are mine owners for having "engineered" the defection. They burned an effigy of the MLAs at Hanumanthappa Circle. Stressing the need for nuclear power to meet the future energy needs of the country, they wanted action to be taken against those who made allegations against Congress MPs in the Lok Sabha during the trust vote. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/20/stories/2008082052450800.htm Andhra Pradesh - Anantapur TDP stages novel protest Staff Reporter Dramatic effect: TDP activists carrying suitcases as a form of protest in Anantapur on Tuesday. ANANTAPUR: The youth wing of Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Telugu Yuvatha, staged a novel protest here on Tuesday criticising the policies of the Central and State governments led by Congress. They carried suitcases and a 'storewell' almirah in rickshaws depicting a top Congress leader and his assistant carrying home, suitcases of money earned everyday through illegal favours, all for a price. The activists were led by district president of Telugu Yuvatha M. Srinivas, K. Muralimohan, B.V. Ramana, K.M. Zakiullah, G.V. Chowdary, M. Ravindra Naidu, B. Rajagopal. The Congress was looting the State and people were ready to teach them a fitting lesson, they said. http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=379129 Madhya Pradesh Congress protests leaders' arrests IANS Sunday 6th July, 2008 Protesting arrests of senior Congress leaders who arrived in the curfew-bound Indore to meet the riot-affected people, Leader of Opposition in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly Jamuna Devi staged a sit-in at the chief minister's house here Sunday. The Indore police detained Congress leaders, including former chief minister Digvijay Singh, state Congress chief Suresh Pachouri, the party's election campaign committee chairman Ajay Singh and others at the city airport on their arrival in the morning. Later, the police announced the arrest of the leaders after declaring the place where they were held as temporary jail. However, the Congress leaders insisted that they be provided curfew passes and allowed to meet the affected people. The authorities declined to do so. When the news of the arrest reached Bhopal, Congress leaders, including state Congress spokesman Manak Agarwal, J.P. Dhanopia and others led by Jamuna Devi staged a dharna (sit-in) outside the chief minister's house at 3.30 p.m. They demanded the arrested leaders be immediately released and allowed to meet the affected people. They also demanded resignation of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Six people were killed in communal clashes in Indore following a bandh (general shut-down) called by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) to protest the Jammu and Kashmir government's decision to withdraw the land allotted to Amarnath shrine board. The violence continued unabated for three days in the city despite the imposition of curfew. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/02/stories/2008070256620700.htm Other States - Madhya Pradesh Uma on fast to protest against corruption Staff Correspondent BHOPAL: Bharatiya Janshakti leader Uma Bharti sat on fast at the busy Roshanpura Square here on Tuesday to protest against "corruption and anarchy" in Madhya Pradesh. Ms. Bharti said she was following Mahatma Gandhi's ideals in deciding to sit on fast. "Mr. Advani owes an explanation to the people and would have to reveal how crores of rupees were raised for the lavish function organised in the State capital on Monday for releasing his book," she asked.Ms. Bharti levelled charges of corruption against the State Chief Minister, his spouse, and members of his Cabinet. She said Mr. Advani's function was a mockery of those suffering from poverty and soaring prices. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/13/stories/2008061361160300.htm Tamil Nadu - Madurai Protest against "foisting of cases" Staff Reporter MADURAI: Human rights activists staged a demonstration here on Tuesday in protest against "foisting of cases" against a Kal Ottar tribesman and others at a public hearing held here from May 29 to 31. C. J. Rajan, of People's Watch, which organised the demonstration, claimed that the police arrested a person belonging to the Ottar community, who came to the public hearing and deposed in front of the panel, without issuing warrant on the night of May 29. The following day there were minor skirmishes where some participants were arrested after they detained police officers. Cases of abuse were registered against policemen and "false cases" against office-bearers of People's Watch. A. Mahaboob Batcha, managing trustee, Society for Community Organisation Trust, and K. John Moses, State general secretary, Janata Dal (Secular), participated. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/30/stories/2008063051730300.htm Congress protests against filing of cases Staff Reporter KOZHIKODE: The District Congress Committee (DCC) has registered its protest against the charging of cases by the Payyoli police against local-level Congress leaders, including a woman grama panchayat member, in connection with the violent clashes following the death of a nine-year-old schoolgirl at Payyoli last week. The police have registered cases under Section 307 (attempt to murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against Maniyoor grama panchayat member P.C. Sheeba and many others, most of them belonging to the Congress. K.C. Abu, DCC president, said here on Sunday that party activists would take out a march to the office of the Superintendent of Police in protest against the filing of charges against Congress leaders. The DCC president said the police were trying to politicise the incident in which a middle-aged man was accused of killing a schoolgirl after sexually exploiting her. Last Monday, the police burst teargas shells and resorted to a lathicharge to take the accused, V. Mayankutty, into custody. A mob that had gathered there damaged the car of the Revenue Divisional Officer. Mr. Abu accused the Payyoli police of failing to taken appropriate action before the situation turned aggressive. Investigators could verify the video clipping of the incident to identify any Congressman. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/30/stories/2008063054710300.htm Textbook row: protest, counter-protest in front of Kollam Bishop's House Staff Reporter Church accused of forging 'unholy nexus' with BJP, Congress CALL FOR UNITY: Kollam Bishop Stanley Roman addressing a KLCA-KCYM meeting at the Bishop's House complex on Sunday. KOLLAM: A demonstration by a group of youngsters in front of the Kollam Bishop's House at Tangasseri on Sunday morning in protest against the Church's stance on the controversial Class VII textbook led to a protest at the same venue in the evening by members of the Kerala Catholic Youth Movement (KCYM) and the Kerala Latin Catholic Association (KLCA). The demonstration in the morning was organised by activists of the Theeradesa Almaya Yuvajana Vedi, an organisation of Latin Catholic youth. The demonstrators alleged that on the pretext of the textbook row, the Church was forging an 'unholy nexus' with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress. Kollam Bishop Stanley Roman is the Education Commission chairman of the Kerala Catholic Bishops' Council. The demonstration resulted in widespread protests from the faithful. Many routine Sunday meetings of the church in the diocese adjourned regular sessions to condemn the incident. The KLCA and the KCYM soon started planning a counter demonstration and a protest meeting in the Bishop's House courtyard to express solidarity with the bishop. A number of people took part in the protest march and the meeting. Addressing the meeting, Paul Mullassery, vicar general of the Kollam Diocese, said the demonstration was an attack on the teachings and the principles of the Church. He said the demonstrators also raised slogans against the bishop. The demonstration was pre-planned and politically motivated, he alleged. In his address, KLCA leader Baldwin Austin said the Left Democratic Front government appeared to be keen on consistently hurting the church. KLCA State president Francis Netto; diocese secretary Jose Vimalraj, president William Ferns; KCYM leaders; and parish priest of Holy Cross Church Joseph Puthenpura spoke. In his speech, Dr. Stanley Roman said the State was passing through a phase where faith was being challenged. The problems in the education sector were one among the several thrust upon the Church. The situation warranted unity among the faithful, he said. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/20/stories/2008072058130300.htm Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram LDF protest leads to violence Staff Reporter Kerala Youth Front (M) workers on fast attacked - Photo: S. Gopakumar Rage on the streets: City Police Commissioner Ravada Azad Chandrasekhar and police personnel trying to stop All India Students' Federation activists who attempted to march towards the Secretariat on Saturday. Thiruvananthapuram: The police baton-charged Left Democratic Front (LDF) workers who attacked Opposition activists fasting in a makeshift shed on the pavement in front of the Secretariat on Saturday evening. T. Babu, local committee secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), was injured. The LDF activists were protesting over the death of James Augustine, headmaster, allegedly at the hands of Muslim Youth League protesters at Valillapuzha in Malappuram district. The Youth Congress and the Youth League had attempted to disrupt cluster meetings for teachers' training at various schools in the State. Opposition activists attempted to storm at least 20 schools in the district where such programmes were under way. The police arrested more than 30 of them in the morning. The violence began in front of the Secretariat at 5 p.m. when CPI(M) activists attacked the agitation shed of Kerala Youth Front-M (KYF-M) activists who were fasting in support for the demand for withdrawal of the controversial seventh standard social science textbook. The CPI(M) workers threw stones at the shed and beat some of those on fast who ventured out. The fewer than 20 Youth Front workers used plastic chairs to shield themselves against the stones. The police swung batons to disperse the CPI(M) workers. Hundreds of CPI(M) workers, government officials owing allegiance to the pro-ruling front Non-Gazetted Officers' Union, Students' Federation of India activists, members of pro-Left teachers' organisations and All India Youth Federation workers blockaded the road in front of the Secretariat in protest against the headmaster's death. The police had a difficult time controlling them from attacking the KYF(M) protesters. They parked two police buses in front of the agitation shed to shield them from the wrath of LDF protesters. To prevent further attacks, the police arrested the fasting KYM workers and admitted them to hospital at night. The sudden and violent protest threw evening rush-hour traffic out of gear. Hundreds of office-goers, including women, were stranded for several hours at bus stops along Mahatma Gandhi Road. Strike Functioning of State government offices and educational institutions in the district are likely to be affected on Monday as various organisations affiliated to Left parties have called for a strike. Students' Federation of India State secretary P. Biju said Left student activists would physically confront Opposition activists who attempted to undermine educational institutions in the public sector in Kerala. He said the Opposition was using strong-arm tactics to intimidate and even destroy teachers who implemented the government's education policy. He accused the Opposition of working to the advantage of communal and casteist forces which controlled the private education sector in Kerala. He urged the government to register a case of murder against Youth League workers responsible for the death of the headmaster. Injured Five police personnel, including a Circle Inspector of Police, were injured in stone-throwing and clashes between activists of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Democratic Youth Federation of India at Venjaramood on Saturday night. The police said the DYFI activists, who took out a protest march over the death of the teacher, destroyed the flags of the BJP and the Congress. The BJP activists took out a protest march against this later. The Circle Inspector George Koshy and Prakash, Ajith, Arun and Abdul Wahid were injured. http://www.indiaenews.com/education/20080721/133329.htm Monday, July 21, 2008 Protest against teacher's death peaceful in Kerala Email Print Download PDF Comments (0) >From correspondents in India, 02:30 AM IST The dawn-to-dusk shutdown called by the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kozhikode and Malappuram districts of Kerala Sunday, to protest against the death of a teacher during an opposition agitation, passed off peacefully. The shutdown did not affect normal life as traffic was unaffected but commercial establishments remained closed in both the districts. The teacher, James Augustine, 48, died Saturday allegedly after he suffered blows from opposition activists who tried to disrupt a teachers' training programme at Kizhissery in Malappuram district. The opposition activists were agitating against the controversial Class 7 social science textbook, which they say propagates atheism and communist ideology. Police officials in Malappuram investigating the teacher's death said that they have taken six Muslim Youth League (MYL) activists into custody for interrogation. The MYL, the youth wing of Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), and the Youth Congress led the agitation Saturday, disrupting teachers training programme that was being conducted at various centres across the state. James Augustine, headmaster of a school, was reportedly pushed and kicked by protesters who were preventing teachers from entering the school at Kizhissery, about 50 km from district headquarters of Malappuram, where he had gone to attend the training. Following the death of James, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) led LDF government and Left organisations have come out strongly against the opposition agitation. The Left government has been facing a wave of agitation over the textbook. Left student organisations have called for an education shutdown Monday while various government employees' unions said they will strike work to protest the death of the teacher. http://www.ibnlive.com/news/journalists-protest-against-media-attack-in-gujarat/69158-3.html?xml Journalists protest against media attack in Gujarat CNN-IBN Published on Sat, Jul 19, 2008 at 18:53 in Nation section RIGHT TO FIGHT: Some of the protestors were briefly detained by the police. The authorities say that the accused is mentally unstable. Ahmedabad: Journalists protested against the attack on media by Asaram Bapu's followers on Saturday following Friday's violence in Sabarmati. Protests against spiritual guru, Asaram Bapu, turned violent in Ahmedabad on Friday. Blaming the spiritual guru's ashram for the death of two boys whose bodies were found almost three-weeks-ago near the spiritual leader's ashram. People started pelting stones and burning down the vehicles belonging to Bapu's followers as they were angry at the slow pace of investigation into the deaths of the two boys. And in retaliation, followers of Asaram Bapu also indulged in violence. Journalists were beaten up mercilessly by his followers. A Network 18 outdoor broadcast van was completely damaged. Police detained the protesting journalists in Ahmedabad even as Gujarat's Home Minister promised to act against supporters of spiritual leader Asaram Bapu who attacked the media on Friday. "Strict actions will be taken against those who attacked the media persons," says Gujarat Home Minister Amit Shah. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/27/stories/2008062759910300.htm Orissa Normal life is hit as Maoists begin protest week Buses, private vehicles off the road Shops remain closed in interior areas BERHAMPUR: Normal life was affected in tribal districts of south Orissa as Maoists began a protest week on Thursday. However, no untoward incident was reported from any place. Panic gripped remote areas of Malkangiri, Koraput, Rayagada and Gajapati districts. Naxals also made their presence felt in remote areas of Daringbadi block in Kandhamal district by pasting posters since Wednesday. A large number of naxal posters were found near Adaba in Gajapati district. On Wednesday night a group of armed naxals had entered Gudari town in Rayagada district and threatened the local traders to keep their shops closed during the protest week. In many interior areas of these districts both passenger buses and commercial vehicles remained off road. The affect of the Naxal fear was more evident in Malkangiri district. Roads from district headquarters town to Motu, Orkel and Chitrakonda wore deserted look as people and vehicles remained away from roads due to fear of landmine blasts. Maoists also blocked roads at several locations in interior areas by felling trees during night. Shops, business establishments in the district remained closed and public transport system was extremely affected. Shops and business establishments were also closed in interior areas of Rayagada, Koraput and Gajapati districts. Malkangiri SP Satish Gajbhiye said massive combing operations were on along the border of Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh to check cross-border infiltration of Maoists during the week which would end on July 2. All naxal prone areas in the district are under watch. Two Deputy Inspector Generals R.P. Koche of southern range and Sanjeev Panda of south western range have been monitoring the security measures. As per the posters and banners of the Maoists their anti-repression week is being observed against alleged police action against tribals and innocent people, who raise their voice against exploitation. They have also demanded release of persons, who have been arrested after being branded as naxals and lifting of ban on seven organisations in the state, which were alleged to be pro-naxal frontal organisations. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/06/stories/2008070652960300.htm Kerala Teachers' protest Burning Issue: Members of the Kerala State Teachers Association taking out a march to the office of the Deputy Director of Education in Kozhikode on Saturday in protest against the reported burning of school textbooks by Muslim Students Federation activists recently. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/08/stories/2008060851590300.htm In Dharwad, members of Sri Ram Sena staged a demonstration in front of the office of the Deputy Commissioner demanding action against what they termed as "police atrocity" on the residents of Kurubagatti village near Dharwad. The protesters alleged that instead of taking action against Rajasab Mulla, who allegedly tried to molest a woman, the police were harassing the resident of the village who had filed a complaint in this regard. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/09/stories/2008050958400700.htm Congress plans nine-day protest Bhopal: The Opposition Congress in Madhya Pradesh will launch nine-day protests across the State from May 12 to expose "corruption at every level in the State Government." Announcing this in a press conference on Thursday, MPCC president Suresh Pachouri accused the ruling BJP government of politicising the state machinery for its electoral gains. He said the decision of the Jabalpur Bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court on April 25, dismissing the mining lease allocation proved that Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had "misused" his position to favour a particular party. "Corruption is at its peak. For the first time in the history, an FIR has been filed against the Chief Minister on the directions of Lokayukta in dumper case ", he said. PTI http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1167316 Badal rolls out red carpet for protesters Ajay Bharadwaj Friday, May 30, 2008 02:34 IST Keeps special chairs, chefs ready to greet agitating Congress leaders CHANDIGARH: For weeks, Congress leaders were crying hoarse about the alleged high-handedness of Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and his government during the panchayat samiti and block elections. They called it "murder of democracy" at the grassroots level and boycotted elections at a few places. But on Thursday, as Congress members led by PCC president Rajinder Kaur Bhattal proposed to stage a dharna in front of the chief minister's residence, Badal spread out a red carpet for them complete with a banner at the entrance that read "opposition leaders are welcome," two special chairs for Bhattal and former chief minister Amarinder Singh, besides elaborate sitting arrangements for the rest. Not just that, the chief minister also requisitioned services of special cooks to serve tea and sweets to the opposition members. But the Congress leaders could savour none of Badal's hospitality, as they were whisked away by police before they could march to the CM's residence. Badal, who waited for more than three hours for his 'guests' to arrive, later told media persons he was prepared to listen to their grievances, but firmly denied any irregularities had been committed during the elections. Last week too, the chief minister had made elaborate arrangements for Congress leaders demonstrating before his residence. Even though Badal was not present, there was a red carpet welcome awaiting the opposition. But the agitated Congress leaders instead burnt an effigy of the CM at his gate and regretted the manner in which Badal tried to ridicule their protest. Bhattal later said the Congress would present a memorandum to the governor. She said the entire election machinery was doing the bidding of the ruling party. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/23/stories/2008052354960400.htm Accused dies in police station; kin stage protest Staff Reporter Ramulu's father alleges that his son was beaten up in the police station DSP says Ramulu died due to ill-health on hospital premises Relatives stop police from conducting post-mortem NALGONDA: An accused in the attack on the Government hospital, Tamanaboni Ramulu (31), died allegedly in police custody, triggering protests from his family members and relatives at Devarakonda on Thursday. "Police killed my son after beating him severely. They took a statement from me last night under duress to buttress their claim that my son died of fits," Ramulu's father Muthaiah told reporters. The DSP D.Surendrababu, however, told The Hindu that Ramulu died due to ill-health on the hospital premises. Accused in attack case According to the police official, Ramulu was wanted in a case related to an attack on the hospital on January 25. "A head constable brought Ramulu, who was in a drunken state, to the police station at 11 a.m. on Wednesday. He was advised to go to hospital when he was vomiting on the premises of the police station," the DSP said. He further maintained that a STD booth owner had seen Ramulu quivering on the premises of the hospital. "The booth owner pressed a bunch of keys into Ramulu's hands thinking that he was suffering from fits. At 4 p.m. he was found dead," the DSP said. On coming to know about Ramulu's death, his family members and relatives reached the hospital and didn't allow the police to do the post-mortem. Meanwhile, the ASP (Operations) Liyakhat Ali Khan visited the town to handle the situation. Demand for job After the intervention of some local leaders, Ramulu's relatives expressed their readiness to strike a deal with the police. They reportedly demanded a job for Ramulu's wife to toe the police line. They asked for a written commitment to the effect much to the dismay of police officials. Discussions were on at Devarakonda till reports last came in. http://www.tribuneindia.com/2008/20080428/punjab1.htm Amritsar (South) Assembly Bypoll Supporters of ex-MLA for change of candidate Serve 2-day ultimatum on Cong high command Varinder Walia Tribune News Service Amritsar, April 27 Supporters of former MLA Harjinder Singh Thekedar, who has the tacit support of a ruling party legislator and some former MLAs, today served a two-day ultimatum on the Congress high command to change the official nominee Navdeep Singh Goldi for the Amritsar (South) Assembly bypoll. They threatened to take the "extreme step" if the party high command failed to accept their demand. At a meeting which was attended by some councillors and senior leaders of the constituency, they criticised Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, president, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC), who was allegedly instrumental in changing the nomination of Thekedar. They alleged that Thekedar was denied ticket for two reasons. First, he failed to give Rs 4 crore as demanded by the election committee, and second, his being a close confidant of Capt Amarinder Singh. With this, the wrangling between the groups of Capt Amarinder Singh, a former Chief Minister, and Bhattal has again started simmering, which may take to the streets in the coming days. Goldi is the party's councillor from ward No. 29 and is considered a greenhorn in politics. Party sources, however, stated that Thekedar was denied ticket because he had lost the previous election to SAD candidate by a huge margin. Agitated over denying the party ticket, M.S. Heera, a former chairman of the Improvement Trust, has announced that he would write to Sonia Gandhi, president, Indian National Congress, about "non-performance" of Bhattal as president of the PPCC. The former chairman said he would also send his detailed report regarding the "non-performance" of Capt Amarinder Singh during his five-year stint as Chief Minister of Punjab. He alleged that Amarinder tried to make inroads into Akali votes by raising "Panthic and peasantry agenda" by ignoring other issues. "Being a senior party leader, I deem it my duty to give true feedback about the downfall of the Congress party in Punjab in the past about six years," he said. He, however, said it was true that Amarinder received massive response from Congressmen during his recent two-day tour of the border belt. The main reason for the huge response was that Bhattal failed to come to the rescue of party workers who were facing political vendetta after the formation of the SAD-BJP government. "I will continue to send my periodical reports to Soniaji till the corrective measures were taken to streamline the PPCC," he said. Meanwhile, the rebel Congress leaders have indicated that they will either field their own candidate or might support the Akali candidate, if the Congress high command failed to change the candidate. Among those who were in favour of Harjinder Singh Thekedar included Ashwani Kale Shah, a councillor, Sanjay Sharma, Puran Singh Chaudhry, Ajit Singh and Balram Kumar, many former municipal councillors and presidents of various political and social organisations. Give ticket to secular candidate: Bolaria A meeting of some Hindu organisations, presided over by Inderbir Singh Bolaria, councillor of Shiromani Akali Dal, here today urged the party high command to allocate party ticket for the forthcoming Amritsar (South) Assembly constituency to a person with 'secular' credentials. The supporters of Bolaria said the ticket should be given to him because it fell vacant following the death of his father Raminder Singh Bolaria. http://www.ibnlive.com/news/gujarat-woman-protests-in-nude-against-cops/65001-3.html?xml Gujarat woman protests in nude against cops CNN-IBN Published on Sat, May 10, 2008 at 18:13, Updated at Sat, May 10, 2008 in Nation section Tags: Nude Protest, Chotila , New Delhi STRANGE BUT TRUE: The woman had come to Chotila a week ago after a rift with her husband. New Delhi: A 35-year-old woman staged a nude protest against the local police in Chotila village in Gujarat. She was protesting against the police levying false allegations against her. The woman, Kailash had come to Chotila a week ago after a rift with her husband and was summoned by the local police station for interrogation about frequent thefts in the area. "The police reached the place. Many truckers had stopped there. They sorted out the traffic situation. A woman constable was called to dress her up and she was taken to a hospital to check her mental state," a police official said. Kailash was arrested and admitted to the government hospital where the doctors have given her tranquilizers. http://www.rxpgnews.com/india/MIM-stages-protest-at-Andhra-police-headquarters_31591.shtml Last Updated: May 21, 2007 - 4:00:57 AM MIM stages protest at Andhra police headquarters May 20, 2007 - 4:57:36 PM Akbaruddin Owaisi, the parliamentarian's younger brother and MIM's leader in the state assembly, and other party leaders also participated in the protest. By IANS, [RxPG] Hyderabad, May 20 - The Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen -, a party with a large following in the Muslim-majority old city of Hyderabad, Sunday staged a protest in front of the Andhra Pradesh police headquarters demanding immediate suspension of the police officials responsible for firing after Friday's bomb blast at the historic Mecca Masjid. Led by party leader and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, MIM activists staged a sit-in in front of the office of Director General of Police - in Saifabad, throwing traffic out of gear in the heart of the city. Tension prevailed for some time as the activists, who were carrying black flags, tried to barge into the high-security office, abutting the state legislative assembly building. They shouted slogans against police and set afire an effigy DGP M.A. Basit. The young parliamentarian demanded that the government immediately order an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation - into the bomb blast and the police firing and suspension of officials for opening fire. The 17th-century Mecca Masjid, near the city's famous landmark of Charminar, was targeted with a powerful blast Friday afternoon. Soon after that, police had fired on a protesting mob to quell violence. Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy said Saturday that 11 people were killed in the mosque blast, while five died in police firing. On Saturday night, the police chief had clarified that nine people died in the blast and five in firing. Owaisi, however, said 10 people died in police firing and seven in the blast. Basit had initially denied police firing and claimed that only rubber bullets were fired. During a meeting called by Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil here Saturday, the DGP had defended the police action. 'We want an immediate CBI inquiry and immediate suspension of guilty officers and if these demands are not met then there is no difference between the governments of Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat,' said Owaisi, whose party is an ally of the ruling Congress. 'The firing was unprovoked. Some policemen deliberately targeted protesters and shot them in their chests,' alleged the MP. Akbaruddin Owaisi, the parliamentarian's younger brother and MIM's leader in the state assembly, and other party leaders also participated in the protest. The old city, which is home to half of the city's four million population, is a traditional stronghold of MIM. The party won all the five assembly seats in the old city and the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat in the 2004 elections. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/28/stories/2008052851790300.htm Rallies, dharnas mark journalists' protest Special Correspondent Various organisations condemn attack on Andhra Jyothi office in Hyderabad SRIKAKULAM: Media persons in the district took out a rally and staged a dharna here on Tuesday condemning the attack by MRPS activists on the office of Andhra Jyothi, a Telugu daily. They demanded immediate arrest of those behind the attack. They took out a rally from the Press Club and went to the office of the SP where they submitted a memorandum. An effigy of Manda Krishna Madiga was burnt at Dr. Ambedkar statue. Representatives of TDP, CPI(M), CPI and other voluntary organisations expressed solidarity with the media persons and joined the rally. At a meeting held at the Press Club earlier speakers described the incident as an attack on freedom of press. On Monday evening, presspersons formed a human chain at the busy Seven-road junction to register their protest against the attack. Rajahmundry: Andhra Pradesh Union of Working Journalists (APUWJ), AP Electronic Media Association (APEMA) and Press Photographers' Association on Tuesday passed a resolution demanding protection to offices of media organisations, journalists and photographers. At a joint meeting held at the Press Club, print and electronic media journalists and photographers strongly condemned the attacks by MRPS activists on the offices of Andhra Jyothi and sought measures to prevent such incidents. They also resolved to stop the coverage of the activities of MRPS in protest against its attack on the offices of Andhra Jyothi. VIZIANAGARAM: Journalists under the aegis of Andhra Pradesh Union of Working Journalists blocked traffic at Mayuri junction in the town. Later, they burnt the effigy of Manda Krishna Madiga, MRPS president. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/28/stories/2008052853670400.htm Journalists protest; MRPS adamant Special Correspondent Three MRPS activists held for attack on 'Andhra Jyothi' office - PHOTO: K. RAMESH BABU Agitated: Journalists staging dharna protesting against attack on 'Andhra Jyothi' office in Hyderabad on Tuesday. HYDERABAD: Even as journalists across the State registered their protest over the Monday's attacks on the offices of 'Andhra Jyothi' Telugu daily by taking out rallies, members of over two dozen associations representing the weaker sections led by the Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi (MRPS) persisted with their demand of an unconditional apology from the newspaper. At almost all major towns and cities including Visakhapatnam, Tirupati, Guntur, Adilabad, Anantapur, Kadapa, Kurnool, Srikakulam, and Vizianagaram, journalists organised processions, staged 'rasta rokos' and petitioned District Collectors and Superintendents of Police about the attack on the freedom of the press by the MRPS. In almost all the districts, journalists' associations adopted resolutions to boycott all MRPS programmes for at least a week. MRPS leader Manda Krishna, however, vehemently defended the vandalism indulged in by his activists and said he planned to move the Courts under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and the defamation laws against the daily and its Managing Director. CLP condemns In some places, MRPS cadres and other organisations working for the weaker sections took our rallies accusing a section of the press of demoralising them. Meanwhile, the Congress Legislature Party has advised the newspaper's management not to attribute motives to the State Government for the attack. Condemning the incident as undemocratic, MLA Vatti Vasant Kumar said it was unfortunate that the newspaper management was pointing an accusing finger at the Government. He recalled that soon after the incident, action was initiated and culprits nabbed, pointing out that there was no need for Government to shield the offenders. He said Government had no intention to provoke anyone to carry out the attack which was reprehensible. Another attack A day after activists of the Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi (MRPS) attacked the head office of Andhra Jyothi, a Telugu daily, in Jubilee Hills, the police on Tuesday took three persons into custody. "We are questioning them for collecting more information," said DCP (West) C. Ravi Verma. He said round-the-clock security was provided to the office to prevent any attacks. Meanwhile, three persons suspected to be MRPS activists attacked zonal office of Andhra Jyothi at Dilsukhnagar on Tuesday morning. They came on a motorcycle, broke open the office door and damaged glass panes, furniture and computer. Journalists later took out a rally from Dilsukhnagar to L. B. Nagar crossroads condemning the attack. They submitted a memorandum to the Cyberabad DCP M. Kantha Rao seeking stern action against attackers. http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Protesters-block-KalkaShimla-NH-at-Dharampur-for-3-hours/314358/ Protesters block Kalka-Shimla NH at Dharampur for 3 hours ARVIND KASHYAP Posted online: Monday , May 26, 2008 at 10:02:05 Updated: Monday , May 26, 2008 at 10:02:05 Solan, May 25 Angered over alleged police inaction in the case of a local youth's suicide, hundreds of people today blocked vehicular traffic for over three hours on the Kalka-Shimla National Highway, outside Dharampur police station, to register their protest. Trouble started in the morning when the news of local youth Gaurav Rattan's suicide spread in the town. Gaurav (23), relative of a cloth merchant of the town, allegedly hanged himself from a ceiling fan last night. In a complaint lodged with Dharampur police by Neeru Sharma, the deceased's mother, it was alleged that Gaurav had some dispute with one Rishabh Garg last week. Rishabh had complained to the police and both were summoned to the police station, where the matter was resolved. However, it was alleged that some relatives of Rishabh started harassing Gaurav through police officials. The matter reached the office of the SSP, who summoned both parties two days back. Feeling that the rival party had influenced the police, Gaurav committed suicide last night. However, no suicide note was recovered. As the news spread, hundreds of people came out on the road and raised slogans against police officials at 8.30 am, demanding that erring police officials be suspended. The block was lifted at 11.30 am only after ADM, SDM and ASP intervened. Additional Superintendent of Police S.R. Rana, who visited the spot, said Assistant Sub-Inspector Desh Raj and Head Constable Krishan Kumar have been shifted to Police Lines and a departmental inquiry has been ordered against them. Kasauli constituency MLA Dr Rajeev Sehjal also faced the wrath of the protesters, but assured them of an impartial probe. Later, the police arrested a local trader, Radhe Shayam Garg, on the charge of abetment of suicide under Section 306 of the IPC. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/27/stories/2008062760180400.htm Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram DYFI plans State-wide protests today Staff Reporter Against 'violent stir' by Congress, BJP THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) will organise State-wide protests on Friday to focus attention on the "violent agitations" being organised these days by the Congress and the BJP. This was stated at a press conference here on Thursday by K.S. Sunilkumar, member of the State secretariat of the DYFI. Referring to the clash between activists of the DYFI and the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Mocha in front of the Secretariat here on Thursday evening, Mr. Sunilkumar said the "first stone" had come from the Morcha activists. This was a pre-meditated attack as was the stoning of the NGO union process in front of the secretariat earlier in the day. By unleashing violence on the streets, the BJP and its feeder organisations had become the 'B team' of the UDF, he said. When the DYFI protest march reached the Secretariat the activists squatted on the road well away from the barricade across the road erected by the police. When the Morcha activists started throwing stones, some DYFI activists threw them back. The police were caught in the middle and they reacted. This could not be interpreted as providing help to the DYFI, he argued. Four DYFI activists who were injured in the incident were hospitalised, Mr. Sunilkumar added. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/24/stories/2008052451200300.htm AIYF protests Centre's 'failures' Staff Reporter ANANTAPUR: Activists of the All-India Youth Federation (AIYF) staged a dharna in front of the RDO's office here on Friday in protest against the alleged failures of the UPA Government at the Centre. The UPA Government had failed to keep several promises made before the 2004 elections, though it had completed four-year term, it alleged. Leading the protest, CPI district secretary D. Jagadish, AIYF leaders K.Y. Prasad, N. Sreeramulu and Ramakrishna alleged that the NREGS introduced to provide 100 days of work to the unemployed rural youth and farm workers during the lean periods had become an easy source of income for elected representatives and officials. The scheme is being misused as there is no financial commitment for the State Government and alleged that no proper planning is being made for execution of the selected works. The Centre also is adopting an escapist attitude by blaming the previous NDA Government and the international market conditions for the price rise of essential commodities, he alleged. Further, the Centre's failure in respect of law and order, also came in for criticism. The intelligence wing is in deep slumber and is unable to foresee the terrorist attacks. The unemployed youth are not getting jobs even decades after registering their names with employment exchanges as they have become mere name enrolment centres, the CPI and AIYF leaders alleged. They demanded 33 per cent quota for women in law making bodies, a comprehensive national youth policy along with budgetary support, a comprehensive law for workers of unorganised sector and distribution of lands to farm workers and unemployed youth in rural areas. Later, they submitted a memorandum to RDO Gangadhar Reddy. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/26/stories/2008042652460300.htm Congress workers protest 'injustice' Staff Correspondent BELLARY: Workers of the Congress party staged demonstrations here on Friday in protest against what they termed the inappropriate selection of candidates for three Assembly constituencies in the district." After the resentment of party workers in Kudligi, who opposed the candidature of N.T. Bommanna, similar protests were held in Hospet and Sirguppa constituencies. In Kudligi, party workers, mostly supporters of the former Minister Bhagirathi Marulasiddanagouda, were of the firm view that S. Venkatesh was a more acceptable candidate and was sure to win. They demanded that he be given party ticket and not Mr. Bommanna. They threatened to boycott the polls if a decision to that effect was not taken. Sensing trouble, the party high command has reportedly decided to field Mr. Venkatesh. Around 1,000 party workers, including women from Sirguppa Assembly constituency, staged a demonstration in front of the District Congress Committee office in Bellary city demanding ticket for B.M. Nagaraj instead of Ramaiah. They submitted a memorandum addressed to the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee in this regard. In Hospet, the supporters of Deepak Singh, a mine owner, staged a demonstration on Thursday urging the leaders to field him as party candidate from the Vijayanagar Assembly constituency. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/23/stories/2008042353820400.htm Congress workers' protest blocks road Special Correspondent Demand that their leaders be nominated by the party to contest Assembly elections - Photo: Bhagya Prakash K. Backing their leader: Supporters of R.V. Devaraj staging a protest in front of the KPCC office in Bangalore on Tuesday demanding that he be nominated to contest the Assembly elections from Chickpet constituency. Bangalore: The police had to be called in to disperse the crowd in front of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee office on Queen's Road. Followers of R.V. Devaraj, who has been denied a ticket to contest from Chickpet constituency, were blocking the road during peak hour on Tuesday morning. Around the same time, Congress workers from Rajajinagar and Mahalakshmi Layout constituencies also arrived, demanding that their leaders, Puttaraju, former Deputy Mayor of Bangalore, and Nagaraju be given ticket. Decision today The Congress high command has withheld its decision to nominate P.R. Ramesh, former Mayor of Bangalore, whose request to contest from Chickpet constituency had been approved. He has not been given the B form for filing his nomination papers. A final decision on the nominee will be taken on Wednesday. Mr. Devaraj, a close associate of the former Chief Minister S.M. Krishna, gave up the Chamarajpet seat, which he won in the 1999 elections, to allow Mr. Krishna to contest from there in the 2004 elections. Though he was accommodated in the Legislative Council, he resigned from the Council to contest the byelection following the resignation of Mr. Krishna after he was appointed Governor of Maharashtra. But Mr. Devaraj lost to Zamir Ahmed Khan of the Janata Dal (Secular). Now that parts of the old Chamarajpet constituency have been included in Chickpet constituency after the delimitation process, Mr. Devaraj has sought to be nominated from Chickpet. Owners of shops and establishments on J.C. Road, where Mr. Devaraj's office is situated, and surrounding areas, which form part of Chamarajpet constituency, downed shutters in support of his candidature. Sources said that the party was in a fix on nominating a candidate for the Jayanagar Assembly constituency. It had announced in the first list of candidates that Samiullah would be the nominee. But the decision had to be kept in abeyance following serious reservations expressed by party workers and members of the public, sources said. A large number of Vokkaligas in the party have reportedly urged the high command to field Mr. Krishna. The party, sources said, may ask the veteran Congressman to contest from either Maddur or Jayanagar. The Vokkaligara Vedike of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee has criticised the high command for not fielding Mr. Krishna. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/21/stories/2008082154140400.htm Karnataka - Bangalore Protest against defections BANGALORE: Activists of Kannada Chaluvali Vatal Paksha staged a "broomstick" protest near the office of the Chief Electoral Officer here, condemning the defection by MLAs. The former MLA and Vatal Paksha president Vatal Nagaraj said that it was a bad trend that elected representatives defected for the sake of power by resigning their Assembly membership thereby forcing byelection on the people. "The Election Commission should amend the Anti-Defection Law so as to bar the defectors from contesting in the elections for six years," Mr. Nagaraj said. - Staff Reporter http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/15/stories/2008051560311000.htm Protest seeks Binayak Sen's release Staff Reporter It also demands the release of Ajay TG, a film maker and PUCL member - Photo: K.V.Srinivasan FOR A CAUSE: Activists staging a demonstration seeking the release of Binayak Sen in Chennai on Wednesday. CHENNAI: Around 200 doctors, medical postgraduates, law students, human rights activists, lawyers and film makers took part in a demonstration on Wednesday demanding the immediate release of eminent paediatrician and human rights activist Binayak Sen. The demonstration by activists of Campaign Committee for the Release of Dr.Binayak Sen, Tamil Nadu, was held as part of International Day of Protest, to mark one year of his detention under the Chhattisgarh Public Security Act (CPSA), 2005, by the BJP Government. The activists also sought the release of Ajay TG, a film maker and a member of the People's Union for Civil Liberties, who had been imprisoned under the same act a couple of weeks ago. They sought immediate repeal of the CPSA and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 2004. Blood donation drive Similar protests were held in six cities including Madurai, Coimbatore, Tiruchengode, Bhavani and Sivagangai in the State. Expressing solidarity with the Campaign Committee for the Release of Dr. Binayak Sen, doctors, nurses and other staff at CMC Vellore have initiated a year-long blood donation drive. Dr. Rakhal Gaitonde of the campaign committee said a memorandum carrying the signature of people from all over the State was faxed to the Governor and the Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh. Dr. Binayak Sen gave up his private practice and corporate hospital practice and chose to work with miners, Adivasis, people who were displaced by dam projects and rural communities. Recently 22 Nobel laureates have expressed concern about his continuing detention and have written to the President of India and the Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/15/stories/2008051551820300.htm Autorickshaw drivers stage protest in Vaniyambadi Staff Reporter - Photo: D. Gopalakrishnan A section of auto drivers protesting against police 'ill treatment' at Vaniyambadi. VANIYAMBADI: A section of the autorickshaw drivers at Vaniyambadi in Vellore District staged a one-and-a-half day protest beginning Tuesday to condemn what they allege the ill treatment meted to them by the Vaniyambadi Sub Division Police on the pretext of streamlining the traffic movement in some of the congested areas here. The autorickshaw drivers at the stand in the Vaniyambadi Bus Stand wanted the police to soft handle issues pertaining to the autorickshaw drivers. The autorickshaw drivers said that a Sub Inspector was always indifferent to the problems faced by them. The Sub Inspector ill-treated the drivers whenever they went with some petitions. They demanded, among other things, identification of additional locations for the autostand. In Vaniyambadi, there were more than 750 autorickshaws. Arul Srinivasan, CPI (M) Secretary, Vaniyambadi Taluk, said that there was a total of over 1,000 autorickshaw drivers in Vaniyambadi. On May 13, an autorickshaw driver, who was stuck in a traffic snarl on C.L. Road, was allegedly kicked by one of the Inspectors of the Vaniyambadi Sub Division with his shoes. The Inspector wanted the autorickshaw driver to immediately move the vehicle. On knowing about the incident, the other drivers decided not to ply their vehicles until the Inspector apologised for the ill treatment. It was under these circumstances Mr. Arul Srinivasan along with the Auto Drivers Association District Secretary M.P.Ramachandran and CITU vice president S.M.Hanif met the Vaniyambadi Sub Division Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) M.Suresh Kumar to brief him about the alleged atrocities committed by the police department against the drivers. A particular reference was made to the incident where the Inspector kicked an auto rickshaw driver with his shoe. However, a compromise was reached as the DSP had assured that he would soon organise a joint meeting of auto drivers with the Motor Vehicle Inspector, police and trade union leaders to smoothly settle the issue. The DSP also said that the demands of the autorickshaw drivers would be discussed at the meeting. Based on the assurance, the autorickshaw drivers gave up their protest from Wednesday afternoon. Mr. Srinivasan said that the Inspector had apologised for his action. However, Mr. Suresh Kumar said that the Inspector had only streamlined the traffic movement on C.L.Road. The Inspector did not manhandle the autorickshaw driver. The autorickshaw drivers have been instructed to take the help of the police department to identify the locations for the auto stand. Only those autorickshaws at the stand in Vaniyambadi Bus Stand were off the road.Mr. Srinivasan further said that the auto drivers in Vaniyambadi would participate in the all India strike slated on May 15 condemning the price hike of diesel, petrol and other essential commodities. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/24/stories/2008042452890300.htm Protesting Congress workers lock party office in Raichur Staff Correspondent Demand ticket for Raja Amareshwara Naik from Raichur Rural constituency Opposition: Congress activists setting tyres on fire in front of the district unit office of the party in Raichur on Wednesday. Raichur: Tension prevailed for a while on the District Congress Committee office premises here on Wednesday after a group of party workers staged a dharna and locked the office in protest against the denial of the party ticket to the former Minister Raja Amareshwara Naik. Mr. Amareshwara Naik had sought the party ticket from the Raichur Rural Assembly constituency (earlier Kalmala segment) from where he had won in the 1999 elections. The district committee had included the name of Mr. Amareshwara Naik in list sent to the party high command for selecting the candidates. However, on Tuesday, the party announced Raja Rayappa Naik, Mr. Amareshwara Naik's cousin, as its official candidate for the constituency. This has disappointed the followers of Mr. Amareshwara Naik. About 1,000 party workers, led by Babu Rao, general secretary of the State unit of the farmers' wing of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), staged the dharna. They shouted slogans against Venkatesh Naik, Raichur MP, holding him responsible for the denial of ticket to Mr. Amareshwara Naik. They demanded that district unit president of the party A. Vasanthkumar should bring pressure on the party high command to nominate Mr. Amareshwara Naik as the official candidate from Raichur Rural constituency. When there was no response from the party leaders who were inside the office, the protesters burnt tyres in front of the gate and locked the main door. Assurance Mr. Vasanthkumar appealed to the protesters to withdraw their agitation as the decision on Mr. Rayappa Naik's candidature was taken by the party high command. The protesters ended the dharna after Mr. Vasanthkumar assured them that he would take up the issue with the party high command. Later, speaking to presspersons, Mr. Rao said that they were surprised at the candidature of Mr. Rayappa Naik. Mr. Amareshwara Naik's supporters suspected that the Raichur MP was behind this, he said. He said that the supporters would take out a protest march from Ambedkar Circle to the Congress office on Thursday and resort to indefinite fast in front of the office until Mr. Amareshwara Naik was nominated from Raichur Rural segment. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/25/stories/2008042553210300.htm Protests continue for the second day Special Correspondent Supporters of Ramakrishna, Pawar stage demonstrations IN PROTEST: Supporters of the former Minister, G. Ramakrishna, taking out a procession in Gulbarga on Thursday. GULBARGA: The protests and the sense of discontent against the denial of party ticket to senior leaders in the Gulbarga district Congress continued for the second day on Thursday with supporters of the former Minister, G. Ramakrishna, taking out a procession and staging a protest in front of the District Congress Committee office for denying ticket to their leader from the Gulbarga Rural Assembly constituency. Another group of supporters of another Congress leader from Shahabad Subash Pawar also staged an angry demonstration in front of the District Congress Committee office voicing its protest against the denial of party ticket to the leader from Gulbarga Rural Assembly Constituency. The scheduled visit of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president M. Mallikarjun Kharge to Gulbarga on Friday has generated interest in the party circles. The leaders, who were denied party ticket in Shahapur, Gulbarga Rural, Gulbarga South and Sedam Assembly constituencies, are likely to meet Mr. Kharge and voice their protests. Mr. Kharge, who is scheduled to arrive here by helicopter, has no scheduled programmes in the city. Meanwhile, a crucial meeting of the supporters of the former MLA, Shivashekarappa Patil Sirwal, at Shahapur in which several senior leaders, including the party MLC, Amatappa Kandakur, participated, decided to go by the final decision taken by Mr. Sirwal on the future course of action. The meeting voiced its anguish over the party's denial of ticket to Mr. Sirwal and preferring a new comer and the former Minister, Sharanabasappa Darshanapur. Mr. Sirwal told his supporters at the meeting that he had held discussions with both Mr. Mallikarjun Kharge and the former Chief Minister, N. Dharam Singh, and the two leaders advised him to wait till Friday and not to take any hasty decision which would harm his political future. "I have still confidence in these two leaders that they will do justice to me and I will wait till tomorrow before taking any final decision on the next course of action," he said. However, Mr. Sirwal rejected the demand made by a few speakers at the meeting that he should contest as an independent in Shahapur this time and said that this amounted to rebellion against the party's decision. "I have a 30-year association with the party and I do not want to jeopardise it by any hasty decision," he said. Mr. Sirwal said that there were offers from other political parties which had promised him to give party ticket to contest from Shahapur. "I have resisted all these tempting offers in the hope that the Congress will not deny me the opportunity to fight the elections this time [on its ticket]," he said. However, Mr. Sirwal was not clear whether he would remain in the party or join another as a protest now. There were unconfirmed reports of the Janata Dal (S) offering the party ticket to Mr. Sirwal this time against the Congress' Mr. Sharanabasappa Darshanapur. Incidentally, Mr. Darshanapur had contested on the Janata Dal(S) ticket in the last Assembly elections against Mr. Sirwal and won the seat for the party. The Janata Dal(S) is yet to announce its candidate for the Shahapur Assembly constituency. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/25/stories/2008042554690500.htm AIYF protest Police station march: A march taken out by the All India Youth Federation (AIYF) to the Manjeri police station on Thursday in protest against alleged police excesses on its activists during a protest against Spencer's earlier this week. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/06/stories/2008050651170300.htm Mahila Sanghom protest Thiruvananthapuram: The State unit of the Kerala Mahila Sanghom has protested against the use of force on the activists of pro-Left women's organisations who were demonstrating in front of Parliament demanding the introduction and enactment of the women's reservation Bill during the current session. R. Letha Devi, president, and Kamala Sadanandan, secretary of the State unit, said in a statement here on Monday that 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and the Assemblies was a major promise of the United Progressive Alliance government. Its failure to implement the reservation even during the fag end of its term was ridiculous and a challenge to women and democracy. They asked the government to introduce and enact the bill in the Rajya Sabha immediately without waiting for a consensus. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/29/stories/2008042950430300.htm AIADMK cadres protest against telephone tapping Staff Reporter 'CM should own moral responsibility for the incident' - PHOTO: M. GOVARTHAN. AIADMK cardres protesting in front of the Erode Corporation against phone tapping. ERODE: Cadres of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on Monday protested here in front of the Corporation building. Led by the party's Anna Thozhir Sanga Peravai's State joint secretary Shankaradoss the party men alleged that the State Government indulged in tapping telephones of Opposition leaders and others. Mr. Shankaradoss wanted the Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi to own moral responsibility for the telephone tapping incident involving the Chief Secretary and a senior police officer and resign. Hundreds of AIADMK cadres participated in the protest. http://story.indiagazette.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/701ee96610c884a6/id/356126/cs/1/ Protests in Karachi against arrests of Pakistanis on "fake visa" charges in India India Gazette Tuesday 6th May, 2008 (ANI) Karachi, May 6 : Hundreds of relatives of those arrested in India on charges of fake visas or overstaying their visas, organized a strong protest in front of the Karachi Press Club, alleging that Indian authorities had arrested more than 200 Pakistani visitors on charges of fake visas, even though they were holding valid visas. The agitated protesters demanded of the Indian and Pakistani governments to take immediate notice of the arrests and work towards release of the Pakistani prisoners. The protesters said that Pakistanis attached much significance to visiting India, and consider it as a "sacred trip". "Our parents consider a visit to India a 'sacred trip' because they have memories of their childhood associated with it. Is it a crime to meet ones' parents?" the Daily Times quoted one Yousuf Raza as saying. Daud Mandra, one of the protesters, said that Indian authorities had arrested some of his family members despite the fact that they were holding valid visas for two months. "My younger brother, Sultan, his wife and two-year-old daughter decided to take the trip two years ago. The visa process did not give them a chance to fulfill my mother's desire. The Indian authorities asked them to leave India because their visa was for one month only. They left Pakistan on March 22 for the Indian district Kutch-Buj as most of their relatives live there. My mother is still in village Waradi, but my brother who was coming back along with his wife and daughter was arrested at Attari," said Daud. He added: "It was shocking for me to find out that around six elderly women were never contacted by their Pakistani counterparts. How can old women get fake visas, and even if they did, why were they allowed to cross the borders legally? This is injustice to Pakistanis. Most of the people from Kutch lack proper orientation for visiting any country." According to the paper, most of the victims belong to the Kutchi community, mostly settled in Lyari, Machhar Colony, Khokhrapar, Kumbhar Wara and Keamari. Mandra, Hingora, Sanghar, Noutiar, Pirzada and Kumbhar. Their next of kin participated in the protest demonstration, carrying banners and placards, demanding that the Pakistani and Indian authorities should take immediate steps to investigate the matter so that the fear can be minimized for other visitors too. http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=129613 Relatives of detainees hold protest at KPC Tuesday, August 12, 2008 By our correspondent Karachi A large number of relatives of Pakistanis detained at Indian jails staged a protest demonstration on Monday outside the Karachi Press Club. They urged the Pakistani government to ensure their safe release without further delay. Dawood Mandra, the activist who organised the rally, said that around 200 people belonging to different areas of Karachi were captured by Indian authorities allegedly in the case of visa tampering four months ago while they were returning home. Mandra said he has a list with passports copies of about 38 people, adding that he has received the fresh list from Indian family friends, which shows that 69 people are in the jails. But later, he said, they have collected further information which reveals that the number might be more than 200 people, including ailing women and men. He said Urooz Bisma, a baby who will celebrate her second birthday in Indian jail is also among the detainees. The protestors, including women and youth carrying placards were shouting slogans against the Indian authorities, who they blamed, have manipulated the documents of their relatives to justify the arrest of the Pakistani citizens. They also demanded the Pakistan government to take initiative and use diplomatic sources to get them released. They said relatives living here are worried about the people languishing in Indian jails. Furthermore, they pointed out that the Pakistani government should take action against the people who are involved in the game of motivating innocent people for getting visa and minting money. They said these agents are exploiting innocent people of the city. The protestors said there are several organisations who are involved in this crime and because of having close links to influential they are still at large. The detainees travelled to India on different occasions to visit their relatives there. They stayed there for two to three months and were returning home when they were caught by Indian border security forces allegedly over the charges of having tampered visas. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Fri Aug 29 16:30:17 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:30:17 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Pro-democracy protests, Myanmar/Burma, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <005201c90a2f$33a9da80$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * 48 arrested for commemorating democracy uprising * Protests in Arakan * Opposition protesters arrested * Self-immolated protester dies * Solo female protester arrested * Solidarity rally in Malaysia * Protest by exiles against referendum, scuffles at embassy in Japan * Protests in Thailand, Singapore, India * Japan: Journalist's supporters renew campaign * UK: Series of protests target Total Oil over Burma links * UK: democracy unrest commemorated * Monks spread fake blood in Bangladesh * Overseas Burmese protest constitution * Burmese monks protest at Cannes film festival * Burmese protest in Jamaica http://politicom.moldova.org/stiri/eng/141077/ Myanmar protest ends in arrests At least 48 people have been arrested in Myanmar for holding a march to mark the 20th anniversary of a pro-democracy revolt, activists said. Ko Thein Naing, an official with the League for Democracy, told The Telegraph that most of those picked up were young men. They were walking in silence through Taunggok, a town in the northwest of the country formerly known as Burma, when they were stopped by police, Naing said. The protesters wore black T-shirts with the date 8-8-88 -- when thousands of people took to the streets for demonstrations that lasted six weeks before being put down. Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who has been under house arrest for years, emerged as a leader in 1988. Most of the country has been quiet, the British newspaper reported, with heavy security around Buddhist monasteries that have been focal points for dissidents. http://www.burmanet.org/news/2008/08/08/mizzima-news-protests-in-arakan-states-taungup-20-arrested-%e2%80%93-phanida/ Mizzima News: Protests in Arakan state's Taungup, 20 arrested - Phanida Fri 8 Aug 2008 Filed under: News, Inside Burma Commemorating the 20th anniversary of the '8.8.88' uprising today, at least 20 youths in Taungup town in Burma's Arakan state were arrested after they took to the streets and began marching in protest. The protesters, mainly youths from Nat Maw village, were whisked away by the police as they marched across Taungup township police station, sources said. Thein Naing, Joint Secretary of the Taungup Township National League for Democracy, Burma's main opposition party, told Mizzima that about 25 people from Nat Maw village on Friday marched along the streets of Taungup town. "They begun marching from Chaung Kauk ward and came along Ottama street but when they arrived in front of the township police station, the road was blocked with barbed wire barricades. They were taken away by the authorities," Thein Naing said. Villagers of Nat Maw, about three miles from Taungup town, on Thursday held a similar protest march joined by a larger crowd of nearly 200 people. On Thursday, about 200 villagers of Nat Maw held a commemoration service on the eve of the 20th anniversary of '8.8.88' protests at two Buddhist monasteries and held a brief demonstration in front of the monasteries. "About 200 students, and youths including youth members of the NLD offered 'Swan' to the monks in commemoration of fallen comrades and held a brief demonstration in front of the monasteries," Thein Naing said. While it was not clear, how the demonstrations were held on Thursday, so far there are no reports of any arrest related to the event. Sources said, authorities had tightened security, with security personnel seen everywhere in and around Taungup town. Thein Naing said, Burmese Army LIB 544 based in Taungup had taken charge of security and police had blocked the road as well as the water way. "Soldiers in full battle gear are seen every where in the town. I think I saw at least 60 of them," Thein Naing said. Taungup town is about 250 miles northwest of Rangoon, Burma's former capital. Meanwhile, in Rangoon, sources said heavy security presence is felt, with soldiers seen everywhere in important street junctions and squares including Sule Pagoda square in the heart of the city, and Shwe Dagon Pagoda, the holiest shrine of the country. Observers believe the heavy security presence is preventive measures by the junta to stop any movement or protests by activists in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of popular protests in August 8, 2008, which was brutally suppressed by killing at least 3000 people. http://www.mizzima.com/news/regional/5-regional/916-arakanese-organisations-call-for-release-of-protesters- Arakanese organisations call for release of protesters Phanida Monday, 18 August 2008 20:14 Chiang Mai - Several Araknese political organizations on Monday roundly condemned the junta for arresting and imprisonment of five protesters in Taungup, Arkana State and call on their immediate release. The Bangladesh based Rakhine Women's Union (RWU) said it is unfair and unethical to arrest and sentence peaceful protesters - Ni Ni May Myint, Maung Maung Thet, Chit Maung Maung, Moe Naing Soe and Than Lwin - to two and-a-half years in prison for marching in a procession on August 8 this year. "The peaceful procession does not tantamount to creating unrest and disturbing public tranquility. They marched in procession peacefully. But the regime arrested them and sentenced them to prison terms unfairly. We condemn the action and demand their immediate release," Saw Mra Raza Linn, RWU Chairwoman said. The Sandoway District Court sentenced the protesters to imprisonment for "inducing to commit crime against public tranquility and unlawful assembly". Similarly the 'Arakan League for Democracy' (ALD) which won 11 seats in the 1990 general elections reiterated its call for a dialogue to resolve the current political imbroglio. "They are not doing anything to resolve the political crisis through dialogue. If they want to resolve the political crisis, they must initiate a dialogue. Otherwise the number of prison inmates will increase and the people will keep suffering. Dialogue is unavoidable for national reconciliation. This is the only way out for a peaceful transition to democracy from the current political impasse," Thein Hlaing, Joint-Secretary of Arakan State ALD said. The arrests are being made by the regime in this politically active Rakhine State continuously. ALD MP-elect Nyi Pu Lay was arrested on August 12 and solo protester Myint Thein Chea and his wife Ma Htay Htay were arrested on August 15. http://www.3news.co.nz/News/ProdemocracyprotestersinMyanmarbeatenandtakenaway/tabid/209/articleID/60070/Default.aspx?ArticleID=60070 Pro-democracy protesters in Myanmar beaten and taken away Aung San Suu Kyi Thu, 19 Jun 2008 9:36p.m. Witnesses say Myanmar's ruling military junta has detained 12 opposition party members who called for the release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on her 63rd birthday. Witnesses say the 12 were taken into a truck after dozens of Suu Kyi's supporters gathered outside National League for Democracy party's headquarters in Yangon. They say some of those detained were punched and beaten before being taken away. The witnesses were speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisal. The protesters shouted slogans calling for the government to immediately release Suu Kyi "who has been unfairly detained". Last month, the junta extended the house arrest of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate for a sixth year, despite international protests. AP http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080422/NEWS04/772992147/-1/NEWS09 Last updated: April 22, 2008 2:44 p.m. Burned Myanmar protester dies Associated Press Advertisement YANGON, Myanmar - A man who set himself on fire at Myanmar's most revered Buddhist temple to protest military rule has died of his injuries, hospital officials said Tuesday. Kyaw Zin Naing suffered burns to more than 60 percent of his body in his March 21 protest at the Shwedagon pagoda in the city of Yangon, the officials said on condition of anonymity because they could be punished for revealing information about a politically sensitive matter. The 26-year-old man died April 17, they said. Kyaw Zin Naing's protest was the first known case of self-immolation in Myanmar since the military took power in 1962. According to witnesses, the man shouted "Down with the military regime," before dousing himself with gasoline and setting himself ablaze. His action came at a time of heightened political tension in Myanmar, which has been preparing for a May 10 referendum on a new military-backed constitution. The junta's critics charge that the charter - a stage on the junta's so-called "roadmap to democracy" - was drafted in an undemocratic way, and that it would perpetuate military rule. The National League for Democracy party of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has urged voters to reject the draft constitution, but long-standing restrictions on freedom of speech and harassment of pro-democracy activists have made it difficult to mount a campaign against the proposed charter. Thousands of pilgrims were at the pagoda for a Buddhist holy day when Kyaw Zin Naing set himself alight. The Shwedagon temple has a history as a center for mass political gatherings, and was a focus for Buddhist monks and pro-democracy protests last September. At least 31 people were killed and thousands more were detained when the country's military rulers cracked down on the peaceful demonstrations. Myanmar has had no constitution since 1988 when the current junta took power and scrapped the previous charter after violently quashing mass pro-democracy demonstrations. Suu Kyi's party won the last general election in 1990, but the military refused to hand over power, instead stepping up its repression of dissidents. http://www.burmanet.org/news/2008/06/27/mizzima-news-solo-female-protester-arrested-myint-maung/ Mizzima News: Solo female protester arrested - Myint Maung Fri 27 Jun 2008 Filed under: News, Inside Burma A Burmese woman was arrested on Wednesday evening after staging a solo protest at a busy downtown district near the popular Sule Pagoda, in the country's former capital Rangoon. The solo protestor, who shouted slogans for the release of detained Burmese opposition leader and democracy icon Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners, was taken in by about 30 riot police personnel. She staged a protest for nearly 15 minutes near the Sule Pagoda on the junction of 32nd Street and Mahabandula Street. Nyan Win, spokesperson of Burma's main opposition party - the National League for Democracy - said while they were aware of the arrest of the solo protester, she is yet to be identified as to whether she is a member of the NLD. "We heard that she staged a solo protest. But we still don't know whether she is an NLD member or not," Nyan Win said. A local resident, who witnessed the arrest of the solo protester said, the police, armed with batons and shields, came in two Dyna light trucks and took her away. "She started protesting at about 4 p.m. First 10 riot police personnel reached the spot and later 20 more joined in. The woman protester was taken away even as traffic was coming to a halt and many bystanders were watching the unfolding scene," the local added. Similarly, Burmese authorities last year arrested another solo protester, Ohn Than, for staging a protest in front of the US embassy in Rangoon's downtown Merchant Street. Ohn Than, who is now imprisoned, shouted slogans like 'Establish people's representative government', 'Honour the people's true verdict', 'Down with the military regimes', 'No to China and Russia's veto power'. Ohn Than was arrested at least six times earlier, for staging similar protests. But he was released every time after being kept a few months behind bars. However, after his last arrest on August 23, he was tried by the West District Court, which heard the case in the notorious Insein prison premises on April 2. He was sentenced to life imprisonment under charges of inciting disaffection towards the State. http://www.burmanet.org/news/2008/08/15/mizzima-news-solo-protestor-arrested-in-arakan-state/ Mizzima News: Solo protestor arrested in Arakan state Fri 15 Aug 2008 Filed under: News, Inside Burma A solo protestor in the town of Taungup in western Burma's Arakan state was arrested by local police on Friday morning while marching the streets with a placard calling for the release of detained pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, an eyewitness said. Myint Thein Chea, aged more than 30, on Friday morning marched through the streets of Taungup with a placard reading "Release Our Mother Daw Aung San Suu Kyi" and "Release all political prisoners." But his solo protest was short-lived, as he was arrested by four policemen who came after him on motorbikes. He was then taken to the Taungup Township police station, a local eyewitness on condition of anonymity told Mizzima. "Brandishing his placard, he started marching from Taungup's stone pillar this morning. But he must have only marched for about 15 minutes when four policemen came on motorbikes and forcibly took him away," the eyewitness recounted. Balagyi, a member of the Taungup Township National League for Democracy who was closely following the activities of the protestor, told Mizzima that Myint Thein Chea had on Thursday evening began a solo protest in his locality, Kan Paing ward, for a brief period of time. "He was not arrested yesterday because the authorities did not realize his protest. But this morning when he began marching in the street police arrested him," Balagyi explained. While the reasons for Myint Thein Chea's solo protest remain unclear, the father of three children has since been transferred to the Township Peace and Development Council office after police briefly interrogated him, Balagyi added. "His wife and children are very much worried as they still cannot get information about him," Balagyi said. On August 8, authorities arrested 48 people in Taungup for holding a similar protest in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the popular '8.8.88' uprising. While 43 were later released in the evening following brief interrogations by the police, five key organizers of the protest continue to be held in custody. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/5/11/nation/21218314&sec=nation Sunday May 11, 2008 Myanmar protesters rally in KL KUALA LUMPUR: Protesters gathered in force near the Myanmar embassy here yesterday, in a show of defiance against the Myanmar junta's go-ahead with yesterday's constitutional referendum in spite of the country's current turmoil. Chants were shouted, urging for their fellow countrymen back home to vote "no" against the junta's proposed constitution, which is deemed to be a watered-down roadmap to democracy. The protesters represented the coalition of the Burma Ethnic Nationality Joint Force, which consists of seven ethnic Myanmar groups: KaChin, Karenni, Arakan, Karen, Chin, Mon and Shan. Sea of red: Hundreds of Myanmar protesters demonstrating near the Myanmar embassy in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. They were also unhappy that voting had not been postponed in light of the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis which hit Myanmar week ago and left tens of thousands dead. Curious onlookers caused traffic to come a standstill along Jalan Ampang as the sea of red-clad demonstrators, holding placards and posters, continued their chants near the embassy in Jalan Ampang Hilir. However, police and Federal Reserve Unit personnel barred the protestors some 100m away from the embassy. Seven representatives from the group later handed over a memorandum to an embassy official voicing their discontent. They also spoke against the embassy's refusal to approve travel visas for them to return to Myanmar to help provide aid to their people. The crowd also took part in several minutes of silence and prayer before dispersing at 11am. A second group representing various Myanmar political movements later gathered at the area, sparking off another spate of chanting. Their memorandum was received by embassy secretary Michael Ayea. The group dispersed by noon. http://www.nst.com.my/Sunday/National/2237202/Article/index_html 2008/05/11 2,000 protest against referendum Myanmar protesters gathering in front of the Myanmar Embassy in Kuala Lumpur yesterday where they handed over two memoranda to embassy officials. KUALA LUMPUR: Some 2,000 Myanmar workers gathered in front of the Myanmar Embassy and handed over two memoranda protesting the referendum on the country's new constitution. The two-hour peaceful rally, which began at 9.30am, saw the Myanmars arriving in two batches from Jalan Ampang before they were stopped by members of the Federal Reserve Unit. Police had since early morning cordoned off several roads leading to the embassy at Jalan Ru, off Jalan Ampang Hilir, and stationed FRU trucks at the United States Embassy nearby. Some of the Myanmars wore traditional clothes while others wore red headbands and T-shirts emblazoned with the word "No". They co-operated with police throughout the protest and waited patiently at the blockade before police allowed several representatives to approach the embassy to hand over the memoranda. They also said prayers for those who perished when Myanmar was ravaged by cyclone Nargis. The first group to hand over a memorandum were members of the Burma Ethnic Nationality Joint Force, which is a coalition of seven ethnic groups in Myanmar. The second group comprised members of four political parties - the NLD-Liberated Area, the Arakan League for Democracy, Zomi National Congress-Liberated Area and Democratic Party of New Society. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/27/asia/AS-GEN-Japan-Myanmar.php Pro-democracy Myanmar residents hold mock referendum outside embassy in Japan in protest The Associated Press Published: April 27, 2008 TOKYO: More than 200 Myanmar citizens living in Japan held a mock vote Sunday on the southeast Asian country's new draft constitution, criticizing an official referendum on the charter as a ploy to help the ruling junta stay in power. At least 230 Myanmar expatriates took part in the protest "vote" outside the Myanmar Embassy in Tokyo, organizers said. The protesters "voted down" the draft charter 224 to six, said one of them, Than Htut Aung. They placed an envelope containing the mock ballot cards in the embassy's mailbox, he said. "That's the voice of the people in our country," he said. "The military junta's referendum is meaningless and we strongly oppose it." The Myanmar Embassy had mailed a letter earlier this month to more than 2,000 of its citizens in Japan, inviting them to vote on the proposed constitution in a two-day advance poll held over the weekend at the embassy, Japanese police and the Foreign Ministry said. An estimated 2,300 Myanmar expatriates in Japan received invitations, according to a count by the protesters. It was not immediately known if Myanmar was holding similar votes for its citizens elsewhere. Myanmar's ruling junta, facing growing domestic and international pressure to ease its authoritarian rule, recently announced it will hold the constitutional referendum on May 10 as part of a "road map to democracy." Critics have said the charter is a sham designed to perpetuate military rule and to keep pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi from running for office. In Tokyo on Sunday, protesters also denounced Myanmar's government for not letting all of its citizens living abroad vote in the referendum. The government has stipulated that only citizens with legitimate government documents such as exit permits can vote overseas - a rule that excludes most political exiles and refugees. "All of us should be allowed to vote," Than said. "The military regime is excluding us because they only want the yes votes." Fewer than 100 people had voted officially at the embassy as of Sunday afternoon, according to a count by protesters. No official count was available from the embassy, whose telephone operator hang up when The Associated Press called seeking information. Critics said they did not believe their ballots would be secret and that the majority of those invited to vote did not show up for fear of casting votes against the constitution. A Myanmar man was arrested and 12 demonstrators were injured Saturday in a scuffle with Japanese police as about 150 Myanmar citizens and Japanese supporters demanded all expatriates be allowed to vote. Sunday's protest ended peacefully. http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=1484 Burmese protestors lobby Ban in Japan Jul 1, 2008 (DVB)-More than 200 Burmese nationals living in Japan gathered in front of the United Nations office in Tokyo yesterday to urge visiting UN chief Ban Ki-moon to take effective steps to resolve Burma's political impasse. Thaung Myint Oo from the Japanese branch of the National League of Democracy (Liberated Area) told DVB that the rally was part of the celebration to commemorate the 5th anniversary of the 2003 Depayin Massacre in Burma. "We want him to realise that more incidents like Depayin could happen in our country if the international community, such as the UN and the UNSC, doesn't help and take action against the military regime that uses its utmost military might to repress its own citizens however it wants," said Thaung Myint Oo. On 30 May 2003, junta-back civilians attacked Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's entourage in Depayin township in Sagaing Division, leaving over 70 of her supporters dead and dozens injured. "We want him to know that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy, need more protection to avoid harm and so we ask him to take effective measures to ensure their safety," Thaung Myint Oo continued. After the rally, protestors sent a letter to the secretary-general through the Tokyo UN office conveying their dissatisfaction with the lack of progress in Burma since his visit to the country in May, Maing Kyaw Oo of United Ethnic Nationalities said. "We were not satisfied with the developments in the situation in the country despite the promises Ban was given by the junta's top leader senior general Than Shwe," he said. "Even the aid distribution to cyclone survivors has not been as effective as it should." Maing Kyaw Oo said that protestors also asked the secretary-general about the result of the 10 May national referendum in their letter. "We Burmese nationals in Japan really want to know the UN's position on the junta's forced adoption of the state constitution," he said. Reporting by Naw Say Phaw http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,20797,23670526-5003402,00.html?from=public_rss Scuffles in Burma embassy protest Article from: AAP May 09, 2008 02:17pm PROTESTERS angry at the inaction of Burma's military junta following a devastating cyclone have scuffled with police outside the country's embassy in Canberra. The incident occurred about midday when police arrested a woman for allegedly throwing a water bottle at a car entering the embassy's compound. As they moved in, others trying to protect the woman scuffled with police, the Australian Associated Press reported. The woman was expected to be charged, an Australian Federal Police spokeswoman said. Two men were also detained but were expected to be released, she said. Mee Oung, a nurse from Melbourne, was one of three women who said they were hurt in the scuffle. An emotional Ms Oung, who had a bandaged hand, said about 20 police charged into the group of about a dozen protesters. She said police should have shown more understanding as the protesters were upset about the plight of the Burmese people following Cyclone Nargis. They were angry Burma's military rulers had refused foreign aid workers full access to the country in the wake of the cyclone, which it is feared has killed 100,000 people. Ms Oung said she hadn't seen her family in Burma for 20 years and had not been able to get in contact with them since the cyclone struck. "You can see how we're suffering," she said. http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2008-04/2008-04-27-voa13.cfm?CFID=23182046&CFTOKEN=66023147 Burma Activists Stage Protests in Thailand, Singapore By VOA News 27 April 2008 Burmese monks living in Singapore gathered outside their country's embassy in Singapore, 27 Apr 2008 Burmese activists in Thailand and Singapore demonstrated Sunday against next month's constitutional referendum. In Thailand, about 100 activists demonstrated outside Burma's Embassy in Bangkok. The demonstrators, organized by the Joint Action Committee for Democracy in Burma, chanted slogans against the May 10 referendum. Protest organizers called the vote a ploy to help Burma's ruling generals keep their grip on power. In Singapore, hundreds of activists, many wearing t-shirts with the word "No" printed on them, protested at the Burmese Embassy. Both protests were peaceful. In Tokyo Saturday, several demonstrators were injured and one man arrested during scuffles with police outside the Burmese Embassy there. About 150 people were protesting at the embassy in Japan, demanding that all Burmese expatriates be allowed to vote in the referendum. Expatriates whose government documents - such as visas and exits permits - are not up to date, are being excluded from the vote. That rule excludes most political exiles and refugees. Burmese citizens living outside their home country have begun casting ballots for the referendum. Burma's pro-democracy party in Rangoon says intimidation and violence are being used against opponents of the military-backed constitution ahead of the referendum. The government says the new constitution will lead to multi-party elections in 2010. Opposition activists have criticized the document, saying it has been drafted with no real public input, and enshrines the military's role in the country. http://story.indiagazette.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/701ee96610c884a6/id/368004/cs/1/ Myanmarese protest in New Delhi, demand Suu Kyi's freedom India Gazette Friday 6th June, 2008 (ANI) New Delhi, June 6 : Scores of Myanmarese landed at the Myanmar embassy in New Delhi today to protest against the extension of house arrest of their icon Aung San Suu Kyi by the military junta. Equipped with paints and brushes, around 35 protesters painted the gates and walls of the embassy with words 'Free Burma', 'Free Aung San Suu Kyi'. While demanding the release of Suu Kyi, the protesters also shouted slogans against the military junta. The protesters submitted a memorandum to U Khi Thein, the Myanmarese Ambassador in India, requesting him to convey their demand to the military led government. The memorandum said, "The restrictions imposed on international relief aid, where victims desperately need food, water, medicines and shelter is pushing Burma's cyclone affected people towards a hellish situation and changing the natural calamity to a man-made tragedy." They demanded urgent action to be taken by military government to grant visa and allow international aid workers and also permit them unrestricted access into the affected Irrawaddy delta areas hit by the cyclone Nargis. Later the embassy officials were seen trying to cover the slogans with white paint as the police rounded off the protesters. The ruling military junta in Myanmar has extended Suu house arrest by a year. Oxford-educated Suu Kyi, 62, has been under house arrest or in prison for nearly 13 of the last 18 years. The extension of house arrest of Suu Kyi is likely to dismay Western donor nations which have pledged tens of millions of dollars in conditional aid since cyclone Nargis hit on May 2, leaving up to 2.4 million people destitute. Several Western governments have also criticised the 10-member of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Myanmar is a member, for failing to pressurize Myanmar's military junta both over Suu Kyi's detention and more recently for dragging its feet on accepting foreign help in dealing with the cyclone's devastation. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20080625b3.html Wednesday, June 25, 2008 Nagai supporters renew protest Kyodo News Family members and supporters of journalist Kenji Nagai, who was killed in Myanmar last year while covering a protest in Yangon, presented a petition Tuesday with around 50,000 signatures to the Foreign Ministry and the Myanmar Embassy in Tokyo to protest anew against his fatal shooting by a Myanmar soldier. At the Foreign Ministry, Noriko Ogawa, 48, the slain journalist's younger sister, reiterated that Japan should demand that Myanmar return Nagai's video camera, tapes and other belongings he was carrying when he was shot from close range while filming antigovernment demonstrations in Yangon in September. Myanmar maintains the shooting was an accident. The signatures were collected by colleagues and former classmates of Nagai, 50, in Tokyo and his hometown of Imabari, Ehime Prefecture, they said. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/04/397574.html Kilburn protest against Total in Burma Awyame | 26.04.2008 03:38 | Anti-militarism | Repression | Social Struggles | London Six protesters demonstrated at Kilburn Total station, 409 Kilburn High Rd on Wednesday 23rd April. They called on the French oil company to stop funding the military dictatorship in Burma with 500 million dollars a year, fuelling the brutal regime's oppression in Burma. The foreign currency provided by Total enables the regime to buy weapons used to persecute the Burmese people and ethnic minorities. Sorry we forgot to take photos this time, though photos of previous protests at Kilburn can be seen on totaloutofburma.org The protesters distributed hundreds of leaflets to passers-by, many of whom were interested to learn more about events in Burma and discuss human rights in other parts of the world as well as Burma. Some passing cars also stopped to ask for leaflets, though we intending to just leaflet the passers-by. Earlier the protesters demonstrated at 33 Cavendish Square where Total has the office of Total Holdings UK Ltd. Total and Burma A detailed report on Total Oil's involvement in Burma, written by Burma Campaign UK, can be downloaded at http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/total.html Total is in a joint venture with the dictatorship in the Yadana gas project in southern Burma. [1] The gas project funds the junta with hundreds of millions of dollars a year and represents a major source of foreign currency for the regime to buy weapons and finance the army. Burma has the world's worst health care [2], the most corruption [3] and the most child soldiers [4]. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/07/403516.html Kilburn Total Oil Burma Protest 9th July 2008 Awyame | 12.07.2008 21:06 | Anti-militarism | Repression | Social Struggles | London Three protesters braved the rain on Wednesday 9th July to protest at Totalitarian Oil at Kilburn Total station, 409 Kilburn High Rd, Kilburn, NW6 7QG. For many years French Total Oil has been funding the brutal Burmese junta's oppression of the Burmese people, with hundreds of millions of dollars a year from the Yadana gas pipeline. The Burmese don't benefit from the gas exported to Thailand, instead they have suffered from forced labour and the military camps around the pipeline. The junta spends 50% of Burma's budget on the army and uses foreign currency it earns to buy weapons. As well as Kilburn we protested at the Burmese Embassy and 33 Cavendish Sq where Total has corporate offices. Despite the bad weather making leafleting difficult, we still found people interested in the protest and asking for leaflets. We've been protesting weekly since October, so are well used to the wind and rain, but at least it is a lot warmer now. Last Thursday 10th July French Total Oil decided not to invest in the Iran South par gas field. Chief Executive of Total, Christophe de Margerie gave the following quote: "Today we would be taking too much political risk to invest in Iran because people will say: 'Total will do anything for money'" See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7498902.stm When Total began its investment in Burma it knew full well it would be significantly helping to keep one of the world's most horrible regimes in power and that it would lead to the abuse of the Burmese people. In 1996 one Total executive was quoted in the Financial Times as saying "unless the area is pacified, the pipeline won't last". In 1999 a French parliamentary mission reported: "The link between the military presence, the acts of violence against the populations and the forced labour is established as a fact. Total had to be aware of that." Of course Total was aware, many western companies had already pulled out of Burma for ethical reasons, but at the time in Burma Total would do anything for money. It has given the military junta hundreds of millions of dollars a year to buy weapons and crush democracy in Burma ever since. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/07/404870.html Chiswick Free Burma Protest against Total Oil Awyame | 28.07.2008 22:50 | Anti-militarism | Repression | Social Struggles | London Six protesters from www.totaloutofburma.org held a demonstration at Chiswick West Four Total petrol station, 137 Chiswick High Road, Chiswick W4 2ED on 23rd July. They called for French Total Oil to stop funding the brutal Burmese junta with hundreds of millions of dollars a year from the French Total operated Yadana gas pipeline. Burma earns most of its foreign currency from gas exports and spends 50% of its budget on the military in a war against its own people. Since the mid 1990s French Total Oil has played a significant role in keeping the brutal Burmese junta in power, against the wishes of the Burmese people. The protesters "BEEP 4 BURMA BOYCOTT TOTAL" banner attracted support from passing cars, including a passing fire engine that beeped in support with the firemen on board waving in support. About 400 Total Out of Burma leaflets and the same again for a leaflet in support of Burma Cyclone victims were handed out to passers-by. At the Chiswick protest and earlier at 33 Cavendish Sq (where Total's UK Holding company is based), passers-by told the protesters they would not buy petrol from Total again. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/05/399584.html Southfields Get Total Oil Out of Burma Protest Awyame | 26.05.2008 20:39 | Anti-militarism | Repression | Social Struggles | London Six protesters demonstrated at the Southfields Total Station, 262 Wimbledon Park Road on 21st May 2008. They were protesting against the French oil and gas giant's 500 million dollar a year funding for the brutal military regime in Burma. The money just goes to the evil junta not the poor people of Burma. The regime has allocated just 5 million dollars to cyclone relief, whilst it earned 2 billion dollars in gas exports in 2007. As well as giving out leaflets about French Total Oil's fuelling of oppression in Burma, the protesters also gave out information on how to donate to the charities assisting cyclone relief in Burma (see donation section below). Approximately 140,000 people are estimated to have died in the recent cyclone and up to 2.4 million people are at continued risk. The brutal junta has been preoccupied with rigging its military constitution referendum held on May 10th and on May 24th in the cyclone disaster area, whilst blocking international attempts to aid the cyclone victims. Now that the sham referendum has been completed there are hopes that greater access might be given to aid workers in the disaster hit areas. Over the weekend UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, travelled to Burma and was told that aid workers would be allowed into the country. UN officials are saying that visas for aid workers are becoming more available. On Sunday, international donors pledged nearly $100m (?50m) to help relief work. The amount was only a fraction of the $11bn sought by the Burmese government. Western donors, including Britain have said that the money is contingent on Burma's generals keeping their promise to give foreign aid-workers greater access to the delta. Britain is to send in 11 flights to the region with help for homeless families. Burma is still unwilling to accept aid from foreign naval vessels waiting off its coast and is only willing to accept supplies from civilian boats. The US, UK and France have had ships offshore for over a week with helicopters and hovercrafts that could have provided massive relief aid to difficult to reach areas. France said Sunday it would unload the 1,000 tons of aid on its ship, the Mistral, in Phuket, Thailand, that had been waiting to unload in Burma. The aid, which amounts to 30 planeloads of supplies, would then be taken to Myanmar by the World Food Program and distributed by non-governmental organizations. The French government said it is "particularly shocked" by the refusal to accept the aid directly, but believes in the "responsibility to protect" the needy. The U.N. has estimated that of the 2.4 million people affected by the storm, about 42 percent had received some kind of emergency assistance. But of the 2 million people living in the 15 worst-affected townships, only 23 percent had been reached. Burmese Prime Minister Gen Thein Sein said last Thursday that the first phase of bringing relief to the victims of the cyclone had been completed and the second phase, reconstruction, was now beginning. The junta has been awarding lucrative reconstruction contracts to its cronies. Private Burmese donors driving to the disaster area from Rangoon are stopped at junta checkpoints and are given yellow slips saying the relief effort has finished and the time has come to work on reconstruction. They also urge people not to throw any handouts to those waiting beside the roads because they are "just begging". Sunday's international donor conference was in sight of the home of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winning opposition leader kept under house arrest for 12 years by the military. The opposition National League for Democracy has renewed calls for her release. Her house arrest is due to expire this week, although the military rulers have previously extended the detention period a number of times. Under Myanmar law, no one can be held longer than five years without being released or put on trial. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/07/402901.html Wimbledon Southfields Total Oil Burma Protests Awyame | 07.07.2008 00:19 | Anti-militarism | Repression | Social Struggles | London On 25th June and 2nd July the totaloutofburma.org team held a protest at Southfields Total Oil Station, 262 Wimbledon Park Road, London SW19 6NL. They leafleted the pedestrians attending the Wimbledon Tennis Tournament just down the road from the station. French Total Oil funds the brutal Burma junta with 500 million dollars a year and its gas pipeline in Burma was built with slave labour (see http://www.totaldenialfilm.com). Seven protesters attended the 25th June event. We stayed about half an hour longer than we had originally intended, but were moved on eventually by police. The crowd from the tournament did surge about 20 minutes later, with the queue from the underground going past the Total station and police horses conducting crowd control by the Total station. Five protestors attended the 2nd July event. We informed the police of our intention to protest on arrival at the Southfields underground station. The police did later visit the Total station, but they let us know that they had told the Total Station staff that we were not committing any offence and had a right to protest. We packed up on time before the crowd began to surge and did not get asked to move by the police. On packing up we noticed a Section 32 "Notice of Dispersal of Groups" on a post where we held our protest, so we were glad not to have had any problem with the protest. Over the 2 protests we were able to distribute about 1,000 leaflets to the crowds attending Wimbledon, including many taxis. Some cars did turn away from the Total station and people were shocked to learn of Total's involvement in Burma. We even had a Total employee visiting Wimbledon show us a Total ID card and agree with our protest. On the 25th June we were also able to join Burma Campaign UK at Waterloo Station where they were projecting a video of the "The Real Disaster in Burma', a short animated film narrated by Ricky Gervais, onto the entrance of Waterloo station. The animation makes the point that despite the devastating 2nd May Burma cyclone, the real disaster in Burma is the brutal military government and that they continue to terrorize and oppress the people of Burma. The reality of the animation is only too clear in recent reports and photos from Free Burma Rangers medical teams: see above photos of a Karen home burnt down by the Burma army on 4th June 2008 during the displacement of 1,000 Karen villagers. The Free Burma Rangers article shows further pictures of land-mine victims and Karen village school children having to hide from the Burmese army. The Karen children are in great danger - a previous Free Burma Ranger article tells of a child they had previously treated being captured in December 2008, tortured, ankle tendons cut open, disemboweled and throat cut by the brutal Burma army. Over 3,200 Karen villages have now been destroyed by the Burmese Army, with 200,000 Karen currently hiding from the Burmese army in the jungles of Burma. Almost 150,000 Karen refugees have been living in Thai refugee camps for up to 20 years. As of October 2007, at least 500,000 people were estimated to be internally displaced in the country's eastern States. This is, however, a conservative figure as no information exists for several parts of the country. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/05/398104.html Hammersmith Goldhawk Road get Total Oil out of Burma protest Awyame | 03.05.2008 02:17 | Anti-militarism | Repression | Social Struggles | London Six protestors demonstrated at the Raven Total station on 372 Goldhawk Road, Hammersmith, 30th April. They called on the French oil company to stop funding the military dictatorship with 500 million dollars a year. Total has long been an accomplice of the corrupt junta's theft of Burma's resources, funding their brutal oppression of the Burmese people and the genocide of ethnic minorities. Total's pipeline was built with slave labour. There were road works causing slow traffic near the station. The weather was bad but the protesters were in good spirits and held a "Beep 4 Burma. Boycott Total" banner, to which many passing cars, including buses beeped in support of the protest. The police briefly chatted with the protesters after stopping a passing car. The nice policeman we spoke to was sympathetic with the plight of the people in Burma and our protest and even suggested larger banners. Total and Burma A detailed report on Total Oil's involvement in Burma, written by Burma Campaign UK, can be downloaded at http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/total.html Total is in a joint venture with the dictatorship in the Yadana gas project in southern Burma. [1] The gas project funds the junta with hundreds of millions of dollars a year and represents a major source of foreign currency for the regime to buy weapons and finance the army. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/406956.html 8-8-88 Burma Protests and Bike for Burma Report Awyame | 17.08.2008 22:16 | Anti-militarism | Repression | Social Struggles | London Friday 8th August marked the 20th Anniversary of the 8-8-88 Burma democracy uprising in which at least 3,000 unarmed Burmese protesters were murdered by the Burmese junta. In London the Burmese unveiled a glass memorial at the peace park near the Imperial War museum, held a protest for political prisoners at the Burmese Embassy and in the evening had an exhibition on Burmese political prisoners at the School of Oriental and African Studies. The following day the new generation of Burmese students and exiled activists held a Bike for Burma event around London to remember 8-8-88 and ask people not to forget Burma. At the Tibetan Peace Park, near the Imperial War Museum the Burmese unveiled a glass monument to mark the 20th anniversary of the regime's brutal suppression of pro-democracy demonstrations which took place in 1988. Thousands of Burmese were murdered by the regime on August 8th in a pro-democracy crackdown known in Burma as "8-8-88". It had been consecrated earlier at 8.08am by Buddhist monks at their Colindale Monastery, but the peace park, together with the display of many Burmese red flags made a touching and beautiful setting. The monument was hand-made by Burmese activists, consisting of a glass display of many photographs from the 8-8-88 uprising, a border representing the 8's, and three flags of the 88 student movement (grouped into underground, political and an armed group working with the Karen resistance) now joined by a flag of the 2007 Buddhist monk uprising. It will not be kept at the peace park, but is intended to be moved between the Burmese communities in the UK and eventually to Burma itself once Burma has thrown off the shackles of the oppressive regime. At 1pm the Burmese and solidarity groups held a demonstration for political prisoners to remember 8-8-88 at the Burmese Embassy 19A, Charles St. The event was organised by the Burmese Democracy Movement Association, with support from Burma Campaign UK, Amnesty International UK and Christian Solidarity Worldwide. The street was completely blocked by more than 200 protesters. It was great to see so many supporters with many placards and red Burmese flags on display and particularly impressive since events were also going on at the Chinese Embassy marking the start of the Olympics. One of the Burmese political prisoners demonstrated from a barred cage during the event. Mark Farmaner of Burma Campaign UK explained that there had been 36 UN envoy visits to Burma and that Burma human rights advocacy groups around the world were not going to accept mere meetings of UN envoys with the Burma junta as signs of progress by the UN, as has often been reported in the media. Only real progress, such as the release of political prisoners should be judged as a success for UN diplomacy. In the past year the number of political prisoners has risen from 1300 to currently over 2,000 underscoring the great failure of the UN, that can't even get Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi freed despite the widespread international support for her. In the evening an exhibition on political prisoners in Burma was held at the School of Oriental and African Studies. The 8-8-88 glass memorial was brought to the event. There were three rooms showing photos of political prisoners, the prisons and explaining the torture and stress positions they had been subjected to. It was especially meaningful as there were 5 former Burmese political prisoners on hand to explain the pictures, that had served long prison sentences in Burma, including many years of solitary confinement. One of the former political prisoners, Htein Lin an artist had used the constrained limitations of his cell, where a cup, a plate, scraps of plastic and a cigarette lighter were recycled as printing materials in lieu of brushes to make paintings on old cotton rags instead of canvas. He continues to use these limitations in his art today and his works can be see at The Coningsby Gallery - see future events below. Even the tiny scraps of newspaper around prison cigarettes were avidly read by prisoners, desperate for any reading materials and news of the outside world. It was also explained how the prisons had faked prisoner visits with international human rights observers, using impostors to pretend to be known political prisoners and meeting with the international observers. One of the former political prisoners had even met the international observer years later and explained how the visit had been faked. He'd been ill in a prison hospital, made to sleep all the time on the floor, whilst a hospital bed had been temporarily produced for the impostor to meet the observer. The political prisoner neither got to meet the observer or rest in the hospital bed. Years later when he was freed and exiled from Burma, he met the observer who remembered his name but of course not his face. Human rights observers visiting Burmese prisons, should use photographs and take finger prints of those they meet for verification to deter the usual dirty tricks by the junta authorities. Events to remember 8-8-88 were also held in the US in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas and Houston. Whilst most Burmese political events in London are organised by the older 88 Generation of Burmese students on 9th August, the new generation of Burmese students and activists organised a Bike for Burma event in London. It was attended by 40-50 cyclists who cycled around London with "Don't Forget Burma" tea shirts. The weather was bad towards the end, but it couldn't dampen the spirits of the new generation of Burmese activists who were determined to work for a better future for Burma. After helping with placards and support for the 8th August week's protests, totaloutofburma.org activists were back in action with the Wednesday protests at Baker Street French Total oil petrol station on 13th August and earlier that day at the Burmese Embassy and 33 Cavendish Square (Total Holdings UK office). There were roadworks at the Total Station making rather a mess, but the 5 protestors still manage to hold up banners for the passing vehicles and hand out leaflets to passers-by. Some of whom we were pleased to learn already supported us and were even on our emailing list. French Total Oil has collaborated with the brutal military junta since the mid 1990's, sponsoring the oppressive regime with 500 million dollars a year in payments from the Yadana gas pipeline, that arms and equips the brutal juntas war against the Burmese people and ethnic minorities. http://www.burmanet.org/news/2008/05/05/narinjara-news-burmese-monks-stage-bloody-protest-in-dhaka/ Narinjara News: Burmese monks stage bloody protest in Dhaka Mon 5 May 2008 Filed under: News, Regional Exiled Burmese monks staged a protest on Sunday in front of the Burmese embassy in Dhaka, Bangladesh, against the upcoming constitutional referendum, with some monks striking their arms and drawing blood that sprayed on the white protest banners. The protest was conducted by the International Burmese Monks Organization, Bangladesh branch, and was the biggest protest yet staged by Burmese exiles in Bangladesh. Ashion Maygiya, president of the monk organization, said, "Our program is successful and we were able to stage our protest in front of the Burmese embassy and show our feelings on the referendum to the Burmese military government." Many Bangladesh police constables blocked the entrance road to the Burmese embassy to prevent the demonstrators from marching to the front of the building, but the monks paid no heed to the road block and marched on to the embassy while shouting many anti-referendum slogans. U Thuriya, who is an active monk in the organization, said, "We came here to protest the Burmese government which is now preparing to hold the referendum for approving their constitution. The constitution is not useful for our country and will be dangerous for our people in the future. The constitution is only for the army to rule Burma continually. How can we accept the constitution? So we staged a protest by punching our arms for blood to vow to fight until Burma is a democracy." U Thuriya and some other monks spread their blood on some of the banners in the demonstration after striking their own arms, while some staff from the Burmese embassy watched the scene with interest. The demonstration was staged for two hours in front of the embassy, beginning at 11 am and ended at 1 pm on Sunday, 4 May. Over 60 Burmese people, including monks and women, participated in the protest, and the diplomatic area near the Burmese embassy was flooded with the protestors' shouts and slogans. http://www.burmanet.org/news/2008/04/28/ap-and-irrawaddy-overseas-burmese-protest-constitution/ AP and Irrawaddy: Overseas Burmese protest Constitution Mon 28 Apr 2008 Filed under: News, International Thousands of exiled and expatriate Burmese people have been gathering outside Burmese embassies around the world to express dissatisfaction with the military government's constitutional referendum. Voting has already begun in some countries ahead of the May 10 referendum. While some were allowed into their respective embassies to cast their votes, others were turned away by officials. The protests were mostly launched by Burmese nationals-both those who can vote and those with no voting rights in the referendum-at their respective embassies in several countries, including Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea and Thailand. The biggest demonstration was held in Singapore on Sunday where some 2,500 protesters-many wearing red t-shirts with the word "No" emblazoned on the front-gathered outside the Burmese embassy and protested against the draft constitution. Sources in Singapore said that even some Burmese people who were invited to vote in the national referendum by the embassy were denied the right by authorities when they went into the embassy to vote. Burmese nationals hold up their passports as a sign that they have the right to vote, gathered outside their country's embassy in Singapore to vote in a referendum on a draft constitution on April 27. (Photo: AP) More than 40,000 Burmese people are currently living in Singapore, about 10,000 of who were officially invited by authorities to vote in the referendum, said sources. The Burmese regime has stipulated that only citizens with legitimate documents, such as Burmese passports, can vote overseas, a ruling that excludes most political exiles and refugees. Meanwhile, some 230 Burmese expatriates living in Japan staged a mock referendum on Sunday outside the Burmese embassy in Tokyo, criticizing the draft constitution as a ploy to keep the ruling junta in power. The Burmese embassy had mailed letters earlier this month to more than 2,000 of its citizens in Japan, inviting them to vote on the proposed constitution in a two-day advance poll held over the weekend at the embassy, Japanese police and the foreign ministry said. However, fewer than 100 people had voted at the embassy as of Sunday afternoon, according to a count by the protesters. About 100 Burmese citizens in Malaysia, including political activists, migrant workers and people from ethnic minorities, gathered in front of the Burmese embassy on Saturday wearing colorful traditional costumes displaying the word "No" and demanding the right to vote. An estimated 500,000 Burmese people are living in Malaysia, about 180,000 of who possess legal documents. No official count for voters was available from the embassy. About 100 protesters, including activists, migrant workers, students and ethnic minority people, gathered outside the Burmese embassy in Bangkok for about 30 minutes on Sunday. The demonstrators, organized by the Joint Action Committee for Democracy in Burma, chanted slogans against the May 10 referendum. A statement from the umbrella committee for the dozen dissident organizations said the constitution was drawn up solely by pro-junta groups and would give the military great powers in any future government. An estimated 360,000 registered Burmese migrants and 1.2 million unregistered migrants in Thailand were denied their voting rights. Meanwhile, about 60 Burmese people in Seoul, the South Korean capital, gathered outside the Burmese embassy on Sunday to protest against the junta-written draft constitution, many wearing white shirts bearing the words "Vote No" and the logo of a cross. According to Yan Naing Htun, a Seoul-based Burmese activist, the protesters set up two artificial ballot boxes and urged people to vote "No" in the referendum. In the United States, sources estimated that up to 100 people participated in the referendum in New York. It is estimated that the New York's Permanent Mission of Burma has some 500 registered voters. The Burmese embassy in Washington, D.C. was the only other place in the US where Burmese citizens were able to vote in the referendum. Unlike New York, the voting process in Washington was opened for three days-Friday, Saturday and Sunday-from April 25 to 27. Pro-democracy groups who were holding a protest outside the embassy claimed the turnout was very low. Out of the 1,500 registered voters, a little more than 150 people are believed to have cast their votes so far, with one day remaining. Meanwhile, Kyaw Zaw Wai, a protester in Canada's capital, Ottawa, said that more than 100 Burmese citizens from Toronto and Ottawa, including ethnic Karen, Chin, and Arakanese people, protested against the constitution for three and half hours in front of the Burmese embassy in Ottawa. Several supporters from Tibetan, Indonesian and Vietnamese communities in Ottawa also joined the demonstration to show their solidarity with the people of Burma, said Kyaw Zaw Wai. Kyaw Zaw Wai said, "I believe we delivered a very strong message to the military regime." (Lalit K Jha contributed to this article from New York.) http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=4888933 Monks From Myanmar March in Cannes Film Festival Monks From Myanmar Demand Aid For Cyclone Victims PARIS May 19, 2008 (AP) The Associated Press Post a Comment FONT SIZE EMAIL PRINT SHARE RSS French actress, singer and activist Jane Birkin, centre, amongst Burmese monks and other protesters... French actress, singer and activist Jane Birkin, centre, amongst Burmese monks and other protesters as they take part in a "peaceful march to save Burma", during the 61st International film festival in Cannes, southern France, on Monday, May 19, 2008. The photos held aloft were taken in September and October 2007 during the Burma crackdown on monks. Burmese monks are traveling to Europe to share their personal testimony on the September and October 2007 crackdown in Burma and on the recent Nargis cyclone which devastated the country. (AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau) (AP) Five monks from Myanmar marched through the Cannes Film Festival crowd on Monday to demand that the Southeast Asian nation's junta allow foreign aid workers into the country to help cyclone victims. "This is a humanitarian crisis - we need help," said U Uttara, an exiled monk among the marchers. Singer-actress Jane Birkin joined the monks during their awareness-raising efforts in Cannes. Other activities included speeches and the screening of a short film shot in Myanmar, called "Freedom from Fear." http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20080512/lead/lead10.html Burmese to stage protest in Jamaica published: Monday | May 12, 2008 Janet Silvera, Senior Gleaner Writer WESTERN BUREAU: Burmese expatriates in Jamaica will today stage a peaceful march to show solidarity with their countrymen who were devastated by a cyclone last week and have received negligible aid because of tight controls by the military dictatorship. The protest will commence outside the United States Embassy in St Andrew at 9 a.m. Spokesperson for the group, Dr Soe Naung, told The Gleaner the Burmese would march from the embassy to the offices of the United Nations. "The march is to express our sympathy and condolences to those who died in Cyclone Nargis and to show solidarity, concern and care for those who live and are trying to survive there (in Myanmar)," the medical doctor said. Showing gratitude In addition, he said the group wants to show gratitude to two nations - the United States and France and two organisations, the European Union and the United Nations. "Even though the junta is refusing to allow aid workers access into the country, we are urging these nations and organisations to do even more," said Naung. The death toll in the Asian nation remains uncertain. Up to press time, media reports claimed the death toll had jumped to 28,000. British aid group Oxfam was also quoted on Sunday as saying that the death toll could rise to 1.5 million if people do not get clean water and sanitation soon. "Over two million are homeless, and are facing the aftermath of tropical diseases," said Naung, who still has relatives living there. Bloody hands One of the most important issues on the expatriates' agenda is to ensure that the Jamaican Government and all other countries attending the Law of the Sea Conference here in June do not welcome or "shake the bloody hands" of the two military Burmese representatives who are billed to attend the event. "We are requesting that those attending the conference will use their own liberty to promote the need for ours and help us rejoin the family of free nations," urged the Burmese doctor. Myanmar (formerly called Burma), which got independence from Britain in 1948, was placed under military rule in 1962 during a staged coup by the late General Ne Win. Second-generation military leader, General Than Shwe, has been running the country since Ne Win's death. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Fri Aug 29 16:30:32 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:30:32 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Pro-democracy and rights protests, Pakistan - Bangladesh - Sri Lanka, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <005401c90a2f$3ca1d7f0$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ PAKISTAN: * Lawyers' protest reaches Islamabad * Balakot family threaten to self-immolate over police abuse * Sharif supporters protest election ban * Suicide bomber targets police * Women protest at Red Mosque * Journalists protest state attack on Geo News * Islamabad protest by relatives of disappeared * Protests, rallies mark anniversary of Bhutto unrest * Activists protest false case * Protesters demand release of missing persons BANGLADESH * Student activists fight police, demand release of ex-PM * Protests against attack on journalist * University teachers protest attack on speaker SRI LANKA * INDIA/SRI LANKA: Fisherfolk protest against attacks by Sri Lankan navy, mass arrests * Journalists protest abduction and torture of colleague http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2008-06/2008-06-14-voa9.cfm?CFID=22186099&CFTOKEN=31805322 Pakistani Lawyers' Protest Culminates in Islamabad By VOA News 14 June 2008 Pakistani lawyers, activists, rights workers gather in front of Presidential Palace in Islamabad, early 14 Jun 2008 Tens of thousands of Pakistani lawyers and activists descended on Islamabad Friday, demanding the reinstatement of judges ousted by President Pervez Musharraf. The protesters' so-called "long march" began in Karachi earlier this week with a procession of vehicles traveling across the country. It culminated in the capital Friday, ending well past midnight, following a sit-in outside Pakistan's parliament building. Former prime minister and head of the Muslim League-Nawaz party, Nawaz Sharif told the crowd that President Musharraf would be held accountable for removing the judges. The protesters responded with cheers and chants of, "hang Musharraf." Pakistani authorities deployed hundreds of police and placed barbed wire and security cameras around key buildings in the capital to discourage violent protests. Lawyers decided to hold the mass protest after the coalition government failed to meet a self-imposed May 12 deadline to restore the judiciary. The two main groups in Pakistan's ruling coalition - Mr. Sharif's party and the Pakistan People's Party led by Asif Ali Zardari - remain deadlocked on how to restore the judges. Mr. Sharif wants an unconditional reinstatement, while Zardari wants to link reinstatement to constitutional amendments. President Musharraf declared a state of emergency in November and purged the Supreme Court, in order to halt any legal challenges to his presidency. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23643864-25837,00.html Pakistan lawyers in fresh protests Font Size: Decrease Increase Print Page: Print Bruce Loudon, South Asia correspondent | May 05, 2008 PAKISTAN'S powerful lawyers' movement was preparing to return to the streets overnight in a drive to thwart a bizarre plan to solve the country's political crisis by reinstating judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf while retaining the "toadies" he appointed to replace them. The plan - which could see the country end up with two chief justices and a Supreme Court swollen from the constitutional limit of 17 to 27 - was disclosed by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif after days of horse-trading with Asif Ali Zardari, leader of the Pakistan People's Party, the major party in the new ruling coalition. The crisis has come close to toppling the Government, with Mr Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (N) threatening to quit the coalition if Mr Zardari does not agree to keep a promise to restore the judges. But with a new deadline of May 12 set for the judges' reinstatement, Mr Sharif has disclosed Mr Zardari's plan to give the so-called "defiant" judges - those sacked and, in some instances, arrested by Mr Musharraf - their old jobs back, while retaining the "compliant" or "usurper" judges appointed in their place. This would mean that while deposed chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry would return to head the Supreme Court, his replacement and deadly enemy who validated the state of emergency, Hameed Dogar, would be retained on the same bench. Other so-called "PCO judges" - those who complied and took an oath of allegiance to Mr Musharraf in terms of the Provisional Constitutional Order he promulgated with the state of emergency - would also be retained, expanding the size of the Supreme Court bench from 17 to 27. But reports yesterday said the new court could, at the President's insistence, issue an order overturning any parliamentary resolution calling for the reinstatement of the deposed judges. The Pakistan Bar Council warned of intensified action that could cause a replay of the mass street demonstrations that eventually forced Mr Musharraf to hold the election that brought the coalition to power. http://www.paktribune.com/news/index.shtml?203062 Lawyers hold protest rally from Parliament to Supreme Court Thursday July 10, 2008 (2150 PST) ISLAMABAD: Hundreds of lawyers belonging to different Bar Associations of Punjab staged a protest rally from parliament house to Supreme Court for the restoration of the sacked judges and supremacy of judiciary, the activists of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) and Jamat Islami JI also participated in the rally. Sources informed that the lawyers belonging to Attock, Jhang, Taxila, Multan, Sialkot, Jehlum, Gujrat, Murree, Islamabad and Rawalpindi Bar Associations staged protest rally from parliament house to Supreme Court while uprooting the barbed wires and restrictions as created by the police on the constitution avenue. The furious lawyers foiled every bid to restrict them while leading to Supreme Court and vehemently chanted slogans against the PCO judges, President Musharraf and PPP and demanded for the restoration of the sacked judiciary before the parliament house. While addressing the rally Hamid Ali khan informed that the deposed judges could be restored by simple resolution of the parliament, yet the PPP led Government has deliberately complicated the situation by introducing constitutional package and has hurt the feelings of the masses by taking "U Turn" from the Murree declaration, he added. He further reiterated, " We will hold more long marches and will not deviate from further sacrifices for the reinstatement of the sacked judges" and will restore the supremacy of law and constitution in Pakistan. The president of Rawalpindi High Court Bar Sardar Asmattullah Khan while addressing the participants of the rally appreciated the lawyers huge gathering, which has defeated the statements that the lawyers have lost their strength after the long march and have also ended the confusion among the masses related to the lawyers movement. While encouraging the participants from Multan Bar association in the scorching heat, he termed it as a victory of the lawyers' movement who gathered before the parliament house in large numbers at the call of the lawyers' movement leaders. The other Bar Associations presidents while addressing on the occasion reiterated that the struggle as continuing in the country for the restoration of sacked judges will also continue in future unless the sovereignty of the constitution and the judiciary in the country and the time has approached when PML (N) has to decide either they are with lawyers or with Zardari, as the masses could not be fooled any more and the lawyers will come to Islamabad again in caravans and will not retreat unless the restoration of deposed judges. The Rawalpindi High Court bar has also arranged the meal for the participants of the protest rally after the rally termination. End. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/13/2274495.htm?section=world Lawyers march to Islamabad protesting judge sackings Posted Fri Jun 13, 2008 8:04pm AEST Thousands of lawyers and their supporters in Pakistan are converging on the capital Islamabad to demand the reinstatement of judges dismissed by President Pervez Musharraf last November. The lawyers started their "long march" to the capital on Monday and are travelling in several hundred cars and buses, stopping along the way to rally support for their cause. They are chanting slogans against Mr Musharraf, but this time their focus is also the newly elected Government. They are demanding that it keep its promise to reinstate the sacked judges swiftly and without conditions. So far the Government has missed two deadlines and the lawyers are getting impatient. The authorities are nervous about potential violence, but both sides say they do not want that and they have reached agreement on a designated route through the city. In the meantime the Government has set up barricades around the presidency and parliament buildings and brought in extra security forces. http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=116122 Balakot family protests police high-handedness Monday, June 02, 2008 By our correspondent MINGORA: Members of a family from Balakot area on Sunday threatened self-immolation outside the office of the Deputy Inspector General of Police in Saidu Sharif if they were not provided justice. Accusing the Charbagh police of high-handedness and seeking exemplary punishment for the policemen allegedly involved in the illegal action, two brothers, Aziz-ur-Rehman and Habib-ur-Rehaman, told media men that ASI Said Karim, along with a police team, entered their house without any arrest warrant and ladies police and used abusive language against members of their family. "The cops tied our five family members with ropes and tortured us in the lock-up of the police station," they said, alleging that police official had taken Rs 70,000 as bribe from their rivals with whom they had a land dispute. They accused the police of torture while their opponents were roaming freely. They said the police also took away their weapons, which they had for their protection. Narrating their ordeal, the brothers added that their family members were kept in unlawful detention, insulted and even implicated in a case. http://www.nowpublic.com/world/sharifs-supporters-protest-court-ruling-pakistan Sharif's supporters protest court ruling in Pakistan Supoprters of Nawaz Sharif, the former Pakistani Prime Minister, burned effigies today against a court ruling that bars Sharif from running in this weeks' parliamentary by-elections. Here is a link to a picture of the violence: Meanwhile, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told Parliament that the government would ask the Supreme Court to block Sharif's disqualification and postpone the vote in Sharif's district scheduled for Thursday. The court ruling has exacerbated tensions between Sharif's party, the Pakistan Muslim League-N, and its larger partner in the ruling coalition, the Pakistan People's Party. Bickering over the restoration of judges ousted by President Pervez Musharraf last year has undermined their young government, whose cooperation is considered key to the U.S.-led war on terror. A successful move by the government to clear Sharif's path could cool the tensions between the parties. Scores of angry Sharif backers demonstrated outside the parliament building in Islamabad, while lawmakers from Sharif's party walked out of the National Assembly in protest. In Sharif's hometown of Lahore, about 600 protesters burned tires in the city center. Hundreds protested in the central city of Multan, where they burned an effigy of Musharraf and one representing the judges he installed. Sharif party spokesman Sadiqul Farooq said Tuesday that the party would not appeal the Lahore High Court's Monday ruling because it lacks confidence in the judiciary. However, Law Minister Farooq Naek - like Gilani a People's Party member - said the government would step in and petition the Supreme Court later Tuesday or Wednesday to block the decision. Information Minister Sherry Rehman said a favorable ruling could also help heal the rift in the coalition. "We want to keep the alliance intact and we are in contact with our allies. We want the public to know the government stance, that we want to strengthen the democracy," she said. Sharif, who was deposed by Musharraf in a 1999 coup, is now the most popular politician in Pakistan. http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-07-06-voa24.cfm?rss=war Suicide Bomber Targets Police in Pakistan's Capital By Ayaz Gul Islamabad 06 July 2008 Authorities in Pakistan say a suicide bomber has killed at least 15 people and injured more than 22 others in a central part of the country's capital city. Most of the victims were policemen. Ayaz Gul reports from Islamabad. Aftermath of the Islamabad suicide bombing, 06 Jul 2008 The suicide bomber struck a group of policemen who were guarding a big meeting of Islamic activists in the center of the Pakistani capital. The religious gathering was marking the one-year anniversary of a military crackdown on Islamabad's radical Red Mosque, just few hundred meters away. Witnesses say most of the deaths happened instantly and body parts, pools of blood as well as police caps littered the scene. A top official at the federal Interior Ministry, Kamal Shah, says the attack is being investigated, but he dismissed criticism poor security arrangements led to the deadly bombing "An individual coming and exploding himself, blowing up himself is difficult to prevent," said Kamal Shah. "This has happened in other countries of the world. It is not [happening] only in Pakistan." Speaking at a ceremony in the southern city of Karachi hours after the blast, President Pervez Musharraf condemned it as a terrorist act. "I condemn that with all my force and I must say that this nation has to show resolve to fight such extremism and terrorism and defeat it," said Pervez Musharraf. Doctors have described conditions of some of those wounded in the attack as critical, saying the death toll could go up. The suicide bombing occurred just after several-thousand participants of the religious gathering started dispersing. The crowed had gathered to condemn the army raid on the Red Mosque complex that killed more than 100 people on July 10 last year. Speakers at the meeting criticized President Pervez Musharraf for ordering the assault under pressure from the United States. The protesters chanted anti-Musharraf and anti-American slogans. Pro-Taliban militants supportive of the radical mosque unleashed a wave of deadly suicide bombings across Pakistan in the past year to avenge the operation. Most of the victims of the violence have been security personnel. The crackdown against the mosque was launched after its clerics and religious students ignored official warnings to end their violent campaign to enforce Taliban-style rule in parts of the Pakistani capital. The extremists kidnapped women they accused of prostitution, including some Chinese nationals, and warned traders against running music and video shops. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7497339.stm Wednesday, 9 July 2008 13:03 UK Women in Pakistan mosque protest The women shouted slogans in support of jihad Hundreds of Islamist women have held a protest outside the Red Mosque in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, to demand the reconstruction of a seminary. It was destroyed in July 2007 when Pakistani troops stormed the building to evict armed militants. The protesters - some carrying babies - shouted slogans in support of jihad (holy war) and heard fiery speeches. More than 100 people were killed in the fighting to evict militants who had taken sanctuary there, the army said. 'Jihad' "Our mujahideen [fighters] laid down their lives for the enforcement of the Islamic system in Pakistan. We are left behind to carry forward their mission," Umme Hassan, the daughter of former chief cleric Abdul Aziz, told the rally within the mosque's compound. He was arrested during the siege last year as he tried to evade capture by slipping through a police cordon dressed as a woman. Many people died when the mosque was stormed a year ago The burka-clad women responded to the speech with chants such as "jihad is our way!" They say that they will continue to hold their classes in the open at the side of the seminary until it is rebuilt. The first anniversary of the storming of the mosque is on 10 July. A similar protest by several thousand men was held on Sunday. Shortly after the rally ended, a suicide bomber attacked police who had been guarding the gathering killing 18 people, all but three of them policemen. Correspondents says that Wednesday's protest was mostly peaceful despite the fiery rhetoric of Umme Hassan. "We should prepare our children and men for jihad," she said. The crowd responded by chanting of "we are ready" and "al jihad". Mr Aziz's brother, deputy mosque leader Abdul Rashid Ghazi, was killed when the compound was stormed. The raid on the mosque triggered a series of revenge suicide bombings and other attacks by militants across Pakistan, killing hundreds of people. The mosque has long had a reputation for radicalism, mostly attracting hard-line Islamic students from North West Frontier Province and tribal areas where support for the Taleban and al-Qaeda is strong. The Jamia Hafsa madrassa, a religious school for women, is attached to the mosque and a male madrassa is nearby. Several thousand students are housed at the two seminaries despite the damage from the fighting of last July. The mosque has been the centre of a hard-line Islamic student movement which has been vocal in its criticism of government policies. In past years, it has often been favoured by the city's elite, including prime ministers, army chiefs and presidents. In July 2005, Pakistani security forces tried to raid the mosque following suicide bombings earlier that month in London, but were turned back by baton-wielding women students. http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=118477 Journalists protest curbs on Geo News Saturday, June 14, 2008 Noor Aftab Islamabad Rawalpindi-Islamabad Union of Journalists (RIUJ) and Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) Friday jointly held a protest demonstration in front of the Parliament House against media curbs on Geo News, a leading news channel in the country. Addressing the protesting journalists, the speakers strongly condemned the dropping of two popular talk shows - Capital Talk and Mere Mutabik - and vowed to resist any move aimed at imposing restrictions on a free media. PFUJ General Secretary Mazhar Abbas while speaking on the occasion said free media was a result of continuous and tireless struggle by media persons. He emphasised the need to expose those elements, who asked a foreign country to stop transmission of Geo News in order to deprive people of their fundamental right to get timely and accurate news. RIUJ General Secretary Afzal Butt said numbers of journalists have sacrificed their lives for an independent media and no one would be allowed to restrict them from doing their professional duties. Bureau Chief of Geo News channel Absar Alam said free media was the basic right of the people and those who wanted to suppress independent voices were not well-wishers of the country. He said the Western countries strongly supported independent media in their own countries so they must be conscious about it in the country like Pakistan. Host of a popular talk show 'Capital Talk' Hamid Mir said that the curbs on media could not stop the journalists to present the true picture of state of affairs before the general public. Representatives of Hazara Awami Ittehad, Umar Asghar Khan Foundation, Ulema Ahle Sunnat and prominent poet Ahmed Faraz also participated in the demonstration. http://www.breitbart.com/image.php?id=iafp080723102505.5fpzalj3p0&show_article=1 Pakistani families of missing persons stage a protest in Islamabad Pakistani families of missing persons stage a protest in Islamabad in 2007. Human rights group Amnesty International has called on Pakistan to reveal the details of hundreds of so-called enforced disappearances during the US-led "war on terror". http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=112280 Protests, rallies mark first anniversary Tuesday, May 13, 2008 Karachi The first anniversary of the May 12 carnage in Karachi was marked by protests, demonstrations and rallies by various quarters on Monday. The Karachi Bar Association (KBA) staged a peaceful rally amidst tight security from City Courts to Karachi Press Club, while the All Pakistan Democratic Movement (APDM) also held a 'black day' demonstration at Regal Chowk. Another demonstration was held by the Labour Party of Pakistan (LPP) at the KPC where activists lit oil lamps in remembrance of those who fell victim to the violence that gripped the entire city on May 12, 2007. Prior to the KBA rally, DIG South Iqbal Mehmood had a detailed meeting with KBA office-bearers regarding security arrangements made around city courts. Unusual security was in place all around the City Courts and all entry and exit points being cordoned off, while lanes adjacent to the courts were also barricaded by containers and no vehicular traffic was allowed to move within the vicinity. Even the vehicles of journalists covering the event were barred from entering by-lanes near the courts. When the DIG South was asked about the extra security arrangements, he replied, "We do not want May 12 last and April 9 this year be repeated, as it is the right of every citizen to register his/her voice by taking out rally or by any other means." Lawyers from the city courts proceeded to the Karachi Press Club (KPC) via the Sindh High Court (SHC), where SHC lawyers joined them. The legal fraternity from Malir Courts also assembled at the KPC. The legal representatives chanted slogans against President Musharaf demanding that he step down as he had pushed country totally into the dark. Speaking to the participants of rally outside Karachi Press Club, Rasheed Razvi President, Sindh High Court Bar Association (SHCBA) reminded the Federal Information Minister, Sherry Rahman that last year her car was also hit by a stray bullet, adding, "we would neither forget May 12 nor April 9 when the legal representatives braved the brutality of the miscreants. The only difference is that last year it was the 'gundas' who besieged the entire city. This year, lawyers were burnt alive, with law-enforcing agencies complacently looking on." "We have no hidden interest as lawyers are struggling for rule of law and against injustice," he said and asked lawyers to remain united and prepare for a more crucial struggle to be started by May 16, 2008. A black flag was hoisted and lawyers wore black wristbands. PPI adds: Central leader of the All Pakistan Democratic Movement (APDM) and Naib Amir Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Liaquat Baloch, has said that the PPP has shared power with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) which is involved in the bloodshed of May 12, 2007, April 9 and killings of political and social personalities. He said this on Monday while addressing a protest rally in connection with the 'black day' at Regal Chowk, to mark the killing of 50 political activists on the arrival of the deposed Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudry on May 12, 2007 in Karachi. The rally started from the Empress Market and ended at the Regal Chowk. Baloch said that a million of people had come to show solidarity with lawyers' fraternity and for giving reception to the deposed chief justice on Sharah-e-Faisal, but, he alleged, President Pervez Musharraf used a militant wing in Karachi. Baloch demanded that the government to break the coalition with the MQM and award death sentences to those responsible for the May 12 carnage. The JI leader said that workers of JI, PPP, PML-N, PTI and ANP were killed on May 12, adding media watched the workers of MQM with their party flag, who were freely moving and firing on innocent people, but not a single FIR had been lodged in this regard. -PPI MQM holds Qur'aan Khwani for May 12 victims: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) held Qur'aan Khwani for the martyrs of May 12 mayhem at Lal Qila ground Azizabad on Monday. The first death anniversary was held for the 14 martyrs of MQM who lost their lives on May 1, 2007. The MQM Rabita Committee members attended the Qur'aan Khwani and prayed almighty Allah to place the departed soul in eternal peace and give courage to the families to bear the tragic losses. http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=125075 PML-Q holds protest against 'fake case' Saturday, July 19, 2008 Khalid Iqbal Rawalpindi District Nazim Raja Javed Ikhlas here on Friday said that he was ready to hand himself over to the City Police. He stated this in response to a FIR registered against him by a PML-N's Zaib-un-Nisa. In the FIR registered under Sections 506, 354 and 109 with the Civil Lines Police Station, the opposition member alleged that the district nazim and Gujar Khan Nazim Raja Irfan slapped her during the District Council budget session here on July 16. Hundreds of PML-Q supporters, with black bands around their arms, including former provincial law minister Raja Basharat, Raja Nasir, Potohar Town Nazim Raja Hamid Nawaz, District Naib Nazim Afzal Khokhar, Rawal Town Nazim Shaikh Rashid Shafiq, accompanied Raja Javed Ikhlas when he went to the City Police Officer's office to hand himself over. However police did not allow anybody to enter the premises. Police baton-charged demonstrators, injuring three female lawmakers of PML-Q - Noureen Akhtar, Shama Mehmood and Sabina Raja. Talking to journalists, District Nazim Raja Javed Ikhlas said, "I am not guilty and the FIR registered against me is false." He condemned the behaviour of opposition members in the district council, saying that they should have behaved properly during the budget presentation. "I am ready to face every kind of situation, however, I would not allow anybody to take law into his or her hands," he said. "I am ready to hand myself over to police for further investigation," he added. Speaking on the occasion, former provincial law minister Raja Basharat condemned what he called vindictive attitude of the government. "Everyone should face criticism because it is part of life. If anyone has a problem, they should hold talks rather than registering a fake FIR against the sitting district nazim," he added. The PML-Q district council, Rawal Town and Potohar Town members would hold a demonstration on Murree Road on July 20 to mark their protest over the "registration of a fake FIR against the district nazim." PML-Q's Noureen Akhtar, who was injured during the baton-charge, told 'The News' that police should not have used force against females. She urged police authorities to take against those personnel who baton-charged them. Another victim of the baton-charge, Shama Mahmood accused PML-N's Zaib-un-Nisa of using contacts in her party for "registering a fake FIR against the district nazim." http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=110816 Protesters demand release of missing persons Tuesday, May 06, 2008 A large number of protestors demanded on Monday that the government ensure the release of Wahid Qambar, Fazul Karmi Baloch and Mohammed Iqbal Baloch, whose detention was been shown after they had been missing for a year. During that year they were allegedly in the custody of security agencies. Qambar was picked up by personnel from security agencies in Tamp, Balochistan on March 14, 2007. After reportedly being kept at various torture camps, Qambar was officially shown on April 21, 2008, to be under the custody of the Punjpai police - 30 miles from Quetta. On the day after he resurfaced, however, Qambar was again handed over to another security agency in Quetta. Since then there had been no news of his whereabouts. Another activist, Faiz Mohammed Baloch, who was also picked up along with Qambar and kept at torture camps, was released from Turbat jail.The protestors also urged human rights bodies to take the issue of missing Baloch youth to an international level on a humanitarian basis so that they could be released soon. http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-bangladesh-protest,0,3963758.story Student activists clash with police to demand Bangladesh's detained ex-PM's release By FARID HOSSAIN | Associated Press Writer 7:14 AM EDT, August 25, 2008 DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) _ Stone-throwing protesters clashed with riot police and smashed vehicles Monday to demand the release of Bangladesh's former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, who is being held on corruption charges, news reports said. The violence left one person dead and several others injured, United News of Bangaldesh reported. Police used batons to disperse the dozens of protesters who tried to take to the streets, defying emergency rules banning such protests, the agency reported. The protesters were from the student front of Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party, the report said. It said the protests occurred on the campus of Dhaka University and its adjoining areas. The activists threw stones at riot police during the protest in central Dhaka. There was no immediate reports of injury. Zia served as prime minister from 2001 to 2006. She has been held at a makeshift prison in Dhaka's parliament compound since September last year on corruption charges. Zia is accused of misusing her power by awarding contracts to a local company, Global Agro Trade Company, when she was in office in 2003. The complaint said Zia's administration did not follow standard procedure in awarding the company work involving two cargo terminals, one in Dhaka's Kamalapur Railway Station and another in the country's main Chittagong seaport. She faces three other charges of extortion. She has rejected the charges as a move to tarnish her political image. Bangladesh has been ruled since mid-January last year by an interim government installed by the military after 30 people were killed in political clashes following the end of Zia's term. The government, led by a former central bank governor, has vowed to fight corruption, reform electoral rules and clean up the nation's factional and often violent politics before holding the next elections scheduled for December this year. Bangladesh, an impoverished nation of 150 million people, has been ranked as one of the world's most corrupt countries by the Berlin-based anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International. http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=92822 BANGLADESH: More protests against attack on Star reporter Journalists demand immediate arrest and punishment of jail guards for attack The Daily Star Tuesday, May 27, 2008 Journalists in Mymensingh, Dinajpur and Satkhira yesterday protested barbarous attack on The Daily Star Tangail Correspondent Mirza Shakil while performing duty on Tangail jail compound on Saturday. They demanded immediate arrest and punishment to the culprits involved in the attack. Our Mymensingh Correspondent reports: Journalist leaders termed the attack barbaric saying the attack is a violation of human rights. Our Dinajpur Correspondent reports: A protest meeting was held at Dinajpur Press Club in the afternoon. Press Club president Chitta Ghosh presided. Our Satkhira Correspondent reports: Local newsmen at a statement issued here in the afternoon demanded judicial inquiry into the incident and arrest and punishment to the culprits. Date Posted: 5/27/2008 http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=46283 201 RU teachers protest attack on FF RU Correspondent Some 201 teachers of Rajshahi University (RU) yesterday strongly protested the assault on a freedom fighter by Jamaat-Shibir cadres at a programme in Dhaka recently. In a joint statement, they also demanded punishment to Jamaat-Shibir cadres involved in the attack and a ban on 'Jatiya Muktijoddha Parishad' backed by Jamaat-e-Islami. Freedom fighter Sheikh Mohammad Ali Aman was assaulted by Jamaat-Shibir cadres as he called for trial of the war criminals at the programme of 'Jatiya Muktijoddha Parishad'. A journalist was also harassed by the Jamaat-Shibir cadres at that time. The incident of attack is testimony to how the Jamaat men tortured the people during the liberation war, the teachers said in the statement. They also expressed concern that the caretaker government did not take any action the attackers although several days have passed after the incident. The teachers also called on the government to initiate the process for the trial of war criminals immediately. The signatories to the statement include former vice chancellor Prof Saidur Rahman Khan, Prof Abdus Sobhan, Prof Mizan Uddin, Prof Ananda Kumar Saha, Prof Abul Kashem, Prof Mahabubur Rahman, Prof Fayekuzzaman, Prof Muklesur Rahman, Prof Julfiker Matin, Prof Anik Mahmud, Prof Jalal Uddin, Prof SM Abu Bakkar, Prof Shafiqunnabi Samadi, Prof Jannatul Ferdous, Prof Golam Sabbir Sattar Tapu and Prof Entajul Haque. http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=46587 2008-07-20 Metropolitan Protest against attack on freedom fighter continues DU Correspondent Dhaka University (DU) unit of Pro-JSD Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) and 'Amra Muktijoddhar Santan', a platform of children of freedom fighters, yesterday staged a demonstration on the campus protesting the attack on freedom fighter Sheikh Mohamamd Ali Aman by the Shibir cadres. The BCL leaders and activists brought out a procession that marched different streets on the campus and held a rally at the foot of Aparajeyo Bangla. Speakers at the rally demanded immediate arrest and exemplary punishment to the Shibir cadres responsible for assault on Aman. They also urged the caretaker government to take measures to try the war criminals. Meanwhile children of the freedom fighters also brought out a procession and held a rally on the campus demanding exemplary punishment to the Shibir cadres responsible for the attack and trial of the war criminals and Razakars (collaborators of the Pakistani army during the War of Liberation in 1971). Aman was assaulted by a group of shibir cadres at a programme of Jatiya Muktijuddha Parisad in the city on July 11. http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=388431 Tuesday 5th August, 2008 CPI activists protest killing of Indian fishermen by Sri Lankan Navy ANI Thursday 31st July, 2008 Chennai, July 31 : Communist Party of India (CPI) activists staged a demonstration hereon Wednesday against the alleged killing of innocent Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy. CPI National Secretary D. Raja led the protestors, who later gathered outside the Sri Lankan consulate in the city to register their protest. Slogans were raised against the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. "The Rajapakse Government is resorting to military action against Indian fishermen. Hundreds of fishermen have already been killed and are being injured. It is atrocious. It is contrary to all the accepted international norms. Even it is contrary to the spirit of the agreement between India and Sri Lanka. Now, it is time that the fishing rights of Indian fishermen are restored," said Raja. Raja also demanded that Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh should take up the matter with Rajapaksa during his visit to the island nation for the SAARC Summit. The Sri Lankan Navy allegedly have opened fire on hapless and unarmed Indian fishermen many times in the past after they accidentally crossed the maritime border separating the two countries. According to the Katchathivu Agreement signed between India and Sri Lanka in 1974, Indian fishermen are allowed to rest, fish and dry their nets on the islands. The agreement was amended by a 1976 executive order, which took away those rights. http://www.indiaenews.com/business/20080705/129950.htm Fishermen protest Sri Lankan Navy's 'atrocities' This fishing town on the east coast of Tamil Nadu wore a deserted look Saturday as hundreds of fishermen went on an indefinite strike to protest 'atrocities' and 'attacks' by Sri Lanka's navy. As many as 3,000 country boats and 1,000 mechanised fishing trawlers did not go out to sea in protest. The immediate provocation for the protest by the fishermen was the arrest of more than 900 fishermen from Rameshwaram, along with 300 fishing boats, by the Sri Lankan navy July 2 in the Palk Straits. The trawlers were later released after through investigation. 'The strike by the Indian fishing community would continue indefinitely,' N.J. Bose, general secretary of the Tamil Nadu-Puducherry Fishermen's Federation told reporters. 'Allied industry will also join the strike if the government does not take steps to extract meaningful assurance of providing safety to Indian fishermen from the Lankan authorities in the waters between the two countries,' the federation official added. Sri Lankan Navy spokesman Commander D.K.P. Dassanayake said the 300 trawlers were sailing towards Tamil Tigers-held Vidattaltivu area in northwestern Mannar district when they were surrounded by Sri Lankan navy vessels. Sri Lanka has denied that its navy attacked and harassed Indian fishermen. Sri Lanka said, it had intelligence reports that the Indian boat were to be used as camouflage by the LTTE, planning terrorist attacks. The Indian fishermen are, however, adamant on assurances and the federation has decided to hold another protest in Rameswaram July 10. They have threatened to block rail and road traffic at Pamban, 600 km south of Chennai, where the Indian land mass is closest to Sri Lanka, across the Strait. The federation had a similar protest in January this year after firing on Indian boats by the Sri Lankan navy. http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/jul/04fish.htm Tamil Nadu fishermen on indefinite strike protesting Lankan Navy action July 04, 2008 23:04 IST A day after Sri Lankan Navy released around 1,000 Tamil Nadu fishermen after detaining them for a day, thousands of fishermen from Rameshwaram launched an indefinite strike on Friday demanding protection and an end to recurring incidents of attacks by the island's navy. The fishermen, who were critical of the inhuman treatment meted out to their colleagues by the Sri Lankan Navy on Wednesday, said they would continue the strike till the problem was solved and security provided to them while fishing in Palk Straits. The strike had been launched by various fishermen associations and over 1,200 mechanised boats stayed back. Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry Fishermen's Association Chairman M J Bose said the fishermen would block the road on the Pamban bridge, connecting the island town with the mainland, on July 10. The proposed road blockade was backed by all the political parties in the state, he said. On Wednesday, the fishermen, intercepted by the Sri Lanka [Images]n Navy near Katchatheevu, were escorted to Talaimannar where a thorough search of their 249 boats was conducted, apparently following intelligence inputs that a few fishing boats carried explosive materials to Sri Lanka. The fishermen had alleged that many of them were beaten up by Sri Lankan naval personnel. http://story.indiagazette.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/701ee96610c884a6/id/383318/cs/1/ Indian fishermen protesting Sri Lanka action call off strike India Gazette Thursday 17th July, 2008 (IANS) Fishermen in Tamil Nadu's Rameshwaram, who were on strike against the Sri Lankan Navy's killing of Indian fishermen, withdrew their indefinite strike following the intervention of Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, the government said Thursday. Karunanidhi held talks with the representatives of the fishermen as their strike entered the 13th day. The Sri Lankan Navy had fired at the Indian fishermen off Nagappattinam coast, they said. 'The chief minister told us that our prime minister will take up the matter with Sri Lanka during the forthcoming South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) summit and that an ex-gratia payment of Rs.300,000 would be given per person who died in Sri Lankan firing. Similar other promises have also resulted in our withdrawing our strike,' N.J. Bose, president of the Rameshwaram fishermen's body, told reporters. As the fishermen got an assurance from the chief minister, two protest movements called by pro-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) political parties are likely to be withdrawn. The pro-LTTE parties had said that they would hold protest demonstrations at the Sri Lankan deputy high commission here next week. India and Sri Lanka are separated by the narrow Palk Straits. http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=384191 DMK leaders on fast to protest killing of fishermen by Lankan troops ANI Saturday 19th July, 2008 Chennai, July 19 : Leaders of the ruling Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam (DMK) staged a day-long state-wide fast on Saturday to protest the killing of Tamil fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy. Party president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi commenced the fast in Chennai today. Several union and state ministers, besides senior party functionaries participated in the protest. On Thursday, a resolution was adopted by the DMK's Working Committee meeting, which called for Central intervention in the matter. The DMK also adopted a resolution that urged the Centre to summon the Sri Lanka High Commissioner and express its displeasure in strong and unequivocal terms over the killings. A third resolution called for the intensification of patrolling by the Indian Navy and Coast Guard on the international maritime boundary to prevent incursions by the Sri Lankan Navy. The DMK Working Committee called on the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, to convey the Indian Government's concern and displeasure over the killing to the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse during the 15th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit in Colombo next month. http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/may2008/sril-m28.shtml Sri Lankan journalists protest against abduction and torture of colleague By our correspondents 28 May 2008 Use this version to print | Send this link by email | Email the author Around 200 journalists took part in a lunch-hour demonstration at a busy junction in Colombo on May 23 to protest over the abduction and beating of Keith Noyahr, the associate editor of the Nation, an English-language weekly. A heavy security presence of more than 100 police, including several high-ranking officers, had been mobilised to deter demonstrators from marching toward Temple Trees, the president's official residence. The protest was organised by five media organisations, including the Sri Lankan Working Journalists Association and Free Media Movement. Protesters demanded a full investigation to determine who abducted and assaulted Noyahr and accused the government of being involved in repeated attacks on the media and journalists, including Noyahr's abduction. The identity of those responsible for torturing Noyahr is yet be established, but it is likely that members of the Sri Lankan military or associated paramilitaries and thugs were involved. His abduction is the latest in a long line of attacks, carried out with the tacit government support, to suppress the media and journalists in the wake of President Mahinda Rajapakse's renewed war against Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Noyahr, who is defence correspondent for the Nation, spoke briefly to the WSWS from his hospital bed at the National Hospital in Colombo. He was abducted at about 10 p.m. on May 22 near his house at Dehiwela on the outskirts of Colombo city. A van had followed him home. Three men handcuffed and blindfolded him then dragged him into the van, which drove for about an hour. Noyahr was beaten severely with wooden poles. He was dumped near his house the following morning at about 4 a.m. He is still in pain with injuries to the back of his head and ear, and bruises near his right eye and both sides of his jaw. His back and legs were badly beaten. His wrists were injured by the handcuffs. The fact that he was dumped near his home points to the collusion of the security forces. The police and military have established checkpoints at virtually every major junction throughout Colombo and surrounding suburbs. Vehicles are routinely stopped and searched-particularly in the early hours of the morning. That the abductors were not concerned strongly suggests high-level military or police involvement. According to Noyahr, his interrogators wanted him to reveal his sources for articles on military matters. Although a supporter of the war, Noyahr has been critical of high-ranking officers and the way in which the government has conducted the war. He was threatened with severe reprisals if he reported publicly what his abductors wanted to know. Journalists at last Friday's protest thought Noyahr's May 11 column in the Nation may have prompted his abduction. Headlined "An army is not its commander's private fiefdom," the article criticised the conduct of army chief Major General Sarath Fonseka. Noyahr's family told the media he had received several threats following its publication and had taken precautions. The Rajapakse government and the military are not prepared to tolerate any criticism, no matter how limited, of the security forces. In comments on state-owned television earlier this month, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse, who is also the president's brother, lashed out at journalists who published reports "harmful towards the security forces and military operations" as "media traitors". He demanded the banning of such media. In an interview with Irida Lankadeepa in January, the defence secretary called for full censorship of military matters, arguing that "there is no need to report anything on the military". Army commander Fonseka told Dinamina on January 2, that media which refused to toe the government's line were "unpatriotic" and "the biggest obstacle" to military's war efforts. After President Rajapakse ordered offensives in July 2006 to seize LTTE territory, the military won some quick victories in the East. Over the past year, however, the army's efforts to overrun the LTTE's remaining strongholds in the North have bogged down. The military suffered heavy casualties in a failed offensive last month near Muhamalai. The cost of the war is impacting on living standards, producing rising popular discontent. Noyahr's article on May 11 accused General Fonseka of favoritism in promoting and awarding medals to senior officers. One example was Brigadier Samantha Sooriyabandara who was placed in charge of the main 53 strike Division in Jaffna without "the required experience" and commanded the troops involved in the Muhamalai disaster. While personal antagonisms and rivalries are undoubtedly involved, sharp tensions are clearly emerging within the military hierarchy as the war drags on. The Rajapakse government, which has banked heavily on a quick victory against the LTTE, is nervous at any public criticism of the military, even from those supporting the war. State repression of the media, including the abduction and murder of journalists and attacks on print shops, has been on the rise since Rajapakse narrowly won the presidency in November 2005. While censorship has not formally been invoked, the government has repeatedly warned the media not to deviate from the propaganda released by the military. For the period from May 2007 to May 2008, the Free Media Movement has documented two murders, two abductions (not including Noyahr) and 15 arrests involving media workers or journalists. In the same period, five radio channels had their licences suspended. According to the International Federation of Journalists, six journalists were killed in Sri Lanka during 2007. The most notorious incidents include: * On May 19 this year, a group of employees with Sirasa TV covering the Vesak Full Moon celebrations was assaulted by thugs in the Colombo suburb of Kiribathgoda. Labour Minister Mervin Silva is the organiser for the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) in the Kiribathgoda area and is particularly hostile to Sirasa TV for its coverage of his thuggish methods. * On March 17, President Rajapakse ordered the military to suppress a strike by employees of the state-owned television network, Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC). The strike was provoked by the government's failure to take action against Labour Minister Silva who burst into the television station in December, demanding to know why one of his speeches had not been broadcast. His thugs assaulted a news director. Two days after the strike was suppressed, Rajapakse appointed a retired army general to oversee the SLRC. * On March 7, J.S. Tissainayagam, a columnist with the Sunday Times and the editor of the Outreach web site, was arrested by the notorious Terrorist Investigation Division of the police. He is still in detention, more than two months after his arrest, and has not been charged. * On November 21, an armed gang broke into the print shop of Leader Publications, south of Colombo, and set it ablaze. The publishing house produces several newspapers critical of the Rajapakse government on issues of corruption, the violation of democratic rights and the activities of pro-government paramilitaries. * Last year, Iqbal Athas, the defence columnist for the Sunday Times, was forced to go into hiding after the military pointedly removed his security detail. He received threats following the publication of columns pointing to high-level corruption, including by a Rajapakse family member, in the purchase of MIG fighters for the air force. Like Noyahr, Athas is a supporter of the war, whose criticisms reflect unease within the defence establishment itself. In a bid to dampen criticism of Noyahr's abduction, the President Rajapakse has ordered the police chief to launch an investigation. But if the government's past record is any guide, the inquiry will be a whitewash. Similar "investigations" into the murder, abduction and assault of journalists and media workers have not resulted in any arrests or convictions. http://story.philippinetimes.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/2411cd3571b4f088/id/377669/cs/1/ Sri Lankan journalists protest against assault on scribes Philippine Times Wednesday 2nd July, 2008 (IANS) Hundreds of Sri Lankan journalists Wednesday held a peaceful rally in the heart of Colombo to denounce the attack on a fellow journalist and a British high commission official by unknown men and urged the authorities to speedily arrest the culprits. The protesters gathered a few hundred meters outside President Mahinda Rajapaksa's official residence and shouted slogans urging the authorities to take steps 'To stop immediately the threat to media freedom', 'Stop attacks on journalists' and 'Stop the culture of impunity'. 'All what we want from the government and the authorities is that they take all possible steps to stop attacks, harassment and threats against journalists and stop the prevailing culture of impunity,' said the convener of the independent Free Media Movement (FMM), Sunanda Deshapriya. Media rights groups here said that Mahendra Ratnaweera, the political officer of the British high commission, was severely injured in the Monday evening attack in Colombo. His friend and freelance journalist Namal Perera also suffered serious injuries when an unknown group of men in a van blocked their car and assaulted them. Several local and international media rights groups have condemned the attack and called for immediate investigation. The US and Britain Tuesday condemned the assault and asked the Sri Lankan authorities to bring the perpetrators to book at the earliest. 'We are deeply concerned by a series of recent incidents involving members of the Sri Lankan media,' a US embassy statement said Tuesday. The British high commission also condemned the attack as a 'despicable act'. Sri Lanka's defence spokesman, Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, said police investigation had been launched into the incident. 'We are hopeful of an early breakthrough in this regard,' Minister Rambukwella told reporters Wednesday, adding that the ruling coalition was fully committed to uphold the media freedom. The Newspaper Publishers Association Wednesday announced that it was ready to offer Rs.5 million to anyone who provided information that could assist the probe into the latest attack on journalists in Sri Lanka. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Fri Aug 29 17:13:45 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 01:13:45 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Pro-democracy, corruption and rights protests, Africa, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <005701c90a35$46a2f940$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ UGANDA * Families of "terror suspects" denounce Islamophobia * PM booed in protest by opponents * Exiles in London protest arrests of officials MALAWI * Cops teargas supporters of former president SOUTH AFRICA * Students march against trial of presidential hopeful KENYA * Religious group/gang protests banning, barricades burnt, 4 killed by police * Protesters march over allegedly corrupt hotel deal * Protests over missing activist * Boycott and protests hit finance minister MAURITANIA * Police attack anti-coup protest ZAMBIA * State threatens salary increment protesters NAMIBIA * Municipal leader faces ongoing protests * Residents protest corruption SUDAN * Journalists strike to protest censorship * Darfur protest in London * American Jewish group drowns out announcer in Darfur/China protest ZIMBABWE * Women injured in protest * Opposition takes to streets after protests banned * Exiles protest in Botswana, South Africa, UK * Protesters arrested, threatened with deportation for targeting Chinese embassy in South Africa SENEGAL * Journalists boycott awards over beatings at football match NIGERIA * Protesters storm office over missing Niger Delta funds * Supporters of politician storm parliament over impeachment * Demonstrations promised over corrupt use of money * Youths protest non-announcement of bye-election result DR CONGO * Arrest of popular warlord sparks protests by supporters GUINEA * Mass youth unrest, army revolt after prime minister sacked SWAZILAND * Women with HIV protest at royal shopping binge LIBERIA * Protesters occupy Harper City Hall SEYCHELLES * Police attack media freedom protesters http://allafrica.com/stories/200808250002.html Uganda: Families of Terror Suspects Protest New Vision (Kampala) 24 August 2008 Posted to the web 25 August 2008 Kampala MUSLIM clerics and families of the arrested South African terror suspects have claimed that they are being subjected to Islamaphobia and terror profiling. The Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) in South Africa told local newspapers that it believed Islamic cleric Mufti Hussain Bhayat and Haroon Saley detained in Kampala on terrorism allegations are being subjected to Islamaphobic profiling. The MJC and the Media Review Network (MRN) want South Africa Intelligence Minister, Ronnie Kasrils, to intervene in the case of the men being handled by the Joint Anti-Terrorism Task Force. The MRN, by the weekend, was also preparing to send its chairperson, Iqbal Jassat, to accompany Zahid Asmal of Channel Islam International to Uganda to assess the case. The MRN and MJC said they were outraged "that Muslims of undeniable integrity and a track-record of poverty alleviation have been profiled as 'terrorists'. "This feeds into the orchestrated frenzy of Islamophobia that can only be detrimental to the harmonious relationship currently enjoyed by our people on the continent," the organisations commented. The two were arrested at Entebbe International Airport on Monday with two other Ugandans Muslims who had gone to the airport to receive them. Security declined to reveal the identity of the locals.Radio Islam in South Africa reports that Bhayat lives in Lenasia, and Saley is a resident of Azaadville. Army spokesperson Maj. Paddy Ankunda said the two were suspected of being involved in terrorism activities and that they had not been tortured. "We are stilling holding them. We have got useful leads and still compiling more information." Yousha Tayob, who spoke on behalf of the suspects' families said they had received acknowledgement from Uganda that Bhayat and Saley are in custody, but didn't know why. "We are trying to establish consular access and that will tell us everything we need to know," Tayob said. "We have been given no official reason," he said over the weeken http://allafrica.com/stories/200806300649.html Uganda: Booing of Premier Was a Protest Against NRM The Monitor (Kampala) 29 June 2008 Posted to the web 30 June 2008 Chris Obore Last week's booing of the prime minister by mourners at Dr Suleiman Kiggundu's funeral prayers in an indication that the ruling NRM party is increasingly becoming an enemy of the people, according to political analysts. Sunday Monitor heard from the same analysts that the booing also manifested the deep-seated antagonism between the government and the Opposition. Prof. Apolo Nsibambi was stopped from making a speech at Kibuli Mosque where prayers were held for the former chairman of the Opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party. While the government on Thursday chose to blame the booing on FDC President, Dr Kizza Besigye, and Prof. Nsibambi said it was the work of "thugs", political analysts say the problem was down to the government's failures. "It's a demonstration that NRM has not brought a fundamental change; the intolerance of the past is still around," said Mr Mwambutsya Ndebesa, a history lecturer at Makerere University, adding that: "The government-Opposition relationships are very sour and antagonistic." He said that the government has been iron-fisted in its dealings with the Opposition; therefore, the latter are in no mood to be kind to the regime and its underlings. Veteran academic and politician, Prof. Dani Wadada Nabudere noted that the booing of the premier "shows that the NRM in Buganda is beginning to be seen as an enemy." This could be because of the unfriendly policies like the proposed and controversial Land Act Amendment Bill, which Buganda thinks is a ploy through which their land will be grabbed coupled with President Yoweri Museveni's determination to give-away part of Mabira Forest to a sugar cane growing company. This, according to Prof. Nabudere, could explain people's negative attitude toward government. He also said that the mourners could have booed Prof. Nsibambi because "Nsibambi is seen as disappointing in standing out on issues of national interest." "Some ministers and MPs are seen as spineless and betray Buganda's interests and the rest of the country," Prof. Nabudere said. He said the booing could easily spread across the country because the citizenry feels betrayed by pathetic and cowardly government leaders. The mourners could have particularly been angered by Dr Kiggundu's death and government's belated concern yet it was public knowledge that the late Dr Kiggundu was "deliberately" crippled financially by the state. The government shut down Dr Kiggundu's Greenland Bank in April 1999 before locking him in 2002 for allegedly causing financial loss to his employer. But the Muslim, and wider Buganda community, however, interpreted these actions as a deliberate cynical move to cut down a promising son of the soil. Prof. Nabudere said that as a leader and founder of the crippled Greenland Group of Companies that dealt in banking and merchandising, the late Kiggundu was seen by Muslims as their hero. "People feel the government as having given Kiggundu a row deal," he said. Because Kiggundu's business was suffocated and foreign investors promoted in the country, "people feel this is not our government because it represents foreign interests", according to Prof. Nabudere. "People have been restricted to a cage and there is no way out; they are resorting to booing as a sign of frustration," Prof. Nabudere observed. Mr Aaron Mukwaya, a senior political science lecturer at Makerere University agrees. "The major issue is the failure to address the question of democracy," he said. Mr Mukwaya said failure to open the political space for people to express themselves leads to radicalism as demonstrated by the booing of the prime minister. He said there is increasing intolerance on both sides because government has set the tone. "Nsibambi also arrived with political clout and his booing was an indication that there is increasing intolerance," he said. Mr Mukwaya added that he did not believe thugs were responsible for the booing because among the mourners were people in expensive suits. "They cannot be thugs," he said, "People are taking politics to burials and weddings instead of the right place because they have been restricted." "The onus is on the government to leave people to talk and air their views if not the radicals will keep appearing in such fora, " he said. He said there should be a policy of government to ensure tolerance and accommodation because "if government does not tolerate; the Opposition will also not tolerate NRM." Mr Ndebesa said there is "convergence between NRM and past regimes in terms of intolerance", therefore; the country has not experienced a fundamental change. http://allafrica.com/stories/200807310225.html Uganda: Ugandans Protest in London New Vision (Kampala) 30 July 2008 Posted to the web 31 July 2008 Norman Miwambo London UGANDANS living in the United Kingdom on Monday petitioned Queen Elizabeth II and the Commonwealth over the arrest of three Mengo officials. Buganda information minister Peter Mayiga, his deputy Medard Seggona and Betty Nambooze, the chairperson of the Buganda civic education committee, were arrested over a week ago and later, with the exception of Mayiga, charged with sedition. The petition called for "urgent action" against what demonstrators termed as "the deteriorating human rights and bad governance in Uganda." The petition was copied to the Commonwealth Secretary General, Kamalesh Sharma and the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. Other recipients were British secretary for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs David Miliband and the Uganda High Commission in London. http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_2332833,00.html Cops tear gas rioters 01/06/2008 22:17 - (SA) Blantyre - Police fired tear gas to break up a crowd of supporters of the former Malawian president accused of treason. Bakili Muluzi was released on bail on Friday, five days after his arrest for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government. Senior military and police officials also were arrested. Muluzi had wanted to attend a rally on Sunday in a slum area near the commercial capital Blantyre, but police stopped him because he was under house arrest. Muluzi supporters at the rally threw stones at riot police in response. Officers dispersed them with tear gas. Muluzi was president from 1994 to 2004 and wanted to stand in next year's election against President Bingu wa Mutharika. http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/080822/world/safrica_politics_protest_zuma SAfrica students march against Zuma's graft trial Module body Fri Aug 22, 11:32 AM JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - Hundreds of South African students on Friday marched to the country's highest court to demand the dropping of corruption charges against embattled presidential hopeful Jacob Zuma. The protesters, aged between 15 and 18, were members of the Congress of South African Students, a student body affiliated to the ruling African National Congress party (ANC), headed by Zuma. "We want to raise our discontent about the continued manipulation and abuse of the judicial system against the president of the ANC, Jacob Zuma," said student leader Kenny Motshegoa. "We want the court to intervene in what seems like a sustained campaign to tarnish comrade Zuma's name using the state organs. His corruption charges are political and we demand that they be dropped," he added. The high school students, who missed classes to take part in the march, danced and chanted slogans. Zuma, who toppled President Thabo Mbeki as ANC leader last December, faces corruption charges. In June, the ANC youth league leader, Julius Malema, stirred national concern when he told a rally that the youth were prepared to "kill" for Zuma if he went to jail, although he later retracted. A high court early this month ruled that it would decide in September whether to throw out the corruption case that could sink Zuma's presidential hopes. He is facing more than a dozen charges ranging from money-laundering to racketeering and has said he would stand down if convicted. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/15/2217894.htm Two killed as Kenya gang protests for second day Posted Tue Apr 15, 2008 7:12pm AEST Police shot dead two people when Kenya's Mungiki gang took to the streets again on Tuesday, presenting a brazen challenge to Kenya's new coalition Government on only its second day in existence. A Reuters Television journalist saw two people who police had shot dead in Nairobi's Industrial Area, where witnesses said Mungiki members were stoning cars. The gang, drawn from the majority Kikuyu tribe, has said it is protesting the beheading of its jailed leader's wife last week, which it blamed on police. Police deny that. Mungiki is Kenya's version of the mafia and has provided muscle-for-hire to politicians in the past. It provoked a bloody police crackdown that led to more than 100 deaths last year, after the group killed and beheaded scores of people. Police presence across the Kenyan capital was heavy, a regular sight in the nation since a disputed December 27 election spilled into ethnic violence. - Reuters http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/06/2181387.htm Kenya police fire tear gas to halt gang protest Posted Thu Mar 6, 2008 2:00am AEDT Kenyan police have fired teargas to scatter street protests by hundreds of young men demanding the release of a former leader of the outlawed Mungiki gang from prison. Police in riot gear chased the protesters through downtown Nairobi, frightening residents still on edge after post-election violence which killed more than 1,000 people and forced 300,000 from their homes. "We demand the immediate release of Maina Njenga and his cars, which were impounded by the police," a statement given to media by a rioter said. John Maina Njenga, a former leader and founder member of the Mungiki criminal gang, is serving a five-year sentence for possession of an illegal firearm. Mungiki, which means "multitude" in the Kikuyu tribal language is notorious for beheadings, and was accused of killing hundreds of people during the post-election violence. Police were not immediately available to comment. A new power-sharing deal negotiated by former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan has brought calm to Kenya, and economic activity has resumed. Last year, police killed at least 33 people in a crackdown on the gang, blamed for a spate of brutal murders in Nairobi and central Kenya. According to local media, Mr Njenga renounced the gang while in prison, saying he had become a born-again Christian. - Reuters http://media.www.dailylobo.com/media/storage/paper344/news/2008/04/15/News/Ap.Four.Kenyans.Dead.After.Gangs.Protest-3325501.shtml AP: Four Kenyans dead after gang's protest Tom Odula / The Associated Press Issue date: 4/15/08 Section: News Media Credit: Karel Prinsloo / AP Photo Karel Prinsloo / AP Photo Police walk past burning barricades set up by members of the Mungiki gang Monday during protest in Nairobi, Kenya. Members of the gang, which has been linked to a string of beheadings, held protests in several cities across the country to demand the release of their leader from prison. NAIROBI, Kenya - Kenyan police fired bullets and tear gas to clear machete-waving gang members who blocked roads and set a police post on fire Monday to protest the killing of an imprisoned gang leader's wife. At least four people were killed in the violence, police and members of the banned Mungiki gang said, reminding Kenyans of the fragility of the country's peace after postelection riots earlier this year. Regional police chief Philip Ndwiga said two people were shot dead in Central province. Gang members who asked not to be identified for fear or reprisals said two others were killed in the Dandora neighborhood of the capital, Nairobi. Earlier in the day, the gang blocked the main east-west road running through the country but it was quickly cleared, police officer Willy Lugusa said. Police and gang members fought running battles in Naivasha, a town about 60 miles to the northwest of the capital along the road. In the western town of Eldoret, senior police officer Muinde Kioko said that two Mungiki supporters had been badly beaten by members of the public and 16 had been arrested. Within the capital, gang members manned roadblocks of burning tires and pulled people out of vehicles. Local resident Cliff Owino said vehicles in the slum of Mathare were being stoned and gunshots were heard. Several burned-out, smoldering cars were blocking roads and about a dozen riot police with shields and masks were patrolling a main roundabout littered with broken glass and the blackened shell of a minibus. "This now is all because of the Mungiki," said Peter Nyaga, who works at a milling factory. "They are everywhere here." In another part of the city, around 200 members of the Mungiki gang armed with machetes and sticks blocked off a road and marched with a banner demanding the release of their leader from prison. Police fired tear gas at them but failed to disperse them. The Kenya National Youth Alliance, the political wing of the gang, released a statement accusing police of last week's killings of their imprisoned leader's wife and their acting leader's brother. "On the atrocious murders of the loved ones at the hands of the ruthless police force, the government in its impunity has continued committing extra-judicial killings and is responsible for these two murders. They should stop trying to pass the buck as they are all connected with the killings that have been going on since 2006," the statement read. National police spokesman Eric Kiraithe denied any police involvement in the killings. "That is totally false accusations," he said. "If we are interested in the wife of the criminal we would have taken her to court." The Mungiki, a quasi-religious sect linked to a string of beheadings, promote the culture of the Kikuyu, Kenya's largest tribe. Gang members say they were also approached by politicians to act as an ethnic militia during the violence following Dec. 27's disputed elections in which over 1,000 people died. Kiraithe rejected those claims. On Sunday, President Mwai Kibaki implemented a power-sharing deal aimed at resolving the political crisis that set off that unrest. He made opposition leader Raila Odinga prime minister and appointed several members of Odinga's party to his Cabinet. http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN134861.html Protesters march over Kenyan-Libyan hotel saga Tue 1 Jul 2008, 9:50 GMT By Andrew Cawthorne and Hereward Holland NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya's prime minister summoned cabinet colleagues on Tuesday to look at the secretive sale of a luxury hotel at what critics say was a knockdown price while protesters demanded the finance minister be fired over the deal. The Grand Regency deal has stoked national outrage and fuelled tensions in an already fragile coalition government set up in April to end a post-election crisis. "Kimunya must go!" chanted scores of marching demonstrators, referring to Finance Minister Amos Kimunya. About 10 legislators were among the 100 or so protesters who marched from the hotel in what organisers said was the first in a series of planned demonstrations in Nairobi. The Regency deal, involving Libyan investors, has added to suspicions of continued large-scale corruption after a series of scandals in east Africa's biggest economy, which foreign businesses routinely cite as a deterrent to investment. The saga has pitted mainly ministers from Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement against Kimunya, a loyal ally of President Mwai Kibaki. Kimunya has been finance minister for most of Kibaki's rule since 2003, a time of strong growth. Reversing prior remarks the government-owned hotel had not been sold, Kimunya said last week it had gone for 2.9 billion shillings after an offer "too sweet" to refuse. That price, less than the 4 billion shillings of a 1994 sale price for the hotel which analysts value now at between 4.5 and 6 billion, provoked outrage around Kenya, including from some of Kimunya's cabinet colleagues and anti-graft watchdogs. The minister says the deal was above-board and fetched the best possible price for the nation. His defenders say critics are mounting a witch-hunt before examining details of the deal. Late on Monday, cabinet colleague and Lands Minister James Orengo produced transaction documents that he said showed the Regency had in fact been sold for just 1.85 billion shillings. Orengo said Central Bank governor Njuguna Ndung'u had signed the agreement, and the hotel had gone to a company known as "Libyan African Pan African Investment Company Kenya Limited" with both Libyan and Kenyan directors. "READ THE TEA-LEAVES" Local economist Robert Shaw urged Kimunya to resign. "And if Prof. Njuguna Ndung'u is reading the tea-leaves, he would be well advised to call it a day too," he added in a newspaper column. Justice Minister Martha Karua, despite being another stalwart of Kibaki, has also criticised the finance minister. Kibaki and Odinga were at bitter loggerheads for the first two months of 2008, after Odinga accused Kibaki of stealing the December presidential election through fraud. But via international mediation, they buried their differences to form a coalition government that has brought peace back to Kenya. Odinga called a meeting of cabinet's finance committee on Tuesday to discuss the Regency affair. The controversy has weighed slightly on the local currency, the shilling, which weakened to 65.00/10 to the dollar on Monday from 64.70/80 on Friday. "There is a bit of negative sentiment around the political front," analyst Noah Meely said. The Regency had been owned by a Kenyan tycoon accused of being the architect of the so-called Goldenberg scandal that nearly sunk Kenya's economy in the 1990s. Kamlesh Pattni, who has been tried but never convicted despite multiple probes into the siphoning of some $1 billion of public funds over bogus diamond and gold exports, handed the five-star, multi-storey hotel to the bank earlier this year. Local media said that won him immunity from prosecution. http://allafrica.com/stories/200805270164.html Kenya: Residents Protest Over Missing Activist The Nation (Nairobi) 27 May 2008 Posted to the web 27 May 2008 Nairobi Angry residents and matatu operators in Baba Dogo, Nairobi Monday took to the streets over the disappearance of a human rights campaigner. Mr Charles Kimathi's wife, Ms Nancy Wangui, said he was picked up by a group of people in plain clothes but said to be policemen last Wednesday. "I was away at Jamii Bora Office (a self-help group) in Eastleigh where I had gone for a meeting and I was told that police picked (Kimathi) at Glue Cola estate where he was with a friend. I have never seen him ever since and the police are not telling us where they have taken him," Ms Wangui told the Nation. Project She said Mr Kimathi, 34, earned a living by printing T-shirts at a community project in Baba Dogo. Ms Wangui also said she had recorded a statement at Kasarani Police Station and with the CID over the disappearance. Kasarani OCPD Cyrus Ombati said police had arrested two of the demonstrators who were reportedly found with petrol bombs stashed in a maize flour bag. The two young men had nine petrol bombs containing between one litre or half a litre each. "We are interrogating them to establish what they intended to do with the petrol bombs," Ombati said. Denied The OCPD denied that the missing man was in their custody, saying detectives had been instructed to investigate the case and trace him. According to a resident who declined to be named, Mr Kimathi was collecting names of post-election violence victims who needed to be provided with building materials on the day that he disappeared. The demonstration temporarily disrupted traffic in Baba Dogo and along Outer Ring road before police dispersed the demonstrators. http://allafrica.com/stories/200807040008.html Kenya: Boycott And Protests The Nation (Nairobi) 4 July 2008 Posted to the web 4 July 2008 Nairobi Embattled Finance minister Amos Kimunya Thursday said he was still in office as MPs and other Kenyans continued demanding his resignation. "I am serving the nation," Mr Kimunya told the Nation in a telephone interview. But later in the day, MPs who have been calling for the formation of an opposition led a protest march in Nairobi as another group of demonstrators marched through the streets of Mombasa to demand that the minister resigns or be sacked over his role in the sale of the Grand Regency hotel. And in Parliament, MPs started their boycott of all questions and motions related to the Ministry of Finance a day after passing a censure motion against Mr Kimunya. Mr Gitobu Imanyara (Imenti Central, CCU) rose during question time to remind the Deputy Speaker that members would not entertain questions and/or motions related to the Treasury until the minister steps aside or is sacked. A minister cannot be removed through a motion of no-confidence by Parliament. Mr Kimunya said: "I am serving the nation from wherever I am now. Parliament... is not the appointing authority". Meanwhile, the team led by Attorney-General Amos Wako questioned the National Security Intelligence Service director-general, Maj Gen Michael Gichangi, over claims that the agency pushed for the quick sale of the Grand Regency Hotel. In the afternoon, Mr Kimunya went to State House to meet the President and left shortly before 3pm. In another development, the Ministry of Lands has placed a caveat on the hotel, blocking any further transfers of the land on which Grand Regency stands. The caveat also blocks the new owners of the hotel from securing bank loans using the property as a security. The principal registrar of titles, Ms Teresiah Mburu said: "This caveat forbids the registration of any dealing with the land absolutely". The caveat was presented to the Commissioner of Lands on Tuesday. On Thursday, Government spokesman Alfred Mutua issued a statement saying the move was taken to protect the property. Dr Mutua said the caveat was called for by "the enormity of the matter concerning the Grand Regency Hotel" and was meant to protect the property until issues related to the sale are concluded. He said the Government would ensure "good relations with Libya" are not affected. Lands minister James Orengo's revelations last week that the hotel had been sold to Libyan Arab African Investment Company Kenya Ltd sparked condemnation culminating in Wednesday's no-confidence motion. The motion was moved by Ikolomani MP Bonny Khalwale who had earlier opposed Mr Kimunya's plan to tax MPs' allowances. Although initial reports had indicated that the hotel had been bought by the Libyan Government, the embassy in Nairobi has since distanced itself from the deal, saying that they had not been involved at any stage. On Thursday, the Cabinet committee chaired by Prime Minister Raila Odinga approved a report compiled by its sub-committee which was headed by Attroney-General Amos Wako. The report proposed that Mr Kimunya, the Governor of Central Bank, Prof Njuguna Ndung'u, the Director General of the National Intelligence Services, Major General Gichangi and the secretary to CBK board, Mr Kennedy Kaunda Abuga, should step aside to pave way for investigations. Mr Odinga said the report will be presented to the Cabinet whose meeting was scheduled for Thursday, but was put off for what Dr Mutua said was the busy schedule of the President. Though the contents of the report had been widely publicised in the local media, Dr Mutua said it was yet to reach the Cabinet. "The Government would like to inform the public that the report has neither reached the Cabinet nor has it received Cabinet attention," he said. However, Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka told Parliament that President Kibaki had been briefed on the report and was even following the Wednesday proceedings of the House when Mr Kimunya was being censured. Dr Khalwale took the no-confidence motion to Parliament questioning the minister's roles in the sale of key public institutions. The accusations ranged from the sale of the Grand Regency to the Initial Public Offering of Safaricom shares. According to Dr Khalwale, Mr Kimunya acted in total disregard of the provisions of the Public Procurement and Disposal Act and related regulations governing the sale and disposal of public assets. His motion was overwhelmingly passed by MPs who rejected the VP's attempts to have the debate postponed to await the recommendations of the Wako team. On Thursday, Mr Kimunya did not turn up at his Treasury Building office. But in a telephone interview, he said he had not yet made a decision on demands for him to quit. "I am still consulting widely. The allegations tabled in Parliament were pure politics because nobody produced evidence to back the accusations," the minister said. He said that people were volunteering information about who, where and how the vote of no confidence was plotted. He said that his lawyers were verifying some documents, including those published in the press with a view to taking legal action. "People are giving me vital information about this grand onslaught and I am also looking at the documents before I decide on the next course of action. My lawyers will advise," Mr Kimunya said. He said all details on the Grand Regency Hotel issue were communicated to the relevant authorities, hence his insistence that Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Attorney General Amos Wako and Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission director Justice Aaron Ringera were aware of the deal. "I want them to deny those facts before I comment further," he said. He also said he was still in charge at the ministry and would continue working. "There is nothing tangible to prove the allegations and any decision I take will be based on my own conscience," said Mr Kimunya, also the Kipipiri MP. According to him, a number of issues had prompted the MPs to bay for his blood and these included his proposal that they pay tax like all other Kenyans. Meanwhile, fresh details have emerged contradicting Nairobi Metropolitan Development minister Mutula Kilonzo's statement that the Grand Regency Hotel was sold for Sh4 billion in 1994. Documents made available to the Nation show that the hotel was sold for Sh248 million ($4 million) in 1993 in a deal in which Mr Kilonzo, who was the lawyer for both Kamlesh Pattni and the late Mohammed Aslam, paid legal fees of Sh33 million. The total amount used to buy the hotel and five other properties amounted to Sh750 million at the time. When Mr Gichangi appeared before the Wako committee, he said he had, in the course of his duties, met Pattni over the sale of the Grand Regency. He also said he had handed over the transaction issue to Prof Ndung'u. But he denied threatening or intimidating any Government officer regarding the transfer of the hotel to Libyan Arab African Investment Company (K) Ltd. He also said his officers had compiled reports listing various irregularities relating to the deal and the details were available on request. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=94879 Mauritanian police use tear gas to break up anti-coup protest By Agence France Presse (AFP) Friday, August 08, 2008 Hademine Ould Sadi Agence France Presse NOUAKCHOTT: Mauritanian police on Thursday broke up a protest by hundreds of people against an army coup in the West African nation which has been internationally condemned despite a junta promise to hold new elections. The EU called for the release of President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, the country's first democratically elected leader, and his prime minister who were detained after the army takeover on Wednesday. The Arab League and African Union each expressed concern and sent missions to Nouakchott, where a top official in Abdallahi's party said police fired tear gas to end the rally in support of the president. "We wanted to organize a peaceful demonstration, our protesters were only armed with slogans and portraits of the president. The police stopped us by firing tear gas," party secretary general Mohammad Mahmoud Ould Dahmane said. One woman was hurt during the protest in the capital, which drew between 200-300 people, he added. Dahmane said that his National Pact for Democracy and Development party had allied with three other parties to denounce the coup. The president "is the one and only legitimate president" of the country, he said, and called for his immediate release. Earlier, around 1,000 people also marched through the capital in support of coup leader General Mohammad Ould Abdel-Aziz, who seized control hours after being sacked as head of the presidential guard. Pro-coup protesters marched alongside vehicles bearing giant portraits of the general, chanting "Aziz, Aziz" as they headed toward the presidential palace. Addressing the crowd at a rally outside the presidential palace at the end of the march, Abdel-Aziz promised to solve country's problems in his first public speech since taking control. "I will work to solve all the problems this country is confronted with," said the general, who was flanked by members of the ruling junta. Police in riot gear were posed at strategic junctions around the capital. But the junta promised to quickly hold new elections as it confronted international condemnation of Aballahi's detention. The junta said in a statement it would "supervise the holding of presidential polls enabling the relaunch of the democratic process in the country and to reshape it on a perennial basis." It promised: "These elections, which will be held in the shortest possible period, will be free and transparent and will bring for the future a continued and harmonious functioning of all the constitutional powers." Abdallahi remained in custody Thursday at Presidential Guard headquarters, according to a security source. The premier, former interior minister and two other officials considered close to Abdallahi were also arrested, security sources said. The coup triggered international condemnation, with the US urging the release of Mauritania's leaders and the EU threatening to cut off aid. The European Commission said the president and premier must be released by the junta before any fresh elections. "The current situation is unacceptable. A military coup of this nature is unacceptable against a democratically elected president," spokesman John Clancy said in Brussels. EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Louis Michel said Wednesday that the coup had jeopardized EU cooperation and aid to the country. The EU has pledged 156 million euros ($242 million) to the North African nation up to 2013. UN chief Ban Ki-moon called for "the restoration of constitutional order." The African Union called for maintaining "constitutional legality" and said its peace and security commissioner, Ramtane Lamamra, would go to Mauritania to "assist in promoting a peaceful solution to the crisis." A delegationn from the Arab League was also to go to Mauritania on Friday. The largely desert country has a history of coups since gaining independence from France in 1960, and on the morning after the coup, Mauritanian newspapers echoed a sense of deja-vu. "Coup d'etat: how did we get back to the starting point?" asked the Le Quotidien de Nouakchott daily. The Biladi newspaper spoke of "Democracy tested" while Nouakchott Info headlined: "Coup d'etat, the end of an era." The elections that Abdallahi won were hailed as a model of democracy for Africa, following a three-year transition after a bloodless coup in August 2005. A new political crisis has been boiling however and on Monday 48 members of Parliament walked out on the ruling party less than two weeks after a vote of no confidence in the government prompted a Cabinet reshuffle. - AFP http://allafrica.com/stories/200808111302.html Mauritania: Journalist Arrested While Covering Demonstration International Freedom of Expression Exchange Clearing House (Toronto) PRESS RELEASE 11 August 2008 Posted to the web 11 August 2008 On 7 August 2008, Ahmed Ould Neda, a reporter for Akbar Info, a Nouakchott-based independent news agency, was arrested and detained by the Mauritanian police while covering a demonstration against the new military regime in the country. Media Foundation for West Africa's (MFWA) correspondent reported that Neda's camera containing pictures of police assaulting demonstrators was confiscated. The demonstration had been organised by a broad coalition of four political parties to protest a coup d'?tat that ended the young democratically elected regime of President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi. On 6 August, a group of military officers led by General Mohammed Ould Abdul-Aziz, former head of the presidential guard, toppled President Abdallahi's administration after the general and three other senior officers were dismissed. However, another demonstration in support of the takeover held on the same day and led by General Abdul-Aziz went on without interruption. Neda's arrest and detention brings to three the number of journalists detained in Mauritania. Two other journalists, Mohamed Nemar Omar, and Mohammed Ould Abdelatif, editor and reporter respectively of "Al Houriya", an Arabic newspaper, have been in prison since 23 July over an article they published on judicial corruption. MFWA is deeply concerned about the highhandedness displayed by the police in Mauritania. The organisation is calling for the immediate release of the detained journalists. http://www.lusakatimes.com/?p=3410 Govt warns salary increment protestors Posted on August 12th, 2008 Political parties and some non-govenmental organisations intending to strike over a move to increase ministers' salaries must ensure the protests are peaceful. Information Minister, Mike Mulongoti, said although members of the public have a right to demonstrate, they should ensure their action is peaceful. He said Zambians should also question organisers, what the motive for the protests is for. Mr. Mulongoti said the civil society and political parties should use the right channels to air their grievances against government. He said in an interview with ZNBC news that use of dialogue and the courts, to resolve problems is a better option. The Chief Government Spokesperson was reacting to calls by civil society to start countrywide demonstrations over the planned salary increments for ministers and other constitutional office holders. [ZNBC] http://allafrica.com/stories/200806060629.html Namibia: Another Protest Against Okahandja CEO The Namibian (Windhoek) 6 June 2008 Posted to the web 6 June 2008 Denver Isaacs Windhoek ANGRY Okahandja residents took to the streets yesterday in protest against a number of controversial decisions made by their municipality over the last month. The demonstrators were particularly angered over the recent renewal of town CEO Regina Alughodi's contract, just weeks after the Town Council had decided to remove her. They also expressed unhappiness over the lack of response to earlier demonstrations and complaints to the municipality over the issue, saying that this might prompt them to explore the legal route. "Our main concern as Okahandja community is that we want the Okahandja council to remove Regina Alughodi from Okahandja municipality as the CEO and want the council to execute and implement the decision taken on May 3 2008 by the Okahandja full Council," group leader Timotheus /Goagoseb said before handing over the petition to regional Governor Theophillus Eiseb. Alughodi's contract was set to expire at the end of this month. Opposition party councillors said earlier this week that they were not involved in the decision to reverse their decision to remove the CEO, arguing that this was a political move made by the Swapo Party. Former Okahandja Mayor Paul Damaseb, at a similar protest two weeks ago, denied on national television the rumours that Alughodi's term had been secretly renewed. A week later it was revealed that her new contract had been signed even before that demonstration took place. Damaseb was removed from his mayoral position last week during council elections. The organisers of yesterday's protest estimated that about 500 people joined them on their march to the municipality building. The demonstrators said they demanded the minutes of the meeting where Alughodi was reinstated, and to know what procedures were followed to have this done. "The position of the CEO is not a political position and therefore should be advertised openly so that everyone that has the required qualifications can apply, and so that the best suitable candidate be appointed. Someone that will take the interests of the Okahandja community to heart," they said. The demonstrators demanded a reply to their petition within the next week, failing which they would approach the office of the President or consider legal action. http://allafrica.com/stories/200806231093.html Namibia: Disgruntled Opuwo Residents Hold Protest New Era (Windhoek) 23 June 2008 Posted to the web 23 June 2008 Michael Liswaniso Opuwo Hundreds of residents of Opuwo last Thursday took to the main street of the town where they expressed dissatisfaction regarding the administration of the affairs of the Kunene Regional Council they allege is corruptly being run. The residents marched through Opuwo's prominent avenue, Mbumbijazo Muharukua to the offices of the Regional Council to voice their grievances. They waved placards that read: "ACC Come In", "Down With Nepotism", "Where Is The Opuwo Constituency Office? and "Are Tenders Only For cronies?" among others. They assigned Opuwo's founding town mayor and now Swapo Party district mobilizer, Rex Sheehama to lead them in the march and be their spokesperson. Sheehama was flanked by the Swapo Party regional coordinator, Uahekua Herunga, and other prominent recognized and un-recognized traditional leaders. Reading out the petition, residents stated that the ongoing irregularities contain a potential time bomb that can derail and bring Government's development efforts to a standstill. They allege that the regional governor Dudu Murorua and two of his fellow constituency councillors in Khorixas and Sesfontein, who are on a United Democratic Front (UDF) ticket, treat regional subjects who are not UDF sympathizers unfairly when it comes to employment and other general services. "On our part, we have been observing a higher degree of respect to you as our political leader but you decide to disassociate yourself from us by looking down on us and treat us as passengers and outcasts," they stressed in the petition that was read out loud by Sheehama. The residents claim that Murorua and fellow councillors are responsible for the prolonged appointment of the chief regional officer, noting that on various occasions a successful candidate was not appointed when he was found not to be a UDF member, their alleging that the regional council will in all spheres delay the process and lead to the frustration of the candidate who would opt to seek employment opportunities elsewhere and in the process the post is re-advertised again. Residents claim tender procedures are not always followed. They pin-pointed the awarding of a tender to a security company to man certain constituency offices without following tender board procedures. They added that a Toyota Fortuner estimated to have cost close to half a million was purchased for the governor without the ministry and tender board approval and even bought on a one quotation basis. "It is not just this; even the Toyota Land Cruiser purchased for the Department of Planning and Development is in the hands of the acting chief regional officer and is currently parked at Khorixas for the reason only known to him and his partners in this dirty work. "In fact, the acting chief regional officer is a director of planning with a car allowance and thus not allowed to drive a GRN vehicle," Sheehama read the petition. Residents claim staff members of the regional council are hand-picked and positions are not always advertised. They thus called upon the Anti-Corruption Commission to intervene swiftly. They claim the recent appointment of a driver and the personal assistant to the governor raises questions, as their posts were not advertised. They also allege that the accountant at the office studied human resources and not accounting. "How can a person who studied human resources management head the finance division and supervise qualified accountants?" asked Sheehama. Residents say the decision by the UDF regional councillors on the absence of other councillors to declare Khorixas as the regional capital is a clear insult, provocation and contempt of central government, Cabinet and non-UDF residents in Kunene. "Which government policy gives the UDF power in Kunene for the regional education office to be established in one of the UDF controlled constituencies while there is a regional capital?" they asked. The residents claim a New Era article of 2005 by the headline "Opuwo Unsuitable Capital" is still fresh in their minds and thus claim they know whose "dirty ideas" it was. The residents vowed to fight what they termed "tooth and nail, without fear or favour" to protect their rights and intended benefits. "We urge everyone and even the director of education not to be intimidated and become submissive to UDF illegal instructions to remain calm in the regional capital," the three-page petition read. Speaking at the same occasion, senior chief of the Otjikaoko Traditional Authority, Paulus Tjavara, indicated that the entire community of Kaoko is not ill-informed, stupid neither coward and thus, he stressed that there should be tangible solutions to the outcry of the people, warning that the next demonstration won't be peaceful if no solution to the problems is found. He further stated that the traditional authorities might even take it up with the Minister and even the President. "The number of people present here is a clear testimony ," he noted. None of the political big muscles were present to receive the petition, and neither was the acting chief regional officer, George Kamseb, as he was on an "official assignment" in the capital. http://africa.reuters.com/country/SD/news/usnL19825489.html Sudan paper suspends work to protest censorship Thu 19 Jun 2008, 15:06 GMT KHARTOUM, June 19 (Reuters) - One of Sudan's leading independent papers suspended work on Thursday, saying censorship by authorities had made it impossible to function. Ajras al-Huriya, or the Bells of Freedom, said it had not been able to publish for two days this week after Sudanese security arrived and ordered the removal of up to nine articles and columns minutes before the paper went to the printing press. "They, the security elements, are replacing the role of the editor-in-chief," said deputy chief editor, Fayez el-Sheikh el-Silaik. "We want to send a very strong message to the international community and the political forces that we are in a very dangerous situation -- freedom is in danger now." Sudan's constitution, created after a 2005 north-south peace deal ending Africa's longest civil war, enshrines press freedom but since an attack on Khartoum last month by rebels from Sudan's west, daily censorship has been imposed on newspapers. Silaik said articles critical of the ruling National Congress Party, the army or security had been removed, as well as those on hostilities in Darfur, neighbouring Chad and on dam projects in northern Sudan where people were killed in protests. "We cannot even write about the fact that there is censorship," he said. Senior members of Sudan's political opposition parties were present when the paper announced the suspension, including the former southern rebels, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, who joined the NCP in government following the 2005 accord. Some SPLM members are shareholders in the paper which has a charter to ensure its independence. The SPLM said it would raise the issue of censorship with the NCP. (Reporting by Opheera McDoom; editing by Elizabeth Piper) http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/05/399541.html Justice for Darfur - London Protest Peter Marshall | 26.05.2008 12:19 | Repression | London Approaching two hundred protesters, many from the Sudan, gathered opposite Downing Street yesterday (Sun 25 May, 2008) for a noisy protest before marching to a rally held adjoining the Sudanese Embassy opposite St James's Palace in London. The 'Justice for Darfur' campaign was launced a month ago, one year after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants against Sudan's former State Minister of the Interior Ahmad Haroun and Janjaweed leader Ali Kushayb (Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-al-Rahman) on 51 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity arising from persecution, rapes and murder of civilians in four West Darfur villages. The Sudanese government has refused to hand over the men; Haroun has even been promoted to be responsible for humanitarian affairs, and Kushayb, who was being held in jail on other charges at the time the ICC warrants were issued has been released due to "lack of evidence." Demonstrators also carried placards asking for other Sudanese war criminals to be brought to justice, including Saleh Gosh, head of Sudan's National Security and Intelligence Service, Sudan President Omar Al Bashir, the Minister of the Federation Government Nafi Ali Nafi and former Foreigh Minister Mustafa Osman, who were all among the 52 listed for investigation by the UN Commission of Inquiry into war crimes in 2005. Fresh reports of beatings, detentions and shooting of Darfuri civilians in Khartoum and Omdurman have been received earlier this month, but the situation in Darfur seems now to attract relatively little attention in the mainstream press - who sent no reporters or photographers to Sunday's event. The Justice for Darfur campaign is supported by around 30 organisations including the Aegis Trust, Amnesty International and Darfur Union UK who organised this event along with Aegis Students. Justice for Darfur Launch http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2008/04/24/darfur18640.htm Aegis Trust report http://www.aegistrust.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=750&Itemid=88More pictures from Sunday's event in London http://mylondondiary.co.uk/2008/05/may.htm#darfurPeter Marshallhttp://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/nbc/protesters_disrupt_rokers_weather_89970.asp?c=rssWednesday, Jul 23Protesters Disrupt Roker's WeatherActivists from the American Jewish World Service organization drowned out AlRoker as we was trying to tell viewers about Hurricane Dolly this morning.According to a press release, the group is calling on NBC "to beef up itscoverage of China's complicity with the Sudanese government's genocidalcampaign in Darfur as the network approaches its Beijing Olympicsbroadcast."The AJWS did its own study that found NBC "has spent a mere 6 hours and 45minutes on the genocide in Darfur since the conflict broke out in 2003." Butis planning "an unprecedented 1,400 broadcast hours to the Beijing OlympicGames this August." The group also sent a letter to NBC News president SteveCapus earlier this month requesting a meeting.But what the AJWS does not mention is the reporting done by the Today show'sAnn Curry. Curry has traveled to the region twice to report for NBC Newsprograms. MSNBC produced an hour-long special based on her reporting, andCurry was honored for her work there. So, while the coverage of the genocidein Darfur has fallen out of the American news cycle of late, the AJWS mightwant to make their voices heard to all the news networks, and not NBC alone.http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2008-05/2008-05-05-voa57.cfm?CFID=22422552&CFTOKEN=34322103Zimbabwean Women Activists Report Injuries As Police Quell ProtestBy Patience RusereWashington05 May 2008Police in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, arrested 10 members of Women Of Zimbabwe Ariseand allegedly beat dozens as members of the activist group tried to march tothe high court to demand an end to the political violence wracking thecountry.Sources in the group, known as WOZA, said members were beaten by police inan initial attempt to march to the court, then regrouped near St. Mary'sCathedral in the city center before being intercepted and beaten again bythe police.The sources said a number of WOZA members were injured when they were struckby a police vehicle. They said 59 members required medical care after theprotest.WOZA founder Jenni Williams was arrested but soon set free, the sourcessaid.http://allafrica.com/stories/200806030414.htmlZimbabwe: Tsvangirai Takes Protest to Streets After Rallies BannedBusiness Day (Johannesburg)3 June 2008Posted to the web 3 June 2008Dumisani MuleyaJohannesburgZIMBABWE's main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, facing PresidentRobert Mugabe in the critical presidential election runoff on June 27, haschanged tactics after the government resorted to banning his rallies in abid to stop his growing momentum.After his rallies in Hwange and Victoria Falls were banned on Sunday,Tsvangirai yesterday changed his approach from public rallies to walkingabout in the opposition stronghold of Bulawayo's restless townships in a bidmobilise voters.Accompanied by his party's campaign team, Tsvangirai visited poor andpolitically explosive townships such as Makhokhoba, Nkulumane, Phelandaba,Luveve, Magwegwe and parts of the central business district.Wherever he went, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader was mobbedby excited crowds urging him to "finish off" Mugabe in the runoff."Welcome to Bulawayo, Mr President," shouted one of the supporters as theyrushed to greet Tsvangirai, who looked pleased and confident despite the banon his rallies and the arrest of scores of party activists."We want you to finish off Mugabe on June 27," they said.Tsvangirai has been finding it difficult to campaign since his return hometwo weeks ago after more that a month of operating from Botswana and SA.Zimbabwe is gripped by worsening political violence, which has claimedscores of lives, mostly of MDC activists.The MDC and human rights organisations accuse the security forces, army,police and intelligence units of waging a covert but brutal campaign againstthe opposition in a bid to save Mugabe's political career.Mugabe, who is free to campaign wherever he wishes, has ordered a "warlike"approach to what he has described as a "do-or-die" campaign. He said thelooming poll would take place in "circumstances of an all-out war".This was a signal for his militant supporters to use violent tactics.Attacks on and arrests of opposition leaders and activists, civic leaders,journalists, lawyers, diplomats and ordinary people accused of dissent havecreated a climate of fear, a little more than three weeks before the runoff.MDC faction leader Arthur Mutambara was arrested on Sunday and charged with"publishing statements prejudicial to the state and for contempt of court"after he recently wrote a newspaper article criticising Mugabe for hisgovernment's handling of elections in March, which the veteran ruler and hisZanu (PF) party lost.The elections were beset by controversy after the electoral commissionfailed to release presidential poll results for more than a month.The editor of the Standard, Davison Maruziva, who published Mutambara'sopinion piece, was also arrested. MDC MP Eric Matinenga, who is also thechancellor of Zimbabwe's Anglican Church and a prominent barrister, wasarrested on Saturday in Buhera for allegedly "inciting violence".At least 74 MDC supporters were arrested, bringing to more than 500 thenumber of MDC supporters picked up since March. Fourteen members of Women ofZimbabwe Arise were arrested in Harare for protesting. The MDC says 50 ofits supporters have been killed since the March 29 election.The MDC is being blocked from reaching some rural areas, Mugabe's formerstrongholds, and denied access to the public media, making its campaigndifficult."They are trying to disable and throw our campaign into disarray," MDCspokesman Nelson Chamisa said. "But this is only making us more determinedand the people are more resolute to vote out Mugabe this time round thanever before."http://allafrica.com/stories/200807040803.htmlZimbabwe: Citizens 'Spoil' to ProtestZimbabwe Independent (Harare)4 July 2008Posted to the web 4 July 2008Wongai Zhangazha/Loughty DubeZIMBABWE'S electorate protested angrily against last Friday's presidentialelection run-off and President Robert Mugabe's government as shown by anextraordinarily high number of spoilt ballots, some carrying insultingmessages.The run-off "won" by Mugabe was characterised by a poor voter turnout inurban areas, where the most spoilt ballots were recorded.Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the MDC, withdrew from the race againstMugabe citing state-sponsored violence against his supporters, but thecountry's electoral authorities went ahead with the poll. The election drewextensive condemnation regionally and internationally.In the first round of the presidential election on March 29, Tsvangiraioutpolled Mugabe, but failed to attain the required 50% plus votes to assumeZimbabwe's presidency.Tsvangirai polled 1 195 562 votes against Mugabe's 1 079 730, but lastFriday the opposition leader got a paltry 233 000 votes to the 84-year-oldformer guerilla leader's 2 150 269.There were 39 975 spoilt ballots in March, but last week's run-off saw thenumber increasing to 131 481, a move political analysts described asunusual.Harare had the highest number of spoilt ballots -- 36 446, Midlands camesecond with 19 438, Manicaland 17 525, Mashonaland West 10 821, MatabelelandNorth 9 907 and Masvingo 9 740.Bulawayo recorded 9 166 spoilt ballots, Mashonaland East 7 675, Matabelelandsouth 7 353 and Mashonaland Central the lowest 3 409.The protest was also seen in the drastic drop in Tsvangirai's votes in someof the provinces in which he performed well in the March election.In Mashonaland West, Tsvangirai in March had 107 345 votes, but last weekwent down to 18 459, while in Mashonaland East he got 4 066 from the 119 661he garnered in the first round.In Harare, Tsvangirai had 220 160 votes in March, but this time he got 48307, while in Manicaland where he previously won with 212 029 votes, lastFriday he managed to get only 29 561 votes.In Bulawayo, 43 584 people voted and there were 9 166 spoilt ballotscompared to 551 spoilt papers when 97 236 voters took part in the polls inMarch.Election observers were perturbed by the number of spoilt ballots and someof the messages that were scribbled on the papers.Marwick Khumalo, the leader of the Pan-African Parliament's observermission, said some of the spoilt ballots had "unpalatable messages".Presiding officers who spoke to the Zimbabwe Independent this week said mostof the spoilt ballots had explicitly insulting messages written instead ofthe cross that marks the vote.The presiding officers said in some instances voters crossed the boxes forboth Mugabe and Tsvangirai and added a message that the two should governthe country together."There were too many spoilt papers in the constituencies, especially inMpopoma (Bulawayo) where people were voting in a by-election," one of thepolling officers said. "Some of the people voted in the House of Assemblyby-election but when it came to the presidential election they decided toexpress their feelings by writing messages about what they felt about thecandidates. Most of the hate messages were directed at Mugabe."The polling officials said some of the common messages on the spoilt ballotboxes were 'Mugabe you must go', 'Please stop the violence, we do not wantyou', 'Go back to Zvimba', 'Go hang' while some were obscene andderogatory."Another polling official who was stationed in Pelandaba/Mpopoma said in someinstances voters took time to draw horns and features on Mugabe's face."It was interesting to note that Zimbabweans are very artistic people," hesaid. "Mugabe's picture on the ballot had horns added to his face while hismoustache was heavily shaded for him to appear like Hitler. The peoplereally expressed their anger on the ballot paper."Political analysts have attributed the high number of spoilt ballots to aprotest vote by Zimbabweans who were angered at Tsvangirai's withdrawal fromthe run-off.NCA chairman Lovemore Madhuku said the spoilt ballots could be explained intwo ways -- a protest against Mugabe or against Tsvangirai's pull out."The first category is that of those people who were forced to go and votefor Zanu PF following the violence and intimidation they experienced beforethe runoff," Madhuku said. "They used their ballot papers as a way ofprotesting against Zanu PF's intimidation. It was an act of resistance thatthey said 'I am not going to give you my vote'."He added: "The other category is that of those who did not agree withTsvangirai's idea to pull out. They were unhappy with the decision anddecided to just spoil the ballots."Prior to the run-off the MDC claimed that over 85 of its supporters had beenkilled, 10 000 injured and more than 200 000 internally displaced bypolitical violence allegedly perpetrated by state security agents, Zanu PFmilitia and war veterans.http://www.wcpo.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=088ab4ac-c3e8-4170-8ba6-d1399570fa31&rss=703Protesters Rally For Peace In ZimbabweReported by: Jacqueline HowardEmail: Jacqueline.Howard at wcpo.comLast Update: 7/14 5:02 pmFlag of Zimbabwe (Ross Land, Getty Images)Related LinksBush calls for penalties against ZimbabweMayor Suspends Relationship With Sister-City In ZimbabweLocal protesters gathered downtown in Fountain Square on Saturday in effortsto lead a push for democratic change in Zimbabwe.Since President Robert Mugabe took presidency after a runoff election inJune, there has been political unrest in the country.Representatives from the Greater Cincinnati branch of Zimbabwe's Movementfor Democratic Change hosted Saturday's gathering.The Movement of Democratic Change is an opposition party that was founded in1999 to bring democracy to Zimbabwe.In the country, there are allegations that citizens who oppose the rulingparty are often threatened or even killed.Those who met in Fountain Square said they hope Saturday's vigil calledattention to the danger the people in Zimbabwe are facing.http://www.sabcnews.com/africa/southern_africa/0,2172,170564,00.htmlZimbabweans in Botswana to protest at SADC officeThe petitions call for urgent attention to be given to the dire situation inZimbabweMay 30, 2008, 06:45Zimbabweans in Botswana - mostly opposition Movement for Democratic Change(MDC) supporters - are to hold a protest march to the Southern AfricanDevelopment Community (SADC) offices in Gaborone.A petition is to be presented to a United Nations (UN) representative, theSouth African High Commissioner, the SADC Executive Secretary and possibly arepresentative from the Zimbabwean Embassy.Some senior MDC parliamentarians are expected at the march. The petitionscall for urgent attention to be given to the dire situation in Zimbabwe.About 50 people have been killed in that country and 25 000 are displacedsince the disputed March elections. Primarily, the petition is calling forPresident Thabo Mbeki, who is mediating in the Zimbabwe conflict, to recusehimself. They're also calling on the Zimbabwean government to denounceviolence in the run-up to the run-off.Meanwhile, President Thabo Mbeki is due to meet with SADC members to discussthe run-off elections in Zimbabwe in four week's time. Mbeki said this afterattending the Tokyo International Conference on African Development inJapan.He cut short his visit in a bid to focus his attention on the xenophobicattacks in the country. Earlier, Mbeki brushed off criticism that he failedto show compassion by not visiting areas affected by violent attacks againstforeigners around the country. Mbeki has urged SADC observers to go back toZimbabwe.http://www.sabcnews.com/africa/southern_africa/0,2172,172160,00.htmlGathering on bridge to protest Zimbabwe situationDozens on the bridge to protest against the situation in ZimbabweJune 25, 2008, 21:45Dozens of people gathered on the Nelson Mandela Bridge in Johannesburgearlier today to protest against the situation in Zimbabwe. The protesterswere apart of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition.People were wearing red and yellow T-shirts bearing the slogan "Free ZimNow." They were also holding placards displaying pictures of woundedZimbabwean nationals. The placards read "Zim bleeds while the SADC sleeps,""Hoot for a free Zimbabwe," "Stand up for Zim" and "Injustice is a threat toall".Protester David Chitakunye, 29, who left Zimbabwe in 2002 said that he wasnot happy with the situation in his home country. "I was arrested inZimbabwe and severely beaten because I was a MDC supporter. The youthmilitia beat me with sticks and stones and threw me in a gutter to die ... Iwas then rescued by a truck driver who took me to hospital. I fear for mysafety in Zimbabwe and that is the reason for me leaving."Development Bank of SA educational analyst, Graeme Bloch, also a protester,said that it was time for President Thabo Mbeki to "sort Robert Mugabe out"for all the promises that he had broken. "I was in the United DemocraticFront and it's the same sort of issues that I experienced there while beinga member. People have a right to choose ... Zimbabwe should not be run by amaniac who has destroyed his people with violence."Motorists hooted as they drove over the Nelson Mandela Bridge. There wassome police presence in the area. Protesters intended to march to MaryFitzgerald Square where a concert was to be held.Meanwhile, about 300 people believed to be MDC supporters are seeking refugeat the South African embassy in Harare. Foreign Affairs spokesperson RonnieMamoepa says South Africa ambassador to Zimbabwe Mlungisi Makalima and hisstaff are currently talking to the group. - Sapahttp://allafrica.com/stories/200806260934.htmlZimbabwe: Zimbabweans to Protest Presidential Runoff At Embassy in LondonSW Radio Africa (London)26 June 2008Posted to the web 26 June 2008Tererai KarimakwendaA coalition of Zimbabwean groups in the U.K. have organized a demonstrationthat is to take place at the Zimbabwe Embassy in London on Friday, whileRobert Mugabe conducts a Presidential poll with only himself as a candidatein Zimbabwe.The MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of the race last Sunday as statesponsored violence continued to claim the lives of more MDC officials andsupporters. The decision to withdraw from what has been described as a'sham' election has received global support.The groups that are protesting in London include the Vigil, MDC UK &Ireland, the Zimbabwe Association and the Zimbabwe Community Group. Theirstatement said they are inviting 'Zimbabweans from all walks of life,friends, supporters and well-wishers' to come in their hundreds and expressanger about the genocide taking place in Zimbabwe. The groups are calling onthe international community to 'come together and stop the madness in ourbeloved Zimbabwe'.The demo is on Friday at 10.00 am at Zimbabwe House on The Strand, London.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7369481.stmArchbishop leads Zimbabwe protestDr John Sentamu has been a consistent critic of Mr MugabeThe Archbishop of York has urged members of Zimbabwe's security forces notto prop up Robert Mugabe's regime.Dr John Sentamu, one of the most senior members of the Anglican church, isleading a day of fasting and prayer in support of the people of Zimbabwe.He urged the army and police not to "terrorise the ordinary citizens".In December, Dr Sentamu cut up his clerical collar on television and said hewould not replace it until President Mugabe was out of office.'Basket case'There has been a month of deadlock in Zimbabwe following disputed elections.Dr Sentamu called on the public to join him in prayer for the country.He said: "My plea, really to the army and to the police, is very simple."Your job is not to prop up a government that actually lacks legitimacy, butto protect every citizen of Zimbabwe."And if Mugabe has lost the election, for heaven's sake don't prop him up.The Archbishop of York on Mugabe"As a Christian community we must all stand together with our brothers andsisters living under the tyranny of Mugabe and pray that they will finddeliverance."On Thursday, Dr Sentamu released a joint statement with the Archbishop ofCanterbury calling for international action to prevent "horrific" violencein Zimbabwe.And, speaking on Sunday, he told the BBC: "I've visited it a number of timesand it was the bread basket of that region."It's now a basket case and the problems of Zimbabwe actually affect a lotof us - it's not just them."He said that on other international issues, such as global warming and thehumanitarian crisis in Darfur, there had been "a coalition of nations"prepared to speak out."But, for Zimbabwe, it seems as if it doesn't really matter," he said. "AndI actually think that the international community and all of us must beconcerned about a country which once was a real showcase in Africa and nowreally is terrible."In Zimbabwe, Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party has failed to regain itsparliamentary majority after a partial recount of votes from polls lastmonth.The opposition MDC says it also won presidential polls, although thoseresults remain unreleased.The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) said the presidential results couldbe announced after the completion of the recounts, expected by Monday.The head of the Anglican church in southern Africa, Archbishop ThaboMakgoba, told the BBC he wanted a weapons embargo to be imposed againstZimbabwe."I would say Zimbabwe needs food, peace and security and not the arms. Iwould support such an embargo," Mr Makgoba said.[Gonzalo Villanueva maintains a blog, http://open-veins.blogspot.com.]http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/06/402157.htmlProtests in Nottingham as Zimbabwe Goes to the PollsNotts IMC | 29.06.2008 14:39 | Migration | Repression | NottinghamshireOn Friday June 27, Zimbabwe went to the polls in the second round of itspresidential election. This followed a first round in March. Concerned aboutthe scale of state-directed violence against supporters, the oppositionleader Morgan Tsvangirai had withdrawn on Sunday June 22, making a victoryby the incumbent Robert Mugabe inevitable.In Nottingham, the election was marked by the recently formed NottinghamZimbabwe Community network (NZCN) who held a protest against deportations toZimbabwe in Old Market Square and organised a public meeting at the SumacCentre to discuss the situation in the country.The demonstration was a lively affair, with around 30 people in attendanceand a mix of Zimbabweans and supporters. Some demonstrators expressed theirsupport from Morgan Tsvangirai and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC),but the main focus was anger against Mugabe. Although relatively small, theprotest attracted considerable interest from passers-by. Some lookedbemused, but others were supportive.After the demonstration the NZCN held a meeting at the Sumac Centre toelaborate further on what life is like in Zimbabwe today. Following foodprovdied by Small World Kitchen, five speakers recounted their ownexperiences, described their concerns about friends and family, sketched outthe history of the opposition in Zimbabwe and talked about life as an asylumseeker in the UK. Tellingly, one of the intended speakers was not able tomake it because he had just discovered that his brother had been murdered inZimbabwe.The meeting followed a successful film showing at the same venue just over aweek earlier as part of Refugee Week. The NZCN had shown Flame, a film aboutone woman's experience during the country's liberation war and followed thisby speakers.Notts IMChttp://allafrica.com/stories/200804251083.htmlSouth Africa: Zimbabwean Protestors Arrested At Chinese Embassy in PretoriaSW Radio Africa (London)25 April 2008Posted to the web 25 April 2008Tererai KarimakwendaThe police in South Africa arrested about 50 Zimbabwean protestors who wereoutside the Chinese Embassy in Pretoria on Friday, attempting to hand over apetition to Zhong Jianhua, the Chinese Ambassador to South Africa.The event was organised by the Revolutionary Youth Movement of Zimbabwe(RYMZ) and the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum (ZEF). They wanted to protest China'scontinued support of the Mugabe regime in the face of a nationwidepost-election campaign of violence and retribution against oppositionsupporters.The Chinese embassy refused to accept the petition and it is not clear whyso many people were arrested. Among those in detention is RYMZ PresidentSimon Mudekwa, their general secretary John Chikwari, organising secretaryMax Gatakaca and the Pretoria branch chairman Farai Chimanikire.Activist Reverend Mufaro Hove, a board member with the youth group, said thegroups had not applied for a permit from police. He added: "We resolved thatwe would not waste our time with these formalities because they take so longand we have nothing to apologise for." South Africa's police require aseven-day notice period for granting permission to hold a march ordemonstration.Gabriel Shumba, executive director of the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum, isassisting at the police station since he is also a qualified lawyer. Shumbasaid it was not necessary for the police to arrest people since it was apeaceful demonstration and they could merely have been asked to disperse.It is feared that some of the arrested demonstrators might be sent back toZimbabwe. In view of the current government crackdown, Shumba said theirlives would be in grave danger.http://allafrica.com/stories/200807050015.htmlZimbabwe: Cosatu Holds Beitbridge Border DemonstrationSW Radio Africa (London)5 July 2008Posted to the web 5 July 2008Lance GumaSouth Africa's main labour union the Confederation of South African TradeUnions (COSATU) held a demonstration at the Beitbridge border post Saturdayprotesting against Robert Mugabe's regime. Spokesman Jan Tsiane urgedcontinental bodies to intervene in the crisis and help restore democracy inthe wake of Mugabe's one-man election. No incidents were reported during theprotests except the arrest of one man who was later released.Newsreel spoke to Patrick Craven from COSATU who said their federation wasopposed to the formation of a government of national unity adding that atransitional authority was the best way forward. Such an authority would beformed using proportional results from the March 29 poll and this body wouldorganize fresh elections that reflect the will of the people.Earlier in the week the federation slammed the one-man run off election,shortly after Robert Mugabe was sworn in as President on Sunday, and calledon African governments to refuse to recognise Mugabe as a legitimate head ofstate. They also said he should be barred from attending meetings of theAfrican Union or SADC.'It would be a disaster for Africa if its highest representative bodies, AUand SADC, were to recognise the outcome of such an 'election' and the Mugabegovernment as legitimate. We urge the African governments not to recognisethe Zimbabwean government and cancel all invitations to it to attendcontinental and international meetings,' COSATU said in a statement.http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2377162,00.htmlProtest against Mugabe, Mswati16/08/2008 14:40 - (SA)Johannesburg - The Congress of South African Trade Unions led a marchagainst the participation of the governments of Zimbabwean president RobertMugabe and Swaziland King Mswati to the Southern African DevelopmentCommunity summit held in Sandton, Johannesburg on Saturday.Spokesperson for the union body, Patrick Craven, said marchers had arrivedat the Sandton convention centre where the summit was being held, and wereholding a meeting outside."It's going very well," he said.A declaration made by Zimbabwean and Swaziland civil society delegates at aSolidarity Conference organised by Cosatu and held on Aug 10-11 read: "Wehold dear the firm view that Robert Mugabe and Mswati III are not legitimateleaders of their various countries."They cannot claim any amount of legitimacy to rule their countries, forthey have not been democratically elected by the peoples of their countries."Therefore, as representatives of civil society, we condemn the behaviour ofthese two leaders and take it upon ourselves to expose them and theirunacceptable behaviour before the eyes of the world," the declaration read.Zimbabwean organisationsZimbabwean organisations who took part in the march included the ZimbabweCongress of Trade Unions, Revolutionary Youth of Zimbabwe, ZimbabweSolidarity Forum, Zimbabwe Exiles and the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition.Swaziland organisations who took part in the march were the SwazilandFederation of Trade Unions, the Swaziland United Democratic Front, theSwaziland Federation of Labour, the Swaziland Youth Congress and thePeople's United Democratic Movement.South African organisations who took part in the march included theTreatment Action Campaign and the Anti-Privatisation Forum.Sandton police spokesperson Constable Neria Malefetse said there had been noreports of incidents during the march.Officers were monitoring the march to ensure that it was peaceful and thateveryone was safe, she said.http://allafrica.com/stories/200805270795.htmlZimbabwe: Citizens Protest in PretoriaThe Zimbabwe Guardian (London)27 May 2008Posted to the web 27 May 2008Ralph MatemaAS PART of the Africa Day campaign, five hundred people marched to the UnionBuildings in Pretoria, South Africa yesterday morning, calling on thegovernment there to take action to end the political violence in Zimbabwe.Gugulethu Moyo, from the Stand Up for Zimbabwe campaign, said: "We call forimmediate and effective action to end the political violence in Zimbabwe, bySouth Africa and the Sadc.""The point was made that much of the violence happening here [South Africa]is against Zimbabweans because the largest group happens to be Zimbabweansbecause of the crisis there," she said.The march was planned for Africa Day as part of the launch of the campaign.The campaign was started by a group of non-government organisations based inthe Southern African region.The website says that: "The campaign is intended to reach out to and involvepeople from all over Africa and the world, asking them to call on theirgovernments, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and AfricanUnion (AU), the United Nations (UN) to act decisively to end systematicpolitical violence in Zimbabwe and resolve the country's political crisis."http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2008-07/2008-07-02-voa32.cfm?CFID=27501103&CFTOKEN=92152750Senegal Journalists Protest Stadium BeatingsBy Brent LathamDakar02 July 2008Journalists in Senegal are boycotting a sports award ceremony in Dakar toprotest the beatings of two reporters by police after a football match lastmonth. Media watchdogs say the press in Senegal faces hostility from thepolice and government, and are calling for action. For VOA, Brent Lathamhas more.Protestor dressed as victim of police brutality takes part in demonstrationby journalists in Dakar, 28 Jun 2008The reporters say they boycotted the "Lion d'Or" awards ceremony, whichgives prizes to top Senegalese athletes and is attended by governmentministers.The Dakar-based Committee for the Defense and Protection of Journalistscalled for all journalists to skip the annual award ceremony.The head of the sports desk at the Senegalese Press Agency, Salif Diallo,said he and other sports writers would definitely not be attending.Diallo says he witnessed the aggression against reporters at the match."The journalists [were] beaten by policemen," he said. "The reporters atthe end of the match were at the mixed zone for interviews, when thepolicemen came and asked for the reporters to move. The reporters explainedthat they were just doing their job. When they did not move, the policemenused their clubs. They beat them. "One of the reporters is still hospitalized.Many observers are worried such incidents are becoming frequent in Senegal.Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders last week demanded thatPresident Abdoulaye Wade take action to ease tensions between thegovernment, police and certain journalists.Reporters without Borders Africa desk chief Leonard Vincent said recentevents have sparked concern for press freedom in Senegal."There are several problems and police brutality is one very importantproblem," he explained. "We have had reports of repeated incidentsinvolving the police and in which no sanctions were ever taken against thepolice responsible for the attacks."Committee for the Defense and Protection of Journalists spokesman YakhamMbaye said in addition to Wednesday's boycott, other measures are beingplanned. Following a march this past weekend that attracted hundreds ofprotesters in downtown Dakar, Mbaye says the press is planning a "dead day"on which no news would be reported.Vincent hailed what he called the journalists' peaceful approach to callingMr. Wade's attention to the matter. He said that Mr. Wade must address thelack of punishment for those who attack journalists."One of the major concerns in Senegal is the impunity of police forces andpartisans of Wade, his party, and religious leaders, all benefit from thefact that there are no sanctions from the president," he said. "Sanctionsshould be taken. Orders should be given within the police and securityforces to respect the press."The Senegalese Ministry of the Interior, which supervises the nationalpolice, refused to comment for this report.http://allafrica.com/stories/200805190791.htmlNigeria: Protesters Storm Reps Office Over NDDCVanguard (Lagos)18 May 2008Posted to the web 19 May 2008SCORES of protesters stormed the constituency office of member representingWarri Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Mr. DanielReyenieju, demanding to know from him the status of the said unreleased andexpired funds of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).The protesters, who were probably acting on wrong information that the Repmember was in Warri besieged the constituency office demanding that headdressed them on the issue.Acting under the aegis of Odo-Okun/Ugborodo Federated Union, the protesterssaid they were there to protest to their representative in Abuja that theycondemn in its totality the non-release of the funds due the NDDC throughthe different appropriation laws.Spokesman of the group, Mr. Esimi Nanna said the "three Warri localgovernment areas which constitute the Warri Federal Constituency producesabout 33 per cent of the total oil production in Nigeria and consequently,the Itsekiri remain major stakeholders in the NDDC.""The non-release of the about N300 billion budgeted for NDDC which waswithheld by the Obasanjo regime; and now described as lapsed by thePresident Yar' Adua's government will now constitute excuse for themanagement of NDDC not to embark on development projects."Nanna said they were there to know the position of their representative atAbuja on the issue of the non-released funds, and that they would be back assoon as they were "sure that Reyenieju is around."He said when the money is released they would now direct their attention toNDDC. A staff in the Constituency Office who met with the protesters saidReyenieju was not in town and all efforts to convince the protesters towrite down their grievances proved abortive as they insisted that they mustmeet with Reyenieju.But in a telephone chat with Reyenieju, he said he has received report ofthe said protest which he described as unnecessary. He said the House ofRepresentatives is fully aware of its constitutional responsibility,particularly on the issue of the NDDC which was established by Act ofParliament through the overriding power of the National Assembly when theformer President vetoed the law as passed by both Houses.He said the unreleased monies cannot be said to have lapsed given the factthat the funds ab nitio were never released and thus cannot legitimately bedescribed having expired.Reyenieju said that he was convinced of the sincerity of the "House towardsrighting the wrongs of the past; and that in due course the House willdefinitely look at the issue dispassionately because the said unreleasedfunds due NDDC, if true, had the backing of the laws of the land."http://allafrica.com/stories/200807010795.htmlNigeria: Protesters Take Over Adamawa AssemblyVanguard (Lagos)1 July 2008Posted to the web 1 July 2008Umar YusufAnti-impeachment protesters yesterday took over the Adamawa State House ofAssembly to condemn the process of impeachment initiated by the lawmakersagainst Governor Murtala Nyako.Although the protest was peaceful, security operatives hurriedly stationedtwo armoured tanks at the entrance of the Assembly even as over one hundredpolice personnel were drafted to guard the complex.The protesters in their thousands carried placards with inscriptions like;no to impeachment process; governor Nyako is the only Messiah for Adamawastate; Adamawa Lawmakers are selfish; Adamawa people say no to impeachment,among others.Workers of the house of Assembly were held indoors for over four hours assecurity operatives cordoned off all entrances and exits to the complex.The protesters from all the 21 local governments and the 49 DevelopmentAreas of the state made no attempt to enter the Assembly Complex, but stayedput within and around the legislative house thereby sending jitters to theworkers.Some of the Assembly workers expressed regret over the complete take over ofthe House by protesters, saying that protest ought to have ended in time toenable them go about their businesses. Addressing the protesters at theAssembly complex, the state PDP chairman, Alhaji Mijinyawa Kugama, observedthat the peaceful demonstration was the reflection of the views of thepeople on the on going political empasse in the state.Kugama commended the peaceful manner the protest was staged, hoping that theGovernor and the legislators would resolve their differences in time. , inthe interest of the state. Meanwhile, final negotiations between embattledgovernor Murtala Nyako and the State legislators is holding in Abuja.http://allafrica.com/stories/200808250319.htmlNigeria: Sorcery Allegation - Ijaw Threatens Protest MarchVanguard (Lagos)24 August 2008Posted to the web 25 August 2008Emma AmaizeCHAIRMAN of Izon-Ibe oil producing community task force, Alaowei AfroBiukeme, weekend, threatened to mobilize the disenchanted people of theNiger-Delta to march in Abuja, if within 30 days, the National Assembly andthe police fail to carry out a proper inquiry on the N800 million sorceryagainst the suspended chairman of the NDDC, Ambassador Sam Edem and givecogent feedback to the nation.Alaowei Biukeme who is the chief executive officer of Afrotex InternationalMarine Services, Warri, opined that the claim by the Acting chairman of thecommission, Barrister Bassey Dan-Abia that the agency's money was not in anyway involved in the ugly development around the suspended chairman was farfrom the truth.He insisted that the people would want to know where a public servant likeAmbassador Edem got a whooping sum of N800 million to splash on a nativedoctor, adding, "Any attempt to sweep the matter under the carpet would notbe accepted".According to him, "The whole world is aware already of the fraud that thecommission has become, and this is one case these people cannot use money toinfluence, therefore, we are giving them 30 days to tell us the outcome ofthe investigation, if not , we will go and protest before the presidentbecause of the Due Process that he is campaigning, if it does not work out,then, we will take other ways to make it work.If we keep silent over this matter and he is left off the hook by the policethat it is a ritual case, we are not going to accept it because that moneybelongs to us. We want that money back into the coffers of the NDDC for thedevelopment of the neglected region."We, the activists in the region will not allow this issue to be swept underthe carpet because the way the development of the region is going is notencouraging. The NDDC and the entire governors of the Niger Delta must useour oil money to improve the living conditions of our people", he said.http://allafrica.com/stories/200807080307.htmlNigeria: Youths Protest Non Announcement of Bye-Election ResultDaily Champion (Lagos)8 July 2008Posted to the web 8 July 2008Emeka IhiegbulemLagosAbout 2,000 youths from Oru West local government area of Imo State lastThursday protested in Owerri, the state capital over the failure or theIndependent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to announce the result ofthe Oru West constituency bye-election into the State House of Assembly. Theyouths in their agitation stated that they voted and monitored the countingof the run-off votes which was held between Hon. Declan Emelumba of PDP andHon. Barr Donatus Onuigwe of APGA, but wondered why INEC in the state wasdelaying the announcement of the result.Saying that the winner of the election is clear based on booth by booth andward by ward counting of the votes, they alleged that INEC in the state hasmortgaged its conscience.The youths who came in 20 buses started their demonstration from Mgbidiheadquarters of Oru West LGA to House of Assembly Complex in Owerri then tothe INEC office disclosed to House of Assembly that the Hon. Onuigwe wonwith over 1000 votes adding that they will not take anything short of theauthentic result.Speaking further, the leader of the group, Prince Leonard Ezewusim said thepeople massively voted for Hon. Onuigwe due to the fact that for eightyears, Hon. Emelumba was in office, his impact was not felt in theConstituency.He described Chief Emelumba as a self-centred legislator who has taken whatis due to the Constituency to his family and kiths and kins.Acknowledging that the two and half months, Hon. Onuigwe has been in office,he has positively changed the Oru West and posited that he will performwonders if he is there till the end of this political dispensation.Responding the Speaker of the House of Assembly through the Memberrepresenting Ezinihitte Mbaise constituency, Hon. Dr Obioma Ekennia told theyouths that the working of the House is different from INEC adding that theywill work according to the information given to the House by INEC.Ekennia, also the deputy chief whip admonished the youths to be calminsisting that their grievances will be sorted out.He thanked them for the peaceful way they were conducting the demonstrationand submitted that there are provisions in law in tackling electoralproblems.http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2008-05/2008-05-27-voa36.cfm?CFID=24173815&CFTOKEN=14103636Hundreds Protest Arrest of Jean-Pierre Bemba in DRCBy VOA News27 May 2008Party members, supporters of MLC (Movement for the Liberation of Congo)march in Kinshasa, 27 May 2008About 1,000 people have marched in the Democratic Republic of Congo'scapital, Kinshasa, to protest the arrest of former rebel leader Jean-PierreBemba on war crimes charges.The demonstrators Tuesday blew whistles, carried posters and chanted "FreeBemba."Bemba was arrested in Belgium on Saturday for war crimes he allegedlycommitted in the Central African Republic.The International Criminal Court says his forces carried out a series ofrapes and murders in the CAR between October 2002 and March 2003.Members of Bemba's Movement for the Liberation of Congo, MLC, group insisthe is innocent. An MLC official, Mika Pere Perry, says former CAR PresidentAnge-Felix Patasse should be arrested instead.Patasse had invited Bemba's group into his country to help put down a coupattempt.Bemba is facing four counts of war crimes and two counts of crimes againsthumanity. His arrest is the first stemming from an investigation opened byICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo a year ago.Belgian officials must approve his transfer to the ICC before he can go ontrial.After Congo's civil war, Bemba's MLC group became a political party. At onetime Bemba was Congo's vice president. He lost the 2006 DRC presidentialelection to President Joseph Kabila.Bemba left Congo for Portugal in April of 2007 after clashes between hissupporters and government forces killed more than 200 people.http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/27/africa/AF-GEN-Congo-Bemba-Protests.phpMore than 2,000 in Congo protest arrest of Jean-Pierre Bemba on war crimesThe Associated PressPublished: May 27, 2008KINSHASA, Congo: More than 2,000 people marched down a main boulevard inCongo's capital Tuesday calling for Belgian authorities to releasewarlord-turned-political leader Jean-Pierre Bemba."Free Bemba! Free Bemba!" the crowd shouted as it pushed toward theparliament building, blowing whistles and brandishing posters of the man whowas the runner-up in the Central African nation's 2006 presidentialelection.Belgian police arrested Bemba on Saturday on war crimes charges stemmingfrom his time heading a militia that allegedly committed atrocities inCentral African Republic's 2002-2003 conflict.The International Criminal Court in The Hague had issued the arrest warranton charges of rape and torture that were kept secret until he was captured.Bemba, who is in his mid-40s, vowed to remain in the government as anopposition leader after losing the presidency to Joseph Kabila, and waselected as a senator. However, he was forced to flee to Portugal in April2007 after being accused of treason in Congo. He also acquired a home inBrussels.Officials with Bemba's political party said the arrest was unjust andunnecessary."Bemba isn't a hoodlum," said Francois Muamba, the secretary general ofBemba's party. "If they want to talk to him, they can present themselveswherever they want."Party leaders said they have formally asked parliament to condemn the arrestand urgeforeign government to respect the immunity that Congo grants tosenators.The court's prosecutor "wants to interfere with the internal businesses ofCongo and that is unacceptable," said Delly Sesanga, an official withBemba's Movement for the Liberation of Congo party. Sesanga said Bemba hadnot given any indication that he was a flight risk, as prosecutors alleged.The crowd of protesters in Kinshasa continued to grow at midday. Men andwomen on foot were followed by cars stuffed with Bemba supporters."Bemba is a senator!" some shouted - a reminder that his warlord past hasfaded in the minds of many Congolese as Bemba remade himself as a keyopposition political figure. Police were stationed outside the BelgianEmbassy to prevent protesters from charging the building, but thedemonstration appeared to be going forward peacefully.A number of former warlords have taken government posts since Congo emergedfrom years of fighting in 2002. In a transitional government that paved theway for the 2006 elections, Bemba was one of four warring rebels brought inas vice presidents in a move to unify the country the size of westernEurope.President Joseph Kabila's father was a rebel leader who toppled longtimeruler Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997.Bemba ruled a large part of northeastern Congo during that country's1998-2002 war as a warlord and rebel leader with help from neighboringUganda.The International Criminal Court has charged that Bemba had full authorityfor the political and military decisions taken by his militia, whichinvestigators say is responsible for widespread killings and hundreds ofrapes - some of them children.Sesanga argued that the crimes were isolated incidents perpetrated byfighters who are already being investigated by Congo's government.Bemba's political party is the second-largest bloc in parliament, after theruling party.http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/Rest_of_World/Guinea_president_sacks_PM_youths_protest/rssarticleshow/3057959.cmsGuinea president sacks PM, youths protest21 May 2008, 0403 hrs IST,REUTERSCONAKRY: Guinea's President Lansana Conte sacked Prime Minister LansanaKouyate on Tuesday, 15 months after appointing him in a deal to end a bloodygeneral strike in the world's top bauxite exporter, state media reported.Announcing Kouyate's replacement in a presidential decree broadcast on statetelevision, Conte appeared to have the final word in an increasinglyvitriolic battle of wills between the rival power blocks the two men head inthe West African country. But within a couple of hours of the broadcast,youths took to the streets in at least two opposition-leaning suburbs in thecapital Conakry, throwing stones and burning tyres.Gendarmes fired in the air to disperse them, residents said. Kouyate had leda consensus government formed following violent riots that shook Guineaearly last year in which more than 130 people were killed, most of themunarmed civilians shot by security forces. But his influence waned in recentmonths. "Dr Ahmed Tidiane Souare is named prime minister and head ofgovernment in replacement of Mr. Lansana Kouyate," a presidential decreeread on state television said.http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004439369_apguineaprimeminister.html?syndication=rssSoldiers in Guinea protest prime minister's firingBy MASECO CONDEAssociated Press WriterCONAKRY, Guinea -Gunfire was heard behind the walls of the Republican Guard headquarters inthe capital Monday a few hours after soldiers at another military base inConakry fired shots in the air to protest the dismissal of Guinea's primeminister last week.Security forces blocked the road to the Republican Guard compound and itcould not be learned if troops inside were part of a spreading protest inthe military over President Lansana Conte's removal of the prime minister.Soldiers fear the departure of Prime Minister Lansana Kouyate means theywill not receive roughly $1,000 in back pay that he allegedly promised them.The army is seen as critical to Conte's bid to remain president despiteleading this West African nation to economic ruin since seizing power in a1984 coup. Last year, mass protests by unions forced him to appoint a primeminister from a list approved by union leaders.The power-sharing agreement was meant to loosen the ailing Conte's grip onpower. He broke the deal earlier this year by firing the informationminister without Kouyate's consent and then ignored it again last week bydismissing Kouyate himself - a move the unions condemned.http://allafrica.com/stories/200805301148.htmlGuinea: Country Faces Stability Threat After Sacking of PremierThe Nation (Nairobi)31 May 2008Posted to the web 30 May 2008Hamadou Tidiane SyDakarWith contradicting reports coming from the Guinean capital, Conakry, it isdifficult to tell whether the soldiers who abducted and held the army'ssecond in command for several hours last Friday, were protesting against thesacking of former Prime Minister, Lansana Kouyat? on May 20, or over theirsalary arrears.Whatever the case, the officers at the Alpha Yahya Diallo camp, the capitalConakry's main barracks, also staged a protest this week, firing heavilyinto the air.Gen Mamadou Sampil, the army's deputy chief-of-staff was quickly dispatchedto "negotiate" with the soldiers.Soon similar scenes were replaying in other provinces, including Kindia inthe southeast, where one of Guinea's biggest garrisons is located.Reports indicated that three civilians were killed and several peopleinjured in the protests.Initial reports said the soldiers were protesting over unpaid salaries andpoor living conditions - yet again - in the resource-rich West Africannation.This time, however, thanks the sacking of the prime minister less than aweek earlier, there was suspicion that the soldiers were protesting againsthis dismissal.However, the government attributed the protests to salary arrears in whatseemed like an attempt to downplay the seriousness of the crisis and, moreimportantly, to dismiss the idea that the soldiers' protests were in any wayrelated to politics.However, what is obvious from these latest developments is that Guinea'sstability is once again seriously threatened.On the surface, things seemed to have been going well, until the ailing74-year-old president, Lansana Cont?, sacked Prime Minister Kouyat? on May20 without giving any official reason.Mr Kouyat? was appointed to the post in March last year after a serioussocial and political crisis.It is worth noting that Kouyat? was not the president's choice, as he wasmore or less forced to appoint the man by the people.Weary of deteriorating living conditions and fed up with Mr Cont?'s corruptand authoritative regime, which has seen the (potentially) richest nation inWest Africa remain backward in terms of economic development, they wereeager to have a non-partisan prime minister.Not dryGuinea is endowed with diamonds, bauxite, iron, gold and uranium, amongother minerals, and unlike many of its neighbours, the country is not dry.It is located in a temperate and rainy area that's suitable for forestry andagriculture.This paradox - lack of basic infrastructure despite the huge mineralpotential - last year led to violent scenes in the country, which alsoproved to be the most serious threat to Mr Cont?'s regime in more than twodecades in power.But Mr Cont?, a shrewd former military officer, was able to ride out thestorm and remain in power. He was said to be sick and dying at the time, buthe turned out to be tough and still in control.Following tough negotiations between the government and trade-unions - afteralmost two months of violent street protests - he yielded to the people'sdemands and appointed a "neutral" prime minister.The protesters wanted a person who was not beholden to the president, andwho was willing to focus on the country's many economic and social problemswith a view to improving them.The unions' insistence that the appointee be "neutral" was mainly becausePresident Cont? had appointed many prime ministers before, but had giventhem no room to make the simplest decision or implement any policy withouthis personal approval.In 2007, the social situation was somewhat different, and for the first timein 24 years, enthusiastic Guineans started seeing that political change waspossible.Indeed, in January and February 2007 - a year before the wave of food riotshit a number of West African countries - Guinea had had its share of "foodriots", with workers and the public, all demanding "affordable" food andbetter management of the country's wealth.Following a general strike called in mid January 2007 by the trade unions,the youths took to the streets.Dozens of people were killed in the following days as the protests gainedmomentum.Despite the killings, the protesters held their ground and for weeks, theykept challenging President Cont?, a former military officer who came topower in 1984, and who had weathered many storms.But this time, the violence continued until he accepted to negotiate withthe trade unions and to appoint a "neutral" prime minister.It was a sort of victory for the protesters and for the people in general.The "compromise" candidate was found in Mr Kouyat?, a diplomat then servingat the International Organisation of Francophone Countries.He was appointed to implement what was agreed upon between President Cont?and the workers.The trade unions, backed by equally disgruntled citizens, also demanded thatthe president give the new prime minister sufficient powers to lead thegovernment and effect the necessary changes.They further asked that Mr Cont?'s former allies and appointees ingovernment be excluded from key government positions.Although it may have appeared like a humiliating defeat for the president,it was, in effect, a deft move to remain in power.No impactIt was the first time that President Cont? had been forced to listen,because, this time, his threats to kill had no impact.But it has turned out to be a short-lived victory for the people.Since last week, the president has been showing that he is still in command,what with the sacking of "the people's choice" and replacing him with anally, Ahmed Tidjane Souar?, a former Mines minister seen as extremely closeto him.But before Souar? has even finished forming a new cabinet, trade unions haverejected him, saying his appointment is a "violation" of last year's' accordwith the president.This, combined to the soldier's mutiny, is likely to plunge the country intouncertain times once more.On Wednesday this week, President Cont? announced the sacking of Defenceminister Gen Mamadou Ba?lo Diallo in a move seen as aimed at satisfy thesoldiers who accuse the minister of not handling issues relating to theirpay properly.The soldiers have also demanded the retirement of all army generals, whomany believe are the ones propping Cont?'s regime.But some see Diallo's sacking as merely symbolic, given that a newgovernment is yet to be constituted following Souar?'s appointment.http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-08-22-hivpositive-swazi-women-march-in-protest-at-shopping-bingeHIV-positive Swazis march in protest at shopping bingeMBABANE, SWAZILAND Aug 22 2008 08:14More than 1 500 mostly HIV-positive women staged an unprecedented protest inSwaziland on Thursday against a foreign shopping tour by eight of the rulingmonarch's 13 wives, in a country ravaged by HIV/Aids.Dressed in red, white, blue and orange T-shirts, the demonstrators marchedacross the capital, carrying placards with such slogans as, "we wantmultiparty democracy now," "enough is enough," and "taxpayers's money doesnot belong to royalty"."With this march, we want to drive home the point that we people living withHIV are not happy with the way our money is being used," said SiphiweHlophe, spokesperson of two NGOs for HIV positive women --the Women's Coalition of Swaziland and Swaziland Positive Living -- whichorganised the protest.It appeared to be the first demonstration here by people living withHIV/Aids as they questioned how money could be spent on a shopping trip whenSwaziland faced shortages of medicines including antiretrovirals.The eight wives, children, maids and bodyguards left the impoverishedmountain kingdom last week to shop for the "40-40" celebrations to mark its1968 independence from Britain and King Mswati III's birthday on September6."We cannot be allowing such exorbitant, luxurious expenditure of thetaxpayers's money in the face of the dire poverty which is demonstrated bythe fact that two-thirds of the population are being fed on food aid," thewomen said in a petition.Close to 40% of adults in the landlocked Southern African nation are livingwith HIV and Aids, the highest infection rate anywhere in the world,according to United Nations figures.Per capita income here is just over $1 000, according to governmentfigures -- the lowest in Southern Africa.Government spokesperson Percy Simelane justified the spending spree for thecelebrations."Poverty has been with us for many years. We cannot then sit by the roadsideand weep just because the country is faced with poverty," he said."We have made great strides as a country that gives us pleasure incelebrating the 40 years of independence and the king's birthday," Simelaneadded. - AFPhttp://www.thenews.com.lr/story.php?record_id=3461&sub=NewsProtesters Continue Siege In HarperAngry citizens of Wertchuken in Maryland County have vowed not to abandonthe Harper City Hall they have been occupying for the fourth day runningunless their demands are met by government.The Wertchuken citizens told a government delegation headed by InternalAffairs Minister Ambulai Johnson, Wednesday at the Harper City Hall thatthey would not end their protest action unless the right palm of one oftheir kinsmen, Jeffery Dweh who, along with Walker Williams, was killedrecently in a land dispute between them and another group of citizens fromRock Town is produced.According to The NEWS Maryland Correspondent, A. Wehdoe Sloh, WertchukenChief Nelson Neal told the government delegation that they wanted MarylandSuperintendent Sie Teba Neufville to resign because he is responsible forthe dispute between the two groups.He alleged that on numerous occasions the people of Wertchuken complained tothe Superintendent about encroachment on their land but he did nothing toavert the situation.Chief Neal also called on the government to turn over the disputed parcel ofland known as Mahfliken to the people of Wertchuken since it was theirinheritance.Upon arrival in Harper City, the Internal Affairs Minister and delegation,including Justice Minister Philip A.Z. Banks and Maryland Senator JohnBallout, drove directly to the Harper City Hall to meet with the aggrievedcitizens.The NEWS Correspondent said Minister Johnson informed the citizens that theywere in the county to look into the circumstances which led to the landdispute and subsequent death of the two citizens.Minister Johnson also appealed to the citizens to exercise restraint whilegovernment was looking into the matter.Justice Minister Philip Banks who also spoke during the meeting, appealed tothe citizens to give the due process a chance to take its course.He assured that those who are accused in connection to the killings of thetwo people would be prosecuted.He also informed the citizens that his ministry has appointed two stateprosecutors to effect the speedy prosecution of the murder case involvingsome 24 accused.According to our correspondent, Cllrs. J. D. Bayorgar Junius and RobertChattah are currently in Harper to prosecute the accused.Meanwhile, reports reaching The NEWS late Thursday evening indicate thatMinister Johnson has recalled Superintendent Neufville to Monrovia andappointed Mr. Hodo Clark as acting superintendent.On Monday, hundreds of citizens of Wertchuken District from the Nyanbo tribereportedly stormed the Harper City Hall and forcibly occupied officesincluding the magisterial and circuit courts in demand of government'sspeedy settlement of the dispute.http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=61255SEYCHELLES: Police crack down on media freedom protestersPhoto: Govt of SeychellesPresident James MichelJOHANNESBURG , 4 October 2006 (IRIN) - Police in the capital of theSeychelles, Victoria, fired teargas and rubber bullets to disperseprotesters demanding the opening of the airwaves on Tuesday. Some oppositionparty members were detained and others hospitalised.Up to a hundred supporters of the opposition Seychelles National Party (SNP)gathered outside parliament during a discussion on an amendment tobroadcasting laws that deny other political parties access to radio and TVstations."While the law was debated [SNP] asked supporters to come ... to sign apetition. While they were assembling there were lots of police and ananti-riot unit - they went into action immediately," Roger Mancienne, editorof the weekly opposition newspaper, Regar, told IRIN.Mancienne, who was among those detained by police, said: "The leaders of SNPwere immediately apprehended - party officials were severely beaten and keptin custody in the hospital because of their wounds."SNP leader Wavel Ramkalawan, who lost to presidential incumbent James Michelin July elections, was among those injured and arrested."He [Ramkalawan] was told the gathering was illegal, and to take steps todisperse the crowd. He was then suddenly beaten by riot police," saidMancienne.In a television address on Tuesday evening, Police Commissioner Gerard WayeHive called the assembly an "illegal gathering", and said his officers wereforced to act to disperse the crowd. He maintained that Ramkalawan hadresisted arrest.Reporters Without Borders, an international media watchdog, condemned thepolice action, saying: "It is perfectly legitimate to demand an end to thestate's broadcasting monopoly and strict control of the public media; it isincomprehensible that anti-riot police used violence against unarmedcitizens, who turned out in support of the opposition and journalists."The Seychelles People's Progressive Front has been in power in the IndianOcean archipelago for almost three decades since former President AlbertRene's bloodless coup in 1977. Multiparty democracy was restored in 1993,followed by the appointment of Michel as Rene's successor in 1994. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Fri Aug 29 17:13:49 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 01:13:49 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Pro-democracy, human and civil rights protests, Europe - Canada - Australia, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <005801c90a35$495ff660$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ AUSTRALIA * Law against "annoying" cause protest [note: the rules were later struck down in court] * Park protest ban sparks rally * Protest secures exceptions to alcohol lockout * Protest at Launceston Parliament * Attacks on artist protested NEW ZEALAND: * Deaths of motorcyclists due to steel wiring cause protests * Nude calendar protest over petty-minded conviction UK * Park party planned to protest attack on street drinking, civil liberties * Peaceful anti-ID protest suppressed * Ban on Bush visit demo leads to protests, clashes * Man cuts up car in clamping protest * ASBO resister wages long struggle against police state * Rowdy Tube protest over drinking ban * Protest over emo "suicide" label SWEDEN * Huge protests, privacy exposure over wiretap law EUROPE/GLOBAL * Amnesty protests torture IRELAND * Anti-European protester eggs Sarkozy BASQUE COUNTRY * Thousands march for self-determination ITALY * Protesters demand media reform * Protest against Berlusconi in Rome * Protest leads to removal of funfair "electric chair" * Bird feed ban sparks protests, call for compensation VATICAN * Nuns chain selves to lamp post over expulsion CANADA: * Thousands march for marijuana legalisation * Copyright protesters target minister's "Pancake dinner" GREECE * Journalists protest axing of investigative news show, allege censorship * Protest in Britain over possible extradition to Greece http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=59465 Special WYD rules spark protests Sydney, Jul. 3, 2008 (CWNews.com) - Public officials in New South Wales, Australia, have heard a chorus of criticism about regulations that could impose heavy fines on anyone who "causes annoyance or inconvenience" during World Youth Day (WYD) celebrations in Sydney. Civil-libertarians joined with representatives of sex-abuse victims to protest the special regulations, saying that they would curtail their freedom of speech. The rules will make it difficult to mount any form of protest during the WYD celebration, they said. Father Frank Brennan, an influential Jesuit, decried the regulations as "dreadful interference" with the rights of protestors. The liberal priest, who is also a lawyer, remarked: "The rights of free speech and assembly should not be curtailed only because visiting pilgrims might be annoyed or inconvenienced in public places." The Sydney Morning Herald reported that thousands of people had participated in online surveys about the regulations, with public opinion running heavily against the restrictions. More than 90% of respondents objected to the rules, the Herald said. Organizers of World Youth Day have said that they do not wish to stifle protest or curb freedom of expression, but wish only to ensure that the festivities can proceed without interruption. State officials and Sydney police have said that they will not curtail respectful public protests. The special regulations, they explain, will give police discretionary power to intervene if confrontations arise. Australian groups protesting the papal visit to Sydney have threatened to mobilize thousands of people to challenge the special restrictions, lining the route of the papal motorcade with people wearing T-shirts with "annoying" slogans. http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/752/38893 Gold Coast protest over rally bans Jim McIlroy 24 May 2008 A rally against a ban by the Gold Coast City Council on demonstrations in the city's parks is being held on May 26 outside the Gold Coast council chambers in Surfers Paradise. Demonstrations will only be allowed at Evandale or Nerang Council chambers, and will require permission from the council's CEO. Groups including the Socialist Alliance and Amnesty International will protest the ban. The normally conservative Gold Coast Bulletin published an editorial in its May 20 edition headlined "Democracy is choking on humbug": "Our Gold Coast City Council is taking a dangerous step in trying to contain what it considers unseemly protest. Indeed, it is doing the very opposite of what a city in a democracy ought to do . The council is demonstrating the sort of thinking that is threatening freedom of speech in this country and strangling the life out of our nation's democracy like some anaconda of totalitarianism." An accompanying article noted: "The move is reminiscent of the 1980s when former Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen banned street marches." http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/05/30/2260977.htm 50 venues exempt from Vic lockout after protest Posted Fri May 30, 2008 7:49pm AEST Several thousand people have protested outside the Victorian Parliament over the lockout at late night venues in Victoria, with 50 venues winning an exemption from the lockout. The protesters took to the steps of State Parliament to call on the Brumby Government to abandon the plan, which will affect the cities of Melbourne, Stonnington, Port Phillip and Yarra. They cheered when told by Brian Frewin from the Association of Liquor Licensees of Melbourne that a Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT ) decision means 50 venues are exempt from the ban and 100 could be by Monday. The protest attracted about 5,000 people who have vowed to keep up their fight against the ban until the Government backs down. Premier John Brumby has defended the lockout law. He says late-night violence in the city must be addressed. "We need to push ahead with this, I know not everyone agrees with it but I've just got to repeat, if you look at the statistics on this, it's not a situation which a responsible government could allow to continue," he said. http://northerntasmania.yourguide.com.au/news/local/news/politics/protests-at-launceston-sitting-of-tasmanian-parliament/1248302.aspx Protests at Launceston sitting of Tasmanian Parliament 19/08/2008 1:02:00 PM A SMALL group of protesters greeted Members of Tasmania's House of Assembly today as they arrived at Launceston's Albert Hall for the second ever sitting of the Tasmanian Parliament outside Hobart. A 'protest tent' has been set up on the lawns outsde the Albert Hall and the small group of protesters are promising a bigger showing soon. The Speaker of the House of Assembly, Michael Polley, is urging Northern Tasmanians to take the opportunity to see Parliament in action with the Launceston House of Assembly sittings this week. Mr Polley said the historic Launceston sitting of Parliament in 2006 proved extremely popular, and he was confident many people would again visit Parliament at the Albert Hall during the next two weeks. "Thousands of people, who otherwise may not have had such an opportunity, came to see their elected representatives debating issues and legislation. "It was particularly popular with school groups, and I look forward to many more students broadening their knowledge by seeing Parliament first hand," Mr Polley said. Mr Polley said both weeks of the Launceston sitting would also feature the return of an evening Question Time session between 5 and 6 pm each Wednesday. "There is little doubt that the robust debate generated during Question Time is a particularly popular time to witness the parliamentary process, and providing an evening session instead of the usual morning session gives even more people the chance to see Question Time up close." Mr Polley said the two week sitting would also provide a boost to the Launceston economy. "A significant number of parliamentary, government and opposition staff will be in Launceston for the duration of the sittings, and this will inject money into local businesses." Parliament will sit from Tuesday to Thursday during the next two weeks, and entry to the sittings is free. Entry to the Albert Hall will be through the main doors on Cimitiere St, and a security check will apply. http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23800626-5001021,00.html?from=public_rss Naked child protest for Henson Article from: Font size: Decrease Increase Email article: Email Print article: Print Submit comment: Submit comment June 03, 2008 12:00am AN artist will tonight exhibit a series of nude photographs of 11-year-old children to protest against the recent censorship of photographer Bill Henson's work. Thirty to 40 images of two boys, now aged 17, will be projected on to a screen during the exhibition in Melbourne's centre, provocatively titled: "I am not a photographer nor a paedophile but an artist". Gallery: Bill Henson's controversial photos Artist Victoria Larielle, aged "20-something", said she took the photos in 2001 but only decided last Monday to exhibit the images publicly. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10519078&ref=rss Rider dies while mates protest against barriers 5:00AM Monday June 30, 2008 By Mathew Dearnaley Scott McIsaac, pictured with wife Carissa, died on the way to hospital. Photo / Hawkes Bay Today Motorcyclists campaigning against "cheesecutter" road barriers at the weekend were left in mourning after a crash claimed the life of one of their own. Scott Allan McIsaac, 36, of Taradale, near Napier, crashed near the top of Coromandel Peninsula and died from his injuries while the Westpac rescue helicopter was flying him to hospital. In a cruel irony, the helicopter was one of the beneficiaries of six fundraising protest rides nationwide by motorcyclists campaigning against the wire barriers. Waikato police said Mr McIsaac lost control of his BMW in heavy rain and cross-winds on a wooden bridge on the difficult Port Jackson road on Friday. Although he had planned his peninsular tour for some weeks - which meant having to be absent from the mass "cheesecutter" awareness ride in Hawkes Bay on Saturday - organiser John Baine said he had given it strong support by gathering a car boot full of spot prizes from corporate donors for the event. "It's gut-wrenching for any of us to lose a mate like this, but this was particularly hard." About 120 Hawkes Bay motorcyclists pressed on with the event, adding black armbands in Mr McIsaac's honour to red ones highlighting the dangers they believe Transit NZ's wire barriers pose to their lives and limbs. Mr Baine said the motorcyclists made a detour past Mr McIsaac's home, where his widow greeted them in tears and watched as some left their black bands tied to the family's mailbox. They raised about $2000 for Hawkes Bay's Lowe Walker rescue helicopter, at stops between Napier and Waipukurau. A smaller band of Auckland motorcyclists also wore black armbands for Mr McIsaac as they rode an eight-hour circuit through Tauranga, Rotorua and Hamilton in what co-organiser Anne James said was "appalling" weather, including hail and thunder. http://blogs.nzherald.co.nz/blog/your-views/2007/10/22/should-cheese-cutter-barriers-be-banned/?c_id=1501154 Should 'cheese-cutter' barriers be banned? 9:15AM Monday October 22, 2007 Updated: 1:15PM Wednesday July 23, 2008 Your Views Send us Your Views View related story Motorcyclists vow to be out in force throughout New Zealand on Saturday to raise money for rescue helicopter trusts and to demand a halt to the construction of more wire "cheese-cutter" barriers. Mass rides have been planned in Auckland and four other regions by organisers of a petition signed by at least 7000 people, calling for Transit NZ to stop erecting the barriers pending a review of their safety for all road users, but particularly motorcyclists. That follows the death on Auckland's Southern Motorway in October of 21-year-old Daniel Evans, whose body was said by a witness to have been severed when he slid into a wire barrier. http://home.nzcity.co.nz/news/article.aspx?id=86966&fm=newsmain,nup Bikers hold cheese-cutter protest Protests against wire rope used as median dividers being held by motorcyclists in Tauranga, Rotorua, Hamilton, Auck today 28 June 2008 Motorcyclists are gearing up for a protest ride against the use of wire rope barriers on the roads. The barriers, nicknamed 'cheese-cutters' because of the injuries they cause to motorcyclists involved in crashes, are used as median dividers to separate opposing lanes of traffic. Rides have been organised today in Tauranga, Rotorua, Hamilton and Auckland. Bikers are urging people to sign a petition calling for a moratorium on the installation of the barriers until there has been a review of their effectiveness and safety. They feel cost considerations have won out over safety as the main reason rope barriers are becoming more common. Today's rides are also being teamed up with efforts to raise money for rescue helicopter services. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10508251&ref=rss West Coast calendar girls pose nude in protest 11:38AM Tuesday May 06, 2008 Morgan David Saxton. Photo / Simon Baker A group of Haast women have braved the cold and thrown off their clothes in a nude calendar shoot to raise funds for two men convicted of stealing greenstone from the West Coast. The 12 women were raising money for David and Morgan Saxton who were jailed for more than two years in February after being found guilty of stealing Ngai Tahu greenstone (pounamu) from South Westland's Cascade Plateau. They were also required to pay the South Island's largest iwi $300,000 in compensation . David Saxton, 62, was jailed for two years nine months and Morgan Saxton, 30, for two years six months. Both helicopter pilots - credited with many rescue missions in South Westland, Fiordland and Central Otago - have lodged appeals against their convictions and sentences in the Court of Appeal. One of the calendar girls Tasha Jones - Miss September - told NZPA the photos were "tastefully discreet" . "All the scenes are a reflection of their life in Haast, things that have been in their everyday work environment as well as the countryside." The women, aged between 20 and 56, and of "all shapes", were protesting against the length of the sentence the men received. "They've given us the shirts off their backs for many years and it is now time for us to give them ours." The photos were all taken within a week about two weeks ago - right when the weather was starting to turn wintery. "It was a bit chilly. I was having to get mine done at 7.30am and it was a howling easterly coming down the valley," Ms Jones said. The calendar is to be released on Saturday at the Hard Antler Bar and Cafe in Haast. Proceeds of the sale would be going to the Saxton Appeal Trust, Ms Jones said. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/aug/21/drinksparty.facebook?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront Park party plan to protest over booze bans Samira Shackle Society Guardian, Thursday August 21 2008 Article history Organisers of the so-called provocation picnic say the event will be a peaceful protest against 'infantilising' drinking bans. Photograph: Corbis Revellers are set to hold a party in London's Hyde Park next week in protest at the rising number of bans on drinking in public places. Organised by civil liberties campaign group the Manifesto Club, the mass bank holiday picnic is being promoted on the internet and a number of social networking sites, including Facebook. The club claims that local authority-imposed drinking bans are infantilising and go beyond their legal remit. But Home Office statistics show that nearly half of all violent crime is linked to alcohol. Drinking in public is now restricted in 613 places in England and Wales. James Panton, a Manifesto Club founder, said: "The picnic is an attempt to reclaim public space. Alcohol bans are the result of a top-down, bureaucratic definition of public space, and an over-the-top response to perceived antisocial behaviour and social breakdown. "The longer these bans are imposed, the more each of us refuse to take responsibility for public space, and stop resolving our own issues, leading to a more antisocial society. This is not a campaign for drunkenness, it's for the public right to engage in our own space." He added: "The police should be concerned with people breaking the law, not with these so-called preventative measures. Cultural issues are not solved with blanket bans, but by political and social engagement for which we need a vibrant public sphere." The event, dubbed a provocation picnic, follows a drinks party held on the Circle line in May to mark the last night of legal drinking on the tube, which was also publicised via a viral campaign. The night ended with 17 arrests and assaults on seven London Underground staff. And last month a waterfight in Hyde Park, promoted on Facebook, also descended into violence when a woman was punched to the floor and nine people arrested, including four for alleged assaults on police. But Panton insisted the picnic would be peaceful. "We want to raise awareness, and are expecting to attract people who are annoyed at this fundamental civil liberties issue," he said. "We'll see what happens, but it's a bank holiday - all over London people will be getting drunk. Most will not be causing any trouble." The head of the charity Alcohol Concern defended councils' use of drinking bans. Don Shenkey, the charity's chief executive, said they were an important tool in the fight against antisocial and destructive behaviour linked to alcohol. He added: "Residents in communities around the country rate this is as one of the issues they'd most like to see dealt with. By prohibiting drinking in public spaces local authorities are able send a strong signal to the minority of irresponsible adults and teenagers who take things too far and reclaim public spaces for the enjoyment of the entire community. "The aim of these powers is not to criminalise drinkers or drink itself, but rather to give police added enforcement powers to seize alcohol from those posing a nuisance to those around you. They are only a potential option and in most cases tend to employed in a limited targeted manner after it has been established that a specific area poses particular problems for the community." http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/07/402542.html Nine NO2ID campaigners arrested at peaceful protest Moon23 | 03.07.2008 22:06 | Repression | Social Struggles On Monday (30th June) nine NO2ID campaigners were arrested after they staged a peaceful protest at an invitation only Home Office so-called "public consultation" On Monday (30th June) nine NO2ID campaigners were arrested after they staged a peaceful protest at an invitation only Home Office so-called "public consultation". NO2ID's protest was an entirely peaceful and lawful attempt to publicise the Home Office's shifty semi-secret proceedings that had been pre-arranged with STV news. There was no intention to frighten or inconvenience any member of the public. The nine were charged with breach of the peace and bound over for 30 days. One of those arrested had a 4 year old child with her. Another of those arrested was a 68 year old retired academic. It took nine hours for the last of the protesters to be released from police custody. John Welford, NO2ID Edinburgh co-ordinator and one of the nine arrested, in a letter to The Scotsman said: "What is it about the current Labour Government that it is unable to tolerate any criticism of its policies and actions? And why is it frightened to engage openly and honestly in proper debate with the citizens of this country, especially about an issue as controversial as compulsory identity cards and the setting up of a vast, intrusive database state? ...the government prefers to organise its own heavily controlled focus group meetings and private consultations away in the shadows." Moon23 e-mail: moon_watcher_2007 at hotmail.com Homepage: http://www.no2id.net Download this article in pdf format Email this article to someone; Submit an addition or make a quick comment on this article Additions Link to video of protest 04.07.2008 09:32 http://www.stv.tv/news/ID_card_protesters_say_Home_Office_is_s_080630143822101Moon23e-mail: moon_watcher_2007 at hotmail.comComment from activist04.07.2008 09:36"Nine of us have been charged for breach of the peace. Eight for causing"alarm and distress" for walking into the hotel wearing white suits andmasks (despite two of them actually wearing unmasked East German borderguard uniforms), and me for "alarm and disturbance" for infiltrating themeeting, putting my hand up to speak, taking the microphone when offered,speaking, and refusing to leave immediately while speaking after theminister requested that I do so.Of the eight, one is a young lady who walked in after everyone else with ayoung child. The idea that she might have alarmed anyone is ridiculous.Another of the protesters was 17, on his first protest, doing only what Ihad told him - I'm very annoyed that he has been charged and had to spend aday in the cells at St Leonards.There was a bit of heavy handed policing (they were responding to a 999 calland didn't know what they were facing) but it calmed down instantly themoment one of them realised they were being filmed by professionals andwarned his colleagues. All protesters were entirely peaceful at all times.I must emphasise that once the police realised that there actually wasn'tany danger, they were all entirely courteous and professional throughout forthe rest of the day. We still have to decide whether to file a complaintagainst the officer who ripped a mask of the face of a protester. He seemeda decent and friendly chap when I spoke to him later.The police have told us that after speaking to groups of people inside, noone has any complaints about our conduct inside, there is no suggestion thatwe were anything other than peaceful. It is the "alarm" that has led to thecharges "masked people in today's climate ...". Given that we had negotiatedwith the hotel manager to film an interview with STV inside (possibly afterthe 999 call had been made - that is still to be established), and were onour way out when the police arrived, I am surprised at the charges.However, STV caught almost everything (except my contribution to theconsultation) on camera. They followed the costumed protesters in, filmedthem trying to negotiate entry, caught me being thrown out, an interviewwith me, our attempted departure, followed by the arrival of the police.Apparently we have made the main news programme, but couldn't see itourselves.We have all been bailed to appear before Edinburgh Sheriff's court on 24July. I fully intend to use the occasion to highlight again how the HomeOffice are refusing to engage in debate with the public.For clarification, I was not trying to engage in constructive debate insidethe consultation. It would have taken hours to counter the nonsense that MegHillier was speaking and would have served little purpose. Instead, Iconcentrated on the fact that we and the general public had been excludedfrom the process.There were a couple of amusing aspects. When I approached the registrationdesk just after the event started, I was able to see all the remainingbadges and list of names - it was easy to select one. I entered the IDconsultation with a newly-acquired false identity.On entering the room, in which a video was playing, I slowly walked aroundto find the assigned seat for that person. Officials to whom I had beenspeaking outside appeared not to recognise me. No one challenged my entry asI took a seat. Meanwhile, officials who tackled the costumed protesters thattried to follow five minutes later asked the group if Dr Bevan was amongthem. So, they were looking out for me, but couldn't even spot me walking inlate after I had been talking to them earlier. And these people think theyare capable of controlling people's identities. Astonishing."PS Most NO2IDers are aware of other civil liberties abuses such as thoseshown towards other activists. Solidarity is the keymoon23e-mail: moon_watcher_2007 at hotmail.comhttp://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=United+Kingdom+%26+Europe&month=June2008&file=World_News2008061152741.xmlAnti-war group to protest ban on Bush demoWeb posted at: 6/11/2008 5:27:41Source ::: AFPLONDON . Anti-war demonstrators complained yesterday that police had banneda central London march to coincide with the visit of US President George WBush-but vowed to press ahead with their protest.The Stop the War Coalition umbrella group of anti-war, left-wing and Muslimgroups said they had wanted to walk the short distance from ParliamentSquare to the British prime minister's official Downing Street residence onSunday."It seems that when George W Bush visits this country traditional rights ofassembly and movement are removed from the people," the group added."This would be unacceptable for the visit of any foreign leader, but forthis one- a war criminal- it is doubly unacceptable and we will defy theban."A spokeswoman for London's Metropolitan Police said that roads aroundDowning Street would be closed from 3:00 pm (1400 GMT) on Sunday untilMonday. The same area would be closed on Sunday morning for separateceremonial events.Demonstrations are only allowed within a one-kilometre radius fromParliament Square subject to police permission after a written applicationseven days in advance.Prime Minister Gordon Brown has pledged to look again at the legislationgoverning such protests, amid concern from lawmakers and civil libertiesgroups about the legislation's impact on freedoms of speech and assembly.The police spokeswoman did not say whether the Stop the War Coalition hadapplied for written permission. But she added: "We have had a number ofmeetings with the Stop the War Coalition. We have made it clear that we wantto facilitate their lawful protest."This included alternative routes between the times of the road closures, sheadded.The Stop the War Coalition quoted human rights campaigner Bianca Jagger assaying that a high security "green zone" like that in Baghdad was beingerected in London to protect Bush from criticism over the war in Iraq.The police spokeswoman said the US security services had not made any"special requests" for Bush. The plans had been shared with them and thelevel of security reflected "the nature of the visit and the person".http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7395452.stmMonday, 12 May 2008 08:34 UKMan cuts up car in clamp protestMr Taylor said he took the drastic action to make a pointA man has sawn his car in half with an angle-grinder in protest at it beingclamped outside his home.Ian Taylor, from Tredworth, Glos, said the untaxed Ford Fiesta was parked onhis drive with only part of a rear wheel poking out on to the pavement.The 40-year-old builder said the vehicle was going to be scrapped anyway,but he wanted to make a point.A spokesman for NCP Services said half of the car was parked on the road andshould therefore have been taxed.'Jobsworths'Mr Taylor bought the Fiesta for his stepson with the intention of restoringit, but it was beyond economical repair."I told [my stepson] not to bother, so we parked it up, we were going to getrid of it. I came home from work the other day and it'd been clamped," hesaid.Mr Taylor said he made several efforts to explain that the car had a SORN(Statutory Off Road Notification) certificate verifying it had not beendriven on the road and that it had been parked on his drive."We tried to talk to [NCP]. I said, 'you're not taking it'. I got my cutterand cut it in half," he said."[I'm] happy I got one over on them. They're jobsworths, for the sake of aninch and a half on the path."James Pritchard, communications manager for NCP Services, said clampingstaff had photographs to prove that half the car was on the public pavement."We were astonished at the reaction this gentleman had to the fact we put aclamp on his car.Fortunately, the only damage was done to his car and as far as our peopleare concerned we stand by what they didJames Pritchard, NCP Services"It was a remarkable incident which highlighted some of the problems mycolleagues face while they're doing what is a very important job in ensuringthat motorists tax their vehicle," he said."And in cutting his car in two, he managed to put both himself at risk andalso a number of bystanders - along with ourselves, the police had to becalled and the fire brigade, as he set fire to the car while cutting it intwo."Fortunately, the only damage was done to his car and as far as our peopleare concerned we stand by what they did."http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/blackpoolnews/Asbo-man-threatened-to-kill.4290969.jpAsbo man threatened to kill five policemenPublished Date: 16 July 2008By Joe RobinsonA MAN said he was going to kill five police officers in retribution for hisfive years in prison.Simon Frodsham, known as the ?1m Asbo man for his estimated prosecution andprison costs, made the threat after he was arrested.Frodsham, 38, of no fixed address, today admitted damaging a sign at Lythampolice station.He was ordered to remain in the court precincts until 3pm as his punishmentby Blackpool magistrates.Presiding magistrate Ian Paterson told Frodsham: "You are just becoming apublic nuisance and you are costing the community money all the time."Frodsham replied: "If I get my way it will be costing the taxpayers a lotmore when I am compensated for what happened when I was put on the Asbo."I spent almost five years of my life, the equivalent of a nine-year prisonsentence, just for walking down the wrong street or knocking at a vicar'sdoor asking for a cup of tea."Sharon Child, prosecuting, told magistrates that on July 13 Frodsham wasseen pulling the opening times sign off the front of Lytham police station.Mrs Child said: "He said he was going to kill five police officers inretribution for the five years he spent in custody."Steven Townley, defending, said: "My client is exploring taking civil actionagainst the police for what he feels was the unwarranted and unlawfulimposition of the Asbo."http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lancashire/4649547.stmMonday, 4 July, 2005, 15:00 GMT 16:00 UKMan breaches Asbo for 17th timeA 35-year-old man from Lancashire has admitted breaching an Anti-socialBehaviour Order for the 17th time.Simon Frodsham, formerly of Horsebridge Road, Blackpool and now of no fixedaddress, appeared before Blackpool magistrates on Monday.Prosecutor Sharon Child said a police officer saw Frodsham on a Lythamstreet from which he is banned.The five-year order also banned him from more than 100 churches. The casewas sent to crown court.Frodsham was given the order on 24 January last year after being branded apublic nuisance in Lytham.The defendant told the officer he was well aware he had breached a conditionof the orderProsecutor Sharon ChildThe 35-year-old had a history of petty theft, damage, drunkenness andobstruction before being placed on the order which banned him from more than100 churches in the borough of Fylde and from Lytham and Ansdell towncentres.He had abused parish priests and congregations, stolen change fromcollections, slept in churches and even defaced a Roman Catholic priest'spicture - depicting him as the devil by drawing horns and a goatee beard onthe picture while Mass was being celebrated.Ms Child said: "The defendant told the officer he was well aware he hadbreached a condition of the order.'Looked after'"He said he had gone into Lytham with the purpose of breaching the order andbeing arrested, as he wished to return to prison."She said Frodsham had 16 previous convictions for breaching his Asbo.Frodsham told magistrates: "I believe the only thing this order has achievedis to institutionalise me."It has got to the stage where I can no longer function in the community andhave to be looked after by prison staff."At no point was I abusive, threatening or violent. At no point did I stealanything. At this stage in my life I don't want to commit any offences."Frodsham said he did not want bail and was remanded in custody to besentenced by a judge at a later date.http://www.ivorytowerz.com/2008/06/tube-protest-last-round-on-underground.html?widgetType=BlogArchive&widgetId=BlogArchive1&action=toggle&dir=close&toggle=YEARLY-1199167200000&toggleopen=MONTHLY-12148884000006.08.2008Tube Protest: Last Round on the Undergroundby Molly KenneyJust last weekend, London culture changed forever, and in classic Britishstyle, drunken riots marked the occasion. Thanks to London's new Tory mayor,Boris Johnson, alcohol consumption on the city's metro system, buses, trams,and Docklands Light Railway became illegal on June 1. Londoners wereunhappy - and drunk.While such public drinking seems ludicrous to residents of U.S. cities,drinking alcohol of all types in public is ubiquitous in London. The onlyperson I've ever known to get stopped with alcohol was my friend Doug, whowas drinking Stella Artois while on his way to meet me. A foot-patrol copgrabbed Doug by the arm and forbade him to drink Stella in public if hewanted to call himself a man.A few weeks ago, Mayor Boris announced his plan to curtail Londoners'previously unalienable right to get hammered on public transportation, andLondoners got angry. Using Facebook and various social networking sites,"Last Round on the Underground" was planned to mark the final night, May31st, before the new law took effect. Organizers called Londoners to jointhem on the Tube's Circle Line, which loops around downtown London andWestminster for a drunken ride until midnight, the BBC reported.As an incredible testimony to the power of online networking and Londoners'love of booze and riots, the Circle Line was inundated with drunkentravelers. Thousands of people filled underground stations throughout thecity, and six stations, including my own Liverpool Street Station, wereeventually closed for crowd control. The BBC News reported assaults on Tubestaff and police and 17 arrests, as well as Tube cars full of drunkenBritons chanting "Boris is a wanker."During all this, my friends and I naively thought we would stroll down toLiverpool Street Station for a quick hop on and off the Circle Line. So withmy bottle of wine and the boys with their large pack of beer, we headed forthe station. However, the station had already been closed. When we arrived acrowd of about 2000 people were drunkenly climbing signs, singing incoherentsongs, and waving clothes they'd removed from themselves or friends. Linesof British police stood watching them and looking mildly concerned (afternine months, I get the impression that British police do little else).Investment bankers' expensive champagne and vodka mixed with the cheap beerand cider of East End residents and students, and everyone slipped andsloshed about with enthusiasm for the celebration and bitterness at the endof an era. The whole scene was a messy, ridiculous, alcoholic disaster, likeany other night in London but with more people, more anger, and fewer Tubesrunning.Unfortunately, I did not bring a camera to capture the "Last Round on theUnderground" or the drunken riot as it spilled out into the streets.(Others, however, captured some of the pandemonium on video for YouTube.) Ido, however, have plenty of glass still stuck in my shoes from walkingthrough the fray of flying bottles. A week after the new law took effect,Liverpool Street Station is almost clean. But the anger and drunkenness ofLondoners, reminded every afternoon and evening that they cannot drink onpublic transport, remains.(The photo of revelers/protestors at the Baker Street Station on the LondonUnderground is by Annie Mole of London via Flickr, using a Creative CommonsLicense. You can see more coverage of the aftermath of the protest on herwebsite, Going Underground, a renowned blog about London's Tube. To seesatirical coverage of the Tube protest from The Daily Show, please checkbelow.)http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10513862&ref=rssTeens protest suicide label5:00AM Monday June 02, 2008My Chemical RomanceAbout 100 teenagers have marched on the offices of British newspaper theDaily Mail to protest at its suggestion that their favourite emo band, MyChemical Romance, encouraged suicide.They objected to the Daily Mail's description of the US group as a "suicidecult band" after a 13-year-old south London student hanged herself two weeksafter she started listening to their music.http://www.hackinthebox.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=27146Private details of Swedish intelligence staff exposed online in protest ofnew eavesdropping lawPosted by l33tdawg on Friday, June 20, 2008 - 02:25 AM (Reads: 687)Source: IHTThe chief of Sweden's defense intelligence agency said Thursday that about20 of its staff members have had personal information about themselvesposted on the Internet.In an interview on Sweden's TV4 Thursday, Ingvar Akesson, head the NationalDefence Radio Establishment, said he believes the "mud-throwing" campaignwas conducted by people protesting a new law that allows his agency tosecretly eavesdrop on e-mail and telephone traffic crossing the country'sborders.Akesson didn't say what information was posted about the civil agency'semployees, or whether any of them conceal their identities because of thenature of their work. But Swedish blog Politikerbloggen said the informationincludes the victims' addresses, telephone and credit card numbers.Parliament on Wednesday narrowly passed a bill allowing Akesson's agency toscan international phone calls, e-mails and faxes for sensitive keywordswithout obtaining a court order.http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/spotlight-on-torture-20080626Spotlight on tortureTorture is never justified.26 June 2008On 26 June, International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, AmnestyInternational members and supporters are taking action around the world.They are calling on governments to reaffirm their commitment to theconsensus affirmed after the Second World War - that torture and otherill-treatment are absolutely prohibited.Click on the pictures to the right to watch a slideshow with images of theday.Recently, there has been a new and acute threat to the internationalprohibition of torture and other ill-treatment in the context of governmentresponses to the threat of terrorism. It is the validity of the absoluteprohibition itself that has been challenged by the actions of governmentsaround the world.What this means in reality is that individuals are subjected to horrificpractices. In the context of government counter-terrorism strategies,Amnesty International has documented practices such as:beatings, electric shocks, simulated drowning, prolonged isolation and otherphysical abuse;the return of individuals to countries where they are at risk of torture,sometimes on the basis of flimsy "diplomatic assurances";secret detention.Amnesty International is calling on all governments to: condemn all forms oftorture and other ill-treatment; prevent torture, including through endingsecret and incommunicado detention; and hold to account those responsiblefor authorising, facilitating, or inflicting torture or other ill-treatment.Today is not a day of passive remembrance but one for action: governmentsand citizens across the world should act to reverse the trend of recentyears and eradicate these cruel and inhuman practices.http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080724/od_afp/euirelandfrancesarkozyoffbeat_080724160403;_ylt=Ap0F.ZXrAPoT04evys8bTH6gOrgFUn oeuf is not enough, says Sarkozy protest manThu Jul 24, 12:04 PM ETDUBLIN (AFP) - A French waiter who threw an egg at the car carryingPresident Nicholas Sarkozy during his visit to Dublin this week is ready todo the same again, he told Irish media Thursday.Michael Audron, 35, was charged Monday with "threatening, insulting andabusive behaviour," but a judge in Dublin district court threw out theindictment after he agreed to pay 150 euros (240 dollars) to charity.The unrepentant protestor, who was among 1,800 demonstrators who took to thestreets during the visit over Ireland's rejection of a new EU treaty, hasacknowledged he has more eggs on standby for any return visit by Sarkozy."I have absolutely no regrets and, if he is coming back again, I will bethere with more than a dozen eggs," he told the Irish Times.He is using eggs to pay his fine by making crepes every night this week at astreet festival in Drumshanbo, County Leitrim, in the northwest of Irelandwhere he has lived for several years.The egg-throwing was the only public order incident during a visit bySarkozy who had talks with the Irish government about the country's shock 53percent rejection of the European Union's key Lisbon Treaty last month.France currently holds the rotating EU presidency.http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080809/wl_afp/spainbasquespoliticsprotestThousands march in Spain's Basque region for independenceSat Aug 9, 4:24 PM ETMADRID (AFP) - Thousands of people marched through the streets of theseaside city of San Sebastian in Spain's northeastern Basque Country onSaturday to demand self-determination for the wealthy region."Stop the state of emergency. Self-determination for Euskal Herria," read abanner carried by participants at the head of the peaceful march, using theBasque language name for the Basque Country.Dozens of people waved the red, white and green Basque flag while otherschanted slogans in favour of independence for the region as a policehelicopter flew overhead, Spanish media reported.Police offered no estimate for the number of participants but the Basquenewspaper Gara said in its online edition that some 5,000 people had takenpart in the demonstration which was organised by left-wing Basquenationalists.The Basque Country already enjoys considerable autonomy and polls show mostBasques do not want to secede from Spain.But a vocal minority is pushing for an independent Basque homeland.The armed Basque separatist group ETA is blamed for the deaths of over 820people in bombings and shootings in its 40-year campaign for an independentBasque state in northern Spain and southwestern France.http://uk.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUKL2525611320080425Italy's "V-Day" protest targets news mediaFri Apr 25, 2008 7:49pm BSTBy Phil StewartROME (Reuters) - Thousands of Italians rallied to demand reform of thecountry's news media on Friday, taking aim at prime minister-elect SilvioBerlusconi and the power he and vested interests wield over the country's TVand media networks.Anti-politics comic Beppe Grillo led the colourful "V-day" protest, where heurged followers to tell Italy's political class -- and the media outlets heaccused of taking orders from them -- to "Vaffanculo" ("F... off").Grillo, a mop-haired, pot-bellied blogger, has ridden a wave ofdisillusionment to become Italy's most popular political critic. In a rantthat lambasted politicians of all leanings, he said Berlusconi's dominanceof the media would be unthinkable in other countries."Imagine if (Barack) Obama as president was also the owner of Fox, of ABCand other TV networks," Grillo said in the northern city of Turin,addressing a crowd that organisers estimated at least 45,000.Critics say Berlusconi as prime minister -- through his family-controlledMediaset empire and through state television RAI -- will at least indirectlycontrol nearly 90 percent of Italy's television audience.Berlusconi denies a conflict of interest and frequently describes himself asthe victim of attacks by Italy's news outlets, which he says mostlylean-left.Grillo collected signatures for a referendum to abolish public financing forthe news media, to eliminate the Italy's Order of Journalists and to strikethe controversial "Gasparri law" governing Italy's media.The Gasparri media deregulation was among the most contentious of thosepassed during Berlusconi's last term as prime minister. Critics said itfavoured the media tycoon's business empire by removing competition limitsand allowing Mediaset to expand rapidly into digital terrestrial TV.http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/08/europe/EU-Italy-Protest.phpItaly's opposition groups stage protest in Rome against Berlusconi'spoliciesThe Associated PressPublished: July 8, 2008ROME: Thousands of protesters gathered Tuesday in a historic Rome square todenounce the policies of Premier Silvio Berlusconi in the first majoropposition demonstration since the conservative leader won April elections.The protest in downtown Piazza Navona was called amid accusations by thecenter-left opposition that Berlusconi is using public office to passmeasures that would help him in his judicial battles. Police estimated thecrowd at around 10,000 people.The government is pushing through legislation that would grant immunity fromprosecution to the country's top four officials, including Berlusconi, whois a defendant at a corruption trial in Milan. The premier has alwaysmaintained his innocence and depicted himself as the victim of left-leaningmagistrates.On Tuesday, center-left supporters filled the baroque square waving partyflags and cheering speeches by opposition leaders including Antonio DiPietro, a former anti-corruption prosecutor who turned to politics."How can it be that we have to deal with (Berlusconi's) problems instead ofthe country's problems?" Di Pietro said from a stage.The proposed law would grant immunity from prosecution to the president, thepremier and the speakers of both parliamentary houses during their mandates.The government insists it is needed to allow the top officials to carry outtheir jobs without worries. Italy's parliament, which is controlled byBerlusconi's forces, is expected to pass the measure.Separately, parliament is examining another proposed bill, dubbed by criticsthe "premier-saving measure," which would suspend certain trials for a year,including Berlusconi's.The opposition, further enraged by the proposal, says it is aimed atprotecting the premier from the embarrassment of a possible conviction asthe Milan trial draws to a close. Proponents say it would relieve courtsfrom a backlog of cases and allow them to focus on violent offenses.http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080724/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_italy_electricchairFunfair's electric chair closed after protestsThu Jul 24, 2:52 PM ETROME (Reuters) - An Italian funfair closed an attraction where a life-sizeddummy was "executed" in an electric chair on Thursday following protests byopponents of capital punishment.The macabre exhibit at the Luna Park in northern Milan allowed visitors toinsert coins and watch the dummy strapped to an electric chair go throughhis death throes -- convulsing, smoking, and slumping from the simulatedcharge.Milan's mayor, church organisations and "Hands Off Cain," a group working toabolish the death penalty worldwide, had all protested against it.Hands Off Cain called it "a demented and culturally devastating attraction,which undoes years of work on the part of those struggling against the deathpenalty".It was a way of profiting from the "base and bestial aspects of oursociety," it said.The park owners said they had shut down the attraction and on Thursday itwas covered with canvas.Capital punishment is banned in Italy.http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/general/water_cooler_moments/protest+over+bird+feeding+ban/2113762?intcmp=rss_news_perspectives_water_cooler_momentsProtest over bird feeding banPrint this pageLast Modified: 01 May 2008Source: PA NewsPigeon food sellers in Venice's St Mark's Square are seeking compensationafter the mayor banned bird feeding in the area.Mayor Massimo Cacciari introduced the ban in an effort to control thegrowing number of pigeon droppings spoiling the city's facades andmonuments.Sellers, who have been given licences to operate in the square for over acentury, want ?75 for each day out of work.http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/6/9/worldupdates/2008-06-09T133338Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-339655-2&sec=WorldupdatesMonday June 9, 2008Elderly nuns chain themselves at Vatican protestVATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Two elderly Italian nuns chained themselves to alamp post outside the Vatican on Sunday claiming they had been wronglyexpelled from their cloistered convent and wanted Pope Benedict to help themreturn.The two women, Sister Albina Locantore, 73 and Teresa Izzi, 79, remained inlocks and chains on the edge of St Peter's Square for several hours,including the some 20 minutes while the pope delivered his weekly messageand blessing.The two women told reporters they had left their convent of Carmelite nunsin central Italy for several months for health reasons but when theyreturned the mother superior refused to let them back in the cloisteredconvent.The mother superior accused them of disobedience and banished them, the nunssaid.One of the nuns held up a placard reading: "Your Holiness, we are neitherprostitutes, nor violent, nor thieves, nor mentally infirm".Another placard appealed to the pope to investigate their case."After 50 and 60 years of service to the Church they treat us like sacks ofgarbage, all because we supposedly did not obey our religious superior,"Sister Albina said.The Vatican was trying to arrange a meeting between the nuns and an officialof the Vatican department that oversees convents.http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/offbeat-news/global-marijuana-march-hits-toronto-20000-light-up/1131Global Marijuana March Hits Toronto: 20,000 Light up.Sun, May 4, 2008"We're letting them smoke if they want to smoke," one policeman said with achuckle and a shrug. "The city gave them a permit."Yes, yesterday marked the Toronto celebrations of the 10th Global MarijuanaMarch; an annual rally, campaigning for the decriminalization and acelebration of cannabis. The march takes place in over two hundred citiesaround the world. However, the biggest and best part is in Toronto, wherelenient cannabis laws married with political pressure from liberals hasmushroomed the size of the event.Literally thousands of potheads of all ages took to the streets. The protestwas noisy: people shouted slogans such as "free the weed," motorists honkedtheir horns in approval and huge wafts of Marijuana smoke perfumed the air.Police presence was barely evident - there were only a few officerssurrounding the park and controlling the flow of people.It's not really surprising that this was the case. Everyone seems to bepretty confused on the whole issue. In Canada. marijuana is not only usedfor medical purposes, but the liberal government tried to decriminalize itin 2006. Unfortunately the conservatives stepped in (as usual) and quashedthe bill.One can only hope that once the smoke settles, a definitive stance isreached either way because it isn't healthy to leave issues hanging in theair.http://www.nowpublic.com/world/protest-educates-attendees-ministers-pancake-breakfast-4Protest educates attendees at Minister's Pancake Breakfastby Joanna Farley | July 7, 2008 at 01:07 am |In the words of a Conservative association volunteer: "Where else doprotesters get fed by what they're protesting?"Several hundred Calgarians attended yesterdays' annual Minister's PancakeBreakfast, hosted by MP Jim Prentice of the Calgary North Centre riding.While the usual entertainment was on hand - stampede princesses, live music,and plenty of pancakes fresh off the grill, the attendees also had a chanceto learn more about a controversial Bill that Prentice recently introducedin Parliament.Approximately two dozen members of the Facebook group Fair Copyright forCanada - Calgary Chapter were on hand this morning with placards, t-shirtsand home-made CDs, ready to protest and instruct attendees on the possiblenegative effects of Bill C-61, which amends Canada's Copyright Act toinclude Digital Law and "update the rights and protections of copyrightowners to better address the Internet, in line with internationalstandards". The Bill has received criticism from a diverse section of theCanadian population, which sees it as attempt to restrict freedom of use andextend control over access to information."We're concerned about what the amendments will mean for the CanadianPublic" said one protester. "This is going to affect students, teachers,artists. Digital Law is obscure, and if it's made illegal to break, thenanyone could be considered guilty, there's a problem of no consumer rights"."The ramifications involve severe restrictions on software, video, even onTV viewing rights" agreed Brendan Gill . "Even the artists this is supposedto protect are concerned - members of Wide Mouth Mason, The BarenakedLadies, feel this restricts their ability to get the music to fans, [that]it controls their output, and gives the record companies more power"."The Bill is unenforceable, and technicians and artists have aresponsibility to let people know this, to let them know Bill C-61 doesn'taddress the issues of piracy, copyright infringement. Jim Prentice needs totalk with the technicians, the artists, not just the DCMA lobbyists withtheir own agendas."While the protesters had to stand in line to get into the event, theyquickly managed to achieve several good conversations with attendees, eventvolunteers, and members of Prentice's team, including his Chief of Staff,who encouraged the protesters to be involved, and to take their "legitimateconcerns" to the committees debating the Bill."There are about 20 sides, so there will be much studying, debating. We'reasking that [protesters] recognize it's not just back and forth between twogroups, there is more to it - and we want to make sure [Bill C-61] won'tlead to unintended circumstances" Prentice's CofS said."This isn't just about industry, but also the [Canadian] government workingwith other governments. Yes, we know there are concerns about consultation,privacy, that Canadians take invasion of their privacy very, very seriously,but there has to be a way to figure out and stop those who are commerciallyprofiting from copyright infringement", agreed Dave Higgingbossom, Presidentof the Calgary Centre North Conservative Electoral District Association.By the end of the breakfast, event organizers were pleased by how everythingwent. "We knew [about the protest]ahead of time, and met in advance, andthey've been very respectful" said Higingbossom. "We knew it would be fine,and there has been absolutely no problems. This is what democracy is about -the right to espouse on what you believe in. We [political groups] want tohear, it's why we exist. If C-61 is controversial, that's good to know".The protesters were generally, if a little less, pleased with the results. "It was good, but we're not happy with Prentice - there was a lack ofdiscussion [with him]. Obviously, he's very busy, but he had plenty of timefor photographs with babies, and none for concerns." said Jason Burnner."We need public consultation, but raising awareness was our goal, so we madeour point successfully. We were here to protest, but [also ensure] everyonehad a good time" added Brunner and group organizer Kempton Lam. http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssTechMediaTelecomNews/idUSL1687748520080516Greek journalists protest axing of state TV showFri May 16, 2008 8:39am EDTBy Dina KyriakidouATHENS, May 16 (Reuters) - Greece's biggest journalists' union has called onthe conservative government to overturn a decision by state broadcaster ERTto scrap a well-regarded TV news show, a move that has sparked accusationsof censorship.State-run ERT said this week it was axing the "Reportage Without Frontiers"show, prompting opposition questions in parliament and criticism from theAthens Journalists Union (ESIEA)."The press minister and ERT's management must answer to the Greek people fortheir unacceptable behaviour," ESIEA said in a statement late on Thursday."The union's board demands that our colleagues' shows continue to bebroadcast without any cuts."The weekly show's host, Stelios Kouloglou, said his ERT contract had notbeen renewed after he refused to make changes to some reports, including oneon the politically sensitive issue of young, educated Greeks unable to earnmore than 700 euros a month."I was told that if I did this programme, there would be a problem renewingmy contract next year," Kouloglou told Reuters. "After almost 13 years withERT, it's the first time I was asked not to show something.""Finally, I was told my show is being cancelled next year because 'theydidn't like it'," Kouloglou added, referring to ERT.The broadcaster said it would air the show on the under-employment of youngGreeks with good education and skills, and denied political reasons laybehind the cancellation of a show that has won awards at home and abroad."The show had come full circle, it was getting old and was bringing nothingnew," ERT President Christos Panagopoulos told Reuters."There is no censorship and if Mr. Kouloglou continues to claim this, hewill have to prove it in court."Opposition parties backed Kouloglou and raised the matter in parliament."Such actions make Greek television poorer," said Left Coalition deputyFotis Kouvelis. "Successful shows are not cut ... public TV was annoyed bysome of his stories."Press Minister and government spokesman Theodore Roussopoulos defended thebroadcaster, telling parliament: "All shows come full circle and at somepoint finish.""All journalists know their freedom of expression has been respected morethan ever before in the past four years." (Additional reporting by ReneeMaltezou, editing by Jon Boyle)http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_east/7493434.stmPage last updated at 17:09 GMT, Monday, 7 July 2008 18:09 UKGreek death extradition protestDemonstrators have protested outside a court hearing to oppose the possibleextradition of a British student to Greece over manslaughter allegations.Andrew Symeou, 19, of Enfield, north London, appeared at City of Westminstermagistrates' court.It follows the death on 22 July last year of Jonathon Hiles, 18, of Cardiff,after he suffered head injuries in a club on the Greek island of Zakynthos.The hearing was adjourned to 12 August, and Mr Symeou was given bail.Mr Hiles, who represented the Great Britain roller hockey team at variousage groups and also played ice hockey for Cardiff Devils' junior team, waswith friends in the club on 20 July when he was injured in an incident.It is alleged that Mr Hiles was pushed from a podium on the island, which isalso known as Zante.Mr Symeou, a student at Bournemouth University, was arrested on June 26 athis home, after a European arrest warrant was issued by Greek authorities.His passport was also seized by police.Jon Hiles was on the island of Zakynthos, also known as ZanteDuring the short hearing John Jones, for Mr Symeou, said Greek police hadobtained witness statements using force and he believed Symeou could notexpect fair treatment if he was extradited.Mr Symeou's solicitor, John Tipple, said after the hearing: "For justice tobe done it needs to be done here."Outside court, Mr Symeou hugged family and friends who had attended tosupport him.Around 30 people carried banners opposing extradition which they held upoutside the court.Mr Symeou was remanded on bail on condition he resides at the family home.His mother pledged surety of ?20,000.One step at timeOutside court, Mr Symeou's father Frank said he was pleased with theadjournment."It's one step at a time. It gives us enough time to try to put a casetogether."No evidence of the alleged offence has been presented to a British court."The accuser does not have to demonstrate that there is a proper case toanswer provided that the European warrant has been correctly completed."The accused person can be sent to a foreign country without a British courtbeing satisfied that justice is being done."Frank Symeou said prima facie evidence should be required before extraditioncould be granted and said the family wanted "a hearing held in England, inEnglish not Greek, where we trust the system and we trust the police."Denzil Hiles, Jonathon's father, was also at the hearing and afterwards hesaid he was surprised and disappointed the extradition had not gone ahead.Mr Hiles said he could see no good reason for the five week adjournment.He believed there was enough evidence against Mr Symeou for him to standtrial in Greece."I don't know if Andrew killed my son," said Mr Hiles."I expected to hate him, but all I saw was a frightened boy."He said he had expressed his sympathy to Mr Symeou's family, and they hadexpressed their's for his son's death. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Fri Aug 29 16:30:06 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:30:06 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Pro-democracy protests: Malaysia - Thailand, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <005101c90a2f$2f173300$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ MALAYSIA * Four arrests at parliamentary conference protest against detention * 2000 gather to protest Internal Security Act * Parliament locked down in fear over Anwar protest * Protesters defy government ban, call for reformation * Hindraf targets Chinese temple * Rally for release of Hindraf leaders * "Bungled" rally at MIC HQ against party leader THAILAND * Opposition protesters besiege government complex * Wave of anti-regime protests "raise political heat" * Protesters call for Thaksin extradition at British embassy * Protests target ministers, university, TV station, airport * Protester injured in accident at corruption protest * Minister cancels press conference to avoid protesters * Heightened "security", clashes as protests continue * Protesters besiege PM's office * Protests outside electoral commission * Protest targets disputed temple http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/8/nation/22032761&sec=nation Friday August 8, 2008 Four detained over protest at conference KUALA LUMPUR: Four people, including a Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) leader, were arrested after they staged a gathering outside the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. The four, including a woman, led about 100 Hindraf supporters to protest in front of the convention centre where the Commonwealth Parliamentarian Conference is being held. The group demanded the release of five Hindraf leaders who are currently being detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA). On Dec 13 last year, the five Hindaf leaders ? M. Manoharan, P. Uthayakumar, V. Ganabatirau, K. Vasantha Kumar and R. Kenghadaran ? were detained under the ISA. Dang Wangi OCPD Asst Comm Zulkaranain Abdul Rahman said the four who were carrying placards were picked up after refusing to disperse at 3.40pm yesterday. ?They congregated at the front entrance leading into the convention centre for about an hour,? he said. ?Despite several warnings issued to them, they refused to break up the illegal gathering.? The four were later released at 6.30pm. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/6/29/nation/21693416&sec=nation Sunday June 29, 2008 2,000 gather at stadium rally to protest against ISA SHAH ALAM: About 2,000 people gathered at the Malawati Indoor Stadium here last night to protest against the Internal Security Act (ISA). A multi-racial crowd comprising men, women, youth, senior citizens and even children attended the gathering, organised by Gerakan Mansuhkan ISA. Showing their support: Hindraf and anti-ISA supporters attending the gathering at the Malawati Indoor Stadium in Shah Alam last night. The speakers included former ISA detainees Saari Sungib and Lee Ban Chen, Mohamad Sabu from PAS, Sivarasa Rasiah from PKR, Dr Tan Seng Giaw from DAP, Dr Mohd Nasir Hashim from Parti Sosialis Malaysia and R. Thanenthiran from the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf). In his speech, Saari, who is the Hulu Klang assemblyman, said the ISA functioned as an instrument of fear and torture. Lee narrated how he was detained under the ISA in his capacity as a labour activist in 1967. He was only released in 1974. Most of the speakers spoke about how Makkal Sakthi (People Power) had played an instrumental role in the capture of five states during the recent general election. The crowd eagerly waited for Mohamad Sabu, who was the last speaker, to take the stand and they were not disappointed as the PAS leader gave a fiery speech, which received thunderous applause. In condemning the ISA, Mohamad Sabu said that it was time for the draconian law to be abolished. http://www.irrawaddy.org/today.php?art_id=214 Malaysia Locks down Parliament, Fearing Protest By JULIA ZAPPEI / AP WRITER / KUALA LUMPURMonday, July 14, 2008 Malaysian police locked down Parliament on Monday with roadblocks and massive security to prevent an anticipated rally by supporters of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who is awaiting interrogation on a sodomy accusation. Anwar's questioning later Monday was to coincide with an opposition demand for an emergency debate in Parliament on what it says is the public's lack of confidence in the government. The police action against the opposition is likely to increase political tensions, already high amid Anwar's threat to bring down the government by mid-September even as he fights the sodomy allegation. The debate is not the same as a no-confidence vote, but the speaker was still not expected to allow it. In the past, almost every opposition motion has been rejected on grounds of being non-urgent or not in the public interest. Anwar, who is not a member of Parliament, was supposed to witness the session from the visitors' gallery before going to a police station for questioning. His party said it was not planning to stage a protest. But police obtained a court order barring Anwar as well as the public from coming within five kilometers (three miles) of Parliament. Copies of the court order were pasted in public places. Members of Parliament were also told not to bring guests to witness the session. The roadblocks, which also prevented journalists from entering with their vehicles, caused massive traffic jams in many parts of the city. District police Chief Ahmad Sofian Mohamad Yassin said the measures were necessary because Anwar's supporters had not sought a police permit for a rally, as required by law. "We have such laws that any public gathering must first have a police permit... . so we are going to disallow any gathering," he said, adding only "those who have business" in Parliament would be allowed to enter. Anwar criticized the court order barring him and his supporters from Parliament as an "abuse of the legal process." Tian Chua, information chief of Anwar's People's Justice Party, said the party had merely wanted supporters to come to Parliament for the debate. "There is no protest planned. We want people to go into Parliament to listen to the debate," he said. "I think it (the police lock down) is deliberately to create a situation to cause confusion." Anwar, who has become a thorn in the side of the government, suffered a setback when he was accused last month by a volunteer worker in his office of sodomizing him. Anwar has dismissed the allegation as a political conspiracy to thwart his political ascendancy. The People's Justice Party and two other opposition parties together won an unprecedented 82 seats in the 222-member Parliament in March 8 elections. Anwar claims he can get more than 30 ruling party lawmakers to defect to form a new government. Anwar did not contest the elections because a previous corruption conviction barred him from politics for five years. The ban expired in April. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2008/07/15/2003417513 Opposition protests security clampdown in Kuala Lumpur ?WAR ZONE?: At least 400 police closed down roads leading to parliament as the opposition attempted to hold a debate on the prime minister?s failings AFP, KUALA LUMPUR Tuesday, Jul 15, 2008, Page 5 The Malaysian opposition accused the government yesterday of turning parliament into a ?war zone? as armed police sealed off the building amid fears of a protest. Roads leading to parliament, which are important entry points to the capital Kuala Lumpur, were closed down by at least 400 heavily armed police, causing massive traffic jams that left motorists fuming over the move. The security measures were put in place as the opposition attempted to hold a parliamentary debate on the shortcomings of beleaguered Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who is fending off calls to resign. As expected, the parliamentary speaker rejected the motion, triggering a walkout of lawmakers from the three-party opposition alliance led by Anwar Ibrahim. ?Today is a day we have never seen before in the history of the country, where parliament has become a war zone,? said Anwar?s wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who leads their Keadilan party. Anwar was banned from coming to parliament by a court order. Instead he was called for an interview with police over new accusations of sodomy ? the same charge that saw him jailed a decade ago. The opposition denied it was planning a protest and there were no signs of gatherings at parliament. Lim Guan Eng from the Democratic Action Party condemned the decision to roll out police and barbed-wire barricades. ?Why do we put parliament under siege, turning parliament into a police state? It is unnecessary and the government is trying to instill fear using the police,? he told reporters. ?Parliament should be open to the public to participate so they can listen to the debates and see how participatory democracy works. What we want to see is democracy in action, not police in action,? he said. Malaysian Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar defended the police measures, which included officers armed with assault rifles patrolling inside the parliament building, saying they had to take ?preventive action,? ?I apologize to the public for the traffic jams, but the police have to do their job to ensure a smooth access to parliament. With all sorts of threats and intimidation that come out, we cannot wait for things to happen,? he said. Nazri Aziz, the minister in charge of parliament, criticized the opposition?s attempt to stage a debate that would have addressed criticisms of Abdullah and accusations that he has lost the country?s confidence. ?I think the no-confidence motion is a waste of time. It is eating into the house?s time to debate this motion which has no voting element and so it cannot resolve anything,? he said. In the March polls, the opposition alliance won a record number of 82 seats in the 222-seat lower house of parliament. Anwar has rattled Abdullah?s ruling coalition by saying he is poised to oust the government with the help of defecting lawmakers. http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-07-06-voa20.cfm?rss=asia Malaysian Protesters Defy Government Ban By Chad Bouchard Jakarta 06 July 2008 Thousands of Malaysians gathered at a stadium to protest inflation and a recent fuel hike, despite a government ban on the rally. Chad Bouchard reports from Jakarta that political tension has been increasing during the past week in Malaysia. Protester wears headgear with a slogan reading, 'Protest until Down,' during a day-long anti-fuel hike rally at a stadium in Kelana Jaya, outside Kuala Lumpur, Sunday, 06 July 2008 The protesters filed into a stadium in a suburb of Kuala Lumpur to call for an end to last month's 40-percent increase in gas prices. The protesters chanted "reformation", echoing a rising call for change within the government following dismal election results for the country's ruling party in March. The rally was initially banned by the federal government, which said the organizers lacked the necessary permits. The country's opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, was expected to address the protesters, about one week after he took refuge in the Turkish Embassy amid allegations he sodomized an aide. The chairman of a party supporting the government, Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahman, accused Anwar of manipulating the public. He says Anwar should stop holding mass rallies for personal reasons, such as denouncing the police report that was lodged against him for committing sodomy. The country's inspector general announced plans to bring in the military to stop protests Sunday if necessary. Human-rights lawyer S. Sivanesan condemned the threat to deploy military personnel. "This is the first time we have seen things come to this level when the police have also threatened to bring in the army and such things. This is unprecedented," Sivanesan said. "An army cannot get involved in controlling crowds in a civilian situation. The army has no business coming in, and this is only to threaten and intimidate the public." The rally remained peaceful through late afternoon, and only a few police patrolled the area in cars. http://pakatanrakyat-malaysia.blogspot.com/2008/06/protest-on-fuel-price-increase-by-dap.html Friday, June 6, 2008 Protest on Fuel Price Increase by DAP June 5, 2008 - Malaysiakini Some 50 people gathered in Jalan Pasar, Kuala Lumpur, this morning to protest the sharp hike in fuel prices which came into effect at the stroke of midnight. The peaceful protest attracted a huge crowd of onlookers who cheered from the sidelines and many gave the thumbs up in approval. Armed with a large banner condemning the price hike, the protesters marched 200 metres under the watchful eyes of some 20 police personnel, including members of the Light Strike Force. The protesters, who were led by DAP parliamentarians, dispersed about an hour later at 12.10pm. http://www.nst.com.my/Sunday/National/2330560/Article/index_html Eight held over Hindraf protest at Chinese temple Police intervening in the dispute between Hindraf supporters and Hindus carrying out special prayers at a Chinese temple in Butterworth yesterday. BUTTERWORTH: A shouting match arose when supporters of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) confronted a group of Hindus praying at a Chinese temple in Seberang Jaya yesterday. Police detained eight Hindraf supporters, including two women. The group of about 50 supporters had gathered outside the Kuan Yin temple in Jalan Todak here to protest the event organised by Hin-du Sevai Sangam. Trouble started when the group, led by Hindraf Penang coordinator M.N. Anbalagan, gate crashed a press conference in the temple about 4pm. The press conference was being held by former Hindraf secretary V.K. Regu, who is now with Sewai Sangam, to explain the purpose of the prayers at the temple. Anbalagan had scolded Regu for holding a Hindu event at a Chinese temple and questioned Regu's authority to do so. A shouting match took place between the two and worsened when a Parti Keadilan Rakyat leader, K. Kalaivanar from Sungai Petani, advised the crowd not to fight. Police stepped in to calm things and the event, led by Swami Bramanandha Saraswathi from Ku-lim, continued. However, the quarrel did not end there. Anbalagan and Hindraf supporters protested outside the Chinese temple for another half an hour, causing a jam in Jalan Todak. They demanded that Regu and organisers of the event vacate the Chinese temple immediately. Some supporters lodged a police report at the Seberang Jaya station against the organisers of the event. Police appealed to the groupto disperse but later light strike force personnel detained eight people. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had earlier stopped at the temple for a visit. Superintendent Hamzah Ismail, the supervisor for the election zone, said police picked up the eight to defuse the situation and would release them after recording their details. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Indians_Abroad/2_Indian_origin_MPs_held_for_protests/rssarticleshow/3130821.cms 2 Indian origin MPs held for protests 15 Jun 2008, 1309 hrs IST,IANS KUALA LUMPUR: Two Indian origin lawmakers were among three opposition members of the Malaysian parliament who were arrested for joining a rally to seek the release of detained activists of a Hindu body. Indian origin lawmakers S. Manikavasagam and R. Sivararsa, and their Malay colleague, Zuraida Kamaruddin, had joined a rally to seek freedom for five Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) activists, and 65 others detained under the stringent Internal Security Act (ISA). The lawmakers, from the opposition Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), were among six detained by the police on Saturday. They were released on bail later. The PKR party has emerged at the head of an opposition alliance with an unprecedented 82 members in parliament and rules in four of the country's 13 states. The protest, held in front of the Istan Negara, the palace of the royal head of the state, is the first such involving elected representatives. Holding of rallies requires police permission in Malaysia. Around 70 rallyists, including children, had gathered in front of the Istana Negara, demanding the release of the 70 men currently detained under ISA at the Kamunting Detention Centre in Taiping. "Each child was carrying a basket with flowers and a teddy bear and lined with yellow cloth. They left the baskets in front of the palace gate," The Star newspaper said on Sunday, quoting Police Assistant Commissioner Wan Abdul Bari Wan Abdul Khalid. The children were accompanied by their mothers as well as other family members. The official said that all except the six left after they were asked to. The rally was organised by the Hindraf and joined by members of the Gerakan Mansuhkan ISA, a human rights body. According to Hindraf national event coordinator Kannan Ramasamy, they gathered to appeal to the King Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin to advise Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar to release all the ISA detainees. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/5/11/nation/20080511160913&sec=nation Sunday May 11, 2008 MYT 5:56:36 PM Supporters rally for release of Hindraf leaders (updated) By NELSON BENJAMIN KUALA LUMPUR: Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) supporters gathered peacefully in various places on Sunday to seek the release of five of its leaders detained under the Internal Security Act. Hindraf co-ordinator R. Kannan said the gathering at KLCC here was aimed at relaying a message to the Government that detainees had their rights to proper medical treatment. He said Hindraf leader P. Uthayakumar's health is deteriorating due to diabetes that is affecting his heart condition. He said Uthayakumar needs medical attention from IJN (National Heart Institute). Also present was Parti Keadilan Rakyat vice-chairman and Subang MP S. Sivarasa. Several truck-loads of Federal Reserve Unit personnel and policemen were stationed there and no arrest was made as the Hindraf supporters dispersed peacefully half an hour after being told to do so by the police. In Johor Baru, Hindraf supporters carried a banner and placards along Jalan Ungku Puan, demanding the abolition of the ISA and also for the five Hindraf leaders detained under the ISA to be released and for Uthayakumar be given proper medical attention. The 11am gathering caused a massive traffic jam around the city centre but the supporters dispersed within 40 minutes. In Ipoh, Hindraf supporters gathered at the Courts Mammoth outlet for five minutes to call for the abolition of the ISA, the release of ISA detainees and for proper medical treatment for Uthayakumar. The 11am gathering dispersed peacefully after a warning from the police. http://www.nst.com.my/Monday/National/2274875/Article/index_html 2008/06/23 A big no-show at 'MIC protest' Police officers standing outside the MIC headquarters in anticipation of a rally. KUALA LUMPUR: The police and members of the media made up the crowd of a bungled rally in front of the MIC headquarters on Saturday. Some 30 traffic, riot and plain-clothes policemen had cordoned off the road in front of the headquarters by 8am as a mass rally was rumoured to take place there. The police and media were informed about the protest rally, said to be organised by Makkal Shakti on Friday via fax and text messages. It was said that some 10,000 people would gather to protest against the leadership of party president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu. As reporters and cameramen arrived, curious on-lookers slowed their vehicles while few members of the public gathered by the road side. Fifteen supporters turned up at 9am and left shortly after that when they realised the absence of protesters. One of them, Apparao Ramadu, 50, from Kajang said he had learnt about the rally through a friend, who is a MIC member. Apparao said many of his friends came from Klang but was disappointed to see a no-show. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/20/thailand1?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront Thailand: Protesters lay siege to government complex ? Pledge to remain until prime minister quits ? Scuffles with police lead to fears of new coup Ian MacKinnon in Bangkok guardian.co.uk, Friday June 20 2008 16:50 BST Article history Political tensions in Thailand grew today when thousands of protesters, demanding that the five-month-old government quit, pushed through police lines to lay siege to Government House. The demonstrators, who have rallied for 26 straight days in the capital, Bangkok, scuffled with riot police who eventually broke ranks, allowing the protesters through to the country's seat of power. Last night the leaders of the collection of anti-government groups vowed to remain until the prime minister, Samak Sundaravej ? who they regard as a proxy for the deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra ? steps down. Chanting "Get out, get out", the protesters waved flags and swarmed around the wrought-iron railings as riot police looked on casually. The political drama, which led to falls on the stock market and in the Thai currency, the baht, is also provoking fears of another coup, only months after a general election to restore democracy. Analysts fear that if the protests degenerate into violence Thailand's royalist-military elite will use it as an excuse to send troops on to the streets to restore order and unseat the government once again. But despite tough talk from police chiefs heading the 8,000-strong force that had been brought into Bangkok from all over the country, there were only scuffles and a few minor injuries as the police gave way. The protesters, headed by the People's Alliance for Democracy, whose months of demonstrations in 2006 eventually led to the coup that ejected Thaksin, converged on the government complex from eight directions. The 1920s buildings house the offices of Samak and his ministers, but today all were elsewhere. Samak had met King Bhumibol Adulyadej yesterday in an effort to defuse the tensions, with the monarch urging the prime minister to stand by his pledge to do good for the nation. "I expect that you will do what you have promised and when you can do that, you will be satisfied," the king told Samak. "With that satisfaction, the country will survive. I ask you to do good in everything, both in government work and other work." Government offices and schools near the ministerial complex were closed for the day today to avoid the risk of civil servants and pupils being caught up in violence. But for many of the protesters, who numbered about 25,000 rather than the 100,000 the organisers had predicted, the atmosphere was more carnival than confrontation. Bangkok academics, business people and unionised workers, united in their hatred of Thaksin, roamed the avenues of Bangkok's old quarter waving Thai flags or yellow banners to symbolise their devotion to the king. When confronted by the police lines most of the groups sat down in the road in the shade of trees, waving and cheering, their mood in contrast with that of other protesters who had armed themselves with baseball bats and shields. Police came prepared for a confrontation, with teargas and water cannon, and parked prison trucks across the main ??thoroughfares as barricades. One group several thousand strong burst through a five-deep line of officers amid some jostling and lined the railings around the Government House complex. But their leaders said they did not intend to storm the compound, but merely to remain until Samak quit. Samak's People Power party, which inherited the mantle of Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai party, won the election in December that ended the rule of the military-appointed government and demonstrated the electorate's disillusionment with the 18 months under the military. Backstory The protesters, led by the People's Alliance for Democracy, are determined to bring down the government, saying the prime minister, Samak Sundaravej, 73, is doing deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's bidding. Samak is accused of attempting to tinker with the constitution to consolidate his grip on power. Opponents say the governing People's Power party is interfering with corruption charges against Thaksin, who returned from exile to face justice. Thaksin has vowed to keep out of politics and concentrate on business interests, including Manchester City football club. http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v3/news_world.php?id=336093 May 29, 2008 19:11 PM Thailand's Political Heat Rises With Street Protests By D. Arul Rajoo BANGKOK, May 29 (Bernama) -- A mostly cloudy atmosphere in the past few days and occasional rain is a welcome relief for Bangkokians after the scorching heat throughout April and May. But not so with the political temperature, which has been rising steadily in the past one week with the latest street demonstrations by the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) likely to reach boiling point as feared by many. In 2006, the PAD, comprising many individuals and non-governmental organisations, held massive protests in the capital that set the stage for Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's ouster in a bloodless coup by the military on Sept 19 that year. A military-picked government ran the country until February 2008 when Thaksin's supporters under the People's Power Party (PPP) regained power after winning the December 2007 election. And since May 25, hundreds of protestors have been camping in front of the United Nations' Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Escap) headquarters, holding night rallies that attract thousands of listeners barely 100 metres from the Prime Minister's Office and the Army headquarters. Their aim is to oppose the government of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej's attempt to amend the 2007 Constitution. The political uncertainty was made worse by the controversy over a speech made by Prime Minister's Office Minister Jakrapob Penkair at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand last August when he was leading an anti-coup group. With tremendous pressure for him to resign, Jakrapob said on Monday that he was not anti-monarch as alleged by his opponents and announced that he was taking a week's leave to defuse the situation. With PAD on the street again and fear of another clash between its supporters and opposing groups as happened last Sunday, rumours of another coup has become intense as the military is expected to interfere if things get out of control. In fact, First Army chief Lt. Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, who commands forces in the capital, was ordered to return home from his European tour by Army chief Gen. Anupong Paojinda, one of the key players in the 2006 coup. While in 2006 the strong anti-Thaksin sentiments, following various allegations of power abuse and corruption, and the sale of his family-owned Shinawatra Corp to Singapore's Temasek Holdings fueled the protest, the fear of Thaksin nominees amending the constitution for their own benefit led to the fresh outcry. Former soldier Rungson Sinsirisup, 51, said the current government had no real power as they were nominees of Thaksin, who has been banned from politics for five years after his Thai Rak Thai party was dissolved by the court in 2007. "If not for the coup, Thaksin would have taken all for himself. This protest is allowed by the law and we are not breaking any law...it's the opposite side which is creating all the violence," said Rungson, who attends the rally every night, just like what he did two years ago. For Sureeporn Luechuntvek, seeing Thaksin and his nominees running the country is something she cannot accept. "I don't like his (Thaksin) system. My son-in-law was killed during the campaign against drugs without any proof. He was warned that his name was blacklisted... he went to become a monk but when he left the monastery for three days, he was killed," she said. The former government official said she took optional retirement to look after her daughter and a four-year-old grand child. When PAD announced they were holding the protest, Sureeporn said she came with about 200 villagers from Buri Ram in the northeast on Sunday. "We went back after that but I decided to return and stay here until the rally is over. I even borrowed 2,000 baht to come here," said Sureeporn, as she ate lunch provided by PAD volunteers, and sleeps in the tent on the road pavement. Similar to the 2006 protest when volunteers became the backbone of the movement, members of the controversial Santi Asoke sect, founded by former Bangkok governor Maj. Gen. Chamlong Srimuang, continued to play a key role. In 1992, Chamlong led a people' uprising against Army chief Suchinda Kraprayoon who overthrew the government of Chatichai Choonhavan. The protest ended in a bloodshed when troops opened fire at protesters. More than 100 members of the Santi Asoke sect are cooking food for the hundreds of people from outside Bangkok who gather here for the protests. A former teacher, Ploogkharn Rakponkasok who joined the sect 18 years ago, said they were cooking about 400kg of rice daily, with a budget of 30,000 baht to buy all the cooking essentials. "Many people are donating to our cause. We have four chief cooks and 10 assistants, as well as about 100 others who are cutting the vegetables and doing other chores," she said. Ploogkharn said they would start cooking from 8am to 7pm to cater for about 10,000 people daily who come throughout the day to eat and listen to fiery speeches by anti-government speakers, including media tycoon Sondhi Limthongkul, once a close ally of Thaksin before he started the anti-Thaksin movement at the end of 2005. "The sect members come from all over the country and are prepared to stay here until the protest is over. "We were here two years ago. We want the constitutional amendment to be stopped and for the whole Cabinet to resign," said Ploogkharn, who hails from Nakhorn Pathom and oversees the food preparation. But not all Thais, especially hawkers and ordinary workers, are happy with the development. "We hardly have any customers now as the entire road leading to our restaurant is closed. It's already bad for us as people are eating less outside now due to the rising cost of living," said a restaurant worker near the protest site. Pornthip, an office staff nearby, said many people were worried that the protest would lead to another coup. "We are already worried with the high fuel and food prices. If another coup happens, I am sure the economy will be badly affected," he said. Not far from there, hundreds of buses were parked in front of the Transport Ministry as owners demanded a fare hike to cover the rising oil price which could reach Bt40 soon. Despite the government's approval for the hike of Bt1.50, consumer groups successfully asked the Central Administrative Court to suspend the increase. A survey carried by Suan Dusit Rajabhat University in the capital showed that about 32.5 percent of the 1,500 respondents were worried that the protest could lead to clashes and 28.3 percent believed the economy would slow down. As the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) saw its biggest drop in four months yesterday, Finance Minister Surapong Suebwonglee said the ongoing political uncertainty was affecting the economy. -- BERNAMA http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/11/worldupdates/2008-08-11T122823Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-349411-1&sec=Worldupdates Monday August 11, 2008 Street protests to last until Thai govt ousted - PAD BANGKOK (Reuters) - A two-month street protest against Thailand's government, deemed a proxy of ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, will continue until it is ousted, even though Thaksin has gone into exile, a protest spokesman said on Monday. "We will continue our rally until the puppet government is booted out," Parnthep Pourpongpan of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) told Reuters. "Thaksin's exile is another victory for us, but our ultimate goal is to finish off the Thaksin regime by kicking out his puppet government," said Parnthep, whose coalition is made up mainly of pro-military, royalist and urban middle-class elements. Thaksin skipped bail on Monday to London, alleging that the political enemies who removed him in a 2006 coup were interfering in the courts to "finish off" him and his family. http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/read.php?newsid=30081541 PAD declares victory, in defiant of anti-riot measures Immediately after the prime minister's televised speech calling for the crowds to disperse, People's Alliance for Democracy leader Sondhi Limthongkul showed up on the steps of Thai Khu Fah Building at Government House to declare the victory. Sondhi vowed to continue the protests until Samak resigned. He said protesters would not evacuate Government House, the two NBT stations and other installations, shrugging off the government threat to invoke anti-riot measures. http://itn.co.uk/news/83fe215f8935befce7e48a5efa4bbd2c.html Protesters demand Thaksin extradition Updated 11.48 Tue Aug 19 2008 Keywords: British Embassy in Bangkok, Thaksin extradition, protesters Protesters have gathered outside the British Embassy in Bangok demanding the extradition of former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The Thai authorities have issued an arrest warrant for Mr Thaksin over corruption allegations. About 7,000 protesters from the anti-Thaksin People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) movement rallied peacefully in front of the embassy, carrying posters and shouting "Thaksin go to jail" About 7,000 protesters from the anti-Thaksin People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) movement rallied peacefully in front of the embassy, carrying posters and shouting: "Thaksin go to jail". In a letter to ambassador Quinton Mark Quayle, the PAD called for the British Government to turn down any request for asylum from Mr Thaksin. Thailand has not yet requested extradition of Mr Thaksin, who owns several homes in England. Mr Thaksin still carries a Thai diplomatic passport. He has so far not been granted asylum or special treatment in Britain. A Home Office spokeswoman said: "It is our long-standing policy to neither confirm nor deny whether an extradition request has been received for a particular individual. "Every case is considered on its merits, in line with our international commitments and the terms of UK extradition legislation." The Foreign Office confirmed that a peaceful protest was held outside the Bangkok mission, but added the Embassy was carrying on "business as usual". The protesters were led by Sondhi Limthongkul, a key figure in the PAD which orchestrated mass street protests leading to Mr Thaksin's ousting from office in the bloodless coup. Last week the Supreme Court ruled that a corruption trial against Mr Thaksin and his wife, Pojaman, could proceed even though the couple fled the country. http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2008/07/10/politics/politics_30077744.php Protests greet Chalerm in Northeast By The Nation Published on July 10, 2008 Protesters from the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) were on hand in Chaiyaphum yesterday to meet Interior Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung as he began an official inspection of 14 northeastern provinces. About 30 people chanted, jeered and burned Chalerm in effigy when he arrived in Chaiyaphum. The interior minister blew them a kiss About 300 police were on hand to provide security. PAD officials say Chalerm will be confronted when he arrives at Khon Kaen University tomorrow, where he is to preside over a meeting to issue policies to 13 northeastern provincial governors, provincial police chiefs and heads of local government. The protesters have prepared placards reading: "Civil disobedience by Khon Kaen residents against a government that sells the country." About 400 PAD protesters are expected to confront the minister in Loei tomorrow. Last week, on an official trip to the South, Chalerm encountered stiff protests from PAD protesters in Phuket and Krabi. He ended up flying back to Bangkok without completing his scheduled duties. People Power Party MPs later threatened not to allocate development funds to southern provinces if the protests against Cabinet members continued. The southern provinces have long been known as a stronghold of the opposition Democrat Party. http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90851/6426492.html Thai PM makes his way out of TV station amid protest +-13:23, June 08, 2008 After finishing his live weekly TV talk show program, Thailand's Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej on Sunday morning made his way out of the NBT national TV station amid heavy security protection and strong protest. More than 100 police officers provided security for the premier while Samak's car drove out of the station. However, during Samak's talk show program, the anti-government People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) laid down wreaths in front of the station. A scuffle nearly broke out when pro-government demonstrators turned up, snatched wreaths from PAD representatives' hands and threw them into a nearby canal. Police had to break up the face-off between both sides, the Bangkok Post reported on its website. The PAD, which had launched a two-week rally in central Bangkok, denouncing Samak as a nominee of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and demanding the Samak government to step down. Meanwhile, Samak has repeatedly demanded the PAD to remove their rally venue and ordered police negotiators to talk with the PAD leaders, saying that the marathon protest has disrupted traffic orders and people's lives. http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2008/07/10/politics/politics_30077766.php University braces for PAD protest Chulalongkorn University threw up a blanket of security on Thursday following reports that the People's Alliance for Democracy may turn up to protest against former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife Pojaman Shinawatra who are expected to come there as their yongest daughter, Paethongtarn Shinawatra is to attend the degree conferal ceremony. Paethongtarn who is to accept a degree in Political Science did not show sign of worries or nervousnes following the reports of the PAD protest. She enjoyed having her pictures taken with friends and close family members. None of PAD protesters, neither Thaksin nor Pojaman have arrived in the university. http://www.bangkokpost.com/100708_News/10Jul2008_news10.php Protest planned for Noppadon's arrival Hundreds of protesters are expected to flock to Suvarnabhumi airport today to protest against Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama, who is due to arrive in Bangkok from London this morning. Some leaders of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) yesterday announced on stage at their present demonstration site on the Makkhawan Rangsan bridge on Ratchadamnoen Nok avenue that they would rally at Suvarnabhumi airport. Mr Noppadon is due to arrive home this morning after failing to convince the World Heritage Committee to delay its decision to list the Preah Vihear temple as a World Heritage site on Monday. The protesters have blamed Mr Noppadon _ who signed a joint communique with Cambodia supporting the temple's listing _ for the committee's decision, following the proposal made by Phnom Penh alone. Many Thais are concerned that the committee's decision could result in the loss of sovereignty in the area surrounding the temple. Preah Vihear belongs to Cambodia but both Thailand and Cambodia claim ownership of a 4.6-square-kilometre overlapping area surrounding the temple. Rally fatigue People's Allance for Democracy (PAD) coordinator Suriyasai Katasila takes a nap behind the rally stage at Makkhawan Rangsan bridge. A group of PAD protesters plans to protest at Suvarnabhumi airport against Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama,, who is due to arrive from London this morning. ? PAWAT LAOPAISARNTAKSIN PAD coordinator Suriyasai Katasila yesterday denied that five key PAD leaders would show up at the airport today. He said the PAD had not officially resolved to stage a rally at the airport and anyone who turned up there would be acting on their own behalf. Meanwhile, the PAD has appealed against the Civil Court's order that forced its rally to leave Government House, claiming it is against the constitution. PAD lawyer Suwat Apaipak said the court's order for the PAD to prevent its stage and protesters from blocking Rama V and Phitsanulok roads in front of Government House between 5am and 6pm was tantamount to an order to disperse the demonstration. The right to demonstrate is a right under the constitution so the PAD considered the court's order unconstitutional, Mr Suwat said. He said the PAD had to appeal, otherwise it would face a series of such lawsuits whenever it moved its demonstration. The court's order on Monday was in response to petitions from teachers and parents from Rachawinit school near Government House. The PAD filed its appeal on Monday and the court gave teachers at the school 15 days to send in their reactions. However, the PAD has reversed its decision to push for the impeachment of two Civil Court judges who ordered it to move aside for traffic on Rama V and Phitsanulok roads. They have continued to demand the ouster of the Samak Sundaravej administration and called on the military and police to protect the ''national interest'' without using force. http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/read.php?newsid=30078688 1 protester injured while rally against NCCC A man suffered severe burns when he and his group of protesters lid fire to a mock coffin in their protest against the National Counter Corruption Commission Tuesday. Thiang Phakdeerat, 45, was rushed to a nearby hospital at 10:15 am with burns over his right arm, body and right thigh. Thiang joined a group of 20 protesters led by activist Warachai Chokchana to protest against the NCCC. They demanded the current NCCC members to resign on ground that they were appointed by coup makers. When the protesters set the mock coffin on fire, Thiang's clothes caught fire. The Nation http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/read.php?newsid=30081101 PAD stages protest outside Foreign Ministry The People's Alliance for Democracy staged a protest outside the Foreign Ministry Thursday morning to demand it to annual passports of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife. The protest began at 9:30 am. http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2008/07/04/politics/politics_30077254.php Minister cancels Khon Kaen press conference to avoid Protesters By The Nation Published on July 4, 2008 Natural Resource and Environment Minister Anongwan Thepsuthin yesterday cancelled her official duties in Khon Kaen, fearing she could be subjected to protests by local People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) members, as happened to Interior Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung. Anongwan was due to join a press conference on an irrigation project. Alerted to a PAD protest, she suddenly cancelled her plans and headed to Kalasin instead. "It appears the Cabinet is unlikely to rule the country, as ministers are now frightened about repeating Chalerm's history," said Somphob Bunnag, a leader of Khon Kaen's PAD. Meanwhile, the People Power Party (PPP) condemned the PAD for "besieging" Chalerm to prevent him from performing his official duties in Phuket yesterday. PPP spokesman Kudeb Saikrajang read a party statement accusing the PAD of resorting to civil disobedience by using force to oust the minister. He expressed regret for the public's lost opportunities resulting from the possible consequences of what happened. The group may expand civil disobedience to other areas, because it saw the method was successful in pressuring Chalerm. All parties should move against the PAD, and the Democrat Party should state its stance on the matter. The PPP has analysed the situation and believes the PAD's actions will not disrupt the political scene very much, because the PPP will strictly stick to parliamentary procedures and not bow out from external political pressure, Kudeb said. The PPP knows who is behind the protest but refuses to elaborate until it has enough evidence, he said. Democrat spokesman Ong-art Klampaiboon denied his party was responsible for the rally against Chalerm and suggested the government take legal action against the plotters of the protest. Those who leaked reports that a Democrat MP whose name begins with the Thai letter sor was the one behind Tuesday's protest in Krabi were engaged in mudslinging, he said. "If the government believes that, then it should get police to press charges," Ong-art said. He also attacked the government for threatening to withhold development funds from southern provinces. "The fund allocation must be in accordance with fiscal-budget rules and regulations and not influenced by any province protesting against the government or any minister," he said. http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-06/07/content_8325754.htm Anti-government group continues protests as security heightened in Bangkok by Shen Min BANGKOK, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Thailand's anti-government group People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) carried out its street protests in central Bangkok into the 14th day on Saturday to demand the step-down of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej. Meanwhile, security was heightened on Saturday around the political center on the Ratchadamnoen Avenue, a major artery in Bangkok where major government agencies and cultural landmarks are located, with dozens of anti-riot police guarding around major entries to the Government House. A few hundreds of anti-riot police were also seen standing around the protest venue at the Makkawan Bridge in front of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) headquarters compound in central Bangkok, where PAD speakers were delivering messages to an audience of thousands on a central stage, denouncing Samak, who they labeled as a nominee of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Though the Samak government said last week it had dropped the plan to use force against the protesters, observers were still worried that the police might take tougher measures like forceful dispersing and violent clashes would happen, as the PAD stuck to the rally venue in the heart of the Thai capital and remained firm in their calls for the ouster of Samak. Samak has repeatedly demanded the PAD to remove their rally venue and ordered police negotiators to talk with the PAD leaders, saying that the marathon protest has disrupted traffic orders and people's lives. However, PAD leaders insisted they would not move. Retired Maj-Gen. Chamlong Srimuang, a core leader of the PAD, on Saturday denied reports that PAD demonstrators had secretly stored weapons to fight against "harassment by pro-government groups." Chamlong, a former well-known political activist and Bangkok governor, was quoted by Thai News Agency as saying that the plainclothes police officers who have been dispatched to the protest site would have arrested the protesters if they had cached any weapons. He said the demonstrators only have flag poles, shields and baseball bats for self-defense because "the police couldn't protect us". The PAD had taken a 'mini-protest strategy' in the last two days of street rallies, dispatching small teams of protesters to independent organizations such as the Assets Examination Committee (AEC), which were set up by the junta after the military top brass staged a bloodless coup to topple the elected government led by Thaksin on Sept. 19, 2006. The "mini-protests" are meant to query the progress of corruption cases involving Thaksin, his family and his political allies. Somsak Kosaisuk, another core leader of PAD, said demonstrators would travel to the Office of the Auditor General next Monday to offer moral support to AEC members who are responsible for probing and filing charges against Thaksin and his relations. Somsak said PAD members had traveled to agencies concerning the country's justice system because the People Power Party (PPP), the core political party of the current coalition government headed by PPP leader Samak, had pressured the agencies in a bid to prevent charges against Thaksin entering court procedures. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2008/05/20086150956207931.html Thai protesters injured in clashes Government supporters jeer at activists calling for the resignation of Thailand's prime minister [AFP] Clashes in Thailand's capital between protesters calling for the prime minister's resignation and their opponents have injured at least 18 people. Before riot police separated the opposing sides in Bangkok, protesters from both sides were struck by rocks, bottles and other objects. Members of the People's Alliance for Democracy accused Samak Sundaravej, Thailand's prime minister, of assisting Thaksin Shinawatra's efforts to create a dynasty. Critics see Samak as a proxy for Thaksin, Thailand's former prime minister who was ousted in a bloodless military coup in 2006. Speakers at the rally on Sunday also accused Samak of trying to change the country's constitution as a way to hold on to power and to prevent Thaksin from facing justice. Thaksin faces corruption-related charges filed by special committees set up by the military after the coup. Thailand will hold a referendum in early July on whether to amend the military-backed constitution, which was approved by voters less than a year ago. If the constitution is amended to deprive those committees of their legal basis for existence, charges brought by them against Thaksin and his family could in turn be abandoned. http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/read.php?newsid=30074938 PAD protesters cause 2-hour traffic snarl on Phitsanulok About 100 protesters led by the People's Alliance for Democracy blocked the Phitsanulok for nearly two hours when they marched to the Office of the National Counter Corruption Commission. They were stopped at the Chamai Maruchet bridge by police from passing in front of the Government House at about 11 am. Police took about two hours to convince the protesters to move to Nakhon Pathom Road near the NCCC office to demonstrate there. The protesters went to the NCCC office to demand to know the progress of investigations of corruption cases against former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/07/news/Thailand-Political-Tensions.php Thousands protest against Thai police demanding action against former prime minister The Associated Press Published: July 7, 2008 BANGKOK, Thailand: Thousands of people marched to Thailand's national police headquarters Monday to demand faster action on long-pending legal cases against ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The protest came as a series of legal cases against Thaksin appeared to be gaining momentum, with a ruling on one expected at the end of the month. The demonstrators, led by the anti-government People's Alliance for Democracy, accused police of protecting Thaksin and his loyalists against prosecution by stalling their investigations. Thaksin was toppled in a bloodless military coup in 2006 following months of street protests led by the alliance. Critics accused the former leader of corruption and abuse of power, and several legal cases were filed against him and his associates after he was ousted. Thaksin returned from exile earlier this year, vowing to clear his name in court. More than 3,000 protesters gathered in front of the police headquarters in downtown Bangkok, near three of the country's most expensive shopping malls. "I come to police headquarters to ask you why you have been sitting on the cases against Thaksin and his followers. These cases are moving nowhere," Sondhi Limthongkul, an alliance leader, shouted through a loudspeaker. "If the police do not serve the public and adhere to justice, how do they expect people to look up to them?" About 600 police officers were deployed to keep the demonstrators from entering the police headquarters, police spokesman Maj. Gen. Surapol Tuanthong said. Of 24 cases against Thaksin and members of his family, only seven have gone to court. The others are still lodged with the police or the attorney general's office. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court is to hold its first hearing of witnesses in a trial of Thaksin and his wife, Pojaman, on charges related to her purchase of prime Bangkok real estate during his term. Thaksin and Pojaman are not required to appear in court. An anti-corruption law bars prime ministers and their spouses from doing business with government agencies. But there is some dispute over whether the law applies in this case because the agency that sold the land to Pojaman was not technically under the authority of the prime minister. Both Thaksin and his wife have pleaded innocent to the charges of malfeasance and conflict of interest. The People's Alliance for Democracy and its followers have been on the streets of Bangkok since May 25, vowing not to stop their protests until the current government of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej resigns. The protesters accuse Samak's government of interfering with the charges against Thaksin and say Samak is acting as his proxy. Thaksin is barred from political office until 2012. Samak has denied the accusations and has said the protesters are trying to undermine his democratically elected government, which came to power earlier this year after winning nationwide polls. Monday's demonstration was noisy but largely peaceful, with protesters singing nationalistic songs and shouting, "Thaksin, go to jail" amid cheering crowds and onlooking shoppers. Following Thaksin's fall from power, a now defunct investigating committee compiled 24 cases against him, his associates and family members ranging from tax evasion to conspiracy in the sale of a family business. Later this month, the Bangkok Criminal Court will rule on charges of tax evasion against Thaksin's wife. In the case, Pojaman and her brother, Bhanapot Damapong, are accused of failing to pay about $16 million in taxes. The two face a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison each if convicted. http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-06/21/content_8413469.htm Thousands of anti-government protestors led by the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) hold a large rally outside the Government House in central Bangkok, Thailand, June 20, 2008. The demonstrators marched from different directions towards the Government House in central Bangkok on Friday to mount a planned besiege to pressure for a step-down of the administration led by Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej. (Xinhua Photo) http://en.epochtimes.com/news/8-6-21/72201.html Thai PM Will Not Quit As Protesters Besiege Office ReutersJun 21, 2008 Protesters wave Thai national flags in front of Government House in Bangkok, Thailand, as they demanded that the coalition government of Prime Minster Samak Sudaravej step down. (Chumsak Kanoknan/Getty Images) BANGKOK?Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej will not resign, a spokesman said on Saturday as thousands of protesters besieged his office, vowing to stay until they forced the government from power. "It's impossible that Prime Minister Samak will resign," said Kuthep Saikrajang, spokesman for the People Power Party (PPP) that leads a six-party coalition elected six months ago. "The standpoint of our party is that the government will not resign and there will be no house dissolution," Kuthep said, responding to a newspaper report that the country's army chief had urged Samak to dissolve parliament to end the protests. Asked how he planned to deal with the demonstrators, Samak, who visited police officers injured in Friday's scuffles with the marchers, told reporters to wait for his weekly radio and television address on Sunday. Samak triggered coup fears last month when he vowed to smash the four-week campaign, but backed off when the police and military made it clear they had no stomach for a fight. On Saturday, thousands of mainly middle-class Bangkok residents were camped outside the ornate iron fence surrounding Government House after they were allowed to pass through lines of riot police on Friday to avoid violence. The atmosphere was jovial with the crowd clapping and cheering speakers on a hastily erected stage as police looked on. Vendors were doing a brisk trade in umbrellas and fans as people sought relief from the sun. "I don't know what will happen in the next one or two days, but our mission is still the same," said retired general Chamlong Srimuang, a co-leader of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) comprising academics, royalists and businessmen. "We came here to tell them to get out," said the shaven-headed ascetic Buddhist who helped lead the PAD's street protests that ended with the ouster of prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a bloodless 2006 coup. Paralysed Government With the election in December of an avowedly pro-Thaksin government, it was only a matter of time before the PAD renewed its crusade, which it paints as a life-and-death struggle between monarchists and republicans. Friday's 25,000-strong march was largely peaceful and relieved investors pushed up Thai shares by nearly 4 percent. Nevertheless, the main index is still down 13 percent since the protests began on May 25, with foreign investors worried about the government's policy paralysis at a time of soaring inflation and stuttering economic growth. The Bangkok Post newspaper, citing an unnamed source, said army chief Anupong Paochinda had urged Samak to dissolve parliament and call fresh elections only six months after the last nationwide polls. "Clearing the decks would allow the people to 'make a new decision' at a fresh general election," the newspaper said. Samak, a 73-year-old veteran politician who won millions of rural votes in December by promising to revive Thaksin's populist policies, did not comment on his meeting with Anupong on Friday. http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/354458/1/.html Thousands protest outside Thai Election Commission Posted: 16 June 2008 2014 hrs Protesters march to Thailand's Election Commission BANGKOK : About 4,000 anti-government protesters marched Monday to Thailand's Election Commission to protest against what they claimed was a bias towards ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra, police said. Members of the so-called People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) marched past the capital's busy shopping district before demonstrating for two hours outside the EC offices, a senior Bangkok police officer told AFP. PAD leaders, whose protests in early 2006 preceded a coup later that year, claim the EC favoured the Thaksin-backed People Power Party which won elections in December last year, marking a return to democracy in Thailand. "The PAD thinks that the current political crisis was caused by some members of the EC who worked with bias to protect the Thaksin system," the group said in a statement. The PAD has since May 25 blocked off a key thoroughfare outside the United Nations headquarters in Bangkok's historic district, demanding PPP leader and Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej resign. Although the number of protesters has dwindled to several hundred, the political uncertainly has sent the Thai stock market falling in recent weeks and sparked rumours of another coup in the kingdom. Thaksin was overthrown in September 2006 by royalist generals who launched a number of corruption investigations into the ousted premier. The EC investigated allegations of vote fraud after the December polls and disqualified a number of PPP's winning candidates, but Samak still had enough seats to form a coalition government and take office. - AFP/ir http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2008/06/02/politics/politics_30074583.php Surapong urges PAD to move protest site Deputy prime minister and Finance Minister Surapong Suebwonglee on Monday suggested that the People's Alliance for Democracy move their protest site if they want to stage a long term anti-government campaign. Surapong said if the PAD wants to protest for months, they should find a protest site which do not block traffic. The call came after the PAD constructed a permanent rally stage last night near Makkhawan bridge. http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/06/02/thailand.protests/ June 2, 2008 -- Updated 1659 GMT (0059 HKT) Constitution protests continue in Thailand Story Highlights Protests have moved into second week heightening political tensions Protest, ongoing for six days, against planned constitution change Switch would mean ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra protected from corruption charges Peoples Alliance for Democracy have vowed to continue with protests BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- Despite winning a string of government concessions, hundreds continued to protest on the streets of Thailand Monday, some calling for the country's prime minister to resign. Thai PM Samak Sundaravej stated that he would not use force to end the protests in the Thai capital The protests have moved into a second week heightening political tensions and birthing rumors of a possible coup. The around-the-clock protests in Bangkok are headed by a group called the People's Alliance for Democracy, (PAD). The group is protesting a proposed change to Thailand's constitution which would protect former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his followers from corruption charges. Shinawatra was ousted from power in the country's last coup in 2006. The recent polictical turmoil has affected the country's economy as the Stock Exchange of Thailand composite index dropped more than 2 percent, a state-run news agency reported Monday. Analysts attributed the drop to the political tensions in the country, the agency said. The agency quoted Finance and Deputy Prime Minister Surapong Suebwonglee Monday about the rumors of a coup in the country. Don't Miss Thai PM threatens forces on protesters "I admit the political disturbances in the past week has undermined confidence in the country's economy. However, all parties still believe the incident will neither turn violent nor lead to a coup," he said. Current Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej issued a televised warning Saturday to protesters threatening to bring police to get them off the street. Hundreds of riot police could be seen near the protests this weekend. On Sunday, the prime minister reversed his stance stating that he would not use force to end the protests, according to a government statement. For some this was seen as a concession that weakened the position of the prime minister. "It was brinkmanship and Samak backed down. This made him lose a lot of credibility," said Tahitian Pongsuthirak, director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. "I think over the past weekend his position has become much more precarious." Monday government officials seemed to make another concession to protesters by creating a committee to work on rewriting the constitution and stating that members of the protest group could join the committee, according to reports in the Bangkok Post newspaper. Bangkok government officials conceded to another of the protesters requests last week to have Thai minister Jakrapob Penkair to step down. Penzair, who was a minister attached to the prime minister's office, announced his resignation Friday. Despite these concessions, hundreds of protesters were seen on streets Monday. And PAD seemed to up the ante by calling for the resignation of the prime minister. An interior minister said Monday that Sundaravej would never resign, the state-run news agency said. http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/read.php?newsid=30075376 Anti-PAD protesters to end rally Friday Deputy police spokesman Pol Maj Gen Surapol Thuanthong said Thursday that demonstrators against the People's Alliance for Democracy would end their rally Friday. Surapol said so far about 200 anti-PAD demonstrators remained at Sanam Luang. Their leaders announced Wednesday night that they would end their demonstration Friday. The Nation http://www.mathaba.net/rss/?x=597547 Thai FM leaves for UNESCO Quebec meeting; activists to protest at temple Posted: 2008/07/05 From: MNN Thai Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama left here Saturday to attend a UNESCO meeting in Quebec City, Canada, on a Cambodian government plan to apply for international recognition of Preah Vihear temple as a World Heritage site. Meanwhile, some 20 Thai-based activist groups threatened to hold a mass demonstration at the entrance of the ancient Khmer temple on the Thai-Cambodian border in Si Sa Ket province on Saturday. Speaking to journalists before his departure, Mr. Noppadon said he would official withdraw Thailand's endorsement of the planned action and request the World Heritage Committee to postpone its consideration on listing Preah Vihear as a World Heritage site during this session. UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, began its current session on Wednesday and is due to complete its agenda next Thursday. Press reports said the UNESCO committee will begin its consideration of the temple issue in Quebec on Sunday. In response to politicised nationalistic reactions in Bangkok to what had earlier been understood by two Thai governments as being non-critical issues, Mr. Noppadon is carrying the present government's decision to suspend UNESCO action pending Thai court actions which have forced the current government to reconsider its stance. Mr. Noppadon said he would do whatever he could to defer consideration of listing the temple by explaining to the committee the circumstances of an injunction granted by Thailand's Administrative Court on June 28 barring the Thai cabinet resolution endorsing the joint communiqu? signed by Mr. Noppadon and Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An on June 18. In another development, Viwat Akarabutr, a coordinator for the Patriotic E-San (Northeast) Network, said more than 20 activist groups would gather early Saturday to rally at the entrance of the temple demanding the Thai authorities to evict Cambodians who have homes and shops near the temple but inside Thai territory. Mr. Viwat said the activists would also ask the Thai police on developments regarding their complaints lodged earlier about the alleged encroachment by Cambodian nationals. The temple was awarded to Cambodia by the International Court of Justice in 1962 but access is by road from the Thai side of the border, and is practically impossible from the Khmer side, as the temple sits on a high rocky promontory overlooking cliffs and tangled jungle below. The action is seen as a result of patriotic Thai academics, senators and the opposition Democrat Party which have opposed the Cambodia's plan to apply for the registration of the temple on the grounds that Thailand might lose sovereignty over areas near the temple still disputed by the two countries. (TNA) http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2008081421207/National-news/Unions-plan-to-protest-Thai-occupation-of-disputed-border-areas.html Unions plan to protest Thai occupation of disputed border areas Written by Cheang Sokha and Thet Sambath Thursday, 14 August 2008 Hundreds of patriots expected to demand Thailand's withdrawal from Preah Vihear, a day before the next round of border talks Another round Hor Namhong plans to meet his Thai counterpart Tej Bunnag on Monday in the Thai resort town of Hua Hin. Despite the foreign ministers? earlier accord to recommend ?re-deployment? of troops, Thai sorties into disputed territory continue. THE Cambodia Confederation of Unions announced on Wednesday that it would hold a peaceful demonstration in Phnom Penh on Sunday to demand the withdrawal of Thai troops from disputed border areas near Preah Vihear temple. The announcement was made in a letter to Municipal Governor Kep Chuktema and stated that at least 300 people would gather at the former National Assembly building and march through the city. Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Independent Teachers Association (CITA), said the purpose of the demonstration was to bring Cambodians together to show their desire for the withdrawal of Thai forces and to urge the government to seek the intervention of the UN Security Council to resolve the dispute. "The delay in taking action will only give the Thais an opportunity to stay longer on Cambodian lands," said Rong Chhun, a signatory of the letter announcing the protest. He said that he expected thousands of factory workers and civil servants would attend the demonstration to express their outrage over what they view as an invasion by Thailand. The demonstration is to come a day ahead of a scheduled meeting between the two countries' foreign ministers. A previous meeting failed to produce a resolution. Sin Bunthoeun, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, questioned the need for a rally. "It isn't necessary because the government is working to resolve the dispute peacefully." But he added that the demonstrators have every right to express their concern. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2008/04/27/2003410388 Activist risking jail after protest against royal theater ritual AP, BANGKOK Sunday, Apr 27, 2008, Page 5 In theaters across Thailand, movies are always preceded by an on-screen anthem honoring King Bhumibol Adulyadej and the audience springs to their feet. But activist Chotisak Onsoong says requiring the practice violates his freedom of choice, and he is willing to risk a 15-year jail term to make his point. Police said on Friday they are pressing ahead with an investigation of Chotisak on a complaint of lese majeste ? insulting the monarchy ? for his failure to stand for the Royal Anthem in an incident last September that prompted an angry confrontation with fellow moviegoers. The case is apparently the first deliberate challenge to the strict lese majeste law in a country where the 80-year-old king is almost universally revered as a selfless and hardworking benefactor of the people. Chotisak and his girlfriend were summoned to hear the formal complaint against them this week, said Colonel Wallop Patummuang, the officer in charge of the case. ?We are now collecting evidence to see if there is enough to prosecute them,? Wallop said on Friday. Chotisak said it should be a matter of free choice whether he sits or stands during the music, and his failure to stand up has nothing to do with disrespecting the king. ?Thai society tells everyone in the world that this is a democratic society,? he said. ?I think everyone in Thailand should respect differences, the way of other people?s thinking.? Thailand is a constitutional monarchy, but has severe lese majeste laws, mandating a jail term of three to 15 years for ?whoever defames, insults or threatens the king.? Actual prosecutions are relatively rare. The issue was highlighted last year when a Swiss man was given a 10-year prison sentence for defacing images of the revered monarch. He was pardoned by the king after serving about a month behind bars. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Fri Aug 29 16:30:37 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:30:37 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Pro-democracy, corruption and rights protests, Asia, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <005501c90a2f$3f8018b0$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ IRAN * Tehran protest against "plundering"; protesters clash with police * Anti-corruption protest in second city Mashhad * Cleric jailed for corruption protest walk * Iranian presidential visit sparks protests in America * Turkey: Protest at Iranian embassy * France: March for unbanning of Iranian armed opposition group NORTH KOREA * Defectors in the south send balloons to north * "Freedom walk" kicks off in Washington SOUTH KOREA * Conscientious objector refuses to serve in riot police TAIWAN * Protesters call for abolition of anti-protest law PHILIPPINES * State of the Nation Address protested with strikes, marches * "Balas Boys" opposition group stage picket for resignation of governor * Journalists strike over killings, beating * Activist priest holds silent protest over wrongful conviction HONG KONG * Tiananmen march numbers down PAPUA NEW GUINEA * Residents in Port Moresby protest "systemic" corruption NEPAL * Civil society groups protest free palace for ex-King * Protesters demand compensation for tobacco worker INDONESIA * Death of student protester sparks unrest * Protesters demand halt to North Sumatra ballot count * Student protesters torch government car http://www.ncr-iran.org/content/view/5282/129/ Iran: 2,000 local residents in Poonak protest Sunday, 15 June 2008 NCRI - More than 2,000 residents of Poonak district in west Tehran took to streets on Friday protesting to the regime's plundering polices. Citizens from all walks of life such as workers, teachers and students took part in the demonstration. Shortly after the start of the move the State Security Forces (SSF) ? mullahs' suppressive police ? clashed with the crowd wounding some and arresting 10 others. Members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Special Units were called in to contain the protests. Street demonstrations as a form of protest to high inflation rates, lack of adequate housing, fuel rations, sky rocketing unemployment, especially among youths, are commonplace in Iran. Workers are on the forefront of protests in recent weeks with Sugar Cane Factory workers in the southwestern city of Shoosh in their 4th week of strike over unpaid wages and salaries. Next are students with protests from Tehran University to Polytechnic, Sahand in Tabriz, Teachers' Training School, Bo-Ali in Hamadan, Shiraz University in Shiraz and Zanjan University in Zanjan as well as many other higher education schools across the nation. They all say the same thing in different words that is an unrelenting desire for a regime change in Iran. http://globalvoicesonline.org/2008/07/06/iran-peaceful-protest-movement-against-corruption/ Here is a film in YouTube showing a peaceful demonstration against corruption in Mashhad, the second largest city in Iran, about 10 days ago. http://globalvoicesonline.org/2008/07/30/iran-clerics-protest-walk-ends-in-jail/ Iran: Cleric's Protest Walk Ends in Jail Wednesday, July 30th, 2008 @ 00:05 UTC by Hamid Tehrani An Iranian cleric named Ali Reza Jahanshahi was arrested about two weeks ago, shortly after beginning a 960 kilometer (590 miles) protest walk from the southern Iranian city, Sirjan to Tehran. The cleric was protesting corrupt land appropriation in Sirjan, and complained the government was not doing enough to stop it. Jahnashahi was arrested after walking about 30 kilometers near the city Abadeh. Jahnashahi depicted above, along with an Islamic Hadith quote saying is it is the responsibility of clerics to defend the oppressed. Several conservative Iranian and pro-Islamic Republic bloggers have declared their support for his protest, and have called on authorities to release him. Many other Islamic students and clerics have also demonstrated for his freedom. Many of these bloggers and students are members of the Association of Justice Seekers' Students, a conservative and Islamist group that has criticized the Iranian authorities for their lack of action against corruption. Meanwhile, the news of the cleric's detention has scarcely been covered by secular or reformist bloggers. It helps demonstrate how polarized the Iranian blogosphere is. Blogger Mostazafin (means ?oppressed' in Persian), who has followed the news of Jahnashahi protest closely, has published [Fa] several photos of the cleric, and says that 18 university student magazines published a declaration to defend his revolutionary protest walk. He quotes from the declaration: ?In Sirjan we witnessed how power circles and capitalists illegally took control of many properties that belong to the Iranian people? People who acted against Islamic Republic law and Islam.? Mostazifin says of Jahnashahi's campaign: ?For two years he tried to attract the Iranian authorities? attention to enormous financial corruption, but nobody paid any attention? What happened in Sirjan is just an example of what is going on across Iran.? Markazinews writes that six security agents arrested Jahanshahi while he was in a mosque and forced him into a car. Reportedly, he was arrested because his actions are against the statute of clerics. Markazinews has quoted from a statement of the Justice Seekers' Students, that recalls that the late Ayatollah Khomeini, the former Leader of Islamic Republic of Iran, said clerics should not forget the poor and barefooted people? The statement says they will not tolerate the authorities' shortcomings, and will strive to accomplish their revolutionary duties. Bignaehstiz has published a badge to support the cleric that reads, ?In the fight against the corrupt of Sirjan, we are with Jahanshahi.? The blogger adds that some students and clerics supported his action and walked with him part of the way to protest against corruption. Kashmar criticized the Special Cleric Court that ordered the arrest and detention of Jahanshahi, and asks why they do not act against the corrupt clerics instead. The Muslim Bloggers Association also published a badge that says corrupt clerics should be arrested instead of the protesting cleric from Sirjani. http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/international_politics/iranian+ny+visit+sparks+protests/841057?intcmp=rss_news_perspectives_iran_in_focus Iranian NY visit sparks protests Watch the report Print this page Last Modified: 24 Sep 2007 By: Jonathan Rugman Protesters gather in New York as Iran's President Ahmadinejad arrives to address the UN general assembly. "Go to hell!" screamed one New York tabloid as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in New York for the UN general assembly. Crowds of protesters gathered outside the city's prestigious Columbia university, where he's due to speak today, as he declared that Iran did not recognise Israel because it was based on occupation and racism. Earlier the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, said it would have been a travesty for him to visit the site of the 11 September attacks. http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=110316 Protest in front of Iranian Embassy in Ankara Monday, July 21, 2008 Protest in front of Iranian Embassy in Ankara A group left a black wreath in front of the Iranian Embassy in Ankara in protest to the arrest of the chairman of the Tehran Bus Workers Union, Mansour Osanloo, yesterday. United Transportation Workers Union Chairman Yunus Ak?l said the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Labor Organization expressly allowed all people to form and join unions and added, ?Iran is amongst the countries that deny rights.? http://www.ncr-iran.org/content/view/5336/129/ Iranian opposition supporters protest in Paris Monday, 30 June 2008 Source: Agence France-Presse PARIS (AFP) More than 70,000 supporters of Iran's opposition protested near Paris on Saturday, urging the international community to remove bans on the country's armed opposition group, organisers said. The protest came just days after Britain's decision to lift its ban on the People's Mojehedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI)[MEK], a move Iran denounced as a "disgrace". Delegations of Iranian PMOI supporters from Germany, Australia, Belgium, Canada, the United States, Britain, Iraq and Jordan took part in the assembly in a hall in the Villepinte suburb of Paris, according to organisers. "I call on the Council of Ministers of the European Union to erase the name of the PMOI [MEK] from the list of terrorist organisations," opposition leader Maryam Radjavi told supporters. By labelling the group as terrorists, Western governments "have helped the world's most powerful supporter of terrorism," said Radjavi. "Remove this chain with which you have bound the hands and feet of the resistance against the religious dictatorship" in Tehran, she said. Formed in the 1960s in opposition to the rule of the US-backed shah of Iran, the PMOI [MEK] took part in the 1979 Islamic revolution but then took up arms against the Islamic republic. Organisers on Saturday called the opposition assembly "particularly significant three days away from the French presidency of the EU" because "France plays a major role in the Iran crisis." France takes over the rotating presidency of the European Union on July 1. The assembly supported the decision in London to remove the ban on PMOI. British lawmakers approved the move following a court verdict last month ruling that the government had to remove the group from a terrorist blacklist. http://www.worldpress.org/feed.cfm?http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10505284&ref=rss High-flying protest by N Korean defectors 8:15AM Monday April 21, 2008 A group of North Korean defectors sent helium balloons carrying some 60,000 leaflets condemning North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to their homeland from a South Korean island. The leaflets also contained Bible verses as well as US$1 ($1.28) bills in an apparent attempt to lure North Koreans into picking them up. "Our purpose is to urge North Koreans to bring down the dictatorship with their hands," said Park Sang Hak, the organiser of the campaign. Park said the propaganda could reach as far as the North's capital, Pyongyang. http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200804/200804280010.html N.Korea Freedom Week Kicks Off in Washington North Korea Freedom Week, sponsored by the North Korea Freedom Coalition, a coalition of American civic groups, kicked off in Washington on Saturday. The group staged a demonstration in front of the Chinese Embassy in Washington that day in protest against the repatriation of North Korean refugees caught in China. Until May 2, it will hold events such as and international day of prayer for North Korea (April 26), a Capitol Hill rally for North Korean human rights and to save the refugees (April 29), and a press conference on the repatriation of North Korean refugees (May 1). "Crossing," a film on North Korean refugees that is expected to be released in South Korea in June, and "On the Border," a Chosun Ilbo documentary, will be screened for U.S. congressmen and their assistants on April 28 and 30. NKFC chairwoman Suzanne Scholte, the leader of the Defense Forum group, said the NKFC has invited 21 North Korean refugees who have defected to various countries including South Korea, to hear their eyewitness testimonies about the miserable reality facing North Korean refugees in China. She also urged the Chinese government to change its ?inhumane? policy of infringing North Korean refugees' rights with the approach of the Beijing Olympics. http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_entertainment/301925.html No riot Lee Gil-jun holds a press conference at Shinwol Catholic Church on July 31 before turning himself in to police. Lee was conscripted into the military in February as a member of the riot police force but went absent without leave after he was ordered to suppress demonstrations. In a statement he made at the press conference, Lee said, ?An arrest warrant was issued for me, but I will turn myself in to the police, because I think I did the honorable thing by choosing to disobey orders to suppress demonstrations. I will continue to raise awareness about the irrationality of the system for conscripting people into the riot police force while I am in jail and throughout my trial and while I am in jail.? He has been demonstrating against conscription into the riot police force in front of the church for the past five days. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2008/05/03/2003410929 Protesters call for death of Parade and Assembly Law TOOL OF THE STATE: The demonstrators were outside the High Court supporting Chung Hsiu-mei and Pan Hsin-jung who had been indicted for violating the law By Loa Iok-Sin STAFF REPORTER Saturday, May 03, 2008, Page 3 The Parade and Assembly Law (?????) limits freedom of expression for minority groups and should be abolished. That was the view of civic groups who were supporting two activists indicted for violating the law by demonstrating outside the Taiwan High Court yesterday. ?The Parade and Assembly Law was adopted after martial law was lifted as a tool for the government to limit freedom of expression,? Huang Chia-ping (???), a spokesman for the Alliance Against the Parade and Assembly Law, told representatives of several civic groups gathered outside the court building. They were there supporting National Cheng-kung University Taiwanese literature professor Chung Hsiu-mei (???) and National Taiwan University student Pan Hsin-jung (???). Chung and Pan were indicted for violation of the law because a demonstration they led in front of the Ministry of Education against the privatization of the education sector and increases in the cost of tuition two years ago exceeded the approved time. The two were originally declared innocent by the Taipei District Court, but prosecutors chose to appeal. The Taiwan High Court upheld the innocent verdict yesterday. ?Minority non-governmental organizations are unable to get their voices heard through the mainstream media, taking our message to the street is an important way for us to get it across to the public,? Huang said. While the police are supposed to remain neutral and simply maintain order during demonstrations, ?they often serve as a tool for the state to repress minority groups,? Huang said. Pan agreed. ?We wanted to speak out, but the state, through the Assembly and Parade Law, wants us to shut up,? Pan said after walking out of the court building a free man. ?There are many other laws that could regulate assemblies and parades,? said Tsai Chi-hsun (???), secretary-general of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, who also supports abolishing the Assembly and Parade Law. ?The Road Traffic Management and Punishment Law [??????????] and the Social Order Law [???????] could be used ? just to name just two.? http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20080729-151322/Transport-strikes-protest-marches-outside-Metro Transport strikes, protest marches outside Metro By Inquirer Bureaus Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 04:54:00 07/29/2008 MANILA, Philippines?A Central Luzon-wide transport strike, effigy-burning and protest rallies in key urban centers outside Metro Manila erupted Monday, even before President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo could deliver her State of the Nation Address (SONA) in Congress. Jeepney, bus and even tricycle drivers stopped plying their routes in Bulacan, Pampanga, Zambales, Nueva Ecija and Bataan to demand the scrapping of the value-added tax (VAT) on oil products and the Oil Deregulation Law, Rolando Catanghal, spokesperson of Samahan ng Tsuper at Operator sa Pilipinas (STOP), said. In Pampanga, policemen dispersed a picket line of tricycle drivers in Guagua town and arrested STOP provincial leader Rolando Cruz at 7 a.m. Cruz was released less than an hour without charges, Catanghal said. In Bataan, two transport leaders in Orani town, who were trying to convince fellow drivers to join the strike, were held by policemen, he said. The strike, which began at 1 a.m., coincided with rallies and vigils launched by Kilusan para sa Pambansang Demokrasya, according to Aurora Broquil, KPD regional spokesperson. In Angeles City, some 500 leaders and members of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) in Central Luzon assembled for a poverty and hunger forum at the city library. In Tarlac City, some 200 students belonging to Liga ng mga Mag-aaral sa Tarlac gathered at 1 p.m. for a protest against Ms Arroyo?s SONA. Both the police and the military in Central Luzon went on full alert for the SONA. Protest amid rain In Baguio City, about 200 activists and students staged a rally despite strong rains so they could remind the people that the President had purportedly failed to deliver on her promise to improve their lives. The group, led by Tongtongan ti Umili, urged residents to avoid tuning in to Ms Arroyo?s televised SONA because the public not need hear her ?lies.? But Bayan Muna vice chair Manuel Loste said he would watch the SONA. ?Her SONA is about the positive points [of her administration] but this is a complete contrast to the crisis we are all experiencing,? he said. In Laguna, activists gathered in Calamba City for their own ?State of the Youth? address. Led by Anakbayan-Timog Katagalugan (Anakbayan-TK), they burned an effigy of Ms Arroyo, which depicted her as Pinocchio with Uncle Sam as puppet master. They carried large placards bearing the President?s face and the word ?OUST!? ?The grumbling stomachs of the 14.1 million hungry Filipinos and the abject poverty in the cities and countryside aptly depict the true state of the nation than Ms Arroyo?s SONA in the newly renovated and lavish Congress,? said PJ Santos, Anakbayan-TK secretary general. Santos said his group had already gathered hundreds of signatures calling for the scrapping of the 12-percent VAT on oil and other commodities during an 18-day ?cultural caravan.? Snake effigy In Quezon, nearly 100 people paraded a snake effigy in the main streets of Lucena City. According to Dennis Agudo, spokesperson of Anakbayan-Quezon, the snake symbolized the Arroyo administration?s ?terror? campaign in the province due to stepped-up military operations against communist rebels. Arman Abarillo, secretary general of the regional chapter of Bayan, said in a phone interview that the rally in Batangas City also featured an effigy of Ms Arroyo resembling a long-nosed Pinocchio. Rallies were also held in Antipolo City, and Teresa and Cainta towns in Rizal, in Bacoor, Cavite, and in Pagsanjan and Sta. Cruz towns in Laguna. In Albay, the protesters denounced the privatization of the power sector and massive land conversion. Tessa Lopez, Bayan regional spokesperson, said her group opposed the takeover by National Power Corp. of the Albay Electric Cooperative and the proposed multimillion-peso Southern Luzon International Airport in Daraga town. The airport project, she said, would destroy 181 hectares of rice fields. ?Fish strike? At least 2,000 people joined the rallies in Sorsogon, Camarines Sur and Albay, Lopez said. She added that noise barrages were held in Catanduanes and Camarines Norte. On Tuesday, some 10,000 drivers of jeepneys, buses, vans and tricycles will hold a two-day strike starting 1 a.m. At least 5,000 people will also start a two-day ?fish strike? in Masbate, Sorsogon, Albay and Catanduanes, according to Gerry Albert Corpuz, spokesperson of Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya). Corpuz said fishing operations would be suspended while fluvial parades and other community-based protests will be held to show the fishing sector?s opposition to oil price increases. In Iloilo City, around 2,000 farmers and slum dwellers led by Bayan marched to the provincial capitol, carrying placards and streamers describing their plight. They said the government had failed to address the needs of people left homeless by Typhoon ?Frank.? ?We have been poor since we were born. But we haven?t been this poor like today,? said Estelita Ducio, a vendor from La Paz District. Ducio said the soaring prices of rice, fuel and basic commodities had made it harder for her family to eat three times a day. In Capiz, Bayan led 1,000 people to a rally at the Roxas City grandstand. In Aklan, some 500 protesters led by Bayan and Kadamay marched from the ABL Sports Complex to the public plaza in the capital town of Kalibo. Octopus effigy In Negros Occidental, about 2,000 street marchers ended up at the public plaza in Bacolod City. The rally carried the theme ?hunger, oppression, militarization, corruption must end, Gloria Arroyo must leave.? The crowd shouted anti-Arroyo slogans and burned an octopus-like figure resembling Ms Arroyo wearing an Uncle Sam hat. The tentacles of the octopus represented her programs that were sucking the blood of the suffering people, Bayan-Negros chair Junhil Enriquez said. In Cebu City, Bayan said about 300 people marched to the Malaca?ang sa Sugbo, while Sanlakas said 200 of its members held its own march at the presidential residence. Bayan-Cebu chair Jaime Paglinawan said Ms Arroyo failed to fulfill her promise in the previous SONA of food on every table. More and more people have suffered from hunger because of the escalating prices of rice while the minimum wage of the workers remain low, he said. ?Lumad? appeal Workers from Compostela Valley affiliated with the militant labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno staged a rally, while the peasant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas and the ?lumad? Pasaka held their own protests at the Freedom and Rizal Park in Davao City. A mock concert, dubbed ?SONA 2008: Karnabal sa mga Bakak ni Gloria? (Carnival of Gloria?s Lies), was scheduled at 9 p.m. Pasaka called for a stop of the militarization in lumad (indigenous people?s) areas and decried the continued destruction of ancestral lands. Kerlan Fanagel, Pasaka secretary general, accused Ms Arroyo of ?crushing out our national patrimony by openly selling our ancestral lands to foreign investors.? He said the government?s policy had favored large-scale mining, big plantations and the setting up of dams that displace ?lumad? communities. In General Santos City, about 500 people held a rally at the public market. Edward Flores, Bayan spokesperson for the South Cotabato-Sarangani-General Santos area, said a similar activity was held in Koronadal City in South Cotabato. In Zamboanga City, members of the women?s group Gabriela complained of harassment when City Hall workers tried to disperse their rally at Western Mindanao University. Small rallies were also reported in the cities of Cagayan de Oro and Butuan. Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon; Vincent Cabreza and Desiree Caluza, Inquirer Northern Luzon; Delfin T. Mallari Jr., Ni?a Catherine Calleja, Ephraim Aguilar and Publio Peyra III, Inquirer Southern Luzon; Nestor P. Burgos Jr., Carla P. Gomez and Jhunnex Napallacan, Inquirer Visayas; Germelina Lacorte, Aquiles Z. Zonio, Julie S. Alipala and Franklin Caliguid, Inquirer Mindanao http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20080729-151416/Youth-groups-press-on-with-peoples-SONA-protest Youth groups press on with ?people?s SONA? protest By Abigail Kwok INQUIRER.net First Posted 16:04:00 07/29/2008 MANILA, Philippines -- Youth activists continued their ?people's State of the Nation Address (SONA)? protest on Tuesday, heading to urban poor communities and ?educating? the people about President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's allegedly erring policies. Hundreds of students led by the League of Filipino Students (LFS) converged at the Welcome Rotonda at the border of Quezon City and Manila before heading to the Trabajo Market and Bustillos Street in Espa?a. The groups conducted short programs there before heading to the Don Chino Roces (former Mendiola) Bridge in Manila to continue their protest. The youth groups said they felt ?insulted? by Arroyo's claim that she ?cares for hardworking students soon to graduate and wanting to see hope of good job and a career prospect here at home.? LFS chairman Vencer Crisostomo singled out Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) Memorandum 14 removing the ceiling on tuition fee increases for private schools and the 300 percent tuition increase at the University of the Philippines (UP) as proof that Arroyo's policies have ?made education less accessible for Filipinos.? Anakbayan national chairperson Ken Ramos also said Arroyo's speech was lacking ?real and long lasting solutions? to the crises besetting the country. ?Arroyo's insistence on the Oil Deregulation Law and VAT [value added tax] as the necessary, although unpopular, means of helping out the poor manifests her scant knowledge of the people's needs,? he added. The youth groups also criticized Arroyo's ?distorted social services? including the discount on text messaging rates and call centers, among others. Crisostomo said the government should expect more protest actions from the youth sector because ?more students are realizing the necessity of changing the very system that has driven millions to hunger and changing it with something just.? http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/221794,thousands-protest-ahead-of-philippine-leaders-state-of-nation-speech.html Thousands protest ahead of Philippine leader's state of nation speech Posted : Mon, 28 Jul 2008 04:31:03 GMT Author : DPA Manila - Thousands of protestors took to the streets in the Philippines Monday ahead of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's annual speech to Congress. The protestors, undeterred by rain and tight security, marched near the Batasan Pambansa Complex in Quezon City in metropolitan Manila, where Arroyo was to deliver her state of the nation speech later in the day. They carried placards that read, "Raise wages," "Oust Gloria" and "Gloria resign." In front of the protestors, a float carried an effigy of Arroyo riding a plane while behind her, a ship was sinking with thousands of hands pleading for her help. Thousands of police and soldiers were deployed in key areas around Manila to guard against any outbreak of violence or hostilities during the protests. A portion of the main road leading to the Batasan Pambansa Complex was closed to traffic hours before Arroyo's speech. Manila police chief Geary Barias said 3,000 policemen were deployed in and around the sprawling complex alone. "I assure you that these policemen will exercise maximum tolerance," he said. "They have undergone a two-day seminar conducted by the Commission on Human Rights." A survey conducted a week earlier showed that 40 per cent of Filipinos did not expect Arroyo to tell the truth about the true state of the nation in her annual address. http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/dav/2008/07/29/news/anti.sona.protest.crowd.thins.down.html Tuesday, July 29, 2008 Anti-Sona protest crowd thins down By Carlo P. Mallo and Grace L. Plata THE crowds who gathered under the heat of the sun to express anger against the Arroyo administration was relatively thinner, compared to the previous protest actions, which called for the resignation of the President. Views against the Sona, however, were as fiery as before, with protesters coming from as far as Kidapawan and Cotabato joining the pool of speakers and protesters. Arroyo Watch: Sun.Star blog on President Arroyo Coming from all walks of life -- students, militants, labor groups, and party-list groups -- gathered Monday morning at the Freedom Park fronting the Ateneo de Davao University to express their sentiments against the eight-year rein of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, which was celebrated with her annual State of the Nation Address (Sona). Most visible were the groups of Akbayan, Gabriela, Anak Pawis, League of Filipino Students, and Bayan. The crowd though did not come up at par with the one gathered during the height of the ZTE national broadband deal scandal late last year. The protesters were calling for the removal of the value added tax (VAT) on petroleum products amidst the rising costs of fuel, an across the board increase in wages, cheaper rice, and land for the farmers, among others. There was also minimal police presence around Freedom Park as the area has been appointed as a free for all park wherein protest actions may be conducted without having the need to secure permits. Despite the smaller crowd, the militants' Sona was attended by groups from as far as Kidapawan and Cotabato. Suara Bangsamoro Chair Amirah Lidasan hit the Arroyo government for the "insincerity" of the recently-resumed peace talks, which once again ended in an impasse after two days. "In a matter of days, impasse na naman. That only shows that Arroyo is only going for the 'pogi points' by resuming the talks," Lidasan said. She added that they hope the impasse would not mean another all-out offensive in the process. Farmers allied with the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and lumads under Pasaka, on the other hand, read out an open letter to the President blaming her for their continued landlessness and lack of food on the table. "This regime did nothing to alleviate poverty wrought by centuries of landlessness. Band-aid solutions and dole outs did nothing to realize your promises of prosperity. You lifted not a finger to change our pitiable situation under a fake and deceitful Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (Carp). Instead, you have allowed the small percentage of rich and landed families, with whom you belong, the monopoly of vast tracks of lands," they said. Youth groups also expressed their anger and disappointment with the President who they said has prioritized warfare over education. "Since her first Sona, she has promised to make education a priority but until present, this has not been realized. Ginuna pa niya ang pakigyera kaysa sa paghatag ug budget para sa edukasyon. Maski ang gobyerno niangkon nga daghan na ang wala naka-eskewla sa pagkakarun," Anakbayan Spokesperson Karlos Manlupig said. Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap spokesperson Franchie Buhayan also deplored Arroyo's capitalization of the people's miserable condition for her grandstanding of her newly created national social welfare program. Buhayan added: "The people have not been pleased by Gloria Arroyo's program for the poor. They have in fact lost their patience and trust in Gloria Arroyo's government and they are now ready to express their discontent in any ways their voices would be heard." The groups in general branded President Arroyo as a "liar," saying she has not made good on any of the promises made during her past addresses. Meanwhile, City Councilor Peter T. Lavi?a called the Sona as redundant and therefore useless. "Short on good things to say on her Sona today, Arroyo would highlight the event instead by what she would be wearing for the joint opening of Congress," Lavi?a said. He also bashed the huge sum spent just to beautify the Batasang Pambansa where the President delivered her 8th Sona. "Amidst the many crises facing the country, a number of which were caused by erroneous policies of this administration, the House is spending a huge sum for a facelift," Lavi?a said. Starting with over P9 million for renovating the damage by a bomb blast last year, the House, under the new leadership of Speaker Prospero Nograles, would be spending P200 million for the makeover. This, Lavi?a believes, is aimed to polish the House image after the Jose de Venecia era. "Unfortunately for the House, in spite of this cosmetic make up and more projects to cost a total of P1 billion, its image would not change a bit. To me, it remains to be the house of wasteful trapos (traditional politicians) and abode of lackeys of the Palace," the councilor said. "I believe profligate is just about the right word to describe spending P1 billion for a makeover when hunger stares a third of our people in their faces," he added. http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storyPage.aspx?storyId=126199 Bacolod activists set to greet Arroyo SONA with protests By YASMIN PASCUAL-DORMIDO ABS-CBN Bacolod Activists in Bacolod City are set to launch protest actions to coincide with President Arroyo?s State of the Nation Address or SONA on Monday. Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) - Negros said President Arroyo has given Filipinos many reasons to go to the streets and protest on the day of her SONA. Felipe Gelle, BAYAN Negros secretary general, said the economy is fast deteriorating and the president has given the people no other course but to air their grievances through mass demonstrations. Gelle stressed, "the economic policies of the Arroyo Administration are slowly killing Filipinos with the high prices of rice and other basic commodities. The weekly oil price hikes further aggravates the impact of the food crisis on the poor". Gelle added that it would be foolish for Mrs. Arroyo to brag about her so-called economic growth and development gains because these are meaningless to millions of poor Filipinos. On July 28th, BAYAN is set burn an effigy of Mrs. Arroyo, as soon as she begins her SONA at the House of Representatives in Quezon City. The effigy is an octopus with tentacles representing the Expanded Value Added Tax or EVAT, oil price hikes, power and water rate increases and other taxes that eat up the earnings of the ordinary Filipino. Allied organizations of BAYAN will participate in the SONA protests. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/metro/view/20080729-151331/Vendors-enjoy-brisk-business-from-hungry-protesters Vendors enjoy brisk business from hungry protesters By Marlon Ramos Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 06:47:00 07/29/2008 MANILA, Philippines?While protesters took to the streets, Lita Mercurio was busy attending to her customers at the makeshift carinderia (food stall) that she and her husband put up on the sidewalk on Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City. ?The occasion offers us an opportunity to earn in these difficult times,? the 51-year-old mother told the Philippine Daily Inquirer as she handed over a bottle of soda to a young woman. Like any other protest rallies, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo?s State of the Nation Address (SONA) gave Mercurio and other vendors an opportunity to sell their wares and earn extra income. For almost six hours, the 500-meter stretch of Commonwealth Avenue was virtually turned into a marketplace for a number of hawkers selling food items, clothes and other personal stuff. Fish-ball carts and barbecue stalls selling pork barbecue, grilled innards and dried squid sprouted on the highway. Mercurio, who runs a variety store in front of a school in Barangay Holy Spirit, said she got up as early as 2 a.m. to buy meat and other supplies from a nearby public market. As of 1 p.m., Mercurio said she had already recovered the P2,500 that she had spent for the goods she bought. She said she expected to earn as much as P6,000 before the protesters leave the area. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20080823-156441/A-new-kind-of-protest-painting-dancing-singing A new kind of protest: painting, dancing, singing By Kristine L. Alave Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 19:11:00 08/23/2008 MANILA, Philippines -- Who would have thought that a mass protest action against the Arroyo administration could be much fun? Around 3,000 to 5,000 students from Catholic and public schools joined veterans of street protests to express their opposition to a government they believe doesn?t value the truth and which they have accused of covering up a wide array wrongdoing. But instead of the usual fiery speeches and chanting of sloganss, the Truth Festival on the Roxas Boulevard on Friday night featured art works, dancing, and pop songs. The students came with their friends and classmates and stayed up all night. For most of the young participants, the atmosphere was more of a block party that stretched from the afternoon to the early hours of Saturday than a mass protest against the Arroyo government. At the beginning of the program, some fine arts students painted colorful murals on stage and on the street. The students, some coming from nearby provinces, were entertained by dance numbers from pep squads of Adamson University and De La Salle University. The University of the Philippines? Kontra Gapi provided music, along with singers Grace Nono and Bayang Barrios. A group of students from Concordia College in Manila said it was their first time to join a rally. Femielin Habal, a fourth-year nursing student, said the rally was different from the chaotic and violent street protests usually seen on television. ?This is better, more light-hearted. Now we know that a rally can also be peaceful,? she said, adding that the violent demonstrations on television had scared them away. If all demonstrations against the government were like this, Habal said she would have participated in them. Although they have never joined rallies before, Habal and her friends said they were displeased by how the government was running the country. Her classmates, Rusell Dizon and Bobbie Lauzon, said they witnessed first-hand the government?s ineptitude at the hospitals where they were undergoing their internships. ?At the V.Luna, there is no medication for tuberculosis patients. They are supposed to get it every day for six months, but they don?t. How can they get better?? Lauzon said. ?Where do our taxes go?? Dizon chimed in. In another part of the crowd, a group of teenaged boys clad in their best black and punk outfits, said they were encouraged to attend the festival because they heard that the well-known punk band The Wuds was supposed to play there. It was almost 11 p.m. and the band had yet to appear on stage but the boys said they would not leave yet. John Ross Rowalle, a high school junior at a public school in Pasay City with kohl-lined eyes and pants where he painted the words ?their guns will never silence us,? said they agreed with the speakers that the government has taken things too far. ?I am concerned about the human rights. The government wants to demolish our homes. In our community, when somebody has done wrong, he is just gunned down,? he said. The Truth Festival, which was organized by artists? groups, progressive organizations, and the religious community, was aimed at revealing the truths on issues that the Arroyo government has tried to hide or obfuscate. Organizers of the event said adding cultural presentations and entertainment to a gathering that focuses on dour issues was a way of getting the people?s attention to the wrongdoings of the Arroyo government. ?In the search for truth, we thought it may be good to come up with a more innovative and creative way of telling the people about it. That?s why we came up with this idea,? said Sr. Mary John Mananzan, national co-chairperson of the Association of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines (AMRSP). ?We will band together to honor truth and to make the Philippines the most truthful place on earth through the arts, one street at a time,? said Mananzan. Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo, in an interview, said it was the intention of the organizers to make the mass protest less confrontational to attract a wide range of sectors, particularly the youth. ?The point was to reveal what the people really feel. This is a joyful gathering. There is no confrontation,? he said. ?The turnout was better than we expected. The people are still interested in the truth. We have here sectors from schools, the Church, the urban poor,? Pabillo added. Speakers at the night rally included former Vice-President Teofisto Guingona, Edita Burgos, mother of missing activist Jonas Burgos, and Rodolfo ?Jun? Lozada, the Senate witness in the $329-million national broadband network corruption scandal that implicated the President?s husband and allies. Guingona discussed the iniquity of the 12-percent value-added tax, which he said the poor could ill-afford. He urged the Arroyo administration to scrap the VAT, particularly on gas and power, saying the current tax system favored only the rich. Burgos, for her part, said the Arroyo government was abducting innocent civilians to silence them from speaking out. ?That is another truth: cover-up. They abduct our loved ones when they speak the truth and my son was speaking for farmers,? she said. Lozada, who was introduced to loud cheering, encouraged the youths to speak and value the truth, despite what has happened to him. In return for divulging the anomalies in the NBN deal, the government filed several criminal cases against him, he said. ?Of all the lies that are told to us, are there still those who question it, who fight it? We should not let it happen,? he said. http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/pam/2008/08/15/news/balas.boys.supporters.vow.to.mount.protest.html Friday, August 15, 2008 Balas Boys, supporters vow to mount protest By Ian Ocampo Flora CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- Former supporters and the recently dismissed members of the Biyaya A Luluguran at Sisikapan (Balas) are now amassing local support -- not for another election campaign but for the resignation of Provincial Administrator Vivian Dabu. Disenchanted former supporters led by businessman Rene Romero, furniture magnate Myrna Bituin, former chief-of-staff Archie Reyes and the former members of the Balas said they will "snowball" their call for Dabu's resignation. Visit the Beijing Olympics 2008 blog Some even said "sectors" have pledged support and are ready to rally "warm bodies" for the protesters. The Balas picket, now on its fourth day, came after Panlilio allegedly failed to abide by the agreed "unconditional reinstatement" of the quarry task force members, whose services were earlier terminated by Dabu for staging a rally in front of the Capitol two months ago. Prior to their rally, they were protesting their demotion, which was made after alleged anomalies and complaints in quarry monitoring surfaced. The disgruntled Balas members called for the resignation of Dabu. But civil society groups were able to persuade the Balas employees to meet with Panlilio. The meeting was attended by civil society groups Kasaup and Kapampangan Marangal, Incorporated at the Social Action Center of Pampanga (Sacop) and moderated by Fr. Deo Galang. The Balas boys said the governor failed to abide by what had been agreed upon in the nine-hour dialogue. Last Wednesday, around 50 individuals from a "civil society" group trooped to the Balas rally post near the perimeter of the Arnedo Park to sympathize with the protesters. The alleged group refused to reveal which group they belong to. Eduard de Leon said programs were scheduled in the early morning and late afternoon so as not to disturb regular Capitol working hours. "We will intensify our call. We expect people and supporters to amass day after day, this is to show Governor Panlilio that we are very committed to see the resignation of Atty. Dabu," de Leon said. Supporters of the group managed to set up recorded speeches and put up streamers using the colors of the Panlilio election campaign. But this time the streamers turned against Panlilio's "stubborn" refusal to let the ax fall on the provincial administrator. "Its like the election time when we supported Governor Panlilio. It's just too sad that it had to come to this. There have been so many who have fallen from the campaign but the governor wants to keep one administrator and let others go," Roperlee Suiquia told attendees in a night vigil program which lasted in the wee hours of the night. Bituin said: "Dabu may be a good lawyer but being a provincial administrator needs people skills and gathers supporters for a worthy cause... She has become a very big liability to this government." The protesters warned that Panlilio should start thinking of the fate of Dabu before more people amass in front of the Arnedo Park. Panlilio, however, seems unmoved by the plans of the group. He said he will continue to offer the possibility of a dialogue. "I still offer them the possibility of settling these issues through a formal and heart-to-heart dialogue," Panlilio added. But some Balas members said they are not entirely convinced on holding another dialogue since the governor does not abide by what has been discussed. http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/pam/2008/08/21/news/balas.boys.immortalize.protest.with.tattoos.html August 21, 2008 Balas boys immortalize protest with tattoos By Ian Ocampo Flora CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- Despite the pain and virtually being "marked for life," the former members of the Biyaya A Luluguran at Sisikapan (Balas) had themselves tattooed on Wednesday to keep themselves reminded of their campaign and "sad fate." According to Eduard de Leon, former Balas supervisor, all 40 dismissed members of Balas have undergone the tattooing process to express their "unity and brotherhood" in their campaign to call for the resignation of Provincial Administrator Vivian Dabu. Visit the Beijing Olympics 2008 blog The tattoo marks were placed on their left arms and bears the inscription "Balas Boys 08-11-08." De Leon said the date pertains to their rally calling for the resignation of Dabu. The protesting Balas Boys said they have been steadfast on their call for resignation of Dabu and for Governor Eddie Panlilio to abide by what was agreed during the dialogue at the Social Action Center of Pampanga (Sacop) recently. Almost two weeks of protest has yielded nothing so far for the protestors. Panlilio allegedly failed to abide by the Sacop's dialogue agreement for the "unconditional reinstatement" of the quarry task force members, whose services were earlier terminated by Dabu for staging a rally in front of the Capitol two months ago. Prior to their rally, they were protesting their demotion, which was made after alleged anomalies and complaints in quarry monitoring surfaced. The disgruntled Balas members called for the resignation of Dabu. But civil society groups were able to persuade the Balas employees to meet with Panlilio at Sacop. The meeting was attended by civil society groups Kasaup and Kapampangan Marangal, Inc. at Sacop and moderated by Rev. Fr. Deo Galang. "We will see this through and we will not surrender in our campaign," de Leon said. In an interview with Panlilio, the governor said the protesting Balas members will no longer be reinstated to their posts because they repeated their protest rally in front of the Capitol. He said there's no amicable settlement on the issue. "It appears that there is a deadlock but certainly they (Balas protesters) will not be taken back," Panlilio said. Despite this, the former Balas members have not ran out of creative ways of expressing their grievances including playing recorded monologues and jingles mimicking Panlilio's campaign materials and signature campaigns calling for Dabu's resignation. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/regions/view/20080820-155868/Journalists-take-break-to-protest-killings Journalists take break to protest killings By Nestor P. Burgos Jr., Julie Alipala Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 23:47:00 08/20/2008 MANILA, Philippines ? Braving intermittent rains, journalists gathered on Wednesday at the shrine of Ilonggo patriot and journalist Graciano Lopez Jaena at the public plaza in Jaro District, Iloilo City to condemn the continued killings of media people in the country. Led by the Iloilo chapter of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), 30 journalists from various newspapers and TV and radio stations wore black shirts and displayed a streamer calling for a stop to the killings. In Zamboanga City, at least 50 journalists from radio, TV and print took a break from their usual tasks and walked as one against the spate of media killings. ?We have to do something against the killings of journalists. Our fellow journalists died because they believed in something,? said Rey Bayoging, manager of Radio Mindanao Network [RMN] Zamboanga. The NUJP in Zamboanga, in a statement, said ?speaking, uncovering and writing about the truth in the face of power is also dangerous as we have countless reports of harassments, intimidation, persecution and threats.? The protests were part of a nationwide ?Day of Mourning and Protest? by media groups following the killing of two broadcasters recently. Capiz broadcaster Martin Roxas, program director of dyVR and host of the station?s ?Targetanay sa Udto? program, was gunned down by two motorcycle assassins on Aug. 7, minutes after he left the station. Police have arrested and filed murder charges against Joenel Lastimoso, 27, and Christian Tan, 25, who were arrested at a police checkpoint in Ivisan town. Another RMN broadcaster, Dennis Cuesta, was shot in General Santos City last Aug. 4 and died five days later. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/regions/view_article.php?article_id=135459 Iloilo media protest shoving of photojournalist By David Israel Sinay Visayas Bureau First Posted 07:12pm (Mla time) 05/08/2008 ILOILO CITY, Philippines -- The Iloilo City Hall Press Corps (ICHPC) has demanded a public apology from City Legal Officer Edgardo Gil for allegedly shoving away a photojournalist during an interview. The ICHPC, composed of reporters from various local newspapers, radio and television stations and correspondents of national dailies, passed a resolution demanding an apology from Gil for "conduct unbecoming of a public official." The journalists said Gil pushed and berated photojournalist Arnold Almacen, who was trying to take his picture while reporters were interviewing him Tuesday. Almacen, a member of the ICHPC representing the local daily Visayan Daily Headlines and the Philippine Daily Inquirer, was with other journalists waiting for Gil to come out of his office on Tuesday shortly before the incident happened. Rhonson Hofile?a of DyOK Aksyon Radyo-Iloilo and Roberto Ladera of DyRI RMN-Iloilo also said Gil told Almacen, "Gago ka karon a! Kon magkuha ka litrato lisensya ka anay [Idiot! Ask permission before you take my picture]," as he pushed the photographer?s camera. The ICHPC noted that Gil, as a public official, must be "open to media scrutiny, more so that the incident happened within the confines of his office." During Tuesday's incident, Gil tried to cover his face and waved his hands when some journalists tried to take his pictures. The journalists were trying to get Gil's side about the discovery by the Panay Electric Company (Peco) of a tampered electric meter at his residence on Burgos St., La Paz district during an inspection on April 15. "He should be thankful that we waited for him to get his side. But it seemed it was a mistake to interview [Gil]," ICHPC president and Radyo ng Bayan reporter Lucy Montealto said. Gil refused to comment at first but later denied involvement in the tampering of the electric meter. He explained that the tampered meter was not his but his tenant?s. Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Tre?as said Gil should deal with the issue. "He will have to face to that," Tre?as said. Tre?as, who was furnished with the ICHPC resolution, said he would discuss it with Gil, who was on vacation in Boracay. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20080602-140341/Running-priest-sits-in-protest Running priest sits in protest Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 22:46:00 06/02/2008 MANILA, Philippines -- Activist priest Fr. Robert Reyes on Monday held a silent protest in front of the Supreme Court building on Padre Faura in Manila to call for the speedy and just disposition of the ?Abadilla 5? case. ?I have stood and sat for the last two hours in front of the Supreme Court. What are a few hours of inconvenience compared to the 12 years of detention and imprisonment of five men whose guilt is in serious doubt?? Reyes said in a statement he distributed to reporters. Reyes said the sad plight of the Abadilla 5 and many others like them illustrated the effects of what the Asian Human Rights Commission of Hong Kong recently referred to as the ?rotten Philippine justice system.? The ?Abadilla 5? are Quezon City tricycle driver Joel de Jesus, his neighbors Lenido Lumanog, Rameses de Jesus, Cesar Fortuna and Augusto Santos, who were convicted in 1999 of the ambush-slaying in 1996 of retired Colonel Rolando Abadilla, a former military intelligence officer during the Marcos dictatorship who was then vice governor of Ilocos Norte. Margaux C. Ortiz http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/05/world/asia/05hong.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin Vigil for Tiananmen Dead Draws Fewer in Hong Kong Adrian Bradshaw/European Pressphoto Agency A somewhat smaller crowd than in prior years turned out in Hong Kong on Wednesday evening for the annual candlelight vigil commemorating the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square. By KEITH BRADSHER Published: June 5, 2008 HONG KONG ? A somewhat smaller crowd than in previous years turned out here on Wednesday evening for the annual candlelight vigil commemorating the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square, the participation depressed by a growing reluctance among many Hong Kong residents to confront Beijing officials on human rights issues. Skip to next paragraph Related Rings: The Starting Line: The Tiananmen Square Protests, 19 Years Later (June 4, 2008) Enthusiasm for the Olympic Games in Beijing, sympathy for victims of the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan Province and growing prosperity because of China?s economic boom have combined to weaken Hong Kong?s once-vigorous protest movement. Even Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, the highest official of the Roman Catholic Church in China and a vociferous critic of Beijing?s rights record, has moderated his tone in recent weeks. Cardinal Zen, the bishop of Hong Kong, surprised many here on Monday when, in a special Mass for earthquake victims, he praised China for its openness in handling the rescue efforts. He went further on Wednesday evening at a prayer meeting just before the candlelight vigil, although he gently mentioned a continued desire for China to apologize for the Tiananmen Square killings. ?We will wholeheartedly support the leaders as they progress along the grand highway of respect for humanity,? he said. The prayer meeting was held in a different part of the park from where the vigil was held, and the cardinal followed his usual practice of not attending the vigil itself. Cardinal Zen?s remarks represented a shift in his stance compared with two years ago, when he observed the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square killings by delivering a vehement denunciation of the Chinese government?s human rights record. The crowd at Wednesday?s vigil was smaller than last year?s, which had been estimated by organizers at 55,000 and by the police at 27,000. This year organizers put the crowd at 48,000, while the police said 15,700 attended. The University of Hong Kong found a significant shift in its 16th annual survey of public attitudes in the weeks preceding the vigil. The survey found that the majority of Hong Kong residents still believe that Chinese students were right to protest in 1989, that the government was wrong to kill an unknown number of protesters and imprison many more in the June 4 military crackdown, and that the government should reverse its official stand that the crackdown was a necessary measure to preserve social order. But attitudes toward the government?s more recent human rights record have changed. The proportion of respondents who believed that human rights in China had improved since 1989 rose to 85 percent, from 78 percent a year ago. The proportion who thought that they would improve further in the next three years climbed to 77 percent, from 67 percent a year ago. The university?s researchers interviewed 2,030 residents in a telephone survey conducted from May 20 to June 2. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus three percentage points. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/01/2261750.htm PNG groups protest corruption By PNG correspondent Steve Marshall Posted Sun Jun 1, 2008 8:13pm AEST Papua New Guinea residents have taken to the streets of Port Moresby to support the fight against systemic corruption that continues to impact on the country's development. Over the years, PNG has slipped down the global corruption rankings. Today more than a thousand people from corporate, non-government and government organisations turned out for the annual walk against corruption. The event was held to raise funds for the work carried out by Transparency International's PNG branch. Even PNG's Governor-General Sir Paulias Matane was up early to help raise awareness. Event organiser Peter Aitsi said the message was loud and clear. "The people of Papua New Guinea are deadly set against corruption," he said. "And the message shown by the people who turned out today was a clear indication." The event raised more than $70,000. http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/videos/2008/jun/jun11/video04.php Civil Society members staging a sit-in programme protesting against the government decision to provide Nagarjuna Palace to ex-king Gyanendra. They also demanded a new government be formed and 26 CA members nominated as soon as possible. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/0529/breaking69.htm Thursday, May 29, 2008, 14:39 Police clash with protesters in Nepal Hundreds of Nepali protesters demanding that dethroned King Gyanendra immediately leave his palace clashed with police today, injuring more than 25 people only a day after the abolition of the monarchy. Hundreds of stone-throwing demonstrators tried to storm the palace, prompting police to beat them back with bamboo sticks. "Gyanendra, thief, leave the palace!" protesters shouted. The clash came hours after the royal flag was lowered from Nepal's royal place as the Himalayan nation celebrated its first day as a republic following the abolition of its 239-year-old Hindu monarchy. A special assembly elected in April voted to abolish the monarch and gave Gyanendra a fortnight to vacate the sprawling pink palace in Kathmandu. His palace will be turned into a museum. That vote was a key condition of a 2006 peace deal with the Maoist former rebels who ended their decade-long civil war and joined mainstream politics. "Vive la Republique," read a banner headline in the Kathmandu Post . "A hope is born," said the Himalayan Times daily. Authorities said the national flag will be raised in place of the royal standard. About 500 people shouting "This is the people's victory" marched in celebration of the new republic. "I feel really honoured," said 27-year-old university student Dev Raj Bhatta standing in sweltering heat outside the palace gate earlier today. "The end of the monarchy has made me a proud Nepali citizen." The US government, which still classifies the Maoists as a terrorist organisation, gave its support to the new republic. "This is another exciting milestone in Nepal's democratic development," a US embassy statement said. http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2008/jun/jun10/news04.php Civil society protests govt decision to allow former royals to stay in palaces Members of the civil society staging protest at Maitighar Mandala, Kathmandu, to protest... Civil society activists have warned of protests if the government did not amend its decision to allow former king Gyanendra to reside in Nagarjuna Palace and other royal relatives Ratna and Sarala to stay at Mahindra Manjil and Tribhuvan Sadan respectively inside Narayanhiti palace. Staging protests at Maitighar Mandala Monday evening, the activists called on the government to revoke the cabinet decision. Shyam Shrestha said government ignored the direction given by the first sitting of the constituent assembly to vacate the Nayaranhiti Palace. Folk singer Nanda Krishna Joshi demanded action against Gyanendra for his inhuman acts while in power. nepalnews.com ia June 10 08 http://story.torontotelegraph.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/2411cd3571b4f088/id/373619/cs/1/ Nepal protesters demand compensation for slain ITC worker Toronto Telegraph Saturday 21st June, 2008 (IANS) Agitated workers at Indian firm ITC's tobacco factory in Nepal, who went on strike from Thursday and blocked the highway to protest against the murder of a colleague by an armed group, are asking for Nepali Rupees 1 million as compensation from the government. Lila Prasad Lamichhane, an employee at Surya Nepal, the tobacco giant's joint venture in Nepal, was abducted Wednesday from a village in Nepal's turbulent Terai area by an armed group of former Maoists, the Janatantrik Terai Mukti Morcha, who killed him the same day. After the 35-year-old's body was found, agitated workers halted work at the tobacco factory in Simra village in Bara district on the India-Nepal border, demanding compensation for the slain worker's family as well as adequate security for the work force. They also closed a section of the highway that connects south Nepal with India. Surya Nepal officials said they were shocked by the murder of a 'member of the family' but were helpless over the demands since security was the business of the government. On Saturday, however, the district security committee and workers reached an understanding. As per the understanding, the committee will ask the government of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala to declare Lamichhane a 'martyr' and pay NRS 1 million to his next of kin. It was not known immediately why Lamichhane, a junior staffer, was killed. However, the security situation in the Terai has rapidly worsened after the April election with abductions, extortion and shootings on the rise. Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat had promised worried industrialists in south Nepal that an industrial security force would be formed and deployed in the Terai. The promise is yet to be kept. The Surya Nepal case also shows up the difficulties foreign investors have been facing in Nepal. The blue-chip company lost millions as its factory remained closed due to a situation that was not of its making. Other large Indian joint ventures like Nepal Lever and Dabur Nepal have had their factory gates padlocked or invaded by locals while United Telecom Ltd, in which VSNL, MTNL and Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd have stakes, had its office closed by the workers hired by a third-party contracting company demanding direct employment. http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1413042.php/Indonesian_students_go_to_the_streets_over_protestors_death Indonesian students go to the streets over protestor's death Jun 24, 2008, 12:30 GMT Jakarta - Angered by the death of a student protester after his arrest, hundreds of students demonstrated Tuesday outside the parliament building in Jakarta, burning tyres and pelting the police with rocks, witnesses and local media reports said. In addition, around 1,000 protestors toppled the parliament building's fence, while an effort to set a police vehicle on fire was foiled by police officers. Besides being angered over the death of their colleague, the demonstrators also demanded the government revoke a 30 per cent fuel price hikes imposed last month. Police used water cannon to disperse the demonstration, witnesses said. A report by Elshinta private radio said at least five student protestors were detained for allegedly provoking the vandalism. The protestors carried a mock of coffin and pictures of Maftuh Fauzi, a 27-year-old student at the National University who had been among 100 fuel price protesters arrested May 24. He died in hospital last Friday, but there were conflicting reports about the cause. The Indonesian Doctors' Association was seeking clarification from Pertamina Hospital, which said Fauzi died of HIV/AIDS. Students say he was beaten by police and died of his injuries. http://lists.topica.com/lists/indonesia-act at igc.topica.com/read/message.html?sort=t&mid=813090304 The Jakarta Post Thursday, April 24, 2008 Protestors demand halt to ballot count N. Sumatra Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan The North Sumatra KPUD was scene to a wave of protests Wednesday, with demonstrators demanding it immediately halt ballot counting a day prior to the planned announcement of winners in the province's gubernatorial election. The protesters also demanded the province's General Election Commission (KPUD) immediately hold a repeat election, saying many people had not been registered and failed to exercise their voting rights. A protest coordinator from the North Sumatra Election Awareness Forum, Togar Hutabarat, said the KPUD should stop the vote count due to indications of election fraud. His group had found cheating to be widespread, especially on voting day, he added. "We found people casting their votes three times during the election on April 16. It was very easy to cheat because the ink used to stain fingers after voting could be easily wiped off," said Togar at the KPUD in Medan. He said such incidents had tarnished the North Sumatra gubernatorial election. He urged the KPUD to stop the vote count because the ballot papers did not accurately represent the voting public. Leader of the Islamic Youth Movement, Irfandi, who participated in the rally, said the KPUD should hold a repeat election lest the elected governor be deemed illegitimate. Irfandi said the KPUD should be held responsible for not being able to encourage people to vote. "The KPUD has failed to carry out its duties. It should hold a repeat election so people who failed to cast their votes on April 16 can have another chance to do so," said Irfandi. Another protester, Anggiat Hutagaol, said non-voters were found virtually in every regency and city in the province, a majority of whom were in West Pakpak (60 percent), followed by Medan city (57 percent), Karo regency (50 percent), Pematang Siantar city (44 percent) and Sibolga city (40 percent). "The percentage of those who did not cast their votes is significantly high. The KPUD cannot take it lightly because it concerns people's legal rights," said Anggiat. KPUD member Tonni Situmorang said the vote count for the regency and city levels had been completed as of Wednesday, thus the office could not meet protesters' demand to halt the count. "The KPUD finished counting votes for all regencies and cities today. As many as 22 of them have sent in their official reports, while the remaining reports from four regions -- North Tapanuli, Sibolga, Nias and South Nias -- are on their way here," Situmorang told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday. Situmorang said his office would tally the results to determine the governor-elect. "The KPUD will tally the votes and ascertain the winners on Thursday. No one can prevent us from performing our duties tomorrow," said Situmorang, adding that there was no legal basis for the KPUD to hold a repeat election. Police reported they would deploy at least 300 personnel and two armored vehicles at the KPUD office in anticipation of possible incidents during the announcement of the elected gubernatorial pair. http://www.nowpublic.com/world/protesters-destroy-car-sudirman-street-0 Protesters destroy car on Sudirman Street by renovatio | June 24, 2008 at 09:20 pm | 16 views | add comment Protesters on Tuesday destroyed a government car passing through the Sudirman Street in front of the Atmajaya University. Elshinta radio reported that the protesters stopped the car, forced the driver to leave the car and set it on fire, causing panic among people watching the protest. A spokeswoman from the university told Elshinta radio that the protesters were not Atmajaya students. She added her students were still taking the university final exams when the incident occurred. She claimed the protesters called for an investigation into the death of Maftuh Fauzi, a student from the National University who died last Friday after he was released from police jail and received treatment from hospitals. The demonstrators also reportedly rejected the fuel price hikes. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Fri Aug 29 17:13:40 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 01:13:40 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Pro-democracy, rights and corruption protests, Arab World, Latin America and Caribbean, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <005601c90a35$4330dcf0$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ LEBANON * Ongoing protests over detention of Islamists, minister bottled * Anti-government strikes, protests paralyse air, roads; clashes with government supporters * Journalists protest Hizbollah attack on media SYRIA * Opposition groups call for Paris protests against Assad visit * Parents of detainees continue protests despite repression * Syrians protest beheading in Saudi Arabia EGYPT * Sinai women protest against detentions * Nascent protest group arrested TURKEY * Rally against coup attempts YEMEN * Civil servants protest against forced celebrations JORDAN * Hundreds protest over detainees from Israel CUBA * Relatives' protest broken up TRINIDAD * Media workers protest new broadcast code CHIAPAS/MEXICO * Zapatista protest at Scottish airport CHILE * Media protest arbitrary restrictions on trial coverage * Pole dancer dances in public against "timidity" HAITI * Protesters want Aristide return * Police teargas Aristide protesters * New York Haitians protest postponement of death squad trial VENEZUELA * Protest in US over award to rightist JAMAICA * Residents protest against murder by police * "Gang leader" arrest sparks protest * Protest over ban on cricketer http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/getstory?openform&60E84BF9F8E215B1C225749F004EE5E9 Alloush Attacked by Angry Protesters in Tripoli A member of parliament and his bodyguard were pelted with stones and bottles on Friday in northern Lebanon during a protest demanding the release from jail of alleged Islamists. Sunni majority MP Mustafa Alloush had been invited by organizers of the protest in Tripoli to make a speech, but as he began to speak demonstrators hurled bottles and stones at him, an AFP correspondent said. Alloush, a member of Future Movement that leads the parliamentary majority, was hit by a stone and was slightly wounded, the correspondent said. The MP took cover in a nearby building where the Lebanese Red Cross tended his injury before evacuating him by ambulance under tight security, he added. Another man, believed to be his bodyguard, was also hurt. Alloush confirmed the attack had taken place but denied being injured. "A group of troublemakers attacked me as soon as I started to speak and I couldn't continue my speech," he told AFP. "I was hit on the shoulder but wasn't hurt." The protest was organized by relatives of alleged members of Fatah al-Islam, an al-Qaida-inspired group that fought a 15-week battle in 2007 with the army in and around the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared north of Tripoli. About 300 people have since been detained by the Lebanese authorities for their alleged links with Fatah al-Islam. Their trials are expected to begin in the coming months. Since Tuesday several hundred detainees have been on hunger strike, a security official said. The army took control of the camp last September after the fierce fighting killed more than 400 people, including 168 Lebanese soldiers.(AFP) http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/08/08/africa/ME-Lebanon-Protest.php Islamists protest in north Lebanon The Associated Press Published: August 8, 2008 TRIPOLI, Lebanon: Hundreds of supporters of Islamist groups have staged a protest in a northern Lebanese port city to demand the release of scores of prisoners suspected of plotting or carrying out militant attacks in Lebanon. About 2,000 people marched through the streets of Tripoli during Friday's protest. Police officials say some protesters attacked lawmaker Mustafa Alloush from the U.S.-backed parliament majority. The lawmaker was taken to hospital with light injuries. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with police policy. There are about 300 suspects held in Roumieh prison east of Beirut on terrorism-related charges, including members of al-Qaida-inspired Fatah Islam group which fought the Lebanese army for three months last year. http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=235936&version=1&template_id=37&parent_id=17 Free Islamists, say protesters Published: Saturday, 16 August, 2008, 01:39 AM Doha Time Relatives of detained Islamists take part in a protest in front of the Rumieh prison in east Beirut yesterday BEIRUT: Relatives of suspected members of an Islamist group that battled the Lebanese army last year staged protests yesterday demanding their release from jail. Hundreds gathered inside Al Omari mosque in central Beirut after weekly prayers in support of some 300 people arrested after more than three months of deadly clashes between the army and the Al Qaeda-inspired Fatah Al Islam. The protesters, who answered a call from the Islamist Hizb Al Tahrir group, held up banners saying: "Free these innocents immediately." Dozens more protesters gathered outside Rumieh prison in eastern Beirut where the prisoners are held, also calling for their release. "If the prisoners are not freed by the start of Ramadan (early September), more measures will be taken," they warned in a statement. More than 400 people were killed, including 168 soldiers, in the 15-week battle in and around Nahr Al Bared Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of the northern city of Tripoli from May to September last year. Over the past month supporters of the prisoners have held almost weekly protests and the prisoners began a hunger strike on August 4. The prisoners - including Syrians, Saudis, Palestinians and Lebanese - are being held on terrorism-related charges and many face the death penalty if convicted. No date has been set for their trials. Last week a protest in Tripoli turned violent when demonstrators pelted a member of parliament with stones and bottles. - AFP http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/080801/world/lebanon_unrest_islamists_palestinians Relatives of Islamist suspects stage Lebanon protest Module body Fri Aug 1, 1:32 PM SIDON, Lebanon (AFP) - Relatives of alleged members of an Islamist group which fought a 15-week battle with the Lebanese army last year staged a protest on Friday demanding their release from jail. "My husband was arrested over a year ago and has yet to stand trial," said Omm Mohammed, whose husband Bashir Bitar is an alleged member of Fatah al-Islam. She was among dozens of women, children and clerics who staged the sit-in amid tight security at a mosque in the southern port city of Sidon after the weekly Friday prayers. Many protesters held signs reading "Enough injustice" and "We demand the immediate release of our sons who are being held unjustly." More than 200 people have been held on suspicion of membership of Fatah al-Islam since May 2007 when fighting erupted between the group and the army at Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon. Upwards of 400 people were killed, including 168 soldiers, in more than three months of fighting which ended in September. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=94981 Families of Islamist militants protest in front of military court Daily Star staff Tuesday, August 12, 2008 BEIRUT: Some 200 people from the families of jailed Islamist militants staged a sit-in in front of the military court in Beirut on Monday in protest against the arrest of their family members for nearly two years without trial. The militants were arrested last year following the almost four-month battle between Fatah al-Islam and the Lebanese Armed Forces at the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in North Lebanon. "We want full amnesty to over 300 Islamist detainees before the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan [first of September]," said a statement issued by the protesters. It also said that their sons had been arrested "illegally" after they were taken from their homes to the Roumieh prison, which they said, "is the prison of injustice and darkness." "Many people have done wrong to the country and its sons and were not arrested or called to account," it said. "Where is justice oh justice minister?" After the end of the sit-in, a group of protesters met with Judge Jean Fahd, the government's commissioner before the military court, to inquire about the detainees. Fahd vowed to study the legal situation of those detainees and settle their issue according to the law. Fahd also dismissed charges that the judiciary was "delaying the examination of cases." "We are no procrastinators," a judicial report quoted the investigative magistrate as saying. A number of detainees have been arrested for their affiliation with Al-Qaeda, for carrying out bombings in restaurants and commercial outlets and for the possession of weapons. "Despite the yearly judicial break the military court is holding two to three sessions per week in order to expedite trials," Fahd told the families of the detainees. Hundreds of supporters of Islamist groups have staged protests on Friday in the coastal cities of Tripoli and Sidon to demand the release of scores of prisoners suspected of plotting or carrying out militant attacks in Lebanon. About 2,000 people marched through the streets of Tripoli during Friday's protest. Some protesters attacked Future MP Mustafa Alloush, who had been invited by organizers to speak at the protest. The lawmaker was taken to hospital with light injuries. Meanwhile, Investigating Magistrate Ghassan Oweidat on Monday released two people who had been arrested following the Nahr al-Bared fighting. - The Daily Star http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/getstory?openform&45843651E4790F96C22574A6005152C2 Protesters Demand Freedom to Jailed Fatah al-Islam Suspects Relatives of suspected members of Fatah al-Islam terrorist group that battled the Lebanese army last year staged protests on Friday demanding their release from jail. Hundreds gathered inside Al-Omari mosque in central Beirut after weekly prayers in support of some 300 people arrested after more than three months of deadly clashes between the army and the Al-Qaida-inspired group. The protesters, among them bearded men and women wearing the niqab Islamic veil who answered a call from the radical Islamist Hizb al-Tahrir group, held up banners saying: "Free these innocents immediately." Dozens more protesters gathered outside Roumieh prison in eastern Beirut where the prisoners are held, also calling for their release. "If the prisoners are not freed by the start of Ramadan (early September), more measures will be taken," they warned in a statement, a copy of which was obtained by AFP. More than 400 people were killed, including 168 soldiers, in the 15-week battle in and around Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of the northern city of Tripoli from May to September last year. Over the past month supporters of the prisoners have held almost weekly protests and the prisoners began a hunger strike on August 4. The prisoners -- including Syrians, Saudis, Palestinians and Lebanese -- are being held on terrorism-related charges and many face the death penalty if convicted. No date has been set for their trials. Last week a protest in Tripoli turned violent when demonstrators pelted al-Mustaqbal MP Mustapha Alloush with stones and bottles.(AFP) Beirut, 15 Aug 08, 17:54 http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view_article.php?article_id=135366 Lebanon air links paralyzed by anti-government protests Agence France-Presse First Posted 02:04pm (Mla time) 05/08/2008 BEIRUT -- Lebanon's international airport was closed on Thursday because of Hezbollah-led anti-government protests, with all flights cancelled until at least noon (0900 GMT), an airport official told Agence France-Presse. "All flights between midnight and noon were cancelled, and then we will see what happens," the official said. On Wednesday demonstrators blocked the road leading to Rafiq Hariri International Airport with burning tires and mounds of earth, leaving arriving passengers stranded and forcing others to miss their flights. The protests caused massive disruption to traffic on Wednesday, and many passengers had no choice but to walk along the main airport road and negotiate the obstacles as they sought to make their way home. Among those stranded for several hours were the musical and dance troupe of Lebanese singing diva Fairuz, who were returning from a performance in the United Arab Emirates. The strike was originally called by the country's main labor union to push the government to raise the monthly minimum wage which has been unchanged since 1996. But it quickly degenerated into violence between supporters of the Western-backed ruling coalition and the opposition, backed by Syria and Iran. The violence was a serious escalation of the country's prolonged political crisis, which has left Lebanon without a president since November. http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/getstory?openform&F37D79BC55229CF0C22574420044380A Beirut Airport Besieged, Hizbullah Heads to Declaring Civil Disobedience Tension went high between Hizbullah and Premier Fouad Saniora's government on Wednesday as the party besieged Beirut airport and headed to declaring civil disobedience after eight people were wounded in mushrooming rioting. Scores of Hizbullah trucks and bulldozers erected barricades along the airport road, besieging at least 300 passengers who had arrived aboard four jetliners. Hizbullah officials informed mediators that the airport would remain closed and the ongoing riots would be escalated into civil disobedience until the Saniora Government withdraws decisions it had adopted against the Party's communications network and head of the airport security department Wafiq Shqeir. Meanwhile, the Voice of Lebanon radio said Hizbullah members were dressed up in police uniforms and penetrating districts of Beirut controlled by their rivals of the Mustaqbal movement. A government source also said Hizbullah was massing gunmen in downtown Beirut, sparking fears of a possible attack against Saniora's office. The development followed day long riots across Beirut as the labor union suspended a demonstration it had called for. Three members of the Mustaqbal movement were wounded when assailants from the Hizbullah-led opposition demolished their office with 30 Rocket-Propelled Grenades in Beirut's densely populated Nweiri district. Two Lebanese Army soldiers were injured by rocks while trying to disperse a clash between opposition supporters and residents of the Tariq Jedideh district. Two news photographers and a passer by were beaten up by rioters in Korniche Mazraa thoroughfare and suffered minor fractures, hospital sources said. Meanwhile tension escalated as staccato bursts of automatic rifle fire echoed across several Beirut districts amidst efforts by army and police patrols to contain the violence. Trucks run by Hizbullah's Jihad al-Binaa institute loaded dirt along the Beirut Airport road, blocking traffic to the facility, which has been closed to civil aviation. Ghassan Ghosn, chairman of the General Federation of Labor Unions (GFLU) said a demonstration that had been scheduled to start at 10 a.m. was "suspended" due to the blocking of roads that prevented potential participants from reaching Beirut's Barbir Square where it was supposed to start. Ghosn, however, said the general strike was persisting and blamed the government for not providing protection for the demonstrators. The strike was observed only in Hizbullah-controlled regions of Lebanon, where supporters of the party set fire to rubber tires, blocking traffic. However, the strike call was totally ignored in areas loyal to the March 14 majority. Life was normal in north and Mount Lebanon as well as in areas of east Lebanon and Beirut not loyal to Hizbullah. About 150 Hizbullah operatives infiltrated from their makeshift Tent City and blocked the Beirut port road with rubber tires and obstacles for nearly 30 minutes, but were challenged by motorists who drove across the barricades before an army patrol intervened and reopened the road to traffic. The strike observed by Beirut Airport workers was scheduled to end at 3 p.m., but Hizbullah refused to reopen the road to the facility. Nevertheless, three jetliners landed at the facility shortly after the deadline. Meanwhile, Mustaqbal Movement MP Mohammed Qabbani said the majority was considering activating the Rene Mouawad airport in north Lebanon if the dispute with Hizbullah persisted. Beirut, 07 May 08, 14:30 http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/05/07/beirut.strike/index.html?eref=rss_world Wed May 7, 2008 BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- Labor union members and anti-government Hezbollah supporters blocked roads with mounds of sand and burning tires Wednesday to demand higher salaries for public workers, protests that paralyzed the airport and much of the capital. Lebanese soldiers watch as protesters burn tires in Beirut. Gunshots could be heard, but the origins were unclear. Lebanese soldiers set up checkpoints and patrolled the streets, as did civilian members of the Shiite militant group Hezbollah, who blocked the route to the airport and staged a sit-in downtown. The General Labor Confederation called off the strike after a few hours for security reasons and said it would be rescheduled. Hezbollah was harshly criticized by Lebanon's top Muslim spiritual leader, who said it was using the demonstrations as a political opportunity. Members of Lebanon's other major Shiite party, Amal, also participated. Travel was virtually impossible in the city, and most residents stayed home from work, school and businesses. The road to the airport was blocked. Watch as the protests bring Beirut to a standstill ? The Lebanese Cabinet recently raised the minimum wage for employees like school bus drivers and trash collectors from $200 a month to $330 a month, and workers say that's insufficient, given rising prices for food and other commodities. In a rare display of anger toward Hezbollah, the highest Sunni spiritual authority in Lebanon criticized the group of taking advantage of the strike by turning it into a political opportunity and accused members of fomenting violence in Beirut. "This strike is turning into a [civil] disobedience and an invasion to the streets of Beirut, carried out by militant gangs," charged the grand mufti, Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani. His speech was carried by the LBC network and Qatar-based Al-Jazeera. "We used to think that Hezbollah is concerned with fighting the Israeli occupation, and all of a sudden it is turning to be a militant force to occupy Beirut, and this is why we call upon the Arab and Islamic nations to help us and stop these harmful aggressions in Lebanon," Qabbani said. Israel and Hezbollah fought a 34-day war in 2006, and Israel occupied southern Lebanon during the fighting. Hezbollah, a Shiite militant group based in Lebanon, is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department. "From my religious and national standpoint, I call upon the leaders of Hezbollah to pull out their fighters from the streets in Beirut and to cease the sit-down in Beirut and to fear God," Qabbani said. "Because the Sunni Muslims are fed up with what is happening, these violations and aggressions, the Lebanese are no longer capable of enduring more hardship." Lebanese journalist Oqab Sakr told Al-Arabiya, "the conflict today was clearly a Sunni-Shiite conflict. All the clashes happened in Sunni and Shiite areas. ... Today's slogans were purely sectarian, mainly Sunni and Shiite." The strike didn't affect Christian eastern Beirut. The protest began about 9 a.m. Wednesday. Police said five people were injured at the seaport district of Corniche Al-Mazraa when someone threw a stun grenade. Beirut has been tense since Lebanese President Emil Lahoud stepped down in November, leaving no clear successor. Currently, the country is being run by U.S.-backed Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. He faces opposition from Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and Syria. http://yalibnan.com/site/archives/2008/05/hezbollahled_pr.php Hezbollah-led protest leads to clashes, violence in Lebanon Published: Wednesday, 7 May, 2008 @ 2:32 PM in Beirut Beirut- Protesters from the Hezbollah-led opposition clashed with supporters of Lebanon's U.S.-backed government Wednesday as a strike by the Shiite militant group paralyzed large parts of the capital Beirut. The violence deepened tensions in a country already mired in a 17-month-old political crisis pitting the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah against the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. The troubles have left the country without a president since November. The strike was called by labor unions after they rejected a last-minute pay raise offer by the government as insufficient. But instead it turned into a showdown between Hezbollah and the government. The clashes began when government and opposition supporters in a Muslim sector of Beirut exchanged insults and began throwing stones at each other. Witnesses said security forces intervened and gunshots were heard, apparently troops firing in the air to disperse the crowds. A cameraman for Hezbollah's Al-Manar television station was hit by a stone in the forehead, the state-run National News Agency reported. A soldier also was hit in the mouth by a stone. Earlier in the same area, a stun grenade thrown into a crowd lightly injured three protesters and two soldiers, the agency said. It was not immediately clear who threw the stun grenade. Around the city, protesters blocked roads with burning tires, dirt, old cars and garbage cans to protest against government economic policies and demand pay raises. The protests and labor strike paralyzed Beirut international airport. Airport employees stopped working for six hours while opposition protesters blocked roads to the country's only air facility leading to the cancellation or delay of 19 incoming and 13 outgoing flights. The unrest and roadblocks forced labor unions to cancel the main public demonstration planned to coincide with the strike. Lebanon's political crisis took a turn for the worse this week when the government decided to confront the powerful Hezbollah. The Cabinet on Tuesday said it would remove Beirut airport's security chief over alleged ties to Hezbollah. The government also declared that a telecommunications network used by Hezbollah for military purposes was illegal and a danger to state security. Hezbollah and Shiite leaders rejected the government's decisions, raising tensions ahead of the planned labor strike. Hezbollah is listed as a terrorist group by the United States. It has fought Israel for more than two decades, most recently in the 2006 summer war, and enjoys wide support among Lebanon's 1.2 million Shiites who are believed to be the country's largest sect. The political crisis has exacerbated the country's economic problems. Rising oil prices and a weakening U.S. dollar, the favored currency here, have driven up the cost of living. Just as the country is divided politically into opposition and pro-government camps, the unions were split as well on whether to support the strike. In Shiite sectors of the city where Hezbollah support is high, the strike was widely observed, with most businesses closed and streets empty. In areas where government support is strong, some businesses were open but many people stayed off the streets and traffic was lighter than usual amid a heavy army presence. Many schools throughout the city were closed because there was no busing for fear of unrest on the roads. Roads to the Beirut seaport also were blocked. The U.S. Embassy advised Americans to avoid areas where protests were going, to take "reasonable" security precautions and maintain a low profile in public. Lebanese soldiers stand guard, foreground, as opposition activists burn tires during a protest in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, May 7, 2008. Hezbollah-led opposition protesters blocked streets in central Beirut and on the road to the international airport Wednesday to enforce an anti-government labor strike that has turned into a showdown between the militant Shiite group and the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora Lebanese soldiers stand by burning tires during a protest in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, May 7, 2008. Opposition activists burn a car during a protest called by labor unions in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, May 7, 2008. Supporters of Lebanon's Hezbollah-led opposition blocked roads with burning tires and paralyzed the airport in the capital Beirut Wednesday to enforce a strike against the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora A car burns as opposition activists try to block roads during a protest in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, May 7, 2008 An opposition protester holds a gasoline bottle as he stands near a burning car during a protest called by labor unions in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, May 7, 2008. http://www.eagleworldnews.com/2008/05/07/hezbollah-protesters-block-roads-in-beirut-lebanon/ Hezbollah Protesters Block Roads in Beirut Lebanon BEIRUT - Protesters supporting the Hezbollah-led opposition in Lebanon have blocked streets in Beirut with burning tires to enforce an anti-government labor strike.A major route leading to Beirut's international airport was among the roads blocked Wednesday. Security forces have been deployed to prevent clashes between supporters of the opposition and Lebanon's Western-backed government. The strike was called to demand pay raises. Lebanon is currently experiencing a political crisis. Disputes between the Western-backed majority party and the pro-Syrian opposition over the composition of a new government have led to a political stalemate. On Tuesday, Lebanon's government accused Hezbollah of violating the state's sovereignty and spying on its top leaders. Lebanon's Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said the government has demanded Hezbollah dismantle its communications network, which the Shi'ite militant group says is needed to protect the group and counter Israeli surveillance. Aridi also said the government is firing the pro-Hezbollah army general responsible for security at Beirut Airport, regarding alleged Hezbollah spy cameras monitoring a runway used by government leaders. Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, a key member of the governing coalition, accused Hezbollah of using the information to plan kidnappings or assassinations. Hezbollah deputy leader Sheikh Naim Kassem denounced the charges, saying the camera is perfectly legitimate. Lebanon's parliament is scheduled to vote May 13 for the country's new president. It will be the 19th time the parliament will try to vote for a successor to former pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud, whose term expired in November. Source: VOA News http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/middleeast/news/article_1404575.php/Lebanese_journalists_protest_attack_on_media__Extra_ Lebanese journalists protest attack on media (Extra) May 10, 2008, 9:41 GMT Beirut - Dozens of Lebanese and foreign journalist gathered in Beirut Saturday to protest the attack by the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah on news media owned by a family opposed to it. The terrestrial and satellite TV station Future TV, satellite TV news channel Future News, the daily Al-Mustakbal and Radio Orient - were forced to stop operating on Friday by Hezbollah. All are owned by the head of the ruling majority, Saad Hariri. His father Rafik Hariri, a former Lebanese prime minister who was assassinated in a car bomb blast in 2005, set up Future Television in 1992. 'This is an attack on the freedom of press,' said Sahar al Khateeb, an anchor at Furture Television. 'We are not their enemies for God's sake,' she shouted. Other journalists chanted: 'They will not silence our voices. Lebanon is for everybody, and not for them (Hezbollah).' The protest was due to end near the headquarters of Future television. Action against the Hariri media included a rocket attack on one of Future television's offices which was empty, and threats by gunmen against the news studio building, saying they would open fire if the channel did not stop broadcasting. At least 20 people have been reported killed since the fighting between anti-Syrian forces and Hezbollah began Wednesday. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/10/africa/ME-GEN-Lebanon-Media-Protest.php Lebanese journalists demonstrate against closure of Sunni leader's television station The Associated Press Published: May 10, 2008 BEIRUT, Lebanon: Dozens of journalists demonstrated Saturday in Beirut to protest Hezbollah's closure of a top Sunni leader's television station. Future TV went off the air Friday after the Shiite Muslim guerrilla group and its allies routed their pro-government Sunni opponents from most of west Beirut. The station is owned by Saad Hariri, son of assassinated former premier Rafik Hariri. Journalists accompanied by nearly 300 supporters marched Saturday to the station's offices in Beirut's upscale Kantari neighborhood. "I want to reassure the betrayers who have nothing to do other than to oppress us: We are here to stay and we will not be silent no matter what they do," said May Chidiac, an anchorwoman for the leading anti-Syrian TV station LBC. Chidiac lost an arm and leg in a Sept. 2005 attack when a bomb was placed under her car, and attended Saturday's protest in a wheelchair. "This is a crime against the media," she said. Future TV chief Nadim Mounla said the station was shut after threats from Hezbollah that the offices would be destroyed. Some Hezbollah members entered the TV building Friday and cut transmission cables, he said. Offices of another Hariri operation, Al-Mustaqbal newspaper, were attacked Friday and parts of the building were set on fire. Pro-Syrian gunmen also set fire to a building where Future TV has its archives. Smoke still billowed from the building Saturday as firefighters sprayed water over it. "My job is to defend this television forever," Future TV anchorwoman Lina Doughan Nasser told the crowd. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists and the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders both denounced Hezbollah's actions against Hariri's media groups. Iranian-backed Hezbollah and its allies seized large swaths of Muslim west Beirut on Friday, demonstrating their military might in a power struggle with the U.S.-backed government. It was the worst sectarian violence since Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war. The clashes broke out after the government challenged Hezbollah by declaring its private telephone network illegal and saying it would remove the chief of airport security for suspected ties to Shiite militant group. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=93799 Syrian opposition groups call for protests in Paris to mark Assad's visit By Agence France Presse (AFP) Saturday, July 05, 2008 PARIS: Syrian opposition parties called on Friday for a protest rally to mark President Bashar al-Assad's visit to Paris next week, to demand a halt to rights abuses in the country. President Nicolas Sarkozy invited Assad along with some 40 foreign leaders for the launch of a new Union for the Mediterranean, aimed at boosting cooperation between European Union and Mediterranean rim states. The Syrian leader will meet Sarkozy on the eve of the summit, and stay on for France's Bastille Day ceremonies on July 14, sealing the renewal of high-level contacts between Paris and Damascus. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem was in Paris to prepare Assad's visit, the first by a Syrian leader in seven years. In a statement issued Friday, Syrian opposition groups called for a rally in Paris on July 13 to demand an end to the "arbitrary arrest of intellectuals and political opponents," to torture in Syrian jails, for respect of human rights and the lifting of a 45-year-old emergency law. The text was issued by the French committee of the "Damascus Declaration," another text signed by Syrian opposition figures calling for "democratic change" in the country. Several of its signatories have been arrested in Syria. French officials said Sarkozy would raise the issue of human rights with Assad. Then-President Jacques Chirac cut off official contacts with Damascus over charges of Syrian involvement in the February 2005 murder of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri, who was a friend of Chirac's. Damascus denies the claims. "Relations between our countries were cold, but with the summer they are getting warm," Moallem told a conference at the Institute of International Relations in Paris. Moallem again quashed speculation that Assad could hold a historic meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on the sidelines of the Paris summit. "That is not on the agenda," said Moallem, who later met his French counterpart, Bernard Kouchner, and Sarkozy's top aide, Claude Gueant. Assad last week dismissed any direct talks with Olmert on the sidelines of the Paris summit in line with his previous statements that such a meeting would not take place before next year. The Syrian minister said that indirect talks between Israel and Syria, which resumed under Turkish mediation in March after an eight-year freeze in relations, were "only just beginning." The two countries have been officially at war since 1948, although armistice and cease-fire agreements have been signed in the interim. "The essence of the indirect talks is to prepare the ground for direct talks," Moallem said, saying the process would require "important involvement from the United States, the European Union and Russia." - AFP http://arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=111844&d=15&m=7&y=2008&pix=world.jpg&category=World Bashar presence stirs protest at Bastille Day Agencies PARIS: Syrian President Bashar Assad was a guest of honor at France's annual Bastille Day military parade yesterday, sparking a small protest and adding to tensions at the march over job cuts in the armed forces. Bashar, marking a rehabilitation with the West, joined a host of leaders in central Paris for the annual military review, which followed the launch of President Nicolas Sarkozy's Mediterranean Union project on Sunday. But his presence angered some army veterans, who suspect Syria played a role in a 1983 massacre of French troops in Lebanon, and was also denounced by human rights groups. Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said eight of its activists were arrested near the parade when they protested against Bashar, who was in the front row of the reviewing stand. At the start of the ceremony, an actor read the preamble to the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights to the assembled leaders - a move that Sarkozy later said was a "excellent response" to the controversy surrounding Bashar. "One shouldn't read this text among ourselves. We should read it to those who need to learn it. It was a beautiful image without provocation or weakness," he told reporters. There had been speculation that marching soldiers too could protest because of Bashar, and also an overhaul of defense strategy in which around a quarter of military personnel are due to be cut, but the parade went off as planned. "The armed forces put on a remarkable display," Sarkozy told France 2 television shortly after the parade, which began with jets roaring overhead and ended with a group parachute jump. The president paid tribute to the French Army. "I am very proud of this parade, very proud of the French Army. The army put on a remarkable display," he told the television. After watching a fly-past of Alphajets that left a trail of red, white and blue, Sarkozy, first lady Carla Bruni and guests watched the parade of some 4,000 marching soldiers and police, 65 aircraft and 241 mounted horsemen. Sarkozy's office said 35 foreign national leaders attended yesterday's parade, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The defense community is also reeling from the resignation of the army's chief of staff two weeks ago after an incident in which live bullets were fired instead of blanks during a combat display, injuring 17 people in the southern town of Carcassonne. Sarkozy expressed his support for the nation's armed forces in a traditional message ahead of the Bastille Day parade. "Like you, and like all French people, I was profoundly hurt and shocked by the Carcassonne tragedy. Such an event does not affect the confidence I have in our armed forces," Sarkozy said. Several media reported that armed forces chief of staff Gen. Bruno Cuche quit because of a verbal attack in which Sarkozy called him "incompetent," but Cuche said in a statement his decision was due solely to the Carcassonne incident. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=94363 Army breaks up protest against detainees in Syria Demonstrators demand release of Lebanese prisoners held since civil war By Jessica Naimeh Special to The Daily Star Tuesday, July 22, 2008 BEIRUT: Parents of Lebanese held in Syrian prisons went once again to the streets on Monday morning protesting against the detention in Syria of their relatives. The demonstration took an unfortunate turn of events as the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) violently forced the protesters to move away as they were trying to intercept Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem's convoy to the presidential palace in Baabda. The protest was organized with the help of the civil society representatives, human-rights associations and local and international NGOs. The groups have held similar demonstrations in the past, but this time, the protest was called to coincide with Moallem's visit to Lebanon. "We, as civil society organizations, want to confirm the existence of Lebanese detainees in Syrian prisons," said Ghazi Aad, founder of Support of Lebanese in Detention and Exile (SOLIDE), an NGO which has longed worked to uncover the fate of Lebanese detainees in Syrian prisons. Parents and relatives of Lebanese citizens who disappeared between 1975 and 2005 gathered around 10:30 a.m. next to the presidential palace in Baabda, where Moallem was expected to arrive. Many protestors held pictures of their detained or lost relatives as well as banners with slogans written in Arabic such as "no [diplomatic] relations before the return [of the Lebanese held in Syrian prisons]" or "not only are there [prisoners] in Israel, but in Syria as well." As Moallem's convoy was about to reach the presidential palace, demonstrators tried to block the road and were aggressively pushed and beaten up by LAF forces. Some demonstrators suffered wounds as a result. In a news conference after his parliamentary bloc's meeting on Monday, Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun said clashes between demonstrators and the LAF "were truly unfortunate," adding that the new government would "double efforts" to uncover the fate of detainees in Syrian prisons issue as "the fate of these missing people could not be ignored." According to a researcher with Human Rights Watch, Nadim Houri, who took part in Monday's protest, the demonstrators were "violently pushed by the LAF who used the bottoms of their rifles" to move the crowd away. He said that none of the protesters was armed, so there was "no need to resort to such kind of violence." Houri told The Daily Star that mothers of detainees were violently pushed in the process, saying that the "LAF ought to adopt strict guidelines that ban the use of violence to disperse demonstrators." Before the incidents occurred, head of Union for Lebanon Massoud al-Ashkar told reporters "the detainees issue was more important than the normalization of the Lebanese-Syrian diplomatic relations or the border demarcation between the two neighboring countries." Ashkar added that Lebanon "managed to bring back home Lebanese held in Israeli prisons and that the same should be done for those who were detained in Syrian prisons." On Wednesday, five prisoners and 200 bodies were handed to Hizbullah by the Israel as part of a prisoner swap deal. Despite the brawl with the LAF, demonstrators were able to send a seven-point letter to Sleiman who, in his inaugural speech, expressed his will to deal with the issue of the detainees. The letter called for including the prisoners' issue in the upcoming ministerial statement. It also called on forming a national commission to look into the issue of the detainees in Syria, as well as creating a DNA database through the missing people's relatives. It also said an international investigative commission should be created, "as a last resort," to find out the missing people's whereabouts and their fate. According to the letter, the international commission should also try those who committed these "crimes against humanity." Echoing remarks made by Moallem during a news conference on Monday about the existence of Syrian detainees in Lebanese prisons, Houri told The Daily Star that there were actually names of Syrians who disappeared in Lebanon during the 1975-90 Civil War. "It is surprising that Syria never bothered dealing with this issue [when it was controlling the country]," he said, adding that information about Syrian detainees in Lebanese prisons can "be easily made available" as they (Lebanese prisons) were accessible to the Red Cross and other humanitarian organizations. Houri said that Syria had to give a "serious and transparent list of Lebanese and non-Lebanese detainees abducted on Lebanese soil." While the Syrian authorities have always avoided giving out information about the Lebanese prisoners, some detainees' parents said they had proof about their children's imprisonment in Syria as they were able to contact and sometimes visit them. According to Houri, most of the detainees have never even been sentenced and if they had been, it was in an unfair trial. Houri also said that although "some progress" is possible, the "detainees' relatives needed to see concrete actions because they have in the past received too many unrealized promises." http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/26/africa/ME-GEN-Syria-Saudi.php Syrians protest beheading of one of their countrymen in Saudi Arabia The Associated Press Published: April 26, 2008 DAMASCUS, Syria: Scores of angry Syrians are protesting in Damascus against Saudi Arabia's beheading of a countryman convicted of drug smuggling. Syrian Ibrahim al-Jarekh was beheaded Friday in Saudi Arabia two weeks after two other Syrians were beheaded there on the same charge. Nearly 100 protesters held a sit-in to demand that Saudi hand over other Syrian prisoners. One of the protesters, 38-year-old Abdul-Karim Mohammad, said his brother has been in Saudi jails for four months and is waiting execution on drug charges. "These are politically motivated verdicts," Mohammed said. Syrian-Saudi relations have been strained over what Saudi officials see as Syria's role in promoting Iranian interests in the Arab world as well as Syria's interference in Lebanese politics. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=94626 Sinai women protest against detention of relatives By Agence France Presse (AFP) Wednesday, July 30, 2008 AL-ARISH, Egypt: Dozens of women staged a protest in Egypt's north Sinai on Tuesday to protest the months-long detention without trial of their relatives over a string of bombings in the peninsula. The women gathered outside the governor's office in Al-Arish, holding pictures of sons, fathers and husbands who were rounded up after deadly attacks that targeted the Red Sea resorts of Taba, Sharm El-Sheikh and Dahab between 2004 and 2006. The men have been held without trial and their detention repeatedly renewed for 45 days at a time, some for as long as three years. "We want them to either be tried or released," one protester told AFP. A security official said 62 people are known to be detained in connection with the bombings. The latest major attack to hit the Sinai peninsula was in April 2006, when several bombers struck the popular resort of Dahab, killing 20 people. After a seven-year lull, attacks returned to Egypt in 2004, when three bombs exploded in and around the Red Sea resort of Taba, killing at least 34 people. Around 70 were killed in July 2005 when multiple blasts struck Sinai's most popular resort of Sharm El-Sheikh. - AFP http://news.morningstar.com/newsnet/ViewNews.aspx?article=/DJ/200807290734DOWJONESDJONLINE000314_univ.xml Women Protest Detention Of Relatives Over Egypt Bombings7-29-08 7:34 AM EDT | E-mail Article | Print Article EL-ARISH, Egypt (AFP)--Dozens of women staged a protest in Egypt's north Sinai Tuesday to protest the months-long detention without trial of their relatives over a string of bombings in the peninsula. The women gathered outside the governor's office in El-Arish, holding pictures of sons, fathers and husbands who were rounded up after deadly attacks that targeted the Red Sea resorts of Taba, Sharm el-Sheikh and Dahab between 2004 and 2006. The men have been held without trial and their detention repeatedly renewed for 45 days at a time, some for as long as three years. "We want them to either be tried or released," one protester told AFP. A security official said 62 people are known to be detained in connection with the bombings. The latest major attack to hit the Sinai peninsula was in April 2006 when several bombers struck the popular resort of Dahab, killing 20 people. After a seven-year lull, attacks returned to Egypt in 2004 when three bombs exploded in and around the Red Sea resort of Taba, killing at least 34 people. Around 70 were killed in July 2005 when multiple blasts struck Sinai's most popular resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. http://www.dawn.com/2008/07/27/rss.htm#35 Egypt arrests 16 from anti-govt protest group CAIRO, July 27 (Reuters): Egyptian security forces arrested 16 members of a nascent anti-government protest group, and two of the activists are being held in an unknown location and may be at risk of torture, Amnesty International said. Security sources said the activists were arrested since Wednesday after several dozen members of the opposition Sixth of April Youth group held an anti-government protest in the port city of Alexandria. Amnesty said the activists, mainly students from Cairo, chanted slogans urging political and economic reforms before police broke up the protest, arresting 15. Another activist was arrested the following day. (Posted @ 22:05 PST) http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=148658 Thousands gather in Ankara in protest of coups Thousands gathered on Saturday in the capital to show their opposition to coup attempts and anti-democratic practices in a demonstration spearheaded by a group of nongovernmental organizations. The demonstration, the second of silent rallies known as "70 million Steps against Coups," the first of which was held last month in Istanbul, brought together thousands of democracy defenders who wanted to express their stance against coup attempts by several institutions that have resorted to anti-democratic practices. The rally was held in cooperation with such NGOs as the Young Civilians, a Turkish nongovernmental group noted for its use of sarcasm in protests, the Association of Human Rights and Solidarity for Oppressed Peoples (MAZLUM-DER), the Confederation of Turkish Real Trade Unions (Hak-Is) and the Women's Rights Association Against Discrimination (AK-DER). Participants in the rally wore white gloves and carried banners that read "Raise your voice against coups," "Say no to coups" and "We can stop coup perpetrators." Representatives from participating NGOs emphasized in their speeches that the Turkish nation doesn't want to witness any more military coups. "Coups d'?tat, memorandA, unresolved shootings, party closures, death penalties and torture have always been discussed and planned in Ankara. Ankara has forgotten that 70 million people reside in this country. Now, it is time to speak out against the Ergenekon crime gang, party closures and coup attempts," they said. http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/193362.php July 19, 2008 Yemeni Workers Protest Forced Celebrations Saleh is celebrating 30 years in power and civil service workers are normally forced to attend pro-regime celebrations, but they are starting to get tired of it. Sahwa Net -Demonstrations held on Thursday in Dhala and Lahj provinces demanded to cancel celebrations in which the authorities force citizens to attend to, according to their descriptions...On the other hand, the Joint Meeting Parties in Mahweet condemned forcing employees to attend the celebration of the president's 30th anniversary of assuming power. Yemen's president Saleh took power in north on 17 July 1978. http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=9602 Hundreds protest over Jordanian detainees By Mohammad Ben Hussein AMMAN - Nearly 300 activists on Saturday staged a sit-in in front of the Prime Ministry demanding the release of four Jordanians transferred from an Israeli prison to the Kingdom last year. The group handed officials a letter calling the men's release "overdue", particularly in light of a recent prisoner swap between Israel and Hizbollah. "We reminded the prime minister of the government's commitment to the four men when they were released last year, whereby it was agreed to have them freed whenever an exchange of prisoners takes place with Israel involving inmates with similar charges," said Saleh Ajlouni, activist and brother of one of the detainees. The letter also called on the government to exert maximum effort to secure the release of tens of other Jordanians incarcerated in Israel and the fate of many others who went missing. Demonstrators held banners calling for the release of the "heroes," and pictures of the four prisoners were displayed during the one-hour gathering. The event ended peacefully and without incident. The gathering was organised by the National Committee for the Jordanian Prisoners and Missing Persons in Israel, which says the government has "skirted the moral responsibility to release the prisoners after the recent exchange of prisoners between Israel and Hizbollah". Sultan Ajlouni, the longest serving Jordanian in an Israeli prison, and three other Jordanian prisoners serving life sentences in Israel - Khaled Abu Ghalyoun, Salem Abu Ghalyoun and Ameen Saneh - were transferred to the Kingdom last July to spend 18 months in a local prison under a deal with Tel Aviv. Family members have been lobbying for their release ever since Israel brokered an agreement for the prisoner exchange with Hizbollah. Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood issued a statement on Saturday calling for the release of the four prisoners. "The government should release Ajlouni, the Abu Ghalyoun brothers and Saneh since Israel has released those with more severe charges, such as Samir Qantar," said the statement, made available to The Jordan Times yesterday. The group also called for the release of Ahmad Dakamseh, who shot an Israeli girl in the early 90s and has been since serving a life sentence in a local prison. "We want to remind you that Israel does not punish its soldiers when they shed the blood of Palestinians. they are returned as heroes," added the statement. Sultan Ajlouni was rushed to the hospital earlier in the week due to a stress-related stomach ailment. He remains in the hospital under medical care, while the three other prisoners are serving out their sentences at Qafqafa prison in the north. Family members said Saturday that further tests are being carried out on Ajlouni, who is due to be released in early 2009. http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/536641/1731314 Cuba breaks up protest sit-in Apr 22, 2008 6:55 AM A group of Cuban women peacefully demonstrating for the release of their jailed husbands were roughed up by a mob and arrested, then released, near the offices of President Raul Castro. The 10 women, members of an organization known as the "Women in White," gathered at a park at the edge of Cuba's Revolution Square, near government and Communist Party headquarters. They wore white T-shirts emblazoned with the faces and names of their loved ones, but carried no signs. "We are here to demand the release of our husbands and won't leave until they are free or they arrest us. We have waited long enough, we want to talk to the new president," group leader Laura Pollan said. Moments later, a bus pulled up and about 20 female corrections officers tried to arrest the women, who sat on the sidewalk, clasped arms and refused to move. "They are dying, they are dying," one women yelled with tears in her eyes. A mob of about 100 government supporters, mainly women from nearby government buildings, quickly entered the fray, yelling insults while pushing the women, picking them up and shoving them into the waiting bus. "After forcing them into the bus they dropped the Havana residents at their homes and sent the others back to their homes in the provinces," Marta Bonachea, a spokesperson for the women, said in a telephone interview. The women's husbands and other relatives were arrested in a massive government crackdown in 2003, which landed 75 dissidents in prison for long terms on charges of working with the United States to subvert the government. Fifty-five of the dissidents remain behind bars. Raul Castro became Cuba's first new president in nearly 50 years in February, when he took over for his ailing brother Fidel Castro. Various governments and international organizations have expressed the hope he would loosen political restrictions in the one-party socialist state. Protests are rare in Cuba. In the past, similar actions have been broken up by government supporters and the protesters held for a few hours before being released. The Cuban government contends all its opponents are paid and organized by its enemy, the United States. The illegal but tolerated Cuban Commission for Human Rights estimates there are 230 people in prison in Cuba for expressing their political views, serving sentences of up to 28 years. Amnesty International has deemed 58 of them prisoners of conscience who are imprisoned solely for the peaceful expression of beliefs. http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/article.php?news_id=9662 Trinidad media workers protest over new broadcast code Published on Friday, August 8, 2008Email To Friend Print Version By Stephen Cummings Caribbean Net News Trinidad and Tobago Correspondent Email: stephen at caribbeannetnews.com PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad: Tension is again on the rise in Trinidad and Tobago over a new broadcast code to be adopted for broadcasters. The Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MATT) is calling on the country's Telecommunications Authority to define the standards used to determine what is appropriate or inappropriate for broadcast. It is also concerned with what it says are the heftiness of a fine of TT$250,000 and a maximum five year prison term for broadcasters found guilty of any breach of the code. Trinidad and Tobago is today seeking to create its own media broadcast code and so the Media Association is now questioning whether the penalties are justified. Balance on the airwaves, free speech and responsibility was the theme of a two-day conference held on April 2 - 3 2008 hosted by the Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago. The conference featured interactive sessions, panel discussions involving local persons and eight internationally respected experts on media and telecommunications concerns. Focus was on media practices and policies for broadcasting. Currently under the Trinidad and Tobago Constitution freedom of speech is guaranteed. However, the Telecommunications Authority is saying together with this there must be responsibility. In 2007 the authority said it received a total of 60 complaints, 50 of which were for radio station programming and ten for television programmes. For 2008 there were so far eight complaints from radio stations. A draft document entitled "Development of the National Broadcast Code for the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago was prepared by the authority in 2005 where it said it got numerous responses for changes to be made to the draft. The Media Association for one voiced concerns that the document contained dangerous elements which hinged on and act against the right to freedom of speech. The document was re-drafted, producing a new code, but in 2008 there are still concerns among media workers as to the intent of the document and implications for workers in the local media. "There is a recent trend from people from government or state where they would try to belittle reporters at press conferences," said Joan Briggs, President of the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago when interviewed earlier on the subject of press freedom. Briggs also advised reporters to be a little more assertive in their quest for information and not to accept bullying by government or state officials. Public consultation of the new broadcast code is again being taken for public comment. It is said that soon there will be a final document which will form the first set of broadcast regulations for the country. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/407423.html Zapatista solidarity protests at Edinburgh, Bournemouth and European Airports Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity Group | 24.08.2008 10:25 | Globalisation | Repression | Zapatista | London | South Coast Passengers hurrying into the main check-in at Edinburgh international airport on 22 August were greeted by an unusual sight. A massive banner proclaimed: " MEXICO ...Sun.Fun.bloomin' nice beaches.", alongside a painting of a palm tree. A somewhat eccentric Mexican tourist board initiative perhaps? Not exactly. "Torture..Death Squads.Human Rights Breaches." continued the lower half of the banner, with a carefully painted AK47 illustrating the point. Demonstrators from Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity Group were denouncing Mexican government repression, particularly in the southern state of Chiapas, where the zapatista indigenous movement has created over a thousand autonomous "communities in resistance." Displaying a placard SOLIDARITY WITH THE ZAPATISTA COMMUNITIES AGAINST EVICTIONS the protestors distributed hundreds of leaflets to travellers at the busy airport. At first sight the leaflets appeared to be a tourist brochure. Closer examination revealed photos of armed soldiers and victims of torture alongside the golden beaches and verdant rainforest. After explaining the reality of Oaxaca and Chiapas, and highlighting the attempts to evict the zapatistas of Bolon Ajaw to build a tourist development at the Agua Azul waterfalls, the leaflet concluded : "Practise solidarity with the indigenous people, who are asserting their dignity by resisting." WAR AGAINST THE PEOPLE Esther McDonald of the Solidarity Group said : "The Mexican government are stepping up the long-running "war of low intensity" against the zapatistas. The army have invaded zapatista villages, zapatistas have been arrested and tortured, political prisoners in Chiapas have been on hunger strike, and paramilitary groups are active, with the active support of the army "Special Forces". The protest, held right outside the main check-in section of the airport, soon attracted the attention of Security Staff. Despite its unauthorised nature, the demo was able to continue for over half an hour until threats of police action prompted the demonstrators to relocate to the centre of Edinburgh. (The whole of the airport is designated "private property", thus removing the legal right to protest there.) The protest then continued for around two hours more in Edinburgh's principal street, Princes Street, attracting sympathetic responses from some passers-by, including a woman who used to live in Oaxaca. The demo coincided with leafleting actions at airports in Madrid, Hamburg, Frankfurt, and in Bournemouth, where a demonstrator reported: "There was more interest than anticipated and some confusion, before being escorted out of the premises." The protestors at Barajas-Madrid airport reported that the day's activities were going very well, and that with the increasing number of flights to Mexico "the airport and the departure lounges are now full of people who now know a bit more about their destination." COMMUNITIES IN RESISTANCE A spokesperson for Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity Group said: "'The zapatistas' autonomous communities in resistance are an inspiring example of how people can control their own lives and share resources in an egalitarian way. They show people the world over that we don't need the bad governments and the profit-hungry corporations." "It is vital that we organise internationally to give solidarity to the zapatistas against the Mexican Government's attempts to evict them from their lands. These attacks are linked with plans for multinationals and international governments to intensify capitalist exploitation of the whole of central America, through the Plan Puebla Panama." The Zapatistas hit world headlines on 1st January 1994 when they staged an armed insurrection and captured seven towns in Chiapas. Recently they have declared that they will create autonomous communities "without the permission of the bad government" and have encouraged all oppressed groups to join together, both nationally and internationally through "The Other Campaign". Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity Group is twinned with zapatista autonomous municipality "16th February"in the Highlands of Chiapas, and raises funds and awareness for their autonomous health clinic and primary schools. Members of the group have visited the indigenous villages in the area, and made a short film about the construction of the clinic, built with the aid of over ?15,000 from Scotland. www.edinchiapas.org.uk edinchiapas at yahoo.co.uk http://ukzapatistas.wordpress.com (UK zapatista solidarity network) http://www.europazapatista.org/ (Europe-wide Zapatista solidarity, mainly in Spanish.) http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/94210 Journalists protest judge's restriction on coverage of fraud case as "illegal and arbitrary" Espa?ol: Periodistas protestan como "ilegal y arbitrario" restricci?n por jueza de cobertura de caso Country/Topic: Chile Date: 03 June 2008 Source: Instituto Prensa y Sociedad (IPYS) (IPYS/IFEX) - On 25 May 2008, a judge of Santiago's Seventh Tribunal, Cecilia Pastene, forbade journalists from revealing the identity or broadcasting photographs of a lawyer accused of defrauding a client of 1.08 billion pesos pesos (approx. US$ 2,230,000). Her ruling also called for the removal of journalists from the courtroom where the charges against the lawyer were read. The judge, in taking this measure, was acceding to a petition from the defence invoking an exceptional procedural option intended for use only in special cases, such as for the protection of minors. In defiance of the judge's ruling, on 27 May the newspaper "El Mercurio" revealed the identity of the accused lawyer, Pedro Toledo Barrera, arguing that the judicial resolution contradicts the principles of access to information, of transparency in penal proceedings and of freedom of expression. On 30 May, the dean of the Journalists' College, Luis Conejeros, and the president of a court journalists' group, Eric L?pez, with the support of legal representative Alfredo Morgado, also presented before Santiago's Court of Appeals an appeal of the ruling. The journalists' associations and the Human Rights Center of Diego Portales University point out that Judge Pastene's resolution affects the constitutional rights of the media, and consider it illegal and arbitrary. http://www.connietalk.com/subway_stripper_071508.html Pole Dancer Protests By Stripping On The Subway Tuesday, July 15th, 2008 by Esmerelda Monserrat Morilles was recently arrested for stripping on the subway in Chile. The media there is calling her "The Subway Goddess." She was doing it to protest prudishness in her country. She'd find a car without children. Hop on and strip, then get off at the next stop. She was caught when she attempted to do her act outside the presidential palace in Santiago. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7501015.stm Friday, 11 July 2008 01:28 UK Chile pole dancer arrested Stripper Monserrat Morilles dances for subway riders Police in Chile have arrested a stripper who was attempting to remove her clothes outside the presidential palace in the capital, Santiago. Her arrest comes three days after she performed a series of striptease dances on the Santiago underground, the metro. Monserrat Morilles told reporters that her performances were aimed at challenging the prudishness of Chilean society and that they would continue. Chilean media has dubbed her "La Diosa del Metro" or the Metro Goddess. 'Timid country' Ms Morilles, 26, called her performances "happy minutes". A professional pole dancer, she boarded the train at one station, and stripped down to skimpy underwear in time to exit at the next station. "This is just a beginning. We are starting an idea here that will grow and be developed further," she told Reuters news agency as she was being taken into custody. "Chile is still a pretty timid country," her manager, Gustavo Pradenas, said. "People aren't very extroverted and we want to take aim at that and make Chile a happier country." http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/news-2583--2-2--.html Haitian protesters want Aristide's return Published on Tuesday, July 17, 2007 Email To Friend Print Version PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (UPI): Protesters backing former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide have called for the return of the ousted leader and denounced his successor. Demonstrators said current President Rene Preval has turned his back on his former ally, Aristide, The Miami Herald reported Monday. The protest Sunday marked Aristide's 54th birthday. The former Haitian leader was toppled in a rebel uprising and left the country in February 2004. He has vowed to return, though said it would depend on his former prime minister Preval as to when he does. http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/07/15/haiti.march.ap/index.html?eref=edition_americas July 15, 2008 -- Updated 2115 GMT (0515 HKT) Police fire tear gas at Haitian protesters Story Highlights Protesters storm past barricades near National Palace in Port-au-Prince Marchers mark birthday of ousted leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide, protest food costs Aristide accuses U.S. of staging coup after escaping Haiti in 2004 PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- Police fired tear gas to disperse protesters who stormed past barricades Tuesday near the National Palace during a rally to mark the 55th birthday of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Pro-Aristide demonstrators are driven back by a Haitian police officer in Port au Prince Tuesday. Haitian police had erected barricades at the Champs de Mars, the central plaza of Port-au-Prince, to prevent demonstrators from reaching the National Palace about two blocks away. Several hundred people surged through them anyway and were repelled by riot police firing tear gas. Until then, the protest had been largely peaceful. It began with a couple of hundred people outside Aristide's former home and swelled to several thousand as they marched across the capital. Demonstrators chanted "We need Titid," a reference to Aristide's nickname, while blowing horns and waving tree branches as they marched toward the palace. Mario Styr, one of the organizers, said the march was also a protest against rising food prices, which have deepened misery in the impoverished country and prompted the Senate to vote out the prime minister in April. At least seven people died in April during violent protests and looting sparked by rising food prices. Parliament has rejected two of President Rene Preval's nominees to replace the ousted prime minister and was scheduled to vote later Tuesday on a third candidate, Michele Pierre-Louis. Don't Miss Report: Kids' lives are nightmares The protest was a reminder that Aristide remains a political force in Haiti. In February, 5,000 people joined a demonstration marking the fourth anniversary of his ouster. Aristide escaped Haiti in 2004 as a violent rebellion engulfed the country. He lives in South Africa and accuses the U.S. of staging a coup. http://www.haitianalysis.com/2008/5/12/brooklyn-ny-protestors-demonstrate-as-toto-constant-trial-is-postponed May 12th, 2008 Brooklyn, NY: Protestors Demonstrate as Toto Constant Trial is Postponed By: Kim Ives - Haiti Libert? The trial of former Haitian death-squad leader Emmanuel "Toto" Constant for mortgage fraud was supposed to start May 7 at the New York State Supreme Court building in Brooklyn, but instead it was postponed until July 8. The reasons for the postponement were unclear and apparently last-minute - Constant's name appeared on the court docket. One suspects a deal in the works judging from the very congenial dealings observed between New York State prosecutors and Constant's defense lawyer, Samuel Karliner. New York State authorities arrested Constant in New York in July 2006 for his involvement in a mortgage fraud ring which bilked banks out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in fake property sales from 2002 to 2006 (see Haiti Liberte, Vol. 1, No. 41, 4/20/2008). Constant is a notorious figure in the Haitian community for acting as the head of the Revolutionary Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti (FRAPH), a CIA-supported death-squad that engaged in murder, arson, torture and rape during the 1991-1994 coup d'etat against the government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. About one dozen demonstrators gathered outside the court-house with a sound system from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. to raise consciousness in the crowds rushing to work and school about the trial and Constant's human rights record. Since Constant fled a warrant in Haiti in December 1994 and clandestinely slunk into the U.S., human rights groups have been clamoring for him to be brought to justice for crimes against humanity. "We now want to see that he does not get out of his economic crimes committed against the people of New York," said attorney Jenny Green of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), one of the organizations which sponsored the rally outside the court-house. "We know that he cannot be punished in this court for the human rights violations in Haiti. But we want to see due process done in this case.... Constant is not just a human rights violator. He's a thief . He needs to be punished for both categories of crimes. He should not be allowed to return to Haiti to commit future human rights abuses, to wreak havoc on the Haitian people." For years, human rights and Haitian community groups called for Constant to be sent back to Haiti to stand trial, a call which the U.S. government resisted. Now Washington wants to see Constant sent back to Haiti while the grassroots groups do not. "Before we wanted to send Toto back to Haiti when the Aristide government had made an extradition request, and we were sure he would meet with justice," explained Ray Laforest of the International Support Haiti Network (ISHN), another rally sponsor. "But at that point, the U.S. Justice Department refused to send him back. Today, the Haitian people are relatively weak, and the Haitian government is relatively weak. It is very likely that if Toto Constant were sent back he would not remain in jail, he would not receive justice. And it is now that we see the Department of Homeland Security insisting that Constant be sent back to Haiti immediately." Public defender Lynn Stewart was also at the demonstration. "I'm proud to be out here today to speak out against this serial murderer, killer, rapist, runner of death squads," she said. "This is a person who was supported by the United States government because he fulfilled their aims of keeping Haiti a virtual colony, an economic disaster, an exploited place by the corrupters of government. Constant then came to the U.S. Of course he was welcomed with open arms, as are so many of his ilk." One of the principal leaders of Aristide's Lavalas Family party, Annette "So An" Auguste, happened to be in New York this week and also came out to the demonstration. "If Haiti is in the state it is today, Toto Constant is one of the reasons for that," she said. "Because the first time Haiti had a president who was elected democratically, where the constitution gave him a five year term, Toto Constant was responsible for killing the most people during the coup against Aristide, who is now in exile in South Africa." So An went on to explain that "U.S. forces captured lots of documents which proved how Toto Constant's organization FRAPH was responsible for the death of many people in Haiti. He was working for the CIA. The CIA brought him to the United States. Today we see that they give money more value than people" because Constant is being prosecuted for grand larceny and falsifying business documents rather than crimes against humanity. "We ask for justice for all the people that Toto Constant killed in Haiti," she concluded. Prominent New York City council member Charles Barron decried that "our government protects the murderers of Haiti rather than the liberators of Haiti" in a country that through its 1804 slave revolution "has shown us that liberation is possible." "Anybody like Toto Constant who worked with the Tonton Macoutes, who participated in the wholesale killing and murder of the Haitian people with their death squads and got away with it, we need to have them brought to justice," Barron said. FRAPH crimes against women, particularly rape, has stirred many women's groups to action. "Toto Constant should be held accountable for all his crimes, whether it is mortgage fraud in New York or his crimes against women, against humanity, and his program of rape and other torture in Haiti," said Bertol Israel, the executive director of Dwa Fanm (Women's Rights), a New York-based Haitian women's organization. "We hope that after he has served his sentence in New York, he will do time for his crimes against humanity in Haiti." The rally outside the court-house was sponsored by the CCR along with the ISHN, the Lavalas Family's New York chapter, and the Haitian Coalition to Support the Struggle in Haiti (KAKOLA). All articles copyrighted Haiti Liberte. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED. Please credit Haiti Liberte. http://www.workers.org/2008/world/venezuela_0529/ Protest condemns U.S. funding of counterrevolutionary student By Jaimeson Champion New York Published May 27, 2008 9:10 PM Dozens of demonstrators gathered outside the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York City on May 15th to protest the presentation of the Milton Friedman Prize to Yon Goichochea. Inside, the leader of a counterrevolutionary Venezuelan student group received the award at a lavish $500-a-plate banquet sponsored by The Cato Institute, a right-wing think tank. The prize-named after the founding father of neoliberal economic policy and economic advisor to Chile's fascist dictator Augusto Pinochet-is a $500,000 award given to individuals who promote the interests of U.S. imperialism. The protest outside the hotel was organized by the Alberto Lovera Bolivarian Circle, and included supporters and allies of the Bolivarian Revolution from numerous organizations. Speakers at the demonstration asserted that Goichochea did not represent Venezuelan students, and that he would use the award money to further fund attacks aimed at destabilizing the presidency of Hugo Ch?vez. They said Goichochea, acting as a puppet for U.S. imperial interests, seeks to reverse the tremendous gains achieved by the Bolivarian Revolution in the area of education. Demonstrators also contended that The Cato Institute is interfering in Venezuelan affairs by attempting to fund the Venezuelan opposition movement. In the past year, Goichochea has been heralded by groups such as The Cato Institute and pundits in the corporate press as a peaceful organizer for "liberty and freedom of speech." But the reality is that Goichochea is a violence-provoking, 23-year-old student mouthpiece for the deposed Venezuelan oligarchy. He is a privileged son of the old elite. He advocates a return to the pre-Bolivarian Revolution days, when education was a commodity reserved only for the wealthy. As a student, Goichochea attended the private Catholic University. One of the few remaining private universities in Venezuela, Catholic University has a long been a training ground for the privileged class. The student demonstrations which Goichochea has organized have been attended almost entirely by wealthy students from the private universities. These demonstrations by the children of the oligarchy have received enormous amounts of news coverage, though the participants only represent a minute fraction of the total Venezuelan student body. The demonstrations Goichochea and his pro-imperialist stooges have organized have been violent and destructive. Goichochea and his supporters have trashed publicly funded Bolivarian educational facilities. In one 2007 demonstration, Goichochea supporters targeted the Caracas School of Social Work. They trashed the campus, setting the building on fire and trapping some social work students inside. Goichochea and his supporters targeted the School of Social Work because the social work students overwhelmingly support Ch?vez and the Bolivarian Revolution. Far from championing "freedom of speech," Goichochea and his supporters have sought to violently intimidate and silence students who support the Bolivarian Revolution. Education in Venezuela and the U.S.: A study in contrasts Despite Goichochea's efforts, the Bolivarian Revolution has ushered in a new era in Venezuelan education that has led to increased access to education for all sectors of Venezuelan society. Ch?vez has implemented a massive increase in social spending, particularly in education and health care. Social spending as a percentage of GDP has increased from 8.2 percent in 1998 to 13.6 percent in 2006. (source: Weisbrot, Center for Economic Policy Research) "Bolivarian missions" such as Mission Robinson and Mission Ribas, which are programs dedicated to improving social conditions in Venezuela, have helped increase literacy and arithmetic skills in poorer urban and rural areas across the country. Another Bolivarian mission, Mission Sucre, provides free university education to any Venezuelan, regardless of income or resources. Mission Sucre's official statement of purpose is "to guarantee access to university education for all undergraduates and to transform the condition of those excluded from the subsystem of higher education." Through Mission Sucre, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan students who had previously lacked access to higher education have been able to obtain a university degree. The achievements of the Bolivarian Revolution in the area of education highlight the great benefits of socializing production to satisfy human needs instead of corporate greed. The Bolivarian education programs are funded in large part through revenues from the nationalized petroleum industry. PDVSA, the Venezuelan state oil company, funds a large proportion of the budgets for Missions Robinson, Ribas and Sucre. Ch?vez and the Bolivarian Revolution are using Venezuela's productive capacity to improve the quality of life for all Venezuelans. Rather than enriching foreign corporations, the Bolivarian Revolution is instead investing in the educational enrichment of Venezuelan students. The Bolivarian Revolution's focus on increasing access to education stands in stark contrast to the focus of the educational system in the U.S. While an increasing number of students in Venezuela are gaining access to higher education, the opposite is true in the U.S. Tuition rates in the U.S. are skyrocketing. With debt loads of U.S. students, upon graduation, now averaging more than $20,000, higher education is becoming increasingly unaffordable for most working-class students. Many working-class students in the U.S are forced into the armed forces in order to afford higher education. A free university education, as is provided in Venezuela, would be a welcome reprieve for millions of U.S. students potentially facing a life of indebtedness. The Bolivarian Revolution is daily proving that there is a clear-cut alternative to the violence, greed and destruction wrought by capitalism and U.S. imperialism. The gains achieved by the Bolivarian Revolution in areas such as education, housing and health care provide examples to the world of the potential benefits of socialism. The hundreds of thousands of recent college graduates in Venezuela who attended school through Mission Sucre are testament to the reality that a better system is possible. Articles copyright 1995-2008 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved. http://www.radiojamaica.com/content/view/9913/26/ Residents protest police killing Saturday, 12 July 2008 It is the usual story, a police shooting and residents crying foul. Residents of Jones Avenue near Twickenham Park in St. Catherine took to the streets in protest Saturday over the police killing of one their own Friday night. The police report that they went into the Jones Avenue area seeking to locate Andre Bryan otherwise called "Blackman" who they claim is wanted in connection with the killing of the late Chairman of the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) Douglas Chambers. However, residents who converged along the Greendale to Twickenham Park Main Road claim the man who was killed was not Andre but his brother Kayon. Wrong man According to the residents, Kayon Bryan, 22, was shot in cold blood. They believe he was mistaken for his brother but neither he nor the persons who witnessed the incident were given the chance to explain. His father, Garnett Bryan, related Friday night's incident to RJR News. "He was sitting on a wall with two other youths with a lady standing beside them. The police car drive come down ... (the officers) come out (of the vehicle) and ask the two other men dem names, dem tell dem and (the police) tell dem to go a dem yaad and run whey di ooman (woman). Then dem start firing pure shot in the place ... (Kayon's) mother and aunty dem come round and a try fi carry him go hospital but the police throw him in did (car) trunk ad drive him weh," said Mr. Bryan. He added that the family is not prepared to simply dismiss the matter and will be seeking the intervention of the Office of the Public Defender. Member of Parliament for South Central St. Catherine Sharon Hay Webster who was at the scene of the demonstration denounced the police action. "I'm gonna have to make some representation on this matter because it cannot be that we speak about community policing and changing the relationship between police and community when it's clear that the police are targeting certain members in the community. If they want them, they must ask them to come in and it is clear that they were incorrect because they killed the wrong person," she said. Contrary to the account provided by the residents the police report that Mr. Bryan was killed after he fired at the police, but refused to comment on whether Mr. Bryan was the man for whom they were searching. CCN Liaison Officer for the St. Catherine North Police Division Corporal Maxine Russell Thomas related the official police account of the shooting. She said a police party was on patrol in the Jones Avenue area around 7pm Friday night when on reaching the vicinity of a shopping plaza, three men were seen. "On the approach of the police, the men started acting in a suspicious way. The police came out of the vehicle and the men opened fire at them and the police returned the fire. The men ran in different directions but one man fell clutching a .38 Smith and Wesson revolver containing three live rounds and three spent shells," said Corporal Russell Thomas. Andre Bryan was one of two suspects wanted for the June 27th attack on Mr. Chambers. The JUTC Chairman was killed while standing near the entrance to the JUTC's Spanish Town depot. He had taken a break from a meeting which was discussing plans to reduce the company's work force. http://www.jamaica-star.com/thestar/20080707/news/news4.html Gang leader's arrest sparks protest Rasbert Turner, Star Writer Spanish Town Several persons protes-ted the arrest of Tesha Miller, the alleged leader of the 'Clansman' gang, in Spanish Town, St Catherine, on Saturday. Miller was reportedly arrested in Portmore, St Catherine, by police on Friday night after breaching his bail bond which stated that he was not to leave his premises after a certain time of the day. When THE STAR visited Waterloo Lane, persons were seen with placards, some marked, 'Free the don now' and 'Wi need Tesha to be free now, im no do nothing'. The protesting residents, mostly women, claimed that Miller had not done anything to be arrested. They said he went to report to the police as a condition of his bail, when he was arrested. The protesters said they need their leader to be released. The St Catherine North police confirmed that Miller is in their custody and say they are investigating a matter about which they would like to talk to him. The Clansman gang is said to be aligned to the People's National Party. Miller is successor to the late Donovan 'Bulbie' Bennett. http://sportsjamaica.com/read_article.php?id=12773 Group protests ban on Samuels posted: 2008-06-11 06:36:59 Kwesi Mugisa, Staff Reporter It was a scene, albeit on a much smaller scale, that one would expect to see in cricket crazy countries like Pakistan and India but yesterday, close to 100 Jamaicans lined up to protest what they deemed to be unfair treatment handed down to West Indian batsman Marlon Samuels. The group, organised and led by dancehall artiste Horace Lewis, popularly known as 'LA Lewis', was armed with placards which displayed "Free Marlon Samuels" and similar messages. They met at Lewis' offices on Burlington avenue, before a one hour march around Half-Way Tree, which included a brief stop at the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's court. Samuels was banned for two years by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) in early May for breaching section C4 of the International Cricket Council's (ICC) code of conduct. Infringement According to the ruling for an infringement, which occurred during a series in India in February last year, the player "received money, benefit or other reward which could bring him or the game of cricket into disrepute". The WICB ruling, which carries a minimum of two years, cannot be appealed based on ICC regulations. "We have been watching this thing over the last couple of weeks and there has been a grave injustice done to Marlon Samuels," Lewis told The Gleaner. "You can't ban a cricketer or any athlete for that without giving them the right to appeal it. "Even when you have people found guilty of murder in court they have a right to appeal it. When the cricket people decided to do that it is almost a human rights violation," the charismatic Lewis said. He added: "Enough is not being said about it so we as entertainers, working people and as sports people have come together to let our voices be heard. "Maybe there are other people or players that would like to speak up, but they are scared to speak up because they will meet a similar fate. If that can happen to Marlon today though it might be someone else tomorrow." According to the entertainer the ban, if upheld, has the potential to drive fans away from the game, as the player is one greatly favoured by many around the region. Unique style "Personally is only two people I always go to watch and that is Brian Lara and Marlon Samuels. With Lara gone a lot of people go to watch Marlon because he has his own unique style," he said. "If you ban Marlon, particularly in this manner, then you will lose a lot of support from those people," he added. The batsman represented by lawyers, QCs Churchill Neita and Delano Harrison, is pressing for a judicial review of the ruling. Lewis has in the meantime vowed to continue the protest action, even taking his message to the dancehall. http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=145539 Thousands rally in Istanbul to protest coup attempts More than 20,000 people held a silent rally on Saturday in Istanbul's historical T?nel neighborhood to protest recent coup attempts by the military through several institutions that have resorted to anti-democratic practices. Thousands of people held a silent rally on Saturday in Istanbul to protest recent coup attempts by the military through several institutions that have resorted to anti-democratic practices. More than 20,000 people gathered in Istanbul's historical T?nel neighborhood at 5 p.m. on Saturday to raise their voices against anti-democratic initiatives. The rally, which came in the wake of a ruling by the Constitutional Court that annulled constitutional amendments that would have lifted a long-standing ban on the Muslim headscarf on university campuses, was planned in cooperation with such nongovernmental organizations as the Young Civilians, K?resel Eylem Grubu (Global Action Group), the Association of Human Rights and Solidarity for Oppressed Peoples (MAZLUM-DER), Irk?iliga ve Milliyet?ilige Dur De (Say Stop to Racism and Nationalism), Lambda -- a gay rights association -- and the Movement for Political Horizons (SUH). A number of famous figures, such as columnists Nazli Ilicak, Abdurrahman Dilipak and Nihal Bengisu Karaca; actress Lale Mansur; famous sociologist Ferhat Kentel; and ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) deputy Zeynep Dagi, participated in the march, called "70 Million Steps against Coups." Participants of the rally wore white gloves and they carried banners that read "Neither the judiciary, nor the military; the nation is the greatest," "Shoulder to shoulder against coups," "No to juntas, yes to democracy," "We can stop coups" and "Bow to the will of the people." The rally was held peacefully under heightened security measures. A statement read during the march said civilians and NGOs had gathered to express their stance against anti-democratic practices in Turkey. "This is the most beautiful day of the year. Here, we break our oaths of silence in support of democracy and justice. Are we going through a military intervention? It may not seem so at first glance, but the developments that followed the release of an e-memorandum on April 27, 2007 have shown that our democracy is the subject of some sort of intervention. While the country was busy considering the consequences of closure cases [against the governing AK Party and the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP)], the Constitutional Court overruled the headscarf amendments, approved by 411 deputies. The demand for a more democratic constitution, voiced by all pro-democracy powers, especially after the July 22 elections, has been pushed aside. The notions of freedom, justice and equality have been overshadowed. Today '70 Million Steps against Coups' shows that we are against coups," read the statement. Dagi expressed her support for the march, saying such platforms are of great significance for raising the public's voice against those who wish to prepare the groundwork for coups and anti-democratic practices. "For this reason, we support such initiatives. Support for such rallies and protests will stop those circles that uphold coups from reaching their objectives," she noted. Ilicak recalled that Turkey has suffered several coups in its history. "Adnan Menderes, a former prime minister, was hung in the aftermath of a military takeover [in 1960]. We have witnessed several coups and much suffering. Now, years later, we say 'no' to coup attempts for the first time ever," she said. ?zden S?nmez, who spoke on behalf of the Ankara Platform for Freedom of Belief, stressed his hope for a better future in Turkey. "Every dark night ends with a bright morning. Today we are experiencing Turkey's brightest day. We will have bright mornings from now on," he said. Other civilians who participated in Saturday's march expressed their opposition to coup attempts, too. Cemal Aydin, a retired teacher, said he joined the rally to stand by the vote he cast in the July 22 polls. "I want to reject all sorts of anti-democratic initiatives and see the will of the nation be the only rule in the country," he said. Nursen G?k?ek, who attended the rally with a walking stick in her hand, noted that she had witnessed several military interventions and coup attempts since she was 15. "We are facing new risks of anti-democratic interventions because we didn't raise our voices against them. Enough is enough," she remarked. Zeynep Ak, a university student, said the common wish of all participants of the march was to live in a more democratic Turkey. "My thoughts and beliefs are different from many people who are rallying beside me today. But, despite all our differences, our common wish is to live freely in this country," she said. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Fri Aug 29 17:25:53 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 01:25:53 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Pro-democracy, corruption and rights protests, Eastern Europe, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <005901c90a37$0074bf60$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ RUSSIA * Emo fans protest schools ban, conformism * Police confront pro-democracy protest in Moscow * Human rights protest at Red Square BELARUS * Opposition mark Chernobyl anniversary * Police attack opposition protest over mass detentions * Media restrictions protested ARMENIA * Opposition protest for removal of president AZERBAIJAN * Opposition protests ban on rallies in Baku GEORGIA * Protests over poll result, irregularities alleged BULGARIA * Politician seeks to defuse police repression after football protests * CSKA fans protest in Bulgaria and America * Opposition demands early polls SERBIA * Journalists call for symbolic protest * Opposition parties organise ongoing protests over city assembly session MACEDONIA * Thousands protest attack on Albanian leader BOSNIA * Sarajevo residents protest in show of scrutiny * Sarajevo protest for removal of mayor * Protests over police brutality at football protest * Unrest over sacking of football coach LATVIA * Protests as corruption "crusader" sacked http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080719185831.2doydzx8&show_article=1 Siberian emo fans protest planned ban: report Jul 19 02:58 PM US/Eastern Dozens of black-clad emo music fans protested Saturday in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk against plans by Russian lawmakers to ban their style from the country's schools, REN TV television reported. The protesters, many of them with piercings, streaks of dyed hair and studs, held up placards reading: "Kill the State in Yourself," "Why Do We Have To Think The Same?" and "A Totalitarian State Encourages Stupidity." "How can you stop people from expressing themselves, from dressing how they like, from living a way of life that doesn't harm anyone?" one woman with a long fringe and metal crosses round her neck said in the broadcast report. Russian lawmakers last month gave broad approval to a broad "concept for the spiritual and moral education of children," including plans for curfews, bans on "emo and goth" fashions in schools and censorship of text messages. The proposals are to be examined as draft laws over the next year. Emo music, characterised by high emotional content and alternation between quiet and loud sounds, started in the United States in the 1980s as part of the punk movement and has gained mainstream popularity in recent years. The music as well as the associated fashion -- tight jeans, long fringes and make-up for men -- has become popular across Russia, where there are also regular media reports that the movement encourages suicide. http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2008-05/2008-05-06-voa50.cfm?CFID=22420331&CFTOKEN=87084082 Russian Police Block Opposition Protest By VOA News 06 May 2008 Crowd at blocked Moscow protest, 06 May 2008 Russian police have blocked a planned opposition protest march in Moscow ahead of Wednesday's inauguration of Russia's new president, Dmitri Medvedev. Hundreds of protesters who gathered Tuesday at a metro station in central Moscow were met by a phalanx of police and security agents. At one point, an opposition organizer used a police megaphone to urge protesters to disperse. Witnesses say at least one person was arrested as he unfurled a protest sign. Russian riot police standing by near demonstration, 06 May 2008 Elsewhere in the city, police staked out an apartment and blocked 17 opposition leaders from leaving to attend the rally. The opposition activity is part of a series of so-called "Dissenter Marches" organized in the run-up to presidential elections in early March. Mr. Medvedev is President Putin's handpicked successor, and the opposition claims his election victory was rigged. Critics noted that the two candidates posing the most serious threat to the Medvedev candidacy, former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and former chess champion Garry Kasparov, were disqualified from the polls on technicalities. http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/25/europe/25russia.4.php Red Square protest echoes 1968 By Sophia Kishkovsky Published: August 25, 2008 MOSCOW: Seven human rights activists kneeled on Red Square on Sunday and unfurled a banner reading "For Your Freedom and Ours" and three were briefly detained by the police in a demonstration commemorating a similar action by Soviet dissidents 40 years ago who were protesting the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. Four journalists were also detained, according to news reports and information posted on a blog, moscow-river- 25.livejournal.com, that appears to be connected to the protestors. The demonstrators belong to an organization called the Human Rights Youth Movement and arranged their demonstration to copy as closely as possible the protest action of 1968. Blogs and Web sites have become a central means of communication for Russian human rights activists, who are shut out of the mainstream media, but fears were expressed on the Web site that the Internet is being targeted as well. "The participants of the demonstration think that freedom was born in the U.S.S.R. on August 25, 1968, and even 40 years later, in contemporary Russia, this slogan has not lost its timeliness," wrote one blogger. "It's become dangerous, once again, to have one's own opinion. There's not enough freedom, not even in blogs." It was not clear whether the group was protesting the Russian military action in South Ossetia and Georgia. Novaya Gazeta, an opposition newspaper, in a story posted on its Web site Sunday, quotes one of the protesters as saying the war with Georgia was not the motivation for the protest. A reporter from the newspaper was among the detained journalists. "The action is devoted to the battle for civil rights and is in no way connected with events in Georgia,"' said the protestor, according to Novaya Gazeta. But Lyudmila Alekseyeva, chairwoman of the Moscow Helsinki Group and a veteran of the Soviet human rights movement who was close to the protestors who shocked the Soviet authorities and the world with their demonstration Aug. 25, 1968, said she saw a connection between the sequence of events then and now. "Forty years ago it was hands off of Czechoslovakia," she said in an interview by telephone. "Now it is hands off of Georgia." On Sunday, as in 1968, seven demonstrators unfurled a banner with the words "For Your Freedom and Ours" at noon on Red Square in front of Lobnoye Mesto, a centuries-old platform from which tsarist edicts and criminal convictions used to be read out. The 1968 protesters were expressing their opposition the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, which had put a violent end to the Prague Spring liberalization movement, and their gesture, which resulted in long prison terms for most of them, was considered one of the seminal moments of the Soviet dissident movement. The Sunday demonstration, as in 1968, was arranged in secret. Alekseyeva said she did not know about it before the fact, but that the activists had contacted her afterwards to report on what they had done. Those detained on Sunday face minor punishment of a small fine or possibly several days in jail, but Alekseyeva said the authorities reaction showed that the mentality has changed little from 1968. She said she would be publicly supporting the protestors. "I plan to make it shameful for the authorities," she said. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/26/europe/EU-GEN-Belarus-Chernobyl-Protest.php Belarusian graduates sent to work in Chernobyl zone against their will The Associated Press Published: April 26, 2008 MINSK, Belarus: Several thousand supporters of the beleaguered Belarusian opposition marched through the capital on Saturday to mark the anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident and protest an alleged government cover-up of the disaster's consequences. Many of the approximately 3,000 marchers expressed particular dismay over the government's policy of assigning recent university graduates to work in areas contaminated by the 1986 nuclear reactor explosion. The Chernobyl power plant in Ukraine is just south of the border with Belarus. The explosion spewed a cloud of radiation over much of Europe, and Belarus, downwind from the plant, was severely affected. In recent years, the government has removed about 1,000 cities and towns from the radiation danger list, despite what critics say is a substantial continuing health risk. Statistics about illness in the contaminated parts of Belarus - about 23 percent of its territory - are kept under wraps by the government of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko. The government says that the areas it has removed from the danger list are safe to return to. Protesters said the government was denying help to people affected by the disaster, including those who were sent in to clean up radioactive fallout. "The government has abolished our benefits in order to bury us and the problems together. Lukashenko is simply burying those people who liquidated the disaster," said 56-year-old Valery Yagur, a protester who had been among the clean-up workers. Lukashenko's government rarely allows opposition rallies, and participants took the opportunity of Saturday's sanctioned gathering to raise protests against his hardline rule, carrying signs reading "Freedom" and the now-banned red-and-white flag that was the first flag of post-Soviet Belarus. The demonstration was peaceful and ended without incident. Protester Konstantin Timokhov, 21, said he was deeply worried that the government will force him to work in a contaminated area when he graduates from university. "The government is hiding the truth from us. My health and my future are in danger," he said. Radiation levels have declined substantially in most areas near Chernobyl, but scientists disagree on the level of risk. Some doctors who work in towns downwind from Chernobyl say the health effects are still being felt, and students being sent into these areas are afraid. Kasya Markouskaya, 23, has been ordered to spend two years in Buda-Koshelyovo, a contamination-area town, when she graduates with a journalism degree this spring. "My situation is little different from that of a slave who has been forced to do dangerous work," Markouskaya told The Associated Press recently. If she refuses, she will either be stripped of her diploma or required to reimburse the state for the full cost of her education. When she entered university, there were no such strings attached. The work assignments began last year, and about one-fourth of this year's 21,000 graduates are being sent to the contaminated areas. Vice Prime Minister Alexander Kosinets said at parliamentary hearings Friday that if the work assignments were canceled, these regions would be left without the doctors, teachers, agricultural workers and other specialists they need. Many people from these areas moved away; Lukashenko now wants to repopulate them so agriculture and industry can be revived. Some of the young professionals sent to contaminated regions last year have already fled. About 800 graduates have refused to take up their work assignments this year, the Education Ministry said. Saturday's rally also included statements of opposition to proposals to building a nuclear power plant. Lukashenko later in the day called opponents of a plant "enemies of our people." http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L14121312.htm Belarus police disperse detentions protest 14 Jul 2008 17:13:53 GMT Source: Reuters By Andrei Makhovsky MINSK, July 14 (Reuters) - Police in Belarus dispersed a protest on Monday by dozens of opposition activists denouncing what they said was the detention of comrades after a bomb blast at a concert attended by President Alexander Lukashenko. Riot police moved into the capital Minsk's main October Square and pushed out about 30 demonstrators carrying portraits of opposition figures they said were being held after the July 4 explosion, which wounded more than 50 people. Senior opposition figure Anatoly Lebedko was knocked to the ground and told reporters he had been kicked by an officer. "The authorities have ignored our call not to launch a crusade against those who do not agree with them on the pretext of fighting terrorism," Lebedko said. "The crusade has started and every day there are more and more victims." Lukashenko is accused in the West of violating basic freedoms and says he hopes a September election to parliament will prove that Belarus respects democratic principles. The often divided liberal and nationalist opposition says about a dozen activists were rounded up after the explosion at an outdoor concert marking Belarus's national holiday. Three were released after proving they were unconnected with the incident. Authorities have said nothing about detentions. Authorities played down the seriousness of the blast by calling it "hooliganism", implying no political dimension and no one has claimed responsibility. Lukashenko has pledged to stage no crackdown on opponents. Opposition groups say the detentions could compromise the September election and suggested last week they could pull out unless their members were freed. A boycott would diminish any chance of Western recognition. The opposition currently has no seats in parliament. Lukashenko, barred from entering the United States and European Union, has been trying to improve ties with the EU, which says any such development depends on democratic change. Broadly popular among Belarus's 10 million people, the president has pledged to oversee a fair campaign, with broadcast time for all candidates and free access for Western observers. (Writing by Ron Popeski; editing by Elizabeth Piper) http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/25/europe/EU-GEN-Belarus-Media-Protest.php Belarusian journalists protest new harsh media restrictions The Associated Press Published: June 25, 2008 MINSK, Belarus: Dozens of Belarusian news Web sites on Wednesday filled their pages with grim black banners to protest a new media law that will severely restrict the last source of independent information in this repressive ex-Soviet state. The popular online news resources also kept their blogs silent for an hour in an act of defiance that they dubbed "an hour of black silence." The bill, which won the final approval in the lower house of parliament Tuesday, cracks down on news Web sites, the last remaining sources of uncensored information in this country of 10 million. Many newspapers that have been closed down have found refuge in cyberspace and became the only place for Belarusians to gain access to independent news and analysts. The measure also prohibits local media outlets from getting vital foreign funding and obliges them to register with the government. "The threat of closing down numerous news sites and sources of independent information on the Internet is as real as ever," said Zhanna Litvina, head of Belarusian Association of Journalists. Reporters Without Borders assailed the bill as "repressive." "We fear that censorship will be stepped up," the Paris-based media freedom watchdog said in a statement Wednesday. The bill was drafted by President Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled this nation with an iron fist since 1994, earning the reputation of "Europe's last dictator." The government argues the Internet must be brought to heel to protect Belarusians from foreign propaganda. The measure is expected to quickly come into force after winning approval in the parliament's upper chamber and being signed into law by the president. http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/364430/1/.html Armenian opposition protesters call for president's removal Posted: 02 August 2008 0346 hrs Armenians cheer during a speech by opposition politician Levon Ter-Petrosian in Yerevan YEREVAN : Several thousand opposition supporters rallied Friday in the Armenian capital Yerevan demanding President Serzh Sarkisian's removal and early elections. Up to 5,000 protesters were seen in the centre of Yerevan by an AFP reporter. "We are demanding the removal of the president and new parliamentary and presidential elections," former president and opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosian told the crowd. Ter-Petrosian called another protest for September 5. Opposition supporters have regularly rallied in Yerevan since Sarkisian was elected in a February poll marred by post-election violence that left 10 dead. The opposition, which accuses Sarkisian of rigging the election, protested for 11 days after the vote before being violently dispersed by riot police. A mountainous country of about three million people, Armenia has experienced repeated political violence since gaining its independence with the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. - AFP /ls http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/17/europe/EU-GEN-Azerbaijan-Opposition.php Azerbaijani police briefly detain 13 opposition activists protesting in capital The Associated Press Published: June 17, 2008 BAKU, Azerbaijan: Azerbaijani police briefly detained 13 opposition activists who gathered Tuesday to protest an official ban on rallies in the capital. The demonstrators tried to gather outside the Baku mayor's office, shouting "Freedom!" Police spokesman Kamal Velishov said they were taken into custody for holding an illegal rally. The demonstration was held to pressure authorities to lift their ban on opposition rallies in the capital in the run-up to the presidential election in October, said Arif Hajili, of the opposition Musavat party. "We have repeatedly asked the mayor's office to allow our rallies, but they kept refusing," Hajili said. "We will continue our fight." He said the party activists were released shortly after. Authorities have offered the opposition to hold their rallies on the outskirts of the capital, but opposition leaders have refused. President Ilham Aliev, who took over from his father in a 2003 election denounced by opponents as a sham, has faced persistent criticism for his government's heavy-handed treatment of independent media and opposition groups. http://www.mathaba.net/rss/?x=593402 Tens of thousands of people protest against Georgia poll result Posted: 2008/05/27 From: Source It is the biggest protest demonstration since Mikheil Saakashvili's January inauguration. (Aljazeera) Tens of thousands of people have protested against Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia's president, in the country's capital, saying his ruling party stole victory in last week's parliamentary election. The protesters, who gathered in front of Tbilisi's parliament building, remained at the scene for four hours on Monday. Official results show Saakashvili's United National Movement won about 120 out of the parliament's 150 seats, giving him a constitutional majority. European monitors said the election did not live up to Georgia's democratic potential and that it had verified cases of intimidation. However, it said that overall the vote had expressed the will of the people. The president's democratic credentials have been under intense scrutiny after he used riot police to crush protests against the government last November. The demonstrators also allege that he rigged his presidential victory in January. Deputies barred Opposition deputies tried to enter the parliament building on Monday but were barred by special service soldiers. Koba Davitashvili, a former Saakashvili ally who is now an opposition leader, called for the president to recognise the vote had been rigged. "If Saakashvili does not recognise the election as falsified then the people will move towards the place where he currently sits and demand an answer from him," Davitashvili told the crowd. The opposition said over 100,000 had gathered for the protest, but international journalists at the rally put the figure at 40,000. The lower figure would still make it the biggest protest demonstration since Saakashvili's January inauguration. 'Vote thief' Most of the protesters gathered for the rally after attending Georgia's annual Independence Day military parade, at which Saakashvili was present. Addressing the crowd, Salome Zurabishvili, an opposition leader who once served as Saakashvili's foreign minister, said: "We want these elections to be cancelled and we want this parliament to be abolished." Some protesters carried an effigy of Saakashvili with a banner saying "Vote Thief" while others chanted "Misha go! Misha go!" Misha is a short form for the name Mikheil. Opposition leaders, who have vowed to boycott the new parliament, said they would prevent parliament from convening next month by forming a human cordon around it. "We won't allow a new parliament to gather and to start working," David Gamkrelidze, a leader of the opposition bloc which took second place in the elections, told the rally. Russian tensions Saakashvili has been hoping to portray the elections as fair as part of his plan to convince the West to defy Russian objections and offer Georgia Nato membership. Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's president, sent congratulations to Saakashvili for the Independence Day celebrations and said Moscow wanted good relations with Tbilisi. Georgia has accused Russia of supporting its breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. On Monday, the United Nations released a report saying that a Russian fighter plane had shot down a Georgian drone last month over Abkhazia. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/26/news/Georgia-Opposition.php 50,000 turn out in Georgia to protest election results The Associated Press Published: May 26, 2008 TBILISI, Georgia: About 50,000 opposition demonstrators marched through Georgia's capital on Monday to protest parliamentary election results they said were rigged in favor of the ruling party. It was one of the biggest showings of discontent in the strategic ex-Soviet republic since a police crackdown on an opposition rally in November that undermined President Mikhail Saakashvili's image as a democratic reformer. Saakashvili's United National Movement won about 120 out of the 150 parliament seats in Wednesday's election, strengthening the U.S.-allied leader's grip on power. The United Opposition alliance, which won 16 seats, accused the authorities of widespread violations and refused to enter parliament. Supporters of two other opposition parties, which also won several seats, joined the protest. The protesters carried an effigy of Saakashvili with a sign saying "Vote Thief" and slogans saying "Georgia without Saakashvili!" and "For free elections!" The protesters reached the city's main avenue shortly after a military parade marking the country's Independence Day had ended. Scores of riot police officers allowed the protesters to pass unimpeded to the parliament building. "We don't recognize this parliament and refuse to join it," opposition leader David Gamkrelidze told the crowd. "We are demanding to hold a new parliamentary vote." Last week, the European Union said the main international observer mission called the implementation of Georgia's democratic commitments "uneven and incomplete," and urged authorities to ensure all complaints were "urgently addressed." But the EU also urged "all political forces to respect the election results." The opposition parties share Saakashvili's pro-Western views and his wariness of Russia, but they have criticized the U.S.-educated lawyer for what they called authoritarian ways and his failure to lift the nation out of poverty. The growing feuding between Saakashvili and his opponents spilled into the streets repeatedly over the past year, heightening tension in the nation, which sits on a key oil pipeline pumping Caspian crude to the West and is at the center of a struggle for influence between Russia and the West. Washington's and the EU's support for Saakashvili have prompted some of the opposition members to voice distrust in the West. "We don't need either the United States or Europe to act as advisers," said Levan Gachechiladze, the main leader of the United Opposition. Opposition leaders were planning another protest for June 10, the day the new parliament is set to start work. "We won't leave the authorities in peace. We will free our country," Gachechiladze said. Saakashvili, who won a second term in January, has assiduously courted the U.S. and sent troops to Iraq. His efforts to take Georgia out of Russia's orbit and join NATO has put him on a collision course with Moscow which has developed close ties with Georgia's breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=94176 Bulgaria Interior Minister Spends Night in Police Precinct Over CSKA Protests 15 June 2008, Sunday Bulgaria Interior Minister Spends Night in Police Precinct Over CSKA Protests: Bulgarian Interior Minister Mihail Mikov spent four hours Saturday night at the First Police Precinct in Sofia because he had decided to personally deal with the 56 CSKA football club fans who have been arrested for disorderly conduct in public and for organizing a protest without having a permit earlier in the evening Saturday. Mikov arrived at the Precinct around 10:30 pm and stayed until 2:30 am Sunday. After his interference only two fans remained jailed because they have been filmed when disobeying the law. At his departure Mikov had a friendly talk with the fans who have been allowed to leave the Precinct. The Minister declined any comments regarding his late-night appearance with the motive that he did not want to use the situation for self-promotion, adding only that he has been personally asked for assistance by the Chair of the CSKA Fan Club - Dimitar Anglov AKA "The Duche". At the conclusion of a meeting and concert at the national "Vasil Levski" stadium" earlier Saturday evening, angry CSKA fans demonstrated in front t of the Bulgarian Football Union building, blocking traffic in the area while some threw bottles and seemingly appeared under the influence of alcohol. After refusing to disperse when asked by the police, 56 fans were detained while 6 have been accused of hooliganism with reports submitted to Sofia's District Court. The Court Sunday fined four of the six accused fans and acquitted the other two for lack of evidence. http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=94082 CSKA Fans Protest in New York 12 June 2008, Thursday CSKA Fans Protest in New York: Fans of Bulgarian football champion CSKA have staged protests in the city of New York demanding justice for the red club. Protesters placed a huge banner in front of the Bulgarian consulate in the Big Apple calling for "Prison for the Bulgaria football mafia." The fans say that their protests will continue until those who are responsible for the situation of the club are put in jail. CSKA have failed to get a license from the Bulgarian Football Union over unpaid debts, thus being banished from participation in UEFA's Champions League. Former CSKA president Alexander Tomov had repeatedly stated all debts of the club were settled, but after the truth about the financial mismanagement of the club was revealed, Tomov narrowly escaped lynching by angry fans before resigning. http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/221890,bulgaria-opposition-launches-protest-demands-early-poll--summary.html Bulgaria opposition launches protest, demands early poll - Summary Posted : Mon, 28 Jul 2008 11:42:01 GMT Author : DPA Category : World Sofia - Bulgarian nationalists overnight launched an open- ended protest, demanding early elections this autumn after the European Union cut off almost 500 million euros (785 million dollars) in aid to the country over its failure to halt corruption. Leaders and supporters of the ultra-nationalist opposition Ataka party, which organized the protest, have staged a sit-in, setting up up tents between the presidential, council of ministries and parliament buildings in Sofia. "The EU report is a signal that the country is in a crisis," said one activist of the Ataka party, which has 21 mandates in the 240- seat parliament. Also supporters of the Green Party, which is not represented in the parliament, demonstrated for the resignation of the socialist-led government of Sergey Stanishev. The parliament in Sofia is scheduled to debate a motion of no confidence by the opposition on Tuesday, the sixth such motion since Stanishev's government took office in August 2005. The motion by right-wing parties is a reaction to the unprecedented EU report of last Wednesday, in which the bloc explained its decision to cut off funds meant for institution building, rural development and major infrastructure projects. The highly critical report had said authorities in Bulgaria, the EU's poorest nation, had done little to properly fight corruption and organized crime, and cited evidence that senior Bulgarian officials were diverting EU aid. An earlier draft of the report had even included allegations of ties between Stanishev's government and organized crime figures, but these were omitted from the final report. The aid cutoff was the first ever imposed on an EU member country. Romania was also criticized for shortcomings in anti-graft efforts. Both eastern European countries joined the EU in January 2007. Stanishev himself had called the report an "encouragement to pursue reform" and said Bulgaria was "learning to handle EU funds." Bulgaria meanwhile said it would use the surplus in its own budget to compensate for the cancelled EU funds. Stanishev's Socialist-led coalition, which also includes the liberal NMS and the ethnic-Turkish dominated MRF, decided at a weekend meeting in the south-western ski resort of Bansko to use some of the 3.8 billion lev (1.9 billion euros) surplus, local media reported. Stanishev said after the meeting that a new working group was tasked with controlling all Bulgarian authorities responsible for payments from Brussels. http://www.b92.net//eng/news/society-article.php?yyyy=2008&mm=05&dd=03&nav_id=49928 B92 News Society Society Journalist association calls for symbolic protest 3 May 2008 | 12:38 | Source: B92, Beta BELGRADE -- The Independent Association of Journalist of Serbia, NUNS, called on members to engage in "five minutes of deafening silence". The initiative, also joined by the Branch Union of the Media Independence, was meant to mark the World Press Freedom Day in this way today at five minutes to midday. The five minutes of silence should have drawn attention to the difficult position faced by both journalists and journalism in Serbia, NUNS said. NUNS has called on all reporters to take part in the campaign, blackout screens in electronic media, leave news conferences if they happen to be attending, and read out the organization's announcement issued today. B92 and Enter were the only Belgrade-based television stations that accepted the call to interrupt their programs for five minutes. The Association of Serbia's Journalists, UNS, also supported the initiative. http://www.b92.net//eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2008&mm=06&dd=05&nav_id=50850 Protests continue at Belgrade City Hall 5 June 2008 | 16:26 | Source: Tanjug BELGRADE -- SRS, DSS-NS and SPS supporters have continued their protests in front of Belgrade City Hall with an action called "Resit". The demonstrators are protesting against the decision to schedule the first constitutive session of the Belgrade assembly for July 14. Today's performance was attended by the coalition's candidate for mayor, the Serb Radical Party's (SRS) Aleksandar Vucic, Aleksandar Antic of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), and Dubravka Filipovski of the Democratic Party-New Serbia (DSS-NS). Filipovski said that "regular protests will continue." http://www.b92.net//eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2008&mm=06&dd=07&nav_id=50893 City Hall protests continue 7 June 2008 | 09:56 | Source: Beta BELGRADE -- SRS, SPS and DSS-NS supporters have continued their protest in front of Belgrade City Hall at Mayor Zoran Alimpic's decision to call the constitutive session for July 14. Antic, Vucic (FoNet) In a performance last night entitled "Light for Belgrade", participants carried candles and torches in order to, as they put it, shed light on those who were destroying democracy and law and order. The participants were addressed by representatives earmarked for the top jobs in local government-the Radicals' Aleksandar Vucic , the Socialists' Aleksandar Antic and Dubravka Filipovski of New Serbia-who said that they were united and determined to persist in their battle for democratic rights and the respect of the citizens' will. "We've gathered here tonight to shed light on those who call on democracy, but who are breaking the law," they said, adding that every night, in ever greater numbers, they would show those who "call on democracy, but blatantly and willfully attempt to stay in power at any cost," that they were mistaken and that they did not have the right to act like this. "Those who call on European values and Serbia's future should know that the international community condemns this kind of willfulness," said Filipovski, while Vucic said that the new city government would tackle all forms of crime and corruption. The crowd chanted "Thieves, thieves" and "Out, out". The protest passed off without incident. http://www.b92.net//eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2008&mm=06&dd=01&nav_id=50719 Radicals announce protests in Belgrade 1 June 2008 | 17:07 | Source: Beta BELGRADE -- The Radicals (SRS) Secretary General Aleksandar Vucic has announced protests in Belgrade over the date set for the first sitting of the new city assembly. Vucic seen during the news conference today (Tanjug) Vucic, seen as the likely new mayor after a coalition deal for the capital stuck by the SRS, the DSS and the Socialists (SPS) earlier this week, said his party's new partners will also take part. The coalition is unhappy with acting Mayor Zoran Alimpic's decision to schedule the assembly session for July 14. Vucic told journalists in a news conference in Belgrade today that the protests will be held "starting Wednesday". He added the Radicals' coalition partners were close to agreement on how to proceed with the demonstrations, as well as about "the way in which we will implement these democratic changes that the Belgraders wish to see implemented". The coalition will, according to the SRS official, take all legal measures to make sure the will of the voters is respected. Vucic also said the explanation head for the July 14 date was "immoral and incredible", since Alimpic said he was not convinced that the SRS-DSS-SPS coalition does have a majority in the city assembly. The SRS secretary general said this delay would "cost Belgrade dearly". As for the speculation that the coalition in the capital might fall apart, Vucic said that his primary concern is to "enter this deal as an honest man and to leave that way". Meanwhile, the man the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) put forward as their candidate for mayor before the elections, Aleksandar Popovic, said that the DS preventing the meeting of the Belgrade assembly was a textbook example of this party's tyranny. "Anyone with a cool head can understand that the decision to schedule the constitutive session for July 14 is more than detrimental for democracy. No one is Europe, that we strive toward, behaves in this way, no one is even thinking about usurping the power and threatening democracy," Popovic told Vecernje Novosti daily. He added that the Democrats' attempt to "impose tyranny" at any cost, justified by references to Europe and European values, is "meaningless and degrading". "Respect for democratic principles is more important than who will exercise authority in Belgrade, because any government is replaceable," Popovic said. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/13/europe/EU-GEN-Macedonia-Elections-Violence.php Macedonia: Thousands protest attack against ethnic Albanian leader; EU, US concerned The Associated Press Published: May 13, 2008 TETOVO, Macedonia: About 10,000 people demonstrated Tuesday against what they said was an attempt to assassinate the leader of a major ethnic Albanian opposition party in the northwest Macedonian city of Tetovo. Ali Ahmeti, a former rebel commander, was unhurt when gunmen sprayed his car with automatic gunfire late Monday in Tetovo as he was campaigning for June 1 general elections. The gunfire left a bystander injured. The EU and the U.S. expressed concern over the violence. At least eight regional offices of Ahmeti's Democratic Union for Integration party have been attacked since Sunday - seven with gunfire and one with a hand grenade. No injuries were reported from those incidents. Ahmeti's party blamed a rival ethnic Albanian party, the Democratic Party of Albanians, which in turn denied any involvement. Late Tuesday, authorities said two suspects had been arrested in connection with the attack against Ahmeti, and charged with "endangering security," while a third remained at large. Ethnic Albanians account for about a quarter of Macedonia's 2.1 million population. In 2001, ethnic Albanian rebels staged an armed rebellion against the government. But fierce rivalry has since grown between the two main Albanian parties, and intensified in the run-up to the June 1 elections. About 10,000 DUI supporters marched Tuesday through the center of Tetovo, an ethnic Albanian majority city. The protest ended peacefully. DUI officials claimed Monday's attack had been orchestrated by Democratic Party of Albanians' leader Menduh Thaci and Macedonian special police to intimidate the electorate not to vote. The DPA denied any involvement and condemned the attacks. Macedonian President Branko Crvenkovski, has warned the pre-election violence could ruin the country's hopes of joining NATO and the EU, and urged ethnic Albanian leaders to calm tensions. A statement issued by the Slovenian Embassy in Skopje on behalf of the EU called for calm. Slovenia currently holds the EU rotating presidency. "Violence has no place in an election campaign," it said. Krisztina Nagy, EU spokeswoman on enlargement, said Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn was worried by the "worsening of the security situation." Also Tuesday, the U.S. Embassy expressed "deep concern" over the current election atmosphere in Macedonia. http://www.b92.net//eng/news/region-article.php?yyyy=2008&mm=06&dd=06&nav_id=50861 Albanian party holds Skoplje protest 6 June 2008 | 09:51 | Source: Beta SKOPLJE -- At least 3,000 supporters of the Albanian Democratic Union for Integration (DUI) gathered last night in Skopje to protest the violence during Sunday's elections. The the ethnic Albanian party stated that the peaceful demonstration had been organized as a sign of protest over electoral "irregularities and manipulations" that had occurred. One person was killed and eight wounded in clashes with police on Sunday, while 50 people have been arrested in the last three days. The Macedonian Electoral Committee stated that voting would be repeated in at least 25 polling stations on June 15. The Committee has received over 56 complaints from political parties concerning electoral improprieties. http://see.oneworldsee.org/article/view/148336/1/3184 Protest-Concert in Sk?nderbej Square Mjaft 18 April 2007 Last Friday, April 13, approximately 50,000 Albanians responded to the Prime Minister's attacks on the media through a peaceful manifestation in "Skenderbej Square", thereby marking the largest manifestation ever witnessed in Albania since the rise of the pluralist system. This manifestation was not coordinated by political parties; rather, it was jointly organized by civil society and the media. By simultaneously raising their hands and emphatically screaming Mjaft! to each governmental attempt to bring the independent media down to its knees, the protestors primarily demonstrated, in the capital's main square, their respect for the media and for the freedom of speech that was reestablished 17 years ago. Erion Veliaj, Mjaft!'s Executive Director, spoke both to the people present in the square and to the millions of viewers that watched this manifestation live on TV. "Imagine an Albania without free speech; imagine a country where thousands of people lose their jobs and have no media to turn to in order to report and denounce such an encroachment on freedom; imagine a country where businesses go bankrupt and foreign enterprises pull out; imagine, if there was no media, all these problems would go unnoticed", he said for the TV cameras. http://see.oneworldsee.org/article/view/150876/1/3189 Token Protests in Sarajevo Dejan Georgievski 29 April 2008 A group of citizens of Sarajevo organized small, token-protest in front of the Building of the Cantonal Government in Sarajevo during the session of the Cantonal Parliament of April 24, aiming to demonstrate to the Parliament and the Government that every move they make is carefully watched. Citizens of Sarajeva believe that the time when misleading the public was possible and accepted practice are long gone, and that the adoption of the action plan for prevention of youth delinquency has been accompanied, from the very beginning, by wrong and negative intents and outright lies. - For those reasons, we fear that this action plan to, regardless of its obvious shortcomings, will remain just words of paper, say Citizens of Sarajevo. They sent a message to those in power that ignoring problems is not the right approach to finding solutions and that they intend to remain strong in their attempts to undermine their reputation and political support and disclose every wrong move they make. http://see.oneworldsee.org/article/view/150924/1/3189 Maj 9 - New Protests! Alisa Karovic 09 May 2008 Citizens of Sarajevo Informal Group organizes today, May 9, new round of protests in front of the Building to the Cantonal Government, to demand, once again, resignations and removal from office of Cantonal Prime Minister Samir Silajdzic and Mayor of Sarajevo Semiha Borovac. In the call to the citizens to join the protests and the fight for truth, justice and human dignity, the Groups says that they wouldn`t give up on their demands first presented three months ago. `You can hardly pass the university entry exam in three tries in this society, not to mention the removal of incompetent and irresponsible persons that decide our fate and lead us on the road to ruin`, say the Citizens of Sarajevo. The protests are held, with intended symbolism, on the Day of Victory over Fascism and the Europea Day, since, as they say `it is evident that with such politicians, we will never be able to join EU. They could take us only into a union of third-world countries`, said the Group in a press conference held yesterday. `The citizens have to understand that the holders of power intend to stick to their lies. Therefore, we have to stick to the truth, which is rather simple, they do nothing to improve the life in the country`, add the cirizens of Sarajevo. The `Concert of the Potters of Sarajevo` street performance was held yesterday, in front of about thirty citizens and the far more numerous security around the National Theatre. http://see.oneworldsee.org/article/view/151013/1/3189 Send to a Friend Help Police Brutality Against Protesters at BIH Football Association Planned Sanjin Buzo 26 May 2008 (Photo: Sarajevo-x.com) The Dosta Movement accused the Ministry of Interior of Bosnia and Herzegovina of intentional brutality against the participants in the protests organized last Friday, May 23, in front of the building of the BiH Football Association in Sarajevo. On initiative of the Youth Movement for Better BiH, protests were organized (initially to take place on Saturday, May 24, but moved to Friday because of the game day of the Bosnian Premier League) because of the situation of Bosnian and Herzegovinian football and the latest developments in the FABIH. The initiative was joined by numerous fans` associations and football fan groups from Sarajevo, Mostar, Zenica and Tuzla. The Dosta! Movement also called the citizens to join the football supporters in the protest. The initiative was also supported by the Citizens of Sarajevo and a number of public personalities. About 2000 people turned up in front of FABIH building, mostly organized football fans, with small number of citizens and activists. After about 20 minutes of peaceful protests, accompanied by the racket created by fans` pyrotechnics, admittedly, thrown at the building, the Police, although under no threat of attack or any immediate danger, attacked the protesters without warning and beating everyone indiscriminately. (Photo: Sarajevo-x.com) Innocent passers-by, elderly, women and children fell victims to rampaging riot squad. Some 30 people were arrested and detained. After it broke the protests and emptied the street, the Police blocked all access to the FABIH building. -We have to point out that there was no warning by the Police for protesters to move and dissipate. Quite clearly, the Police lost its professional standards today and put itself in service of the criminals in the Football Association and their associates, the corrupt politicians, states the public statement released by Dosta Movement. We learn unofficially that the Police received orders to use force and to `not allow the ring-leaders to escape`, in an attempt to demonize the citizens and football fans that took part in the protest. Our sources also say that the riot-policemen at the place came with their stereotyped view of fans as hooligans, adding that no material damage was caused on the surrounding buildings or the FA building. -We believe that the Police bears all responsibility for the riots today. We want to praise the behaviour of football fan groups, who managed, for the first time, to create a union against those who should have felt the power of `our` police authorities long time ago, adds Dosta. (Photo: Sarajevo-x.com) Dosta adds that Friday`s events prove that the Government will not tolerate any protest any more, will attack without warning, in spite of the obligation for the Police to issue warnings before going into action, and that the Police openly sided with the criminals and corrupt politicians. The initiative of protests and boycott against the current situation in FA BiH continues on June 1, at the Kosevo Olympic Stadium, with a game of big former and current stars of Bosnian and Nerzegovinian football, at the same time when the national team plays a friendly with Azerbaijan. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20080523-0943-bosnia-protest.html Bosnian protesters damage shops, soccer headquarters over sacking of national coach ASSOCIATED PRESS 9:43 a.m. May 23, 2008 SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina - Bosnian protesters trashed shops and smashed windows at the headquarters of the country's soccer association Friday to protest the sacking of the national team coach. Police said they arrested up to 35 people after enraged fans threw bricks, stones, flares and chairs during the protests. Two officers were slightly hurt. Hundreds had gathered outside the association's offices in Sarajevo to protest Meho Kodro's dismissal and to call for the association's management to step down. The association said it fired Kodro last week because he refused to let the national team play a friendly match against Iran. Kodro said he refused to name a squad for the friendly match scheduled for May 26 in Tehran because he believed there were better ways to improve the team, which failed to qualify for this summer's Euro 2008 tournament. Kodro told reporters that the real reason for his sacking was a long-festering dispute between himself and senior figures in the association he accused of trying to influence team selection. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/29/europe/EU-GEN-Latvia-Anti-Corruption-Chief.php Latvian lawmakers sack popular anti-corruption chief despite protest rally The Associated Press Published: June 29, 2008 RIGA, Latvia: Latvian lawmakers sacked a popular anti-corruption chief on Sunday, ignoring the heckling from hundreds of protesters who were outside Parliament to support the investigator. The legislators voted 52-40, with seven abstentions, to remove Aleskejs Loskutovs from his job. Loskutovs - who has earned a reputation as a crusader against corruption - came under fire after an internal audit in April revealed that two employees in his anti-corruption bureau had stolen more than a quarter-million dollars in cash from bureau funds. Loskutovs, an ethnic Russian, gained enormous popularity over the four years he headed the bureau for spearheading numerous anti-corruption investigations, with targets ranging from powerful ministers to rank-and-file traffic police. However, he angered coalition parties after hitting them with large fines for alleged campaign violations involving illicit fundraising. If enforced, the fines would be a major financial blow to the ruling parties. A previous effort to remove Loskutovs from office led to the collapse of Latvia's last government in December. Several thousand Latvians had protested then to keep Loskutovs in the job. On Sunday, some 400 demonstrators showed up, waving signs and jeering coalition lawmakers who had expressed support for removing Loskutovs. Some had a rare opportunity to meet the singer Seal, who was in Riga to hold a concert and on Sunday morning took pictures of the demonstration, though he did not participate, and fielded questions from local journalists. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Fri Aug 29 18:02:59 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 02:02:59 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] US protests against Bushites, and global protests against US abuses Message-ID: <005a01c90a3c$28abc0f0$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * Bush protested in Monticello * Bush protested in Maine * Bush protested by workers in Cleveland * McCain protested in Atlanta * Several more Monticello stories * McCain protester thrown out by goons * Four arrested at Rove protest * Bush, McCain protested in Mesa, Phoenix * Bush commencement speech draws protests at Furman University, SC * Clinton backers protest party meeting * Students protest Rove speech, block car * Cheney protested in Richmond, Virginia * Protester assaulted near McCain rally * "The story behind my O'Reilly protest" * UK: Protest over trial of Guantanamo inmate * CANADA: Kids for Khadr - protest over underage Canadian at Guantanamo * CUBA: Rally in support of Cuban Five political prisoners * PAKISTAN: Fiery protests over trial of Pakistani woman http://www.nbc29.com/Global/story.asp?S=8620581&nav=menu496_2_6 Demonstrators Protest President Bush Posted: July 4, 2008 06:15 PM Updated: July 4, 2008 06:09 PM EDT Not everyone was happy to see President Bush in Albemarle County Friday. Demonstrations took place before during and after Friday morning's naturalization ceremony. A couple of hundred protesters lined Route 20, while a handful of others briefly disrupted the ceremonies at Monticello. Protestors say they wanted to make sure the president and the public heard their message. Protesters shouts interfered with Bush's remarks at the outset of the cermony, and the president responded by saying he agrees that "we believe in free speech in the United States of America." Six protestors were removed from the ceremony. According to Albemarle County Spokesperson Lee Caitlin, none were arrested. There were no charges were filed against the protestors. But that was not the only place where the commander-in-chief drew opposition. As the president's motorcade drove by more than a hundred people lined Route 20 to express their displeasure with Mr. Bush. There were two counter-protestors. Jeff Wray, who supports President Bush, said "and with George Bush, our president, being here, he oughtta be welcomed, instead of protested against." Even still Wray says he understands why people protested the visit. "Of course they have a right" he stated, "and that's what makes this country so great, to do what they're doing." Some protestors say it was patriotism that motivated them to show up. Protestor Erin Wise Ackenbom said, "I almost didn't get out of bed. But as my husband got out of bed and played July fourth music to all of camp, I thought I should do my part." Throughout the morning we spoke with many of the protestors and they all spoke very highly of the Albemarle county police officers who were securing the area. http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080803/NEWS03/808030424/1004/NEWS03 Protesters begin march to Bush compound August 3, 2008 The Associated Press KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine ? A few dozen anti-war protesters in Kennebunkport have begun marching to Walker's Point, where President Bush is spending the weekend at his parents' seaside home. The number of demonstrators who set out on the 2-mile march Saturday under overcast skies was far fewer than the 1,700 who gathered in the same location last summer when Bush met with Russia's Vladimir Putin. The march was led by several activists who carried a giant dove made from white bed sheets. During the march, protesters chanted, "No justice, no peace. U.S. out of the Middle East." Bush is attending a wedding during his three-day stay in Maine, which could mark his last visit to Kennebunkport as a sitting president. http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/34460 Bush at Monticello: Tickets and Protests Submitted by davidswanson on Tue, 2008-07-01 12:02. Activism To get in you must pick up free tickets at 7 a.m. on Wednesday at the Monticello Visitors Center. Bring as many people as you can, and each request the maximum of four tickets. Go early! To protest outside meet at 8 a.m. on Friday at Quarry Park. Please bring posters, signs, costumes, banners, props. Here's a map that includes Monticello, the visitors center, and Quarry Park: Map. Here's a new flyer: PDF Flyer. Keep phoning Monticello! The Thomas Jefferson Foundation, a private nonprofit, owns and operates Monticello with a professed mission of preservation and education. Call Monticello right now and ask them to uninvite Bush: (434) 984-9822. Then let the Daily Progress newspaper in Charlottesville know that you've done that: enewstips at dailyprogress.com The Unitary Executive is scheduled to disgrace the grounds of Thomas Jefferson's house, Monticello, in Charlottesville, Va. During a July 4 naturalization ceremony, immigrants will swear to "support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic" at an event besmirched by the presence of the Constitution's leading domestic enemy. Jefferson's Declaration of Independence from King George faulted him for harassment by his troops, elevating the military above civilian power, denying people a fair trial by jury by transporting them overseas to be tried on false accusations, and other abuses that have been matched by our current King George. He has claimed the power to ignore laws, to rewrite laws, to adhere to secret laws, to discard habeas corpus, to spy without warrant, to detain without charge, to torture, to murder, and to lie the nation into wars of conquest. All citizens, old and new, have a duty to support and defend the Constitution, a document that requires the impeachment of a president as criminal and abusive as the current one. http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Working_America_group_protests_Bush_in_0731.html Working America group protests Bush in Cleveland David Edwards and Diane Sweet Published: Thursday July 31, 2008 About 100 AFL-CIO members wearing red shirts booed and made thumbs down gestures as Bush's motorcade passed on the way to Lincoln Electric. The protesters gathered in front of an expanse of vacant parking lots outside of the defunct Euclid Square Mall. "If you look around here, you see a wasteland," said Harriet Applegate, executive secretary for the North Shore AFL-CIO. "Northeast Ohio has been incredibly hard hit by the Bush administration." AFL-CIO member Gaelynn Dooley, 24, said the success of Lincoln Electric was not representative of industry in the rest of the region. "Our message today is that we need politicians who are accountable to working families," Dooley said. "We've been hemorrhaging 340 jobs a day in Ohio." Just down the road, 8-year-old J.J. Conway held a "Go McCain" sign and greeted Bush's motorcade along with his mom, Rebecca, and brother, Matthew, 4, "We're here supporting President Bush because there's so many anti-Bush people," said Rebecca Conway, 36, who held a sign that read "My Pro-Life President." He???s worked hard and made a big impact on the social issues. He's defended our country and kept us safe." Democrats maintain that more drilling isn't the answer. And they argue a point the White House itself concedes - allowing offshore drilling is not going to lower gas prices now. Bush himself said, "It took us a while to get to this position, and it's going to take us a while to get out of it." Still, Bush says more drilling would send an important signal to the world that the United States is serious about expanding the oil supply. He says it can be done in environmentally safe ways, but opponents fear oil spills and drops in coastal tourism. The soaring cost of gasoline has turned energy policy into a kitchen-table issue. Millions of people who rely on their cars are eager to get some help from elected leaders - and those leaders, especially those up for election, want to show some action. "If we???re worried about your gasoline price and recognize that it's high because of the price of crude oil, and it's possible to find more oil right here in the United States ... doesn't it make sense to try to find that oil?" Bush said. "I think it does." Bush also pushed for nuclear power and other forms of alternative energy. Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill are in a stalemate over how to rein in energy prices. Using the country's frustration as leverage, the president is trying to build pressure on lawmakers to take action before they leave town for their August recess. A gallon of gasoline costs $3.94 nationwide, down slightly from a month ago, according to a daily survey of gas stations by AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. The cost varies across the country, with several states topping $4 a gallon. The average cost a year ago was $2.89 per gallon - more than a dollar below today???s cost. Bush says many Americans are suddenly practicing their own version of conservation. "It's interesting to note that many of our consumers have already made the decision to switch away from automobiles, like SUVs that consume a lot of gasoline, to smaller cars," Bush said. "Why? Because you're smart. You know how to handle your own business." After his energy speech, Bush raised some cash for the Congressional Trust, a Republican campaign fund for congressional candidates. The event was expected to raise $530,000. The fundraiser was held in Gates Mills, a Cleveland suburb, at the home of insurance executive Umberto Fedeli in the Cleveland suburb of Gates Mills. Like most of Bush's fundraisers this year, the event was closed to the media. On his way out of town, Bush stopped his motorcade so he could get out and wish a happy birthday to a local woman, Ruth Harris, who was celebrating her 91st birthday. Bush sat in a chair next to Harris and said "91 years old - how special." When neighbors noticed what was happening, they soon surrounded the president for a moment with him too. The following video had this description on YouTube: "On July 29, 2008 over 100 Working America members gathered as close as we were allowed, to protest the president and his failed policies that have hurt countless Americans. This is a video of the motorcade when President Bush went by. Among the gathered are the Canton Cleveland and Youngstown offices." http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2008/08/18/mccain_protest_fundraiser.html Protesters mark McCain?s visit to Atlanta for fund-raiser By AARON GOULD SHEININ The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Monday, August 18, 2008 More than 50 protesters marched in front of the Marriott Marquis on Monday, shouting ?Bush, McCain, same thing!? But John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, was safely inside for a high-dollar campaign fund-raiser. Enlarge this image Mikki K. Harris/mkharris at ajc.com Sen. John McCain arrives at the back entrance to the Marriott Marquis in Atlanta for a fund-raiser Monday. Enlarge this image Mikki K. Harris/mkharris at ajc.com Azita Ebrahimi (center) protests among a group of John McCain supporters along Peachtree Center Avenue in front of the Marriott Marquis in Atlanta. ELECTION 2008 The Road to the White House The protesters were a melding of groups from organized labor, seniors and anti-war organizations. They competed for space and attention with about a dozen young McCain backers. As the Republicans shouted ?McCain!? the protesters added, ?Shame!? Across Peachtree Center Avenue, Georgia Democratic Party chairwoman Jane Kidd and state Sen. David Adelman (D-Atlanta) held a news conference to add a more official voice of protest. Kidd blasted McCain for only coming to the state to raise money and not to meet with regular voters. ?Instead of listening to Georgians, John McCain chose to talk with people who have given him thousands of dollars,? she said. That includes Ralph Reed, said Adelman. Reed is the former head of the Christian Coalition who in 2006 lost a bid for the Georgia GOP nomination as lieutenant governor after he was implicated, but not charged, in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal in Washington. Reed e-mailed supporters and friends to urge them to give to the McCain campaign. Reed also instructed potential donors to send contributions directly to him. Reed told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he sent the e-mail at the request of the campaign and was given boilerplate language to use. He said he has no role in the campaign or in this event, something the McCain campaign confirmed. But Reed?s involvement in raising money has been a source of ridicule and scorn from Democrats. Reed, Adelman said, ?has sold his influence with Christian conservative voters to the highest bidder.? That was a reference to Reed?s work to mobilize evangelical voters against a casino that would compete with one operated by an Indian tribe client of Abramoff?s. Adelman contended that McCain was meeting with Reed at the Marriott, but it is not clear if that would happen, or even if Reed is attending the event. Several hundred donors milled around the hotel?s Imperial Ballroom, while donors who gave larger amounts met privately with McCain in another room. Reed was not visible in the ballroom 30 minutes before the event was to start. http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/20080705_protesters_razz_bush_at_july_4_event/ Protesters Razz Bush at July 4 Event Posted on Jul 5, 2008 bbc.co.uk When President Bush took to the podium on July 4 to speak at a naturalization ceremony, there were some in the crowd besides those gathered to be sworn in as American citizens. Shortly after he began speaking at Thomas Jefferson?s Monticello home in Virginia, demonstrators began popping up in the audience?including one dressed as Uncle Sam, who was subsequently tackled and led out by security guards. http://www.roguegovernment.com/news.php?id=10446 LA Times Report On Bush Protesters 07-05-2008 LA Times It was his last Fourth of July as president -- and his first visit to Monticello, the home of the author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson. It was not a long trip. It took the presidential party 40 minutes by helicopter from the White House -- plus a 10-minute motorcade -- to arrive at the home Jefferson built for himself and his family in Charlottesville, Va. The president's stated purpose was to welcome and attend the swearing-in of 72 new citizens from 30 countries, including one from Burma. But his voice showed emotion when he talked about spreading freedom to other countries, one of his stated rationales for the war in Iraq. Quoting Jefferson as saying that the principles of the Declaration were universal, Bush said: "We honor Jefferson's legacy by aiding the rise of liberty in lands that do not know the blessings of freedom." Without mentioning Iraq, Afghanistan or the war on terrorism, he added, "And on this Fourth of July, we pay tribute to the brave men and women who wear the uniform of the United States of America." Watch the video here. Bush was interrupted repeatedly by protesters, shouting "Defend the Constitution, Impeach Bush!" and "War Criminal!" Bush diverged from his prepared remarks to respond to the hecklers, explaining to America's newest citizens, "We believe in free speech in the United States of America." One of the protesters, David Swanson, has gone online to explain his behavior, saying When Bush opened his mouth to speak I shouted "Defend the Constitution, Impeach Bush!" I repeated that several times, as people nearby knocked me over, cops handcuffed me, people gave me smiles and thumbs up signs. They threw me out and a couple of more defenders of our Constitution behind me, and then a few more, and then a few more. The handcuffed citizens who'd done their duty kept coming down the hill. They did not arrest us but did give us a ride down the mountain where we joined a crowd of protesters in the road who greeted Bush's limo coming and going. Bush, who celebrates his 62nd birthday on Sunday, said he was delighted to spend part of the weekend at the home of the nation's third president, who died on July 4, 1826, the 50th birthday of the United States. "This is a fitting place to celebrate our nation's independence," Bush said. "Thomas Jefferson once said he'd rather celebrate the Fourth of July than his own birthday. To me, it's pretty simple -- the Fourth of July weekend is my weekend birthday." Praising Jefferson's achievements -- a well-read man whose book collection formed the basis of the Library of Congress -- Bush noted that although Jefferson was the nation's first secretary of State, second vice president and third president, he hated public speaking. Alluding to his own reputation for muffing a speech line from time to time, Bush said, "It seems Jefferson got away with only delivering two public speeches during his presidency." Pausing for the laugh, he added, "I'm sure a lot of Americans wish that were the case today." http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/07/12/mccain-campaign-not-secret-service-had-bushmccain-protestor-removed/ McCain Campaign (NOT Secret Service) Had ?Bush=McCain? Protestor Removed By: SilentPatriot on Saturday, July 12th, 2008 at 6:00 PM - PDT As Steve reported Tuesday, a 61-year old librarian named Carol Kreck was removed from a McCain campaign event for holding a sign that read Bush=McCain. At the time, the local officer who asked Kreck to leave said he was doing so because the Secret Service had asked him to. Well, it turns out that it was the McCain campaign who personally wanted her booted. Denver Post: It was Sen. John McCain?s staff who asked security at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts to remove people holding protest signs at the venue ? not U.S. Secret Service agents, who were not involved in Carol Kreck?s ouster from the galleria. But Thursday, after two days of being vilified by bloggers, letter writers and others, the Secret Service emphatically denied involvement. ?Contrary to some recent reporting, the Secret Service had no involvement in Ms. Kreck being removed from the area,? said Malcolm D. Wiley Sr., spokesman for the Secret Service. ?It was not done at our request or suggestion. Any assertion to the contrary is inaccurate and inconsistent with our established policies and procedures.? So not only was a 61-year old woman who posed no threat whatsoever kicked out a public event in a manner that clearly violates the First Amendment, it turns out it was the McCain campaign who made it all happen. It seems her sign hit very close to home. Kreck blogs about the ongoing incident at HuffPo. You can order her Bush = McCain sign in various formats (T-shirt, bumpersticker, etc) and part of the proceeds will go to Kreck?s defense fund. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/07/28/10657/ Published on Monday, July 28, 2008 by The Chicago Tribune Four Arrested In Protest of Karl Rove by Katie Fretland DES MOINES - Former Bush advisor Karl Rove was invited to speak at a GOP fundraiser in Des Moines, Iowa, but he did not get the warmest of welcomes from four residents who pledged to arrest him. Law enforcement officers arrested Rev. Chet Guinn, 80, and three members of the Catholic Worker peace movement, Edward Bloomer, 61, Kirk Brown, 25, and Mona Shaw, 57, on Friday for their attempt to make a citizen?s arrest, according to the Cedar Rapids Gazette. They were cited for trespassing and released. Reuters reported that the arrest was prearranged and happened when the group stepped past a gate. The protesters accused Rove of, among other things, conspiracy to defraud the United States ahead of the Iraq War, leading to the deaths of United States military and Iraqi civilians, the Gazette reported. Two of the protesters, Brown and Shaw, were previously arrested and released without charges when they tried to arrest Rove in March at the University of Iowa. A group of netroots activists is also pushing for the prosecution of Rove for his refusal to testify before the House Judiciary Committee in Washington. Earlier this month, the former White House deputy chief of staff, refused an order to testify about the firing of federal prosecutors and allegations of selective prosecution of Democrats seen as political opponents. The committee asked Rove to testify about whether he influenced the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman on corruption charges. While he refused to testify, Rove wrote a letter to ranking committee member Lamar Smith (R-Texas) that he did not try to influence the prosecution in any way. Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) have threatened to hold Rove in contempt. The White House has argued executive privilege allows immunity for Rove from testifying. The committee has also subpoenaed Attorney General Michael Mukasey to turn over documents relating to the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame?s identity, including complete FBI interview reports with Rove and others. http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/05/27/20080527bush-protests0527-ON.html Protesters shout at Bush, McCain in Mesa 43 comments May. 27, 2008 03:26 PM Associated Press At his first stop during a brief visit in Arizona, President Bush was greeted by protesters shouting anti-war slogans Tuesday and carrying signs denouncing Republican presidential hopeful John McCain. The president was making an appearance at Silverado Cable Company, a family-owned business in Mesa that manufactures electric wiring assemblies for aircraft and military vehicles. A common complaint among the 250 protesters who lined the sidewalk near the business was that a McCain victory would be a continuation of the Bush administration. Protesters often cited their opposition to the war in Iraq. After he leaves the cable business, Bush is scheduled to attend a private fundraiser for McCain at a home in Phoenix. While the president attends fundraiser, Democratic activists, labor supporters and war protesters are expected to line up outside the Phoenix Convention Center. The center is where the campaign had initially planned ? but later canceled ? a fundraiser. http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/33691 Protesters greet "McBush" in Mesa, Phoenix Submitted by davidswanson on Wed, 2008-05-28 23:38. Media By Arizona Capitol Times Hundreds of people stood behind a barricade of police officers to see a security convoy scurry President Bush into a west Mesa manufacturing facility on May 27 before kicking off a three-day fundraising tour for Sen. John McCain. It wasn't a warm reception by any means. And a private gathering in Phoenix later that afternoon - the president's first official campaign appearance for McCain - drew an equally cold response from protestors who carried signs with messages such as "McBush - No Third Term." "It is time we as American citizens stand up against this president," said Kathy Romano, 61. "And we need to stand against a favored son who stands with this president, too." The scene was probably much different inside the Mesa-based Silverado Cable Co. where Bush spoke. The crowd was no doubt made up of Bush supporters and GOP loyalists, as the venue was chosen because the business reaped the benefits of Bush's tax cuts. But it's difficult to know for certain because both events were closed to the media, and Bush and McCain's only public appearance was a short photo op at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport before Bush boarded Air Force One. http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Bush_commencement_speech_at_Furman_prompts_0520.html Bush commencement speech at Furman prompts protest Associated Press Published: Tuesday May 20, 2008 By MEG KINNARD COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Some faculty members at Furman University have suggested they won't attend graduation ceremonies because President Bush is scheduled to speak, but a group of conservative students wants the university to step in and block the protest. Bush is scheduled to give Furman's graduation speech May 31 at the fairly conservative school of 2,625 undergraduate students with Baptist roots. More than 500 members of the Furman community signed a letter released Monday asking that administrators refuse to allow faculty members to skip ceremonies in protest of the Bush visit. The move comes after more than 200 students and faculty members signed a statement earlier this month criticizing the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq war and environmental issues. "Some professors seem intent on turning what should be a celebration of their students' accomplishments into a forum to air their political differences with President Bush," said the letter, released Monday by Conservative Students for a Better Tomorrow. Christopher Mills, a junior leading up the Conservative Students effort, said Tuesday that no faculty members had signed the letter, which also asks that the petition opposing the visit be removed from the university's public Web site. "Their letter doesn't really have anything to do with commencement," said Mills, 21, an economics major. "We were just disappointed that they were putting publicity above professionalism and above the students that they've taught for four years." Judy Grisel, a neuroscience professor who signed the petition opposing Bush's visit, said she and other faculty members were merely exercising what they see as their obligation to share their viewpoints and ideas. "At a liberal arts college, we really try to train people to think critically and respect other peoples views," said Grisel. "And we have been expressing our views in very civil ways." Spokesman Vince Moore said the administration planned to meet with Mills' group to discuss posting its letter on the university's Web site. The faculty letter was removed from Furman's official website, but a cached copy of the document can be viewed here. The Furman address is one of three Bush is giving this year. The president spoke May 4 at a Greensburg, Kan. high school that was ripped to pieces last year by a strong tornado. He also is scheduled to speak at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., on May 28. http://wbztv.com/national/Furman.University.graduation.2.737471.html May 31, 2008 10:00 pm US/Eastern Peaceful Protest Greets Bush At Commencement GREENVILLE, S.C. (CBS) ? About 20 Furman University professors made plans to stand in silent protest during President Bush's commencement speech Saturday night at the Baptist-founded school. They also said they would wear "We Object" T-shirts as part of their opposition to Bush's policies on the Iraq war, global warming and other issues. "We think that this is a very respectful, very mild form of protest," said Judy Grisel, an associate neuroscience professor who helped organize the protest. Bush intended to urge students "to help build a culture of responsibility," his press secretary, Dana Perino, told reporters Friday. The speech, she said, "will reflect on how he went into public service because he was concerned about the culture and how he is heartened by the progress that has been made, especially in the young people who are embracing bedrock values of faith and family." for the many young people today who he says are embracing bedrock values of faith and family. The president also planned to the emphasize volunteering, military service and "living lives of integrity." In addition to the protest plans, 31 other professors have been granted "conscientious objector" status, allowing them to skip commencement exercises in objection to Bush's visit, university spokesman Vince Moore said Friday. There are 230 full-time professors at Furman. Part of the animosity comes from the faculty's disagreement with Furman's president, David Shi. They say he failed to consult them before inviting Bush, breaking a tradition of having students give commencement speeches. Moore said Shi agreed with professors who voted this month to admonish him for not first consulting them. Furman University is a private liberal arts institution, founded in 1826. More than 3,000 undergraduates and graduates make up the student body. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/96b780f0-2f46-11dd-8c1d-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1 Hundreds protest over disputed states By Chris Bryant in Washington Published: May 31 2008 20:23 | Last updated: June 1 2008 03:18 Democratic officials reached a compromise in Washington on Saturday to seat the disputed Michigan and Florida delegations at reduced strength, sparking ire from Hillary Clinton?s campaign and threats to press the issue to the party?s convention in August. The states were penalised for moving forward the date of their primaries but the nullified votes have since taken on a crucial importance as Barack Obama and Mrs Clinton battle it out for the nomination. Howard Dean, the Democratic National Committee chairman, said that he predicted ?a very spirited discussion?. Before the Rules and Bylaws committee, a panel of 30 officials from across the country, began wading through arguments on Saturday morning, representatives were forced to run a vociferous gauntlet through hundreds of Clinton supporters, many of whom had been bussed in for the meeting. The restive, mostly female crowd that gathered in the early morning sunshine outside a hotel near Washington Zoo on Saturday were not about to let slip their opportunity to convince wavering committee members that their votes should count. The enthusiastic demonstrators whistled and hollered ?50 states not 48!? at each passing vehicle, no doubt hopeful that one of the committee?s members was inside. T-shirts, badges and homemade banners some emblazoned with Mrs Clinton?s image were omnipresent, a reminder that the New York senator?s hopes of staying in the race could hinge on the committee?s decision. ?It might be our last fight,? said Brenda Fuller, from Ocala, Florida, whose vote in the state primary on January 29 was nullified. ?I sure didn?t feel good about that. I expected my vote to count. The voters had nothing to do with the changing of the [primary] date.? Some of those in the crowd said they expected some form of compromise, with a decision to award only half the delegates or voting rights seen as a strong possibility. But many said they would not settle for anything less than full representation. One banner held aloft outside the hotel read: ?I am not a half voter?. Until last year Denise King, a maths teacher from upstate New York, was a member of the Rules and Bylaws committee and she said she was disappointed not be inside on Saturday. ?I think they are going to make some kind of change but I don?t think it?s going to be one that satisfies people,? she said. ?[Obama] should have agreed to have a revote in both states.? Several protesters said that they would switch their votes to John McCain if Mrs Clinton failed to capture the Democratic nomination. ?This party will not heal. Hillary supporters are not going to support Obama,? said Sandy Lamanna, a university professor in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Lisa Martin, an educational researcher from Washington DC agreed. ?Obama claims to be the great uniter but he?s actually ended up the great divider. I will absolutely vote for John McCain [if Hillary loses], you don?t question his patriotism.? Others said that once the heat of the moment had passed most of Mrs Clinton?s supporters would rally round Mr Obama if he became the Democratic presidential candidate. ?There are a lot of angry women here but a lot can go on between now and November,? Trudy Mason, a member of the New York state democratic committee, said. The Obama campaign discouraged its supporters from attending the rally but some turned up regardless. Ignoring a gaggle of ardent Clinton supporters, Don Squires, from Washington DC, held up a banner laden with undisguised sarcasm. It read; ?Change the rules until I win, it?s only fair.? He said: ?Hillary?s campaign reminds me of the definition of chutzpah ? the boy who kills both his parents and then throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan.? His son, Scott, holding up his own ironic placard, said he voted for the first time in Michigan but he was disappointed not to find Mr Obama?s name on the ballot. ?If you were an Obama supporter the only choice was to vote ?uncommitted?. It doesn?t seem fair.? http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/05/28/clinton_backer_plan_rules_and.html Clinton Backers Plan Rules and Bylaws Protest By Garance Franke-Ruta The cracks in the divided Democratic Party just got a little deeper. A group of high-profile Hillary Clinton supporters, Democratic fundraisers and Florida Democrats is planning to hold a day-long rally Saturday outside the Washington hotel where the Democratic National Committee's Rules and Bylaws Committee Meeting will be considering the fate of votes cast in the Michigan and Florida primaries to call attention to what they say is the exclusion of women's voices from the democratic -- and Democratic -- process and the disenfranchisement of Michigan and Florida voters. "Our purpose is not to divide the party or attack the DNC or Senator Obama," said the Hillary Rapid Responders, one of the rally planners, in an online announcement of it. "At the same time, Hillary's strong support cannot be dismissed in DNC efforts to unify the party." The rally is perhaps a more unusual intra-party affair than such words suggest, pitting powerful Democratic women against a party for which they have done much. The event is being co-organized by the Women Count PAC -- founded by five top Clinton supporters, including longtime Clinton friend and fundraiser Susie Tompkins Buell and Stacy Mason, a former editor of Roll Call - -and a coalition of disparate other groups working under the umbrella of the New York-based group Count Every Vote '08. It will draw together some of Clinton's most loyal backers and be emceed by Jehmu Greene, the former president of Rock the Vote who sat on the DNC committee that spent 2005 trying to reform the party's primary process. Announced speakers so far include National Organization for Women President Kim Gandy and Florida Democratic congresswoman Corinne Brown. Organizers say that they expect individuals to come in from 26 different states for the rally, as well as some major celebrity speakers, and that they are receiving logistical assistance or other support from the pro-Clinton United Federation of Teachers and EMILY's List. The group Florida Demands Representation, organized by James Hannagan, will also be there. The rally was the brainchild of a young Clinton fundraiser and New York attorney who is a member of Count Every Vote '08, according to the group's spokeswoman Karen Feldman, a political consultant from Hudson, N.Y., who specializes in female candidates. Count Every Vote '08 first came together in mid-March to lobby Democratic superdelegates on behalf of Clinton. "When we started we were a group of women primarily supporting Hillary Clinton," said Feldman of the initial team, which also included legendary N.Y. Clinton fundraisers Ricki Lieberman, Pamela Hayes, and Barbara Layton, as well as Allida Black, the project director and editor of The Eleanor Roosevelt papers at George Washington University who has known Clinton for years through human rights circles. Black also joined together with Tompkins Buell to start Women Count PAC two weeks ago, along with Clinton fundraiser and Silicon Valley executive Amy Rao, former Roll Call editor Mason and corporate communications specialist Rosemary Camposano. The group raised more than $250,000 in four days, Camposano told The Trail, and used that money to buy ads in the New York Times, USA Today and four newspapers in Kentucky and Oregon. In response to the ads, "we started getting e-mails and phone calls -- just thousands and thousands of women saying, 'How we can stand up?' 'How can we help?'" says Camposano. "We've been hearing from women who feel like women, as group, we are 51 percent of the country and we don't have a voice when getting heard in the media. ... We're hearing from the women who feel completely outraged about being ignored in this process and being marginalized." The latest ad, which ran in the Times over the weekend, called on women readers to attend the May 31 rally. http://www.nbc4.com/news/11516096/detail.html AU Students Protest After Karl Rove Speech No Arrests Were Made POSTED: 12:21 am EDT April 4, 2007 UPDATED: 10:28 pm EDT April 4, 2007 WASHINGTON -- White House advisor Karl Rove was the target of a protest on the American University campus Tuesday night, News4 reported. Rove was on the campus talking to the school's Young Republicans club for about an hour. Afterward, when Rove got outside, more than a dozen students began throwing things at his car, an American University spokesperson said. The students then got on the ground and lay down in front of his car as a protest. The students said security officials picked them up and carried them away so Rove could leave. Police said they have dealt with a lot of protests on campus and this one was handled peacefully. No one was arrested. American University is reviewing the incident to determine if any students should faces charges under the school's code of conduct. The university said the students were given a designated area to protest and violated that agreement. http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/33709 Protest Cheney in Richmond, Virginia, Friday, May 30, 2008, 5 PM @ Richmond Center Submitted by davidswanson on Thu, 2008-05-29 15:52. Activism Tomorrow (Friday, May 30th) Cheney will be speaking at a Republican Party fundraiser at the Richmond Convention Center, 403 N 3rd St., Richmond, VA 23219 Map at 6PM. Protesters will begin gathering in front of the Convention Center between 5:00 and 5:30 PM. Cheney, the architect of the criminal neocon agenda, needs to know that Richmonders do not share his world view. Drop what you're doing and spread the word. This is a big one. Please don't let the rest of the world think Richmond welcomes war criminals. More on his visit: http://www.rpv.org/node/1666 Contact: 804-240-4206 >From the Democratic Party of Virginia (which goes on to ask for money, rather than what I'm asking for: protests!): Just yesterday, former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan accused Dick Cheney of misleading the media and public. Tomorrow - just two days after these allegations hit the air waves - the Republican Party of Virginia will proudly display this architect of the Bush agenda in an attempt to fill their campaign coffers. Vice President Dick Cheney will emerge from his undisclosed location to appear as the keynote speaker at the Commonwealth Gala during the 2008 Virginia Republican State Convention. With the funds raised at that event, he and the Virginia Republicans will try to turn back the clock on the progress we have made in Virginia. At the dinner, Vice President Cheney will join the GOP's U.S. Senate candidates -- former Governor Jim Gilmore and Delegate Bob Marshall. Also in attendance will be Attorney General Bob McDonnell, Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling and Senator Ken Cuccinelli, all likely candidates for statewide office in 2009. Each of these unabashed members of the far right-wing, from Cheney to Cuccinelli, has continually and consistently used their positions of power to put their party before progress. When our nation and our Commonwealth have needed practical solutions, each of these extremist Republicans has opposed progress at every level. http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080722/GJNEWS_01/156483288 Protester assaulted across the street from McCain rally location Article Date: Tuesday, July 22, 2008 ROCHESTER ? Someone assaulted a protester standing across the street from the Rochester Opera House where Republican presidential candidate John McCain was expected to speak today at noon. Police broke up the scuffle at around 9:50 a.m. Andy Kaplan of Portsmouth was assaulted. Police were still working on their report just past 10 a.m. and did not have the name of the suspect. There were two protesters across the street from City Hall, where the Opera House is located. McCain is scheduled to hold a town-hall-style meeting there http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/29/9265/ Published on Thursday, May 29, 2008 by Think Progress The Story Behind My O?Reilly Protest by Barry Nolan So, I?m that TV guy who got fired by Comcast over Bill O?Reilly. I protested the fact that O?Reilly was chosen to receive the Governors Award at this year?s Emmy Awards ceremony. That?s the highest honor that they hand out. The important word here is: honor. Now granted ? you won?t find a lot of Albert Schweitzers or Mother Teresas working in television, but at least the people who had been honored in the past had pretty much followed the part of the Hippocratic oath that says, ?First, do no harm.? O?Reilly was an appalling choice, not because of his political views, but because he simply gets the facts wrong, abuses his guests and the powerless in general, is delusional, and, well, you might want to Google: Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Plus there was that whole sexual harassment thing ? the lawsuit he settled for an estimated $10 million. Not the kind of guy you normally think of when it comes time to pass out honors. I found that most of my colleagues felt the same way. So, on May 10th at the Emmy Awards dinner, I quietly passed out a document that contained ? not my opinion ? but O?Reilly?s own words and quotes from his sexual harassment lawsuit. And that is what got me fired. I got fired from my job on a news and information network for reporting demonstrably true things in a room full of news people. Normally, in the great scheme of things ? this should be a total non-story. ?Overpaid White Guy Gets Fired from Cushy Job for Shooting Mouth Off.? Yawn. But these are not normal times. After the word got out that I was fired ? I started hearing from people from all over the country who were outraged. A guy in Texas who had once worked with O?Reilly and had seen a meltdown like the one on Youtube ? a weather anchor in Arizona ? a woman in China no less. And it all got me to thinking about the myth of free speech. In today?s America, speech is only ?free? when you are talking down to someone less powerful that you. Speak ?up? ? and look out. In your work life, they can fire you, as I found out, for quietly saying something that is widely known to be true. Put a lid on it. And in our role as citizens, we have been told by O?Reilly to shut up, or Fox Security may pay you a visit. We are called traitors if we simply speak the truth about the absence of WMD?s ? the way the war is going ? the disgraces of Abu Ghraib, of Gitmo, of waterboarding. Shut up. So, when exactly do they think we have the right to speak up? To speak the quiet simple truth, to people who have more power than us? Well, I think now would be a good time. The fog of fear is lifting. The balance of power is shifting. People are beginning to talk to each other again instead of shouting. I think it?s time to reclaim the right to free speech ? even if it comes at a price. Meanwhile, if anyone needs any lawn work done or his or her car detailed ? give me a call. Barry Nolan is a veteran TV journalist who was recently fired by Comcast Cable?s CN8 channel in Boston for protesting an award honoring Bill O?Reilly. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/06/401212.html Guantanamo bay / Binyam Mohamed Protest, London 15.06.08 Billy Macrae | 15.06.2008 22:02 | Iraq | Repression | Terror War | London | World Images from the protest in London appealing for solidarity with Binyam Mohamed - the last UK resident in Guantanamo bay threatened with the death penalty. Binyam Mohamed is a refugee from Ethiopia, who was granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK, was seized in Pakistan and rendered to Morocco, then sent to Afghanistan, and then Guantanamo Bay. This protest featured several people dressed in hoods and orange boiler suits in the style of prisoners at Guantanamo bay, and about 20 or so other participants dressed in orange outfits / nappies with the words 'Fair trial my ass' on their behinds - a reference to Binyam Mohamed's trial at which he faces the death penalty. Speeches were read and songs were sung, as the mock-prisoners sank to their knees outside the National Gallery in Trafalgar square. They were then marched through the square and paraded around by a mock- US army general. The atmosphere was jolly but determined. It went off peacefully, and the police monitored the whole thing carefully. The event was timed to coincide with George Bush's visit to London. He will have breakfast with Gordon Brown (the British Prime Minister) on Monday. Across town the Anti-Bush rally got underway in Parliament Square. More photos from that to come. http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Politics/2008/06/02/5746951-cp.html Kids for Khadr: high schoolers protest for release of Canadian terror suspect By Jessica Mcdiarmid, THE CANADIAN PRESS TORONTO - A group of high school students chanted slogans, sang songs and waved angry placards in front of the U.S. consulate Monday as they urged U.S. officials to send terror suspect Omar Khadr back across the border to face justice in Canada. The group of about 40 students from St. Mary's Secondary School in Cobourg, Ont., an hour's drive east of Toronto, is arguing that Khadr, 21, was a child soldier when he was captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan six years ago. They want him freed from the controversial military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he has been in custody since July 2002, charged in the death of an American soldier. The students spent several hours across from the consulate in downtown Toronto, talking to passersby about Khadr's case and collecting signatures on a petition. Most occupied themselves playing musical instruments, waving banners, chanting and singing. "Don't let torture go unchallenged," one placard read. "Guantanamo is America's gulag," read another. Jimmy Behan, 16, called Khadr's detention a "good example of the government not stepping up to what it's agreed to in policies and treaties." "I'd like to see Omar Khadr come to Canada and get a fair trial, and not be tortured," Behan said. Khadr is charged with the death of U.S. army medic Sgt. Christopher Speer after he allegedly threw a grenade during a clash with American forces in Afghanistan. Khadr's lawyers allege their client has been abused, tortured and coerced into making incriminating statements during his imprisonment. A recent 9-0 Supreme Court of Canada ruling said conditions under which Khadr is being held violate U.S. and international laws. The students, who are in grades 10 through 12, said Khadr's case was particularly poignant to them because of his age. "We're in a high school, so a lot of the people are the same age that Omar was when he was captured," Grade 12 student Caitlin Worona said as passing cars honked their horns in a show of support for the group. "My little sister is 15 and a half right now and I really feel that's not fair." Teacher Gary O'Dwyer said since students began working on the cause in February, they've held vigils in Cobourg and Ottawa and submitted a petition with nearly 250 signatures to their local MP, Conservative Rick Norlock. "There's a lot of apathy and young people get criticized for not being part of the political system," O'Dwyer said. "This is a way for young people to be part of the political system. I really hope politicians listen to what they have to say." He called it "embarrassing as a Canadian" to see a child captured and held in prison for years. The students say they plan to present a second petition to Norlock, who recently tabled their first petition in the House of Commons. While he has met with the students and respects their efforts, Norlock said the charges against Khadr are "very serious" and must be dealt with within the confines of the judicial system, even if it takes years of delays. "I have faith in western democracy," Norlock said. "In the end, the right thing will be done." Last week, the federal Liberals called on the Tory government to urge the U.S. to release Khadr following the sudden replacement of the American military judge who ordered prosecutors to supply classified documents to Khadr's defence team. http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/australian-news/4830033 Hundreds protest over Khadr's continued detention ABC - July 28, 2008, 7:03 am Related Articles Sarkozy has no regrets after Afghan deaths August 20, 2008, 7:57 pm France's Sarkozy has no regrets after Afghan deaths August 20, 2008, 7:44 pm First high-profile drugs case hits Games August 20, 2008, 11:20 pm Pakistan missile strike kills eight: officials August 21, 2008, 2:58 am Sarkozy tells French troops in Afghanistan to keep fighting August 21, 2008, 5:53 am Hundreds of Canadians have turned out in torrential rain in Ottawa and Toronto to protest against the continued detention of Omar Khadr at Guantanamo Bay. The 22-year-old is accused of killing a US soldier in Afghanistan in 2002. The rallies are part of a growing movement to try to persuade the Government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper to have Khadr repatriated to Canada. Khadr is the only western national left in Guantanamo and will face a military tribunal in October on charges of killing a US soldier in Afghanistan . Khadr was 15 years old at the time. In Toronto, the rally was held outside the US consulate. Among the crowd were Khadr's sister and brother. Organisers of the protest say Omar Khadr is the first child soldier to be prosecuted in more than 100 years. A recently released video of an interrogatio http://www.mathaba.net/rss/?x=594823 Cuban Youths to Stage Protest Demonstration on Cuban Five Case Posted: 2008/06/10 From: MNN Cuban youths and students will stage a strong protest demonstration today at 8 am, Cuba local time, at the Anti-imperialist Plaza, in front of the US Interest Section in Havana, against the injustice practiced against the five Cuban antiterrorist fighters unfairly held in US prisons. HAVANA, Cuba, June 10 (acn) The youths will be joined by workers, artists and revolutionary combatants who will also express their unconditional support to Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Ram?n Laba?ino, Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez, known as The Cuban Five, and their commitment to restlessly work for their final return to their homeland. The Cuban Five were imprisoned in 1998 and given extremely long and unfair sentences by a biased Miami trial after they collected information on Florida-based ultra-right groups that have committed terrorist actions against the Cuban people over the past four decades. A three-judge panel at the 11th Circuit of Atlanta?s Court of Appeals recently ratified all convictions imposed on The Five, an action that has been met with protests in different parts of the world. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080817/wl_sthasia_afp/usattacksafghanistanpakistan Pakistani protesters torch US flag over suspect's arrest Sun Aug 17, 11:14 AM ET KARACHI (AFP) - Thousands of people rallied in Karachi Sunday, burning a US flag and an effigy of President George W. Bush to protest the arrest of a Pakistani woman by US authorities in Afghanistan. The call for the rally was given by Jamaat-e-Islami, the main Islamic religious party of Pakistan, to demand the release of scientist Aafia Siddiqui, charged with trying to murder US officials in Afghanistan. Siddiqui, 36, a mother-of-three who graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was arrested on July 17 in Afghanistan, extradited to New York on August 4 and indicted the next day on a charge of attempted murder. The protesters burnt a US flag and an effigy of Bush, chanting "Free Aafia Siddiqui," "Death to America" and "Death to Bush." Police official Salman Syed told AFP that about 4,000 people attended the rally, while organisers claimed three times that number were present. "The US should immediately release Dr Aafia Siddiqui. God knows how many of our daughters like Aafia Siddiqui are languishing in US jails," Mohammad Hussain Mehanti, chief of Jammat-e-Islami, Karachi chapter, told protesters. Siddiqui was wounded during an alleged shootout with FBI agents and US military officers when she was questioned in Afghanistan. A US court put her in medical care. She was on a 2004 US list of suspects linked to Al-Qaeda. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Fri Aug 29 18:03:08 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 02:03:08 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Pro-democracy and rights protests, USA, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <005b01c90a3c$2c088080$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * New York: Protesters block roads in mass protest over racist police shooting acquittal * Mall protest over peace T-shirt ban * Oregon - Portland: Mayor meets with homeless protesters... then police attack camp * Constitution toilet paper makes statement * Florida: Another murder by police, another protest... x2 * Milwaukee: Hmong protest over police "excessive force" * Texas: Cabbie photo ID scheme protested * Wisconsin: Students protest cancellation of sex toy seminar * San Antonio: Protests over ban on fraternity beach parties as moral policing takes root * Ex-soldier poses nude to protest Patriot Act * Protest over harassment of Filipina activist * Seattle: Violent arrest of student leads to protest * Florida: Miami protest demands lifting of Cuba travel ban * Philadelphia: Protest against police beating, lack of charges * Washington DC: Civil rights groups protest Palestine-style checkpoints in black communities * Massachusetts: Former prisoners protest job bias * Protest over ban on marijuana * Gitmo protest trial used for further protests * Texas: Neighbours leave pots in gardens over petty moral policing * Washington DC: Amnesty protest Gitmo * Texas: 35 years in jail for spitting - gay rights groups stage protests * Cleveland: Protests over "gang" dragnet * Manhattan: Parents stage Mothers' Day protest over police murders * Massachusetts: Students protest stabbing charges * Oregon: No-hugging rule protested at school * Texas: Rally supports murder accused * Gun owners protest groundless ban at cafe * Seattle: Another police murder leads to proetst * Detroit: Cyclists protest fee to own a bike * Seattle: Protest over police raid on medical marijuana site * Texas: Injustice protested over acquittal of killer * Woman takes to cross in protest at mistreatment of psychologically-different son in jail * Seattle: "Cameraheads" protest CCTVs * Minnesota: Protester disrupts council meeting over police shooting powers * Maine: Veteran protests housing complex flag ban * MBTA workers protest watch-while-you-pee tests * Arizona: Speed camera protesters say "honk for privacy" * Detroit: Mayor protested over corruption * Shreveport, LA: Politicians' pay rise sparks protest * Washington: Protests over medical marijuana caps * School graffiti protests dress code http://www.11alive.com/news/article_news.aspx?storyid=115574 Protesters Clog NYC Streets Updated 5/8/2008 10:51:44 AM Posted By: Michael King NEW YORK (AP) -- Hundreds of demonstrators led by the Rev. Al Sharpton clogged intersections and snarled traffic across the city to protest the acquittal of three officers involved in the shooting death of an unarmed black man on his wedding day. Protesters said Wednesday's "pray-in," which led to the arrest of 216 people, was a preview of potential future demonstrations designed to paralyze the city until federal authorities investigate the shooting. "We're going to keep coming until we get federal indictments. It's wrong," said Frank Rodriguez, a military veteran who attended one of six rallies across the city. U.S. attorney spokesman Robert Nardoza said the case was under review, but he declined further comment about a possible federal case. Sharpton and relatives of Sean Bell, the groom killed in 2006 in a 50-bullet barrage, planned to meet privately with Gov. David Paterson on Thursday to talk about the case. The demonstrators on Wednesday prayed, sang and chanted slogans including "no justice, no peace!" as they converged on six locations, including heavily used bridges and tunnels that carry traffic to and from Manhattan. Sharpton, two survivors of the shooting and the slain man's fiancee lined up and peacefully put their hands behind their backs as police arrested them on disorderly conduct charges. They were released about four hours later, said Sharpton spokeswoman Rachel Noerdlinger. The protests were carefully orchestrated: Organizers circulated sign-up sheets for those willing to be arrested and issued instructions on how to behave when arrested. They also were advised not to volunteer if they had warrants out for their arrests or other pending legal issues. After marching to the New Jersey-bound Holland Tunnel behind a "Stop the Brutality" banner, protesters blocked two entrances as some sang the civil rights anthem "We Shall Overcome." Demonstrators who moved to the sidewalk applauded each time one of their fellow protesters was arrested. Drivers waited patiently. "I disagree with doing anything illegal, but, hey, this is what makes America great," said Aaron Hanson, a passenger in a car waiting to get into the tunnel. "If this is what people really need to do to make a statement, it's what they should do." A few miles uptown, some protesters were arrested after blocking traffic into midtown Manhattan on the Queensboro Bridge, while about 200 people rallied near the entrance to the Triborough Bridge in Harlem. Sharpton, shooting survivors Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, and Bell's fiancee, Nicole Paultre Bell, linked arms as they blocked a street at the Brooklyn Bridge's base. They were followed by at least 200 demonstrators who kneeled down in prayer in the road and counted from one to 50 in a stark reference to the 50 shots. Some carried signs proclaiming, "We are all Sean Bell." A heavy police presence initially stood by during the demonstrations, allowing the protesters to march unimpeded to the bridges and tunnels. Mayor Michael Bloomberg had pledged to "make sure that everybody's rights are protected and that the law is obeyed." The racially polarizing case has raised questions about police use of deadly force in minority communities. Bell was black, as are two of his friends who were wounded in the shooting; the officers were black, Hispanic and white. The three officers were acquitted of state charges last month. They testified that they feared for their lives after Bell and his friends got into a testy exchange with another patron outside a Queens strip club and appeared to be going to retrieve a gun; Bell's friends testified the detectives fired wildly and without warning at Bell's car. No gun was found with Bell or his friends. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Wednesday that the department was continuing to examine the possibility of disciplinary action against the detectives. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42292 RIGHTS-US: Hundreds Arrested Protesting Police Abuses By Haider Rizvi Paultre Bell before her arrest on May 7, 2008. Credit:Monica Moorehead/Workers World NEW YORK, May 8 (IPS) - She was as happy and excited about getting married that day as any young person in love. But fate had something else waiting. Just a few hours ahead of her wedding, on Nov. 25, 2006, New York City police officers killed her fianc? Sean Bell in a hail of 50 bullets. On Wednesday, handcuffed like the more than 200 other detainees who participated in a forceful demonstration against police oppression, Paultre Bell shouted in rage: "They killed Sean all over again. I'm still praying for justice. This is far from over. Every march, every protest, I'm going to be right up front." In solidarity with Paultre Bell, thousands of New Yorkers took to the streets and shut down traffic in several parts of the city to protest last month's judicial ruling exonerating the three undercover police officers, who had been indicted on charges ranging from manslaughter to reckless endangerment. Bell, 23, and two of his friends who survived the confrontation had no weapons in their possession, nor they had committed any crime. They were driving home after spending a few hours of fun in a nightclub when the incident took place. The police officers, who were investigating alleged prostitution at the club, said they thought the group was armed and tried to stop them, at which point the situation spun out of control. The acquittal of the officers triggered a massive outcry around the city, with critics charging that authorities have repeatedly failed to stop police abuses -- most often directed at young men of colour, particularly African Americans and immigrants. According to the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), there "are troubling patterns" in police shootings due in part to the lack of diversity in the department's highest ranks. Currently, about 84 percent of leadership positions are held by whites, while African Americans constitute less than 4 percent. In its latest analysis of police conduct released this week, the group says during the past two years, nearly 90 percent of those shot by the police were either Black or Latino. In 77 percent of the incidents, according to NYCLU, where officers fired their weapons between 1999 and 2006, "the officers were the only ones shooting at unarmed civilians". "These numbers scream out for serious review by the City Council," said the group's executive director Donna Lieberman. "As with the hundreds of thousands of stops and frisks, and the hundreds of thousands of marijuana arrests, being black should not make people a target for shootings." According to a recent U.N. report on racial discrimination in the United States, excessive force by police is a problem in a number of big cities across the nation. In its latest report, the Geneva-based U.N. Committee against Racial Discrimination said it was extremely concerned about racially motivated police excesses, and urged the government to take corrective measures in abidance with international law. Two new reports released this week, by Human Rights Watch and the Sentencing Project, found that in 34 U.S. states, a black man was nearly 12 times more likely than a white man to be sentenced to prison for drug offences. A black woman is nearly five times more likely to go to prison than a white woman. Overall, the rate of drug arrests for African Americans increased by 225 percent, compared to 70 percent among whites, between 1980 and 2003, despite the absence of any statistical evidence that the rate of drug use in each community had changed. On Wednesday, before being handcuffed by the police, Rev. Al Sharpton, a prominent civil rights leader, urged activists to denounce the state court verdict and continue their acts of disobedience until Bell's case is reviewed by a federal court. "We are all Sean Bell," the crowd outside the police headquarters roared in unison as police began to make arrests. There were many children among the crowd. One of them, a five-year-old girl, held a placard that read: "Damn this system." Protesters counted to 50 in reference to the bullets that caused the young groom to bleed to death. As they prepared to be arrested, some demonstrators knelt in prayer as religious leaders blessed the crowd. People at the rally, both white and black, told IPS they have been protesting against racial injustice and police abuses since the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. "It's outrageous. It's intolerable," said Andy Stapp, a veteran of the civil rights movement and author who spent many hours in police custody for taking part in the protest. "You have to do something. You can't just sit there. I am optimistic about [the outcome] of this movement. It's a good start." Mindful that public anger is growing day by day over the acquittal, a spokesperson for the U.S. attorney said Wednesday that the case was "under review". It remains unclear whether a federal court will retry the case. In an interview with Pacifica Radio, New York's mayor Michael Bloomberg said he and the police commissioner were "very proud" of the New York Police Department and its officers. He added, "I can't tell you that every time, everyone does the right thing. And whether they did the right thing or not this time, it sounds to me like excessive force was used." For its part, the NYCLU wants the police to release complete information about shooting incidents, including the race of the civilian targets. In 1998, according to the group, the police department stopped disclosing the race of civilian targets and "started reporting the breed of dogs being shot". "We want full disclosure about every aspect of police shootings, including the role that race may be playing," said NYCLU's Christopher Dunn. "We are deeply concerned about the figures that everyone showing that virtually everyone shot by the police is black or Latino." http://wcbstv.com/topstories/sean.bell.verdict.2.709369.html Apr 27, 2008 12:09 pm US/Eastern Bell Supporters Want Federal Charges Against Cops Plan To Continue Rallies, Marches In Protest Reporting Lou Young NEW YORK (CBS) ? With calls to shut down the city, hundreds of demonstrators launched the start of what could be a long series of protests following the acquittal of three New York City Detectives in the shooting death of Sean Bell. "What do we want? Justice. When do we want it? Now," protesters chanted at a rally held in Harlem the day after the three New York City Police Detectives who shot and killed Sean Bell were acquitted of criminal charges. "I walk in here today and I feel a lot better," Joseph Guzman, Bell's friend who was injured in the shooting. The crowd supporting him filled Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network building, and spilled out onto the sidewalk on 145th St. ? the new rally point for a new round of protests. As marchers lined up outside to illustrate the 50 shots fired at Bell's car, his fiancee, Nicole Paultre Bell promised to keep the pressure on. "On April 25th, 2008, they killed Sean all over again. That's what it felt like to us," she told supporters. "Every protest, every march, every rally, I'm going to be right up front." The Bell family wants the three detectives who were found not guilty to be brought up on federal charges. Rev. Sharpton promised several rallies in the coming days. Organizers are compiling a list of men and women willing to participate in marches and lobby efforts. Saturday's protest march was modest in comparison to some of the plans in the works. Protesters made a 50-block loop around Harlem spreading the word. Future marches will likely take place further downtown, and possibly during rush hour. Bell's parents said they are grateful for the support, and the Rev. Sharpton summoned his poetic powers of public speaking to promise to help his family. "I'm going to help these two women fight for that little boy (Sean Bell)," said Rev. Sharpton. "That little boy didn't deserve to die and this city is gonna deal with the blood of Sean Bell." The three New York City Police Detectives successfully argued in court that they thought there was a gun in Bell's car and believed their lives were in danger. It turned out Bell and his friends were unarmed. The only Detective to publicly apologize to the Bell family was Detective Marc Cooper. "[I'm] sorry to the Bell family for the tragedy," said Det. Marc Cooper. That apology did not appear to diffuse the fury at this rally, where Bell's father William said he worried the country is moving back in time instead of forward. "You tell me. Someone gotta answer this for me. Is this 1955?" asked William Bell. http://www.mathaba.net/rss/?x=591609 Hundreds of Bell's supporters arrested for protesting against police abuses Posted: 2008/05/08 From: Source In solidarity with Paultre Bell, thousands of New Yorkers took to the streets and shut down traffic in several parts of the city to protest last month's judicial ruling exonerating the three undercover police officers, who had been indicted on charges ranging from manslaughter to reckless endangerment. by Haider Rizvi (IPS) NEW YORK - She was as happy and excited about getting married that day as any young person in love. But fate had something else waiting. Just a few hours ahead of her wedding, on Nov. 25, 2006, New York City police officers killed her fianc? Sean Bell in a hail of 50 bullets. On Wednesday, handcuffed like the more than 200 other detainees who participated in a forceful demonstration against police oppression, Paultre Bell shouted in rage: "They killed Sean all over again. I'm still praying for justice. This is far from over. Every march, every protest, I'm going to be right up front." In solidarity with Paultre Bell, thousands of New Yorkers took to the streets and shut down traffic in several parts of the city to protest last month's judicial ruling exonerating the three undercover police officers, who had been indicted on charges ranging from manslaughter to reckless endangerment. Bell, 23, and two of his friends who survived the confrontation had no weapons in their possession, nor they had committed any crime. They were driving home after spending a few hours of fun in a nightclub when the incident took place. The police officers, who were investigating alleged prostitution at the club, said they thought the group was armed and tried to stop them, at which point the situation spun out of control. The acquittal of the officers triggered a massive outcry around the city, with critics charging that authorities have repeatedly failed to stop police abuses -- most often directed at young men of colour, particularly African Americans and immigrants. According to the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), there "are troubling patterns" in police shootings due in part to the lack of diversity in the department's highest ranks. Currently, about 84 percent of leadership positions are held by whites, while African Americans constitute less than 4 percent. In its latest analysis of police conduct released this week, the group says during the past two years, nearly 90 percent of those shot by the police were either Black or Latino. In 77 percent of the incidents, according to NYCLU, where officers fired their weapons between 1999 and 2006, "the officers were the only ones shooting at unarmed civilians". "These numbers scream out for serious review by the City Council," said the group's executive director Donna Lieberman. "As with the hundreds of thousands of stops and frisks, and the hundreds of thousands of marijuana arrests, being black should not make people a target for shootings." According to a recent U.N. report on racial discrimination in the United States, excessive force by police is a problem in a number of big cities across the nation. In its latest report, the Geneva-based U.N. Committee against Racial Discrimination said it was extremely concerned about racially motivated police excesses, and urged the government to take corrective measures in abidance with international law. Two new reports released this week, by Human Rights Watch and the Sentencing Project, found that in 34 U.S. states, a black man was nearly 12 times more likely than a white man to be sentenced to prison for drug offences. A black woman is nearly five times more likely to go to prison than a white woman. Overall, the rate of drug arrests for African Americans increased by 225 percent, compared to 70 percent among whites, between 1980 and 2003, despite the absence of any statistical evidence that the rate of drug use in each community had changed. On Wednesday, before being handcuffed by the police, Rev. Al Sharpton, a prominent civil rights leader, urged activists to denounce the state court verdict and continue their acts of disobedience until Bell's case is reviewed by a federal court. "We are all Sean Bell," the crowd outside the police headquarters roared in unison as police began to make arrests. There were many children among the crowd. One of them, a five-year-old girl, held a placard that read: "Damn this system." Protesters counted to 50 in reference to the bullets that caused the young groom to bleed to death. As they prepared to be arrested, some demonstrators knelt in prayer as religious leaders blessed the crowd. People at the rally, both white and black, told IPS they have been protesting against racial injustice and police abuses since the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. "It's outrageous. It's intolerable," said Andy Stapp, a veteran of the civil rights movement and author who spent many hours in police custody for taking part in the protest. "You have to do something. You can't just sit there. I am optimistic about [the outcome] of this movement. It's a good start." Mindful that public anger is growing day by day over the acquittal, a spokesperson for the U.S. attorney said Wednesday that the case was "under review". It remains unclear whether a federal court will retry the case. In an interview with Pacifica Radio, New York's mayor Michael Bloomberg said he and the police commissioner were "very proud" of the New York Police Department and its officers. He added, "I can't tell you that every time, everyone does the right thing. And whether they did the right thing or not this time, it sounds to me like excessive force was used." For its part, the NYCLU wants the police to release complete information about shooting incidents, including the race of the civilian targets. In 1998, according to the group, the police department stopped disclosing the race of civilian targets and "started reporting the breed of dogs being shot". "We want full disclosure about every aspect of police shootings, including the role that race may be playing," said NYCLU's Christopher Dunn. "We are deeply concerned about the figures that everyone showing that virtually everyone shot by the police is black or Latino." http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:0AqbnDB08O0J:www.newsday.com/community/news/northshoresuffolk/huntington/ny-limall0629,0,2475820.story+war+protest+walt+whitman&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=ukWar protesters take their cause to the mallBY MATTHEW CHAYES | matthew.chayes at newsday.com9:01 PM EDT, June 28, 2008Anti-war protester Shineye Wright, 49, from Mastic Beach, right, confrontscounter-demonstrators along Route 110 in front of Walt Whitman Mall.(Newsday / Julia Gaines / June 28, 2008)Iraq War protesters once again all but dared a mall chain to eject themSaturday for wearing T-shirts identical to the red-splotched one that landedan 80-year-old peace activist in jail earlier this year when he refused amall's demand he take his shirt off or leave.But the Simon Property Group -- which owns the Smith Haven Mall where theelderly activist was arrested in March, as well as the Walt Whitman Mall inMelville where the protesters laid down their T-shirt challenge Saturday --let the dozen people parade around en masse wearing the shirts.The shirts read "4,000+ troops, 1 million Iraqis dead. Enough!"As the protesters walked, they were trailed by at least a dozen mallofficials, security guards and publicists.Guards on foot and riding on Segway motorized scooters talked into two-wayradios. A mall-hired cameraman videotaped the group's every move. The mallhas said it is legally entitled to eject anyone protesting on its property.In a statement, the mall owner said its policies do not allow "protests ordemonstrations of any kind ... on mall property regardless of the topic."At one point, the group formed a circle near Tourneau and Banana Republicstores, reciting prayers and holding hands.Saturday's protests were triggered, organizers say, by the arrest in Marchof the elderly activist, Don Zirkel, who refused an order at the Smith HavenMall to take off his shirt or leave. The mall says Zirkel was distributingpamphlets without permission. He was arrested by Suffolk police, butcriminal charges were later dismissed.Last month, the group wore the shirts at the Sunrise Mall without incidentuntil they started displaying photos of service members who have died. Thegroup didn't show such photos Saturday.The same anti-war group plans to picket at three more malls -- RooseveltField on July 26, the South Shore Mall on Aug. 23 and the Smith Haven Mallin September, said Janet Egan of the Suffolk Peace Network, which isorganizing the protests. The group is using malls for the protests becausethey are suburbia's public squares, Egan said.Immediately after Saturday's T-shirt march inside, protesters assembledoutside on Route 110, where they vied for the attention of passing motoristswith counterparts who support the war in Iraq.http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2008/05/mayor_tom_potter_meets_with_ho.htmlMayor Tom Potter meets with homeless protesters at City HallPosted by The Oregonian May 05, 2008 17:34PMPortland Mayor Tom Potter spent 45 minutes with leaders of a group ofhomeless men and women protesting outside City Hall, but they left withoutthe biggest issue on their want list: An end to the city's anti-campingordinance.Potter told four leaders of the protest that he would work with nonprofitshelter operators to see if there's a way to provide more short-term shelterfor the growing group of people camped out by City Hall's Southwest FourthAvenue entrance. But the protesters left Potter's office angry that themayor refused to waive the camping ban or reconsider Portland'santi-loitering law, known as the sit-lie ordinance.Many of the people who've been outside City Hall for more than a week noware traveling with dogs or with their spouse or partner. Shelters generallydo not allow animals, and men and women are usually separated. Potterpromised to work with shelter providers and local kennels to see aboutfinding more flexible accommodations.Over the weekend, Portland police asked protesters to remove several tentsand other temporary shelters.Anna Griffinhttp://www.kptv.com/news/16282409/detail.html?rss=ptl1&psp=newsPortland Clears Out Protesters, Cleans Up SidewalksPOSTED: 7:39 pm PDT May 15, 2008UPDATED: 7:45 pm PDT May 15, 2008PORTLAND, Ore. -- The sidewalks in front of Portland's City Hall were cleanThursday after police cleared out groups of protesters so that the walkwayscould be washed.Portland police began enforcing the city's sit-lie ordinance Thursday toclear out the homeless campers who had been protesting in front of PortlandCity Hall for the past several weeks.Andrew Newman was arrested when, police said, he would not get out of thestreet.But otherwise the sweep was peaceful, police said.City officials said people can still protest in front of City Hall; theyjust can't camp there.http://www.katu.com/news/local/18972369.htmlHomeless protesters removed from City HallStory Published: May 15, 2008 at 8:38 AM PDTStory Updated: May 15, 2008 at 12:57 PM PDTBy KATU Web StaffPORTLAND, Ore. - Portland police removed homeless protesters who have beensitting in front of Portland's City Hall building Thursday morning. One manwas arrested for not getting out of the street.The sweep of protesters began about 6:30 a.m. after police issued a warningearlier saying the protesters were in violation of a no-camping cityordinance. A large group of officers were on hand for the confrontation, butonly one person was arrested.The protesters, most of them homeless, are upset about the ordinance andother city laws they say violate their civil rights.Many had been camped out in front of the City Hall building for up to threeweeks.On Wednesday, Portland mayor Tom Potter warned protesters they were inviolation of the law and that officers would break up the group, but thedeadline for such action was flexible.Some of the protesters left the area while others congregated across thestreet. City crews arrived with power-washing equipment shortly after theprotesters left the sidewalk area.Following cleanup of the area, it will be technically legal for theprotesters to take their spots on the sidewalk again, which may lead policeto clear them again according to current city statutes.http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/200805/s2241204.htm?tab=latestPortland police arrest homeless protesters near City Hall01:33 PM PDT on Sunday, May 11, 2008By kgw.com staffPORTLAND, Ore. ? After two weeks of protesting, homeless residents campingout in front of Portland City Hall were told Saturday that they will have tomove. Officers arrested seven people, focusing on the city?s ?Sit and Lie?Ordinance. The arrests centered on those sitting against the fence wall thatsurrounds city hall, and blocking the interior of the sidewalk.kgw.comHomeless people gather at City Hall to protest the City's decision to removethem from bridge areas.Mayor Tom Potter has asked police to enforce a city ordinance that prohibitscamping in public places. After Saturday's warning, the enforcement isscheduled to begin Tuesday.The protest started with 15-20 people camping in front of City Hall, butthat number has ballooned to more than 100. It?s that number that has themayor concerned.?The amount of clutter has greatly affected the ability of the public to usethe sidewalk,? Potter said in a statement Saturday. ?I also have anincreasing concern about the safety of both the protestors and the generalpublic.?Potter had originally supported the protest, but said there have beennumerous calls for police and medical assistance, along with sanitationconcerns in and outside of city hall.?It?s bologna,? said a protester named Jukeboxxxe, upset over the arrests.?We are having a peaceful protest and they are bringing a violent elementinto our peaceful protests. We have been policing ourselves.?Homeless residents began their protest in late April. They complain the cityhasn't done enough for homeless people.Mayor Potter said the city will connect protestors and homeless individualswith service providers who can help them find shelter or other places to go.http://www.southwestiowanews.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19832356&BRD=2703&PAG=461&dept_id=555106&rfi=6Tongue-in-cheek protest on 'paper'Tom McMahon, Staff Writer07/06/2008Email to a friendPost a CommentPrinter-friendlySubmitted photo - A mock U.S. Constitution printed on toilet paper is oneman?s way of protesting what he says is a lack of adherence to the document.Larry Roe said the tissue roll is designed to make people think about whatthe forefathers intended.While polls indicate the majority of U.S. citizens are dissatisfied with thepresident and Congress, one man is taking his discontent to the bathroom.Larry Roe is printing a mock version of the country's Constitution on toiletpaper. He said the tongue-in-cheek effort is one way to get people to thinkabout the document and the nation's future."I think the great majority of Americans agree the Constitution is oftenignored," Roe said."Some leaders do what they want to do."He said the toilet paper is meant to make that statement, be humorous andget people thinking.Roe had not used the paper for its intended purpose until a radiointerviewer called him a hypocrite."It was kind of challenging," the paper's creator stated as he took his rollinto the bathroom."I was thinking the founders who wrote it could have been hanged and all therisks they took."He said he figured most people would keep the rolls on the shelf.While the print looks like the original Constitution, the fine print revealsa different document.Roe said he updated the words to reflect what he sees as the "current stateof affairs."The Bill of Rights is The Bill of Privileges. The second amendment - "Awell-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, theright of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed," reads"The privilege of the people to bare federally-licensed arms shall not beinfringed."The fourth amendment's guarantee against unreasonable and warrantlesssearches and seizures reads, "The privilege of the people to be secureduring searches and seizures by the IRS, DEA, ATF and FBI shall not beviolated, though no warrants shall be issue by the NSA or CIA."Roe, who formerly lived in Washington, said he realizes having aConstitution facsimile on toilet paper might not be seen as politicallycorrect.He said so far he has not received any criticism, although the product hasonly been on the market a couple weeks.Next week could tell the tale. An ad for the toilet paper is appearing in"The Hill," a Washington, D.C. congressional newspaper.The tissue is $8 a roll.The Web site, www.constitutiontp.com, promises a soon to be released"Federal Budget" version.http://www1.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/MI84206/Brother protests SWAT shooting of hostage-takerRelated LinksVideo: SWAT shootingPOMPANO BEACH, Fla. (WSVN) -- The brother of a man killed during a SWATstandoff is demanding answers from authorities, saying it was not necessaryto kill him.According to authorities, 57-year-old Patrick Dellisanti died Thursday aftera standoff with SWAT team members, where Dellisanti held two women hostage.The brother of the suspect, George Dellisanti, said other precautionscould've be taken before they fired on his brother. "I thought there wereother alternatives. From what I've seen, seven guys, he got shot seventimes. I mean, give the guy the benefit of the doubt. If he didn't aim atyou, you still got time for a reaction," he said, "They could've taseredhim. I think they could've tasered him down."The suspect was upset over thousands of dollars of homeowner's assessmentfees. Dellisanti had fired his gun inside the building at the Cypress BendApartments' clubhouse, located at 2204 S. Cypress Bend Drive, after takingtwo employees hostage. SWAT team members soon surrounded the recreationalbuilding.After a long negotiation, the suspect and the two female hostages exited thebuilding.Officers ordered Dellisanti to raise his hands. The suspect, however,reached into his pockets, pulled out a firearm and pointed it to his head."When you're on the firing line, and you're on the SWAT team, all you'rewatching is his hands," said Jim Leljedal from the Broward Sheriffs Office."Anyone in a situation like this, you have a gun, you're ordered to drop thegun, and you don't drop the gun, you can expect to be shot and killed."The autopsy will reveal whether or not Dellisanti did indeed shoot himself.Police also said their investigation will show if Dellisanti provoked theincident, wanting suicide by a police officer.The two hostages inside were uninjured. The SWAT members involved in theshooting are on administrative leave while the investigation continues.Dellasanti's family traveled from New York to plan for the funeral.http://politicom.moldova.org/stiri/eng/125806/Teen shooting sparks protestAbout 30 demonstrators gathered outside the police station in St.Petersburg, Fla., Monday to protest the weekend shooting death of a teenageboy.Javon Dawson, 17, was shot and killed by police during a graduation party atthe Shining Light Masonic Lodge, The St. Petersburg Times reported.You can't keep killing our young people and expect nothing to come of it asa consequence, said Omali Yeshitela, founder of the International People'sDemocratic Uhuru Movement.Yeshitela maintained Dawson was shot in the back with his hands up.There were no statements that he had a gun, fired a gun or pointed a gun, hesaid. The police department is the only one who's said anything about a gun.http://www.wbay.com/global/story.asp?s=8207854Hmong community holds protest outside City Hall in MilwaukeeAssociated Press - April 22, 2008 10:35 AM ETMILWAUKEE (AP) - Members of the Hmong community have gathered outsideMilwaukee's city hall to protest the way the police department has handledan allegation of excessive force.More than a hundred people are walking east from city hall chanting, "Nojustice, no peace." Some are carrying signs bearing a photograph of a manthey say was battered by police.Koua Moua, a 40-year-old machinist, claims Officer Kelly Parker usedexcessive force and beat him on the street in February.But Milwaukee police Chief Edward Flynn has backed the officer, sayingParker feared for his life and the community's safety and had to use force.The state Department of Justice is looking into the case.http://www.roguegovernment.com/news.php?id=8721Houston Cabbies Protest ID Card Scheme04-29-2008Houston ChronicleMore than 100 taxis paraded around downtown Houston's Tranquillity Parktoday to protest Wednesday's deadline for all cabdrivers who do business atHouston airports to wear photo IDs.Starting Wednesday, drivers who seek fares at Bush Intercontinental andHobby airports must have badges. To get them, cabbies will be required topass criminal and immigration background checks by the TransportationSecurity Administration, a division of the U.S. Department of HomelandSecurity.Cab industry observers say this is the first such program for cabdrivers inthe nation.The demonstration, which passed in front of the federal courthouse andbeside City Hall, came after a federal civil rights lawsuit was filed thismorning on behalf of the Houston Drivers Fund, also known as the HoustonTaxi Association.The group represents 700 to 1,000 independent cabdrivers, about 95 percentof whom are minorities, the lawsuit states.The drivers are asking for an emergency hearing before a federal judge tostop the city from enforcing the new rules, which the lawsuit alleges arediscriminatory and target the cabbies because most are foreign-born.Drivers already are required to pass FBI background checks to getcity-issued operating licenses.The lawsuit also asks a federal judge to force the city to improveconditions in staging areas and, because of several recent murders of taxidrivers, allow cabbies to refuse service without fear of losing theiroperating licenses."These drivers are ambassadors for people who come to our city," saidHouston lawyer Reginald McKamie, who filed the suit on behalf of thedrivers. "They've made complaints and nobody's listening to them."Officials with the Houston Airport System have said the ID cards havenothing to do with race or nationality. Hired chauffeurs already arerequired to wear badges and, once taxi drivers get their cards, shuttle busdrivers are next.http://www.lacrossetribune.com/articles/2008/04/30/newsupdate/10toys.txtWednesday, April 30, 2008Students protest cancelation of sex toy seminarBy DEBORAH ZIFF / Lee Newspapers.MADISON ? A group of University of Wisconsin law students asked for anapology from the university for the abrupt cancellation of a sex toy seminarscheduled at the Law School last week.Calling it a misunderstanding, Law School Dean Kenneth Davis said the groupcan hold the event if no commercial products are promoted or sold.The Wisconsin Law Students for Reproductive Justice sent a formal complaintthis week to the administration at the UW School of Law arguing the event,Sex Toys 101, was canceled without ?justification or consultation.?The students say the actions ?disregarded the Law School?s duty to fosterthat freedom? of expression.In a response to the complaint, Davis said he takes ?great pride? in the?commitment to promoting the free expression of ideas.? He said he wasconcerned the event violated student rules stipulating that registeredstudent organizations cannot use university facilities to sell or promotecommercial products.?In my view,? he wrote, there was an ?honest misunderstanding over theapplication of university rules to an admittedly difficult issue ? the useof Law School facilities for an event prominently featuring a privatecommercial vendor.?The planned forum featured a presentation by A Woman?s Touch SexualityResource Center, which group members say fit with their mission to promotewomen?s sexual and reproductive health through education.A notice of the event said ?the lecture will provide tips and tricks as wellas information about health, hygiene, satisfaction, and yes, the law, of sextoys.? There are bans on sexual devices in certain states and by localordinances.This is not an uncommon topic on the UW campus ? the group Sex Out Loudoften features programs on sexuality ? but it may be the first time a LawSchool organization has wanted to hold such an event, Davis said.The issue boils down to a somewhat pedestrian one: whether the seminarviolated the code of conduct of student organizations.Maria June Selsor, the chairwoman of the organization, asked for permissionto host the event several weeks before, noting the ?potentiallycontroversial nature of the seminar.?At that time, Assistant Dean for Student and Academic Affairs Ruth Robartsresponded that the event would be permissible if it didn?t conflict with thestudent organization handbook.The students decided not to allow the sale of products at the event becausethey felt it violated those rules. But Davis said the students did notcommunicate this decision to administration, leading to the last-minutecancellation.On the afternoon of the presentation April 23, Robarts sent the students ane-mail saying, ?You need to cancel today?s event.??Associate Dean Walter Dickey has determined that your student organizationmay not sell, promote, advertise (etc.) sex toys on law school premises,?she wrote.Dickey took down posters promoting the event, some featuring pictures of sextoys, students said in the complaint.In an e-mail to the students, Dickey said he directed ?that the signs,blatantly promotional material (offensive to many staff and students), betaken down because they so obviously are for the purpose of promotingcommercial products.?The students said the posters were ?provocative, and intended to sparkdebate and interest in the seminar.?Once the administration learned the students did not intend to sellproducts, they ?un-canceled? the event that same day, Davis said. Butstudents may not have gotten the message.Whether the event could still be considered a ?promotion? of the products,Davis said, falls in a ?gray area.??This is a case where, given First Amendment issues, you err on the side ofhaving the event,? he said.Deborah Ziff is a reporter at the Wisconsin State Journal.http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/MYSA_050108_8B_TRINITY_368919b_html4693.htmlWeb Posted: 05/01/2008 2:00 CDTTrinity Greeks protest ban on beach partiesIt's not exactly violence in Sudan. But a Tuesday night decision by TrinityUniversity officials to call off beach parties planned by Greekorganizations sparked a daylong protest Wednesday, a show of rebellionthat's unusual for the reserved private university.Officials banned the beach bashes after reports of alcohol abuse andmisbehavior on previous trips. In one instance, a sorority girl's dateinjured himself after getting drunk and falling down concrete steps. Thispast weekend, a different group of sorority girls made so much noise at aPort Aransas hotel that they attracted police, and left the rooms dirtyenough to warrant extra cleanup.According to students, the canceled beach trips will cost them $16,000 innonrefundable hotel deposits.?I hate to stamp my foot and say it's not fair, but it's not fair,? saidGrant Quimby, president of the Phi Sigma Chi fraternity.On Wednesday, Quimby participated in a daylong sit-in outside the campus andcommunity involvement office, demanding to speak to administrators about thedecision. At 4 p.m., about 60 students in multi-colored Greek jerseys milledaround the office, setting up a tent, blaring music, typing on laptops andducking into the campus bar for breaks.Quimby said the university overreached its authority when it banned thebeach formals, a Trinity tradition where Greek members say goodbye todeparting seniors with a weekend bash at various hotels along the gulfcoast. Most of the university's fraternities and sororities ? all locallyaffiliated ? already had taken their trips. So the only ones punished werethe four groups who had not gone yet, Quimby said.?The people getting punished here have not done anything wrong,? said BillKeith, a senior who was planning to attend one of the formals.But in a letter to the campus community, Felicia Lee, vice president forstudent affairs, said the students could not honestly say they werefollowing the school's drinking policy, which bars them from buying alcoholand taking it into the hotel. Empty alcohol containers were found in roomsand public areas, she wrote.?The university has reasonable grounds to believe that similar issues andviolations would likely occur at upcoming beach weekend events,? Lee wrote.?Given what the university knows about the past history of these events andthe infractions during the two most recent weekends, we cannot in ourprofessional, moral, or legal conscience allow these events to continue.?Though the sorority girls made a bit of a mess this past weekend, MichaelKuhn, general manager of Beachgate CondoSuites in Port Aransas, said theywere well behaved.?It's actually about the most tame group we have,? Kuhn said. ?They have agood time and we love them to come. It got blown out of proportion.?In the past, Lee wrote, the beach parties were unstructured and involvedheavy drinking by underage students.In recent years, the university has put the brakes on Greek partying,banning long-held traditions, implementing an alcohol- and risk-managementpolicy, and revoking charters when members did not follow the rules.Students say the transition has been tough.?There have been a lot of changes that are hard to adapt to for a smalluniversity with a lot of traditions,? said Amy Walton, a member of the GammaChi Delta sorority. ?This is the culmination of several years of tension.?http://rawstory.com/rawreplay/?p=1004Former soldier poses nude to protest Patriot ActBy Muriel KaneA former member of the National Guard has posed in the nude for PlaygirlMagazine in what he claims is an act of political protest.Former Army Specialist Stewart Zamudio, a strikingly handsome man who spentsix years in the military and even appeared in a recruiting commercial, sayshe eventually began to feel he just didn?t belong. ?There?s a restrictionof, like, what you shouldn?t say and what you should do and what you shouldn?t do,? he told ABC News.Zamudio posed for Playgirl wearing nothing but an American flag draped overhis shoulders. ?I want to change the meaning of what the American flag is tothe people,? he explains. According to ABC, Zamudio ?says he also got nakedto show his disgust for the Patriot Act, which he says strips away Americans? freedoms.?However, another veteran interviewed by ABC found the photos an insult tothe military. ?It?s a dishonor to everybody else in the service,? CraigNorthacker told ABC.Zamudio, who now appears to be pursuing a modeling career, was previouslyinvolved in controversy when he advised last fall that people not join theNational Guard as long as George Bush is commander in chief:?Ask yourself, ?If President Bush was a soldier today and the CompanyCommander at your unit, whom you trusted with your life. And he led you intoa battle in Iraq a couple of weeks before, where three of your buddies werekilled? Would you trust him with your life in another battle? Would youhonestly follow a leader who has failed time and time again???One right-wing blog called Zamudio a traitor for those comments.ABC 7 News has more details here.This video is from ABCNews.com, broadcast May 8, 2008.Download videohttp://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storyPage.aspx?storyId=120763Groups to protest alleged NYPD harassment during PIDC paradePeewee Recaido and Rusty Fabunan at the make-shift booth of NAFCON & BAYANUSA with the Kappa Pi members providing alternative cultural space duringPhilippine Independence Day Celebration (PIDC) parade held last week in NewYork City.A US-based women?s organization and its allied Filipino Americanorganizations is set to hold an indignation rally to protest alleged policeharassment during the Philippine Independence Day Celebration (PIDC) paradeheld last week in New York City.The Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment (FiRE) and member organizations ofthe National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON) said the rally will beconducted 5:30 p.m. in front of the Philippine Consulate, 556 Fifth Avenueon June 6.The indignation rally is to protest the apprehension of two of their friendsby the New York City Police Department (NYPD) last week.They said police seized two youth members of the Kapatirang Pilipino (KappaPi Fraternity), Peewee Recaido and Rusty Fabunan, for playing drums during apolitical street theater performance which "exposed the commercialization ofthe PIDC and the current rice crisis in the Philippines.""When the NYPD took our friends away for playing drums, it didn't make anysense. This is New York City, people play drums everywhere--in the parks, inthe street, in the subways! Why can't we play drums during our celebrationof independence? It was just music!" said FiRE member Jackelyn Mariano.The incident prompted FiRE members and other groups to chant for one hourwhile NYPD made a barricade of officers that blocked the rally including thedrummers.The Kappa Pi brothers were charged with "failure to disperse" and have beensummoned to a court hearing. The groups said the arrest was an injusticesince the two were only playing drums.http://www.kirotv.com/news/16427159/detail.html?rss=sea&psp=newsStudents Protest Officers' Use Of Force During ArrestPOSTED: 11:53 am PDT May 29, 2008UPDATED: 1:34 pm PDT May 29, 2008SEATTLE -- Students were holding a rally Thursday at Seattle CentralCommunity College to protest the police's treatment of a man during hisarrest, reported KIRO 7 Eyewitness News.Julio Hernandez, 21, was arrested on the school's campus Wednesday in frontof hundreds of students. Hernandez was accused of making threats to thecampus last Friday and referring to the Virginia Tech massacre.Student Chris Mobley shot a video of Hernandez' arrest in which police areseen forcing Hernandez to the ground. Mobley said the incident began afterpolice and school security confronted the student."As soon as he stepped back, the officer who was attempting to frisk him gothim by a head lock and tried to bring him down. The first officer who triedto arrest him kneed him in the face twice," said Mobley.School officials said police took action after Hernandez refused tocooperate, but students said the police went too far.Police said they confiscated a knife from Hernandez during his arrest.Hernandez is being held on investigation of assault and making threats tokill. He is expected to appear in court on Thursday afternoon.The students who heard the alleged threat on Friday did not report it toschool officials until Monday. The school said it acted under advisementfrom police to wait to confront Hernandez until Wednesday.http://www.cubavsbloqueo.cu/Default.aspx?tabid=1329Miami Demonstrators Demand Lifting Cuba Travel BanHavana, July 10, 2006 (ACN) Cuban immigrants and other Latin Americannationals demonstrated in Miami over the weekend to protest Washington?sprohibition of travel to Cuba by US residents.The action, which was the fourth of its kind over the past two months, wascalled by the Christian Women?s Association in Support of the Family.Demonstrators gathered across from City Hall in the suburb of Hialeah,reported the Granma newspaper.The US travel ban makes it impossible for a person who has a close relativein Cuba to go and visit them unless he or she requests a visitation permit.These authorizations, if granted, are made available only once every threeyears by the US Treasury Department, regardless if a family emergency occursin the mean time.Mirta, one of the demonstrators in Hialeah, took her seven-year-old daughterand her nine-year-old son to the rally because she is desperate to see hermother, who is seriously ill in Cuba. Mirta was denied a license by the USgovernment to visit her parent.http://www.workers.org/2008/us/philadelphia_0605/Philadelphia rally protests May 5 police beatingsBy Betsey PiettePhiladelphiaPublished May 29, 2008 9:50 PMOver 200 family members of victims of police brutality and their supportersgathered to express outrage over the May 5 brutal beating of three Black menby 19 white police officers caught on video from a FOX29 news helicopter.The protesters denounced city officials for not filing criminal chargesagainst the officers involved.Yolanda Dyches, family member ofMay 5th police brutality victim.WW photo: Joe PietteOne day earlier, Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey announced that four ofthe officers would be fired for their part in the beatings, and three otherswould face five to 15 days suspension. Sgt. Joseph Schiavone, who was incharge of the police involved, was demoted.Given the history of unpunished police brutality in Philadelphia, few expectthe firings and suspensions to withstand arbitration hearings. The FraternalOrder of Police has already announced they will challenge Ramsey?s ruling.Over the past five years 219 claims of assault have been filed againstPhiladelphia police. The City of Philadelphia has paid over $14 million tosettle claims, yet no police have ever faced criminal charges for theiractions.D. Scott Perrine, attorney for Pete Hopkins, one of the men beaten, saidCommissioner Ramsey should order the officers to be arrested for assault?aview echoed by many members of the victims? families. ?The commissioner isputting his stamp of approval on police brutality,? Perrine said. ?He doesn?t need to pretend that District Attorney Lynne Abraham needs six months towatch a video tape.?Perrine was targeted by police shortly after he spoke. He was arrested inHarrisburg, Pa., for missing a court date in another case that he had askedto be postponed. Karen Miller, a North Philly community activist who hasbeen working with Perrine to address police brutality, said she believed hisarrest was retaliatory. ?We know the deal,? she said. ?People in lawenforcement stick together.?After gathering across from City Hall at 15th and Market, the protestersmarched a short distance to rally outside District Attorney Abraham?soffice. Several speakers noted that she has the authority to bring criminalcharges against the police involved, but has failed to do so.Pam Africa of International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamaland the MOVE organization expressed disgust with police, ?Those cops abusedtheir power. They were not supposed to beat those youth, maim those youth.They were not supposed to be judge, prosecutor and executioner, but that?swhat they did.?Leomia Dyches, mother of beating victim Dwayne Dyches, 24, criticized themedia that claimed the three youth were ?raised as animals? when they knownothing about how her son and the others were raised. ?How were the peoplewho beat my son raised?? she asked. Dyches also expressed concern that herson hasn?t even been hospitalized to get an assessment on injuries sufferedfrom the police attack and could develop serious health problems as aresult.She criticized their lockup as a coverup for misconduct by ?Philadelphia?sfinest.?Beating victims including Dyches; Brian Hall, 23; and Pete Hopkins, 19, whopolice charged with attempted murder, are being held pending a preliminaryhearing, which was postponed from May 15 after three witnesses for theprosecution failed to show up in court. No weapon was found in the young men?s car. Also none of the three were charged with fleeing, resisting arrestor assaulting an officer.Shelly Moore, the aunt of another Black youth murdered by the police in2004, expressed her solidarity. ?Every time they shoot one of us, it affectsall of us. Justice is going to be done in all of these cases. Won?t betoday, won?t be tomorrow, but we?re going to stay out here?stay the course.We?ve got to keep fighting!?Shirley Hopkins, mother of Pete Hopkins, called for the jailing of all thepolice involved, along with the commissioner and the district attorney.?They think they can pacify us with a few firings. How dare they insult ourintelligence??Several speakers cited the lack of jobs and economic opportunities for youngBlack men as a related problem. Yolanda Dyches noted that the young menarrested had jobs, but were fired because of the police actions. ?They wantto hold us back, oppress us,? she said. ?It needs to end!?Paula Peoples of the National Action Network announced plans for a June 4thdemonstration and press conference at noon outside the Federal Building at6th and Market Streets to demand an investigation by the Philadelphia CivilRights Commission. ?All over the country our young Black men are dying atthe hands of the police. We have to stand up like New York, like Chicago,like L.A.?Articles copyright 1995-2008 Workers World. Verbatim copying anddistribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium withoutroyalty provided this notice is preserved.http://www.examiner.com/a-1429567~Civil_rights_group_to_protest_as_first_checkpoint_introduced.html?cid=rss-Washington_DCCivil rights group to protest as first checkpoint introducedJun 7, 2008 8:18 AM (69 days ago) by Michael Neibauer, The Examiner? 69 days ago: Civil rights group to protest as first checkpoint introduced?Washington, D.C. (Map, News) - A coalition of civil rights leaders today isexpected to denounce Mayor Adrian Fenty's plan to quarantine crime-ravagedneighborhoods as a knee-jerk reaction implemented with little communityinput or support."Granted there are people who are tired of the violence, but I don't know ifthis is going to solve anything," said Mark Thompson, who heads up the NAACPMetropolitan Police Task Force. "And it is almost impossible for ourleadership ... to condone a pseudo-military presence in an African Americanneighborhood."The task force, which has coordinated on policy with the Metropolitan PoliceDepartment for more than a decade, includes the NAACP, the Black PoliceAssociation and the American Civil Liberties Union. At 10 a.m. today thegroup will converge on the Trinidad neighborhood, specifically the 1400block of Montello Avenue Northeast, where the first "Neighborhood SafetyZone" vehicular checkpoint will be conducted.More locations are to come, Lanier said this week."Our concern is that when you effectively isolate at the least, andquarantine at worst, a particular community, you have to make sure that allother means have been exhausted to try and bring about some kind ofimprovement in that community," Thompson said.The zones are designed to increase police visibility and deter crime "byprohibiting vehicles with no legitimate purpose to enter the area." Usingmanned police checkpoints, officers will stop all vehicles, demandidentification from the occupants and ask their purpose for entering.A legitimate reason for passing would include going to work, dropping achild at school, going to a doctor's office or church, or visiting arelative. The elderly and disabled will not be stopped, according to theMPD, but friends of residents within the zone will be turned away."Friends may enter the neighborhood on foot," according to MPD's Web site.Proving legitimacy will require personal identification and "informationsufficient for determining the accuracy of the reason for entering thearea," for example a telephone number of the address to which the personseeks entry.D.C. Councilman Phil Mendelson, chair of the public safety committee, onFriday demanded from Lanier a host of information tied to the safety zoneinitiative, including any legal opinions issued by the Office of theAttorney General. In a letter to the chief, Mendelson said the program's"questionable treatment of District residents' civil liberties" is reasonfor concern.More on the zones- Checkpoints will last five to 10 days, manned by minimum five trainedofficers- Officers directed to get operator ID, vehicle description, tag number ofany car denied access to zone- Pedestrians may not be stopped- Vehicles may be subject to search when there is probable causemneibauer at dcexaminer.comhttp://www.workers.org/2008/us/prisoners_0612/Former prisoners protest job biasBy Frank NeisserBostonPublished Jun 7, 2008 12:03 AMWW photo: Stevan KirschbaumOver 300 ex-prisoners and supporters, many African-American and Latino aswell as Asian and immigrants of many nationalities, rallied and marched fromBunker Hill Community College to the Massachusetts State House here May 22to protest the system of employment discrimination known as CriminalOffender Record Information Act.The march was the final leg of a four-day march from Worcester, Mass., toBoston. Over 60 ex-prisoners and supporters completed the entire march.Under the draconian CORI system, employers can search and find the criminalrecords of ex-felons for 15 years. Only after 15 years can the ex-prisonerfile to have the record sealed. It?s 10 years for misdemeanors.As speaker after speaker made clear, the system hurts not only theex-prisoners but their families too, preventing them from earning a livingand surviving. The march was organized and coordinated by the Boston WorkersAlliance and by EPOCA (Ex-prisoners and Prisoners Organizing for CommunityAdvancement).Many community organizations participated, including Neighbor to Neighbor,the Women?s Fightback Network and the International Action Center. The marchwas led by a sound truck provided by USW Local 8751, Boston School BusDrivers. Bishop Filipe Teixeira, OFSJC, led chants from the truck.Articles copyright 1995-2008 Workers World. Verbatim copying anddistribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium withoutroyalty provided this notice is preserved.http://www.nowpublic.com/world/religous-group-protests-recent-genocideReligous group protests recent genocideby Gavin_Cummings | May 2, 2008 at 12:00 am | 525 views | 2 comments(The following article is a result of experiencing the churches rally inHamilton and interviewing Reverend brother Justin Bean from the G13 Missionof God in Toronto.) Supporters of the church of the universe gathered outside the John Sopinkacourthouse on Monday, April 28 in a sign of peaceful protest. A group ofabout 10 supporters handed out leaflets explaining the discriminatorytreatment that the members feel has taken place. This treatment towards thechurch by the Government and police services has been a common occurrencesince the church?s inception in 1969. Members of the church of the universefeel they are under constant threat by government and police. This feelingis also shared by Ministers of the church who are mandated to share the treeof life regardless of what the "law" says!Brother Walter Tucker and local hero Michael Baldasaro, the reverends in theChurch of the Universe, Were served with an application by the attorneygeneral to forfeit the Barton Street building the brothers call both homeand church. The AG is going after the house worth about $98,000 as "offence-related property" since Brother Tucker and Brother Baldasaro wereconvicted of selling $70 worth of the churches sacrament, cannabis to anundercover police officer. It turned out that the Hamilton Police Departmentspent three months of heavy investigation before the drug deal occurred.This was clearly not your average drug deal,the friendly and righteous church minister Rev. Brother Justin Bean stated,"Cannabis is the churches Sacrament? given by God for all to share 'the treeof life, which is for the healing of the nations'- revelations 22As Gods ministers we are mandated to tend to the garden. And share the treeof life with our brothers and sisters. It shall be that way even if we shallbe persecuted. Our churches missions around the world are under constantthreat of being raided by Police and Government. Gods? ministers are beingput on bail conditions! I don't know why the government refuses tounderstand that God has mandated us to share the tree of life. You don'thave to agree with our beliefs, but let us practice and worship as theCanadian charter clearly states we are allowed to do. Regardless, the churchand Gods minister will never stop doing what God has mandated us to do, Nomatter what threats the church gets from the brothers and sisters who aresuppose to protect us we will always tend to the garden." -As the day grew long members kept faith and openly shared their optimisticoutlook for the future of the church and humanity. One Reverend brother fromthe G13 Mission of God saying, "I know these are the end days of cannabisprohibition, infinite love shall prevail!"Reverend Brother Wayne, a long time brother and Minister of the churchexplained straight up how he felt as he stood on the stairs in front of thetowering cement structure where his fellow brothers were sentenced ?Free ourbrothers, give us back our church?don?t take our church?. He continues, ?Stop prosecuting our people ?and with a smile and a nod he looked out andsaid ?Bless you!?I later found out that the imprisoned reverends had been refused the rightto wear religious headwear.Church clergy are mandated to wear some form of head-cover i.e. holy hat.From the church website?The Assembly recognizes the mandate of its members to cover their heads andwear sacred head gear such as a holy hat made out the churches holysacrament, hemp or Yarmulke, as required by their religious beliefs, andespecially in any association with government agencies and/or the governmentitself?. It continues, ?Instances are, in court, for drivers licenses, anyother official government picture, any picture identification of any kindand in other cases that might arise.?With a lack of materials but pure devotion to their beliefs the holyreverends Brother Tucker and Brother Baldasaro have resorted to wearingpaper napkins on their heads. What ever happened to a persons religiousrights and freedoms?The church of the universe follows the golden rules.1. Do not harm yourself.2. Do not harm anyone else.Why would the government enforce such genocide on this church?I am only left to wonder...I am certain that the optimistic peace loving members of the church of theuniverse will continue to spread the word of God and share the Tree of Lifeas the generations before them did.I also know that regardless of the outcome of this trial Hamiltonians willstill love and respect Rev. Brother Tucker and past Mayoral Candidate Rev.brother Baldasaro and this act of ''genocide'' against the church will be astain on the history of Canadian culture and Canada as a country. Nearly 40years after the church opened it's doors it is gaining support like neverbefore with more members joining and Gods ministers opening up their ownmissions to share the tree of life as they are mandated to do.The Church of the Universe rally was documented by stoned monk productions,footage is available on www.youtube.com. Just type in 'Church of theUniverse rally in Hamilton'http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/27/9231/Published on Tuesday, May 27, 2008 by The Washington PostDemonstrators Use Court Case as Another Protest Opportunityby Keith L. AlexanderThirty-five people accused of staging an illegal demonstration at theSupreme Court went on trial today and used the proceedings as anotheropportunity to protest conditions at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay,Cuba.Many of the 22 men and 13 women dressed themselves in orange prisonjumpsuits to show solidarity with Guantanamo detainees. They were arrestedJan. 11 for illegally protesting on the grounds of the Supreme Court, amisdemeanor that carries up to 60 days in jail.Watch the video coverage.The demonstration came on the sixth anniversary of the opening of thedetention facility set up to house suspected terrorists. Today, thedefendants continued to make political statements about the treatment ofdetainees as their trial began in D.C. Superior Court.As a clerk for Judge Wendell P. Gardner Jr. took attendance, each defendantstood up, identified himself or herself and then spoke a name of someonedescribed as a Guantanamo detainee, including some who died at the prison.The move was an act of symbolism meant to give the Guantanamo detaineestheir first voice in court.Mathew Daloisio, 31, of New York said he was speaking on behalf of Yasseral-Zahrani, who died in 2006 in what the Defense Department called acoordinated suicide with two other detainees. As Daloisio spoke, severalco-defendants said, ?God forgive us,? one of the only outbursts to takeplace in the otherwise quiet courtroom.Because the charges are misdemeanors punishable by less than six months injail, the case is being heard by a judge and not a jury. In openingstatements, prosecutors told the judge that the case was not about freedomof speech but about disobeying police orders regarding assembly. AssistantU.S. Attorney Magdalena Acevedo said the group left the sidewalk, wheredemonstrations are legal and, despite warnings, ventured to the plaza of theSupreme Court, where such activities are barred by law.?If they stayed in the permissible area, they could have spoken as much asthey wanted to,? she said.About 150 people gathered on the sidewalk during the demonstration, but onlyabout 35 or so went to the plaza. They carried signs that said ?Shut DownGuantanamo? and then knelt on the steps of the Supreme Court.The protesters are a part of a group called Witness Against Torture that hasheld demonstrations in various cities across the country including theDistrict, New York and Chicago. They range in age from their 20s to their70s. The group?s leaders said the defendants include a hog farmer fromGrinnell, Iowa, a social worker from Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and a legalsecretary from Baltimore.In court today, the defendants filled the box normally reserved for the juryand the left side of the courtroom. Their supporters filled the other sideof the room, and the crowd was so large that some had to wait in thehallway. Many supporters wore T-shirts that said ?Stop Torture,? ?Stop theWar? and ?Granny Peace Brigade.?The demonstrators are representing themselves at trial, with help fromlawyer Mark Goldstone, a First Amendment specialist who is acting as anadviser.During his opening statement to the court, Daloisio ? who acted as aspokesman for the majority of the group ? said the protesters would remainsilent throughout the trial.?We will remain silent and not exercise our rights when our country deniesthe rights to others,? Daloisio said. ?Our silence in this trial is insupport of the people who have been deemed non-persons.?Prior to the trial, the group ? dressed in the orange jumpsuits and blackhoods ? marched from the Supreme Court to D.C. Superior Court, where theyheld a rally outside the courthouse. The trial is expected to last two tothree days.http://www.kxan.com/global/story.asp?s=8356723Code enforcement leads to porcelain protestPosted: May 21, 2008 04:25 AMPorcelain protestAUSTIN, Texas (KXAN) -- Quite a few homes in the Angus Valley subdivision inNorthwest Austin are sporting a new type of protest yard art. You could callit Pottygate.The Angus Valley subdivision is located off US 183 near Parmer Lane. Only ayear after the neighborhood association was reorganized, a number ofneighbors decided they were fed up with what they considered to be excessiveenthusiasm to point out code violations.Resident Karen Flanagan rounded up dozens of free toilets last March andorganized what might be called a "porcelain protest." Nearly 20 homes in theAngus Valley neighborhood off Duval Road suddenly have added thepersonalized planters. Some residents have even doubled up on the porcelain."I did check online to make sure this is not a violation of city code,"Flanagan said. "It is construction material, but we turned it in to art bymaking it a planter. I called supply companies. These are all recycled."It's a sort of silent protest. Flanagan had heard the neighborhoodassociation was sending out letters to people who didn't have theirrecreation vehicles behind a fence or when maintenance crews' vehicles wereparked on the streets.Then the situation really overflowed when neighbors found out theirviolations were being posted on the neighborhood association Web site.Flanagan said many of the violations -- like lawns not being kept up tostandard -- were simply petty."It was public information before these people even caught wind of it, andso we thought let's poke fun at them," Flanagan said. "It's just a hootpeople come by just dying laughing."The bowls' "artistic qualities" are keeping them in neighbors' yards. Theyjust happen to be the yards of neighbors who have found a new way to protestcode enforcement."After I got my toilet, I realized we need to have something in it, it'sart," said resident Stephen Brock.The neighborhood association president declined KXAN Austin News' requestfor an interview Tuesday. Not all neighbors said they thought it was funny."I'm wondering how long it will last and when they are going to get thetoilets out of their front yards," Tom Canady said.http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=1962Guantanamo Protest in DCJune 28th, 2008Today in Washington, DC, Amnesty International and the Torture Abolition andSurvivors Support Coalition, staged events protesting Guantanamo. I learnedthat they were in town from reading VanHelsing at Moonbattery, so I took theBlogger Urban Reconnaissance Vehicle (BURV) and headed downtown. The firstthing I found was the Amnesty International?s Guantanamo Cell Tour 2008.http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews/stories/wfaa080517_jh_gayprotest.1d8be16.htmlGay-rights group protests prison term for HIV-positive man02:55 PM CDT on Saturday, May 17, 2008Associated PressDALLAS -- A gay-rights group is protesting a 35-year prison sentence givento an HIV-positive man who was convicted of spitting on a police officer.Public health officials say the risk of contracting the AIDS virus fromsaliva is extremely low.Bebe Anderson of gay-rights group Lambda Legal says the verdict could createwrong impressions about how HIV is transmitted.Willie Campbell got the 35-year sentence for spitting into the eye and openmouth of a Dallas police officer while he was being arrested for publicintoxication in 2006.Prosecutors convinced a jury this week that Campbell's spit constituted adeadly weapon because he is HIV-positive, making for a longer prison term.http://www.wmji.com/cc-common/mainheadlines3.html?feed=122520&article=3670323Controversial "gang sweep" court case starts todayMonday, June 30, 2008 Email article | Print article | RSSKrispy Krisis in Boston HeightsCleveland parents claim police rounded upinnocent victims with little or no evidence. Video of the parents telling their own stories.(Cleveland) - Teenagers accused of being involved in gang activity will bein court today as their cases are being heard, but the crime fighting efforthas come under much criticism.In May, parents and community activists held a rally in Luke Easter Park,upset about recent gang arrests in their neighborhood.They argue that police are conducting massive roundups of youngsterssuspected of being involved in gang activity, but contend many of the kidsare innocent. Parents say much of the evidence against the teens is flimsyat best.Cecilia Casson claims her daughter was arrested because she appeared in aphoto taken at a party, wearing what was a mistaken as a gang scarf.Cecilia CassonCasson and other parents contend kids were targeted because they were inpictures flashing what were falsely thought to have been gang signs, orbecause they wore sports gear that police assumed identified them with gangactivity.Many of the parents say they can prove their children were not involved, butcharge that their hearings are frequently delayed, or changed without theirknowledge. They also complain that the public defenders assigned to helpthem are doing very little to support their cases.Michelle Berkley says her son Christian was arrested while at Central StateUniversity, for a crime supposedly committed in Cleveland, even thoughChristian is an honor student, and is on full academic scholarship.Claire Edgerson contends her son Monte, was arrested for defending himselfin a fight when he was attacked by other teens on his street.Claire EdgersonEdgerson says Montel has been in jail since February 14th, but has been anhonor student in high school.The parents plan to make their feelings known at the Justice Center. Theysay they understand the need the fight crime, but feel law enforcers areusing an unfair "blanket approach" in clearing the streets.Most of the crime sweeps were carried out in February on Cleveland'ssoutheast side.http://www.workers.org/2008/us/mothers_day_0522/Mother?s Day protest hits police murderBy Stephen MilliesNew YorkPublished May 15, 2008 9:45 PMCourageous parents whose children had been killed by cops went to theManhattan office of New York Gov. David Patterson on Mother?s Day, May 11.They demanded justice at a news conference organized by the JusticeCommittee and Parents Against Police Brutality.Outside governor?s office, parents ofgunned-down children with supporters.WW photo: Stephen MilliesSupporters joined these parents in wearing bloodstained shirts with thenames of police victims. Some brought pictures. Everyone demanded justicefor Sean Bell.Parents whose children are murdered by police ?never have a happy Mother?sDay,? said Martha Laureano, a leader of the Justice Committee.In a letter to the governor, these parents called for ?a special prosecutorfor victims of police abuse and violence.? They want the New York PoliceDepartment to leave Juanita Young alone.Young has never stopped fighting for justice for her son, Malcolm Ferguson,and all victims of police terror. She went to the press conference alongwith the other parents.Ferguson was unarmed when he was killed at point-blank range by policeofficer Louis Rivera on March 1, 2000, in the Bronx. Five days before hisdeath Ferguson had been arrested for protesting the acquittal of the fourcops who shot Amadou Diallo 41 times.Last year a civil court jury determined Officer Rivera was ?100 percentresponsible? for Ferguson?s death and awarded Young over $10 million. TheBronx district attorney is appealing the just verdict and refuses to reopenthe criminal case against this cop. Police continue to threaten and abuseYoung and her family.Young is currently facing criminal charges of assaulting police who invadedher home. They claim the legally blind mother threw a box of cake mix atthem.Margarita Rosario also came to the governor?s office. Her son, AnthonyRosario, was shot 14 times and her nephew, Hilton Vega, eight times on March12, 1995. Both were lying down when they were killed by former bodyguardsfor ex-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Neither cop was ever charged.Allene Person came for her 19-year-old son, Timur Person, who was killed bypolice on Dec. 13, 2006, in the Bronx, while his hands were in the air. Fourpolice bullets were pumped into his body.Joann Mickins came for her son, Corey Mickins, who was shot a dozen times inhis favorite Harlem restaurant by plainclothes officers on March 13, 2007.Police claim Corey Mickins had a gun, yet there were no fingerprints on thealleged weapon.Loretta Cerbelli came for her son, Kevin Cerbelli, who was killed inside the110th Precinct station house in Elmhurst, Queens, on Oct. 25, 1998. ?Whilemy son was on the ground, they shot him in the back,? said Loretta Cerbelli.Nicholas Heyward Sr. came for his 13-year-old son, Nicholas Heyward Jr. Theyoung honor student was killed by a housing police officer while playing?cops and robbers? in Brooklyn?s Gowanus Houses on Sept. 27, 1994.Altagracia Mayi came for her son, Manny Mayi Jr., a Queens College honorstudent. Manny was chased 16 blocks through Corona, Queens, by a white lynchmob before being killed on March 29, 1991. None of the members of thisracist gang was ever indicted; instead, one was later admitted to the policeacademy.Doris Busch Boskey sent a letter to the event on behalf of her son, Gidone(Gary) Busch. Busch was shot 12 times by cops in Brooklyn on Aug. 30, 1999,despite witnesses who said he didn?t pose a threat to anyone.None of these killer cops or lynchers was ever prosecuted.Young told the crowd, ?Either we bury this system or we bury our kids.? Nojustice, no peace.Articles copyright 1995-2008 Workers World. Verbatim copying anddistribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium withoutroyalty provided this notice is preserved.http://wbz.com/pages/2169731.php?contentType=4&contentId=2035436Posted: Monday, 12 May 2008 12:56PMStudents, faculty protest UMass dorm arrestAmherst (AP) -- Supporters of a former University of Massachusetts studentaccused of stabbing two men on campus are asking prosecutors to reconsiderthe charges filed against him.About 1,700 students, alumni and Amherst residents signed a petition thatwas presented Monday to Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel.It asks her to review what they describe as excessive charges against JasonVassell.Vassell, who is black, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of aggravatedassault by means of a dangerous weapon in connection with the Feb. 3incident that involved two white men. He says they broke his dorm roomwindow and taunted him with racial insults.Supporters say they're concerned that only one of the men who Vassell saysbroke into him dorm and attacked him faces charges.http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20080515190917528Molalla River Middle School Students Protest No-Hugging RuleThursday, May 15 2008 @ 07:09 PM CDTContributed by: WorkerFreedomViews: 259The Molalla Pioneer writes, "American comic strip artist Bil Keane oncewrote, 'A hug is like a boomerang ? you get it back right away.? But thanksto a rule at Molalla River Middle School, it will just get you in trouble.'"Middle school students at Molalla River Middle School in Molalla Oregon areprotesting the new rule that prevents hugging. The principal instituted thenew rule after kids started showing up late to class, which has sparkedprotest among the students. Twelve-year-old Desha Eaves, protest leader,wrote a letter to the school board saying, "We're kids. I mean, come on, youneed hugs."I mean give me a break. I'm supposed to believe that kids are so busyhugging each other that they coming to class late?That's a lot of hugging dude.Principal Bob Espenel told the Molalla Pioneer newspaper, ?You?d have groupsof 10 to 15 kids and they all had to hug each other before they went toclass. It was getting out of hand,? Espenel said. ??This is not the LoveBoat.?Okaaay.Phone calls to Principal Bob Espenel weren't returned to Portland's FOX.However, the Molalla Pioneer reported Espenel said he was not likely to liftthe hugging ban (wouldn't be prudent).Can you imagine having to deal with that situation.Maybe the school needs to bring in counselors to work with these kids. Imean what kinda kids go around hugging each other?"It's just something us kids do," said eighth-grader Elizabeth Lopez.Would it be so bad if there were more hugs and less violence in our schools??Sometimes they really need a hug and I didn?t think it was fair for me tonot give my friend a hug,? Eaves said.Someone should tell this budding anarchist that "fair" isn't what makes thiscountry great...or something.The Pioneer reports Espenel does not have any firm data on whether thehugging ban has decreased student tardiness, but said it does give studentsone less excuse to be late for class.What do you think these kids learned from their Principal's action?The following is from KOLD News (Arizona). I wonder how the look on huggingin arizona anyway.School Bans Hugging On CampusGiving a hug means breaking the rules at one Oregon middle school. Schoolleaders say they imposed the no hugging rule after students started showingup late to class because they were busy hugging each other in the halls.But kids say the rule is hard to embrace. The school says it's designed toprotect kids from feeling uncomfortable.The rule has actually been in effect for several years, but one 12-year-oldgirl is protesting it.Desha Eaves has sent a letter to the school board in an effort to change therule.http://oreaddaily.blogspot.com/2008_05_11_archive.htmlhttp://www.kxan.com/global/story.asp?s=8321331Protestors to rally outside yogurt shop trialPosted: May 14, 2008 01:58 PMAUSTIN, Texas (KXAN) -- Almost 17 years after the yogurt shop murders werecommitted, Wednesday afternoon, protesters plan to rally outside of theTravis County courthouse to support the men on trial for the crime.The men, Michael Scott and Robert Springsteen, are being re-tried in thecase.An appeals court overturned their convictions for the 1991 murders of fourgirls at the I Can't Believe It's Yogurt shop off West Anderson Lane.The picketers are schduled to meet outside the courthouse at the same time apre-trial hearing is taking place.Scott and Springsteen will be tried separately.Scott's trial is still scheduled for later this month.http://www.wnep.com/global/story.asp?s=8320639Group of Gun Owners Protest TreatmentPosted: May 14, 2008 11:16 AMLast Updated: May 14, 2008 03:09 PMA group of gun owners attended the Dickson City council meeting Tuesday.By Bianca BarrA group of gun owners aimed for justice Tuesday in Lackawanna County. Theywant two Dickson City police officers disciplined for the way they handled asituation involving guns.A group stood outside the Dickson City Municipal Building, guns visibly ontheir hips, talking to people before the council meeting began.Inside, there was more discussion about the second amendment and whether twopart-time Dickson City police officers should be reprimanded for theiractions last week at Old Country Buffet, a restaurant in the borough.Police responded to a 911 call that there were people in the restaurant withguns. Officers arrived to find a group of people having dinner.Officers detained one man for a short time and confiscated his gun becausethey said he wasn't cooperating.Alex Arnau of Scranton was part of the group and believes the police were inthe wrong."The community doesn't have a right to exclude people if they arecontributing to the community like we are spending our money in theircommunity."But Joanne Clancy of Dickson City said she doesn't want to see a personcarrying a sidearm in a public place like that."A part of feeling safe is a community standard where firearms being wornlike the wild west isn't accepted."Dickson City Police Chief William Stadnitski said no charges will be filedand the man whose gun was taken can get it back anytime but he also insistedhis officers did the right thing."We did what we had to do for the community. We verified their ownership,verification and everything was fine. And most of the individuals were verycooperative," Stadnitski added.Since the incident, the Old Country Buffet now has a sign posted on thefront door, forbidding anyone carrying a weapon to enter."If it happens again, if we're uncertain of something, we will check it out.We feel we are obligated to do that for our community," added ChiefStadnitski.http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2008/07/police_shooting_brings_out_pro.htmlPolice shooting brings out protesters in SilvertonPosted by Joseph Rose, The Oregonian July 02, 2008 18:14PMCategories: Breaking NewsNearly 100 people quietly waved signs asking "Why?" and "Protect and Serve?"outside Silverton City Hall today, protesting what they say was anunjustified fatal shooting by a police officer earlier this week.No one emerged from the building during the afternoon demonstration, saidJessica Blade, a friend of Andrew Hanlon who helped organize the gathering."We didn't expect a response from them," Blade said. "We just wanted them toknow that we were there."The crowd that congregated outside of City Hall was a mix of friends andstrangers filled with questions and anger about Hanlon's shooting deathduring a burglary investigation Monday night.Hanlon came from Ireland to the United States last summer and stayedillegally after his visa expired.Blade said she has a hard time believing that Hanlon was armed or in theprocess of breaking into a home when Officer Tony Gonzalez shot him during aburglary investigation late Monday.She said no other protests are planned at this point in the town of 7,000east of Salem. " I think we're going to wait and see what the other sidesays," Blade said."Some people in town are angry with us, saying he had mental health issues,"she added. "We never said he didn't. But no matter what, I'm sure he didn'thave a weapon. My guess, he was scared of the police and was running awayfrom them."Blade said the demonstration was planned late Tuesday night and she wasamazed by the turnout."It just sounded like they were trying to keep their composure, but theirvoices were shaky," she said. "You just got a feeling that it was more thana small-town ruckus."Gonzalez, 35, joined the police department in 2006 and got his policecertification March 1, 2007, state officials said.-- Joseph Rosehttp://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080717/NEWS01/80717042/1118/RSSBikers to protest new feeBy Joe Rossiter ? Free Press Staff Writer ? July 17, 2008Members of a local biking group plan to attend a 3 p.m. meeting today atDetroit Police Headquarters of the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners toprotest a $55 non-registered fee that the department plans to begin imposingnext month.?This proposed fee could not be more inappropriate and unnecessary andserves to create more problems for everyone involved,? said Ron Scott, amember of Bike Riders United, a metro-Detroit coalition of individuals andorganizations. ?In this time of economic uncertainty and rising gas prices,we should be encouraging people to ride, not punishing them.?The Detroit Police Department recently announced that beginning Aug. 7,officers will begin issuing tickets to owners of unregistered bicycles aspart of an ordinance to protect stolen property. The $1 license fee which isvalid for five years, is a security measure used to confirm ownership if abike is stolen. Though the ordinance has been on the books since 1964, it israrely enforced.As a show of unity, Bike Riders United will hold a massive bike-a-thon onAug. 1 from 1 to 3 p.m., nearly a week before the Aug. 7 initiation of thefee for non-registrants. It will begin at Eastern Market and end at theColeman A. Young Municipal Center. More than 1,000 bikers are expected toparticipate.http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080717/NEWS01/80717075/1118/RSSGroups protest Detroit tickets for unregistered bikesBy JOE ROSSITER ? FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER ? July 17, 2008Several members of a local bicyclists? group criticized the Detroit Board ofPolice Commissioners today because the city plans to begin imposing a $55fine on Aug. 7 against riders who haven?t registered their bikes with thecity. ?This proposed fee could not be more inappropriate and unnecessary, andserves to create more problems for everyone involved,? said Ron Scott, amember of Bike Riders United, a metro Detroit organization. ?In this time ofeconomic uncertainty and rising gas prices, we should be encouraging peopleto ride, not punishing them.?Detroit Police recently announced that officers will start issuing ticketsAug. 7 to owners of unregistered bicycles as part of an ordinance to helprecover stolen property. The department said the city?s $1 bicyclelicense/registration fee, which is valid for five years, is a securitymeasure used to confirm ownership if a bike is stolen. Though the ordinancehas been on the books since 1964, it has rarely been enforced.Explaining the rationale behind the new ordinance, Detroit Police Chief EllaBully-Cummings said the intent is not specifically to enforce the penaltyaspect of the law, but rather to identify stolen property in order to returnit to its rightful owner.?We want to encourage people to buy licenses in order to return theirproperty,? Bully-Cummings said. ?We don?t want our officers standing aroundwriting tickets.?Another Michigan city that enforces a bike ordinance is East Lansing, homeof Michigan State University. East Lansing police Sgt. Mark Van de Wouwersaid today the law has proven to be quite a deterrent to crime. Riders arerequired to have a registration sticker on their bicycle or they can befined. Van de Wouwer was unsure of the fine, however.?Because this is a college town, bikes around here are stolen like crazy,?he said. ?The ordinance helps us identify the stolen property and get itback to its owner.?As a show of unity, Bike Riders United will hold a bike-a-thon in Detroitfrom 1 to 3 p.m., Friday, Aug. 1. It will begin at Eastern Market and endnear Hart Plaza.The Detroit City Council is planning a future public hearing on themandatory registration and proposed fee.http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008055906_webmedpot16m.html?syndication=rssWednesday, July 16, 2008 - Page updated at 07:10 PMSeattle medical marijuana operation protests police raidThe operator of a medical marijuana collective in the University Districtsays Seattle police raided the storefront on Tuesday, tore down a wall andleft with marijuana and hundreds of private patient files. King Countyprosecutors say neighbors had been complaining about the pervasive smell ofpot.By Sara Jean GreenSeattle Times staff reporterMartin Martinez says the small, private collective and outreach group heruns from a University District storefront are legal, a place formedical-marijuana patients to get help growing the medicine they need tomanage their pain.One of the earliest advocates for what became a voter-approved statemedical-marijuana law 10 years ago, Martinez says he hasn't handed out pot,nor grown any in his cramped office on Northeast 50th Street just offUniversity Way Northeast.But Tuesday afternoon, Seattle police, armed with a search warrant, cartedaway marijuana and hundreds of private patient files, and tore down a wallin search of a marijuana patch that didn't exist.King County prosecutors say the raid was justified. Martinez's neighborshave been complaining about a pervasive smell of pot, they said, soauthorities need to figure out whether Martinez has been breaking the law.But the episode has Martinez frustrated and his attorney furious. Theyaccuse the police and prosecutors of being overzealous and refusing to honorthe law that is supposed to let sick people use pot in peace. At a minimum,Martinez says, the authorities should let the whole thing blow over ? andreturn his stuff."We're trying desperately to be legal, to stay alive and not have theseconflicts," Martinez said. "Science and law have to come to terms, becausethe doctors are recommending cannabis and the police have got to get on thesame page."Martinez, 48, suffered severe neurological damage in a motorcycle accidentin 1986. He later became one of the first people in King County to usemedical necessity as a defense against prosecution for using marijuana.In 1998, he helped promote the medical-marijuana initiative that votersapproved overwhelmingly. It allows people with certain serious ailments touse marijuana if authorized by a physician.For the past four years or so, he has operated Lifevine ? a privatecollective of patients who work together to grow their own medicalmarijuana ? and Cascadia NORML, a public-outreach organization that providesID cards to medical-marijuana patients so they can show police that theyhave a legal right. He said the groups used three different locations in theU-District on Northeast 55th Street and never had any problems.In June, Martinez moved into the storefront on Northeast 50th Street.One nearby business owner, who asked that her name not be published becauseshe's concerned someone might retaliate, said the building immediatelyfilled with the smell of pot. She said she hoped "the problem would just goaway," but it didn't. So she and other neighbors complained to police.Tuesday afternoon, Seattle police bicycle officers entered Martinez's officeafter smelling pot in various parts of the building. They called for backupand called prosecutors to obtain a search warrant.According to Martinez, the police seized 12 ounces of marijuana buds and alarge container of the less-potent leaf called "shake," which belonged tohim and four other patients who happened to be there. And the police took500 confidential patient files containing people's medical records andmedical-marijuana prescriptions, Martinez said.Martinez said one officer became convinced that Martinez was growing agarden in a secret room, so he ripped down part of a wall.No plants were found. Martinez wasn't arrested. No charges have been filed."I'm just hopping mad," said Douglas Hiatt, Martinez's attorney, who arrivedat the office during the search and called a deputy prosecutor to try totalk her out of executing the warrant."It's stupid and was totally preventable."Hiatt said Martinez is "super responsible" and makes sure he follows theletter of the law."I'd like for them to give him his stuff back and compensate him foranything they broke," Hiatt said. "If they decide to go forward with this[and file charges], we're going to have a real fight."But Mark Larson, the chief criminal deputy for the King County Prosecutor'sOffice, said an investigation is warranted to determine whether Martinez wasoperating within the bounds of the state law."We're certainly aware people have a right to use medical marijuana," Larsonsaid. "But that doesn't include dispensing, and it doesn't includepossessing unlimited quantities."State laws don't specify legal amounts or ways medical marijuana can bedispensed to others, he said. The state Legislature last year ordered theHealth Department to establish maximum amounts each patient may possess, butthe department's proposals are still being debated."We'd love to have these issues clarified so that people who need it get it,and people who operate outside the rules risk prosecution," Larson said.The business owner who complained about the smell said she didn't know untilafter Tuesday's bust that Martinez's office was being used bymedical-marijuana patients.The woman said she's highly allergic to marijuana and suffered headaches anddizziness. She said the smell was warding off some of her customers.She said she suspected someone was growing pot in the three-story building,which houses a mix of businesses and apartments."It sucks they are sick and that they have to take medical marijuana ? Iwouldn't wish that on anyone," she said. "But it sucks that they'reaffecting an entire building."Martinez said Wednesday that he had no idea the smell was so pervasive."I'm really sorry ? we didn't want to bother anyone," he said. "We're a veryprivate group, which is why it doesn't say 'medical marijuana' on the door."We've tried to keep to ourselves."http://www.khou.com/topstories/stories/khou0807010_tj_daprotest.41a4237b.htmlHarris Co. justice system protested04:23 AM CDT on Friday, July 11, 2008By Rucks Russell / 11 NewsHOUSTON -- More than 100 people gathered outside the Harris County CriminalJustice Center on Thursday, protesting what they claim is a broken justicesystem in the county. Led by community activist Quanell X, the demonstrationwas aimed squarely at the district attorney's office.The protest was sparked in large part by a grand jury's decision not toindict Pasadena homeowner Joe Horn, who gunned down two burglars as theyfled a neighbor's house last fall. The protestors blame the DA for notpresenting a strong case.They also allege the grand jury did not reflect the racial makeup of thecommunity, even though the demographic information about who served on thatpanel has been sealed.Quanell X said that the group is demanding that the DA put the Horn casebefore another grand jury, that the racial makeup of the first grand jury bereleased and that local officials join Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee'scall for a congressional inquiry into the county's justice system.The group, which insists that it does not condone the criminal activity ofthe two men killed in the Horn case, is also calling for the resignation ofHarris County Sheriff Tommy Thomas.The district attorney, of course, has a much different take on the Horn caseand the protest.?All cases are judged on the law and the particular facts that comprisethem,? District Attorney Kenneth Magidson said in a statement. ?We willcontinue to perform the duties of our office with honor and integrity.?The protestors also found opposition from one of those most vocal in hissupport of Horn.?We won't counter protest Quanell this time because they have a right tosound off,? said Randi Laird, who has organized a number of pro-Horn ralliessince the shootings. ?As for me and the majority of folks in America we needto understand why you think criminals deserve better treatment than workingfolks.?http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080725/NEWS02/807250328/1009/rss04Woman on cross protests son's careThe Associated Press ? July 25, 2008DECATUR -- A Decatur woman clung to a wooden cross set atop a backyard fencefor hours in the summer heat to protest what she called the mistreatment ofher son, who is being held in the city jail.A poster placed on the fence in Maria Thornton's yard dur?ing Wednesday'sprotest de?clared she wouldn't eat, drink or come down from the cross untilher son received help.Decatur Fire and Rescue fire?fighters waited below the make?shift cross tomake sure Thorn?ton didn't fall. A police officer tried to coax her down andthe 58-year-old woman eventually ended her protest some two hours and 40minutes after it be?gan Wednesday morning.Thornton and her husband, James, said they believe jail staff are ignoringthe mental health problems of their son, 28-year-old John Paul Thornton. Thewoman's husband said he suspects their son is bipolar and they want him toget assistance."We don't want him out of jail," Maria Thornton told The Decatur Daily. "Wewant to put him somewhere he can get help ... He needs help."A police spokesman told the newspaper that John Paul Thornton, who isserving a 60-day sentence for driving un?der the influence, has beeneval?uated by a mental health profes?sional and is receiving the same careas any inmate on suicide watch.James Thornton informed Police Chief Ken Collier last week that he fearedhis son might hurt himself or be hurt by someone else because of hisbehavior. Collier said he responded by putting John Paul Thornton on asuicide watch and moving him into solitary confinement.The jailed man's parents also said he had not had a shower between theirvisits July 13 and July 20. Police said he had refused to take a shower, butdid take one Wednesday.Municipal Judge Billy Cook initially allowed John Paul Thornton to serve histime on weekends until his ex-wife filed a harassing communicationscomplaint. He is also accused of violating a protection order.http://www.boingboing.net/2008/07/24/cameraheads-in-seatt.htmlCameraheads in Seattle protest CCTVs in public placesPosted by Cory Doctorow, July 24, 2008 11:10 PM | permalinkThe Camerahead Project is a Seattle protest group upset about the growingprevalence of CCTV cameras there -- they're staging a bit of theatertomorrow in Cal Anderson Park, walking around with giant cameras on theirheads to get people thinking about what it means to have their public spacesunder constant surveillance.Local artist Paul Strong, Jr. says he?s holding the demonstration, calledthe Camerahead Project, to remind people that video surveillance cameras arerecording their every move at Cal Anderson Park and three other parks aroundtown. ?The project not only raises the questions of who is watching who andwho is watching the watchers, but also ? why we are being watched at all,?he says. ?There is so much going on in the news about wiretapping and datamining, all these little thing that happen locally go right by.?I met Paul at one of my signings in Seattle for Little Brother and loved hiscamerahead outfit -- he says it was inspired by Pablo Defendini's LittleBrother poster. Linkhttp://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=520035Protest disrupts Minneapolis City Council meetingA protester walked up to the podium in the middle of a ceremony atMinneapolis City Hall.The Mayor and other officials were at a ceremony where an insurance companydonated money to replace firefighting equipment damaged or destroyed duringthe 35W bridge collapse.The activists say they're not upset with the fire department. Instead theydo not approve of a new public safety resolution. It give police the rightto use rubber and plastic bullets to break up protests.The group also claims the new resolution gives law enforcement the right torandomly confiscate or destroy cameras documenting demonstrations andpotential confrontations. The man arrested is Jude Ortiz. He represents agroup called Coldsnap Legal Collective, which provides training to peopleabout their rights as protesters and demontrators.Police took him into custody, but there's no word on what charges he mayface.http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/articles/2008/07/22/maine_vet_protests_flag_rules_at_housing_complex/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Latest+newsMaine vet protests flag rules at housing complexJuly 22, 2008BANGOR, Maine?A Vietnam veteran says it's downright un-American that he wasasked to take down a U.S. flag that was hanging outside his Bangor HousingAuthority apartment.But rules are rules, an official said.Arthur Brazeau, 61, got a letter from his landlord telling him to take downthe U.S. flag -- along with U.S. Army, POW-MIA and state of Maine flags --that were hanging from his porch on a handmade wooden bracket that wasattached to the railing."I was very upset," Brazeau said. "I immediately got on the phone and calledthe woman in charge and said, 'What's this? Are we becoming a communistnation and taking away all our rights?'"Brazeau removed his flag display over the weekend rather than pay a $50fine, but he wasn't happy about it.Bangor Housing Authority Executive Director Elsie Coffee said rules prohibita number of things at housing authority properties, including basketballhoops, fire pits, garden hoses and attached flags."We've got to stick to the policy," Coffey said. "It's tough, but if we staywith one set of standards it's fair to all."Coffey said she's not against anybody displaying a U.S. flag, and thatseveral residents have small flags that comply with the rules."If somebody wants to put a flag on a pole on their patio, I would be morethan happy for them to do it," Coffey said. "Rest assured, we're not tellinghim he cannot fly his flag."Brazeau on Monday tied a large U.S. flag to his porch railing in an attemptto get around the rules."I don't know what they're going to say about that," Brazeau said. "But it'sour constitutional right to fly the flag."http://wbz.com/pages/2839982.php?contentType=4&contentId=263487324 August 2008 7:00PMMBTA workers protest drug testing regulationMia CarterMBTA workers are protesting a new federal regulation requiring that they bemonitored when giving urine samples for drug tests.The Department of Transportation guidelines take effect in November andmandate the collection of urine from employees who have previously testedpositive, be observed by another party.The rule also applies to employees who have submitted past samples thatappeared to have been tampered with.Observers are required to be the same gender as the employee who isproviding the sample.Transportation officials say they need the rule to combat what they call aflourishing industry set up to help people beat the tests.But Terrence Ward, who heads the MBTA's Concerned Minority Employees Group,tells the Globe the procedures violate workers' privacy.http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/08/22/20080822cameraprotest0822ON.htmlSpeed-camera protesters say 'Honk for privacy'232 comments by Jane Larson - Aug. 22, 2008 07:34 PMThe Arizona RepublicWaving signs calling for "Cops, Not Cameras" and asking drivers to "Honk forPrivacy," a grass-roots group called CameraFraud.com gathered Friday inScottsdale to protest the use of photo-enforcement cameras.About 20 protesters waved anti-camera signs at Scottsdale and Thomas roadsfor about an hour starting at 5 p.m. They whooped whenever motorists honkedtheir horns and whenever Scottsdale police vehicles cruised by. Theintersection has photo-enforcement cameras.Some drivers waved and gave the group thumbs-up signs."We encourage people to get involved and express their disapproval of thesesystems," spokesman D.T. Arneson said. The group's top concern is safety,adding that cameras cannot catch drunken drivers or spot stolen cars the waypolice do.Arneson said the CameraFraud Web site has doubled its traffic daily sincegoing live Sunday. Some at Friday's protest said they also heard about theevent, the group's first, at the Meetup Web site for presidential candidateRon Paul.Protester Natalie Sharp of Scottsdale said privacy topped her list ofconcerns about the cameras. If drivers don't become aware of the issue, theintrusion will escalate, she said."I just want people to pay more attention to what's going on, instead ofgetting a ticket and not fighting it," she said.Arneson said the group hoped that elected officials take up the cause.Otherwise, he said the group would press for a ballot proposition todetermine the fate of photo-enforcement cameras.A spokesman for American Traffic Solutions Inc., the Scottsdale company thatoperates the city's cameras, said polls indicate most Arizonans favor thecameras."This is an enhancement to safety," spokesman Josh Weiss said. "Thesecameras are proven to reduce violations, crashes and injuries, and they areoverwhelmingly popular in Arizona and across the country."Arneson said the group's efforts started in part because the ArizonaDepartment of Public Safety is preparing to add up to 100 fixed and mobilespeed-enforcement cameras to the state's freeways.http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080818/NEWS01/80818080/1118/RSSUnion workers protest Kilpatrick, corruptionBY SARAH TOMPKINS ? FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER ? August 18, 2008When Sybil Offen heard today that a circuit judge ruled City Council couldnot hold forfeiture hearings against Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, she gotup and did something about it.Offen, a retired Detroit Public School teacher, was one of about 30 peoplewho marched outside the Coleman A. Young Municipal Building Monday afternoonin protest of Kilpatrick and city corruption.?It?s time for us, we have to rise up now,? she said. ?It?s in the people?shands.?The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)Local 207, a union chapter representing Detroit water and public lightingworkers, organized the event. The group?s president, John Riehl, said themayor?s problems and city?s corruption, have weighed on citizens.?We?re just part of a whole community that?s speaking out,? he said as carsbeeped to ?Honk for Recall? signs.Volunteers gathered signatures to put a mayoral recall on an emergencyballot in February while protestors marched in circles, chanting, ?They getpaid off, we get laid off.?Denise Tolliver, spokesman for the mayor, declined comment except to saythat ?everyone has a right to protest.?At least one Detroiter was not happy with the demonstration.?It?s slander,? said Wenzial Jarrell, a Kilpatrick supporter. ?They?rebeating the man down.?http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080818/METRO/808180424/1409/METROMonday, August 18, 2008Union, pickets stage protest calling for mayor's removalOralandar Brand-Williams / The Detroit NewsDETROIT -- Members of AFSCME Local 207 and others sponsored a protest todaycalling for Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to step down.The protest, which involved about 15 people, was held outside the Coleman A.Young Municipal Center at around 4:30 p.m.Demonstrators carried signs that read "Sweep Detroit Clean of Corruption,""Fire The Mayor" and "Resign Now" as they chanted "it's time to resign."AdvertisementHorns from passing motorists on Woodward honked in agreement.Detroiter Precious Daniels collected signatures for a recall campaign toremove Kilpatrick from office.Daniels said Kilpatrick is bad for the city."I'm tired. I'm so tired," said Daniels. "I don't want a mayor with atether. I don't want a mayor with felonies hanging around his head. Enoughis enough. He's just causing more pain for Detroit."Curtis Ray, a 21-year-old chemistry major at Wayne State University, agreed."He's defrauded the city. He's cut out jobs," said Ray. "He's doingeverything he can to run Detroit's name through the mud. He should resignnow."But Kilpatrick's spokesman James Canning said the mayor does not plan onresigning."If a handful of individuals choose to express their opinion it is wellwithin their right and we respect that. Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was electedtwice by a majority of Detroit residents," said Canning. "He intends to dothe work those citizens elected him to do."AFSCME Local 207 spokesman John Riehl said he is not discouraged by a rulingMonday by a Wayne Circuit Court judge that essentially struck down thelegality of Detroit City Council members' plans to hold forfeiture hearingsto remove Kilpatrick from office."We're not defeated. The most important thing is that the public is keepingthe opposition up," Riehl said. "Governor Granholm should remove the mayorin her September hearings. The time has come for her to step up and do herjob and remove the mayor from office." http://www.wafb.com/global/story.asp?s=8549434Governor Bobby Jindal encounters protesters in ShreveportPosted: June 24, 2008 11:24 PMUpdated: June 27, 2008 06:03 PMSHREVEPORT, LA (WAFB) - Governor Bobby Jindal made several stops across thestate Tuesday after the end of the regular legislative session.During one of those stops, Governor Jindal faced something Tuesday afternoonthat he's rarely seen since becoming governor.In Shreveport, protestors shouted at Jindal, voicing their anger at thegovernor for not trying to stop the legislative pay raise.Many are not happy with the bill that would double legislators' base pay.However, Governor Jindal tried to talk around that issue and tout reformspassed this session.He focused on the repeal of the Stelly Plan during the session, a move thatwill put money back in the hands of Louisianians.In Baton Rouge, Jindal faced reporters and the question about why he's notvetoing the pay raise has become a traveling theme.http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008136904_apwamedicalmarijuana.html?syndication=rssMonday, August 25, 2008 - Page updated at 10:30 AME-mail article Print view Share: Digg NewsvineWash. medical pot patients protest caps on supplyMedical marijuana activists plan to pack a state Health Department hearingto protest limits on how much pot a patient can have.OLYMPIA, Wash. ?Medical marijuana activists plan to pack a state Health Department hearingto protest limits on how much pot a patient can have.They're upset with the state's proposed caps, which will define the amountof marijuana and plants that are considered a legal two-month supply understate law.State officials once wanted to propose 35 ounces and 100 square feet ofplant-growing area. But Gov. Chris Gregoire thought that was too high, andordered the Health Department to meet with law enforcement.Afterward, the proposed limits dropped to 24 ounces of usable pot, alongwith six mature plants and 18 immature plants. Those are the same limitsused in Oregon.http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080815/NEWS/808150355/-1/rss01Vandals protest dress code through graffiti at schoolGraffiti scrawled on the parking lot pavement outside of the StroudsburgJunior High School in Stroud Township on Thursday.Keith R. Stevenson/PoconoRecordBy Beth BreljePocono Record WriterAugust 15, 2008Graffiti vandals who hit the Stroudsburg Junior High school Wednesday nighthad little effect. The graffiti was seen by virtually no one other thanschool staff. Evidence of the extensive crime was nearly gone by 11 a.m.Thursday.It was the same message scrawled all the way around the school, onsidewalks, parking lots, all ground floor windows, and on outer walls ? acomplaint about school uniforms. "No uniforms," and "(expletive)you-niforms" were the most repeated gripes.There were also a few swastikas, a few "school sucks" and some vulgar wordsabout Jews, sexual orientation, education and excrement.A crew of six custodian and maintenance personnel worked from 7:30 a.m. toget rid of the red and green car paint.Car paint is particularly difficult to remove and required extra elbowgrease for those stuck with the task of cleaning it up.The crew kept track of their hours.If the vandals are caught, they will likely have to pay restitution,including the wages for the workers.Stroud Area Regional Police say at least three vandals were caught onvideotape.In June, the Stroudsburg Area School District's board approved a strictdress code for students in grades five through 12.This school year will be the first time the dress code will be in effect. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Fri Aug 29 19:00:01 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 03:00:01 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Palestine protests, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <006601c90a44$1eb19c20$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * Apartheid wall protests "turn savvier" * Ongoing wall protests in Nilin village Child killed by soldiers during Nilin protests Controversy as soldier caught shooting protester * Israeli army attacks nonviolent protests in Bilin, Yatta * Protests target wall in several villages * Al Khader protest against wall * Three injured in weekly Bilin protest * Israeli army attacks protesters in Um Salamunah * Hundreds protest Gaza blockade at Rafah crossing * Gaza protests over Israeli siege * Boat flotilla defies siege to bring aid to Gaza * Mass protests mark anniversary of Palestinian displacement - Nakba * Peace activists protest attempts by settlers to claim abandoned military site * Journalists protest Israeli killing of cameraman * Media blackout in Gaza protests Hamas attacks on press freedom * Teachers protest Hamas control * Qaffin protest camp invaded by Israeli soldiers, boy arrested * Arab prisoners in Palestinian jails protest for Israeli amnesty * Peace Now to protest Peres in disputed town * Protests for prisoner swap near Israeli parliament http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/31/africa/ME-Palestinians-Protest-Primer.php Palestinian protests against barrier turn savvier The Associated Press Published: July 31, 2008 NAALIN, West Bank: A Palestinian teen tracks Israeli troops with a camera to document any abuse. A community organizer tours West Bank villages with a PowerPoint presentation on the art of creative protest. Palestinians are using increasingly savvy methods to fight Israel's West Bank separation barrier - a campaign whose danger was driven home this week by the death of a 10-year-old boy. Six years after Israel began building the barrier, Palestinian villagers march almost daily to try to halt construction work that threatens to swallow up thousands more acres of West Bank land. Many protests turn into confrontations between youths hurling rocks and Israeli troops responding with tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and at times live fire. The aim is to slow construction, draw media attention and ensure that Israeli high court judges hearing challenges to the barrier route "will think twice before deciding such a high-profile case," said Michael Sfard, an Israeli lawyer representing Palestinian villages. Israel's separation barrier - a mix of towering concrete walls topped with barbed wire and electronic fences - is two-thirds complete, and is expected to stretch about 500 miles (720 kilometers) when finished. Petitions to Israel's Supreme Court protesting the barrier's route have held up some of the construction. Israel says the barrier is a temporary defense against Palestinian attackers. However, it extends into the West Bank, incorporating Jewish settlement blocs and seizing land from Palestinian villages, prompting Palestinian claims it's a land grab. A new focal point of the anti-barrier campaign is the village of Naalin, which stands to lose its thousands of acres of olive groves to the barrier. On Tuesday, 10-year-old Ahmed Moussa was killed there in a confrontation between Israeli soldiers and boys hurling stones at Israeli forces, witnesses said. A Palestinian autopsy found he was shot through the head by live fire - a charge the Israeli military was investigating. The boy was buried in Naalin on Wednesday. Protests began in Naalin three months ago when bulldozers started clearing village land for the barrier. On July 7, during one of the protests, 17-year-old Salam Kanaan, was watching the village's entrance from her living room window. She trained her video camera on a group of Israeli soldiers, capturing them shooting a bound, blindfolded Palestinian demonstrator in the foot, lightly wounding him. An Israeli battalion commander was holding the man's arm. The Israeli military denounced the shooting as "grave," put the officer on forced leave and launched an investigation. Kanaan said the film's impact made her more determined to keep her camera focused on troops. "This is a weapon for villagers like us, which an army can't defeat," she said. Veteran anti-barrier campaigners from the nearby village of Bilin are teaching others how to keep the media interested, bulldozers idle and Israeli soldiers exhausted. Bilin activists run workshops with PowerPoint presentations on how to protest - like tying demonstrators to trees. They also run question-and-answer sessions for other villages threatened by the barrier, and screen a documentary about Bilin's four-year struggle, backed by Israeli and foreign activists, to push the obstacle back. Bilin scored a victory in Israel's high court in 2007, though Israel's Defense Ministry still hasn't complied with the ruling. Mahmoud Abdullah said he attended a protest workshop before launching weekly protests against the barrier in his home village of Khader. "They taught us how to tie ourselves to a tree and blind soldiers with mirrors," said Abdullah. "We are also meant to surprise soldiers by holding our protests in different places all the time, to confuse them." Abdullah Abu Rahmeh, a Bilin activist, also worked with Bedouin tribesmen who complain of harassment by Jewish settlers. "I explain to them what popular resistance means. I then show them a documentary of Bilin and I pause at the different strategies we have, like stuffing ourselves in barrels and rolling in front of bulldozers," Abu Rahmeh explained. At one Naalin protest, Palestinian youths rushed down sloping olive groves, whooping as they climbed onto a bulldozer clearing land for the barrier. The startled driver was quickly chased away while other Palestinians lobbed rocks to divert the soldiers, who hurled back sound bombs and tear gas, leaving plumes of acrid smoke. The bulldozer's work was held up for a couple of hours - a successful outcome, Palestinians say. Although Bilin activists say they teach nonviolent forms of protest, they are reluctant to tell other Palestinians not to hurl rocks, saying it's a matter left for individual villages to decide. Activists in other villages say throwing rocks is counterproductive. In Khader, demonstrators stick to peaceful protests, including holding Muslim prayers near the barrier construction site. Sfard, the Israeli lawyer, said legal challenges are a key element of the campaign. The high court has ruled in three separate cases that the barrier must be moved away from Palestinian villages to reduce hardship. However, the Defense Ministry has complied only with one of the rulings so far, citing budget problems. Many Palestinians close to the planned barrier route say they're so persistent in their protests because their livelihood is at stake. Livelihoods are already suffering in the village of Jayyous in the northern West Bank, where the barrier went up in 2003, putting village farmland out of reach for three-fourths of the village's farmers, said Mayor Mohammed Taher. "People are now unemployed, their sons are leaving university because they can't afford tuition," Taher said. In the meantime, Palestinians are honing their strategies. "Now I tell the protesters, take a camera, take a camera," Kanaan said, holding her own http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/996604.html 28/06/2008 Palestinians say 17-year-old shot dead by IDF troops in West Bank By Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Correspondent, and Reuters Tags: Na'alin, West Bank Israel Defense Forces soldiers killed a Palestinian teenager during a raid into the West Bank on Friday, local residents and medical workers said. The residents said the 17-year-old was killed while confronting IDF troops who raided the village of Beit Umar, near the West Bank city of Hebron. The military said that soldiers entered Beit Umar shortly before midnight Friday, in an operation to stop fire bomb attacks on Israeli vehicles on a nearby highway. The troops shot a militant who threw two molotov cocktails at them, a military spokesman said. Advertisement Palestinians said the shots killed Mohammed Alameh, 17, one of a group of youths who fought the soldiers. An IDF spokesman said he was looking into the incident, which could further disrupt a shaky ceasefire agreement between Israel and militant groups in the Gaza Strip. The West Bank is not covered by a nine-day old truce between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip but on Tuesday, after troops in the West Bank city of Nablus killed two Palestinians, one of them an Islamic Jihad commander, Islamic Jihad in Gaza fired three rockets into Israel in response. There was no indication that Alameh was formally a member of a militant group and no immediate sign of retaliation from Gaza Saturday morning. 14 protesters hurt in anti-fence demonstration Fourteen protesters demonstrating against the separation fence were wounded in the West Bank village of Na'alin on Thursday. An IDF soldier and a Border Police officer were also lightly hurt from stones thrown by protesters, 200 of whom were demonstrating against the route of the fence, which cuts off some of the village's residents from their lands. The wounded protesters were hurt by the anti-riot tactics employed by the IDF and Border Police to disperse the demonstrators. Members of Anarchists against the Wall said that security forces opened fire after stones were thrown. Protest activity against the fence in Na'alin has been on the rise in recent weeks. Demonstrators say that the separation fence effectively annexes thousands of dunams of Palestinian land to the settlement of Hashmonaim. Roughly two weeks ago, a nine-year-old was wounded when security forces fired a rubber bullet that hit him in his head. Six additional demonstrators and Border Police officer were also hurt. http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90854/6462509.html Palestinian child killed in anti-wall protest in West Bank +-09:40, July 30, 2008 A Palestinian child was shot dead on Tuesday afternoon by Israeli gunfire during a protest against the separation wall that Israel builds in the West Bank, witnesses and medical sources said. The witnesses said dozens of Palestinians clashed with Israeli soldiers in the village of Na'lin on the west outskirts of the West Bank city Ramallah to protest the confiscation of Palestinianlands for constructing the separation wall. Medics said Israeli soldiers fired rubber-coated metal gunshotsa nd tear gas canisters at the demonstrators, adding that a Palestinian child was killed and 10 others wounded. Mohamed Sorour, member of Na'lin Committee to resist the wall, told reporters that one Palestinian child was killed, and 10 others injured, three of them in moderate conditions. Meanwhile, the Arabic service of Israeli Radio quoted Israeli army sources as saying that two Israeli soldiers were slightly injured by stones thrown by Palestinians during the demonstration in the village. Hundreds of Palestinians organized what they described as a peaceful rally against the confiscation of land at the village to build the wall. Foreign peace activists also joined the protest, Palestinian witnesses said. http://www.easybourse.com/bourse-actualite/marches/hundreds-protest-at-israeli-wall-near-west-bank-village-463502?PHPSESSID=b57e4313f0ce2609b0c5aba80e0f98bd Hundreds Protest At Israeli Wall Near West Bank Village Sunday June 1st, 2008 / 15h52 NILIN, West Bank (AFP)--Hundreds of Palestinians, Israelis, and international activists gathered outside the occupied West Bank village of Nilin on Sunday to protest against the extension of Israel's separation wall. At least three people were wounded by rubber bullets and another eight were treated for tear gas inhalation when Israeli troops dispersed the protest, the organisers said. The villagers say they mobilized last month when the Israeli army told them it would confiscate some 2,500 dunams (620 acres) of land for the separation wall, which Israel insists is necessary to prevent attacks from the territory. Palestinians refer to the structure as an "Apartheid wall" and see it as part of a larger land grab aimed at slicing up the West Bank and preventing the establishment of a viable Palestinian state. "We plan to hold many demonstrations against this," Salah Khawaja, one of the organizers of the protest told AFP, adding that villagers were also observing a general strike. The Israeli military confirmed that troops had moved to quell "illegal and violent riots" in which protesters hurled rocks, and said Israel's high court was responsible for the route of the fence. "We are basically following the court's decision on where to build the security fence and we are very sorry that in a democratic state such violent protests are taking place," a military official said. "If there are olive trees there we will at our own expense of course remove them and plant them in an area with easy access to the Palestinians to whom they belong," she said, adding that villagers could appeal to the court. Organizers have pledged to stage a series of demonstrations modeled on the weekly protests held in the neighboring village of Bilin where activists have clashed with Israeli troops almost every Friday for nearly three years. The demonstrators scored a small victory in September when Israel's Supreme Court ruled that the section of the fence near Bilin should be rerouted, but they have kept up the protests saying the decision did not go far enough. In 2004 the International Court of Justice issued a non-binding ruling that parts of the 650-kilometer barrier are illegal and should be torn down. http://www.indymedia.org/en/2008/08/910958.shtml Two Youth Murdered As Israel Tries To Suppress Ni'ilin Uprising 05 Aug 2008 20:06 GMT For almost 4 months residents of Ni'ilin Village in the occupied West Bank, along with their Israeli and international supporters, have been trying to defend their lands through grassroots popular resistance, which includes almost daily demonstrations, attempts to block bulldozers and clashes. After losing much of its land in 1948 and due to the massive construction of settlements on its lands since 1967, Ni'ilin is now left with merely 7,000 dunams (1,700 acres). 2,500 dunams (about 620 acres) of these lands are expected to be left isolated and effectively confiscated behind Israel's illegal segregation wall according to the current trajectory. The Israeli army has employed severe and brutal violence in its attempt to suppress the Ni'ilin uprising, that has so far caused hundreds of injuries and has included arrests, the imposing of siege and curfew as collective punishment, the the shooting of a cuffed and blindfolded detainee, and most recently the cold blooded murders of ten year old Ahmed Mousa and 17 year old Ahmed Amireh who was mortaly injured on the eve of Mousa's funeral, and succumbed to his wounds five days later. The village of Ni'ilin remains undeterred, and after three days of grieving over Ahmed Mousa, struggle struggle has already resumed. Villagers vowed to continue the struggle against the theft of their lands and their livelihood. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/990941.html Last update - 00:04 09/06/2008 Eight leftists hurt in clash with police at rally against separation fence By Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service Tags: Bil'in, European Union, IDF Eight left-wing activists protesting against the separation fence on Sunday were lightly wounded in clashes with police near the West Bank village of Na'alin. Witnesses said a combined contingent of Israel Police and Border Police hurled tear gas grenades at a group of over 150 demonstrators who gathered to protest the planned construction of the fence in the area. According to Channel 2, the Israel Defense Forces maintained that the troops did not use disproportionate force and that they only acted in response to protestors who threw stones at them. Advertisement On Friday, the vice president of the European parliament, an Italian judge and a Northern Irish Nobel Peace prize laureate were among the five people injured at the weekly demonstration against the separation fence in another West Bank town, Bi'ilin. The three dignitaries - Giulio Toscano, Luisa Morgantini and Mairead Corrigan Maguire - were visiting the Palestinian village as part of a three-day international conference on non-violent resistance, which ended Friday. The other two casualties in the clashes between protesters and security forces were Palestinians. http://www.awalls.org/niilin_razor_wire_barricade_dismantled_in_ahmed_mousas_memory_7_injured Ni'ilin: Razor wire barricade dismantled in Ahmed Mousa's memory. 7 injured 01/08/2008 For the first time since the murder and mortal injury that shocked Ni'ilin this week, about 600 villagers marched to their lands accompanied by Israeli and international supporters. Villagers prayed on their lands, only a few hundred meters away from where Ahmed Mousa was murdered, and as soon as they were done, loudspeakers went on announcing in Hebrew and Arabic that the area is a closed military zone, and threatened everyone present that force will be used if people will not disperse. A large border police force was present on the overlooking hill, with a valley separating them from the villagers. On hearing the border police message, demonstrators grew more and more angry, and their rage over the past days could be felt very strongly. At first, shouts were called towards the officers, denouncing them as murderers and calling them to go back to their homes. Very quickly however, demonstrators lost interest in the border police's provocation and turned towards the wall's construction site. There were no bulldozers at work, but everyone knew that the razor wire barricade that was erected to try and prevent protesters from disrupting construction still stands. The same razor wire Ahmed Mousa was trying to take apart before he was murdered on Tuesday. The border policemen started firing teargas at the demonstrators, but there was no stopping them. The protesters' resolved, fueled by their outrage of the last few days' events was greater than the pain caused by the teargas. When a group of a few dozen border policemen came nearer to the crowd and started firing rubber-coated bullets, collective ire erupted into a hail of stones. Clashes continued for about four hours. After two hours, the demonstrators were pushed away from the groves, and into the first houses of the village, but at around 17:00, the army retreated, and demonstrators went back to finish what they had started - dismantling the razor wire barricade in Ahmed Mousa's memory, and blocking the path of the wall with it. An hour later it all lied on the path of the wall, about 300 meters of it. Five Palestinians and two international activists were injured by rubber-coated bullets. http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&month=July2008&file=World_News2008072521239.xml Nine injured in West Bank protest Web posted at: 7/25/2008 2:12:39 Source ::: AFP An Israeli soldier firing tear gas during a demonstration against the construction of the controversial Israeli separation barrier in the West Bank village of Nilin near Ramallah yesterday. (AFP) NILIN, West Bank . Seven protesters and two soldiers were hurt yesterday near the occupied West Bank village of Nilin in the latest of regular demonstration against Israel's construction of a separation barrier, Palestinian medics said. A photographer witnessed soldiers open fire on demonstrators with rubber-coated bullets and tear gas as they tried to approach the construction site, some of them throwing stones. All of the demonstrators hurt were hit by the bullets, while an officer and a border guard were hit by stones, the medics said. Earlier this month, demonstrators in Nilin and other locations marked four years since the International Court of Justice issued a non-binding resolution calling for parts of the barrier inside the West Bank to be torn down and for a halt to construction there. Israel has ignored the ruling, as well as a similar order by its own High Court that nullified three sections of the wall, including one that runs near Bilin, a town near Nilin that has held weekly protests for more than two years. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=93952 Troops clash with protesters near wall around West Bank 'What do they expect from farmers who see their trees uprooted?' By Agence France Presse (AFP) Thursday, July 10, 2008 Joseph Krauss Agence France Presse NILIN, Occupied West Bank: Palestinian and international protesters clashed with troops in the Occupied West Bank Wednesday in one of several demonstrations marking four years since the World Court called for the demolition of parts of Israel's separation barrier. Soldiers fired tear gas and rubber-coated bullets as teenagers hurled stones in running clashes among the terraced olive groves and cactus walls outside the village of Nilin, where residents stage weekly demonstrations against a nearby expansion of the barrier. About 200 Palestinian and international activists had marched to the construction site, a wide gravel gash running down a hillside, before several young men climbed onto an earthmover and broke its windows. Soldiers in several jeeps rushed to the scene and fired tear gas as the youths took cover among the olive trees and threw rocks at them. "Down with the occupation, down with the occupation!" schoolteacher Hassan Moussa, 33, yelled as he waved an olive branch and a Palestinian flag in front of a group of soldiers. "This is Abu Ghraib, Nilin will be a prison like Abu Ghraib!" he said, referring to the notorious prison in Iraq where US troops tortured prisoners, before soldiers set off tear-gas bombs and wrestled him to the ground. "I want peace, I want peace!" Moussa shouted as he was dragged to a waiting jeep. Three other people were also detained, witnesses said. Organizers said at least seven people, foreign activists among them, were wounded by rubber-coated bullets and dozens suffered from tear-gas inhalation. An Israeli military spokeswoman said "violent and illegal riots" had taken place outside the village and that a soldier, a border policeman and a maintenance worker were hit by rocks and injured. Other protests were held in Deir al-Ghuzzun, near the northern town of Tulkarem, and in Azzum Atma near the town of Qalqiliya, which is almost completely surrounded by the wall. The demonstrations marked four years since the International Court of Justice issued a nonbinding resolution calling for parts of the barrier inside the West Bank to be torn down and for a halt to construction there. Israel has ignored the ruling, as well as an order by its own High Court that nullified three sections of the wall, including one running near Bilin, a town near Nilin that has held weekly protests for more than two years. "Our goal is to stop the bulldozers," said Salah Khawaja, one of the organizers of the recent Nilin protests at which dozens of Palestinians, international activists and some Israeli security forces were wounded. He said the protests were intended to be peaceful while admitting that there had been incidents of rock-throwing. "What do they expect from farmers who see their trees are being uprooted? They want to live, they want to send their children to university," he said. Earlier this week, Israel imposed a 24-hour curfew in the village in a bid to halt the demonstrations but organizers have vowed to continue. Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad issued a statement condemning what he called Israel's "barbaric military campaign" against Nilin. Israel says the barrier is needed to stop potential attackers from infiltrating Israel and illegal Jewish colonies in the Occupied West Bank, but Palestinians say it is a land grab aimed at undermining the viability of their promised state. To date Israel has built 57 percent of the projected 723-kilometer barrier, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. When complete, 87 percent of the barrier will be built on West Bank territory which Israel occupied in 1967, according to the OCHA. Before the protest began, Moussa, who came with his 7-year-old son, said: "The building of the wall affects everyone's life. They want to expel us from our land." Placing his hand on his son's head, he added: "He will come with us because I want him to live in peace, just like I want their [Israeli] children to live in peace, without this occupation." http://www.worldpress.org/feed.cfm?http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/149600 Left-Wing Protests Near Naalin (IsraelNN.com) Some 300 Arabs and left wing extremists are rioting against construction of the security fence near the village of Naalin, northwest of Jerusalem.The rioters allege they have stopped construction meanwhile. IDF and Border Guard units are responding. The rioters damaged construction equipement at the site. Previously, the construction site at Naalin was subject to a four-day curfew placed on the area by the IDF. IDF sources indicate that the riots are a severe violation of agreements between the IDF and village residents two days ago. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/bound-palestinian-protester-shot-by-soldier-873874.html Bound Palestinian protester shot by soldier By Diaa Hadid, Associated Press Writer Tuesday, 22 July 2008 A human rights group has released a video that shows an Israeli soldier firing a rubber-coated bullet from close range toward the feet of a bound, blindfolded Palestinian man. The video, taken two weeks ago, has sparked an investigation by the Israeli military, which described the shooting as a "stark violation" of army rules. The Palestinian man, Ashraf Abu Rahmeh, said yesterday he was injured in his left toe and treated at the scene. During an interview, Abu Rahmeh, 27, took off his shoe and showed a large blister on his toe, with bruising underneath. He said for several days after the shooting, the toe was swollen. The shooting took place on July 7, on the outskirts of the West Bank village of Naalin, said Abdullah Abu Rahmeh, a relative of the injured man. At the time, several dozen Palestinians participated in a protest against Israel's separation barrier, which is under construction near Naalin and will eventually cut off the village from hundreds of acres of its land. In recent weeks, Naalin has been the site of frequent clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli troops. In the incident two weeks ago, soldiers imposed a curfew and then fired tear gas, stun grenades and rubber-coated steel pellets to disperse protesters marching toward the village, said Abdullah Abu Rahmeh, who was at the scene. Toward the end of the clashes, Ashraf and another Palestinian man were detained by troops, Abdullah Abu Rahmeh said. Ashraf was led to an army jeep, blindfolded and handcuffed, said Abdullah Abu Rahmeh. Ashraf was held in this way for about three hours, his relative said. A Palestinian girl filmed the scene near the jeep from her home, according to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, which obtained the footage. The video shows Ashraf standing with the back to the camera, facing the jeep, while an Israeli army officer holds his arm. Another soldier slowly takes aim from a yard away and shoots toward Ashraf's feet. With the sound of the shot, the camera loses focus, and the next clear frames show Ashraf lying on the ground as Israeli soldiers lean over him. B'Tselem spokeswoman Sarit Michaeli demanded that the military take steps against the soldier seen holding Abu Rahmeh's arm. The army said military police are investigating. http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/World/2008/08/15/6459566-sun.html 10 wounded in West Bank protest RAMALLAH, West Bank -- Palestinian residents of a West Bank village say 10 people have been lightly hurt by Israeli troops who dispersed a demonstration against Israel's separation barrier yesterday. Israel says troops fired tear gas and rubber pellets to break up the demonstration in Naalin. Residents are worried the barrier will cut them off from their farmlands. http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=228713&version=1&template_id=37&parent_id=17 Israel extends curfew to curb barrier protest Published: Tuesday, 8 July, 2008, 08:11 AM Doha Time A Palestinian youth throws a stone towards Israeli troops near the West Bank village of Nilin yesterday. Israeli soldiers fired teargas and stun grenades to stifle protests against the West Bank barrier OUTSIDE NILIN, West Bank: Israeli soldiers fired teargas and stun grenades yesterday to stifle protests against a West Bank barrier, declared illegal by the World Court four years ago this week. The army kept a curfew on the Palestinian town of Nilin for the fourth day, using force to keep a small group of protesters and journalists from approaching the cordoned-off town of 5,000 from an overlooking hilltop. Ayman Nafi, the town's mayor, said vegetables, dairy products and some medicines were in short supply and the local pharmacy had not been allowed to open. "They want to send a message: resisting the construction of the wall will inflict suffering and damage upon you," Nafi said by telephone. "Their policy will increase our determination to prevent them from erecting this racist wall." The army imposed a curfew on Nilin, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, on Friday after violence erupted during protests at a barrier construction site. An army spokesman said eight security personnel and two workers were hurt in protests in the area over the past month. Israel says the network of razor-wire fences and concrete barricades helps to keep out Palestinian suicide bombers. Palestinians say the barrier, which loops around Jewish settlement blocs, cutting off Palestinian villages from swathes of agricultural fields, is a land grab that could deny them a contiguous and viable state. Khalil Amira, a farmer walking to his home near Nilin, said the army denied him access to 25 acres of his land last month because of plans to extend the barrier, depriving him of the olive groves that provide his family's livelihood. "They want to remove us from our land - it's illegal," Amira, 61, said. "The land means I am still here and still alive. Without my land, I'm nothing. What do I do?" Mohamed Khawaja, a bank worker, said by telephone from Nilin that soldiers had arrested people who ventured outside. "When soldiers came to search my house early this morning, I asked one of them, 'What are you doing to Nilin,'" Khawaja said. "The soldier replied, 'No matter what, the wall will be erected at the end of the day'. I asked him, 'Why do you take our land? Take land from the settlements.'" On July 9, 2004, the World Court in The Hague ruled that Israel's construction of the 720km barrier on occupied land was illegal. The UN says Israel has ignored that ruling. Saeb Erakat, a Palestinian peace negotiator, said: "We condemn the Israeli atrocities in Nilin and call for the immediate cessation of all wall and settlement construction." Salah Khawaja, a local resident and spokesman for the Nilin Committee for Resisting the Wall, said townspeople were able to go outside for about two hours when the soldiers briefly left on Sunday night. He said the army left leaflets saying the closure would remain in place as long as the violence continued. lJewish settlers tied a Palestinian to a pole in the occupied West Bank and beat him before he was rescued by Israeli soldiers, the man and an Israeli human rights group said yesterday. Ta'ayush, a Jewish-Arab group, released a video of the incident on Saturday in which a settler dressed in white is seen kicking a bound man in the abdomen as Israeli soldiers stand by. One of the soldiers is then seen restraining the settler. Midhat Abu Karsh, 30, a Palestinian teacher who lives near the West Bank city of Hebron, said he was attacked by settlers who falsely accused him of setting fire to fields near the settlement of Eshael. Karsh denies any wrongdoing. An Israeli police spokesman said: "Two settlers from Eshael were arrested on suspicion of assaulting a Palestinian man." Karsh said he was working in his wheat field near Eshael when he spotted a fire and rushed over to douse the flames. "They tied me to the pole and I thought I was going to die," he said, adding that settlers in the area had in the past threatened to kill him if he did not stop coming to the field. - Reuters http://www.dawn.com/2008/07/10/int1.htm Palestinians clash with Israeli troops: Wall protest NILIN (West Bank), July 9: Palestinian protesters clashed with troops in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday in one of several demonstrations marking four years since the world court called for the demolition of parts of Israel's separation barrier. Soldiers fired tear gas as teenagers hurled stones in running clashes among the terraced olive groves and cactus walls outside the village of Nilin, where residents stage weekly demonstrations against a nearby expansion of the barrier. About 200 Palestinian and international activists had marched to the construction site, a wide gravel gash running down a hillside, before several young men climbed on to a parked earthmover and broke its windows. Soldiers in several jeeps rushed to the scene and fired tear gas as the youths took cover among the olive trees and threw rocks at them. "Down with the occupation, down with the occupation!" Hassan Musa, a 33-year-old schoolteacher yelled as he waved an olive branch and a Palestinian flag in front of a group of soldiers. "This is Abu Ghraib, Nilin will be a prison like Abu Ghraib!" he said, referring to the notorious prison in Iraq, before soldiers set off tear-gas bombs and wrestled him to the ground. "I want peace, I want peace!" Musa screamed as he was dragged to a waiting jeep. Another three people were detained, witnesses said. At least seven people, international activists among them, were wounded by rubber bullets and dozens suffered from tear-gas inhalation, organisers said. An Israeli military spokeswoman said "violent and illegal riots" had taken place outside the village and that a soldier, a border policeman and a maintenance worker were hit by rocks and injured. Other protests were held in Deir al-Ghuzzun, near the northern town of Tulkarem, and in Azzum Atma near the town of Qalqiliya, which is almost completely surrounded by the barrier. The demonstrations marked four years since the International Court of Justice issued a non-binding resolution calling for parts of the barrier inside the West Bank to be torn down and for a halt to construction there. Israel has ignored the ruling, as well as a similar order by its own High Court that nullified three sections of the wall, including one that runs near Bilin, a town near Nilin that has held weekly protests for more than two years. "Our goal is to stop the bulldozers," said Salah Khawaja, one of the organisers of the recent Nilin protests at which dozens of Palestinians, international activists and some Israeli security forces have been wounded. He said the protests were intended to be peaceful while admitting that there had been incidents of rock-throwing. "What do they expect from farmers who see their trees are being uprooted? They want to live, they want to send their children to university," he said. Earlier this week, Israel imposed a 24-hour curfew in the village in a bid to halt the demonstrations but organisers have vowed to continue. Meanwhile, Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad slammed in a statement what he called Israel's "barbaric military campaign" against Nilin. Israel says the barrier is needed to stop potential attackers from infiltrating Israel and Jewish West Bank settlements, but Palestinians say it is a land grab aimed at undermining the viability of their promised state. To date Israel has built 57 per cent of the projected 723 kilometres of steel and concrete walls, fences and barbed wire, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. When complete, 87 per cent of the barrier will be built on West Bank territory which Israel occupied in 1967, according to the OCHA. Before the protest began, Musa, who came with his seven-year-old son, said: "The building of the wall affects everyone's life. They want to expel us from our land." Placing his hand on his son's head, he smiled and said: "He will come with us because I want him to live in peace, just like I want their children to live in peace over there (in Israel), without this occupation."-AFP http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=368776 Palestinian villagers protest demise of Nilin (Op-ed) Seth Freedman - The Guardian Monday 9th June, 2008 Scrambling up the rock-strewn hillside in the baking midday sun, we stumbled across two middle-aged men taking shade under an olive tree. As they bade my guide "Salaam aleikum", their eyes scanned my face for a hint of recognition. Finding none, one of the men ventured a tentative greeting in English and, when I responded in kind, proffered two items in my direction. One was a surgeon's mask; the other a strip of alcohol-saturated prep pads: "You'll need them for where you're going", he assured me. As we edged closer to our destination, it was clear we had been well advised. Plumes of tear gas criss-crossed the air, trailing the canisters fired by the border police towards the scores of demonstrators. The pungent, acrid fumes filled our nostrils and mouths, while our ears resonated to the sporadic bursts of rubber bullets being shot in our direction. >From our vantage point atop the hill, we had a perfect view of the operating table that lay beneath us, and our surgical accessories added to the sense of theatre that we were witnessing. As we looked on, we watched the obligatory rocks flung at the troops from youths wielding slingshots; the equally standard opening of fire by the police in response and the all-too familiar sight of wounded protesters being rushed by stretcher to waiting ambulances. There was nothing we onlookers and reporters could do but record the events in our notebooks and cameras; our roles no different to that of medical staff witnessing the slow deaths of terminally ill patients. In this case, the patients were the villagers of Nilin, the disease they were vainly fighting was the ever-spreading cancer of Israeli settlements across the corpus of their ancestral land. In 1948, the first symptoms of Nilin's impending malaise took the form of an expropriation of 40,000 dunams of land by the newly formed Israeli army. While crushed by the weight this blow dealt to their livelihoods, the townspeople believed the tumour had gone into remission, only for a second attack to strike during the six day war, when several thousand more dunams were invaded. Since then, they have realised that the malignant growth is spreading further: yet more of their land has been sequestered by the Israeli authorities and the detested security wall erected in the midst of their olive groves. Attempts to halt the cancer's progress have failed; the Israeli government appearing resistant to any of the balm which the villagers have fought to apply, whether in the form of legal action, international pressure, or the intervention of local peace activists. Faced with what could well prove a fatal blow to the entire town, the residents have been forced to take drastic measures to try to keep the tide at bay. Now, on an almost daily basis, dozens of youths take to the hills to impede the wall's construction; their medieval arsenal of sticks and stones no match for the heavily armed, heavily fortified troops who surround them on every side. Talking to the locals is akin to visiting the terminally ill in a hospice; all one can do is offer words of comfort and try to placate them as the inevitable decline continues. "In the end, they will win - and we know it," said Khaled Mesleh, a 58-year-old grandfather whose family has lived in Nilin for more than 800 years. "We might succeed in holding up the building of the wall for a matter of days or weeks, but ultimately they will achieve their aims." Those aims, according to Mesleh, are to crush the villagers into submission once and for all. "The Israelis take our land, refuse us permission to expand the village, prevent us being able to work inside Israel . so that eventually we will simply say 'we've had enough' and leave. There are 6,000 residents of Nilin and none of them are happy; it's impossible to be happy in such conditions." As the border police continued to pick off protesters with rubber bullets and live ammunition, we returned to his modest house to continue our discussion out of the line of fire. Children and grandchildren swarmed round the living room and kitchen; "They all live with me," said Mesleh. "Where else can they go?" With the town's borders continually narrowing, those of his offspring who have married and had children of their own are forced to continue living in the family home, or else to leave the village for good. In the meantime, Hindi, one of his sons, has taken it upon himself to help organise the protests against the wall's erection. Breathless and bathed in sweat, he returned to the house enraged by what he'd seen. A freelance photographer and camera operator by trade, he had plenty of evidence of the scale of the injustices being dealt to his fellow villagers. He showed us footage of a border police officer letting off rapid-fire bursts of rubber bullets in random directions, as well as clips of the wounded being rushed away from the scene by panicked medics. Hindi is just as resigned to the reality as his father: "At least by protesting we can try to prevent them taking even more of our land, but we [are in no doubt] that the wall will still be built." All that the locals can do is keep placing themselves in the firing line, in the vain hope that their actions will do more good in the long run than the harm caused by the tear gas and rubber-coated missiles fired into their bodies. In Nilin specifically as well as in the West Bank as a whole, one thing is certain: the drugs don't work. The idea of international intervention is laughed at sorrowfully by Khaled and his peers. Similarly, the aid of the Israeli courts: "An Israeli judge banned them from continuing to build the wall here," said Khaled, "but they [the army] couldn't care less. They're still here - and if the courts can't stop them, who can?" The answer - as he, his son and the rest of the villagers know all too well - is that no one can. The eyes of the world look on either benevolently (in the case of Israel's backers in the US and elsewhere), or impotently; too cowed to act, too diplomatic to intervene. Time is not on the Palestinians' side. Just as Nilin appears in its death throes today, so too will another village tomorrow, then another, then another. As the life of the Palestinian nation ebbs away, the best treatment on offer is merely palliative; and even that is proving too weak to soothe their never-ending anguish. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3553165,00.html West Bank: 2 injured, 4 arrested in protest against fence Protest against security fence being constructed near Na'alin turns violent as Israeli, Palestinians, foreign nationals clash with IDF troops Ali Waked Published: 06.08.08, 14:28 / Israel News A reported 150 people participated Sunday afternoon in a demonstration near the West Bank village of Naalin, west of Ramallah to protest the security fence being built in the area. The protestors accused IDF soldiers of using tear gas to disperse them while the latter claimed that rocks were thrown in their direction. West Bank Clashes IDF, leftists clash during anti-fence rally in Naalin / Ynet Army's use of crowd-control measure to break up rally against security fence leads to Left reports of a dozen casualties. IDF denies claimed, says protestors violated restricted area order, stoned troops The demonstrators - Left-wing Israeli, Palestinian and foreign nationals - have gathered on land due to be confiscated to allow for a fence to be built around the Hashmonaim settlement. The protestors reported two people were injured in the confrontation with security forces and said an Israeli reporter had documented the incident. They also said IDF troops were shooting directly at them with tear gas projectors in an attempt to force them to disperse. Four protestors were detained by security forces. The army said the protestors were in violation of an order declaring the area a closed military zone and that troops responded with non-lethal means of riot dispersal. The IDF and the Civil Administration, the governing body in the West Bank, decided in the last few days that due to the construction of the fence they will transfer 440 olive trees belonging to the inhabitants of Naalin to a nearby area. This way, the trees will be left in the hands of their owners. The Palestinians are protesting this decision and claiming that moving the trees will negatively affect their income. The IDF plans on moving the olive trees under the supervision of the Civil Administration's officer but the Naalin residents are not willing to cooperate since they reject any activity surrounding the fence. "They are moving the trees but what about the soil? Our experience with Israeli occupation isn't positive," said one of the villagers and noted that they will fight this decision and demonstrate against the building of the security fence. Efrat Weiss contributed to this report http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-06/26/content_8446234.htm 21 Palestinians wounded in anti-wall protest in West Bank RAMALLAH, June 26 (Xinhua) -- At least 21 Palestinians injured on Thursday by Israeli rubber shots fired by Israeli soldiers during a Palestinian protest against building a separation wall in the West Bank, witnesses said. Dozens of Palestinian and foreign protestors demonstrated early on Thursday in the village of Ne'leim near the West Bank city of Ramallah against the Israeli confiscation of Palestinian-owned lands in the village. Majdi Sallah O'meira, one of the Palestinian protestors told reporters that dozens of protestors gathered in the village and demonstrated against confiscating Palestinian lands to build the separation wall. Israel has been building into the West Bank a separation wall, described by the Palestinians as an apartheid separation wall. Building the wall confiscated Palestinian lands, uprooted fruitful trees and divided villages in the territory. O'meira said that Israeli soldiers opened fire at the demonstrators and wounded at least 21 people by rubber gunshots, adding that dozens of tear gas canisters were also fired at the protestors. The Palestinian protestors managed to prevent the Israeli bulldozers from working in the village, O'meira was also severely beaten by the soldiers when he stood on the top of an Israeli bulldozer. The Israeli soldiers dispersed the demonstrations by rubber gunshots and tear gas canisters, witnesses said, adding that Israeli soldiers stormed several houses in the village and detained several people. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3549659,00.html IDF, leftists clash during anti-fence rally in Naalin Army's use of crowd-control measure to break up rally against security fence leads to Left reports of a dozen casualties. IDF denies claimed, says protestors violated restricted area order, stoned troops Ynet Published: 05.29.08, 20:43 / Israel News IDF forces were called to the Arab township of Naalin, near Modiin, Thursday, to disperse some 100 Palestinian demonstrators, left-wing activists and foreign peace activists, protesting the building of the Israel's separation fence. The IDF claimed the protestors were in violation of a military restricted area order and that they tried to damage the fence and hurled stoned at the soldiers. None of the soldiers were harmed. The protestors, however, claimed that 12 people were hurt after the IDF used rubber-coated bullets and stun-grenades against the crowd. Variety of version. The demonstration at Naalin (Photo: Ruters) "We have been protesting the fence in the Naalin area for the past two weeks," Jonathan Polak, one of the left-wing activists present at the rally told Ynet. "Today's rally wasn't the first and it won't be the last. We had 200 Palestinians and 15 Israelis attend today's rally and 12 people were Some of the land annexed by Israeli authorities in the area, he added, will be used to build a cemetery which will serve the adjacent Jewish communities. He and his friends, he added, were trying to keep construction from beginning. The IDF denied any knowledge of casualties. http://www.worldpress.org/feed.cfm?http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/151011 Left-wing Activists Arrested in Protest Over Ni'lin (IsraelNN.com) Some 20 protesters were arrested Tuesday after they refused to stop their unauthorized demonstration outside the Zichron Yaakov home of IDF Binyamin Brigade Commander Col. Aviv Reshef. The group was protesting the deaths of two Palestinian Authority Arab boys in Ni'lin, where demonstrations against the construction of the Judea-Samaria security barrier have escalated into violence by rioters and crowd dispersal methods -- including the use of rubber-coated bullets -- by government security forces. http://www.imemc.org/article/55280 The Israeli army attacks a peaceful protest near Ramallah: two injured one kidnapped Wednesday June 04, 2008 12:59 by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC News Two Palestinian civilians were injured and another one kidnapped when the Israeli army attacked a peaceful protest organized by the villagers of Na'alen west of the central West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday midday. File - 2007 The villagers of Na'alen along with international and Israeli protesters marched against the illegal Israeli wall the army is building on the village lands. The protesters said that the army attacked them with tear gas and rubber-coated-steal bullets, two were injured and Mohamed Amera, a local activist was kidnapped by the army. Israeli army sources said that the protesters hurled stones at the soldiers first, witnesses said that troops opened fire without a reason, and that the protest was peaceful. http://capetimes.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4518659 Israeli police question soldier after he shoots Palestinian protester July 22, 2008 Edition 2 TEL AVIV: Israeli military police yesterday questioned an Israeli soldier who was filmed shooting in the foot with a rubber- coated metal bullet a Palestinian protester, who was under arrest, handcuffed, blind-folded and standing next to him two weeks ago. A 14-year-old Palestinian girl, a resident of the Palestinian village of Nil'in, filmed the incident, and an Israeli human rights group, B'Tselem, published the video clip on Sunday, demanding the soldier be brought to justice. The video clip has caused shock and outrage both in Israel and in the Palestinian areas. In it, the Palestinian protester, Ashraf Abu Rahma, 27, is seen standing blindfolded, his hands tied behind his back, behind an Israeli military jeep after being arrested. An Israeli soldier standing about 1.5 metres away is seen aiming his weapon and firing a rubber-coated metal bullet at the Palestinian's foot. The camera shakes, and the protester is then seen lying on his back on the ground in pain. Israeli military police arrested the soldier late on Sunday. The soldier was quoted by Israeli media as telling his interrogators that he shot at the arrested Palestinian because he believed he had heard his commander give him the order to shoot. The commander, a lieutenant-colonel, who was also questioned, said he gave no such order, but said he took responsibility for the incident because his subordinate may have "misunderstood" his instruction. The Israeli military said that the Palestinian was sent home after having been examined and was only lightly hurt. - Sapa-dpa http://www.imemc.org/article/56438 The Israeli army attacks the nonviolent protest in Bil'in village Friday August 08, 2008 15:29 by Rula Shahwan - IMEMC News The Israeli army dispersed the weekly nonviolent protest located in Bil'in village north of the West Bank city of Ramallah on Friday midday with gas, guns and grenades.local sources reported. Israeli Troops attack peace activists in Billin After the weekly Friday prayer, a group 300 internationals and peace activists marched a nonviolent protest in solidarity with the people of Bil'in village. The protest was against the illegal wall being built on the village lands. The protestors were demonstrating against the Israeli killings of local civilians as well as the illegal closures and confiscation of lands and property. The protestors walked towards the wall with the intention of reaching the villagers lands behind it. Israeli troops shot CS gas canisters, rubber-coated steel bullets, and concussion grenades at the protesters. A number of civilians reported suffering from gas inhalation and for the first time Israeli troops threw smelly manure at the protestors. http://www.worldpress.org/feed.cfm?http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/148782 5 Border Guard Officers Hurt in Anti-Wall Arab Protests (IsraelNN.com) Five Border Guard police officers were lightly injured late Tuesday afternoon in a violent protest by at least 100 Arabs and foreign nationals in the village of Bili'in. The demonstration, which began earlier but which turned violent as the day wore on, was held to protest construction of the Judea-Samaria counterterrorism separation barrier. The officers were treated by Magen David Adom medics at the scene, according to the HNN website. http://www.imemc.org/article/56315 The Israeli army attacks a non violent protest in Yatta village Saturday August 02, 2008 16:24 by Rula Shahwan - IMEMC News Israeli troops attacked on Saturday a nonviolent protest against the wall in Yatta village near the southern West Bank city of Hebron on Saturday midday, local sources reported. The Wall The sources added that a group of Palestinian and international peace activists were demonstrating against wall and carried signs condemning the ongoing Israeli attacks, and closure in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Soldiers fired teargas and sound bombs at the protesters; a number of protesters were treated locally after inhaling gas fired by the soldiers. "The Wall is built on part of the village's land, our lands are the main sources of income for us," said Mohammad one of the demonstrators. "The international court of justice ruled that the wall is illegal, the world must act to remove this wall since it is stealing our land, water and making our life hard," he added. http://www.imemc.org/article/56066 Israeli Annexation Wall: Israeli forces have continued to construct the Annexation Wall inside West Bank territory. During the reporting period, Israeli forces used force against peaceful demonstrations organized by Palestinian civilians and international and Israeli human rights defenders in protest of the construction of the Wall in Bil'in and Ne'lin villages, west of Ramallah; and Deir al-Ghossoun village, north of Tulkarm. These demonstrations coincided with the 4th anniversary of the Advisory Opinion issued by the International Court of Justice, which considers the construction of the Wall illegal. At approximately 11:00 on Wednesday, 9 July, dozens of Palestinian civilians gathered in the west of Deir al-Ghossoun village, north of Tulkarm. They moved towards the Wall. Immediately, Israeli forces fired rubber-coated metal bullets and tear gas canisters at the demonstrators. As a result, a number of demonstrators, including two journalists, suffered from tear gas inhalation. On 11 July, scores of Palestinian civilians and international and Israeli human rights defenders demonstrated in Bil'in village, west of Ramallah, in protest to the construction of the Wall. The demonstrators moved towards the Wall, but Israeli forces closed all gates designed for crossing the Wall. The demonstrators then set fire to tires in protest at the closure of gates. Immediately, Israeli forces fired rubber-coated metal bullets and tear gas canisters at the demonstrators. As a result, dozens of demonstrators also suffered from tear gas inhalation. Two protests were held this week in Ne'lin village, west of Ramallah. The first was on Friday July 11th, during which Israeli forces fired rubber-coated metal bullets and tear gas canisters at the demonstrators, injuring five. Four demonstrators were abducted by Israeli forces. The second protest this week in Ne'lin was on Tuesday, 15 July, when dozens of Palestinian civilians and international and Israeli human rights defenders gathered to march to the area where Israeli forces were razing land to construct a section of the Wall in the village. Immediately, Israeli forces fired rubber-coated metal bullets and tear gas canisters at the demonstrators. As a result, 2 demonstrators were wounded. http://www.imemc.org/article/54467 The Village of Al Khader stage a nonviolent protest against the Israeli Wall Friday April 25, 2008 16:28 by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC News Around 100 villagers from Al Khader village located near Bethlehem city in the southern part of the West Bank supported by a small number of international and Israeli peace activist protest the illegal wall Israeli is building on the village land. Israeli troops stopping Palestinians protesters near the illegal Wall between Bethlehem and Jerusalem -Photo by IMEMC's Ghassan Bannoura 2008 The protest took the form of holding the Friday prayer in the street at the presence of around 30 Israeli soldiers. The protest ended after speeches by the local committee against the wall and settlement construction was delivered. Samer Jaber, told IMEMC that Friday's protest comes as part of the ongoing efforts to protest the wall and protect the lands of Al Khader. He added that the Israeli troops manning the checkpoint near the village did not allow the Israeli activists to come inside the village to join the Friday activity, so they had to get to the village from a different rout. http://www.imemc.org/article/55814 The Khader village protests the Israeli wall Friday July 04, 2008 16:43 by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC News The village of Al Khader, located near the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem, organized on Friday midday a nonviolent protest against the illegal Israeli wall being built on the village land. Israeli troops stopping Palestinians protesters near the illegal Wall between Bethlehem and Jerusalem -Photo by IMEMC's Ghassan Bannoura 2008 At least 150 Palestinians from the village of Al Khader along with international supporters staged the protest at the nearby settlers' road. The march started with midday prayers held near the army checkpoint there, and then speeches were delivered by local organizers. Israeli soldiers arrived at the protest and announced the area as a closed military zone then asked the protesters to move away. Protesters stood their ground and staged a protest for another hour or so. In his speech Samier Jaber, an organizer, in Al Khader said that "in this special day for Americans who are celebrating their independence, Palestinian are calling for that right". http://www.imemc.org/article/55689 Al Khader near Bethlehem village stage a protest against the Israeli Wall Friday June 27, 2008 15:22 by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC News The village of Al Khader, located near the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem, organized on Friday midday a nonviolent protest against the illegal Israeli wall being built on the village land. .At least 100 Palestinians from the village of Al Khader along with Israeli and international supporters staged the protest at the nearby settlers road. The march started with midday prayers held near the army checkpoint there, then speeches were delivered by local organizers. The protest ended shortly after the speeches were finished. Samier Jaber an organizer in Al Khader village said that Israeli troops arrived at the area but did not do anything. http://www.breitbart.com/image.php?id=iafp080812063927.bs004yeup1&show_article=1 Israeli soldiers keep watch during a protest in the West Bank village of Maasarah Israeli soldiers keep watch as Palestinian children join foreign and Israeli demonstrators during a protest in the West Bank village of Maasarah. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has offered the Palestinians a peace plan giving them 93 percent of the occupied West Bank, the Haaretz newspaper reported on Tuesday. http://www.imemc.org/article/55813 Two international activists and a Palestinian injured in Bil'in Weekly Protest Friday July 04, 2008 16:12 by Abdullah Abu Rahma - IMEMC News Three activists were injured by Israeli forces on Friday in the weekly protest against the separation wall in Bil'in; near the West Bank city of Ramallah: two of them are French activists and the third one is Mohamad Ali Abo Sa'di 65 years old, in addition to the dozens of protesters were treated for tear gas inhalation. Bil'in protest - file 2008- Photo By IMEMC's Haithem El Khatib Villagers from Bil'in marched together with international and Israeli solidarity activists after Friday prayers, carrying Palestinian flags and banners demanding the removal of the Israeli wall and settlements, while calling on the international community to lift the siege on Gaza and help Palestinians retain Jerusalem. Participants also demanded that the Israeli army stop killing Palestinian civilians and end the use of live ammunition against non-violent protesters. As protesters approached the separation wall, Israeli forces prevented the villagers from reaching the gate that is supposed to provide access to their lands, and opened fire on them with tear gas canisters, sound bombs, and rubber-coated metal bullets. Three were injured and scores of protesters were treated for gas inhalation, In related news, the Israeli force released on Thursday afternoon Ali Hamadan Abo Rahma 17 years old, who were arrested four day before when the army invaded the village and attacked the houses of Mohammad Ali Yassin and Hamadan Ali Abo Rahama and terrorized the resident of the two homes while arresting Ali. http://www.imemc.org/article/55815 The Israeli army attacks protesters in Um Salamunah Friday July 04, 2008 16:49 by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC News The Israeli army attacked a peaceful protest organized by the villagers of Um Salamunah located near the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem on Friday morning; three protesters were kidnapped by the army. Israeli troops kidnaping protesters in Um Salamunah on Friday - photo by Anne Paq - activestilles Local sources said that scores of villagers supported by Israeli and international peace activists marched from the main entrance of the village heading towards the lands that are in danger of being confiscated due to the construction of the Wall. The participants held Palestinian flags and banners condemning the Israeli actions of building of the wall and also calling for the unity among Palestinians. Soldiers attacked the protesters and kidnapped three activists, one Israeli, and two Palestinian, and when other protesters tried to stop the jeep from taking them away troops forced the activists away, using riffle-butts and batons. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3580202,00.html Hundreds of Palestinians protest at Rafah crossing Published: 08.10.08, 11:23 / Israel News Hundreds of Palestinians and Hamas supporters protested near the Rafah crossing in the Gaza Strip on Sunday morning. The demonstrators, including Palestinian Legislative Council Deputy Speaker Ahmad Bahar, called upon Egypt to open the crossing. In the past few days, a few Palestinians have died because they were not able to cross the border and receive medical treatment. (Ali Waked) http://www.mathaba.net/rss/?x=590176 Thousands of Gazans protest over Israeli siege Posted: 2008/04/26 There were protests in the north and south of the strip near border crossings into Israel and Egypt on Friday, after Israel dismissed Hamas's proposal of a six-month truce as ''not serious''. (Aljazeera) Thousands of Gazans have protested at Israel's refusal to accept a Hamas-proposed truce in exchange for Israel lifting its blockade of the Gaza Strip. There were protests in the north and south of the strip near border crossings into Israel and Egypt on Friday, after Israel dismissed Hamas's proposal of a six-month truce as "not serious". In Jabaliya, in northern Gaza, about 5,000 people waved Hamas flags and banners proclaiming "No to the siege". Yussef al-Shrafi, a Hamas official, told the crowd: "Hamas is working in a positive manner to end the siege and achieve a truce." In Rafah, about 1,000 people called for Egypt to open its border crossing, the only one that bypasses Israel. "We do not represent a threat to Egypt's security, but we ask our brothers to open Rafah and break the siege," said Abu al-Sibbah, a Hamas leader. Pressure on Israel Al Jazeera's David Chater, reporting from Gaza, said the protests were an attempt by Hamas to put pressure on Israel to lift its blockade. "In a way, Hamas is showing its power - it's moved thousands of people to two of the crossing points, one by Israel and one by Egypt," he said. "And I suppose, behind it is the threat that once against they will attempt to storm these crossing points if and when the Israelis decide they are not going to change their attitude and lift the suffocating siege of the Gaza Strip." Reports on Friday said Egypt had sent hundreds of police officers to the sealed Rafah border crossing to boost security in case of an attempt by the Palestinians to breach the border. Speaking of the protesters themselves, many of whom were women, Chater said: "These people just can't believe the world is standing by and turning a blind eye towards them. They feel this protest at least was a way of showing their suffering and becoming more visible." 'Suffocating siege' Israel imposed its blockade on the Gaza Strip after Hamas seized power in the territory last June. On Thursday, UN agencies suspended aid distribution to Gaza, saying they had run out of fuel. The last shipment of fuel to Gaza by Israel - the sole distributor of it to the territory - came before Palestinian fighters attacked an Israeli fuel depot on April 9. An emergency shipment of fuel for UNRWA lorries from within Gaza was reportedly intercepted on Thursday by strawberry farmers who needed the supplies for irrigation and refrigeration. Hamas earlier offered to halt cross-border rocket attacks if Israel opened crossing points into the Gaza Strip and ended its military incursions. Israel dismissed the proposal. David Baker, an Israeli government spokesman, said on Friday: "Hamas is biding time in order to rearm and regroup. There would be no need for Israel's defensive actions if Hamas would cease and desist from committing terrorist attacks on Israelis." Possible ceasefire But an official close to Ehud Barak, Israel's defence minister, suggested that the two sides could still decide to hold their fire without a formal accord being agreed. "We don't rule out a tacit agreement, on condition it is done in stages," he told the AFP news agency. "In a first stage we demand all groups stop firing rockets. Israel would then be willing to reduce its operations if the calm continues." Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has voiced cautious support for the truce initiative. Nimer Hammad, an aide to Abbas, said: "We hope that this proposal is a serious one, and we hope it will be taken seriously by Israel." Also on Friday, Israeli security forces were hunting for Palestinian fighters after two security guards were shot dead at an industrial complex near the West Bank. Hamas and Islamic Jihad have jointly claimed the attack. http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=115761 Israeli troops open fire at Palestinian protesters Israel destroyed 200 West Bank buildings last year: UN; Abbas, Olmert to meet next week Saturday, May 31, 2008 SUFA, Gaza Strip/OCCUPIED-AL-QUDS: Several Palestinians were wounded on Friday, when Israeli troops opened fire on protesters in the Gaza Strip as they neared the border fence, medics in the besieged territory said. Thousands of people joined the demonstration called by Hamas to demand that Israel lift its crippling blockade of the impoverished enclave. The protesters marched from the cities of Rafah and Khan Yunes in southern Gaza towards the Sufa border crossing, waving banners calling for the end of the 'Holocaust' Israel is committing in the Gaza Strp. They also chanted praise for Hamas, the Islamist movement that seized control of the densely populated sliver of land last June. Gaza emergency services said several people were wounded when Israeli forces fired on the protesters who approached the frontier fence. A military spokesman said Israeli forces would "operate in all strength to prevent anybody from damaging the fence or the crossing or entering" the country. Israel has imposed a crippling embargo on Gaza in what it says is an effort to force Hamas to end rocket and mortar fire into the Jewish state. Meanwhile, Israel demolished 208 buildings in the occupied West Bank last year, a UN agency said on Friday, adding that the Defence Ministry corrected its previous figure of 107. Most of the houses were torn down under demolition orders issued because there were no construction permits, which Israeli authorities only seldom grant to Palestinians. The buildings are located in the so-called Area C, which makes up more than 60 percent of the West Bank and is under full Israeli control. "We have been informed that according to the records of the Israeli Ministry of Defence the number of structures demolished in Area C of the West Bank in 2007 is not 107, as reported earlier, but 208," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said. In the first quarter of this year, Israeli authorities demolished 124 structures in the West Bank, the UN agency said. In a related development, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will meet on Monday to discuss peace talks, which are threatened by a major political crisis in Israel, officials said on Friday. The meeting will take place at Olmert's al-Quds residence, senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said. A senior Israeli government official confirmed the two leaders would meet before Olmert leaves on Monday night to Washington for talks with President George W Bush. The meeting "will focus on the ongoing negotiations, the situation on the ground and the truce talks" between Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement in Gaza, which are being mediated by Egypt, Erakat said. Peace talks between the two sides have made virtually no apparent progress since they were formally relaunched in November at a US-hosted conference in Annapolis, Maryland. They are facing a new hurdle with Olmert now hit by a chorus of calls to resign over suspicions he unlawfully took large sums of money from a US millionaire before becoming premier. http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=1.0.2210757459 Middle East: Thousands protest against Israel in Gaza Rafah, 30 May (AKI) - Israeli forces fired at a crowd of Palestinian protesters and injured at least seven during a demonstration against the Gaza blockade on Friday. Over 10,000 protesters took part in the demonstration organised by the Islamist Hamas movement at the Sufa Crossing, near Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Israeli and Palestinian news sources said several people were seriously injured in the shooting. Thousands of protesters waved Hamas flags, burned tires and chanted anti-Israel slogans. On Thursday, Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu condemned Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip calling it an "abomination". He also attacked what he called international complicity over the blockade. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert requested an emergency meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, before leaving on a visit to the United States on Monday. Abbas recently expressed concern that uncertainty about Olmert's future might derail ongoing peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. New York businessman Morris Talansky this week told the Jerusalem District Court that Olmert accepted 150,000 dollars in donations from him for his election campaigns in the past decade. While acknowledging the donations, Olmert has said did nothing wrong and has refused to step aside while investigations continue. Israel's Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, a senior member of the ruling Kadima party, said on Thursday the party should prepare for any scenario, including early elections. Defense Minister and Labor Party Chairman Ehud Barak on Thursday called on Olmert to step aside over corruption allegations or resign. He said if Olmert did not quit, the Labor Party would move towards early elections. http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90854/6484988.html "Free Gaza" boats arrive in Gaza in protest against Israeli siege +-13:36, August 24, 2008 "Free Gaza" boats arrive in Gaza in protest against Israeli siege Thousands of Palestinians started whistling and screaming on Saturday afternoon when two "Free Gaza" boats with peace activists arrived at Gaza City's fishermen harbor in protest against Israeli siege. Flags of different countries, including Turkey, Germany, France, Cyprus, Britain, Lebanon and Greece, were seen fluttering on the two boats, which set off Friday from Cyprus. Slogan "Freedom for Gaza" and "We are coming" are written on one of the boats. An international peace activist waves to Palestinians as they arrived in Gaza in protest against Israeli siege. Thousands of Palestinians started whistling and screaming on Saturday afternoon when two "Free Gaza" boats with peace activists arrived at Gaza City's fishermen harbor in protest against Israeli siege. (Xinhua Photo) While approaching Gaza beach, the two boats released 5,000 balloons of four colors of black, red, green and white, which are the colors of the Palestinian flag. Each of the balloons bears the slogan of "Free Palestine" and a drawing of the pigeon of peace, while several Palestinian flags fluttered on the two boats. Several peace activists, a Holocaust survival and the sister-in-law of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair are on board. The two boats also carry medical hearing aids for deaf Palestinian children. The cheerful Palestinians warmly welcomed the "Free Gaza" boats after Israel finally decided to let them cross into Gazanwater. Thousands of Palestinians started whistling and screaming on Saturday afternoon when two "Free Gaza" boats with peace activists arrived at Gaza City's fishermen harbor in protest against Israeli siege. (Xinhua Photo) Several local Gaza fishing boats received the two "Free Gaza" vessels, and dozens of children and adults jumped into the two vessels to welcome the visitors. Jamal al-Khodari, head of the Popular Committee to end the siege, got on one boat to receive the visitors. He said "Welcome to Gaza and thank you for breaking the blockade." He told reporters, "This is a great moment to see people supporting our cause to show solidarity with us and to tell the world a message that the unfair siege imposed on the Gaza Strip should end very soon." An international peace activist waves to Palestinians as they arrived in Gaza in protest against Israeli siege. Thousands of Palestinians started whistling and screaming on Saturday afternoon when two "Free Gaza" boats with peace activists arrived at Gaza City's fishermen harbor in protest against Israeli siege. (Xinhua Photo) The visitors on the two boats are expected to be received by deposed Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haneya as well as leaders of Hamas movement that has been ruling the Gaza Strip since mid-June last year. Haneya also called on Arab leaders to send boats and vessels through the sea to Gaza to break the Israeli blockade, which has been imposed on the strip since Hamas took control of the enclave. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is currently in Ramallah in the West Bank, also telephoned the visitors and praised that the visit to Gaza is a first step to end the blockade on the Palestinian territories. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/150666 US-Based Group To Sail to Gaza to Protest 'Siege' (IsraelNN.com) A US group calling itself the Palestinian Popular Committee Against the Siege plans to sail to Gaza from Cyprus to protest what they call an Israeli 'siege' of the area. A ship, named "Free Gaza", is to set sail from the Mediterranean island with medical supplies, and organizers expect the ship to be detained by the Israeli navy. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society of Gaza is expected to welcome the ship. Jamal al-Khodari, chief of the PPCAS, says, "in case Israeli naval forces block the vessel to head for Gaza waters, it won't return." http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/751/38808 Largest Palestinian protest since start of intifada 17 May 2008 Below is an abridged statement by the Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Campaign. Over 50,000 people filled the streets of Ramallah today, marking the 60th anniversary of al Nakba ("the catastrophe", the Palestinian term for the ethnic cleansing that accompanied the founding of Israel) with the largest protest since the start of the second intifada (uprising) in September 2000. The Palestinian Nakba of 1948 saw more than 750,000 people expelled from 531 localities by Zionist forces. Hundreds of these villages were razed while Palestinian land and properties were seized. Other actions were held across Palestine and in Palestinian communities in Jordan and Lebanon. In Ramallah, crowds marched to the central Manara square, accompanied by marching bands, bringing traffic to a standstill. At the central rally, speakers called for the return of the Palestinian refugees and an end to the ongoing attacks on Palestinian communities. Black balloons were released, part of mass release of balloons across Palestine - 21,915 in total, one for each day since al Nakba. The demonstration was organised by the National Committee to Commemorate al Nakba, who released a statement calling for national unity to move forward with the campaign against the occupation. Other mass demonstrations took place across Palestine, in the West Bank, Gaza and inside the "1948 lines" (Israel). Palestinians in the refugee camps of Lebanon and in Amman also mobilised to call for their rights. Sixty years on, the Palestinian call for their return echoes louder than ever. http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2008-05/2008-05-15-voa25.cfm?CFID=23733309&CFTOKEN=37629640 Palestinians Express Anger on 60th Anniversary of Israel's Creation By Jim Teeple Jerusalem 15 May 2008 Teeple report - Download (MP3) Teeple report - Listen (MP3) Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip on Thursday marked the 60th anniversary of the 1948 war that followed Israel's independence, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled into exile. VOA's Jim Teeple reports the observances took place as President Bush spoke to the Israeli Knesset, or parliament, saying he envisioned a future Palestinian state living side-by-side with Israel in peace. Palestinian protestors carry boy who was wounded by Israeli military gunfire during a "Nakba" rally at the Erez crossing with Israeli in the northern Gaza Strip, 15 May 2008 Thousands of Palestinian schoolchildren gathered at Manara Square in downtown Ramallah to release black balloons over the city to commemorate what Palestinians call the Nakba, or the catastrophe, when Israel was founded 60 years ago. Many Palestinians like Maha, who declined to give her last name, said they were angry with President Bush for not visiting the Palestinian territories as he did in January during his last visit to the region. "Yes it means a lot. How come he celebrates the establishment or the 60th anniversary of Israel and does not look at the other side of the coin, the other face of the coin?" Maha asked. In his annual Nakba speech moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for reconciliation and unity among Palestinians - divided since last year's violent takeover of the Gaza Strip by Hamas militants. Tensions were high in Gaza after Hamas security forces stopped Fatah allies of President Abbas from holding a Nakba rally. In his Nakba speech to Palestinians President Mahmoud Abbas said he would continue peace talks with Israel, aimed at reaching some sort of framework peace agreement by the end of this year. Mr. Abbas will meet with Mr. Bush this Saturday in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Issam Arruri who directs the Jerusalem Legal Aid Center in Ramallah says many Palestinians are skeptical that Mr. Abbas can achieve anything in the talks. "I think the whole issue has become a sort of PR (Public Relations) game," Arruri said. "Most Palestinians are not confident that this process lead to any progress in the peace process. They see it just being used for political reasons, and there will not be real progress on the ground." Palestinians raise black balloons during a demonstration marking Israel's 60th anniversary, West Bank city of Ramallah, Thursday, 15 May 2008 The mood in Ramallah was in stark contrast to the mood in Israel just a few kilometers away. During the past week, Israelis have been holding gala celebrations and conferences commemorating their 60th anniversary. For many Palestinians the memory of their lost homes in what is now Israel is a 60-year source of frustration. Longtime PLO activist Dr. Alfred Tobasi who spent the first 20 years of his life in the port city of Jaffa says he remembers Jaffa every day. "It is very difficult to forget the memories," Tobasi said. "I cannot stop thinking about my 20 years in Jaffa, I cannot stop thinking." Dr. Tobasi says like many upper-middle class Palestinians most of his family is now scattered around the world. He says he hopes they will not have to wait another 60 years to live together again, in an independent Palestinian state of their own. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/08/africa/ME-GEN-Israel-Arabs-Clash.php Arab protesters clash with Israeli police while marking Palestinians' 1948 displacement The Associated Press Published: May 8, 2008 JERUSALEM: Hundreds of Arab protesters have clashed with police in northern Israel. Thursday's clash followed a march marking the uprooting of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during the 1948 war over Israel's creation. Palestinians call the displacement their "nakba," Arabic for catastrophe. It coincides with Israel's independence day celebration. Thursday's incident began when hundreds of Arabs marched to commemorate the nakba. Police say some protesters hurled rocks at police and cars after the march. Protesters say they were provoked by right-wing Israelis yelling "death to the Arabs." Police say five people were arrested. Five policemen and six protesters were hurt. Among the injured was an Arab member of parliament. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=984991&contrassID=1&subContrassID=7 Last update - 19:46 19/05/2008 Rights groups accuse police of brutality during Nakba protest By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent Tags: Nakba, police, Israel Activists and Arab rights organizations are accusing the Israel Police of brutality against protesters during a procession marking Nakba day 10 days ago in a pilgrimage to the abandoned village of Saphoria in Tzipori. Nakba day, meaning "day of the catastrophe" is an annual day of commemoration for the Palestinian people of the anniversary of the creation of Israel in 1948 (on the same day Israelis celebrate independence), which resulted in their displacement from their land. At a press conference held Monday, the activists presented video footage and photographs showing police officers beating journalists and even smashing the head of one of the protesters who was already handcuffed and sitting on the ground. The police officers and the protesters clashed toward the end of the procession. Officers fired tear gas grenades into the crowd, which, in turn, hurled stones at the officers and passing vehicles. According to the Arab organizations, the conflict began when the police officers tried to steer the protesters, who were carrying Palestinian flags, away from the shoulder of the road. Eye witnesses told Haaretz that this occurred after several verbal requests to stay away from traffic went unheeded. Thirteen Israeli Arab citizens were arrested in connection to the clashes at the demonstration, and they were all later released without charges. In the remand hearing of the one of the detainees, the court rejected police allegations that Saada Abu Hatoum hurled stones at police officers before he was arrested, saying that a video tape presented by Abu Hatoum's representatives disproves the police claims. "This tape refutes the version presented by the petitioners and therefore I don't think that there is sufficient suspicion to justify his arrest," the judge wrote. The tape revealed that Abu Hatoum, a news editor for "Shams" radio and a volunteer with Arab human rights organizations, videotaped an incident in which a police officer kicked another detainee in the face. After that, officers chased him to arrest him, ignoring his calls that he was a journalist. The video footage that he filmed was erased by the police when they confiscated his cell phone, Abu Hartoum said Monday. Additional photographs and video footage filmed at the scene revealed that other photographers and journalists were attacked by police officers, including the CNN correspondent in Israel. The Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel and the Arab Association for Human Rights are planning to submit a report on the incident and demand that the Police Investigations Department look into the events. Attorney Fahim Daoud of the association said at Monday's press conference that "I thought that the military regime was behind us, but I was wrong. The police have the same attitude toward Arabs as back then, and act like a political party." The Northern District police rejected the allegations that the violence was premeditated and issued a statement that preserving the public's freedom of expression is the police's highest priority. According to the police, the organizers of the procession were unable to comply with the police guidelines, despite their efforts, and could not control the protesters who began to act out while spilling into traffic on the road. The police added that the unruly crowd forced them to close off the road, in order to protect the drivers. The police also responded to the allegations by declaring that the protesters hurled stones at the police forces, wounding several officers, among them a district commander. Several of the officers required hospitalization, the police said. The police maintained that the crowd dispersal methods they used to subdue the unruly protesters were used within the confines of the law, but added that the protesters had every right to ask the Police Investigations Department to investigate the incident. http://www.imemc.org/article/55354 Peace activists protest settlers' attempts to retake a vacated military camp near Bethlehem Saturday June 07, 2008 03:55 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies Dozens of peace activists and representatives of several factions and institutions in Bethlehem organized on Friday a protest at the location of an evacuated military camp east of Beit Sahour, near Bethlehem, as Israeli settlers are attempting to occupy the space and turn it into an outpost. File - Abu Ghneim illegal settlement Since more than four weeks, dozens of extremist settlers and members of Knesset of the Mafdal and Yisrael Betenu parties broke into the site every Friday in an attempt to place the cornerstone of an illegal outpost. The protesters, including the Mayor of Beit Sahour, Mr. Hani Al Hayek, expressed their rejection to these violations and expressed their determination to stop the settlers and their plans. The location of the evacuated camp is approximately 1000 Dunams, it was used as a military base for the Israeli army until the army evacuated the camp nearly two years ago. The lands in questioned are originally owned by Palestinian residents. After the camp was evacuated, several institutions including the American Development Agency started constructing vital projects on the site, including a hospital for children, a public park and other public facilities. After the implementation of these projects was initiated, Israeli settlers carried repeated attempts to reoccupy the area which is totally surrounded by Palestinians neighborhoods. The army did not carry decisive measures to stop the settlers which encouraged them o repeat their attempt to control the area. Palestinian residents who live near the area in question said that they fear that the settlers are planning to create an outpost which will act as the hub which links it with Abu Ghneim (Har Homa) illegal settlement, and other settlements in the area such as Efrat, Maali Amous, Tiqoua, and Nikudim. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/24/africa/ME-GEN-Palestinians-Road-Protest.php Palestinians briefly open road closed by army, plant their flag on Israeli position The Associated Press Published: April 24, 2008 RAMALLAH, West Bank: Two dozen Palestinian and Israeli protesters scuffled Thursday with Israeli troops at an abandoned army post in the West Bank. The protesters said Jewish settlers have taken over the site and are setting up an illegal outpost there. The military said soldiers remove settlers whenever they try to reach the area. The incident incident began when Palestinians using a bulldozer near the post pushed aside two cement blocks they say have been blocking the road linking a West Bank village to the city of Ramallah. The protesters also climbed on a green shipping container. They tore down an Israeli flag and replaced it with a Palestinian one. Troops tried to carry away the protesters and pushed several of them to the ground. The military said two protesters were detained for questioning. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1208422643377&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull Apr 20, 2008 14:26 Palestinian journalists march to protest killing of Gaza TV cameraman By ASSOCIATED PRESS RAMALLAH,West Bank Several dozen Palestinian journalists have staged a march to protest the killing of a TV cameraman in an Israeli strike in Gaza. Sunday's protest was led by a group carrying a camera and a tripod on a blue stretcher. They carried a banner reading "The occupiers are responsible for the blood of our colleague." Palestinian information minister Riad Malki joined the protest. Fadel Shana was a cameraman for the Reuters news agency. He was killed in an Israeli tank strike on Wednesday. The group Human Rights Watch says its own investigation suggests an Israeli tank crew fired either recklessly or deliberately at Shana and others standing near him. The cameraman was not close to battles going on that day between Israeli forces and militants. http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=5175465&page=1 Journalists Protest Israeli Actions in Gaza Journalists Campaign for Answers After April Killing of Reuters Cameraman by Israel Defense Forces By SARA SORCHER JERUSALEM, June 16, 2008 Journalists in the Gaza Strip symbolically and literally laid down their cameras Monday, refusing to cover any Israel Defense Forces military operations taking place in Gaza for the day. They are demanding the Israeli government release the results of the investigation into the death of a Reuters journalist killed in Gaza exactly two months ago. A Reuters cameraman was killed in April by an Israeli strike. On April 16, an Israeli tank shell killed Reuters video photojournalist Fadel Shana, 24, and injured his soundman, 25-year-old Wafa Abu Mizyed. According to Reuters Deputy Bureau Chief Julian Rake, Shana had been operating according to standard press procedure. When he was killed, he had been wearing a flak jacket clearly marked with press symbols and his car was marked with press stickers. "Fadel Shana was operating cautiously. He was doing everything right, which makes it all the more troubling that this happened," Rake told ABC News in a telephone interview from Gaza. http://www.imemc.org/article/56573 Gaza reporters protest against Israel's decision to clear soldiers who killed their colleague Friday August 15, 2008 23:59 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News Dozens of Palestinian reporters in the Gaza Strip held a protest on Friday in protest to an Israeli court decision to clear the soldiers who shelled a Reuters vehicle and killed Reuters Cameraman Fadel Shana'a, 24, in April 2008. The protesters chanted slogans rejecting the Israeli decision and some of them placed tapes on their mouths in a symbolic move to show their rejection to all Israeli attempts to silence the reporters and the press. The mother of Shana'a participated in the protest and said that she could not protect her son from the Israeli aggression, and that this Israeli court ruling "is considered that knife that threatens to stab my other sons". Khalil Abu Shammala, head of Ad Dameer Institution for Human Rights, said that the soldiers who are responsible for killing Shana'a should be prosecuted and punished for their crime, and added that the Israeli occupation always endangers the lives of Palestinian reporters. Army clears soldiers who killed Reuters cameraman Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News, Thursday August 14, 2008 02:23Saed The Israeli Military Prosecutor cleared the Israeli soldiers who killed Palestinian reporter Fadel Shana'a in Al Boreij refugee camp, in the Central Gaza Strip, in April 2008. Soldiers fired a tank shell at a crowd of Palestinians killing nine of them, including Shana'a. Shana'a worked as a cameraman for Reuters. The prosecutor claimed that the tank crew acted according the field rules and "could not have specified whether Shana'a was carrying a gun or a camera". In a letter the prosecutor sent to Reuters, he said that the vest that Shana'a was wearing is very similar to vests that fighters wear. But Reuters said maintained that Shana'a was wearing and blue flaked jacket market with "PRESS" and that the vehicle was also clearly marked. Reuters added that fighters in Gaza are rarely seen wearing flak jackets. Reuters also said that it is troubled by the decision as it gives the Israeli army a free hand to kill without being sure of their target and without being sure if reporters are in the targeted areas. David Schlesinger, Reuters Editor-in-Chief, said that he is extremely disappointed by this Israeli decision since is condones disproportionate use of force by the army. Shana'a and the Reuters crew were heading to an area that was shelled by the army and several Palestinian civilians were killed. Israeli war jets fired several missiles at residents who gathered near a mosque in Juhr Al Deek area killing twelve and wounding 18 others. The Reuters vehicle was directly hit by a tank shell; Shana'a as well as five other Palestinians were killed in the shelling. http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2008/me_hamas0078_04_22.asp Tuesday, April 22, 2008 Hamas suppressing Fatah protests, media GAZA CITY - The Hamas regime has continued its crackdown on the opposition Fatah movement. Palestinian sources said Hamas has increased restrictions on Fatah in the Gaza Strip. The sources said Hamas has banned demonstrations as well as Fatah publications and news coverage. On April 18, Hamas police prevented a Fatah protest in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, Middle East Newsline reported. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights said police officers beat demonstrators and fired into the air. The human rights group said the Fatah protest, called to commemorate Palestinians detained by Israel, had been peaceful. "Dozens of police officers deployed in the area prevented supporters of Fatah movement from organizing their demonstrations," PCHR said on April 20. "The police beat them and opened fire into the air to disperse them. They also arrested two supporters of Fatah movement, but released them later following the intervention of other parties." Palestinian sources said Hamas has succeeded in preventing nearly all Fatah activities in the Gaza Strip. They said the lion's share of Fatah operatives have been driven underground or left the area. PCHR also reported that the Hamas regime prevented a Palestinian television camerman from working in Rafah. The group said the cameraman, identified as Imad Ajrami, represented the Al Alam satellite channel at the Fatah protest. "A number of individuals wearing civilian clothes came to me when I was in a civilian car," Ajrami recalled. "They introduced themselves as members of the Criminal Investigation Bureau. They forcibly confiscated my camera. Immediately, I went together with Mustafa Abul Hadi, correspondent of Al Arabiya satellite channel, to the police station in the town. There, an officer ordered us not to photograph the demonstration and gave us [back] the camera." The human rights group said Hamas routinely beats protesters and condemned what it termed the regime's "inhumane treatment." PCHR also called on the Islamic regime to end its ban on attorney visits to their clients in detention. "The center is concerned that this ban is motivated by the perpetration of illegal actions such as torture and other forms of cruel and inhumane treatment against prisoners," the group said. http://www.imemc.org/article/56330 Palestinian factions in Gaza stage a protest against media blackout Sunday August 03, 2008 15:40 by Rami Almeghari - IMEMC & Agencies Representatives of various Palestinian factions in Gaza, excluding the ruling Hamas party, staged a protest on Sunday in Gaza city, against what they are calling 'a media blackout', the Hamas government has been practicing towards local media outlets. The demonstration came following the Hamas interior ministry closure of the People's Voice Radio Station in Gaza, which is linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Zoelfaqqar Swairjo, head of the radio station, expressed astonishment in a press conference during the protest of the Hamas decision, calling for an immediate halt of all such practices against media outlets. >From his part, the PFLP's representative, Jamil Mezher, condemned the action , saying it's a repression of freedoms and a media blackout. Khaled Al-Batch, representative of the Islamic Jihad group in Gaza, urged the rival Hamas and Fatah parties to return to national dialogue swiftly, considering the 'critical moments' the Palestinian people are going through. Scores of Hamas-led police forces broke yesterday into the premises of the People's Voice Station and ordered its closure. An interior ministry's statement read that the closure was due to what the statement considered 'unfair reporting of Saturday's clashes between the police and a Gaza clan,' which is linked to the Fatah party. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1014728.html 24/08/2008 School year off to a shaky start in Gaza, as teachers protest Hamas control By Haaretz Service Tags: gaza, palestinian authority The Palestinian Authority education system opened the 2008-2009 school year on Sunday, with approximately 250,000 children expected to attend classes. In Gaza, the new school year got off to a shaky start, as teachers loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas declared a five day work-stoppage. Teachers' Union Secretary-General Jameel Shehada said the strike was to protest "the actions Hamas took against the teachers." Advertisement He said Hamas police took over the building belonging to the Palestine Liberation Organization-affiliated Teachers' Union, fired some employees of the education ministry, and transferred some teachers to remote schools. Hamas interior ministry official Mohammed Abu Shuqair said in reply that the takeover of the building was not connected to the "education process," while the teachers were moved because of a "legal procedure." Hamas is expected to appoint its own teachers to replace those who went on the strike. The movement has already appointed Hamas loyalists as headmasters in most schools. Students in Gaza last week also learned that there is a shortage of school supplies in the coastal Strip. Despite the Egyptian-brokered truce between Israel and Hamas that went into effect in June, few goods, apart from humanitarian necessities, have been allowed to enter Gaza. On June 19, 2008, pursuant to the truce, Israel decided to expand the list of goods allowed into the Strip. But since no formal government decision was ever made about which items would be sanctioned, items that pose no apparent security risk are still prevented from entering the Strip . Anwar al-Qazaz, 41, had sent one of his sons to the market to buy school supplies for his younger sisters. "He returned home with his sisters and told me there was nothing. No pens and pencils, no notebooks, and no school uniforms," Qazaz told Haaretz last week. He added that he could buy the necessary products from Egypt, but that would significantly increase the cost. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) also runs schools within the Palestinian Territories, and classes there are scheduled to begin in September. http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/news/news.php?article=14488 Palestine: Israeli army invade the protest camp in Qaffin, detains 13 year old boy 29-06-2008 (ISM): The Israeli army invaded the protest camp established in the village of Qaffin early this morning (29th June), detaining the 13 year old son of the Mayor of the village. The soldiers said that they would release him only if the mayor agreed to close down the camp. At 3am, 30 Israeli soldiers attacked the protest camp that has been operating for 1 month. The camp is situated over 200 hundred metres from the apartheid wall. The soldiers immediately detained the son of the Mayor of Qaffin, threatening to arrest him. As the Mayor, Said Arashid, approached the camp looking for his son, he was told that it was now a closed military zone, despite no papers being shown. The soldiers then informed the mayor that they would release his son if he closed the camp. The protest camp was established at the start of June in opposition to the wall that prevents many Qaffin farmers from reaching their land. It was recently adapted so as to be a site for a children's summer camp. The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) is a Palestinian-led non-violent resistance movement committed to ending Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinian land. We call for full compliance with all relevant UN resolutions and international law. http://www.worldpress.org/feed.cfm?http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/151318 Arab Prisoners in PA Jail Protest for Israeli Amnesty (IsraelNN.com) Arab prisoners in a Palestinian Authority (PA) jail in Shechem Monday set fires to their possessions to protest what they said is Israel's ignoring them as part of an amnesty arrangement. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed last year to grant amnesty to nearly 200 Arab terrorists if they promised to give up their weapons and not return to terrorism after remaining in PA jails for a period of time. No one was injured in the incident, according to the Bethlehem-based Maan news agency. http://www.worldpress.org/feed.cfm?http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/147574 Peres to Speak in Ariel; Peace Now to Protest (IsraelNN.com) President Shimon Peres will speak in the city of Ariel in Samaria on Wednesday in honor of the town's thirtieth anniversary. Peres will congratulate residents of the city on their success in creating a modern and thriving community. The event will take place at 8 p.m. in Park HaNa'al. Ariel Mayor Ron Nachman expressed satisfaction Monday, saying the president's planned visit shows that Ariel is part of the "consensus," that is, a city that politicians agree will be annexed to Israel under a future peace deal with the Palestinian Authority. Members of Peace Now have received police permission to protest Peres's speech, which they say is inappropriate because Ariel is located in Samaria, which the PA claims as Arab territory. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1214492530125&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull Jun 29, 2008 9:58 Dozens of people protesting near Knesset in support of prisoner swap By JPOST.COM STAFF Dozens of people are protesting near the Knesset at the hour to express their support for a prisoner swap deal which is expected to be voted on during the weekly cabinet meeting, set to begin on Sunday morning. According to reports, despite reservations exhibited by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, there is wide cabinet support for the deal with Hizbullah which would return kidnapped IDF reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Fri Aug 29 19:14:09 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 03:14:09 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Protests, occupied Iraq and Afghanistan, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <006701c90a46$17bd9a20$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ IRAQ * In Kurdish city of Arbil, 1 killed, 4 wounded as police attack service delivery protest * Protests over election law * Arabs protest over status of Kirkuk * Sadr supporters protest US security agreement * Brussels march against attacks on Iraqi Christians * Muthana residents protest corruption, demand sackings of officials * Furious protests after soldier shoots Quran * "Naked in hijab" - Iraqi woman protests see-through checkpoint x-rays * Basra oil workers protest replacement of chief * Customs officers protest against transfer * Shutdown of university over arrest of president * Iraqis protest Iranian president * Border town residents demonstrate protesting water crisis * Iraqi governor halts work to protest son's death AFGHANISTAN * Civilian deaths spark protest; police stoned, 2 protesters killed * Protest over alleged burning of Quran * Villagers in west demonstrate over civilian killings * Students join teachers' wage protest * Funeral for BBC journalist killed in Afghanistan * Villagers protest civilian deaths * Hazaras protest in land dispute with Kuchi nomads http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/35293 1 killed, 4 wounded in protest march in Arbil Arbil, 17 August 2008 (Voices of Iraq) A hospital in Arbil province on Sunday received four wounded men and a body eyewitnesses said had protested lack of services, a medic in the city said. "Four wounded men and one corpse were received by the Khlifan hospital in northeastern Arbil. The wounded and the dead man had participated in a demonstration staged by the local residents in Khlifan district," the source, who did not want his name mentioned, told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq - (VOI). Saeed Hallaq, an eyewitness, told VOI that hundreds of residents of the village of Srishma, Khlifan, (90 km) northeastern Arbil, have protested the lack of services in the district. The march developed into clashes between the demonstrators and policemen, which left one man killed and four others wounded. VOI failed to contact the Khlifan police for comments. Arbil, also written Erbil or Irbil, is believed to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited in the world and is one of the largest cities in Iraq. The city lies eighty kilometers (fifty miles) east of Mosul. In 2005, its estimated population was 990,000 inhabitants. The city is the capital of the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, only isolated, sporadic violence has hit Arbil, unlike many other areas of Iraq. Parallel bomb attacks against the Eid celebrations arranged by the PUK and KDP killed 109 people on February 1, 2004. Responsibility was claimed by the Islamist group Ansar al-Sunnah, and stated to be in solidarity with the Kurdish Islamist faction Ansar al-Islam. Another bombing on May 4, 2005 killed 60 civilians. Despite these bombings the population generally feels safe. http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/34506 Duhuk demo ends by presenting warrant of protest against elections law Baghdad, 31 July 2008 (Voices of Iraq) The massive demonstration staged by thousands of Duhuk residents ended on Thursday by presenting a warrant of protest to the Iraqi parliament against the endorsement of the provincial council elections law. "The demonstration, in which all political parties, governmental institutions, syndicates and cultural centers took part, continued for two hours and was held on the main square in central Duhuk," Adel Hassan, member of the higher committee which organized the demo, told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq - (VOI). "The protesters presented a warrant of protest to the UN secretary general, the Iraqi president, the president of Kurdistan and other officials in the region and the representatives of the political blocs in the Parliament, condemning the endorsement of the law and asserting the common interests between all Iraqi components," he explained. "The angry men raised banners proclaiming (all of us against article 24), ( we will only accept implementing article 140) and (the new elections law violates constitution and article 140)," he also said. For his part, Head of the Duhuk provincial council Fadel Omar who received the warrant told the VOI that "we hope that our Arab brothers can overcome this and refuse to implement the new law to maintain stability and peace in Iraq." "The decision and the article 24 stand against Kurds' ambitions so will continue to express our rejection to the violation of the constitution in a civilized way," Omar added. On Monday, a total of 22 civilians were killed and 150 others were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up among a crowd of demonstrators, who took to the streets in downtown Kirkuk, condemning the passage of the provincial council elections law, which includes an article postponing the city's elections. Last July 22, the Iraqi Parliament, with the approval of 127 deputies out of 140 who attended the session, passed the law on provincial council elections. Last Wednesday, the Presidential Board, with the unanimity of President Jalal Talabani and his two deputies Adel Abdul Mahdi and Tareq al-Hashimi, rejected the law in a rapid reaction one day after the Iraqi Parliament passed it during a session that raised hue and cry over its constitutionality. Duhuk lies 460 km north of Baghdad. Also spelled Duhok, Dohuk Dehok or Dahok; it is a city in northern Iraq. It has about 500,000 inhabitants, mostly consisting of Kurds and Assyrians. According to some sources, the name "Duhuk" comes from Kurmanji Kurdish meaning "small village." Circled by mountains along the Tigris river, Duhuk has a growing tourist industry. Its population grew extremely since the 1990s as the rural population moved to the cities. Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States, Duhuk and Iraqi Kurdistan in general have remained the only safe places for foreigners. http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/middleeast/news/article_1420340.php/Hundreds_of_Kurds_protest_in_northern_Iraq Hundreds of Kurds protest in northern Iraq Jul 30, 2008, 8:59 GMT Baghdad - Hundreds of Iraq's politically assertive Kurds protested in the northern Kurdish capital of Sulaymanyah over a provincial election law passed by parliament last week, security sources said Wednesday. The Kurdish protestors gathered in various places across the northern Sulaymanyah province. The last two days have witnessed similar protests in the northern provinces of Arbil and Kirkuk. During the Kurdish protest in Kirkuk Monday 22 people were killed and 150 injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up amongst the protestors. Angry Kurds are objecting to a provincial elections law passed by parliament last week which calls for a secret ballot to decide a power-sharing arrangement in the multi-ethnic city of Kirkuk. In the last week's parliament session, Kurdish lawmakers walked out in protest at the law. The Iraqi legislature approved the law despite the walkout by Kurdish lawmakers. Kurdish parliament members promised to have the law rewritten. They also denounced the measure as 'unconstitutional.' Meanwhile, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd himself, rejected the law in a presidential statement. http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/34460 Protestors in Sulaimaniya present warrant of protest against elections law Sulaimaniya, 31 July 2008 (Voices of Iraq) Print article Send to friend Thousands of protestors in Sulaimaniya on Wednesday presented a warrant of protest to the governor expressing their rejection of the endorsement of the provincial council elections by the Iraqi Parliament. The protestors demanded that the law be rejected, while the Sulaimaniya governor called on the committee supervising the demonstration to stage a campaign to gather signatories of those rejecting the endorsement of the law. "The demonstration was peaceful and Ali Saeed, president of the Sulaimaniya University, presented a warrant of protest to be submitted to the Iraqi Parliament to revoke the law," Othman Zendani, a member of the committee supervising the demo, told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq (VOI). Local police chief Brigadier Hassan Nouri had said Tuesday tight security measures have been put in place in preparation for a demonstration that is scheduled to take place in Sulaimaniya city condemning the passage of the provincial council elections law. On Monday, a total of 22 civilians were killed and 150 others were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up among a crowd of demonstrators, who took to the streets in downtown Kirkuk, condemning the passage of the provincial council elections law, which includes an article postponing the city's elections. Last July 22, the Iraqi Parliament, with the approval of 127 deputies out of 140 who attended the session, passed the law on provincial council elections. Last Wednesday, the Presidential Board, with the unanimity of President Jalal Talabani and his two deputies Adel Abdul Mahdi and Tareq al-Hashimi, rejected the law in a rapid reaction one day after the Iraqi Parliament passed it during a session that raised hue and cry over its constitutionality Sulaimaniya, the capital city of Sulaimaniya province, lies 364 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080804/wl_mideast_afp/iraqpoliticsvoteprotest Hundreds protest in Baghdad over Kirkuk's status Mon Aug 4, 3:11 PM ET BAHGDAD (AFP) - Several hundred people in a Sunni neighbourhood of Baghdad took to the streets on Monday to protest moves by Kurds to incorporate the oil province of Kirkuk into the autonomous Kurdish region. Residents of Adhamiyah marched for an hour carrying banners that read: "No to the breakup of Iraq", "Kirkuk must remain a symbol of national brotherhood" and "the tribes of Adhamiyah condemn the annexation of Kirkuk to Kurdistan." Many carried Iraqi flags as they chanted: "No to the division of Iraq;" "Yes to unity of the country;" "We will give our blood and our soul for Kirkuk." The Kurdish bloc of the Kirkuk provincial council last Thursday voted to demand the inclusion of the province into the northern Kurdish region. The status of Kirkuk has come under the spotlight with the introduction in parliament of a bill governing provincial elections due later this year. Since the bill came before the house last month, Kurds have staged a series of angry demonstrations against the law in Arbil, capital of the Kurdish region. Kurdish officials fear the parliament will approve legislation that will delay local elections in Kirkuk, fail to address issues relating to power sharing and force the removal of the current security force, which is mainly controlled by Kurds. On the other side of the political spectrum, thousands of Arabs staged a noisy rally in Iraq's northern city of Hawija on Saturday against Kurdish demands that Kirkuk be incorporated into their region. Under the Iraqi constitution, a referendum had due to be held by last year on longstanding Kurdish claims for Kirkuk and its oil wealth to be incorporated in their autonomous region in the north. But in December, Kurdish leaders agreed to a six-month postponement of the vote at the recommendation of the United Nations. The vote has yet to be held. Parliament is now trying to come to an agreement over a stalled provincial election law. Kirkuk has been gripped by ethnic tension since the US-led invasion of 2003, with Arab and Turkmen residents fearful they would be marginalised if the city were handed over to the Kurds. At least 22 people were killed a week ago in a suicide bombing during a protest rally held by Kurds over the same issue in Kirkuk and gunfire in the panic that followed. http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/iraq/2008/05/iraq-080530-voa02.htm Sadr Supporters Protest Planned US-Iraqi Security Agreement By VOA News 30 May 2008 Thousands of supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have rallied in the streets of Baghdad to protest plans for a long-term U.S.-Iraq security agreement. The protesters took to the streets after Friday Muslim prayers Friday in the capital's Sadr City neighborhood and other cities across Iraq. Sadr called Tuesday for demonstrations to protest a possible agreement that could lead to an extended U.S. troop presence in Iraq. He said supporters should continue to hold demonstrations after Friday prayers until Iraq's government cancels the negotiations with the United States. The agreement would replace the current United Nations mandate for U.S. troops in Iraq, which expires at the end of this year. Elsewhere, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told reporters in Stockholm that his government is working on plans to encourage tens of thousands of refugees to return home. Mr. Maliki met with Swedish officials Friday, one day after a U.N.-backed conference in Stockholm on rebuilding Iraq. He said the Iraqi government has earmarked funds as part of an effort to make Iraq more attractive to citizens who sought asylum in Europe and elsewhere. Also Friday, the U.S. military said its forces killed a suspected al-Qaida arms dealer and captured three key members of al-Qaida's bombing network in a series of operations across the country Friday. The military also said Friday a U.S. Marine had been removed from duty after Iraqis in Fallujah complained he was handing out coins that quoted verses of the Bible. A spokesman says an investigation is under way. A military statement said U.S. troops are prohibited from "proselytizing any religion, faith or practices." Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/28/world/middleeast/28iraq.html Iraq Struggle Unfolds in Peaceful Protest and Violent Attacks in Sadr City Moises Saman for The New York Times Students from Baghdad's Sadr City district held photographs of people killed or wounded in recent fighting there, at a rally on Sunday led by Parliament members. By ALISSA J. RUBIN and ERICA GOODE Published: April 28, 2008 BAGHDAD - The latest episode in the struggle between the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr and the Iraqi government unfolded Sunday on the streets of Sadr City, where members of Parliament demonstrated peacefully while clashes occurred a few blocks away. Several hours later, Shiite militiamen in the Sadr City district took advantage of a huge dust storm that enveloped Baghdad, and kept American aircraft grounded, to fire at least a dozen mortar rounds at the Green Zone, the home of the American Embassy and of many Iraqi government officials. The mix of peaceful protest and armed attacks is characteristic of the many levels on which the Sadr movement and the government are locked in an all-out fight for political advantage. At stake is the outcome of October provincial elections in which other Shiite parties in the government stand to lose seats to Mr. Sadr's supporters. However, for now, members of Parliament from several parties - with the apparent exception of some of the Shiite blocs that rival Mr. Sadr's - seemed to be trying to transcend the fight for power and focus on the terrible living conditions for residents of Sadr City, the impoverished Shiite neighborhood where militiamen and American and Iraqi troops have fought for more than a month. "What is different about this delegation is that it is composed of all kinds of Iraqis," said Azzad Barbani, a member of Parliament from the Kurdistan Democratic Party. He was among 40 lawmakers who protested Sunday. "The situation is so bad," he said. "But from a political point of view, the solution is dialogue, without getting rid of any bloc in Parliament." Mustafa al-Heeti, a Sunni member of Parliament who led the delegation on Sunday, said, "We want to solve the problem peacefully." Mr. Heeti, of Anbar Province, said the goal of the protest was to demand an end to the fighting and the withdrawal of military forces. He added that a committee of Sadrists and other members of Parliament hoped to meet with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki to discuss their concerns. The residents of Sadr City "are Iraqis," he said, "they are very poor people with very few services, and the military action has caused so much loss of life." Mr. Maliki has said that, before the government will stop its fight, Mr. Sadr must comply with four conditions: hand over heavy weapons; stop fighting the security forces; stop menacing government workers; and hand over outlaws sought by the government. But on Sunday, an aide to Mr. Sadr in Najaf rejected those terms, accusing the government of trying to resolve political differences by force. Qassim Atta, a spokesman for the government's effort to restore order in Baghdad, the capital, told a news conference that the government had earmarked $100 million in aid for Sadr City and listed many services that the district would receive. However, it was apparent that little had arrived, primarily because the fighting made it dangerous for city service workers to venture into the worst areas, but also because government officials remained ambivalent about helping a neighborhood where their enemies lived. Mr. Sadr's officials, however, lost no time in reaching out to beleaguered residents. Hazim al-Araji, a member of Parliament from Mr. Sadr's bloc, announced that Mr. Sadr's offices would compensate families who had lost a close relative and would make payments to those who had been wounded. While Mr. Araji did not say the exact amount that each family would get, a reporter attending a funeral in Sadr City said the family had received a half million Iraqi dinars, about $425, from an official in Mr. Sadr's office. Seriously wounded people were said to be getting about $200 and those with minor injuries were receiving about $110. Sadr officials were also said to be paying for funerals, which include a three-day period of mourning when relatives and friends come to the home of the bereaved and must be offered food and drink. In Nasiriya, in southern Iraq, where there has also been fighting between Mr. Sadr's supporters and government troops, a bloc of members of Parliament representing him made a formal visit and drafted a memorandum of understanding between the sides. At a news conference on Sunday, one of the Sadrist lawmakers, Akram Fawzi said: "The aim of this visit is to solve Nasiriya's troubles. This is an exceptional phase, and it can be ended by cooperation between the different groups in the province." A car bomb killed three people in the mostly Shiite neighborhood of Shaab in northern Baghdad. Two other car bombings struck the west side of Baghdad, one in Harthiya, an affluent neighborhood, and another in Jamiya. Mortar shells landed in three Baghdad neighborhoods, killing two people and wounding 18. In Samarra, a car bomb killed one woman and wounded four other people, including two children, the local police said. In Muqdadiya, in Diyala Province, a mass grave with at least 50 bodies was discovered in an orchard, officials said. Some of the bodies were badly decayed, but others appeared to have been of people executed recently. The High Iraqi Criminal Court announced that the chief judge had dismissed four other judges. The criminal court is the new name for the court that tries people connected to former President Saddam Hussein. "The four judges were dismissed because they had connections with Baath Party," said Munir Haddad, the deputy chief judge of the court. "The decision was made on the 17th of April." He added that it was in accordance with court rules that prohibit anyone with connections to the Baath Party from serving on the court. Iraqi employees of The New York Times contributed reporting from Baghdad, Baquba, Samarra and Nasiriya. http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/31783 Sadrists protest in Missan against Iraqi-U.S. agreement Amara, 31 May 2008 (Voices of Iraq) Print article Send to friend Sadrists staged a demonstration in front of al-Sadr's office in Missan province, protesting the long-term U.S.-Iraqi agreement, a source from the Sadrist bloc said on Friday. "Sadrists in Missan went to the streets and condemned the scheduled long-term deal between Iraq and the United States which aims at boosting U.S. occupation in Iraq," a media source in al-Sadr's office told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq (VOI). "The angry men called on the national fronts and noblemen to discard this agreement which aims at blackmailing Iraq and its economic resources and impose the U.S. authority on the Iraqi people," he added. A media source from al-Sadr's office had said earlier thousands of Sadrists staged a demonstration after the Friday prayer in Sadr City, protesting the long-term Iraqi-U.S. deal. A declaration of principles was signed between U.S. President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in December 2007. The declaration was planned to be ratified on July 31, 2008 to be effective as of January 1, 2009. The agreement governs the U.S. forces' presence in Iraq after the year 2008. This presence currently relies on a mandate by the UN, renewed annually upon the request of the Iraqi government. The agreement should not be effective except after endorsement by the 275-member Iraqi parliament, which comprises five political blocs, the Fadhila (Virtue) Party and the Sadrist Bloc, or Iraqis loyal to Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr. http://www.worthynews.com/news/foxnews-com-printer_friendly_story-0,3566,351826,00-html/ Thousands March in Brussels to Protest Attacks on Christians in Iraq Saturday , April 19, 2008 BRUSSELS, Belgium - Thousands of people were demonstrating outside EU headquarters Saturday to demand protection for Christians in Iraq, saying they were increasingly being targeted in cold-blooded attacks. Iraqi religious leaders led the protesters, whom police prevented from marching toward U.S. Embassy. Organizers said 4,000 to 7,000 had come for the demonstration from several European countries. Police put the turnout figure at 3,750. "Christians in the Middle East are being assassinated and massacred," Iraqi priest Jacob Idine said. "Above all, religious leaders, the archbishops and priests, are being killed in cold blood in Iraq." Islamic extremists have killed prominent members of Iraq's Christian community in recent weeks. Tens of thousands of Iraqi Christians are believed to have fled since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Idine said the demonstrators wanted the EU to help protect Iraqi people and clergy in Iraq. German officials on Friday sought backing from other EU nations to accept more Christian refugees from Iraq, arguing that they were particularly vulnerable to violence and discrimination. But other EU countries expressed concern that giving priority to Christians could discriminate against other groups. http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/35619 Dozens rally demonstrations to protest corruption in Muthana Muthanna, 24 August 2008 (Voices of Iraq) Print article Send to friend Dozens of Muthana province residents on Sunday staged demonstrations in the southern city of Samawa to protest corruption and to call for sacking key provincial officials. "A new committee called Muthana peaceful popular uprising committee against corruption organised the demonstration,"Khazal Khashan, a demonstrator,told Aswat al-Iraq-Voices of Iraq(VOI). Although Khashan did not unveil the number of demonstrators, he said "they called for the Iraqi prime minister to make good on pledges to fight corruption and to sack the chief of Muthana's provincial council along with improving delivered services". "We would wait for the government's response and would send a delegation to Baghdad to meet officials", he noted. The committee in a statement released in demonstration accused the local government in Muthana of "forming tribal and factional lobby to monopolise decision-making and resources, resulting bad services delivery and whopping failed development projetcs". The announcement also called for the donor countries and international companies implemntong projects in Muthana to stop "squandering money granted to Iraqi people". Samawa is the capital city of Muthana province, the less populated province in Iraq, lies 280 km south Baghdad. http://www.ibnlive.com/news/us-soldier-shoots-quran-sparks-off-protests-in-iraq/65515-2.html?xml US soldier shoots Quran, sparks off protests in Iraq CNN-IBN Published on Mon, May 19, 2008 at 01:05, Updated at Mon, May 19, 2008 in World section FAUX PAS: The Qur'an was found riddled with multiple bullet holes. New Delhi: Furious protests have been held outside Baghdad after it was revealed that an American soldier used the Quran for target practice. The soldier, whose name was not released, shot at the Quran on May 9. The holy book was discovered two days later on a shooting range, by an Iraqi policemen. It was found riddled with multiple bullet holes and with an expletive scrawled on one page, as well. The soldier, who claimed he did not know he was shooting at the Quran, has now been re-deployed back to the US. This incident has forced the Commander of the US Forces in Baghdad to formally issue an apology. Major-General Jeffery Hammond later read out a letter of apology from the soldier, and described his actions as criminal behaviour. Another military official kissed a Quran and presented it as "a humble gift" to the tribal leaders. "I've come before you today seeking your forgiveness. In a most humble manner, I look into your eyes today and I say 'Please forgive me and my soldiers'," Hammond said. "The actions of one soldier was nothing more than criminal behavior. And I come to this land to protect you, to support you, not to harm you, and the behavior of this soldier was nothing short of wrong, and unacceptable. I have punished this soldier. I have dealt fiercely in punishing this soldier. "This solder has lost the honour to serve the United States Army and the people of Iraq here in Baghdad. He will no longer be able to do that," said Hammond in his apology. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92301102&ft=1&f=1004 Reporter's Notebook by Corey Flintoff Naked In Hijab Corey Flintoff/NPR Farah al-Jaberi holds her protest sign outside the Green Zone checkpoint that leads to Iraq's parliament. Her sign says, "From the American to the [female] Parliament employee - either no clothes, or the American prisons." Corey Flintoff/NPR This is the way Farah al-Jaberi says women are seen by an electronic security scanner at one of the checkpoints entering Baghdad's Green Zone - essentially naked, even when they are fully covered in conservative Muslim attire. NPR.org, July 8, 2008 ? A conservatively dressed Iraqi matron holding a provocative sign and a picture of a naked woman stood against the dusty concrete blast wall outside the main checkpoint where Iraqi workers enter and leave Baghdad's Green Zone. It's almost impossible for us, as Americans, to grasp just how shocking this was. First, you have to consider that for Farah al-Jaberi, an observant Muslim woman, conservative attire doesn't mean a tailored pantsuit; it means full hijab: a headscarf that conceals her hair and throat, topped by a head-to-foot abaya, a black drapery that's designed to obscure any hint of a womanly shape underneath. That this lady would be holding up a picture in public that revealed, well, every feature of a woman's shape, was striking to say the least. Jaberi explained that she was protesting her treatment while going through the various security checkpoints on the way to her job at the Iraqi parliament building. Because the Green Zone is the location of the Baghdad Convention Center, where Iraq's parliament meets, as well as the U.S. Embassy, security is exceptionally tight. Workers who enter on foot must pass through seven or more different checkpoints before they reach the Convention Center. People often have to wait in long lines to have their bags searched, their bodies patted down, their bodies scanned by an electronic imaging machine, their bags sniffed by dogs, and their identification cards examined. It was the scan that Jaberi particularly objected to, because, she said, guards are essentially able to see a woman naked as she stands in the scanning booth. The picture she displayed actually looks like a naked female alien, blue-tinted and bald, because the scanner doesn't see hair or clothing. What it sees is the body itself, plus the dark outline of any jewelry or, presumably, any concealed weapon. The fact that a woman in hijab can conceal so much is a matter of real concern to security officials, especially lately, as the number of attacks by female suicide bombers in Iraq has grown. Jaberi said that she and other Muslim women who pass through the checkpoints understand the need for security. "We're not terrorists, and we care about our safety. We don't want our offices to be blown up," she said. She said female employees don't object to having their bags examined, or to being patted down by female guards in curtained booths that are set aside for that purpose. What they do object to, she said, is going through a scan where their bodies can be seen by male guards or where images of their bodies can be saved and viewed by anyone later. Jaberi said she believed that she and other women had won their point in May, when officials agreed that women would not have to go through the scanner but could be searched separately and privately by female guards. She said that was the procedure for a couple of weeks until a new American soldier came on guard at the checkpoint and insisted that she had to go through the scanner. When she refused, Jaberi said the soldier took her aside, shouted at her and threatened to call the police. When she told him to go ahead and call, Jaberi says the soldier pointed his gun at her. That's when, she said, she turned back from the checkpoint, went home and inscribed her protest sign, which says in Arabic: "From the American to the [female] Parliament employee - either no clothes, or the American prisons." All this happened in early June. Reached recently by telephone at her workplace, Jaberi said her protest lasted a couple of hours. Eventually, she said, officials came out and told her that she would not have to go through the scanner. That's the way it has been for the past month, she said, and parliamentary authorities have recently opened a separate gate for women. Iraqi officials said the incident Jaberi was protesting is still under investigation. And she said she's still waiting for an apology. http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/34838 Workers in Basra protest decision to replace oil company chief By Abed Battat 07 August 2008 (Azzaman) Print article Send to friend Thousands of workers in Iraq's Southern Oil Company organized a two-hour sit early this week protesting a government decision to replace the company's chief. CEO Abduljabbar al-Aibi has been leading the company for the past four years and is credited with efforts to revamp the firm and maintain and boost output. The company in the southern Province of Basra is responsible for gigantic oil fields which currently produce most of Iraqi oil exports. The sit-in was called for by the Oil Workers Union. The union's leader, Hassan al-Assadi said the workers were determined to have the decision to move Aibi revoked. He said when Aibi took over the company was almost in shambles. "Aibi is an asset which should not be underestimated particularly at a critical juncture like this," he said. Despite Basra's turmoil and the presence of rival, disparate and powerful militia factions, Aibi has managed to steer the company and keep crude oil flowing. The union has sent a letter to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki asking for his personal intervention. The Oil Ministry's order to move Aibi to Baghdad as a consultant was issued three months ago. But the ministry is reluctant to put it into effect due to opposition from company workers who have threatened a general strike. Assadi said he hoped the ministry has understood the message of the sit-in in which almost all company employees took part. http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/34266 Customs officers protest transfer decision Basra, 27 July 2008 (Voices of Iraq) Dozens of customs officers in Basra on Sunday staged a demonstration in front of the provincial council building protesting a decision ordering the transfer of 1,900 of them to the boarder guard forces. "We held a peaceful demonstration demanding the cancellation of a decision recently issued by the head of the customs police department, which orders the transfer of 1,900 of customs policemen..," one of the demonstrators, Saad Salman, told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq ?- (VOI). "The decision orders our transfer to the river police and SWAT teams, which are irrelevant to our work in the customs police that we have joined since the collapse of the former regime in 2003," Salman noted. "The demonstrators urged concerned governmental bodies to set up a committee to examine the rationale behind the decision," he added. VOI has made every effort to contact the customs police chief, Staff Colonel Dhafir Sabah Abdelnabi, but to no avail. The Shiite city Basra lies 590 km south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/35449 Work in Diala university suspends, in protest to president's arresting Diala, 20 August 2008 (Voices of Iraq) Print article Send to friend The Diala presidency on Wednesday decided to suspend its official work for two days in protest to Iraqi forces arresting the president of the university, the media official of the university said. "The university's presidency held a meeting today at the university's headquarters in al-Senaaei neighborhood in Baaquba, and decided to suspend the work for two days in protest to the arresting of its president Nezar al-Khazragi yesterday by security forces," Duham al-Ubaidi told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq - (VOI). Iraqi security forces, from Baghdad, waged yesterday a crackdown operation in separate areas of Diala, where they arrested President Nezar al-Khazragi and the official of the security committee Hussin al-Zubaidi. Diala province extends to the northeast of Baghdad as far as the Iranian border. Its capital is Baaquba. It covers an area of 17,685 square kilometers (6,828 sq mi). A large portion of the province is drained by the Diala River, a major tributary of the Tigris. Because of its proximity to two major sources of water, Diala's main industry is agriculture, primarily dates grown in large Date Palm groves. It is also recognized as the orange capital of the Middle East. In January 2008 Operation Phantom Phoenix was launched in an attempt to eradicate the remnants of al-Qaeda network following the Diala province campaign between 2006 and 2007. http://www.ncr-iran.org/content/view/4879/109/ Iraqis stage protest against Ahmadinejad Friday, 29 February 2008 NCRI - A group of Iraqis on Friday protested in Baghdad against the upcoming visit to Iraq by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian regime's president. The protesters for two consecutive days in the Iraqi capital handed out pamphlets which read "Iraq is not for sale." They called on the Multi-National Force-Iraq to stop Ahmadinejad's visit to that country. Similar protest was held on Thursday in central city of Baquba. "No, no to the Iranian regime," read a banner carried by protesters. They said Iranian regime and its president were interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq, supporting al-Qaeda, promoting religious hatred and inciting sectarian violence. On Wednesday, Mr. Mohammed Abdullah Shahwani, Baghdad's intelligence chief in a statement said that Iranian secret service agents are working to "sabotage" the operations of groups fighting Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Al-Hurra TV reported that Mr. Shahwani asked the Iraqi Security systems to prosecute Iranian regime's mercenaries in Iraq. http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/32181 Border town residents demonstrate protesting water crisis Wassit, 09 June 2008 (Voices of Iraq) Print article Send to friend Residents of Jasan town near the borders with Iran on Sunday demonstrated near the local council's building, protesting low drinking and irrigation water supplies in their area. "The demonstration came due to the catastrophic circumstances in Jasan border district, due to the lack of drinking and irrigation waters," Sattar Jabor, a demonstrator, told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq - (VOI). "The majority of Jasan district's residents think of immigration, as their cattle and farms suffered from water shortage," he said. He demanded Jasan's local council and Wassit provincial authority to meet the demonstrator's demands of providing drinking and irrigation water. Another demonstrator, Na'em Mohammed, who is a farmer, said "Hundreds of donams (1 donam = 2,500 squared meters) of farms at Jasan district suffer lack of water, and were not irrigated since long time." The demonstrators handed over a list of their demands to the local council. The list embraced "forming a committee to investigate why water went off in the district, dismissing the manager of water resources directorate in the province, removing all the violations occurring on the district's water project, and connecting this project to the emergency power line." Jasan district (60 km east of Kut city) gets a water feed from an irrigative source that runs from al-Diboni district (50 km east of Kut), and passes through the farms to feed the district's water project. Press reports depict that al-Galal river that comes from Iran stopped running through the Iraqi territories, due to the Iranian intervention in this regard, a matter that deepened the water crisis in Jasan. Kut, capital city of Wassit province, is 180 km southeast of Baghdad. http://arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=112024&d=22&m=7&y=2008&pix=world.jpg&category=World Iraqi governor halts work to protest son's death DPA BAGHDAD: An Iraqi provincial governor stopped all work in his office yesterday until an inquiry was conducted into the killing of his son and nephew by US troops, while an Iraqi lawmaker blamed an attack in which his Baghdad home was blown up on "sectarian killers." US troops killed Sunday the son and the nephew of the governor of the northern Iraqi province of Salahaddin, Hamad Mahmoud. According to the provincial authorities, US forces raided the house of Mahmoud's sister-in-law in Bayji, 240 km north of Baghdad, and killed the governor's son and his nephew. But the US military said its troops were conducting a search operation for an Al-Qaeda suspect in a house in Bayji and found two armed men. The troops killed the men in self-defense, the military said. In Baghdad, armed men blew up the house of Iraqi lawmaker Mithal Al-Alusy. There were no fatalities in the explosion, as the house was empty at the time, but it was extensively damaged, security sources said. The Sunni lawmaker, who leads the secular Iraqi Nation Party, accused "sectarian killers" of carrying out the attack. Separately, attackers assassinated a clan chief, Abdel-Ghafar Abdullah, while he was on his way to a national reconciliation meeting in Baquba in the restive Diyala province, security sources told reporters. Also in Diyala, two police volunteers from the so-called Awakening Councils were killed and four were injured when gunmen attacked a council center in a village in the province. The Awakening Councils are US-backed tribal police units formed to fight Al-Qaeda militants in Iraq. http://mwcnews.net/content/view/22387/0/ Fatality at Afghan anti-US protest The protests centred on claims of civilian deaths at the hands of US military personnel [AFP] At least one person was killed and several wounded in Afghanistan when police opened fire to disperse a protest accusing US-led soldiers of killing civilians, witnesses said. Demonstrators tried to block a road on Saturday in the eastern province of Nangarhar, protesting over the killing of three men in a military operation overnight. Darya Khan, a resident, said: "Police tried to stop them, they threw stones at the police. Police then fired at the crowd. One person was killed and three others were injured." A doctor in the nearby city of Jalalabad said six people had been admitted with gunshot wounds. Sayed Abdul Ghafar, the provincial police chief, insisted that his men had opened fire into the air only and dismissed allegations that they had caused casualties. Contradicting claims by the US, Abdul Ghafar said that the people killed in the nighttime assault in Shinwar district were not fighters or Taliban members, but members of the public. marketing He said: "The coalition conducted independent operations in Shinwar and martyred three people. They were civilians." The protesters chanted slogans against foreign troops, George Bush, the US president, and Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president. "The Americans killed three civilians," said Rizwan Khan, a demonstrator. "They were my neighbours and I knew they were not Taliban." Contradicting claims Others at the protest said the dead were an elderly man shot in a mosque and two other men, employed as drivers, shot in their homes. Protesters drag a traffic sign in the Nangarhar protest [Reuters] But the US-led coalition said it had killed only fighters who had attacked troops searching for a "foreign fighter network". "During the operation, several fighters were killed when they attacked coalition forces. Nine militants suspected of foreign fighter [facilitators] were detained," a statement said. It is often difficult to verify events in Afghanistan, where thousands of Afghan and international soldiers are working against several networks opposed to the US-backed government, some of which have al-Qaeda backing. International troops are regularly accused of mistaking civilians for fighters and of being heavy-handed in their operations. The soldiers say they work on verified information and have the right to self-protection. Most Afghans are already unhappy with the ongoing presence of foreign troops in their country seven years after they came to drive out the Taliban-led government. http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/20080511/WIRE/805110436/1033/NEWS KABUL, Afghanistan Protester killed in clash Published: Sunday, May 11, 2008 at 4:30 a.m. Last Modified: Sunday, May 11, 2008 at 3:34 a.m. Dozens of protesters blocked a road Saturday in eastern Afghanistan, claiming U.S.-led coalition forces killed three civilians, and a local official said police fatally shot one of the protesters and injured three of them. Villagers from the area carried three bodies to a major highway during the protest. Police allegedly opened fire, killing one and wounding three. The coalition said its troops were attacked Friday while searching compounds in the Shinwar district of Nangarhar province. "Several militants were killed" and nine insurgents were arrested, the coalition said in a statement Saturday. Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said the government is investigating the villagers' claims. http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/200805/s2241204.htm?tab=latest Protestors clash with police in Afghanistan Print Email Updated Sun May 11, 2008 6:53pm AEST A least two people were killed and seven wounded in eastern Afghanistan when police clashed with demonstrators. Several thousand protesters were demonstrating against the killing of three civilians in the area by foreign forces in an overnight raid. The protesters said five civilians had also been detained in the raid. An official for NATO in Kabul said he was not aware of the raid. The U.S. military said all those killed were militants and the target of its raid was "a foreign fighter network". More than 700 civilians have been killed during operations by foreign troops while hunting Taliban-led insurgents in Afghanistan in recent years. http://story.australianherald.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/c08dd24cec417021/id/398225/cs/1/ Afghan villagers protest US air strike deaths Australian Herald Saturday 23rd August, 2008 Afghan villagers have launched protests against all allied forces after claims that 76 civilians, most of them children, were killed in US-led air strikes against Taliban rebels. The US military previously said that only 30 militant fighters had been killed in the strikes, but later admitted it was launching investigations into civilian deaths. About 250 villagers gathered in the angry demonstration on Saturday night, hurling stones at Afghan troops. The police chief for western Afghanistan, General Akram Yawar, said his officers had fired shots into the air to disperse the crowd. Two people were wounded after police were forced back into their compound. The protests centred around an incident in the village of Azizabad, about 120 kilometres south of Herat city, an area which is considered a stronghold of Taliban and other militants. If the death toll from the new incident is confirmed it would be one of the highest for civilians in Afghanistan. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1048630/Afghan-protests-erupt-US-jets-kill-76-civilians.html?ITO=1490 Afghan protests erupt after US jets 'kill 76 civilians' By Mail On Sunday Reporter Last updated at 12:05 AM on 24th August 2008 Comments (8) Add to My Stories Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai yesterday condemned US-led coalition forces for an air strike which he claims killed 76 civilians - including women and children. Hundreds of people demonstrated in the city of Herat in protest. American officials said they had targeted armed Taliban militants in Friday's air raid after Afghan and coalition forces came under attack from insurgents. Furious Afghans demonstrate after Friday's air strike More... Tide is turning in Talibanistan as mighty Nato loses ground LIZ JONES: The women of Kabul would tell us why British troops really are heroes The US claimed the strike killed 30 militants, including a Taliban commander, and only two civilians had been wounded. But Afghanistan's Interior Ministry claimed coalition forces bombarded the Shindand district of Herat, killing 76 civilians, including 19 women and seven men. It said the rest were children under the age of 15. The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission said that according to initial findings civilians including women and children had been killed in the raid but it could not be verified. Investigations by the Afghan government and the US military have been launched. A US military spokesman said: 'Our reports from our own forces on the ground are only, so far, that those killed in the strikes numbered 30 and they were all militants.' In a statement the US military said: 'All allegations of civilian casualties are taken very seriously. Coalition forces make every effort to prevent the injury or loss of innocent lives. An investigation has been directed.' A woman mourns the death of a relative following the airstrike in western Herat province UN spokesman Aleem Siddique said: 'It is imperative that we exercise caution before jumping to any conclusions. 'The issue of civilian casualties is so important that it is vital that we verify the facts of what has actually happened. It is a matter of great concern that we are seeing reports of large numbers of civilian casualties. The first rule of any counter-insurgency operation is to do no harm.' Hundreds of people demonstrated in Shindand district yesterday, shouting anti-US slogans, after Afghan soldiers arrived in the area to bring aid to the victims' families. Witness Shah Nawaz said: 'People didn't accept the aid and started throwing stones at the soldiers, saying the Afghan army is our enemy. 'We don't want anything from our enemies.' He claimed Afghan soldiers fired shots into the air and wounded six people after the crowd threw stones. He added: 'We will continue our demonstration until the international community listen to us and bring those who carried out yesterday's attack to justice.' The demonstrators also shouted anti-US slogans, saying Americans should withdraw from the area. A police vehicle blazes after being set on fire by protesters According to the United Nations, nearly 700 civilians were killed in Afghanistan in the first six months of this year, 255 of them by Afghan government and international troops, the rest by Taliban militants. Meanwhile, Afghan police chief Matiullah Khan said a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan killed ten civilians who were passengers in a small bus when the bomb exploded yesterday in the Shah Wali Kot district of Kandahar province. And another roadside bomb killed three more civilians in the Tani district of Khost province yesterday. On Friday a battle between Taliban fighters and Afghan police killed 17 militants in Helmand province. More than 3,500 people - mostly militants - have died in insurgency-related violence this year. http://quqnoos.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=878&Itemid=48 Police open fire on anti-NATO protest Written by Quqnoos.com Saturday, 14 June 2008 16:58 Gunfire wounds more than a dozen protestors, doctor says POLICE have opened fire on anti-NATO demonstrations in the south-east, wounding more than a dozen protestors, eye-witnesses have said. Hundreds of people in Paktia's Zurmat district took to the streets on Saturday in protest at what they called NATO's heavy-handed military tactics, which residents blame for the recent death of 15 civilians in a NATO raid on a home in the district. One of the demonstrators, Haji Zahir, said police opened fire on the rally and wounded 13 people. An official at the provincial police headquarters, Ghulam Dastgir Rustamyar, said police opened fire on the protestors, but that only three people were wounded. Rustamyar said police were told "terrorists" had infiltrated the protest and planned to attack the police headquarters. Protestors denied rebel fighters were among the crowd of demonstrators. The head of a private clinic in the area, Dr Haji Muhammad, said 13 people had been brought into his clinic with gunshot wounds. He said six people were in a critical condition. NATO officials say they killed five Taliban insurgents and one woman in the air-strike two days ago. Residents say the raid killed 15 civilians, including six children. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/13/asia/AS-GEN-Afghan-Violence.php US-led force says it killed 17 militants in southern Afghanistan The Associated Press Published: June 13, 2008 In neighboring Kunar province, more than 2,000 Afghans staged a peaceful protest claiming U.S. troops at a remote base had burned a copy of Islam's holy book, officials said. U.S. spokesman Lt. Nathan Perry confirmed the protest but denied the allegation. "We respect the Afghan culture and religion," he said. Local lawmaker Gulhar Jalal said Afghans working inside the base at Mano Gai had spread news about the alleged burning of a Quran. She said the incident allegedly occurred Thursday but had no further details. Provincial police Chief Abdul Jalal Jalal said police were sent to the area after the protest broke out in the town near the base but demonstrators dispersed peacefully. Afghanistan is a Muslim nation where blasphemy of Muhammad and the Quran is a serious crime that carries the death sentence. Such reports have sparked unrest before. In May, a protest in western Ghor province against an American sniper who shot at a copy of the Quran in Iraq turned violent, leaving one NATO soldier and two civilians dead. http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/227625,afghan-villagers-protest-after-civilians-killed-in-herat--update.html Afghan villagers protest after civilians killed in Herat - Update Posted : Sat, 23 Aug 2008 12:16:54 GMT Author: DPA Kabul - Hundreds of villagers in western Afghanistan demonstrated Saturday to protest the apparent death of scores of civilians in a US airstrike in Herat Province. Afghan police increased their estimate of the number of civilians killed to more than 90, and the senior UN representative called for a thorough investigation into the incident that took place in the village of Aziz Abad on Friday. The US military said in a statement that it had launched an investigation. "All allegations of civilian casualties are taken very seriously," the statement said. Western region police spokesman Abdul Raouf Ahmadi said that more than 90 civilians had been killed in the strike, speaking to Deutsche Presse-Agentur http://afghanistaninfo.blogspot.com/2008/05/afghan-students-join-teachers-wages.html Sunday, May 11, 2008 Afghan students join teachers' wages protest KABUL (AFP) - Police used gunfire to disperse about 400 students demonstrating Saturday in the Afghan capital in support of their teachers who are on strike demanding a pay rise, witnesses said. "My salary is 3,000 afghani (60 dollars) while my house rent is 4,000 afghani. This is not justice," said Agha, one of 300 teachers from Habibia High School on strike. "We will not teach unless our salaries are not raised," he added. Teachers earn among the lowest civil service salaries in Afghanistan, where food prices have shot up in the past weeks as part of a global hike in prices. http://www.gulfnews.com/World/Afghanistan/10219740.html Funeral held for BBC journalist killed in Afghanistan Agencies Published: June 09, 2008, 13:55 Helmand: The funeral has been held for an Afghan journalist working for the BBC who was found shot dead on Sunday. Abdul Samad Rohani disappeared from Lashkar Gah in the southern province of Helmand on Saturday. Helmand police chief Mohammad Hussain Andiwal said police did not know who abducted and killed Rohani, 25, and were investigating the murder. Dozens of journalists and media activists gathered in Kabul to condemn the murder. The reporter's body was taken from Lashkar Gah to his nearby home district of Marja where he was buried in the village cemetery. Jon Williams, the BBC's world news editor, said, "Rohani's courage and dedication have been a key part of the BBC's reporting from Afghanistan in recent years." A relative, who did not want to be identified, said neither the family nor Rohani had enemies. "The reason we lost our brother, we think, is to do with his job, being a journalist," he said. Hwoever, Reporters Without Borders said it had been told by Rohani's colleagues that he had received phone threats from "a local chief who accused him of supporting the Kabul government and of 'boycotting' news put out by the Taliban." The journalist had worked alongside the BBC's Kabul correspondent, Alastair Leithead, and was the Helmand reporter for the Pashto service of the BBC World Service. He was the second foreign BBC journalist to be killed over the weekend. Naftah Dahir Farah, 26, a freelancer who worked for the BBC and the Associated Press, was shot dead in Kismayo, southern Somalia, on Saturday. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7469338.stm Monday, 23 June 2008 13:08 UK E-mail this to a friend Printable version Protests over Afghanistan deaths Officials in eastern Afghanistan say a civilian man and his young son have been killed in fighting between US-led troops and militants. Several hundred villagers in Nangarhar Province took to the streets blaming US-led troops for the deaths. A local official said it was not clear who killed them. The coalition said it could not confirm any civilian deaths. US-led forces say they have killed 55 militants in clashes further south. There is no independent confirmation. A statement said 25 other "anti-Afghan forces" had been injured and three detained after coalition troops were ambushed in Paktika province on Friday. Meanwhile, Afghan intelligence officials say they have foiled a potential bombing after recovering a pressure cooker packed with explosives in the capital, Kabul. 'Death to America' Protesters demonstrated in Khogyani district of Nangarhar province on Monday. A BBC reporter in the nearby city of Jalalabad said 200-300 people took part. They shouted "death to America" and called for foreigners to leave the area as well as for compensation to be paid after the deaths of the civilians. Khogyani district governor Zalmi Khan told the BBC: ''A joint Afghan-American convoy was ambushed by the Taleban. Security forces returned fire and killed one Taleban - three others fled. "The dead body of the Taleban and his weapons are lying there. "As a result of the firing, one child and father got killed. We don't know whose firing killed them.'' The BBC's Bilal Sarwary in Kabul says Khogyani district is a remote and mountainous area on the border with Pakistan. He says there have been demonstrations against foreign forces there in the past when poppies were eradicated. Civilian deaths at the hands of foreign forces have prompted a number of protests in Afghanistan. President Karzai has repeatedly urged international troops to be more careful. Last year US forces said they were deeply ashamed" by the killings of 19 Afghan civilians by US Marines in Nangarhar Province. Correspondents say many more civilians are killed in attacks and suicide bombings by insurgents opposed to the Western-backed government in Kabul. http://globalvoicesonline.org/2008/07/28/afghanistan-violence-in-the-hazarajat-protests-in-kabul/ Afghanistan: Violence in the Hazarajat, Protests in Kabul Monday, July 28th, 2008 @ 06:26 UTC by Joshua Foust Afghanistan is one of those countries where minority issues drive nearly everything. They form the basis for why President Hamid Karzai is "the best game in town," but also why he should resign. They form the fundamental structure of the national government, with ethnic set-asides (Kuchis get 10 seats in Parliament, Tajiks and Hazara each get a Vice-Presidency), warlordism (no one will dare move against Abdulrashid Dostum's ethnic Uzbek enclave in the north), and generally a tense unease between various people groups. Because this situation is not new, it sometimes gets ignored in the face of the Taliban insurgency. But sometimes ethnic rivalries boil over into outright disputes. In Wardak province, just west and south of Kabul, the Hazara have a long-standing feud with the nomadic Kuchi over land rights. On Tuesday, July 8-the day after the horrific bombing at the Indian embassy in Kabul-a band of Kuchis moved into the Behsud district of Wardak and killed several Hazaras, taking at least four hostage and claiming the "right" to use their land. The Rumi reports: In April, Human rights workers expressed fears that Hazaras were planning to take up arms against Kuchis who settled on their land. "Given that both parties lack confidence in the government's ability to solve their disputes they may try to defeat each other by violent means," Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission said. Kuchis, who are predominantly Pashtuns, traditionally move all over the country in search of green pastures for their livestock and, at the start of each spring, many travel to the central provinces, where most of Afghanistan's Hazaras live. Kuchi elders complain that Hazaras have enjoyed strong international support since the Taliban's fall, while Kuchis have been perceived as collaborators of the mainly Pashtun Taliban. In July 2007, after several people were reportedly killed in clashes between Kuchi herders and Hazara settlers in Behsud district, President Karzai set up a commission to come up with a solution. Then commission has yet to report its finding. Very quickly, a blog to help the victims of the attack was set up. A relatively recent blog-based clearing house for Hazara issues, Hazarajat Times, picked up a story that would grow in significance: Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq, a Hazara Member of Parliament, first warned that the Kuchi incursion would lead to civil war if it was not resolved, then began a hunger strike on July 16 to end the conflict. He drew some rather surprising supporters, such as Abdulrashid Dostum, and within days hundreds had pledged to join in the strike. Since the current conflict was eerily similar to the exact same clash that happened in July of 2007, many Hazara were deeply frustrated at the perceived inaction of Kabul. So they planned a protest. By July 21, Mohaqiq was trying desperately to spread the word about the clashes (which were almost entirely unreported in the West). The Rumi captured most of what he said: He said "over 15 villagers including children and women have been gunned down while 20,000 persons have been displaced fleeing the barbarism of Al-Qaeda and Taliban supporters". Mohaqiq expressed disappointment towards human rights organizations, media and UN for not taking any serious notice of the invasion and strongly appealed the international community, human rights organizations and United Nations to intervene and avoid Kuchi nomads massacring the people of Behsud District. Last year on June 23, 2007 there was a giant peaceful public demonstration in Kabul against the Government to resolve the "Kuchi Headache" for ever "The international community, NATO led coalition forces, United Nations and Human Rights' organizations are needed to look into the matter and get rid of the "headache" meeting the human rights of the downtrodden people of central highlands" he added. About this time, some Farsi/Dari-language media began to cover the incursion. Quqnoos has a disturbing video of some Hazara victims of the attack. In posting the above video, The Rumi angrily wondered why President Karzai seemed to be doing nothing: Kabul government sent police forces to stop the Kuchis but in this video you can see the kuchi-armed groups dressed in Taliban style are walking in front of National Police. Why the police forces cannot take their weapons? What is so special for the kuchies to be armed while the rest of the ethnicities are disarmed? About this time, Mohaqiq was reportedly weakening. Registan.net noted that the ethnic issues surrounding the conflict had much more complex roots, and warns against assuming it is all about the Taliban: Many Hazara claim the Kuchi are "Taliban," or at least Taliban-loving, because during the 90s they worked with the Taliban, who granted them access to Hazara (and Tajik) land. Naturally the Hazara are angry over this imbalance. Here's the rub. As a predominantly Pashtun force, the Taliban were rather notorious for their appalling treatment of all other minorities within Afghanistan, including (or perhaps especially) the Hazara. In fact, the imposed famine on the Hazarajat was particularly brutal and generally unreported in the media in the West. Wardak is about half Pashtun, with most of the rest (somewhere around 40%, according to unreliable official statistics) Hazara.It seems, in brief, a fairly standard nomad/settler conflict, with the consequent disputes over land used both for agriculture and grazing. These types of conflicts become especially acute during times of drought or shortage, and the current squeeze over food prices, and a looming drought in the south, have probably exacerbated the conflict. The next day, July 22, Safrang noted that thousands of people took to the streets of Kabul, demanding the government put a stop to the depredation. The march started around 7:00 a.m. Tuesday morning in Dasht-e-Barchi area of West of Kabul and proceeded towards the city center and the offices of the UN's Assistance Mission in Afghanistan -UNAMA. Several news agencies have put the number of demonstrators at "thousands". By mid-day, Farda TV reported that the demonstrations were over and no incidents had taken place. Farda TV also aired footage of the demonstrations showing people in thousands marching in large thoroughfares of the city, advancing towards the center of the city. Footage also showed police in riot gear standing around, and in some cases lining up on the main streets at a distance from the demonstrators, blocking their advance. Faced with the riot police, some among the demonstrators encouraged those at the head of the demonstrations to sit down and not advance any further, avoiding contact with the riot police and keeping a distance of 15 meters or so. It was hard to read many of the placards and banners held up by demonstrators on TV screen. Those that I could read included: "We oppose ethnic conflict and those who support/encourage it" "The government should stand with defenseless civilians of Behsud" "We want Justice" The protests seem to have worked. Amidst a crowd Hazaristan Times estimated at 300,000, Mohaqiq ended his hunger strike, having met with both Karzai and UNAMA officials about the incursion. They posted some beautiful pictures. And President Karzai ordered an evacuation of the Kuchi, who by all accounts are slowly leaving the embattled district. At what cost, however? The Hazaristan Times started a donation drive to financially assist Hazara who had their homes razed or family members killed. The images they post are gruesome, but help to highlight just how severe this sadly ignored problem really was. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/22/asia/AS-Afghan-Protest.php Ethnic Hazaras protest in Afghan capital over land dispute with nomads The Associated Press Published: July 22, 2008 KABUL, Afghanistan: Thousands of members of an ethnic minority group called on President Hamid Karzai to resign during a protest Tuesday over an escalating land dispute with nomads. The tensions are another headache for the Western-backed government and threaten to add ethnic conflict to a list of woes already including the growing Taliban insurgency and runaway corruption. The protest was a response to weeks of tension - including allegations of murder - between ethnic Hazara communities and Kuchi nomads over grazing rights in Wardak province, southwest of the capital. On Tuesday, several thousand Hazaras gathered in downtown Kabul chanting slogans including "Karzai resign! Karzai resign!" Some had smeared mud on pictures of the Afghan president and held signs saying "Hazara people want justice." The crowds of mostly young men were halted in front of the Kabul zoo by a line of security forces wearing riot gear and carrying shields, but dispersed peacefully after about five hours. Haji Ramazan, a Hazara elder, claimed that Kuchis had killed at least nine members of his community, including women and children, in recent days. Several demonstrators demanded that the government disarm and settle the nomads elsewhere. Mohammad Aref Noorzai Kuchi, a nomad lawmaker, said the dispute should go to the courts. He claimed that Hazaras had killed at least five Kuchis in the past few days. "Those people who launched this demonstrations are political players," he said. "They are only looking for their own benefit." Tensions between Kuchi nomads and the Hazaras in Afghanistan date back decades, but are flaring this year partly because low rainfall means nomads and farmers are competing for scarce pasture. The nomads, who are mainly ethnic Pashtuns, claim that they have long-standing rights to let their animals graze in areas including the central highlands, where most Hazaras live. But the Hazaras dispute that, and want the nomads' animals off their land. The tension risks upsetting ethnic relations just as candidates begin to emerge for presidential elections due next year. Karzai, an ethnic Pashtun, has indicated that he will seek another term. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Fri Aug 29 19:27:13 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 03:27:13 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Prison uprisings, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <006801c90a47$eae6a670$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * AFGHANISTAN: Hunger strike in Kandahar prison * PAKISTAN: Rooftop protest against abuse * PAKISTAN: Death of inmate sparks protest * KENYA: Screws shoot at prisoners as unrest occurs during prison strike * PARAGUAY: Prisoners "riot for more sex" and against abuse * JORDAN: 20 injured in prison unrest * LEBANON: Prison uprising ends with release of hostages * SYRIA: Prison uprising followed by alleged massacre * MYANMAR/BURMA: 36 dead as state suppresses prison uprising * UK: Psychiatric prisoners protest smoking ban, mount roof * AUSTRALIA: Screws' strike raises prisoners' rights issues * NEW ZEALAND: Protest paintings by prisoner protesting innocence * INDIA: Protesters fast over change of judge * US, Spokane, Washington: Prison damaged during uprising * CANADA, Nova Scotia: Prison smoking ban leads to cell sit-in * SPAIN: Drug offender goes on hunger strike over mistreatment * US, Pennsylvania: Death row prisoner on hunger strike demanding perjury investigation * AUSTRALIA: Rooftop protest at Brisbane prison * SOUTH AFRICA: TB patients protest prison-like detention * INDIA: Inmates hunger-strike for amnesty * CHINA: Dissident escapes police after arrest * IRELAND: Revolt at prison over "security" crackdown * CANADA: After fight between inmates, some occupy yard, start fires * PHILIPPINES: Unrest at prison * AUSTRALIA: Youth prisoners revolt after guard attacks with teargas http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7397032.stm Kandahar jail inmates end protest Inmates at Kandahar jail in Afghanistan have ended a week-long hunger strike after a parliamentary delegation promised to address their demands. Almost 400 prisoners were involved in the protest. They said they had been denied access to fair trials and some also complained of torture. One of the visiting MPs said all the cases would be reviewed by new judges. The government says the prisoners have links to the Taleban, but the inmates and say they are political prisoners. http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=116117 Prisoners protest torture in Sukkur jail, killing of UTP Monday, June 02, 2008 By our correspondent KHAIRPUR: The under-trail prisoners (UTPs) of the Sukkur Central Jail-I climbed to the rooftop of the jail building on Sunday to press for acceptance of their demands. Reports from the Sukkur jail said a large number of the UTPs, while staging protest against the jail authorities, climbed to the rooftop of the prison where they set their clothes on fire. The UTPs declined to end their protest when Jail Superintendent (JS) Zulfiqar Ali Langah asked to them to end their protest and gave assurance to resolve their problems. They continued their protest and ended it only after Adviser to the CM on Jail Reforms, Gul Muhammad Jakhrani sent message assuring to resolve their problems. The prisoner alleged that a UTP Muhammad Moosa Shar died due to torture of the jail staff and demanded registration of FIR against the jail authorities. Reports said the prisoners denied to take meals and tea and reiterated upon the jail administration to call Adviser to the CM on Jail Reforms, Gul Muhammad Jakhrani to talk to them. The jail authorities contacted the adviser but he due to some engagements he directed the DCO Sukkur to visit the jail and convey his assurance to the prisoners of resolving their problems. Accordingly the DCO Sukkur, Inamullah Dharaijo rushed to the jail and conveyed the assurance of the Advisor of providing them justice. The UTPs, on this assurance by the DCO and advisor to the CM, ended their protest and came down from the rooftop of the prison. The UTPs informed the DCO that they had not been taken to the court for the hearings of their cases. They also blamed that the jail administration extorted money from their visitors, while the jail officials continue torturing them. Talking to reporters, the JS said he and his staff had not been annoying any of the UTPs and were providing them with facilities according to the jail manual. The JS clarified that the Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar had visited Khairpur and the lawyers and judges were in attendance of the CJP and the courts were not held. Talking to the media later, Gul Muhammad Jakhrani said he had initiated efforts to ensure relief to the prisoners. http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=127970 Prisoners protest death of inmate Monday, August 04, 2008 MIANWALAI: Prisoners of the Central Jail Mianwali here on Sunday protested against the jail administration for thrashing a prisoner to death. The jail administration called the police to control the protesting prisoners, who made the jail staff hostage when they were not allowed to record their statements before the judicial magistrate on the death of an under-trial prisoner Mohammad Ajmal. The jail sources said Ajmal, who was involved in a theft case, died on Saturday night in the jail. The officials later informed his heirs about the incident and said it was a suicide. However, the jail inmates alleged that Ajmal was severely beaten by the jail authorities. On Sunday morning when Judicial Magistrate Qamar Abbas was recording the statements of the jail officials on Ajmal?s death, the prisoners gathered there and demanded that their statements should also be recorded. On refusal of the jail administration to record their statements, the prisoners demonstrated and made the jail employees hostage. Later, the jail authorities called the police to control the situation. They also resorted to aerial firing to disperse the protestors. Meanwhile, relatives of the deceased also blocked the Mianwali-Rawalpindi road and protested against the jail administration over the death of Ajmal. http://allafrica.com/stories/200804290017.html Kenya: Deaths As Prison Warders Press On The East African Standard (Nairobi) 29 April 2008 Posted to the web 29 April 2008 Standard Team Nairobi Gunshots were fired inside the Kamiti Maximum Prison as warders tried to contain a near-riot on day four of the crisis in jails. In Kisumu, two inmates died at Kodiaga and Kibos prisons as they were being taken to hospital for treatment. It was a hectic and chaotic day for warders and prisoners at Kamiti Prison yesterday - the former protesting against poor working and living conditions and the latter demanding to be taken to courts for the hearing of their cases. Sources at the prison said an inmate was shot and seriously wounded after a warder ordered them to stop fighting and return to their cells. A contingent of the dreaded paramilitary officers, the General Service Unit, was deployed to man the perimeter of the jail just in case prisoners attempted to escape. The chaos at the prison was so serious that the Commissioner of Prisons himself, Mr Gilbert Omondi, visited in an attempt to stop the protests and riots. He was a besieged man as curious journalists demanded answers to issues raised by prisoners. A group of death row convicts turned rowdy as Omondi was addressing them. They challenged the commissioner to address the plight of the warders. They also demanded the release of the Kamiti Prison officer in charge, Mr Peter Njuguna Ngugi. He was charged alongside a Deputy Commissioner of Prisons, Mr John Isaac Odongo, who is also the Commandant of the Prisons Training College, among others. (See separate story on page The prison officers pleaded "Not guilty" to charges of incitement and neglect of duty at the Nairobi Chief Magistrate's Court, 16 lawyers offered to represent them for free. Over at Jogoo House, the Vice-President and Minister for Home Affairs, Mr Kalonzo Musyoka, bent over backwards from the previous day's hard line and offered the warders a Sh5,000 monthly allowance each. This was a victory for the warders because they boycotted work at the weekend over the allowance, saying their counterparts in the police force were receiving it but they had been left out. Kalonzo also announced that the Sh10,000 stipend for the warders who had helped beef up security during the post-election chaos would also be paid. Again, other security forces were paid the allowance in February, but prison officers were left out - a second victory for the warders. The other sticking issue for the prison staff is housing. Images of shacks and hovels that litter prisons and are home to warders have driven home - more than anything else - the inhumane conditions under which prison staff live and work. Warders continued to rubbish and dismiss a committee Kalonzo set up at the weekend to look into their woes. Former Vice-President and Minister for Home Affairs, Mr Moody Awori, will chair it. Members include former Commissioner of Prisons, Mr Abraham Kamakil. The prison staff say Awori and Kamakil have little to offer because they have been at the helm and things did not change. Ironically, Awori has been credited with the reforms in prisons and opening them up. But to the warders this is the problem - it is their view that the former VP improved life for prisoners, not warders. But in an apparent response to the raging hostility that has greeted the composition of the team, Kalonzo yesterday announced that the committee would be expanded to include unions and other key players. The VP, however, warned that disciplinary action would be taken against officers who had defied lawful orders or incited colleagues to violence. The effect of the standoff in prisons began to bite yesterday, with courts being affected in many parts of the country. Warders' work boycott slowed down the ferrying of remandees to courts for the hearing of their cases. It was not clear by last night whether normalcy would return to the jails following Kalonzo's announcement that the prison staff would be paid the Sh10,000 post-election chaos stipend and Sh5,000 risk allowance. http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/india-news/paraguayan-prisoners-riot-for-more-sex_10063375.html Paraguayan prisoners riot for more sex June 23rd, 2008 - 5:24 pm ICT by ANI - Email This Post London, June 23 (ANI): Inmates at a prison in Paraguay have detained the director of the prison and several other administration staff to meet an unusual demand of having more sex in prison. The prisoners rioted demanding more time to have sex with their wives and girlfriends and put an end to ill treatment by prison guards, reports the Telegraph. Though Paraguayan prisons allow conjugal visits during the day, the law in Esperanza clashes with the prisoners? working hours, when they run small businesses such as clothing factories. The inmates said that they had complained that work was getting in the way of pleasure, but were not heard, so they decided to turn rebellious. However, Derlis Osorio, the Paraguayan justice minister, said the riot ended after a tense, four-hour stand-off and there were no deaths or injuries. The inmates demands were met and the officials declared that the prisoners would be allowed more conjugal visits during the day, outside working hours. The officials also assured to improve the way guards treated inmates, to investigate claims of abuse and to end the regime of strip searches of visitors. (ANI) http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/15/africa/ME-GEN-Jordan-Prison-Riot.php Jordanian police: 40 inmates injured in prison riot in kingdom's largest jail The Associated Press Published: April 15, 2008 AMMAN, Jordan: Dozens of inmates were injured in rioting in Jordan's largest prison on Tuesday, a day after three inmates were killed in another jail in violence prompted by attempts to segregate al-Qaida militants from other prisoners. Police spokesman Maj. Mohammed al-Khatib said some 400 prisoners were evacuated from their jail blocks after rioting erupted at 9:30 a.m. (0630 GMT) at the Swaqa Penitentiary, 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of the Jordanian capital. The riots were led by dozens of prisoners convicted of murder and theft, he said. The rioters smashed windows and lamp posts and used them as tools to cut their faces and bodies, Al-Khatib said, adding that others set mattresses in their blocks ablaze. At least 40 inmates suffered cuts or smoke inhalation, before firefighters put out the fires and the rioting ended five hours later. Al-Khatib said the trouble in Swaqa, the largest of Jordan's 10 prisons, was in solidarity with riots at another Jordanian jail, the Muwaqqar Penitentiary, where three inmates were killed in rioting involving scores of prisoners who were objecting to separating al-Qaida-linked militants from other convicts. Police said the three died of smoke inhalation after they also set fire to mattresses in the three-hour-long rioting at Muwaqqar. Police said Muwaqqar rioting began when wardens tried to move some non-militant inmates to other sections of the desert prison, or to other detention facilities in line with a police regulation introduced last week. The decision calls for separating convicts from detainees who are still on trial. It also divides inmates according to age, physical build, conviction and sentence length. A recent study released by the Jordan-based National Center for Human Rights has warned that authorities must pay more attention to the "appalling" conditions in Jordanian prisons, such as overcrowded cells and lack of recreation facilities. http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/getstory?openform&4A674D829070DBA8C2257436001B5995 Prison Riot Ends, Hostages Freed A mutiny at Lebanon's largest prison in Roumiyeh where guards had been taken hostage ended peacefully early Friday. "The prisoners handed over the seven warders they were holding hostage and returned to their cells after having negotiated and handed over demands to the chief of internal security, Antoine Shakuri," a security official said. The prisoners at Roumiyeh, eight kilometers (five miles) northeast of Beirut, were calling for an improvement in their prison conditions and a reduction in their sentences, he said. Most of the inmates were serving long sentences, or were on death row. The official said police chief Gen. Ashraf Rifi promised to examine ways of replying to these demands in the framework of the law. Earlier he said that the rioters had set fire to their cells in the block holding convicted inmates. The mutiny broke out at 4:35 pm Thursday after a quarrel between a warder and a Palestinian prisoner got out of hand. Security sources told Naharnet hundreds of riot policemen advanced across the ground floor of the building after firefighters extinguished a blaze that inmates had started in mattresses after taking guards hostage. "The riot police force moved into the building through emergency outlets, cleared the ground floor which includes the management offices and moved into the first floor" of the three-story building, said one source who asked not to be identified. Each floor includes 60 cells. The rioting inmates are armed with makeshift knives, and "sharp tools," the source added. "They don't have firearms simply because the guards they took hostage were not armed in line with prison rules," the source explained. The advancing force is using "tear gas canisters to control the inmates, some of whom are surrendering," he added. Academic Omar al-Nashabi, who has carried out a study on the prison, told AFP that more than 4,000 prisoners were being held in the jail which was originally designed in 1971 to hold a maximum of 1,500. "The building where the mutiny erupted houses nearly 950 prisoners, 225 of them foreigners, mainly Palestinians or Syrians," he said. The security official said the disturbances did not affect the remand section of the prison where detainees suspected of taking part in a deadly Islamist uprising in the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp last summer are being held. He explained that four ex-security commanders, jailed in Roumiyeh in connection with the 2005 murder of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri, are also being held in the remand section about 150 meters away from the convicts' compound at the recommendation of the U.N. commission of inquiry into his killing.(Naharnet-AFP) Beirut, 25 Apr 08, 07:38 http://www.arabianbusiness.com/524358-india-pushes-for-release-of-rak-riot-workers July 09,2008 Send to a friend Syrian Dissidents Demand Probe of Prison Riots By The Media Line Staff Syrian dissidents are demanding an international investigation into riots in a Syrian prison, in which several dozen people have reportedly been killed. Legal experts and Syrian opposition parties are condemning what they call the deteriorating situation at 'Sidnaya military prison near Damascus. Riots broke out in the jail on Saturday after inmates protested during a prison count, resulting in confrontations between the inmates and state security forces. Initial reports said inmates had taken as many as 300 soldiers hostage at the scene. There have been conflicting reports as to the outcome of the riots and the casualty count. Opposition groups say at least 25 inmates were killed, 100 wounded and that most of the casualties were Islamists and political dissidents. They caution that the accurate death toll could be a lot higher. They accuse Syrian officials of purposely downplaying the severity of the crisis to divert attention from it and from the mistreatment of Islamist prisoners. Officials say they have controlled the situation, but opposition members and human-rights groups say they have been in contact with inmates at the scene who say that dozens have been killed and that the riots have not been quelled. Syrian dissidents in London asked for Arab, Islamic and international initiatives to constrain the riots and called for an international investigation. They said those responsible for the violence should be accountable for their deeds and brought to justice, according to Al-Jazeera. Dissidents said the Syrian regime is perpetrating a "silent massacre" in the prison and said Damascus was trying to present a clean image to the West by cracking down on extremists. The Syrian news agency SANA said the rebellious inmates were sentenced for crimes related to extremism and terrorism and accused them of breaching order, undermining security and attacking their peers during a prison count. They said legal measures were taken against the offenders. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-syria9-2008jul09,0,1495998.story?track=rss Riot at Syrian prison threatens to escalate Human rights groups say at least 25 inmates, mostly Islamist and political dissidents, have been killed and as many as 100 injured by security forces. By Raed Rafei, Special to The Times July 9, 2008 BEIRUT -- A deadly days-long standoff between inmates and security forces threatened to escalate at a Syrian military prison known for holding Islamist and political dissidents, human rights observers said Tuesday. According to rights groups in touch with prisoners and other sources in Syria, security forces have already killed at least 25 inmates and wounded as many as 100 at the Saydnaya prison on the outskirts of Damascus, the capital. The violence erupted Saturdayafter inmates rioted to protest a sweep of the prison by guards, the rights groups said. The police responded by firing on the prisoners. "The last ultimatum made by the Syrian security forces at the prison to the protesting prisoners demanded them to end their disobedience before Tuesday dawn," said a statement posted on the website of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Authorities warned they would carry out an assault "at any human cost" if prisoners did not surrender, the statement said. The fate of the inmates remained largely unknown late Tuesday after all telephone contact with the prisoners ended early in the day. On Sunday, Syrian authorities accused inmates of starting the riots. "Prisoners sentenced for crimes of terrorism and extremism caused trouble," they said in a statement published on the website of the official Syrian Arab News Agency, the last word from authorities on the matter. "They attacked their comrades during a prison inspection. . . . A security force unit immediately took action to remedy the situation and restore calm in the prison." The statement did not specify casualties, but human rights activists said the toll was high. They also said that the standoff continued despite the government claim that calm had been restored. "It's a real massacre against political detainees from all backgrounds," said Mohammed Maamoun Homsi, a Syrian activist who once served five years in jail and now monitors his homeland from Beirut. "We think there could be as many as a hundred killed, judging from the activity of the ambulances rushing casualties into the military medical facility," he said. He alleged that the riots started when guards began to torment the prisoners and desecrate copies of the Koran. Most political prisoners in Syria are Islamic activists. The government is controlled by the secular Baath Party. During the initial uprising, prisoners seized more than 300 soldiers as hostages, said Aussama Monajed, a London-based member of a Syrian dissident group, the Movement for Justice and Development, who based his account on phone conversations with prisoners. Authorities dispatched riot troops and tanks to subdue the prisoners with tear gas and then began negotiations for the release of the hostages, he added. Prisoners fled to the roof to escape the tear gas and have offered to surrender if the interior minister will guarantee their safety. Human rights groups have not been allowed into the prison. http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Middle%20East&set_id=1&click_id=123&art_id=nw20080705135201207C179181 'Syrian guards kill during prison riot' July 05 2008 at 03:14PM Beirut - A London-based Syrian human rights group said on Saturday that Syrian security forces had shot dead dozens of prisoners during a riot at a military jail near Damascus. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said military police fired at Islamist prisoners who rioted at Sidnaya jail earlier in the day. "The number of the dead are in the tens," the group said in a statement. "Prisoners have gone to the roof, fearing for their lives. Military police elements are still firing live bullets..." There was no immediate word from Syrian authorities on the report. "The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights demands that President Bashar Assad intervenes immediately to stop this massacre," it said. Syria holds hundreds of Islamist militants and other political prisoners. International human rights groups often complain of random arrests and torture in Syrian jails. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/BKK187023.htm Rights group says 36 dead after prison riot in Myanmar 05 May 2008 13:16:03 GMT Source: Reuters BANGKOK, May 5 (Reuters) - Soldiers and police killed 36 prisoners inside Myanmar's most infamous jail to quell a riot that started in the devastating wake of Cyclone Nargis, a Thailand-based human rights group said on Monday. After the storm ripped zinc roof sheets of many cell blocks, guards at Yangon's notorious Insein prison herded around 1,000 prisoners into a large hall and locked the doors, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners Burma (AAPPB) said. The men lit a fire to get warm, but thick smoke quickly filled the building, sparking panic. "The situation escalated and chaos ensued," the AAPPB, one of the most reliable sources of information about conditions inside military-ruled Myanmar's gulag, said in a statement. "In order to control the situation, soldiers and riot police were called in. They opened fire on the prisoners in that area. Thirty-six prisoners were killed instantly and around 70 were injured," it said. With most telephone lines into the former Burma severed and the Internet down, it was impossible to confirm the report with another source. Cyclone Nargis killed at least 4,000 people, and left another 3,000 people missing, state media said. (Reporting by Ed Cropley; Editing by Darren Schuettler) http://www.tobacco.org/news/269394.html Patients stage protest over smoking ban Jump to full article: Buckingham Today (uk), 2008-07-31 Intro: Patients at the secure hospital in Liverpool where Moors murderer Ian Brady is held have staged a rooftop protest after a smoking ban was introduced. Three patients at the high security Ashworth Hospital climbed on to the roof of a ward in the protest, which lasted most of the night. The Prison Officers Association (POA) said its members had claimed a ward was "smashed up" during the protest but the trust which runs the facility did not release any details about damage. Brian Caton, general secretary of the POA, said: "I spoke to branch officials today there (at Ashworth) and they said patients had smashed up Blake Ward, I think, which is an admission ward. It was our members who went in to remove those who were not involved in it." http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/jail-strike-officers-protest-lockdown-procedures/2008/06/30/1214677912760.html Jail strike: officers protest lockdown procedures Email Printer friendly version Normal font Large font Jonathan Dart July 1, 2008 Angry prison officers have accused the State Government of keeping inmates locked in their cells for extended periods to save money. Around 100 officers went on strike at Long Bay Prison today to protest over current lockdown procedures, under which inmates are kept in their cells for 24 hours. The measure is traditionally used to allow staff to attend training courses but the union representing the state's prison officers said this was no longer the case. "It seems to be a cost-saving exercise under the guise of training," chairman of the NSW Prison Officers Vocational Branch of the Public Service Association, Matt Bindley, said. Mr Bindley said inmates were locked down in their cells for 24 hours once every fortnight. Ironically, around 300 inmates at Long Bay had to be locked down today in response to the strike. A Department of Correctional Services spokeswoman said the jail is being staffed by executive prison officers. "Security is not compromised at all," she said. The department's industrial officer has logged a notice of dispute with the Industrial Relations Commission over the dispute. The strike will last 24 hours before the union meets tomorrow morning to discuss further action. The union also claims staff are being given insufficient pay upgrades and lack of computers to cope with the department's new digitised reporting system. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10509382 Watson has his protest down to a fine art 5:00AM Sunday May 11, 2008 By Jared Savage Sounds murders Convicted Sounds double-murderer Scott Watson has turned to canvas to take a swipe at the policeman who led the investigation into the disappearance of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope. Convicted in 1999 for the murders of Ben and Olivia, , Watson has taken up painting as a means to while away his life sentence - and to make a political statement protesting his innocence. One work contains the statement "Rob Pope murders me", apparently suggesting the man who led the investigation got it wrong. The Independent Police Complaints Authority is investigating complaints deputy police commissioner Pope swore misleading affidavits to obtain surveillance warrants. A police spokesman said Pope would not comment until the inquiry was complete. Another criminal complaint laid by Watson's father, Chris, took four years for police to complete. A week after the Herald on Sunday revealed the delay, the report was completed - but police refuse to release it. Another of Watson's paintings contains the phrase "A Commissioner's Chickens", but Chris Watson said his son's works should not necessarily be interpreted literally. "If he paints one with a boat, then of course that means people think he's thinking about dropping people in the water. He knows that." protest down fine art convicted sounds double murderer scott turned canvas take swipe policeman led investigation into disappearance ben smart olivia hope convicted murders ben olivia taken up painting means while away life sentence" Chris and his wife Beverley buy art supplies for Watson which they send to his prison in Christchurch. Chris said his son sent his work home to be given to friends and family. "We're running out of wall space." Art experts compared Watson's art to work by Picasso and Colin McCahon, though not always favourably. Art dealer John Gow, director of John Leech Gallery, said Watson had painted some interesting pieces but "none would be hanging on my wall". Watson had obviously read some quality art history books in prison, said Gow, and had recreated works reminiscent of Picasso's imagery. Some of the "nicer" paintings were styled on the Russian Constructivist movement, said Gow. Poorer pieces could be compared to McCahon. "Well, it's only like McCahon in that there are words over paint. It's a political statement in the medium of paint. But it's bad art." Jon Bywater, head of the Elam School of Fine Art at Auckland University, said Watson's work was at a beginner level. "Frankly, in themselves the paintings are pretty uninteresting. "The ones that stand out are the ones mentioning Rob Pope and Commissioner's Chickens. "Watson hints at a secret truth, 'something that I know and you don't', because it's cryptic." Watson's lawyers are preparing a petitionto the Governor-General. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/23/stories/2008042354420600.htm Protest by jail inmates Staff Reporter BANGALORE: Twenty one inmates of Bangalore Central Prison, who had been accused of involvement in the multicrore stamp paper racket, began a fast protesting against the transfer of the judge trying the cases. According to Chief Superintendent of the Prison M.C. Vishwanathaiah, the inmates were not happy with the transfer of Judge C.G. Hungund, who was trying their cases. The inmates said posting a new judge would delay the trial and that they had already spent more time than the period of imprisonment for the offence they had been charged with. They said they would continue the protest till the judge is put back on the case. http://www.khq.com/global/story.asp?s=8340935 Jail damaged after angry inmates protest Posted: May 17, 2008 07:02 PM Updated: May 23, 2008 10:04 PM SPOKANE, Wash. - The Spokane County Jail suffered some damage Friday night after a three-hour disturbance in which almost 50 inmates began yelling and flooding their cells. Jail Commander Jerry Brady said and entire wing of inmates on the 6th floor wanting more time out of their cells, and to be moved to a different area of the jail, became discontent around 11:00 p.m. A ceiling and several light fixtures were damaged during the incident. Corrections staff covered the inmates' cell door windows with magnetic covers and used a half dozen large vacuum cleaners to drown out their yelling. The disturbance subsided around 3:00 a.m. 20-year old Daniel M. Campbell, who was being held on felony counts of Possession of Controlled Substance and Second-Degree Assault, was charged Saturday morning with Second-Degree Malicious Mischief. Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich attributed the disturbance to overcrowding at the jail, saying that being placed in maximum security was no longer a sufficient punishment because inmates actually prefer to be there since they get more free time. Staff are still assessing the facility for unseen damage and say they probably won't know the total cost of damages until Monday. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/story/2008/06/02/jail-lockdown.html?ref=rss Springhill inmates protest smoking ban by staying in their cells Last Updated: Monday, June 2, 2008 | 9:47 AM AT Comments31Recommend17 CBC News A prison protest at the Springhill Institution in northern Nova Scotia is continuing, with inmates refusing to leave their cells or attend programs in protest of a smoke-free policy that took effect May 20. There is now a Canada-wide ban on smoking in prisons. The 480 prisoners at the medium-security facility in the town of Springhill, near Amherst, have been in their cells since last week when they refused to attend morning breakfast. "They have chosen not to leave their cells to participate in any daily activities," Shannon Oickle, spokeswoman with the Springhill Institution, said Monday. "So, that causes us to move into a lockdown routine. When you hear lockdown, it's not us locking them down, but it's as a result of them not coming out of their cells. "They are being fed in their cells and recreation is limited due to the nature of our situation." She said discussions are ongoing with the prisoners. http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_North%20Africa&set_id=1&click_id=85&art_id=nw20080429090643296C908040 Drug lord protest against 'treatment' April 29 2008 at 11:17AM Madrid - A top drug trafficker detained last week by police in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in north Africa after he escaped from a Moroccan jail in December has gone on hunger strike, his lawyer said on Monday. Mohamed Taieb Ahmed, who has dual Spanish-Moroccan nationality, has taken the step to protest at being "treated as a Moroccan subject," his lawyer Jose Luis Pizarro said in a statement cited by the Europa Press news agency. "His Spanish nationality, which he has had since his birth, has not been recognised and instead he has been treated as a Moroccan subject," the agency quoted the statement as saying. Spanish police detained Ahmed, also known as "El Nene" or "The Baby," in his native Ceuta on Wednesday as he was driving around the city centre. He is in a Spanish jail awaiting possible extradition to Morocco. He was wrongly identified by Moroccan authorities as Mohamed Ouazzani, Pizarro said, adding in the statement that his client was never a fugitive. "In December after completing his sentence he returned to his country by crossing a proper border crossing," he said. In December 2007, Ahmed escaped Kenitra high-security prison 40 kilometres north of the capital Rabat, where he had been serving an eight-year prison term since 2004 for a drug conviction. Spanish police estimate he is behind the introduction of 50 tonnes of cannabis each year into Europe through Spain's southern coast, making him one of the world's major drug traffickers. He acquired an estimated ?30-million (about R341-million) fortune from dealing, according to a Spanish police statement released after his detention in Ceuta. Ahmed's prison cell was equipped with a plasma television, air conditioning and Internet access which he obtained by bribing prison staff with cash and gifts of cars and motorcycles. He regularly ordered in takeaway meals from Kenitra's best restaurants and is reported to have been allowed out on several occasions to treat guards to free dinners. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/769953/pennsylvania_death_row_inmate_herbert.html Pennsylvania Death Row Inmate Herbert Blakeney Protests by Hunger Strike Prison News in Brief By Dee, published May 16, 2008 Published Content: 169 Total Views: 200,408 Favorited By: 78 CPs Herbert Blakeney, also know as Luqman Bilal, a Pennsylvania death row inmate has been on a hunger strike for over a week now. His only intake has been water. His demands are to correct processing of the perjury charges against the witnesses in his trial and provision of a family Attorney to protect their rights. Blakeney claims he was framed for a murder that he witnesses by a police officer in 2000. In a petition circulating the Internet written by Linda Blakeney, Herbert's wife from the Uk, it states how the "District Attorney's office key principal witnesses all committed perjury." Blakeney was "placed in a restraint chair, beaten, tortured, given a mock trial by Guards, coerced to make false statements, the stitches were ripped out of his hand" among other tortures and abuses claims his wife in the petition. The Blakeney's wish that you view the full petition and sign it if you agree. The petition can be viewed here. Herbert welcomes correspondence and any help that is offered and can be reached at the following address: Herbert Blakeney #FB5713, S.C.I. Greene, 175 Progress Drive, Waynesburg, PA. 15370-8090 U.S.A Source: Petition, Email from L. Blakeney http://www.petitiononline.com/hb24332/petition.html http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/08/2268557.htm Inmate protests on prison roof Posted Sun Jun 8, 2008 9:00pm AEST Map: Brisbane 4000 A high security prisoner has been talked down from the roof of the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre in Brisbane's west. Queensland Corrective Services staff say the male prisoner climbed on the roof of the Wacol facility on Sunday afternoon in protest over a planned transfer to another jail. Prison guards managed to convince the man to come down at about 6:30pm AEST. Police say there were also reports of other prisoners fending off prison guards with a broom handle. Corrective Services says an investigation has been launched into the incident. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/28/world/africa/28briefs-PROTESTBYTBP_BRF.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin South Africa: Protest by TB Patients By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: June 28, 2008 The authorities increased security at a tuberculosis hospital near the city of Port Elizabeth where patients with drug-resistant forms of the disease went on a rampage on Wednesday to protest prisonlike conditions. Twenty-two patients were arrested after they pelted the staff members with stones and vandalized equipment. But the local police station and prison refused to admit them, because of fears of the highly infectious disease. Instead, they were returned to the hospital. Patients with drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis are required to live in guarded and isolated quarters that are surrounded by barbed wire. http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7011409668 TB Patients Riot Over Conditions At South African Hospital ShareThis June 27, 2008 9:41 p.m. EST Nidhi Sharma - AHN News Writer Cape Town, S. Africa (AHN) - Some 22 multi-drug-resistant and extreme-drug-resistant TB patients in a South African hospital went on a rampage Wednesday to protest prison-like conditions. The Jose Pearson TB hospital in Port Elizabeth has beefed up its security measures after the patients, 17 men and five women aged between 18 and 42, were arrested for throwing rocks at security guards and vandalising equipment. The patients were housed in an isolated facility in the hospital after they were returned by court and police on Thursday for fears of their highly infectious diseases. Patients complained that the hospital is like a prison for the sick. It is encircled by three fences topped with coils of razor wire to keep patients infected with lethal strains of tuberculosis from escaping. The public health threat from drug-resistant TB is grave. The disease spreads through the air when patients cough and sneeze. It is resistant to the most effective drugs. In South Africa, these resistant strains of tuberculosis have multiplied and attacked those with weakened immune systems due to AIDS. The extensively drug-resistant TB has rapidly emerged as a global threat to public health. Hospitals have no choice but to house the patients in an isolated facility in the hospital. The hospital houses more than 300 patients. Some 563 people were confirmed with extensively drug-resistant TB last year in South Africa and started on treatment, compared with only 20 cases in the United States from 2000 through 2006. A third of those patients in South Africa died in 2007; more than 300 remain in hospitals. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/15/stories/2008081561480300.htm Karnataka - Bangalore Prisoners protest Staff Reporter BANGALORE: Convicts and undertrials in the Bangalore Central Prison went on a snap protest for nearly seven hours on Thursday. While the convicts demanded premature release, the undertrials wanted the Government to solve the problem of lack of personnel escort to take them to court. Many of the inmates went on a hunger strike around noon. The convicts wanted the State Government to take a decision on their premature release done during the Independence Day. Additional Director-General of Police (Prisons) Dharampal Negi went to the prison and held discussions with the inmates. He assured them of addressing all the issues raised by the inmates. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/13/world/asia/13protest.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin Chinese Religious Dissident Escapes From Police Custody By ANDREW JACOBS Published: August 12, 2008 BEIJING ? Hua Huiqi, a religious dissident detained Sunday on his way to a church service where President Bush was to worship, has escaped from police custody, human rights advocates and family members said. Mr. Hua, 46, slipped away from his guards on Sunday night, after they fell asleep at a makeshift detention center, and immediately went into hiding, according to relatives and an e-mail message that he sent to the organization Human Rights in China. Public security agents also seized his 52-year-old brother, Hua Huilin, as the two rode their bicycles to the church, but he was released within hours. The older Mr. Hua said that both men had been roughed up and warned that their legs would be broken if they kept trying to attend services at Kuanjie Protestant Church, an officially sanctioned congregation where Mr. Bush and his family worshiped on Sunday morning. The younger Mr. Hua, an advocate for religious freedom, is the pastor of a ?house church,? an underground congregation that operates outside China?s tightly controlled religious bureaucracy. He has been arrested, jailed and beaten several times. His mother, Shuang Shuying, 78, is serving two years for ?damaging property,? sentenced last year after she used her cane to hit a car that she said was swerving toward her. At that time she was seeking the release of her son from an earlier detention. In recent years, relatives have sought compensation for the demolition of their home to make way for a redevelopment project. Mr. Hua?s escape is sure to irritate the government when it is eager to keep international attention focused on the Olympic Games. In recent days several small demonstrations have occurred here, most of them orchestrated by foreign activists to urge Tibetan independence. The police quickly broke them up. Last Thursday, three members of an American Christian advocacy group were dragged away from Tiananmen Square after they held a prayer vigil and news conference on religious freedom. The Beijing Public Security Bureau declined to confirm if Mr. Hua was detained. In a telephone interview on Monday, his brother said the police had called him repeatedly, asking where Mr. Hua was. During the interview, the line was disconnected five times, which the brother attributed to monitoring by security agents. Sharon Hom, the executive director of Human Rights in China, said Mr. Hua had called its Hong Kong offices after his escape and asked staff members there to publicize his plight. ?He fears for his safety,? Ms. Hom said. She said the detention of the brothers highlighted a contradiction between the government?s claims of religious freedom and the reality experienced by those who tried to worship outside state-run institutions. She cited comments by Qin Gang, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, who insisted last week that Chinese citizens had complete religious freedom. ?This does not seem to be the case of someone enjoying religious freedom,? she said. Mr. Hua twice eluded surveillance on Sunday. The police had warned the brothers not to leave the house, posting officers outside. At 1 a.m., the two slipped out and cycled toward the church. In the e-mail message to Human Rights in China, Mr. Hua said that shortly after 6 a.m., seven or eight plainclothes officers pulled up in two cars, yanked the brothers from their bikes and beat them. They were taken in separate vehicles to an office near the church, he said. Mr. Hua wrote that the officers had confiscated his Bible. But, after four or five hours, the two guards fell asleep and Mr. Hua quietly walked away. ?But now, I?m afraid to go home,? he wrote. In the past week, a dozen people, mostly Americans and Canadians from Students for a Free Tibet, have been detained and deported after they unfurled Tibetan flags or, in one case, staged a ?die in? at Tiananmen Square. In one protest, four activists hung a large banner that read ?One World One Dream Free Tibet? near the National Stadium. John Hocevar, a group spokesman, said the authorities had been inconsistent. At Tiananmen Square on Friday, four people splattered themselves with red paint and lay down as a fifth shouted slogans for more than 10 minutes before the police led them away. Later, he gave hours of interviews without police intervention. But protesters could not pull out a banner on Saturday before officers tackled them. http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/mhgbsnojojkf/rss2/ Authorities probe causes of prison riot 13/07/2008 - 14:31:54 Two separate investigations were launched today into a riot that broke out in Dublin?s Mountjoy Prison. One prison officer had all of his teeth knocked out during the trouble after inmates barricaded themselves into a recreation room, said the Prison Officers Association (POA). It has called for urgent talks with the Prison Service about yesterday?s disturbance which it has blamed on overcrowding. But the Prison Service insisted the violence, which ended in four warders being injured, was down to the success of its enhanced security measures. ?It was purely and simply about contraband,? said a spokesman. The jail remained tense today as garda? moved in to carry out a technical examination of the scene in D Wing as part of an assault and criminal damage investigation. The incident involving around 35 prisoners began late yesterday afternoon and was ended only when a control and restraint unit stormed the area just before 6pm after a two-hour stand off. Prison bosses, including Governor John Lonergan, tried unsuccessfully to talk the inmates out of the room, which they had barricaded with snooker tables and chairs. It took around 40 minutes for prison staff to reclaim the area, during which time five prison officers were hurt and two inmates suffered minor injuries. ?One of our members had all of his teeth knocked out and he received damage to the bridge of his nose,? said John Clinton of the POA. ?The other people hospitalised were due to inhalation injuries caused by fire extinguishers that were set off at them. ?I?m quite certain that this was a planned event. Because the prisoners in this area kept asking the staff on duty what time it was during the course of the afternoon.? Mr Clinton insisted the disturbance was primarily down to overcrowding at the 158-year-old jail which is to be replaced by a new super-prison complex at Thornton Hall in north Dublin. ?The POA firmly believe that overcrowding is the main contributory factor to ongoing tensions,? he said. ?People should have seen this coming. We have been highlighting issues there for a considerable time, and that an incident like this may take off. ?Unfortunately, we were proved correct.? Overcrowding has been an issue at the prison which was designed to hold 420 and currently has almost 600 inmates, but the Prison Service were adamant the protest was not about conditions. It has launched its own investigation. http://www.nationalpost.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=627201 Rioting gangs tear-gassed at Edmonton prison Eight inmates stabbed, one shot in prison standoff Trish Audette and Emily Senger, Canwest News Service Published: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 Chris Schwarz/Canwest News Service A fire rages at Edmonton's maximum security prison Tuesday night after inmates who rioted and took over the yard. EDMONTON -- While Canada Day fireworks were popping in the night sky over Edmonton, guards were firing canisters of tear gas into a nearby prison, bringing an end to a nine-hour standoff that saw eight inmates stabbed and one shot by a guard. Moments later, plumes of white smoke floated over the prison yard and a male voice came over a speaker: "Put your hands behind your back." It was the end of a violent day that apparently began with a clash between rival prison gangs during a recreation period Tuesday afternoon at the Edmonton Institution. It wasn't known Wednesday which gangs were involved. The men were wielding homemade knives and eight of them were stabbed. One inmate was shot by a guard, said Correctional Services of Canada spokesman Rick Dhym. "Warning shots were fired," said Mr. Dhym. "He refused to give up his weapon and stop attacking another inmate." Ground ambulances and a helicopter were called to the prison northwest of Edmonton to transport the injured men to hospitals in the city. About 40 inmates remained in the yard, refusing to go back to their cells. Guards had only recovered three weapons at that point and were concerned that some of the men still had knives, Mr. Dhym said. Yells could be heard from outside the gates as guards attempted to negotiate with the men. At one point a man yelled, "Give us some f---ing water!" The negotiations didn't work. The inmates broke into a fenced off-area where nine cords of wood, enough to fill the boxes of nine pickup trucks, were kept for an on-site ceremonial sweat lodge. By 10 p.m. local time, two fires were blazing in the yard and three fire trucks were sitting in the prison parking lot on standby. Inmates set the prison sweat lodge ablaze and guards shot six canisters of tear gas into the yard about an hour later. As flames shot further into the night sky, the firefighters could no longer attack the blaze from above with aerial hoses, fire spokeswoman Nikki Booth said. A crew of four firefighters had to go into the yard. "They had to unroll their hoses and get escorted in" by a tactical unit, Ms. Booth said. "These are not situations that paramedics or firefighters generally face." After the tear gas ended the standoff, around 11:20 p.m. local time, prisoners were taken from the yard one at a time, strip-searched for weapons, washed down and returned to their cells, Mr. Dhym said. The maximum security prison remained under lockdown Wednesday, as police and correctional officers investigated what happened. No prison staff members were injured during the incident. Eight people were taken to hospitals Tuesday. Two were in critical condition. Two more people were treated at hospital Wednesday for minor injuries. It is not clear what the inmates were trying to negotiate for. Violent incidents are not uncommon in the maximum security prison, said Kevin Grabowsky, regional president for the union that represents correctional officers. "Our gang problems are pretty serious. There's always a tension inside," he said. In June 2007, 60 inmates refused to go back into their cells and broke into the sweat lodge area, burning the wood inside and some plastic chairs. In 2001, seven inmates were injured in a violent incident when 50 men refused to re-enter their cells. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/metro/view/20080823-156437/Inmate-killed-another-hurt-in-Manila-City-Jail-riot Inmate killed, another hurt in Manila City Jail riot By Tina Santos Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 17:01:00 08/23/2008 MANILA, Philippines -- (UPDATE) An inmate at the Manila City Jail was killed and another injured during a riot Saturday afternoon. Eduardo Mandap, 28, of Interior 55 Raxabago Street, Tondo, was declared dead on arrival at the Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center by Dr. Christopher Mortos around 4:15 p.m., according to hospital security guard Ronald Osorio. He suffered a gunshot wound in the nape. Another inmate, Joey Saclao, 41, of E. Mapia Street, Tondo, was under observation in the same hospital with a gunshot wound in the stomach. A jail guard at the Manila City Jail, who declined to be identified for lack of authority to speak to the press, confirmed that a riot broke out at around 3:20 p.m. http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storyPage.aspx?storyId=125884 Youths run riot in Pasay City rehab center Teenagers detained at Pasay City Youth Home, a rehabilitation center for youth offenders, started rioting early Monday after a security guard tossed tear gas at them. Security guard Joey Lim said two teenagers locked themselves inside the kitchen and threatened to open the LPG tank, which prompted him to throw tear gas at them. Some of the teenagers, however, said they just went downstairs to get water when Lim started scolding them. The incident prompted the teenagers to run riot and destroy chairs, window panes and flourescent lamps inside the youth home. Some of the minors begged to be moved out of the detention center because of the stench of tear gas. The teenagers later quieted down upon the arrival of elements of Pasay City Special Weapons And Tactics. The SWAT team also chastised the security guard for throwing tear gas at the teens. ?They should immediately seek the help of the authorities. He shouldn?t have thrown tear gas at the boys,? said Superintendent Marietto Valerio, Pasay City Police chief. The police said the Pasay City government should station more guards at the youth center. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Fri Aug 29 20:58:58 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 04:58:58 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Farmers' protests, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <006901c90a54$bd484310$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * INDIA: Farmers protest nationwide over late/absent fertiliser quota In Haveri, Karnataka, one protester is killed by police during clashes Unrest also hit Andhra Pradesh, with 20 injured by police shootings after storming a store Elsewhere farmers staged dharnas and road blockades; left and right parties join in * ARGENTINA: Farm export tax hike cancelled after massive farmers' strike, mass protests, road blockades Previously, farmers and their allies had clashes with riot cops * INDIA: Protest at poor potato crop due to seed quality * BULGARIA: Milk producers stage ongoing campaign for subsidies, block roads * AUSTRALIA: Farmers protest against wheat export deregulation "What's worse than weevils in wheat - rats in parliament" * PHILIPPINES: Farm protesters sneak into palace * INDIA, Manapparai: Farmers protest power cuts * ZIMBABWE: Tobacco farmers protest inflation * INDIA, Thiruvanthapuram: Youth group protests for change in grain policy * GERMANY, HOLLAND: Farmers blockade dairies in price protest * LATVIA: Milk farmers rally * BANGLADESH: Protest over rise in fertiliser price * IRELAND: Protest against pig imports at Lidl * PHILIPPINES: Farmers show outrage at land reform defeat * INDIA, Tamil Nadu: Airport land grab protested * TAIWAN: Protests cause fertiliser price freeze * INDIA, Karnataka: Tomato price crash protested * INDIA, Hyderabad: Farmers court arrest in protest for rice price subsidy * EU/GERMANY: Farmers mail official milk in price protest * KASHMIR: Fruit growers protest, seek road passage * INDIA, Karnataka: Farmers protest for compensation for crop loss * INDIA, Orissa: Farmers protest over loan waiver eligibility * INDIA, Bangalore: Protesters demand tomato price support * KENYA: Wheat farmers protest low prices * INDIA, Karnataka: Leftist protesters demand crop insurance * KASHMIR: Growers protest for right to cross Indian-Pakistani border * PAKISTAN: Sugar farmers protest nonpayment * INDIA, Bangalore: Coconut farmers protest for neera development aid * IRELAND: Farmers protest barley prices at Guinness * PAKISTAN: Farmers protest water shortage * INDIA, Karnataka: Farmers protest ore seizure, demand right to mine; block roads * INDIA, Karnataka: Sugar farmers protest for payment of dues http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/11/stories/2008061157170100.htm Farmers? protest turns violent, man killed in police firing Karnataka Bureau Yeddyurappa says it?s an organised conspiracy to sully his Government?s image To his rescue: A man rushes to help an injured person during farmers? protest in Haveri on Tuesday. HAVERI/BANGALORE: One person was killed and 13 were injured in police firing and lathi-charge when farmers in Haveri district resorted to violent protests on Tuesday. Deputy Commissioner of Haveri P.S. Vastrad gave the name of the deceased as Siddalingappa Choori (34) of Haveri. However, he denied that there was police firing and said that only tear-gas shells were lobbed to disperse the crowd. When contacted, District Surgeon Marekkanavar told The Hindu that some of the injured had sustained bullet injuries. He said seven injured persons were shifted to Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) Hospital. Of the seven, the condition of three was serious. According to eyewitnesses, the main reason for the protests was that in spite of having been issued tokens, the farmers were not given fertilizers. Hundreds of farmers had lined up in front of the fertilizer shops. When fertilizers were not given to them, they resorted to a ?rasta roko.? Violent protests were reported in Bankapur, Shiggaon, Motebennur and Haveri, which are connected by the Pune-Bangalore National Highway. Consequently, vehicular movement was paralysed for almost half a day. The protesters torched two buses in Motebennur and one bus in Haveri. They also pushed two buses into a roadside ditch and damaged several buses by throwing stones. Several shops, including fertilizer shops, were looted during the protests at Shiggaon and Bankapur. The police had to lob tear gas shells to control the mob. In Motebennur too, the police had to lob tear gas shells to disperse the crowd and to bring the situation under control. At Haveri, trouble started after the police resorted to lathi-charge to disperse the crowd which had started pelting stones at shops around the NWKRTC Bus Stand. When the protesters didn?t budge the police lobbed tear gas shells. But the protestors continued throwing stones. According to eye witnesses, at this juncture the police resorted to firing. Mr. Vastrad, who denied this, said that the situation was brought under control by 6 p.m. He said prohibitory orders had been clamped in the city as a precautionary measure. Meanwhile, a defiant Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa did not express regret over the incident. Maintaining that ?genuine farmers? were not involved in the ongoing violent protests against shortage of fertilizers, the Chief Minister warned that stern action would be taken against those who try to take the law into their own hands. Mr. Yeddyurappa, who convened a meeting of top-ranking officials and senior Ministers to review the situation told presspersons that the protest was ?an organised conspiracy to sully his Government?s image and to create confusion?. He ordered an inquiry by the Belgaum Divisional Commissioner Amita Prasad into the police firing and gave her a deadline of 10 days to submit a report to the Government. He also ordered a compensation of Rs. 2 lakh to the family members of the deceased and Rs. 50,000 to those who were seriously injured. Those who suffered minor injuries will get Rs. 25,000 each. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080617/jsp/nation/story_9422239.jsp Fertiliser riot, now in Andhra - Police firing injures 20 farmers incensed at ?no stock? sign OUR BUREAU June 16: The simmering discontent in the agrarian belt spread to Andhra Pradesh today, with farmers hitting the streets in protest against shortage of fertilisers and seeds ahead of the kharif season. At least 20 farmers in Nizamabad were injured in police firing. The farmers had stormed the residence of a seed and fertilisers dealer in the Telengana town, incensed by the ?no stock? sign in front of his outlet. They burnt two police jeeps and a motorcycle when the force was sent to quell the violence. The flare-up comes days after police firing in Karnataka killed three farmers protesting a shortage of fertilisers. The farmers are angry at the shortage of the fertiliser di-ammonium phosphate (DAP), a vital nutrient applied as basal dressing during sowing time. The Centre has promised an additional 1.4 lakh tonnes of the fertiliser for Karnataka later this month. This is 20,000 tonnes more than the state?s estimated requirement. In the current kharif season, the projected requirement of the fertiliser is anywhere between 40 and 48 lakh tonnes, with domestic production estimated at 19-20 lakh tonnes. The balance is met by imports, and contracts have been awarded for about 29 lakh tonnes. Officials in Delhi said there was no fertiliser shortage in the country and, if required, more would be provided. But sources said the reality was different. An agricultural economist said the shortage had hit farming in both the southern states where kharif operations have begun. Andhra has around 64 lakh acres under kharif cultivation with a target of producing 130 lakh tonnes of foodgrain. The seed requirement is pegged at 10 lakh tonnes. Andhra Pradesh Marketing Federation chairman P. Prabhakar said: ?There is no shortage.? But he admitted that the state had stocks of just about two lakh tonnes of fertilisers. Amid the tension, the hunt for a scapegoat is on. Union finance minister P. Chidambaram has suggested that the responsibility for smooth movement of fertilisers lies with the states. ?Bottlenecks and shortages that show up here and there are largely? local bottlenecks, which should be cleared by the local government,? he had said while reacting to the Karnataka violence. But others held New Delhi responsible. R.S. Deshpande, an economist at the Institute for Social and Economic Change in Bangalore, said the Centre was to blame for the fertiliser shortage since it had failed to plan according to the agriculture seasons. ?At a meeting in Vigyan Bhavan five months ago, some economists, including myself, voiced concern that a fertiliser crisis was looming because production had slowed down. The government failed to anticipate the required demand and instead encouraged exports,? Deshpande said. He said that if the fertiliser ministry had then taken care to ensure that production met the domestic demand, the crisis would not have arisen. Exporting fertilisers gives the industry larger margins, and so manufacturers prefer to export, Deshpande argued. ?The Centre should have whipped up production in March instead of doing it now after the violence,? he said. ?The fact that the kharif season has come early this time really does not matter; everything should have been in place by early June. Even the rains were on time this season.? The Centre has now decided to allow the states to directly import fertilisers, a move Deshpande said was ?foolish? because it would cost them three times more. ?Basically, they (the ministry) took it easy in the last few months and have suddenly woken up. I am sure the shortage will be in control within the next 15-20 days. The only remedy for this is early planning,? Deshpande said. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/18/stories/2008061851810300.htm Protests galore over fertilizer shortage Staff Correspondent Farmers in Davangere district ?disillusioned? with assurances ?Non-administration of fertilizer will increase chances of crop failure? Farmers in Harpanahalli were arrested while staging a ?rasta roko? DAVANGERE: Farmers staged a protest against the shortage of fertilizers by blocking the Bangalore-Poona National Highway near Gandhi Circle here on Tuesday. They later formed a human chain and raised slogans against the Government for not supplying ?adequate? fertilizers to them. They said they would intensify their protests if the authorities failed to be proactive and added that the Government would be held responsible for any law and order problem. The farmers submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner in which they said that unless they administered sufficient fertilizer while sowing seeds, there were high chances of crop failure. The farmers, led by Huchavanahalli Manjunath, blocked the highway for over three hours and later staged a demonstration in front of the Deputy Commissioner?s office. In Chennagiri Farmers in Chennagiri also staged a dharna and blocked the Chennagiri-Shimoga road for two hours in protest against the shortage of fertilizers. They, however, withdrew their agitation following an assurance by the Deputy Commissioner that 400 tonnes of fertilizer would be supplied to Chennagiri in two days. In Harpanahalli Farmers in Harpanahalli also staged a similar dharna in front of the tahsildar?s office demanding that the official ensure that fertilizers were provide to them as promised a few days ago. The official, however, urged the farmers to wait for a few more days within which fertilizers would be procured from Davangere. The farmers, who became restive, raised slogans against the Government demanding an explanation for the delay in its supply. Later, they went to Harihar Circle and staged a protest there too. The police, however, arrested them when they resorted to a ?rasta roko.? Agriculture Minister and Davangere district in-charge S.A. Ravindranath, who was present in Davangere, instructed officials to appoint nodal officers for each gram panchayat to ensure the supply of fertilizers to farmers. He told The Hindu that he had instructed officials of the Agriculture and Horticulture departments to work in coordination so that the supply of fertilizer was timely. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/15/stories/2008061556950300.htm TDP protests against shortage of fertilizers Staff Reporter ADILABAD: TDP on Saturday protested the continuing shortage of fertilizers both inside and outside the Zilla Parishad. While TDP Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency (ZPTC) members and Mandal Parishad Presidents (MPP) staged a sit in while the general body meeting was on, slogan shouting party activists marched to the venue demanding proper supply of fertilizers. No sooner the meeting began TDP members trooped to the podium and staged a sit in questioning the short supply of the fertilizers especially the di-ammonium phosphate. They pointed out that contrary to the Government?s assurance, there was heavy shortfall in supply of fertilizers in rural areas across the district. Chairman Ramesh Rathod and party floor leader Chiluveru Satyanarayana sought from the officials the criterion for allocation and present position of supply to mandals. Collector Ahmad Nadeem assured the members that adequate quantity of fertilizer will be distributed as per the mandal-wise requirement. He said the fertilizer was arriving in phased manner. TDP activists submitted a memorandum regarding their demand. http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=370636 Farmers protest fertilizer shortage in Andhra Pradesh IANS Friday 13th June, 2008 Farmers in different parts of Andhra Pradesh took to the streets Friday to protest the shortage of fertilizers and seeds, but the government maintained that there was no shortage of these agricultural commodities. Farmers blocked roads, laid siege to government offices and held demonstrations in some districts, protesting the shortage of fertilizers and demanded that the government take immediate steps to address the problem. A group of farmers attacked government-run market committee office and a bank in Vikarabad in Ranga Reddy district. At Chevella in the same district, farmers blockaded roads. Similar protests were also held in Nizamabad, Guntur and Anantapur districts. The opposition parties have also backed the protest by farmers. The main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) announced a two-day protest from Saturday over the problems faced by farmers and to demand hike in minimum support price (MSP) for paddy to take it to Rs.1,000 per quintal. The central government Friday hiked the MSP by Rs.105 to Rs.850 per quintal for this year. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Communist Party of India (CPI) and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) have also demanded hike in the MSP for paddy. Various farmers' organisations decided to make a last representation to Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy to prevail upon the central government to hike the MSP to Rs.1,000. 'If the government fails to concede our demand, we will launch state-wide agitation,' said Prabhakar Reddy, leader of a farmers' organization. Meanwhile, the chief minister said there absolutely no shortage of fertilizers in the state. He said the fertilizers of all grades would be made available to the farmers as and when needed. 'There is no need to panic,' said a statement from the chief minister's office. He, however, warned that the government would take stringent action against fertilizer dealers creating artificial shortage, hoarding or blackmarketing of the fertilizers. While releasing the agricultural action plan for 2008-09 Wednesday, the chief minister had admitted that there was shortage of fertilizers but assured to take all steps for sufficient supply. He had said the delay in import of required chemicals led to the situation. The state has set a target of 20 million tonnes of food grains production this year, against 19.1 million tonnes during 2007-08. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/10/stories/2008061052620300.htm Dearth of fertilizer stocks sparks protest by farmers Staff Correspondent ?The Government is negligent towards ensuring adequate supply? Mark of protest: Farmers staging a ?rasta roko? at Kittur Channamma Circle in Hubli on Monday. HUBLI: Traffic was thrown out of gear for more than two hours here on Monday following a ?rasta roko? by farmers of villages in Hubli taluk. Although traffic was diverted to alternative routes, traffic jams caused much inconvenience to people. The farmers staged the protest around 1.30 p.m. after they were told by dealers that fertilizers would be supplied only after receiving stocks. They marched to Kittur Channamma Circle and blocked the road from all sides. Seven roads converge there, and hence the blockade led to chaos. The farmers criticised the Government for their ?negligence? towards ensuring adequate supply of fertilizers. ?Yesterday they told us that they will give fertilizer today. I was at the fertilizer shop by 6 a.m. We have been standing in the queue since then. Now they tell us that they don?t have stocks?, Mudukappa of Sherewada said. In the wake of the traffic chaos, the driver of a truck transporting fertilizer tried to move the vehicle to a safer place. The farmers stopped the vehicle, but police personnel dispersed the crowd. The police allegedly manhandled Bharamagouda Patil, an aged farmer, and this enraged the farmers. They staged a dharna demanding supply of fertilisers, and sought action against the police for their ?high-handedness.? Former Ministers Basavaraj Horatti and P.C. Siddanagoudar visited the spot and tried to convince the farmers to withdraw their agitation. But the protesters were in no mood to relent. Police Commissioner Narayan Nadamani too made a futile attempt to pacify the protesters. Assistant Director of Agriculture Basavaraj Guddad told them that 1,200 tonnes of di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) had been distributed in the district, and the district had received 300 tonnes of the fertilizer on Monday. Protest would only mean delay in the distribution, he said. However, the protesters wanted an official of a higher rank to answer their queries, and continued their protest. Around 4 p.m., they decided to withdraw the protest and hold a discussion regarding the next course of action. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/08/stories/2008060851590300.htm In Dharwad, members of the Dharwad city unit of the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike protested against the ?failure? of the Government in ensuring adequate supply of fertilizers and seeds. The vedike activists, led by president of the Dharwad city unit Shivaji Dembre and president of the Dharwad rural unit Rehman Holi, urged the Chief Minister to take immediate steps to supply adequate quantity of seeds and fertilizers, and distribute them at subsidised rates to farmers. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/24/stories/2008062450480200.htm In another protest, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took out a rally protesting against the Union Government?s alleged delay in supplying fertilizers to the State. Delay The protesters alleged that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government led by the Congress was deliberately delaying the supply of fertilizers to defame the BJP Government in the State. They demanded that the Union Government immediately release the State?s quota of fertilizers. The day?s third protest was organised by the Karnataka State Government Daily Wage Labours? Association. District president of the association T.G. Yeshwantraju, who addressed the protesters outside the Deputy Commissioner?s office, urged the Government to regularise around 1,700 workers, who had completed 10 years service. The fourth agitation was organised by the district unit of Rashtriya Kisan Sangha demanding an early distribution of fertilizers to the farmers. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/24/stories/2008062452390300.htm Karnataka - Gulbarga A day of protests in Gulbarga Special Correspondent KPRS, BJP and the women?s wing of the Congress take out processions Raising their voices: Farmers affiliated to the KPRS staging a ?chakka jam? in Gulbarga on Monday. GULBARGA: It was a day of protests in Gulbarga city on Monday with two major political parties and the Karnataka Pranta Raita Sangha (KPRS), the farmer?s wing of the Communist Part of India (Marxist), taking to the streets to protest against the shortage of fertilizers and the death of Padmapriya Bhat, wife of Udupi MLA Raghupathi Bhat. ?Chakka jam? The farmers affiliated to the KPRS staged a ?chakka jam? on the interstate highway connecting Gulbarga and Waghdhari in Maharashtra, disrupting traffic for over an hour. They protested against the State Government?s failure to ensure adequate supply of fertilizers to farmers. The protest was led by president of the organisation Maruti Manpade, who is also the State Secretariat Member of the CPI(M). In a memorandum addressed to Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa and submitted to the district authorities, the KPRS demanded that fertilizers be supplied to farmers through cooperative societies, Revenue Department and Agriculture Department. They also demanded that the State Government pay Rs. 5 lakh as compensation to the family of farmer Veershetty Kanna who committed suicide a couple of days back. Blamed The BJP workers took out a procession from the super market to the Deputy Commissioner?s office. They blamed the Centre for the shortage of fertilizers in the State. They were led by the president of district unit of the party Amarnath Patil, the former MLA M.Y. Patil and other leaders. In a memorandum submitted to the Deputy Commissioner, they charged the Centre of failing to meet the demand for fertilizers in the State. They said that the State Government could not be blamed for the present situation and that the Centre should be held responsible. They added that the Governor?s administration should also be blamed for not taking precautionary steps during President?s Rule in the State. Demand The women?s wing of the Congress party, led by its president and the former Mayor Chandrika Parameshwar took out a procession in the city demanding a CBI probe into Ms. Padmapriya?s death. In a memorandum addressed to Governor Rameshwar Thakur and submitted to the district authorities, Ms. Parameshwar said that the people had lost faith in the State police due to interference by the ruling party leaders in an attempt to hush up the case. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/24/stories/2008062452280300.htm Karnataka - Madikeri BJP members stage protest, court arrest Staff Correspondent ?Congress-led Government at the Centre deliberately holding back fertilizer supply? FOR FARMERS: BJP workers, led by the president of the Kodagu unit, M.P. Sunil Subramani, staging a protest in Madikeri on Monday. Madikeri: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders and workers staged a rasta roko at the General Thimayya Circle here on Monday in protest against the Union Government not releasing adequate quantity of fertilizer to the State to meet the needs of farmers. They shouted slogans against the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Government at the Centre alleging that it was showing step-motherly attitude towards Karnataka as its rival BJP had assumed power in the State. In distress Farmers were a distressed lot and the Congress-led Government at the Centre was deliberately holding back fertilizer supply to demoralise the BJP Government, president of the Kodagu BJP unit, M.P. Sunil Subramani, alleged. When they refused to clear the road for vehicular traffic, which was held up for some time in the morning, police arrested them. The protestors were released later. Those present included general secretary of the district BJP Ravi Kushalappa, local leaders D.B. Balakrishna, B.D. Manjunath, former president of the Kodagu unit, S.G. Medappa, party spokesman, M.B. Devaiah, Rajiv Bopaiah of the Yuva Morcha and councillors of the Madikeri City Municipal Council. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/24/stories/2008062452380300.htm Karnataka - Shimoga Protest against ?delay in sending fertilizers? Special Correspondent ?Congress trying to politicise fertilizer issue? ?Join hands with Government to solve the problem? SHIMOGA: BJP workers staged a demonstration here on Monday to protest against the delay by the Union Government to dispatch chemical fertilizers to the State in the required quantity. They staged a dharna at the Shivappa Nayak Circle in protest against what they called a conspiracy by the Union Government in delaying the supply of fertilizers to the State just to embarrass the State Government. They alleged that the Congress leaders in the State were trying to politicise the fertilizer issue even though they were aware of the fact that the problem arose because of the delay by the Union Government in supplying the fertilizers in the required quantity. The protesters appealed to the Congress leaders to join hands with the State Government to tackle the problem arising out of scarcity of fertilizers instead of indulging in petty politics. They asked the Congress leaders to exert pressure on the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Government at the Centre to dispatch the consignment of fertilizers without delay. The former municipal president, R.K. Siddharamanna, said that the scarcity of fertilizers could not have taken such a serious turn if the authorities concerned had, during the President?s Rule, assessed the requirement of fertilizers for the season and placed indent with the Union Government at the appropriate time. He said what was distressing was that the Congress leaders were trying to mislead the people on the issue. Exception He took exception to the visit of the Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly M. Mallikarjun Kharge to the house of a farmer Narayanaswamy at Anjanapur in Shikaripur taluk on Sunday to console the bereaved family. Narayanaswamy committed suicide. Mr. Siddharamanna sought to know whether Mr. Kharge had called on the relatives of farmers who committed suicide during the Congress rule in the State. He said, ?It is unfortunate that Mr. Kharge tried to exploit the death of a farmer to his political advantage.? He asked the Opposition parties not to complicate the farmers? suicide with the sole intention of embarrassing the BJP Government. He wanted them to extend their support to the Government to overcome the situation. Others who participated in the demonstration included the president of the district BJP unit Girish Patel, the president of the city BJP unit, Jnaneshwara, the president of the district BJP women?s morcha, Suvarna Shankar, the president of the city municipal council, M. Shankar, and councillors S.N. Channabasappa and J.N. Subhash. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/08/stories/2008070853720400.htm Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad Farmers stage protests HYDERABAD: Activists of the AP Rythu Sangham on Monday staged State-wide dharnas, ?rasta roko? and ?rail roko? demonstrations protesting the shortage of fertilizers, seeds and diesel. A press release here said the protests were organised at the mandal centres of Kurnool, Chittoor, Prakasam, Guntur, Nalgonda, Kadapa and Karimnagar districts. ?Special Correspondent http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/03/stories/2008070355990300.htm Andhra Pradesh Farmers stage protest ADILABAD: Farmers in Adilabad mandal on Wednesday staged a protest supported by Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) on non availability of fertilizers at the officer of the Joint Director of Agriculture. Farmers prevented the JDA staff from entering the office. After about 30 minutes of protest they were taken to One Town police station.-Staff Reporter http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/26/stories/2008072657820500.htm Karnataka Kolar farmers protest Staff Correspondent KOLAR: Led by Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha (KPRS), scores of farmers laid siege to the office of the Joint Director of Agriculture here on Friday protesting against the alleged shortage of fertilizer in the district. The activists resorted to dharna in front of the official?s chamber blocking movement of the officer and other staff. Although agricultural operations picked up in the district because of rainfall in the last few days, there was no sufficient supply of DAP and Complex fertilizers, KPRS taluk president Holur Shankar said. He said the State Government had grossly neglected the district in this regard. ?If farmers did not get required fertilizer immediately, they can?t sow ragi as humidity in the soil may dry up,? he said. Reacting to the agitation, in-charge Joint Director H. Subbaiah told presspersons that the supply of fertilizer to the district was hit because of shortage of diesel. Many Kolar-bound trucks carrying the manure which left Chennai were held up midway because of diesel crisis, he said. The supply position was expected to improve by Monday, Mr. Subbaiah said. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/22/stories/2008072255040400.htm Tamil Nadu - Chennai DMDK protest on July 27 CHENNAI: The Desiya Murpokku Dravidar Kazhagam (DMDK) will organise a protest on July 27 in Thanjavur against the Tamil Nadu government?s handling of the farmers? problems, according to a press release issued by the party. In the release, DMDK leader Vijayakant said non-availability of fertilisers, irrigation and electricity was resulting in heavy losses for farmers in the Thanjavur region. ? Special Correspondent http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/23/stories/2008072355090300.htm Andhra Pradesh - Khammam Protest against scarcity of fertilizers Staff Reporter KHAMMAM: The Communist Party of India (CPI ) district unit workers on Tuesday put the office of the Joint Director of Agriculture under lock after calling the department employees out of their chambers as part of their protest against the short supply of fertilizers. Even the Joint Director of the Department, Syed Jalaluddin Hussain, came out of the office as desired by the protesters. The protest left the functioning of the office paralysed for a major part of the day. The CPI leaders complained that the fertilizer stocks were being diverted to black market thus resulting in scarcity. They flayed the government for failing to streamline the fertilizer supply despite the fact that the kharif operations gained momentum. Addressing the protesters, CPI district secretary Kunamneni Sambhasiva Rao said that the farmers were forced to buy fertilizers in the black market. The Andhra Pradesh Ryothu Sangham members, who also joined the protest in a big way confronted with the police which led to mild tension. Khammam DSP Rameshaiah pacified the farmers by assuring them of steps to solve the problem. Lathi-charge The police resorted to lathi-charge to quell farmers protesting against the fertilizer scarcity in Yellandu town. Four persons were injured. Backed by all political parties, the farmers squatted on the road. They complained that the fertilizer outlets failed to meet the demand. In Bhadrachalm town also farmers staged protests on the issue. In Julurpadu town, farmers thronged the fertilizer outlets in a big way following information that fresh stock arrived in the day. The police intervention helped in distributing the stocks without any disturbances. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/18/america/LA-Agentina-Farm-Crisis.php Argentina's president drops export tax hike in face of protests, Senate rejection The Associated Press Published: July 18, 2008 BUENOS AIRES, Argentina: President Cristina Fernandez canceled a widely protested farm export tax hike on Friday following months of protest and a stunning rejection by the Senate. Cabinet Minister Alberto Fernandez told reporters at a news conference that the government will comply with a Senate vote on Thursday rejecting the tax package. The Senate vote itself was not enough to cancel the tax hike because it has been issued by executive order. The president announced the sliding-scale export taxes in March, hoping they would hold down prices by encouraging farmers to sell grains locally rather than take advantage of soaring export prices. Farmers revolted, staging a series of food and transport strikes that disrupted the economy and eroded the president's popularity. Farm leaders welcomed cancellation of tax hike. "The conflict is over," said Luciano Miguens, head of the Argentina's Rural Society, to local television station C5N. Wednesday's early morning Senate vote against the tax increase created divisions in Fernandez's Peronist party and her broader coalition, which controls the chamber. http://www.chinapost.com.tw/international/americas/2008/06/20/161887/Argentine%2Dfarmers.htm Argentine farmers reject tax bill, extend protests By Helen Popper, Reuters Friday, June 20, 2008 BUENOS AIRES -- Argentine farmers vowed on Wednesday to continue protesting a soy export tax, extending a bitter three-month dispute with the government that had seemed to abate earlier in the day. Center-left President Cristina Fernandez rallied thousands of supporters in the capital on Wednesday afternoon after moving to appease farmers by asking Congress to ratify her controversial soy tax. Farm leaders rejected the president's soy export tax bill because it was presented to lawmakers for a "yes" or "no" vote without any possibility of modifying the tax, which they say could put small growers out of business. http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/209621,protests-in-argentine-towns-support-farmers-against-government.html Protests in Argentine towns support farmers against government Posted : Mon, 02 Jun 2008 19:28:02 GMT Author : DPA Category : America (World) Buenos Aires - Large numbers of demonstrators in small towns around Argentina's farming areas Monday expressed support for the farmers' protest over higher export tariffs and demanded a new agricultural policy. Businesses closed in many towns in the provinces of Santa Fe, Cordoba and Entre Rios in support of the farmers' strike. At the main rally before scores of thousands of people in Armstrong, in the province of Santa Fe, Argentine Agrarian Federation (FAA) Eduardo Buzzi said the protest will persist "as long as necessary." There were other rallies in Reconquista (Santa Fe), San Pedro (Buenos Aires) and Gualeguaychu (Entre Rios). A first round of strikes in March followed the government's raising of average export taxes on soya from 35 to 44 per cent. The farmers suspended the protests to allow talks with the government. But just last week, the government included the same numbers in a new set of policies - although it set a tax ceiling that would lower the tariff percentage rate if world prices rise above the ceiling. Buzzi - the head of an organization that brings together some 100,000 small agricultural producers - said the agricultural policies of the governments of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and of her husband and predecessor Nestor Kirchner (2003-2007) "are an obstacle" for the country's development. "We know when (the protest) started, but we do not know when it will end. We are very patient," said another protest leader, Alfredo De Angeli. The crisis in one of Argentina's top economic sectors has been brewing since March, when an increase in export tariffs for soya and sunflower went into effect in March, tying tariffs to international market prices. The positions of the government and agricultural producers have remained far apart. In March, a complete blockade of agricultural production caused severe food shortages in large urban areas and provoked traffic problems. Earlier this month, farmers opted to block the export of cereal and other key products, like soya. In their third protest, farmers again took to the roads last week. Although their leaders asked that they not disturb traffic, the passage of trucks carrying agricultural produce was blocked in some areas. In a strike that was set to end Monday but could be prolonged, farmers were blocking the sale of cereal and oil-based crops for export, and they curbed the sale of cattle for meat. After years of meagre earnings, Argentina's farmers don't want the export duties to cut into their profits just as they have begun to see more money flowing in with higher world food prices. The halt to agricultural exports has proved expensive for the government because a large part of its income comes from export duties. http://www.stuff.co.nz/4587279a12.html Argentines protest govt's handling of farmers Reuters | Wednesday, 18 June 2008 Reuters PROTESTS: Thousands of Argentines have taken to the streets to protest against the government's handling of a tense three-month standoff with farmers over export taxes. Thousands of Argentines have taken to the streets to protest against the government's handling of a tense three-month standoff with farmers over export taxes. Chanting "Argentina!" as passing drivers honked horns, protesters gathered in several Buenos Aires neighbourhoods after a close ally of President Cristina Fernandez accused farmers and political rivals of plotting to topple her administration. "I'm here for social peace because I want them to stop lying to us," said Ines, 45, in the middle-class district of Caballito as demonstrators waved the blue-and-white national flag and banged pots and pans. Similar scenes played out in other cities in the South American country, one of the world's top exporters of soy, corn, wheat and beef. Even though it was a national holiday, farmers in rural areas continued to block roads so that trucks carrying grains could not reach port as the conflict over taxes on soy shipments dragged on. Violence flared at a highway blockade near the town of Gualeguaychu on Saturday after military police used batons to clear the road and arrested a prominent farm leader. The unrest led farmers to announce a fresh freeze on grain sales until Wednesday, when pro-government groups plan to rally in front of the presidential palace. Farm leaders have vowed to stage "a day of protest" the same day, setting the stage for further tension in an increasingly bitter conflict that has eroded Fernandez's popularity and raised fears about an economic slowdown. Controversial government ally and former official Luis D'Elia said farmers and rival politicians were conspiring to oust the centre-left president by weakening the economy. "We're witnessing an economic coup attempt," D'Elia, who has been involved in several scuffles during the conflict, told a news conference. Fernandez, who took office six months ago, has also likened the farmers to coup leaders, invoking memories of decades of political instability in the country. Close to midnight, D'Elia led government supporters who gathered in front of the presidential palace and he played down the street protests. "The upper classes were the focus of it," he said. Argentina's fertile Pampas plains are an important international source of grains and the country accounts for nearly 3 per cent of global food exports. The Argentine economy has roared for six years, partly due to huge Asian and European demand for its top crop soybeans, which accounted for nearly a quarter of export earnings last year. But the bounty has set farmers on a collision course with Fernandez, who has her support base in poor urban areas, and the prolonged dispute has cast a cloud over robust growth in Latin America's No 3 economy. Some recent surveys have shown a slowdown in consumer spending since the conflict erupted. One of the government's toughest challenges is fighting inflation, which is hitting poor Argentines the hardest. Fernandez defends high export taxes and limits on foreign sales of farm goods as a way to battle rising food prices in a country where one in four people lives in poverty. The wave of strikes and roadblocks started in mid-March after she raised soy export taxes. She said it would help redistribute wealth, but it was the last straw for farmers. Farm leaders said they did not want to fuel the confrontation. "We're asking for a signal from the president ... as soon as there's a positive signal, we'll lift the strike," Luciano Miguens, president of the Argentine Rural Society, said. Several rounds of negotiations with the government have failed to reach agreement and officials have refused to make far-reaching changes to the export tax system. http://archive.gulfnews.com/world/Argentina/10221278.html Riot police break up farmers' protest in Argentina AP Published: June 15, 2008, 09:09 Buenos Aires: Argentine police in riot gear broke up a farmers' highway blockade on Saturday, briefly arresting 19 demonstrators including a prominent leader of a three-month protest against an increase in grain export taxes. The arrests near the city of Gualeguaychu and Argentina's river border with Uruguay were broadcast on national television and threatened to inflame a tense standoff between farmers and President Cristina Fernandez's centre-left government. Strike leader Alfredo de Angeli and the other demonstrators were later freed following noisy protests in the capital demanding their release, including one protest outside the government house. Riot police brought in water tanks and monitored the demonstration, but there were no clashes in Buenos Aires. Cabinet chief Alberto Fernandez accused striking farmers of "generating a climate of growing public unrest." The crisis was touched off by the president's decision this spring to raise export taxes on grains more than 10 per cent, saying farmers have benefited from rising world prices and the profits should be spread around to help poor Argentines. Growers countered that they need to reinvest the profits and the higher taxes make it difficult for them to make a living. Three months of bitter protests and road blockades have emptied supermarket shelves and led to shortages of meat, oil, flour, vegetables and fuel. Farm goods are the largest source of foreign currency in Argentina, which is the world's third biggest exporter of soy and corn. http://www.chinapost.com.tw/international/americas/2008/06/07/159924/Food%2Dshortages.htm Food shortages a threat amid third Argentine farm protest By Nicolas Misculin, Reuters Saturday, June 7, 2008 BUENOS AIRES -- Roadblocks manned by hundreds of truckers on Thursday in Argentina's heartland threatened to revive food shortages as a deadlock between protesting farmers and the government dragged on. Farmers are staging their third strike in nearly three months over higher export taxes on the country's top crop, soybeans. They are withholding grains from market through Sunday, and some truckers frustrated with the halt to commerce have blocked highways to press for a solution. Fewer products are arriving at the Buenos Aires Central Market, where most of the city's fruits and vegetables are sold. "There's been a small drop, about 70 percent of goods are arriving," a source at the wholesale market said on condition of anonymity. Farmers blocked highways during their first, wide-scale strike in March, sparking shortages of such staples as beef and dairy products on supermarket shelves. They have since changed tactics to avoid alienating city dwellers. "The situation has grown complicated for the truckers. The government should pay more attention. This is the result of not having resolved the farm problem," Eduardo Buzzi, president of the Argentine Agrarian Federation, told reporters. Television images showed hundreds of trucks parked on rural highways, and dairy sector leaders warned that this new twist to the farm conflict could spoil millions of liters of milk. "This strike on the highways blocks all economic activity and once again threatens to cause shortages and higher prices. This has become a strike against the Argentine people," Interior Minister Florencio Randazzo told local radio. The minister later said in a televised press conference that the government would not cede ground on the rate of grains export taxes, but was willing to discuss future farm policy once the strike ended. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/03/stories/2008080351360300.htm Farmers protest poor seed quality Staff Correspondent Barren: Farmers from Mathhihalli in Arsikere taluk displaying failed potato crop in front of the Deputy Commissioner?s office in Hassan on Saturday. HASSAN: Farmers from Mathhihalli in Gandsi hobli of Arsikere taluk staged a dharna in front of the office of the Deputy Commissioner here on Saturday protesting against the poor quality of seeds supplied by a well-known company recently. The seeds had reportedly failed to bear crop. The farmers also exhibited samples of the failed crop during their protest. Money spent They said potato crop on 250 acres of land in the village had failed. They had reportedly spent Rs. 10,000 an acre on the purchase of seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. Nanjaiah, Chandrasekhara, Gangaraju, Rangaswamy and Manjashetty ? all farmers ? in a representation to the Deputy Commissioner, appealed for an immediate assessment of the crop loss and sought compensation. In Hassan district, potato is grown on more than 40,000 hectares of land. This is a major commercial crop in the district. In Hassan taluk too, the crop has failed. In other parts of the district it has been affected by blight. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/13/stories/2008081353430300.htm Karnataka - Hassan Activists plan indefinite protest Staff Correspondent It will be held outside Deputy Commissioner?s office from August 16 Protest against sale of spurious seed potato HASSAN: Activists of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Hitharakshana Vedike will resort to an indefinite dharna in front of the office of the Deputy Commissioner from August 16 in protest against the sale of spurious seed potato by traders, which resulted in the failure of potato crop in the district. President of the vedike Mylanahalli Manje Gowda and secretary B.M. Ranga Swamy, in a press release here on Tuesday, said that despite the fact that traders had supplied spurious seed potato to farmers, that led to the complete failure of potato crop, the Deputy Commissioner as well as the agriculture officers had failed to take action against them. Hence, they were resorting to an indefinite dharna, they added. Mr. Gowda said the Government should direct traders to pay compensation to farmers and that the Agriculture, Horticulture and Soil testing officials also be held responsible for causing farmers loss. Compensation sought The Government should pay them compensation of Rs. 25,000 an acre and the district administration should seal the cold storages owned by Punjab-based merchants, he demanded. http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=95805 Bulgaria Milk Producers Block Road in Protest, Leaders Get Arrested 5 August 2008, Tuesday Bulgaria: Over 60 milk producers blocked the road connecting the cities of Stara Zagora and Kazanluk in Central Bulgaria, which led to the arrest of three of their leaders as they had no official permission for such measures. The farmers from Stara Zagora, Nova Zagora, Chirpan, Radnevo, and Kazanluk blocked the road in protest against the lack of proper subsidies from the Agriculture Ministry. They insisted they should get at an annual subsidy of BGN 0,2 per liter of milk and BGN 300 per cow, and pointed out they were decided by the previous Agriculture Minister Nihat Kabil, who promised them support. "There is not one of us who is not deeply in debt to the banks. We have even mortgaged our cattle in order to save our farms", the farmers explained. As they had no official permission to block the Stara Zagora-Kazanluk road, the Chair of the Milk Producers' Association in Stara Zagora Tancho Kolev and two other leaders were arrested. Kolev himself has a loan of BGN 100 000 and has mortgaged 100 cows out of a total of 200 in his farm. The average annual indebtedness of one milk producers is estimated at BGN 50 000 to 100 000. Earlier on Tuesday the Chair of the National Association of Milk Producers, Adrian Tsakonski announced the milk producers from across Bulgaria were to go on an effective strike, starting Wednesday over the government's policy in the sector and unpaid subsidies The farmers have threatened to block the capital Sofia with tractors and cattle, and to send cow heads to the three-way coalition government in order to force it to take measures to address their woes. http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=95840 Bulgaria Milk Producers' Protests Lead to Confrontations and Arrests 6 August 2008, Wednesday Protest of Bulgarian milk producers Wednesday have lead to arrest and confrontations Photo by Yuliana Nikolova (Sofia Photo Agency) Seven of the protesting milk producers have been arrested Wednesday near the village of Altimir in the area of the city of Vratsa and have been taken to the police precinct in Biyala Slatina. The arrests happened after confrontations between the police and the farmers when protesters tried to block the road leading to the village. The authorities have declared the blocking of the road illegal. In the mean time the demonstrations have moved to Biyala Slatina where protesters gather in front of the police precinct building. Milk producers have also staged rallies Wednesday in the area of Veliko Turnovo, near the village of Sheremetiya where slight confrontations have also been reported. The rally began around 10:30 am. The brass orchestra from the town of Zlataritsa "The Reporters" performed in support of the protesters. The main road from Sofia to Varna has been blocked twice for about 5 minutes each time when herds of sheep, goats and cattle crossed the road. The half hour blocking of the road from Stara Zagora to Kazanlak Wednesday went without incidents despite the prohibition to hold farmers' rallies in the area of Stara Zagora. Tuesday the Stara Zagora police have detained for a short time three protestors. The framers stated that they remain prepared to continue the protests at least until the upcoming Thursday Cabinet meeting. They have stated that they would stop the rallies if the Cabinet decided Thursday to pay the BGN 60 M promised by Deputy Prime Minister Meglena Plugchieva. If the decision was not made the milk producers had threatened to travel Sofia next week. Monio Hristov, Secretary of the Bulgarian Agrarian Union Party had personally supported the protestors from the Stara Zagora area along with the Milk Producers Association from Plovdiv. The milk producers demand a subsidy of BGN 0.20 for good quality milk and EUR 140 per year per cow, low interest loans from the State Fund "Agriculture" and their own management of the pastures, which are currently managed by the local municipalities. http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=94052 Bulgaria Milk Producers Out on Protest before Agriculture Ministry 11 June 2008, Wednesday Bulgaria Milk Producers Out on Protest before Agriculture Ministry: About 50 milk producers from northern Bulgaria protested before the building of the Ministry of Agriculture over the insufficient subsidies for the animal breeding. Adrian Tsakonski, Chair of the Milk Producers' Association, said about 100 000 animals had died in the farms around the country since the beginning of the year because the owners did not have enough money to feed them. Tsakonski also said a large number of agricultural producers had gone bankrupt because of the low wholesale prices and insufficient subsidies, and the high forage prices. Representatives of the protesting farmers met with the Minister of Agriculture Valeri Tzetanov but the two sides failed to reach an agreement over the subsidies. Tzetanov announced that by June 25 the milk producers would receive BGN 20 M under the de minimis scheme for cattle forage. He also promised to honor the agreement that the farmers reached with the previous Minister Nihat Kabil, according to which the state is going to subsidize every liter of high-quality milk with BGN 0,2. Tzetanov vowed to keep this promise even though in his words this increased subsidy contradicted EU law. "It is not clear for me how the signing of such an agreement was allowed but now I will have to comply with it", the Minister said explaining that the BGN 1,4 M for this subsidy was available but that the European Commission had not replied yet whether Bulgaria could use this money for subsidizing the milk producers. The country might be fined BGN 400 000 if it subsidizes the farmers without an agreement by Brussels, Tzvetanov said. "This does not matter, the main thing is that we will be violating the transparency rules in this way", the Minister stated. The milk producers vowed to hold another protest next week as their demands for higher subsidies were not met on Wednesday. http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=95697 Bulgaria Agriculture Minister to Meet with Protesting Framers 1 August 2008, Friday Bulgaria Agriculture Minister to Meet with Protesting Framers: Valeri Tsvetanov, Bulgarian Agriculture Minister is going to meet with representatives of protesting Bulgarian farmers Friday. The meeting is to be held in the southern Bulgarian city of Kardzhali. Cattlemen in Bulgaria are already in their second week of mass protests. Their leader Boyko Sinapov has stated that they would conduct talks with the Minister only if he would offer them clear, concrete and concise solutions. According to the protesters, the Cabinet had funds for them, but does not want to pay and assist them. At 11:00 am Friday the cattlemen are once again going to block the road from Kardzhali to Dzhebel and not only for one hour as they have done previously, but for an indefinite time period. http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=96077 Bulgaria Milk Producers Stage Yet Another Protest Downtown Sofia 13 August 2008, Wednesday Chair of the National Association of Milk Producers, Adrian Tsakonski declared they are to cease protests as soon as they get the subsidies recently promised by the government. Photo by Nadya Kotseva (Sofia Photo Agency) Bulgarian milk producers are to stage yet another protest over unpaid subsidies in front of the Agriculture Ministry in downtown Sofia on Wednesday. According to the permit, issued by the capital's Municipality, the farmers are not allowed to take cattle with them during the rally. The protesters call on the government to provide a subsidy of BGN 0,20 per litre of milk produced, as well as EUR 140 one time financial support per animal a year. The government decided to fulfill all their demands by allocating BGN 60 M but said that a notification from the EC is needed before the money reaches the milk producers. "We will end our protests immediately as soon as the government fulfills its promises," Chair of the National Association of Milk Producers, Adrian Tsakonski declared. Romanian farmers are also expected to back Wednesday's protest actions of the Bulgarians. http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=96315 Bulgaria Farmers Stage Mass Protest at Shipka Pass 21 August 2008, Thursday Adrian Tsakonski, the leader of the Bulgarian Milk Producers' Association expects over 500 protesters to show up at Shipka. Photo by Nadiya Kotseva (Sofia Photo Agency) Bulgarian farmers from all over the country are gathering Thursday at the Shipka mountain pass to stage yet another protest over unpaid subsidies. Farmers from Romania have also joined the demonstration in sign of support for their Bulgarian colleagues. Currently over 150 farmers have arrived at the location and there is increased police presence in the area. The farmers including fish-breeders, shepherds and poultry farmers are all there to support the Bulgarian milk producers. The Mayor of Gabrovo said that negotiations are underway in order to prevent the blocking of the road. Wednesday, Adrian Tsakonski, the leader of the Bulgarian Milk Producers' Association stated before Darik radio that he expected over 500 protesters to show up at Shipka. The last protest of the milk producers took place on August 13 in Sofia, in front of the building of the Agriculture Ministry. The very next day the milk producers received their subsidies for March, however, those for April, May, June and July remain unpaid. http://www.ttc.org/200808211323.m7ldn8122127.htm BULGARIAN FARMERS BLOCK ROADS TO PROTEST DELAYED SUBSIDIES Received Thursday, 21 August 2008 13:23:00 GMT SOFIA, Aug 21, 2008 (AFP) - Several hundred Bulgarian farmers blocked major roads across the country Thursday in their latest protest against a delay in agricultural subsidy payments, national radio and witnesses reported. Over 300 milk producers and cattle breeders blocked the Shipka mountain pass in central Stara Planina mountain, briefly halting traffic through the busy pass between Bulgaria's north and south, an AFP photographer at the site said. The road was reopened following brief clashes with police but nobody was seriously injured, the protographer said. The farmers denounced the government for failing to aid their crisis-ridden sector, hit by soaring fodder and fuel prices. "The milk-production sector is on the brink of collapse," their slogans read. Meanwhile, the national radio reported that dozens of farmers formed a human chain to block a major road linking the capital Sofia and the Black Sea resort of Varna, near the southeastern city of Targovishte. The farmers are protesting against a delay in the payment of state subsidies for high-quality milk and demanding aid to buy feed for their animals, which they say are starving. They are also pressing for a VAT cut for food products. The Bulgarian government recently said it is prepared to pay 30 million euros (45 million dollars) in subsidies to milk producers, to end their month-long demonstrations, as long as Brussels gives its approval. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23870306-26103,00.html Farmers protest over wheat exports Font Size: Decrease Increase Print Page: Print June 16, 2008 MORE than 500 farmers have begun marching to Parliament House in Canberra to protest plans to abolish the single desk wheat export market. The Federal Government, with the support of the Liberal Party, is proposing to deregulate the bulk wheat export market by opening it up to competition from July 1. Legislation, due to be considered by the Senate today, is being opposed by The Nationals, the Liberal's coalition partner. The marchers are being led from old parliament house by a farmer playing the bagpipes. Many of the farmers are carrying placards with messages for both the Government and the Liberals. One placard read: "What's worse than weevils in wheat - rats in parliament." http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storyPage.aspx?storyId=115833 Negros Occ farmers stage ?lightning protest? outside Palace By NADIA TRINIDAD ABS-CBN News Some 20 farmers from Negros Occidental staged a "lightning protest" outside Malaca?ang?s New Executive Building Tuesday. The protesters slipped past presidential guards aboard jeepneys and held a picket outside the Palace complex calling for land reform. The farmers went to Manila to seek an audience with President Arroyo regarding her supposed promise to distribute her family's haciendas to farmer-beneficiaries under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. They said they now want the president to order the Department of Agrarian Reform to make a valuation of the 157-hectare Hacienda Bacan in Barangay Guintubhan, Isabela owned by First Gentleman Jose Miguel "Mike" Arroyo so it can be distributed to some 67 farmer-petitioners, 30 of whom belong to Task Force Mapalad. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/01/stories/2008050161750600.htm Farmers stage protest Staff Reporter novel agitation: Farmers taking out a demonstration march in Manapparai on Wednesday. MANAPPARAI: Members of the Matthiya Podhu Thozhilalar Sangam (MPTS) staged a novel protest here on Wednesday, against the frequent power trips in Manapparai taluk, affecting agricultural operation. While a woman, Dhanabakkiam of Vaiyampatti village, was singing odes on the woes of farmers in the wake of the frequent and prolonged power trips, a group of farmers who were marching behind were carrying a few hurricane lamps, dried sugarcane and withered plantain. Raising slogans, they urged the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board to ensure uninterrupted power supply to save the standing crops of sugarcane and plantain. They marched down about three km from Pothamettupatti to the office of the Executive Engineer, TNEB, here where they staged a demonstration in support of their demand. Speaking on the occasion, the founder president of MPTS N. Chinnadurai said that although the groundwater table had stepped up following the sharp showers and floods last month, farmers were unable to utilise it for irrigating their standing crops due to unscheduled power trips. A farmer, Murugesan of Veerapur village said that sugarcane on his five acres of land was languishing for water. The trip which commenced at 5 a.m. lasted even up to 1 p.m., and the crop was withering away under the scorching sun. The Union secretary of the MPTS, M. Chokkalingam, who led the agitation, said that farmers, who had taken loans from various banks and financial institutions, were now left in the lurch due to intermittent and unscheduled power cuts. The General Secretary of the MPTS S. S. Subramaniam said that the TNEB should take all measures to ensure uninterrupted power supply to agricultural pumpsets. http://uk.biz.yahoo.com/30042008/323/zimbabwe-tobacco-farmers-protest-inflation-soars.html Wednesday April 30, 01:26 PM Zimbabwe tobacco farmers protest as inflation soars By Godfrey Marawanyika Click to enlarge photo HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwean farmers tore up their tobacco crop in protest on the auction floors of Harare on Wednesday as state price controls to combat hyperinflation threatened to wipe out their profits. "The price is useless, I would rather keep my tobacco and sell to buyers from Malawi or Zambia," muttered Ottilia Mavhunga, a farmer from Karoi, a town in northern Zimbabwe, as she prepared to take her bales of tobacco away. The tobacco trading season -- once a key feature of Zimbabwe's business calendar -- had to be called off for the second time in as many weeks after farmers pulled out of the sale, citing low prices given by auctioneers. Some farmers tore up their bales and flicked tobacco leaves across the floor as other ripped off tags placed on their bales by the auctioneers that showed prices as low as one dollar (0.64 euros) per kilogramme (2.2 pounds). Production of tobacco, once Zimbabwe's top foreign exchange crop, declined from a record high of 236,130 tonnes in 2000, the year controversial land reforms were launched, to just 68,800 tonnes last year. Only around 80 bales went under the hammer on the auction floors -- among the largest in Africa -- before the auction had to be cancelled on Wednesday. Berison Mutemeri, a farmer from Banket, northwest of Harare, said the price offered by the government was disappointing. "How can maize fetch much higher than tobacco? It (Frankfurt: A0MLX5 - news) costs two billion Zimbabwe dollars to transport a single bale and we get this," he said. A bale weighs on average between 60 and 80 kilogrammes. The state offered farmers 70 million Zimbabwe dollars per kilogramme, or around one US dollar under an exchange rate that is a tiny fraction of the black market rate in a country where inflation is at 165,000 percent. Agriculture Minister Sylvester Nguni told tobacco farmers at the auction that the price was fair. "It is my conviction that this level of support will adequately reward the farmer for both effort and quality and make him or her go back to the land." Authorities have kept the official exchange rate at 30,000 Zimbabwe dollars for one US dollar since September last year but on the thriving black market one US dollar can be exchanged for around 100 million Zimbabwe dollars. The 70 million dollar rate offered to tobacco farmers was a compromise. Buyers at the Tobacco Sales Floor in Harare said farmers should not despair over the opening prices as rates were expected to improve during the sale. Around 400 farmers waited as officials from government, buyers and farmers' representatives met to try to resolve the price dispute. Two smaller auction floors in Harare later opened, state television said. Central Bank (CBSU.PK - news) governor Gideon Gono was expected to make an announcement later on Wednesday about monetary policy that could address farmers concerns, officials told AFP on the auction floors. David Mupamhadzi, chief economist at the Zimbabwe Allied Banking Group, said the government should let market forces determine the prices. "There is a need to move away from this multiple exchange rate. Prices should be market-determined, all these problems we have in the economy are as a result of controls," Mupamhadzi said. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/28/stories/2008042856650400.htm DYFI protest THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: DYFI activists will undertake fast at district centres on Monday to press their demand for change in the Central foodgrains policy, particularly in respect of Kerala. A DYFI release said here on Sunday that the fast before the Raj Bhavan would be inaugurated by DYFI national president P. Sreeramakrishnan. ? Special Correspondent ) category in the State. http://www.dw-world.de/dw/function/0,,12215_cid_3381057,00.html?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf | 02.06.2008 | 22:00 UTC German farmers block dairies in milk price protest German farmers have stepped up protests to back up their demands for a major increase in the prices they get for milk. Farmers used tractors and other vehicles to stage blockades at a number of major dairies across the country. Farmers have been refusing to deliver milk to dairies for the past week. The German farmers' association, the BDM, is demanding a minimum 43 euro cents per litre of milk. It says the current prices of between 25 and 35 cents a litre don't allow farmers to cover their costs. http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-06/01/content_8292432.htm Dutch dairy farmers seize processing plants to protest low milk prices BRUSSELS, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Dutch dairy farmers have occupied nine dairy processing plants to protest sharp falls in milk prices, Radio Netherlands reported Saturday. Operations in the plants were forced to stop, and supermarkets could be left without dairy products as a result. The farmers said they were preparing long-term actions to secure fixed dairy prices. They complained that dairy companies are now buying milk at a price lower than the cost. Due to increased supply, the milk price in the Netherlands fell from just under 50 euro cents a liter late last year to between 30 and 34 cents. But the cost of producing milk has risen dramatically as a result of steep rises in the price of transport, energy, fertilizers and fodder. No hoarding has yet been reported, Radio Netherlands said. The farmers are buying existing milk supplies and handing them out for free to the public. Similar actions were recently staged in Belgium, Germany and Latvia. http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3376106,00.html Agriculture | 31.05.2008 After Germany, Milk Protest Spills Into the Baltics Gro?ansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Got milk? About 1,000 people spilled into Riga's Dome Square on Friday for splashes of unpasteurized milk as farmers rallied against the EU's decision to raise milk quotas. The protest came as milk supplies tightened in Germany on the fourth day of a boycott by dairy farmers, who are dumping milk rather than sell it for prices they say are too low. Latvian farmers fear that the nation's dairy industry, which employs 60,000 people, will follow the sugar industry that collapsed after the Baltic nation of 2.3 million joined the EU in 2004. Protesting farmers demanded equal subsidies for all EU farmers and demanded that Agriculture Minister Martins Roze quit. "They don't know in Europe where we are, and who else should care about it other than our government?" farmer Anita Bordovska told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. A caricature in the Diena daily on Friday depicted Roze as a doctor who tells a sick cow lying in bed, "The EU doctors' council decided to amputate your udder, so you'd feel better." Soft landing? Bildunterschrift: Gro?ansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Latvian farmers said they'd rather give their milk for free than at bargain prices Since the EU has decided to scrap all milk quotas in 2015, it proposes raising the quotas every year until 2014 in an effort to provide a "soft landing" for milk farmers. As a way to prevent dairy farmers' unrest, Latvia and Lithuania asked the European Commission -- the executive arm of the 27-nation bloc -- two weeks ago to subsidise milk exports to Russia to keep farmers in business. The EC said that would not be the right move. Writing on his blog before the protest, Roze said he supports the demonstration. Later, he added he wouldn't resign because that "would be running away from responsibility." Unequal partners Government officials complained that the Baltic nation receives the least EU farm subsidies -- even less than EU newcomers Romania and Bulgaria. Farmers agree with the complaint, but blame the Latvian government for providing outdated data on farms and farmland. The protest organizers -- the Latvian Dairy Farmers Union -- warned that more protests may follow. In the 1990s, Latvians stood in long lines outside grocery stores for a loaf of bread as the small Baltic nation struggled for its independence from the Soviet Union. http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=40836 Published On: 2008-06-12 Metropolitan Fertiliser price hike protested Staff Correspondent Bangladesh Krishak Samity (BKS), a platform of farmers, yesterday condemned the government for increasing the price of fertiliser. In a press release BKS President Maulana Ahmedur Rahman and General Secretary Morshed also called for reducing the price of fertiliser. They said the farmers would be discouraged to grow more crops if the price of fertiliser is increased. They also demanded distribution of agricultural inputs through Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation. http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/mhgbojojidmh/rss2/ IFA mounts pig meat protest at Lidl supermarket 11/06/2008 - 11:20:53 The Irish Farmers Association is picketing a Lidl supermarket in Co Kildare today as part of a protest over the sale of imported pig meat. The IFA says a survey by Bord Bia to monitor the Quality Assurance logo in supermarkets found that Lidl was selling no Irish pig meat. As a result, farmers are picketing the Lidl outlet in Newbridge and are also vowing to target other retailers that are not supporting Irish producers. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20080612-142191/House-defers-vote-on-CARP-extension-amid-raging-protest House defers vote on CARP extension amid raging protest By TJ Burgonio, Jerome Aning Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 03:43:00 06/12/2008 MANILA, Philippines?Outraged farmers jumped from the gallery and yelled at lawmakers on Tuesday night in protest of the move to defer putting to a vote a certified bill extending a key component of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). The lawmakers agreed to forgo the vote and instead adopt Resolution No. 21, a joint resolution with the Senate maintaining the land acquisition and distribution (LAD) component of the CARP until Dec. 31. The 20-year-old agrarian reform law, touted as the centerpiece of a program to free farmers from the bondage of the soil, expired on June 10. The House adjourned Wednesday without approving the bill extending the LAD for five years from June 10 to cover the acquisition and distribution of at least 1.1 million hectares. Minutes before the resolution was adopted at 9 p.m. Tuesday, farmers fighting for agrarian reform stirred a commotion at the plenary hall. A couple of farmers jumped from the gallery onto the plenary floor and briefly spoke at the rostrum before security men grabbed and hauled them out. At the same time, a group of other pro-CARP supporters unfolded posters and shouted slogans as stunned lawmakers watched from their seats. ?Shame on you! You?re all landowners. That?s the bias of this Congress,? agrarian reform advocate Ric Reyes hollered as he was being led out of the hall by security men. Lost opportunity The stunt happened shortly after Akbayan party-list Rep. Risa Hontiveros asked Majority Leader Arthur Defensor if the chamber would put the bill to a vote this week. Defensor replied that he wasn?t sure. ?I?m not OK with that. But what can we do?? Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman said in an interview on Tuesday night, referring to the House move. Hontiveros said: ?We not only lost a good opportunity. We let go of a clear advantage and a fighting chance for a controversial bill.? Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, one of the authors, viewed the adoption of the resolution as an ?initial victory? for the farmers, saying this mandated Congress to adopt the extension bill before the end of the year. If the Senate concurs, it will have the ?force of the law,? Lagman said. Two schools of thought House Speaker Prospero Nograles sought to mollify the farmers, arguing that LAD would expire on Dec. 31 and that Congress has until that time to pass a more comprehensive bill, including reforms. Nograles noted two schools of thought on the expiration of the LAD?one on June 10 and another on Dec. 31. ?My legal position is that it won?t expire today but on Dec. 31, 2008. No rush to do it now and we will craft a better one with reform amendments inside,? he said on Tuesday night. Straw vote Earlier, the lawmakers held a straw vote on the bill during an executive caucus, with 97 approving and 82 against. Five abstained. But House leaders decided against putting it to a vote on the floor, saying it was ?too close to call.? They instead proposed that they adopt a joint resolution maintaining the LAD until yearend. Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Villafuerte proposed the adoption of the resolution pending the approval of the extension bill, including the amendments, in the lower chamber. ?We won the straw vote, but the majority, including Nograles, said it was too close to call. They wouldn?t want to risk it on the floor,? Hontiveros said. ?They snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.? Cheap shot Party-list representatives of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) bloc scoffed at Hontiveros? claim that they colluded with landed lawmakers to ?maim, cripple or kill agrarian reform.? ?Hontiveros-Baraquel?s accusation is farthest from the truth. It?s a cheap shot at progressive party-list groups made to gain media mileage for the extension of the bogus Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program,? Representatives Satur Ocampo and Teodoro Casi?o of Bayan Muna, Liza Maza of Gabriela and Rafael Mariano of Anakpawis said in a statement. Militants divided on extension The issue of extending the CARP has divided militant peasant groups in the country. One faction objects to an extension, accusing the opposite camp of colluding with landowners. The anti-extension group, which includes the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and the Unyon ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA), wanted the program scrapped and replaced by their own Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB). The pro-extension camp, which includes the Pambansang Kilusan ng mga Samahang Magsasaka (Pakisama) and other militant organizations affiliated with Akbayan, has dismissed the GARB as ?confiscatory, unrealistic and unconstitutional.? Hontiveros earlier slammed the ?emerging collusion? between landlords in Congress and the anti-extension group led by party-list groups of Bayan Muna, Gabriela and Anakpawis. ?The similarity in their agenda is revolting. They are doing a very synchronized performance to kill agrarian reform,? she said. Her statement drew the ire of Bayan Muna and its affiliates?KMP, UMA and the fisherfolk group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya). ?Our militant lawmakers effectively exposed the rottenness and bankruptcy of the CARP. That?s why Hontiveros and company are embarking on a blatant hate campaign drive by misrepresenting progressive lawmakers to the public as collaborators of landlord lawmakers in the name of bogus and anti-farmer CARP,? said Pamalakaya chair Fernando Hicap. Church support The KMP and Pamalakaya called on the Catholic Church to back out from its support of an extension. ?The clamor for CARP extension is just a hype courtesy of groups known for misleading the fight of farmers for a thoroughgoing land reform program, and sad to say the prelates have become the victims of this publicity hype and campaign of make-believe,? Hicap and KMP secretary general Danilo Ramos said in a joint statement. They were reacting to a one-page paid advertisement supporting CARP extension that came out in the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper and was signed by bishops headed by Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, president of the Catholic Bishops? Conference of the Philippines. But Pakisama raised fears of a rise in violence and displacement of farmer communities after the House failed to extend the CARP, the funding for which expired on Tuesday. More than 1.2 million hectares of private agricultural lands have yet to be distributed, it said. Most of the lands, it said, were in the hands of wealthy and powerful landowners who are the most resistant in the implementation of the program. ?We fear a rise in agrarian-related violence if the CARP law fails to pass because the farmers? continued landlessness can only bring about more discontentment in rural areas. There are already hundreds of cases of agrarian violence and a majority of these are related to land disputes and distribution,? Pakisama national chair Vic Fabe told reporters. Insurgency Worse, the absence of a process to bring about genuine land distribution will only force the small farmers into the waiting arms of the insurgency, he added. Fabe noted that the landowners were the very same ones blocking the extension of the program in the House. He said small farmers and national peasant groups were ?fighting tooth and nail? for the extension of the CARP because of its ?social justice and redistributive aspects.? ?Landlessness and poverty are the main problems in rural areas and the best way to address this is to extend the CARP law with meaningful reforms?? he said. Pakisama and its allied group, Task Force Mapalad, bewailed Congress? decision to postpone discussions on the CARP extension and for the meantime extend the Department of Agrarian Reform?s budget for land acquisition and distribution until the end of the year. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/08/stories/2008060853290300.htm Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore Farmers plan series of protests Staff Reporter Coimbatore: The Chinniyampalayam Farmers? Movement for Protection of Living Rights has planned to stage a series of agitations, including a two-wheeler rally and an en-masse representation to the Collector protesting against the proposed move to acquire agricultural lands for the airport expansion. In a memorandum, president V.C. Jayapal and secretary P. Jagannathan said that acquisition of 1025 acres of agricultural land will render the farmers refugees in their own land. Meanwhile, the farmers said that a helicopter that was on a sortie over the land proposed for acquisition. Suspecting it to be a sort of survey for the acquisition of lands, the farmers waved black flags in protest. In the wake of these developments, it was decided to sustain the struggle by organising a two-wheeler rally and meet the Collector. http://www.taiwanheadlines.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=122750&CtNode=39 Protest sparks fertilizer price freeze 06/07/2008 (Taiwan News) The Council of Agriculture yesterday promised to impose a price freeze on fertilizers for the next seven months after hundreds of farmers from Taiwan's central and southern provinces jointly voiced their anger against rocketing prices, by protesting outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei earlier in the day. "I am deeply sympathetic with farmers on the rising fertilizer prices but the previous hike in prices was done due to the soaring cost of raw materials and energy," COA Chairman Chen Wu-hsiung (???) said yesterday in the Legislative Yuan, explaining why his agency had decided to raise the costs of fertilizer on May 30. Even though fertilizer prices in Taiwan were raised at the end of May, they are still among the cheapest in the world, said Chen. Chen, however, pledged to local farmers that the COA will not launch another wave of fertilizer price rises for seven months, even though raw materials and fuel prices are predicted to continue to rise. Chen's pledge came after a total number of around 200 farmers from Taiwan's rural areas protested yesterday morning against a 50 to 70 percent increase on fertilizer prices over past weeks. The price hike situation became even worse after torrential rain, that lasted for nearly a week, flooded many farming townships in Taiwan's southern provinces. Holding protest banners and slogans, they demanded that the government gives subsidies to help them offset costs, and also sets regulations to prevent hoarding among suppliers and retailers of fertilizers. Lu Tung-hsieh, director-general of a farmers association in Pingtung County, told reporters that the prices of some of the fertilizers most frequently used by local farmers, such as the urea fertilizer, had undergone a nearly 50 percent hike from NT$350 to NT$510 per pack during the past half month. If the government does not initiate moves to stop fertilizer prices from soaring again, the farmers' group will hold another protest in the near future, he noted. In reaction to the farmers' protest, many members of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party caucus showed up outside the Legislative Yuan to express their support for local farmers yesterday, including DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (???). The DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (???) accepted the protesting farmers' penned letter, pledging that he will convey the farmers' thoughts to the COA. Ker, at the same time, blasted Ma Ying-jeou's (???) administration for failing to listen to local farmers. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/01/stories/2008070151830500.htm Karnataka Tomoto prices crash, farmers protest KOLAR: Scores of farmers, who had been to Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee here on Monday to sell tomato, staged a protest against crash in price of tomato. ?With 14 kg box of tomato fetching only Rs. 10 to Rs. 15, farmers are in distress. The Government should come to the rescue of the farmers,? Kempanna, who led the agitation, said. ? Staff Correspondent http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/27/stories/2008062753460400.htm Statewide protests by farmers? bodies ?Jail bharo? agitation seeking Rs. 1,000 MSP for a quintal of paddy - Photo G. N. Rao On warpath: Farmers confronting the police near Khammam Collectorate on Friday during a protest demonstration demanding Rs.1,000 as MSP for paddy. HYDERABAD: Farmers organisations of Opposition parties staged a Statewide ?jail bharo? agitation on Thursday demanding Rs. 1,000 Minimum Support Price for paddy. Scores of activists were arrested in several districts as they laid siege to the collectorates, obstructing employees from entering their offices. Police resorted to a mild lathicharge in Hyderabad and Khammam districts to disperse the activists of farmers? bodies who thronged the collectorates in large numbers. Scuffles between the police and the agitators were witnessed in several districts when the agitators tried to break the security cordon and the protesters were physically lifted as they refused to vacate the premises. Agitated protesters courted arrests in Vizianagaram district while picketing was organised at the Warangal Collectorate even as the police had a tough time controlling the surging agitators in Nalgonda district. State leaders of the Andhra Pradesh Ryotu Sangham of CPI, CPI (M)-affiliated Rythu Sangham, Telugu Rythu of the TDP and Kisan Morcha of BJP staged a demonstration in front of the Agriculture Commissioner?s office in the State capital and raised slogans against the Government?s failure to alleviate the plight of farmers. They were demanding enhancement of MSP for paddy and remunerative prices for other crops, steps to overcome shortage of fertilizers and seed and provision of bank loans to farmers on war footing. YSR at receiving end Speaking to reporters, Ryotu Sangham leader K. Ramakrishna, Telugu Rythu leader Ch. Muthyam Reddy and others criticised Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy for failing to fulfil his assurances to farmers. They took objection to remarks from a section of Congress leaders claiming that the frontal organisations of the Opposition parties were politicising the farmers? issues. They expressed concern that the banks were not providing loans to farmers as the scale of finance was yet to be communicated. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/08/europe/EU-Milky-Mail.php EU farm chief begs German farmers to stop mailing her milk to protest quotas The Associated Press Published: July 8, 2008 BRUSSELS, Belgium: The EU's top farm official is begging German farmers to stop mailing her milk. Farmers have bombarded Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel with some 10,000 liters of milk to show their anger over an EU proposal to increase milk quotas that may cause prices to fall, her spokesman Michael Mann said Tuesday. Most of the milk ? sent by regular mail and addressed to Fischer Boel ? had spoiled in transit, and some of the cartons had burst open, he said. "We have to, unfortunately, throw it away," Mann said. "We are conscious of their concerns, but we don't think it's a good idea and they should send it to a good cause." Fischer Boel pleaded with farmers in a message on her blog Monday to stop sending milk, saying she was happy to talk to them directly to find a solution to their grievances. "If you would like to keep on sending milk, I can suggest that it would be better put to a good use in your local area," she said. German dairy farmers went on strike in May, refusing to deliver milk to creameries in protest against low prices at grocery stores. Major supermarket chain Lidl responded by raising its milk price. Global milk prices have soared on growing demand for milk powder from emerging economies such as China, hiking European prices for cheese and ice cream. But farmers claim that they haven't seen this translate into more money for them. The milk mail protest was organized by a German dairy federation unhappy with EU plans to raise production. EU farm ministers agreed to increase yearly milk quotas by 2 percent ? or an extra 2.84 million tons ? from April to help meet swelling demand. Fischer Boel has suggested that EU nations consider scrapping production quotas altogether by 2015 to end decades-old production rules that don't link output to how much farmers receive in prices or subsidies. http://www.indianmuslims.info/news/2008/jul/04/kashmir_fruit_growers_threaten_valley_wide_protests.html Kashmir fruit growers threaten valley wide protests Submitted by Tarique on Fri, 07/04/2008 - 17:57. Indian Muslim 'Says they will forcibly take trucks via Muzaffarabad' By Reyaz Ahmed, NAK, Baramulla : The fruit growers in North Kashmir's Baramulla district are up in arms against government and concern security agencies alleging that hundreds of tucks ferrying apples from the valley to outside markets are stopped en-route Jammu by Shiv Sena protestors, alleging apples and other fruits are rotting in trucks and Mandis (Markets) causing huge losses to them. "If protesters continued to stop trucks we will forcibly take our apple trucks via Srinagar Muzaffarabad road to other markets of South Asia", said President of Baramulla Fruit Growers and Dealers Association, Ghulam Rasool Bhat, adding government must address this issue as early as possible as fruit industry is inflicted due losses with the prevailing situation at Jammu. They also threatened to stage wide protests and self immolation if the government failed to provide safe passage to the trucks ferrying apples to the out side markets. "Fruit industry in the Kashmir has already met huge blow due the bad weather conditions at very out set of crop session, now due to strike in Jammu our apples have been left to rot in Mandis and hundreds trucks stopped on Srinagar- Jammu highway," said President Fruit Buyers Association Sopore Haji Farooq Ahmed Malik told News Agency of Kashmir. He said, "If government could provide security to the Yastris (Hindu Pilgrims), why the government is not making way for safe passage to the trucks carrying apples." President of Baramulla Fruit Growers and Dealers Association, Ghulam Rasool Bhat said, "Government should provide us alternative route to export out fruit to outside state as Jammu and Srinagar highway has always been trouble for us." "If BJP and Bajrang Dal and other Hindu extremist continued to stop trucks we will forcibly take our apple trucks via Srinagar Muzaffarabad road to other markets of South Asia. Government must address this issue as early as possible as fruit industry is inflicted due losses with the prevailing situation at Jammu," asserted Bhat. "Our fruits have already suffered massive damage due to devastating hailstorms and stormy winds that lashed valley and prices of transportation are touching sky it is obviously big loss to us," said Abdul Rashid of another fruit grower. All panic and brim stone against the government and concern authorities, the fruit gowers and buyers warned that if government failed to address the issue as early as possible they come on roads and stage valley wide protest demonstrations. "We will come on roads with our children as thousands of families are completely dependent upon fruit industry," said Mohammed Maqbool Jan another fruit dealer. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/15/stories/2008071552190300.htm Karnataka - Hubli-Dharwad Protesting farmers take out procession Staff Correspondent They stage dharna seeking release of compensation IN SUPPORT OF DEMANDS: Farmers taking out a procession in Dharwad on Monday. DHARWAD: Farmers in Dharwad taluk took out a procession and staged a dharna in front of the Deputy Commissioner?s office here on Monday to press for their demands, including release of compensation for crop loss. A large number of farmers under the aegis of Dharwad Taluk Pakshateeta Raita Haagu Kooli Karmikara Horata Samiti first marched to the Deputy Commissioner?s office holding placards that highlighted their various demands, including release of crop loss compensation and funds to the ailing KCC Bank and quality power supply. After reaching the Deputy Commissioner?s office, the farmers staged a dharna for some time during which farmers? leaders addressed them. They said the loan waiver scheme implemented by the Union Government had not benefited many farmers because of the guidelines laid down for the scheme. They urged the Union Government to reach the benefit of loan waiver to all farmers. Complaint They complained that the premiums fixed for various crops under the crop insurance scheme were unscientific and wanted to know why onion and chilli that were grown in good quantity in the region had not been included under the scheme. The protestors then handed over a memorandum addressed to the President to the Deputy Commissioner Darpan Jain. Mr. Jain assured the farmers of communicating their grievances to the authorities concerned. On the release of crop loss compensation for 2007-08 and declaring Dharwad taluk as drought-affected, he assured them of requisite action. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/30/stories/2008073052410300.htm Other States - Orissa CPI(M) organises protest BERHAMPUR: Ganjam district unit of the CPI(M) held a demonstration in front of the Berhampur Cooperative Central Bank protesting against alleged errors in the preparation of list of farmers eligible for loan waiver. They also handed over a six-point charter of demands to the cooperative bank authorities to improve services for the peasants. They alleged that officials of cooperative societies under the bank were taking bribes from farmers to arrange loan waivers. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/24/stories/2008072461330400.htm Karnataka - Bangalore KPRS, tomato growers hold protest march Staff Reporter Urge the Government to solve their problems ? Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy Demand: Farmers from Kolar district distributing tomatoes as part of a protest in Bangalore on Wednesday. BANGALORE: The members of the Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha (KPRS) and Tomato Growers? Association of Kolar district held a protest march from Town Hall to Vidhana Soudha here on Wednesday. They urged the Government to solve their problems by creating support structures. A delegation comprising General Secretary of KPRS J.C. Bayya Reddy, president Maruthi Manpade and growers? association leaders Holur Shankar and R. Ramakrishna Gowda submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister?s Secretariat listing their demands, which included fixing support price for tomato at Rs. 5 a kg. Earlier, the protestors staged a demonstration at Mysore Bank Circle. Their other demands included setting up of agro processing units and providing information to farmers about crop patterns. http://allafrica.com/stories/200807070134.html Kenya: Wheat Farmers Protest At Low Prices The Nation (Nairobi) 7 July 2008 Posted to the web 7 July 2008 Macharia Mwangi Nairobi More than 100 Narok wheat farmers took to the street Sunday, protesting against the low cost of the crop. The farmers, from Ntulele area, blocked the Maai Mahiu-Narok road demanding that the Government intervenes to save them from middlemen whom they accused of exploitation. The farmers, led by councillor Salankat ole Nchoe, said despite the high cost of farming, the produce was fetching low prices. "A bag of wheat is being sold for between Sh2,300 and Sh2,900 which is unacceptable," said one of the farmers. The protesters said the cost of fertiliser and other inputs, including pesticide, had shot up tenfold, yet they were being offered "very low" prices for the produce. They said it was not logical to import wheat at the moment while the local produce was being sold at throwaway price. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/15/stories/2008081556220300.htm Karnataka - Gulbarga Protesting CPI workers held Plea: Minister for Cooperation Lakshman S. Savadi talking to protesting workers of the Communist Party of India in Gulbarga on Thursday. GULBARGA: The police on Thursday arrested over 100 workers of the Communist Party of India (CPI) who picketed the guesthouse where Minister for Cooperation Lakshman S. Savadi was staying, demanding release of crop insurance to farmers whose loans were waived in 2006-07. The CPI workers, led by their district unit secretary Shoukat Ali Alur and president of the All India Kisan Sabha Moula Mulla, squatted on the road at the main entrance of the Iwan-e-Shahi Government Guesthouse preventing Mr. Savadi from going out of the building to participate in the quarterly review meeting of the Karnataka Development Programme at the Deputy Commissioner?s office. They shouted slogans against the Government for not fulfilling its promise of releasing the crop insurance to the farmers. Mr. Savadi and Animal Husbandry Minister Revu Naik Belamgi tried to persuade them to end their protest by assuring them that a decision in this regard would be taken at the earliest. The CPI leaders pointed out that the BJP had promised, during the election campaign, to release the crop insurance immediately after coming to power in the State. When the protesters insisted that Mr. Savadi take an on-the-spot decision and direct officials to release the crop insurance, the Minister said that such a decision could only taken after consulting the Chief Minister and left the spot amid slogan shouting by the CPI workers. Later, when Mr. Savadi and other leaders left the guesthouse through another gate, angered CPI workers started proceeding towards the Deputy Commissioner?s office to continue their protest. However, the police arrested them. The CPI workers were released later. Mr. Alur said that the then Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa was responsible for issuing the Government Order in 2006-07 on withholding payment of crop insurance to the farmers whose loans were waived. Mr. Alur said that crop insurance and loan waiver were two separate issues. The Government had no authority to withhold payment of crop insurance, he added. He said that during the election campaign Mr. Yeddyurappa had said that the order would be withdrawn if the BJP came to power. ?The Chief Minister appears to have forgotten his promise,? Mr. Alur added. http://www.indianexpress.com/story/347216.html Growers? protest ripe, parties rush in to pluck the fruits Mir Ehsan Posted online: Monday, August 11, 2008 at 0157 hrs Print Email SOPORE, August 10 : The fruit growers here are watching in dismay as separatists and political parties with their own agendas hijack their march towards the Line of Control. The leadership of the growers has been formally conveyed by followers of Syed Ali Shah Geelani to follow his march programme on Monday and told that the procession would be led by the Hurriyat hardliner himself instead of the fruit growers? leaders. This morning, as leaders of fruit growers were giving final touches to the cross-LoC march at the Sopore fruit mandi, Geelani?s emissaries dropped in with the message. Since the National Highway was blocked, the Sopore fruit mandi has presented a deserted look, but today hundreds of growers had assembled to chalk out a strategy for the march. Many growers were distributing pamphlets and arranging vehicles for the procession. A majority of growers are opposed to the Hurriyat jumping onto their bandwagon as, for them, the march is more an economic rather than a political issue. ?We are traders and don?t want to play politics,? Ghulam Rasool Bhat, President, Fruit Growers? and Dealers? Association, said. Bhat added that every Kashmiri could join the march towards the LoC in his individual capacity. ?We don?t want to make it a political event or a platform for separatists,? he said. ?The aim of this march is to highlight faces of communal elements in India who are destroying our fruit industry.? In fact, to keep the march away from politics, the growers had even constituted a coordination committee to lead the procession, with members from different trade bodies who have no affiliation with any political or separatist group. ?Ours is a non-political march,? said Ghulam Rasool Wagay, Secretary, All Valley Fruit Growers? Association, one of the members of the coordination committee. ?We are taking this extreme step to save our fruit industry that is worth thousands of crores.? Earlier, on Friday, fruit growers had refused a Hurriyat appeal to change their programme of crossing the LoC. Later, both factions of the Hurriyat had clubbed their programme with the fruit growers? march. ?We will start marching towards Muzaffarabad from every village,? General Secretary, Sopore fruit mandi, Ghulam Mohammad Malik said. ?We will take our fruit in trucks, load carriers and in private vehicles as we have been forced to take this extreme step.? http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=129136 Sugarcane growers protest against non-payment Sunday, August 10, 2008 By our correspondent NAWABSHAH: Hundreds of sugarcane growers took out a protest rally here on Saturday against the non-payment of sugarcane price fixed by the government. The growers also staged a sit-in in front of the Al-Noor Sugar Mills and chanted slogans against the mills administration. The growers demanded payment for the sugarcane supplied to the mill at the rate of Rs 67 per 40 kilogram and revocation of the decision of cutting weight in the sugarcane supplied through trolleys. The growers marched two kilometres on the National Highway, blocking the traffic. Meanwhile, the Al-Noor Sugar Mills administration closed the gates of the mills to prevent the entry of the protesters. Addressing the growers, Sindh Abadgar Tehrik Organiser Ghulam Fareed Kalhoro said the government had fixed the sugarcane rate at Rs 67 per 40 kilogram whereas the mill paid them Rs 60 per kg. He said the mill made a payment after cutting 30 per cent against the supply of 100 maunds of sugarcane, which caused a loss of millions of rupees to growers. Kalhoro said the prices of fertiliser and other agricultural inputs had increased manifold but the growers were still getting the prices of their produce below the cost of the inputs. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/12/stories/2008081259200600.htm Karnataka - Bangalore Coconut growers to stage protest over neera Special Correspondent They want Government to facilitate tapping and sale of neera Neera termed a health drink Neera tapping more remunerative to farmers than coconut sale: technologist BANGALORE: A section of the coconut growers, which is keen to tap ?neera?, has threatened to stage a non-violent protest from October 2 along with freedom fighters and Sarvodaya activists if the State Government fails to facilitate its tapping and sale by bringing out a neera policy. Announcing this at a press conference here on Monday, Indian Institute of Neera and Palm Products Technology president and neera technologist Swami Bhakti Teertha demanded that the Government should set up a neera board to support the measures to tap, process and market neera as well as its products. He alleged that though the Horticulture Department had prepared a draft neera policy in 2007, it had been put on hold due to pressure from various lobbies in the government. All that was required for implementation of the neera policy was a clearance from the Cabinet, he said. Such a policy as well as neera boards and federations had been formed in many States, including Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, West Bengal, Kerala and Bihar. Swami Bhakti Teertha maintained that neera was actually a health drink which was rich in nutrients.Swami Bhakti Teertha claimed that tapping neera was more remunerative to farmers than selling coconuts. After deducting their expenses, it was possible to get a daily income of Rs. 5 per tree by tapping neera, he noted. Neera activists are planning to stage a protest in the State if the Government failed to respond positively to their demand. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7556691.stm 12 August 2008 14:43 UK Farmers protest at Guinness gates Farmers say they are not being paid enough for barley crops Up to 400 farmers have protested over the price of malting barley outside the Guinness brewery in Dublin. The farmers said the company which supplies barley to Guinness is paying them 20% less for crops this year, despite increased production costs. The president of the farmers' union, Padraig Walshe, said farmers are "at the mercy" of large corporations. Guinness owner Diageo said it had no involvement in negotiating the price. http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0812/farming.html Farmers protest over barley prices Tuesday, 12 August 2008 22:35 Up to 400 farmers took part in a protest over the price of malting barley outside the Guinness brewery this morning. The farmers who protested outside St James's Gate brewery say Greencore Malt, which supplies the barley to Guinness producers Diageo, is paying farmers 20% less for their crop this year despite increased production costs. IFA President Padraig Walshe says farmers are at the mercy of large corporations which control the market. Advertisement However, Diageo rejected that claim saying that it does not buy directly from farmers and has no role in negotiating the price. http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=131771 Growers protest against water shortage Monday, August 25, 2008 By our correspondent NAUSHAHRO FEROZE: The tail-end growers of Dalipota took out a rally and staged a demonstration in front of the Naushahro Feroze Press Club on Sunday to protest against the non-availability of water. Protesters, led by Shah Nawaz Lakho, raised slogans against the Irrigation authorities. Talking to journalists, they said influential landlords had installed pipes in minors and were lifting water through suction motors. They accused them of breaking watercourse points and that they were taking water beyond their share. ?As a result, the growers are suffering losses,? Lakho said. The protestors said they had approached the SDO Irrigation of Tharushah and the XEN Moro several times but their complaints were not heard. They demanded of the Sindh chief minister and the Irrigation minister to take action against influential landlords and provide them justice. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/25/stories/2008082552420300.htm Karnataka - Bellary Farmland owners protest ore seizure Staff Correspondent Movement of traffic affected for some time Farmers seek return of confiscated ore Demand permission to dig lands BELLARY: A torchlight procession was taken out in Hospet city on Saturday evening by farmers engaged in removing float ore from ?patta? lands, in protest against the raids by the district administration against illegal mining. They also demanded that the Government accord them permission to extract ore from their lands. A large number of farmers from various villages in the taluk, including Kallahalli, Rajapur, Venkatagiri, Kariganur, Sankapur, Vaddafrahalli and Jambunathahalli, participated in the rally organised under the aegis of the Raithara Hakku Badhyata Samiti. They raised slogans against District in-charge Minister Janardhan Reddy, MLA Anand Singh, and the district administration. The agitators also demanded that the ore seized by the district administration be returned to land owners. The movement of vehicular traffic was affected for some time in the city on account of the procession. The district administration had, in accordance with instructions from Mr. Janardhan Reddy, raided several places in Hospet and Sandur taluks recently and seized over 3.5 lakh tonnes of float ore extracted by digging the land. N. Chandrababu, president of the samiti, led the protest. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/07/stories/2008080753610400.htm Karnataka - Mysore Sugarcane growers? protest tomorrow Staff Correspondent Factories not paying additional amount to farmers Government urged to fix price before harvest season MYSORE: Sugarcane farmers will stage a demonstration in front of the Raj Bhavan in Bangalore on August 8 to protest against the failure of the sugar factories in paying them the additional Rs. 160 for a tonne of sugarcane as directed by Governor Rameshwar Thakur. Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, president of Karnataka State Sugarcane Growers? Association Kurubur Shanthakumar said the Government had failed to implement the Governor?s directive issued during President?s Rule on March 1. ?Though five months had elapsed since the Governor issued an order to pay farmers an additional of Rs. 160 for a tonne, the directions are yet to be honoured by sugar factories. The Government has allowed the sugar factories to function by giving us false assurances?, Mr. Shanthakumar said. Though the Government had held periodic meetings and directed the sugar factories to pay the farmers their dues, the farmers had been denied the money and were facing a difficult situation, he said. ?It is not just the private sugar mills that have defied the Governor?s directions. Even the state-owned sugar factories and co-operative sugar factories have not implemented the order,? Mr. Shanthakumar said. The association would pressure the Government to fix the rate for sugarcane for 2008-09 before the farmers begin harvesting their yield, he said. ?To press for our demands, thousands of sugarcane farmers from different parts of the State will gather in front of Raj Bhavan in Bangalore on August 8,? Mr. Shanthakumar said. Mr. Shanthakumar urged the Government to crack the whip against the sugar factories by confiscating the sugar and by-products like molasses till the farmers? dues were cleared. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Fri Aug 29 20:59:08 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 04:59:08 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Small business protests, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <006a01c90a54$c29030d0$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ TAXI DRIVERS * US, Florida: Taxi drivers protest council "mafia" * IRELAND: Protests "likely to spread"; Dublin protest * INDIA, Tamil Nadu: Autorickshaw protest for streamlining * JAMAICA: Taxi drivers protest fees, roads; bus strike * BANGLADESH: Taxi protest over fee increase * AUSTRALIA: "Man-boob mayhem" as ethnic Asian taxi drivers protest assaults * US, Oregon: Taxi drivers honk horns over license plan * SOUTH AFRICA: Taxi drivers "rob motorists" during shutdown, march; Gauteng demo peaceful * LESOTHO: Taxi drivers blockade road over shooting * US, Port Chester: Taxi strike over licenses * UGANDA: Taxi drivers protest "illegal" fees * UAE, Abu Dhabi: Taxi drivers protest "salary cuts", fines * US, Arizona: Limo drivers protest at fees, not breaking even * US, Tennessee: Taxi drivers stage "sick-out" * BULGARIA: Taxi strike strands tourists * INDIA, Andhra Pradesh: Taxi drivers protest VAT TRADERS * INDIA, New Delhi: Traders protest against government apathy * INDIA, Andhra Pradesh: Protest over withdrawal of kiosks * INDIA, Karnataka: Vegetable merchants protest * INDIA, Rajghat: Traders ask Gandhi statue for help * AUSTRALIA: Shopkeepers disrupt traffic over clearway plan * PAKISTAN: Protests about reduced services * INDIA, New Delhi: Traders protest "insulting remarks" * PHILIPPINES: Protest at church-run mall over fee increase * INDIA, Kerala: Jewellers strike over tax raids * AUSTRALIA: Town centre business owners protest rate increases, disrupt council meeting * MOLDOVA: Meat traders march to defend "patent" system * EGYPT: Tourist shopkeepers on hunger strike, demand extra tour stop FISHERFOLK * PAKISTAN: Fisherfolk protest government policies, inflation * INDIA, Kerala: Fisherfolk protest quota cut, corruption * INDIA, Tamil Nadu: Fisherfolk protest industrialisation of coast * PHILIPPINES: Fisherfolk protest at capsized vessel * IRELAND: Cork meeting faces protest over unregulated products * CANADA, Nova Scotia: Lobster fisherfolk protest scallop draggers; crab blockade ends TRUCKERS * ARGENTINA: Truck drivers protest lack of opportunities * BOLVIIA: Truckers protest tax change * POLAND: Truckers strike over tolls * TURKEY/BULGARIA: Turkish drivers blockade border over crossing fees * AUSTRALIA: Agenda clash at truckers; protest; license issue targeted * MALAYSIA: Drivers protest lorry seizures VARIOUS SMALL BUSINESSES AND PROFESSIONALS * BULGARIA: Sofia blockade by driving instructors over regulations * VIETNAM: Motorcycle couriers protest ban * FIJI: Water bottlers strike over export duty * INDIA, Andhra Pradesh: Barbers strike over attack by Hindu right-wingers * BAHAMAS: Angry bus drivers scared off protest by threats * INDIA, Kerala: Travel agents strike, protest over airline commissions * INDIA, Karnataka: Artist stages dress-up protest over problems * INDIA, Kerala: Cooperatives stage protest for aid * INDIA, Tamil Nadu: Doctors, laeyers protest * PAKISTAN: Investors ransack stock exchanges, block roads, burn tyres over market collapse * HOLLAND: Airline workers protest against green tax http://www.local6.com/news/16618223/detail.html?rss=orlpn&psp=news Cabbie Protest Ignites, Man Arrested POSTED: 10:22 am EDT June 16, 2008 UPDATED: 1:13 pm EDT June 16, 2008 ORLANDO, Fla. -- Cab drivers and several police officers were involved in a heated face to face standoff Monday when tempers ignited during a protest over a city taxi ordinance. The group of taxi cab drivers protested outside City Hall, claiming the city's contract with Mears Transportation gives the company a virtual monopoly at Orlando International Airport. "Orlando is a city of mafia," some cab drivers yelled during the protest. The protest was peaceful until Orlando police arrested a cab driver after he protested getting a ticket. The arrest sparked anger among some cabbies. "We can't feed our families," cab driver Ronald Adrien said. "We can't put food on the table for our families because we have a lot of problems. We can't pay our bills. Right now, we are in a bad situation." City officials defended the Mears contract, saying it helps ensure quality, uniformed service for customers. A Mears spokesman said the idea that there is a monopoly with the company is not true. He said there are many cab companies licensed through the city and county and that drivers have the right to drive for another company, Local 6's Todd Jurkowski said. http://www.wftv.com/news/16032638/detail.html Protesting Taxi Drivers Ticketed By Orlando Police POSTED: 11:58 am EDT April 28, 2008 UPDATED: 12:40 pm EDT April 28, 2008 ORLANDO, Fla. -- Some local taxi drivers paid a price Monday for a protest at Orlando City Hall. More than 100 local cab drivers showed up at City Hall Monday morning to demand changes to the taxi industry. Instead, some of them got big tickets from Orlando police for disrupting traffic. The drivers trailed each other to City Hall. They were driving in the far right lane of Orange Avenue and cut across two lanes of traffic to get into the City Hall parking lot. Orlando police were waiting to issue tickets for $118. In the middle of rush hour traffic, Orlando cabbies drove about two miles an hour on Orange Avenue to protest against Mears, the largest transportation company in the city. But before they even made it to the plaza in front of City Hall to picket, Orlando police officers issued tickets to some of the drivers for disrupting traffic. Besides going too slowly, some cut off other drivers who were caught off guard by the traffic jam. "If you want to make a left turn, you have to be in the left lane. You can't stop in the middle of the road and stop all the traffic and endanger people coming down the road and yourself," said Officer J. Baxter, Orlando Police Department. The drivers said they were targeted because they're fighting a battle against Mears, which owns most of the major cab companies in town. "It's harassment. It was intentional. They did it to make these guys feel discouraged," said taxi driver Tim Adams. The drivers told Eyewitness News they're forced to lease their taxis from Mears because they have contracts with all the major properties in town, like Disney. Some of them pay $880 a week because the company recently increased its rental rates. "We working over 16 hours a day and seven days a week, we can barely make a living. We don't see our kids," said driver Fritz Robinson. Drivers want the city to change the rules to make it easier for them to go independent and break up what they believe is a Mears monopoly. The city said the system is set up the way it is for safety reasons and they want drivers who are interested in serving the entire city, not just tourist areas. "They have a choice. There are six licensed cab companies in the city. It's not fair to attack us. We've been here 70 years and we provide a good service. There are other cab companies in town they can work for and everyone is free to start their own business," Mears spokesperson Roger Chapin said late Monday morning. http://www.worldpress.org/feed.cfm?http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/0425/breaking46.htm , April 25, 2008, 13:37 Taxi protests likely to spread - union Charlie Taylor As taxi drivers in Waterford and Limerick take to the streets in separate protests this afternoon, the National Taxi Drivers Union (NTDU) has warned that stoppages in other parts of the country are likely over the coming weeks and months. Speaking this afternoon, the NTDU's president Tommy Gorman said that there was widespread anger from drivers over the issuing of taxi licences. The Waterford Taxi Association is currently embroiled in an ongoing dispute with Waterford City Council on the shortage of rank spaces in the city centre and is currently staging a two-hour stoppage in the city. Taxi drivers have claimed that their livelihoods are at risk due to a lack of available taxi rank spaces in Waterford and today's protest is the latest in a long line of stoppages staged by drivers. Waterford City Council acknowledges that there has been an almost 900 per cent increase in the number of taxis plying for hire in the city since de-regulation of taxi licences in 2003. However, earlier this month, it said that while it was aware of the taxi drivers concerns, it wasn?t in a position to increase the number of taxi ranks in the city centre as the space simply does not exist. Elsewhere, a protest is to be held in Limerick later this afternoon over the issuing of licences to part-time drivers. Full-time taxi drivers in the city claim that their jobs are at risk because there is almost double the number of licenced operators in the city than there should be. Drivers have called for a complete work stoppage by all taxis from 3pm onwards. Mr Gorman claimed today that Commissioner for Taxi Regulation, Kathleen Doyle, seemed to be more interested in accruing revenue from the issuing of new licences than in safeguarding the livelihoods of those who are already employed as taxi drivers. The NTDU claims that over 200 licences are currently being issued each month and says that ?32 million in revenues have been acquired from the issuing of licenses since September 2006. ?Kathleen Doyle only seems to be interested in consumers and there seems to be a complete lack of interest in looking after the drivers who provide the services to the public,? said Mr Gorman. "She continues to issue licences despite there being enough taxis on the road. There?s so much anger over this from drivers that I expect that the protests we?re seeing today will spread nationwide unless proper measures are introduced to resolve the problem,? he added. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/0506/breaking34.htm Tuesday, May 6, 2008, 14:49 Dublin taxi drivers hold unofficial protest Related ? Taxi protests may spread nationwide | 26/04/2008 External ? Commission for Taxi Regulation NTDU The Irish Times take no responsibility for the content or availability of other websites Elaine Edwards Hundreds of taxi drivers engaged in unofficial protests in Dublin today claiming a ?saturated market? in taxi plates is making it increasingly difficult for them to make a living. President of the National Taxi Drivers? Union (NTDU) Tommy Gorman said the drivers were taking action over the ?dismissive attitude? of the Commissioner for Taxi Regulation Kathleen Doyle. Mr Gorman claimed the regulator was refusing to take action to deal with what had become an oversaturated market. ?She is issuing 300 new plates a month and we don?t know where the customers are going to come from because each plate would need 12 to 15 passengers a day to make it viable,? he said. ?As far as we are concerned, this market is saturated and it?s very hard to make a living. Drivers were expecting big things after Kathleen Doyle took over as regulator. We met her last September when we could see this thing getting out of hand and we met her in March but she dismissed the concerns.? Asked what form the protests were taking, Mr Gorman said taxi drivers were all coming out to work on ranks today ?as normal?. They would not inconvenience members of the public who wished to hire a taxi, he said. He said they were gathered at ranks in the city centre and, with the help of the Garda Sioch?na, were making sure that there were no ?blockades? or disruption of traffic. Traffic in Dublin city centre this morning did not show any signs of unusual disruption. Two taxi ranks in the O?Connell Street area had a number of taxis waiting and appeared to be operating normally. By just after 11am, there was little evidence of the planned protest in the city centre. However, shortly after 2pm, several hundred taxis drove along College Green sounding their horns. One driver, who did not wish to named, said earlier at a rank on Dame Street that the protest was "just to show how many cars are on the road". "At the weekends it?s just wall-to-wall taxis and it?s affecting my living," he said. Brendan Byrne from Dublin stood with a small number of other taxi drivers across the road at Foster Place at 11am. He said he believed the taxi regulator ?just doesn?t want to listen? to drivers? concerns. But he believed more drivers would turn out for today?s ?working protest?. ?I was expecting a lot more but I think a lot of lads are probably working the outskirts of the city, the airport and that. It was to be a show of strength, of numbers because we feel it?s at saturation point now. It?s just going beyond a bit of a joke. It?s gone from about 3,000 taxis in this city to nearly 13,000 over seven and a half years.? The drivers had not intended to carry out any ?blockade?. ?We don?t want to be upsetting the public. We want to get confidence in the taxi industry,? he said. ?Blocking the streets isn?t the way forward so that?s why we said we?d do a ?working protest? today," Mr Byrne said. Paul Kavanagh from Lucan, who normally works at night, said he came out to join the protest to protect his livelihood. He said he knew a number of taxi drivers who had left the business because they could not make a living due to the number of cars on the road. ?It?s great for the consumer but it?s not great for the taxi drivers - we?re all individual people as well,? Mr Kavanagh said. ?It?s just got so hard - I work 60 hours a week. I have a wife and two kids. It?s a case of a full-time taxi driver and part-time father with no time to see Shamrock Rovers. I work longer hours now for less money.? In a statement, the Commission for Taxi Regulation said the small public service vehicle (SPSV) industry is now working within a liberalised market and it is not within the remit of the commission to put a cap on the number of licences issued. ?Whilst the commission recognises the right of members of the industry to express their views unfortunately disruptive action only succeeds in inconveniencing potential customers and ultimately affects the earnings of the self-employed drivers," it said. On the issue of adequate space at taxi ranks, which has also been raised by drivers, the commission said this matter was under the remit of "the relevant local authority". The commission said it had undertaken to conduct an economic review of the industry and a nationwide audit of taxi ranks in 2008. However, Mr Gorman said taxi drivers under pressure to earn a living ?do not have time for an in-depth study?. Ms Doyle angered drivers last month when she told an Oireachtas transport committee she did not have the power to cap licences and that drivers who weren't earning money needed to manage their businesses better. Taxi drivers in Limerick and Waterford engaged in unofficial following her remarks and the NTDU warned this action was likely to spread nationwide. More than 26,000 taxi, hackney and limousine licences were issued up to last March. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/19/stories/2008081952730300.htm Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore Auto drivers stage protest Staff Reporter Coimbatore: Autorickshaw drivers under the banner of the Coimbatore District Autorickshaw Workers All Association Joint Committee staged a demonstration on Huzur Road in front of the Red Cross Society building urging the authorities to streamline the functioning of call taxis and share autorickshaws. According to the president of the committee, P.K. Sugumaran, and secretary G. Ansarbasha, the demonstrators wanted the stand system to be streamlined and the autorickshaws should be insulated from the interference of call taxis and share autorickshaws. The concept of call taxis, in violation of rules, has come as a death-knell for the nearly 9,000 autorickshaws in the city. The nomenclature call taxi?s never find a place or mention in the Motor Vehicle Rules. The self-styled call taxi concept was fast become a law unto themselves. The call taxi drivers besides luring passengers with advertisement campaign were parking the vehicles right in front of autorickshaw stands soliciting passengers leading to wordy duels. More passengers Similarly, the operation of share autorickshaws was also proving to be a concern for the auto drivers as the share automen were allowing more passengers to board the vehicle than the allowed capacity. It was time the law enforcing agencies such as Transport Department and police streamlined the functioning of these two modes of transport, they added. http://www.jamaica-star.com/thestar/20080422/news/news4.html Taxi men protest fees, roads Rasbert Turner, Star Writer Spanish Town Scores of commuters were left stranded in sections of St Catherine yesterday as taxi operators withdrew their services, protesting bad road conditions and a hike in the road licence fees. Roadblocks The Star visited the Church Pen main road in St Catherine to find fallen trees blocking the road. The cry on the lips of taxi operators were that the bad road conditions have yet to be addressed despite a recent protest against this. The police later cleared the road. Meanwhile, taxis plying the Spanish Town-to-Naggo Head route showed their displeasure against a proposed hike in road licences by withdrawing their services. They claimed some of them now have to pay up to $50,000 for a route and they cannot afford this. Promised Several commuters were unable to get to their destination as a result of the withdrawal. The cabbies later returned to work after they were promised by the authorities that a solution would be worked out. They however promised to restart their protest if they were not given a favourable response. President of the Portmore Route Taxi Association, Widcliffe Addison, said he hopes something can be done for the operators who are finding it very hard to cope. http://www.radiojamaica.com/content/view/8064/26/ Irate bus and taxi operators protest across the island Tuesday, 13 May 2008 Bus operators in St. James are irate over being omitted from the recent fare increase and what they describe as a lack of representation by the Northwestern bus association. The drivers who converged at the Montego Bay Transport Centre on Tuesday morning claim the association should have lobbied the government for a fare increase at the same time as taxi operators. The drivers claim they face greater expenses and are more deserving of a fare increase than their taxi counterparts and therefore need proper representation to highlight their grouse. They noted they will be shortly lobbying the government for a similar increase to that of the taxi operators. He added that they will withdraw their services if their demands are not met. While many passengers said they cannot cope with any further increase in fares, some were in support of the bus operators. The drivers who parked their vehicles and converged at the bus park on Tuesday ply routes in Montego Bay to Lucea, Savanna la mar, Falmouth Ocho Rios, Kingston, and upper St. James. And bus operators in Linstead, St. Catherine who on Tuesday morning withdrew their service to protest over the Government's failure to grant them a fare increase remained off the job on Tuesday afternoon. The operators are adamant that they will stay off the job until Transport Minister Mike Henry addresses them on the matter. When RJR News visited the bus terminus only one minibus operator was seen soliciting passengers. Meanwhile, taxi operators plying the Old Harbour to Spanish Town route in St. Catherine are complaining that as a result of the increase in operation costs they are losing passengers to bus operators. According to one taxi operator the situation is taking a toll on them. "Well the problem is that since we were granted the increase in fare and the bus operators have not been granted an increase people are more inclined to go with the bus...but I think after a while they will have to come back to the taxis because the buses are turning off [of the route] with them," said an Old Harbour taxi operator. "...for now we are getting a hard time because we are not getting anyone to travel with us as before," he said. http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=34814 Cab drivers protest hike in deposition money Staff Correspondent Several thousand drivers of CNG-run taxicabs on Thursday observed a work stoppage in the city protesting an increase of rate of daily money deposition by the owners. They also staged demonstration in the city's Matuail and Gabtoli areas against the decision of the cab owners, urging the government for taking measures in this regard. The drivers alleged that in the name of the price hike of the CNG, the taxicab owners increased the rate. They said although the government had fixed a rate of Tk 450 per day, they had to pay the owners Tk 560. But the cab owners at a sudden decision fixed Tk 920 for each cab per day. According to witnesses, several thousand taxicabs were seen parking at different depots in the city as the drivers went on work stoppage. Bangladesh Bus-Truck Owners Association Chairman and former BNP lawmaker GM Siraj told The Daily Star, ?Though there is a government decision of driving taxicabs by the drivers against the deposition of a fixed amount of money, drivers run my cabs on condition of commission.? Replying to a question, GM Siraj said, ?As the CNG price has been hiked, we have to collect extra charge.? http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23621686-5001021,00.html?from=public_rss Negotiations end man-boob mayhem April 30, 2008 10:45am A PROTEST by cab drivers which has caused mayhem in Melbourne's CBD appears to have ended with cabbies having their demands for safer conditions met. Driver representative Mohammed Jama and Victorian Taxi Directorate general manager Peter Corcoran said safety screens would be made compulsory in taxis and introduced by Christmas. Pre-paid fares will be compulsory between 10pm and 5am each night, and the State Government will cover all medical costs for a driver stabbed and left for dead this week. Mr Jama said he was happy with the result and drivers could remove the screens if they did not want them. Earlier, dozens of drivers whipped off their shirts and sat down at a busy city intersection this morning as part of a protest over the stabbing of a colleague that brought central Melbourne to a halt See all the man-boob action here. The crowd of up to 1,000 angry drivers blocked traffic on the corner of Swanston and Flinders streets, one of the city's busiest. Chanting "we want justice" and "shame, shame Victoria police", some braved Melbourne's cold and stripped off their tops at the intersection of Swanston and Flinders streets. Some drivers held signs reading "stop killing the drivers" and "help us", as scores of taxis lined the streets. Dozens of police monitored the protest. Drivers have made several demands of the State Government, including compensation for the stabbing victim and severe punishment for the offender. The drivers also want driver safety screens, pre-paid taxi rides, special protection at certain railway stations and suburbs after hours, and more help from police. They said they would march through the city today to demand a meeting with Transport Minister Lynne Kosky. The rally came after a 23-year-old taxi driver was stabbed in Melbourne early yesterday. A man will appear in a Melbourne court today charged with attempted murder. Ms Kosky today called on the taxi drivers to end their blockade, saying she told taxi representatives last night she was willing to meet them. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/Attack_on_Indian_cabbie_in_Oz_triggers_protests/articleshow/2997894.cms Attack on Indian cabbie in Oz triggers protests 30 Apr 2008, 1117 hrs IST,ANI MELBOURNE: Traffic has been disrupted in Melbourne since last evening, following strong protests from nearly one thousand taxi drivers demanding safety, after a 23-year-old Indian part-time taxi driver was stabbed several times by a miscreant in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. ( Watch ) At times standoffs emerged between the protesting taxi drivers and the Police, even as cops were seen dragging them away. ( Watch ) Jalvinder Singh, the stabbed taxi driver, has been declared out of danger at Royal Melbourne Hospital after his condition improved. A man charged with his attempted murder appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday. The agitated taxi-drivers, most of them Indians, shouted slogans against the Melbourne Police and demanded better safety conditions for them during odd hours. Trams are being diverted, access to the city's airport is under threat and mounted police are on standby as cab drivers protest over the stabbing of a colleague, said an AAP report According to the report, three taxi-driver representatives met the taxi directorate on Wednesday morning agreed to march on Parliament House to shift the protest from the city center, but their attempts to convince the protesters to move have failed, extending the protest which began on Tuesday afternoon. Taxi drivers have also threatened to block access to Melbourne Airport if the Transport Minister doesn't meet them before noon. Some protesters removed their shirts chanting slogans like "What do we want? Justice!", and "Taxi-drivers rights, Human rights".. Demands of the protesting taxi-drivers include compensation for the stabbing victim, safety screens for cabs, fares to be pre-paid around the clock, special protection at specific rail stations and suburbs, and a demand that police treat migrant complaints seriously. Police said they could break up the protest at any time. Inspector Steve Beith told 3AW radio the traffic situation was "not good". The police were willing to facilitate a peaceful protest and march but had been frustrated in their search for a single voice from the protesters, said Beith and added: "There doesn't appear to be any structure or organizers. Every time we try to speak to anybody the shouting and the chants start. It's very difficult to hear what they're trying to say. There appears to be different groups with different organisers of those groups. It's very hard to work out who's who." http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004440873_webtaxi27m.html Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - Page updated at 12:05 PM E-mail article Print view Share: Digg Newsvine Taxi drivers honk in protest over King County license plan By Keith Ervin Seattle Times staff reporter PREV of NEXT MIKE SIEGEL / THE SEATTLE TIMES Taxi cab drivers from different companies rally outside the Columbia Center along Fifth Avenue and Cherry Street Tuesday morning. Menindar Singh, right, Lakhwinder Randhawa, center and Sukhwinder Singh, left, were among the protesters. Dozens of taxi drivers angry about King County's plan to award 50 new taxi licenses converged on downtown Seattle this morning and leaned on their horns as they drove past the office of County Executive Ron Sims in the Columbia Tower. Protesting drivers said their taxi licenses would be devalued by the county's announcement Friday that it plans to issue licenses to Green Cab Taxi & Disabled Service Association. "Now they are giving other licenses to their buddies," said driver Kulwant Singh Grewal, president of the Seattle Taxi Owner Association. Caroline Whalen, program project director for Sims, said Friday that Green Cab was "the most able" contractor for a test program to bring in more gas-electric hybrid taxis and allow drivers to be represented by a labor union. She denied critics' claim that Green Cab was chosen because a number of its drivers donated to Sims' 2005 re-election campaign. Douglas Titus, attorney for the Seattle Washington Taxi Association, a group opposing the Green Cab licenses, said it will challenge them in court if the county doesn't back off from its decision. He called the licensing process "fundamentally unfair." Bashi Hassan, a driver who said he is not affiliated with Green Cab, supported the new licenses and said the protesters are cab owners who are exploiting their nonowner drivers. "They want to dominate, monopolize this business," he said. http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2379892,00.html Taxi protesters attack drivers 21/08/2008 11:37 - (SA) Johannesburg - About 50 members of the Kempton Park Taxi Association blockaded Tembisa roads on Thursday morning, robbing at least one motorist and slashing the tyres of two cars, police said. "The illegal march started at about 04:00 this morning by taxi operators of the Kempton Park Taxi Association," said Inspector Mveli Nhlapo. The protesters, one of whom was armed with a firearm, others carrying knobkerries and sjamboks, stopped motorists in Tembisa who were transporting stranded commuters. "Two cars were damaged. They slashed all four tyres on both cars. One of the motorists said they also took money from him," said Nhlapo. "We don't know what aggravated them," he added. The protesters then took a train at Leralla railway station to Van Riebeeck station near Kempton Park and continued their march. "The police warned them to disperse because the march was illegal but they refused to disperse. The police fired rubber bullets to disperse the crowd," said Nhlapo. Some of the protesters ran away but 13 were arrested. They face charges of malicious damage to property, public violence, theft and possession of an illegal firearm. Nobody was injured. http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_South%20Africa&set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=nw20080529194715962C221065 Taxi drivers stage protest May 29 2008 at 07:55PM Local taxi drivers staged a protest against buses transporting commuters around Orange Farm instead of only into town, Gauteng police said on Thursday. Captain Johannes Motsiri said the taxi drivers protested against competition from buses, which were transporting people around locally for R3, instead of only taking them into town. The protest drew onlookers and was peaceful, said Motsiri. - Sapa http://www.sabcnews.com/africa/southern_africa/0,2172,170503,00.html Lesotho taxi drivers protest against shooting May 29, 2008, 08:45 Taxi drivers in the capital of Lesotho are blocking the main southern road into the city. The drivers are protesting the shooting yesterday of a taxi owner following a row with a government bus assistant. Police say the taxi drivers were attempting to stop passengers from boarding a government bus and the bus assistant allegedly shot and wounded the taxi owner. The bus assistant is in police custody and police are investigating a case of attempted murder. Transport operators in Lesotho are still awaiting a response from government following a petition against the introduction of government buses in the city. They claim the government buses are killing private transport in Lesotho. Last week the taxi owners in the Lesotho capital, Maseru, went on a campaign to stop new government buses from operating. The taxi owners offloaded passengers and instructed bus drivers to park some buses. They are expected to take part in talks with government to resolve the issue. http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080624/NEWS02/806240347/1018/RSS0101 Port Chester taxi drivers strike to protest licensing proposal By Aman Ali and Theresa Juva ? The Journal News ? June 24, 2008 PORT CHESTER - Taxi drivers in the village have gone on strike this week to protest the mayor's plan to increase cab licensing requirements. "The mayor is opening the door for more county regulation," said Stephen Neilsen, president of the Port Chester Taxi Association. "Only the mayor wants this plan, and he won't stop until he gets what he wants." Currently, cabdrivers in the village are required to have licenses from the state and the village. Mayor Dennis Pilla's plan would require them to get a license from the Westchester County Taxi and Limousine Commission, which conducts extensive background and driving-record checks on drivers, measures the village currently does not take. "We're doing this to enhance the public's safety," Pilla said. "With criminal background checks, we want the public to be assured that our drivers have a solid background." The taxi association represents 85 drivers in the village who serve about 2,000 customers a day. Around 30 of them stood outside the village's Metro-North Railroad station yesterday wearing white T-shirts with the phrase "No TLC," in reference to the county licensing commission requirements. Fred Hudson, a driver in the village for 50 years, said a majority of the village's taxi drivers were of Hispanic origin. "Once again, the village is picking on the Hispanic crowd," he said. Neilsen said Pilla's proposal would be a burden on the village's drivers, who already "struggle to make a living." The village looked into doing its own background checks and concluded county licenses would be cheaper for drivers, Pilla said. The county licenses will cost drivers $115, as opposed to $330 if the village were to conduct the checks. "Not only will they be paying less, but with this extra license, they'll be able to work all over the county," Pilla said. "It enhances their employment ability." Neilsen said licensing costs weren't an issue for the association's drivers. "We don't mind paying the extra fees for drug tests and background checks," Neilsen said. "As long as we can keep the tests here in Port Chester." Cabdrivers will be on strike until Thursday, when the village will hold a public hearing at 8 p.m. on the proposal. Neilsen said his association is prepared to continue the strike if the plan is approved. Reach Aman Ali at aali at lohud.com or 914-694-5063. http://allafrica.com/stories/200807080541.html Uganda: Taxi Drivers Protest Levy New Vision (Kampala) 7 July 2008 Posted to the web 8 July 2008 Barbara Among Kampala Taxi drivers have asked local government minister Kahinda Otafiire to stop the Uganda Taxi Operators and Driver Association (UTODA) from charging them what they called illegal fees. They argued that UTODA was charging them between sh2,000 and sh35,000 each time they loaded passengers at various stages. "UTODA has continued to illegally and forcefully collect loading fees without giving us receipts," read a July 4 letter signed by their chairman, Mustapha Mayambala. The drivers first petitioned the Ministry of Local Government over the fees last year and the state minister, Hope Mwesige, constituted a committee to investigate the matter. The probe established that the 'loading fees' were illegal because they were not backed by any legal instrument. Mwesige instructed the town clerk to abolish the levy by July 1. However, UTODA has continued to collect it, saying Otafiire allegedly allowed them to continue collecting the fees on June 30. UTODA manages the taxi parks and Kampala City Council authorised it to collect sh20,000 from each driver as monthly fees (sticker) and sh4,500 as daily receipt charges. http://archive.gulfnews.com/nation/General/10230609.html Taxi drivers protest 'salary cuts' in Abu Dhabi By Binsal Abdul Kader, Staff Reporter Published: July 21, 2008, 00:05 Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi witnessed its first protest by taxi drivers on Sunday since the new silver taxis run by seven franchises were introduced in November 2007. About 50 taxi drivers from one taxi company went on protest yesterday morning, against alleged 'salary cuts'. However, most of the drivers had returned to work by evening, following the intervention of the police and the Ministry of Labour, said Trans AD, the Centre for Regulation of Transport by Hire Cars. "Most of them were convinced when the authorities said it was illegal to carry out any sort of protest," Huda Al Ka'abi, Communication officer at Trans AD, told Gulf News. "They were demanding that 'cuts' on traffic offences be waived but the job contract signed by them stipulates otherwise," said the official. The divers told Gulf News that their salaries were cut for not meeting their daily target of Dh350. "Apart from that, we have to bear a number of other 'cuts' on the fines imposed by the traffic police and Trans AD", said A. M, a taxi driver. "We are compelled to work more than 14 hours to meet the target", said S.A, another taxi driver. Refuting the allegation regarding 'high targets', the manager said the company has set a daily target of Dh300 as most drivers easily made Dh400. http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/08/16/20080816limo0816.html Limo drivers protest Sky Harbor rule on idling vehicles New limit on idling vehicles is another blow to a wilting industry, chauffeurs say 42 comments by Jahna Berry - Aug. 16, 2008 12:00 AM The Arizona Republic Limousine drivers staged a protest for nearly three hours at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on Friday afternoon, refusing to take any customers until they spoke with airport officials. The move was sparked by a new airport rule that cut the number of limos that could idle at Terminal 3 from two to one. But the limo drivers said the protest is really about several airport policies that favor taxi companies over limousines, although limo firms say that they pay thousands more for airport fees. Limo drivers have been hit hard by airport rules, the flagging economy, high gas prices and relatively inexpensive limo fares, the protesters said. In a profession steeped in the aura of luxury, many drivers are barely scraping by. "We are dying out here," said Mark Marsden, a driver for Black Pearl Limo who also runs his own limo company. The limo drivers got back to work around 2 p.m. Airport officials have agreed to meet with the limo companies next week to hear their concerns, said airport spokeswoman Claire Simeone. A date has not yet been set yet, she said. "We are looking forward to meeting with the limousine companies, who we will have contact with next week," Simeone said. Such protests are "very rare," she added. There are seven limousine companies that operate 30 vehicles at Sky Harbor, she said. The tensions at the airport developed over time, drivers say. The airport has slowly whittled the number of limos that can idle at the terminals and now asks drivers to park in areas that are tough for customers to find, said Jay Mamfoukh, a driver for Mechelle Limousine. Mamfoukh has been in the business for more than a decade. Visibility is key for taxis and limos because harried travelers make quick transportation decisions when they leave the terminal, Mamfoukh said. The policies are a problem because limousine firms pay as much as $25,000 per car for annual airport fees while a taxi firms pays $200 per cab, limo drivers say. Simeone said she could not comment about specific complaints because she was not familiar with limo contracts, she said. Airport officials who handle limo contracts were not available for comment late Friday afternoon. The bleak economy has made a bad situation worse, drivers say. Limousine drivers spend about $200 a day for gas and lease expenses. In better times, they had six to seven customers a day. Now it's trickled to two or three. Many days they don't break even, said limo driver Arman Shahsavan. Shahsavan, 46, remembers a recent airport customer asked for a ride to the Phoenician Resort. Shahsavan charged the man $45. The man was stunned, Shahsavan recalled. "Forty-five dollars?" the man said. "Here's $100. Get a new profession." If things stay the same, Shahsavan said, many drivers may have to. http://www.wsmv.com/news/17159644/detail.html?rss=nash&psp=news#- Cab Drivers Stage Protest At Courthouse Drivers Say They Make $2.07 An Hour Reported by Sara Dorsey POSTED: 12:58 pm CDT August 11, 2008 UPDATED: 8:55 pm CDT August 11, 2008 NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Some Nashville taxi drivers staged a protest on the steps of the Metro courthouse on Monday for what they call unfair work conditions. Video: Cab Drivers Stage 'Sick Out' The drivers said they are tired of low wages and high company fees and want Mayor Karl Dean to help with situation. The drivers said they make $2.07 an hour, plus they have to pay a $175 fee to drive under the Allied Cab company name. The group said they are targeting all area cab companies, but contend that Allied is the worst to work for. The high price of food and fuel makes it difficult for them to live, according to the cab drivers. Cab drivers want ordinances to change or at least for someone to intervene, forcing company heads to the negotiating table Allied Cab of Nashville would not comment on the drivers' allegations or the protest. http://www.wsmv.com/news/17036078/detail.html Nashville Cab Drivers Demand Better Pay Drivers Ask Mayor To Hold Public Hearings POSTED: 8:14 am CDT July 30, 2008 UPDATED: 5:12 pm CDT July 30, 2008 NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Nashville's cab drivers have threatened to strike and on Wednesday they took their fight to the mayor. The drivers are protesting the high costs of operating a taxi in the city. Because of business licenses, company fees, city permits and even fees for different times of day, the drivers said they net a little over $2 an hour. "All of these things come out of what you make, and if they're going to put an extra burden of charging you additional fees, such as if you have somebody driving the car on the nightshift, this is inhumane. This is a moral issue, and it's just very difficult to make a living," said cab driver Maurice Harris. The drivers want Mayor Karl Dean to hold public hearings on the issue to explore why cab companies can charge their drivers so much just to operate. http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=95300 Drivers' Protests Leave 1000 Foreign Tourists Stuck at Burgas Airport 19 July 2008, Saturday Bulgaria: About 1000 foreign tourists were stuck for two hours at the airport in the city of Burgas because the local bus drivers refused to drive them to Sunny Beach and the Black Sea resorts located to the south of the city. The drivers protested against a recent measure taken by the State Automobile Inspectorate (DAI), which started to fine them if they worked for more than eight hours a day. The drivers explained they must not be fined because their working time was nine hours a day but sometimes they would drive for only an hour because they had to wait for the tourist planes to arrive. Representatives of the DAI in turn explained they were only adhering to the law. Only on Friday night they fined about 100 drivers, the lowest fine being BGN 500. The aim of their sanctions is to make sure the bus drivers along Bulgaria's sea coast get sufficient hours of rest and sleep in order to prevent potential accidents. In order to conduct its campaign properly, DAI even sent additional number of inspectors to the three Black Sea districts of Varna, Burgas, and Dobrich. Three police cars arrived at the Burgas airport during the protest. Around 4 p.m. the buses set off to the nearby Black Sea resorts with the foreign tourists on board. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/03/stories/2008070352290300.htm Andhra Pradesh - Rajahmundry Cab operators stage protest against VAT Staff Reporter Rajahmundry: Cab and taxi operators staged a dharna against the Value Added Tax (VAT) on luxury tourist cars, cabs and other taxies on Wednesday. The AP Taxi Owners and Drivers? Welfare Association organised the dharna in front of the commercial taxes office here. Association leaders K. Suri Babu and M. Satyanaryana said that the government was already levying taxes on spare parts, ect. and thant VAT was and additional burden on them. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/24/stories/2008042453430400.htm Traders protest against Govt. apathy Staff Reporter Photo: Sandeep Saxena Sharing the dais: Former Delhi Chief Minister Madan Lal Khurana with Bharatiya Udyog Vyapar Mandal president Shyam Behari Mishra during the traders? rally in New Delhi on Wednesday. NEW DELHI: Traders from across the country under the aegis of Bharatiya Udyog Vyapar Mandal organised a rally at Ramlila Grounds here on Wednesday. Led by the Bharatiya Udyog Vyapar Mandal president, former Member of Parliament Shyam Behari Mishra, the participants in the rally accused the Government of failing to protect the traders? rights even after 60 years of independence. Rally coordinator Bal Krishna Agarwal said the Government had been bad-mouthing the traders by accusing them of hoarding essential commodities. Manohar Lal Kumar, coordinator of the Delhi wing of the traders? organisation, said the traders in the Capital had been badly affected first by the sealing drive that was carried out and now by the recent order pertaining to the amendment in the tenancy laws applicable to shops. Addressing the rally, Mr. Mishra said the Government had passed on the blame for the recent surge in inflation to the traders whereas actually it was its flawed policies that had led to the sharp rise in prices. He demanded that the total tax payable by traders not exceed 20 per cent as against the current 42 per cent. The Centre and the State should fix 12 and 8 per cent tax respectively, he added. He said the implementation of VAT had also led to the price rise in the country and the Government should issue a White Paper on the reason for implementing the tax even as the traders were vehemently opposed to it. Mr. Mishra also sought relief and waiver for the traders in the small-scale sectors, whose establishments had closed down and therefore they were unable to repay loans. He also sought similar relief for the traders whose small shops or cottage industry had wound up and had taken a loan of Rs.1 lakh and sought the setting up of a traders? relief fund. Former Delhi Chief Minister Madan Lal Khurana also attended the rally. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/23/stories/2008072351210300.htm Andhra Pradesh - Kadapa Protest against civic officials KADAPA: Self-help group women and CPI (M) activists staged dharna near Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) at Putlampalle on Tuesday deploring the abrupt pulling out of three kiosks without any formal notice by revenue and municipal corporation officials and police. District Collector M.T. Krishna Babu gave permission in December 2006 to SHG members - Lakshmisai of Akkayapalle, Sai of Pathakadapa and Theresa of Sivanandapuram - to set up small shops Women protested uprooting of kiosks without prior intimation. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/07/stories/2008080751220300.htm Karnataka - Hassan Vegetable merchants stage protest HASSAN: Vegetable merchants formed a human chain at Gorur Circle here on Tuesday, holding up traffic there. The protesters were demanding basic amenities at vegetable markets in Hassan. They also staged a dharna in front of the City Municipal Council (CMC) office. President of the CMC Ratnamma Mahantesh and Commissioner Raju heard their grievances. The merchants told them that there were no proper approach roads and drinking water facilities at the markets. This problem had been persisting for 40 years. Every year the CMC promised them that infrastructure would be provided, but nothing concrete was being done, they said. Mr. Raju said he would call for tenders and start work within two months. ? Staff Correspondent http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=354853 Traders stage unique protest outside Rajghat against inflation ANI Friday 2nd May, 2008 New Delhi, May 2 : Donning shorts, vests and ties, Delhi businessmen staged a unique demonstration on Friday outside Rajghat, the memorial to the Father of India, Mahatma Gandhi, protesting against the rising prices of essential commodities. "We are facing a number of problems like inflation, sealing etc. Thanks to this government by which the common man is badly affected. The poor are already suffering. The common man's condition would be akin to wearing just a tie sans shirts and pants. If this situation persists, neither workers nor businessmen can survive," said one of the businessmen. The traders said the price rise has forced even well off traders to struggle for their livelihood. They demanded immediate government intervention in the matter to protect the livelihood of traders and people of other sections dependent on them. The traders also demanded for setting up of a regulatory body for the forward trading business and to make delivery of goods compulsory for the transactions made in forward trading. Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) issued a call today for a nationwide shutdown to protest against inflationary trends in the economy. Shops and business establishments remained closed during the early hours. India's annual wholesale price inflation was at three-year highs above 7 per cent in mid-April. India that has about 260 million poor is sensitive to rising prices because food often accounts for a much higher proportion of people's expenditure than in developed economies. With inflation pressures largely coming from the supply side, economists say there is a limit to what the central bank can do with monetary policy, especially as growth is slowing. http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23663917-2862,00.html Richmond traders in clearway blockade protest Article from: Reuters Matthew Schulz May 08, 2008 08:20am MELBOURNE shopkeepers have disrupted traffic today in a protest over plans to extend clearways they fear will rob them of customers. This morning about 100 Richmond traders and their supporters blocked one lane of busy Bridge Rd during the morning peak hour to make their point. It was expected their protest would continue until about 9am. Toorak Village traders also blocked Toorak Rd from 8am for about three-quarters of an hour in a similar protest this morning. The Stonnington Leader reports a stretch limo blocked traffic on Toorak Rd in a stylish protest to the State Government's plan to extend clearway times. According to the report, Stonnington Cr Tas Athanasopoulos parked a cream stretch limousine outside the Toorak Village from 8am. The protest blocked a whole lane, with city-bound traffic snaking back to Kooyong Rd. Richmond protest organiser and Bridge Rd trader Herschel Landes told 3AW radio this morning that the plan to extend clearways to include 6.30am-10am and from 3pm to 7pm would devastate local business. >From July 1 clearways on busy roads will be extended within 10km of the city. But Mr Landes said traders had been ignored. "You're essentially saying that at 3pm in the afternoon business finishes. And given that business starts about 12 o'clock that gives you three hours a day. "It's very difficult to run a business on three hours a day when you've got rent to pay and staff to pay. A report this week in the Melbourne Leader said affected traders across Melbourne could expect to lose up to 15 per cent of their turnover. Melbourne Business Council chairman Peter Nicoll said traders could lose up to 15 per cent of business because of extended clearway hours. "If it was a 10 or 15 per cent (loss) it wouldn't surprise me . . . basically, the trading hours are 10am until 3pm," Mr Nicoll said. "It'll particularly affect those retailers that rely on foot traffic because there's nowhere to park". Bridge Rd Main Street Incorporated spokeswoman Nellie Dicks said the Richmond shopping strip would be among the hardest hit. "The traders are up in arms, the clearway already affects business because it reduces car spots," Ms Dicks said. "They will end up closing, they're struggling to make end's meet now ... to change the times is just going to kill it (the strip)". Ms Dicks said it would make side streets busier because shoppers needed to find alternative parking. Premier John Brumby last month announce a $112 million plan to extend the operating hours of 150 clearways within a 10km radius of the CBD. Mr Brumby said the change was in response to the CBD's dramatic job growth and Melbourne's fast-growing population. Mr Brumby made it clear the Government was ready for any fight, and Roads Minister Tim Pallas has said the clearway times were non-negotiable. The RACV has backed the plan for "vastly' improving the flow of traffic. http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=115738 Small traders protest against extensive power failures Saturday, May 31, 2008 By our correspondent KARACHI: The All Pakistan Organisation of Small Traders and Cottage Industry, protesting against load-shedding in the city, has warned that traders will block M A Jinnah Road if 12-hour-long power outages do not end. The small traders said that their businesses have been ruined without electricity and warned that the closure of manufacturing units was contributing to rising unemployment, which would be uncontrollable if not addressed now. Meanwhile, the Alliance of Market Associations Karachi expressed its deep concern over the skyrocketing rise in prices of imported goods in the local market, adding that this is mounting immense pressure on the local small manufacturers? production. The association said that around 65 per cent Chinese and 5 per cent goods of other countries have already overwhelmed local manufactures. The government must devise strategies to support profitable industries like electricity fans, cotton clothes, hosiery, marble products, furniture, leather garments, hand-made carpets and others to earn valuable foreign exchange by introducing them in international markets. In another announcement, the Old City Traders Alliance of Karachi said that 60 markets of the old city area will stay open on Sundays and closed on Fridays, complying with the government?s decision to conserve energy. The markets include Kharadar, Juna Market, Jodia Bazaar, Sarafa Market, Motan Das Market, Kiryana market, Dhagha Bazaar, Chanti Line Chapal Bazaar, Kaghzi Bazaar and other markets of the old city area. http://story.malaysiasun.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/b8de8e630faf3631/id/369340/cs/1/ Delhi traders protest against ICRIER report on retail trade Malaysia Sun Tuesday 10th June, 2008 (ANI) New Delhi, June 10 : Traders today protested here against alleged insulting remarks made about the fraternity in the recently submitted Council of Research in International Economic Relations (ICRIER) report on retail trade to the Union Government. The protestors burnt a copy of the report and alleged that the report was misleading and was made to promote corporate giants. Agitating traders also demanded that the Government should withdraw derogatory remarks in the report. A booming Indian economy coupled with a growing affluent middle class has significantly increased the purchasing powers of people and retail giants, both domestic and international, are eyeing the retail market, estimated to be 350 billion dollars. The entry of the big retail giants has resulted in protests and demonstration all over the country as it is feared that it will put family-run "mom and pop" stores out of business. India is a land of retail democracy with hundreds of thousands of weekly bazaars located across the length and breadth of the country by people's own organizational capacities. The dominance of a few corporations on the retail market against millions of hawkers and small shopkeepers is not favoured. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/regions/view/20080622-144049/Traders-mount-protest-at-Church-run-mall Traders mount protest at Church-run mall Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 00:59:00 06/22/2008 BAGUIO CITY, Philippines--Businessmen have mounted a silent "show window protest" at a mall built and operated by the Catholic Church to protest rental increases that were imposed in spite of the prevailing economic crisis. Every day since June 12, tenants of the Porta Vaga Mall have been posting protest signs on their show windows that question the rent hikes. One sign challenges the Church's timing: "Tumataas din ang gasoline, tumataas ang pagkain (Prices for gasoline and food are also rising)." Most of the protest signs urged the Church to be more professional: "We urge professionalism in operating Porta Vaga." In statements she made before reporters, Eli Angel Garcia, president of the Porta Vaga Tenants Association (PVTA), said the Church has raised rent without improving its maintenance services. The PVTA said the highest rent hike amounts to a 168-percent increase. Most of the tenants, however, were imposed a 30-percent hike. Needed money For the Church, the rate hike was necessary because the mall raises the operating funds for the Catholic Church's vicariates in Baguio, Benguet, Mt. Province, Ifugao and Kalinga. Antonette Eswigue, mall administrator, said Porta Vaga also provides funds for the missionary work and social action projects of the Church in the Cordillera. The mall is an extension of the Puso ng Baguio building. Both facilities were put up by a fund drive shortly after the July 16, 1990 earthquake. The quake had eroded sections of the hill where the Baguio cathedral stands. The Church designed a series of buildings that would also serve as retaining walls to protect the cathedral. Eswigue said the mall has not been earning since the SM City Baguio started operating in the city. She said company policy prevents her from releasing financial information, but profits have dipped since 2004. Bishops' letter She said the Church authorized a uniform 30-percent rate reduction in 2004, the year an outbreak of a fatal meningitis strain slowed down tourism here. Some of the increases were inevitable due to inflation, she said. Baguio Bishop Carlito Cenzon, Bontoc-Lagawe Bishop Rodolfo Beltran and Tabuk Bishop Prudencio Andaya Jr. sent the tenants a June 4 letter that assured them that the rent hikes were legal. "At the termination of a contract, the administration has the right to amend terms of contract, including increasing the rental rates, and it is up to the client to accept or not," the bishops wrote. But in a statement issued during a press conference on Tuesday, the tenants asked: "Is it truly morally just to raise the rental rates to the point [where] the client has no recourse but to close shop and to lay off his [or] her employees?" Vincent Cabreza http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=382901 Jewellers protest tax raids in Kerala IANS Wednesday 16th July, 2008 Jewellers across Kerala did not open their shops Wednesday to protest against state-wide tax raids conducted by the sales tax authorities. The call for the protest was given by the All Kerala Gold and Silver Merchants' Association. The bullion merchants said that they were protesting against the 'arbitrary raids and against the imposition of the compounding system' introduced under Value Added Tax (VAT) regime. Under the compounding system, merchants have to remit an advance tax of 150 percent of what they had paid in the previous year. 'Compounding is not compulsory. We are free to opt out of it. But the tax officials are using raids to compel us to accept the system,' said Ram Mohan Kammath, a district-level office-bearer of the association. Tax officials Tuesday raided around 30 jewellers across the state. 'We are not against raids. But the officials should also hear what the merchants say, before initiating punitive measures,' said P.C. Natesan, the state general secretary of the association. The sale tax department officials, however, say that they are trying to impose the compounding system as retail sale of gold usually takes place without bills to evade the tax. 'Considering the amount of gold sold in the state, the government thinks that at present it is getting tax for only 10 percent of the sales,' said C.P. Sajeevan, assistant commissioner of sales tax here. 'We have not calculated the total evasion detected during the raid yesterday (Tuesday). The figure will be available in a week,' he said. http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,20797,24168386-3102,00.html?from=public_rss Rates protesters shut down Brisbane City Hall By Alison Sandy August 12, 2008 03:00pm BRISBANE'S City Hall was forced to shut down for an hour this afternoon when a rates protester refused to leave the council chamber. More than 30 CBD unit owners angry over exorbitant rate rises filled the public gallery in support of Roma Street Parkland resident Martin Trama, who in a presentation to the council, labelled the LNP councillors "unrepresentative rabble". Mr Trama claimed unit rates would soar by up to 1000 per cent. "I've talked to hundreds of unit owners and they say the same thing - they feel betrayed," he said. "In many cases these are the same people who voted for the Liberal councillors and trusted the word of Campbell Newman." Lord Mayor Campbell Newman acknowledged it was Mr Trama's democratic right to put his position to the council, but disputed his figures claiming his rates would only rise from $1620 to $2312. "This is the figure I have that you'll have to pay in the '08-'09 financial year," he said. "You will receive two quarters with barely an increase and then as you rightly said, it will go up substantially for quarter three and quarter four." As Cr Newman continued, his words were drowned out by objections from the unit owners, prompting Speaker Margaret de Wit to issue a warning. When it was ignored, she threatened to have unit owner Bill Welch removed. "I ask you to leave the chamber and the public gallery," Cr de Wit said. Mr Welch replied: "No I'm not." Deputy Mayor Graham Quirk intervened and called for the council to be adjourned for one hour. The motion was supported by the LNP majority. http://www.azi.md/news?ID=50071 Protest march of meat traders in Chisinau July 7 2008Print version Meat traders from various parts of Moldova carried out a protest march in Chisinau. They marched from the National hotel to the President's residence. About 1000 protesters declaimed slogans "We Want to Be Heard, but not Deceived!", "Down with Lie, Long Live to Justice!", "Come out to People!", "Company - No, Patent -Yes!'. The participants were holding posters: "We Demand Economic Freedom!", "Do not Make Us to Leave the Country!", "Do not Expel Us from Home!". Chairman of the Association of Small Business Eugen Riscovan told Infotag that despite the fact that all meat traders pay all the state taxes and have certificates of origin and sanitary certificates, they are not allowed to sell on the basis of their patents certificate and make them to set up an individual enterprise. In his words, the authorities' striving to forbid the patent-based meat trade is an attempt to monopolize the National economy. Roscovan considers, if the Government forbids the patent-based meat trade, it means that big economic interests interfere here. He asserts that the Government supports frozen meat import for over 20 years, but it have not undertook anything for this period to provide an efficient meat production in Moldova. The Chairman said that the protesters have not received any answer to their three letters, sent to the President's administration, where they request a meeting with the President to discuss the Law on the Business Patent. "In this situation we see no other way out, but to take people to the street", Roscovan remarked. During the protest action a delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and a delegation of the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which had planned meeting with the President, entered the residence, which fact provoked a new wave of slogans on the part of the protesters. Meat traders protest for the seven successive weeks and demand from the President to allow them to trade on the basis of the patent. They threaten to protest each Monday until their demands will be satisfied. http://social.moldova.org/stiri/eng/136156/ Patentees postpone protests until autumn The meat sellers have announced that they put off the protests until autumn, when the Parliament, Government and Presidential Office resume work. Eugen Roscovanu, the president of the Small Business Association (AMB), told a news conference on July 21 that the patentees will stage a large protest march in downtown Chisinau at the beginning of autumn. He stressed that the protests could grow in scope after the vacation. Roscovanu also said that the patent holders will continue the protests until they are not provided with adequate working conditions and the barriers placed in their path are removed. According to him, the petitions filed to the President and the Parliament produced no results, they receiving only formal answers. The AMB president said that despite the latest amendments to the legislation, the vendors do not want to stop working in trade, even if they meet with hindrances. Some of them resort to bribing the officials so as they are allowed to sell the meat on the market. Patent holder Victor Rosca from Ungheni town said that even if the meat is sold within private companies, the quality of the meat products will not improve. Yet, it will be much more difficult to sell them. ?We are not to blame for the lack of fridges and air conditioning in shops and markets as this is the duty of the market administration,? Rosca said. The meat sellers have protested in the center of Chisinau since the end of May. The Chisinau City Hall authorized the patentee to hold protests until this yearend. The last demonstration was a protest march staged on July 7.//REPORTER.MD http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/05/africa/ME-GEN-Egypt-Tourism-Protest.php Owners of tourism shops in southern Egyptian town on hunger strike The Associated Press Published: June 5, 2008 ISNA, Egypt: Owners and workers of shops catering to tourism in southern Egyptian have held a sit-in to demand that Nile River cruise ships dock in their town. More than 200 people held the sit-in Thursday in Isna's hospital, including 25 who went on a hunger strike. They have sent messages to the government protesting recent route changes that only allow cruise ships to dock in Isna for 15 minutes. They say that doesn't give tourists enough time to come to their shops. Cruise ships used to dock for several hours in Isna while waiting to pass through locks at a dam on the Nile. Isna, located just north of Luxor, is home to the Temple of Khnum. It was built during the reign of Thutmose III who ruled Egypt from 1479-1425 B.C. http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=130509 PFF announces protest campaign against injustice, victimisation Monday, August 18, 2008 By our correspondent HYDERABAD: The Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF) on Sunday announced the schedule of their protest drive being kicked off from August 19 against what they described the anti-fishermen policies of the government. They also warned of a long march from Sukkur to Karachi in case their demands were not met. Speaking at a news conference here on Sunday, PFF chairman Mohammed Ali Shah, Saeed Baloch, Mohammed Mallah, Ayub Mallah and others said their demands had been presented to the government time and again but nobody was bothered about it genuinely. They said that the fishermen community must be given fishing and other rights on the sweet waters of Sindh, end victimisation of the fisherfolk community of Sindh, abolish the contract system and end atrocities committed against fishermen in the province. They especially referred the name of one, Qasim Zardari, who, according to them, has illegally occupied the Chotiari reservoir depriving more than 12,000 fishermen of the right to earn their livelihood. The representatives of the PFF complained that their activists were being arrested and tortured for raising their voice against the injustice and atrocities committed by Qasim Zardari, adding that the DPO Sanghar was suspended when he supported the fishermen. PFF Chairman Mohammed Ali Shah said that Qasim Zardari, claiming that he was close relative of the PPP Co-Chairman Asif Zardari, had been creating immense problems for both the fishermen and the police administration. He said the same situation was being faced by fishermen in other districts, mainly in Larkana, Sukkur, Kashmore, Jacobabad, Thatta and Badin. The PFF chairman appealed to the PPP leaders to come forward and save them from further economic plunder of Qasim Zardari and others. He said that the minister for fisheries Zahid Bhurgri was also apprised of the fishermen's problems but no progress was made in this regard. The PFF chairman warned that the protests would be staged in all the district headquarters on August 19 and letters of their concern would also be written to the PPP Co-chairperson Asif Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and others to apprise them of their demands. http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=115050 Fishing community protest against inflation Tuesday, May 27, 2008 By our correspondent Karachi A large number of fisherwomen, children and men participated in a rally organised by the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF) to condemn the price hike and increasing unemployment in the coastal localities. The protest demonstration led by the PFF Vice Chairperson, Tahira Ali, Akhtar Sheikh, Nawaz Dablo, Khadim Panhwar and others started from Dabla and culminated outside the Rehri Union Council (UC) in Bin Qasim Town. The PFF has designed to observe the protest week and the rally was the first step to get the community people united against their common problems. Carrying banners and placards, the protestors were shouting slogans against the price hike, unemployment and demanded to reduce price of kitchen items that they said had affected the community. They said owing to over fishing, increasing marine pollution and unsustainable government policies have forced large number of fishermen to be jobless ultimately the community people have to face starvation. Ali while addressing the rally said the price of daily use items in coastal localities are higher than other city areas. For instance, she said fishermen are being forced to buy Atta at Rs35 per kg while the same product in other areas is being sold at Rs28 only. Similarly, the rates of ghee, cooking oil, milk, sugar and other items are also different. The PFF has designed programmes to stage street theatres in different coastal localities to mobilise the community people and create awareness to fight for their common rights together. In this regard they will stage a street theatre at Hawkes Bay localities on May 27 (today) and outside the Karachi Press Club on May 28. Akhtar Shaikh, Nawaz Dablo, Ruqaya Usman, Zulaikha Ghulam Hussain and others also addressed the rally. They said several boat owners are unable to operate their boats as the rates of diesel and ration have increased manifold but the rates of seafood are the same as 20 years back. http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=114478 Strike ends with pledge to continue protest Saturday, May 24, 2008 By our correspondent Karachi The strike launched by Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum against Defence Housing Authority (DHA) ended on Friday with a pledge to continue the protest till the problems faced by the fishermen residing in the Machhi Mayan village near Gizri are resolved. A large number of fishermen, women and children participated for the third consecutive day in the token hunger strike staged outside the Karachi Press Club to express the solidarity with the fishermen of Gizri. The protestors said that they will initiate the second phase of the movement from the first week of June. They will also initiate lobbying with political parties, civil society groups and human rights organisations to develop pressure on the government to save the livelihood of the fishermen. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/20/stories/2008072058450300.htm Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram Fish workers to protest against cut in kerosene quota Special Correspondent Allege that corrupt officials indulge in black marketing To lay siege to Civil Supplies office on Tuesday Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Swathantra Matsya Thozhilali Federation, representing traditional fish workers in the State, is embarking on an agitation to protest against the government decision to cut the allocation of kerosene for outboard engines used to power boats. At a press conference here on Saturday, T. Peter, president of the federation, and Anto Elias, district secretary, alleged that a section of officials in the Civil Supplies department were trying to deny the eligible quota of kerosene for fishermen with valid permits. They said the move was part of a conspiracy hatched by corrupt officials indulging in black marketing of kerosene. The leaders of the federation said fishermen were increasingly using two outboard engines for enhanced power and range, as well to ensure safety at sea. Depleting stocks ?The depleting fish stocks in the coastal waters have forced us to venture out to the deep sea. This warrants the use of bigger and more powerful boats to cover a larger distance as well as to haul big nets,? Mr. Peter said. He claimed that the number of accidents at sea had come down drastically ever since fishermen started using a spare engine for emergencies, especially during the monsoon period when the sea turned rough. ?The decision to use a spare engine was the result of a sustained campaign launched by the government in association with NGOs. It is ironic that the government is now slashing the quota of kerosene.? The leaders said most fishermen were forced to depend on the black market to procure their requirement of kerosene. They urged the government to restore the quantity of kerosene for fishermen with valid permits. The federation has announced plans to lay siege to the Civil Supplies office here on Tuesday to highlight the demand. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/22/stories/2008062259670600.htm Tamil Nadu Fishermen protest against notification Special Correspondent NAGAPATTINAM: Fishermen and fish workers staged a demonstration in front of the head post office here on Friday evening as part of a nationwide protest organised by the National Fish Workers? Forum demanding the Government to revoke the Coastal Zone Management Notification 2008. They also raised their voice against special economic zones, thermal power plants on coastal areas and encroachment of the coast by the Government and private parties for several ecologically-harmful projects. They pointed out that the coast should remain with the fisherfolk. http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storyPage.aspx?storyId=124762 San Fernando fishermen hold fluvial protest around 'Princess' At least 500 fishermen of San Fernando town in Romblon province held a "fluvial protest" Thursday and urged the Sulpicio Lines to immediately scoop out the capsized M/V Princess of the Stars from the waters of Sibuyan Island. The fishermen gathered at the coast of Barangay Taclobo and held a program first before they took turns in sailing around the capsized passenger vessel on board at least 60 fishing boats. One of the placards tucked in one of the boats said: "Barko mo kunin mo na. Barko n'yo perwisyo sa hanapbuhay ng taong bayan ng San Fernando (Take your vessel. Your vessel is harming the livelihood of the people of San Fernando)." The capsized ferry has been on the waters off Sibuyan Island for 19 days. Decomposing bodies, and possibly, harmful chemicals are trapped inside the ship. It sank last June 21 at the height of Typhoon Frank with more than 800 passengers and a 10-metric ton shipment of pesticide endosulfan on board. The endosulfan shipment is consigned to the Del Monte Philippines, Inc. Officials also fear that a Bayer Philippines shipment also of pesticides, kilos of finished products for crop production, may also be harmful to marine and human life in the province. The presence of the toxic chemicals has forced the Department of Health to implement a ban on fish from San Fernando town. Fishermen in the province have been pleading for help as their food supply has started to dwindle. The Sulpicio Lines had announced that it will refloat the capsized ferry to recover the bloated bodies and the chemical shipments. The government said the refloating process may take up to three months although the shipping company had recently said that it may take as long as six months. The refloating has not started. http://www.worldpress.org/feed.cfm?http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/0611/breaking2.htm Wednesday, June 11, 2008, 13:12 Fishermen end blockade ahead of Smith meeting Darina Daly The blockade at Cork Port ended this morning after the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries agreed to meet with the Federation of Irish Fishermen (FIF) to discuss the crisis on Friday. The commercial manager for Cork Port, Mr Michael McCarthy, said movement in and out of the port was returning to normal after significant delays overnight. Mr McCarthy said the fishing fleet had been given permission to tie up in the city ahead of Friday's meeting, but he warned that any further attempts to blockade the port would result in legal action. Earlier, a spokesman for the southwest fleet, Ebbie Sheehan, told The Irish Times the blockade had been "temporarily suspended" pending the outcome of Friday's meeting with Minister Brendan Smith. Mr Sheehan said there were plans to begin a hunger strike outside the Department of Fisheries in Clonakilty on Friday morning. Mr McCarthy said the blockade had cost hundreds of thousands of euro and the blockade had had a serious impact on industry in the region. A crude oil tanker that had been prevented from coming into the Port last night is due to berth later this evening. Labour?s spokesperson on the Marine, Senator Michael McCarthy has welcomed Mr Smith?s decision to meet with the FIF. Speaking at today?s protest by fishermen outside the offices of the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority in Clonakilty, Senator McCarthy called on the Minister to take pro-active action in assisting the industry. ?The Minister must come to realise that these fishermen have nothing to lose. Many are on the brink of bankruptcy,? he said. Mr McCarthy also called for an urgent meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries & Food to discuss the crisis. Fine Gael?s Fisheries spokesman Michael Creed also welcomed Friday?s meeting, but warned that the time had come for action and not words to save the fishing industry from ruin. Up to 70 vessels blocked the entrance to Cork harbour last night in the protest over rising fuel prices and cheap imports. The FIF claims 50 to 70 per cent of a trawler?s turnover is being spent on fuel. It wants fleets to be paid not to go to sea as part of a temporary rota-based system regulating commercial fishing as fuel costs soar. The organisation also wants stricter controls on traceability so consumers can see where the fish they are buying was caught. The action is not being endorsed officially by FIF, representatives of the four main industry organisations, and it was condemned last nightas ?unhelpful? by the Irish Association of Seafood Producers. The FIF renewed its call for temporary tie-up aid while the price of fuel is so high, and for a ban on illegal, unregulated and unreported products entering the EU. http://novanewsnow.com/article-226473-Lobster-fishermen-continuing-their-protest-against-scallop-draggers.html Lobster fishermen continuing their protest against scallop draggers by Tina Comeau/The Vanguard View all articles from Tina Comeau/The Vanguard Article online since June 25th 2008, 13:17 Lobster fishermen continue to stage a protest against scallop draggers. Carla Allen photo Some Shelburne County, N.S. lobster fishermen are continuing to stage a protest against scallop draggers fishing the area. The lobster fishermen, who have been gathering on the Barrington side of the causeway, claim the draggers are causing damage to lobsters on the ocean floor. This past year the fishermen say there was damage to their lobsters, which they claim was caused by scallop rakes being dragged over lobsters. DFO scientists have studied the damage but have concluded that the majority of damage was caused by a storm that passed through the area a year ago. The lobster fishermen don?t believe that and want the scallop fishermen out of the lobster fishing grounds. They started their protest last Friday. The scallop season opened this past Monday. On Wednesday the protesters shared photos of damaged lobsters with Nova Scotia Fisheries Minister Ron Chisholm. Meanwhile, in response to a letter that the Municipality of Barrington sent to federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn requesting that the minister meet with representatives of local lobster fishermen on the scallop issue, Hearn said he won?t be meeting with the lobster fishermen. ?The interactions between various gear sectors and their potential impacts on halibut and other bycatch or incidental mortalities is always a concern,? Hearn stated in the letter. ?As there are well-established advisory bodies currently in place in both the scallop and lobster sectors in your area, and both interests are well represented, I would expect this forum should best serve the interests of both groups.? http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2008/05/18/crab-protest.html?ref=rss N.S. lobster fishermen end blockade of N.B. crab boats Last Updated: Sunday, May 18, 2008 | 3:24 PM AT Comments10Recommend19 CBC News Lobster fisherman from Inverness, N.S., who have been fighting for a share of the crab quota, untied their boats and removed a blockade on Sunday that had been preventing New Brunswick crabbers from leaving the local harbour to set traps. Fishermen in the area are upset that New Brunswick crab boats are allowed to fish for crab in local waters while Nova Scotia boats are excluded. To drive home their point, they barricaded the mouth of the Inverness harbour, on the west side of Cape Breton, with their boats last Thursday to prevent the New Brunswick fishermen from heading out. Local organizer Lawrence MacLellan said about 200 people came out to support the demonstration earlier on Sunday. After meeting Saturday night with Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald, organizers of the blockade said they feel confident they'll get some kind of crab quota next year. "New Brunswick fishermen have been very co-operative," MacLellan said. "They haven't challenged us or anything like that, so there was no violence. I think there's going to be a good result here." The fishermen who organized the blockade plan to discuss the possibility of obtaining crab permits during a meeting Tuesday with officials from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-06/05/content_8315089.htm Argentine truck drivers strike to protest lack of work opportunities BUENOS AIRES, June 4 (Xinhua) - The president of the Argentine Transporters' Federation Miguel Angel Betili convoked a strike Wednesday to protest the unsolved conflict between the government and the country's agricultural-livestock businessmen. The truck drivers were "tired after 90 days without being able to work," Betili told a press conference. "We don't have money, (and) we're in big trouble," he said. "I want to clarify that the federation isn't against the government, we are in favor to work," Betili said. The truck drivers' strike is set to worsen the already-troubled situation as three months have passed since agriculture and livestock entrepreneurs staged a protest triggered by the government's increase of export taxes from 34 percent to 44 percent. http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-06/04/content_8311059.htm Bolivia's truck drivers strike to protest tax adjustment LIMA, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Truck drivers in five departments of Bolivia began a 48-hour strike early Tuesday in protest against the government's modification of cargo transportation taxes, according to news reaching here from La Paz. The drivers' demands include the restoration of the original tax system, the resignation of Finance Minister Luis Arce and the dismissal of Patricia Ballivian, president of the Bolivian Highways Administration. A truck drivers' union leader criticized recent government measures as being the source of social conflict. The drivers have threatened more strikes and indefinite blockades if the government fails to meet their demands. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/11/europe/EU-GEN-Poland-Truckers-Protest.php Polish truckers wage brief strike to protest planned rise in highway tolls The Associated Press Published: June 11, 2008 WARSAW, Poland: Tens of thousands of Polish truck drivers have staged a one-hour strike to protest government plans to raise highway tolls. The truckers say the plan to replace Poland's yearly flat fee for highway access with a scheme to charge per mile (kilometer) would add to the pain of rising fuel prices. Protest organizer Jan Buczek says more than 100,000 drivers parked their trucks along roads and in parking lots throughout the country on Wednesday. He says rising fuel costs and inflation are hurting the trucking industry. The strong Polish currency is also hurting some Polish exporters. The truck drivers say they will continue protest actions until Prime Minister Donald Tusk's government acts on their concerns. http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=239590 Turkish Truck Drivers Protest Bulgaria Over High Shipping Fees Published: 7/3/2008 EDIRNE - More than 500 Turkish truck drivers stopped their engines at Kapikule border gate inside Turkey for 6 hours on Tuesday to protest Bulgaria that started to charge 271 USD of shipping fee per vehicle for crossing the border. The cost of this fee for Turkish carriers was about 100 million USD a year, International Transporters` Association (UND) said. "However, its impact on the sector would be much more," UND chairman Tamer Dincsahin told reporters. He said Turkish transporters faced unfair competition practices and these practices could lead to a chain reaction. "Industrial enterprises could be closed down, Turkey could have difficulties in drawing investments and finally employment could be affected," Dincsahin said. UND-member shipping companies, with 45,000 vehicles, have 5 billion USD of investments, employ 400,000 people and carry 53 percent of Turkish exports, Dincsahin said. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/29/2317952.htm Agendas clash in rival truckie protest groups Posted Tue Jul 29, 2008 3:19pm AEST Map: Brisbane 4000 Rival truck drivers' groups say there is confusion and division in their protest ranks. A convoy of trucks drove through Brisbane yesterday to draw attention to fuel prices and freight rates. National Road Transport Forum spokesperson Mick Pattel says the noisy protest got most of the attention, while his group has organised a shutdown on other issues. He says they do not have the same agenda. "Absolutely definitely not. This is where the whole thing is getting confused," he said. "I honestly believe someone is paying these people to derail the whole process, because we're not attacking freight rates and we're certainly not attacking fuel prices. What we are attacking are reforms that the Government is putting in place. "These demerit points on drivers licences for log book breaches is a massive problem right across this country and it's the one thing that's brought this shutdown about." http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/queensland/noisy-protest-tours-brisbanes-cbd/2008/07/28/1217097101006.html Noisy protest tours Brisbane's CBD Marissa Calligeros | July 28, 2008 - 12:34PM More than 40 semi-trailers bearing the blue flag of the Eureka Stockade have rumbled through Brisbane's CBD, grinding traffic to a halt, in protest against rising fuel prices and the government's driver log book system. Although the convoy of 43 trucks and 13 cars passed through the city smoothly, their "go slow" drive jammed traffic in William Street and on the Riverside Expressway. Organised by factional groups - the Australian Long Distance Owners and Drivers Association (ALDODA) and the National Road Transport Forum (NRTF) - the protest began with drivers leaving the Rocklea Transport Depot off the Ipswich Motorway at Archerfield just after 11am, before being joined by fellow drivers who were congregated at the Brisbane Markets at Rocklea. As the drivers blared their truck horns to signal the beginning of the "go slow", ALDODA's president Lyn Bennetts said she was encouraged by Brisbane truckies' strong support. "This is a very good turn-out," Ms Bennetts said. "I am so glad to see so many trucks...this is excellent, fantastic." The blaring horns resounded loudest as the drivers reached the CBD; their noisy case winning support from many among crowds of city workers who turned out to watch the spectacle. Drivers finally demonstrated their anger toward large transport companies who they claim are refusing to pass on fuel levies to drivers, despite a 50 per cent increase in fuel bills in 12 months. "Enough is enough," 35-year-old driver Adrian Staats said. "Finally these boys have come together to demonstrate that companies are getting big money, but we get nothing." New laws formalised last year to combat driver fatigue and road fatalities make it mandatory for truck drivers to take a 30-minute rest-stop every five hours, however there have been more than 350 industry deaths in the past year. "The laws aren't working," Mr Staats said. Looping the city twice, the semi-trailers - with police escorts - drove along Wharf Street, into Eagle Street, Mary Street then onto Edward Street. The convoy also entered George Street, Elizabeth Street, Eagle Street, Mary Street, Edward Street, and Alice Street before departing on the South-East Freeway. The drivers are now making their way back to Rocklea. Today's protest drew ire from the Queensland Trucking Association (QTA) however. Queensland Trucking Association CEO Peter Garske said the work stoppage was "senseless", arguing it would bring further financial hardship to those who could least afford it. "QTA Ltd has received a significant number of calls, not only from its members but from small operators including owner drivers from across the state, expressing concern at the actions of the leaders of the Australian Long Distance Owners and Drivers Association and the National Road Transport Forum," Mr Garske said. "Notwithstanding the efforts of government to educate these so called industry leaders, their failure to respond and their continuing efforts to disrupt traffic on our roads is to be condemned. "Our industry requires community confidence in our ability to undertake our important contribution to the economy in a safe manner. "Holding the Queensland public, their fellow operators and government to ransom is extreme and irresponsible. Much more will be achieved by working with government rather than working against government." Nevertheless, Ms Bennetts today vowed to continue the fight for better pay rates and fairer laws. "It's time...time for a change that will relieve truckies and their families from financial hardship," Ms Bennetts said. "We just want a fair go." http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/7/8/nation/20080708141156&sec=nation Tuesday July 8, 2008 MYT 2:59:14 PM Drivers protest seizure of lorries By FARIK ZOLKEPLI JOHOR BARU: About 62 lorry drivers and operators held a peaceful demonstration near the Johor Baru (South) Traffic headquarters protesting the seizure of lorries by the traffic police. The lorries were seized for overloading but the operators claimed that they had followed the regulation set by the Road Transport Department (JPJ). Johor Lorry Operator's Association president Leow Hock Tiap said that a total of 10 lorries, carrying sand, were seized by traffic police on Monday night for an alleged overloading offence. "We complied with JPJ's ruling on the right amount of load that can be transported. About 60 lorry drivers and operators held a peaceful demonstration near the Johor Baru (South) Traffic headquarters protesting the seizing of lorries by the traffic police. "However, the traffic police seized the lorries instead," he said, adding that there was no coordination between the two government agencies. Leow explained that the seized lorries have caused a loss of about RM1,000 per lorry. "We appeal to the police to review the matter," he said Tuesday after the demonstration here. The association's adviser Datuk Poniran Sumardi hoped that both agencies could streamline their laws to avoid such confusion in the future. "All our 25-tonne lorries carried appropriate loads of sand. "The lorries have even been inspected by Puspakom," he said. Johor Traffic chief Supt T. Raveendran said that the lorries have been sent to JPJ for inspection. "JPJ will weigh the load of the lorries. "If they do not exceed the weight limit, then no action will be taken against them," he said. http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=92902 Driving Instructors to Block Sofia Center in Protest against New Regulations 8 May 2008, Thursday Bulgaria: Driving instructors from all over the country threatened to block the center of Bulgaria's capital on Thursday in protest against newly adopted laws that are believed to aim at imposing monopoly of the branch. Professionals from the cities of Varna, Burgas, Stara Zagora, Haskovo, etc. are to enter Sofia by their training cars, the rally's organizer Georgi Ilinov said. "Sofia Municipality allowed only 30 vehicles to be driven into the city but there will be many more," he explained. The instructors demanded that the government should cancel two of the regulations, adopted by the Transport Ministry in January that provide for launching innovations in the sphere, including the development of multimedia training methods. The professionals however claim the new rules could lead to closing of 3,000 driving schools across the country. The instructors claim such regulations aim at defending the corporative interests of some big companies and elimination of rivalry. http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jLTBY7H5CclMQqo4W3rxqSgSeWFg Vietnam motor-cyclo drivers protest vehicle ban Jun 23, 2008 HANOI (AFP) ? More than 100 drivers of three-wheeled motor cyclos, many of them invalid veterans of the 'American war,' Monday protested against a looming ban of their vehicles in communist Vietnam's cities. The men in Hanoi said a government prohibition from July 1 of the modified motorcycles -- which are now commonly hired to transport bulky goods through traffic-choked urban streets -- will deprive them of their livelihoods. "We laid wreaths at the war martyrs' monument this morning," said Le Thanh Tam, 59, a driver supplementing a 60-dollar state war pension he receives after losing his left leg in a southern battlefield in 1969. "I've had this vehicle for four years, helping people transport furniture when they move house. I earn 50,000 to 100,000 dong (2.9 to 5.8 dollars) a day. My wife and two children are unemployed ... How can we live now?" Police kept a close eye on the drivers -- many of whom were dressed in olive army garb and soldiers' pith helmets -- and who had parked their vehicles in a row on the edge of a busy street outside a Hanoi government office. "We need them (the government) to create new jobs for us, or to allow us to keep the vehicles and to register them," Tam told AFP. Authorities in Hanoi and the southern commercial hub of Ho Chi Minh City have announced a July 1 ban on all modified three- and four-wheeled vehicles, aiming to reduce traffic jams, air pollution and road accidents. Hanoi has about 2,000 of the three-wheelers, according to traffic police figures quoted by the Lao Dong (Labour) newspaper, and Ho Chi Minh City has over 20,000, the Thanh Nien (Young People) daily reported. Authorities in Hanoi also plan to ban from July 1 the city's street vendors -- mostly rural workers who now hawk produce and consumer goods on foot or bicyle -- from almost 100 major streets and public places. Both bans were announced early this year but delayed amid public criticism. http://www.fijilive.com/news_new/index.php/news/show_news/6380 Fiji water bottlers protest increased duty 04/07/2008 Ten bottlers of Fiji-manufactured artesian water have collectively agreed to cease production immediately until the ?extraordinary attack? against the bottled water industry is resolved. In a joint statement following its meeting in Suva this afternoon, the bottled water-exporting companies said the decision to impose an increased duty on this export commodity would prove unprofitable for the industry. The statement was signed by Warwick Pleass of Pleass Beverage in Walu Bay, Suva; David Roth of Fiji Water; Anup Patel of Flour Mills of Fiji?s VTY; Steve Johnson of Mr Pure; Jai Dayal of Island Chill; Mohammed Altaf of Aqua Pacific; Mohammed Nafiz of Diamond Aqua; Jilyin Wong of Tapoos Beverage; Sam Ahmed of Fresh Spring Limited; and Ritesh Naidu of Mineral Waters of Fiji. Fiji?s Cabinet yesterday approved to impose a 20 cents/litre export duty on all Fiji?s mineral water exports and a 20 cents/litre excise duty on mineral water sold for domestic consumption. Interim Minister for Finance, National Planning, Sugar Industry and Public Utilities (Water & Energy) submitted to Cabinet that the major reason for the new duties was to stimulate conservation of Fiji?s scarce natural resources. ?Mineral water is a scare resource which will deplete and a fair share of returns has to be passed on to the nation,? Chaudhry said in his submission. Chaudhry could not be reached on his mobile this afternoon when contacted for comments following the bottlers? decision to immediately cease production. The statement said that by way of comparison, the carbonated soft drink industry in Fiji was only subjected to a $0.03 cents per litre excise tax and no export duty. It further stated that the scheme put forward by the Finance Ministry created a tax of $0.20 per litre. ?The proposed action will weaken the Fiji bottled water industry?s ability to compete in markets around the world, where our competitors typically enjoy support ? not taxes ? from their local governments,? the company representatives said. ?This will inevitably lead to a reduction in much-needed export revenue from our industry,? they said. ?The new tax structure makes it highly unprofitable for our industry to bottle water and therefore, our immediate action is to cease production until we can resolve this extraordinary attack against the bottled water industry.? The bottlers said they were concerned that the finance ministry was again taking ?exceptionally poor advice to levy onerous excise and export duties on bottled water in a misguided effort to reduce the country?s budget shortfall and to supposedly protect water resources in Fiji?. ?For example, the water from our sources is a completely renewable resource that is constantly replenished by abundant rainfall each year. Moreover, the very livelihoods of our companies rely on the health and well being of our water sources. This ensures that the nation of Fiji will benefit from our sources for generations to come.? The statement said with respect to the unreasonable excise and export duties on all bottled water in Fiji, ?to the best of our knowledge there is no precedent in the world for a product in the water industry to be slapped with this kind of an export duty?. ?In fact, most every other nation actively encourages exports of this kind with generous incentives.? http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/05/stories/2008070552890300.htm Andhra Pradesh - Kurnool Barbers stage protest KURNOOL: Nayi Brahmins closed shops in the city on Friday to protest against ransacking of a shop on Thursday during VHP bandh. The leaders lodged a complaint with the police saying that a group of VHP supporters led by Kapileswaraiah carried out the attack. -Special Correspondent http://www.thenassauguardian.com/national_local/292177138575795.php Angry bus drivers cancel protest By IANTHIA SMITH, Guardian Staff Reporter, ianthia at nasguard.com Angry contractual bus drivers were reportedly threatened with having their livelihoods taken away from them, after petitioning for a bus fare increase on Tuesday. The 70-plus strong group of independent bus drivers were set to march again outside the House of Assembly. But according to Nicholas Jacques, advisor to the drivers, after Tuesday's demonstration at R.M. Bailey Park, members of the Public Transit Association of The Bahamas (PTAB) and the United Transportation Company (UTC), the drivers' bosses, warned them that if they carried out any more actions, they would lose their jobs. This threat forced dozens of the bus drivers to back out of yesterday's protest in Parliament Square. "The reason a lot of them didn't show up this morning is because their bosses told them not to demonstrate today," Jacques said. "Otherwise they (the bus owners) would take the buses away from them. These guys were threatened by their bosses so some of them decided not to come out today. And because their bosses are members of PTAB and UTC and they own these buses they could threaten to take them back and that's why some drivers didn't show up this morning." Over 70 "upset and unhappy" drivers staged a demonstration at the R.M. Bailey Park early Tuesday morning, in a bid to intensify their cries for the $1 bus fare to be hiked to $2 for adults. They complained that in the wake of escalating gas prices, the $1 bus fee that has been in effect since 2000 is simply not working anymore. They are now fighting for the government to give them the go ahead to charge the riding public $2 for a bus ride. Jacques said he is now advising the men to take another route to get what they want. He said since the bus owners are opposed to the demonstrations and marches, they should have no problem with having a meeting to clear the air. Jacques said he is now on a mission to arrange "a meeting of the minds," where leaders of the two organizations finally sit down and listen to their employees' cries. But PTAB President Reuben Rahming said while he agrees that the bus fare needs an increase, the drivers need to be patient. He said he is willing to meet with the complainants adding that he simply would not allow himself to be bombarded by the angry drivers. "If anybody wants to meet we have office space to hold up to 60-plus people," Rahming said. "They don't need Mr Jacques. I have an open door policy and anybody who's willing to make the time, I will make the time for them. They can come to me individually and speak so if anybody cares about themselves and the industry they are always welcomed to come to the office, but I will not meet with any group based on a pre-defined definition that carries such a negative connotation. If anyone wants to come and meet we are happy." Rahming added that while he did not directly advise PTAB members to threaten their employees, he said he could see just why they did it. Rahming explained that since the drivers who picketed yesterday don't own the buses, their actions could have had dire effects for the franchises they represented. "How dare he (Jacques) even encourage such an action and don't consult," Rahming said. "So that's not just any strike, it's a strike against the owners of the vehicles so of course they should be upset. These people are putting their franchises at risk." Jacques said as former president of Bahamas Omnibus Owners Association (BOOA) he knows the importance of unity and is now advising the irate bus drivers to let calmer heads prevail. But in the meantime, they will not stop their fight. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/15/stories/2008081550950300.htm Kerala - Kozhikode Travel agents? protest Kozhikode: The IATA Agents Association has asked airline companies including Air India to back off from their decision to cut down on the travel agencies? commission for tickets.Travel agencies across the country downed shutters on Thursday in protest against the decision. ?Staff Reporter http://www.keralanext.com/news/?id=1282474 Travel agents shut down offices in protest Thursday, August 14, 2008 T'PURAM, Kerala: Travel agents recognised by IATA in the state today shut down their offices as part of the nationwide protest against the airline companies' decision to stop their five per cent commission on ticket booking. According to travel trade sources, the strike was total across the state as all the IATA-recognised agents joined the one-day protest. The airline companies had decided to stop the five per cent commission for agents from November, sources said. The Kerala Travel and Tourism Co-ordination Forum had extended support to the protest. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/24/stories/2008082450920200.htm Kerala - Kozhikode Travel agents to take out protest march Special correspondent KOZHIKODE: Stepping up their agitation against the move to cancel commission on sale of tickets for air travel, employees in travel and tourism sectors in North Kerala would take out a march to the office of Air India in Kozhikode on Tuesday. The show of protest under the banner of IATA Agents Association is backed by tour operators and passport agencies. Travel agencies would also keep their offices closed till noon that day. The protest march to Air India office would begin from Indoor Stadium at 8.30 am and reach Air India office by 10 a.m., a spokesman for the association said. The IATA Agents Association has warned the move to cancel their commission had emerged as a major threat to the nearly five lakh employees working for travel agencies. While appealing to the government to drop the move, travel agents had also warned it would slow down growth of tourism sector which in turn would lead to decline in revenue to government coffers. Passengers would also have to pay more tickets, if the commission was withdrawn, a spokesman for travel agents said. He said most travel agents usually sold tickets at concessional rates, passing on a portion of their commission to the passenger. Once commission was withdrawn by airlines, passengers would in effect have to pay more for tickets since travel agents would not be able to offer any discount on air tickets, he said. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/12/stories/2008081252970300.htm Karnataka - Hubli-Dharwad A novel form of protest Staff Correspondent HUBLI: Visitors to the head office of the Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation on Monday were surprised to see ?Yama Dharmaraja? at the entrance. However, they were amused when they came to know that it was theatre artiste S.R. Kampli who had dressed up as ?Yama Dharmaraja? to highlight the problems of such artistes and the ?apathy? of the officialdom. However, he had to wait for an hour to convey his grievances to the HDMC Commissioner as he was in a meeting with the council members. Mr. Kampli?s grievance was that the theatre artistes who had staged a street play to create awareness on Pulse Polio in 1997 had not yet been paid the remuneration of Rs. 9,750. ?No action? Although he had given memorandums to successive commissioners no action had been taken so far, he alleged. His other grievance was that although he was allotted a site under the artistes? quota at Ward No. 38 in Hubli in 1987, till date he was unable to construct a house there in spite of having the sale deed in his name, as a woman, Manjula Raikar, was objecting to it. The corporation officials maintained that the court had issued a stay on it and he (Mr. Kampli) had to wait for some more time, he said. Mr. Kampli also said that the corporation officials had failed to protect a site meant for a garden from being encroached, in spite of the issue being brought to their notice. Promise After receiving the memorandum submitted by Mr. Kampli, Commissioner Ajay Nagabhushan assured him that he would look into the issue and take action. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/10/stories/2008081052000300.htm Kerala - Kattappana Protest meet KATTAPPANA: Kerala Co-Operative Employees Union will hold a dharna in front of the Head Post Office near here on August 12 demanding measures to protect agricultural co-operative banks and waiving of all agricultural loans taken by farmers. They want a compensation for interest lost by banks on waving farm loans to farmers. ? A Correspondent http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/23/stories/2008082352620300.htm Tamil Nadu - Salem Doctors, lawyers protest Staff Reporter SALEM: Members of Tamil Nadu Government Doctors Association staged a demonstration here on Thursday protesting against the State Government for transferring few doctors from Salem Government Medical College Hospital to the newly established Dharmapuri Government Medical College Hospital. Also, lawyers in Salem boycotted the court proceedings on Friday protesting against the police for allegedly registering a false case against an advocate based in Sankagiri. They claimed the police foisted a case against lawyer Kandasamy and wanted the State Government to withdraw the case against the lawyer. http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-07-17-voa28.cfm?rss=war Pakistani Investors Riot as Stocks Plunge By VOA News 17 July 2008 Hundreds of Pakistani investors rioted at the Karachi Stock Exchange Thursday demanding a halt in trading after share prices fell for the 15th straight session. The exchange's security chief Mohammed Aslam said investors began smashing windows after the administration declined to suspend trading. Similar protests also broke out in Lahore, where investors burned tires and blocked roads. The Karachi Stock Exchange index has fallen 14 percent since Monday. Angry investors blamed the government for the recent volatility, after regulators relaxed curbs on daily stock price movements. Persistent concerns about economic and political instability have also contributed to a decline in Pakistani stocks. http://story.indiagazette.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/3a8a80d6f705f8cc/id/377608/cs/1/ Dutch airline workers in tax protest India Gazette Wednesday 2nd July, 2008 Dutch airline company workers have demonstrated in Amsterdam against a newly implemented flight tax. The green tax will see passengers paying an extra eleven euros for short flights and an extra 45 euros on long flights. Airline personnel fear that passengers will avoid flying from the Netherlands and will use airports in neighbouring Belgium or Germany. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Fri Aug 29 20:59:16 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 04:59:16 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Fuel price protests, global South, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <006b01c90a54$c76cb290$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * GLOBAL: Two killed as fuel crisis escalates * HONDURAS: Bus drivers in unrest over fuel prices * PHILIPPINES: Price hike sparks protests - Shell offices tomatoed, march on public square * INDIA: Protests across the country over price hike * MALAYSIA: Thousands join opposition protests * INDONESIA: Students fight police in price protest; protests in several cities * CHILE: Truckers ditch loads, may strike over prices * INDIA, Karnataka: "Life normal" despite fuel strike * INDIA, West Bengal: "Total shutdown" in fuel strike * INDIA, Kollam: Strike and chain of protests, rail blockade * INDIA, Guntur: Activists tow cars, bikes * BOLIVIA, CHILE: Truckers protest * INDIA, Andhra Pradesh: Spontaneous protests * INDIA: Left protests fuel price rise * KASHMIR: Police attack fuel price protesters * THAILAND: Cost of living protests target food, fuel * PAKISTAN: Islamists protest fuel prices * ASSAM: General strike over fuel price * NEPAL: Students protest fuel prices, block roads, target govt buildings * HONG KONG: Drivers stage fuel price protest * INDIA, Kannur: March to railway station * INDIA, Tamil Nadu: Protests in several towns * THAILAND: Farm trucks join protest * MALAYSIA: Fuel protests continue * INDIA, Tamil Nadu: Left strike shuts down textile factories; buses damaged * INDIA, Kerala: Bus drivers protest * INDIA, Mumbai: Rightist protesters clash with police, attack buses * INDIA, Madurai: Rightists push car in cart * INDIA, New Delhi: Fuel protests hit markets, rail, roads * INDIA, Chandigarh: Dissident attacked by police over fuel price "antics" * INDIA, Chennai: Traders protest * COTE D'IVOIRE: Go-slow, shutdown over fuel prices; prices slashed http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jun2008/fuel-j13.shtml Two truck drivers killed as European and Asian fuel protests spread By Paul Mitchell 13 June 2008 Two truck drivers, one in Spain and the other in Portugal, have been killed during protests against fuel price increases that have rocked Europe as well as Asia. The disputes involving fishermen and farmers, as well as truckers, have become increasingly bitter. Self-employed truck driver Julio Cervilla Soto was killed outside the Merca Granada wholesale market in Granada, when a van he was trying to stop ran over him. A Portuguese trucker died when trying to stop a lorry in the town of Alcanena, north of the capital Lisbon. The strike is being waged by self-employed truck drivers, who make up an estimated 20 percent of Spain's 380,000-strong total. They say that the larger companies are better placed to offset the 36 percent fuel price increase over the last year by lowering their charges. Juan Antonio, who owns two trucks, told El Pais, "I get 85 cents per kilometre. Of that, around 50 cents goes on diesel. On top of that, we have to pay social security, the driver and maintenance. Just changing the tyres, something that has to be done once a year, costs 6,000 euros." Alberto added, "You want me to tell you how the price of diesel affects me? I went to pay for my breakfast this morning, but my bank account was empty. That's how it affects me. It makes no difference to me to be stuck here, because I wouldn't be earning much more if I was working." Socialist Party Prime Minister Jos? Luis Rodr?guez Zapatero has offered the truckers emergency loans and an early retirement package, but refuses to guarantee the minimum tariff they demand, saying that it would be illegal under European Union competition legislation. Minister for the Interior Alfredo P?rez Rubalcaba said more than 50 people had been arrested since the beginning of the strike and that the government had mobilised more than 25,000 police to break up blockades and escort lorries and would act with "maximum force and maximum firmness." "The security forces will act resolutely to keep roads clear and ensure that basic products are distributed," Rubalcaba added. Since the strike began, supplies of fresh meat, fish and fruit to Madrid have come to a halt and panic buying has left hundreds of petrol stations empty in the capital, Barcelona, and other major cities. Auto manufacturers have had to cut production, hit by their reliance on "just-in-time" supply chains; ferry companies have cancelled many sailings to the Balearic Islands and Palma; and more than half of the construction sites in M?laga province are reported to be at a standstill. The government has called in riot police to break up the protests in the cities and open up the border crossings. Foreign lorry drivers at the La Jonquera frontier with France claimed that they have been held hostage there for two days without food or water. At the Ir?n border crossing, Basque police arrested two pickets, accusing them of threatening the driver of a van with a screwdriver Some 21 people were injured in Almer?a, 13 of them policemen, during a battle outside the city council offices involving at least 2,500 farmers demanding a reduction in the tax charged on diesel. In Seville, nearly 30 people were injured, including 8 policemen in fights outside the Andalucian parliament where there were 7 arrests. In Alicante, a 43-year-old non-striking driver whose truck was set on fire whilst he was sleeping in it on an industrial estate in San Isidro suffered second-degree burns to a quarter of his body. Lorries were also set on fire in Murcia in south and in Arazuri in the north. On Wednesday, protesting fishermen burned tyres in the northwestern Pontevedra region, temporarily blocking a bridge to Portugal, and others trying to enter the Galician regional parliament fought with police in Santiago de Compostela. In Portugal, latest reports suggest lorry drivers who have been on strike since Monday have now ended their action and accepted a package of measures negotiated with the government. As in Spain, shops began to run out of fresh food and long queues built up at petrol stations. The main airport in Lisbon ran out of aviation fuel, and fishermen blockaded the Guadiana Bridge that links the south of the country with Spain. >From June 1 to June 3, there was a nation-wide boycott of BP, Galp and Repsol garages in protest against the record profits they have just announced. Prime Minister Jos? Socrates has refused to take any action against rising prices and simply called for installation of motorway signs displaying petrol prices at various service stations and the creation of a fuel price web site. He added that people should wait until the minimum wage is increased in 2009. Elsewhere in Europe, thousands of truckers across Poland stopped work on Wednesday to protest rising costs. The regional protest coordinator in southern Silesia, Rajmund Nierychlo, said, "The protest involved not only trucks, but also vans, buses, taxies as well as urban transport in general. All road vehicles." Besides rising fuel prices, the truckers are also complaining about the high cost of toll fees on motorways contracted out to private companies, the long time it takes to cross the border into the countries to the east of the European Union, and the competition from these countries, which receive much cheaper fuel from Russia. Fuel market expert Andrzej Szczesniak explained, "Regarding the prices of fuel and taxes, one shouldn't compare us to the rest of Europe, but rather to our eastern neighbours. Polish drivers, I mean big trucks and commercial transport, are competing mostly with very cheap fuel and a cheap workforce from the east. And if you compare Polish prices of diesel with Belarus, Ukraine or Russia, we are absolutely non-competitive. The second thing is that compared to other countries of the so-called New Europe, we are not in a good position because our [Polish] taxes are the highest. And the third problem is that VAT at 22 percent-the tax which is very high in Poland-is not deductible (from running costs)." In Scotland, farmers, fishermen and truckers are meeting to discuss possible further action following a protest outside the Scottish parliament in Edinburgh earlier this week. David McCutcheon, managing director of haulage company Bullet Express and leader of the protest, said, "There is anger and frustration, and things will start getting out of hand when firms start going out of business" "People are prepared to take militant action. The Spanish are blocking roads and it will come to that here eventually. This country is heading for meltdown and a general strike. "This is not just a bunch of truck-drivers looking after their own ends. We're out to fight the cost of fuel, which is affecting the whole economy." A protest is planned in London next month, by which time hundreds of tanker drivers working for haulage firms employed by Shell may have gone on strike in protest at their pay being worth no more now than in 1992, despite working 11 hours more each week. Dutch lorry drivers also took part in a go-slow protest on Thursday. Asia In India, a one-day strike called by the Kashmir Traders and Manufacturers Federation to protest against the previous week's 10 percent fuel price rise shut shops and banks in the state of Jammu-Kashmir. "We express utter dismay over the rise of essential commodities, petrol, diesel and cooking gas, and urge people to observe a complete strike on June 11," the group said in a statement. The action coincided with the third day of a strike called by the state's transport operators demanding an increase in fares and freight charges. Kashmir Motor Drivers Association President Ghulam Muhammad Bhat said, "Transport fares have not been revised here since 2005 while oil prices have increased manifold during this period. This has put us under tremendous pressure as we are incurring continuous losses." "We had informed the government about the price rise of so many automobile spare parts, but they did not respond to our repeated calls. And the recent unprecedented hike in petrol and diesel forced us to go on a strike to press for our demands," Bhat added. During the strike, protesters hurled stones at the car of a top elected state official, Manzoor Ahmed, and paramilitary soldiers fired tear gas and used batons to preventing them marching to Srinagar, the state's summer capital. At least two dozen employees were detained after hundreds of government employees affiliated to the Employees Joint Action Committee and many lawyers protested outside the Civil Secretariat. In Malaysia, the largest oil producer in Asia, opposition groups are planning mass protests against a 41 percent rise in fuel prices last week to 2.70 ringgit (US$0.87) a litre (US$3.30 a gallon). Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi tried to defuse opposition saying, "The government feels that the people are still trying to adjust to the high oil price situation" and promised that there would be no further increase in prices this year. Shamsul Iskandar Akin, a leader of the GERAMM youth coalition against oil price rises, rejected Abdullah's pledge and said the increase had led prices to rise in food and transport and caused further hardship for the poor. A march is planned today to the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, where the state monopoly Petronas is headquartered. Police warned that no permit had been issued for a demonstration and people would be arrested. In Nepal, violent protests erupted across the country on Tuesday after the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) increased fuel prices by about 25 percent following the price rise in India, from where it is supplied. The situation was exacerbated by India, which is Nepal's sole fuel supplier, cutting its exports to the country by 80 percent in recent week as a result of non-payment by the near-bankrupt NOC. Purushottam Ojha, NOC chairman, used the crisis to announce that private companies would now be allowed to import fuel "from any part of the world," ending India's monopoly. Petrol increases to 100 Nepali rupees (US$1.5) per litre against the old price of Rs.80 and diesel Rs.70 instead of Rs.56. The Federation of Nepal National Transport Entrepreneurs issued a statement saying long-distance bus fares were increasing by 30 percent and short-distance bus and taxi fares by 35 percent. Students burnt tyres, blocking roads in the capital and shutting down the East-West highway, the most important route for supplies from India. Demonstrations were reported from other areas in the country. Similar protests took place last October. On at least two other occasions in recent months, the government tried to increase prices, but huge protests forced it to back down. The last attempt by the government of Girija Prasad Koirala to do the same on the eve of last April's election contributed to the defeat of his Nepali Congress Party. In South Korea, many ports are at a standstill, blockaded by truckers who have voted to strike on Monday in protest at rising fuel costs. They are demanding lower fuel prices, increased fees for hauling freight and a standardised pricing system that will ensure a minimum wage. A strike at the country's largest port, Busan, which handles three quarters of exports, is holding up nearly 90 percent of container traffic. In Thailand, thousands of truck drivers have gone on strike to protest the government's failure to address recent fuel price increases. Tongyu Kongkongkhan, secretary-general of Land Transportation Association of Thailand, claimed that after about 120,000 trucks had stopped working in several provinces on Wednesday, "We merely showed our power by parking the trucks on the roads, but if the government fails to meet our demand, the federation has decided to make June 17 D-day, when we will bring at least 100,000 trucks into Bangkok." The federation is demanding that the government sell diesel to them for 3 baht (9 US cents) per litre less than the market price and subsidise the conversion of truck engines to cheaper natural gas. The fuel crisis has also hit fishermen and farmers, with Fishing Federation of Thailand President Mana Sripitak saying more than half of his members' 50,000 fishing boats are docked because of the high cost of diesel. Some have been burned in protest. In Hong Kong this week, hundreds of lorry drivers marched to government headquarters demanding a meeting with Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-Kuen. Police smashed the windows of their trucks and towed them away after they brought the Central district to a standstill. An organiser said the transport sector was being crippled by fuel prices that have soared from HK$9.37 per litre to HK$11.61 between December and May. "Most of those in the industry are being forced to close their businesses and some are [having to] sell their containers, trailers and tractors," said Tang Chi-Keung of the Public Omnibus Operators' Association. Thomas Tam, chairman of the Hong Kong Waste Disposal Industry Association, said some of his association's members are considering going on strike today for the first time in 12 years. http://aaron-ortiz.blogspot.com/2008/05/riots-in-tegucigalpa.html Wednesday, May 21, 2008 Riots in Tegucigalpa Ironically, after a peace rally in San Pedro, there are riots in Tegucigalpa. Bus drivers are demanding an increase in fare, because of the rising price of fuel. It seems Hondurans think the price of diesel is something the government can arbitrarily lower. But it was Mel Zelaya who misled the people during years ago his campaign saying that he would lower gasoline and diesel prices. Now he is facing the consequence. He can't deliver, and never could, and always knew it, let's hope. Zelaya may have been hoping for Venezuela's help. But, the truth is, Chavez is drunk with power and profits; who in their right mind would reduce the price of oil when oil is such an excellent source of power and wealth? Chavez is not interested in helping the poor of Honduras. Instead he is interested in buying support for hos "Bolivarian" revolution. The poorest people might not be able to afford buses anymore and be forced to walk. The middle classes are afraid to use buses anyway, so it doesn't hurt them. My advice would be for the city government to take control of city transport completely, replace the entire decrepit bus fleet, and hire the same bus drivers as state employees. In doing this, the city could use taxes to pay for most of the fare, and have users pay much less than the real cost of public transportation. This would force the bus drivers to drive safely, obey regulations, etc. In Monterrey, for instance, a bus ride costs 6 to 8 pesos (12 to 16 Lempiras). The more expensive buses have air conditioning, and comfortable seats. There are minibuses which are less expensive, but cramped and airless. Those who can afford it take the more expensive buses. Still, all of them are safe. People openly wear their MP3 players, cellphones, and watches on the bus, which is very unwise in Tegucigalpa. A mugging is very rare here. Image by Gerardo Diego Ontiveros, used with a Creative Commons license http://www.gmanews.tv/story/101058/Oil-prices-hiked-anew-Protests-up-in-M-Manila Oil prices hiked anew; Protests up in M Manila BY FIDEL JIMENEZ, MARK MERUE?AS, GMANews.TV 06/13/2008 | 11:24 PM Email this | Email the Editor | Print | Digg this | Add to del.icio.us (Update) MANILA, Philippines - Oil companies will begin the 15th round of oil price increase by adding another P1.50 per liter on prices on all petroleum products starting Saturday morning, according to Qtv 11 News on Q Friday evening. First to raise the pump prices will be the Pilipinas Shell starting 12:01 am Saturday. Petron, Chevron - known as Caltex Philippines - and Unioil will raise their pump prices at 6 a.m Saturday. The report added that Shell will also increase the price of LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) by P1 per kilogram or P11 per tank. Oil companies said the price hike is due to the continuing increase of oil prices in the world market. Other oil companies meanwhile have yet to announce if they follow too. Hours before the announcement, groups of activists, teachers, drivers, and concerned citizens simultaneously staged a lightning noise barrage actions in the cities of Quezon, Manila, and Makati to denounce surging prices of oil and other basic commodities. Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes told GMANews.TV in a phone interview that their members gathered at the Welcome Rotonda at the border of Quezon City and Manila to protest another looming fuel price hike over the coming weekend. "We are holding a noise barrage in anticipation of another oil price increase at the end of this week. The hikes have been a regular occurrence," Reyes said. "Walang announcement na may hike pero ina-anticipate namin. Alam naman natin na marami pang kailangan i-recover ang mga oil companies," he added. The protesters at the Rotonda numbered more than 100, according to Reyes, and the group was composed of Bayan members and jeepney drivers from the Pinagkaisang Samahan ng Tsuper at Operator Nationwide (Piston). The protesters also tried blocking the path of a passing oil truck, but Reyes said, "peaceful naman ang pagharang ng mga nagpo-protesta (no force was involved)." The Bayan, like Piston, maintains its position that the government should lift the Value Added Tax on petroleum prices and observe measures to control pump price increases. More protests The militant leader also said that members of the Concerned Citizens Movement are likewise holding a similar noise barrage in Makati City. Meanwhile, member students activists from the League of Filipino Students and Anakbayan are also honking their horns and drumming up noise over at Katipunan Avenue in Quezon City. Also, Reyes hinted that similar protest rallies would be staged even until President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's State of the Nation Address in July. "(Protest movements like this) will be a weekly event. We won't be surprised if this will be sustained until the SONA," Reyes said. Education too In Manila, the White Ribbon Movement mobilized a number of teachers and students and held a similar noise barrage at the Plaza Salamanca along Taft Avenue. The protest movement, dubbed "Kapit-Bisig para sa Katotohanan," was meant to denounce corruption in the government and the rising prices of basic commodities as well as the surging tuition rates. White Ribbon Movement convener Malou Santiago-Agustin also said that the Arroyo administration's alleged role in the botched national broadband network deal mess should not be left forgotten. "We're here to let the Arroyo administration know that we're back," said Agustin-Santiago, who is also a professor at the Philippine Normal University. Santiago noted that the worsening economic situation brought about by rising food and fuel prices highlighted the link between state policies that push people deeper into poverty and the need to fight corruption in government. "In these times of greater economic hardship, the struggle to exact accountability for corruption at the highest levels of government becomes even more relevant, since corruption hits the poor hardest," she said. "In these times of greater economic hardship, the struggle to exact accountability for corruption at the highest levels of government becomes even more relevant, since corruption hits the poor hardest," she added. Aside from students from universities and colleges lying along Taft Avenue, members of various religious and medical groups also banded together to participate.- GMANews.TV http://www.gmanews.tv/story/105278/Activists-throw-tomatoes-at-Shell-office-protest-oil-price-hike Activists throw tomatoes at Shell office, protest oil price hike 07/05/2008 | 12:56 PM Email this | Email the Editor | Print | Digg this | Add to del.icio.us MANILA, Philippines - Activists led by the left-leaning umbrella group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) on Saturday threw tomatoes at the office of Pilipinas Shell in Makati City to dramatize their protest against the new round of oil price increases implemented on Saturday. Radio dzBB quoted Bayan leaders as saying that the increase was "unfair" and unreasonable" especially for poor Filipino consumers who were made to carry the burden of paying for investment losses of oil companies. Bayan claimed that the country's oil deregulation law had allowed companies to raise fuel prices without them facing consequences. "Oil companies have been raising prices with impunity under a deregulated regime. After 18 rounds of oil price hikes this year that bloated the price of diesel by P19.50, oil firms still claim under-recoveries of as much as P7 per liter for June alone," Bayan spokesman Arnold Padilla said in a statement. "Deregulation only legitimizes the abuses of the oil companies," said Padilla. Also, Bayan criticized the Arroyo administration for its continued refusal to scrap the 12 percent value added tax (VAT) on oil, which the group claimed led to the further increase of fuel products. Bayan said that with the latest price adjustments, removing the VAT on oil could immediately bring down the pump price of diesel by around P6.53 a liter; gasoline products, more than P7.26 a liter; and LPG, about P87 per 11-kg tank, it said. "If Malaca?ang is sincere in not tolerating vultures that will prey on consumers, then it must start with the oil giants. But we doubt if Gloria Arroyo has the political will to go after the oil firms when her regime also benefits from escalating oil prices through the VAT," Padilla said. - GMANews.TV http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/metro/view/20080712-148052/Mendiola-protest-vs-non-stop-oil-price-hikes Mendiola protest vs non-stop oil price hikes Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 14:42:00 07/12/2008 MANILA, Philippines -- Some 50 members of militant group Kilusan Para Sa Pambansang Demokrasya were allowed by the Manila Police District (MPD) to stage protest action at Mendiola bridge in Manila Saturday morning, authorities said. The group, which gathered at the historic bridge at 10 a.m., protested against the continuous increase in oil prices. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20080718-149250/UPDATE-2-Cops-keep-youth-protesters-from-Mendiola (UPDATE 2) Cops keep youth protesters from Mendiola By Abigail Kwok INQUIRER.net First Posted 14:53:00 07/18/2008 MANILA, Philippines -- Thousands of youth-led activists were prevented by police from reaching the foot of Manila's historic Don Chino Roces (formerly Mendiola) Bridge on the approaches to Malaca?ang to protest the incessant escalation of fuel prices. The Manila Police District had earlier deployed some 500 Manila policemen backed by fire trucks along Claro M. Recto Avenue and Roces bridge in anticipation of the rallyists. The protesters were also blocked on Morayta Street by police armed with shields and batons. Foiled, the activists headed to the Mehan Garden where they held a rally. The young activists, many of whom had walked out of their classes, conducted "alternative street classes to educate the youth and to strengthen the youth movement in the country," said Vencer Crisostomo, national president of the League of Filipino Students (LFS). "This is to create a new wave of revolutionary consciousness. Our aim is to conduct social analysis and political education to make known to the youth how corrupt and rotten our system is," Crisostomo added. The activists had earlier converged at the Plaza Miranda in the Quiapo district to protest unabated oil price increases. Friday's protest, themed "Kabataan at Bayan, Mag-aklas [Youth and people, rise up]," drew more than 5,000 students and out-of-school youth, Crisostomo said. Crisostomo said the protest focused on "deepening political education among the youth to bring a bigger, stronger, more powerful youth movement that will confront the current ills of society." The protesters had three demands: the scrapping of the value added tax (VAT) on oil; the repeal of the Oil Deregulation Law; and a legislated P125 across-the-board wage increase. The protesters used a truck turned into a makeshift stage where they presented street plays and musical performances, with the University of the Philippines (UP) Repertory performing a satire on how ordinary Filipinos resort to shortcuts to increase their incomes, including gambling and prostitution. Earlier in the day, students nationwide stepped out of their classrooms to protest the rising prices of commodities. In Metro Manila, students walked out of classes at the University of the Philippines, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, University of Santo Tomas, Adamson University, Far Eastern University, De La Salle University, and Ateneo de Manila University, among others. Students at universities in Baguio City, Cebu City, Davao City, and the Negros provinces also joined the protest. Crisostomo said the protest was meant to show government that the youth movement in the country is strong and for the youth to see "the truth that there are a few in government who are exploiting us." He said the ultimate solution to the problem of unabated oil price increases is to "revolt at palawigin ang [and to strengthen the] youth movement." Bayan Muna (People First) Representative Satur Ocampo, a veteran of 1970's First Quarter Storm period of unrest, shared his experiences with the current crop of activists. "The problems being raised 30, 40 years ago are the same," he said. Ocampo added that the repetitive problems are caused by "problematic state policies." Although youth groups were able to obtain "small victories, these were later reversed by the government." He urged the youth to expand their education and make sure they practice what they learned in school. "Dapat maiugnay nila ang kanilang pinag-aralan sa university sa lessons ng bayan [They should be able to relate what they learned in university to the lessons of the nation]," he said. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/metro/view/20080710-147555/Protesting-students-barred-from-Mendiola Protesting students barred from Mendiola Metro students walk out vs oil price hike By Abigail Kwok, Katherine Evangelista INQUIRER.net First Posted 11:31:00 07/10/2008 MANILA, Philippines -- Police foiled an attempt by student activists who walked out of their classrooms to protest continued oil price hikes to reach historic Chino Roces Bridge (formerly Mendiola), near Malaca?ang Palace in Manila, for a rally on Thursday. The protesters, estimated by police at 200, held their program and burned an effigy of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on the intersection of Morayta and Recto streets instead, after personnel of the Manila Police District (MPD) barricaded the road. MPD Station 4 commander Ricardo Layug said the protesters did not have a permit to stage a rally on Mendiola. Although Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim has reopened the foot of the bridge, once declared a no-rally zone, to protests, these are allowed only on weekends and holidays. Protest organizers and police reached an agreement for the activists to hold an hour-long program and then disperse peacefully. At the University of the Philippines (UP) in Diliman, youth groups expressed anger over the unabated increases in the prices of basic commodities. Around 100 activists from Adamson University, UP-Manila, and Philippine Christian University held a short program on Manila's busy Taft Avenue then marched to the University of Sto. Tomas to join up with other contingents for the attempt to reach Mendiola. Among the student groups that joined the protest were the National Union of Students of the Phil, College Editor Guild of the Phil, Kabataang Pinoy, Student Christian Movement, Liga ng Kabataang Moro, Youth Revolt, Anakbayan, Serve the People UP (STEP-UP), and League of Filipino Students. Other contingents came from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, University of the East, Far Eastern University, and the Araullo, Sauyo and Culiat High Schools in Manila. Similar protests were also held in Cebu, Metro Baguio, Los Ba?os, Davao and Negros Provinces, the activists said. "Sobra na. Tama na ang pagtaas ng presyo ng mga bilihin. Galit na ang estudyante kaya nila inirerehistro ang kanilang galit sa administrasyong ito [Enough. The rise in the prices of basic commodities must stop. The students are angry and we are letting this administration know]," said Jacqueline Eroles, member of the university student council. Students even called the recently approved fare increase a "burden to commuters and will not address the problems of drivers," said Vencer Crisostomo, president of the League of Filipino Students. Crisostomo said what was needed was a "fare decrease," and for oil companies to lower their profits. "It is a moral imperative to regulate prices. The subsidies are useless and insulting and capitalizing on the poor's desperation for public relations," he added. Youth groups also criticized the government's refusal to scrap the value added tax (VAT) on oil. Youth Revolt spokesperson Mark Louie Aquino said they have launched a campaign to gather at least a million signatures for a petition to repeal the oil deregulation law and scrap the VAT on oil. They will present the petition to the House of Representative and the Senate. "President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo could easily order the cancellation of the 12 percent VAT on oil and decisively direct Congress to repeal the oil deregulation law," said Terry Ridon, spokesperson of STEP-UP and former UP student regent. "The government has done nothing...it is the duty of students, to demand for the immediate revision of flawed government policies that caused these unabated rise in prices," Ridon said. Thursday's rally is only the first in a series of student protests to assert their "categorical statement on the economic crisis," Ridon said, adding the next mass action on July 18 will be much bigger than Thursday's. Youth activists are also gearing up to join massive protests expected on July 28, when Arroyo delivers her State of the Nation Address. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/metro/view_article.php?article_id=135906 Sympathy protests by other groups during strike--Piston By Tina Santos Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 06:23pm (Mla time) 05/11/2008 MANILA, Philippines--Members of the militant transport group Pinagkaisang Samahan ng Tsuper at Operator Nationwide (Piston, United Organization of Drivers and Operators Nationwide) in Manila have said the transport strike which they will lead Monday will involve members of other transport groups who will take part in coordinated mass actions. George San Mateo, secretary general of Piston, said on Sunday the transport strike would be a "people's strike" and would draw the support of militant groups representing other sectors. "It is not just our drivers' strike, it is a people's strike," he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net), adding that several groups representing various sectors have committed to participate in protest actions. However, some jeepney drivers in the city admitted they would not join the protect action. "I hope [Piston] understands, I have no other means to feed my family," said Bhen Flores, 54, driver of Baclaran-Manila route. Others, however, plan to ply their route early in the morning and stop before noon as "pakikisama" (in sympathy) with their protesting colleagues. "Kukuha lang ako ng pangkain para sa mga anak ko [I'll just earn enough to be able to buy food for my family)," said Roland Layco. "Para wala namang masabi ang mga kasamahan ko (I'll join the strike in the afternoon so that my peers won't get disappointed)." The drivers want the government to scrap the reformed value-added tax on oil and agricultural inputs to bring down the price of fuel and food. "The drivers, operators and the public can no longer take the rising oil prices, especially with the increasing prices of basic commodities. The 12 percent value-added tax and the Oil Deregulation Law should be repealed to realize a P4-P5 rollback in petroleum products [per liter]," San Mateo said. He added that fuel and rice subsidy given by the government have not been enough to mitigate the impact of the fuel costs on the poor. He dismissed them as tactics to distract the transportation sector from the expected P6-oil price adjustment in the coming weeks. Piston will be setting up rally centers in Alabang, Muntinlupa; Monumento, Caloocan City; Novaliches-Bayan, Cubao, Kalayaan avenue corner Kamias, and the Philcoa area in Quezon City; Marikina; Taytay Market; as well as Welcome Rotonda, Pier South and Aduana Circle in Manila. San Mateo said they would pursue a series of protest actions until compelling government to address their demands. http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=370400 Fuel price protests continue across India ANI Friday 13th June, 2008 Bhubaneswar/ Lucknow/ Chandigarh, June 13 : Protesters in different parts of the country took to streets to demonstrate against the Central Government's decision to hike fuel prices. Supporters of Biju Janata Dal took out a protest march in Orissa. Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said that the Biju Janata Dal for the last five days has taken from village to the town the message of spiraling price rise. Traders in Lucknow took out a semi-nude march to register their protest. They demanded an immediate rollback of the hike. "It is a shame that the trading community that pays most tax and that is the backbone of the economic system had to come to the street without clothes. The hike in petrol, diesel and cooking gas prices is not acceptable to us," said Sandeep Bansal, President of the traders association of Uttar Pradesh. Meanwhile, Punjab Transport Minister Mohan Lal took a cycle ride to a cabinet meeting in Chandigarh. "Being a Minister in the Punjab Government, I am lodging a protest. I want to request the Central Government that it should atleast take back the steep hike in cooking gas," he said. The Centre on June 4 had announced fuel price hike by about 10 per cent and a cylinder of cooking gas by 17 per cent, the biggest hike in fuel prices in 12 years. http://globalvoicesonline.org/2008/06/14/malaysia-escalating-fuel-protests/ Malaysia: Escalating fuel protests Saturday, June 14th, 2008 @ 07:41 UTC by Mong Palatino Fuel protests are escalating in Malaysia today. A few days ago, the opposition managed to gather thousands of people in the streets as protest to the Malaysian government's move to reduce fuel subsidies and raise fuel prices. Next month, anti-government groups vow to mobilize one million Malaysians. Cowboy Caleb describes the situation in Malaysia the night before higher oil prices took effect: "Traffic was being diverted from the seaside road, because it looked like a crowd was staging a demonstration. Further along the way, every single petrol station I passed by was jam-packed with cars queuing-up to pump petrol. "Naturally, Malaysians are shaking their fists in anger. Amongst all the other oil-producing countries, Malaysia is the most expensive despite still being relatively cheap in the Asian region. This just smacks of bad governance." Konsyenz explains the anger of ordinary Malaysians: "Simplistically put, a net exporting country like Malaysia should profit when global oil prices increase. Demand for oil is ever increasing, but the limited supply pushes the value of this prized commodity up. "So, logically speaking, an oil-rich country like Malaysia, which is projected to be a net exporter until 2014, is making more money when prices skyrocket. Why is the country suffering from the effects of global oil prices then?" But freelittlebrain thinks the oil price hike protest is unjustified and wrong. The same viewpoint is expressed by Malay Women and Malaysia: "I was shocked and quite angry with the recent fuel price hike 24 hours after hearing the news last week but quickly realize that there is nothing we can do about it. I still maintain my stand that the fuel price protest like what Malaysians have planned for today is a waste of time." chantique79 believes the fuel policies of the Prime Minister reflect the leader's "very short thinking without thinking the consequences to the people." Former Malaysian leader Dr. Mahathir Mohamad shares his perspective on the issue: "I believe the people expect the increase of petrol price. But what they are angry about is the quantum and the suddenness. The Prime Minister was hinting at August but suddenly it came two months earlier, just after the ban on sale of petrol to foreigners. If the increase had been more gradual, the people would not feel it so much." Fireangel uploads the article of a friend who tackled the impact of higher oil prices on the economy: "The entire supply chain, from manufacturers, to distributors and retailers will now face the prospect of a "double-whammy"-paying a quarter more on their electricity bills as well as bearing the drastically higher price of fuel. "The resulting cost increases will undoubtedly be passed on to the consumer, and might in turn precipitate a crisis in domestic production as demand for some goods falls through the floor with the diminution of real income. "The effects of inflation, let alone hyperinflation, are unpredictable at best in a country that recently avoided paying a RM900 minimum monthly wage. At worst the combined effect of these latest developments will set a match to the powder keg of social discontent." Meshio.com adds: "I have also noticed people are more pissed off with the petrol price than with the rice hike. It shows that the people are not stupid. They know the price hike is a global issue. But they also know that the shocking petrol hike is NOT so much of a global issue than it is a home-brewed one." Malaysian leaders have vowed that there will be no more oil price hikes this year. They said the government will look for alternative sources of revenue. Cakap Tak Serupa Bikin reacts: "What alternative ways available? The government might consider scrapping corruption and look at ways to legalize it without doing it illegally. We have legalized civil servants' moonlighting and working in the night; we had legalized horse racing and bettings, we had legalized casinos, sports toto, 4-Ds; well, just add one more to it." KTemoc Konsiders describes the oil price hike as "Truly Tragically Tsunamic." And the blogger points out the "positive" impact of the hike: "The only enterprise which will boom, and I say this not as a cruel joke but as an observed reality of Malaysian life, will be the 4-Ekor and gambling businesses. Poverty leads to financial desperation, and desperation leads to fantasized hopes . and fantasy leads the poor to the 4-Ekor shops." paultan.org notes that cars are now a luxury and a necessity at the same time: "I guess compared with our per capita income, cars are now officially a luxury and thanks to our pathetic public transport system, a necessity at the same time! We will have to find alternate ways to cut our fuel bill without relying on public transport, such as minimizing travel and car pooling." Rajan Rishyakaran reviews the fuel subsidy system of Malaysia: "It isn't as if Malaysia's coffer is awashed with cash: we have been in a fiscal deficit for many years now. And revenue from oil shouldn't be spent on subsidies: it is wasteful, not targeted and inefficient. Handing out checks (a bit like what the current administration seems to be doing) is a lot more efficient. "Of course the current government could do a lot to lower the burden. Cancel huge projects of questionable value (why Penang Monorail, for example, when refurbishing the island's tram lines are far much cheaper) - and channel that money into tax cuts." Rant Cushion discussed how the fuel subsidy was abused: "The subsidy has been abused by those who do not merit the taxpayers' sacrifice. When a subsidized system like that for fuel creates a two-tier system, we can bet there will be corrupt siphoning of benefits across the tier, where those not entitled will enjoy benefits at taxpayers expenses. "Removing the fuel subsidy does NOT mean the end of subsidy to those in need as there are other ways to ensure they receive the publicly funded benefits via, for example, social welfare packages which will be an improved system of ensuring the benefits actually reach the intended target population." Oxyeleotris marmorata asks: Did we enjoy the nation's oil wealth? Where did all the oil profits go to? The rising food and energy prices led ShadowFox's hideout to worry about the future: "The wealth from the parent's generation is ending soon, now we're facing the new generation of youths who might not be as diligent or financially adequate as their parent's generations, and the lack of decent opportunities in meritocratic environment. Even in the private sector, things are not all that rosy. Young people nowadays will have a huge problem managing their finance." http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/06/asia/AS-GEN-Indonesia-Fuel-Protest.php Indonesian students clash with police over fuel hikes The Associated Press Published: May 6, 2008 MAKASSAR, Indonesia: Protesters and police hurled rocks at each other Tuesday during a demonstration against fuel price increases announced by Indonesia's government. At least four people were injured, police and witnesses said. The clash occurred when officers tried to keep the protesters - who were mostly students - from burning tires and seizing a fuel tank truck in the town of Makassar on Sulawesi island, witnesses said. Police arrested seven people, said police Colonel Genot Haryanto. "They will be questioned and the case will proceed to court no matter whether the students or police are to blame" for provoking the clash, he said. The government announced Monday that it will cut subsidies in the coming weeks on a range of fuel products to avoid a massive budget deficit amid soaring world oil prices. A big fuel price increase in 1998 triggered rioting that helped topple former dictator Suharto. Protests also forced former President Megawati Sukarnoputri to scale back a fuel price increase in 2002. Scattered demonstrations took place the last time the current government cut subsidies in 2005. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/05/16/2246323.htm Indonesia fuel protests end in violence: report Posted Fri May 16, 2008 12:00am AEST There are reports that police have fired tear gas on a crowd of students in eastern Indonesia, in the latest in a string of protests against a government plan to raise the price of fuel. The Detikcom news portal says the violence broke out at a university campus in the city of Makassar after police charged in to break up the protest and were met with a barrage of rocks and other heavy objects. The portal says police arrested at least four students. Indonesia has experienced a rash of protests since the Government last week announced plans to hike the pump price of fuel, with high global oil prices causing the cost of the Government's generous subsidy scheme to balloon. No set figure has been put forward for the rise, but officials say prices on average would increase by no more than 30 per cent. A 30 per cent rise would see the cost of premium gasoline climb to 6,000 rupiah (69 Australian cents) a litre from 4,500 rupiah (52 Australian cents). The administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the move was essential to cut back the massive cost of its subsidy scheme, which outstrips spending on social programs and infrastructure. But the Government is facing mounting opposition from the street as well as parliament, where most parties have reportedly turned against the plan in a bid to win favour with voters ahead of elections next year. Indonesia last raised its fuel price by 126 per cent in 2005, sparking widespread street protests. A senior Indonesian minister said Thursday that public protests were to be anticipated over plans to raise fuel costs. "I'm confident that we can ride this storm of protest," Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono told reporters in Jakarta. "In 2005 ... we rode out the storm very well. The difference now is May 08 and we're only 15 months away from elections," he said, referring to the tenth anniversary of protests - partly triggered by a fuel price hike - that led to the downfall of dictator Suharto. "I think by December of this year things will improve." - AFP http://www.antara.co.id/en/arc/2008/5/9/protest-rally-greets-vp-in-yogyakarta/ 05/09/08 14:25 Protest rally greets VP in Yogyakarta Yogyakarta (ANTARA News) - Hundreds of students staged a protest rally against the government`s plan to raise domestic fuel oil prices as Vice President Jusuf Kalla and his wife arrived in Yogyakarta to attend a traditional ceremony ahead of the marriage of Governor Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X`s daughter on Friday. The students, grouped in the Indonesian Muslim Students` Action Front (KAMMI) and the Gajah Mada University Sudents` Executive Board (BEM UGM), first gathered at the Tugu intersection and then marched to the Gedung Agung (State Palace) on Jalan Ahmad Yani where the pre-marital ceremony for the sultan`s daughter was taking place. The situation in front of the building became tense when police suddenly tried to drive the demonstrators away from their position facing the palace. There was some scuffling between police and the students as the latter eventually retreated to a position in front of the Vredeburg fort. The demonstrators later dispersed by Friday prayers` time. (*) http://www.antara.co.id/en/arc/2008/5/12/protest-rally-greets-president-yudhoyono-in-surabaya/ 05/12/08 13:00 Protest rally greets President Yudhoyono in Surabaya Surabaya (ANTARA News) - Hundreds of students staged a protest rally against the government`s plan to raise domestic fuel oil prices as President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono arrived in Surabaya, East Java, to attend the peak event of National Education Day at the Airlangga University campus on Monday. The students, grouped in the People`s Struggle Front (FPR), first gathered at the Hajj Dormitory on Jalan Kertajaya at 9.30 in the morning and then marched to Kerta Jaya-Darma Husada intersection through which the president`s motorcade was expected to pass. The protesters from a number of universities in Surabaya waved posters and banners carrying slogans among other things reading : "Reject Fuel Oil Price Hikes", "Lower Prices of Essential Food Supplies." Faqih Alfian, the rally`s coordinator , said the demonstration this time was supported by students of almost all universities in the East Java provincial city of Surabaya. "The government`s plan to raise domestic fuel oil prices in June will only add to the misery of destitute people who make up the majority of Indonesia`s population," Alfian said in his oration. He said the situation in the country at present was getting worse instead of better. According to him, serious problems such as food crisis, increasing prices of basic commodities, kerosene scarcity, malnutrition, and fuel oil price hikes had worsened the country`s situation. The situation at Kerta Jaya-Darma Husada intersections became tense when police tried to drive the demonstrators away from their position but no incident happened. President Yudhoyono and Vice President Jusuf Kalla have lately increasingly become the target of demonstrations against the government`s plan to raise the fuel oil prices. In Yogyakarta on Friday, the Vice President was also greeted by an anti-fuel-oil price increase demonstration by hundreds of students as he and his wife arrived to attend a traditional ceremony ahead of the marriage of Governor Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X`s daughter. The students, grouped in the Indonesian Muslim Students` Action Front (KAMMI) and the Gajah Mada University Students` Executive Board (BEM UGM), first gathered at the Tugu intersection and then marched to the Gedung Agung (State Palace) on Jalan Ahmad Yani where the pre-marital ceremony for the sultan`s daughter was taking place. (*) http://www.antara.co.id/en/arc/2008/5/11/poor-people-stage-protest-outside-vps-residence/ 05/11/08 10:06 Poor people stage protest outside VP`s residence Makassar (ANTARA News) - Hundreds of poor people staged a protest rally against the government`s plan to raise domestic fuel oil prices at Vice President Jusuf Kalla`s private residence in Makassar, South Sulawesi, on Saturday. Their proters said if the government of Persident Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice President Jusuf Kalla insisted on raising the fuel oil prices, it would increase the misery of the poor people in the country. Therefore they urged the government to cancel its plan. Guarded tightly by the police, the protesters then marched to the state oil company PT Pertamina`s marketing office on Jalan Garuda , about 500 meters from Kalla`s residence, to convey the same demand. Earlier in the day, hundreds of students who called themselves South Sulawesi Deliberation Students Movement staged a similar protest rally at the Pertamina office on Jalan Garuda. Coordinator of the rally, Muhammad Rain, said the government would only add to the affliction of the poor people if it raised the domestic fuel oil prices. Meanwhile, Vice President Jusuf Kalla was greeted by a students demonstration in Yogyakarta on Friday as he arrived to attend a traditional ceremony ahead of the marriage of Governor Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X`s daughter. The students, grouped in the Indonesian Muslim Students` Action Front (KAMMI) and the Gajah Mada University Sudents` Executive Board (BEM UGM), first gathered at the Tugu intersection and then marched to the Gedung Agung (State Palace) on Jalan Ahmad Yani where the vice president stopped over. The situation in front of the building became tense when police suddenly tried to drive the demonstrators away from their position facing the palace. There was some scuffling between the police and the students as the latter eventually retreated to a position in front of the Vredeburg fort. The demonstrators later dispersed by Friday prayers` time. (*) http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/08/2268558.htm Indonesian students stitch lips in fuel price protest Posted Sun Jun 8, 2008 9:00pm AEST Two Indonesian students had their lips stitched and joined a protest rally by about 20 students on a Jakarta campus to press the Government to reverse a recent rise in domestic fuel prices. The Government raised fuel prices by almost 30 per cent last month, sparking protests in a country where millions are already suffering from rising energy and food costs. While Indonesia still has some of the lowest fuel prices in Asia, the issue of fuel subsidies is politically sensitive. Indonesia is due to hold parliamentary and presidential elections next year. The Government says it has no choice but to progressively trim fuel subsidies that cost billions of dollars a year and have become impossible to fund as global oil prices soar. Crude oil rocketed more than $US10 to a new high above $US139 a barrel on Friday - up 44 per cent so far this year. "We will stay on track to demand the cancellation of the hike," Nando Sidabutar, a spokesman of Forum Kota, a university students movement said. Mr Sidabutar said the students would not give up until the Government reversed the hike and students from other universities are expected to join the protest. - Reuters http://www.santiagotimes.cl/santiagotimes/2008052713790/news/business-news/region-viii-protest-gas-tax.html REGION VIII TRUCKERS PROTEST GAS TAX Wednesday, 28 May 2008 More than 6,000 truck drivers in Region VIII have ditched their loads in protest of high fuel costs, the Chilean daily La Tercera reported. Trucks in Chile may be going on strike. Photo Courtesy of SXC.com The truckers are demanding that the Finance Ministry eliminate the 25 percent fuel tax, or alternatively, to give them a 100 percent tax return. The government has not responded to their call yet, says National Confederation of Truck Drivers (CNC) President Juana Araya. The truck industry said that skyrocketing fuel prices have driven up transport costs by 50 percent in a year. The industry seeks tax relief to lower its costs, instead of raising prices, to obtain a 25 percent profit margin. Araya hopes that the strike, which started Monday, will yield to a round-table meeting with the Senate Transport Commission and Enap President Enrique D?vila. "If by June 2 we don't have an answer from the Finance Ministry," he warned, "we will make this strike national." The Senate had made a similar proposal as part of a 40-part plan to stimulate the economy. But Sen. Jorge Pizarro, who supports the truckers' strike, said, "There hasn't been any willingness from the Finance Ministry to lower fuel taxes." SOURCE: LA TERCERA By Elaine Ramirez ( editor at santiagotimes.clThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=367670 Life normal in Karnataka despite protests against costly fuel IANS Thursday 5th June, 2008 India's IT hub Bangalore and the rest of Karnataka showed little signs of being derailed by Wednesday's fuel price hike, which has made petrol and diesel in the city the costliest in the country. Bangalore roads were as usual choc-a-bloc with public and private vehicles. Educational institutions, commercial establishments, banks and offices functioned normally. There were similar reports from other major towns like Mangalore, Mysore, Hubli, Shimoga and Gulbarga. However, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and the Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) staged demonstrations in Bangalore and several towns to protest the hike announced by the central government. The BJP protest in Bangalore was led by party general secretary from Karnataka H.N. Ananth Kumar. Criticising the Manmohan Singh government, he said it was in sharp contrast to the way the previous BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) handled the issue of rising crude prices in the international market. The CPI-M and the SUCI organised separate demonstrations in front the Bangalore city corporation office. The Communist Party of India did not organise any protest Thursday but plans a demonstration along with other Left groups Monday or Tuesday, a spokesperson said. A CPI-M spokesperson said the party staged demonstrations in several parts of Karnataka including the coastal town of Mangalore and Gulbarga and at Gadag in the north. BJP workers in Mysore and other places also staged demonstrations. The new BJP chief minister in Karnataka strongly criticised the hike Wednesday evening but refused to lower state taxes to provide relief to the people as suggested by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The hike in diesel prices is likely to result in an increase in the cost of travel within Karnataka by the state-run transport service. The Karnataka State Road Transport Corp may propose to the state government a 10 percent hike in fares. http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=367380 Total shutdown in West Bengal to protest fuel price hikes IANS Thursday 5th June, 2008 Flight schedules went haywire and train services came to a halt as a 12-hour shutdown called by West Bengal's ruling Left Front to protest the central government's fuel price hikes paralysed life across the state Thursday. Shops and business establishments remained closed, streets were deserted, vehicles remained off the roads, schools and colleges gave unofficial holidays as the state witnessed yet another 'government sponsored' shutdown. No major incident of violence was reported in the morning. 'We have no reports of any violence so far. The shutdown is being observed peacefully,' West Bengal Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Raj Kanojia told IANS. Passengers had a trying time at the NSC Bose International airport of this metropolis as one flight after another was cancelled, while train services were disrupted in both south-eastern and eastern railways. Protesters squatted on railway tracks at various stations. Suburban trains were cancelled while long distance trains were stuck at various stations en route. The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) led government seemed to have played its part in the success of the shutdown as the administration remained a mute spectator while Left party activists forced passengers out of taxis and squatted outside metro rail stations. Government-run buses did not ply. But the IT sector escaped the loss of a man-day as it was kept out of the purview of the shutdown. Protesting the central government's decision to hike prices of petroleum products, West Bengal's ruling Left Front gave a call for statewide shutdown Thursday (6 a.m. to 6 p.m.) even as the main opposition Trinamool Congress also called for shutdown over the same issue the next day. The price of diesel has been increased by Rs.3 per litre, of petrol by Rs.5 and that of cooking gas by Rs.50 per cylinder. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/05/stories/2008060551140300.htm Protests against fuel price hike in Kollam Protest: AIYF activists blocking the Inter-City Express at the Kollam railway station on Wednesday in protest against the fuel price hike. KOLLAM: The hike in fuel prices triggered a chain of protests in Kollam on Wednesday evening. The protests by pro-Left organisations were organised as a prelude to the dawn-to-dusk hartal called by the Left Democratic Front (LDF) on Thursday. The Kollam Railway station complex became the venue for some strong protests on the day. A group of All India Youth Federation (AIYF) activists barged into the railway station and blocked the Eranakulam-bound Inter City Express to register their protest against the fuel price hike. The train was held up for about forty-five minutes as a result of the blockade. The demonstrators also blocked the Thiruvananthapuram-bound Nethravathi Express for about fifteen minutes. They were later arrested by the police. Later, the Railway police registered a case against the demonstrators. The demonstration was led by AIYF State vice-president Sam K. Daniel. Addressing the demonstration, he said the Left parties should consider withdrawing support to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government if the fuel price hike is not withdrawn. AIYF leaders G. Udayakumar, A. Rajeev and S. Ajaya Ghosh also spoke. The members of the Federation of State Employees and Teachers Organisations (FSETO) held a demonstration in front of the railway station condemning the hike. FSETO activists led by district leader Basil Joseph took out a march from the Taluk Cutchery junction. A protest meeting in front of the railway station was inaugurated by CPI(M) district secretary K. Rajagopal. State vice-president of the Kerala NGO Union K. Sasindran; Kerala School Teachers Association leader S. Ajayakumar and Kerala Gazetted Officers' Association leader C.S. Reghulal spoke. Communist Party of India activists took out a march through the city. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/05/stories/2008060558670300.htm Parties stage novel protest Staff Reporter GUNTUR: Political parties on Thursday took to the streets protesting against the fuel hike. In a novel demonstration TDP and CPI(M) activists paraded cars and bikes towing them with ropes. In some cases, a mock auction of motorcycles was held. Tenali M.P V. Bala Shourie said the hike was imminent due to the global hike in crude oil prices which shot up from $80 to $130. http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/americas/news/article_1409563.php/Truck_drivers_protest_over_fuel_prices_in_Chile_Bolivia Truck drivers protest over fuel prices in Chile, Bolivia Jun 5, 2008, 21:24 GMT Santiago/La Paz - Truck drivers continued Thursday to blockade roads in Chile and Bolivia, demanding that the respective governments ease taxes on fuel in an attempt to face rising fuel prices. In Chile, the truck drivers protest that started Tuesday continued to cause trouble for the supply of food, fuel and health sector products, causing millions of dollars in losses according to government and business officials. Access to several cities were blocked in some areas, and mass transit systems partially joined the protest by some 60,000 freight vehicles. The crisis paralysed the country's main ports and particularly affected northern and southern regions. The right-wing opposition said it will block a government- sponsored bill to establish a 1-billion-dollar fuel subsidy, causing the protest to become tougher. Drivers are demanding the subsidy, and also the elimination of road tolls and the country's taxes on fuel. Chile imports almost all of the fuel it consumes. Energy Minister Marcelo Tokman called upon protestors 'not to put at risk the supply' of basic products. 'It is one thing to make the decision to go on strike and not transport anything, and another to prevent those who do want to work from doing so,' Tokman complained. Several hospitals reported trouble in securing a supply of oxygen. In neighbouring Bolivia, truck drivers were continuing with a similar protest, which also started Tuesday. They wreaked havoc on traffic in eastern, western and southern parts of the Andean country and vowed to keep the protest going indefinitely. Drivers demanded that the government change taxes on the sector and modify customs regulations, and also that the authorities secure better upkeep of the country's roads. Bolivian President Evo Morales has refused to do as protestors want. Beyond the drivers' protest, the construction sector staged an unprecedented demonstration Thursday, taking heavy machinery into the eastern Bolivian city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra in demand for new prices in the face of rising costs. In Argentina - which has borders with both Chile and Bolivia - truck drivers were also protesting Thursday, although their demands were not aimed at fuel prices or government policy. Rather, they were complaining that a farmers' protest that has been ongoing since March has severely reduced their workload. http://story.indiagazette.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/701ee96610c884a6/id/367284/cs/1/ Spontaneous protests in Andhra Pradesh over price hike India Gazette Wednesday 4th June, 2008 (IANS) The steep hike in prices of petroleum products announced Wednesday evoked spontaneous protests across Andhra Pradesh as the opposition parties gave a call for shutdown Friday. Activists of the main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Left parties took to streets in the state capital and some towns to protest the hike. The TDP gave a call for state-wide shutdown Friday while the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) called for shutdown in Telangana region the same day. The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and Communist Party of India (CPI) also announced plans to hold protests across the state from Thursday. Andhra Pradesh is the hardest by the hike as the sales tax here is the highest in the country at 33 percent. The petrol will now cost Rs.57.65 per litre, diesel Rs.38.39 and an LPG cylinder Rs.353. TDP activists staged a sit-in on the busy RTC crossroads here, blocking the vehicular traffic. Workers of TDP and the Left parties staged road and rail blockades in Tirupati, Nalgonda, Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and other places. TDP leader T. Devender Goud said the latest hike would further burden the common man. 'This is the seventh time the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government has hiked the (petro) prices burdening the poor and the middle classes,' he said. Taking advantage of the hike, many petroleum dealers created artificial shortage. Though the new prices will come into effect from midnight, petrol stations across the state were either shut down or restricted sales. Boards announcing 'no stock' greeted customers at hundreds of petrol pumps in the state capital and other major cities as the traders preferred to sell the products after new prices come into effect. The hike followed by the shortage had the vehicle-owners fuming. The customers had heated arguments with petrol pump owners at several places. The hike evoked sharp reaction from people. 'Normally the prices are hiked by 50 paise or one rupee but this hike by Rs.5 for petrol is just not acceptable,' said T. Dayakar, a businessman. The Rs.50 hike for a cylinder of cooking gas was sharply criticised by housewives. 'With the prices of all essential commodities going up, it was already difficult to run the house. This hike has come as yet another blow on us,' said Pushpa, a homemaker. People fear the hike would lead to further escalation of prices of essential commodities. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/31/stories/2008053160601000.htm Oil price hike: CPI(M) warns of protests Vinay Kumar NEW DELHI: Reiterating its total opposition to any move to raise the prices of petrol, diesel and cooking gas, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Friday warned of a nationwide protest movement with other Left and secular Opposition parties if the UPA government went ahead with the hike. CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat refuted suggestions that the Left parties had been consulted on the proposed hike. "There will be no talk on price hike. We are asking the government to take alternative measures, including a cut in import and excise duties, to help meet the international situation," he said. Mr. Karat was briefing journalists here after a meeting of the party's Central Committee. He said the Left parties had been suggesting a package of measures which would help to meet the steep increase in the international oil prices. These include a reduction in import duty from 5 to 0 per cent, cut in excise duties on petrol and diesel, setting up of a price stabilisation fund with the oil cess contribution, taxing the windfall profits being made by private oil companies and refineries and an end to the import parity pricing system. "It is unfortunate that the UPA government has not taken seriously any of these measures," the Central Committee noted. Farm loan waiver, the Karnataka election results and the West Bengal Panchayat elections were also discussed by the Central Committee. He admitted that there was some setback to the CPI(M) and the Left Front in certain districts of West Bengal. "The apprehensions about land acquisition which has led to loss of support in some areas need to be removed. The plan for industrialisation must take this into account. Proper lessons must be drawn from the reversal suffered in certain areas... " http://www.dawn.com/2008/06/12/rss.htm#44 70 detained in occupied Kashmir protests against India fuel hike SRINAGAR, occupied Kashmir, June 12 (AFP): Police in Indian occupied Kashmir detained 70 people as protests against a rise in fuel prices announced by the national government continued for a fourth day on Thursday. Police used batons and water cannons to repel government employees shouting "roll back fuel prices" as they tried to march on the office of Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad in Srinagar. "Some 20 protesters received minor injuries while 70 others were detained," a police officer told AFP. (Posted @ 22:05 PST) http://arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=110739&d=10&m=6&y=2008&pix=world.jpg&category=World Fuel Price Protests Disrupt Life in Two Indian States Agencies SRINAGAR, India, 10 June 2008 - Police used water canon and batons in Kashmir yesterday to disperse hundreds of government employees protesting increase in fuel prices, while a general strike also shut down the northeastern state of Assam. Elsewhere in the country, though, life continued as normal as protests over last week's rise in fuel prices appeared to taper off. India increased petrol and diesel prices by around 10 percent last Wednesday, after the cost of subsidizing fuel in the face of record-breaking crude prices had brought state oil companies close to bankruptcy. With less than a year to go to elections, the government's communist allies and the opposition called for protests against the move, but many people complained that strikes in several states last week had only made a difficult situation worse. The fuel price blow was also cushioned after several state governments announced duty cuts of between two and five percentage points, although Kashmir has not yet announced any duty cuts and Assam made only a tiny cut in sales tax. In Kashmir, dozens of people were also detained after government employees gathered outside the office of the state's chief minister in the heart of Srinagar to protest against the fuel price rise. "Roll back price of petrol, diesel and cooking gas," the protesters shouted before being dispersed by police. A four-day strike called by private transport operators demanding an increase in passenger fares and freight charges also forced thousands of people to walk to work. Officials said the government would deploy buses and other vehicles to offer rides after the strike threw about 75,000 vehicles off the roads across the state. In the northeastern state of Assam, tribal groups called a 12-hour shutdown yesterday accusing the government of inept handling of oil prices. Offices, banks, shops and schools were closed and traffic stayed off the road. "The government has no concern for the common people," the coalition of tribal groups from Assam's hill areas said in a statement. "This will force tribespeople into starvation." The strike seemed to enjoy popular support. "It is a genuine issue," said Naba Pathak, a government clerk in Guwahati. "And people irrespective of caste, religion and political affiliation should support this bandh (strike)." Landlocked in one of India's remotest regions, much of Assam's supplies come from outside and a rise in fuel prices has a ripple effect on the prices of essential goods. Nepal to Raise Prices In neighboring Nepal, the government sanctioned a rise in fuel prices yesterday to stem losses by the state-run oil firm and overcome a domestic oil shortage caused by record-breaking fuel prices. The government said the Nepal Oil Corporation, which has a monopoly on oil imports, would decide how much to raise prices. The tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan also announced a hike in petrol and diesel prices by around 10 percent on Sunday. Protests are also possible in Nepal. In January the government backed down on a decision to raise fuel prices after fierce anti-government protests across the country crippled life for two days. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP344495.htm Indian Kashmir shuts down over fuel protests 11 Jun 2008 09:40:44 GMT Source: Reuters SRINAGAR, India, June 11 (Reuters) - A one day strike to protest against fuel price rises shut shops and banks in Indian Kashmir on Wednesday, coinciding with a protest by transporters demanding they be allowed to raise fares and freight charges. Protests over fuel price rises have lost steam elsewhere in India as political parties sense grudging acceptance by citizens of the unpopular price hike. But streets in Srinagar, Kashmir's summer capital, were deserted and schools and colleges were closed in response to Wednesday's strike, called by the Kashmir Traders and Manufacturers Federation. "We express utter dismay over the rise of essential commodities, petrol, diesel and cooking gas, and urge people to observe a complete strike on June 11," the group said in a statement. India increased petrol and diesel prices last week by around 10 percent after the cost of fuel subsidies brought state oil companies close to bankruptcy. Wednesday was also the third day of a four-day strike in Kashmir called by the state's transport operators demanding an increase in passenger fares and freight charges. The government has deployed several hundred buses and other vehicles to offer rides after the strike drove about 75,000 vehicles off roads across the state, but residents say it has not been enough. Officials in Kashmir said there had been no breakthrough http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080610/jsp/nation/story_9389882.jsp Oil protest stalls Valley wheels OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT A lady officer brandishes a stick to control pilgrims jostling for tickets at Jammu railway station on Monday. (PTI) Srinagar, June 9: Public transport stayed off the roads today in response to a four-day strike called by transporters against the fuel price hike, throwing life out of gear across the state. Protesters pelted vehicles with stones at several places in the city. Over 72,000 commercial vehicles went off the roads, affecting commuters. The state-run Road Transport Corporation pressed extra buses into service. "We were forced to take this step as the government did not heed our demands. The government has not revised the transport fare for the last three years although the oil price has gone up significantly during this period," Bashir Ahmad Matt, the chairperson of All Kashmir Transporters Welfare Association, said. "We were already incurring huge losses and the fresh hike has put tremendous pressure on us," Matt added. The transporters are demanding a significant hike in fare as well as a reduction in oil prices, but the government is treading cautiously ahead of the Assembly elections later this year. Transport minister Hakeen Yaseen said negotiations with the transporters had begun. "We are sure that some breakthrough will be achieved and the strike will end soon," he said. The local traders' federation will join the transporters' agitation on Wednesday. The tourist season is at its peak in Jammu and Kashmir and all the hotels are booked. Consumer affairs minister Taj Mohidin said the government had agreed in principle to slash sales tax. "We have a plan to slash diesel price by Re 1 or Rs 2 and LPG by Rs 14, but this will cost the government Rs 100 crore. We are meeting the Centre on June 16 to arrive at a decision," he said. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/12/asia/AS-GEN-Thailand-Protests.php Soaring cost of living sparking protests across Thailand The Associated Press Published: June 12, 2008 BANGKOK, Thailand: Tens of thousands of heavy trucks are threatening to cause havoc in the Thai capital while fishermen have begun burning their boats in nationwide protests against soaring prices of fuel and other essentials, protesters said Thursday. The government has until next Tuesday to subsidize fuel for truckers or face at least 100,000 vehicles rumbling into already traffic-clogged Bangkok, said Thongyoo Khongkhan, secretary-general of the Land Transport Federation of Thailand. Also protesting or planning to stage demonstrations in this still heavily agricultural nation were garlic, cabbage and rice farmers, along with fishermen. A government spokesman said money has been allocated to subsidize some costs of the farmers, fishermen and transport workers. "The government is trying its best to reduce the immediate problem of the various groups of protesters," said Natawut Saikau. "The ongoing protests are not affecting the stability of the government but merely affecting the feelings of the people," he said. Prices for some commodities, such as rice, have risen because of greater worldwide demand, but farmers complain that these have been offset by skyrocketing inflation spurred by soaring fuel prices. Thongyoo said a half-day strike Wednesday by truckers who parked their vehicles on highways across the country was only a prelude to next week's possible push into Bangkok. "Yesterday we merely showed our power by parking the trucks on the roads, but if the government fails to meet our demand, the federation has decided to make June 17 D-day when we will bring at least 100,000 trucks into Bangkok," Thongyoo told The Associated Press. The federation demands that the government sell diesel to them for 3 baht (9 U.S. cents) less than the market price per liter and allocate funds to the federation to convert truck engines from diesel to cheaper natural gas. Finance Minister Suraphong Suebwonglee brushed aside the threat from truckers, saying authorities were working on a plan that would help reduce costs in the transport sector. "I am not concerned about the truckers threat to strike because the government is seeking to subsidize the transport sectors as the whole," Suraphong said without elaborating. The president of the Fishing Federation of Thailand Mana Sripitak, meanwhile, said that more than half of the 50,000 fishing boats under its wing are being kept ashore because of the high cost of diesel. Some fishermen have burned their boats in protest, he said, as the federation negotiated with the government for subsidies. Farmers have in recent days staged protests in Bangkok asking the government to relieve their debts while rice and garlic farmers in northern Thailand have demonstrated against the high cost of living and the low prices for their crops. Adding to the government's woes is a threat by major labor unions to join up with pro-democracy demonstrations that have been occurring daily in Bangkok in recent weeks. http://news.sbs.com.au/worldnewsaustralia/thais_to_protest_against_fuel_and_food_costs_549143 Thais to protest against fuel and food costs Thursday, 12 June, 2008 Tens of thousands of heavy trucks are threatening to cause havoc in Bangkok in protest aganist rising fuel prices. (Getty) Tens of thousands of heavy trucks are threatening to cause havoc in Bangkok and fishermen have begun burning their boats in nationwide protests against soaring prices of fuel and other essentials, protesters. The government has until next Tuesday to subsidise fuel for truckers or face at least 100,000 vehicles rumbling into already traffic-clogged Bangkok, said Thongyoo Khongkhan, secretary-general of the Land Transport Federation of Thailand. Also protesting or planning to stage demonstrations in this still heavily agricultural nation were garlic, cabbage and rice farmers, along with fishermen. A government spokesman said money has been allocated to subsidise some costs of the farmers, fishermen and transport workers. "The government is trying its best to reduce the immediate problem of the various groups of protesters," said Natawut Saikau. "The ongoing protests are not affecting the stability of the government but merely affecting the feelings of the people," he said. Prices for some commodities, such as rice, have risen because of greater worldwide demand, but farmers complain that these have been offset by skyrocketing inflation spurred by soaring fuel prices. 'only a prelude' Thongyoo said a half-day strike Wednesday by truckers who parked their vehicles on highways across the country was only a prelude to next week's possible push into Bangkok. "Yesterday we merely showed our power by parking the trucks on the roads, but if the government fails to meet our demand, the federation has decided to make June 17 D-day when we will bring at least 100,000 trucks into Bangkok," Thongyoo told The Associated Press. The federation demands that the government sell diesel to them nine cents less than the market price per litre and allocate funds to the federation to convert truck engines from diesel to cheaper natural gas. The president of the Fishing Federation of Thailand Mana Sripitak said that more than half of the 50,000 fishing boats are being kept ashore because of the high cost of diesel. Some fishermen have burned their boats in protest, he said, as the federation negotiated with the government for subsidies. Farmers have in recent days staged protests in Bangkok asking the government to relieve their debts while rice and garlic farmers in northern Thailand have demonstrated against the high cost of living and the low prices for their crops. Adding to the government's woes is a threat by major labour unions to join up with pro-democracy demonstrations that have been occurring daily in Bangkok in recent weeks. http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=116589 JI protests at 35 different roundabouts Wednesday, June 04, 2008 By our correspondent Karachi The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) organised protests against increasing the price of daily commodities, unemployment and poverty at 35 different roundabouts of the city on Tuesday. The demonstrations, addressed by key JI leaders, were part of the party's ten-day drive against inflation and unemployment. The programme started May 23 and will continue till June 5. On the last day of the campaign, a protest demonstration of children will be held outside the Karachi Press Club (KPC). Children from schools and madressahs will participate in the demonstration. During its 10-day campaign, the JI organised seminars, protests demonstrations of labours, traders and women, demanding that the government provide relief to the people. The main demonstration was held at the Old Numaish roundabout. Participants carried placards and banners inscribed with slogans which demanded the fulfilment of the "roti, kapra, makaan" (food, clothing, shelter) promises of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) government. Slogans were chanted as well, saying that the government had failed to redress the issues of the people. Participants demanded that prices of edible items be reduced and be fixed at least for two years to give incentives to the people. Failure to comply with this demand would "result in a mass protest because the people are fed up with the continuous price-hike." At the main protest at Old Numaish, JI leader Mohammed Hussain Mehnti said that the government had not taken any concrete steps for the elimination of poverty and inflation. The economy of the country was in a shambles and the government must seriously adopt policies that would ease the crisis in the country, he maintained. Another JI leader, Nasrullah Shaji, said that no country could prosper through aid from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It had been the intentions of the West to "control poor countries" through the sanctioning of loans and funds. Laiq Khan said, meanwhile, that people were committing suicide everyday due to inflation and unemployment and if the situation continued further, the country would collapse. in negotiations with transport operators. (Reporting by Sheikh Mushtaq; Editing by Krittivas Mukherjee and David Fox) http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/11/2270705.htm Nepal students protest against high fuel costs Posted Wed Jun 11, 2008 1:22am AEST Student activists have burned tyres on roads and blocked traffic in Kathmandu to protest against a hefty increase in fuel prices, but many Nepalis hope the unpopular hike will at least mean smoother supplies. Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) on Monday increased petrol and diesel prices by about a 25 percent to stem losses at the state-run oil company and help overcome a domestic fuel shortage. Fuel prices are a test for Nepal's political parties, now squabbling to form a new government likely to be led by the Maoist former rebels. Many ordinary Nepalis, fed up with long queues at petrol pumps, think some hike was unavoidable but say the increase was too big. Some, like Kathmandu taxi driver Bill Shrestha, said even though expensive they would rather have a steady supply of more expensive fuel than not have at all. "If petrol is available in the market after the increase it is okay. I don't mind," Mr Shrestha said. On Tuesday, transport operators announced a 30 percent hike in fares for long distance buses and 35 percent for taxis and buses operating on shorter routes with immediate effect. NOC said fuel supplies should return to normal within a few days - for the first time in at least six months. The cost of subsidising the retail price had left NOC short of funds to buy sufficient quantities of fuel from India. But student protesters say the government should have arranged for relief to students as well as to poor people and looked for alternative energy sources to tide over the shortage before rushing with the price hike. - Reuters http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/22/asia/AS-GEN-Nepal-Fuel-Protest.php Nepal students attack government vehicles, block traffic to protest fuel price hike The Associated Press Published: June 22, 2008 KATMANDU, Nepal: Students blocked traffic and attacked government vehicles for the fourth day in the Nepalese capital Sunday, protesting fuel price increases and demanding a discount on public transportation fares. Public buses, vans and taxis, meanwhile, were absent from the streets as drivers attempted to force the government to allow them to increase fares. The government has said it can allow a 25 percent increase but the Transport Entrepreneur's Association has demanded as much as 35 percent to cover rising fuel prices. With the absence of public transport, thousands of people walked instead. College students, who have been protesting since Thursday, continued their protests in several areas of Katmandu. They torched a government motorcycle and attacked several other vehicles. The students are pressing the government to immediately withdraw fuel price increases, which went into effect June 10. Nepal Oil Corp., a state-owned company with a monopoly on importing and distributing oil, said the price rise was necessary to reduce its losses and increase supplies. Since the increase went into effect, the pump price of gasoline has jumped 25 percent to 100 rupees per liter (US$5.70 per gallon), while diesel shot up 25 percent to 70 rupees a liter (US$3.80 a gallon). Nepal imports all its oil products from neighboring India. Nepal Oil has in recent weeks has struggled to pay Indian Oil Corp. because of its financial troubles, and fuel imports have dropped off as a result. http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2008/jun/jun10/news06.php POL price hike sparks protests, PDA sets market prices The government decision to heavily increase the prices of the petroleum products effective from Tuesday has sparked protests across the country from early morning. Activists of Democratic National Youth Organisation (DYNO), the youth wing ... The protests are led by UML affiliated youth body Democratic National Youth Organisation (DNYO). The organisation has asked the government to seek alternative remedies to increasing prices for adjusting the POL prices. Students affiliated to UML staged demonstrations in central campus, Tribhuvan University demanding immediate withdrawal of the hike in POL prices. Demonstrations in Koteshor, Nayabazzar and Lainchour led to disruption of traffic from early morning. They have announced bigger protests later today at Ratna Park. DNYO members also staged demonstrations near Ghantaghar in Birgunj. In the meantime, a meeting of the Petroleum Dealers Association (PDA) held Tuesday morning has set market prices of the POL products. According to PDA, the prices will vary according to distance of transportation. The highest consumer price per liter of petrol will cost Rs 103.40, diesel Rs 73.20 and kerosene Rs 67.60. nepalnews.com ia June 10 08 http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/211253,drivers-stage-protest-to-demand-cuts-in-fuel-prices-in.html Drivers stage protest to demand cuts in fuel prices in Hong Kong Posted : Tue, 10 Jun 2008 05:34:01 GMT Author : DPA Category : Asia (World) Hong Kong - Hundreds of lorry drivers marched on Hong Kong's government offices Tuesday demanding a cut in fuel duty to offset soaring diesel prices. Around 300 drivers marched to central government offices demanding talks with the territory's chief executive Donald Tsang while 20 trucks and lorries staged a go-slow through the city centre. Drivers and operators say they are struggling to make a living because of a 25-per-cent rise in fuel costs in recent months and want government tax on diesel shelved. There was no immediate response to the demands from Tsang and his government, which imposes duty of 1.11 Hong Kong dollars (14 US cents) on each litre of diesel. A police spokesman said Tuesday morning's go-slow did not appear to cause any excessive congestion in Hong Kong's arterial Central and Wan Chai districts. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/11/stories/2008061152890300.htm Mahila Morcha protest KANNUR: Activists of the Bharatiya Janata Mahila Morcha took out a march to the railway station here on Tuesday in protest against the hike in prices of fuel and essential commodities. The protestors carrying utensils staged a sit-in front of the entrance to the station and cooked rice gruel. Morcha State vice-president A.V. Padmini inaugurated the protest. - Special Correspondent http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/10/stories/2008061050430300.htm Tamil Nadu - Salem AIADMK protest in Salem SALEM: Cadres of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) staged a demonstration here on Monday protesting against the steep increase in the price of petrol, diesel and LP gas. The cadres led by the Organisation Secretary, Edapadi Palanichamy, and participated by former Minister Vijayalakshmi Palanichamy, former Salem Mayor Sureshkumar and other frontline leaders, raised slogans against the State and Central governments blaming them for the present situation. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/10/stories/2008061050230300.htm Tamil Nadu - Erode AIADMK cadres protest against fuel price rise Staff Reporter - PHOTO: M. GOVARTHAN. Seek withdrawal: AIADMK cadres staging a protest in front of the Erode Corporation on Monday condemning fuel price hike. ERODE: Members of the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and its labour front Anna Thozhir Sanga Peravai staged a protest here on Monday in protest against fuel price rise. The members, led by deputy secretary of the labour front Rasu, district secretary of the party K. V. Ramalingam and former minister P. C. Ramasamy, said the price rise affected the public, particularly those from the lower economic strata. They urged the Government to withdraw the price hike. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/01/stories/2008070151480300.htm Tamil Nadu - Erode DMDK cadres stage protest ERODE: Hundreds of Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam cadres protested against price hike by taking out a procession from the Municipal VOC Park grounds. Led by the party's propaganda secretary V.C. Chandrakumar, the cadres marched from the grounds to MGR statue and then to the Collectorate. They wanted the Union Government to control prices and sought Finance Minister P. Chidambaram's resignation. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/10/stories/2008061056250300.htm Tamil Nadu - Dindigul AIADMK cadres protest against price increase Staff Reporter They take out a rally and flay State and Central governments - PHOTO: G. KARTHIKEYAN Demonstration: Former Transport Minister R. Viswanathan and AIADMK members riding a bullock cart in Dindigul on Monday. DINDIGUL: Cadres of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam staged demonstration before Dindigul Municipality here on Monday condemning the steep increase in prices of petrol and diesel. The cadres took out a procession that started from Periyar statue and reached the Municipality, the venue of agitation. They boarded an autorickshaw on a bullock cart and pulled it in the procession. A car carrying an empty cylinder on its top was also tied with a rope behind the cart. AIADMK members raised slogans against the State and Central governments and said that the hike would hit the common man. It would also have its adverse impact on all essential commodities, they added. Theni Over 1,000 AIADMK cadres took out a massive procession and staged demonstration near the State Bank of India for the same reason. Earlier, it commenced at Nehru statue near Theni Central Bus Stand and reached the SBI. Ramanathapuram The cadres of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) on Monday staged demonstration here protesting against the Central Government for increasing the price of petroleum products such as petrol, diesel, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and others. K. Malaisamy, Member of Parliament, led the agitation held at the post office. More than 400 persons including Somathur Subramanian, district secretary, Anwar Raja, V.T. Natarajan, former Ministers took part. Raising slogans against the State and Central Governments, the agitators said that they (the United Progressive Alliance parties) would have to pay a heavy price for increasing the petrol price in the next Parliament election. Accusing the State Government, the speakers said that while several governments have reduced the tax component on petrol, diesel and LPG, it had just cut 2 percent on diesel, which would not serve the purpose. The steep increase in price of gas cylinder was unprecedented and it would divert people back to olden methods of cooking. Sivaganga Similar protest was held at Sivaganga under the leadership of former MP Gokula Indira. More than 700 cadres from different parts of the district participated. Cholan. CT. Pazhanisamy, district secretary, was among those who took part. They took out a rally from Siva Temple to Ramachandranar Park, where they held a protest demonstration. Taking strong exception to the State and Central Governments for petrol price increase, the agitators also raised slogans against the Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram for failing to arrest inflation. Virudhunagar AIADMK cadres staged a demonstration at the Desabandu ground to protest rising price of petroleum products on Monday. The party minorities wing State president, A. Justin Selvaraj, led the protest. They pulled a van with donkeys to highlight the plight of common man following the recent increase of petroleum prices. The district secretary, K.K. Sivasamy, the Rajapalayam MLA, M. Chandra, the MGR Youth Wing secretary, K.T. Rajendra Balaji, were among those who participated. http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/read.php?newsid=30075179 Over 100 farm trucks fron Northeast protest in Bangkok Over 100 farm trucsk from northeastern province drove through Bangkok roads to join protesting farmers at the head office of the Bank of Thailand Tuesday, worsening traffic congestion in the capital. They drove on the Vibhavadi Rangsit Road at noon, passing the Victory Monument heading to the central bank's head office at the Rama VIII Bridge. http://www.nst.com.my/Saturday/Frontpage/2260950/Article/index_html 2008/06/07 Fuel price hike: DAP to continue holding protests People holding a demonstration against the fuel price hike in front of the Kampung Baru Mosque in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. KUALA LUMPUR: DAP will continue to lead peaceful demonstrations against the fuel price hike, despite criticism by consumer groups that these won't help the people. Teratai state assemblywoman Jenice Lee said demonstrations would continue. She said this after a two-hour demonstration in front of a petrol station at Taman Muda here yesterday. About 100 people participated. Several hours after the demonstration, Jenice was summoned to the Ampang police station to give a statement as the demonstration was held without a permit. Meanwhile, 200 people held a similar demonstration in front of Jamek Mosque at Kampung Baru in Kuala Lumpur. The demonstration was organised by an Ikatan Kebajikan Rakyat or Ikrar. The demonstration began at 2pm after Friday prayers and lasted 15 minutes. An Ikrar spokesman said the organisation would hold a bigger demonstration at KLCC next Thursday. In George Town, about 30 people, mostly members of non-governmental organisations and Pakatan Rakyat supporters staged a gathering for about 30 minutes at Komtar here. Among those present were Penang Watch co-ordinator B.K. Ong and state Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Committee chairman Abdul Malik Kassim. Komtar assemblyman Ng Wei Aik, who is also political secretary to Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, said the state government would look into measures to reduce the burden of the people. The crowd dispersed about 3pm without any untoward incident. In Sungai Petani, five men were arrested after defying police orders and going ahead with an illegal gathering at the Clock Tower here yesterday. Police were forced to charge after the protesters refused to disperse from the gathering. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/6/8/nation/21492008&sec=nation Sunday June 8, 2008 Small groups continue to protest increases JOHOR BARU: A few groups of people continued to protest against the fuel price increase but no untoward incidents were reported. A crowd gathered at the Larkin Terminal and held a demonstration for less than an hour yesterday. Johor Baru PKR division chief Subra Pavidathally said the demonstration aimed to urge the rakyat to voice out their dissatisfaction over the new ruling. "The bulk of our income is spent on transportation. "The price of bus tickets and other modes of transportation will surely increase due to the fuel price hike," he said. In BENTONG, a small group gathered in the town area for a peaceful assembly. The gathering was led by state DAP secretary and Tras assemblyman Chong Siew Onn and state DAP political bureau division committee chief D.R. Kamache. Chong said it was unfair for the Government to have increased the prices without giving some time for the people to prepare for the rise. Bentong OCPD Superintendent Mohd Yusoff Mohamood said police had not given any permit for the gathering. "They followed our order to dismiss and they did not display provocative placards and banners. The gathering was also held in a peaceful manner," he said. The gathering took place for less than 30 minutes. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/08/stories/2008060858100300.htm Tamil Nadu Left protest stalls production in textile units in Tirupur Staff Reporter Loss estimated at Rs. 50 crore; windshield of buses damaged Photo: M. Balaji Grinding halt: Production came to a standstill in Tirupur on Saturday as all garment factories remained closed owing to the bandh to protest against the increase in petroleum prices. - TIRUPUR: Normal life was affected in the knitwear city on Saturday following the general strike called by the Communist Party of India and CPI (Marxist) condemning the increase in petroleum prices. Over two lakh workers stayed off the work as nearly 5,000 garment export units, dyeing factories, embroidery, knitting and allied units remained closed for the day. Industry sources estimate that there was a production loss of Rs.50 crore worth hosiery products due to the strike. All the business establishments, including eateries, tea stalls and petty shops, except TASMAC retail outlets and bars downed shutters. Hospitals and medical shops functioned as usual. Banks and financial institutions functioned as usual. Barring stone pelting by unidentified persons on two State Transport Corporation buses at Pazha godown and Parappalayam on Mangalam Road, the strike was largely incident-free. Two and four wheelers were plying on the road through out the day but the number of bus services by the State Transport Corporation was reduced as workers affiliated to the Left trade unions went on strike. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/08/stories/2008060851000300.htm Tamil Nadu - Udhagamandalam Protest against fuel price increase evokes mixed response Special Correspondent Buses, autorickshaws, taxies run as usual Photo: M. Sathyamoorthy Expression of dissent: Left parties taking out a procession in protest against the rise in prices of petrol, diesel and gas in Udhagamandalam. - Udhagamandalam: The general strike called by the left parties in protest against the hike in fuel prices evoked a mixed response in the Nilgiris district. Normal life was not hit in Ooty. Buses, autorickshaws, taxies etc plied as usual and all the commercial establishments, government offices remained open. The CPI (M) and CPI jointly organised a procession from the central bus stand to the ATC bus stop. To express their anguish over the steep hike in the prices of petrol, diesel and LPG and to show how much the people will be affected, the processionists pulled a bullock cart with a scooter mounted on it and a couple of vehicles. It was led by the CPI(M) district secretary L. Thiagarajan. In Gudalur and surroundings, including Pandhalur, Cherambadi and Iyyankoli all the shops remained closed. While autorickshaws and jeeps did not run buses plied as usual. However, the number of passengers was lesser than usual. A procession led by N. Vasu of CPI (M) and Balakrishnan of AITUC was taken out. At Kotagiri the majority of the shopkeepers downed shutters. Autorickshaws, taxies and jeeps did not run. A demonstration was held near the bus stand. Among those who participated was the district secretary CPI A. Bellie. At Coonoor autorickshaws and taxies went off the roads. However, shops remained open. Some of the labourers in the market did not work. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/08/stories/2008060853270300.htm Tamil Nadu - Salem Left parties protest against increase in petroleum products price Special Correspondent Bandh in Salem, Namakkal districts passes off peacefully - Photo: P. Goutham Joining hands: Loadmen blocking Langley Road at Sevvapet in Salem on Saturday to protest against the increase in the price of petroleum products. SALEM: Cadres of CPI and CPI (M) resorted to agitations at several places in the districts of Salem and Namakkal to protest against the price hike of petroleum products, a part of their nation-wide strike, here on Saturday. The police arrested nearly 700 of them. Barring an isolated incident of pelting stones at a bus near Komarapalayam in Namakkal district the 'bandh' in both the districts passed off peacefully. Traffic hit Though normal life remained unaffected with shops and business establishments remaining open and buses plying, traffic was paralysed for a few hours at various points in the city due to road blockades. Load men belonging to CITU blocked the road at Sevvapet in Salem city. A group led by urban secretary, CPI (M), M. Sethu Madhavan, staged an agitation in front of the Salem Collectorate. Cadres of DYFI dragged autos by ropes and CPI cadres in Omalur attempted to picket Omalur Railway Station. Autos belonging to trade unions of CPI (M) and CPI kept off the roads. The police made elaborate security arrangements in places of public congregation such as bus stands and railway stations. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/08/stories/2008060853110300.htm Kerala - Palakkad Bus operators take out protest march Staff Reporter PALAKKAD: The Bus Operators Organisation here took out a march from the Municipal Bus Stand to the Collectorate by pulling a bus with rope to protest against the hike in the price of petroleum products. They demanded that students' ticket concession rate be increased by 50 per cent in private buses. The march was led by its State general secretary T. Gopinathan and vice-president N. Vidyadharan. The meeting in front of the Collectorate was inaugurated by the organisation's district president V.N. Chandrasekharan. http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080052298 Protesting Sena workers clash with police in Maharashtra NDTV correspondent Saturday, June 07, 2008, (Mumbai) A scuffle broke out between Shiv Sainiks and the police in Nanded in Maharashtra on Saturday. The Shiv Sainiks were protesting against rising prices. They attacked 10-12 state transport buses. When the police tried to stop them, they attacked the police too. Several policemen were beaten. The son of the Shiv Sena MLA from Nanded, Mahesh Khedkar also fired at the local police station. The police have confiscated the revolver used in the firing. About 20 Shiv Sainiks have been detained by the police and a case registered against them . http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/07/stories/2008060760170600.htm Tamil Nadu Novel protest by BJP cadres Special Correspondent - Photo: G. Moorthy Against price rise: BJP cadres staging a protest in Madurai on Friday. MADURAI: Members of the Bharatiya Janata Party held a novel agitation here on Friday to protest the recent revision of prices of petroleum products. They carried a two-wheeler on a bullock cart and conducted a mock funeral of liquefied petroleum gas cylinders as a mark of protest. The members, led by Sasiraman, president of the Madurai urban district unit, demanded an immediate roll back of prices of petrol, diesel and LPG. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/worldbiz/archives/2008/06/07/2003414053 Indian fuel protests disrupt rail and road transport, markets DPA, NEW DELHI Saturday, Jun 07, 2008, Page 10 Life in India's eastern state of West Bengal and southern Andhra Pradesh was disrupted yesterday after opposition parties called a day-long shutdown to protest a hike in fuel prices, officials said. Demanding a rollback, the left-wing partners of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) launched weeklong protests on Thursday with a shutdown in the West Bengal, eastern Tripura and southern Kerala states, which they govern. The strikes began a day after the UPA increased prices of petrol, diesel fuel and cooking gas by between 9.5 and 17 percent. West Bengal was in the grip of the second day of the strike, which disrupted road and rail transport and was called by the opposition Trinamool Congress party. Railway authorities said they canceled several trains and many long-distance trains were stranded at stations because of blockades put on the tracks by strike supporters. Most shops and markets were closed and there were few vehicles on roads in the state's cities, particularly in and around its capital, Kolkata. Schools, colleges and educational institutions also remained closed. Meanwhile, the strike call by the opposition Telegu Desam Party evoked a successful response in Andhra Pradesh with businesses shutting down and thin attendance in offices. Opposition parties including the Bharatiya Janata Party and communist parties also called for a statewide strike and opposition activists held protests and sit-ins around Andhra Pradesh. A near-shutdown was seen in the state capital, Hyderabad, and the other main cities, including Vishakapatnam, Vijaywada, Guntur, Kakinada, Tirupati and Medak, the IANS news agency reported. Other news outlets reported that strikers had laid siege at state-run bus depots and threw stones at buses to stop road transport in the state. Local train service was also disrupted in India's financial capital of Mumbai because of protests by the opposition Hindu nationalist Shiv Sena party. The demonstrators, who carried out a rail blockade at one of the main rail lines in Mumbai, were dispersed by police later in the day. In a related development, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh directed his Cabinet to adopt "austerity measures" and cut all wasteful expenditures, particularly on foreign travel, the Hindu newspaper reported. The Congress Party-led UPA came to power in 2004, promising to alleviate economic hardships for the poor and farmers, but it has lost several key state elections and economic problems are expected to have a negative impact on its future electoral prospects. A spate of state elections are scheduled over the next few months and general elections are due next year. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/08/stories/2008060851590300.htm It was a day of protests Staff Correspondent Raising slogans: Members of the women's wing of the BJP staging a rally in Hubli on Saturday to protest against the hike in the prices of petroleum products. HUBLI: The twin cities witnessed several protests on Saturday against issues such as hike in the prices of petroleum products, shortage of fertilizers and seeds, and donation menace in educational institutions. In Hubli, members of the women's wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party, led by Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation Council members Bharati Patil and Rajashri Jade, staged a demonstration at Brindavan Circle near Suburban police station demanding rollback of the hike in the prices of petroleum products. Members of the Muslim League staged a protest near the office of the Hubli tahsildar and criticised the Union Government for increasing the prices of petrol, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders. They then submitted a memorandum, addressed to the Prime Minister, to the tahsildar. In Dharwad, members of the Dharwad city unit of the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike protested against the "failure" of the Government in ensuring adequate supply of fertilizers and seeds. The vedike activists, led by president of the Dharwad city unit Shivaji Dembre and president of the Dharwad rural unit Rehman Holi, urged the Chief Minister to take immediate steps to supply adequate quantity of seeds and fertilizers, and distribute them at subsidised rates to farmers. In Hubli, members of the Somavamsha Sahasrarujun Kshatriya Yuvakara Sangha staged a demonstration against educational institutions collecting donations. The protesters, led by president of the sangha Anand Dalabhanjan, said that several educational institutions were collecting donations openly. They charged that officials of the Education Department had failed to take action against such institutions. In Dharwad, members of Sri Ram Sena staged a demonstration in front of the office of the Deputy Commissioner demanding action against what they termed as "police atrocity" on the residents of Kurubagatti village near Dharwad. The protesters alleged that instead of taking action against Rajasab Mulla, who allegedly tried to molest a woman, the police were harassing the resident of the village who had filed a complaint in this regard. http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1172985 Navjot Sidhu loses head over inflation Ajay Bharadwaj Monday, June 23, 2008 14:41 IST CHANDIGARH: Chandigarh Police matched on Monday BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu's antics to stage a street show that saw his turban being blown off with water cannons, even as the cricketer-turned-politician was detained for a couple of hours. While Sidhu had procured horses and an elephant to attract public attention for his protest against the spiralling prices, the police had deployed an equal number of water cannons and even mounted them on horses to ensure ample drama in the demonstration. Just when Sidhu was about to mount a jeep to be pulled by horses with a decked-up elephant in attendance, the police swooped down on him and his supporters preventing them from taking the protest out of the parade ground where they had assembled. In the melee, the elephant and horses ran helter-skelter, and the police resorted to mild lathicharge to disperse the demonstrating crowd. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/02/stories/2008070258720200.htm Tamil Nadu - Chennai Traders to stage protest tomorrow Staff Reporter CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Vanigar Sangankalin Peravai has decided to organise a demonstration before Indian Oil Corporation's main office here on Thursday protesting the automobile fuel shortage and the resultant price rise of basic commodities. In a statement, peravai president T. Vellaiyan appealed to all those willing to join the demonstration to come on a bicycle to symbolically show their protest. His statement came on Tuesday, when motorists for the second consecutive day experienced difficulties in getting automobile fuels. Some of the outlets sold products at a premium. Customers complained that an Indian Oil Corporation outlet at Injambakkam charged Rs.195 for three litres of petrol. When asked for an official receipt, the person in charge of the dispenser said "do you need petrol or a receipt." The police made surprise checks at fuel stations that announced "no stock" on Tuesday. Where there was no stock, petrol bunk operators were told to put up boards, police sources said. Several autorickshaw drivers capitalised on the fuel crisis and quoted even more unreasonable sums than they normally do. A driver in Central Chennai said: "I have bought petrol in black. You have to pay me more today." Chief Secretary L.K.Tripathy said the State Government made inspections of the bunks to ensure that there was no hoarding. In the context of complaints that the bunks were selling only premium fuel, the administration categorically told the oil companies that there should not be any "premium-alone bunk." He also appealed to the public to use the public transport system more and said the administration had made arrangements for improving the services. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/d51e1d45923092ba19868c3e39706c07.htm COTE D'IVOIRE: City on go-slow as residents protest sudden fuel price rise 14 Jul 2008 17:38:22 GMT Source: IRIN Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone. ABIDJAN , 14 July 2008 (IRIN) - Thousands of business-owners have closed down their shops across the capital today and several of the city's main roads have been blocked in protest of a government decision to stop fuel subsidies, which caused prices to rise steeply overnight. The government, which has been subsidising fuel prices for the past three years, removed these subsidies on 6 July because it could no longer afford to keep them in place. As a result the price of a litre of fuel rose by 29 percent in 24 hours, and the price of diesel by 44 percent. "After resisting for a long time, we did not have any alternative but to make this adjustment. It was a difficult decision to take," Prime Minister Guillaume Soro announced on the radio on 9 July, following a meeting with his Council of Ministers. Sokouri Martin, a taxi driver, told IRIN, "Fuel prices are too high and consumers are on the brink of collapse.we decided not to work and to stop all other activities since this morning." While a city-wide march planned for today did not go ahead, protesters took to the streets in Kumasi, south-east Abidjan, clashing with the police. Police have been deployed at strategic points across the capital ready to disperse demonstrators. At least a dozen people were injured in demonstrations over the cost of living in Abidjan at the end of March 2008. Lacine K??ta, from the Consumers' Association of C?te d'Ivoire told IRIN, "We are not here to have a confrontation, but just to make sure our cries of distress are heard." The price of a litre of fuel is now US$1.92 and a litre of diesel US$1.32. As a result of rising fuel costs some public transport companies increased their fees by between 25 and 75 percent over the course of the week. The rising price of fuel is causing anger among residents across the city. "Before I used to pay US$2.90 to get to work and now I pay US$4.36 per day. It's intolerable," said Marl?ne Kassi, who works in a bank. "I think we will end up having to walk to work soon. This go-slow is to make the government understand that we can no longer live like this," she added. http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world_business/view/361607/1/.html Ivory Coast slashes oil prices after protests Posted: 21 July 2008 0436 hrs A service station attendant fills a car with fuel at a petrol station in Abidjan ABIDJAN : Ivory Coast on Sunday slashed fuel prices and halved ministers' salaries in response to what Prime Minister Guillaume Soro called the common man's "cries of distress," following widespread protests. "Hearing the cries of distress of the people, the government has decided to fix the price of diesel at 685 CFA francs (1.6 dollars, one euro) a litre instead of 785," Soro said after an emergency cabinet meeting. The price of petrol was now fixed at 495 CFA francs a litre against 550, he said. "We have decided to cut the basic salaries of all members of government by half," Soro added, in a bid to trim government spending in the world's top cocoa grower. This was necessary as new transport subsidies would cost the state an additional 300 million euros annually. Soro said overseas trips by government members would also be reduced to the "bare minimum." Last week, Ivory Coast's economic heart Abidjan was crippled by a transport strike over fuel price hikes. On July 7, Ivory Coast hiked diesel prices by 44 percent and petrol prices by 29 percent. The government attributed the increase, the first since July 2005, to rising global oil prices and the cost of state subsidies to maintain domestic oil prices at manageable levels. Ivory Coast, a former French colony and a west African economic powerhouse, was for years a paragon of stability in Africa. But it was sliced in half after a September 2002 coup attempt against President Laurent Gbagbo. After a peace accord agreed between the two sides in March 2007, a unity government was installed earlier this year with Gbagbo sharing power with former rebel chief Soro as his prime minister. - AFP /ls From ldxar1 at tesco.net Fri Aug 29 20:59:24 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 04:59:24 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Fuel price protests, global North, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <006c01c90a54$ccab0360$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * FRANCE: Truckers protest fuel prices * US, Las Vegas: Taxi protest * NEW ZEALAND: Truckers "snarl cities" over fuel prices, road laws * SPAIN: Farmers protest fuel prices * US, New York: Truckers protest * BELGIUM: Farmers, truckers, taxi drivers protest * FRANCE, UK: Truckers protest * ICELAND: "Rare" clashes as truckers protest in capital * US, Indiana: Protester arrested for singing about gas prices * UK: Protest at refinery * US, Washington DC: Truckers protest * BULGARIA: Truckers protest * US: School students walk, ride horse in protest * UK: Hauliers "at end of the road" warn protesters * US, California: Fuel protester starts fires * EU/BELGIUM: European truckers clash with police at Brussels protest * IRELAND: Fishermen protest * AUSTRALIA: Horse and cart fuel protest * UK: Bikers block motorways * IRELAND: Free fish in Dublin * HOLLAND: Truckers protest * PORTUGAL: Driver killed at blockade while flagging down truck * SPAIN: Fuel protests hit car plants * GERMANY: Man torches car in fuel protest * US, Utah: Children protest fuel prices after mother cancels cable * CANADA: Dump trucks protest * RUSSIA: Fuel protest in Krasnoyarsk * AUSTRALIA: Truckers go-slow; fishermen swim * JAPAN: Fisherfolk strike over fuel prices http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-07/01/content_8469057.htm French truckers block roads to protest high fuel prices Truckers in France block traffic in a protest against rising fuel prices on the Paris-Lille motorway, northern France, June 30, 2008. French truckers began blocking roads across France on Monday as they continued a protest against high fuel prices and urged the government to help the industry. The nationwide day of action announced by the main haulage associations included roadblocks and so-called "snail" operations by convoys of slow-moving trucks and is expected to disrupt traffic severely, especially on highways. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) http://www.kxnt.com/pages/2515910.php? Posted: Tuesday, 01 July 2008 2:00PM Local Cab Drivers Protest Local cab drivers picketed on the Las Vegas Strip this morning over rising fuel prices. The protest outside Bally's and the Paris was organized by the Alliance for Las Vegas Taxi and Limousine Drivers. Drivers also called for a new labor contract. They got some help from the United Steelworkers, who are in town for their annual convention. The steelworkers' union sent thousands out to join the taxi drivers in a show of solidarity. And soon, cab riders will feel the effects of more expensive gas and fuel. Starting this Sunday, a temporary 25-cent per mile fuel surcharge goes into effect. The surcharge will be reviewed by the state Taxicab Authority in January, and could go up, stay in place or be dropped depending on where gas prices head. Also, a permanent 20-cent-per-mile increase will take effect Sunday. http://www.pr-inside.com/new-zealand-trucks-snarl-cities-in-r684411.htm New Zealand trucks snarl cities in nationwide tax protest 2008-07-04 03:03:13 - WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - Morning rush-hour traffic slowed to a crawl in most New Zealand cities Friday as truckers snarled highways and streets with thousands of vehicles to protest higher road taxes. Tens of thousands of commuters took to highways early to beat the road chaos as truckers driving as slow as 1.25 mph (2 kph) swarmed into more than a dozen city centers and blocked traffic. In the main city of Auckland, big rigs sounded air horns as crowds of people clapped and waved in support of the protest that gridlocked the city center. Some vehicles carried placards reading ?Good things come by Truck. The move was sparked by the government hiking road-user tax paid by haulers, adding up to US$3,000 in annual operating costs to each truck. Trucking companies said the cost would be passed on to consumers through higher charges. ?The aim of the exercise today is to send a message to the Minister of Transport ... and get Joe Public on our side,? owner-operator Nigel Boyd told National Radio. In the capital, Wellington, up to 200 trucks crawled past the nation's Parliament, angrily barping air horns in protest as they drove by. Ahead of the protest, Transport Minister Anette King offered to meet the nation's Road Transport Association that represents truckers to consider a review of road user charges. But Prime Minister Helen Clark said Friday the government was unlikely to back down. ?We think what is happening is fair. They don't,? she told reporters. ?There can be a working party to talk about how we move ahead from here. Truck company owner Mike Herrick said the tax had been ?imposed on us at a very unfortunate time. Overnight Thursday in London, Brent crude futures rose to a trading record of US$146.69 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange before settling at US$146.08, up US$1.82. The gains built on a record-shattering rally the previous day, and left prices 3.6 percent higher for the week _ a level expected to spark a further hike in petrol and diesel prices. http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-07/04/content_8489592.htm More than 4,000 trucks jam New Zealand in protest WELLINGTON, July 4 (Xinhua) -- At least 4,000 trucks took part in Friday's mass road protest in New Zealand's major cities and smaller centers, according to one of the groups behind the protest. In Auckland, Michael Herrick from the Road Transport Association said more than 3,000 trucks drove into Auckland, and between 600 and 700 to South Island city of Christchurch. He said the action, over the sudden rise in road user charges was not about disruption, but was to gain the government's attention. Road Transport Forum chief executive Tony Friedlander said the protest was the first of its type in New Zealand. The thousands of trucks began to disperse from city centers mid-morning. Several convoys had traveled toward Auckland, and on the south-eastern motorway trucks were being driven three-abreast, at 20 kph. Freight and concrete trucks were among the scores bumper-to-bumper along Queen Street. In Wellington, a 300-strong convoy drove past Parliament, but by mid-morning traffic in the city center was reported to be flowing more smoothly than usual. And in central Hamilton, where about 200 trucks converged on the city from outlying areas, causing serious congestion, traffic flows were returning to normal by mid-morning. Whangarei, Tauranga, Rotorua and New Plymouth, were among other centers affected. Trucks traveling into Christchurch restricted their speed to 20kph, and people lined the roads to look at the convoy. In Dunedin, about 90 trucks were driven through the Octagon, as police diverted much of the other traffic away from the city center. Timaru and Invercargill were also affected. Transport Minister Annette King was arranging for talks to begin next week on how changes could be made to the formula used to calculate road user charges. King said she was prepared to try to settle a dispute over the formula's accuracy. She says there is clearly a dispute over the formula, so a working party has been set up to settle it. King said the chief executive of the Road Transport Forum, Tony Friedlander, has been invited to meet with the Secretary of Transport, Brian Donnelly, next week to thrash out the issues. King added that she has also asked for policy work on adjusting the formula to be sped up. Prime Minister Helen Clark said it is important that the trucking industry participates in a proposed working group on road user charges. Clark said other road users have been picking up the bulk of the cost for funding the transport system. Business groups said it was excessive for the police to suggest people take the day off work today because of predicted traffic disruptions. http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-06/20/content_8407391.htm Spanish farmers protest fuel hikes Spanish farmers took to the streets during a protest against fuel price hikes in Madrid, Spain, June 19, 2008. Thousands of farmers, who say soaring costs and lousy prices are driving them out of business, marched through Madrid to demand lower diesel tax to cope with record fuel prices. (Xinhua/Chen Haitong) http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Europe&set_id=1&click_id=24&art_id=nw20080619154837670C299246 Frustrated farmers protest fuel price June 19 2008 at 04:24PM Madrid - Thousands of farmers from across Spain took to the streets of Madrid on Thursday to demand government help to combat the soaring price of fuel and fertilisers. Protestors from the Young Farmers Association (Asaja) handed out 13 tonnes of farm produce and threw tomatoes at the offices of the economy ministry. Some also carried coffins. "Zapatero you are killing us" and "Save the countryside" were among the slogans the demonstrators shouted. The farmers are seeking lower petrol taxes and a reduction in the price of fertilisers, which has doubled this year. "We are demonstrating peacefully today," said one of the protesters, Pedro Barato, but he warned that the farmers could use stronger tactics, such as blocking roads, if the government failed to accept their demands. The protests by farmers over fuel prices follow those of fishermen, some of whom are maintaining an indefinite strike launched on May 30, and of truckers, who paralysed roads throughout the country for three days last week. http://wnyt.com/article/stories/s482894.shtml?cat=300 Truckers convoy to Capitol for rally ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - More than 100 truck drivers took part in a noisy downtown Albany rally Thursday to demonstrate against skyrocketing fuel prices that are staggering their industry. About 110 tractor-trailer cabs, dump trucks and flatbeds jammed streets around the state Capitol building before a rally in an adjacent park. Truckers were blaring their horns before parking near another park blocks away from the rally site. Gov. David Paterson told the crowd he'd support a summer gasoline tax "holiday" if fuel companies promise to pass the savings on to consumers and he urged the truckers to take their protest to the headquarters of big oil companies. The drivers gathered at truck stops in Washington and Montgomery counties before convoying to Albany Thursday morning. http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90853/6433148.html Belgian agriculture, transport sectors protest price rises +-10:07, June 19, 2008 Belgian farmers, truck drivers and taxi drivers Wednesday protested in Brussels against the rise in the prices of fuel and other daily necessities. They demanded that the Belgian government introduce measures to help alleviate the pressure on the transport and farming sectors caused by the steep rise in the prices of commodities. Farmers from the southern Belgian region of Wallonia drove some300 tractors to the Cinquantenaire Park on the edge of the European quarter in uptown Brussels. An official of the Walloon farmers' organization said that Belgian farmers are no longer making a profit because of the surging prices of fuel and production materials. Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme told the rallying farmers that the Belgian government will try to help them by means of a taxation policy, increasing investment in agricultural research and improving transparency in setting prices for agricultural produce. But he emphasized that the assistance from the government would be "very limited." Meanwhile, about 150 taxis and dozens of trucks were driven to other parts of Brussels in protest against the high prices. Thanks to the precautionary measures of the police, the protests did not cause major disruption of traffic. Truck and taxi drivers drove in a convoy along the inner ring road of the Belgian capital. Belgian media reported that some 800 police officers were mobilized to keep an eye on the traffic. Source:Xinhua http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/16/europe/17fuel.php French and British truckers protest fuel prices By Alan Cowell Published: June 16, 2008 PARIS: After weeks of protests across Europe, French truckers attempted to block roads across the country on Monday to demand government measures to offset the soaring price of diesel fuel. In another action, British truckers seeking higher pay maintained a strike that has seen hundreds of gas stations run out of fuel. The closed fuel pumps and images of slow-moving convoys have become common sights as fuel prices have increased, inspiring demonstrations in Spain, Belgium and elsewhere. Apart from France, protests against the cost of fuel as oil prices remain over $130 a barrel were also reported from South Korea. By coincidence, the French strike Monday coincided with the high school final examinations known as the baccalaureat, so truckers said they would limit their action to seven hours between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. to avoid disrupting the tests for almost half a million students. Drivers of private ambulances and taxis also launched protests in Paris and elsewhere. Private ambulances clogged streets near the Health Ministry in the capital and outside Paris, and news agencies reported trucks blocking highways leading to the country's principal ports. Truckers' representatives are demanding government help to cope with fuel prices which, they say, make their business unprofitable. The cost of diesel fuel, the truckers argue, has risen by between 25 and 30 percent in the past year, with a surge in the past few weeks. In French, the go-slow protests are called "operation escargot" - literally operation snail's pace. On Monday, the slowdowns were reported from a string of cities from Perpignan near the border with Spain to Calais on the English Channel, according to news reports. More protests are planned this week against President Nicolas Sarkozy's proposed changes in pension laws and working hours. http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/04/24/iceland.fuel/index.html?eref=edition_europe April 24, 2008 -- Updated 1243 GMT (2043 HKT) Iceland fuel protests heat up Story Highlights Police clash with truck drivers protesting high cost of fuel in Reykjavik, Iceland Almost half the cost of a tank of gas due to value-added tax, special fuel tax Falling krona, rising crude prices contributing to higher petrol prices in Iceland President Grimsson tells CNN he's "relaxed and optimistic" about economy LONDON, England (CNN) -- The shaky video shows Icelandic police repelling protestors with riot shields and batons. A viewer iReport shows police in Reyjkavik, Iceland clashing with truck drivers protesting the high cost of fuel. Behind the police barricade, someone sprays a can of fluid onto the crowd. It's not clear whether it's CS Gas, but a short time later some protestors are seen rubbing their eyes. The video was shot on Wednesday morning in Reykjavik, Iceland by retired truck driver Halldor Sigurgson and submitted to CNN's iReport. watch the iReport "This is the first time in a long time we have seen in Iceland violence against protestors," Halldor Sigurgson told CNN, adding "we are not used to violence against groups of people at all." The group of people in this case is truck drivers who have been blocking major roads in the Icelandic capital to protest against the rising cost of fuel. They're also objecting to EU regulations on how long they can drive without resting. Earlier this month, nearly 300 cars, trucks, vans and jeeps sounded their support for the truck drivers' campaign by beeping their horns as they passed Iceland's national parliament, Althingi. Currently, almost half the cost of a tank of gas in Iceland is made up of government taxes, including a value-added tax and a special tax on fuel. Don't Miss CNN Money: Oil retreats on stronger dollar Principal Voices: Olaf Grimsson Planet in Peril: Iceland phasing out fossil fuels iReport.com: Send us your videos While local taxes haven't increased, the rising cost of crude on world oil markets is driving prices higher. A sharp decline in the Icelandic krona is also adding to the cost of imported fuel. Protestors are calling on the government to reduce taxes to ease the burden on local motorists. Like many Icelanders, Thrandur Arnthorsson is wedded to his 4x4. In his spare time the software project manager runs a Web site dedicated to off-roading. Recently, he has noticed it is becoming more expensive to fill his tank. "Yesterday I filled it up for 12,000 kronas," Thrandur Arnthorsson says. That is about $161. "It has risen with the fall of the krona against other currencies and the rising price of oil at the same time so people are frustrated about how high the taxes are on fuel." The discontent over high fuel prices is being exacerbated by a sharp decline in Iceland's economy. The Central Bank of Iceland has hiked interest rates to 15.5 percent to staunch a steep slide in the Icelandic krona. Inflation is nearing 10 percent and, after years of impressive growth, the country's economy is forecast to expand just one percent this year. Iceland's biggest banks -- Kaupthing, Glitnir and Landsbanki -- have been borrowing from abroad to finance their international expansion making them particularly vulnerable to the global credit crunch. In a recent interview with CNN's Principal Voices, Iceland President Olafur Grimsson said he's relatively calm about the country's current economic challenges. "While I'm concerned I'm both relaxed and optimistic because fundamentally the Icelandic economy is very strong," he said. He says the present fluctuations were created by the "extraordinary" growth of the Iceland banking sector coupled with difficulties in global financial systems. It's interesting when you look at the international discussions about Iceland," Grimsson said. "The more knowledgeable people are about Iceland the less alarmist they are about looking at our present situation." For truck drivers, the present situation of high fuel costs is all too real. Halldor Sigurgson says the majority of Icelanders support the recent protests. "I stand by them because I was on it this morning," he told CNN. "I went out there to take photos and video. There is a lot of public support for them here in Iceland." http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,354362,00.html Indiana Police Arrest Gas Price Protest Singer Performing Atop Store Tuesday, May 06, 2008 VALPARAISO, Indiana ? A man with a guitar and a megaphone climbed atop a convenience store roof to serenade commuters with his musical protest of high gasoline prices ? until police halted the impromptu concert. Once atop the roof of the Family Express store Monday, and above pumps dispensing fuel at $3.78 per 1 gallon (3.79 liters), Jay Weinberg, 29, performed his ditty called "Price Gouge'n." Dozens of supporters chanted: "I can't afford it. I'm banging on my dashboard. I can't believe they think I'm a fool." The performance lasted about 15 minutes before three police officers arrived and arrested Weinberg on charges of trespassing and disorderly conduct. Police said he was cooperative. The crowd, made up of Weinberg's friends and other people who just happened to be pumping gas, continued singing. Then some, including his wife, Danielle, drove to Porter County Jail to bail him out. Weinberg left the building and was greeted with cheers. http://www.nowpublic.com/world/cheshire-england-fuel-protest-oil-refinery Cheshire - England , Fuel protest at oil refinery by greg1usa | May 2, 2008 at 02:03 pm | 496 views | 3 comments As fuel costs soar protesters gathered and roads were blocked in this public outcryagainst tax on gas. The rising prices have effected everyone. In 2000 protests at this same refinary casused several gas stations to run out of gas and sparked public panic. Then several grocery stores were also sold out of bread, milk and eggs etc as panic took hold. FUEL protesters staged a demonstration at the entrance of a Cheshire oil refinery last night. Around 100 farmers and truckers, who were on foot, gathered at the entrance to Shell's Stanlow oil refinery at Ellesmere Port. Tom Haughton, a spokesman for the group, said 50 fuel tankers were shut outside the plant. He said: "There were over 100 hauliers and farmers who blocked the road on foot. "I think 40 or 50 tankers were blocked out. There were 300 to come in, so they tell us." http://www.nowpublic.com/world/dc-truckers-protest-fuel-cost-capitol DC: Truckers Protest Fuel Cost at Capitol by fwinstead | April 28, 2008 at 03:31 pm | 231 views | 1 comment Capitol Hill, DC ? Some truckers disregarded organizers' plans to park at RFK Stadium and instead they took their trucks to the front of the Capitol in protest of fuel prices which are forcing them out of business and dragging down the national economy. These freight movers want Congress to cap fuel prices to keep their way of life viable. http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=93239 Bulgaria Truckers Protest High Diesel Prices 19 May 2008, Monday Bulgaria: About 1,000 truckers across Bulgaria protest Monday against the record high prices of the diesel fuel in the country. Drivers in Sofia are holding their protest at the entrances to the city as they decided not to block further the congested traffic. Protesters demand that the government urgently takes measures to curb the constantly rising fuel prices in Bulgaria, which are among the highest in Europe. During the last few years the gasoline excise increased by 128% while the tax hike for the diesel is 445.5 %, experts said. Although the taxes are still lower than those of the other EU members, the prices are already record high and truckers say they have started to fill their tanks in countries like Slovenia where the fuel is considerably cheaper. While a litre of diesel in Bulgaria costs BGN 2,51 (EUR1.28), the price in Slovenia, where salaries are considerably higher, is EUR 1,16. Diesel prices in Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland and Austria are also lower compared to Bulgaria, statistics show. According to transport companies, the high fuel prices are a result of speculation and cartel agreements. http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=93647 100 Trucks Block Ring Road near Sofia on Protest against High Fuel Prices 30 May 2008, Friday Bulgaria: About 100 truck drivers gathered Friday with their vehicles on the ring road near Bulgaria's village of Kazichene to stage yet another protest against the high fuel prices and the overall problems in the branch. The transport companies complained earlier in the day that police have not allowed a group of truckers to join the rally of their colleagues along the northern part of the Sofia ring road. Protests over the recent drastic fuel price hikes started 12 days ago but on Wednesday truckers threatened they are to take more drastic measures and could bring the capital to a halt if the government fails to contact them for negotiations. Transport companies demand that the Cabinet reduces fuel taxes and fights speculation in order to curb the prices. http://www.b92.net//eng/news/region-article.php?yyyy=2008&mm=05&dd=28&nav_id=50621 Bulgarian truck drivers in fuel protest 28 May 2008 | 22:41 | Source: Reuters SOFIA -- Bulgarian truck drivers rallied, following the lead of British and French truckers and French fishermen in a wave of demonstrations and blockades, Reuters says. The truck driver protest in Bulgaria (FoNet) The Bulgarian truckers' association said excise duties and value added tax contributed to surging global oil prices and made the Balkan country's fuels too expensive. It demanded excise duty rebates. More than 150 truck drivers and dozens of bus drivers from across Bulgaria converged in a convoy on the outskirts of the capital Sofia, saying high fuel prices meant they were operating at a loss. Similar protests took place in the Black Sea port city of Varna, the Danube port city of Russe and other towns. "Apparently we need to find a joint solution in the EU," Transport Minister Petar Mutafchiev told reporters. "There is a transport problem not only in Bulgaria, it's a European problem." Fuel excise duties in Bulgaria, the poorest EU nation and already suffering double-digit inflation, are still lower than those in the rest of the bloc. This means Sofia could not justify a reduction in duties, Mutafchiev said. http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=93542 Bulgaria Biggest Cities Likely Paralyzed By Drivers Protests Wednesday 28 May 2008, Wednesday Bulgaria Biggest Cities Likely Paralyzed By Drivers Protests Wednesday: Transport companies' protests are expected to paralyze traffic in Sofia, Varna Rouse and Plovdiv today. The carriers are protesting against the fuel price increase. In Sofia the protest will be located on the North side of the city's beltway - from the Kazichene quarter to the quarter of Boyana. The heavy trucks have already arrived in Kaztichene. The Sofia municipality has issued a permit to the truck drivers from 8:00 am until the conclusion of their meeting. The truck drivers demand the reduction of the fuels' excise, the announcing of a market crisis and making public the dealings of the gray economy. The Depute Chair of the Confederation of the Transport Companies in Bulgari Dimitar Nikolov, has stated that meetings with the Ministries engaged with the problem have not been scheduled, however, he explained that the protest would continue until an agreement is signed. The truck drivers were planning a conference in Boyana later today, but it might be postponed due to an official state visit in the President's residence there. In addition to the heavy-duty trucks, the taxi cab drivers will also protest in Sofia today. Anywhere between 300 and 400 taxies are expected to paralyze the city and bring the usually heavy and problematic traffic to a standstill. The taxi cabs' protest is almost certain to irritate not only many Sofia residents but the government as well. Lately the taxi drivers' protests have always been a sign of a crisis. The cab drivers will reunite at 11:00 am in front of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral and will hold a protest meeting and a demonstration. The drivers protest against the corruption, the gray economy, the lack of clearly defined rules for carriers, leasing companies and radio communication companies and the state interference in the private sector. They demand changes in the decree for the legalization of their business. The meeting is supposed to end at 1:00 pm. The city police are warning Sofia's residents to avoid using their personal automobiles today and to follow the temporary restrictions. Several central streets in downtown Sofia will be closed for traffic from 10:30 am to 1:00 pm. http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=143206 Bulgarian truckers protest to seek fuel tax rebate Hundreds of Bulgarian truck drivers protested across the country on Wednesday to press for fuel tax rebates and government help over rising prices. The truckers' association said excise duties and value added tax contributed to surging global oil prices and made the Balkan country's fuels too expensive. It demanded excise duty rebates. Economy and Energy Minister Petar Dimitrov said last week that the European Union newcomer country might ask Brussels to cut excise duties on automotive fuels after transport companies protested against high prices. More than 100 truck drivers and dozens of bus drivers from across Bulgaria converged in a convoy in the outskirts of the capital Sofia, saying high fuel prices meant they were operating at a loss. Similar protests took place in the Black Sea port city of Varna, the Danube port city of Russe and several other towns. Fuel excises duties in Bulgaria, the poorest EU nation that joined the bloc last year, are still lower than those in the rest of the EU. Dimitrov has said high fuel prices are a serious concern in the EU and that Brussels must reconsider its fuel policy and lower excise duties to avert inflation and economic slowdown. Bulgaria is a net oil and gas importer. Economist say high fuel prices will likely contribute to already double-digit inflation in the Balkan country, which was pushed up by last year's drought and high food prices. http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/business/news/article_1406511.php/Protesting_Bulgarian_truckers_win_government_help Protesting Bulgarian truckers win government help May 20, 2008, 17:05 GMT Sofia - Bulgaria's government Tuesday pledged to shield trucking firms from competition and keep a lid on fuel taxes after haulers snarled traffic in major cities to protest high petrol prices. Transportation Minister Petar Mutafchiev said he was confident that the proposal to suspend licensing of new trucking companies in Bulgaria was in line with European Union rules. Truckers face a 'crisis situation,' he said after cabinet minister, hauling industry officials and fuel distributors held emergency talks on how to ease the burden of high diesel prices. The government also said it would avoid raising fuel taxes over the next two years. Fuel taxes are already at the maximum allowed until 2010 under Bulgaria's terms of EU membership. Fuel prices in Bulgaria, which joined the EU last year, are among Europe's highest. Hundreds of truckers across the country began protests Monday, parking their rigs to cause traffic backups on roads and motorways. Drivers in the capital Sofia and other big cities faced long delays. http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=93399 Plovdiv Bus Companies Protest over Fuel Prices 23 May 2008, Friday Bulgaria: Over 750 bus drivers from the public transport companies in the city of Plovdiv and the region protest Friday against the high prices of the fuel in Bulgaria. The buses of all six transport firms operating in the city are travelling with attached Bulgarian flags and posters reading "Protest." On Thursday, several bus transport companies in Bulgaria declared they raise the ticket prices by 5 to 10 percent due to the record high price of the diesel fuel, which already costs about BGN 2,53 (EUR 1, 28). Protesters say they are to stage new protests over the diesel price and the expanding "grey sector" in the branch. According to transport companies, the fuel prices in Bulgaria, which are among the highest in Europe, are to a great extent result of speculation and cartel agreements. http://www.waff.com/global/story.asp?s=8338857 Students prepare to walk to school as part of protest Updated: June 17, 2008 04:29 AM By Christie Ileto WAFF 48 News Reporter Like the rest of us, the students are frustrated with prices at the pump. "It's speaking out and actually believing in something and being vocal about it," Elizabeth Schedler said. Vocal. Something Elisabeth Schedler says he normally isn't. But as one of the four students who started this effort, she feels like it's time to speak up. "To fill up it's about $50. I have to pay for my car and my gas and between that, I have pretty much no paycheck left," Schedler said. A course in the Civil Rights Movement got this whole effort started. "I did say we can just walk to school in protest, just kidding...but it quickly caught on," said 11th grade history teacher, Russ Robbins. "We were like why don't we start walking to school," said Elizabeth Simbeck. A walk that Elizabeth Simbeck says will be her first. ALong with about 80 other students starting in 3 different locations. Killen park is just one of the locations students will meet before they begin their walk on Monday, they say they hope their efforts make a difference in the community. "Standing up for what you believe in is a really big thing as a teenager, everyone thinks you don't have a voice, but you do, and that;S really important for me to feel that," Simbeck said. "We are teenagers, but we are aware of what's going on in the world and the community, but we do have opinions," Schedler said. http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=57955&provider=rss Student rides horse to school to protest gas prices Taz Painter Updated: 5/14/2008 1:11:32 PM Posted: 5/13/2008 10:09:23 AM ROANE COUNTY, Tenn. - While most Rockwood high schoolers start up their engines on the way home from class Tuesday, one senior is mounting up and riding high above his peers. "I think it's crazy," sophomore Kayla Evans said. Brad Walker's ride gobbles up grass but doesn't cost him a dime in gas. "Nobody should have to pay what they say is going to be $5 a gallon for gas," he said. "I don't think anybody should have to pay that." After school Tuesday, Walker trotted out the courtyard at Rockwood High School and got on his horse, Pumpkin. After seeing gas prices jump more 11 cents in a matter of hours, Walker decided something needed to be done. "He's a pretty cool guy. He does what he wants, pretty much," Simon Moriarty, another student said. So, with the principal's permission, Walker did just what came to mind. He rode his horse to school. During the day, Pumpkin stays tied up inside a corral, complete with a bucket of feed and a 5-gallon pail of water. On the way to and from school, Pumpkin wears a sign that says "Solution to Higher Gas Prices". "A lot of people are afraid to say how they really feel. I really don't care," Walker said. "It just tells people how I feel about the gas prices." It's about a 45-minute ride for Walker, 4 miles home. He can make the trip for little more than a dollar a day. The only problem is the legality of emissions. Horse droppings are considered litter. "But if you go back and clean it up, it's ok," Walker said. Sadly for Walker, this ride could soon be coming to an end. There just isn't enough stable space at Rockwood High School. "I can't leave him here anymore, because everybody is pestering him, and everybody else is wanting to do it, and they don't have enough room for them to ride horses to school," he said. But, he's trying to find Pumpkin a permanent parking spot. He says he'll keep turning heads and pocketing his gas money as long as he can. But the school year ends this week. "They know you're going to buy that gas, so it's just going to keep going up," Walker said. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/may/28/transport.oil1?gusrc=rss&feed=politics Many hauliers nearing end of the road, warn protesting lorry drivers Truckers who blocked A40 urge chancellor to grant rebate on diesel duty Helen Pidd The Guardian, Wednesday May 28 2008 A line of lorries on the A40 in Paddington, west London, during their protest against rising tax on fuel. Photograph: John Stillwell/PA Rob White looked glum as he parked his 44-tonne truck on the A40 in central London yesterday. "I've been in transport since I was knee-high to nothing, ever since I could climb the steps of my dad's lorry," said the 42-year-old from Aldershot. "It's my life, but for how much longer? It's getting harder and harder. When I filled up my truck with 500 litres of diesel in February it cost me ?499. I went to the same garage this morning and it cost ?628. That's ?129 - a day's profit. It's a lot of money." Things have got so tight that White's wife and two sons are going on holiday without him. "I can't afford to park up for a week," he said, adding that he was losing all hope that his children would follow him into the family business, Rowen Bulk Services. Despite his financial worries, White decided to forgo a day's pay to join hundreds of other lorry drivers in central London yesterday. They were protesting against the soaring costs of fuel and delivering a letter to Downing Street demanding the government lowers fuel taxes for haulage companies. Hundreds of truckers drove into the capital and parked on one of the main arteries into the city, the A40, which runs from Wales to St Paul's Cathedral. In agreement with the police, the lorries blocked a two-mile section between Paddington Green and the Northern Roundabout by Shepherd's Bush in a very orderly fashion. Police said yesterday that 200 vehicles were involved, though organisers gave a figure double that. In addition to the demonstration in London about 100 lorries took part in a fuel protest on the M4 in south Wales. Contrary to some predictions, the capital was not brought to a standstill - traffic was merely diverted around the affected stretch of the A40 before it reopened by 4pm. That could explain why the protesters received such a warm reception from the public. "All the way up from Kent we've had people waving, beeping, giving us the thumb's up," said Martin Cook, a 38-year-old who has been driving lorries since 1986. Despite this support, many hauliers made unflattering comparisons between yesterday's protests and those in France. "When French drivers strike everyone supports them and the country comes to a halt," said Steve Walker, 48, who has been driving lorries for 10 years. "I was in France for the fishermen's strike and I got stuck." Though the protest was peaceful, it was emotionally charged. Sharon Knight, a founder of TransAction, which organised the event, choked back tears as she spoke at Marble Arch. Family business Her voice cracked as she described the effect the price rises have had on her family's business, Les Knight Transport - the firm owns 23 large lorries which get through 23,000 litres of diesel every week, which leads to a hefty bill of around ?30,000 a week at current prices of around ?1.30 a litre. "Last April for the first time ever my company paid more than ?100,000 for diesel in one month," said Knight. Meanwhile, she claimed, the Treasury had enjoyed a ?730m windfall from increases in fuel duty since the March budget. Many of the younger drivers were ruing the day they ever got into the industry. When Adele Litscher was 16 she became the youngest girl in the country qualified to drive a truck over 3.5 tonnes. Soon after, she joined her dad in the Kent-based family business, AJL Crane Lorries, and gained her HGV licence. She decided to invest her own money into the business so that it could grow. A mistake, the 23-year-old said yesterday. "I'm never going to see any of that investment back now. We can't get the work because people don't want to pay the prices, even though we are only asking for enough to break even. We're only a little family business and we are struggling. We've even considered taking one lorry off the road. It's gutting, really gutting." Compassion According to research released by accounting firm UHY Hacker Young yesterday, haulage companies are three times more likely than the average business to go bust in the UK. Figures showed 17.3% of courier and haulage businesses go under every year. Peter Carroll, a haulier from Maidstone, Kent, who had helped organise yesterday's protest, said he retained hope that the government would show some compassion for the haulage industry. "I believe that if Gordon Brown walked past a drowning man he would try to help him. To all intent and purposes, our industry is that drowning man," he said in a speech. Many drivers on the rally yesterday were disappointed at not being able to drive into the centre of town and jam up London's transport system. Roger Roye, 32, said: "It's too organised. I thought the whole point was to cause chaos. But look at this neat line of lorries -we might as well be waiting for a ferry." Others said the only way people would really take notice would be for all lorry drivers to go on strike for a week. "Everything you buy goes on a truck. Without us you've got nothing. If we parked up for a week, the country would be on its knees," said Martin Cook. Protesters hope the chancellor, Alistair Darling, will put the haulage industry into the essential user rebate category, and take 20p-25p off diesel duty. In the meantime many will continue to find ways around the law. Steve Walker said he knew a lot of drivers who regularly got the ferry across to France to fill up. "Loads of people leave the country with an empty tank, go to Calais and fill up, then come straight back. "Even with the price of a P&O ticket, it's cheaper than buying diesel in the UK. http://www.wusa9.com/rss/local_article.aspx?storyid=72503 Woman Accused Of Setting Gas Price Protest Fires Posted By: Emily Cyr 2 months ago DANVILLE, Calif. (AP) - A Danville woman faces arson charges after she allegedly set fires at two gas stations and a coffee house, saying she was protesting high gas prices. The woman, 64, remained Thursday in a Contra Costa jail on $810,000 bail on suspicion of premeditated arson and burglary. Police say the woman used a fireplace log and a lighter to set fires in the restrooms of an Arco station, a Chevron station and a Starbucks on Wednesday. No structural damage was reported at the locations. Police later found the woman at a nearby fast food restaurant with eight fireplace logs with her. She told officers that she was behind the fires and said she woke up that morning wanting to do something about high gas prices. Police say they don't know why she targeted the Starbucks. Charges have not yet been filed, and it's not clear if the woman has a lawyer in the case. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2008/06/200861501950711484.html Violent fuel protests in Brussels Protesting fishermen with banner at right reading 'Brussels, you kill us. Thank you' [AFP] Dozens of fishermen have been arrested in Brussels after violence broke out when protesters failed to convince the European Commission to subsidise them to soften the blow of soaring fuel prices. The fishermen, mostly from France and Italy, occupied the commission's headquarters, setting off flares against police, who then charged them. French fishermen say they will be out of work unless they obtain discounted diesel at $0.62 per litre as opposed to $1.23 per litre on the open market. The price of marine diesel has risen by 30 per cent in the past four months. The protesters also want the European Union to intervene by raising the amount of financial aid that a government may grant to its fisheries sector without attracting the scrutiny of EU internal market regulators. A handful of demonstrators met Joe Borghe, the chief political adviser to the EU fisheries commissioner, to explain their grievances on Wednesday. EU leaders will discuss the impact of high oil prices on Europe's fisheries sector at a summit in mid-June, Borghe said. The sector also suffered from overcapacity and badly needed to restructure, he said, to the jeers of the fishermen. Meanwhile, in France, truckers, taxi drivers and farmers also protesting against fuel costs blocked traffic on roads leading to Paris' Roissy airport, causing 7km of tailbacks. A similar protest by more than a hundred truckers brought chaos to the ring road around the southern city of Toulouse. While a number of ports, including Dieppe on the Channel coast, remain blocked by fishermen seeking more government aid. The French government is due to hold talks with the various parties involved on June 10. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/0605/breaking36.htm Thursday, June 5, 2008, 14:46 Fishermen stage protest in Dublin Fishermen from around the country have gathered in Dublin today for a protest against high fuel prices and cheap fish imports. The demonstration, which is taking place outside D?il ?ireann this afternoon, has been called by the Federation of Irish Fishermen (FIF). The federation is an umbrella organisation representing some 90 per cent of Irish fishing vessels over 12 metres in length. The FIF wants fleets to be paid not to go to sea as part of a temporary rota-based system regulating commercial fishing as fuel costs soar. Gerard O?Flynn, a FIF spokesman and chief executive officer of the Irish South and West Fish producers' Organisation, said subsidies were now necessary to avert a mass wipe-out of working trawlers. ?Thousands of jobs are threatened if we don?t get through this crisis,? he said. Mr O?Flynn said unless the European Union introduces subsidies for the industry, similar to those given to farmers and food producers, then huge numbers of fishermen face bankruptcy. The FIF said 50 to 70 per cent of a trawler?s turnover is being spent on fuel. The organisation also wants stricter controls on the traceability so consumers can see where the fish they are buying was caught. Last Friday, dozens of fishermen from Kilmore Quay, Co Wexford, handed out free fish on O'Connell Bridge in Dublin to highlight what they see as growing threats to their livelihood. This week has also seen Irish fishermen tying up their boats in support of a Europe-wide industry protest over fuel costs and other problems which are impacting on the sector. Yesterday, fishermen from across Europe who were demonstrating against the soaring price of fuel clashed with police near the EU's headquarters in Brussels after a peaceful morning stand-off turned violent. Hundreds of fishermen, mostly from France and Italy, occupied the district's main avenue and a smaller group set off flares against police, who charged them. Calm was later restored. EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg has acknowledged that there is a crisis in the fishing industry. Earlier this week he confirmed that there had been a 240 per cent hike in the price of fuel since 2004, but has ruled out fuel subsidies or higher quotas as ?false solutions?. EU leaders are set to discuss the impact of high oil prices on Europe's fisheries sector at a summit on June 23rd. Additional reporting PA http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=575079&rss=yes Horse-and-cart protest against fuel cost 12:16 AEST Thu Jun 5 2008 66 days 27 minutes ago Jane Smith took to her horse to protest against petrol prices (AAP) A woman has taken a horse and cart on a six-hour ride to a south-east Queensland town in a protest against petrol prices. Jane Smith, 45, took her clydesdale Isabelle on a 34km round trip from her home at Booie to Kingaroy, north of Brisbane, last Thursday while displaying a banner which read: "Petrol prices suk". Ms Smith said the protest went down well with locals who applauded her as she rode down the main street. She said the ride would become a regular occurrence if petrol prices kept rising. "It's a real worry," she told AAP. "If the petrol prices get to two dollars a litre I really think that I might just have to get her (Isabelle) a bit fitter and do it more often, because when you're on the pension and you've got a mortgage, petrol is just something else that's another stab at you and makes it harder to live. "If we have to do it more often they might just have to get council to put holding yards near the supermarket so we can actually start doing it regularly." She said the ride had been a hard slog, but horse feed was definitely cheaper than petrol. "It certainly was painful, but if we all just sit back and just let life happen I just think the government will just continue on the way they want to," she said. "Someone's got to stand up and shout occasionally. "Even though sometimes we get knocked down, we've got to have a say." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1024356/Bikers-stop-motorways-fuel-protest.html Bikers stop motorways in fuel protest By James Tozer Last updated at 11:10 PM on 05th June 2008 Comments (26) Add to My Stories Hundreds of bikers brought busy motorways to a near-standstill yesterday in protest at the ever-rising cost of fuel. As many as 500 gathered near Manchester early in the morning before forming the slow-moving convoy, causing massive rush-hour queues. The protest, which came after lorry drivers held a similar rally in London last month, was organised by just two motorbike riders, with word spread by text message and over the internet. Enlarge Around 1,500 bikers are taking part in the protest, understood to be led by two protesters, known only as Maverick and Triumph Man Police closed all three lanes of the westbound M62 between Rochdale and Manchester to allow the riders to join from Birch services, where they had gathered. Supported by taxis, lorries and even an ice cream van, they crawled along the motorway at just 15mph, delaying rush-hour drivers by around half-an-hour. Many motorists honked their horns in support and supporters waved and gave thumbs-up as the convoy passed by, working its way around the M60, onto the M602 and finally finishing in Salford Quays. It is the latest in a series of protests as petrol prices have soared to an average of ?1.15-a-litre, around half of which is made up of tax, according to the AA. Enlarge Commuters faced chaos in Greater Manchester this morning as bikers led a rush-hour fuel protest along the M60 at Junction 16 The protesters have called on the Government to scrap VAT on fuel. Afterwards one of the organisers, known only as "Maverick", said: "This has turned out better than I expected, it's absolutely fantastic. "To be honest, I'd be happy with ten. The amount that turned out today, I can't thank those guys enough, they've really helped to get the word out." Protester Eric Curren, 56, said: "I've been biking for the last 40 years and it's never been this bad. I don't have any other means of transport so it's essential for me to get about." Onlookers wave their support to the protesters A 42-year-old rider from Bradford who gave his name as "Bobcat" said: "It used to cost me just ?7 to fill up the bike. Now it costs ?15. "It doesn't sound like much to pay but it really cuts down on where I can go. Biking is my hobby. It's a great hobby and I don't see why I should be penalised." Onlooker Gary Hutchinson, 47, a technical support worker from Gorton, said: "I totally back them. Fuel duty in this country is outrageous - the Government are making a killing on the back of the motorists. "I hope that people continue to protest like this and that the government start listening to us." And Salford garage owner Michael Cleary, 56, said: "I think it's brilliant. It's a pity they're not blocking off Downing Street and London too." Police said around 20 lorry drivers who took part in the protest broke away from the group and drove more slowly than had been agreed in advance. They were issued with warnings and told they could have their vehicles seized. The bikers had hoped to lead their convoy into the centre of Manchester, but were prevented from doing so by Highways Agency staff, and in protest they stopped their engines and blocked the M602 for a further ten minutes. A spokesman for the Highways Agency said the convoy had "clearly caused some disruption" but that this had been kept to a minimum. "It is hard to tell exactly what impact this had but it is fair to say the rush hour has been extended by at least half an hour and drivers trying to join the motorway have had to wait," he added. Assistant Chief Constable Ian Hopkins, of Greater Manchester Police, said: "The vast majority of those taking part have expressed their views in a way that was agreed with police, that was safe for motorists and that caused minimum disruption." The Treasury has made a windfall of more than ?1billion on petrol since the last Budget in March as a result of record oil prices, leading to calls for a hike in fuel duty planned for October to be postponed. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2008/0530/1212095649256.html Friday, May 30, 2008 Free fish in Dublin today as fishermen protest LORNA SIGGINS, Marine Correspondent FISHERMEN FROM the southeast aim to distribute free fillets in Dublin city centre today as part of a protest over spiralling fuel costs and the impact of State controls on the Irish fleet. The alleged ?heavy handed? approach of Sea Fisheries Protection Authority officers and rising diesel bills will be the main focus of criticism by the group of up to 100 skippers and owners from the southeast who plan to march to Leinster House. The group of protesters are not supported officially by the main fishing industry organisations, representatives of which held talks with the new Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries, Brendan Smith, yesterday on issues such as diesel price rises. However, Chaz Bates of Kilmore Quay, spokesman for the protesters, said that frustration was at such a level that skippers and crew believed they had to demonstrate. As part of the action, Mr Bates and colleagues will fillet and distribute freshly caught fish to the public, and will then perform a ceremonial ?dumping? of a box of fish into the Liffey. ?This is to emphasise the environmental madness of discarding, which is what the European Commission expects us to do under the common fisheries policy,? Mr Bates said yesterday. Fuel bills are now consuming over 60 per cent of a boat?s gross earnings, and the Irish South and West Fishermen?s Organisation has called on the Minister to establish an immediate task force to examine all options ? similar to that already established by Scottish fisheries secretary Richard Lochhead. Fine Gael MEP Avril Doyle, who is vice-president of the European Parliament?s fisheries committee, said that her group will ask the EU Council of Ministers and the European Commission to take new measures which extend beyond ?de minimis aid? for vessel owners hit by fuel costs. The maximum grant aid allowable under the ?de minimis? system is ?30,000 which is ?paltry? when compared to ?300,000 in aid assigned to the agriculture sector, she said. http://www.radionetherlands.nl/currentaffairs/region/netherlands/080612-truckers-protest-mc Dutch hauliers in fuel price protests by Arwen van Grafhorst 12-06-2008 Dutch lorry drivers have joined the international protests against high fuel prices. However, in marked contrast to the situation in Spain and Portugal, the protests passed off peacefully. That's all the more notable because fuel tax in the Netherlands is higher than elsewhere. At several locations in the Netherlands around noon on Thursday, lorry drivers drove at a speed of 50 kilometres per hour to protest against the high fuel prices. The action lasted only half an hour and resulted in a limited number of traffic jams. The Dutch lorry drivers decided against forming blockades like their colleagues did in Spain, because it would affect too many people and result in substantial financial losses for a large number of businesses. Southern Europe The situation in southern Europe is much more grim. Tens of thousands of lorry drivers have created blockades and occupied border crossings. The protests have caused widespread chaos. In Portugal and Spain, two drivers lost their lives when they were overrun by lorries during protests. Spanish lorry drivers observe a minute of silence in memory of their dead colleagues (Photo: EPA/Alfredo Aldai) Coming back from Spain, Dutch lorry driver Hans Oostwal spent several days stuck in traffic jams. He describes how his Spanish colleagues created gridlock: "They were driving very slowly, three abreast, followed by a single lorry, and then another five or six. They were weaving across the motorway. You couldn't go right and you couldn't go left". Portuguese settlement The protests in Portugal ended on Thursday. The Portuguese government offered the lorry drivers a tax rebate to compensate for the expensive diesel fuel. But the protests in Spain are still ongoing, despite the fact that police forcibly ended a number of blockades. The consequences of the lorry drivers' actions are evident across Spain. Supermarkets are nearly out of fresh produce, people are hoarding fuel, and companies which have not received shipments of new parts have been forced to close temporarily. So the whole of Europe is clearly suffering from the high fuel prices. Small transport companies are in trouble, and nowhere more so than in the Netherlands. Nowhere in Europe are fuel taxes as high as in the Netherlands, and the tax on diesel will go up by another three cents per litre on 1 July. In the Netherlands, motorists pay between 1.35 and 1.42 euros for a litre of diesel fuel. Transport and Logistics Netherlands says that after the tax rise, around 40 cents of that amount will go to the tax office. Dutch hauliers want more stable system Branch organisation Transport and Logistics Netherlands, which took the initiative for today's actions, wants the government to cancel the tax increase or provide some sort of compensation in these difficult times. The organisation fears otherwise Dutch hauliers will no longer be able to compete. Alexander Sakkers from van Transport and Logistics Netherlands explains why: "In the past five years, we lost 40 percent of our market position in Europe. If things continue like they have been doing, we will have a major problem with employment in the sector". Transport and Logistics Netherlands argues for the introduction of a system to stabilise diesel prices. Which means that when oil prices go up, fuel tax goes down and vice versa. The system has already been introduced in some other European countries such as Belgium. Consumers must economise However, there is little chance of the Dutch government heeding this advice. It wants to get the message across that consumers must economise in times of scarcity. Analyst Herman Bots says this is a sound policy, because consumers are more inclined to look for alternatives when they feel the effects of expensive fuel in their pocket books. Mr Bots does not expect the Dutch to start selling their cars en masse. But they will demand more fuel efficient engines from car makers and buy smaller vehicles. And Dutch lorry drivers may find some comfort in the knowledge that the government has promised to meet with the transport sector to discuss their problems. http://www.iii.co.uk/shares/?type=news&articleid=6755382&action=article (Updates to add detail of police intervention and strike bacground) LISBON (Thomson Financial) - A Portuguese truck driver was killed near Alcanena, north of Lisbon, as he tried to stop a lorry at a road block set up by truckers protesting against high fuel prices, police said Tuesday. One fellow striker told Portugal's Lusa news agency that the man was run over by a heavy goods lorry as he signalled for it to stop. Police officers at the scene -- about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the Portuguese capital -- immediately arrested the driver of the lorry, he said. But Lieutenant Colonel Costa Lima, of the Republican National Guard, told TSF radio that the striker had been hanging onto the vehicle, which had failed to stop, and had fallen under its wheels. Most lorry drivers in Portugal joined an indefinite strike on Monday to protest the soaring price of diesel. On Tuesday, however, some drivers in the centre of the country had returned to work with the Lisbon government predicting a deal later this week. Tens of thousands of truckers across Spain, France and Portugal are on strike or joining protests to demand government help to offset higher fuel costs. tf.TFN-Europe_newsdesk at thomsonreuters.com afp/ms1/scl/lam http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/12/2272082.htm Spain's car plants shut as fuel protests mount Posted Thu Jun 12, 2008 5:36am AEST Spain's car industry has come to a virtual standstill because of a nationwide strike by truck drivers angry at the soaring price of fuel. The car makers' association Anfac said all of Spain's 18 car factories, which produce 13,000 vehicles a day and account for about 5 per cent of Spain's GDP, would be out of action by Thursday (local time) because of a lack of parts and fuel. In recent days truckers across Spain have also blocked deliveries of fuel and food - sparking a rush by consumers to stockpile staple goods - and have jammed up motorways, causing travel chaos for millions. The dispute has become increasingly violent - one striker was killed on Tuesday. Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said police had arrested at least 51 protesters since the strike began on Monday, 34 of them for blocking the main motorway from Madrid to the north. Police have so far escorted almost 3,000 trucks carrying food, fuel and medical supplies to their destinations, and Mr Rubalcaba told distributors to call police if they needed protection to move goods by road. He warned those on the picket lines that, although they had a right to strike, they had no right to hurt the interests of ordinary people. "We will continue to act with maximum force against those who want to disturb public order," he told a news conference. Seat, Mercedes Benz, Renault, Nissan, Citroen, Peugeot and Iveco all have factories in Spain as does Ford, whose Vigo plant was one of the few still operating on Wednesday, an Anfac spokesman said. Fuel shortages Some parts of Spain were already suffering fuel shortages after protesters picketed fuel depots. Many market stall holders - particularly traders in fruit, vegetables and fish - say they only have supplies for another day or two. Some Madrid supermarkets were stripped bare of all fresh meat, fish vegetables and fruit. One truck driver sleeping at a picket line near the south-east city Alicante suffered severe burns when his cab caught fire in what police suspect was arson. The fire which started at 4am (local time) completely destroyed the vehicle and three other trucks. A day earlier, one striking truck driver was run over by a van and killed in Granada, while in Portugal, a striker died as he tried to stop a truck on a road north of Lisbon. The Portuguese capital's main airport ran out of fuel because of the strike - causing delays but no cancellations - but Spain's main airports are supplied by pipelines and were unaffected, a spokeswoman at the airport operator AENA said. Spanish Infrastructure Minister Magdalena Alvarez told parliament the Government and the main haulage association had agreed terms. However, the two other groups, representing most of the strikers, were continuing to demand that the Government set a minimum tariff for their services, which Mr Alvarez said was impossible. In the north-east region of Catalonia, police said they had managed to clear protesters and reopen the Jonquera border crossing with France. Diesel has risen to around 1.30 euros a litre from 0.95 euros a year ago, pushing heavy fuel users such as truck and taxi drivers, fishermen and farmers across Europe to demand support from their governments. - Reuters http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2008/06/30/nationworld.nw-847105.sto Man torches car in protest over high gas prices Associated Press June 30, 2008 BERLIN (AP) ? A German man doused his BMW with gasoline and torched it on Friday in protest at skyrocketing fuel costs, police said. The unemployed 30-year-old man drove the black 1995 BMW 3-series sedan onto the lawn outside Frankfurt's convention center grounds at about 7:30 a.m., police spokesman Karlheinz Wagner said. He then jumped out, emptied a canister of gas over the vehicle, and set fire to it, Wagner said. By the time the fire department got to the scene, the car was entirely burned out. The Bavarian man, whose name was being withheld because he has not been charged with a crime, told police that gas prices were so high he could no longer afford to drive the vehicle. As in many countries, gasoline prices have risen steadily in Germany; a liter of regular gasoline now costs about ?1.55, or $9.40 per gallon. Police were investigating whether the man could be charged with violating German environmental laws with the stunt, Wagner said. Penalties range from fines to five years in prison. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,371230,00.html Angry Kids Protest Gas Prices After Mom Cancels Cable TV Wednesday, June 25, 2008 AP June 23: Pyper and Sadie Vance protest high gas prices after their mother was unable to pay the cable bill for their cartoons due to high gas prices. SALT LAKE CITY ? Sadie and Pyper Vance have had just about enough of high gas prices. The sisters are still years away from being old enough to drive, but that doesn't mean the $4 per gallon price tag isn't hitting them as hard as anyone else. Cable TV was one of the family's budget-cutting casualties, leaving Sadie, 9, and her 7-year-old sister without their favorite cartoons and shows. "Gas prices are too high," Sadie said. "I just decided to come and protest so they'd go down." The girls marched through downtown Monday chanting and carrying signs made from old campaign signs. "All of my mom's monny goes to the gas tank!" Pyper's sign read. Sadie carried a sign asking drivers to honk to lower gas prices ? adding that her mom had to cut "cabel." The girls got some waves and a few thumbs-up to show support. "I think it's great," said Hamid Tayeb, who was walking past on his lunch break. "It's unfortunate that kids are doing it before we do." http://www.dailycommercialnews.com/article/id27610 May 8, 2008 VINCE VERSACE In an attempt to bring attention to issues such as excess loading and rising fuel costs, about 150 dump truck drivers took to Toronto?s main highways in a slow-rolling protest. Rolling dump truck protest takes to the highway VINCE VERSACE staff writer A convoy of 150 dump trucks recently roared its way from a muddy Brampton parking lot and on to Toronto?s main highways to protest excess loading and skyrocketing fuel costs. The Ontario Dump Truck Association (ODTA) organized the rolling protest, which started at Derry and Dixie roads on Thursday, May 8. The ODTA wants to send a message to contractors, excavators, road builders and pavers that they cannot continue to face financial hardships and strain. ?The diesel costs over the last five years have soared from 50 to 60 cents a litre to $1.35,? says Raj Banipal, a dump truck driver. ?We cannot survive such big increases, which is why we want a raise.? ODTA drivers currently charge $75 an hour for their services and they want to immediately increase this to $90 an hour. Truck maintenance and increasing insurance costs also are placing a strain on dump truck operators, the ODTA says. ?Simply put, without an increase, we can no longer continue to operate in a safe and profitable manner,? states Gary Grewal, president of the ODTA, in an open letter to excavation and construction industry officials. The ODTA says its rolling truck protest is both a public awareness initiative and a call to all dump truck operators to come together, with one voice, and demand a standard hourly wage. The overloading of trucks is a major health and safety concern, says Banipal. The trucks are designed to haul around 21 tonnes but at the times they can carry up to 30 tonnes. ?We can refuse to the carry load, but then there is a chance you can never return to that work site,? explains Banipal. The convoy of dump trucks headed west on Derry Road to Hwy. 410, south to Hwy. 401 and east across Toronto to the Don Valley Parkway. The trucks then rolled south to the Gardiner Expressway, west to Hwy. 427, north to the 401 and then west to the 410 to where they started, completing their protest in three hours. http://en.rian.ru/video/20080711/113794883.html 18:56 11/07/2008 Krasnoyarsk motorists protest gasoline prices The price of AI-92 grade gasoline in Krasnoyarsk has exceeded 25 rubles per liter. Motorists rallied to show indignation. Protesters say a further rise in fuel prices could have unpredictable consequences. (92 sec./3.57Mb, shows: 26) http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24062966-5006009,00.html?from=public_rss Truckies go-slow from Sutton Forest to Casula over fuel Article from: Font size: Decrease Increase Email article: Email Print article: Print Submit comment: Submit comment July 23, 2008 12:00am A CONVOY of trucks will today roll into Sydney in another "go-slow protest" over the rising cost of fuel. The Transport Workers Union said the drivers' action was part of a campaign for a national system of enforceable rates and cost recovery from major retailers. Drivers will start at Sutton Forest in the Southern Highlands and travel north along the Hume Highway to Casula. Earlier this month, up to 100 trucks travelled between 60km/h and 80km/h down the F3 to Sydney during the morning peak. "Drivers are having to absorb the spikes in fuel prices and the cost of maintaining their vehicles," the TWU's Richard Olsen said. The convoy set off at about 6am and was expected to arrive in Sydney during the morning peak, finishing at Casula about 8.30am. http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storyPage.aspx?storyId=125959 Fishermen start 10-km swim to Senate to protest oil price hikes Activists on Tuesday went on a 10-kilometer swim protest at the Manila Bay to urge the Senate to take action on the non-stop increase of prices of petroleum products. Fernando Hicap, chairman of the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya), said the protest swim will start at 10 a.m. in Bacoor, Cavite. The protesting swimmers were expected to reach the Philippine Senate compound in Pasay City at noon. Hicap said the 10-kilometer swim symbolizes the fishermen's hardships due to the increasing prices of petroleum products. He said several fishermen have stopped sailing because of their inability to buy high priced pump products. Hicap said the swimmers will deliver a letter to Senate President Manuel Villar Jr. They will urge the upper chamber's president to act against the weekly increases of pump product prices. On Saturday, oil companies increased by P3 per liter their diesel products, which brought the pump product's price near P60. With Malaca?ang's pleading, the oil companies cut the diesel price increase by P1.50 on Sunday. The oil companies also increased the prices of their gasoline and kerosene products by P1.00. http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20080819p2a00m0na012000c.html Saury fishing boats suspend operations across Japan to protest high fuel prices About 230 saury fishing boats halted operations across Japan on Monday to highlight their financial struggle caused by surging fuel prices. The boats belonging to a national Pacific saury fishing cooperative and a Pacific saury fishing group in eastern Hokkaido were unable to participate in a major nationwide fishing strike on July 15 because the seasonal ban on that type of fishing was still in place at the time. As a result of the suspension of operations, no Pacific saury fish were landed on Tuesday morning, but the strike was unlikely to have a major effect on the price of the fish, according to one fisheries wholesaler. The "bouke-ami" method of fishing for Pacific saury uses lights to attract the fish, which are scooped up in nets attached to poles. Since fuel is used to operate the lights, the boats cost more to run, which is said to cause a marked decline in profit margins. (Mainichi Japan) August 19, 2008 From ldxar1 at tesco.net Fri Aug 29 21:24:33 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 05:24:33 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Indigenous protests, global South, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <006d01c90a58$4f4854f0$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * WEST PAPUA: Protester killed during Papuan flag protest * MALAYSIA: Indigenous Kenyah blockade Sarawak logging for a month * INDIA/UK: Orissa adivasis visit UK in mining protest * BRAZIL: Indigenous people protest Xingu dam proposal * TAIWAN: Bunun indigenous people protest "poaching" arrests * PHILIPPINES: Indigenous people close mountain mine * ASSAM: Adivasis rally * INDIA, Karnataka: Forest dwellers warn of protest over sales crackdown * INDIA, Tamil Nadu: Scheduled Tribe protests unauthorised mining * INDIA, Orissa: Adivasis protest Tata Steel in land dispute * THAILAND: Dam protesters put curse on prime minister * FIJI: Reservoir blockade ends after talks, but issue simmers * PAKISTAN: "Tribesmen" protest police prosecution of elders * PHILIPPINES: Indigenous groups protest mining * NIUE: Dissident leaves country for duration of summit http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/224594,one-dead-in-rioting-in-indonesias-papua-province.html One dead in rioting in Indonesia's Papua province Posted : Sat, 09 Aug 2008 11:00:33 GMT Author : DPA Category : Asia (World) Jakarta - One person died from gunshot wounds Saturday after Indonesian police opened fire in an attempt to stop rioting in the country's easternmost province of Papua, media reports said. MetroTV reported the riot broke out after police officers removed an outlawed Free Papua Movement separatist flag, raised by a group of people at the end of rally in Wamena district town of Papua's Jayawijaya regency to mark an international day of indigenous' rights. The removal triggered anger and escalated into rioting when thousands of people attacked the police with arrows, bows and rocks. Police fired warning shots to stop the violence. According to Fadal al-Hamid, head of the local indigenous community organizing the rally, one person died from gunshot wounds. The Jayawijaya district police chief blamed the rally leaders for the rioting by allowing participants to raise separatist flags. The Bintang Kejora (Morning Star) flag has long been a symbol of the region's separatist rebellion, with the Papuan Tribal Council urging the government to recognize the flag as a cultural symbol of Papuans. In Jakarta, about 100 Muslim hardliners staged a rally outside the US embassy to protest a call by Washington for the release of two Papuan activists. The Islamic group Hizbut Tahrir's protest came after 40 members of the US Congress sent a letter to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono urging an "immediate and unconditional" release of the activists on human rights grounds. Philep Karma and Yusac Pakage were sentenced to 15 and 10 years respectively in 2005 after a court found them guilty of treason after they raised an outlawed separatist flag, the Morning Star. The Free Papua Movement is a small rebel group that has fought for secession in the predominantly Melanesian Papua, formerly Irian Jaya province, since the former Dutch colony of Western New Guinea became part of Indonesia in 1964. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/08/09/asia/AS-Indonesia-Papua-Violence.php Protester killed at independence rally in Papua The Associated Press Published: August 9, 2008 JAKARTA, Indonesia: Police fired warning shots to break up an independence rally Saturday in Indonesia's easternmost province of Papua. One person was killed during the protest, but police denied responsibility. Thousands gathered in Wamena, the capital of the mountainous district of Jayawijaya, to celebrate Indigenous Rights Day when a tribal group raised a separatist flag, said Forkorus Yaboisembut, a leader of the Papuan Tribal Council and one of the organizers. In Indonesia, raising the Papuan independence flag is a crime punishable by life in prison. Police demanded they remove the flag and then fired warning shots, killing one man with a bullet to the chest, Yaboisembut said. Local police Chief Lt. Col. Paulus Waterpau acknowledged one man was killed at the rally but denied his men were responsible for the death. Waterpau said many separatists were carrying traditional weapons, including spears, and the victim may have been accidentally killed by fellow protesters in the chaos. Separately, 100 Muslim hard-liners rallied outside the U.S. Embassy in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, to protest a letter sent by 40 U.S. Congress members calling for the "immediate and unconditional release" of two Papuans jailed in 2005 for raising separatist flags. Filep Karma and Yusak Pakage were sentenced to 10 and 15 years respectively. "Americans should not interfere in Indonesia's internal affairs," members of the hard-line Islamic group Hizbut Tahrir chanted during the noisy demonstration, which ended without incident. Indonesia took over Papua from Dutch colonial rule in 1963. Its sovereignty over the region was formalized in 1969 through a stage-managed vote by about 1,000 community leaders, which critics dismissed as a sham. A small, poorly armed separatist movement has battled Jakarta's rule ever since. About 100,000 Papuans ? one-sixth of the population ? have died in military operations. http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D92F3CGG2&show_article=1 Independence protester killed in Indonesia's Papua+ Aug 9 08:25 PM US JAKARTA, Aug. 10 (AP) - (Kyodo)?A man was killed in the Indonesian easternmost province of Papua after police fired warning shots when a group of independence supporters raised a separatist flag, a police official and a local traditional leader said Saturday. The incident occurred when thousands of people were gathering in a soccer field in the town of Wamena to mark the U.N. Indigenous People's Day. While the ceremony was ongoing, a group of men suddenly entered the field and hoisted the Morning Star, the flag of the separatist Free Papua Movement or OPM, along with Indonesia's red-and-white national flag and the U.N. flag. Fadal al-Hamid, head of the Papua Traditional Community, said police fired warning shots following the hoisting of the separatist flag, but the group of independence supporters threw stones back at the policemen. "A clash occurred and I was informed that a man, identified as Otinus Tabuni, was shot to death," al-Hamid said. "I regretted the incident because we never expected that the flag would be hoisted during the peaceful ceremony," he added. Abdul Aziz, police chief in Jayawijaya Regency that supervises Wamena, however, said he has not received any reports that someone had been killed during the clash. "We will check," he said. Over the past three decades, Papua has frequently been the scene of violence between separatists and government security forces that has claimed thousands of lives. OPM rebels, who are fighting for an independent state, have kidnapped many locals as well as foreigners in an effort to gain international attention and support. Indonesia took over the western half of New Guinea Island from Dutch colonialists in 1963 and incorporated the territory into Indonesia after a 1969 U.N.-sanctioned plebiscite. Papua is home to some of the world's largest gold and copper mines and also has extensive forest reserves. Jakarta has attempted to dampen separatist sentiment by offering Papuans a greater say in provincial-level government. It has also offered provincial authorities a larger share of local forestry, fishery, oil, gas and mining revenues. http://news.aol.com/story/_a/independence-protester-killed-in/n20080809202609990006?ecid=RSS0001 Independence protester killed in Indonesia's Papua+ AP Posted: 2008-08-09 20:26:34 JAKARTA, Aug. 10 (Kyodo) - A man was killed in the Indonesian easternmost province of Papua after police fired warning shots when a group of independence supporters raised a separatist flag, a police official and a local traditional leader said Saturday. The incident occurred when thousands of people were gathering in a soccer field in the town of Wamena to mark the U.N. Indigenous People's Day. While the ceremony was ongoing, a group of men suddenly entered the field and hoisted the Morning Star, the flag of the separatist Free Papua Movement or OPM, along with Indonesia's red-and-white national flag and the U.N. flag. Fadal al-Hamid, head of the Papua Traditional Community, said police fired warning shots following the hoisting of the separatist flag, but the group of independence supporters threw stones back at the policemen. "A clash occurred and I was informed that a man, identified as Otinus Tabuni, was shot to death," al-Hamid said. "I regretted the incident because we never expected that the flag would be hoisted during the peaceful ceremony," he added. Abdul Aziz, police chief in Jayawijaya Regency that supervises Wamena, however, said he has not received any reports that someone had been killed during the clash. "We will check," he said. Over the past three decades, Papua has frequently been the scene of violence between separatists and government security forces that has claimed thousands of lives. OPM rebels, who are fighting for an independent state, have kidnapped many locals as well as foreigners in an effort to gain international attention and support. Indonesia took over the western half of New Guinea Island from Dutch colonialists in 1963 and incorporated the territory into Indonesia after a 1969 U.N.-sanctioned plebiscite. Papua is home to some of the world's largest gold and copper mines and also has extensive forest reserves. Jakarta has attempted to dampen separatist sentiment by offering Papuans a greater say in provincial-level government. It has also offered provincial authorities a larger share of local forestry, fishery, oil, gas and mining revenues. http://www.fpcn-global.org/content/Malaysian-Indigenous-People-Face-Arrest-Logging-Blockade Malaysian Indigenous People Face Arrest at Logging Blockade rains Posted at 08:48 on Sun, 06/22/2008 A month-long blockade of logging roads by indigenous people in the state of Sarawak, Malaysia set to protest illegal logging on their communal lands is about to be broken up by police. More than 100 indigenous Kenyah people gathered at the blockade site on the upper Moh River on the island of Borneo claim that the blockade is their only way of calling on representatives of the Samling Timber Company and government authorities to have a consultation and meet with them to listen to their problems and demands. Otherwise, they say, the Samling Timber Company will continue to ignore their demands and plights. Kenyahs blockade a logging road on the Upper Moh River. The banner says, "Samling, do not rob the wealth from the poor people's land and give it to the rich in the city." (Photo courtesy Borneo Resources Institute) According to the Borneo Resources Institute in Miri, which issued a statement today on behalf of the Kenyah peoples, ever since Samling started its logging operations in the upper Baram area, the indigenous communities have suffered the environmental impacts of logging. They say the company simply encroached into their communal land and forest areas to carry out logging activities, without any consultation and consideration for their source of livelihood. The Kenyahs have forwarded some "reasonable demands for social benefits and development of the community as they are the rights stakeholders that should be fairly benefit from forest resources in their area," the Borneo Resources Institute says. The Kenyah say they resorted to the blockade action after the company and the state forest agency ignored their demands and their rights of access and claims to the benefits of their natural forest resources. Since the blockade was erected, Samling's logging activities have ceased. Hundreds of timber logs that had been felled are stacked up along the sides of the logging road because the Kenyahs have stopped all the logging trucks and other logging machines from entering the area and transporting timber from the area. Kenyah people with logs felled by Samling Timber Company on traditional lands. (Photo courtesy Borneo Resources Institute) The Kenyahs have written a letter to the Sarawak Forestry Corporation, a state government agency, requesting that the agency carry out an urgent physical inspection of all logs that have been illegally felled by Samling in the area. They also called upon the Sarawak Forestry Corporation to stop Samling from carrying out its operation until all inspection of timber logs has been completed. Their request has been ignored. Believing that they have no other alternative and being compelled to bring attention to their plight, the indigenous Kenyahs of Kedaya Telang Usan area in Baram Region have resorted to staging this protest, which is still continuing. On May 29, upon receiving complaints from the Samling Timber Company, a group of personnel from the Sarawak Forestry Corporation, went to the blockade site to remove the wooden barricades, but they were restrained from dismantling the blockade. As a result, the Sarawak Forestry Corporation filed a court action requesting a Warrant of Arrest, which has been granted by the Magistrate Court in Miri. Police personnel from the Marudi Police Station were ordered to the blockade site to enforce the Warrant of Arrest on June 14. So far, no arrests have taken place. MIRI, Sarawak, Malaysia, June 17, 2008 (ENS) - from: http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jun2008/2008-06-17-02.asp http://story.philippinetimes.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/2411cd3571b4f088/id/389615/cs/1/ Orissa tribals come to UK to protest mining in their sacred hills Philippine Times Sunday 3rd August, 2008 (IANS) A delegation of Orissa tribals has come all the way to London to confront the owner of a company planning to mine bauxite from a hill considered sacred by them. Members of the Dongriyha Kondh tribe barged their way into the annual general meeting of Vedanta Resources to describe how the company was destroying the environment even before the mining has begun. The pressure resulted in Vedanta's founder and chairman Anil Agarwal making a commitment, for the first time, to comply with international law. 'I can only promise that we will only start work if we have complete permission of the court and the people,' he told shareholders, according to The Independent. The issue has caused a furore in both India and the UK and the matter is in the courts. A top UK charity has tried to highlight the plight of the tribals by adopting a tit-for-tat approach. It has sent an appeal for the destruction of the St Paul's cathedral in London in case the company goes ahead with the destruction of the hills. Vedanta Resources of the UK got the permission to set up a plant in the protected forest area of Nyamgiri Hills of Orissa to mine bauxite. A factory has come up on the site, but mining operations are yet to start as it is a protected area and, under the Indian constitution, it cannot be handed over to private hands unless permitted by the resident tribals. The problem for Vedanta began with the tribals saying the hills are sacred to them and protesting the setting up of the mine. Environmental groups backed them, saying the layer of bauxite on the hills acts as a sponge for the monsoon rains, releasing the water steadily throughout the year and ensuring fertility of the forests and crops. Last year a three-member bench of the Supreme Court ruled that Vedanta could not mine the hills - but allowed its Indian subsidiary Sterlite to reapply on condition that it plough five per cent of its profits into conservation and tribal development. The Indian court's final verdict on the new application is expected later this week. http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEL20080803011741&Page=L&Title=World&Topic=0 Orissa tribals come to UK to protest mining in their sacred hills Sunday August 3 2008 11:39 IST Venkata Vemuri | IANS Get a 30% discount on Calls to India. LONDON: A delegation of Orissa tribals has come all the way to London to confront the owner of a company planning to mine bauxite from a hill considered sacred by them. Members of the Dongriyha Kondh tribe barged their way into the annual general meeting of Vedanta Resources to describe how the company was destroying the environment even before the mining has begun. The pressure resulted in Vedanta's founder and chairman Anil Agarwal making a commitment, for the first time, to comply with international law. "I can only promise that we will only start work if we have complete permission of the court and the people," he told shareholders, according to The Independent. The issue has caused a furore in both India and the UK and the matter is in the courts. A top UK charity has tried to highlight the plight of the tribals by adopting a tit-for-tat approach. It has sent an appeal for the destruction of the St Paul's cathedral in London in case the company goes ahead with the destruction of the hills. Vedanta Resources of the UK got the permission to set up a plant in the protected forest area of Nyamgiri Hills of Orissa to mine bauxite. A factory has come up on the site, but mining operations are yet to start as it is a protected area and, under the Indian constitution, it cannot be handed over to private hands unless permitted by the resident tribals. The problem for Vedanta began with the tribals saying the hills are sacred to them and protesting the setting up of the mine. Environmental groups backed them, saying the layer of bauxite on the hills acts as a sponge for the monsoon rains, releasing the water steadily throughout the year and ensuring fertility of the forests and crops. Last year a three-member bench of the Supreme Court ruled that Vedanta could not mine the hills - but allowed its Indian subsidiary Sterlite to reapply on condition that it plough five per cent of its profits into conservation and tribal development. The Indian court's final verdict on the new application is expected later this week. http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=4921427 Indians Protest Brazil Hydro Dam Project Brazilian Indians gather at Xingu River to end 5-day protest against Amazon dam By ALAN CLENDENNING Associated Press Writer ALTAMIRA, Brazil May 23, 2008 (AP) The Associated Press Hundreds of Amazon Indians capped a five-day protest against the construction of a multibillion dollar dam by swimming in the river they say it will destroy. Indigenous people protest against the construction of a dam in Altamira, Brazil, Friday, May 23,... Indigenous people protest against the construction of a dam in Altamira, Brazil, Friday, May 23, 2008. A proposed hydroelectric Belo Monte dam, to be built in the Xingu River, background, would be the world's third largest for power production but claims are growing that it could kill the Indians' fish, displace 15,000 people and help destroy the rain forest. (AP Photo/Andre Penner) (AP) "Xingu, alive and free forever!" sang the crowd as feathered and painted women bathed their children in the half-mile (0.8-kilometer) wide river and men splashed about to show how they hunt for fish they fear the dam will eradicate. "We're here to defend our river," said Moxia Parakana, a chief who uses his tribe's name for his last name. "If the dam is built, where are we going to live? The fish will go away." Critics say the dam will swallow rain forest, kill off native fish and flood an area so large that 16,000 people will be displaced. The gathering in this small city of 70,000 was a peaceful end to an event that saw tensions rise when an engineer for the national electric company was attacked after giving a speech on why Brazil needs the dam. Indians wielding machetes pushed Paulo Fernando Rezende to the floor on Tuesday, ripped off his shirt and left his right shoulder with bloody gash that had to be closed with stitches. Indians in Brazil frequently carry weapons both on and off their reservations. Dam opponents claimed Rezende's injury was blown out of proportion in an attempt to shut Indians out of planning on the dam. "They must be consulted and they haven't been," said Roman Catholic Bishop Erwin Krautler, whose diocese encompasses Altamira and many isolated communities along the Xingu River. "Indians have been massacred in Brazil for centuries and no one ever did anything for them." The US$6.7 billion (euro4.3 billion) Belo Monte dam is projected to produce 6.3 percent of Brazil's electricity by 2014, feeding clean energy to the country's southeastern industrial base, its rapidly developing northeastern coast and the jungle manufacturing zone of Manaus along the Amazon River. Critics say the rising water will transform 87 miles (140 kilometers) of flowing river into stagnant puddles, submerge thousands of homes, kill fish that Indians and others depend upon, and increase mosquito-borne diseases like malaria. Bishop Krautler also says it will cause deforestation of the Amazon rain forest for cattle ranches and farms, leading poor farm workers into debt slavery and encouraging land grabs by the region's infamous "pistoleiros." Indigenous people protest against the construction of a dam in Altamira, Brazil, Friday, May 23,... Indigenous people protest against the construction of a dam in Altamira, Brazil, Friday, May 23, 2008. A proposed hydroelectric Belo Monte dam, to be built in the Xingu River, would be the world's third largest for power production but claims are growing that it could kill the Indians' fish, displace 15,000 people and help destroy the rain forest. (AP Photo/Andre Penner) (AP) Idalino Nunes de Assis, who heads a group of poor riverside dwellers, said the government has failed to recognize that "the Xingu is our way of life, and we depend on it." "The Xingu does not deserve to be condemned to death," he said. http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7011022560 Amazonian Indians Violently Protest Brazil's Planned Xingu River Dam ShareThis May 21, 2008 4:45 p.m. EST Amy Beeman - AHN Brasilia, Brazil (AHN) - A group of Amazonian Indians, donning feathers and face paint, attacked a representative from Brazil's National Electric Company after he made a presentation explaining the effects a proposed hydroelectric dam would have on traditional communities living in the remote region near the Xingu River. The Associated Press reported that Eletrobras engineer Paulo Fernando Rezende sustained a large gash on his shoulder, but insisted he was okay, after the angry group of Kayapo Indians surrounded him wielding machetes and clubs. One Indian told the AP that Rezende is lucky to be alive, adding that now officials should know they should not build the dam, called the Belo Monte. The Brazilian government said the proposed $6.7-billion hydroelectric dam would help meet the growing energy needs of Brazil with an estimated 11,000 megawatts of power. However the damn, if built, is expected to displace 15,000 indigenous Amazonian Indians who regularly fish the river, depending on it as a vital source of food. The Kayapo Indians vowed to go to war if Brazilian officials give the go ahead to the proposed dam. If built, the Belo Monte will be the third largest hydroelectric dam in the world. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/22/america/LA-GEN-Brazil-Dam-Protest.php Brazil Indians end dam protest ahead of schedule after engineer is attacked The Associated Press Published: May 22, 2008 ALTAMIRA, Brazil: The organizer of a weeklong protest against an Amazon dam project says the group will cancel Friday's demonstration march to the Xingu River on fears of spiraling violence. Marcelo Salazar says he fears counter-demonstrators might retaliate for an attack on an Eletrobras engineer. Paulo Fernando Rezende was slashed with a machete Tuesday after speaking about the dam to protesters. The attack made front-page headlines and outraged many Brazilians. Some 1,000 Indians gathered this week to protest the proposed US$6.7 billion (?4.3 billion) Belo Monte dam on the Xingu. The dam would flood 170 square miles (440 square kilometers) of the Amazon river basin, displacing 15,000 inhabitants. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24794759/ Brazil's Amazon building boom draws protests Hundreds of indigenous people rallied this week against proposed dam Andre Penner / AP Some Indigenous peoples in Brazil's Amazon have mobilized against huge construction projects. This tribe traveled by bus to the town of Altamira for a protest Wednesday against a proposed dam. By Alan Clendenning updated 3:36 p.m. ET May 23, 2008 ALONG THE XINGU RIVER, Brazil - Indians fish from canoes along the curves of this Amazon tributary and tend manioc crops near the site of a proposed dam talked about for decades ? but now pushing forward under Brazil's multi-billion-dollar construction spree. The Belo Monte dam will swallow thick rain forest and harm rare fish, as well as the livelihoods and homes of roughly 15,000 people who live in this remote area of northeastern Para state, critics say. Flush with cash from its roaring economy, Brazil is spending $296 billion in the next two years alone on huge hydroelectric dams, transcontinental roads and other infrastructure to expand industry, boost exports, create jobs and help speed the emergence of Latin America's largest country as a world economic power. But at a time when the world is focused on climate change and Amazon rain forest destruction, Brazil's boom means paving, flooding and stringing power lines through thousands of miles of pristine jungle. Edivaldo Juruna, a subsistence farmer and fisherman who lives in a ramshackle wooden house on a sandbar, worries when he hears the dam will flood 170 square miles of Amazon basin and turn a 90-mile stretch of the river into stagnant puddles. "Up there near the city it's going to flood, but down here it's going to dry up," said Juruna, an Indian whose last name is the same as his tribe. "Everyone's talking about the jobs that will come and that there will be energy for Brazil. But no one's talking about the bad side." Tensions are climbing. Some 1,000 Indians gathered in nearby Altamira on Friday and earlier this week to fight the proposed $6.7 billion dam, planned as the world's third-largest power producer behind China's Three Gorges and Itaipu on the border between Brazil and Paraguay. Utility official attacked On Tuesday, painted and feathered protesters attacked a national electric company official with machetes and clubs after he spoke to the group; he left shirtless and bloody from a gash in his shoulder. Indians and environmentalists thought they had beaten the dam in 1989, when a similar protest drew the rock star Sting and international condemnation. Silvia Izquierdo / AP Land burns near an old highway being replaced with a new one in Puerto Maldonado, Brazil, last Nov. 1. The new highway will connect let Brazil ship exports to Asia from Peru. But now Brazil has the money for such projects without needing outside help, and the dam is scheduled to go out to bid next year. The country's boom-and-bust cycles are long gone. It paid off its foreign debt last year and this month was declared a safe place for foreign investors to park money, with a debt upgrade from the Standard & Poor's ratings agency. Critics say the pro-development forces in President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government have taken control, the reason cited for famed Amazon preservationist Marina Silva's resignation as Brazil's environment minister last week. The Brazilian leader already is battling a spike in rain forest destruction and has sent federal police and environmental workers to crack down on illegal logging. http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/local/hualien/2008/05/01/154368/Bunun%2Dtribesmen.htm Bunun tribesmen protest police arrest for muntjac 'poaching' The China Post news staff Thursday, May 1, 2008 HAULIEN, Taiwan -- A score of Bunun braves, led by their county councilman, laid siege to a Yuli police station yesterday, demanding that no charges be pressed against two tribesmen who killed a muntjac by mistake. Lin Chin-lai, 45, and Li Ah-lang, 50, were arrested shortly after 1 a.m., while carrying back home a dead muntjac they had shot. Police were about to refer the two Bunun tribesmen for prosecution in the afternoon when Lu Pi-hsien, Hualien county councilman, led the protesting braves to besiege the station in suburban Yuli, halfway between Hualien and Taitung on east Taiwan. Under police questioning, Lin and Li said they thought their game was a wild boar. The muntjac, known also as a barking deer, is indigenous to Taiwan and protected as an endangered animal. "In the dark," Lin said, "we saw only a pair of eyes." The shooting took place around midnight. He told investigators he was convinced that a boar was his mark. "So I shot at it and killed it," he added. "It's an honest mistake," Li said. Nonetheless, Yuli police wanted to press poaching charges against the two Bunun tribesmen. Bunun are one of Taiwan's largest indigenous peoples, entitled to hunt in their reservations. Lu, the councilor of Bunun descent, blasted police for discrimination against the hunters. "No action has been taken to control poaching and catch non-Bunun poachers," Lu charged the Yuli police. "Only those Bunun hunters were arrested during the open season," he complained. He threatened to march at the head of more Bunun braves, if police continue to arrest only hunters of their tribe. Neither of the two arrested hunters was released, however. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/regions/view/20080520-137595/Banahaw-protesters-close-mine-site Banahaw protesters close mine site Southern Luzon Bureau First Posted 01:33:00 05/20/2008 TAYABAS CITY ? Concerned that illegal treasure-hunting activities could ruin Mount Banahaw, more than 1,500 local officials, religious members, mountaineers and environmentalists trekked to the mystic mountain on Sunday and sealed off hurriedly abandoned mine tunnels and excavation sites. ?The collective action of Tayabasin was their strongest manifestation in their condemnation of illegal treasure-hunting activities in Mt. Banahaw,? environmentalist lawyer Sheila de Leon, director of the Tanggol Kalikasan-Southern Tagalog, told the Inquirer on Monday. The protesters, led by Tayabas Mayor Faustino Silang, left the city plaza and traveled for two hours to the village of Lalo, accompanied by 15 Army soldiers sent by Maj. Gen. Delfin Bangit, newly installed commander of the military?s Southern Luzon Command based in Camp Nakar, Lucena City. When they arrived at the excavation site, they hauled stones from a nearby river to close the entrance of the lone tunnel and three other holes. ?The local officials plan to seal off the tunnel and holes with concrete in the coming days,? De Leon said. Citing statements from the villagers, she said illegal treasure hunters had been digging the place for three weeks, escorted by six heavily armed policemen. The policemen had left the place in a patrol vehicle, the villagers were quoted as saying. Senior Supt. Fidel Posadas, provincial police director, had earlier confirmed that the six policemen belonged to the Provincial Police Mobile Group based in Candelaria town, which has jurisdiction over Tayabas. But he refuted reports of illegal treasure-hunting activities. Asked what the policemen were doing in the area, Posadas replied: ?We have an ongoing operation in the area.? He declined to elaborate. ?Apparently, the diggers were tipped off of this protest mobilization. But they left a hurriedly scribbled note in a bond paper addressed to the protest leaders, admitting that they were really searching for buried Japanese treasures,? said Jay Lim, TK program director. The note, written on a piece of bond paper with the letterhead and logo of ?The Last Hunters,? vowed that the proceeds of treasure-hunting activities would be used to develop the villages. Lim said the note also contained a mobile phone number, 09298739603. When Tayabas Vice Mayor Brando Rea called up the number, a male voice answered and introduced himself as a ?lawyer? from Lalo. The ?lawyer? insisted that they were not doing anything illegal and claimed that the project had the blessings of President Macapagal-Arroyo and ranking military officials, which he did not identify. http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/jun/12adi.htm Assam: Adivasis to protest against Sonia's visit K Anurag in Guwahati | June 12, 2008 13:10 IST Protesting adivasis will hit the streets of Assam on Friday to highlight their grievances before United Progressive Alliance chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi [Images] during her day-long visit to Guwahati. Sonia will be addressing a farmers' rally to be organised by the ruling Congress party, besides attending an award presentation ceremony organised by Assam government in the afternoon. The adivasis are planning a massive protest even as the ruling Congress is making an all out effort to make Sonia's rally a grand success to silence opposition political parties, which have launched a state-wide campaign against the 'misrule' of the Tarun Gogoi-led Congress government in the wake of arrest of the former state education minister Ripun Bora, by the CBI in New Delhi on June 3 on a bribery charge. He was arrested while trying to bribe a deputy superintendent of the central investigating agency probing the September 2000 murder of tea tribe student leader Daniel Topno, a political rival of Bora. The ruling party has asked all the 54 party MLAs to bring farmers and other people in large numbers from their respective constituencies to the 'kisan rally' to showcase the party support base before Sonia, even after the embarrassing Ripun Bora episode. Ripun Bora has already been suspended from the party in a damage control exercise carried out with approval from the All India Congress Committee and to gag the opposition diatribe. The All Adivasi Students' Association of Assam is out to derail Congress' plan for a massive farmers' rally. The AASAA has declared a series of month-long agitation programmes that will be launched the day Sonia arrives in Assam to register their protest against 'misrule' of Congress and demanding exemplary punishment to former education minister Ripun Bora for masterminding the murder of tea tribe student leader Daniel Topno way back in September 2000. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/08/stories/2008060851550300.htm Karnataka - Mysore Tribal sangha warns of novel protest Staff Correspondent MYSORE: Chamarajanagara Zilla Budakattu Girijanara Abhivrudhi Sangha has urged Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa to take action against Forest officials who are allegedly tormenting the tribal people who collect minor forest products for their livelihood. In a memorandum submitted to Mr. Yeddurappa on Friday, the sangha president Konuregowda and secretary Sanna Made Gowda have cautioned that they will launch a unique protest of selling minor forest products on the premises of office of the Deputy Commissioner, Chamarajanagar, if the Chief Minister failed to take action against erring officials on June 20. Ban They said that over 45,000 tribal people of the Soliga, Jenu Kuruba and Kadu Kurba tribes, who have settled in the four taluks of the district, had been subsisting by collecting and selling minor forest products for centuries. However, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests had banned the collection in Biligiriranganabetta Wild Life Sanctuary on February 23, 2004. It had become difficult for the tribal people to make ends meet because of the ban. Without employment, they were forced to migrate to neighbouring States in search of livelihood. The previous coalition government had failed to sort out the issue despite protests from the tribal community, they said. Even former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy had done nothing even hough theye were appraised of the situation, they added. Forest officials recently raided the houses of tribal people of Yelandur division, K. Gudi region and Kanneri Colony, and took away fruits and honey collected by them. Musqueam dissidents call end to protest ROBERT MATAS June 26, 2008 http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/26/stories/2008062653360300.htm Tamil Nadu - Salem Protest against unauthorised mining Staff Reporter SALEM: The Salem district branch of Tamil Nadu Scheduled Tribe (Malayali) Peravai has urged the State government to initiate efforts to prevent unauthorised mining in Pithur panchayat. The forum alleged that unauthorised mining was going on at various parts of the panchayat which is located in Attur taluk. Illegal quarrying They also added that people were quarrying stones illegally in the eastern parts of Pithur village and a few other parts in the panchayat. Explosives were being used for quarrying stones, which was causing pollution. This had also affected the farming activities, the forum said. Reservation Meanwhile, the district executive committee of the forum passed a resolution at a meeting urging the State government to ensure the proper implementation of the reservation for tribal students in the professional courses. Community certificates The meeting also decided to write letters to the government departments to remind them about the forum?s request seeking information (under the Right to Information Act) about the issuing of community certificates to tribal people. Resolution The forum also planned to take the matter to the State Information Commissioner, if they did not get the required information from the government departments. A resolution to this effect was also passed in the meeting. http://www.nowpublic.com/world/tribals-protest-against-steel-project-india Tribals protest against Steel project in India by Sanjay Jha | June 26, 2008 at 07:48 am | 194 views | 4 comments by tukuna Haunted by the fear of displacement over the development in their habitat,Tribals in the India's forest have been protesting. This one is against the settin up of a steel plant by India's biggest steel manufacture Tata steel. Hundreds of tribal people armed with bows and arrows stormed a proposed factory site in Orissa of one of the country's biggest steel companies, Tata Steel Ltd, police said on Thursday. About 300 tribal people protesting the acquisition of tribal land for the factory set seven vehicles on fire on Wednesday and beat up villagers who were employed to build a boundary wall, police and company officials said. Police later chased them away, said K.C. Mund, a senior police officer from Bhubaneswar. The issue of acquiring farmland for factories has become a controversial one as industrialisation gathers pace in India. There have been scores of often violent protests against major industrial projects in recent years. Tata Steel signed an accord with the state government in 2004 to build a 6 million-tonne-a-year steel plant. At least 14 people, including 13 tribal members, were killed by police firing on hundreds of protesters in 2006 during a protest against the construction of the boundary wall. "We will not allow any further displacement in the region due to the project," Rabindra Jarika, a protest leader said. A Tata Steel spokesman said displaced people were being looked after. "Land losers have been even given work by the company to construct the boundary wall," the spokesman said in Orissa. Tata Steel were forced to shelve plans to start construction in November last year. "We are hopeful about starting work soon, the spokesman said." http://www.bangkokpost.com/220608_News/22Jun2008_news07.php Dam protesters ordain forest and cast curses By Thaweesak Sukkhasem Villagers in tambon Sa-iab have revived their protest against the Kaeng Sua Ten dam by holding a black magic ritual to curse Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, who has revived the controversial project. More than 500 villagers joined the ritual held by the Yom river in Song district, on which the dam is to be erected. They burned an effigy of Mr Samak and sprinkled its ash on the river while putting curses on him. The prime minister announced his support for the dam on World Environment Day earlier this month. The tambon Sa-iab villagers are known for their fierce protests against the project, as they have managed to thwart it for 19 years. A villager puts monks' robes around teak trees in a ceremony to `ordain' the forest at tambon Sa-iab of Phrae's Song district. The activity yesterday was an attempt to block a government plan to build the Kaeng Sua Ten dam, which could flood the forest. ? SAROT MEKSOPHAWANNAKUL ''We will not cooperate with any campaigns for the dam and will not guarantee the safety of officials who work for the project,'' villagers' representative Sudarat Chaimongkon said in a statement. The government and the villagers disagree on the value of teak forest in and near the Mae Yom National Park. Mr Samak believes there is only a degraded forest, while the villagers say he is lying. The teak forest is at the centre of debate because, according to environmental activist Harnnarong Yaowalert, 25,000 rai of forest in the national park will be flooded if the dam is built. The ritual yesterday marked the villagers' first move to revive their demonstration. They vowed to do all they could to protect the forest. The villagers also held an ''ordination ceremony'' for the forest. Trees with monks' robes around them often survive getting cut down as poachers perceive them as sacred objects. The government says the Kaeng Sua Ten dam would provide a solution to floods and drought. http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=94162 Fury as water protest ends Saturday, July 05, 2008 Landowners of Nasealevu at water THE week-long closure of a reservoir by a group of villagers in the North ended on Thursday with a traditional presentation to landowners by the Native Land Trust Board, military and the Macuata Provincial Council. The delegation was led by the Roko Tui Macuata, Ratu Jone Matanababa, to the turaga ni yavusa of the Nasealevu clan, Varasiko Manakoro, asking for the protest to be called off. However, the decision has not gone down well with some members of the yavusa who have called for another meeting with their head. They say only two people agreed to end the protest. The spokesman for the mataqali Lutuvu, Logani, Vatuwa and Nasealevu of Nasealevu Village, Timoci Naqica, said the majority of landowners were unhappy with the decision to call off the protest. "We don't like the fact that the meeting about resolving the protest was held only between our clan leader and another clan member," Mr Naqica said. "The majority of the clan members were in the dark and we are still confused and irritated that they thought it unfit to hold talks with all of us," he said. "We are not only protesting the non-payment of royalty but we want the road to the village fixed because we have dealt with these same people over the past years but the same problem happens again," Mr Naqica said. http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=126128 Sahitto tribesmen protest against police Friday, July 25, 2008 By our correspondent NAUSHAHRO FEROZE: Hundreds of Sahitto tribesmen staged a demonstration and blocked the National Highway here on Thursday against lodging of a case by the Kandiaro police against their elders. Nazir Sahitto, Buxial Sahitto and Maqbool Sahitto led the protesters. They chanted slogans against the police and burnt tyres on the National Highway, suspending the traffic for two hours. Nazir told journalists that some armed men had killed a dacoit Long Machi two days ago. He said the dacoit was wanted in more than 40 criminal cases. "But the police have registered a fake case against us," he added. Later, TPO Syed Hubdar Ali Shah and DSP Akbar Wagan negotiated with the protesters. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/topstories/topstories/view/20080813-154404/Indigenous-groups-hold-protest-over-loss-of-lands-to-mining Indigenous groups hold protest over loss of lands to mining By Abigail Kwok INQUIRER.net First Posted 14:45:00 08/13/2008 MANILA, Philippines -- Indigenous groups in the country are in decline because of the government's alleged ?militarist and aggressive economic policies,? a coalition of indigenous groups said on Wednesday. Groups from Central Luzon, led by the Central Luzon Aeta Association (CLAA), marched to the Don Chino Roces Bridge (formerly Mendiola) to protest the alleged destruction of their ancestral lands due to mining. ?The urgent and critical situation of the indigenous people?s sector has brought us here,? said Nelson Mallari, secretary general of CLAA. He added that members of the military allegedly harass, intimidate, and threaten locals in the area. The group also criticized the agreement between Nihao Mineral Resources International and Geograce Philippines, headed by former Malaca?ang chief of staff Michael Defensor, and China?s Jiangxi Rare Earth and Rare Metals Tungsten Group Co. to conduct mining explorations in more than 30,000 hectares of land in Zambales. Himpad Mangumalas, spokesman for the Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (KAMP), said the mining explorations would displace Aeta communities in the area. ?The Arroyo government is wiping out indigenous communities all over the country through its militarist and aggressive economic policies. Another reason is that the President does not intend to cease these injustices,? he said. Groups urged the government to stop mining, where priority mining areas of the government have now reached to 63, or more than 108,000 hectares. ?The realization of the rights of national minorities to ancestral lands and self-determination will only be fully realized when the government is no longer bound by capitalist interests. Until then, the indigenous and Moro peoples? rights is only second to the interests of companies interested in the resources found in ancestral domains,? Mangumalas said. http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/top-stories/4919888 Niue politician heading to NZ to protest Pacific summit August 17, 2008, 5:45 pm An opposition politician intends to flee Niue in protest at his tiny island hosting this week's Pacific Islands leaders' forum summit. Terry Coe, a former cabinet minister, believes his cash-strapped island can ill afford to stage the event -- one of the biggest events in its history -- so he'll fly to Auckland on Tuesday (NZ time). He said: "They (the Niue Government) are probably glad I am going because the media will not be able to talk to me as the sole independent Opposition member. I'll no longer be a thorn in their side." He said the cost of holding the forum each year, no matter where, could be better spent elsewhere. "Why hold it each year?" he asked. "We have the most sophisticated conference systems available now. They could converse by remote and email. "I see the forum as an ineffective body to cure the region's ills. It's an all talk outfit costing a lot of money to run. "All the money that has been provided by New Zealand would better to go into infrastructure to keep people here. The forum is not going to persuade people to stay." Mr Coe said the forum could easily have been held New Zealand , with Niue in the chair. Instead the island's economy would have to be bailed out further by New Zealand because of the financial strain the event would impose. He claimed Niue's population had dropped to about 1000, but officials refused to reveal actual numbers for fear of adverse reaction from fund donors who would then realise Niue was getting more per head of population than others. Niueans needed encouragement to stay and the island's infrastructure required the injection of funds. Toke Talagi, who was elected Niue Premier in June, said Mr Coe "always held contrary views". Mr Talagi said: "The fact that we are holding the forum and we are able to cope might be contrary to what he thought was going to happen. "This has required a lot of effort on our part. People have worked very hard. Whatever the outcome of the leaders' discussions, it will not detract from Niue's efforts. "I agree there have been issues with accommodation and transport and these issues have been resolved. The proof of the pudding will be that the meeting is held. Visitors will decide if it has been hosted successfully by Niue." From ldxar1 at tesco.net Fri Aug 29 21:24:38 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 05:24:38 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Indigenous protests, Hawaii - Turtle Island (Canada/US) - Australia, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <006e01c90a58$527551f0$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * AUSTRALIA: Rallies against NT "intervention" * CANADA: First Nations rally in Ottawa * CANADA: Manitoba First Nations protest for share of pipeline profits * CANADA: Police attack Mohawk protest at Tyendinaga * CANADA: Mohawks set up blockade in Deseronto over land dispute * US, Nebraska: Native Americans protest dam * HAWAII: Two groups, one in April one in August, occupy royal palace [notice also "crap article of the month" - "insurgents, not protesters"...] * US/UN: Navajos protest at UN over power plant plan * US: Witte bones become focus of protest, dispute * HAWAII: Protests against home construction on burial ground * CANADA: Month-long occupation of Musqueam band office over funds * CANADA: Algonquin anti-mining protest hits traffic * CANADA: Algonquins occupy MP's office * US: Native Americans march in DC against global warming * CANADA: Algonquins protest in Ottawa http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/21/2281729.htm Protesters stage rally against NT intervention Posted Sat Jun 21, 2008 1:21pm AEST Updated Sat Jun 21, 2008 3:23pm AEST Aboriginal protest speakers say the legislation underpinning the intervention is racist. (AFP: Torsten Blackwood, file photo) Hundreds of protesters have staged a rally in the Sydney suburb of Redfern, demanding an end to the Federal Government's intervention in the Northern Territory. Today marks the first anniversary of the intervention into 73 remote Aboriginal communities. The emergency response has drawn a mixed reaction, with some communities praising the measures and others claiming they have made people's lives too difficult. The Redfern protest rally has heard only criticisms of the move. Aboriginal speakers say the legislation underpinning the move is racist. They say while problems needed to be addressed with additional resources, mobilising the army and quarantining people's incomes were humiliating for Aboriginal people and have only fuelled racist attitudes and problems. They are calling for the racial discrimination act to be re-introduced and the intervention abandoned. Nearly 100 people in Hobart have also marked the first anniversary with a protest outside Parliament House. Nala Mansell-McKenna from the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre told the crowd the intervention is racist. "Kevin Rudd has also publicly announced that his Government would strive to embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old solutions have failed," she said. "Well hello Kevin Rudd, does he not realise that sending armed forces in to Aboriginal communities is a failed solution?" Meanwhile, the Northern Territory Anti-Discrimination Commission is also calling for the intervention be abandoned. Commissioner Tony Fitzgerald says the suspension of Northern Territory and federal race discrimination legislation can never be justified. He says instead of continuing the intervention, governments need to finance long-term measures to improve housing, build schools and improve health. Sustainability The taskforce running the intervention has told Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin that a decision will need to be made about how many remote Indigenous communities are sustainable in the longer term. The taskforce has recommended that the bulk of the funding for housing, law and order, health and education should flow to those communities deemed viable. Ms Macklin says she will consider the taskforce's recommendations as part of the broader review of the intervention over the next three months. She says the recommendation reflects the Government's approach to the recent allocation of money for new housing in remote communities. "The concentration of these new homes will happen in the larger communities where there are schools, where there is the availability of health services, and where there's more chance of people getting a regular job," she said. The taskforce also recommends more funding and annual health checks for children. Alcohol laws Northern Territory Chief Minister Paul Henderson has again called for the abolition of the intervention's $100 alcohol rule. Under the legislation introduced by the Howard government, NT retail outlets must record the details of customers who buy more than $100 worth of alcohol. Former chief minister Clare Martin said on the night of last year's Federal Election she would ask the Rudd Government to overturn the rule. Seven months later, Mr Henderson says he will ask the Federal Government the same thing. "Let's get rid of this stupid $100 rule where you have got to write your name in the book if you purchase $100 worth or a box of wine," he said. "That is absolutely stupid, it doesn't go to protect children and I suppose, [off] top of my head, that is the first thing I would ask to go." http://news.sbs.com.au/worldnewsaustralia/nt_intervention_protests_held_across_australia__549913 NT intervention protests held across Australia Saturday, 21 June, 2008 Hundreds of protesters take to the streets of Sydney marking the one year anniversary of the Howard Government's NT intervention program. (SBS) Protesters gathered in major capitals across the country, to mark the one year anniversary of the Howard Government's Northern Territory intervention program. Voicing concern over the reforms, Indigenous leaders called on the Rudd government to take further action to ensure access to health and education was made readily available to marginalised Aboriginal communities. Voicing concern over the reforms, Indigenous leaders called on the Rudd government to take further action to ensure access to health and education was made readily available to marginalised Aboriginal communities. Protesters asked the government to: *Repeal all "NT intervention" legislation *Restore the Racial Discrimination Act *Fund infrastructure and community controlled services *Sign and implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples *Aboriginal Control of Aboriginal Affairs The previous coalition government launched the radical measures to combat child sex abuse, including alcohol and porn bans, welfare management and the compulsory acquisition of 73 communities. 'Northern Territory' Protesters in the Darwin called for the program to be scrapped saying the legislation underpinning the reforms should be repealed. "There was a lack of consultation, a lack of long-term sustainable planning and inherent discrimination," says Norman George, Chairman of the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency. "It has set indigenous people back decades. They have been stripped of their rights and are being controlled by the government," Mr George says. 'Victoria' Around 100 people gathered in Melbourne also demanding an end to the controversial policy, which aims to stamp out child abuse and improve living standards. Organiser Michaela Stubbs, of the Alliance for Indigenous Self Determination, said the federal government had to move away from the assimilationist policies of the old Howard government. "They must act on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples," she said. "Funding and resources in communities is badly needed, but can not come at the expense of basic human rights." A cry for funding was heard in Queensland as Indigenous leaders called on Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to invest $1 billion to help fix problems in Australian Aboriginal communities. 'Queensland' Members and supporters of Queensland's Aboriginal community met outside parliament house before starting a protest march through the city calling for an end to the intervention. Murri leader and Aboriginal Rights Coalition spokesman Sam Watson said the intervention did little more than erode the rights of Aboriginals. "Mr Rudd should put $1 billion on the table and work with Aboriginal political leaders and lay down strategies and programs which will alleviate problems," Mr Watson told AAP. Mr Watson has also called for the re-establishment of an elected Aboriginal body to work with the government similar to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), which was disbanded in 2004 after a series of controversies. 'New South Wales' While in Sydney Uluru was at the centre of debate with Aboriginal elders vowing tourists would be banned from climbing the landmark. In an address to 300 people who gathered at The Block on the CBD's southern edge, Vince Forrester, an elder from the Mutitjulu people who are the traditional owners of the tourist icon, said closing the rock to climbers would highlight the problems caused by the "draconian" intervention plan. "We've got to take some affirmative action to stop this racist piece of legislation," Mr Forrester told the rally goers. "We're going to throw a big rock on top of the tourist industry. We will close the climb and no one will climb Uluru ever again - no one." Mr Forrester said the intervention had introduced more bureaucracy to the Northern Territory, while the extra resources were not being seen on the ground in Aboriginal communities. http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080529/native_action_080529/20080529?hub=CanadaAboriginals march in T.O., Ottawa on day of actionUpdated Thu. May. 29 2008 9:35 PM ETCTV.ca News StaffMembers of First Nations communities across Ontario marched through thestreets of Toronto and gathered on Parliament Hill in Ottawa Thursday aspart of the second annual aboriginal day of action.Hundreds of protesters camped out on the lawn of the Ontario legislaturesince Monday, hoping to raise awareness about native issues in Canada. Theyalso want prior consent before any industrial activity takes place on nativeland.Chrissy Swain and 21 others walked 1,800 kilometres from Kenora to Torontoto take part in the event. She said it was a spiritual journey and an act ofprotest over clear-cut logging rights near her home of Grassy Narrows."The walk came from frustration with the way our people get criminalized forstanding up for our land and for our rights for future generations," Swaintold CTV Toronto on Thursday.Among those in attendance was Bob Lovelace, the leader of the ArdochAlgonquin First Nation. He recently served 105 days in jail over disputesabout uranium mining exploration near Sharbot Lake."I do respect Canadian law, I respect the rule of law, but I think Canadaalso has to respect aboriginal law," Lovelace said.Ontario Native Affairs Minister Michael Bryant visited the demonstrators atQueen's Pak, and promised to work hard to address their concerns."The relationship over the course of our history has been an internationalembarrassment, which is why it is incumbent upon us to not only move onchanges, but move very quickly," Bryant said.The protestors packed up their teepees and belongings on Thursday morningand began their march through downtown Toronto in the early afternoon.The group was expected to swell with an additional 2,000 people as theypassed the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, where labour activists weregathered for a convention. The walk was expected to wrap up at the foot ofBathurst Street by 3:30 p.m.On Parliament Hill, Phil Fontaine told CTV Ottawa the Day of Action has"never been about blockades.""It's never been about shutting down the 401 (highway) or shutting downtrain service. It's really an attempt on our part to reach out to Canadians,to invite Canadians to join with us."And while aboriginal poverty is concentrated on some reserves, Holly Danylukof the Cree nation reminded it's also in cities like Ottawa."In Ottawa, there are a lot of people who live in poverty also, so I think(the Day of Action)is a great thing to do for aboriginal people."One group travelled from James Bay Coast to Ottawa, hoping to get promisesand a timeline for a new elementary school for the Attawapiskat First Nationin northern Ontario.But after meeting with Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl, the group leftwithout any assurances.At the Attawapiskat First Nation, about 400 children have been taught ineight portables since their school was closed in 2000 due to a diesel leakin the heating system.Strahl says the situation isn't "ideal'' -- but added it doesn't constitutea health and safety crisis.As 13-year-old student Shannen Koostachin recounted her meeting with Strahlto the crowd of about 1,000 people, cries of "Shame!" rang out."Today, I feel down because Minister Chuck Strahl said he didn't have themoney to build our new school. I didn't believe it. It's not right,"Koostachin told the crowd.Peaceful startThe aboriginal day of action got off to a peaceful start Thursday, withpolice reporting no incidents in volatile Caledonia, Ont., the epicentre ofa land claims dispute.Last year, protests shut down Highway 401 in Deseronto, a town in easternOntario, but Thursday morning there were no signs of any problems on thehighway.The Assembly of First Nations had urged demonstrators to respect the law forthis year's day of action.Students from a northern Ontario community also planned to be on ParliamentHill on Thursday to press their case for a new school.The students from Attawapiskat, an isolated First Nations community offJames Bay, will be meeting with Indian Affairs Minister Chuck StrahlThursday to try to end eight years of frustration.About 400 students from the community have been attending school inportables since 2000. Parents pulled their children from J.R. Nakogee Schoolat that time because of the numerous health problems reported there since amassive diesel leak in 1979.In March, Strahl told Canada AM that the situation was unfortunate but therewere more pressing concerns in the native education budget.In a statement, federal Liberal Indian Affairs critic Anita Neville said theday of action is an "embarrassment" for the Stephen Harper government andCanada's reputation."Last summer's day of action sent out a call for help to this government,"Neville said. "That there is need for a second consecutive day of action isa sad sign that this government isn't listening."Rallies were also expected at the B.C. legislature, in Prince Albert, Sask.,Halifax, the Yukon and Northwest Territories, and other locations throughoutthe country.http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2008/05/29/mba-day-action.html?ref=rssManitoba First Nations protest for share of pipeline profitsLast Updated: Thursday, May 29, 2008 | 9:59 AM CT Comments100Recommend19CBC NewsSeveral First Nations in southern Manitoba used Thursday's second annualNational Day of Action to draw attention to their fight with two oilcompanies.The seven Treaty No. 1 bands set up a teepee on land near the U.S. border,about 100 kilometres southwest of Winnpeg, the proposed site for aTransCanada oil pipeline.The teepee is temporary, said Roseau River Chief Terry Nelson, but he addedit should serve as notice that the bands are willing to occupy the land thissummer.TransCanada's Keystone and Enbridge's Alberta Clipper projects will each runpipelines through southern Manitoba on their way from Alberta to the U.S.Midwest. Construction is expected to begin within weeks.Although neither pipeline will run through reserve territory, the chiefs saythe pipelines will run through what they consider their "traditionalterritory," so they should receive a share of the resources that will flowthem, estimated at $47 billion per year.A spokesperson for TransCanada said the company would not send anyone to thesite on Thursday.Dennis Meeches, chief of Long Plain First Nation, near Portage La Prairie,Man., said he hopes the protest pressures the federal government to forcethe oil companies to negotiate with the bands."It kind of gives us a bit of discomfort when we have to resort to this kindof action a lot of times. I'm just hoping that the government comes to thetable. This is Canada, you know - these kinds of things shouldn't behappening in this country," he said."Bring some, you know, measurable prosperity to the First Nations people sowe don't have to be engaged in this tug of war."Federal Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl said he had productive meetingsthis week with Treaty 1 chiefs in Manitoba, and he hopes Thursday's rallywill be peaceful."We talked about the progress that we've made on specific claims and on theacceptance of Mr. Nelson's claim on the Roseau River First Nation," he said."I know he's very happy with that, as well. Mr. Nelson has other issues hewants to raise, and again we'll have to see what happens."The seven bands have already filed a court motion trying to stopconstruction of the pipeline, but they say the judicial process may be tooslow and they want their message to be heard now.Nelson had success with last year's National Day of Action protest: his bandhad threatened a rail blockade on the Roseau River reserve, but called itoff after Ottawa granted reserve status to a parcel of land the band owns onHighway 6.http://sketchythoughts.blogspot.com/2008/04/opp-attacks-mohawk-protest-at.htmlSaturday, April 26, 2008OPP attacks Mohawk Protest at TyendinagaPig yelling at observers as he and pals wrestle protester on the groundLots of news about the unfolding confrontation between Ontario ProvincialPolice and the Mohawks of Tyendinaga - this is a series of different pieces,several from the colonial media:URGENT CALL: FRIDAY APRIL 25TH 2008- MOHAWKS OF TYENDINAGA UNDER ONTARIOPROVINCIAL POLICE SIEGE - SHAWN BRANT ARRESTED ON FAKE WEAPONS CHARGES ONCULBERTSON TRACT - OPP CRUISERS AND VANS SURROUND - 20 DOWN BY TRAIN TRACTSON DESERONTO ROAD AND BRIDGE ST.MNN. At 2:45 pm. today, Friday, April 25th, 2008, Shawn Brant was arrestedfor an incident that happened on Monday on Slash Road. He was attacked byDeseronto citizens who were trying to run our blockades. He had no weaponswhatsoever. The OPP are trying to make Shawn out to be the leader there. Heis not.DEMAND THE IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF SHAWN BRANT, POLITICAL PRISONER.The Ritiskenekete have slashed OPP cruisers windows and chased them offDeseronto Road.APTN and support from Six Nations, Kahnawake are on their way. Anyone whocan go there and help should call 613-391-5132 for information.There will probably be a raid of the illegal Thurlow Quarry that the Mohawktook over a year ago.Shawn Brant was taken to Napanee.Needed urgently: deer meat, fish, non-perishable food, water, Campingequipment, communications equipment, fuel, gas, propane, mobile phones,phone cards, rain coats, gas masks, towels, soap, wet wipes, tooth bushesand tooth paste, bear spray, gloves, work shoes, boots, runners, socks,radios, two-way radios, hand held radio, flashlights, tents, lanterns, woodfor the fire, cooking utensils, plates and silverware, first aid.To go there on the TransCanada Highway 401, to #49 to Slash Road, toDeseronto boundary.Or Marysville Road south to Bayshore Road, turn left all the way to thequarry.Runners should be dispatched to go there to carry information from the siteto supporters. Supporters should contact OPP, Ontario government, bandcouncil chief to stop this aggression and attempted blood bath.All nations council meeting tonight. OPP heat is going on at the quarry.Need help now.Kahentinetha HornMNN Mohawk Nation NewsDan 613-919-1354; Rotiskenekete 613-849-1314 - 613-827-4991 emaildavidrmaracle at aol.comFrom the Kingston Whig-Standard:OPP clash with Mohawk protesters; Police make several arrests near disputedquarry north of DeserontoPosted By W. Brice McVicar; Luke HendrySeveral Mohawk protesters were arrested here yesterday following a wildskirmish that ended in a tense, armed standoff.Dozens of heavily armed Ontario Provincial Police officers clashed withMohawk protesters just north of the Thurlow Aggregates quarry, which Mohawkshave been occupying for more than one year. The standoff began peacefullywith officers and Mohawks talking quietly after the arrest earlier in theafternoon of Mohawk protest leader Shawn Brant on charges unrelated toyesterday's melee.But the scene erupted in violence about one hour after the encounter began,with police wrestling with protesters who began swinging punches at theofficers. Several arrests were made before police radios crackled a messagethat an armed individual inside the quarry was spotted taking aim at policeand police jumped for cover behind cruisers, drawing automatic weapons andsidearms. No shots were fired, however, and protesters who had been arrestedand handcuffed were taken away to waiting vehicles.The wild turn of events began shortly after a protest spokesman agreed toanswer questions for reporters.Mohawk spokesperson Jerome Barnhart said the standoff unfolded after Brantwas pulled over by OPP on Deseronto Road earlier in the afternoon. Theroutine traffic stop, Barnhart said, resulted in "a couple of charges. Onewas with a weapon - a spear - which is just blasphemous as this is our[fish] harvesting season here."We feed our families for the year at this time and to confiscate that as aweapon is outrageous," he said. "If Mr. [Julian] Fantino, [OPPcommissioner], wants to go about it this way. ... Well, we have a lot ofreinforcements coming. Bring it on."Barnhart said the OPP were only trying to "put the screws" to the Mohawks toprevent those reinforcements from arriving.Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte band council convened an emergency meetingyesterday evening to discuss the turn of events, but Barnhart dismissed theauthority of the band."This is Mohawk business. It has nothing to do with Mohawk band council.It's the Mohawk people and the nation," he said. "This is Mohawk nationbusiness and we mean business."As Barnhart was meeting with reporters, OPP Staff Sgt. Steve Flynn informedthe Mohawks that if they remained on Deseronto Road, they would be arrested.He advised them to return to the quarry or be charged and taken intocustody."If you stay here, you'll be arrested. If you go back to the quarry, you'llhave sanctuary," Flynn said.Flynn's comments saw many Mohawks making their way slowly toward the quarry,though some remained behind and hollered at the approximately 20 officersgathered at the intersection of Deseronto Road and Bridge Street."I can't guarantee your officers safety if they come on Mohawk land,"bellowed Dan Doreen, who led the blockade earlier this week on the outskirtsof Deseronto.As one woman walked past the officers, north to where her vehicle had beenleft parked, she looked toward police and said, "Get your guns ready."Moments later, officers wrestled a number of protesters to the ground amidshouts of "stop resisting." In a cacophony of shouts, jeers and orders,protesters told their family members to leave the scene, OPP officersshouted directions and protesters argued as they were handcuffed.Just as quickly as the violence erupted, Mohawks who had remained at thequarry responded. An all-terrain vehicle carrying two individuals racedtoward the scene and, seconds later, word spread among the officers thatsomeone had a gun.After the radio message warning of a gun, officers with sub-machine gunstook aim at protesters both to the south and to the north where a motorhomewas parked at the intersection of Deseronto Road and Lower Slash Road.Officers said they believed there was an individual with a gun inside thebattered RV.By nightfall, a tense calm had descended on the scene as police widened asecure perimeter back some 500 metres from the quarry.From the right-wing Toronto Sun:Mohawk standoff 'Could make Caledonia look like nothing', says protesterBy JOE WARMINGTON, SUN MEDIATensions were mounting last night as native protesters and members of theOPP tactical squad were in a standoff at a protest site in Deseronto.This came just hours after about 10 people were arrested and two policeofficers were taken to hospital.As of late last night the conflict had not been resolved at a scene whichincluded lit fires in fields and vitriolic threats.Among those arrested was Shawn Brant, who organized the blockade of theMontreal-Toronto CN rail corridor last April and June. Brant, who wasarrested during a traffic stop yesterday afternoon, faces assault, weaponsand drug charges, police said.The OPP asked protesters to leave the site or face arrest."We're not moving anywhere," protester Jason Maracle said. "They're going tohave to kill every God damn one of us to get us off our land. We're notmoving. I guess if they want another 1990 scene, then OK, I guess we'll haveone."OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino last night said the dispute is not aland-claims issue. "This violent criminal activity occurred outside of anylegitimate protest and will not be tolerated," he said. "Police officersbeing assaulted and injured for doing their utmost to keep the peace andprotect the law-abiding community is unacceptable."We're trying to keep this from escalating."While Brant was being arrested, supporters arrived at the scene and clashedwith police, resulting in two officers being taken to hospital with minorinjuries, police said.Hours later, police clashed again with protesters and 10 people werearrested "for various offences including assault police." Six remain incustody and four young people were released.Protesters inside a quarry protest site told the Sun last night they were"worried" a confrontation was imminent. "We are surrounded here," saidprotester Mike Brant. "They are sending the media away so we are worriedthey are going to take us all out."He said they were concerned police were going to "come in the dark withguns" which would be unfair because "we are not doing anything. All we aredoing is sitting here holding out land. There is nothing wrong with that."The OPP said they were concerned when officers spotted a "long gun" pointedat them from within the quarry. Native protesters deny this.Protesters have controlled the quarry since March 2007"If we don't get this settled down soon, this is going to make Caledonialook like nothing," said one native protester who asked that his name not beused. "Six Nations protesters are on their way and so are the people whohave been at Caledonia. This has nasty potential."Several witnesses confirmed the OPP had up to 150 officers and 50 vehiclesalready on site in this town, 50 kms west of Kingston, near the MohawkTerritory.Sun Media's Pete Fisher said he was told by police that "they couldn'tguarantee my safety" and he reported that he had never seen a bigger nativeprotest scene. A whole field was set ablaze.From the Hamilton Spectator:Six Nations group forces closure of Highway 6TheSpec.com - Local - Six Nations group forces closure of Highway 6John Burman and Daniel NolanThe Hamilton SpectatorCALEDONIA (Apr 26, 2008)More than 100 Six Nations residents forced the closure of the Highway 6bypass at Caledonia late yesterday to protest OPP action against Mohawksoccupying a quarry near Deseronto, Ont., earlier in the day.The OPP closed the bypass "in the interests of public safety" after a largegathering of natives on two overpasses above it.Native spokesperson Brian Skye told reporters the Caledonia action was takenbecause of the situation between the natives and the OPP near a quarry inDeseronto, in eastern Ontario.There was a tense standoff there, where natives oppose plans for developmenton lands they claim. It escalated when police spotted what appeared to be agun among the demonstrators.There were at least 10 arrests there.Skye said he has seen e-mailed photos from Deseronto with armed police"pointing guns at women and children.""There's been an escalation of OPP personnel advancing on the people ofTyendinaga," Skye said. "They are being pressured by an armed force and thepeople of Six Nations are showing their support for their struggle toreclaim their territory."Skye said the Six Nations want the OPP to stand down in Deseronto.Around 8:30, natives in Caledonia began discussing the possibility ofextending the blockade to Argyle Street, one of two main roads in Caledonia,depending on what happened in Deseronto.Last night's closure of the bypass is the first time in almost two yearsthat a road has been blocked in the Caledonia land claims dispute. ArgyleStreet was blocked for more than a month following an April 2006 attempt toremove protesters from the disputed Douglas Creek Estates subdivision.Skye wouldn't say if the blockades had been sanctioned by the traditionalConfederacy or the elected band council.Haldimand Mayor Marie Trainer said last night the move brings back badmemories.Trainer was on her way to a community prayer meeting in support of peace inthe town, attended by about 70 people including MP Diane Finley and MPP TobyBarrett, when the blockade happened.Caledonia resident, Marg Walker, 49, was watching the blockade from avantage point on Highway 54."This is not right ... The people of Caledonia have already been through toomuch. What right do they have to block traffic? If I did that, they'd arrestme."Constable Paula Wright, spokesperson for the Haldimand OPP, said cruiserswere used to block either end of the bypass as "there is potential forpublic safety to be compromised."The bypass was closed at the Argyle Street intersection on the west side oftown and Green's Road on the east.Wright said the OPP is urging everyone "not to jeopardize peace" and to "bepatient."Negotiations to settle the dispute have been grinding on since the summer of2006, but tensions in Caledonia have eased considerably in that time aswell.The OPP in Deseronto said they saw a "long gun" being pointed at them from alocation inside an occupied quarry, which protesters have controlled sinceMarch 2007. Those occupying the quarry said they had no weapons there.An order was issued to all police on the scene to take cover and guns weredrawn by officers crouching behind their vehicles. No shots were fired. Atleast 10 people were arrested, including Shawn Brant, who has been under acourt order to stay away from any protests after being involved in lastJune's aboriginal national day of action which saw the closure of Highway401 in the area.And again, from Mohawk Nation News:MOHAWK URGENT CALL FOR ASSISTANCE from Kahentinetha HornMNN Mohawk Nation News2008-04-26 | Stop attack on Mohawks !Tyendinaga Mohawk Aserakowa [War Chief] speaks from the front line - "We'renot leaving". OPP: "We're coming in at dark to take you out!"MNN: MNN Mohawk Nation News Aserakowa 613-243-4993 still at the quarry.(Ed. Note. Just received. UPDATES to follow.)Shawn Brant was doing a media interview with APTN News in Tyendinaga onDeseronto Boundary Road. Ontario Provincial Police came along with anoutstanding assault charge. They arrested Shawn. They hauled him off tojail. Then the OPP closed both ends of Deseronto Road. The Aserakowa camedown to see what was going on.Steve Flynn of Aboriginal Response Team ART of the OPP showed up. We talked.Flynn told the Aserakowa about Shawn. By then we had men at both ends of theroad. He talked about opening the road. Flynn said, "You walk away and we'llwalk away. Okay?" Both Flynn and the Aserkowa agreed."We will get in our cars and you'll get in yours", said Flynn. It turned outto be a set up. The Rotiskeneketeh started moving off the road. Suddenlyabout 10 OPP jumped about 5 of our guys, threw them in the ditch, beat themup and arrested them. They hauled them off to jail. No reasons were givenfor the arrests or assaults. The OPP is certain not operating on anhonorable nation to nation model. It is not even offering the kind offiduciary protection for indigenous rights as it is supposed to, accordingto the supreme Court of Canada.Since when have the colonial institutions ever acted to protect Indigenouspeople?After behaving like thugs and beating up our guys, the OPP pulled out theirweapons and pointed them at us. For our safety, we retreated back to thequarry. We didn't want to get shot.Once we got there cops swarmed us from every direction. They were everywhereas far as we could see, armed to the teeth with their guns pointed directlyat us all the time.Then they came over with loud speakers, told us to come away from thequarry, down the hill, with our hands up in the air "where we can see them".We told them, "F**k you. This is Mohawk land. We're not leaving". Theyraised their weapons and aimed at us again."You're going to have to shoot us", we told them.Then there was more build up. They told us they are coming in at dark totake us out. They are moving Mohawk people off Mohawk lands at the end of agun barrel.The Mohawks are unarmed.The OPP have SWAT Teams, ambulances, dogs and we can't see if they ships inthe water.Arrested are Clint Brant, Steve Hill, Dan Doreen, Shawn Brant and MacKunkel. We don't know where they've been taken.Six Nations people have closed down three roads. Akwesasne guys are on theInternational Bridge. In Kahnawake there will be closures.They will be coming after us at about 8:30 pm EDT, as soon as it gets dark.We're not moving. We know that.We don't know what's going to happen. This is Ipperwash, 1990, GustafsenLake, Six Nations, the list goes on. If they harm any of those guys atTyendinaga, there's no saying what will happen.The message from the men is that we will defend the land. That's our dutyaccording to the Kaianerekowa, Great Law of Peace, the law of Turtle Island.SEND URGENT OBJECTIONS TO PREMIER MCGUINTY OF ONTARIO; PRIME MINISTER STEVENHARPER; JULIAN FANTINO COMMISSIONER OF THE OPP: tell them to call off theirthugs and stop breaking the peace. They have a obligations underinternational law to resolve any disagreements peacefully. They have anobligation to keep the peace, not to break it.LIVES ARE AT STAKE.MNN Mohawk Nation NewsSubject: RED ALERT IN CALEDONIA!!!!!!!!! FORWARD OUT ASAP!Ok everyone-Just got a phone call from Jacqueline House at Six Nations. In protest towhat the Canadian govt. and OPP armed officers are doing at Tyenindega, theSix Nations have now BLOCKED the By-Pass road at Caledonia!!!!! 3 Men havebeen arrested and have been jailed at Tyenindega.Jacqueline House stated that all relatives with connections to people atthese Reserves, PLEASE CALL and try to mobilize help to the area ASAP.Thanks everyone, please, PLEASE keep our relatives in your prayers, BluejayI've contacted the OPP to let them know that badge or no badge, they are notabsolved in the eyes of our Creator for that which they do.This activity will be monitored by the world.Dieter of GermanyFOR INFORMATION CALL:(1) 518-358-3660Warchief: (1) 613-243-4993Jan Hill (1) 613-961-8515 613-827-1547Dan (1) 613-919-1354Rotiskenekete (1) 613-849-1314; (1) 613-827-4991OPP Easter Headquarters (1) 613-284-4500 L.G. Beechey Chief Supt. CommanderEastern RegionR. Don Maracle (1) 613-396-3089 Cell (1) 613-391-9249http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20080422102747410Mohawk protesters set up blockade in eastern Ontario townTuesday, April 22 2008 @ 10:27 AM CDTContributed by: AnonymousViews: 160Dozens of aboriginal protesters blocked off a main street through Deseronto,Ont., after a Kingston, Ont., developer announced plans to develop aproperty that is part of an ongoing land dispute.Mohawk protesters set up blockade in eastern Ontario townDozens of aboriginal protesters blocked off a main street through Deseronto,Ont., after a Kingston, Ont., developer announced plans to develop aproperty that is part of an ongoing land dispute.An old RV continued blocking the intersection of two gravel roads Mondayafternoon, and protesters plan to maintain the blockade until the developerchanges his plans, said spokesman Dan Doreen."They want to make sure that any other development does not return to thisland," he added. "This is Mohawk land and developers, you better stay thehell away."Demonstrators barricaded County Road 2 in both directions around 6 a.m.Monday, said Ontario Provincial Police Const. Jackie Perry.http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2008/05/buffett_rebuffs_klamath_dam_pr.htmlBuffett rebuffs Klamath dam protestersPosted by The Associated Press May 03, 2008 17:11PMOMAHA, Neb. -- American Indians and salmon fishermen who had hoped to earn aprivate audience with billionaire Warren Buffett failed to win much supportSaturday for removing four dams along the Klamath River.Buffett again told the protesters that his company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc.,won't decide the fate of the dams its PacifiCorp utility owns. Instead,Berkshire will defer to regulators in California and Oregon, where theKlamath runs, and to federal officials.Buffett also said he promised regulators when Berkshire bought PacifiCorp in2006 that he wouldn't interfere with that utility's operating decisions.The protesters, who were making their second trip to Berkshire's meeting,have promised to keep the pressure on Buffett and his Omaha-based companyuntil they achieve their goal of dam removal or at least win an audience."We feel like we've been listened to everywhere except PacifiCorp," saidLeaf Hillman, a member of the Karuk Tribe.This year Buffett turned to David Sokol, who oversees Berkshire's utilitycompanies, to offer detailed responses to questions about the future of theKlamath dams when they come up during the meeting.The dams PacifiCorp owns on the Klamath are up for relicensing, a processthe company started in 2000 and which may continue five or six more years.The formal license application was filed in 2004."There are a whole series of issues to deal with as part of the federalregulatory process," Sokol said.Chief among the issues is sorting out what 28 different interest groupsconcerned about the dams on the Klamath want to happen. Sokol said there areat least four different preferred outcomes different groups favor.Buffett said it's up to government to balance those competing interests."In the end, we will do exactly what they say," Buffett said.The tribes view the fight to remove the dams as a fight for their ownsurvival."It's the fight for the salmon, and it's the fight for our species," saidFrankie Myers, a member of the Yurok tribe.Berkshire's PacifiCorp subsidiary serves 1.7 million customers in sixWestern states.PacifiCorp is one of more than 60 Berkshire subsidiaries. Berkshire ownsinsurance, clothing, furniture, and candy companies, restaurants, naturalgas and corporate jet firms. Berkshire also has major investments in suchcompanies as Coca-Cola Co., Anheuser-Busch Cos. and Wells Fargo & Co.http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/30/national/main4060938.shtmlProtesters Occupy Hawaiian Palace In PeaceThe Hawaiian Kingdom Government Group Does Not Recognize The Islands As AU.S. StateHONOLULU, April 30, 2008After making a peaceful settlement with law officials, a member of theHawaiian Kingdom Government unlocks the gates of the Iolani Palace after ashort occupation, Wednesday, April 30, 2008 in Honolulu. The Native Hawaiiangroup that advocates sovereignty locked the gates of a historic palaceWednesday, saying it would carry out the business of what it considers thelegitimate government of the islands. (AP Photo)(AP) A Native Hawaiian group that advocates sovereignty briefly occupied thegrounds of a historic palace in downtown Honolulu, saying it would carry outthe business of what it considers the legitimate government of the islands.Unarmed security guards from the Hawaiian Kingdom Government group blockedall gates to the grounds of the palace, which is adjacent to the stateCapitol. They did not enter the building itself.After several hours, the protesters agreed to reopen the gates but said theywould remain on the grounds until early evening and return Thursday. Noarrests had been made as of mid-afternoon.Laura Thielen, state land director who oversees the palace area, said someof the protesters could still be charged."This is public property and they can't block public access," she said.Protest leaders had said they were prepared to be arrested and would gopeacefully.Mahealani Kahau, elected "head of state" of the group years ago, said theorganization does not recognize Hawaii as a U.S. state but would keep theoccupation peaceful."The Hawaiian Kingdom Government is here and it doesn't plan to leave. Thisis a continuity of the Hawaiian Kingdom of 1892 to today," Kahau said.The group is one of several Hawaiian sovereignty organizations in theislands, which became the 50th U.S. state in 1959.The ornate Iolani Palace is operated as a museum. Hawaiian King Kalakauabuilt it in 1882, and it also served as the residence for his sister andsuccessor, Queen Liliuokalani, the islands' last ruling monarch.It was neglected after the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893 andrestored in the 1970s as a National Historic Landmark. It includes a giftshop and is open for school groups and paid tours."The Hawaiian Kingdom Government is here and it doesn't plan to leave. Thisis a continuity of the Hawaiian Kingdom of 1892 to today," said Kahau, whowas elected head of state of the group seven years ago.The protesters are not damaging anything in the palace grounds, Kahau said.Workers inside the palace itself had locked the doors and were not lettingthem inside."We will not resist, we won't fight, we won't be aggressive. But we'll beback for sure," Kahau said.No matter what happened Wednesday, the protesters planned to return to thepalace Thursday, she said.State Sen. Kalani English - a Native Hawaiian and a Democrat from EastMaui-Lanai-Molokai - came over from the Capitol to speak with some of theprotesters, and had his staff take them food."This is the manifestation of the frustration of the Hawaiian people for theloss of sovereignty and land," English said."It is symbolic. This made a statement. It got the word out about the plightof the Hawaiian people," he said.Richard Kinney, who described himself as an independent Hawaiiannationalist, said he went to the Capitol to show his support. He carried anupside-down Hawaii state flag, signaling distress."The sovereignty of these islands is inherent to the Hawaiian people, andwe've never relinquished that," he said."Occupying any land, including Iolani Palace, is the beginning," Kinneysaid.Kippen de Alba Chu, executive director of Iolani Palace, issued a statementthat said the protesters delivered a written message to palace officialsclaiming the grounds as the seat of their government."While we respect the freedom of Hawaiian groups to hold an opinion on theoverthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, we believe that blocking public access toIolani Palace is wrong and certainly detrimental to our mission to share thepalace and its history with our residents, our keiki (children) and ourvisitors," Chu said.http://www.cbs46.com/news/16094770/detail.html?rss=lnta&psp=nationalnewsNative Hawaiian Protesters Seize PalaceGroup Claims Rights Over AreaPOSTED: 9:29 pm EDT April 30, 2008UPDATED: 10:21 pm EDT April 30, 2008HONOLULU -- A Native Hawaiian group briefly occupied the grounds of ahistoric palace in downtown Honolulu on Wednesday, saying it would carry outthe business of what it considers the legitimate government of the islands.Authorities said a group of more than 35 people blocked the Iolani Palace onWednesday, claiming sovereign rights over the area.Unarmed security guards from the Hawaiian Kingdom Government group blockedall gates to the grounds of the palace, which is adjacent to the stateCapitol. They did not enter the building itself.After several hours, the protesters agreed to reopen the gates but said theywould remain on the grounds until early evening and return Thursday. Noarrests had been made as of mid-afternoon."A group of about 35 persons have barred the public from entering thegrounds of Iolani Palace, claiming sovereign rights over the area. TheDepartment of Land and Natural Resources State Parks, which manages thepalace in cooperation with the Friends of Iolani Palace, is closing thearea. DLNR enforcement offices are working to fully assess the situation andare talking with the protesters to peacefully end the protest," DLNRDirector Laura Thielen said in a written statement.Iolani Palace was the official residence of the Hawaiian Kingdom's last twomonarchs -- King Kalakaua, who built the Palace in 1882, and his sister andsuccessor, Queen Lili`uokalani. The palace is the only official stateresidence of royalty in the United States.http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/30/america/NA-GEN-US-Palace-Takeover.phpNative Hawaiian protesters lock gates, take over palace in downtown HonoluluThe Associated PressPublished: May 1, 2008HONOLULU: A Native Hawaiian group that advocates sovereignty for the U.S.state locked the gates of a historic palace Wednesday in downtown Honolulu,saying it would carry out the business of what it considers the legitimategovernment of the islands.State deputy sheriffs weren't allowing anyone else to enter Iolani Palacegrounds as unarmed security guards from the Hawaiian Kingdom Governmentgroup blocked all gates to the palace, which is adjacent to the stateCapitol.Arrest warrants were being prepared and would probably be served on the 60or so protesters later in the day, officials said. Protest leaders said theywere prepared to be arrested and would go peacefully.Protest leader Mahealani Kahau said the group doesn't recognize Hawaii as aU.S. state. Supporters planned to keep the protest peaceful and if evictedwould return later, she said.The group is one of several Hawaiian sovereignty organizations in theislands, which became the 50th U.S. state in 1959.The palace, the official residence of the Hawaiian Kingdom's last twomonarchs, is a major downtown tourist attraction.http://www.kitv.com/news/16089153/detail.html?rss=hon&psp=newsProtestors End Takeover Of Iolani PalaceGroup Claims Rights Over AreaPOSTED: 10:37 am HST April 30, 2008UPDATED: 9:24 pm HST April 30, 2008HONOLULU -- A group of more than 35 people left late in the afternoon afterbarring officials from entering the grounds of Iolani Palace on Wednesday,claiming sovereign rights over the area.Officials with the Department of Land and Natural Resources State Parks,which manages the palace in cooperation with the Friends of Iolani Palace,closed the area.The situation ended without incident at 4 p.m. Authorities did not makearrests."What we do want to say is the Hawaiian Kingdom Government is here and itdoesn't plan to leave, and the reason why we are here is because our peopleneed help not just kanaka (Native Hawaiians), but everyone,"leader MahealaniKahau said.Kahau said they had a legal right to the land at the palace. Group membersplaced padlocks on gates of the palace. On at least the front gate a yellowsign saying "Warning! No tresspassing," signed by the Hawaiian KingdomGovernment.Kahau said they are the correct rulers of Hawaii.Honolulu Police Chief Boisse Correa went to talk with the members, hoping todiffuse the situation. Group members spoke to some state lawmakers from theCapitol next door who stopped by to see what was happening.A Hawaiian immersion school and others came to offer support. State Sheriffslater prohibited more visitors.Later in the afternoon, DLNR enforcement officers, backed up by sheriffs,urged the Kingdom members to open the gates. The activists left peacefullyat about 4 p.m.The Hawaiian Kingdom Government members said no matter what the state saysor does their intention is to keep coming back to Iolani Palace groundsevery day. The Hawaiian Kingdom Government members said they would return tostake their claim but will not lock the palace gates.Iolani Palace was the official residence of the Hawaiian Kingdom's last twomonarchs -- King Kalakaua, who built the palace in 1882, and his sister andsuccessor, Queen Lili`uokalani. The palace is the only official stateresidence of royalty in the United States.http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?18a4eafc-8c12-4749-87eb-10504f7b8c53Domestic Insurgents - Not Protesters - Seized Control of Iolani PalaceYesterdayOn Bloodless Coups, Hawaiian Publicity Stunts, And What They Mean For TheRest Of UsBy Daniel P. de Gracia, II, 5/1/2008 3:26:41 PMOn April 30, some 70 unarmed Hawaiian Kingdom Government personnel seizedcontrol of a historic, state-owned palace not more than a stone's throw awayfrom the 76 legislators, governor and lieutenant governor and thousands ofstate employees working in the State Capitol.Claiming to be the legitimate government of Hawaii, the HKG personneldeclared that Iolani Palace was theirs and that they were taking backcontrol of Hawaii.As chains were shackled around the gates of Iolani Palace and HKG personnelwalked in circuits around the spacious park grounds in black BDU pants andaloha shirts like sentries, nearly every local and national media outletreferred to them as protesters. But truly, what were they protesting?In speaking with the Hawaiian Kingdom Government representatives, I got theimpression that they weren't protesting but rather attempting to launch abloodless coup d'etat in which the people of Hawaii would rally to themagainst the legitimate governance of the State of Hawaii and the UnitedStates of America.It's an irrefutable fact that on June 27, 1959, the Territory of Hawaiivoted on three propositions, the first of which asked, "Shall Hawaiiimmediately be admitted into the Union as a State?" 132,773 people voted yesto Proposition One, and only 7,971 voted no.The second asked to affirm whether or not, "The boundaries of the State ofHawaii shall as prescribed in the Act of Congress approved March 18, 1959and all claims of this State to any areas of land or sea outside theboundaries so prescribed are hereby irrevocably relinquished to the UnitedStates." 132,194 people voted yes, and only 7,654 voted no.Proposition Three asked the people to affirm whether or not "All provisionsof the Act of Congress approved March 18, 1959 reserving rights or powers tothe United States, as well as those proscribing the terms or conditions ofthe grants of lands or other property therein made to the State of Hawaiiare consented to fully by said State and its people." 132,281 people votedyes and 7,582 people voted no.If you ask me, the people have already spoken by vote, Hawaiians included:there is nothing illegitimate about the State of Hawaii or the United Statesof America because the people by overwhelming majority voted yes to be apart of this country.Those who claim that Hawaii lost sovereignty must face the fact that anydispute between the Hawaiian people and the supposedly "evil" Americangovernment could have been settled on June 27, 1959 by the Hawaiian peoplevoting no to all three propositions. It was not.The people who resist recognizing this historic, democratic decision throughactions such as those taken by the Hawaiian Kingdom Government in capturingIolani Palace are not protesters, but are domestic insurgents who rageagainst the majority will of not just Hawaii, but the United States ofAmerica of which this state is part of.There are a number of unanswered questions which plague my conscience as Iconsider what happened yesterday:Why was the takeover and subsequent siege by unarmed individuals of a Stateowned facility and its surrounding perimeter allowed to persist for so manyhours?Why were government functions allowed to be disrupted?Why is it that Governor Lingle or Lieutenant Governor Aiona, upon seeingthat the HKG personnel were being interviewed by numerous reporters, did notgo out to make televised public statements to discourage others fromengaging in similar acts of lawlessness?Why is it that trained, well-armed State Police and Honolulu PoliceDepartment officers stood face to face for a standoff that lasted hoursagainst unarmed HKG personnel without arresting them?Why is it that HKG personnel were allowed to leave without being arrested?Why does the American Flag not fly over Iolani Palace?While some may argue that the people who seized Iolani Palace yesterday weresheepish and nonviolent, ultimately this attempted bloodless coup by HKGwill serve to inspire the more hostile and violent opponents of the State ofHawaii and the United States of America to follow suit with actions thatinvolve more than just chains and yellow "No Trespassing" signs.The message that our local authorities have projected is that it is not onlyokay to take control of buildings, but that sedition goes unpunished andcarries no deterrent in the State of Hawaii. Today, we face people who chaina building. What will happen if tomorrow gunmen attack the Capitol,Washington Place, or Honolulu Hale and take hostages?The historical precedent certainly exists for individuals to resort to forceas a means to demand sovereignty for a particular group of people. On March1, 1954, four Puerto Rican nationalists attacked the U.S. Congress while insession and took hostages, demanding independence for Puerto Rico. If thingscontinue the way they do in Hawaii, I wouldn't be surprised if violentHawaiian sovereignty groups, anti-Superferry environmentalist maniacs orstraight up terrorists tried the same thing here.We need to make an example of those who resort to such actions not to beharsh or cruel, but to discourage and deter future attacks against ourbuildings and people. We also need to dramatically increase the securitypresence around our Capitol.At best, security at the Hawaii State Capitol District can be described asshockingly lax. There are no entry control points to screen individuals, noconcrete barricades to prevent car bombers, no x-ray machines, no metaldetectors, no regular foot patrols by Honolulu Police or State Police. TheState Police who manage the flag flying at the Capitol won't even fold theAmerican and Hawaii flags properly. Is it any wonder that people likeMahealani Asing Kahau and her HKG forces were able to seize control ofIolani Palace?There is also no excuse for the weak response that our authorities showedregarding the Iolani Palace incident. The minute that Iolani Palace wasseized, the police should have immediately secured and sealed off the areato prevent HKG personnel from escaping or additional persons from gettingin. Federal agencies such as Homeland Security, FBI, and even the Departmentof Defense should have been immediately notified, considering the fact thatthese individuals were inciting an overthrow of the United States ofAmerica.Police officers should have been placed at critical positions in buildingsthat have elevated angles on Iolani Palace. The Governor should havepersonally ordered HKG personnel to turn themselves in to law enforcementfor arrest, and failing their compliance, law enforcement should have gone"tactical" and invaded the complex armed with less than lethal equipmentincluding CS gas, rubber bullets, and tasers.The benefit of utilizing a massive, if not overwhelming response to hostiletakeover of our government facilities is that it has an intimidating effecton those who would participate in such behaviors and an inspiring effect tothose who oppose such individuals, knowing that we don't take lightlyattacks on Hawaii or the United States of America. The public should havegone to sleep yesterday having seen the HKG personnel arrested, not with thecautionary note from Civil Defense that their men had dispersed withoutarrest and might return the next day.We need to treat groups like HKG and others blooming around Hawaii likedomestic insurgents and put their names on the National Terrorist ScreeningDatabase. When we see them taking control of Iolani Palace and othergovernment facilities, we shouldn't call them "protesters" we should callthem "terrorists" and deal with them the same way we'd deal with al Qaedaoperatives taking over one of our buildings.I for one am tired of seeing America shamed in the State of Hawaii by adeceived yet ultimately vocal minority of belligerent, domestic insurgents.Make no mistakes: those who feel the way I do about America are notwarmongers or Big Government "shock and awe" elitists, but rather people whoknow that a peaceful America requires a strong America.To the domestic insurgents out there who want to overthrow Hawaii and theUnited States in favor of going back to the days of monarchy we who believeotherwise say this: "We're Americans, we're Americans, and we'll neversurrender, you will!"Daniel Paul de Gracia II, MA is a political scientist specializing ininternational relations and a former candidate for State Representative whonow works for Rep. Rida Cabinilla, D-Ewa. He lives in Waipahu. His commentsdo not necessarily reflect the policy or opinions of the Office of Rep.Cabanilla. Reach him at mailto:daniel.p.degracia at gmail.comhttp://rawstory.com/news/2008/Protesters_take_over_grounds_of_Hawaiian_0816.htmlProtesters take over grounds of Hawaiian palaceAssociated PressPublished: Saturday August 16, 2008HONOLULU - For the second time this year, a Native Hawaiian sovereigntygroup has taken over the grounds of Iolani Palace, residence of Hawaii'slast monarch.About a dozen men, wearing red shirts with "security" stenciled in yellow onthe back, locked the gates of the landmark Friday evening and posted notrespassing signs that read: "Property of the Kingdom of Hawaiian Trust."The action came on Admission Day, a state holiday marking Hawaii's admissionto the Union on Aug. 21, 1959.Kippen de Alba Chu, executive director of the Friends of Iolani Palace, toldThe Honolulu Advertiser by phone that he and other staff members were "inlockdown" in the palace and a nearby administration building."These guys are threatening to go in the palace," Chu said. "There's about25 of them. They've got a king and the king wants to sit on the throne."Television station KITV quoted an unidentified palace spokesperson as sayingsecurity personnel were guarding the palace, while staff locked themselvesin the administration building. The Advertiser reported people on thegrounds were later allowed to get to their cars.Calls to the police department spokeswoman were not immediately returned."We're going to be here for a while. Four days, five days, a week. A while.As long as it takes," one of the men posting the signs told the Advertiser.He declined to give his name.An "occupation public information bulletin" distributed by a member of thegroup began: "Majesty Akahi Nui, the King of Hawaii, has now reoccupied thethrone of Hawaii. The Kingdom of Hawaii is now re-enacted."Akahi Nui claims to have been coronated in 1998.Hawaiian activists have long used Iolani Palace, the site of QueenLiliuokalani's imprisonment following the 1893 U.S. overthrow, as a primelocation for protests against the United States' occupation of the islands.Another group, the Hawaiian Kingdom Government, occupied the palace groundsApril 30.http://www.khon2.com/news/local/27084494.html6 Iolani Palace protestors charged with burglaryBy Marisa YamaneThe Iolani Palace saga continues.State officials say the historic palace is closed indefinitely because ofFriday night's incident.And tonight, six of the protestors were charged with burglary.After being locked up for nearly 48 hours, six Iolani Palace protestors werecharged with burglary and were released Sunday night after posting bail.The six were among a group of 23 that tried to take over Iolani PalaceFriday night.Majesty Akahi Nui is the leader of the group which calls itself the "Kingdomof Hawaii Ministry Trust."Akahi Nui says he owns the palace."We not crazy. I have the deed to prove my genealogy goes all the way back,"said protestor Majesty Akahi Nui.Akahi Nui says they've been planning to overtake Iolani Palace for the pastsix months.Most of the protestors are from Haiku in Upcountry Maui, and Akahi Nui saysthey came over on the Hawaii Superferry.When asked if he has any regrets about what they did on Friday, Akahi Nuireplied, "No, I'm glad they took me in that way I can open up things."Akahi Nui -- a retired heavy equipment operator -- was also arrested onsuspicion of burglary but he was released pending further investigation.While he says they didn't steal anything from the Palace, he says they didenter it, and says they even took off their shoes when they went inside.When asked if they caused any damage to Iolani Palace, Akahi Nui replied,"No only the locks and that's it. I had asked the palace guards to open thedoor i'm the owner I told em, they refused to open the door so i gave theguys command to take off the lock so they did what I told them."He says they used a screwdriver to remove the lock.State and Palace officials spent the weekend checking the Palace for damageand say they're not sure when they'll reopen Iolani Palace.The protestors who weren't arrested for burglary were arrested for criminaltrespassing."They will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. People in thiscase have to be shown it's just not going to be acceptable as you know thisis one of the most cherished sites in our state," said Gov. Linda Lingle.Only one of the protestors remains in custody -- Donald Love-Boltz, who wasarrested on suspicion of burglary.Police say Love-Boltz is being detained by the Attorney General's office.http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/08/16/palace.takeover.ap/index.html?iref=mpstoryviewActivists arrested after Hawaiian palace takeoverStory HighlightsProtesters calling for Hawaii's sovereignty took over historic palaceOfficers climbed fence and arrested about 20 peoplePalace worker claims to have been assaulted by protestersGovernor promises investigation into police responseHONOLULU, Hawaii (AP) -- A group of Native Hawaiians claiming to be thestate's legitimate rulers occupied the grounds of a historic palace for twohours before being arrested by state officers in the second recent takeoverof its kind.A staff member of the Iolani Palace said she was assaulted and slightlyinjured during the takeover Friday night and then snubbed by city police whoclaimed that they didn't have jurisdiction. Gov. Linda Lingle said Saturdaythat there would be an investigation into the police response to thetakeover.A group of men, wearing red shirts with "security" stenciled in yellow onthe back, took over the grounds by chaining the gates of the palace next tothe State Capitol and posted signs saying, "Property of the Kingdom ofHawaiian Trust."Kippen de Alba Chu, executive director of the Friends of Iolani Palace, saidhe and other staff members were locked down in the palace and a nearbyadministration building during the takeover."They've got a king, and the king wants to sit on the throne," de Alba Chusaid.State law officers climbed over the fence a couple of hours after thetakeover began and made about 20 arrests. The palace, normally open totours, will remain closed during the weekend to assess any damage and toensure its security, police said.Ah Yuen, an Iolani Palace employee, said she was assaulted by protesters andcalled for help from a Honolulu police officer, who told her the palacegrounds were not under city police jurisdiction.Witnesses said the confrontation started when Yuen went to the palace gateand talked with the protesters, who locked the gate with a chain and thenforced their way into the palace itself before officers from the stateDepartment of Land and Natural Resources came to arrest them.Lingle said the people who invaded the palace "have to be shown it's notgoing to be acceptable.""This is one of the most cherished sites in our state," Lingle said. "Wealways have to try to strike a balance between public access and securityfor the building and for the people there."Laura H. Theilen, director of the Department of Land and Natural Resources,which oversees the palace, condemned the takeover."We intend to charge them to the fullest extent of the law," Thielen said.The pro-sovereignty group identified its leader as King Akahi Nui, who wasamong those arrested. An "occupation public information bulletin"distributed by a member of the group began: "Majesty Akahi Nui, the King ofHawaii, has now reoccupied the throne of Hawaii. The Kingdom of Hawaii isnow re-enacted."Akahi Nui claims to have been crowned in 1998.The takeover of the palace -- built in 1882, when the islands were ruled bya monarchy -- came on Admission Day, a state holiday marking Hawaii'sadmission to the United States on August 21, 1959.Several Native Hawaiian organizations have rival claims to sovereignty overthe islands. Another group calling itself the Hawaiian Kingdom Governmentoccupied the palace grounds April 30 and has been getting permits to set upon the grounds each week since then. That group claims to be operating afunctioning government from the palace grounds.The ornate palace is operated as a museum of Hawaiian royalty. King Kalakauabuilt it, and it also served as the residence for his sister and successor,Queen Liliuokalani, the islands' last ruling monarch. Liliuokalani wasimprisoned in the palace after the 1893 U.S.-supported overthrow of themonarchy.After falling into disrepair, the palace was restored in the 1970s as aNational Historic Landmark. It now includes a gift shop and is open forschool groups and offers tours.Hawaiian activists have long used the site for protests against the U.S.occupation of the islands.http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20080427113918962Navajos at United Nations protest Sithe Global/Desert Rock power plantSunday, April 27 2008 @ 11:39 AM CDTContributed by: AnonymousViews: 308NEW YORK - Protesting in New York, Navajos and others from the UnitedNations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, voiced opposition to a newpower plant on the Navajo Nation, bringing to an end the propaganda of SitheGlobal/Desert Rock and elected Navajo politicians.Navajos at United Nations protest Sithe Global/Desert Rock power plantBy Brenda NorrellNEW YORK - Protesting in New York, Navajos and others from the UnitedNations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, voiced opposition to a newpower plant on the Navajo Nation, bringing to an end the propaganda of SitheGlobal/Desert Rock and elected Navajo politicians.Protesting at Sithe Global, Navajos dispelled the myths and corporatepropaganda currently being distributed as news by the Arizona Republic andother mainstream newspapers.Navajos protesting included Elouise Brown, president of the Dooda (NO)Desert Rock committee, and Enei Begaye, executive director of the Black MesaWater Coalition. The Dine' women attempted to deliver a letter to Sithetelling them that local people do not support the project. Sithe did notmeet with them.News reporters accompanied Brown and Begaye into the building, but wereordered to leave immediately.Brown and Begaye, members of the Navajo Nation, pointed out that SitheGlobal is doing business with the Navajo Nation and asked to deliver aletter to Sithe Global. Receptionists called the Sithe Global office severaltimes and left two messages, but Sithe never came down or called back. Thereceptionists refused to deliver the letter but directed the Dine' women toa messenger center at a different location, where they sent the letter."I don't understand how the proponents of the Desert Rock Energy Projectfrom our Navajo Nation can do business with a corporation that will notspeak to members of the Nation who would be directly impacted by theproject," Brown said. "At least we know we delivered the letter, and theyhave an idea there are many Navajo people opposed to this project, and onlya couple who want the project."Outside, Indigenous Peoples from all over the world rallied, chanted, andheld signs in solidarity with the Dooda (NO) Desert Rock Committee.Brown said it was suspicious that soon after the rally started, large movingtrucks were parked in front of the building, blocking protesters from beingseen on the street.Brown and Begaye were part of the Indigenous Environmental Networkdelegation to the UN. Together, the group profiled the disproportionateimpacts their communities face as a result of the expansion of fossil fueldevelopment in their homelands, resulting in contamination and depletion ofwater, compounding climate change, and exacerbating health impacts.Begaye said, "These are resource wars. These companies are occupyingsovereign Indigenous territories, and not just in Iraq. In this country,from the Navajo Nation to the Arctic, the Indian wars continue."Meanwhile, the 88-member Navajo Nation Council and Navajo President JoeShirley, Jr., push for the power plant, which would be the third on Navajoland near Farmington, N.M.Revenues from coal mining, power plants and oil and gas drilling pay thesalaries and travel expenses, including lavish hotels, of elected Navajopoliticians. The backdoor deals of Navajo politicians are not endorsed byNavajos living on the land.Meanwhile, many Navajos in the area of the Navajo power plants live withoutrunning water and electricity, while suffering from the pollution anddiseases resulting from the dirty fossil fuel industries. The electricityprimarily goes to non-Indians in the Southwest.Besides dirty power plants and coal mines, the Navajo Nation has strewnradioactive uranium mine tailings from the Cold War in the same region asthe proposed Desert Rock power plant.Nearby in the same area, is the Navajos most sacred region, the place oforigin, Dinetah. The air is so polluted with fumes and pollution fromhundreds of oil and gas wells, that it chokes people with respiratoryillnesses.The letter to Sithe Global can be found at http://www.dooda-desert-rock.net/Listen to the protest and UN Forum, including Evo Morales' opening statement(April 21) at:http://www.earthcycles.netPhotos of protest at: http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/MYSA_060108_METRO12BIndianRemains_3a51a20_html5074.htmlWeb Posted: 06/01/2008 2:00 CDTAmerican Indian groups protest Witte over remainsThe bone and skull fragments sit in about a dozen blue boxes, neatly stackedon shelves in the back row of the Witte Museum's main storage room. Fornearly 80 years the partial remains, from an estimated 10 natives from WestTexas, have sat in relative obscurity.On Saturday, they became the subject of an emerging emotional disputebetween the museum and American Indian activists who are demanding that theremains be returned to their rightful place: back in the earth."They've been studied, they've been exposed long enough," said Dave Ortiz,president of the Texas chapter of the American Indian Movement. "They neversigned a piece of paper giving their bodies to science. Returning them isthe right thing to do."Ortiz was among about 30 protestors who rallied outside the museum onBroadway for several hours, drawing attention by beating drums, chanting,dancing and hoisting signs that read "Witte robs graves," "Return our dead"and "Give back grandmother."The protestors appear to be headed into a drawn-out clash with Witteofficials, who contend that the remains, which are as old as 5,000 years,pre-date the rise of tribal groups in Texas and continue to offer a valuablescientific window into how the earliest inhabitants lived."There really isn't any legal or ethical or moral reason to do what theywant us to do," said Marise McDermott, president and CEO of the WitteMuseum.The disagreement mirrors conflicts over the fate of native remains andburial objects in museums elsewhere in the U.S, but how it will play out isunclear.None of the groups that took part in the protest, including the St. Mary'sUniversity Indian Student Association and representatives of three AmericanIndian groups, have filed a claim under the federal Native American GravesProtection and Repatriation Act of 1990, which provides a framework forreturning such remains. Nor do any of the groups qualify as a federallyrecognized tribe, as required by the law.For now, the groups said that just because the bones are old doesn't meanthey're up for grabs."We have a huge respect for our ancestors, and once you put them in theground that ground becomes sacred. You don't mess with that," said MarieCrabb, president of the student group. "To say that Indians of the pastaren't related to Indians of today just sounds ludicrous."The Witte took part in excavations around the Seminole Canyon area in the1920s and early 1930s, and subsequent studies of the remains have informedthe museum's display, "Ancient Texan," which showcases lower Pecos artifactslike baskets, sandals and household tools. Museum officials said the boneshave never been on display."Because there's no oral or written tradition from hunter-gatherer peoplethis (artifact display) is like giving voice to this group of people,"McDermott said.Since the 1990 law, she said museum officials have sat with several tribes,and all have agreed that the Witte collection contains no items that aresubject to repatriation.Steve Tomka, director of the Center for Archaeological Research at UTSA,said such collections, however much they've already been studied, willcontinue to yield new information as technology advances."Scientifically, those remains tell us part of human history," he said."It's not about one particular individual who you're studying, or oneparticular group or region, but it's really telling you the story of humanexistence in general."http://www.khon2.com/news/local/19753144.htmlProtestors Oppose Home Construction on Kauai Burial siteBy Tannya JoaquinIt's a last stand against plans to put up a beachfront home on burial groundin Wainiha.Opponents want to preserve the sacred land, with 40 known burial sites.Protestors have put torches on each grave, and have lit them every night forthe past 2 and a half months."Keeping vigil over our burial site. It's the last one on this coastline"says protest organizer Kaiulani Huff. "All the other burial sites have beencovered with villas and big vacation rentals."Landowner Joseph Brescia has tried for years to build a home here.It's next to land owned by Red Hot Chili Peppers lead singer Anthony Kiedis,who also seeks to build.Protestor Louise Sausen says "I've been fighting this subdivision for about13 years just trying to preserve kupuna and the iwi."Opponents say despite a green light from the State to start construction,they'll keep fighting to stop development."Hopefully we can do it legally, lawfullly, but I'm going to do whatever Ican" says protestor Andrew Cabebe.According to the State, the landowner is following the law.The Kauai Island Burial Council chose to preserve in place all burials onthe property.The Attorney General says the property owner has the option to build overthe burials.Seven are in the footprint of the proposed house.They will be encased, and the house will be built on pilings.But, that still doesn't sit well with opponents, who say they will holdtheir ground."I decided to get a tent, get down here and do what I can to stopconstruction" says Huff.The State says nothing gives the State Historic Preservation Division or theBurial Council the right to stop construction.http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080807/BREAKING01/80807091Thursday, August 7, 2008Protesters on Kauai halt construction near ancient remainsAssociated PressLIHU'E, Hawai'i - More than a dozen protesters on Kaua'i halted constructionof a house located on property where about 30 ancient Hawaiian burial siteshave been discovered.At least eight protesters, who anticipated being arrested, linked themselvestogether using segments of PVC pipe Thursday, but no arrests were made.Police waited out the protesters, who left after 10 hours, vowing to returnnext week. Construction workers left the area earlier at the request ofpolice in an apparent effort to avoid confrontation.After years of legal challenges and community opposition, state and localauthorities have given property owner and California contractor JosephBrescia permission to build the house.One protester, Andre Perez of O'ahu, called on Gov. Linda Lingle tointervene."By any standard, by any culture or ethnic group, this is just wrong," Perezsaid. "From a human perspective, this is just wrong."As recently as June 25, Kaua'i County Police Chief Darryl Perry, citing alaw protecting Hawaiian burial grounds, was at the site, turning awayworkers about to start construction.Walton Hong, an attorney for Brescia, said at the time that he would submita burial plan with the State Historic Preservation Division.In December, some 30 burials were discovered on the property during anarchaeological survey. The Kaua'i Island Burial Council determined in Aprilthat the sites must be left in place in order for construction to begin.Brescia has been trying to build a home on the site since 2001.Still in the early stages of development, the site has close to 30 concreteposts positioned around numerous markings noting the location of iwi, orHawaiian remains.The protesters, who came from around the state, said they want constructionhalted and the iwi honored with a heiau, or shrine. Building around thegraves, or moving them would constitute be desecration, they said."If they can do this here, they can do this on all Hawaiian burial sitesthroughout the Hawaiian Islands," Hanalei Colleado of Maui said.http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080626.BCMUSQUEAM26/TPStory/TPNational/BritishColumbia/VANCOUVER -- The administration office on the Musqueam Indian reserve wasopenyesterday after a group of band members decided to end their month-longprotestover distribution of millions of dollars in band funds.Musqueam Chief Ernie Campbell said the protesters took down their picketsandtook the padlock off the front door of the administration building onTuesdayevening. No one spoke to him or, as far as he knew, anyone else on the bandcouncil before they abandoned their protest, he said in an interview.A group of band members had occupied the lobby of the administrationbuildingon May 29 to protest against how the band council intended to spend morethan$20-million from an out-of-court settlement with the B.C. government.Dissident members raised concerns about toxic housing on the reserve, thelackof band support for drug and alcohol treatment programs, and the refusal tofinance a facility intended to help ensure that children in need ofprotectionremain in the Musqueam community. They also raised questions about theaccountability of the band council, transparency of band business and thedistribution of about $40-million.But Mr. Campbell said yesterday he didn't think the protest would lead tochanges on the reserve. Some community services were interrupted and somepeople were left with "hard feelings."But it did not have any impact on anything, as far as council isconcerned,"Mr. Campbell said. "We've been through worse than this. It was a minorthing."Gail Sparrow, a spokesperson for the protest group, said the dissidentsdecidedto stop after meeting with parents anxious to have their children return totheday-care centre in the administration building.Emerging from a two-hour meeting with the band manager and band lawyer, Ms.Sparrow said in an interview the protest had been worthwhile. Concernsraisedby the membership will now be seriously considered, she said.The group started with 17 dissatisfied people and grew to more than 300, shesaid. She anticipated the protest will lead to council members being held togreater accountability and council business being more transparent.Also, the membership will be able to consider the protesters' proposal todistribute $5,000 to each band member, she said. The council had proposeddistributing only $1,000 to each member and designating the remainder of a$20-million settlement to debt repayment and band programs."They [the band council] are now going to listen to the people. We will givethem time. If nothing changes, we will take action again," she said.http://intercontinentalcry.org/algonquin-protest-and-information-toll-july-28/Algonquin Protest and information toll - July 28July 25, 2007 | 11 Comments | 2,127 viewsI just received an update, courtesy of Chief Paula Sherman. Please note, inyesterdays update I had said Frontenac is suing for 1 million dollars-but itis in fact 77 million. Details are below.ALGONQUINS PROTEST AGAINST URANIUM EXPLORATION WILL AFFECT TRAFFIC ONTRANSCANADAArdoch Algonquin First Nation and Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation will beconducting a protest and information toll on Highway 7 in Perth on July 28thfrom 3pm-6pm to bring attention to the issue of uranium exploration andmining in North Frontenac County.This will be the third action by the Algonquin alliance to bring attentionto the fact that mining claims were registered and issued to FrontenacVentures Corporation for land where Algonquin title and jurisdiction remainand where required consultation never took place.Consultation must take place between the Crown and the two affected FirstNation communities prior to any mining or land use permits being issued.More actions are planned along Highway 7 over the next few months until apositive resolution has been achieved.For more information please contact:Chief Paula Sherman - 613-329-3706 omamikwe at bell.blackberry.net;Chief Randy Cota - (613) 541-8205;or our lawyer, Christopher Reid - lawreid at aol.com (416) 466-9928.ALGONQUINS SUED BY URANIUM MINING COMPANYThe Algonquin First Nations occupying a proposed uranium mine site ineastern Ontario are being sued by the mining company, Frontenac VenturesCorporation, for $77 million dollars in damages, as well as a court orderending our protest and forcing us to vacate our land.In their Statement of Claim, which was served on our lawyer today, thecompany makes absurd and outrageous claims that we are "threatening" and"intimidating" them and their employees. In fact, our peaceful protest hasbeen completely non-violent and non-threatening from the beginning, evenwhen the president of FVC threatened to send in armed paramilitaries toattack us.We are not afraid and we have no plans to end our protest! In fact, news ofthe company's legal action has brought more supporters to our protest campat the mine site. Meanwhile, the provincial government, which has the legalobligation to consult with us, remains conspicuously silent.Last year Frontenac Ventures Corporation began aggressively exploring foruranium on our land in Frontenac County in eastern Ontario. FVC have nowstaked hundreds of mineral claims covering more than 5,000 hectares of landand have clear-cut large areas of forest to make way for the next phase ofexploration: drilling core samples to determine how much uranium is underthe land they have staked. The government of Ontario has allowed all of thisto happen without any consultations whatsoever with our communities, inclear violation of Canadian law.Last week, after we rejected an offer by the company to end our protest inexchange for $10,000 blood money, we again called for the province to begindiscussions with us to end the standoff. The province has still notresponded.AAFN members, together with our neighbours, the Shabot Obaadjiwan AlgonquinFirst Nation, have occupied the site of the proposed uranium mine since June29 and we have informed Frontenac Ventures that no further mineral stakingor exploration activity will be allowed within our territory at this time.Today, Chief Doreen Davis of Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation and PaulaSherman, Co-Chief of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation again called on theprovince to begin consultations to resolve the issues which led to theprotest. Said Chief Sherman, "we have yet to hear anything from PremierMcGuinty or his Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, David Ramsay, and so farnone of their officials have even had the courtesy to return our calls,emails or letters, They do not appear to have any interest in resolving thismess or meeting their legal obligation to consult with us."ALGONQUIN ALLIANCE STATEMENT AGAINST URANIUM EXPLORATION AND MININGJuly 24, 2007On June 28, 2007 leadership and members of Ardoch Algonquin First Nation andShabot Obaadjiwan First Nation moved to secure the site of a proposeduranium mine in the traditional lands of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nationnear Ardoch Ontario. Frontenac Ventures Corporation, under the ownership ofGeorge White had been notified by mail to vacate the premises prior to the28th with his equipment and staff. On the 28th members of the two Algonquincommunities moved in and secured the site to prevent the drilling of uraniumcore samples which were slated to begin the following week.Upon securing the site, the two communities established an alliance whoseoverall purpose was to prohibit access to the site and any proposed drillingwithin and around the site and all associated sites by Frontenac VenturesCorporation. The Algonquin alliance discovered through an initial searchthat multiple users had been granted access to the site and land surroundingthe site by the MNR, Mining and Northern Development and private owners. Atno time did any of these ministries or private owners contact or securepermission from Algonquin people to use the lands or resources in question.In fact, while Algonquin people in the area had heard rumors of a proposeduranium mine in Frontenac County, we were not aware of the plans to developa mine on our traditional territory until Gloria Morrison, a private landowner in the region, attended a council meeting and asked for the ArdochAlgonquin council's help in protecting her property. Gloria came to themeeting because 60 acres of her 100 acre holding had been staked byFrontenac Ventures under the Mining Act. She had exhausted all otheralternatives at that point and hoped that Algonquin people could help her asshe understood that the land she had purchased was in the historicalterritory of Algonquin people.As already mentioned the overall purpose of the Algonquin alliance is toprohibit access to the site and any proposed drilling within and around thesite and all associated sites. This includes sites that are privately ownedand leased to Frontenac Ventures Corporation as this usage is against theOriginal Teachings and Guiding Principles which provide the guidancenecessary to live within Mino-Pimaadiziwin (which means to live the goodlife, in a balanced way that promotes the sustainability of the NaturalWorld and all living entities). The alliance is using a four-prongedapproach to dealing with uranium exploration and mining which includeseducation of the larger community on the dangers of uranium exploration andmining and direct action in various locations in Algonquin territory tobring local, national and international attention to the issue. The twoAlgonquin communities who make up this alliance are also concerned withtheir responsibility as Anishinaabe people to examine prior usage of theland and resources by all users who have been granted access by the provinceof Ontario. Part of that strategy is to develop sound mechanisms forrestoring balance to the land and waterways that have been impacted by theiractivities on the land and also create protocols of interaction that can beused with future users so that the same mistakes do not occur again.The alliance also has to deal with the other users who were granted accessto our territory through the province. One such user is MREL. MREL is acompany that has moved heavily into the defence and security industry, andin particular the development of a range of vehicle disrupters which areused to neutralize improvised explosive devises and bomb laden vehicles,placed in anything from regular automobiles up to tractor trailer sizedtrucks. The units are robot deployed and designed to minimize collateraldamage. The thrust of their work is humanitarian with an emphasis on savinglives, both by countering the threat of bombs in the civilian community, aswell as to improve the defence capability of Canadian troops.As MREL's current contract is designed to save lives, and not connected tothe drilling of core samples or uranium mining, the alliance has made thedecision to permit MREL to enter the site under a memorandum ofunderstanding between MREL and Ardoch and Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nations.The memorandum of understanding will cover only the current project relatedto their research on vehicle disrupters. It will cover the nature ofrequired clean-up from previous MREL work, set out the protocols forrelating to the land in a way that promotes balanced relationships with theland and waterscapes, while also enabling MREL to complete the project inthe designated timeframe. Any other usage of the site by MREL would have tobe renegotiated. The MOU will also address the issue of securing the sitewhile MREL is conducting their research. MREL has also come out openlyagainst George While and Frontenac Ventures Corporation and has provided thealliance with numerous documents, maps, and correspondence that supports ourposition against uranium mining.The alliance is also concerned with a new tendency on the part of someindividuals to treat this site as a tourist attraction. The articulation ofour autonomy here is a serious issue for both Ardoch Algonquin First Nationand for Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation. We have secured the area for thesole purpose of preventing the drilling of core samples which would lead tothe development of a uranium mine on our traditional territory. Securing thearea means literally keeping everyone out unless they have been invited toenter at the main gate where the encampment is located. This policy isnecessary to secure the safety of everyone, inside and outside the gate. Theentire parameter has been secured through the use of warriors to preventaccess to Frontenac Venture Corporation and no one should enter the site asyou could be seen as working for FVC. This encampment and occupation of thesurrounding land and watersheds is part of an ongoing resistance on the partof these two First Nations to resist the attempts of Frontenac VenturesCorporation to drill core samples, it should respectfully not be treated asa tourist attraction.The Algonquin alliance and resistance force is being assisted by CCAMU,Mining Watch, and other environmental and citizenship groups who are opposedto uranium mining. Many of the individuals involved in the various groupshave had their own property staked under the Mining Act by FrontenacVentures Corporation. While Algonquin people are concentrating on directactions that articulate our autonomy in the valley of the Kiji S?b? (whichis a necessary component in the overall efforts to prevent uraniumexploration and mining on our traditional lands), our non-Aboriginal friendsand neighbors have renewed ancient relationships with the Algonquin peopleand communities here and have taken up once again their side of the wampumbelt that was neglected long ago by their ancestors. Their efforts to createand disperse important information on the Mining Act and impacts of uraniummining have gone a long way in gaining outside support for our struggle tostop Frontenac in their tracks. Our non-Aboriginal neighbors have alsocreated a network of support for the Algonquin and other Aboriginalcommunities who remain on the site behind the gate. This network ofconcerned friends and neighbors have taken it upon themselves to make surethat the people who remain there have the food, supplies, and necessitiesneeded to maintain the occupation until a positive resolution can beachieved. Both Algonquin communities, as well as the other Aboriginal peopleat the site greatly appreciate the dedication and sacrifices made byeveryone who has supported and continues to support our efforts to stop theproposed uranium exploration and mining on Algonquin land and that of ourneighbors.Direct ActionThe alliance has taken several direct actions in the past few weeks to drawattention to the issue including two protest marches down Highway 7 inSharbot Lake. The next direct action will take place on July 28 in Perth.Those wishing to participate in the action should meet at the lot behindWendys at 3pm. This particular action will take place at two spots onHighway 7. There will be pylons inserted into the middle of the road to slowit down to two lanes. We will be setting up information tolls at each end ofperth on Highway 7. Cars will be allowed to travel but at a much slower pacewhich will permit us to provide info on the issue and also ask for donationswhich are needed to sustain the resistance force at the site and to pay forlegal fees. We will need volunteers to stand at each end of the highway withpicket signs and eight people to work the information toll. We will maintainthe information toll from 3pm-6pm. We will continue to plan such actions onHighway Seven moving next to Carleton Place and eastward..eventuallyreaching Ottawa if necessary.Legal StrategyThe Algonquin alliance has secured the legal services of Chris Reid, who isan expert on Aboriginal rights and law. Chris is working from the legalstandpoint that Algonquin people never surrendered our lands and thus ourautonomy and jurisdiction remain intact in the areas in which FrontenacVentures Corporation has staked and plans to drill core samples. The detailsof that strategy need to remain confidential, but we will keep you updatedon the progress made.Response from Frontenac Ventures CorporationFrontenac Ventures Corporation has responded to our protest in a variety ofways, including issuing a statement in the Globe and Mail wherein Frontenac's CEO George White suggested that perhaps companies in Canada should utilizeparamilitary forces such as those used in Africa (if you have seen BloodDiamond you will get the idea) to protect mining interests from people suchas ourselves, which he equated with terrorism. In a meeting held last week,White's lawyer said several nasty things about our Mohawk allies and askedpoint blank if there were Mohawk warriors on the premises. White alsopromised swift legal action against us at that meeting and has followedthrough with that threat as we have been told that he has filed a 77 milliondollar law suit against the two Algonquin communities here and theirassociated leaders. While a security force showed up at several points todaytrying to serve the notice, no one accepted it and they will know deliver itto our legal team which is being led by Chris Reid out of Toronto.FundraisingGiven the length of time we will need to maintain the occupation of ourlands and the nature of the legal issues, we will need to implement andmaintain various fundraising initiatives and activities over the next fewmonths. Frank Morrison, who alerted us to the activities of FrontenacVentures Corporation, is in the process of organizing a major benefitconcert to take place in Carleton Place which will help in that regard, aswill the one that is scheduled for Weds in Sharbot Lake. If you are not ableto come and stand with us on the ground here please get involved inorganizing fundraising activities to support our efforts here and what willbe undoubtedly a lengthy and costly legal battle. All funds raised can bedropped off at the gate or mailed to 1045 Canoe Lane Ardoch, ON. Pleasespecify that mailed funds go to fight uranium mining and the efforts of theAlgonquin people occupying the site. If you are not able to get involved inthe organization of fundraising activities, please consider dropping off orsending in your donation to support this important issue. Uraniumexploration and mining will destroy our traditional territory and make itimpossible to live off the land or to maintain our responsibilities to theland and waterways. We are doing this for the benefit of your children andgrandchildren, so that they will have a future as Algonquin people.CHI-MIIGWECH!The Algonquin Alliance of Ardoch Algonquin First Nation & Shabot ObaadjiwanFirst NationFor more information please contact:Chief Paula Sherman - 613-329-3706 omamikwe at bell.blackberry.net;Chief Randy Cota - (613) 541-8205;or our lawyer, Christopher Reid - lawreid at aol.com (416) 466-9928.http://mostlywater.org/algonquins_barriere_lake_occupy_mps_officeAlgonquins of Barriere Lake Occupy MP's OfficeContributed by ron collins on Thu, 2008-06-26 21:07.ALGONQUIN YOUTH AND SUPPORTERS REFUSING TO LEAVE CONSERVATIVE MPLAWRENCE CANNON'S OFFICESupport Urgently Needed for Algonquins of Barriere LakeToday a group of Algonquin youth and supporters entered MP LawrenceCanon's office to demand a meeting with him. They are refusing toleave until this happens. Anyone able to come to the Buckinghamconstituency office to lend support is invited to attend.They've been told they will be arrested unless they leave.================================================CONTENTS1) UPDATE FROM INSIDE MINISTER CANNON'S OFFICE2) THE DEMANDS3) BACKGROUND INFORMATION4) MINISTER CANNON'S OFFICE LOCATION AND CONTACT INFO================================================1) UPDATE FROM INSIDE MINISTER CANNON'S OFFICE:"Our group, composed of Algonquin youth and supporters, successfullyentered Minister Cannon's Buckingham riding office, 25 minutes fromOttawa, at 11:30am today, Thursday, June 26th. Minister Cannon is notaround and his staff have been mum about his whereabouts. But spiritsare high and people are settling in and getting comfortable, despitethe fact the Minister Cannon's staff have turned off the airconditioning in an attempt to force people to leave the office. Atfirst Minister Cannon's staff offered to arrange meetings with lowlevel bureaucrats instead of a meeting with Minister Cannon, but weare refused to take the bait. Now we've been told that Minister Cannonhas no involvement or responsibility for Barriere Lake, and that if wedo not leave we will be arrested. We intend to stick it out until ourdemands are met.We would love to have supporters form the surrounding region come toMinister Cannon's office to join us. The more the merrier, andsupporters may help deter any police action. Alternately, if you can'tcome to Minister Cannon's office, we encourage people to call or faxhis various offices and request that he meet with us."2) DEMANDSWe are members of the community of Barriere Lake and their supporters.We are peacefully occupying Minister Lawrence Cannon's office. Wedemand:i) A meeting with Lawrence Cannon, MP for the Barriere Lake community.ii) That the government oversee a leadership re-selection process,with outside observers, recognize the resultant Customary Chiefs andCouncil, and end all interference in the internal governance ofBarriere Lake.3) BACKGROUND INFORMATION[ ] NO COUPS D'ETAT ON ALGONQUIN LAND[ ] END INDIAN AFFAIRS' MANIPULATION OF TRADITIONAL GOVERNMENT[ ] HANDS OFF BARRIERE LAKEFor twenty difficult years, the small Algonquin community of Barriere Lake,3 hours north of Ottawa, has been struggling to hold the government to theirword. In 1991, they signed a landmark resource co-management and sustainabledevelopment agreement with Canada and Quebec to protect Algonquin land uses,to conserve the forest and wildlife, and to give them a share in theresource revenue from the logging and hydro projects on their traditionalterritories. Corporations extract $100 million a year -- Barriere Lakereceives nary a penny.The Canadian government walked away from the agreement in 2001. Instead offulfilling their obligations, the Federal Department of Indian Affairs hasousted the Customary Chief and Council and illegally appointed a minorityfaction as the leadership, in an attempt to scrap the agreement.* Despite several Quebec Hydro dams on their territory, the community isforced to use aging diesel generators to provide power.* The housing crisis in the community has reached tragic proportions, withmost living in moldy, often condemned houses. As many as 18 people live inone house.* The Surete du Quebec has been used to forcibly impose and maintain theauthority of the government-backed minority faction.* Children have been prevented from speaking Algonquin in school by teachershired by outsiders-a grim throwback to residential schools.Join us in Gatineau, and support the community as it demands that thegovernment respect the law and uphold their agreements.MORE INFO: http://barrierelakesolidarity.blogspot.comCONTACT: barrierelakesolidarity at gmail.comhttp://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_13524.cfmNative American March on DC to Protest Global Warming & EnvironmentalDestructionNative American March on DCInstitute for Public Accuracy, via Common Dreams, July 11, 2008Straight to the SourceWASHINGTON - July 11 - AP is reporting: "Some 500 American Indians aregathering near the White House to mark the end of a 8,300-mile walk acrossthe nation. The trek from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., aims to bringattention to the impact of global warming on the environment. "Organizer Ricardo Tapia says the Longest Walk 2 also was an effort tospotlight concerns among American Indians, such as the destruction of sacredsites by developers. "Organizers plan to present a manifesto of American Indian concerns toDemocratic Congressman John Conyers of Michigan. "Actor and civil rights advocate Harry Belafonte is also scheduled toappear at a traditional pipe ceremony at the U.S. Capitol. "The walk began February 11 and marked the 30th anniversary of the firstsuch journey. That 1978 effort gathered support to defeat congressionalbills that American Indians said threatened their sovereignty."RICARDO TAPIAOrganizer for the Longest Walk 2, Tapia said today: "Thirty years ago, thegovernment was going to strip us of our sovereignty -- our fishing andhunting rights -- and so we marched across the country. We had the supportof Muhammad Ali, Marlon Brando and others and soon after we got the NativeAmerican Religious Freedom Act."Now our sacred sites are being destroyed with the mining and malls beingbuilt. We're concerned about the future to the seventh generation. The G8just met and put out some words about global warming. But we're concernedwith what they do. Modern man has become ignorant and arrogant. We'rewalking the talk with our 8,000 miles over five months and need everyone toreally change direction." More InformationYAYNICUT FRANCOFranco, who is 20, is a spokesperson for the Longest Walk 2. She said today:"We need to protect our sacred sites and stop harming the earth."http://www.dominionpaper.ca/weblogs/lia_tarachansky/1933July 17, 2008First Day of Protests by Barriere Lake AlgonquinsOTTAWA- The Barriere Lake Algonquins are once again back in Ottawa for athree day protest. Camping out on Victoria Island, the community, alongsideMontreal and Ottawa activists, has organized a panel discussion, a series ofprotests, marches, and events including a panel discussion, film screening,and poetry show.Last time the Algonquins came to Ottawa, they peacefully occupied MPLawrence Cannon's office, demanding the end of a March coup d'etat thegovernment enacted on their reserve.-----------Press ReleaseFriday, July 16, 2008Algonquins to demonstrate in front of Department of Indian Affairs and marchthrough downtown Ottawa: demand Government of Canada end illegalinterference in community governance and oversee new leadership selectionOttawa, ON / - Algonquins from the Barriere Lake First Nation will end threedays of demonstrations in Ottawa by picketing in front of the Department ofIndian Affairs in Gatineau at 11:00am and marching through the downtown coreat 1:30pm, demanding that the Government oversee a leadership re-selectionin accordance with Barriere Lake's customs, and honour its signed agreementswith the community."Once again, the federal government has interfered in the internal affairsof Barriere Lake, by recognizing a leadership that didn't follow ourtraditions and customs," says Marylynn Poucachiche, a Barriere Lakespokesperson. "Indian Affairs registered the outcome and recognized aminority faction to get out of agreements they've signed with thecommunity."In 1991 the Algonquins of Barriere Lake, a community three hours north ofOttawa, signed a Trilateral Agreement with the governments of Canada andQuebec, establishing a landmark sustainable development, conservation, andresource co-management process praised by the United Nations and the RoyalCommission on Aboriginal Peoples. However, the Government of Canada hasregularly tried to evade their obligations under the agreement. On March10th, 2008, for the third time in 12 years, the government of Canadainterfered in the internal governance of Barriere Lake, ousting theCustomary Chief Benjamin Nottaway and his Council and recognizing a Chiefand Council whom the Barriere Lake Elder's Council say were not selected inaccordance with the community's customs and whom the majority of thecommunity does not support."I don't think it's right for any government to interfere this way," saysPoucachiche. "The government should respect our traditions and customs andcontinue with the negotiation of the signed agreements."The Algonquin Nation Secretariat (ANS), the Tribal Council representing theAlgonquin First Nations of Barriere Lake, Wolf Lake, and Timiskaming,continues to recognize and work with deposed Chief Nottaway and his Council.ANS Grand Chief Norman Young recently issued a letter to Indian AffairsMinister Chuck Strahl, encouraging him to support a leadership reselectionprocess in the community.- 30 -Media Contacts:Marylynn Poucachiche, Barriere Lake spokesperson: (613) 263-9330Michel Thusky, Barriere Lake spokesperson (available 12-1pm, 4pm-onward):(819) 435-2171Norman Young, Algonquin Nation Secretariat Grand Chief: (819) 627 -6869For more information: www.barrierelakesolidarity.blogspot.comCollectif de Solidarit? Lac Barri?re From ldxar1 at tesco.net Fri Aug 29 22:28:30 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 06:28:30 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Protests, occupied Iraq and Afghanistan, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <00a001c90a61$3e60b340$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ IRAQ * In Kurdish city of Arbil, 1 killed, 4 wounded as police attack service delivery protest * Protests over election law * Arabs protest over status of Kirkuk * Sadr supporters protest US security agreement * Brussels march against attacks on Iraqi Christians * Muthana residents protest corruption, demand sackings of officials * Furious protests after soldier shoots Quran * "Naked in hijab" - Iraqi woman protests see-through checkpoint x-rays * Basra oil workers protest replacement of chief * Customs officers protest against transfer * Shutdown of university over arrest of president * Iraqis protest Iranian president * Border town residents demonstrate protesting water crisis * Iraqi governor halts work to protest son's death AFGHANISTAN * Civilian deaths spark protest; police stoned, 2 protesters killed * Protest over alleged burning of Quran * Villagers in west demonstrate over civilian killings * Students join teachers' wage protest * Funeral for BBC journalist killed in Afghanistan * Villagers protest civilian deaths * Hazaras protest in land dispute with Kuchi nomads http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/35293 1 killed, 4 wounded in protest march in Arbil Arbil, 17 August 2008 (Voices of Iraq) A hospital in Arbil province on Sunday received four wounded men and a body eyewitnesses said had protested lack of services, a medic in the city said. "Four wounded men and one corpse were received by the Khlifan hospital in northeastern Arbil. The wounded and the dead man had participated in a demonstration staged by the local residents in Khlifan district," the source, who did not want his name mentioned, told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq - (VOI). Saeed Hallaq, an eyewitness, told VOI that hundreds of residents of the village of Srishma, Khlifan, (90 km) northeastern Arbil, have protested the lack of services in the district. The march developed into clashes between the demonstrators and policemen, which left one man killed and four others wounded. VOI failed to contact the Khlifan police for comments. Arbil, also written Erbil or Irbil, is believed to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited in the world and is one of the largest cities in Iraq. The city lies eighty kilometers (fifty miles) east of Mosul. In 2005, its estimated population was 990,000 inhabitants. The city is the capital of the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, only isolated, sporadic violence has hit Arbil, unlike many other areas of Iraq. Parallel bomb attacks against the Eid celebrations arranged by the PUK and KDP killed 109 people on February 1, 2004. Responsibility was claimed by the Islamist group Ansar al-Sunnah, and stated to be in solidarity with the Kurdish Islamist faction Ansar al-Islam. Another bombing on May 4, 2005 killed 60 civilians. Despite these bombings the population generally feels safe. http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/34506 Duhuk demo ends by presenting warrant of protest against elections law Baghdad, 31 July 2008 (Voices of Iraq) The massive demonstration staged by thousands of Duhuk residents ended on Thursday by presenting a warrant of protest to the Iraqi parliament against the endorsement of the provincial council elections law. "The demonstration, in which all political parties, governmental institutions, syndicates and cultural centers took part, continued for two hours and was held on the main square in central Duhuk," Adel Hassan, member of the higher committee which organized the demo, told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq - (VOI). "The protesters presented a warrant of protest to the UN secretary general, the Iraqi president, the president of Kurdistan and other officials in the region and the representatives of the political blocs in the Parliament, condemning the endorsement of the law and asserting the common interests between all Iraqi components," he explained. "The angry men raised banners proclaiming (all of us against article 24), ( we will only accept implementing article 140) and (the new elections law violates constitution and article 140)," he also said. For his part, Head of the Duhuk provincial council Fadel Omar who received the warrant told the VOI that "we hope that our Arab brothers can overcome this and refuse to implement the new law to maintain stability and peace in Iraq." "The decision and the article 24 stand against Kurds' ambitions so will continue to express our rejection to the violation of the constitution in a civilized way," Omar added. On Monday, a total of 22 civilians were killed and 150 others were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up among a crowd of demonstrators, who took to the streets in downtown Kirkuk, condemning the passage of the provincial council elections law, which includes an article postponing the city's elections. Last July 22, the Iraqi Parliament, with the approval of 127 deputies out of 140 who attended the session, passed the law on provincial council elections. Last Wednesday, the Presidential Board, with the unanimity of President Jalal Talabani and his two deputies Adel Abdul Mahdi and Tareq al-Hashimi, rejected the law in a rapid reaction one day after the Iraqi Parliament passed it during a session that raised hue and cry over its constitutionality. Duhuk lies 460 km north of Baghdad. Also spelled Duhok, Dohuk Dehok or Dahok; it is a city in northern Iraq. It has about 500,000 inhabitants, mostly consisting of Kurds and Assyrians. According to some sources, the name "Duhuk" comes from Kurmanji Kurdish meaning "small village." Circled by mountains along the Tigris river, Duhuk has a growing tourist industry. Its population grew extremely since the 1990s as the rural population moved to the cities. Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States, Duhuk and Iraqi Kurdistan in general have remained the only safe places for foreigners. http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/middleeast/news/article_1420340.php/Hundreds_of_Kurds_protest_in_northern_Iraq Hundreds of Kurds protest in northern Iraq Jul 30, 2008, 8:59 GMT Baghdad - Hundreds of Iraq's politically assertive Kurds protested in the northern Kurdish capital of Sulaymanyah over a provincial election law passed by parliament last week, security sources said Wednesday. The Kurdish protestors gathered in various places across the northern Sulaymanyah province. The last two days have witnessed similar protests in the northern provinces of Arbil and Kirkuk. During the Kurdish protest in Kirkuk Monday 22 people were killed and 150 injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up amongst the protestors. Angry Kurds are objecting to a provincial elections law passed by parliament last week which calls for a secret ballot to decide a power-sharing arrangement in the multi-ethnic city of Kirkuk. In the last week's parliament session, Kurdish lawmakers walked out in protest at the law. The Iraqi legislature approved the law despite the walkout by Kurdish lawmakers. Kurdish parliament members promised to have the law rewritten. They also denounced the measure as 'unconstitutional.' Meanwhile, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd himself, rejected the law in a presidential statement. http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/34460 Protestors in Sulaimaniya present warrant of protest against elections law Sulaimaniya, 31 July 2008 (Voices of Iraq) Print article Send to friend Thousands of protestors in Sulaimaniya on Wednesday presented a warrant of protest to the governor expressing their rejection of the endorsement of the provincial council elections by the Iraqi Parliament. The protestors demanded that the law be rejected, while the Sulaimaniya governor called on the committee supervising the demonstration to stage a campaign to gather signatories of those rejecting the endorsement of the law. "The demonstration was peaceful and Ali Saeed, president of the Sulaimaniya University, presented a warrant of protest to be submitted to the Iraqi Parliament to revoke the law," Othman Zendani, a member of the committee supervising the demo, told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq (VOI). Local police chief Brigadier Hassan Nouri had said Tuesday tight security measures have been put in place in preparation for a demonstration that is scheduled to take place in Sulaimaniya city condemning the passage of the provincial council elections law. On Monday, a total of 22 civilians were killed and 150 others were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up among a crowd of demonstrators, who took to the streets in downtown Kirkuk, condemning the passage of the provincial council elections law, which includes an article postponing the city's elections. Last July 22, the Iraqi Parliament, with the approval of 127 deputies out of 140 who attended the session, passed the law on provincial council elections. Last Wednesday, the Presidential Board, with the unanimity of President Jalal Talabani and his two deputies Adel Abdul Mahdi and Tareq al-Hashimi, rejected the law in a rapid reaction one day after the Iraqi Parliament passed it during a session that raised hue and cry over its constitutionality Sulaimaniya, the capital city of Sulaimaniya province, lies 364 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080804/wl_mideast_afp/iraqpoliticsvoteprotest Hundreds protest in Baghdad over Kirkuk's status Mon Aug 4, 3:11 PM ET BAHGDAD (AFP) - Several hundred people in a Sunni neighbourhood of Baghdad took to the streets on Monday to protest moves by Kurds to incorporate the oil province of Kirkuk into the autonomous Kurdish region. Residents of Adhamiyah marched for an hour carrying banners that read: "No to the breakup of Iraq", "Kirkuk must remain a symbol of national brotherhood" and "the tribes of Adhamiyah condemn the annexation of Kirkuk to Kurdistan." Many carried Iraqi flags as they chanted: "No to the division of Iraq;" "Yes to unity of the country;" "We will give our blood and our soul for Kirkuk." The Kurdish bloc of the Kirkuk provincial council last Thursday voted to demand the inclusion of the province into the northern Kurdish region. The status of Kirkuk has come under the spotlight with the introduction in parliament of a bill governing provincial elections due later this year. Since the bill came before the house last month, Kurds have staged a series of angry demonstrations against the law in Arbil, capital of the Kurdish region. Kurdish officials fear the parliament will approve legislation that will delay local elections in Kirkuk, fail to address issues relating to power sharing and force the removal of the current security force, which is mainly controlled by Kurds. On the other side of the political spectrum, thousands of Arabs staged a noisy rally in Iraq's northern city of Hawija on Saturday against Kurdish demands that Kirkuk be incorporated into their region. Under the Iraqi constitution, a referendum had due to be held by last year on longstanding Kurdish claims for Kirkuk and its oil wealth to be incorporated in their autonomous region in the north. But in December, Kurdish leaders agreed to a six-month postponement of the vote at the recommendation of the United Nations. The vote has yet to be held. Parliament is now trying to come to an agreement over a stalled provincial election law. Kirkuk has been gripped by ethnic tension since the US-led invasion of 2003, with Arab and Turkmen residents fearful they would be marginalised if the city were handed over to the Kurds. At least 22 people were killed a week ago in a suicide bombing during a protest rally held by Kurds over the same issue in Kirkuk and gunfire in the panic that followed. http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/iraq/2008/05/iraq-080530-voa02.htm Sadr Supporters Protest Planned US-Iraqi Security Agreement By VOA News 30 May 2008 Thousands of supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have rallied in the streets of Baghdad to protest plans for a long-term U.S.-Iraq security agreement. The protesters took to the streets after Friday Muslim prayers Friday in the capital's Sadr City neighborhood and other cities across Iraq. Sadr called Tuesday for demonstrations to protest a possible agreement that could lead to an extended U.S. troop presence in Iraq. He said supporters should continue to hold demonstrations after Friday prayers until Iraq's government cancels the negotiations with the United States. The agreement would replace the current United Nations mandate for U.S. troops in Iraq, which expires at the end of this year. Elsewhere, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told reporters in Stockholm that his government is working on plans to encourage tens of thousands of refugees to return home. Mr. Maliki met with Swedish officials Friday, one day after a U.N.-backed conference in Stockholm on rebuilding Iraq. He said the Iraqi government has earmarked funds as part of an effort to make Iraq more attractive to citizens who sought asylum in Europe and elsewhere. Also Friday, the U.S. military said its forces killed a suspected al-Qaida arms dealer and captured three key members of al-Qaida's bombing network in a series of operations across the country Friday. The military also said Friday a U.S. Marine had been removed from duty after Iraqis in Fallujah complained he was handing out coins that quoted verses of the Bible. A spokesman says an investigation is under way. A military statement said U.S. troops are prohibited from "proselytizing any religion, faith or practices." Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/28/world/middleeast/28iraq.html Iraq Struggle Unfolds in Peaceful Protest and Violent Attacks in Sadr City Moises Saman for The New York Times Students from Baghdad's Sadr City district held photographs of people killed or wounded in recent fighting there, at a rally on Sunday led by Parliament members. By ALISSA J. RUBIN and ERICA GOODE Published: April 28, 2008 BAGHDAD - The latest episode in the struggle between the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr and the Iraqi government unfolded Sunday on the streets of Sadr City, where members of Parliament demonstrated peacefully while clashes occurred a few blocks away. Several hours later, Shiite militiamen in the Sadr City district took advantage of a huge dust storm that enveloped Baghdad, and kept American aircraft grounded, to fire at least a dozen mortar rounds at the Green Zone, the home of the American Embassy and of many Iraqi government officials. The mix of peaceful protest and armed attacks is characteristic of the many levels on which the Sadr movement and the government are locked in an all-out fight for political advantage. At stake is the outcome of October provincial elections in which other Shiite parties in the government stand to lose seats to Mr. Sadr's supporters. However, for now, members of Parliament from several parties - with the apparent exception of some of the Shiite blocs that rival Mr. Sadr's - seemed to be trying to transcend the fight for power and focus on the terrible living conditions for residents of Sadr City, the impoverished Shiite neighborhood where militiamen and American and Iraqi troops have fought for more than a month. "What is different about this delegation is that it is composed of all kinds of Iraqis," said Azzad Barbani, a member of Parliament from the Kurdistan Democratic Party. He was among 40 lawmakers who protested Sunday. "The situation is so bad," he said. "But from a political point of view, the solution is dialogue, without getting rid of any bloc in Parliament." Mustafa al-Heeti, a Sunni member of Parliament who led the delegation on Sunday, said, "We want to solve the problem peacefully." Mr. Heeti, of Anbar Province, said the goal of the protest was to demand an end to the fighting and the withdrawal of military forces. He added that a committee of Sadrists and other members of Parliament hoped to meet with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki to discuss their concerns. The residents of Sadr City "are Iraqis," he said, "they are very poor people with very few services, and the military action has caused so much loss of life." Mr. Maliki has said that, before the government will stop its fight, Mr. Sadr must comply with four conditions: hand over heavy weapons; stop fighting the security forces; stop menacing government workers; and hand over outlaws sought by the government. But on Sunday, an aide to Mr. Sadr in Najaf rejected those terms, accusing the government of trying to resolve political differences by force. Qassim Atta, a spokesman for the government's effort to restore order in Baghdad, the capital, told a news conference that the government had earmarked $100 million in aid for Sadr City and listed many services that the district would receive. However, it was apparent that little had arrived, primarily because the fighting made it dangerous for city service workers to venture into the worst areas, but also because government officials remained ambivalent about helping a neighborhood where their enemies lived. Mr. Sadr's officials, however, lost no time in reaching out to beleaguered residents. Hazim al-Araji, a member of Parliament from Mr. Sadr's bloc, announced that Mr. Sadr's offices would compensate families who had lost a close relative and would make payments to those who had been wounded. While Mr. Araji did not say the exact amount that each family would get, a reporter attending a funeral in Sadr City said the family had received a half million Iraqi dinars, about $425, from an official in Mr. Sadr's office. Seriously wounded people were said to be getting about $200 and those with minor injuries were receiving about $110. Sadr officials were also said to be paying for funerals, which include a three-day period of mourning when relatives and friends come to the home of the bereaved and must be offered food and drink. In Nasiriya, in southern Iraq, where there has also been fighting between Mr. Sadr's supporters and government troops, a bloc of members of Parliament representing him made a formal visit and drafted a memorandum of understanding between the sides. At a news conference on Sunday, one of the Sadrist lawmakers, Akram Fawzi said: "The aim of this visit is to solve Nasiriya's troubles. This is an exceptional phase, and it can be ended by cooperation between the different groups in the province." A car bomb killed three people in the mostly Shiite neighborhood of Shaab in northern Baghdad. Two other car bombings struck the west side of Baghdad, one in Harthiya, an affluent neighborhood, and another in Jamiya. Mortar shells landed in three Baghdad neighborhoods, killing two people and wounding 18. In Samarra, a car bomb killed one woman and wounded four other people, including two children, the local police said. In Muqdadiya, in Diyala Province, a mass grave with at least 50 bodies was discovered in an orchard, officials said. Some of the bodies were badly decayed, but others appeared to have been of people executed recently. The High Iraqi Criminal Court announced that the chief judge had dismissed four other judges. The criminal court is the new name for the court that tries people connected to former President Saddam Hussein. "The four judges were dismissed because they had connections with Baath Party," said Munir Haddad, the deputy chief judge of the court. "The decision was made on the 17th of April." He added that it was in accordance with court rules that prohibit anyone with connections to the Baath Party from serving on the court. Iraqi employees of The New York Times contributed reporting from Baghdad, Baquba, Samarra and Nasiriya. http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/31783 Sadrists protest in Missan against Iraqi-U.S. agreement Amara, 31 May 2008 (Voices of Iraq) Print article Send to friend Sadrists staged a demonstration in front of al-Sadr's office in Missan province, protesting the long-term U.S.-Iraqi agreement, a source from the Sadrist bloc said on Friday. "Sadrists in Missan went to the streets and condemned the scheduled long-term deal between Iraq and the United States which aims at boosting U.S. occupation in Iraq," a media source in al-Sadr's office told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq (VOI). "The angry men called on the national fronts and noblemen to discard this agreement which aims at blackmailing Iraq and its economic resources and impose the U.S. authority on the Iraqi people," he added. A media source from al-Sadr's office had said earlier thousands of Sadrists staged a demonstration after the Friday prayer in Sadr City, protesting the long-term Iraqi-U.S. deal. A declaration of principles was signed between U.S. President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in December 2007. The declaration was planned to be ratified on July 31, 2008 to be effective as of January 1, 2009. The agreement governs the U.S. forces' presence in Iraq after the year 2008. This presence currently relies on a mandate by the UN, renewed annually upon the request of the Iraqi government. The agreement should not be effective except after endorsement by the 275-member Iraqi parliament, which comprises five political blocs, the Fadhila (Virtue) Party and the Sadrist Bloc, or Iraqis loyal to Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr. http://www.worthynews.com/news/foxnews-com-printer_friendly_story-0,3566,351826,00-html/ Thousands March in Brussels to Protest Attacks on Christians in Iraq Saturday , April 19, 2008 BRUSSELS, Belgium - Thousands of people were demonstrating outside EU headquarters Saturday to demand protection for Christians in Iraq, saying they were increasingly being targeted in cold-blooded attacks. Iraqi religious leaders led the protesters, whom police prevented from marching toward U.S. Embassy. Organizers said 4,000 to 7,000 had come for the demonstration from several European countries. Police put the turnout figure at 3,750. "Christians in the Middle East are being assassinated and massacred," Iraqi priest Jacob Idine said. "Above all, religious leaders, the archbishops and priests, are being killed in cold blood in Iraq." Islamic extremists have killed prominent members of Iraq's Christian community in recent weeks. Tens of thousands of Iraqi Christians are believed to have fled since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Idine said the demonstrators wanted the EU to help protect Iraqi people and clergy in Iraq. German officials on Friday sought backing from other EU nations to accept more Christian refugees from Iraq, arguing that they were particularly vulnerable to violence and discrimination. But other EU countries expressed concern that giving priority to Christians could discriminate against other groups. http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/35619 Dozens rally demonstrations to protest corruption in Muthana Muthanna, 24 August 2008 (Voices of Iraq) Print article Send to friend Dozens of Muthana province residents on Sunday staged demonstrations in the southern city of Samawa to protest corruption and to call for sacking key provincial officials. "A new committee called Muthana peaceful popular uprising committee against corruption organised the demonstration,"Khazal Khashan, a demonstrator,told Aswat al-Iraq-Voices of Iraq(VOI). Although Khashan did not unveil the number of demonstrators, he said "they called for the Iraqi prime minister to make good on pledges to fight corruption and to sack the chief of Muthana's provincial council along with improving delivered services". "We would wait for the government's response and would send a delegation to Baghdad to meet officials", he noted. The committee in a statement released in demonstration accused the local government in Muthana of "forming tribal and factional lobby to monopolise decision-making and resources, resulting bad services delivery and whopping failed development projetcs". The announcement also called for the donor countries and international companies implemntong projects in Muthana to stop "squandering money granted to Iraqi people". Samawa is the capital city of Muthana province, the less populated province in Iraq, lies 280 km south Baghdad. http://www.ibnlive.com/news/us-soldier-shoots-quran-sparks-off-protests-in-iraq/65515-2.html?xml US soldier shoots Quran, sparks off protests in Iraq CNN-IBN Published on Mon, May 19, 2008 at 01:05, Updated at Mon, May 19, 2008 in World section FAUX PAS: The Qur'an was found riddled with multiple bullet holes. New Delhi: Furious protests have been held outside Baghdad after it was revealed that an American soldier used the Quran for target practice. The soldier, whose name was not released, shot at the Quran on May 9. The holy book was discovered two days later on a shooting range, by an Iraqi policemen. It was found riddled with multiple bullet holes and with an expletive scrawled on one page, as well. The soldier, who claimed he did not know he was shooting at the Quran, has now been re-deployed back to the US. This incident has forced the Commander of the US Forces in Baghdad to formally issue an apology. Major-General Jeffery Hammond later read out a letter of apology from the soldier, and described his actions as criminal behaviour. Another military official kissed a Quran and presented it as "a humble gift" to the tribal leaders. "I've come before you today seeking your forgiveness. In a most humble manner, I look into your eyes today and I say 'Please forgive me and my soldiers'," Hammond said. "The actions of one soldier was nothing more than criminal behavior. And I come to this land to protect you, to support you, not to harm you, and the behavior of this soldier was nothing short of wrong, and unacceptable. I have punished this soldier. I have dealt fiercely in punishing this soldier. "This solder has lost the honour to serve the United States Army and the people of Iraq here in Baghdad. He will no longer be able to do that," said Hammond in his apology. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92301102&ft=1&f=1004 Reporter's Notebook by Corey Flintoff Naked In Hijab Corey Flintoff/NPR Farah al-Jaberi holds her protest sign outside the Green Zone checkpoint that leads to Iraq's parliament. Her sign says, "From the American to the [female] Parliament employee - either no clothes, or the American prisons." Corey Flintoff/NPR This is the way Farah al-Jaberi says women are seen by an electronic security scanner at one of the checkpoints entering Baghdad's Green Zone - essentially naked, even when they are fully covered in conservative Muslim attire. NPR.org, July 8, 2008 ? A conservatively dressed Iraqi matron holding a provocative sign and a picture of a naked woman stood against the dusty concrete blast wall outside the main checkpoint where Iraqi workers enter and leave Baghdad's Green Zone. It's almost impossible for us, as Americans, to grasp just how shocking this was. First, you have to consider that for Farah al-Jaberi, an observant Muslim woman, conservative attire doesn't mean a tailored pantsuit; it means full hijab: a headscarf that conceals her hair and throat, topped by a head-to-foot abaya, a black drapery that's designed to obscure any hint of a womanly shape underneath. That this lady would be holding up a picture in public that revealed, well, every feature of a woman's shape, was striking to say the least. Jaberi explained that she was protesting her treatment while going through the various security checkpoints on the way to her job at the Iraqi parliament building. Because the Green Zone is the location of the Baghdad Convention Center, where Iraq's parliament meets, as well as the U.S. Embassy, security is exceptionally tight. Workers who enter on foot must pass through seven or more different checkpoints before they reach the Convention Center. People often have to wait in long lines to have their bags searched, their bodies patted down, their bodies scanned by an electronic imaging machine, their bags sniffed by dogs, and their identification cards examined. It was the scan that Jaberi particularly objected to, because, she said, guards are essentially able to see a woman naked as she stands in the scanning booth. The picture she displayed actually looks like a naked female alien, blue-tinted and bald, because the scanner doesn't see hair or clothing. What it sees is the body itself, plus the dark outline of any jewelry or, presumably, any concealed weapon. The fact that a woman in hijab can conceal so much is a matter of real concern to security officials, especially lately, as the number of attacks by female suicide bombers in Iraq has grown. Jaberi said that she and other Muslim women who pass through the checkpoints understand the need for security. "We're not terrorists, and we care about our safety. We don't want our offices to be blown up," she said. She said female employees don't object to having their bags examined, or to being patted down by female guards in curtained booths that are set aside for that purpose. What they do object to, she said, is going through a scan where their bodies can be seen by male guards or where images of their bodies can be saved and viewed by anyone later. Jaberi said she believed that she and other women had won their point in May, when officials agreed that women would not have to go through the scanner but could be searched separately and privately by female guards. She said that was the procedure for a couple of weeks until a new American soldier came on guard at the checkpoint and insisted that she had to go through the scanner. When she refused, Jaberi said the soldier took her aside, shouted at her and threatened to call the police. When she told him to go ahead and call, Jaberi says the soldier pointed his gun at her. That's when, she said, she turned back from the checkpoint, went home and inscribed her protest sign, which says in Arabic: "From the American to the [female] Parliament employee - either no clothes, or the American prisons." All this happened in early June. Reached recently by telephone at her workplace, Jaberi said her protest lasted a couple of hours. Eventually, she said, officials came out and told her that she would not have to go through the scanner. That's the way it has been for the past month, she said, and parliamentary authorities have recently opened a separate gate for women. Iraqi officials said the incident Jaberi was protesting is still under investigation. And she said she's still waiting for an apology. http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/34838 Workers in Basra protest decision to replace oil company chief By Abed Battat 07 August 2008 (Azzaman) Print article Send to friend Thousands of workers in Iraq's Southern Oil Company organized a two-hour sit early this week protesting a government decision to replace the company's chief. CEO Abduljabbar al-Aibi has been leading the company for the past four years and is credited with efforts to revamp the firm and maintain and boost output. The company in the southern Province of Basra is responsible for gigantic oil fields which currently produce most of Iraqi oil exports. The sit-in was called for by the Oil Workers Union. The union's leader, Hassan al-Assadi said the workers were determined to have the decision to move Aibi revoked. He said when Aibi took over the company was almost in shambles. "Aibi is an asset which should not be underestimated particularly at a critical juncture like this," he said. Despite Basra's turmoil and the presence of rival, disparate and powerful militia factions, Aibi has managed to steer the company and keep crude oil flowing. The union has sent a letter to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki asking for his personal intervention. The Oil Ministry's order to move Aibi to Baghdad as a consultant was issued three months ago. But the ministry is reluctant to put it into effect due to opposition from company workers who have threatened a general strike. Assadi said he hoped the ministry has understood the message of the sit-in in which almost all company employees took part. http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/34266 Customs officers protest transfer decision Basra, 27 July 2008 (Voices of Iraq) Dozens of customs officers in Basra on Sunday staged a demonstration in front of the provincial council building protesting a decision ordering the transfer of 1,900 of them to the boarder guard forces. "We held a peaceful demonstration demanding the cancellation of a decision recently issued by the head of the customs police department, which orders the transfer of 1,900 of customs policemen..," one of the demonstrators, Saad Salman, told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq ?- (VOI). "The decision orders our transfer to the river police and SWAT teams, which are irrelevant to our work in the customs police that we have joined since the collapse of the former regime in 2003," Salman noted. "The demonstrators urged concerned governmental bodies to set up a committee to examine the rationale behind the decision," he added. VOI has made every effort to contact the customs police chief, Staff Colonel Dhafir Sabah Abdelnabi, but to no avail. The Shiite city Basra lies 590 km south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/35449 Work in Diala university suspends, in protest to president's arresting Diala, 20 August 2008 (Voices of Iraq) Print article Send to friend The Diala presidency on Wednesday decided to suspend its official work for two days in protest to Iraqi forces arresting the president of the university, the media official of the university said. "The university's presidency held a meeting today at the university's headquarters in al-Senaaei neighborhood in Baaquba, and decided to suspend the work for two days in protest to the arresting of its president Nezar al-Khazragi yesterday by security forces," Duham al-Ubaidi told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq - (VOI). Iraqi security forces, from Baghdad, waged yesterday a crackdown operation in separate areas of Diala, where they arrested President Nezar al-Khazragi and the official of the security committee Hussin al-Zubaidi. Diala province extends to the northeast of Baghdad as far as the Iranian border. Its capital is Baaquba. It covers an area of 17,685 square kilometers (6,828 sq mi). A large portion of the province is drained by the Diala River, a major tributary of the Tigris. Because of its proximity to two major sources of water, Diala's main industry is agriculture, primarily dates grown in large Date Palm groves. It is also recognized as the orange capital of the Middle East. In January 2008 Operation Phantom Phoenix was launched in an attempt to eradicate the remnants of al-Qaeda network following the Diala province campaign between 2006 and 2007. http://www.ncr-iran.org/content/view/4879/109/ Iraqis stage protest against Ahmadinejad Friday, 29 February 2008 NCRI - A group of Iraqis on Friday protested in Baghdad against the upcoming visit to Iraq by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian regime's president. The protesters for two consecutive days in the Iraqi capital handed out pamphlets which read "Iraq is not for sale." They called on the Multi-National Force-Iraq to stop Ahmadinejad's visit to that country. Similar protest was held on Thursday in central city of Baquba. "No, no to the Iranian regime," read a banner carried by protesters. They said Iranian regime and its president were interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq, supporting al-Qaeda, promoting religious hatred and inciting sectarian violence. On Wednesday, Mr. Mohammed Abdullah Shahwani, Baghdad's intelligence chief in a statement said that Iranian secret service agents are working to "sabotage" the operations of groups fighting Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Al-Hurra TV reported that Mr. Shahwani asked the Iraqi Security systems to prosecute Iranian regime's mercenaries in Iraq. http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/32181 Border town residents demonstrate protesting water crisis Wassit, 09 June 2008 (Voices of Iraq) Print article Send to friend Residents of Jasan town near the borders with Iran on Sunday demonstrated near the local council's building, protesting low drinking and irrigation water supplies in their area. "The demonstration came due to the catastrophic circumstances in Jasan border district, due to the lack of drinking and irrigation waters," Sattar Jabor, a demonstrator, told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq - (VOI). "The majority of Jasan district's residents think of immigration, as their cattle and farms suffered from water shortage," he said. He demanded Jasan's local council and Wassit provincial authority to meet the demonstrator's demands of providing drinking and irrigation water. Another demonstrator, Na'em Mohammed, who is a farmer, said "Hundreds of donams (1 donam = 2,500 squared meters) of farms at Jasan district suffer lack of water, and were not irrigated since long time." The demonstrators handed over a list of their demands to the local council. The list embraced "forming a committee to investigate why water went off in the district, dismissing the manager of water resources directorate in the province, removing all the violations occurring on the district's water project, and connecting this project to the emergency power line." Jasan district (60 km east of Kut city) gets a water feed from an irrigative source that runs from al-Diboni district (50 km east of Kut), and passes through the farms to feed the district's water project. Press reports depict that al-Galal river that comes from Iran stopped running through the Iraqi territories, due to the Iranian intervention in this regard, a matter that deepened the water crisis in Jasan. Kut, capital city of Wassit province, is 180 km southeast of Baghdad. http://arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=112024&d=22&m=7&y=2008&pix=world.jpg&category=World Iraqi governor halts work to protest son's death DPA BAGHDAD: An Iraqi provincial governor stopped all work in his office yesterday until an inquiry was conducted into the killing of his son and nephew by US troops, while an Iraqi lawmaker blamed an attack in which his Baghdad home was blown up on "sectarian killers." US troops killed Sunday the son and the nephew of the governor of the northern Iraqi province of Salahaddin, Hamad Mahmoud. According to the provincial authorities, US forces raided the house of Mahmoud's sister-in-law in Bayji, 240 km north of Baghdad, and killed the governor's son and his nephew. But the US military said its troops were conducting a search operation for an Al-Qaeda suspect in a house in Bayji and found two armed men. The troops killed the men in self-defense, the military said. In Baghdad, armed men blew up the house of Iraqi lawmaker Mithal Al-Alusy. There were no fatalities in the explosion, as the house was empty at the time, but it was extensively damaged, security sources said. The Sunni lawmaker, who leads the secular Iraqi Nation Party, accused "sectarian killers" of carrying out the attack. Separately, attackers assassinated a clan chief, Abdel-Ghafar Abdullah, while he was on his way to a national reconciliation meeting in Baquba in the restive Diyala province, security sources told reporters. Also in Diyala, two police volunteers from the so-called Awakening Councils were killed and four were injured when gunmen attacked a council center in a village in the province. The Awakening Councils are US-backed tribal police units formed to fight Al-Qaeda militants in Iraq. http://mwcnews.net/content/view/22387/0/ Fatality at Afghan anti-US protest The protests centred on claims of civilian deaths at the hands of US military personnel [AFP] At least one person was killed and several wounded in Afghanistan when police opened fire to disperse a protest accusing US-led soldiers of killing civilians, witnesses said. Demonstrators tried to block a road on Saturday in the eastern province of Nangarhar, protesting over the killing of three men in a military operation overnight. Darya Khan, a resident, said: "Police tried to stop them, they threw stones at the police. Police then fired at the crowd. One person was killed and three others were injured." A doctor in the nearby city of Jalalabad said six people had been admitted with gunshot wounds. Sayed Abdul Ghafar, the provincial police chief, insisted that his men had opened fire into the air only and dismissed allegations that they had caused casualties. Contradicting claims by the US, Abdul Ghafar said that the people killed in the nighttime assault in Shinwar district were not fighters or Taliban members, but members of the public. marketing He said: "The coalition conducted independent operations in Shinwar and martyred three people. They were civilians." The protesters chanted slogans against foreign troops, George Bush, the US president, and Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president. "The Americans killed three civilians," said Rizwan Khan, a demonstrator. "They were my neighbours and I knew they were not Taliban." Contradicting claims Others at the protest said the dead were an elderly man shot in a mosque and two other men, employed as drivers, shot in their homes. Protesters drag a traffic sign in the Nangarhar protest [Reuters] But the US-led coalition said it had killed only fighters who had attacked troops searching for a "foreign fighter network". "During the operation, several fighters were killed when they attacked coalition forces. Nine militants suspected of foreign fighter [facilitators] were detained," a statement said. It is often difficult to verify events in Afghanistan, where thousands of Afghan and international soldiers are working against several networks opposed to the US-backed government, some of which have al-Qaeda backing. International troops are regularly accused of mistaking civilians for fighters and of being heavy-handed in their operations. The soldiers say they work on verified information and have the right to self-protection. Most Afghans are already unhappy with the ongoing presence of foreign troops in their country seven years after they came to drive out the Taliban-led government. http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/20080511/WIRE/805110436/1033/NEWS KABUL, Afghanistan Protester killed in clash Published: Sunday, May 11, 2008 at 4:30 a.m. Last Modified: Sunday, May 11, 2008 at 3:34 a.m. Dozens of protesters blocked a road Saturday in eastern Afghanistan, claiming U.S.-led coalition forces killed three civilians, and a local official said police fatally shot one of the protesters and injured three of them. Villagers from the area carried three bodies to a major highway during the protest. Police allegedly opened fire, killing one and wounding three. The coalition said its troops were attacked Friday while searching compounds in the Shinwar district of Nangarhar province. "Several militants were killed" and nine insurgents were arrested, the coalition said in a statement Saturday. Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said the government is investigating the villagers' claims. http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/200805/s2241204.htm?tab=latest Protestors clash with police in Afghanistan Print Email Updated Sun May 11, 2008 6:53pm AEST A least two people were killed and seven wounded in eastern Afghanistan when police clashed with demonstrators. Several thousand protesters were demonstrating against the killing of three civilians in the area by foreign forces in an overnight raid. The protesters said five civilians had also been detained in the raid. An official for NATO in Kabul said he was not aware of the raid. The U.S. military said all those killed were militants and the target of its raid was "a foreign fighter network". More than 700 civilians have been killed during operations by foreign troops while hunting Taliban-led insurgents in Afghanistan in recent years. http://story.australianherald.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/c08dd24cec417021/id/398225/cs/1/ Afghan villagers protest US air strike deaths Australian Herald Saturday 23rd August, 2008 Afghan villagers have launched protests against all allied forces after claims that 76 civilians, most of them children, were killed in US-led air strikes against Taliban rebels. The US military previously said that only 30 militant fighters had been killed in the strikes, but later admitted it was launching investigations into civilian deaths. About 250 villagers gathered in the angry demonstration on Saturday night, hurling stones at Afghan troops. The police chief for western Afghanistan, General Akram Yawar, said his officers had fired shots into the air to disperse the crowd. Two people were wounded after police were forced back into their compound. The protests centred around an incident in the village of Azizabad, about 120 kilometres south of Herat city, an area which is considered a stronghold of Taliban and other militants. If the death toll from the new incident is confirmed it would be one of the highest for civilians in Afghanistan. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1048630/Afghan-protests-erupt-US-jets-kill-76-civilians.html?ITO=1490 Afghan protests erupt after US jets 'kill 76 civilians' By Mail On Sunday Reporter Last updated at 12:05 AM on 24th August 2008 Comments (8) Add to My Stories Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai yesterday condemned US-led coalition forces for an air strike which he claims killed 76 civilians - including women and children. Hundreds of people demonstrated in the city of Herat in protest. American officials said they had targeted armed Taliban militants in Friday's air raid after Afghan and coalition forces came under attack from insurgents. Furious Afghans demonstrate after Friday's air strike More... Tide is turning in Talibanistan as mighty Nato loses ground LIZ JONES: The women of Kabul would tell us why British troops really are heroes The US claimed the strike killed 30 militants, including a Taliban commander, and only two civilians had been wounded. But Afghanistan's Interior Ministry claimed coalition forces bombarded the Shindand district of Herat, killing 76 civilians, including 19 women and seven men. It said the rest were children under the age of 15. The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission said that according to initial findings civilians including women and children had been killed in the raid but it could not be verified. Investigations by the Afghan government and the US military have been launched. A US military spokesman said: 'Our reports from our own forces on the ground are only, so far, that those killed in the strikes numbered 30 and they were all militants.' In a statement the US military said: 'All allegations of civilian casualties are taken very seriously. Coalition forces make every effort to prevent the injury or loss of innocent lives. An investigation has been directed.' A woman mourns the death of a relative following the airstrike in western Herat province UN spokesman Aleem Siddique said: 'It is imperative that we exercise caution before jumping to any conclusions. 'The issue of civilian casualties is so important that it is vital that we verify the facts of what has actually happened. It is a matter of great concern that we are seeing reports of large numbers of civilian casualties. The first rule of any counter-insurgency operation is to do no harm.' Hundreds of people demonstrated in Shindand district yesterday, shouting anti-US slogans, after Afghan soldiers arrived in the area to bring aid to the victims' families. Witness Shah Nawaz said: 'People didn't accept the aid and started throwing stones at the soldiers, saying the Afghan army is our enemy. 'We don't want anything from our enemies.' He claimed Afghan soldiers fired shots into the air and wounded six people after the crowd threw stones. He added: 'We will continue our demonstration until the international community listen to us and bring those who carried out yesterday's attack to justice.' The demonstrators also shouted anti-US slogans, saying Americans should withdraw from the area. A police vehicle blazes after being set on fire by protesters According to the United Nations, nearly 700 civilians were killed in Afghanistan in the first six months of this year, 255 of them by Afghan government and international troops, the rest by Taliban militants. Meanwhile, Afghan police chief Matiullah Khan said a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan killed ten civilians who were passengers in a small bus when the bomb exploded yesterday in the Shah Wali Kot district of Kandahar province. And another roadside bomb killed three more civilians in the Tani district of Khost province yesterday. On Friday a battle between Taliban fighters and Afghan police killed 17 militants in Helmand province. More than 3,500 people - mostly militants - have died in insurgency-related violence this year. http://quqnoos.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=878&Itemid=48 Police open fire on anti-NATO protest Written by Quqnoos.com Saturday, 14 June 2008 16:58 Gunfire wounds more than a dozen protestors, doctor says POLICE have opened fire on anti-NATO demonstrations in the south-east, wounding more than a dozen protestors, eye-witnesses have said. Hundreds of people in Paktia's Zurmat district took to the streets on Saturday in protest at what they called NATO's heavy-handed military tactics, which residents blame for the recent death of 15 civilians in a NATO raid on a home in the district. One of the demonstrators, Haji Zahir, said police opened fire on the rally and wounded 13 people. An official at the provincial police headquarters, Ghulam Dastgir Rustamyar, said police opened fire on the protestors, but that only three people were wounded. Rustamyar said police were told "terrorists" had infiltrated the protest and planned to attack the police headquarters. Protestors denied rebel fighters were among the crowd of demonstrators. The head of a private clinic in the area, Dr Haji Muhammad, said 13 people had been brought into his clinic with gunshot wounds. He said six people were in a critical condition. NATO officials say they killed five Taliban insurgents and one woman in the air-strike two days ago. Residents say the raid killed 15 civilians, including six children. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/13/asia/AS-GEN-Afghan-Violence.php US-led force says it killed 17 militants in southern Afghanistan The Associated Press Published: June 13, 2008 In neighboring Kunar province, more than 2,000 Afghans staged a peaceful protest claiming U.S. troops at a remote base had burned a copy of Islam's holy book, officials said. U.S. spokesman Lt. Nathan Perry confirmed the protest but denied the allegation. "We respect the Afghan culture and religion," he said. Local lawmaker Gulhar Jalal said Afghans working inside the base at Mano Gai had spread news about the alleged burning of a Quran. She said the incident allegedly occurred Thursday but had no further details. Provincial police Chief Abdul Jalal Jalal said police were sent to the area after the protest broke out in the town near the base but demonstrators dispersed peacefully. Afghanistan is a Muslim nation where blasphemy of Muhammad and the Quran is a serious crime that carries the death sentence. Such reports have sparked unrest before. In May, a protest in western Ghor province against an American sniper who shot at a copy of the Quran in Iraq turned violent, leaving one NATO soldier and two civilians dead. http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/227625,afghan-villagers-protest-after-civilians-killed-in-herat--update.html Afghan villagers protest after civilians killed in Herat - Update Posted : Sat, 23 Aug 2008 12:16:54 GMT Author: DPA Kabul - Hundreds of villagers in western Afghanistan demonstrated Saturday to protest the apparent death of scores of civilians in a US airstrike in Herat Province. Afghan police increased their estimate of the number of civilians killed to more than 90, and the senior UN representative called for a thorough investigation into the incident that took place in the village of Aziz Abad on Friday. The US military said in a statement that it had launched an investigation. "All allegations of civilian casualties are taken very seriously," the statement said. Western region police spokesman Abdul Raouf Ahmadi said that more than 90 civilians had been killed in the strike, speaking to Deutsche Presse-Agentur http://afghanistaninfo.blogspot.com/2008/05/afghan-students-join-teachers-wages.html Sunday, May 11, 2008 Afghan students join teachers' wages protest KABUL (AFP) - Police used gunfire to disperse about 400 students demonstrating Saturday in the Afghan capital in support of their teachers who are on strike demanding a pay rise, witnesses said. "My salary is 3,000 afghani (60 dollars) while my house rent is 4,000 afghani. This is not justice," said Agha, one of 300 teachers from Habibia High School on strike. "We will not teach unless our salaries are not raised," he added. Teachers earn among the lowest civil service salaries in Afghanistan, where food prices have shot up in the past weeks as part of a global hike in prices. http://www.gulfnews.com/World/Afghanistan/10219740.html Funeral held for BBC journalist killed in Afghanistan Agencies Published: June 09, 2008, 13:55 Helmand: The funeral has been held for an Afghan journalist working for the BBC who was found shot dead on Sunday. Abdul Samad Rohani disappeared from Lashkar Gah in the southern province of Helmand on Saturday. Helmand police chief Mohammad Hussain Andiwal said police did not know who abducted and killed Rohani, 25, and were investigating the murder. Dozens of journalists and media activists gathered in Kabul to condemn the murder. The reporter's body was taken from Lashkar Gah to his nearby home district of Marja where he was buried in the village cemetery. Jon Williams, the BBC's world news editor, said, "Rohani's courage and dedication have been a key part of the BBC's reporting from Afghanistan in recent years." A relative, who did not want to be identified, said neither the family nor Rohani had enemies. "The reason we lost our brother, we think, is to do with his job, being a journalist," he said. Hwoever, Reporters Without Borders said it had been told by Rohani's colleagues that he had received phone threats from "a local chief who accused him of supporting the Kabul government and of 'boycotting' news put out by the Taliban." The journalist had worked alongside the BBC's Kabul correspondent, Alastair Leithead, and was the Helmand reporter for the Pashto service of the BBC World Service. He was the second foreign BBC journalist to be killed over the weekend. Naftah Dahir Farah, 26, a freelancer who worked for the BBC and the Associated Press, was shot dead in Kismayo, southern Somalia, on Saturday. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7469338.stm Monday, 23 June 2008 13:08 UK E-mail this to a friend Printable version Protests over Afghanistan deaths Officials in eastern Afghanistan say a civilian man and his young son have been killed in fighting between US-led troops and militants. Several hundred villagers in Nangarhar Province took to the streets blaming US-led troops for the deaths. A local official said it was not clear who killed them. The coalition said it could not confirm any civilian deaths. US-led forces say they have killed 55 militants in clashes further south. There is no independent confirmation. A statement said 25 other "anti-Afghan forces" had been injured and three detained after coalition troops were ambushed in Paktika province on Friday. Meanwhile, Afghan intelligence officials say they have foiled a potential bombing after recovering a pressure cooker packed with explosives in the capital, Kabul. 'Death to America' Protesters demonstrated in Khogyani district of Nangarhar province on Monday. A BBC reporter in the nearby city of Jalalabad said 200-300 people took part. They shouted "death to America" and called for foreigners to leave the area as well as for compensation to be paid after the deaths of the civilians. Khogyani district governor Zalmi Khan told the BBC: ''A joint Afghan-American convoy was ambushed by the Taleban. Security forces returned fire and killed one Taleban - three others fled. "The dead body of the Taleban and his weapons are lying there. "As a result of the firing, one child and father got killed. We don't know whose firing killed them.'' The BBC's Bilal Sarwary in Kabul says Khogyani district is a remote and mountainous area on the border with Pakistan. He says there have been demonstrations against foreign forces there in the past when poppies were eradicated. Civilian deaths at the hands of foreign forces have prompted a number of protests in Afghanistan. President Karzai has repeatedly urged international troops to be more careful. Last year US forces said they were deeply ashamed" by the killings of 19 Afghan civilians by US Marines in Nangarhar Province. Correspondents say many more civilians are killed in attacks and suicide bombings by insurgents opposed to the Western-backed government in Kabul. http://globalvoicesonline.org/2008/07/28/afghanistan-violence-in-the-hazarajat-protests-in-kabul/ Afghanistan: Violence in the Hazarajat, Protests in Kabul Monday, July 28th, 2008 @ 06:26 UTC by Joshua Foust Afghanistan is one of those countries where minority issues drive nearly everything. They form the basis for why President Hamid Karzai is "the best game in town," but also why he should resign. They form the fundamental structure of the national government, with ethnic set-asides (Kuchis get 10 seats in Parliament, Tajiks and Hazara each get a Vice-Presidency), warlordism (no one will dare move against Abdulrashid Dostum's ethnic Uzbek enclave in the north), and generally a tense unease between various people groups. Because this situation is not new, it sometimes gets ignored in the face of the Taliban insurgency. But sometimes ethnic rivalries boil over into outright disputes. In Wardak province, just west and south of Kabul, the Hazara have a long-standing feud with the nomadic Kuchi over land rights. On Tuesday, July 8-the day after the horrific bombing at the Indian embassy in Kabul-a band of Kuchis moved into the Behsud district of Wardak and killed several Hazaras, taking at least four hostage and claiming the "right" to use their land. The Rumi reports: In April, Human rights workers expressed fears that Hazaras were planning to take up arms against Kuchis who settled on their land. "Given that both parties lack confidence in the government's ability to solve their disputes they may try to defeat each other by violent means," Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission said. Kuchis, who are predominantly Pashtuns, traditionally move all over the country in search of green pastures for their livestock and, at the start of each spring, many travel to the central provinces, where most of Afghanistan's Hazaras live. Kuchi elders complain that Hazaras have enjoyed strong international support since the Taliban's fall, while Kuchis have been perceived as collaborators of the mainly Pashtun Taliban. In July 2007, after several people were reportedly killed in clashes between Kuchi herders and Hazara settlers in Behsud district, President Karzai set up a commission to come up with a solution. Then commission has yet to report its finding. Very quickly, a blog to help the victims of the attack was set up. A relatively recent blog-based clearing house for Hazara issues, Hazarajat Times, picked up a story that would grow in significance: Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq, a Hazara Member of Parliament, first warned that the Kuchi incursion would lead to civil war if it was not resolved, then began a hunger strike on July 16 to end the conflict. He drew some rather surprising supporters, such as Abdulrashid Dostum, and within days hundreds had pledged to join in the strike. Since the current conflict was eerily similar to the exact same clash that happened in July of 2007, many Hazara were deeply frustrated at the perceived inaction of Kabul. So they planned a protest. By July 21, Mohaqiq was trying desperately to spread the word about the clashes (which were almost entirely unreported in the West). The Rumi captured most of what he said: He said "over 15 villagers including children and women have been gunned down while 20,000 persons have been displaced fleeing the barbarism of Al-Qaeda and Taliban supporters". Mohaqiq expressed disappointment towards human rights organizations, media and UN for not taking any serious notice of the invasion and strongly appealed the international community, human rights organizations and United Nations to intervene and avoid Kuchi nomads massacring the people of Behsud District. Last year on June 23, 2007 there was a giant peaceful public demonstration in Kabul against the Government to resolve the "Kuchi Headache" for ever "The international community, NATO led coalition forces, United Nations and Human Rights' organizations are needed to look into the matter and get rid of the "headache" meeting the human rights of the downtrodden people of central highlands" he added. About this time, some Farsi/Dari-language media began to cover the incursion. Quqnoos has a disturbing video of some Hazara victims of the attack. In posting the above video, The Rumi angrily wondered why President Karzai seemed to be doing nothing: Kabul government sent police forces to stop the Kuchis but in this video you can see the kuchi-armed groups dressed in Taliban style are walking in front of National Police. Why the police forces cannot take their weapons? What is so special for the kuchies to be armed while the rest of the ethnicities are disarmed? About this time, Mohaqiq was reportedly weakening. Registan.net noted that the ethnic issues surrounding the conflict had much more complex roots, and warns against assuming it is all about the Taliban: Many Hazara claim the Kuchi are "Taliban," or at least Taliban-loving, because during the 90s they worked with the Taliban, who granted them access to Hazara (and Tajik) land. Naturally the Hazara are angry over this imbalance. Here's the rub. As a predominantly Pashtun force, the Taliban were rather notorious for their appalling treatment of all other minorities within Afghanistan, including (or perhaps especially) the Hazara. In fact, the imposed famine on the Hazarajat was particularly brutal and generally unreported in the media in the West. Wardak is about half Pashtun, with most of the rest (somewhere around 40%, according to unreliable official statistics) Hazara.It seems, in brief, a fairly standard nomad/settler conflict, with the consequent disputes over land used both for agriculture and grazing. These types of conflicts become especially acute during times of drought or shortage, and the current squeeze over food prices, and a looming drought in the south, have probably exacerbated the conflict. The next day, July 22, Safrang noted that thousands of people took to the streets of Kabul, demanding the government put a stop to the depredation. The march started around 7:00 a.m. Tuesday morning in Dasht-e-Barchi area of West of Kabul and proceeded towards the city center and the offices of the UN's Assistance Mission in Afghanistan -UNAMA. Several news agencies have put the number of demonstrators at "thousands". By mid-day, Farda TV reported that the demonstrations were over and no incidents had taken place. Farda TV also aired footage of the demonstrations showing people in thousands marching in large thoroughfares of the city, advancing towards the center of the city. Footage also showed police in riot gear standing around, and in some cases lining up on the main streets at a distance from the demonstrators, blocking their advance. Faced with the riot police, some among the demonstrators encouraged those at the head of the demonstrations to sit down and not advance any further, avoiding contact with the riot police and keeping a distance of 15 meters or so. It was hard to read many of the placards and banners held up by demonstrators on TV screen. Those that I could read included: "We oppose ethnic conflict and those who support/encourage it" "The government should stand with defenseless civilians of Behsud" "We want Justice" The protests seem to have worked. Amidst a crowd Hazaristan Times estimated at 300,000, Mohaqiq ended his hunger strike, having met with both Karzai and UNAMA officials about the incursion. They posted some beautiful pictures. And President Karzai ordered an evacuation of the Kuchi, who by all accounts are slowly leaving the embattled district. At what cost, however? The Hazaristan Times started a donation drive to financially assist Hazara who had their homes razed or family members killed. The images they post are gruesome, but help to highlight just how severe this sadly ignored problem really was. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/22/asia/AS-Afghan-Protest.php Ethnic Hazaras protest in Afghan capital over land dispute with nomads The Associated Press Published: July 22, 2008 KABUL, Afghanistan: Thousands of members of an ethnic minority group called on President Hamid Karzai to resign during a protest Tuesday over an escalating land dispute with nomads. The tensions are another headache for the Western-backed government and threaten to add ethnic conflict to a list of woes already including the growing Taliban insurgency and runaway corruption. The protest was a response to weeks of tension - including allegations of murder - between ethnic Hazara communities and Kuchi nomads over grazing rights in Wardak province, southwest of the capital. On Tuesday, several thousand Hazaras gathered in downtown Kabul chanting slogans including "Karzai resign! Karzai resign!" Some had smeared mud on pictures of the Afghan president and held signs saying "Hazara people want justice." The crowds of mostly young men were halted in front of the Kabul zoo by a line of security forces wearing riot gear and carrying shields, but dispersed peacefully after about five hours. Haji Ramazan, a Hazara elder, claimed that Kuchis had killed at least nine members of his community, including women and children, in recent days. Several demonstrators demanded that the government disarm and settle the nomads elsewhere. Mohammad Aref Noorzai Kuchi, a nomad lawmaker, said the dispute should go to the courts. He claimed that Hazaras had killed at least five Kuchis in the past few days. "Those people who launched this demonstrations are political players," he said. "They are only looking for their own benefit." Tensions between Kuchi nomads and the Hazaras in Afghanistan date back decades, but are flaring this year partly because low rainfall means nomads and farmers are competing for scarce pasture. The nomads, who are mainly ethnic Pashtuns, claim that they have long-standing rights to let their animals graze in areas including the central highlands, where most Hazaras live. But the Hazaras dispute that, and want the nomads' animals off their land. The tension risks upsetting ethnic relations just as candidates begin to emerge for presidential elections due next year. Karzai, an ethnic Pashtun, has indicated that he will seek another term. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ldxar1 at tesco.net Fri Aug 29 22:53:48 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 06:53:48 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Protests: Schooling, Education and Teachers, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <00bc01c90a64$c71c7c70$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * CHINA: Parents of quake victims protest school building, govt stalling * UGANDA: Parents protest school reopening, fire risk * ISRAEL: Junior lecturers disrupt studies over work conditions * SAUDI ARABIA: Graduates rally, demand jobs * US, California: Educators walk 100 miles in funding protest * PAKISTAN: College lecturers set deadline * HONG KONG: Expat parents protest school fees hike * SRI LANKA: Government closes schools to hit sick-in campaign * US, Arizona: Protest against "secretive" officials * US, Santa Rosa: Protest against sackings of teachers * INDIA, Karnataka: Protest against "donation menace", corruption * TRINIDAD: Teachers walk out over dust problem * US, Florida: Teachers protest budget cuts * FRANCE: Teachers protest neoliberal policies * US, California: Protest over start time switch * NEPAL: Schools strike over Maoist beating * BANGLADESH: Protest over "misbehaving" university teacher * US, Olympia: Parents protest special education changes * INDIA, Erode: Protest over exclusion of teacher from hills list * US, Florida: Protest against budget cuts * ISRAEL: Teachers protest Annapolis summit, schools crisis * PAKISTAN: School closure protested * CAMEROON: Parents denounce PTA law, threaten to withdraw children * US, Texas: Protest against closure of two schools * PHILIPPINES: Two days of protests against school closure in Quezon City; school stormed * INDIA, Hyderabad: Protest against teaching in English * INDIA, Kurnool: Protest against school fees * US, California: Protest against threatened cuts * INDIA, Karnataka: Protest against harassment of staff by managers * INDIA, Andhra Pradesh: Protest for absorption of casual staff * INDIA, Kerala: Textbook protest * INDIA, Chennai: Protest against forced donations * US, Florida: Cuts protest * AUSTRALIA: Teachers protest at politician's office * US, Jackson: Parents protest over search for school superintendent * INDIA, Karnataka: Arts students hospitalised during fast * US, Florida: Teachers protest for pay increase * US, Guilderland: Protest over transfer of popular teachers * EAST TIMOR: Teacher protests earn pay rise * CAMEROON: Sultan intervenes in striking lecturer case * BANGLADESH: Protest against manhandling of guardian * INDIA, Hyderabad: Protest at moving of school * INDIA, Karnataka: Protest over teacher shortage * NIGERIA: Teachers strike over welfare system * INDIA, Jaipur: Teachers protest against transfer irregularities * US, Detroit: Public schools rally against charter schools * IRELAND: Labour Youth rally against fees * INDIA, Hyderabad: Teachers plan protest drive over promotions, state attitude * PAKISTAN: Controversy over torture of protesting teachers * UK: Private school heads withhold results over "farming" of school students * INDIA, Tamil Nadu: Protest over conversion of college into private university * INDIA, Andhra Pradesh: Teachers protest * PHILIPPINES: Teachers protest over "oppressive" policies of insurers * US, Gatlinburg: Protest at possible loss of art college site * AUSTRALIA: Teachers to protest at minister's office http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/20/asia/quake.php Parents of quake victims accuse government of stalling The Associated Press Published: June 20, 2008 WUFU, China: Angry parents of children killed when a primary school collapsed in an earthquake last month accused the Chinese government Friday of stalling instead of issuing the results of an investigation into the construction of the school. The parents said that local officials had promised to give them details on how the school was built and why it crumbled so easily in the quake May 12 that killed more than 69,000 people in Sichuan Province alone. It was the worst disaster in China in three decades. "They said they would give us answers on June 20," said Huang Zaojun, one of about 150 parents gathered at the ruins of Fuxin No.2 Primary School in the town of Wufu, about 75 kilometers, or 45 miles, north of the provincial capital of Chengdu. Huang's 11-year-old son was one of 270 students who died in the collapse of the school's three-story classroom building. But after a day of waiting, the parents were told at a meeting Friday that the results of the investigation were not ready to be made public. "The government said the experts are still making an evaluation and asked us to wait," Huang said. "They said the result might come out in three or five days, or one or two years." Hong Kong Cable TV quoted parents as saying that officials at the meeting had denied promising to provide details of the investigation. "We are not satisfied with the government," Huang said. "They are playing for time. We will ask lawyers to find experts to make a separate evaluation." Accusations of shoddy construction of schools have increasingly turned into anger against the local authorities in Sichuan Province. Parents have protested at numerous schools in the region, asking that the authorities explain why schools collapsed so easily while buildings near them were still standing after the 7.9-magnitude quake. Foreign engineers who inspected collapsed buildings in the province blamed poor construction. "If the government compels students to be in schools, and designs and constructs the schools, then the government has responsibility," said Brian Tucker of GeoHazards International, a nonprofit organization that advocates better quake-proof construction. But Tucker said it was difficult to identify responsibility because of the numerous layers of government involved in building schools. Kit Miyamoto, a spokesman for the Structural Engineering Association of California, said he found many cases of non-reinforced concrete when he inspected collapsed schools in the area, and that signs of substandard construction were easy to find in the area. "It took me four hours to understand what went wrong," Miyamoto said, but he agreed that it would take much longer to find out who was responsible. At least four journalists representing foreign media outlets were detained while trying to cover the meeting Friday between the parents in Wufu and the local authorities. Yuan Hongling, a foreign affairs department official, confirmed the detentions. "The reporters were working behind police cordons," she said. "They had already been notified in English and Chinese that they were not supposed to be there, but they remained there. So the police forcibly removed them." The journalists were released after about six hours. Sichuan Province was bracing Friday for heavy rainstorms that could trigger new landslides, with thunderstorms forecast through Sunday, according to the provincial weather bureau. June marks the start of the annual rainy season, which routinely leads to flooding in rivers in provinces downstream. Landslides are a particular concern because the earthquake caused steep hillsides to shear away and crash into river valleys below. Many slopes remain unstable and are at high risk of being washed away. The authorities have evacuated since Sunday more than 110,000 people from mountain districts near the epicenter of the quake, the official Xinhua press agency said. http://allafrica.com/stories/200806110099.html Uganda: Parents Protest Budo Re-Opening New Vision (Kampala) 10 June 2008 Posted to the web 11 June 2008 Angela Ndagano and Raymond Baguma Kampala BUDO Junior School re-opened yesterday amid protests by a group of bereaved parents demanding the release of the Police report on the fire that killed 20 children on April 14. "We need (education minister) Bitamazire now!" "Kayongo must be arrested" and "100 questions not answered", read some of the placards they carried. The angry parents and guardians sneaked into the school premises at 11:00am and proceeded to Nassolo dormitory, the scene of the fire, from where they began their protest. Holding photos of their dead children, they called for the arrest of the former head teachers William Kayongo and Livingstone Ddungu. They also demanded the resignation of Bitamazire and called for the release of a preliminary report on the fire by the Wakiso district authorities. The parents, who said they were representing the deceased pupils, hurled insults at the administrators and other parents who brought their children. They confronted Wakiso district chairperson Ian Kyeyune, accusing the district leaders of neglecting their plight and re-opening the school before it was safe. "If my child died, why do you want others to die?" asked Harriet Namubiru, the mother of Sylvia Nakandi, who perished in the inferno. "You did not hand your kids to me," Kyeyune retorted during the bitter exchange. He said the inquiry by Wakiso district was only to establish whether it was safe for the school to open for the second term. "It was after the recommendations of the district inquiry that we decided to reopen." Kibuuka Lutwama, a councillor at Wakiso district and father of the late Evelyn Zawedde, accused the LC5 chairperson of not honouring earlier requests to meet them. Christine Naava, the mother of the late Patience Namuyanja, said: "We do not want the school to close but we want a report on what killed our children. We are going to stay here and wait." Responding to the parents' demands, the deputy head teacher, Irene Mirembe, said the school was not able to provide the information the parents were demanding. She reminded the parents that the school was a Government institution and therefore had to continue teaching. But the parents threatened they would light a bonfire and hold a vigil at the burned dormitory. It took the intervention of state minister for primary education Peter Lokeris to calm them down. "The school has nothing to do with the Police report. The moment the report is released, it will go to the President, then Cabinet and the Parliament." He, however, shocked some parents when he remarked: "Some of you who are young can continue to get other children." The demonstration did not prevent other parents from bringing their children to the reopened school. By 3:00pm, records showed that at least 600 pupils had reported. "The candidates have lost time. I would like the ministry of education to extend their term. Otherwise, they may not complete the syllabus," said Lawrence Ssenoga, father of P7 pupil Irene Namusaazi. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/982366.html Last update - 22:43 11/05/2008 Junior lecturers to disrupt studies in protest against work conditions By Ofri Ilani, Haaretz Correspondent Tags: Israel, Lecturers, Strike Junior academic staff on Monday will start disrupting studies at universities across Israel in protest against the employment conditions of external lecturers. Danny Shpruch, of Tel Aviv University's junior academic staff, declared: "Our patience is about to run out. The members of our organization are employed on starvation wages as contracted workers, without any sort of pension or social rights." "We request of the university heads: Show responsibility. Let's not lose the semester because of redundant obstinacy," Shpruch said. Advertisement A general meeting will be held from 12:00-14:00 at Tel Aviv University in order to explain the lecturers' demands, during which there will be no classes. On Tuesday, another such meeting will be held at Haifa University between 12:00 and 14:00, at which time classes will also be cancelled. Members of the junior staff, which are responsible for a considerable part of University courses and programs, are all employed as "visiting teachers." As such, they are paid by the hour for eight months a year. They do not receive pensions or academic or social rights. Senior lecturers late last year held the longest academic strike in Israel's history, at the end of which agreements were signed in January that did not deal with the junior staff's working conditions. Last week, representatives of the junior staff agreed to postpone by two weeks the labor sanctions which were planned for next week, in order to engage in accelerated negotiations with the universities' administrations. http://www.arabianbusiness.com/526604-saudi-graduates-in-jobs-protest Saudi graduates in school jobs protest by Andrew White on Monday, 04 August 2008 TEACHING PROTEST: Angry graduates claim school jobs are going to expats in Saudi Arabia. (Getty Images) Nearly 1,500 graduates have rallied in front of the Saudi Ministry of Education demanding jobs, according to reports on Monday. Unemployed teaching and special education graduates carrying their certificates wanted to meet with the ministry officials early Saturday morning, but were prevented from entering by security guards, according to Al-Hayat newspaper. "I graduated from the Teachers' Training College in Riyadh two years ago but still have not found a job," one protestor, Mohsen Abdullah, told the newspaper. "The Ministry of Civil Service currently has over 324 education vacancies but they weren't announced." http://www.news10.net/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=45812 Educators Walk 100 Miles to Protest School Funding Posted By: Will Frampton 1 day ago SACRAMENTO, CA - They may never find a patch of grass more comfortable than the one they enjoyed Sunday. After walking five days and 100 miles, a teacher, principal and parent arrived from San Francisco at Sacramento's Governor's Mansion. Their exhaustion was matched only by the satisfaction from the protest they'd just carried out. "It was excruciating and exhilarating at the same time," said school principal Sande Leigh. "I wanted people to see me and I wanted to talk to them," said fifth grade teacher Kelly Clark. Clark said she and her walking companions chose the Governor's Mansion as a symbol, placing broken pencils on the steps to illustrate the tremendous struggle faced by their school. "Now that we're in crisis mode, we're being reactionary versus proactive," said Clark. By walking from downtown San Francisco to Sacramento, the modest group of protesters believes they spread a message that other school districts can relate to. Principal Leigh said her school, Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy, is broke. They have just $32 in their budget this year. "That's all that's left after we've paid for our people," she said. She puts the blame on Gov. Schwarzenegger, saying he has cut public school funding too much. "We decided we would walk to Sacramento to demand that the budget speak to the needs of our kids much more than it has," Leigh said. Governor's office spokeswoman Camille Anderson said Schwarzenegger has done all he can. "The governor has increased education spending each year he's been in office. He has also proposed ... increasing education spending over $200 million this year," Anderson said. "The governor understands the (protesters') frustration, and that's why he's asking the legislature for long-term budget reform in California." For Sande Leigh, that answer is not good enough. "We could lay off people (at school), and have more money," said Leigh. "It's an either-or situation, and it should never be that way." http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=119567 SPLA threatens protest drive Friday, June 20, 2008 By our correspondent HYDERABAD: The Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association (SPLA) here on Thursday set the deadline for 5th July 2008 for the resolution of college teachers' problems and meeting of charter of demands. Addressing a news conference at the Government Sachal Sarmast Arts and Commerce College, SPLA leaders Professor Liaquat Aziz, Yaqoob Chandio and others said that the decision was taken at a high-level meeting of the association. Liaquat Aziz said four per cent of the GDP should be allocated for the education sector and scientific and modern education policy should be devised in consultation with working teachers and such a policy should be approved by parliament. He said the syllabus should be improved, mother tongues should be made as medium of instruction, ban on teachers' union should be lifted in Sindh and forced leave and show cause notices should be withdrawn. He said that 863 ad-hoc lecturers of Sindh should be regularised like the NWFP, Balochistan and the Punjab and five-month salaries should be released and promotions of teachers should be made without further delay. He demanded that only educationists should be appointed as secretary education, medical allowance of college teachers should be increased to 2,000 rupees, plots should be provided to college teachers, soft loans should be given to them, college teachers' academy should be revived, higher secondary schools be made colleges and political intervention into educational institutions should be stopped. Also, commerce teachers should be appointed as principals of commerce colleges and Rangers' occupation of hostels should be ended. Moreover, education boards and public schools should be given under the control of the Education Department. http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/212605,expat-hong-kong-parents-protest-hikes-in-english-school-fees.html Expat Hong Kong parents protest hikes in English school fees Posted : Mon, 16 Jun 2008 03:39:01 GMT Author : DPA Category : Asia (World) Hong Kong - Hundreds of expatriate and Chinese parents have signed a petition protesting fee rises of more than 1,000 US dollars a month at English schools, a news report said Monday. Fees at the English School Foundation, which runs 20 government-subsidized, English-curriculum schools in the former British colony, have risen sharply in the past three years, the Hong Kong Standard reported. Annual tuition fees for primary school pupils have risen from 47,300 Hong Kong dollars (6,053 US dollars) to 58,100 Hong Kong dollars since the 2005-2006 school year. Meanwhile, secondary school fees have gone from 78,600 to 89,250 Hong Kong dollars a year, the newspaper said. Expatriate children make up around 50 per cent of all students, and parents complain they have no option but to send their children to the schools because local schools teach only in Chinese. The schools are also increasingly popular with parents of local Chinese children who see English as the key to international universities and better job prospects. When Hong Kong reverted to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, the administration introduced a controversial "mother tongue" teaching policy in local schools, phasing out English in favor of Cantonese. Three hundred parents have signed an online petition against the fee rises at the English School Foundation facilities, and the petition is to be sent to the foundation and Hong Kong's education bureau, which subsidizes the schools, the Standard reported. A foundation spokesman told the newspaper that the foundation was aware of the anger among parents but said the fee increases were necessary to pay for staff salaries and an expansion of the school network. Hong Kong is home to tens of thousands of expatriates from Britain, Australia and the United States who rely on foundation schools as well as non-subsidized international schools for their children's education. http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jun2008/sril-j13.shtml Sri Lankan government closes public schools to break up teachers' protest By Panini Wijesiriwardane 13 June 2008 In an extraordinary move in the name of "security", the Sri Lankan government closed down all the country's 9,714 public sector schools on Wednesday and Thursday in order to sabotage a sick-note industrial campaign by teachers. The teachers' unions had called the limited protest as a means of avoiding another strike over the demand for a pay increase of about 5,000 rupees ($US45) per month-a demand that has been outstanding since 1997. With rampant inflation devastating living standards, thousands of teachers, including principals, were expected to stay away from school for two days. Despite the efforts of the unions to prevent it, the threatened walkout, involving Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim teachers alike, presented a direct challenge to the government's austerity measures and its efforts to divide the working class along communal lines. Closing the schools constituted an outright attempt to intimidate the teachers and all working people, under conditions where President Mahinda Rajapakse's government is demanding further sacrifices of wages and conditions in order to finance its reactionary war against the Tamil minority in the island's north and the east. The government insists it has no funds to rectify the long-outstanding salary anomalies affecting teachers. Education Minister Susil Premajayantha told Lakbima that 9,600 million rupees would be needed to meet the teachers' demand. "This is equal to the whole amount allocated for the 1.9 million 'Samurdi' families across the island," he said. (Samurdi is a meagre state welfare program, which gives small amounts to some very low-income families.) Such a claim is a crude attempt to pit teachers against the poor, when the truth is that the renewal of the war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) since 2006 is the real cause of the growing financial crisis. When 200,000 teachers held a one-day strike for their pay demand last September, President Rajapakse told the teachers' union leaders: "We do not have money to allocate for this. Do you say that we should withdraw the military from the North and East?" The union leaders completely capitulated and called off a second strike-indicating their abject support for the government's war effort, and its attempt to offload the full burden of the war on the backs of the working class. Soaring prices for food, fuel and other essentials in Sri Lanka and globally have now, once again, driven the teachers into struggle. Even if they received a pay increase of 5,000 rupees, that would fall far short of what they need. Even since March, bus fares have risen 27 percent and train fares 300 percent. Shutting down the schools is also a calculated provocation by the Colombo government to pit students and parents against the teachers, with students ordered to attend school for two extra days in third term to make up for the lost time. Above all, the closure is another bid to create an atmosphere of emergency, in which any opposition to the government can be denounced as a threat to its military campaign against the LTTE. Education minister Premajayantha declared at a press conference on Tuesday: "In the event the school authorities fail to provide protection to their children, we have to take the sole responsibility for their safety, considering the present security situation in the country." In reality, it is the Rajapakse government that has created the greatest security threat to the country's people by renewing the civil war. The purpose of the war is not only to defeat the LTTE, but to divide the working masses by stoking ethnic tensions between Sinhala and Tamil people. Facing military setbacks in the north of the island, the government has seized upon a series of bomb blasts targeting civilians in recent weeks to increase police powers and other repressive measures that can be used against industrial and social unrest. Unions prostrate The teachers' union leaders have been prostrate before the government, not daring to call a strike or any public meetings. The government's decision to close the schools followed a breakdown in discussions between education officials and the unions that called the sick-note campaign-the Ceylon Teacher Service Union (CTSU), Educational Professionals Union (EPU) and All Ceylon United Teachers Union (ACUTU). The leading union in the campaign, the CTSU, is affiliated to the Sinhala chauvinist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). The JVP played a crucial role in bringing Rajapakse to power in 2005, and has been one of the most militaristic parties in parliament. Every month, the JVP has voted for continuing emergency rule and increased military spending, at the expense of essential social services. It frequently brands anyone interfering with the war effort as a "traitor" to the "motherland". After meeting government officials, CTSU general secretary Mahinda Jayasinghe told the Daily Mirror that the unions' primary concern was the government's financial difficulties. "If the government agrees to a pay hike rectifying these anomalies as a matter of principle, teachers will not mind the decision being implemented in stages given the financial crisis in the country," he said. In other words, any pay rise to teachers must not affect the government's war expenditure. Teachers who spoke to the WSWS called for a struggle to oppose the war and defend living standards. A teacher from Colombo Central School said: "The government's intention is to sow hatred among parents and ordinary people toward teachers by putting forward the issue of security amid a series of bomb blasts. The government hopes to generate an anti-strike sentiment in society." The teacher did not believe that the authorities would address the teachers' demands, and he had no faith in the capacity of the union leaders to seriously challenge the government. He continued: "As teachers, we are facing many difficult conditions at school. In our school, children are packed in classrooms with limited space. Some text books have not been delivered to students this year even though almost half the year has elapsed. Some classrooms have no lighting facilities. We also face transport problems-we have no public transport." The teacher pointed to the need to unify the struggles of the entire working class, regardless of ethnic backgrounds. "The existing rulers depend on whipping up poisonous sentiments such as racialism and religious differences," he said. "We have to oppose all these sentiments and unite on a common platform, not only as teachers but as workers." A 56-year-old teacher from a junior school in Kandy commented: "We have to advance this wage struggle. The government puts the war to the front and advises us not to appeal for anything. I think the war is the means for suppressing the rights of working people. We do not want this war." The Kandy teacher expressed opposition to the role of the union leaders. "I do not like this kind of sick-note campaign. In the past, we held strikes to advance our demands. The government will only take advantage of this kind of protest. I do not have any faith in the union leadership-they separate our problems from those of other workers." Since 1997, the JVP-led alliance of teachers' unions has used the demand for "rectifying salary anomalies" to limit and divert the teachers' struggle for better pay. The "anomalies" demand was brought forward when the government accepted the teaching profession as equal to other professions, such as nursing, and said teachers should be lifted to similar pay levels. However, this decision has never been implemented. Several other unions, including the Ceylon Teachers Union (CTU) and the Tamil Teachers Union (TTU), have supported the JVP's protest campaign, while forming a separate alliance that is critical of the JVP's communalism and open support for the government. Despite distancing themselves from the JVP, however, the role of these unions in seeking to pacify teachers has been no different. The CTU joined the betrayal of the teachers' strike last year. Now CTU general secretary Joseph Stalin has said that the unions would give the government until the end of June to meet their demands, but did not say what the unions would do if the government failed to meet the deadline. When asked by the WSWS, Stalin claimed the school closure was a "victory" for teachers, but did not explain how that could be the case, given the government's continuing refusal to pay the increase. A break from these unions is essential in order to unite working people against the Colombo government's war policy. In a statement on the teachers' dispute issued earlier this week, the Socialist Equality Party (Sri Lanka) explained: "Rajapakse's escalation of the war is not only starving public education and every other social program of funding, it is seeking to drown working class opposition to this big business program in communalism and nationalism. Like all its predecessors, Rajapakse's unstable coalition government has responded to rising social unrest by plunging the country back into catastrophic armed conflict. "To fight against the war and the escalating attacks on democratic rights and living standards, workers need an independent political movement based on international socialism. The SEP calls on teachers and all workers to take up the fight for a workers' and peasants' government to completely reorganise society to meet the needs of the majority, not the profits of the few. The working class in Sri Lanka-Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim alike-must unite to fight for a socialist republic of Sri Lanka and Eelam, as part of a union of socialist republics of South Asia and internationally". http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/04/22/20080422protest0423.html More than 100 teachers stage protest vs. officials 11 comments by Eugene Scott - Apr. 22, 2008 06:01 PM The Arizona Republic More than 100 Deer Valley Unified School District teachers on Tuesday night protested against what they called secretive school officials. But district officials say the teachers' complaints have no merit. Deer Valley Education Association officials, at a press conference outside district headquarters on 15th Avenue in north Phoenix, said the district has failed to have "open, honest and transparent" communication about the district's budget. The organization doesn't think the district or the superintendent is doing anything unethical with district funds, but simply has a problem with their unwillingness to share details. They carried signs with such sayings as "Tell the Whole Truth" and "No Teacher Left Behind." Herb Weil, Deer Valley Education Association president said: "For the first time in my experience, when we were bargaining this year, when it came time to talk about the budget and the things that were in the budget and how the available money was going to be used, we were told that that was none of our business." Sandi Hicks, the school district's spokesperson, said teachers have access to the same information they've always had access to. "All anyone has to do is pick up the phone and ask the question," she said. But DVEA officials said it hasn't been that easy. Teachers were told "that the governing board hired the superintendent and it's her job to make those decisions and they are not open for discussion," Weil said. Mark Kafouros, who has taught social studies at Deer Valley High School for 30 years, said he believes the superintendent and governing board is putting their needs ahead of the students. "They just don't believe teachers should have a voice in the process and we are here to convince them otherwise." Hicks said the district is not hiding anything from the teachers or anyone else. "In terms of budget, (teachers) have the same budget sheets that they have had year after year," she said. The district has set aside 87 percent of its $194 million budget for teacher salaries, she said. "That only leaves 13 percent to run the rest of the district - such as copiers, papers, supplies, utility bills. All of that information is available to the teachers and we have provided that information to them," Hicks said. http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/20080422/NEWS/719376085/1033/NEWS SRHS teachers carry signs in protest By RANDI ROSSMANN THE PRESS DEMOCRAT Published: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 at 8:36 a.m. Last Modified: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 at 8:36 a.m. More than two dozen Santa Rosa High School teachers stood out front of the school early today, carrying signs in support of nine teachers let go by the district for not being a "good fit." "It's scary. It's great. I'm encouraged by all this support and I hope it makes a difference," said Candice Nichols, a science teacher at SRHS and one of the nine told they didn't have a job next fall. The teachers walked the front sidewalk along Mendocino Avenue for about 45 minutes before first period. The teachers wanted to let the public know how they felt. "I want to support my colleagues," said Bill Cody, an economics teacher. "This new procedure is unfair, unjust and underhanded." "Bad teachers wouldn't get this support," said Andy Brennan, a government and world history teacher who is married to Susan Pearson, another Santa Rosa High teacher who is one of the nine. Three of the impacted teachers work at Santa Rosa High. Earlier this spring they received letters saying they were being let go because they weren't a good fit for the district. The issuance of the so-called non-re-elect letters sparked outrage among some teachers, parents and students who do not challenge the legality of the move, but accuse district officials of undue secrecy as to the reasons the teachers are being removed. The letters state the teachers are not a match for the district and will not be rehired. But teachers -- many of whom have received strong evaluations from their supervisors -- say the letters amount to a black mark and will make it hard for them to find jobs elsewhere. This morning, before 7:30 a.m., Mendocino Avenue was busy, with students arriving for school and others perhaps on their way to work. Several drivers honked as they passed, seeming to give support to the line of teachers whose signs included the slogans "Legal Doesn't Equal Just," "Lies," and "Demand the Board Explain." The protesting staff plans on returning after school, again Wednesday morning and making an appearance at Wednesday evening's Santa Rosa School District's board meeting. "We're not interfering with the operation of the school. We love this school," Brennan said. And as planned, just before the school day started, a car pulled up, the driver popped its trunk and the teachers hustled to it, to stow away their signs. They then walked onto campus and started their day in the classroom. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/21/stories/2008042153010300.htm Protest planned against donation menace in schools Staff Correspondent Many government-aided schools collecting donations: KRV leader Parents will also participate in the demonstration 'Government should ensure transparency in admission process' Belgaum: The Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (KRV) will hold a demonstration in front of the Deputy Commissioner's office on Monday to protest against "donation menace" in English-medium schools in Belgaum city. Parents will also participate in the demonstration, KRV district unit president Rajeev Topannavar said here on Sunday. He said that many government-aided schools in the city were illegally collecting donations ranging up to Rs. 50,000 for admission to pre-primary and primary classes. Despite the State Government's direction to Deputy Directors of Public Instruction to ensure that no school collected donations, no steps had been taken to check the menace, he said. Donations were being collected in the name of third party to avoid action from the Government, Mr. Topannavar said. The Government should either ensure that there was transparency in the admission process or take over the schools that were collecting donations, he added. K.U. Kumar, a parent told The Hindu on Sunday that some schools were demanding a minimum donation of Rs. 15,000 besides recommendation by influential persons for admission to LKG. The maximum donation being demanded was about Rs. 40,000, he said. The donation menace was rampant in English-medium schools, he said and added that some schools had increased the donation amount this year and were collecting it in the name of third party. In addition, the schools were collecting money for expansion fund and poor student fund which would add up to more than the tuition fee fixed by the Government. Dyanoba B.P., a parent, said that providing education had become a business now days. "Private managements (including those of aided institutions) have converted the education system into a profit-earning venture as there is no one to control them," he said. http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161318042 Sando Secondary teachers protest 'dust problem' For second day... South Bureau Saturday, May 3rd 2008 TEACHERS walked off the job at the fire-damaged San Fernando Secondary Comprehensive School for a second consecutive day yesterday to protest a dust problem that is affecting the health of both staff and pupils. School resumed last Monday, a week after a fire destroyed the school's library and main classroom block, with Education Ministry Esther Le Gendre boasting that the Ministry had moved heaven and earth to get the school functioning. But with the demolition of the gutted building and the school being asked to use port-a-toilets and temporary classrooms at the back of the school, the situation has become unbearable, the Express was told. Dust problems because of construction protests at the Princes Town and Couva Secondary Schools have also led to staff protests. Teachers said yesterday their main interest was the protection of pupils who had to endure the dust problems all day long while staff found refuge in their air-conditioned staff rooms. Several teachers sought treatment for upper respiratory problems. The promised prefabricated building to house pupils never came, they said. Teachers left the school at 10 a.m. yesterday after a meeting with Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association (T&TUTA) representatives. Pupils were dismissed shortly thereafter. Teachers are expected to report for duties on Monday. But Roustan Job, president of T&TUTA, insisted that work should be carried out over the weekend to reduce some of the problems. He said the Ministry had failed to deliver on its promises. "Teachers were promised proper toilet facilities. The toilets came, but there were no tents over them and they were not placed in the right location. And teachers have reported that the classrooms and staff rooms were not being cleaned regularly," he said. Job said teachers were also concerned about the lack of security at the school. "The teachers were promised four security guards, but on Thursday there was one and yesterday there were two guards. We are not satisfied with that because the back gate is opened most of the time and teachers don't feel safe," he said. An official at the Ministry of Education said they were aware of the teachers' concerns. "A team would be visiting the school soon to address these concerns," the official said. http://www.local6.com/education/16041298/detail.html?rss=orlpn&psp=news Hundreds Of Teachers Protest Feared Budget Cuts POSTED: 6:54 pm EDT April 28, 2008 UPDATED: 7:35 pm EDT April 28, 2008 ORLANDO, Fla. -- Hundreds of teachers and families gathered in downtown Orlando Monday to protest feared cuts that they say threaten local schools and education. Orange County has proposed cutting 585 teachers and Volusia County has proposed eliminating 300 teachers. Seminole County may have to get rid of 154 teachers and officials in Brevard, Lake and Osceola county officials are undecided how many teachers to eliminate. The group of educators at Lake Eola urged lawmakers to restore school funding or at least tap into the state's emergency reserves to get schools through the next year. "We need Gov. Crist to tap into the rainy day funds," Orange County Teachers' Union representative Mike Cahill said. "They have to save our educational system." "We feel abandoned," teacher Betty Sasser said. "We feel totally abandoned by the legislature. We have lost 43 teachers in my school alone. Lawmakers said their hands are tied and that the money is not available, Local 6's Mike DeForest said. The teachers said cuts in programs like music, arts and sports could be impacted by the cut. Lawmakers will be finalizing their budge in the next few days. http://www.nowpublic.com/world/teachers-protest-paris-streets Teachers protest on Paris streets by cynthia yoo | May 18, 2008 at 09:31 pm | 164 views | 3 comments Tens of thousands of teachers marched through Paris streets, protesting the education ministry's policies to cut jobs. The protestors are also unhappy about President Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to force schools to stay open in the event of strike action. Mr Sarkozy was elected a year ago on a platform of reforms, but many of them have provoked stiff opposition. Separately, fishermen angered by rising fuel costs blockaded La Rochelle port. A cordon of 90 fishing boats cut off access to the commercial harbour La Pallice on France's Atlantic coast for a fourth day running. Fisherman also blocked off three fuel depots that serve much of western France, by piling palettes up on their access roads. They promised to maintain their protest until talks with the government open on Wednesday, AFP news agency reported. http://www.cfnews13.com/News/Local/2008/5/19/orange_co_parents_students_protest_school_start_time_switch.html?refresh=1 Orange Co. Parents, Students Protest School Start Time Switch Tuesday, May 20, 2008 6:44:32 AM Tools: E-mail | Print | Feedback | ORLANDO -- Parents and students were out in force Monday, hoping to convince Orange County school leaders to reverse a decision to swap the start times for middle-schoolers and high school students. School Board member Rick Roach organized the meeting at Freedom High School to ask parents how else the School Board could cut its budget. The district estimated the swap could save more than $2 million in bus costs, but many high schoolers feared getting out of school later would impact extracurricular activities, and even grades. "If this takes effect, I won't be taking lacrosse, probably just getting a job after school, be working late. Probably grades won't do so great, because you get home late. Don't have much time to do homework," said Sean Murphy, a student who did not support the schedule change. "People have good ideas. We've asked the community to take some ownership in this, and so I think this is the way you do it. If you don't like what's going on, then help us to find out what else we can do," Roach said. Roach said he was hoping to convince the board to put this issue back on the table for discussion. A protest was planned Wednesday outside School Board headquarters in Downtown Orlando. http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2008/may/may18/news06.php Madi schools shut to protest Maoist beating Schools in Madi of Chitwan district remained shut down, Sunday, not because of holiday, but to protest the beating up of two teachers of a local school by cadres of Maoist-affiliated Young Communist League (YCL) a few days ago. Demanding action against the YCL cadres involved in manhandling of the teachers of Someshwor Secondary School, altogether 47 private and community run schools in Madi of Chitwan didn't conduct regular classes. Someshwor Secondary School, where some 1,300 students study, had remained shut for the past five days. And now with other private and community school shutting down to show their solidarity with the teachers, the studies of thousands of students in the area has been affected. On May 13, in the course of an internal dispute, YCL cadres had roughed up teachers Krishna Pathak and Ram Nath Tiwari of Someshwor Secondary school inside the school premises itself. Tiwari had sustained serious injuries in the Maoist beating and is still convalescing at the local hospital. Most residents of Madi have a bitter experience with the Maoists. During the time of the insurgency Maoists had blown up a passenger bus into smithereens there, killing all those traveling in it most of whom were from Madi. Although the Maoist leadership has publicly apologized for the party's hand in the incident, the Madi residents have since been holding a deep frustration and resentment over the Maoists. nepalnews.com ag May 18 08 http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=36631 Published On: 2008-05-15 Metropolitan DU employees protest teacher's misbehaviour DU Correspondent Employees and officials of Dhaka University (DU) yesterday staged a demonstration inside the registrar building for five hours demanding punishment to a university teacher for misbehaving with a group of employees. Several hundreds of employees, mainly working at registrar building, took out processions at corridors of the building in several phases since morning and held a protest rally in front of the vice chancellor's (VC) office room. They claimed that Associate Prof ATM Abdullahel Shafee of Peace and Conflict Studies Department misbehaved with a group of employees of administrative unit of the registrar's office on Tuesday. While talking to The Daily Star, Dr Shafee dismissed the allegations as false and said, "While I asked to give my necessary papers, the concerned employees asked me to give a written application. When I inquired whether there is a rule in 1973 ordinance that a teacher has to give a written application, they rather failed to give me proper answer". "Without informing me, the VC formed a probe committee through syndicate," he said questioning the rationality of the probe committee. He alleged that taking advantage of the issue, the employees are trying to resume their previously banned guestroom rent process in their residential quarters to outsiders and meet their other illegal demands. Pro-VC Prof AFM Yusuf Haider said, "A huge number of files will be piled up if they do not join their work. So, I called on them to halt their work abstention programme". http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-05-28-0169.html Parents protest special-education changes Proposed regulations would reduce parental involvement, they say Wednesday, May 28, 2008 - 12:08 AM By OLYMPIA MEOLA TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Powhatan County mother Cas Schirra fought for 12 years for her daughter to receive special-education services. The girl, now 18, was granted those services last month. That made last night Schirra's first public foray into special-education legalities from the perspective of a parent. She pleaded with Virginia Board of Education members to not decrease parental involvement as they consider changes to the state's special-education regulations. "We as parents desperately need to be involved at every single level," Schirra said. "And to take that away from us, to take our voice that is so small and so difficult for the schools to hear, would be reprehensible." Two Board of Education members, several Department of Education officials and roughly 150 parents, school officials, special-education teachers and advocates listened for hours to brief, emotional speeches that touched on many of the proposed regulation changes. Mothers spoke through tears, fathers told personal stories, many shared private hopes for their children's futures. They constituted the largest turnout so far to any of the board's comment sessions across the state. The hearing at Clover Hill High School in Chesterfield County was among nine being held to solicit input on the proposed regulation changes. A concern shared among most of the parents who spoke hinged on changes to parental involvement, including a proposal to allow school officials to determine that a student no longer has a disability and discontinue special-education services without parental consent. The Board of Education is revising the state standards to comply with federal law. The proposals -- ranging from changing discipline procedures to redefining disabilities -- are aimed at streamlining the extensive special-education policies and aligning them with federal regulations, education officials say. The Virginia Council of Administrators of Special Education, a nonprofit professional organization, has urged adoption of the new regulations. And one speaker who supports the suggested changes said last night that Virginia has exceeded federal requirements for special-education services for years and some changes to state rules would bring them in line with federal ones. "Is there anything wrong with the rights parents get under the federal requirements?" asked Kathleen Mehfoud, an attorney who has represented school boards and handled special-education issues for 30 years. Judging by the cool response to her comments, the crowd's answer was yes. The Department of Education already has received thousands of comments about the proposed changes, including a letter from Gov. Timothy M. Kaine who wrote to the Board of Education that "I do not currently see any circumstances under which I would approve a final regulation reducing parental involvement in these ways." The Virginia Office for Protection and Advocacy, a state agency that addresses disability-related problems, also filed comments critical of the proposed regulations, writing that "the proposals will seriously undermine Virginia's commitment to full acceptance and integration for people with disabilities." Several speakers last night heralded Kaine's remarks and railed against the proposed changes. Bradley Purcell, father of a 15-year-old son with severe dyslexia, took issue with the changes to parental consent as well as a proposal to make the Department of Education responsible for training hearing officers who preside over due-process hearings. Currently, the state Supreme Court trains officers who oversee the hearings, which can be costly resolutions to disputes between parents and a school system over special-education services. "The Department of Education is in close alignment with local education systems for a number of obvious reasons," said Purcell, an attorney from Richmond. "The DOE shares the job of implementing the state's educational policy and has many budgetary and staffing linkages with school districts." Board of Education members will complete all public-comment sessions and will likely tweak the draft document before taking action, according to Charles Pyle, Department of Education spokesman. They aim to take final action this fall. Contact Olympia Meola 649-6812 omeola at timesdispatch.com http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/22/stories/2008052250250300.htm Schoolteachers stage protest in Erode Staff Reporter ERODE: Elementary school teachers of the Tamil Nadu Thodakka-palli Asiriyar Koottani staged a protest here on Wednesday. The teachers condemned the Education Department, Erode, for excluding a teacher from the list of those who ought to serve in hill areas in the ensuing academic year. District president of the teachers' association J. Elanogvan said as per a Government Order, senior-most elementary school teachers at panchayat unions that comprised hills areas ought to serve in hills. However, in the current round of transfers, a particular teacher of Anthiyur Union was kept out of the loop for reasons best known to officials concerned, he said and wanted the teacher to be transferred to hills. The teachers also protested against the Department officers for promoting elementary school teachers as middle school teacher, when the Director of Elementary Education had issued an order against it. http://www.nbc6.net/education/16349105/detail.html?rss=ami&psp=news Teachers, Parents, Students Plan Protest Against Budget Cuts Protest Planned For Wednesday POSTED: 9:15 am EDT May 21, 2008 UPDATED: 9:16 am EDT May 21, 2008 MIAMI -- Teachers, parents and students plan to raise their voices against budget cuts Wednesday outside the Miami-Dade School Board building. Cuts in the state education budget are forcing the school board to eliminate $284 million, the biggest cut in history. About 1,200 positions are on the chopping block, including many school psychologists who have already received layoff notices. School resource officers will have their hours cut, and funding for the magnet school program is expected to be slashed. The teachers' union is expected to propose moving 150 principals and vice principals into teaching positions, saving more than $50 million for the district. http://www.nowpublic.com/world/teachers-protest-annapolis Teachers protest in Annapolis by shellieh_19 | May 22, 2008 at 01:51 pm | 37 views | add comment Israeli teachers protest the participation of Olmert in the summit, as they think he should focus on the education crisis in Israel's schools. "Excuse our nerve, but what are you doing about education, Olmert?" says another banner. http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=114712 Protest against closure of school Sunday, May 25, 2008 Khalid Iqbal Rawalpindi The parents Saturday staged protest in front of District Coordination Officer office against the closure of Government Girls Primary School Chountra in Bahiya village. The primary school management could not take annual examinations of girl students. There was only one lady teacher in the school who was also transferred to another school some two months ago due to which school remained closed. The parents met DCO Jamal Mustafa and asked him to take immediate action against concerned persons. The DCO assured the parents that action would be taken against responsible persons. The parents told 'The News' that there was not a single teacher in the school therefore it was closed. They said that their children could not appear even in the annual examinations due to non-availability of teachers in the school. "We could not afford to send our children to private schools," the said. http://xymbollab.net/stories/200806021578.html Cameroon: Parents Protest New PTA Law The Post (Buea) 2 June 2008 Posted to the web 2 June 2008 Olive Ejang Tebug Ngoh Some 200 parents of Government Technical High School, GTHS Kumba, have picked holes in the new Parents Teachers Association, PTA, law and vowed to withdraw their children if it is applied. The parents protested the new law at the Annual General Assembly meeting of the PTA that took place recently at the school.The Principal, Stephen Mbu, had read the new circular from the Minister of Secondary Education, Louis Mbapes Mbapes, governing Parent Teachers Association, PTA. He said PTAs would henceforth be controlled by the Ministry of Secondary Education. But the parents rejected the application of the circular and told the principal that should he go by the order, they would withdraw their children from the school. Joseph Nde, a parent, picked holes in the constitution of the bureau, which states that a representative of the local administration would be a member of the executive bureau. Nde said it was shocking to have a gendarme and police in their midst when it concerns education. He questioned whether the PTA would have to be governed by military rule henceforth. Corroborating Nde, Godwil Foncham lamented that inviting the forces of law and order and the local administration will mean losing fuel money from the PTA coffers.He held that most often, local administrators, police and gendarmes would want the PTA to fuel their cars before they attend meetings. Foncham said the new law is a means to crumble PTAs rather than building its image. Another parent, Victor Longla, said bringing administration into the PTA set-up is bringing politics to schools. He feared that in the future, administrators would dominate the PTAs, and begin to use them for personal gains. The principal told the parents that clandestine students were dominating the institution. He said they collect fees, rents and feeding allowances from their parents, stay around campus but do not register. Mbu said such students dash into the classrooms when a school administrator is not around and rush out when he appears."Studies are ineffective when taken in fright," he said. Mbu also said parents do not insist to see the reports of their children to ensure they are registered. At the end, both the parents and teachers deliberated on how to improve studies in the school for better results to be achieved this academic year. http://www.keyetv.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=91efa93b-218b-4240-ad84-9fa7a450311a&rss=909 Parents protest possible closure of two A.I.S.D. schools CBS 42 Reporter: Rebecca Taylor Email: retaylor at keyetv.com Last Update: 5/31 5:42 pm Print Story | Email Story Austin - The TAKS scores for 2008 are in but time could be up for both Johnston and Pearce. Parents picked up their protest signs and converged on the south steps of the capitol just hours ago. The message was clear -- these east-side schools are making progress, and closing them would do more harm that good. Both Johnston and Pearce have been rated academically unacceptable for four years running based on TAKS results. Many parents say closing those campuses would mean busing their kids to already overcrowded schools. Many today called on legislators to re-evaluate how they assess academic progress and called on A.I.S.D. to give the school better resources. Protesters today pointed to rising TAKS scores as proof their kids are trying and deserve to stay where they are. Others want to see the school open, but don't want A.I.S.D. in charge anymore. Gavino Fernandez graduated from Johnston Highschool in 1972 and says, "I think that A.I.S.D. has failed, the school board has failed and the track record is pretty evident that they've failed in investing and making the commitment to educate the children in east Austin." Susan Moffat opposes the school closings saying, "These schools are making progress, their communities are getting involved, their taks scores are rising -- just not fast enough by some predetermined ration put together by somebody you can bet never walk in the shoes of these kids, or their teachers or their families." Both schools are now planning to present their plans for improvements to A.I.S.D. board members soon. From there, they take their case before the Texas Education Agency, who will make the final decision. http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storyPage.aspx?storyId=121359 Second day of protest held vs QC school's closure Parents and pupils continued their protest for the second day Wednesday at a school in Project 4 district that was ordered closed by the local government of Quezon City. Former Akbayan party-list Rep. Loreta Ann Rosales personally visited the parents and pupils who held the rally against the closure of the Belarmino Elementary School. "In the first place, the local government should find an alternative school for the children," said Rosales during an interview with radio dzMM on Wednesday morning. The school was ordered closed down by Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. to pave the way for the construction of a new sports complex. Rosales said that 478 school children were unable to attend their first day of classes last Tuesday because of the closure. She also appealed to the Department of Education (DepEd) to order the teachers to go back and start teaching the school children since the blackboards, equipment and classrooms are still there. Earlier reports said the local government tried to convince parents to send their children to a nearby school. Parents, however, said that Pura Kalaw Elementary School also in Project 4 is already congested. They added that additional pupils will only worsen the situation. The former lawmaker said this was the problem facing Belarmino pupils who transferred to other schools. "There was a video showing students studying inside the canteen. Why should that happen when there are classrooms here?," she said Rosales said she plans to make an appeal to DepEd Secretary Jesli Lapus and Belmonte to resolve the problem. "Priority is given education. I would like to think that we should prioritize education and not ownership. Education is a basic service," she said. With Edwin Sevidal, radio dzMM http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/metro/view/20080610-141902/Students-parents-protest-QC-mayors-school-demolition-order Students, parents protest QC mayor's school demolition order By Marlon Ramos Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 18:04:00 06/10/2008 MANILA, Philippines -- A picket marred the opening of classes in Quezon City Tuesday as around 400 students and parents forcibly opened the gate of a public elementary school in Project 4 to protest the order of Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. to have it torn down. Led by officials and members of the Parents-Teachers Association (PTA), the placard-bearing protesters assembled in front of Belarmino Elementary School (BES) in Barangay (village) Milagrosa as early as 6 a.m. Belmonte had earlier instructed the closure of the school to give way to the construction of a new sports arena. He also ordered Dr. Victoria Fuentes, the city schools division superintendent, to facilitate the transfer of the affected students to the adjacent Pura V. Kalaw Elementary School (PVKES). Only a concrete fence separates the two public schools. "We call on Mayor Belmonte to honor his promise to us that he will not close the school for the sake of our children," said parent Thess Jimenez. "All we're asking the mayor is to give classrooms to students from our barangay. It's more important than having a sports complex," she added. Jimenez, a board member of the BES-PTA, said Belmonte told her and other officials of their group, during a meeting in his office on April 24, that he would not order the demolition of the school until they conduct a consultation. "Clearly, the mayor doesn't have a word of honor," she lamented. At around 9 a.m., enraged students forcibly opened the gate of BES, which was locked by the city government since last month. "Teachers na lang ang kulang [Only the teachers are missing]," the protesters chanted as they scampered inside the school grounds. Policemen from nearby Quezon City Police District Station 8 were deployed in the area to ensure the rally did not affect the classes at PVKES. But the protesters then went to PVKES where they held a brief dialogue with its principal, Nimfa Tolentino, and former BES teachers. Tolentino, who used to be the officer-in-charge of BES, told the parents that she cannot order the return of the teachers to BES unless Fuentes issues a memorandum on this. "I'm just following orders from my superiors. Sorry, but I cannot do what you are asking me on my own," she told the parents. At around noon, the protesters left the area but promised to hold another picket on Wednesday. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/13/stories/2008061357900400.htm Teacher MLCs join protest HYDERABAD: Taking their struggle against introduction of English medium in government schools a step further, MLCs from teacher constituencies staged a protest near the Assembly on Thursday. The MLCs - Chukka Ramaiah, D. Rami Reddy, P. Subba Reddy, P. Sudhakar Reddy, M.V.S.Sharma, K.Lakshmana Rao, V. Balasubramanyam and K. Nageswar joined the protest. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/10/stories/2008061057720300.htm Vocal protest - Photo: Ashoke Chakrabarty Restive: Activists of the All Orissa Elementary T.G.Teachers Association staging a demonstration near Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's residence in support of their demands in Bhubaneswar on Monday. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/08/stories/2008060852700300.htm Andhra Pradesh - Kurnool AISF protest KURNOOL: The supporters of All India Students Federation (AISF) staged a demonstration on Saturday urging the government to bring about the School Fee Regulation Act to discipline corporate schools. Some of the corporate schools had no recognition but spent huge amounts on advertisements. The AISF leaders said they would intensify the agitation if authorities failed to initiate steps in favour of the students. .-Special Correspondent http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-06/07/content_8323221.htm Los Angeles teachers stage protest against budget cuts LOS ANGELES, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of Los Angeles teachers staged a mass protest against possible education budget cuts on Friday, calling for increased funding. In the protest, the teachers spent the first hour of the school day picketing instead of teaching. They went unpaid for the hour they spent protesting. Protesters were carrying picket signs calling for increased education funding. Some teachers even marched alongside some downtown-area streets. At some schools, students joined the teachers, chanting and shouting at passing vehicles. "The teachers of L.A., once again, along with the health and human service professionals who work at the schools, have taken a bold step and have said loudly and clearly: one hour's pay for the kids of L.A.," said United Teachers Los Angeles union President A.J. Duffy. At some schools, 100 percent of the teachers participated, Duffy said. Many parents of students encouraged teachers with their verbal support and, in some cases, by bringing doughnuts, he said. There could be more teacher protests in the future, he added. Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) officials went to court on Thursday seeking a court order preventing the protest, but a judge rejected the effort. An LAUSD spokeswoman said information was still being compiled on the protest, including the total number of teachers who participated. Superintendent David Brewer said he supported the teachers' message, but not the method. "Protest an hour before school starts. Protest an hour after school," Brewer told ABC7. "Basically, teach and have the children write letters to the governor's office, the legislators. That would send a powerful message to Sacramento (capital of California)." LAUSD officials feared that the protest would jeopardize students' safety, because there would not be enough administrators to look after them while teachers were out of the classroom. District and union officials have said Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget would slash about 353 million dollars from the district budget. Officials with the governor's office disagree, insisting that the district's budget would actually increase by about 200 million dollars under the most recent spending proposal. District officials counter that LAUSD is receiving less than what it requested, and the proposed allocation does not cover cost-of-living increases. They also claim funding would be cut to other programs, further impacting the district budget. H.D. Palmer, deputy director of the state Department of Finance, said the governor added nearly 2 billion dollars to education funding when he revised his budget proposal in May, despite a 15.2-billion-dollar statewide budget shortfall. Palmer called that commitment "a testament to the fact that this governor puts a very high priority on education." http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/01/stories/2008070157320300.htm Karnataka - Mysore Protest against 'harassment' by college management Staff Correspondent - PHOTO: M.A. SRIRAM Plea: Members of the English Teachers' Forum staging a protest in Mysore on Monday. MYSORE: Members of the English Teachers' Forum held a demonstration in front of the Crawford Hall here on Monday in protest against the "harassment" of teachers by Banumaiah's College management. The management had refused to relieve Anuradha Ramamurthy, an English professor who had served the institution for 36 years, who was to retire on Monday. The management asked her to appear before a committee appointed to inquire into the "flimsy" charges levelled against her, said S.R. Ramesh, president of the forum. Prof. Ramesh alleged that Vijayakumar, who had taken over as Principal six months ago, was harassing teachers, especially those who come under the University Grants Commission scheme. Frustrated with the "harassment," three women lecturers had complained to the Women Harassment Redressal Cell of Mysore University. But despite a notice, Mr. Vijayakumar had refused to appear before the committee. The cell, which inquired into the complaint of the women lecturers, had submitted a report to the Mysore University Syndicate, Prof. Ramesh said. The Syndicate, which met on May 16, had written to the college management asking it to restore the increment due to Prof. Ramamurthy, whichhad been withheld. It requested the Director of Collegiate Education to initiate disciplinary action against Mr. Vijayakumar, Prof. Ramesh said. The management asked Prof. Ramamurthy to appear before the inquiry committee appointed by the college on the day of her retirement. The forum held a demonstration in protest against this. Its office-bearers met the management on behalf of the teacher. "The management finally agreed to relieve Prof. Ramamurthy", Prof. Ramesh added. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/28/stories/2008062857360300.htm Andhra Pradesh - Kurnool Protest held KURNOOL: AISF supporters and the non-teaching staff of PG centre staged a protest here on Friday accusing the VC of SKU of recruiting non-teaching staff for the Rayalaseema University. They said the VC had no right to appoint staff from Anantapur when the casual staff here were still to be absorbed. - Special Correspondent http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/26/stories/2008062659050300.htm Protest meet THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A meeting will be organised on the Senate House campus of the University of Kerala by the Kerala University Employees' Union in protest against what the union sees as attempts by the UDF to create a controversy over the revised school textbooks introduced by the LDF government. The meeting to be organised at 1 p.m. on Thursday would be inaugurated by former higher secondary Director V. Karthikeyan Nair, a press note issued here said. - Staff Reporter http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/25/stories/2008062559630300.htm PMK protest against capitation fee Special Correspondent - Photo: S. Thanthoni FOR A CAUSE: Members of PMK students' wing protesting against capitation fee and donations in educational institutions in Chennai on Tuesday. CHENNAI: Members of Tamizhaga Manavar Sangam, the students' wing of Pattali Makkal Katchi, staged a demonstration near Collector's office on Rajaji Salai and in Tambaram on Tuesday protesting the collection of huge sums as capitation fee and donation in schools and colleges. Carrying placards and banners, the activists at the protest on Rajaji Salai, led by State Secretary of the Sangam K.Saravanan, raised slogans against hike in the fees in educational institutions and their collecting donation. Thought the government was aware of such violations, so far no action had been taken, Mr Saravanan complained. At Tambaram, Kancheepuram district secretary of PMK Mohana Sundaram said apart from lowering fee, the private institutions should come forward in putting an end to collection of donation. And if they failed, Central and State government bodies should step in, pull up the violating colleges and put in place a mechanism that would ensure elimination of donation. Mr. Sundaram said the government should take a thorough look into the facilities available to students and staff of self-financing colleges. Many colleges, especially technical institutions, collected huge sums from students, but facilities in laboratories and libraries were poor, he added. The protestors said commercialisation of education had become rife more than even before, adding that even for admitting children in primary classes, parents were forced to shell out huge sums. http://www.local10.com/education/16682524/detail.html?rss=mia&psp=news Teachers Protest Outside Mayor's Conference POSTED: 6:53 am EDT June 23, 2008 UPDATED: 6:54 am EDT June 23, 2008 MIAMI -- While former President Bill Clinton spoke inside, Miami-Dade County teachers protested outside the Mayor's Conference. A group of about 20 teachers demonstrated outside the Miami Intercontinental Hotel where school Superintendent Rudy Crew was inside attending the conference. The teachers said they are upset about pending budget cuts that will cut thousands of jobs in the district. This protest is just days after the school board cut nearly 500 teacher positions in the county to reduce its budget by $284 million. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/07/2296314.htm Teachers protest at Wright's office Posted Mon Jul 7, 2008 12:01pm AEST Updated Mon Jul 7, 2008 12:23pm AEST Correna Haythorpe says the SA Govt will keep hearing of teachers' dissatisfaction (ABC News) Map: Adelaide 5000 There has been a protest by state school teachers outside the electorate office of South Australian Industrial Relations Minister Michael Wright. Australian Education Union president Correna Haythorpe says more than 100 pre-school, school and TAFE staff rallied because a pay offer to teachers is inadequate. She says more protests are planned unless the Government commits to improving working conditions and salaries and removes the student-centred funding model for schools. "We are planning to take rolling stoppages from the middle of next term so the onus is on the State Government to come to the table to avert that action," she said. "We are rallying at minister Jane Lomax-Smith's office next week and that will be primarily to ask her to remove the new schools funding proposal from the offer. "We have negotiations in the meantime and we're hoping the State Government shifts their position on this matter before that." http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080717/NEWS/80717039/1263/RSS JPS parents plan to protest superintendent search process The Clarion-Ledger . July 17, 2008 A group of parents and community members will hold a 30-45 minute rally at noon Friday outside the Jackson Public Schools board room, 621 S. State St., in part to request public involvement in the district's interviews of superintendent candidates. Superintendent Earl Watkins announced in early April that he would not seek to renew his contract when it expires in June 2009. They also are asking the board to slow down the timeframe it previously set to hire a new superintendent. Board members have said they could hire a new superintendent as soon as Aug. 1. The board has not announced anything about who the applicants are, and are expected to whittle the applicants down to a group of finalists during an executive session on Friday. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/20/stories/2008072052810300.htm Karnataka - Hubli-Dharwad Three protesters hospitalised Staff Correspondent Fine Arts graduates were on indefinite fast since Friday Recovering: The Fine Arts graduates who were admitted to a hospital in Dharwad on Saturday. DHARWAD: Three Fine Arts graduates who were on indefinite fast since Friday were admitted to a hospital here on Saturday after their health condition worsened. They had launched the protest under the aegis of Akhila Karnataka Chitrakala Padavidharara Sangha to press for their various demands including expediting the process of recruitment of art teachers. The graduates, who are demanding steps to expedite the process of appointment of art teachers in aided schools and relaxation of age limit for recruitment in government institutions, had launched a relay fast last week. However, as they did not get any specific assurance from the Government with regard to fulfilling their demands, Bhimshi Irappa Badiger, Bharati Bhimashi Badiger and Manjula Hanumanthappa Karigar started their indefinite fast on Friday. District health officials checked their condition at the protest venue on Saturday morning. Based on their recommendation, the police took the protesters to Civil Hospital and got them admitted. President of the sangha Basavaraj Benni said that as soon as the three protesters were hospitalised C.B. Hiremath and Roshan Hampannavar, Fine Arts graduates, began their fast. He said that the indefinite fast would continue till the Government took steps to fulfil their demands. The protesters are demanding that the Government issue a notification on the recruitment of 1,700 art teachers as most of the candidates are on the verge of exceeding the age limit, make appointment of art teachers mandatory in all government and aided primary and high schools, bring uniformity in education offered in private and government schools, frame a separate curriculum for Fine Arts and fill vacant posts of artist in various departments, among others. Several organisations have extended their support to the Fine Arts graduates. On Friday, members of Akhila Karnataka Prathamika Shikshakara Sangha led by Gurumurthy Yaragambalimath staged a dharna to express solidarity with the protesters. http://www1.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/MI89933/ Miami-Dade teachers protest after school board denies pay increase Related Links Video: School board denies Miami-Dade teachers protest for pay raise MIAMI (WSVN) -- Miami-Dade teachers are protesting and asking for support Monday afternoon after the school board denied them a promised pay hike. The United Way met this afternoon for their annual budget meeting and now teachers are reaching out to them, asking for their help. "We're reaching out to the United Way because we need their help. We support the United Way 100 percent," said Frederick Ingram of the United Teachers of Dade. Harve Mogul, president of the United Way in Miami-Dade County said his nonprofit organization will help out for the sake of the students. "We're siding with our children," he said. "We need, in Miami-Dade, teachers who feel empowered and respected." Sunday night close to 200 angry educators gathered in an auditorium Sunday night to fight for what officials promised them. "We're not asking for a six-figure salary here," said Katie Patterson. "I'm a third-year teacher. I'd be making $43,000. It's not like it's a big, big deal." School district officials backed out of the scheduled pay increases after they were confronted with a $250 million short fall. "There's a provision in our contract that says that if the funding is inadequate, we can sit down and reopen the agreement, which is what we're doing," said Deputy Superintendent Ofelia San Pedro. The decision to suspend raises was made by Miami-Dade School Superintendent Dr. Rudy Crew, who was not present at Sunday's meeting. Last week, Crew responded to people who thought he should be the one cut. "It's a statement of frustration, and I don't take it personal," he said. Many teachers are taking the matter personally. "We all know what the cost of gas is. We all know what the cost of milk is. How are to survive?" said Karen Aronowitz, President of the United Teachers of Dade. The United Way said they will do whatever they can to keep things amicable between both sides. "These are all well-meaning people, on both sides of this," said Mogul. "It's up to us, in this county, and somehow or other we've got to figure it out." Both sides are expected to meet again on Wednesday. http://wnyt.com/article/stories/s497168.shtml?cat=300 Posted at: 07/01/2008 11:47:56 PM Updated at: 07/02/2008 12:42:38 PM By: Jim Kambrich Print Story Email to a Friend Transfer of Guilderland teachers protested GUILDERLAND - Approximately 200 protestors packed the Guilderland School Board meeting Tuesday night - students, teachers and parents. They're angered over the forced transfer of two popular social studies teachers. Matt Nelligan and Anne Marie McManus are being transferred to Farnsworth Middle School for the start of school in September. Nelligan said the administration accused the social studies department of having an inappropriate climate and blamed him and McManus for it. Nelligan said they've done nothing wrong. At one point the meeting became so heated, the Board left the room early to go into private executive session. This, after refusing to hear public comment on the transfer. Board members said personnel matters would only be discussed in executive session, but the crowd was having none of it. After board members left, Nelligan took the microphone and the crowd conducted its own meeting. Board members were not available for comment because they went into executive session. There's no telling what impact if any the gathering will have on the Board's decision. But those who attended Tuesday night's meeting said at least their voices were heard. http://globalvoicesonline.org/2008/07/15/east-timor-teachers-protest-and-get-a-pay-rise/ East Timor: Teachers protest and get a pay rise Tuesday, July 15th, 2008 @ 12:41 UTC by Paula G?es Moriae [pt] celebrates the local teachers' victory after a manifestation over pay rise in East Timor. They used to be paid less than Portuguese teachers working in the country. http://allafrica.com/stories/200807171081.html Cameroon: Sultan Intervenes in Protesting Lecturer's Case The Post (Buea) 17 July 2008 Posted to the web 17 July 2008 Joe Dinga Pefok It took the intervention of the Sultan of Foumban, Ibrahim Mbombo Njoya, for the Minister of Higher Education, Prof Jacques Fame Ndongo, to receive the striking lecturer at the Douala University, Dr Amadou Monkeree. The lecturer, who is a subject of the Sultan in the Bamoun Clan, had gone on hunger strike, to protest against a ploy by the University of Douala not to upgrade him. The Douala University Council, which met on July 10, ignored the grievances of Monkeree and that of Prof. Jean Gatsi who sympathised with him. The university authorities argued that the striking lecturer did not present the originals of his certificates at the time he was recruited.Monkeree told reporters at a press briefing on July 15 that he reported the matter to the Sultan. He also said the Sultan saw that the documents were genuine and was surprised by what was happening. He said he also presented the originals of his diplomas, which the Rector, Prof Bruno Bekolo Ebe, had claimed he had never presented since 2001.Monkeree said the Sultan was furious, when he saw the certificates and a copy of a letter which his former university, the Amadou Bello, University in Zaria, Nigeria, wrote in response to a letter from the authorities of The Douala University to check the veracity of Monkeree's certificates which he obtained as well as his teaching experience at the institution. According to Monkeree, the letter from Amadou Bello University got to the then Acting Rector of the Douala University, Prof Nicole Claire Ndoko in 2002. He said the lady hid the letter and he had to spend FCFA 130.000, for an insider to secretly make a photo copy for him. The said Prof Ndoko is still at the Douala University, and has not released the letter till date. Rather, she and the Rector, Prof Bekolo, continue to claim that Amadou Bello University has so far not responded. They are also insinuating that Monkeree's story about his study as well as his work at the institution is spurious. Dr Monkeree revealed that the Sultan created a committee, comprised of some Bamoun intellectuals, to examine the issue. Monkeree disclosed that three other lecturers at the Douala University also travelled to Foumban, to present their grievances to the Sultan. They all corroborated Monkeree's complaints of victimisation at the institution. Sultan's Envoy To Yaounde Dr Monkeree said the Sultan assigned one of his assistants with a letter to take him (Monkeree) to Yaounde to meet the Minister of Higher Education on the 15 of July alongside Prof Gatsi. The aggrieved lecturer said when Prof Fame Ndongo examined the originals of his diplomas; he confirmed that they were all genuine. He said the minister said he felt scandalised by the insistence of the authorities of the Douala University to the contrary. Monkeree further said the Minister of Higher Education assured him and his colleague that he will personally see into the problems and seek out a lasting solution.The two lecturers declared that they had resolved to end their strike action and resume work, counting on the promise of the It should be recalled that Dr Monkeree had said authorities of the University of Douala had refused to upgrade him after he started a fight against certain ills in the school. http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=45523 Published On: 2008-07-13 Metropolitan Protest against manhandling of guardian at city school Unb, Dhaka Guardians yesterday demonstrated at a city school to protest alleged attacks on a guardian of a student who passed the SSC examination from there this year. Jahirul Islam, father of Fouzia Islam who achieved GPA-5, went to AK School and College at Dhania to collect his daughter's testimonial. The violence erupted as Jahirul was locked in an alteration after he refused to pay Tk 100 to the school authorities for the certificate. At one stage, some employees of the school and college allegedly beat Jahirul. As the news of manhandling spread, some guardians came onward and rescued him. Later, the guardians demonstrated and demanded resignation of the Principal Selim Bhuiyan. Police and Rab members were deployed on the school premises to avoid any further violence. Members of the school managing committee held an emergency meeting in the afternoon. AK School and College achieved 7th place in SSC examination this year. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/12/stories/2008071260101000.htm Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad Students protest shifting of school HYDERABAD: Students of the Government High School in Erramanzil staged a rasta roko protesting against the shifting of their school in the name of expanding Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) and putting the future of 700-odd poor students in a dilemma. Students led by the All India Democratic Students' Organisation (AIDSO) demanded that it be shifted only after an alternative site was shown to them. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/12/stories/2008071252310300.htm Karnataka - Hassan Protest against shortage of teachers Staff Correspondent HASSAN: Residents of Bidaruru in Ramanathapura hobli in Arkalgud taluk on Thursday locked the Government Primary and Higher Secondary School in their village, protesting against the shortage of teachers. According to B.P. Ramesh, former gram panchayat president, they made several pleas for filling vacant posts to the Education Department, but were ignored. http://allafrica.com/stories/200807290521.html Nigeria: Teachers' Protest Claims Pupil's Life Daily Champion (Lagos) 29 July 2008 Posted to the web 29 July 2008 Lagos NORMAL business activities were grounded, yesterday, in Benin, the Edo state capital, following protest by teachers in the state over the current impasse between them and the federal government just as the strike action took its first major toll following the death of a school pupil in Benin yesterday. The deceased identified as John Uwague, a primary three pupil of one of the government-owned primary schools along Upper Sakpoba, Benin City, was said to have fell inside a well beside his family house as he was playing football with some of his playmates. The protest which was the first of its kind since the past few months compounded the already heavy traffic situation in the ancient city of Benin as protesting teachers took over some of the major roads within town forcing traffic to a halt. It would be recalled that teachers in the country under the umbrella of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) had embarked on an indefinite strike action to press for an improved welfare system. Efforts by the federal government to get the striking teachers back to classrooms through series of meetings have proved abortive as both parties have so far continued to maintain hard stand. The protest in Benin started peacefully as early as 8.00am with more than 3,000 teachers in attendance. Before the commencement of the protest, the Edo state chairman of the NUT, Comrade Joe Aligbe, had said that the union will not compromise its stand on the current strike action, adding that teachers in the country has suffered neglect and other forms of degradation without response from the concerned authorities. At Ring Road, some children who attempted to join the protest were chased away by men of the Nigerian police who were monitoring the protest. The teachers armed with various placards and inscriptions first invaded the complex of the Edo state House of Assembly where they were addressed by the Speaker, Mr. Zakawanu Garuba before they headed for the Government House. Meanwhile, police in Benin has commenced investigation into the death of the pupil. Spokesman for the Command, Mr. Peter Ogboi, who confirmed the tragic incident said the Command has commenced investigation and urged youths in the area not to take laws into their hands. Efforts to get the comment of his parents proved abortive as atmosphere of sorrow and grief engulfed the family house. http://allafrica.com/stories/200807251058.html Nigeria: NUT Strike - Teachers Stage Mass Protest in Kano Daily Trust (Abuja) 25 July 2008 Posted to the web 25 July 2008 Yusha'u A. Ibrahim Kano Thousands of primary schools teachers yesterday staged a mass protest rally in Kano over the non-implementation of Teachers Salary Scale by the Federal Government, vowing not to call off the strike until the new salary structure is implemented. The protesters, who kicked off the protest from Marhaba Cinema at Farm centre in Kano, marched to the Government House where they presented their letter of complaint to the state governor, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, for onward presentation to President Umaru Musa Yar'adua. Led by the national president of the teachers union, who was represented by his deputy, Mr Isacc Acheeme, the teachers also marched to the state House of Assembly where they also presented a copy of the same letter to the speaker, Alhaji Abdulaziz Garba Gafassa. Earlier before the commencement of the rally, the mammoth crowd performed rigorous prayers against what they called enemies of progress. Speaking while presenting the letter to the state governor, the deputy national president of the union, Mr Isacc Amcheeme, said teachers across the country would continue with the strike until their prayers are answered. "We will continue to give Yar'adua headache until he implements the TSS. Our request is only TSS, and there will be no teaching in primary schools until the TSS is introduced by the Federal Government", he said. He hinted that the mass protest would also be organised in eight other states next week and it would continue like that across all the states of the federation until their prayers are answered. Also speaking, the state chairman of the teachers union, Yunusa Isa Danguguwa, said it was unfortunate that the Federal Government refused to respond to teachers' demands almost four weeks after the commencement of the strike. "It is a shame on FG that is claiming rule of law, respect to due process, and yet the request of teachers could not be granted. It is unfortunate that while the teachers are crying for just TSS, members of the Senate and House of Representatives are about to receive millions of naira from the public treasury," he argued. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Teachers_protest_against_transfer_orders/rssarticleshow/3266856.cms Teachers protest against transfer orders 23 Jul 2008, 0358 hrs IST,TNN Print EMail Discuss New Bookmark/Share Save Write to Editor JAIPUR: Gopal Lal Sharma, a teacher at the UPS Surajpura government school was shocked to see his name in the state education department's transfer list. Despite generating good results for the school, he had been transferred to Raypura school. What was more shocking was that that the department claims the transfer order was issued on Gopal Lal's desire. "I never filed an application for transfer yet I have received the order. There was no question of my performance as the students of my class have been giving steady results between 62% to 100% each year since 2000," said Gopal Lal who has been demonstrating at Shiksha Sankul along with several other teachers who had similar complaints regarding the transfer orders. "Teachers who should be punished for poor results are instead placed on lucrative posts in urban schools. The department has cited performance as the reason for transfers, and it is misjudged in most of the cases due to which a large number of innocent teachers suffer," said Anil Kumar Sharma, Dausa district secretary of teachers' union. The Rajasthan Teachers Union has raised a protest against the irregularities in the recent transfer orders and alleged the department officials of corruption. On Tuesday, leaders of the teachers union met the minister of state for education Babulal Verma and the education minister Kalicharan Saraf before going to Shiksha Sankul where they protested against the administration. The demonstrators complained that the officials have been demanding money to get people transferred on desired posts. "We have been requesting the education ministry to look into the matter and consider our demands but the government has denied irregularities in the transfer decisions. Though the education minister has assured to consider the issue, we will not let injustice to be done to the teachers," said Sultan Singh Ola, teachers' union state president. The teachers are also trying to push back the implementation of the ministry's new policy which will enable student guardians to appoint the head and the vice-president of School Development and Management Committee. This policy if implemented the representatives appointed by the guardians will have administrative powers over the teachers. http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080722/SCHOOLS/807220302/1026/rss06 Tuesday, July 22, 2008 Rally planned to protest charter schools in Detroit Jennifer Mrozowski / The Detroit News DETROIT --Detroit Public Schools supporters plan to rally in Lansing this week in hopes of persuading lawmakers to restrict more charter schools from opening in the city. Two former Detroit Public Schools teachers, who are community activists, sent out a press release on Monday, urging parents, teachers and others to meet at the Detroit Federation of Teachers headquarters at 8 a.m. Wednesday for a caravan to Lansing. "We have stopped Lansing's charter school legislation many times before, but only by mobilizing Detroiters to go there -- usually at the last minute, because the state government does so much of its business in secret," the release from Steve Conn and Heather Miller said. In an unrelated matter, the teachers were recently fired from the district after their participation in a protest last year on school closures. They're suing. Despite their dispute with the district, the activists say they want to prevent additional city charter schools, which are often considered competition for the public school system. The teachers say they are worried about pending legislation that would protect the district in some financial matters, but not against additional charter schools. The state's budget bill preserves certain financial perks for Detroit Public Schools by redefining its status as a "first-class" school district. A first-class district is defined as one with 100,000 students or more. The 106,485-student district was in danger of losing some of the privileges if its enrollment dropped below 100,000 students. However, the budget bill redefines a first-class district as one with 60,000 students or more. The teachers are disappointed that a separate provision in the state's school code would not be changed. That provision prevents certain community colleges from authorizing additional charter schools in a first class school district of 100,000 students or more. By not changing the school code's definition of a first-class district, Bay Mills Community College and Wayne County Community College District could authorize more charter schools in Detroit if the Detroit Public Schools' enrollment falls below 100,000 students, Conn said. The school code should be amended so that the definition of a first class district is the same as in the state budget bill, he said. "We want them to stop allowing charters in whatever form," Conn said. http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/mhqlmheyeykf/rss2/ Labour Youth to protest against third-level fees Print 13/08/2008 - 08:01:13 Labour Youth is holding a demonstration today to protest against the possible re-introduction of third-level fees. Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe confirmed earlier this week that his department would be examining the move to ensure funding for colleges and universities is maintained. He says any new fees would target more affluent members of society. However, Labour Youth says the reintroduction of fees would create a further barrier to education. http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=129140 Teachers threaten protest drive against Hyderabad Nazim Sunday, August 10, 2008 By our correspondent HYDERABAD: The Government Secondary Teachers Association (GSTA) on Saturday threatened to launch a protest drive against the anti-teacher attitude of the District Nazim, Hyderabad, and delay in promotion of teachers. A general body meeting of the GSTA, Hyderabad chapter, was held here with President Zameer Khan in the chair. The meeting gave the August 15 deadline to the District Nazim, Hyderabad, for accepting the demands of teachers or a protest drive would be launched by besieging his office and demonstrations staged across the district. Teachers of four Talukas of Hyderabad, including City, Latifabad, Qasimabad and Rural, attended the meeting and expressed their deep concern that the teachers of Hyderabad had been deprived of their due promotions for the past four years. The meeting noted that all documents and legal formalities had been completed and papers were submitted to the Nazim two months ago but he and his office were delaying the process. They also accused the Nazim of creating problems for the teachers during the selection-grade process. The meeting condemned the attitude of the Nazim and demanded of the Sindh chief minister and the provincial education minister that powers of giving promotion to teachers should be withdrawn from the Nazim and given to the EDO education. Meanwhile, dozens of civil rights activists and freed peasants here on Saturday took out a rally from the Tilak Incline to the Hyderabad Press Club, demanding of the government to implement agricultural reforms and provide facilities to labourers. The Sindh Hari Porihat Council organised the rally, which marked the death anniversary of Shaheed Nazeer Abbasi and the International Day for the Indigenous People. Addressing the participants, Punhal Sariyo, Ramzan Memon and others said people would not get their fundamental rights unless the agricultural reforms were implemented in the country. They sought amendments in the Tenancy Act as soon as possible, demanding that a bill should be passed in the assembly concerned in this regard. They called for the government to end bonded-labour and ensure basic rights for labourers. They also demanded setting up of peasant courts in the province. They said that end to feudalism was only possible by taking pro-labourer and peasant measures. They called for the government to fulfill its promises made during the election campaign of providing basic necessities of life to them. They also demanded an end to the operation in Balochistan and the occupation of natural resources of Sindh. Meanwhile, some peasants of the Khairpur Mirs observed a hunger strike in front of the press club here on Saturday against the local influential people. The peasants accused influential people of forcing them to vacate their agricultural lands, which they had been occupying for decades. http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=129095 Who ordered torture of protesting youths in Shahbaz's Punjab? Saturday, August 09, 2008 By Muhammad Ahmad Noorani ISLAMABAD: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif hasn't taken any action against the Home Department or the Punjab police officials on Thursday's torture of the National Commission for Human Development's educated personnel, who were demonstrating against their sacking, government officials said. But some other officials named provincial Home Secretary Nadeem Hassan Asif as the man who ordered the baton-charging. The NCHD was instituted by Musharraf. These officials feel that the home secretary was acting on the instructions of some high-ups in the government. Nadeem denies the allegation. Shahbaz Sharif has, in the recent past, been very vocal against the vicious use of state machinery against innocent civilians during the dictatorial regime of Musharraf. But his oblivious ignorance of the brutal use of force against the educated youth on Thursday has surprised many. Many officials of the CM's team, when contacted to know as to who had ordered the police action, said that the demonstrators had tried to enter the premises of the provincial assembly and that the police were left with no option but to stop them by force. According to Khalid Javed, a NCHD employee from Okara, the demonstrators only wanted to register their presence in front of the Punjab Assembly to record their protest. "All of a sudden, a police party attacked us and started beating everyone in the rally." Khalid said that even those who were sitting in vans or personal vehicles were also attacked by the police. Home Secretary Nadeem Asif said there were no specific orders to attack the demonstrators. He, however, confirmed that no action had still been taken against anyone responsible, claiming that responsible officials "will be punished". The NCHD was constituted at the start of Musharraf's regime to bestow the serving as well as ex-Army personnel with the 'objectives' of human development through increasing literacy rate and good health. However, the institution turned out to be a white elephant as it achieved nothing in seven years and only became a platform for lucrative salaries and benefits for the friends of Musharraf. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article4576856.ece August 21, 2008 Heads withhold results in protest at the 'factory farming' of pupils Nicola Woolcock Eton, St Paul's and Winchester College are among dozens of independent schools boycotting league tables by refusing to release their exam results. Their head teachers claim that the rankings penalise schools that take weaker pupils and encourage the teaching of softer subjects. Martin Stephen, High Master of St Paul's School, said: "The reason we are pulling out of league tables is we are coming dangerously close to factory-farming children." Others argued that the GCSE and A-level "monolith" no longer exists because some schools now offer alternative exams, which are hard to compare. Graham Lacey, deputy head of Sevenoaks School in Kent, said: "We offer the International Baccalaureate instead of A levels, so league tables don't do us justice. It's a far more complicated qualification than A level and harder to quantify. It's like comparing chalk with cheese. Our results will be on our website next month." Sevenoaks also offers international GCSEs, which are widely regarded as tougher than GCSEs but are not recognised by the Government. Mr Lacey said: "Many schools have deep concerns about modular GCSEs." Almost 50 independent schools, including Radley and Marlborough colleges, have withheld their A-level results. A similar number are expected to do the same with the GCSE results being published today. However, many leading independent schools will publish them. They include Brighton College, where Rich-ard Cairns, the Headmaster, said: "There is a sense among some heads that parents place too much emphasis on league tables. My own feeling is that . . . parents should be given as much information as possible so that they can make a truly informed choice." http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/24/stories/2008082461030200.htm Tamil Nadu - Madurai College teachers plan protest rally Special Correspondent On the eve of Minister's visit Objection to move to convert college into university Public views to be heard on August 26 MADURAI: Members of college teachers' associations, trade unions and students have decided to take out a protest rally here on August 25. The Select Committee of Tamil Nadu Assembly including Minister for Higher Education, K. Ponmudy, is scheduled to hear public views on August 26 on the State Government's proposed move to convert the Thiagarajar College of Engineering and Thiagarajar College here into a university. Strong condemnation and opposition came from the Madurai Kamaraj, Manonmaniam Sundaranar, Mother Teresa and Alagappa University Teachers' Association (MUTA) which held a press conference here on Saturday questioning the rationale behind privatisation of government-aided colleges. P. Vijayakumar, former General Secretary of MUTA, told reporters that the Government should not convert Thiagarajar College into a private university "as it is detrimental to the interests of both students and teachers in all aspects - be it reservation, fee structure, students' scholarships and teachers' appointments through community roster system." Time inadequate The association's zonal president, S.Thiagarajan, demanded more time to listen to public views since the allotted 45 minutes is not enough for people to express their opinion before the committee which will meet people at the Madurai Medical College on August 26. "When many political parties including the Congress and the PMK are opposed to the privatisation bill, why should the DMK Government go ahead by ignoring everyone," Dr. Thiagarajan questioned. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/24/stories/2008082452750300.htm Tamil Nadu - Madurai Teachers plan protest rally MADURAI: Members of college teachers' associations, trade unions and students have decided to take out a protest rally here on August 25. The Select Committee of Tamil Nadu Assembly including Minister for Higher Education, K. Ponmudy, is scheduled to hear public views on August 26 on the State Government's proposed move to convert the Thiagarajar College of Engineering and Thiagarajar College here into a university. Strong condemnation and opposition came from the Madurai Kamaraj, Manonmaniam Sundaranar, Mother Teresa and Alagappa University Teachers' Association (MUTA) which held a press conference here on Saturday questioning the rationale behind privatisation of government-aided colleges. P. Vijayakumar, former General Secretary of MUTA, told reporters that the Government should not convert Thiagarajar College into a private university "as it is detrimental to the interests of both students and teachers in all aspects - be it reservation, fee structure, students' scholarships and teachers' appointments through community roster system." By privatising this aided college, the Government is 'giving everything on a platter' to a private individual without taking into account the public opinion which is unfortunate for democratic process.MUTA called for a procession on August 25 by involving all stakeholders. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/21/stories/2008082153940400.htm Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad College teachers stage protest HYDERABAD: About 4,500 members of the AP Affiliated College Teachers' Association on Wednesday staged a State-wide protest by sporting black badges, in response to a call given by the Joint Action Committee (JAC), to press their demands, including withdrawal of GO 35. They conducted gate meetings, rallies to protest the 'anti-teacher' policies of Central and State governments. -Special Correspondent http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/metro/view/20080819-155581/UPDATE-Teachers-protest-at-GSIS-over-oppressive-policies (UPDATE) Teachers protest at GSIS over 'oppressive policies' 'Unfair,' says exec By Katherine Evangelista INQUIRER.net First Posted 13:44:00 08/19/2008 MANILA, Philippines -- A group of public school teachers protested the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) office in Pasay City on Tuesday to protest its alleged "oppressive and exploitative policies" and called on its president and general manager Winston Garcia to resign. But GSIS executive vice-president for corporate support Enriqueta P. Disuanco denied the allegations of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers and branded them as "unfair." "The pent-up anger of teachers and other government employees against the oppressive policies of GSIS under Winston Garcia cannot be underestimated," said Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) chairperson Antonio Tinio. He added that Garcia was "unfairly recouping" billions of pesos worth of losses sustained by the GSIS due to years of alleged "inefficiency, mismanagement, and corruption" through "unjust and erroneous deductions" from benefits of its members. "In many cases, GSIS is so ruthless in demanding its pound of flesh that retirees are left with nothing," Tinio said. Aside from conducting a program outside GSIS, the group also set up a complaints' desk where teachers reported their grievances against the agency. Most complaints were over alleged "onerous interests and surcharges" imposed upon members and other erroneous records of the GSIS, said ACT secretary general Francisca Castro. She added that there were also complaints regarding retirement benefits, salary loans, and life insurance maturity, among others. ACT also called for the writing-off of "onerous" interests, penalties, and surcharges and demanded for the full-payment of benefits and immediate refunds to members who were victims of the GSIS' alleged unjust deductions. "We are documenting the complaints, [and] then we'll submit them to the GSIS for urgent action," Castro said. Among those who vented out their grievances was Candida Tiglao, a 68 year-old retired public school teacher, who claimed that she has not received a single centavo of her pension since retiring in 2005 after serving for almost 24 years. Tiglao said the GSIS automatically withheld her 18-month lump sum and her monthly pension as payment for the housing loan she availed in 1998 in the form of a deed of conditional sale (DCS) which stipulated that failure to pay three consecutive monthly installments would render the sale cancelled and all previous payments would be considered as rent. Tiglao's DCS was cancelled in 2002 and the property has since been foreclosed by the GSIS. But her loan continued to increase due to compounded interest and by 2007, has ballooned to P1.69 million. Tiglao said she was not able to live in the house but despite this, the GSIS still demanded her to pay the loan through her pension until 2012. "I was penniless when I retired... Ito ba ang hinihintay ng mga teachers sa aming [Is this what the teachers are waiting for on their] retirement day? Ito ba ang ipinagmamalaki ng pamahalaan ni Gloria Arroyo at Winston Garcia? [Is this what the administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Winston Garcia boasting of]?" Tiglao said. Disuanco said those who were complaining were experiencing difficulty in paying off their loans and did not represent the majority of GSIS members. She added that the teachers might have been "delinquent in a way" in terms of paying their loans that is why they were experiencing difficulties. "Kung 'di ka naman delingkwente hindi ka naman mahihirapan [You should not find it difficult to pay your loans, if you are not delinquent]," Disuanco said. She also denied allegations by teachers that the GSIS deliberately failed to deduct from their contributions and loan payments from their monthly salaries so that the agency could compound the interest for the money to earn more for the agency. The GSIS submits weekly deduction reports and it is the Department of Education's task to deduct the amount from the teacher's salaries, Disuanco said. However, there would be times when the DepEd would fail to deduct the loan payments from the teachers' salaries, Disuanco admitted. "Kapag kasi may utang pa ang mga teachers sa ibang lending institutions at mababawasan na ang kanilang required take-home pay na P3,000 [This is because if the teachers have loans from other lending institutions and the teachers' take-home pay would go lower than the required P3,000], the DepEd no longer deducts the payment to GSIS," Disuanco said. She added that based on their last computation, the DepEd has some P7 billion in debt to the GSIS due to failed deductions of contributions and payments and that Garcia had been communicating with DepEd to settle these accounts. Nevertheless, Disuanco urged public school teachers to present their documents to the GSIS so that they could fix their records. As of posting time, teachers were talking to GSIS officials in the agency's gymnasium where their complaints against the agency's heads were being heard. Disuanco also defended Garcia, saying that calling for his resignation from the GSIS was unfair since he had implemented many "reforms" like computerizing and centralizing members' records. It was also after Garcia assumed office in 2001 that the GSIS' income had increased to P40 billion annually from the previous P13 billion, allowing the agency to support its members' benefits until 2056, Disuanco said. "Let us look at his accomplishments," she added. http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=62591&provider=rss Arrowmont may lose home; protesters oppose sale Jake Jost Updated: 8/22/2008 6:52:28 PM Posted: 8/22/2008 6:39:34 PM The Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts may soon lose its lease on a historic piece of Gatlinburg property, but school supporters don't want to see that happen. The Pi Beta Phi national fraternity owns 72 acres of land in the heart of Gatlinburg. The fraternity is considering selling the property, which would cause Arrowmont to lose its lease. Protesters gathered at noon Friday to rally against the sale. They said the school's contribution to the community is more important than another tourist attraction in Gatlinburg. "More congestion, more of what we already have. This is a gift to our community. This our our legacy. This is who we are," demonstrator Virginia McKinney said. Pi Beta Phi first built a settlement school in 1912 and has owned the property since then. If the sale goes through, the fraternity has pledged $9 million to Arrowmont for them to find new facilities and continue the school's work. "We have a long history of involvement in and service to the Gatlinburg community," said Arrowmont Director David Willard. "We are recognized as one of the premier arts and crafts schools in the country. We are committed to honoring our tradition and history. Our intention is for the school to continue." http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=610713&rss=yes SA teachers protest at minister's office 17:25 AEST Thu Aug 7 2008 19 days 2 hours 9 minutes ago Hundreds of teachers protested outside the office of South Australian Industrial Relations Minister Paul Caica, before a series of rolling strikes came to an end. Almost 100 public schools and preschools were closed as teachers conducted a fourth day of rolling half-day strikes in support of a claim for a 21 per cent pay rise over three years. So far the government has offered just under 10 per cent over the same period with Premier Mike Rann this week describing the pay demands as "unaffordable". The Australian Education Union (AEU) is also seeking a new funding model to provide extra money to reduce class sizes and to attract and retain staff. AEU state president Correna Haythorpe said hundreds of teachers called on Mr Caica to resolve the dispute. He wasn't there due to a series of meetings but he set up urns to provide tea and coffee for the striking teachers. "He was very hospitable," Ms Haythorpe said. "We have ongoing negotiations today and tomorrow, we think both parties need to get together and work it out." Mr Caica said the government and the union were still "miles apart" from resolving the dispute. "The only way that we can do that is by getting around the table and continuing to talk about the issues that concern the union," he told ABC radio. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/07/2296314.htm?section=business Teachers protest at Wright's office Posted Mon Jul 7, 2008 12:01pm AEST Updated Mon Jul 7, 2008 12:23pm AEST Correna Haythorpe says the SA Govt will keep hearing of teachers' dissatisfaction (ABC News) There has been a protest by state school teachers outside the electorate office of South Australian Industrial Relations Minister Michael Wright. Australian Education Union president Correna Haythorpe says more than 100 pre-school, school and TAFE staff rallied because a pay offer to teachers is inadequate. She says more protests are planned unless the Government commits to improving working conditions and salaries and removes the student-centred funding model for schools. "We are planning to take rolling stoppages from the middle of next term so the onus is on the State Government to come to the table to avert that action," she said. "We are rallying at minister Jane Lomax-Smith's office next week and that will be primarily to ask her to remove the new schools funding proposal from the offer. "We have negotiations in the meantime and we're hoping the State Government shifts their position on this matter before that." From ldxar1 at tesco.net Fri Aug 29 22:54:01 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 06:54:01 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Student protests, 1 of 3: Unrest and Uprisings, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <00bd01c90a64$cf0bbc70$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * KENYA: Wave of school student unrest sees school buildings torched, trashed Dozens arrested, one student killed Mock exams seem to be the main cause of the unrest; students are overburdened with assessment * ZAMBIA: School students block roads, revolt over "inhuman" head * KENYA: Poly students revolt over killing by police * MOROCCO: One killed, others injured, arrested during student unrest in Rabat * TANZANIA: Suspension of dissidents leads to university shutdown, uprising * ZIMBABWE: Students battle police over arrest of student leader * SOUTH AFRICA: Demanding reinstatement of excluded students, protesters blockade Mafikeng university * GERMANY: Student fees protests and clashes with police * ZAMBIA: Police shoot students in meal allowance protest * NIGERIA: Students protest over bursary * IRAN: Student gathering over official's "misconduct"; student protests spread nationwide * IRAN: Hunger strikes, protests at Tabriz university * IRAN: State forces attack student protesters * IRAN: Students protest on campus in Tehran * IRAN: Protests at Shahrood University, students anrgy at closure * US: Evergreen sit-in ends with deal over SDS suspension * INDIA, Andhra Pradesh: Student protest succeeds in reducing fee * SOUTH AFRICA: Student dies after police attack university blockade * NIGERIA: Students ransack office, attack head over repression * SOUTH AFRICA: "Misunderstanding" sparks school student revolt * INDIA, Rajkot: University "ransacked" over appointments http://allafrica.com/stories/200807230106.html Kenya: Boys Defy Cardinal Njue And Riot The Nation (Nairobi) 23 July 2008 Posted to the web 23 July 2008 Nation Team Nairobi A school affiliated to the Catholic church was yesterday closed after riots. Students at Queen of Apostles Seminary in Kasarani were ordered out of the school after a dormitory was razed during the lunch break. The incident happened a few hours after Catholic head John Cardinal Njue and auxiliary bishop of Nairobi David Kamau addressed the boys to stop them from striking. The torched dormitory housed Form Ones. The rector, Fr John Muindi, was not available for comment. Elsewhere, students of Kericho Tea Secondary school were sent home after their attempt to burn the school was foiled. Seven students who attempted to burn the institution had been arrested and feed on Sunday. The students were opposed to sitting mock examination. And, Nyahururu High School was Tuesday closed following an arson attempt. Other reports said a prefect at the school was stabbed in unclear circumstances and was admitted to the Nyahururu District General hospital. Meanwhile, six students were Tuesday arrested for allegedly attempting to burn their school during a strike in Kirinyaga District. Police seized the boys from Murinduko Mixed School in Mwea Division and locked them for questioning. In a related incident, Kiamugumo Girls Secondary School was closed indefinitely when the students rioted. The 150 girls walked out of the compound at 2.30am rejecting mock examinations. And at Karoti Girls High school all the 920 students walked out of their dormitories at night. The principal, Mrs Rose Githuku, said the girls rioted in support of their Form Four colleagues who were opposed to mock exams. In Mwingi South, students of Migwani Secondary School went on the rampage on Monday night destroying buildings including a newly furnished computer lab. The more than 500 marauding students set upon the buildings with stones and other crude weapons which they used to smash windows. They were protesting against the bad food. Reports by Peter Mwai, John Ngirachu, Sollo Kiragu, George Munene and Munene Muthusi http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_East%20Africa&set_id=1&click_id=87&art_id=nw20080722175247415C943020 School riots rock Kenya July 22 2008 at 06:21PM Nairobi - Police in Kenya have charged dozens of students with arson after riots over the weekend that left at least one student dead, officials said on Tuesday. Officers charged the students on Monday after several hostels in the centre of the country were burned down in violence that had shut down 20 secondary schools across the country, said police spokesperson Eric Kiraithe. "We will continue arresting the students for the crimes they commit," said Kiraithe. Education Minister Sam Ongeri over the weekend set up a task force to investigate the latest unrest, which was in protest at poor conditions and bad management in the schools. "We cannot afford careless actions; we cannot afford a carefree attitude. If we don't have discipline in our schools, life will be chaotic," he told reporters Tuesday. http://allafrica.com/stories/200807220029.html Kenya: 72 Students Charged as School Riots Spread The Nation (Nairobi) 22 July 2008 Posted to the web 22 July 2008 Seventy two students were Monday charged with arson and other offences related to the ongoing unrest as more strikes were reported in secondary schools. Ninety others were arrested in connection with the unprecedented chaos. In the wake of the reports, teachers called for a return of corporal punishment to check the wave of strikes and destruction in schools. Sixty five of the students were charged with counts ranging from arson to malicious damage following Saturday's fire at Mbugiti Secondary School in Thika District. The students, mostly in Forms Three and Four, were charged with setting the school on fire and destroying property valued at more than Sh5 million. They denied the charges. Trial to begin Eight students of a Nyeri secondary school were charged in an Othaya court with preparing to burn down the institution. The eight from various classes at Kagonye Secondary School denied the charge. The court ordered that each of the students be released on a cash bail of Sh5,000 until August 11 when they will be tried. The magistrate ordered that those unable to raise bail be remanded at Nyeri Juvenile Home until the case is heard and determined. They were allegedly arrested with two litres of petrol by school administrators. Elsewhere, police arrested 80 students of Nairobi's Aquinas High School after they went on the rampage, setting a dormitory on fire and destroying property in their school on Sunday night. At the Coast, 10 students were arrested and property worth Sh5.2 million destroyed in the continuing wave of unrest in schools. The latest to be affected is Matsangoni Academy, a private school in Kilifi District, whose hostel was razed on Sunday night. Property worth Sh900,000 was destroyed. And during their first meeting Monday, representatives of teachers in the committee appointed to look into the unrest called for a review of the Children's Act to reintroduce caning, which was outlawed five years ago. Eight more schools were affected by unrest on Sunday night and Monday. Students of Aquinas, Lenana, Pumwani, Moi Isinya, Jamhuri High School, Parklands and Kiamutugu and Kagonye in Nyeri, were sent home. The Anglican Church offered to work with the Government and others who are affected in finding solutions to the schools' crisis. Abdicated role A statement from the church also questioned whether parents and teachers had abdicated their leadership and guidance role to children. Kenya National Union of Teachers chairman George Wesonga said the lack of a clear guideline on the punishment of students after the ban on caning had complicated matters for teachers. "The Government should be clear on what is to replace caning in schools. Teachers do not know how to deal with errant students," he added. He, however, added that parents should instil discipline in their children since teachers were afraid to cane them. Father George Mungai of the Holy Family Basilica said the absence of another form of punishment was to blame for increased indiscipline. The Aquinas High School students were arrested by police from Jogoo, Muthurwa, Kamukunji and Shauri Moyo. They were taken to various police stations after they stormed out of the school at around 11.30pm on Sunday night. The school's neighbours said they heard gunshots at around the same time, followed by the boys' wails as they ran out of the school compound. Fire-fighters arrived a few minutes later and put out the fire, suspected to have been started by the students in the 90-bed dormitory. Little was spared in the fire. Some parents who arrived at the school Monday morning said their sons were arrested in the city centre. Only about 50 of the school's 450 students remained at the institution. The school's principal, Mr George Muthee, said he had left the school at 10.30pm, only to be called back an hour later. "The students had just finished cleaning the classes when I left, and I was assured that everything was okay only to be told that there was chaos when I arrived home. I had, however, alerted the OCS at the Jogoo Police Station, opposite the school, to watch out in case of anything," said Mr Muthee. He added that he had spent the weekend at the school and there had been a minor incident on Saturday evening when one of the students switched off the television as the students were having their normal Saturday entertainment. A student who spoke to the Nation moments after the fire was put out said there had been tension in the school throughout the weekend, apparently because of the mock examinations set to begin Monday. Mr Muthee said the school, which has no record of unrest, is the distribution centre for district mock examinations in the area. Hours earlier, police camped at Pumwani Secondary School to stop a strike by the students. Two students were injured in a stampede when the police entered the compound a few minutes after 7pm. Reported by Peter Ngare, John Ngirachu, Oliver Musembi, Anthony Kitimo, Wilfred Muchire and Mwakera Mwajefa http://allafrica.com/stories/200807210507.html Kenya: 35 Students Arrested Over Arson and Schools Closed as Wave of Indiscipline Spreads The Nation (Nairobi) 21 July 2008 Posted to the web 21 July 2008 Nairobi Students in three secondary schools in have been sent home while some were arrested following violent strikes where property worth millions of shillings was destroyed on Saturday night. In Thika, students of Mbuguti Secondary School razed nine buildings, destroying property worth millions of shillings. At least 30 students were arrested and are being held at the Kirwara police station. Terminal results The burnt buildings included five classrooms, a dormitory and the administration block, which houses the staff room, accounts office and deputy principal's office. The principal, Mr Joseph Wachira, said Form Four students had earlier refused to sit for the mock exams. The students were also unhappy with having their terminal results pinned on the notice board, which was also destroyed. "The teacher on duty sensed trouble when he saw students leaving their classrooms armed with stones. Before he could call the police, they had set the buildings on fire," said the principal. By the time police and fire-fighters from the Thika municipal council arrived, the buildings had been reduced to ashes. Some of the property lost included students' pocket money which was in the accounts office, sewing machines and school leavers' certificates. Local MP Peter Kenneth visited the school Sunday and expressed outrage over the extensive damage. Thika deputy OCPD Johnstone M Kola said the fire broke out after a "blast" suspected to have been ignited by petrol from one of the burnt buildings. In Kilifi, students of Godoma Secondary School were yesterday sent home after they burnt a dormitory. The more than 500 students damaged property estimated at more than Sh2.3 million. The fire, said to have been lit by students using petrol started at about 8pm when evening preps wee going on. At least 15 secondary schools at the Coast have been hit by riots in just one month. The wave of student unrest spread just before the mock exams began. At Godoma, in Bamba division, the board of governors chairman, Bishop Julius Kalu, decried the current wave of burning schools by students in various parts of Kenya. School principal Harrison Nguma told the meeting that students and parents had complained that the government had donated funds to the school but no development projects were being implemented. Indefinitely Meanwhile, five students of Naivasha Mixed Secondary School are in police custody after they were found with a jerrycan of petrol. Two of the students were arrested on Saturday night by CID officers for allegedly intending to torch the school laboratory and the administration block. Three others were picked yesterday afternoon over the same incident. The laboratory and part of the dormitory were burnt by the students. The school was closed indefinitely. In Nairobi, police surrounded Pumwani High School last night to prevent students who had gone on strike from walking out of the compound. Reports by Oliver Musembi, Wanjiru Macharia, Antony Kitimo ,Walker Mwandoto and John Ngirachu http://allafrica.com/stories/200807210006.html Kenya: Crisis Talks as Riots Rock More Schools The Nation (Nairobi) 21 July 2008 Posted to the web 21 July 2008 Peter Ngare and Dave Opiyo Nairobi The Government was Sunday jolted into action by the rising cases of student riots with Education minister Sam Ongeri chairing a crisis meeting with key players in the sector. As the key leaders in the education and security sectors were seeking a solution to the crisis that has affected over 300 schools in the last one month, Tourism minister Najib Balala said the ban on caning should be lifted. Meanwhile, the wave of strikes continued Sunday, with students from Mbuguti Secondary School in Thika burning nine buildings in their school while others in Kilifi torched a dormitory. Drug abuse During Sunday's meeting, Internal Security minister George Saitoti attributed the strikes to drug abuse among students. He urged wananchi to help check the trend as police investigate the matter. The meeting resolved to form a committee of top education experts to investigate the wave of unrests that have paralysed learning in over 300 schools in the last one month. One of the team's tasks will be to write a report detailing the reasons behind the violence and make recommendations on how the crisis can be avoided in future. The team is expected to present its report to the Education minister Sam Ongeri this morning. On Wednesday, Prof Ongeri is scheduled to issue a ministerial statement on the unrests. Yesterday, the minister confirmed that the team will assess the reports on unrests in each province separately to ascertain the causes of the riots. "It is from these reports that we are going to come up with a way to end this crisis," said Prof Ongeri, moments after chairing the crisis meeting. He warned students that those who commit crimes during the protests will be dealt with according to the law. Implemented Asked why they had not implemented some of the reports that had been prepared after similar unrests in the past, the minister said the Government had implemented some. He said as much as the reports were not in the public domain, it would be wrong to accuse the government of laxity in implementing the recommendations. Students interviewed by the Nation called for the scrapping of mock examinations, saying they were too difficult and only served to demoralise them ahead of the national examinations. They also blamed school administrators for what they said was failure to give them an avenue of expressing their grievances. Education Permanent Secretary Karega Mutahi said the current strikes were being caused by a fear that mock results would be used to determine Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examinations results. "Many Form Four students have refused to do their examinations for fear that the results will determine their grades in this year's KCSE," Prof Mutahi said. Some students said they had received the information and many were unwilling to sit for the papers, saying they are more difficult that the actual exam. In a report carried by the Nation last week, teachers warned that the situation was beyond their control, saying their hands were tied when it comes to enforcement of discipline. Others attributed the strikes to post-election violence. Speaking to the Nation, Knut secretary general Francis Ng'ang'a called on the Government to review the ban on caning. He said the approach of enforcing discipline in schools needed a fresh look. He also appealed for an overhaul of the curriculum to make it less stressful to students. The Kenya Secondary School Headteachers Association chairman Cleophas Tirop said the current curriculum was too broad and unfriendly to learners. "Students are supposed to learn a lot and keep it for four years before they are examined. This is causing undue pressure on the learners, driving many into drugs and alcoholism," he said. Tourism minister Najib Balala added his voice to the debate and called for the re-introduction of the cane. He said the ban on corporal punishment had complicated efforts of maintain discipline among students. "It is unfortunate teachers' hands are tied when it comes to disciplining students. We have embraced foreign ideologies to the detriment of our own systems of disciplining children," he said during a prize-giving day at Jaffery primary school in Mombasa. The Association of Professional Teachers of Kenya said the Government was not acting fast on the matter. "The Government has not been committed to addressing the root causes of the strikes in our schools," said Mr Abraham Kawewa, the national chairman of the association. Optimism But Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka expressed optimism that the Ministry of Education was capable of bringing the situation under control soon. He told the Nation that it was now becoming worrying that the school strikes were taking a destructive turn. He said that the Government was concerned that the situation was leading to the loss of lives and property worth millions of shillings. "It is regrettable that some of these strikes have led to the tragic loss of life. Every effort should be made to bring normalcy to our schools," he said. Additional reporting by Oliver Mathenge, Benjamin Muindi, Oliver Musembi, Muchemi Wachira, Charles Wanyoro and Anthony Njagi. http://allafrica.com/stories/200807160016.html Kenya: Students Riot Over Mock Exams The Nation (Nairobi) 16 July 2008 Posted to the web 16 July 2008 Nation Team Nairobi Form four candidates refused to sit for their mock examinations after their attempt to cheat failed. Kiru Mixed Secondary School in Murang'a North district candidates panicked after one of them, who had promised to get the exam, failed to do so. "Our investigations revealed that they had contributed money and given it to one of them who had promised to bring them the exam papers," the principal Mr Chege Kariuki, told the Nation. The candidates walked out of the school at night last weekend. Elsewhere, a girls' secondary school has been closed. The 400 students of Embakasi Girls Secondary School, in Nairobi's Mukuru slums were sent home on Monday evening after three litres of petrol was found in the school compound. Eight students earlier suspected of the arson attempt were arrested, but have since been released. The school's principal, Mrs Emmah Odongo, said the students were protesting at the punishment meted out on them after they shredded their head prefect's bedding. Meanwhile, two more secondary schools went on the rampage Tuesday in Nyeri South District. About 300 students of Ngoru Orthodox Secondary School in Mukurwe-ini Division went on the rampage destroying property at the school. At the neighbouring Mihuti Secondary School, about 600 students walked out of the the institution after refusing to sit for the mock examinations. The school was closed indefinitely and the students sent home. Closed down On Monday, more than 500 students of Gikondi Secondary school were sent home following a strike organised by Form Fours who did not want to sit for the examinations. And in Mbeere, two secondary schools were closed over riots and more than 1,200 students sent home. Siakago boys destroyed property as they protested at alleged high-handedness of the school's administration. In Nyangwa, students staged a sit-in demanding the removal of their administrators for meting out corporal punishment for petty offences. Reported by Waikwa Maina, Moses Dola, John Njagi and Silas Nthiga http://allafrica.com/stories/200807040285.html Zambia: Kafumbwe Pupils Riot The Times of Zambia (Ndola) 4 July 2008 Posted to the web 4 July 2008 PUPILS at Kafumbwe High School in Katete district on Wednesday rioted again and blocked the Zambia-Mozambique main road with debris demanding for the removal of the head-teacher whom they accuse of having an inhuman heart. The pupils who carried placards, sang solidarity songs as they blocked the main road with wooden debris. The volatile situation at the school only calmed down after the named teacher was transferred to another school. Both Eastern Province police chief, Mary Chikwanda and provincial education officer, Pilila Jere, confirmed in separate interviews the pupils' second riotous behaviour in a month. Ms Chikwanda said the pupils blocked the Mozambique road around 10:00 hours, blocking the flow of traffic until police officers in riot gear moved in. "I am told they were protesting against their school head whom they accused of being harsh to the pupils at the school," she said. Ms Jere said her office has since transferred the head teacher to another school. "We have since transferred the head teacher to another school and calm has returned to the school," she said. Last month, pupils at the same school went berserk and shattered windowpanes in the administration block of the newly constructed school after their request to visit the funeral house of their teacher who died in Lusaka was turned down. Last week, President Mwanawasa who had held a public rally at the same school to drum up support for the MMD candidate in the Milanzi by-election, condemned the riotous behaviour by the pupils. Recently, pupils at Mambwe, Lundazi, Chasa and St Luke High School in Eastern Province have staged riots. http://allafrica.com/stories/200806090085.html Kenya: Poly Students Riot Over Killing The Nation (Nairobi) 7 June 2008 Posted to the web 9 June 2008 Dominic Wabala Nairobi Kenya Polytechnic students went on the rampage Friday morning to protest at the alleged shooting to death of their colleague by a police officer in the city. The students, who were in their hundreds, pelted vehicles plying Haile Selassie Avenue with stones as regular and Administration police officers lobbed tear gas canisters at them in an attempt to confine them to the college grounds. Several students were arrested and bundled into one of two police trucks parked next to the City Square post office. Avenue closed The busy avenue was closed for the better part of the day as the rowdy students smashed the windscreens and windows of any vehicles whose drivers dared drive through the road. Pedestrians, including those who were walking along the avenue and past the Times Tower and Central Bank buildings, had to scamper to safety as they were not spared either. The students were demanding for the arrest and prosecution of a police officer who allegedly shot their colleague under unknown circumstances in Muthurwa estate even after the Third Year civil engineering student and his colleagues apprehended a man who had snatched a handbag from a female commuter. They accused the officer of killing their colleague in cold blood. Trouble started at about 9am when the institution's principal pinned a note on the notice board announcing the unfortunate shooting of Mr Eric Mwangi Irungu. When the students gathered, the principal pleaded with them to remain calm as he sought permission for them to hold a peaceful demonstration to Shauri Moyo police station, where the officer who is alleged to have shot the student is based. However, riot police officers intercepted them and lobbed tear gas canisters into the institution's compound prompting the angry students to engage the officers in running battles. According to the Kenya Polytechnic Students Association secretary-general Kennedy Kerengo, the deceased student lived in a rented house within Muthurwa estate with a friend and was in the house when he heard a woman scream for help. Rescued woman Together with his roommate, other residents and passers-by, they rescued the woman whose handbag had been snatched and apprehended her attacker at about 7pm. Police officers on patrol within the Muthurwa matatu termini tried to disperse the rowdy crowd in vain and that is when one of them drew his pistol, but his attempt to fire in the air went fatally wrong as he shot Mr Irungu in the head. His body was later taken to the City Mortuary by police. The officer has since recorded a statement in connection with the incident and the deputy police spokesman Charles Owino has said that an investigation will be conducted to establish the circumstances behind the shooting. http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_2323892,00.html One killed in student riot 16/05/2008 17:12 - (SA) Rabat, Morocco - A student was killed, several others injured and hundreds arrested when students clashed with police in the Moroccan city of Marrakech, news reports said on Friday. The death occurred when a student fell down from a fourth-floor window at the university campus during the riots in the city 320km south of the capital Rabat on Wednesday. One of the injured victims was in a serious condition, and several others did not dare go to hospital for fear of being arrested, according to a student's statement quoted by the newspaper el-Tajdid. The students had demonstrated in favour of better lodgings and the readmission of students who had been expelled. Some of the protesters threw stones at the 1 000 police keeping order, prompting the officers to respond with tear gas and rubber bullets, reports said. - Sapa-dpa http://allafrica.com/stories/200804220506.html Tanzania: Varsity Students Riot Over Suspensions The Citizen (Dar es Salaam) 22 April 2008 Posted to the web 22 April 2008 Pius Rugonzibwa Students at the University of Dar es Salaam yesterday went on rampage storming into lecture halls calling for boycott of classes demanding the reinstatement of suspended students. The rioting students stormed into classrooms ordering those attending lectures to get out and chased out lecturers from lecture rooms. This reporter witnessed a group of students storming classes of the College of Engineering and Technology, ordering students and Prof Justin Galabawa out of the lecture hall. The chaos resulted in the closure of the library for fear of destruction by the marauding students. In less than 30 minutes more than 2000 students had assembled at the Revolution Square, the starting point of the emonstration, singing and chanting. They marched to the administration block demanding audience with Vice Chancellor Prof Rwekaza Mukandala who was not in his office. The students are demanding that all 15 students suspended after a special committee formed by disciplinary organs of the university held them responsible for riots that led to the death of one student. The students also want the readmission of five other students suspended following eruption of violence during the DARUSO elections. . "Mukandala we don't need you, Mukandala go out," sang the students. Speaking on condition of anonymity, some students said the 15 suspended students did not deserve the punishment because they were not involved in the riots. They said the probe committee acted unfairly to implicate the students while some lower ranking administrative staff were involved in the riots. "Students came to discover that there was plenty of water in the wells but purposely not pumped in the tanks. They also came to discover that the pump was working although the concerned workers told the committee that it was out of order. What did they want to do with the water? Did they want to sell it?" they asked. Students urged that Judge Emilian Mushi who came all the way from Lushoto Judicial Institute and his four committee members could be easily misinformed as he was not given a clear picture of what was going on. Another triggering element was the suspension of the outgoing Prime Minister of the students' organization (DARUSO), suspended a few days after the other 15 students. Students are angry with the decision, seeing in Julius Mtatiro a hero and fighter for their rights. They want to know how he was connected and what misconduct he committed to deserve the suspension. They accuse the new DARUSO for not supporting its Premier and said the President Daudi Deo is aligned with the university administration, so they don't want to see him leading their organ. On the suspension of a Ugandan student who was contesting for the Daruso presidency, students said that the Ugandan was their choice and they also want him back. They wonder how the administration came to know that he used forged academic documents to get admission when he showed an interest in leading Daruso. "We don't want those people with elements of parochial Tanzanian politics here; we want Odwar as he proved he can lead and he has no groups," they insisted. Commenting on the students' charges and the general situation currently at the University, the Director of Undergraduate Studies Prof Florence Luoga said the situation at the Hill is a challenge especially when it comes to students threatening the Vice-Chancellor. He said it was a new development at the University but they will act immediately on it. Prof Luoga said there is no shortcut in solving those problems and they won't bow to students' demands. "The issue of Odwar is clear. That guy has failed to submit his original Form Six certificates as we told him. Our procedures require that he has to submit original documents that were certified by the Ugandan National Education Board, not that from the school he studied," he specified. Instead of submitting certificates from the Ugandan examining authority, Odwar presented result slips from Joseny High School in Entebbe where he studied. He said ordinarily the Tanzania National Examinations Council will have to check with UNEB on the authentication of Odwar' s certification and not otherwise. He said just before the election a certain office which he refused to mention tipped his office on Odwar's admission details and thus the legality of academic certificates he used to secure admission, and he responded at once after he realized there were abnormalities in his file. "We suspended his registration after he failed to back up his studentship status. In fact he infringed admission regulations and failed to explain why he can't obtain his certification from UNEB. I wrote him on 16 April and told him his suspension will remain intact until he fulfills the requirements of this procedure," said Prof. Luoga. After the issue of Odwar surfaced, the University decided to instruct all Ugandan students to submit certified documents from their examinations body and Prof Luoga's office was still working on the submitted documents. He said he will advice the university administration before the start of final examinations expected to commence on May 19 on what to do with candidates whose cases would be still pending. On the issue of the suspended 15 students he said their case has been handed over to the Police who will have to decide when to take them to court to answer charges, "and there were no more questions about that." But on he five students believed to be Odwar's supporters, he said the administration principally refused to negotiate with DARUSO on their case and advised that if they felt they were aggrieved they have to appeal on their own, but not depending on Daruso. "Their case is in the office of the Deputy Vice Chancellor for Planning, Finance and Administration, Prof Yunus Mgaya for further action and determination. They will have to wait as it may take time," he said. Commenting on the suspension of Daruso Prime Minister Mtatiro, Prof Luoga said he was charged with displinary offences. He asserted that Mtatiro as a top leader of the students he had to behave according to rules governing his status and university regulations. "We have come to realize that at the university sometimes we are admitting criminals but we cannot detect them early or easily. It is when riots erupt like this that we net them one after another," the don remarked. No procedures exist to check students' records before they join the college, he said, noting that if the university sought to check these records first, it could be interpreted as seeking to breach the rights of prospective students. Commenting on the situation, the outgoing daruso President Deo Daudi said there was nothing anyone could so about students if they don't want to follow Daruso directives. He said things had gone beyond control and the only organ to intervene was to convene the students' parliament. "You can not lead people who have lost confidence in you and are rioting. We formed a negotiating committee to meet with the administration but they also don't trust it, so what do you expect us to do," asked Deo, looking confused. But the speaker of the students Parliament Mr. Elimo Masawe said he will be able to convene the Parliament which has been divided, when the cabinet instructs him to do so. Until The Citizen left the scene, a meeting between Daruso and the administration was still going on but students were holding back, saying they won't attend classes until they get answers on their concerns. http://allafrica.com/stories/200804230646.html Tanzania: Six Seriously Hurt in UDSM Protest March The Citizen (Dar es Salaam) 23 April 2008 Posted to the web 23 April 2008 Pius Rugonzibwa And Polycap Machira University of Dar es salaam student match around the main campus in Dar es salaam yesterday during a demonstration called to pressure the university's administration to reinstate suspended students. The Field Force Unit was yesterday brought in to throw teargas canisters to disperse angry students who had put under siege the University of Dar es Salaam administration block. The incident left two policemen and four students seriously injured, while six students suspected to be the ringleaders of the riot were arrested by the police yesterday. After the students disrupted lectures for over three hours, the University administration called the police to restore peace at the restive campus. The trouble begun a few minutes after Kinondoni Regional Police Commander Jamal Rwambo had visited the campus, also known as the main campus of the University of Dar es Salaam. About five minutes after the RPC left the area, about 40 armed policemen from the Field Force Unit surrounded the campus, at around one o'clock. Excited students had gathered at the administration block shouting and demanding that their fellow students suspended last week be allowed back unconditionally. Before the police raid, the leader of the University local government, Dr Kasoga addressed the students and begged them to return to classes while their demanded were worked on, but they only shouted at him. The rioting students ignored his call, and shouted at Dr. Kasoga, urging him to leave the area immediately. As the disappointed lecturer departed, three police vehicles with registration number PT 0886, PT 1519 and PT1523 arrived at the area, where an estimated 1500 rioting students started to run away, escaping from the area. "We cannot let a few people disrupt peace here and disturb those who want to study. There is evidence that many students are opposed to these riots, so we are here to restore peace and hold trouble makers," the RPC declared. Two policemen were seriously injured during the clashes that lasted for two hours. The injured policemen were identified as Constable Petro Haule, while the second officer's name could not be obtained immediately. PC Haule, while being treated at the theatre facility in the University dispensary said that he was hit by a sharp piece of bottle thrown on the leg, at which point he started bleeding heavily. The leg was broken at the ankle. Earlier, the rowdy students had stormed into lecture halls holding sticks calling for their colleagues to join the boycott, and those who resisted the order were beaten. By 10:15 in the morning hundreds of students gathered at the Revolutionary Square singing and chanting solidarity songs, before a selected few addressed the gathering. They all had the same message; Fighting for our colleagues to be back. The students demanded that all the 15 students who were suspended should be recalled and five other students accused of causing mayhem during DARUSO elections also be returned. No university official was there to comment on the issue, except for a notice board entry that the University Council would meet in the afternoon to discuss the situation and chart out the next course of action. A new notice on the student notice board, issued by the Public Relations Office, stated that any unlawful activities including interruption of classes will not be tolerated. "Students are forewarned that the administration will not hesitate to enforce to the letter all provisions of by-laws governing the presence of students at the campus to anybody who engages in acts which are contrary to university regulations and the laws of the land," reads the notice in part. The students marched through the campus playgrounds, residential halls and the administration block singing; "You will see the real fire, we wonder why you have interfered with internal activities of learned students, Mukandala!" Trouble has been brewing at the university since the administration suspended the 14 students said to have been involved in the February riot leading to death of students. It was also triggered by the decision by the administration's disciplinary committee that later suspended five other students for being associated with chaos during campaigns to elect Daruso leaders http://allafrica.com/stories/200805091064.html Zimbabwe: Masvingo Students Riot Over Arrest of Their Leader SW Radio Africa (London) 9 May 2008 Posted to the web 9 May 2008 Lance Guma The arrest of Courage Ngwarai, a student leader at the Great Zimbabwe University in Masvingo, sparked riots on campus as students clashed with riot police. Police came to the campus Thursday evening to arrest Ngwarai over a demonstration held last week. Students however vowed to defend him and this led to clashes, which saw police indiscriminately assault everyone within sight. Several students were injured in the chaos. Police claim Ngwarai, a legal and academic secretary with the Zimbabwe National Students Union, incited students to demonstrate during an address he made last week. The university has also suspended him. Meanwhile over 600 students at the Chinhoyi University of Technology demonstrated on campus Wednesday, demanding that Robert Mugabe step down for bringing untold misery to the population. At least 2 truckloads of riot police descended on the campus and assaulted the peaceful students. Police arrested 5 student leaders, including Faith Mutepa and Priviledge Matizanadzo. They were taken to Chinhoyi Central Police Station where they are still in police custody. ZINASU said no charges have been filed against them, but there are unfounded allegations that the group assaulted some police officers. ZINASU Information secretary Blessing Vava, Treasurer Themba Maphenduka and Chinhoyi University Students' Union leader Faith Mutepa, all addressed students in the dining hall. The speakers attributed the total collapse of tertiary education to the crisis of national governance in the country. ZINASU say war veterans later abducted Vava and his whereabouts are still unknown. ZINASU President Clever Bere issued a warning to Mugabe's regime saying Zimbabweans will not accept any games in the event of a run-off. He called for international supervision of the election and that results be announced within 48 hours. The students have also demanded an end to the politically motivated violence. http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Education&set_id=1&click_id=105&art_id=nw20080526080301369C670234 Two injured in NWest student protest May 26 2008 at 09:30AM A policeman and security officer were injured when North West University students staged a protest at the Mafikeng campus at the weekend, police reported on Monday. Superintendent Lesego Metsi said the students were demanding the reinstatement of their fellow students who had been barred from the university for inciting violent protests. "They barricaded the entrance, burning tyres and throwing stones. The police were called in and a policeman and a security officer were injured," said Metsi. Four students were arrested during the incident on Sunday evening. The initial protests which resulted in their friends' exclusion from campus, revolved around a 13 percent increase in tuition fees. The situation calmed down when members of the Student Representative Council addressed the protesters. - Sapa http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2328953,00.html Students protest in Mafikeng 26/05/2008 09:15 - (SA) Johannesburg - A group of students blockaded the main entrance to the Mafikeng campus of the North West University, SABC news reported on Sunday. The students were apparently demanding the immediate reinstatement of the seven students excluded from the university two weeks ago. The students were excluded after apparently being found guilty of inciting violent protests. The protests were against the decision by university management to hike fees by 13%. Last week, students apparently hurled stones at motorists and barricaded the entrance with burning tires. On Friday the university management resolved to revisit the seven students' cases said SABC news. http://www2.irna.com/en/news/view/menu-234/0806123508180851.htm South German student protests turn violent over tuition fees Berlin, June 12, IRNA Germany-Protests-Students Student protests over university tuition fees turned violent in two German cities Wednesday evening, according to media reports. In Frankfurt, demonstrators threw stones and bottles and set municipal garbage cans on fire, a police spokesman said. In Marburg, one policeman was hurt during a scuffle with students. Meanwhile, a local office of the co-ruling Christian Democratic Union party was pelted with eggs. Hundreds of students took to the streets in Frankfurt and Marburg to voice their opposition to a recent decision by the highest court in the state of Hesse which ruled that tuition fees were legal. In general, German universities do not charge tuition and all students who qualify have the right to attend. However, with the country facing financial woes, the government announced it must scale back on its social-benefits system, among them higher education. Students reject any reduction in the quality of their education and argue that hiking fees would make it even harder for them to finish their studies, which on the average take around six years. Germany has been the scene of repeated violent student demonstrations in recent years as more and more states have indicated that they want to introduce student fees. http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/207522,zambia-police-shoot-seriously-injure-two-students-during-food-riot.html Zambia police shoot, seriously injure two students during food riot Posted : Fri, 23 May 2008 12:43:02 GMT Author : DPA Category : Africa (World) News Alerts by Email click here ) Create your own RSS Lusaka, Zambia - Riot police in the southern African country of Zambia on Friday shot and seriously wounded two students in the capital Lusaka during a protest over meal allowances. The police opened fire with live ammunition on the crowd of around 300 students at the University of Zambia, who pelted officers and passing motorists with stones, bottles and missiles, according to police spokesperson Bonny Kapeso. The wounded students had been admitted to the university teaching hospital, where spokesperson Pauline Mbangweta described their condition as critical but stable. Kapeso said police had first fired warning shots in the air to disperse the students, then fired directly at them when they continued to lob projectiles at them. The students were protesting over the value of their meal allowances. They say the current allowance of 300,000 Zambian kwacha per month (90 dollars) is not enough to put food on the table, giving rising food prices, and have demanded the double. Students at Copperbelt University north of Lusaka had rioted earlier this year over the same issue. Education Minister Geoffrey Lungwangwa said he was looking into the students' demands. http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_2324230,00.html Students stage violent protest 17/05/2008 14:40 - (SA) Lusaka - Students from Zambia's biggest university staged violent protests and stoned vehicles to press for an increment in meal allowances, police said on Saturday. University of Zambia students blocked roads near their campus on Friday night before they were dispersed by riot police officers using teargas, a police statement said. "The police officers have been deployed at the campus in order to protect public property," the police said. Although some students were arrested the police did not say how many. Similar protests also took place at the Copperbelt University, another state-run institution, where the government provides free bursaries to students who cannot afford to pay fees. "The ring leaders of the protest have been identified and will be made to account for their action," said Grace Mikunga, spokesperson of the Copperbelt University in a statement. Student riots over low government funding levels of the two state-run universities have become increasingly common. The government has said it plans to stop free bursaries offered to poor students because it has been the source of riots and demonstrations. http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_2328032,00.html Zambia cops injure students 23/05/2008 18:12 - (SA) ? Africa 'immune' to recession ? Students stage violent protest ? Zambia recovers millions Lusaka - Riot police in the southern African country of Zambia on Friday shot and seriously wounded two students in the capital Lusaka during a protest over meal allowances. The police opened fire with live ammunition on the crowd of around 300 students at the University of Zambia, who pelted officers and passing motorists with stones, bottles and missiles, according to police spokesperson Bonny Kapeso. The wounded students had been admitted to the university teaching hospital, where spokesperson Pauline Mbangweta described their condition as critical but stable. Kapeso said police had first fired warning shots in the air to disperse the students, then fired directly at them when they continued to lob projectiles at them. The students were protesting over the value of their meal allowances. They say the current allowance of 300 000 Zambian kwacha per month is not enough to put food on the table, given rising food prices, and have demanded the double. Students at Copperbelt University north of Lusaka had rioted earlier this year over the same issue. Education Minister Geoffrey Lungwangwa said he was looking into the students' demands. - Sapa-dpa http://allafrica.com/stories/200808041440.html Nigeria: Edo Students in Uniben Protest Over State Bursary Vanguard (Lagos) 4 August 2008 Posted to the web 4 August 2008 Gabriel Enogholase STUDENTS Edo State origin in the University of Benin took to the streets of Benin weekend to protest the manner of the disbursement of their the N10,000 bursary. The student accused government officials of short changing them by making them pay N700 as administrative charges They also claimed that some of the students who benefitted from the award were fictitious names just as they said that some names they saw in the list were persons that have since graduated from the school. During the protest which The Guardian corresponent in Edo state, Alemma-Ozioruva Aliu, was attacked by the students armed with clubs and stones; who manhandled him. One of the officials at the Oba Akenzua cultural centre, venue of who invovled in the disbursment of the award was beaten up by the students and forced to march with them to government house where they were addressed by the deputy governor, Lucky Imasuen. They also seriously injured one of their members who they accused of conniving with government officials to shortchange them. The beneficiaries were being made to pay N700 which the organizers said was dues they ought to pay to their cultural association; National Association of Edo State Students. However, in reaction, the state government has declared the collection of N700 unauthorized. It directed that those who have paid the amount should be refunded. A statement from government house, signed by the chief press secretary to the governor, Dan Aigbavboa said that the bursary would now be disbursed through the office of the Dean of Students in the tertiary institutions in the state who are the first beneficiaries, University of Benin, Ambrose Alli University, Epkoma, Federal Polytechnic, Auchi, Colleges of Education, Ekiadolor and Igueben and College of Agriculture, Iguoriakhi students in the University of Benin took to the streets of Benin over the weekend to protest the way the N10,000 bursary was disbursed. They accused government officials of short changing them by making them pay N700 as administrative charges. Besides, they claimed that some beneficiaries were fictitious names while some names they saw in the list were persons that have since graduated from the school. In the protest which almost got out of hand, The Guardian editorial representative in Edo state, Alemma-Ozioruva Aliu, was attacked by the students armed with clubs and stones; he was manhandled and hit with a heavy stone by one of the protesting students when he attempted to take their shot. One of the officials at the Oba Akenzua cultural centre, venue of disbursing the cash was beaten up by the students and forced to march with them to government house where they were addressed by the deputy governor, Lucky Imasuen. They also seriously injured one of their members who they accused of conniving with government officials to shortchange them. The beneficiaries were being made to pay N700 which the organizers said was dues they ought to pay to their cultural association; National Association of Edo State Students. However, in reaction, the state government has declared the collection of N700 unauthorized. It directed that those who have paid the amount should be refunded. A statement from government house, signed by the chief press secretary to the governor, Dan Aigbavboa said that the bursary would now be disbursed through the office of the Dean of Students in the tertiary institutions in the state who are the first beneficiaries, University of Benin, Ambrose Alli University, Epkoma, Federal Polytechnic, Auchi, Colleges of Education, Ekiadolor and Igueben and College of Agriculture, Iguoriakhi. http://www.ncr-iran.org/content/view/5281/128/ Iran: More than 3,000 students protest in Zanjan University Sunday, 15 June 2008 NCRI - Last night and today, thousands of Zanjan University students have held a gathering outside the school's gym in protest to ethical misconduct by the university's vice-president. In protest to Madadi, the vice-president, the students broke the widows and called for the resignation of the school's president, Nadaf, and his deputy. They asked the school's faculty to leave the building. The school is in a period of final exams. However, the students refuse to show up for classes. In recent weeks, sit-ins and protest gatherings held by students across Iran such as Teacher's Training School in Karaj, Bo-Ali in Hamedan, Sahand in Tabriz, Polytechnic in Tehran, Shiraz University in Shiraz, Alameh in Tehran are signs of increasing public hatred for the mullahs' inhuman regime and an overall desire for a change in Iran. The Iranian Resistance calls on all international human rights organizations and student unions to support the Iranian students' demands and condemn their systematic suppression by the regime. Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran June 15, 200 http://www.ncr-iran.org/content/view/5158/128/ Iran: 5th day of hunger strike and protests at Sahand Universit Monday, 28 April 2008 NCRI- Students have gone on hunger strike and demonstration for the past five days at Sahand Technical University in the northern city of Tabriz. They are protesting to hand picked school administrators by the government for the school. Students are also demanding action against university's security guards for insulting female students. Protesting students chanted," "We are angry at those who promote discrimination," "We are fighting, men and women, Fight us and we will fight," "We stand, we chant, we fight to the end" and "No matter what happens, the movement will continue." In addition to condemning suppressive measures at the school against the students, the demonstrators demanded the resignation of two school officials; the vice-president of cultural affairs and the dean of student affairs. The protesters shouted at these two officials on campus, "Shame on you, step down." Among the striking students, presence of female student is outstanding. Twenty-one male and four female students are on strike. The female students are in critical condition, according to the latest paramedic teams on the scene. The Iranian Resistance calls on all International human rights organizations, in particular the student unions to condemn the suppressive measure against the Iranian students. Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran April 28, 2008 http://www.ncr-iran.org/content/view/5201/128/ Iran: Mullahs' suppressive forces crackdown on spreading student protests Friday, 09 May 2008 NCRI - The student protests in Shariati, Vali-e-Asr and Shamsipour technical colleges in Tehran which began on Monday, May 5, led to violent clashes with State Security Forces (SSF). The suppressive forces encircled and brutally attacked students using clubs and batons in a bid to disperse them. Shariati students boycotted lectures and marched towards the State General Inspection Organization and joined other protesting students from Vali-e-Asr and Shamsipour colleges on Wednesday. They demanded change in anti-student policies of the Ministry of Science. Meanwhile, SSF agents and special units of the Revolutionary Guard Corps attacked Shamsipour college students to prevent them joining the big protest. The repressive forces brutally attacked the students using tear gas and batons. The students chanted slogans such as, "Students will die but never be humiliated" and "Open the gates, free the students." While lauding student protests and their determination, the Iranian Resistance calls on all human rights organizations, in particular student unions and associations, to condemn the suppressive measure against the Iranian students. Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran May 8, 2008 http://www.iranfocus.com/en/special-wire/protest-erupts-in-university-of-tehran.html Protest erupts in University of Tehran Wednesday, 09 July 2008 Iran Focus Tehran, Iran, Jul. 09 - Students in the University of Tehran staged a protest on campus on Tuesday, eye-witnesses told Iran Focus in a telephone interview. The protest erupted outside the main entrance of the university. Several students told Iran Focus that more than 2,000 students took part in the rally. There was a heavy police presence at the scene throughout the day. Mobile phones were confiscated to prevent an outbreak of news of the protest, they said. The students also confirmed to Iran Focus that a large number of members of the public also sought to join the protest but were prevented from doing so by the State Security Forces (SSF). From the early hours of the day, groups of three of more people at the scene were approached and disbanded by the SSF. At approximately 19.30 (local Tehran time) a separate protest broke out in Tehran's Daneshjoo Park, according to eye-witnesses. There too mobile phones were confiscated by the SSF. Students reached by telephoned said that a separate demonstration erupted at Tehran's Laleh Park, though details were sketchy. Similar protests are believed to have broken out on several other university campuses across Tehran, including in Polytechnic University - also known as Amir Kabir University - which has been a hotbed of anti-government demonstrations for over a year. Tuesday marked the 9th anniversary of the start of a student-led uprising across Iran which broke out after members of the hard-line Bassij militia and Ansar-e Hezbollah, a paramilitary force that acts as the clerical regime's storm troopers to put down anti-government demonstrations, raided a dormitory in Tehran University and attacked the students there. One student was killed when he was thrown out of the window in the 1999 raid on the university dorm. The ensuing nationwide protests that erupted came as a shock to Iran's clerical leaders and lasted for over a week. http://www.iranfocus.com/en/special-wire/20-students-arrested-during-protest-in-northern-iran.html 20 students arrested during protest in northern Iran Monday, 25 February 2008 Iran Focus Tehran, Iran, Feb. 25 - Twenty students have been arrested at the Industrial University of Shahrood, northern Iran, in the course of a protest which has entered its sixth day, Iran Focus has learnt. More than 3,000 students took part in the protest in the town's main street on Saturday and Sunday, calling on the government to pay attention to their demands regarding the university's administration, a student activist requesting anonymity told Iran Focus in an email interview. The protest originally began on Wednesday, and lasted for three days on campus. With university officials refusing to listen to their demands, the students took to the streets starting on Saturday. The protesters were especially angry at gas shortages in Shahrood and the temporary closure of the university and cancellation of exams. It is not know where the 20 detained students are currently being held. http://www.olyblog.net/evergreen-sds-sit-ends Evergreen SDS sit-in ends Submitted by Just another voice on Thu, 06/12/2008 - 11:30pm. olympia sds protest sds the evergreen state college Some of you may have read how SDS at Evergreen may have been planning to disrupt graduation tomorrow. Looks like that won't be the case. A faculty member involved in the mediation between the admins and SDS just released a brief on the conclusion of the sit-in and agreement between both SDS and the admins. It is reproduced below: RE: Joint Communication from Participants in the Sit-in and Representatives of the Division of Student Affairs After several sessions of negotiation, representatives of the college administration and participants in the sit-in the Seminar I building reached an agreement on Thursday evening. The administration was represented in negotiations by Art Costantino, Phyllis Lane and Tom Mercado. The sit-in participants had five students at the negotiating table at any one time, rotating among [names of students and faculty and admins] facilitated the negotiations. Both parties were pleased to reach this agreement and look forward to the fall quarter committed to working together in the collaborative and cooperative spirit that exemplifies the unique educational mission of Evergreen. The following is the full text of the agreement: 1) SDS will vacate the fourth floor of Seminar One and cease activities that are disrupting the offices of the Vice President for Student Affairs. 2) Both parties involved accept some responsibility for the events leading up to March 7, 2008 as follows: SDS accepts some responsibility for deciding to proceed with the cancelled event. The administration recognizes that although not necessarily an excuse for deciding to proceed with the cancelled event, some conditions associated with the moratorium may not have been clear. 3) SDS must identify four coordinators at the beginning of Fall 2008 and ensure that the four coordinators attend the three-part training for registered student organizations. The four coordinators will be responsible for dissemination of training information related to college policies and procedures to the general SDS membership. 4) Upon completion of the above (# 1, 2, 3) SDS' probation will be lifted, reinstating them as a registered student organization. As a registered student organization, SDS will be eligible to apply to the S&A Board for funding. Upon completion of # 1, 2, and 3 and receipt of $75, an account will be set up and SDS will be eligible to sponsor events on campus. During the summer, SDS will be permitted to reserve space for organizational meetings. They will not be permitted to host public events nor will they have access to funds. 5) [student name] will be offered her job back in Parking Services as well as receive compensation for time lost. She will be offered the opportunity to work during her previously scheduled hours. 6) The college recognizes the primacy of students in development and revision of a student-initiated and developed process to create a new disciplinary policy for registered student organizations. This acknowledges that we can not go above the jurisdiction of the Board of Trustees. To this end, we urge the Geoduck Student Union to initiate a process for formulating a coalition of students, registered student organizations and the GSU, with the student activities staff in a non-voting advisory position, to develop a new policy for disciplinary review of registered student organizations. We urge that the process be open and equal. Upon development of this policy it shall be presented to the student body for ratification by vote. If the student body ratifies it, it will become official policy. 7) Upon agreement, no additional complaints will be made by Student Affairs staff, and all current complaints made by that staff will be terminated regarding all sit-in related activities, including all activities related to the functioning of the People's University. Three grievances are to be adjudicated through the student conduct code. In one of the cases, the complainant has made it clear that the complainant will not seek suspension or expulsion from the college. The complaints against the other two individuals will continue unabated. The names of these individuals are identified in a private memorandum between the parties to this agreement. In these cases the grievance officer will be Joe Tougas. http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20080601164205310 Washington: Update on Evergreen SDS Sit-in Sunday, June 01 2008 @ 04:42 PM CDT Contributed by: Anonymous Views: 282 The sit in on the 4th floor of Sem 1 continues. We are still keeping our initial demand that Olympia SDS be reinstated and have recently added the additional demands that Kelly Beckham be offered her job back as well as compensation for time lost, and a change in the process by which student groups lose their RSO (Registered Student Organization) status that is determined by those most affected, the students and members of these organizations. To some, this sit-in may appear to be too focused on SDS, but the intention of the sit-in has always been and continues to be bigger than the status of one student group. Since the beginning of the free speech fight, SDS has always stated that our priority is to increase student power and the sit-in has created a space for new and more people to get involved in fighting for social justice. This is more than just SDS. Where We're Going In thinking about the above demands, the participants in the sit-in started talking about a vision that includes this notion of building student power at our college. This vision is a guide for our action and for our practice. We approach this vision with the realization that our task is complex and is going to take time and hard work. These aren't things that are going to happen overnight, but will hopefully happen slowly, over time, and in a way that gets people's needs met while also challenging the power structures that oppress us all and providing meaningful alternatives to these structures. This means we are building the world we want to see in the here and now, in ways that push boundaries and get to the root of the problems we see facing us. As students, we are all part of this process and because of this, want to see a democratization of our college with those who are most affected having the most say in the decisions that get made here. Students and staff (including faculty) should have a priority in the determination of policies at our college. Included in this is getting back to the values Evergreen was founded on. We want an end to the "mainstreaming" of our school and respect for the autonomy of every individual, both students and staff. Part of this is actively combatting oppression at Evergreen. We want to do more than just pay lip service to anti-oppression - we want to work towards a trajectory of collective liberation, recognizing that all forms of struggle are connected and are dependent on one another. Integral to this is an end to the segregation of our college amongst the different campuses and programs. Most importantly, we want to make the college more accessible and relevant to people by decreasing the cost of tuition, by expanding services including child care, housing and health care and by ensuring funding for all kinds of programs at Evergreen. We would also like to see a radical commitment to environmental sustainability at our college by creating self-sufficiency and recognizing that environmental problems are complex and require us to get to the root of the problem in order to successfully solve them. To do this, we're going to have to change the profit-driven system we currently have and replace it with one that is tied to human needs and ecological balance. We also seek to find alternatives to the structures that reinforce violence, racism and other forms of oppression at this college. A large component of this is the police. Eventually, we want a college free of police, where we can work together to find alternatives that don't include institutionalized racism and violence. However, this is a gradual process and would start with getting guns and other weapons including Tasers out of our college, as well as terminating the positions of the most violent and oppressive officers. The above are just some of the issues those of us at the sit-in have been discussing and therefore is just a starting point in creating a broader vision statement. Because of this, our vision is not static. Instead, we would like to see what is created as a living document, something that is always available for change depending on the needs of those committed to the core principles and to our college in general. Anyone who wants to share our goal of building and increasing student power at The Evergreen State College is encouraged and welcome to work on this vision with us. Stop by the sit-in on the fourth floor of Seminar 1 to give your input! We would also like to note that this piece, although written by just two sit-in participants could not have been put together without the ideas and input of everyone who has participated in the sit-in thus far, even if just to drop by. Because of the limited authorship, this is not representative of all participants, but instead should be viewed as an effort of clarification regarding what we're doing and why. Please join us for the 11th day of our sit-in on the 4th floor of Seminar 1! Student Power! Brooke and Brendan, Sit-in Participants. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/08/stories/2008060851890300.htm Andhra Pradesh - Visakhapatnam Fee reduced following protest by students Special Correspondent AU counselling stopped for over four hours due to stir Students thank administration for reducing the fee Counselling will resume on June 10 VISAKHAPATNAM: Andhra University authorities reduced the fee for the PG courses announced earlier by around 10 per cent following protest by students associations which prevented the counselling for admission into PG courses from commencing in the campus on Saturday. Protest by students stopped counselling for admission for four-and-a-half hours. After the first day's schedule was postponed to June 19 due to State-wide bandh on Friday, the AU Directorate of Admissions took up counselling for admission into B.F.A., M.Ed. and M.P.Ed. on Saturday but the SFI, AISF, the Telugu Nadu Students Federation, Tribal Students Federation, BC and SC students associations did not allow the counselling to commence demanding reduction of fee for the courses, which they said had been increased steeply. Principal of AU College of Arts and Commerce L.K. Mohana Rao mediated between the students and Vice-Chancellor in-charge B. Satyanarayana and Registrar P. Vijaya Prakash. Later Prof. Satyanarayana announced that the increase would be around 10 per cent over the previous year's fee in both arts and science courses. The students and Academic Senate Member P. Apada Rao thanked the administration for reducing the fee. The counselling was expected to continue till late in the night on Saturday. The counselling would resume on June 10 for admission into bio-chemistry, bio-technology, microbiology, chemistry and foods, nutrition and dietetics. http://www.witness.co.za/index.php?showcontent&global[_id]=11964 Student dies at protest 22 Aug 2008 Sharlene Packree and Sapa Mthoko Ncawanyana, a student involved in a protest on the University of South Africa (Unisa) Durban campus, collapsed and died shortly after the crowd was dispersed by police yesterday. Ncawanyana, a second-year law student, was one of the 200 students who protested outside the campus yesterday over the registration process. Angry students pelted police with stones, causing damage to several vehicles and injuring three policemen. Students prevented others not involved in the protest from entering examination rooms. Police spokesman Inspector Michael Read said 10 students were arrested and charged with public violence. "Police quickly dispersed the crowd. The arrested students will appear in court soon," he said. When the students had dispersed, Ncawanyana was found outside the International Convention Centre, which is near the campus. Paramedics were called in and declared him dead. Read said that although it seems that Ncawanyana died of natural causes, a post-mortem will be carried out to determine the cause of death. "The Independent Complaints Directorate was also called to the scene to investigate the matter," he said. Ncawanyana's aunt, Maureen Zulu, said the family had "high hopes" for Ncawanyana, whom she described as passionate about his studies. "Mthoko was a bright boy. He went to hand in an assignment today, so I don't know how he got involved in the protest." She said that apart from suffering from asthma, Ncawanyana was healthy. "The family is still in shock. His mother is extremely upset and had to be sedated by a doctor. She is not doing well," Zulu said. Unisa's KwaZulu-Natal regional director, Magnate Ntombela, was not immediately available to comment on the student's death. He earlier described the protest as "ugly", saying he was saddened it had "got a bit violent". Ntombela said students chained the university's entrance gate to prevent staff and students from entering. Security guards removed the chain. "There was a bit of a commotion. We have a few windows broken in the building," he said, adding that a law society exam had to be postponed. Ntombela said students last week held a march in opposition to the university's new registration process. A memorandum was handed to the university's management, who were given until Monday to respond. When students received no response, they planned a protest for yesterday. Ntombela said a similar protest took place last year, but that it did not get "this ugly". http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2380088,00.html Student dies at Unisa protest 21/08/2008 14:15 - (SA) Durban - A 22-year-old man, believed to be part of a group of protesters that had gathered at the University of South Africa (Unisa) in Durban, collapsed and died on Thursday. At least 200 students were protesting outside the campus, at the corner of Old Port Road and Stanger Street over the university's registration process. Police said the angry students had been throwing stones at vehicles and had prevented non-protesting students from entering the building to write a national examination. Ten protesters were arrested at the scene for public violence. Inspector Michael Read said the student who died collapsed outside the International Convention Centre, which is situated opposite the campus. "It appears as if he died from natural causes, but the body will be taken to the Gale Street mortuary and a post mortem will be carried out to establish the cause of death." Read said the student apparently suffered from asthma. Police watchdog, the Independent Complaints Directorate was also called to the scene to investigate the matter. Police have opened an inquest docket. While police described the protest as "very peaceful", a university official claimed it was "violent". Unisa's KwaZulu-Natal regional director Magnate Ntombela, though, said he was "saddened" that the protest had "got a bit violent". He claimed that students chained the entrance gate early on Thursday to prevent staff and students from entering. Security guards removed the chain. Ntombela said the students later started throwing stones and trying to force their way into the one-building campus. "Police dispersed them," he said. "There was a bit of a commotion. We have a few windows broken in the building," he said, adding that a law society exam had to be postponed. Ntombela said students held a protest march on Friday in opposition to the university's new registration process. He received a memorandum from them which he forwarded to senior management, he said. The students gave management until lunch-time on Monday to respond. Ntombela said that, on Monday, he told the students he had passed on their memorandum and had explained to them that their unhappiness arose from a "misunderstanding". "They expected Monday to be (the) response from management saying they were going to scrap the process," he said. "Then they decided today that they were going to protest again," he added, claiming they had not informed the university of their plans, other than by making a vague threat of further action in the memorandum. He said a similar protest had been held last year, but that "it didn't get this ugly". http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Education&set_id=1&click_id=105&art_id=nw20080822092250967C916889 Students protest sees 22 arrested August 22 2008 at 09:29AM The number of students arrested for public violence at the University of South Africa's (Unisa) Durban campus had risen to 22, Durban police said on Friday. At least 200 students on Thursday protested outside the campus, at the corner of Old Port Road and Stanger Street over the university's new online registration process and material being supplied on a compact disc. Police said the angry students had been throwing stones at vehicles and had prevented non-protesting students from entering the building to write a national examination. A 22-year-old man, who was part of the group of protesters, collapsed and died at the scene after suffering from an apparent asthma attack. He was identified by the university as Mthokozisi Nkwanyana, a second year political science student. At the time, police spokesperson Inspector Michael Read said the student collapsed outside the International Convention Centre, opposite the campus. "It appears as if he died from natural causes, but the body will be taken to the Gale Street mortuary and a post mortem will be carried out to establish the cause of death," he said. Post mortem results were expected in a week's time. On Friday, the Mercury newspaper reported that Nkwanyana collapsed after police used teargas to disperse the protesters. Read however denied that teargas was used, saying: "We gave them verbal warnings to disperse". Police watchdog, the Independent Complaints Directorate, was also called to the scene to investigate the matter. Police have opened an inquest docket. Unisa's KwaZulu-Natal regional director Magnate Ntombela at the time said protesting students had also chained the university's entrance gate to prevent staff and students from entering. Security guards later removed the chain. The 22 students are due to appear in the Durban magistrate's court shortly. The institution and students were expected to meet around midday on Friday to discuss the students' grievances. - Sapa http://allafrica.com/stories/200807130072.html Nigeria: Protest - 40 Jigawa Students Suspended Daily Trust (Abuja) 13 July 2008 Posted to the web 13 July 2008 Ahmed Abubakar Dutse Over 40 students of the Birnin Kudu Government College in Jigawa state have been suspended following a demonstration during which they vandalized the zonal education office and nearly lynched the zonal officer, Alhaji Ahmed Ginsau. Ginsau escaped lynching after the rampaging students had unleashed mayhem on the office block, smashing windows and doors and later descended on the official whom they met on his way to the office. The students were said to have stopped him and started hitting his car even as they shouted abusive words, threatening to kill him if he did not call the principal of their school to order. Investigations in Birnin Kudu revealed that the students numbering about two hundred took to the streets chanting demeaning slogans against the school authority and the government while at the same time exhibiting violent tendencies on the streets, a development which sent residents scuttling for safety. The students were said to have collectively taken a decision to return the prefect caps to the principal in protest of the action taken against some senior students. It took the effort of several policemen deployed to the area to disperse them while seven students were held for questioning at the divisional police office of Birnin Kudu zone.Eye witness accounts said that the incident sent jitters down the spine of residents who envisaged a riotous situation as they feared that hoodlums may hijack the protest and cause confusion in the town. Precisely, farmers who had prepared to go to their farms early in the morning had to abandon the idea while traders equally stayed at home when they accosted students wielding dangerous weapons and sticks. The principal of the College, Malam Yusuf Abdullahi who confirmed the incident told Sunday Trust that the rampaging students had held the school hostage for about two hours after forcing both students and teachers from the classrooms, thereby disrupting teaching during the period. Malam Abdullahi explained that, "the culprits that instigated the riot were some prefects who felt aggrieved over the punishment meted to them by the school after they mishandled a junior student. The principal explained that after the case was reported to him, he instituted a disciplinary committee to investigate and deal with the erring students appropriately in order to serve as deterrent to others. "Despite the insignificant punishment meted to them by the school the prefects went ahead to instigate other students to disrupt activities in the college and also extended the misdemeanor to the town. "The prefects were not happy with the action taken so they took the law into their hands and disrupted peace in the school", the principal further stated. Already, the state deputy governor together with some representatives from the education ministry has visited the zonal office and the college to assess the situation. Explaining the incident to the deputy governor, the permanent secretary of the ministry of education, Malam Sani Abdullahi said trouble started when the prefects had punished a junior student severely because he allegedly used abusive words on them. "They had ambushed him in the late hours of the night and beaten him to the extent that he lost consciousness, a situation which warranted disciplinary action by the school authority". Abdullahi then told Sunday Trust that the state government had decided to suspend the students until investigations were concluded on the matter. One of the arrested students in SS 2, Ibrahim Dangoggo who spoke to our correspondent at the Birnin Kudu divisional police headquarters alleged that the senior students decided to demonstrate in solidarity with the aggrieved students. He said that they were arrested by the police while returning from the zonal education office. Meanwhile the DPO said that he was not competent enough to speak on the issue but however said that the police took a preventive measure in order to stop the crises from escalating. The school was recently renovated through the joint effort of the state government and Skye Bank Plc. http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Education&set_id=1&click_id=105&art_id=nw20080425125840684C437166 School closes after violent protest April 25 2008 at 01:38PM Colala Secondary School in Mount Frere, Eastern Cape, was closed after violent protests by students who want to do their matric after having failed grade 11, the school's principal said on Friday. "The school was closed on Thursday after pupils vandalised property and assaulted teachers during the week - we will re-open on May 6," said Yolisa Maqashalala. She explained that pupils who failed grade 11 last year arrived at school very late in the year, and joined the grade 12 class to do their matric. "When they were told that they had to go back to grade 11, the pupils who were condoned last year thought that they had to as well. That is where the miscommunication occurred." Twenty two pupils were arrested in the protests during the week. A female teacher was wounded in one of the attacks. Students also tried to burn her car, and the staff offices. Classrooms, were vandalised and a number of computers and 49 bicycles, which had been donated to the school were destroyed. She said pupils were also making "ridiculous demands" such as not wanting to wear school uniforms, and being able to have long hair. The male protesters are also demanding that female teachers must not wear short skirts and tight tops. "They do not want rules or discipline in the school, and that is just ridiculous," she said. Police said that the 22 arrested pupils were between the ages of 15 and 20. "We are not sure when they will appear in court, and I am sure that we will make more arrests soon," said spokesperson Captain Alfred Jozana. Maqashalala said there was no recovery plan for the students as yet. "Pupils were told that when they get back to school, they are going to have to learn in dilapidated classrooms. We are not sure when repairs on the school are going to begin," Maqashalala said. - Sapa http://www.zeenews.com/articles.asp?aid=444636&sid=REG Students protest Rajkot varsity appointments Rajkot, May 23: The Saurashtra University was on Friday ransacked allegedly by students union activists to protest against the appointment of its registrar and exam officer, police said. The National Students Union of India (NSUI) for quite some time protesting the appointment of its registrar and exam officer for last two months. The duo was confirmed two days back, sources said adding it may have triggered the protests, police said. The protestors also pelted stones at the university building, they said. After the incident, security arrangements have been stepped up at the university, which is celebrating its 42nd Foundation Day to be attended by State Education Minister, Raman Vora this evening. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Fri Aug 29 22:54:08 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 06:54:08 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Student protests, 2 of 3: global South Message-ID: <00be01c90a64$d3142550$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * TRINIDAD: School students, parents gear up for protests * INDIA, Karnataka: Students protest for facilities, staff * MALAYSIA: Students oppose university "reform" * INDIA, Thiruvanathapuram: Protest against honorary doctorate, corruption * NEPAL: Students block roads, attack car over fuel prices * NIGERIA: Students stage walkout, march over food * NIGERIA: Makerere students protest fees * PHILIPPINES: Students protest tuition fees, commodity prices * INDIA, Kerala: Students protest for status upgrade * PAKISTAN: Students protest accreditation delay * INDIA, Salem: Compulsory rural service protested with black badges * PAKISTAN: Students protest sports ground annexation * INDIA, Jharkand: Muslim students protest "offensive" Mohammed question * NEPAL: Students protest Maoist killing * PAKISTAN: Islamic group relocates from university in protest * INDIA: Students protest university move * SIERRA LEONE: Students protest for union election * BANGLADESH: Students lock university in protest for resumption of classes * INDIA, Gulbarga: Protest against nursing college closure * INDIA, Tirunelveli: March against Bishop * INDIA, Cuttack: Students protest reduction in places * BANGLADESH: Students protest at private clinic admission, allege moneygrabbing * PHILIPPINES: Youth declare "vacation over, protest season on" * INDIA, Kannur: Protest over fee hike * INDIA, New Delhi: Protest over expulsions, caste discrimination * INDIA, Karnataka: Students protest fee for bus pass * INDIA, Andhra Pradesh: Fee increase protested * PHILIPPINES: Principal transferred after student protest * INDIA, Karnataka: Students protest poor hostel conditions * INDIA, Andhra Pradesh: Protest against textbook controversy * INDIA, Andhra Pradesh: Students protest shortages, attacked by police * INDIA, Karnataka: Dharna over upgrading of students * INDIA, Tamil Nadu: Protest for research funding, other demands * INDIA, Andhra Pradesh: Statewide bandh against fee increase * PAKISTAN: Protest against Karachi admission test * NEPAL: Students block road in protest at bus driver assault * INDIA, Andhra Pradesh: Protests against college where student committed suicide * TAIWAN: Protest against fees * INDIA, Kerala: Students among many protesters on busy day * ZAMBIA: University shut during lecturers' strike * INDIA, Andhra Pradesh: Students block gate over death of lecturer * INDIA, New Delhi: Protest at "anomalies" in IT institute * INDIA, Orissa: Protest against private colleges * SOUTH AFRICA: March at Tshwane University * INDIA, Puducherry: Protest over delay in giving places * TURKEY: Students protest against mayor, land grab * INDIA, Andhra Pradesh: Students demand food quota * PAKISTAN: Women students protest over frequent changes * INDIA, Bidar: Bandh against foreign and private universities * INDIA, Karnataka: Dharna against modularisation * JORDAN: Students protest fee hike * INDIA, Bihar: Students protest for end to strike * INDIA, Karnataka: Youth group protests police violence at dharna * PHILIPPINES: Students protest for fees rollback http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161367097 Lengua school pupils, parents gear up for protest Nikita Braxton South Bureau Friday, August 22nd 2008 When the new school term starts in the next two weeks pupils at the Lengua Presbyterian School might be sharing new slogans on placards instead of swapping vacation stories. President of the school's Parent Teachers' Association Saudia Mohammed said on Wednesday there has been no improvement in school accommodation, even after several protests, including one after the Secondary Assessment Examination last term. "Nothing has been done," she said, adding that they were yet to hear from the Presbyterian Board from whom they have been waiting for answers on the status of a new school building. For more than two years, the school has been convened in an annex of the nearby Inverness Presbyterian School, which Mohammed said consisted of three ten-by-ten-foot classrooms which the 78 pupils have had to share. The pupils previously evacuated the old Lengua Presbyterian school - a 63-year-old building that was condemned by the Ministry of Health. Mohammed said a meeting would be held in the first week of the school's reopening and they would decide their next stage of action. Windy Partap of the President of the Presbyterian Board of Education, told the Express a meeting would be held to discuss the problem, after which a formal response would be made. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/20/stories/2008082054920300.htm Karnataka Protest SIRSI: Students of Government First Grade Collage, Sirsi, took out a protest march on Tuesday demanding the Government to appoint lecturers and provide facilities such as library, furniture and toilets in the college. Nearly 300 students formed a human chain and marched to the Assistant Commissioner?s office and submitted a memorandum. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/18/nation/20080818144935&sec=nation Monday August 18, 2008 MYT 4:17:50 PM University students protest amendment to University Act By SIM LEOI LEOI KUALA LUMPUR: Around 100 university students gathered at the road leading to the Parliament building here to protest against the proposed amendment to the University and University Colleges Act. Five of the students later came to the Parliament lobby and gave their memorandum to Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Idris Haron, who promised to look into their complaints. "I will also invite students to sit in for the Parliament sittings when the Bill is being debated so that they can see the entire process. "I appreciate the efforts they have taken to look through the Bill," he said after receiving the memorandum. The Bill, which was tabled for first reading in July, will be debated this meeting. Gerakan Mansuhkan AUKU coordinator Zulfattah Ibrahim said the coalition was against the Act and this should be repealed in the interests of the undergraduates. "Any attempt by the ministry to amend this Act is in vain and will not bring any benefit to us. "After looking through the Bill, we reject the proposals because these are only cosmetic in nature," he said. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/20/stories/2008062053560300.htm Youth protest THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The All India Youth League, youth wing of the All India Forward Bloc, staged a demonstration here on Thursday urging the Chief Justice of India to reject the honorary doctorate being conferred on him by the University of Kerala. The organisation said the university was in the dock for the alleged irregularities in some of the appointments made by it recently. The participants were blind-folded in a symbolic gesture. They alleged that conferring of the degree on the Chief Justice was part of a move to put pressure on the Lok Ayukta which was looking into the appointment case. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/19/asia/AS-GEN-Nepal-Fuel-Protest.php Nepal students block traffic, attack chief justice's car to protest fuel price rise The Associated Press Published: June 19, 2008 KATMANDU, Nepal: Nepalese students blocked traffic and attacked the chief justice's car in the capital Thursday to protest sharp rises in the prices of gasoline, diesel and cooking fuel. Chief Justice Kedar Prasad Giri was on his way to the Supreme Court when students, who had blocked several streets in Katmandu, hurled stones at his vehicle. Police pushed back the protesters, and his guards safely removed him from the car. Giri was unhurt, but his vehicle was damaged, said Katmandu Police Chief Sarvendra Nath Khanal. The students demanded that the government immediately withdraw the fuel price hikes and reverse a recent decision that let public transport fares increase by as much as 35 percent. State-owned oil import and distribution monopoly Nepal Oil Corp. raised oil product prices last week, saying it was necessary to reduce its losses and increase supplies. The pump price of gasoline rose by 25 percent to 100 rupees per liter (US$5.70 per gallon), while diesel went up 25 percent to 70 rupees a liter (US$3.80 a gallon). Nepal Oil said it had recently been losing up to 2.7 billion rupees (US$39 million) per month due to the rapid rise in global oil prices. The company predicted the retail price increases would reduce its monthly losses to about 1.7 billion rupees (US$25 million). Nepal imports all its oil products from neighboring India. Nepal Oil has in recent weeks struggled to pay the Indian Oil Corp. because of its financial troubles, and fuel imports have dropped off as a result. http://allafrica.com/stories/200806170410.html Nigeria: Students Protest Over Poor Feeding in Ilorin Daily Trust (Abuja) 17 June 2008 Posted to the web 17 June 2008 Mustafa Abubakar Ilorin Students of the Government Secondary School, Ilorin yesterday went on rampage to protest an alleged ill-treatment and poor feeding by the school authorities. The rampage led to the burning of properties worth millions of naira in the school premises including the principal's office, 102 laptop computers, a bus and the vandalization of classrooms. The students who trooped out in hundreds almost took to the streets but were intercepted by antiriot policemen to prevent the spread of the crisis to the metropolis. The premises was besieged by armed antiriot mobile policemen stationed to ensure proper security for the men of the fire brigade who were they to put out the fire in the principal's office and the school bus . The principal's office was completely burnt, including documents, students' records, lap tops and desk top computers and other valuables. A witness told Daily Trust that some boarding students of the school alleged that they were not properly fed by the management. According to him, the quality of food served is nothing to write home about, and the management misappropriates the feeding funds. The students said the quantity of their food is always so small and cannot stop their hunger and that at times, it takes a very long before they are served their meals. The principal of the Junior Secondary School, Malam Muyideen Muhammed while speaking with newsmen denied the allegation, saying what happened was not as a result of poor feeding. He said trouble started Sunday evening when a senior student beat up a junior student with an iron rode and the matter was reported to the management. He said the management was already investigating the matter when at about 8.30 pm on Sunday the junior students and the senior counterparts clashed, leading to the fracas. In a reaction, the state government has said that it would take drastic action to prevent reoccurrence. http://allafrica.com/stories/200806160092.html Uganda: MUK Private Students Protest New Vision (Kampala) 13 June 2008 Posted to the web 16 June 2008 Joshua Masinde and Francis Kagolo Kampala PRIVATE students at Makerere University have rejected the hike in tuition and accommodation fees. "Many of us come from poor families and the university should recognise this. If Makerere is a public institution with a vision to serve Ugandans and not making profit, why should it raise fees unnecessarily?" asked the private students' chairman, Nehemiah Katantazi. He was speaking at the association's general assembly at the Mulago School of Medicine on Thursday. Makerere's finance committee drew up a new fees structure last month, with a sh400,000 increase on all courses to be split between the two semesters. It also proposed that private students who reside at the campus pay an extra sh150,000 in addition to the sh640,000 they pay per year. The proposal, which authorities said was induced by soaring price of food prices and items, has to be passed by the University Council. Currently, students pay between sh500,000 and sh1m for tuition. In addition, each student pays sh200,000 for registration and sh100,000as examination fees per year. Abdul Kirembeka, a social sciences student, complained that lecturers spent more time pursuing their private business than teaching at the university. http://www.gmanews.tv/story/101058/Oil-prices-hiked-anew-Protests-up-in-M-Manila Education too In Manila, the White Ribbon Movement mobilized a number of teachers and students and held a similar noise barrage at the Plaza Salamanca along Taft Avenue. The protest movement, dubbed ?Kapit-Bisig para sa Katotohanan," was meant to denounce corruption in the government and the rising prices of basic commodities as well as the surging tuition rates. White Ribbon Movement convener Malou Santiago-Agustin also said that the Arroyo administration?s alleged role in the botched national broadband network deal mess should not be left forgotten. ?We?re here to let the Arroyo administration know that we?re back," said Agustin-Santiago, who is also a professor at the Philippine Normal University. Santiago noted that the worsening economic situation brought about by rising food and fuel prices highlighted the link between state policies that push people deeper into poverty and the need to fight corruption in government. ?In these times of greater economic hardship, the struggle to exact accountability for corruption at the highest levels of government becomes even more relevant, since corruption hits the poor hardest," she said. ?In these times of greater economic hardship, the struggle to exact accountability for corruption at the highest levels of government becomes even more relevant, since corruption hits the poor hardest," she added. Aside from students from universities and colleges lying along Taft Avenue, members of various religious and medical groups also banded together to participate.- GMANews.TV http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/14/stories/2008061461480300.htm Protests staged at Cusat Staff Reporter KOCHI: A section of the employees of Cochin University of Science and Technology and activists of the Kerala Students Union staged protests on the university campus on Friday against the university decision not to press for the status of an Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST). The employees demanded the resignation of the Vice-Chancellor Gangan Prathap for opposing the IIEST proposal. KSU activists tried to wave black flags at Mr. Prathap when he was leaving the School of Management Studies auditorium after felicitating the rank holders in the B.Tech and postgraduate examinations. http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=109236 ?Students protest against delay in PEC accreditation? Sunday, April 27, 2008 Islamabad Allam Iqbal Open University (AIOU) here on Saturday said that protest of BE Telecom students, was against delay in PEC accreditation process of the programme. A spokesman of the university said that the varsity has been actively seeking accreditation of the programme since 2002 by repeatedly submitting formal requests to PEC, but the accreditation issue has not been resolved, he said. He said that 1310 students were registered in six years till 2005. A total of 916 students who enrolled in the programme during 2000-2005 have since graduated. ?Two groups of students who enrolled in 2004 and 2005 are at various stages of completing their program,? he added. He said that AIOU BE (Telecom) programme has followed HEC Scheme of Studies and has been approved by all the University Statutory bodies. He informed that six different site visits have been conducted by PEC technical experts. The PEC had contended that AIOU Act did not allow the university to launch an engineering program. Two federal ministers of Education have written to PEC that AIOU Act does all the University to offer the programme. Chairman of HEC has also written to PEC that the programme is approved by the Higher Education Commission. AIOU spokesman said that university has provided detailed information to demonstrate compliance with the PEC criteria on six different occasions since 2003. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/24/stories/2008042451490300.htm Medical students protest Staff Reporter SALEM: Students of Salem Government Mohan Kumaramangalam Medical College wore black badges on Wednesday in protest against the Union Government?s move to increase the MBBS course duration one more year by introducing compulsory rural service. The house surgeons also reported to duty wearing black badges. http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=111151 DJ College teachers, students stage protest Wednesday, May 07, 2008 The teachers and students of the Government DJ Science College staged a demonstration on Tuesday within the college premises to protest the annexation of the sports ground of the institution. The students carried placards were shouted slogans against the government for depriving them of the only sports ground in the college. The protestors gave an ultimatum to the Sindh government for cancelling the orders, and said that they would not allow any illegal move that would deprive the students of their basic needs. Originally, a plot vacant near the Coast Guards office was allotted for the construction of an Education Complex but due to reservations expressed by authorities, the plan was cancelled. The sources disclosed that the Coast Guards officials showed their unwillingness for construction of the Education Complex owing to what they said their privacy was disturbed. The plot near Nasira School was still lying vacant, which the sources said would be the appropriate place for everyone to move into the venue as there was no transport problem over there and it was easily accessible. It was also decided that a delegation of the teachers would meet Provincial Education Minister, Pir Mazhar-ul-Haq, and would apprise him of the situation, as they said it seemed that the minister concerned was not informed of the decision. Talking to this correspondent Mohammed Iftikhar, Professor of Mathematics, said they would not accept any change and if the government failed to stop the orders of construction of the Educational Complex, they would move the court which would be the last option left. Principal of the college, Hakimullah Beg Chugtai, while talking to The News said that he had complied with the orders of Secretary Education with certain reservations, signed the letter handing over the sports ground to DO Works. The inside sources, however, said that DG Colleges, Rafiq Siddiqui, had expressed his annoyance on the attitude of the principal of the college and forced him to sign the letter. His anger was taken by the faculty member as his ?personal interest? behind this scene. The principal, however, asked the concerned authorities that before constructing the complex all stake holders would be taken into confidence to avoid any eventuality. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/02/stories/2008050253161300.htm Angry protest on Ranchi varsity campus ? Photo: PTI Police disperse protesters at the Ranchi University gate on Thursday. They were protesting against an objectionable question on Prophet Muhammad in a history exam paper of the university. Ranchi: A group of people staged a protest inside the Ranchi University premises on Thursday against an objectionable question on Prophet Muhammad set in an examination paper on Wednesday. Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda took up the issue with Vice-Chancellor S.M. Khan. Deputy Superintendent of Police Mahesharam Paswan said a group barged into the university and ransacked whatever they came across in the campus area. Police later dispersed them. Mr. Koda told a press conference that he asked the VC to enquire into the matter while appealing to the examinees to remain calm. Maintaining that the question paper was prepared by another university located outside the state, Mr. Koda said: ?I spoke to the VC and we will send a strong letter to those who had prepared the paper.? ?We will see to it that the mistake is not repeated,? he said. ?PTI http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/videos/2008/may/may19/video03.php NSU protests killing of Shrestha by Maoists Student wing of the Nepali Congress, Nepal Student Union (NSU) took out a protest rally in the capital against the killing of Ram Hari Shrestha of Koteswore by the Maoist PLA. http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=112375 IJT holds book fair outside PU in protest Wednesday, May 14, 2008 LAHORE: The Islami Jamiat Tulaba (IJT) on Tuesday organised a Kitab Mela on a footpath outside the Punjab University (PU) Old Campus as a protest against the university administration, which did not permit the event inside the campus and announced the closure of the PU in this connection. The book fair was inaugurated by Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Lahore Ameer Hafiz Salman Butt, IJT Pakistan Nazim-e-Aala Atiqur Rehman and Punjab University Academic Staff Association (PUASA) president Dr Mumtaz Ahmad Salik. A large number of students and other Jamiat office-bearers were also present on the occasion. A police contingent was also deployed nearby to avoid any untoward incident. Over 10 stalls were set up on the footpath outside the PU Old Campus at The Mall, in front of the Lahore Museum. Banners and placards inscribed with slogans against the Punjab University administration and chancellor were also fixed there to highlight Jamiat's protest against the varsity administration. Speaking on the occasion, Hafiz Salman Butt said the chancellor wanted to promote enlightened moderation by allowing musical events in the university. Speaking next, Atiqur Rehman said the steps taken by the chancellor in the Punjab University pointed at the Governor Raj in the province. He criticised the administration for not allowing the student organisation to hold the event despite the restoration of student unions. Meanwhile, PU official spokesman Dr Mujahid Mansoori, in a press statement, appealed to politicians supporting the IJT from outside the university that they should use an organised body like the IJT for a national cause instead of encouraging its workers for illegal activities. He said the decision of not allowing the book fair and closure of the university for four days was taken after 10-hour deliberations and contacts with law enforcement authorities at a meeting of a special committee chaired by Prof Dr Iftikhar Baloch. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/14/stories/2008051458150300.htm Protest against move to shift varsity Special Correspondent Report on ?non-availability? of land should be made public, students say Protesters march to the Collectorate and stage sit-in Effigy of the Chief Minister burnt . ? Photo: C.V. Subrahmanyam UP IN ARMS: Members of the SFI and DYFI staging a protest in front of the Collectorate on Tuesday VISAKHAPATNAM: The Students Federation of India and the Democratic Youth Federation of India held a demonstration in the city on Tuesday in protest against the Central University sanctioned to Visakhapatnam being shifted to Kadapa. The SFI and DYFI activists gathered at the Jagadamba junction in the morning and tried to burn an effigy of the Chief Minister. Their first attempt was foiled by the police who took away the effigy but another effigy was brought and was burnt. Later the protesters marched to the Collectorate raising slogans against the shifting of Central University and staged a sit-in in front of the Collectorate. SFI district secretary Y. Appalanarasayya and DYFI city secretary Y. Lakshman criticised the Government?s decision on the plea that the land to an extent of 700 acres required for the university was not available here and demanded that the report sent from here on the unavailability of land be made public. The Central University would help in the development of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam and East Godavari districts and should be established here as there were many heavy industries in the city, the SFI and DYFI said. They also criticised Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy for shifting the Central University to his native district and such moves would only flare up regional sentiment, the two organisations said demanding that the Government establish the university in Visakhapatnam as decided earlier. http://andhracafe.com/index.php?m=show&id=34029 Protest against shifting central university to Kadapa Updated: 05-22-2008 Email this Page HYDERABAD : The newly formed apolitical forum `Visakha Pragati Vedika? in Visakhaptnam threatened to on fast-unto-death protesting against establishment of Central University in Kadapa. This has given a two-month deadline for the State Government to reconsider its decision to shift Central University from Visakhapatnam to Kadapa failing which it has threatened serious repercussions. The Vedika convener and former MLA S.A. Rahman told reporters on Wednesday that there was no justification to relocate the Central University to Kadapa when plenty of land was available for bulk auction and allotment to outside firms in and around Visakhapatnam. He said 1,780 acres identified for Knowledge City at Kapulauppada by APIIC would be the best place for the university. The university was in need of 700 acres and parting with the required land at Knowledge City would in fact help create many knowledge workers. To start with, a satyagraha would be organised from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Mahatma Gandhi statue near GVMC. Dr. Rahaman said people belong to all walks and parties were most welcome to join the protest programme. http://allafrica.com/stories/200805270486.html Sierra Leone: FBC Students Protest - Election Now, Convention Later Concord Times (Freetown) 26 May 2008 Posted to the web 27 May 2008 Ibrahim Jaffa Condeh Freetown Irate students of Fourah Bay College (FBC), University of Sierra Leone Friday staged a peaceful demonstration to call for a student union (SU) election before the National Union of Sierra Leone Students (NUSS) convention. Public relations officer of the Peace Society of the college Tamba Sangba told students that past elections that were marred by violence have set a very negative precedent for students and inhuman acts have become rampant on campus. He said the postponement of the SU election created more tension on the campus and it prompted their demonstration. He later called on students to calm down and keep the peace on campus. Sangba said they intend to organize a symposium for all SU presidential candidates to preach peace to their respective supporters. But the college registrar, Sorie Ndigi Dumbuya said the administration has not received any election schedule from the students' representatives. However, Assistant Vice Chancellor Dr. Dan Fode said efforts are being made to ensure that the FBC SU elections are held before NUSS convention. "We are going to meet very shortly with all stakeholders to draw up the rules of engagement and final plans in the interest of peace and understanding," he said. http://newsfrombangladesh.net/view.php?hidRecord=201273 Social Welfare students protest suspension of classes for two months-DU teachers locked Sunday May 25 2008 10:06:58 AM BDT The Master degree students of Social Welfare Institute of Dhaka University yesterday locked the institute's main gate demanding resumption of classes which were supposed to begin two months ago.(The New Nation) The Institution authority could not reach an unanimous decision on resumption of classes due to internal feud over directorship of the Institute, sources said. The honours examination of the students ended on June 6 last year and the results were published on March 9. A number of students and teachers of the Institute were held captive inside the building for over three hours. The agitating students opened the gate of the institute at 12:45pm after getting assurance from the authorities to resume class from tomorrow (Monday). The agitating students said they have already lost one year due to teachers` internal dispute. The teachers should start taking classes in the interest of the students, they noted. A section of teachers of the institute said they would not take classes under the present director as she was not competent enough to run the Institute. Director of the Institute Syeda Feroza Begum said she called the Academic Council meeting thrice to take decision in this regard but the meeting was not successful due to the absence of teachers who are divided into two groups. She said she had earlier submitted her resignation letter to the Vice-Chancellor being forced by a group of teachers. She further said that she would withdraw her resignation letter and try to solve the problem of the institute with the help of the Vice-Chancellor. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/24/stories/2008052452080300.htm Protest against closure of nursing college in Gulbarga Staff Correspondent Raising slogans: Members of the district units of the All-India Democratic Students? Organisation and All-India Mahila Samskrutika Sanghatane staging a protest in Gulbarga on Friday. GULBARGA: Members of the district units of the All-India Democratic Students? Organisation (AIDSO) and All-India Mahila Samskrutika Sanghatane (AIMSS) held a protest in Gulbarga city on Friday against the State Government?s decision to close a nursing college in the district. In a memorandum submitted to the Deputy Commissioner here they said that it was the only government nursing college for the districts of Gulbarga, Bidar and Raichur. The Government?s decision to close the college had come as a ?shock? to the students, they said. ?Restart admission? The protesters urged the Government to restart the admission process in the college. Several students also participated in the protest and raised slogans against the Government. The protest was led by the district unit president of AIDSO S.H. Jagannath and the district unit president of AIMSS V. Nagammal. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/24/stories/2008052454561100.htm Teachers and students try to take out protest rally Staff Reporter TIRUNELVELI: Students and a couple of teachers of Bishop Sargent Teacher Training Institute at Palayamkottai took out a rally at Palayamkottai on Friday condemning the CSI Bishop in Tirunelveli, Rt. Rev. S. Jayapaul David. However, the police thwarted this attempt as no permission was granted for the rally. Condemning the ?autocratic functioning? of Mr. David the students and some of the staff of Bishop Sargent Teacher Training Institute took out a rally without police permission on Friday evening to submit a petition at Clarinda Church on Military Line Road. When the rally crossed Murugankurichi traffic signal, the police intercepted and asked them to go back to their campus as no proper permission was obtained from the police for the protest march. However, the teachers who led the rally and the students tried to continue their march. As the police told them that they would be taken into custody, they gave up their protest and left the place immediately. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/04/stories/2008060459210300.htm Students protest seat reduction Correspondent CUTTACK: A students? unrest is in the offing at Ravenshaw University as the students are regrouping during the ongoing summer vacation to protest against the arbitrary decision of the State government to reduce the number of seats in the Arts stream of both under graduate and post graduate courses of the University. On Tuesday, some DSO students submitted a memorandum to the University registrar demanding to revoke the seat reduction notification. The students also urged the university authorities to stop the ongoing admission process till the notification is withdrawn. ?Since the university is now closed for summer vacation, we are regrouping the students and from Thursday we would launch an agitation inside the campus?, said the DSO district secretary Sibashis Praharaj. http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=39258 Published On: 2008-06-02 National Rajshahi health instt students protest decision on training RU Correspondent Hundreds of students of the Institute of Health Technology, Rajshahi yesterday formed a human chain in the city protesting a decision of the authorities which offered private clinic technicians aged 40 years an opportunity to study diploma course in medical technology. They demanded immediate cancellation of the decision taken by the higher authorities on March 03. They alleged the decision was taken aiming at earning money from private clinic owner, not for the purpose of education. Agitating students carried banners and placards in support of their demand. They also pressed for their other demands including immediate rehabilitation of jobless technologists, opportunity for higher education to technologists and scholarships to students. The human chain was followed by a rally. Students threatened a tougher agitation soon if their demands are not met immediately. Among others, student leaders like Rakibul Islam, Farhad, Masud, Sharmin, Shamima, Firoza and Zannat addressed. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20080530-139800/Youth-declare-vacation-over-protest-season-on Youth declare 'vacation over,' protest season on By Abigail Kwok INQUIRER.net First Posted 18:31:00 05/30/2008 MANILA, Philippines -- For Joey dela Cruz, a junior Philippine Arts student at the University of the Philippines-Manila, the role of the youth is not just to participate in protest actions but to educate and create awareness through the arts. ?Through casual conversations or through creative means, we can let other youth know of the pressing problems of the country. But rallies are also important because classroom discussions are not enough,? he said. Dela Cruz is just one of the students who share the same beliefs in pushing for truth, justice, and accountability. He is one among the hundreds of youth delegates from different universities across the country who attended the National Youth Assembly at the University of the Philippines-Diliman on Friday, as the series of protest actions against the Arroyo administration resume. Different student groups headed by Youth Act Now! Movement declared ?vacation is over, let's strengthen our ranks for youth power.? ?Here are the youth, ready and willing to organize their ranks for protest actions,? spokesman Alvin Peters said. League of Filipino Students (LFS) president Vencer Crisostomo said the issue was no longer just the national broadband network (NBN) deal scandal, but students would also protest the government's inability to address other issues including the rice crisis, education problems, and oil price hikes. ?Kung hindi magsasabi ng totoo ang gobyerno, mas magkakaroon pa ng maraming pagkilos ng kabataan [If the government does not tell the truth, the youth will hold many mass actions],? he said. Crisostomo said there would be nationwide student walk-outs during the opening of classes on June 10, to kick off the series of protest actions as a build-up for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's State of the Nation Address (SONA) in July. ?Although there was an expected lull from youth during the summer, we are now ready as the start of classes nears,? Peters added. Groups condemned the government for the: alleged attempted cover-up of evidence possibly implicating the First Family on issues of bribery and corruption; ?gross and systematic plunder? by key government officials; the unresolved issues of corruption; and, the alleged misuse of government machinery for the ?betrayal of public trust.? Also present during the assembly were NBN deal whistleblowers Rodolfo Noel Lozada, Jr. and Jose de Venecia III, and Jesus is Lord Movement Founder Eddie Villanueva. ?The youth did not take a vacation? Lozada said. ?Rather, we should tell the government, tapos na ang bakasyon nila dahil nandito na ule ang mga kabataan [vacation is over because the youth are here again].? He added that the government left the youth with a ?sovereign guarantee,? where ?lahat ng inuutang ng gobyerno kayo ang magbabayad [everything the government owes you will pay for].? http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/01/stories/2008070153470300.htm Kerala - Kannur SFI to protest against fee hike in medical colleges Special Correspondent KANNUR: The Students Federation of India (SFI) will take out a protest march to the Secretariat on July 3 to protest against the fee hike in government medical colleges. SFI State secretary A.N. Shamseer said at a press conference here on Tuesday that medical and paramedical students in the State would participate in the protest march and dharna. He also said that the SFI would launch a campaign on July 2 against the propaganda against the controversial Class VII social science textbook. The SFI would distribute copies of the textbook to the public as part of the campaign to expose the propaganda being unleashed by communal interests. Mr. Shamseer said that those who were demanding the withdrawal of the textbook were religious fanatics. He also said that Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy, Indian Union Muslim League leader P.K. Kunhalikutty, Archbishop Joseph Powathil and Nair Service Society general secretary P.K. Narayana Panikkar were working as a ?gang of four? to make Kerala a ?lunatic asylum.? . http://www.ibnlive.com/news/expelled-iitd-students-take-to-street-protests/67839-3.html?xml Expelled IIT-D students take to street protests IANS Published on Thu, Jun 26, 2008 at 21:25 in Nation section Tags: IIT, SC/ST Commission , New Delhi E-mail this report | Print this report OUTSTANDING STUDENTS: Twenty-eight students were expelled from the IIT-Delhi earlier this year. People who read this also read: IIT-D revokes expulsion of two SC students 20 students were expelled on grounds of unsatisfactory academic performance. IIT-D to review SC/ST students' expulsion Featured Blog New Delhi: Scores of students from the Indian Institute of Technology- Delhi, Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Thursday held demonstrations, seeking justice for 28 students who were expelled from the IIT. "All the students were from the 'Bahujan Samaj' and faced caste-based discrimination and harassment from the faculty and the administration," Ravindra, one of the expelled students, alleged. He said the faculty singled them out as Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes students and declared them weak students, "incapable of doing well". Twenty-eight students were expelled from the IIT-Delhi earlier this year on the grounds of low academic performance. While 20 of them are from the Scheduled Castes and Schedule Tribes, the others are from the general category and the Other Backward Classes (OBC) and minority communities. The protesters, demonstrating outside the IIT-D campus, argued the evaluation and grading system was arbitrary and lacked transparency. They also said the faculty were influenced by their personal prejudices in their grading. "The lives of all of us students have been ruined," said Ravindra added. The students said that the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) has informed them that it is "unconstitutional to expel students on the grounds of low academic performance". The commission has asked IIT-Delhi director Surendra Prasad to reconsider the decision and has given the administration 15 days' time from June 17 to reply. Following the commission's directive, the IIT-Delhi has set up a committee to review the situation. But the students were not satisfied. "Dalit students who have deposed before the (review) committee have expressed their complete dissatisfaction as the committee was not willing to listen to the students' version," said a protestor. The protesters demand the 28 students' expulsion be immediately revoked and that the existing review committee be disbanded. They want an independent committee comprising "socially sensitive members" to be constituted under the aegis of the government or the human resource development ministry to look into the issue of caste-based discrimination at the IIT-Delhi. They said that every year there are a few cases of Dalit students being expelled because of "low academic performance" but the number was quite high this year. Anoop, a JNU student and convener of the National Dalit Student Forum, said the institute needs to "create an atmosphere where the students are not considered weak because of their caste". http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/27/stories/2008062756882800.htm Karnataka Bus pass rate: students stage protest Staff Correspondent Chitradurga: Condemning the increase in the cost of student bus pass, students, under the banner of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), staged protest in front of Deputy Commissioner?s office here on Wednesday. In a memorandum, the ABVP said that last year, the cost of the annual bus pass was Rs. 970 for general students and Rs. 1,170 for job-oriented diploma course students, and this had been raised to Rs. 1,070 and Rs. 1,470 respectively. This hike, the ABVP said, had put an additional burden on poor students. The ABVP demanded that the Government immediately revoke the decision. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/08/stories/2008070852870300.htm Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada Protest against move to hike fee planned Vijayawada: All India Youth Federation city secretary N. Sambasiva Rao on Monday flayed the State Government move to increase the fee for professional courses. He said the union volunteers would stage a protest at the venues where EAMCET counselling would be conducted from July 9 to 16. ? Staff Reporter http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=44802 2008-07-08 Metropolitan Women Polytech Instt principal transferred in face of protest Staff Correspondent The Directorate of Technical Education transferred the principal of Dhaka Women Polytechnic Institute yesterday in the face of protest against her by the students. The students staged a two-hour demonstration in front of the institute at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar to press for their 10-point demand, including the removal of the principal for her irregularities, at around 9:00am, prompting the authorities to take action. The principal, Izzat Ara, was transferred to Graphic Art Institute at Mohammadpur. The authorities also assured the students of meeting their all other demands. According to sources, the students had been staging protests for the last two months against various irregularities carried out by the principal. The students alleged that she had been collecting extra charges from the students. Witnesses said about 700 students of the institute took to the street and formed a human chain at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in the morning. Receiving information, Abul Bashar, director general (DG) of the Directorate of Technical Education, rushed to the spot along with some other officials and assured the students of meeting their demands. The agitating students then withdrew their protest programme. Talking to The Daily Star, DG Abul Bashar said a new principal was appointed yesterday. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/08/stories/2008070856700300.htm Karnataka - Raichur Students protest against poor hostel facilities in Raichur Staff Correspondent Raichur: Students from various government hostels staged a dharna here on Monday urging the State Government to improve facilities in the hostels and provide adequate security to women?s hostels in the district. About 50 students protested near the Deputy Commissioner?s office. Later, K. Sandeep, member of the working committee of the State unit of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner to the passed on to the Minister for Social Welfare. ?Pathetic state? The memorandum said that most of the government hostels in the district were in a pathetic state. Apart from a shortage of rooms, the hostels lacked basic facilities such as drinking water, kitchens and bathrooms. Students staying in the women?s hostel were living in fear as no security guards had been posted to prevent the entry of outsiders. Even wardens had not been appointed on a permanent basis, the memorandum said. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/05/stories/2008070552850300.htm Andhra Pradesh - Kadapa AISF stages protest at headmasters? meeting Special Correspondent Activists deplore delay in distribution of textbooks and oppose G.O. 76 AISF activists warn of raiding godowns and offices if textbooks are not supplied ?Books finding their way to black market as officials are indifferent in supplying them? KADAPA: AISF activists and school students stormed into a review meeting of educational officials and headmasters at Government Arts College auditorium and squatted near the dais obstructing the commencement of the meeting for about two hours on Friday. Deploring delay in distribution of textbooks and opposing G.O. 76, through which CBSE syllabus is being introduced in Government schools, AISF functionaries mobbed District Educational Officer G.A. Hemanath and raised slogans. They members entered into a wordy duel with the DEO, when Kadapa (East) Circle Inspector V. Narayanaswamy Reddy and Sub Inspectors Sudhakar Reddy and Ramakrishnudu took AISF leaders into custody. Schools reopened on June 12 but Government school students from Class VI to SSC are yet to be supplied textbooks, AISF district secretary N. Venkatasiva alleged. As many as 6.18 lakh textbooks are in godowns and most of them are finding their way to the black market as officials are indifferent in supplying them to students, he alleged.Mr. Venkatasiva recalled that Kalasapadu Mandal Educational Officer Sriramulu was caught while trying to shift thousands of textbooks to the black market and demanded his suspension. He warned that AISF activists will raid godowns and offices of mandal resource persons if textbooks are not supplied to students within the next four days. He demanded withdrawal of CBSE syllabus and wanted State syllabus taught in Government schools. Steps to close down some schools in the name of ?Success? programme should be given up, he said. AISF district president K. Mallikarjuna Reddy and vice-president G. Madduleti flayed educational officials and headmasters for failing to ensure supply of textbooks to students. AISF city president Madhusudan and activists Narasimhulu, Nagarjuna, Mahesh and Michael also participated. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/05/stories/2008070557750300.htm Andhra Pradesh Protest turns unruly Sangareddy: Police used mild force to disperse students who were on the verge of rampaging the District Education Officer?s office here today. Many students, particularly girl students, were brought to the DEO?s office by the ABVP activists to protest against the proposed CBSE syllabus in government schools, lack of infrastructure and shortage of textbooks. They entered and started damaging furniture in the DEO?s office. - Staff Reporter http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/06/stories/2008070656560300.htm Karnataka - Raichur AIDSO stages protest Staff Correspondent Unhappy: Members of the AIDSO staging a dharna in Raichur on Saturday. Raichur: Members of the district unit of the All India Democratic Students? Organisation (AIDSO) took out a procession and staged a dharna here on Friday. They were protesting against the refusal to admit to the fifth semester students who had passed all subjects in the first and second semesters but had some subjects to pass in the third and fourth semesters. Classes boycotted About 500 students from various degree colleges in Raichur, who boycotted classes, participated in the procession, that went from Ambedkar Circle and reached the Deputy Commissioner?s office. Memorandum They staged a dharna and submitted a memorandum addressed to the Vice-Chancellor of Gulbarga University. Veeresh N.S., vice-president of the State unit of the AIDSO, said that the existing norms under the semester system had affected the interests of degree students seeking admissions to the fifth semester. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/04/stories/2008070460160400.htm Tamil Nadu Protest by Siddha students Special Correspondent TAMBARAM: Postgraduate students at the National Institute of Siddha in Tambaram Sanatorium staged a sit-in protest inside the premises on Thursday in support of their demands including greater thrust on research. A majority of the 116 students took part in the protest. They said C. N. Deivanayagam, Chairman of Scientific Advisory Committee of NIS, visited the outpatient block every Thursday and prescribed medicines to patients. Stating that Dr. Deivanayagam was an allopathic doctor, permitting him to consult patients went against the basic objective of establishing the institute. They said an important aspect of setting up the NIS was to give thrust to research on Siddha medicine. However, students were not part of any research activities or projects and even the first batch of postgraduate students had completed their course without any exposure to research. The hospital lacked even basic equipment such as scanning, X-ray and ECG. The laboratory on the ground floor was shifted to the first floor about four months ago, posing severe problems to patients. Reacting to the charges, NIS authorities said orders were placed for purchasing the equipment. Dr. Deivanayagam regretted that the students had resorted to the protest. ?I am not running a parallel out patient block. I just visit a special clinic once a week for recording and solving of problems that require research,? he told The Hindu. He added that he met only those who insisted on seeing him and that too in the presence of a Professor and a medical officer of NIS to offer a combination of modern medicine as part of a ?research oriented integration,? adding he never met patients alone. And the Scientific Advisory Committee determines how best the NIS could be built up and for this purpose, it gets first hand information from patients, he said. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/17/stories/2008071751250300.htm Andhra Pradesh - Tirupati Protests mark EAMCET counselling Special Correspondent Various student unions in Tirupati, Kadapa resent fee hike; call for Statewide bandh today Police use mild force to disperse agitating students Indiscriminate sanction of colleges opposed Unrelenting: Activists of AISF.SFI, ABVP and TNSF trying to gatecrash into SV Government Polytechnic in Tirupati on Wednesday. TIRUPATI: The EAMCET counselling programme which began here on Wednesday at the Government Polytechnic was marred by angry demonstrations and arrests of cadres belonging to student unions like the SFI, AISF, ABVP and the TNSF. Trouble erupted when the student union leaders who gathered in strength at the entrance of the college tried to gatecrash into the campus defying the police orders. With the cops standing guard firmly in front of the locked gates of the college, there was a melee and jostling between the police and the irate students. Police also had to use mild force and cart away the agitating student leaders in the waiting police vans to the Tirupati (West) police station. They had a tough time in pulling away the demonstrators and bundling them into the vans. All the arrested were later released on personal bail. Earlier, student leaders lashed at the State government for jacking up the admission fee of the engineering, MBA, MCA and B. Pharmacy courses on the ground that the inflation rate has gone up. This is ridiculous and the decision has made the courses go further out of the reach of the students belonging to the middle and lower-middle classes. Similarly, the enhancement of the fees for the engineering seats under the NRI and management quota from Rs. 83,500 to Rs. 91,700 and so also the MBA, MCA and Pharmacy fees from Rs.1 lakh up to anywhere around Rs. 40 lakhs should there be demand ? also have come for a severe rebuke. All these were done by those in power only with the intention of letting the private managements running the institutions make a fortune out of it on a ?quid pro quo basis?, they alleged. No infrastructure The student unions owing allegiance to the CPI (M), CPI, BJP and the TDP have also questioned the propriety of the government in sanctioning 159 more engineering colleges in the State when there existed already 322 colleges, most of whom for ?namesake? without even the basic infrastructure and logistics. Most of them do not have even the qualified teachers, they charged and warned the government against playing with the lives and future of the students. The striking unions have given a call for State-wide educational bandh on Thursday to protest against the arrest. Activists caned AISF and AIYF activists tried to stall counselling in Kadapa demanding scrapping of management quota and rolling back of hike in fees of engineering, MBA and MCA courses. However, the police foiled their attempts by resorting to a lathicharge and arresting some activists. AISF State vice-president M. Vemaiah, State vice-president N. Venkatasiva and AIYF State vice-president G. Gopal condemned the caning and arrests and called for a bandh of engineering, MBA, MCA and polytechnic colleges on Thursday. The Government issued G.O. 18 stipulating that SC, ST and BC students need not pay fees if they produced caste certificates, but fees was being collected from them, they alleged. They burnt an effigy deploring the lathicharge and arrests. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/17/stories/2008071752300300.htm Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada EAMCET counselling begins amidst protest Special Correspondent Student unions demand rollback of fees hike Counselling being held for the first time in Vijayawada 54 students register their names in Guntur VIJAYAWADA: Counselling for admissions into engineering colleges based on EAMCET ranks began amidst protests by the activists of the Students Federation of India (SFI), the Progressive Democratic Students Union (PDSU) and the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) at the Government Polytechnic here on Wednesday. Counselling centre for engineering admissions was opened in the city for the first time this year, doing away with the need for students of this region to go to Guntur for the purpose. The activists staged a dharna in front of the college, demanding a roll back of the hiked tuition fees in engineering colleges. Though the counselling began at the scheduled time of 10 a.m., the LCD display boards arranged in the counselling hall did not begin functioning till 10.50 a.m. because of a technical snag. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/18/stories/2008071859660300.htm Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada Police thwart students? bid to stage protest Staff Reporter They are agitating against CBSE syllabus in schools Police persuade students not to stage any dharna Police behaved brutally, say student leaders VIJAYAWADA: The police officers on duty at the Police Commissionerate on Thursday could successfully pre-empt a group of students from staging a sit-in protest in front of the Commissionerate, but the students were taken aback when they learnt that they were misguided by the officials in the Commissionerate. A handful of activists of the All India Students Federation (AISF) and the Progressive Democratic Students Union (PDSU) assembled in front of the commissionerate?s gate to stage a protest and demand action against the police officials responsible for ?manhandling? the student who agitated against introduction of CBSE syllabus in 6,500 schools in the State on Monday. The police immediately persuaded them not to stage any protest there, and sent a couple of their leaders to submit a memorandum to Police Commissioner K.V. Rajendranath Reddy. But, the officials in the Commissionerate told the students? leaders that he was not in the office. Even as they were waiting, Mr. Reddy appeared in his car near the main gate. Without stepping out from the vehicle, he began counselling the other students who were waiting there. ?It?s not right to bring school students to protests,? he told Irfan, a first year Intermediate student of KBN Junior College. The student leaders, who went to submit memo, were taken aback to see the Commissioner talking to their peers from the car. They immediately rushed to the gate and complained, ?Sir, we were told that you were not in the office.? Though visibly embarrassed by the goof-up, Mr. Reddy said the officials would have said so as he was leaving for a meeting. Continuing his counselling once again, he asked the student leaders, ?Who is responsible if a school student is injured in a road accident? Don?t bring school children,? he made it clear. AISF city secretary Qadar Basha and PDSU city secretary A. Ravichandra complained to him that the police behaved ?brutally? when they were silently protesting. The Commissioner assured to look into the complaint. http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=123762 Badin students protest against Karachi admission test Sunday, July 13, 2008 By our correspondent BADIN: A large number of students took out a rally and observed hunger strike here on the third consecutive day on Saturday to protest against the announcement of an admission test by the Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi, even before the announcement of the intermediate results. The rally, which was taken out under the aegis of the Shagird Ittehad Badin (SIB), started from the Shahnawaz Chowk and ended at the Badin press club. The students staged a sit-in in front of the press club and blocked a road for two hours. The SIB leaders, Ghulam Rasool Soomro, Shahid Jokhio, Razzak Sheikh and Wafa Latif Jokhio, addressed the students and said the academic institutions of Karachi had been turned into no-go areas for students of interior Sindh. They termed holding an entry test for admission even before the announcement of the intermediate results an anti-student step and said that the move was aimed at stopping the students of interior Sindh from applying for admission to the university. They demanded the cancellation of the test. http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/videos/2008/jul/jul13/video03.php Students protest against micro-bus incident Tri-Chandra students blocked the road in front of their Campus and Bag Bazaar protesting the manhandling of one of its students by a microbus helper at Lagankhel ? the students also accused the police of inaction. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/09/stories/2008070952210300.htm Andhra Pradesh - Anantapur Student unions stage protests Staff Reporter ANANTAPUR: Several student unions gheraoed Regional Inspection Officer, Kistappa, here on Monday demanding cancellation of registration of a private junior college, where an Intermediate first year girl allegedly committed suicide on Sunday. The student union leaders alleged that the girl had ended life unable to stand pressure by the college management. Student activists belonging to AISF, NSUI, ABVP and MVP participated in the protest and demanded payment of an ex gratia of Rs. 10 lakh to the family of the deceased girl. Speaking at the protest district general secretary of AISF B. Ramana alleged that private and corporate college managements were creating pressure on students in the name of study hours and exorbitant fee. http://www.taiwanheadlines.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=126453&CtNode=39 Students protest tuition hikes 07/10/2008 (Taipei Times) Dozens of members of the Alliance of Angry Youths ? mostly college and graduate students ? staged a demonstration outside the Ministry of Education in Taipei on Wednesday to protest a possible raise in tuition. The alliance also urged the ministry to cancel interest on student loans. Earlier, the ministry had announced that it would announce a "range for college tuition adjustments" on Friday. Although director of the ministry's Department of Higher Education Ho Chuo-fei (???) told the students that a tuition adjustment did not necessarily mean an increase in fees, but could also mean a decrease, the demonstrators were not convinced, especially after Minister of Education Cheng Jei-cheng's (???) interview with local news channel TVBS that was broadcast on Monday. During the interview, Cheng said that college tuition would have to be raised this year, adding that "our college tuition isn't too expensive" compared with most countries, including neighboring countries. "I'm from a single-parent family, and I'm paying almost NT$40,000 each semester for tuition," said Chen Chien-ming (???), a National Tsinghua University student. The demonstrators all wore white T-shirts with the Chinese characters for "anger" written on the shirts in red. "Throughout my four years of college, I'll pay a total of NT$200,000, and my sister, who is attending a private university, will pay a total of NT$400,000," he said. "The government says that college tuition should be decided by the market ? so why do we need the government?" Chen said. "Education should be a basic right for everyone, and those who are economically disadvantaged should not be excluded," said Tseng Tsung-kai (???), another member of the alliance. Not satisfied with Ho's explanation, the students decided to sit down in front of the ministry "until the minister comes talk to us," Tseng said. After around half an hour, deputy minister Lu Mu-lin (???) appeared. "We've heard your voices," Lu told the demonstrators. "I promise that there will not only be tuition raises, but also decreases ? I will ask the review committee to consider all the options [before announcing it on Friday]." With the deputy minister's promise, the students finally left, but said that they would be back on Friday if the ministry did not live up to its promises. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/10/stories/2008071054690500.htm Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram Capital city teems with protesters Staff Reporter Thiruvananthapuram: Protest marches and demonstrations disrupted traffic for several hours in the city for the third consecutive day on Wednesday. The Bharatiya Janata Party, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, Kerala State Employees Association, Youth Congress and All Indian Youth Federation held almost simultaneous demonstrations in front of the Kerala Legislative Assembly and the Secretariat. Hundreds of persons participated in the demonstrations. The situation is likely to be the same on Thursday, when the police expect over 20,000 traders to participate in the Kerala Vyapari Vyavasaya Samithi protest march. The police diverted vehicles and public transport buses from the arterial M.G. Road, forcing motorists and two-wheeler riders to take long detours to reach their destinations. Hundreds of passengers had to wait for several hours in bus stops. Much of the city remained off limits for citizens. Many people found it difficult to access key government offices, banks and commercial institutions situated in the city centre. A section of autorickshaw drivers refused to ferry passengers to Statue, Palayam, P.M.G. and Ayurveda College areas. http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/080731/world/zambia_education_protest Zambian university shut after student protest Module body Thu Jul 31, 4:17 AM LUSAKA (AFP) - Zambia shut its biggest university following protests by students over a month-long strike by their lecturers, a university spokesman said on Thursday. University of Zambia authorities decided to close the institution for three weeks and asked students to vacate the campus, Stanlous Chewe said. "We are going on recess for three weeks because of the prevailing industrial unrest," Chewe said. Students staged demonstrations on Tuesday to protest a long strike by lecturers demanding better pay. They blocked roads near the campus and smashed some vehicle windows before they were pushed back into their campus, police said. The riot squad surrounded the campus to prevent protesting students from marching onto the streets. The lecturers have been on strike for four weeks ago. They go on strike almost every year for better salaries and their action often leads to student riots. http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_2366649,00.html Zambian varsity students protest 30/07/2008 11:00 - (SA) Lusaka - Students at Zambia's biggest university staged overnight demonstrations to protest a month-long strike by their lecturers who were demanding better pay, said police on Wednesday. Students blocked the main roads near their campus, but were pushed back by riot police before they could cause damage to vehicles, said police spokesperson Benny Kapeso. "We are yet to get more details on what transpired. But we managed to contain the situation at night," Kapeso said. He said a riot squad had surrounded the University of Zambia to prevent students from marching onto the streets over a protracted strike by teaching staff. The lecturers, demanding better conditions of service, decided to stay away from classes four weeks ago. Almost every year, lecturers at the state-run university went on strike to press for better salaries and their action often led to riots by students. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/30/stories/2008073052360300.htm Andhra Pradesh - Guntur Teacher?s death triggers protest Staff Reporter Photo: T. Vijaya Kumar Acharya Nagarjuna University students blocking the NH 5 in front of the university gate in Guntur on Tuesday. ? GUNTUR: Students owing their allegiance to the AISF and other unions and belonging to various departments on Acharya Nagarjuna University campus held up traffic on NH 5 for some half an hour demanding immediate arrest of G. Chandrasekhara Rao, husband of Botany assistant professor Jyotsna Kumari. Jyotsna Kumari attempted suicide on July 18 and died a week later in a hospital here. Chandrasekhara Rao, an ACTO in the Commercial Taxes Department in Guntur, was absconding. Parents of Jyotsna Kumari accused Chandrasekhara Rao of harassing their daughter for dowry. The students staged a dharna in front of the SP?s office here. They relented following an assurance by the DSP that the accused person would be arrested within 24 hours. . http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/30/stories/2008073052220300.htm New Delhi Protest by JNU students Parul Sharma ?Fact is that the School has violated the university?s evaluation norms? The Dean of the School, Indira Ghosh, denied all such allegations NEW DELHI: The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students? Union are protesting against ?arbitrariness and anomalies? in the functioning of School of Information Technology. The students? body has been voicing its objection to the manner in which three M.Tech. students of the School have not been allowed to register for the second year. ?These three students have been thrown out of the programme ostensibly for their ?poor academic performance?. The fact is that the School has violated the University?s evaluation norms,? alleged JNUSU president Sandeep Singh. The students have claimed that throughout the one year of their M.Tech. answer scripts of mid-semester exams and other such tests were not shown to their entire batch comprising 15 students. ?No concrete feedbacks were provided. Only final grades were given to us without any break up of mid-term evaluations. Throughout the semester, exams were held but no evaluation was shown to us by any teacher, apart from two faculty members,? said a student. Another student alleged: ?For one subject, we submitted 20 assignments. But the results were never shown to us. We went to our faculty members and asked for our results. They would ask us to come later. No teacher ever said we were academically weak and needed to pull up our socks.? The Dean of the School, Indira Ghosh, denied all such allegations, stating that the students were only trying to sully the School?s image. ?Faculty members spent long hours with them to help them out. The results were shown to them throughout the year. At the end of the first semester in December, the three had failed. They requested in writing that they be given a chance to improve their record, which we allowed,? she maintained. The rationale of JNU?s continuous and multiple evaluation entailing detailed feedbacks is to help students improve. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/29/stories/2008072953970300.htm Other States - Orissa In protest mode ? Photo: Ashoke Chakrabarty For a cause: Activists of the SFI and the AISF demonstrating before the State Secretariat in Bhubaneswar seeking government control on private technical and professional educational institutions in the State on Monday. http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_South%20Africa&set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=nw20080725122830512C653844 TUT students hold protest on campus July 25 2008 at 12:38PM About 100 Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) students are to hand a memorandum on free education to university management on Friday, said the Young Communist League. "The march is about the 'Joe Slovo Right to learn' campaign. We are going to hand over a memorandum to management regarding free education," said Gauteng secretary general Jabu Mphurpi. The group was marching from the university's Soshanguve (north) campus to the South Campus where the memorandum would be handed over. A university spokesperson confirmed that the march was legal. "Classes are not expected to be disrupted." "TUT's management will consider the memorandum and respond to it in due course," she added. - Sapa http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/24/stories/2008072451010300.htm Other States - Puducherry AISF to protest against delay on medical seats Special Correspondent PUDUCHERRY: The Puducherry unit of All India Students? Federation (AISF) on Wednesday flayed the government for the delay in finalising the allocation of seats in private medical colleges for students to be admitted through the Centralised Admission Committee (CENTAC). AISF unit secretary G. Karunajothi said in a statement that the federation would launch an agitation on Friday urging the students to boycott classes to highlight the demand for early solution to the issue. The prevailing scenario indicated that the solution to the issue was still eluding with the managements of the private medical colleges failing to earmark 50 per cent of seats to the government quota and the three deemed universities not sending their representatives to the meeting called by the government. This was despite the announcement that admissions through the CENTAC would commence on July 28, he said. The ?inconclusive talks? had created doubts over the feasibility of implementation of the Chief Minister?s announcement in the Assembly that the government would ensure allocation of 50 per cent seats to CENTAC quota. Mr. Karunajothi called for ?stern action against the managements which had shown scant regard for the aspirations of the students, parents and the government?. http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=110652 METU students protest against Ankara mayor Thursday, July 24, 2008 Around 1,000 METU students criticize Ankara Mayor Melih G?k?ek?s decision, with placards in their hands that read, 'METU belongs to us and it will remain so' ?ZG? G?NG?R ANKARA - Turkish Daily News Students at the Middle East Technical University, or METU, staged a protest yesterday against a decision by the Ankara Municipality to demolish allegedly illegal buildings on the university's campus. Gathering in the center of the campus, around 1,000 students criticized Ankara Mayor Melih G?k?ek's decision and chanted slogans against him with placards in their hands that read, ?Not METU but G?k?ek will be destroyed,? ?METU belongs to us and it will remain so.? Among the interesting placards were also those which read, ?G?k?ek, you are the bulb (symbol of the Justice and Development Party, or AKP);? ?The villas overlooking Lake Eymir from G?k?ek Real Estate,? and ?G?k?ek doomed Ankara to structures, exhaust and arsenic; the lack of oxygen, however, hit G?k?ek first!? The AKP-run municipality charged METU a fine of YTL 1.8 million for having 45 illegal structures on its campus and ruled to demolish the buildings unless they were brought in line with the law. The municipality and METU had already clashed over a series of matters, including the level of arsenic in the K?z?l?rmak River, from which Ankara's drinking water is secured as well as Lake Eymir, which remains within the borders of METU. METU rector, Ural Akbulut, said the university's own examination of the samples of unpurified water from K?z?l?rmak showed there was arsenic twice the normal limit. The municipality also wants to open Eymir to public use while the university resists the plan in an effort to protect a rare large green space in the heart of the city by allowing only controlled entrance to the lake. For university students and Akbulut, the municipality's recent move is a kind of reprisal for former debates and aimed at grabbing territory from METU which covers a campus area of 4,500 hectares and forest area of 3,043 hectares. ?The municipality targets territory from our university to make profit over it,? students said in their written statement yesterday while Akbulut during a visit to ?ankaya Municipality Tuesday said, ?It is revealed that G?k?ek eyes our territory. You can't succeed. Even if you do so, you can't build anything as it is a protected area by laws.? ?ankaya Mayor Muzaffer Ery?lmaz said they would finalize the formalities in order to provide the area with protected legal status while G?k?ek said he had the right to demolish the illegal buildings on campus unless they were brought in line with the law but he wouldn't use his right, speaking to TGRT television Tuesday night. ?I am determined to open Eymir for public use,? he said. What METU-graduate politicians think? There are 19 METU-graduate deputies in the cabinet including two ministers: Energy Minister Hilmi G?ler and State Minister K?r?ad T?zmen. Emrehan Hal?c?, graduate in Electrical and Electronics Engineering and Ankara deputy from the Democratic Left Party, or DSP, said the aim shouldn't be to destroy METU but to multiply it. The municipal decision to destroy the structures based solely on a technical problem is a pretty radical attitude. ?The former disputes between the municipality and METU raise questions on whether the current crisis is something political,? he said, adding, ?G?k?ek is already a political figure while the universities are the scientific establishments which work for free speech.? Problems could be solved in a more conciliatory way, according to him. For Osman ?ak?r, graduate in chemistry and Samsun deputy of the Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, the municipality's targeting a university which remained among the world's most notable universities, is unfortunate. ?What G?k?ek should do is to promote the university, pride of the country, and strengthen its competitive capacity,? he said, adding, ?The municipality's attitude isn't well intentioned. Good will and common sense are needed.? The Republican People's Party, or CHP, deputy Nesrin Baytok, a mining engineering graduate said, ?G?k?ek was absent 50 years ago when METU existed. Did G?k?ek remember METU's building plan problem today 15 years after being elected mayor?? ?G?k?ek instead should have rewarded the university for providing Ankara such an eco-friendly campus and area.? AKP deputy Abdullah ?al??kan, a graduate in business, said the issue seemed to be a technical matter and it shouldn't be politicized. ?The issue however has already created a polarization. We don't want, of course, the destruction of the buildings yet there are laws to be obeyed. Demolishing them is not a solution. A joint formula could be found,? he said. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/14/stories/2008081454050300.htm Andhra Pradesh - Tirupati Students of TTD-run schools stage protest TIRUPATI: The agitation launched by the AISF demanding free supply of food to students studying in various TTD-run educational institutions here has taken an sad turn on the third day on Wednesday. Led by AISF, they marched through the streets of the temple city with empty plates. ?Special Correspondent http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=129419 IIU students continue to hold protests University president denies all accusations Monday, August 11, 2008 Myra Imran Islamabad Female students of Usooluddin (Islamic Studies) Department at the International Islamic University (IIU) continue to hold regular protests on the campus over frequent changes being made in the faculty and course schemes. Alleging that such moves were part of a strategy to introduce a specific religious mindset within the department, the students told ?The News? that contract of about seven senior teachers had either been terminated or they were transferred to other departments in the past 12 months. ?Most of these teachers were funded by foreign institutions and were masters in their respective fields,? said one of the students. Naming some of the teachers, the protesting students said that the most recent case involved Professor Suhail Hassan who was transferred despite having served the department for 20 years. He was said to be quite popular among students. Similarly, contracts of Professor Nizamuddin Nafeh and Professor Tahir Mahmood, were not renewed. Also on that list were professors Manshavi, Abdul Tawwab, Dr. Fazal Elahi and Dr. Aziz ur Rehman. The students claimed that Professor Hassan was notified of his transfer while out of town and that too in the middle of a semester. ?The faculty of our department was not informed of the change for several weeks,? they said. They thought that the move was aimed at reducing the number of principled teachers from the Academic Council, a 60-member body that rules on academic matters. The protesting girls pointed out that since the university was facing financial problems, therefore the management would never be able to hire teachers of the same calibre from its own resources. Young teachers with no experience or foreign ones were appointed in place of known religious scholars, they said. They alleged that classes comprising boys and girls were also taking place in the Urdu Department despite the IIU being a declared non co-education institution. The students were also angered by the increase in annual fee that has almost been doubled compared to last year?s. They believed that the administration also planned to abolish specialisation at the bachelor?s level. The series of changes began in 2006 when the name of Usooluddin Department (USD) was changed to the Department of Islamic Studies. ?The USD came into being in 1981 then why it took the management 25 years to go for name change,? asked the students. They said that their course schemes were also changed quite frequently as compared to other departments and they were all deeply concerned over this state of affairs. IIU President Anwar Hussain Siddiqui denied that all this was happening on the campus. ?We changed the name of the department because it was in Arabic and therefore difficult for the common people to understand,? he said adding that both names were being used in documentations. Sidiqui said that the teachers left when their contracts expired or their original departments called them back. He made it clear that course schemes were changed on the directives of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and applied to all departments. ?According to these directives, 60 percent of the course matter would be directly related to the subject whereas 40 percent of it would be about general knowledge, things other than the actual subject,? he said, stressing that the aim was to enhance the knowledge base of students. He said that the administration wanted the USD students to also know about people like Ghalib, Mir and Iqbal but a small fraction of the department wanted to run the faculty on the pattern of a madrassa. ?More and more girls are joining the department from a variety of backgrounds but this narrow-minded group wants to impose its version of Islam on the department.? Siddiqui said that almost 18,000 students were studying in the university at this point of time in different faculties and they came from a variety of backgrounds. ?The course schemes are decided by the Academic Council and it is not the decision of one person,? he said. Terming specialisation at bachelor?s level a non-issue, he said that it starts at the master?s or PhD levels in all universities. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/21/stories/2008082157110300.htm Schools and colleges closed Schools and colleges in Bidar city remained closed on Wednesday after a bandh call was given by members of the district unit of the Students Federation of India. In a memorandum addressed to Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, district unit vice-president of the SFI Uttamkumar Hivoore said the bandh was called to protest against setting up of foreign and private universities in the country. Their other demands are elections for students? union in colleges and universities according to Supreme Court?s directions, appointment of teachers in vacant posts, constitution of a committee against sexual harassment in educational institutions, and increase in fund allocation to education sector. The members submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/23/stories/2008082354640500.htm Karnataka - Udupi Students protest Udupi: The Mangalore University All College Students Action Committee (Sarva College Vidyarthi Kriya Samiti) staged a dharna in front of the Deputy Commissioner?s office here on Friday. In a memorandum addressed to Governor Rameshwar Thakur, submitted at the Deputy Commissioner?s office , the committee demanded the scrapping of the credit-based semester system by the Mangalore University. The students took out a procession from the Service Bus Stand to the Deputy Commissioner?s office. http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=9867 Philadelphia University students to protest against registration fee hike Students sign a petition opposing Petra University administration raising student fees (Photo courtesy of the Petra University student council) By Thameen Kheetan AMMAN - Philadelphia University (PU) students plan to stage a sit-in on campus on Sunday to protest a university decision to raise registration fees by JD80, with the administration warning that students who block the university?s main gate will face expulsion. ?It is a violation of the right of passage, security and order to block the university gate, and we will not hesitate to hand down expulsions,? PU Dean of Student Affairs Ghassan Abdul Khaleq told The Jordan Times on Wednesday. In 2006, some 15 PU students blocked the university?s main gate during a sit-in, an action considered by Abdul Khaleq as a ?hostage situation? as scores of people were trapped inside the university. ?First and final warnings were issued to seven of them but no one was expelled,? he recalled. The National Campaign for Defending Students? Rights (Thabahtoona) issued a statement condemning Abdul Khaleq?s ?threat to expel students for staging a campus sit-in?, criticising what they referred to as a ?martial law mentality in Jordanian universities?. ?We did not threaten to expel protesting students and we are not against the idea of a sit-in,? Abdul Khaleq said, noting that the university abides by ?the democratic climate and the freedom of expression [in the country]?. Abdul Khaleq said the hike in registration fees, which will be implemented at the beginning of the 2008/2009 academic year, was due to the global increase in prices which has affected most of the Kingdom?s commodities. ?The difference in fuel prices cost us JD1 million over the last year,? he said, stressing that the university offers free transportation. A student activist, who preferred to remain unnamed, told The Jordan Times that under the proposed hike, students are forced to pay for transportation through ?service fees.? He added that Sunday?s sit-in will be ?enormous?. Meanwhile, a deal was reached on Wednesday between Petra University students and administration over fee increases, bringing an end to a two-week crisis that included protest marches and sit-ins. Last week, students organised two sit-ins on campus after the university administration moved to raise tuition by 10 to 15 per cent and introduce new charges such as a JD120 ?service fee?. Around 900 students also signed a petition calling on the administration not to increase fees, which included a JD55 increase in bus rates per semester and the introduction of a JD60 parking fee. In its statement, Thabahtoona said Petra University administration forced students to sign a commitment ?not to protest against rising fees?. Protests escalated into marches disrupting classes, according to Dean of Student Affairs Mahmoud Ata. ?They broke into classes forcing students to come out and join them,? Ata told The Jordan Times, adding that students also ?verbally abused teachers?. Despite the ongoing tension, a deal was reached yesterday over service fees and student conduct. ?The university started to cooperate and understand student demands,? student council vice president Ahmad Isis told The Jordan Times. He praised an administration decision to drop service fees from JD100 to JD50 that can be paid in two instalments. ?Students unable to pay can fill out an application to be exempted from the service fee,? Isis added. He noted that Petra University President Adnan Badran ?had no idea about the paper students were forced to sign?. ?Today [Wednesday] the commitment was changed; students pledged to hold peaceful demonstrations and the university promised not to take action against protesting students,? Isis explained. The student council vice president condemned the disruption of classes, an act he blamed on ?a small group? not representing him or his colleagues. Isis added that the student council will issue a statement today condemning the incident. 7 August 2008 http://www.newkerala.com/topstory-fullnews-7632.html Student protests intensify in Bihar Patna, Aug 6 : Student protests here intensified Wednesday as anger seethed over Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's silence and government's inability to end the indefinite strike by non-teaching staff of universities and colleges that has paralysed higher education in the state. Hundreds of students staged demonstrations and sat on fasts here. About 33,000 non-teaching staff of nine universities and 250 colleges went on an indefinite strike from July 1 to demand higher salaries. The strike has crippled the teaching as well as administrative work in the universities and colleges. Despite the new academic session beginning July 1, all the universities and colleges are closed. It is the first time in the last 10 years when the new session has not started in July, students said. The angry students led by different student organisations protested Wednesday against the police action on students Tuesday. Some students were arrested and some injured in a police baton-charge, in response to stone pelting by the students. A group of students led by the All India Students Federation of India (AISF) staged a protest at Rajendra Nagar Terminal here that disrupted train movement for hours. The All India Student Association (student wing of CPI-ML), the National Students Union of India and Chhatra Rashtriya Janata Dal also protested. The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the students wing of ruling party ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), also protested the police action. Most of the students told IANS here that what angered them was that the state government has not made any attempt to end the strike. ?The government's silence is ruining our careers,? they said. The non-teaching staff of Patna University went on strike June 6, followed by the staff of Bihar state universities June 25. ?The strike in Patna University is around 59 days old, but the government is yet to initiate a dialogue with the striking staff,? students said. --- IANS http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/07/stories/2008080751230300.htm Karnataka - Hassan DYFI protests against police Staff Correspondent HASSAN: Members of the district unit of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) took out a rally here on Tuesday protesting against the police action against activists who were staging a dharna in front of the corporation office in Mangalore on Monday. Several DYFI workers were caned during the agitation. Addressing the protesters at the Hemavathi statue, district president of DYFI B.G. Girish, secretary Shavell Hameed, Students Federation of India district president Pruthvi and secretary Ravi Sanenahalli strongly criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party Government for the police firing on farmers who were fighting for their legitimate rights. Now, they had lathi-charged activists in Mangalore when they were protesting against the privatisation of drinking water supply. When the protesters arrived at Deputy Commissioner Naveen Raj Singh?s office, the latter, who came out to receive their memorandum, found a junior student amidst the crowd. He rushed to the boy and asked him whether he was aware why the protest was called for. The boy was a PUC student in Sujala College, but was hesitant to offer a reply. The Deputy Commissioner then advised student leaders to educate their fellows before bringing them for rallies. The agitators demanded the resignation of the Mayor of Mangalore, withdrawal of the proposed move to privatise drinking water supply, withdrawal of cases against DYFI activists and suspension of the police personnel. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/metro/view/20080610-141817/UP-marks-school-opening-with-protest UP marks school opening with protest By Abigail Kwok INQUIRER.net First Posted 10:05:00 06/10/2008 MANILA, Philippines -- Militant student groups staged a lightning rally inside the University of the Philippines in Quezon City on Tuesday to demand for the rollback and refund of tuition and other fees. At 10 a.m., student groups Anakbayan-UP Diliman chapter and Student Alliance for the Advancement of Democratic Rights in UP (Stand UP) went inside the freshmen orientation to urge students to join protest actions. Armed with banners that read ?fight for education, rollback tuition,? around 20 protesters chanted ?rollback tuition? as students were singing the UP hymn. ?We are calling for the immediate junking of the policy of the tuition increase,? said Stand UP spokesman Teri Rodon. The tuition of UP increased from P300 to P1000 per unit, Rodon said. Earlier in the day, Gem Garcia, spokesperson for Anakbayan-UP Diliman, alleged that the UP administration was "repressing" student activism by not allowing the university student council to speak before the freshmen. "Alam naman natin na marami sa mga estudyante natin ang hindi may kaya sa buhay. Dagdag pahirap lang ang increase in tution and other fees [We know that there are a lot of poor students. An increase in tuition and other fees simply add to their financial burden],? she said. "Bilang mga scholar ng bayan, dapat maging kritikal tayo at mapanuri [As the country?s scholars, we should be critical and discerning]," she said. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Fri Aug 29 22:54:14 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 06:54:14 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Student protests, 3 of 3: global North Message-ID: <00bf01c90a64$d6c91700$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * US, Miami Dade: Midwifery course cancellation protested * CANADA: Calgary students pay fees in coins to protest card ban * AUSTRALIA: Students storm council meeting over cuts * AUSTRALIA: Students removed from senate over fee protest * FRANCE: Protests against neoliberal reforms continue * CANADA/US: Students protest New Orleans summit * UK: Manchester students protest over standards * US: Students protest cuts in Florida, Sacramento, California * Sacramento students stage "study-in" * US, California: Students call for sacking of torture defender * US, Virginia: Silent protest, handshake refusal over corruption accusation * US, Oregon: Jefferson students walk out over resources * US, St Louis: Protesters turn backs as conservative gets honorary degree * CANADA, Ottawa: Protest against "non-academic code of conduct" (moral policing) * US, Cincinnati: Protest over closure of halls * US, Pittsburgh: Hempfield students walk out of classes over cuts, restructuring * US, Florida: Students sent home as protest over teacher feared * SCOTLAND: Protest over attempt to limit number of student homes * CANADA: Students walk out of classes over dress code, arrested (?!) * US, Santa Barbara: Students protest postponement of student-led assembly * CANADA: Students rally against attack on free speech * US, Oregon: School students walk out over transfer of counsellor * GERMANY: Duisburg-Essen students protest cuts * NEW ZEALAND: Students, Greens protest debt, fees http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/656727.html MDC midwife students protest program's demise Posted on Mon, Aug. 25, 2008 reprint print email Facebook Digg del.icio.us AIM BY ERIKA BERAS eberas at MiamiHerald.com About 30 Miami Dade College students and their supporters showed up Monday at MDC President Eduardo J. Padron's office to protest the cancellation of the midwifery degree program. The protesters demanded a meeting with administrators. They met at Padron's office at the college's Wolfson campus. Earlier this month, the college suspended the innovative program after asking all of their students to pay $7,000 in course tuition and malpractice insurance in advance. The college cited high costs and low enrollment. Existing students can finish their degrees. There are two routes to becoming a midwife. Nursing schools, public and private, offer graduate programs for nurse practitioner midwives. Graduates are fully trained nurses who usually work in a hospital or birth center under the auspices of a doctor. MDC trains ''direct entry'' midwives, who are more likely to work outside a hospital. Miami Dade College was the first public institution in the country to provide training in direct-entry midwifery. Experts say midwives and the work they do in predominantly poor areas is necessary. They provide low-cost maternity care to high-risk women, many of whom cannot afford healthcare. Since the inception of the Miami Dade College program, 85 graduates have come out of the school. According to the Florida Department of Health, in 2007, there were fewer than 140 licensed midwives in the state. http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2008/05/12/cgy-payment-protest.html Calgary student pays tuition in coins in protest over credit card ban Last Updated: Monday, May 12, 2008 | 3:19 PM ET CBC News Student Teale Phelps Bondaroff paid his spring session tuition in nickels and dimes to protest the unversity's decision to stop accepting tuition fees by credit card. (CBC) A University of Calgary student paid his tuition with more than 90 kilograms of nickels and dimes Monday, protesting the university's recent decision to stop accepting credit card payments. Undergraduate political science student Teale Phelps Bondaroff told CBC News that he paid his spring session tuition in nickels and dimes because "the government and the university are nickel-and-diming students." Phelps Bondaroff said his $1,037 tuition payment, to cover two classes, weighed more than 90 kilograms and was toted to the finance office in a wheelbarrow using "brute strength and determination." He said the weight nearly broke the wheelbarrow. He said the finance office didn't seem to mind taking the payment in change, which was rolled rather than loose, and it didn't take very long to complete the transaction. Phelps Bondaroff, who has run for the provincial New Democratic Party and is a representative on student council, said he was making a statement as a private student to protest both the scrapping of payments by plastic and high tuition. The stunt signals "it?s time for change? in the university policy, he quipped. "If tuition was lower, students could pay with cash," he said. "Essentially, what the university is doing with this is they're shifting the transaction costs ? on to students with money transfer, or bank draft, or whatever." The government, in turn, is squeezing students by not providing adequate funding to the school, he said. Students first found out on March 18 that effective July 1 the school would no longer accept credit card payments for tuition. The school announced the change on its enrolment website. ?The fact that the university didn?t consult with the students is probably the worst part,? Phelps Bondaroff said, adding that the student council wasn't involved in the decision either. He said the change has been ill-received on campus and that it could put students in a real bind. For example, student loan payments do not always come in before the date that tuition is due, forcing students to secure loans elsewhere or use an overdraft. The university said scrapping payments by plastic would save more than $700,000 per year in transaction fees that it could invest in scholarships. Phelps Bondaroff said that the scholarships would help a select few students, but the change would transfer costs to all students. Full-time undergraduate students at U of C pay $4,740 in tuition, which is being hiked by 4.6 per cent, or about $200 per student, in the next academic year. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23688820-5013945,00.html Students in protest raid over cuts to arts staff Font Size: Decrease Increase Print Page: Print Andrew Trounson | May 13, 2008 ABOUT 50 Melbourne University students protesting against academic staff cuts at the arts faculty yesterday invaded a building in an attempt to disrupt a university council meeting, trying at one stage to break through security guards blocking a liftwell. The raid came as vice-chancellor Glyn Davis said the staff cuts were needed to counter a funding hole in the faculty following a significant drop-off in full-fee-paying international students. The drop-off had reversed the increases in international student demand between 2000 and 2004 that had encouraged the faculty to boost academic staff numbers by about 100, he said. The university had made $20million in special funding available for the faculty to help it become more sustainable by 2010. "It isn't a change that anyone wants, but it has essentially been forced on us by external circumstances," Professor Davis said. "We are all committed to arts as core to the university." The staff union said the cuts would only exacerbate the workload of staff who were trying to implement the university's new Melbourne Model of generalist undergraduate degrees, while teaching out students on the old degrees. Protesting students yesterday were angry at what they claim is a decline in teaching standards as stretched academics have less time to tutor students and some courses are cut. Speaking to The Australian, Professor Davis conceded the staff cuts at the arts faculty, Australia's largest humanities faculty, risked hurting its reputation, but said it was an "awkward transition" that had to be done. He blamed the fall in international student demand on several factors, including a preference among such students for more vocational courses, the high Australian dollar and changes in which destinations were fashionable among overseas short-stay students, such as those from the US. ?Selling an arts degree to an international student can be hard work,? he said. The arts faculty is going through a second round of voluntary redundancies after shedding 24 academic positions last year. Melbourne has not set a target for reductions, but staff union representative Ted Clark said a consultants' report commissioned by the university last year had suggested that up to 120 positions might have to go. "The staff are beginning to despair under the pressure of the workload," Mr Clark said. He said the number of students studying arts was increasing, putting additional pressure on staff. The protest by arts students also included students from the Victorian College of the Arts, which Melbourne University has absorbed after funding cuts by the Howard government undermined the VCA's stand alone future. The VCA student union is concerned at the prospect of Melbourne University introducing its Melbourne Model degrees at the VCA, which they say is at odds with VCA's traditional focus on specialised areas of studies. But while VCA dean Andrea Hull has said the new-style degrees may be introduced at the VCA in 2011, no decisions have been made. She has said exactly how the Melbourne Model can fit within the VCA is still being discussed. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/06/18/1954742.htm Students removed in uni fee protest Posted Mon Jun 18, 2007 6:32pm AEST Map: Sydney 2000 Five student protesters have been removed by security after 30 of them tried to disrupt a meeting of the University of Sydney senate. The senate will vote tonight on whether to increase HECS fees for commerce and economics students, after legislation allowing the rises was passed in Parliament on Friday. A group of more than 30 students tried to block senators from entering the meeting and five of them were removed by security after they attempted a sit-in. Student Representative Council president Angus McFarland says the fee increases would place a further burden on students. "Our aim today was to bring to light to the university senate and to the wider community the fact that these changes have happened," he said. "Universities are pushing them through as fast as they can to get their hands on the cash and as much cash as they can from students." http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/apr2008/stud-a26.shtml French school students maintain protests against Sarkozy?s education reforms By Francis Dubois 26 April 2008 Use this version to print | Send this link by email | Email the author High school students in France continued their protests in recent weeks against the education reforms of the right-wing government of President Nicolas Sarkozy. Two central demonstrations took place in Paris on April 15 and 17, attended by 40,000 and 30,000 participants respectively, from all over the metropolitan area. The majority of the protesters were students from Paris and suburban lyc?es and high schools, but substantial numbers of teachers, parents and university students participated as well. Several teachers? unions also called on their members to strike on these two days. On April 15 striking primary school teachers joined the secondary schools in protesting a reform of primary schools. Smaller demonstrations of high school students took place in other towns of the surrounding Ile-de-France region, where protestors blocked many lyc?es and coll?ges. The April 17 demonstration was the seventh in three weeks. The Paris area is now on Easter holidays for two weeks, and protests have now began in other French regions, where schools were on holiday over the last two weeks and have now reopened. This week demonstrations have taken place in Strasbourg, Lille, Toulon, Rouen, Marseilles and Tours. State repression and intimidation have increased since protests began last month. Gatherings of high school students in front of their schools have been regularly confronted by armed police, with headmasters systematically calling police as soon as students gather in front of or block a lyc?e. Students have been arrested and sent to court on the slightest pretext; some were even DNA tested and registered. Heavy police detachments have surrounded the protests and police have also filmed the demonstrators. Confrontations have occurred between groups of youth walking alongside or in front of the marches and the police. As in previous demonstrations, those protesting on April 17 demanded that measures announced last month by Education Minister Xavier Darcos be withdrawn. These include the elimination of 11,200 teaching jobs, the shortening from four to three years of courses for the baccalaur?at professionnel (?bac pro,? a vocational version of the general baccalaur?at, the exam at the end of secondary school allowing entry into university) and the elimination of the BEP (Brevet d??tude professionnel, a qualification that can be taken after two years of preparing for the ?bac pro?). The trade unions put forward the demand for a ?collectif budg?taire,? an alternative budget proposal to the finance law already voted in parliament last November, which underlay the cuts announced by Darcos.Tthis demand is purely symbolic, as the ruling UMP (Union for a Popular Movement) has a large majority in parliament. The government is preparing a whole series of other attacks on the existing education system, none of which have been taken up seriously by the unions. The so called ?Pochard report,? drafted by a commission set up by the government last September, has proposed no less than a ?fundamental reorganisation of the teaching profession.? The commission included leaders of the Socialist party like former prime minister Michel Rocard and ex-minister of Education Jack Lang. It made a series of free-market proposals widely criticised by the profession. The two main high school student unions, the UNL and the FIDL, both close to the Socialist Party, had official meetings with Darcos on April 11 and 16. The minister of education reiterated his commitment to imposing the job cuts and suggested that some minor modifications could be made to his plans, regarding the vocational baccalaur?at and the BEP. His limited remarks were seized on by the student unions, which immediately declared that the minister was moving in their direction. FIDL national secretary Alix Nicolet said, ?We obtained a softening [of the minister?s stand],? and in a letter published April 20 on the UNL web site, UNL national secretary Florian Lecoultre wrote : ?The UNL has taken notice of the will of the minister to discuss the reform of the bac pro with high school students ...We obtained first encouraging signs such as a guarantee to retain the BEP.? Shortly after the last meeting between Darcos and the student unions, his office issued a statement declaring that there would be ?no reconsidering the principle of a generalised bac professionnel in three years,? According to the ministry, ?there never was any talk of eliminating? the BEP. Since then, these unions have been repeating at every opportunity that they want to be ?constructive? and seek a dialogue with the government, while Darcos maintains his stance, clearly calculating that with the holidays and baccalaur?at exams approaching he will be able to get his way. The ?call for dialogue? expresses nothing other than the resolve of the unions to prevent a political challenge to the government. Darcos knows he is not facing opposition from the unions, but can count on them as political allies. One day after the April 16 demonstration, Darcos stated in a provocative interview that the teaching of some subject matters had to be looked at from the point of view of cost and announced the possible scrapping of 3,000 jobs on this basis. He used the example of ?rare? foreign languages that could not be sustained, because ?too few? students use them. Education should be judged according to ?the service it renders the nation,? he said. Le Monde quotes him in its April 18 edition as saying: ?One has to take an interest in what education costs the nation and in what [the nation] gets in return from the expenses it has agreed.? In parliament, answering Regis Juanico, a deputy of the Socialist party who was demanding a ?moratorium? on the cuts in education, Darcos declared arrogantly: ?You say moratorium, I say reform. You say suspension, I say audacity. You say let?s wait, I say let?s change,? adding: ?progress doesn?t need a moratorium.? These conflicts are taking place under conditions in which the Sarkozy government has been destabilised and its crisis is evident. One year after Sarkozy won the presidential election, recent opinion polls show that two thirds of the French population judge his presidency negatively. Many taking part in the demonstrations consider the present round to be just the start of further attacks over the next weeks and months. One English teacher in Paris quoted in Nouvel Observateur April 18 said, ?The cuts in teachers jobs are a run up to the project of reforming the lyc?es. This is due to be presented in May. It will contain the conclusions of the Pochard report. We?re not going to let this one go through.? Many lyc?ens as well as teachers are mobilised not just against cuts in education, but also against what they regard to be the prelude to a privatisation of education. A large proportion of high school students and teachers oppose schools being run like businesses, which is summed up in the opposition to the ?accountant?s approach? of the government. Or as a banner appearing repeatedly on demonstrations said, ?touche pas ? mon ?cole? (don?t touch my school). The main trade unions, all of which have education sections, have called for support for the demonstrations. But the union bureaucracies have carefully avoided involving any other categories of workers in the protests, although the measures directly affect the working population and the attacks by the government are directed at their children. As in previous movements in education the main job of the unions and associated political parties is to prevent any real challenge to the government and maintain these movements on a limited trade union perspective of ?putting pressure.? The union bureaucracies want to be part of its reforms not oppose them. This pro-business agenda of the unions has already led to serious defeats in the recent past. In 2003 a massive eight-week strike against the reform of the pensions in education, the decentralisation of education and the elimination of support personnel ended in a defeat with strikers forced to accept wage cuts for having taken strike action. In 2005 a struggle by high school students against a pro-business law on education called Loi Fillon, after the present prime minister and then Education Minister, Francois Fillon, was eventually passed in the form of decrees instead of a law after some of the most contested aspects of the law were removed. In 2006 there was again a massive mobilisation of high school youth and university students against the CPE (Contrat premier emploi), but after a tactical retreat on the part of the government, the Loi sur l??galit? des chances, (Law on the equality of opportunities) of which the CPE was a part, was maintained. In 2007 there was a long struggle by university students against the Loi P?cresse for the ?autonomy? of the universities, which ended up in a victory for the government. These movements were each time crippled by a limited union perspective, based on an unspoken pro-market programme that opposed any political challenge to the ruling elite, and ? on that basis ? was encouraged by the so called ?left? and ?far left.? The government that led the offensive against the gains of the working class was left in place, able to prepare another attack or an orderly transition to another, more right-wing bourgeois government. What?s needed is a political movement of the whole working class against the Sarkozy government on the basis of a socialist programme. For that to succeed, a political break is necessary with the unions and the parties of the official left and ?far left.? High school students and teachers should reject organisations which share the same basic political agenda as this conservative government and take the struggle into their own hands. http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20080422171713230 Canadian Students Protest Security and Prosperity Partnership Summit in New Orleans Tuesday, April 22 2008 @ 05:17 PM CDT Contributed by: Anonymous Views: 327 Over 30 students from 5 Ontario Universities and Colleges have travelled to attend the New Orleans People?s Summit and participate in various actions opposing the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP). A n t i W a r @ L a u r i e r AW at L SOLIDARITY.CREATIVITY.ACTION PRESS RELEASE Student activists from Ontario travel to New Orleans to protest the SPP and the ongoing marginalization of Hurricane Katrina survivors. For Immediate Release April 22, 2008 Over 30 students from 5 Ontario Universities and Colleges have travelled to attend the New Orleans People?s Summit and participate in various actions opposing the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP). NEW ORLEANS- On April 17th several Canadian organizations have begun the long trek to New Orleans for The People`s Summit which is taking place on April 20th-22nd. Its purpose is to counter the meeting of North American heads-of-state with the North American Competitiveness Council. The meeting is an annual summit as part of the Security and Prosperity Partnership often referred to as the ?North American Union? or ``NAFTA on steroids.`` Set to harmonize standards among the three countries, this Partnership also includes such agenda items as continental security, defense, and labour regulations. Initial stages of the Partnership have begun in 2001 and are set to complete in 2010 with a final summit in Canada. Student representatives from the Ottawa University Student?s Federation (SFUO), Anti-War at Laurier, members of Fanshawe College Social Justice Club, University of Guelph, Ryerson University, and the People?s Global Action-Block Ottawa (PGA) have united to represent the Ontario Student Movement at this year?s SPP summit in New Orleans. Lia Tara of the PGA-Block Ottawa notes that ?mobilizing against the SPP has strengthened a number of autonomous organizations in Canada and has produced a movement that has enough skills to asses a situation such as the lack of a local mobilized convergence and compensate for it in a locally minded and unobtrusive way.? Among the more pressing issues arising from this Partnership is the immediate escalation in resource exploitation of the Tar Sands in Alberta, hydroelectricity in Mexico, water privatization, and migration issues. The intent of private enterprises cooperating with national leaders is to ease the flow of trade across borders while limiting the movement of people. Massive highways as well as over 50 oil and gas pipelines are in the process of being built to ease this purpose. New Orleans has been selected to host this year`s summit due to the devastation wreaked upon it by hurricane Katrina which have led to lucrative business opportunities. Further, internal gentrification of the city has restricted the possibility of dissent making the it a more strategically sound choice for the organizers of the Summit. Local activists have arranged The People`s Summit which includes workshops, teach-ins, films, and creative displays but purosefully limits mass covnergences. The Canadian contingent, in coordination with numerous local organizations has thus taken upon itself the orgnization of a parade-like festive march scheduled for the final day of the summit. Planning to take off from Jackson Square Park at 9:15 p.m. on April 22nd, the purpose of this march is to bring together the local and most poverty stricken communities in a spirit of celebration of resistance. It will also focus on spreading information about the Security and Prosperity Partnership. For this purpose, a number of groups have outreached to various parts of the city to include and invite local residents to join. An overwhelmingly positive support from residents and local organizers has confirmed the need for such a convergence. http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/education/s/1046327_student_protest_over_standards?rss=yes Student protest over standards Exclusive: Deborah Haile 22/ 4/2008 STUDENTS were today protesting about the standard of tuition and facilities at Manchester University. They claim they receive less time with staff than 20 years ago, library facilities are so stretched that popular books are often unavailable, and the campus is over-crowded with students. Student leaders are backing a `Reclaim the Uni' campaign launched by students to draw attention to the problem. But university bosses say last year's student satisfaction survey showed most were satisfied. Reclaim the Uni's Facebook site already has more than 500 members and, as well as today's demonstration, a public meeting tomorrow will give students a chance to have their say. Tom Skinner, general secretary of the university's students' union, says the campaign reflects mounting concerns about the level of provision on offer. He said: "The university should be run for students and research and education and nothing else. "It is now run like a business. Businesses are always asking themselves two questions: how much cheaper can we do things without losing customers and how much can we charge without losing customers? Some students are on courses where 20 years ago they would have got 200 hours a year - but now that's down to 86. This has been brewing for some time." He said the campaign aims to force university bosses to take a greater account of student concerns. Its Facebook site includes comments that the university provides `horrendous value for money' and treats students as `cash cows'. Students' Union spokesman Dan Lee said the week of events will gauge the level of concern among students. And he said there are plans for the campaign to continue next year. He said: "At the moment, people have got their own qualms, but no way of venting them. Students are so transient that building up a campaign like this is hard. There are a lot of people who are interested and want to do something about it." Officials at the university said they already take significant steps to make sure students' views are incorporated wherever possible. A spokesman said: "Students play a major role in determining university policy and are represented on all of the major committees and decision-making bodies, via the students' union. "The SU officers are elected democratically and the university's senior management team meets regularly with them to address any concerns. "In a student satisfaction survey across the campus last year, 74 per cent of students said they were satisfied with the experience at Manchester." http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/apr/23/me-usf-students-protest-program-cut-plans/?news-breaking USF Students Protest Cuts By ADAM EMERSON The Tampa Tribune Published: April 23, 2008 TAMPA - Angry over proposed cuts to their programs, about 175 University of South Florida students and others rallied Tuesday to preserve women's studies, Africana studies, and the Institute on Latin America and the Caribbean at USF. The catalyst for their protest: A faculty review of USF's academics, which found that the three programs seemed "reasonable places" to absorb some of anticipated budget cuts. USF Provost Ralph Wilcox, however, has said he plans to eliminate no majors as the university weighs how to cut $55 million from its budget, a grim scenario that includes a $34 million cut to academics alone. Wilcox does, though, plan to consolidate the administration of women's and Africana studies. The departments would retain their academic authority, USF spokesman Michael Hoad said. The university has not announced how it plans to cut all the money, though it already has eliminated 100 vacant faculty positions throughout the university. USF has not decided how to administrate the programs students rallied to protect Tuesday, though officials planned to talk later in the day with the marchers about their concerns. The students marched from the Marshall Center student union to the plaza at Cooper Hall, a popular protest destination, and carried signs that read, "Rise Up: The System is Broken." Before the march, Africana studies graduate student Reginald Eldridge spoke to the gathering crowd outside the Marshall Center and implored the administration to avoid "cutting at the margins." State budget cuts are no excuse, Eldridge said. "If their hands are tied, why aren't they marching on Tallahassee right now?" he said. http://cbs5.com/video/?id=33344 at kpix.dayport.com Students Protest Education Cuts in Sacramento April 21, 2008 1,500 college students marched to the State Capitol in Sacramento on Monday to protest cuts in higher education. http://www.cbs8.com/story.php?id=125396 College Students Join in Budget Cut Protest Watch Video Last Updated: 04-21-08 at 1:59PM College students are uniting across the state to protest the governor's proposed budget cuts. In San Diego County alone, more than 1,700 teachers and staff could lose their jibs. Local students at San Diego City College are planning a protest for Monday, after high school students rallied in Balboa Park over the weekend. http://www.nbc11.com/news/16329010/detail.html?rss=bay&psp=news CSU, UC Students Hold 'Study-In' Protest POSTED: 10:31 am PDT May 19, 2008 UPDATED: 2:23 pm PDT May 19, 2008 SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Even as final exams approach, students at UC and CSU campuses are staging events to protest budget cuts and fee increases. One group called Students for California's Future is helping organizing a "study-in" on the Capitol steps in Sacramento Monday. Students also said they were protesting what they described as "declining education equality." Students from UCLA and UC Berkeley were among the protesters, NBC11's Mike Luery reported. "It's a really stressful time right now with finals," said UC Berkeley sophomore Debbie Borges. "(And) then on top of that we have to stress about how much we have to pay for next year." As part of the event the students said they would give grades to legislators based on their voting for higher education funding. In recent days, both CSU Trustee and UC Regent boards voted to increase student fees by 10 percent and 7.4 percent respectively, according to the student group. That?s over $145 million more that students will have to pay next year, group officials said. The figure breaks down to $276 more per student, Luery said. While Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's revised budget proposal called for fully funding grades K - 12, college students would have to pay even more. "Well look - we're facing a $17 billion shortfall and higher education gets half a billion increase over last year," said Aaron McLear, the governor's press secretary. "That's remained the case every year the governor's been in office. They get more money." The students said they planned to bring their books, form small groups and study for their final exams on the Capitol lawn. http://politicom.moldova.org/stiri/eng/120165/ Protesters call for UCB professor's ouster Protesters at the University of California-Berkeley's law school graduation called for the firing of a professor who wrote the U.S. torture policy. About 50 protesters, clad in orange prison jumpsuits picketed the Saturday event, calling for the ouster of Professor John Yoo, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Sunday. We want to see him fired and disbarred for being a war criminal, said Anne Weills, an Oakland lawyer who said she was with the National Lawyers Guild, one of the groups that protested. Yoo, who is a tenured constitutional law professor at the school, took a leave of absence from 2001 to 2003 to work for the U.S. Justice Department. During that time, he wrote what critics call the torture memos that provided the legal basis for the use of torture at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Yoo is not likely to be fired, law school Dean Christopher Edley Jr. wrote in a memo last month. My sense is that the vast majority of legal academics with a view of the matter disagree with substantial portions of Professor Yoo's analyses, including a great many of his colleagues at Berkeley, Edley wrote. If, however, this strong consensus were enough to fire or sanction someone, then academic freedom would be meaningless. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/18/9040/ Published on Sunday, May 18, 2008 by the San Francisco Chronicle Torture Protests at UC Law School Ceremonies by Carolyn Jones BERKELEY - Some 50 protesters, clad in orange jumpsuits and black hoods to emulate the infamous photos of prisoners in Iraq, picketed UC Berkeley?s law school graduation ceremony Saturday, demanding that the university fire Professor John Yoo for his authorship of the Bush administration?s policies on torture. ?We want to see him fired and disbarred for being a war criminal,? said Anne Weills, an Oakland attorney who said she was with the National Lawyers Guild, one of the groups that protested. ?Academic freedom stops when you intend to harm or injure somebody.? Yoo, a tenured constitutional law professor at Boalt Hall, took a leave of absence from 2001 to 2003 to work for the U.S. Department of Justice. During that time, he wrote what critics call the ?torture memos,? which protesters say outlined the legal basis for the use of torture at the Abu Ghraib (Iraq) and Guantanamo Bay (Cuba) military prisons. Boalt Hall officials said earlier last week that Yoo would not attend Saturday?s graduation ceremony. Graduates and their families and friends generally were supportive of the protest, held outside UC Berkeley?s Greek Theatre, but they were also supportive of Yoo?s right to teach at the law school. ?He definitely should be prosecuted, but he deserves his day in court like anyone else,? said Reem Salahi of Los Angeles, who graduated from the law school Saturday. ?Some people think this protest takes away from a celebratory event, but I think it?s a good opportunity to raise this issue.? William Upshaw of Oakland, who was at the event to see his wife graduate, was unhappy with the hoopla outside the theater. ?It?s interesting, but unexpected,? he said as he filed past the protest, carrying a bouquet for his wife, ?and, actually, I don?t think it?s appropriate.? Protesters toted signs and handed out leaflets. Two protesters knelt in a cage meant to resemble a prison cell. Standing guard at the cage was Mary Erwin of Oakland, who was dressed in camouflage fatigues and brandished a cardboard replica of an automatic rifle. ?I?m here because it?s a good opportunity to pressure the government on this issue,? she said. ?It feels good to be out here talking about it. Most people are saying ?thank you.? ? Airborne demonstration After the ceremony, protesters and graduation attendees exchanged a few barbs as graduates, their friends and family gathered for a reception outside Boalt Hall. Some criticized the noise from a plane that circled the Greek Theatre for part of the ceremony, pulling a banner blasting Yoo. Yoo is not likely to be fired for his political views, Boalt Dean Christopher Edley Jr., wrote in a memo last month. The memo was posted on the Boalt Hall Web site. While many of his colleagues and students are disturbed by Yoo?s opinions, Yoo is protected by the First Amendment and campus policies on academic freedom, Edley wrote. ?My sense is that the vast majority of legal academics with a view of the matter disagree with substantial portions of Professor Yoo?s analyses, including a great many of his colleagues at Berkeley,? Edley wrote. ?If, however, this strong consensus were enough to fire or sanction someone, then academic freedom would be meaningless.? Yoo and former Attorney General John Ashcroft agreed last week to appear before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties regarding CIA interrogation techniques. Legal basis for torture Yoo drafted an August 2002 memo, signed by his boss, former Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee, providing the legal basis to justify torture in interrogating terrorism suspects. Among other things, Yoo argued that habeas corpus and other legal protections don?t apply to CIA detainees because Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib are not on U.S. soil. Yoo?s torture memo was later rescinded by the Department of Justice and, in 2004 and 2006, in two lawsuits challenging the legality of the torture policy, the U.S. Supreme Court voided many of Yoo?s arguments. Yoo could not be reached for comment Saturday, but he has defended his positions in several newspaper opinion articles. ?In wartime ? attacking members of the enemy is not considered assassination or murder,? he wrote in a Chronicle essay in September 2005. ?Killing the enemy is legal in war.? He?s also said he?s unfazed by protests. ?I?m a conservative professor, so I?m used to people objecting to my views,? Yoo said in a 2004 interview with The Chronicle. http://www.wvnstv.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=38749 Some Offer Silent Protest at WVU Honors Ceremony Posted Friday, May 16, 2008 ; 11:15 PM Updated Sunday, May 18, 2008 ; 04:14 PM Some declined to shake Garrison's hand. MORGANTOWN -- Without detracting in any way from the dignity of West Virginia University?s second annual Honors Convocation, a number of students and professors declined to shake President Mike Garrison?s hand. Though visible to those in the audience who paid close attention, these individual expressions of disapproval took place privately, between the honorees and Garrison. Honors Convocation recognizes students and faculty who have distinguished themselves through outstanding performance in their studies or academic careers at WVU. Held in the Coliseum, it begins a weekend of commencement exercises for colleges and schools across the university. Among the seniors honored individually and in groups, more than one gave Garrison a wry half-smile, sometimes defiant, usually sad, then passed him by to shake the hand of the next university official in line. Rumors had circulated over the previous week that some form of protest might take place over commencement weekend. The action follows an April report that the Garrison administration last October granted Gov. Joe Manchin?s daughter, Heather Bresch, an MBA she did not earn. Resignations of senior officials and calls for Garrison?s resignation have colored these seniors? last year of college. At least two professors withheld their handshakes, among them Elizabeth A. Fones-Wolf and Robert M. Maxon, both in the Department of History. A gregarious man who would usually be the first to extend his hand, Garrison respected each participant?s choice at the ceremony by holding his arms at his side or folding his hands until the other?s hand was extended. Yet to take place on campus this weekend are commencements for nine colleges and schools on Saturday and five on Sunday. http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2008/05/jefferson_students_walk_out.html Jefferson High students walk out in protest Posted by Faith Cathcart, The Oregonian May 16, 2008 19:28PM Categories: Breaking News Carrying signs and chanting about their desire for Advanced Placement classes, more electives and other changes, dozens of Jefferson High School students walked out of fifth period about 1 p.m. Friday. Student protesters, organized in part by junior Sydney Breazile, took to the streets with their message of dissatisfaction with academic resources and the level of academic expectations. http://politicom.moldova.org/stiri/eng/119811/ Students, faculty protest Schlafly honor Hundreds of graduates turned their backs on conservative leader Phyllis Schlafly Friday Washington University in St. Louis gave her an honorary degree. Some faculty members joined the silent protest, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. But most of the 14,000 people at commencement ceremonies did not protest. Schlafly, like the five others who received honorary degrees this year, was nominated by a member of the community and approved unanimously by a committee of students, faculty, trustees and administrators, Chancellor Mark Wrighton said. The university board of trustees gave final approval to the list. Five students who served on the board of trustees' honorary degree committee wrote Wrighton complaining that they had to vote on the six honorees as a slate, giving them no chance to register disapproval for individual candidates. Also receiving degrees were Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's Hardball; jazz great Quincy Jones; Lee Seng Tee, a philanthropist and business executive; and two emeritus professors at Washington, Egon Schwarz in humanities and Jessie L. Ternberg in pediatrics and pediatric surgery. http://www.activistmagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=866&Itemid=143 No Code: Ottawa Students Rights Protest Written by ACTivistMagazine.com Saturday, 17 May 2008 The University of Ottawa is drafting a non-academic code of conduct, which targets students. This code of conduct is part of a trend on Canadian campuses of university administrations attempting to criminalize dissent. On April 25, 2008, five hundred students rallied to say no to the code and took over Tabaret Hall, where the office of the university President is located. Get involved. >> Say no to the code. http://www.wcpo.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=892f71ac-df5a-42a0-ab4f-4b6ae9837c33&rss=703 UC Students Protest Closing Of Residence Halls Last Update: 5/13 10:18 pm UC Grad Students Plan Protest Over Housing Loss Reported by: Tom McKee Web produced by: Ian Preuth Plans to close the Morgens and Scioto residence halls on the University of Cincinnati campus drew dozens of students to a protest rally Tuesday morning. The focus of the gathering was the 38 mostly international graduate student families that live in the buildings that will have to find new housing by August 31. UC spokesperson Greg Hand said the multi-story structures were built in the 1960's and are the only residential buildings on campus without sprinklers. They're being closed for a $10 million two-year remodeling project and will be converted to undergraduate housing. Residents of Morgens and Scioto were told March 3 that they would have six months to move. Ezgi Akpinar, President of the Graduate Student Association said the closings are an injustice to families that live in the buildings. They now have to find new apartments and that might mean changing schools for their children. Graduate student Aravind Ranganathan took issue with the fire safety questions. He wrote in a news release, "The truth is these buildings are within fire safety regulations of the state and, in fact much more fire safe compared to the over 90 percent of the off-campus apartments that UC wants the residents to move into." "The entire decision making process has been surrounded with mystery and secrecy and the bottom line is UC does not want to be accountable for its actions," Ranganathan wrote. Hand said the University is working with the students to find other housing and has secured legal help from the UC College of Law Tenant Information Project for them. UC will also monitor where the students and families relocate to see if modifications need to be made in the campus wide bus system. http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribunereview/news/westmoreland/s_566755.html?source=rss&feed=7 Hempfield students protest arts cutback By Chris Foreman TRIBUNE-REVIEW Saturday, May 10, 2008 A vocal group of Hempfield Area High School students walked out of classes for an hour Friday to protest a proposed curriculum restructuring that would affect the district's art and music programs and eliminate the high school activity period. More than 200 students filed onto the football field behind the school before marching around the building to gather at the front entrance of the campus along Route 136 in Hempfield. Students chanted "Save the arts" while administrators and teachers stood by to ensure none crossed the busy road toward Harrold Middle School. Ninth-grader Jayd Gebadlo carried a sign stating: "Hempfield students care. Why doesn't the school board?" story continues below "To have the classes get cut would be a shame," said Tyler George, a junior who took credit for helping to organize the protest. "It's really not fair for (students) just because the school board spent too much money on stuff they don't need." The administration's suggested restructuring plan preceded a public meeting Monday in which officials revealed a proposed 1.68-mill tax increase for the 2008-09 school year. Under the proposal, the district would furlough 14 1/2 staff positions; reduce the number of art, music and physical education classes in middle school; and eliminate the world language program at the elementary level. Several students said the cuts at the middle and elementary school levels would cripple some programs that feed into the high school activities. "It would definitely damage all of the future students that come up to the high school," said 10th-grader Janaye Albright. Victoria Savko, a ninth-grade student, said the loss of 45 music classes in the proposed middle school reorganization would harm the high school band program. In another restructuring ripple, music ensemble rehearsals would have to occur during activity periods and after school. "Hempfield has one of the best bands in the state," Victoria said. "If we get rid of music, we're getting rid of what Hempfield's all about." The elimination of the high school activity period for longer classes would limit club participation, intramurals and time for tutoring and make-up work, students said. Senior Sam Stewart said the period often is used by students as a resting time before a busy day or a time to finish heavy homework loads. High School Principal Kathy Charlton twice tried to encourage students to go inside during the hourlong protest. "You have made your point, and hopefully, the school board will listen to you," she said. Superintendent Terry Foriska said administrators met with students for more than an hour on both Thursday and Friday mornings to listen to their comments and try to answer their questions. He said only a handful could face discipline for failing to return to their classes after the majority of students went back inside. "For the most part, the kids were orderly," Foriska said. "They were respectful. They followed directions from the administrators and teachers that were out there. "They're good kids. We'll certainly listen to their opinions, and they're certainly passionate about the cause." District officials say next year's budget expenses are projected to increase by $4.5 million, including $1.9 million for salaries, $764,000 for debt service and $438,000 for medical insurance. With the budget increases equating to 7.82 mills but an inflation-based cap of 3.56 mills, Director Tim Miller said reorganization of the curriculum is unavoidable. However, he said he doesn't agree with some of the ideas presented by administrators and is circulating some other options to his board colleagues. "The (proposed) restructuring is 100 percent completed by the administration, not us," Miller said. "We've yet to decide how to restructure." Randy Stoner, a first-year director, said he would like to consider some other ideas when the board meets Monday night. "I think it'll be a time for lively discussion," he said. Chris Foreman can be reached at cforeman at tribweb.com or 724-836-6646. http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribunereview/news/westmoreland/s_566705.html?source=rss&feed=7 Hempfield students walk out to protest proposed cuts By Chris Foreman TRIBUNE-REVIEW Friday, May 9, 2008 A vocal group of Hempfield Area High School students walked out of classes at noon today to protest a proposed curriculum restructuring that would affect the district's art and music programs and eliminate the high school activity period. Hundreds of students gathered on the football field behind the school before walking around the building to assemble at the front entrance along Route 136 in Hempfield. Students returned inside after an hour. The restructuring plan comes as the administration revealed a proposed 1.68 mill tax increase for the 2008-09 school year. If adopted as presented, the district would furlough 14 1/2 staff positions, scale back the art and music programs and cut the world language program at the elementary level. Ninth-grader Jayd Gebadlo held a sign stating, "Hempfield students care. Why doesn't the school board?" "To have the classes get cut would be a shame," said Tyler George, a junior. "It's really not fair for them just because the school board spent too much money on stuff they don't need." High School Principal Kathy Charlton twice tried to encourage students to go inside. "You have made your point, and hopefully, the school board will listen to you," she said. Chris Foreman can be reached at cforeman at tribweb.com or 724-836-6646. Back to headlines http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/tcoast/epaper/2008/05/08/m1b_slprotest_0509.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=77 High-schoolers sent home as protest feared over teacher By TERESA LANE Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Thursday, May 08, 2008 PORT ST. LUCIE ? Nearly a dozen police officers responded to Port St. Lucie High School Thursday afternoon amid rumors of a protest brewing about bikini-clad former teacher Tiffany Shepherd, but Principal Terry Davis maintained peace by ordering students off campus at 2:15 p.m. Police Capt. Scott Bartal, one of several undercover officers circling the campus, said police were told Shepherd was scheduled to retrieve her personal belongings from school at 2:30 p.m. and that some students might be on hand to protest her recent firing - one that attracted national media attention and alleged photo offers from Playboy magazine. While still a teacher, she had a part-time job as a bikini-wearing crew member of a charter fishing boat. When Shepherd hadn't arrived at school by 3 p.m. Thursday, Bartal dismissed at least six marked patrol cars and fellow undercover officers. St. Lucie County sheriff's officers also were on hand. School district officials said they fired Shepherd two weeks ago for missing too many workdays without adequate documentation, but Shepherd said the pink slip came after fellow teachers learned she worked for Fort Pierce-based Smokin' Em Charters, which has other crew members that go topless. Shepherd, who was in New York on Wednesday taping an interview with Fox-TV hosts Mike Jerrick and Juliet Huddy that aired the same day, said she never told school officials she would retrieve her items Thursday and was unaware of protest rumors. Several students interviewed after school said they heard the rumor but weren't sure how it started. They also said students supporting Shepherd circulated petitions denouncing her removal last week. "Some of my students told me they put up posters at school for me," Shepherd said. "I don't know whether they got in trouble." Shepherd, who said she's mulling whether to accept Playboy's offer of $25,000 per photo, said she'll have her attorney present when she does drive to school to pick up her belongings. Sophomore Ashley Smith said Shepherd was a good teacher when she showed up for class. But Smith said, "I feel like I'm behind in that subject because she was absent so much." One parent waiting for her child Thursday said her daughter complained about Shepherd's lack of teaching skills a few months before the district fired her. The woman said Shepherd reportedly talked at length about her private life in class and told students she might appear in an edition of men's magazine Maxim. "She got her 15 minutes of fame, but at the kids' expense," the parent said. "The kids are way behind where they should be in that class. My daughter tried to get switched out of her class, but the school told her there was nowhere else to go." http://news.scotsman.com/politics/Shared-houses-quotas-protest-at.4062280.jp Shared houses quotas protest at Holyrood STUDENTS have taken their protest against planned quotas on houses in multiple occupancy (HMOs) to the Scottish Parliament. The demonstrators fear that capping the number of HMOs in some areas would have an adverse impact on them, young professionals, immigrants and others who share homes. More than 6000 students and young professionals have joined the Right to Rent campaign in a bid to stop the proposals. The campaign has received cross-party support from Lothians MSPs including Margo MacDonald, Gavin Brown, Shirley-Anne Somerville, Sarah Boyack, Robin Harper and Mike Pringle. Josh MacAlister, president of Edinburgh University Students' Association and co-ordinator of the campaign, said: "Measures to limit the availability of affordable flats and homes, given the state of the housing market, will be devastating for people across Scotland." He said it would increase rents and house prices. Ms Boyack has put down a motion in the Scottish Parliament, encouraging the Scottish Government and local authorities not to see HMO quotas as the "simple solution to ensuring decent housing choices and securing sustainable communities". It encourages them to instead "use the powers they have to tackle antisocial behaviour". http://news.scotsman.com/politics/Students-in-Holyrood-protest-over.4056590.jp Students in Holyrood protest over HMOs cap STUDENTS from Edinburgh University were set to stage a protest outside the Scottish Parliament today. MSPs from each of the parties were also due to lend their support to the students' Right to Rent campaign. More than 6000 students have signed a petition against proposed new legislation which would encourage councils to draw up quotas for Houses of Multiple Occupancy (HMOs). The students fear that capping would have an adverse impact. http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_052708_news_dress_code_vancouver.35396c52.html Vancouver students arrested after dress code protest 07:02 AM PDT on Wednesday, May 28, 2008 By DAVE NORTHFIELD, KGW Staff Watch the KGW report Four Vancouver Middle School students were arrested earlier this month after a campus protest of the dress code. The boys, all eighth graders at McGloughlin Middle School, were charged with a misdemeanor for disrupting school activities. Police were called after the group refused to go to class following lunch. Parents said the arrests were unnecessary and an extreme form of punishment. ?I told the district that I?m not going to let you just do this,? said Amy Proffer, whose son Joey McCostlin was one of the ones arrested. The four were suspended from school, along with more than a dozen other students who joined in the protest. McCostlin said all the suspended students are back in class. Some were suspended for a week. The disagreement started at a track meet held at Fort Vancouver High School, said McCostlin. He said a group of students were wrestling, and some used foul language. An assistant principal told them to stop, and the next day one of the boys received a letter stating he would not be allowed to take part in any more school activities, including a planned performance by their alternative rock band at the 8th Grade celebration. McCostlin said that sparked the protest of the school?s new dress code. The rules say that students must wear shirts that are red, black, gray or white. Their pants or skirts must be khaki, black, gray or navy and jeans are okay. Also, they can't wear any patterns, stripes or logos that are larger than a quarter. McCostlin said the goal of the dress code, to allow kids to focus on schoolwork and not clothes, is backfiring. ?It?s not achieving it?s goal at all,? he said. Principal Rich Reeves declined to comment on the situation, referring all questions to the Vancouver School District. Spokesperson Kris Sork would not comment specifically on the case, but said the actions taken were appropriate. In a published report, Vancouver Police Dept. spokesperson Kim Kapp said the dress code has worked, that attendance is up and discipline problems are down at the school. Meantime, Joey said he?s not sorry for taking part in the protest, and he also learned a lesson from the experience: ?You shouldn?t let other people keep you from standing up for what you believe in.? http://www.katu.com/news/local/19293949.html Four eighth graders arrested over school protest Story Published: May 27, 2008 at 2:18 PM PDT Story Updated: May 27, 2008 at 6:44 PM PDT By Jeff Jaeger and KATU Web Staff Video VANCOUVER, Wash. ? Four Vancouver middle school students have been arrested and charged with misdemeanors for leading protests at the school this month. It happened at McLoughlin Middle School when the four started a sit-in protest during lunch about the suspension of a fellow student. It then grew into a crowd of students and turned into a protest over the school's dress code. Amy Proffer, whose son, Joey, was one of the four arrested, said she didn't understand why the arrests were necessary because the student handbook says students are allowed to "peaceably assemble to bring attention to the district about issues." But the school district said the students were arrested because they disrupted the educational process and did not obey a school administrator. Parents were also concerned about why police questioned the four students without parents there and before the parents were notified. Vancouver police told the mother that a parent did not need to be present when they questioned her son because he was over the age of 12. The school's principal declined to comment Tuesday as to why police were called before parents were notified. And due to federal laws, the district could not talk about the discipline the four students faced. The case has been handed over to the juvenile prosecutor's office. To read more about the incident, click here to read a story reported by our news partner The Columbian. http://www.columbian.com/news/localNews/2008/05/05272008_School-fashion-protest-ends-in-arrests.cfm School fashion protest ends in arrests Did you know? McLoughlin Middle School?s dress code allows boys and girls to wear either red, black, gray or white shirts. For pants or skirts, choices are khaki, black, gray or navy, including jeans. No patterns, stripes or logos larger than a quarter coin (except McLoughlin logos) are allowed. Steven Lane/The Columbian Some McLoughlin Middle School students have been protesting their school?s dress code over the past two weeks. Since the protest started, four students were arrested and about 20 were suspended. Tuesday, May 27, 2008 By ISOLDE RAFTERY, Columbian Staff Writer Students at McLoughlin Middle School are learning that civil disobedience comes at a cost. In the past two weeks, four eighth-grade boys have been arrested and charged with misdemeanors for leading protests against the school?s dress code. About 20 more students have been suspended. Parents of those students are wondering whether this tough-love approach has gone too far ? the dress code, after all, was implemented to curb bad behavior. Amy Proffer, whose son, Joey, was among those arrested, said she was upset that the principal allowed police to question her 14-year-old son without calling her. ?I was concerned that the officer was taking a statement from my child,? Proffer said. ?They told me that they have a right to question him without a parent because he?s over the age of 12.? The dress code, dubbed ?Mac attire,? was implemented at the start of the school year after a parent vote of approval. Proffer voted against it. Principal Rich Reeves referred reporter calls to Vancouver Public Schools spokeswoman Kris Sork, who said the district stands by Reeves? decision to call the police. ?I don?t dare talk about the specific case,? Sork said, citing educational privacy laws. ?It was investigated by Mike Stromme (director of secondary education), who found that it was all absolutely appropriate.? Events unfold The frustration over Mac attire took root the afternoon before the lunch protest, at a Fort Vancouver High School track meet. According to student and police accounts, several eighth-graders were playing in the grass, turning somersaults and using crass language when an assistant principal from their school approached. She told them to knock it off. The next morning, one of the boys received a letter saying he wouldn?t be allowed to partake in any more after-school functions through the end of the school year. That boy, Sam Ruble, said he nearly started crying. He?s a wiry boy with long side bangs and a flair for the dramatic. Sam, 14, said that he was upset because his alternative rock band had been planning to perform after school next month. The next day at lunch, the boys fumed. They were angry at administrators about their punishment, and that gave way to conversations about the dress code, which they said crimps their style. By the end of the lunch period, a decision had been made: They would protest the dress code. ?What made us angry at first was barely a protestable issue,? Sam said. ?But we realized that many people understand the dress code cause, and we decided that we were long overdue for a dress code protest.? They wanted to show off their ?randomness,? student Desirea Allen said later. They wanted to draw on their jeans and wear the colors of their choice. They acknowledge that they?ve been able to show off their personalities in spite of the dress code, which allows them to dye their hair any color and write on their shoes. They believed they would be allowed to protest: Desirea, 13, had checked her student handbook, which states students may express themselves so long as it?s ?not disruptive to other individuals or to the educational process.? Their ranks grew to about 20 students. Most involved call their style ?emo? or ?goth,? a look that tends toward black jeans and thick eyeliner. According to students, Principal Reeves and the assistant principals asked the students to go to their fourth-period classes. They refused. The conversation between adults and students was light-hearted, the students said, with adults making jokes about the situation. Sam and Joey said they were surprised when 20 minutes into their impromptu sit-in, Reeves called police. Vancouver police Officer Julie Carpenter, who is stationed at Fort Vancouver High School, arrived with backup. Four officers escorted the students into the library and arrested the four boys, who were later released to their parents. They were suspended for the week; 13 other students were suspended for shorter periods, according to the district. The four boys were referred to the juvenile prosecutor?s office on two potential charges:noncompliance with a school official and disruption of school activity. There was no report of violence, perceived or threatened. ?They were protesting the dress code, but the charges don?t have to do with the dress code,? Vancouver police spokeswoman Kim Kapp said. ?It was the disruption of school activities.? So what did the students wish had happened? ?They should have just listened to us,? Sam said. Dress code praised Days before the protests started, Principal Reeves told school board members that students and teachers are pleased with the results of the dress code. Kapp said her officers, too, say students are causing fewer problems. ?(Officer Carpenter) did share with me that the number of requests has declined dramatically in her opinion since they instituted the dress code,? Kapp said. ?She said she has felt that she?s responded less to that particular middle school since the dress code went into affect.? The students said discipline issues have decreased because the students who caused problems have moved on to Fort Vancouver, McLoughlin?s feeder high school. They said that the 50-student fight that broke out at Fort Vancouver High School last fall was caused by those same students. That fight led the district to pay $100,000 this year to station Carpenter at the high school full time. But ultimately, for the students, the issue is more about feeling disrespected than about Mac attire. After all, the students have only one more month to go before summer, when they can wear whatever they want. Sam said: ?Teachers have been calling us the troublemakers. Mac attire was supposed to create unity, but all we?ve gotten is more trouble because we choose gray and black.? ?Yeah,? Desirea said. ?Just because we?re strange doesn?t mean we?re addicted to drugs.? http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/33620 Students protest postponed assembly Submitted by davidswanson on Sat, 2008-05-24 10:22. Nonviolent Resistance BY ERIC LINDBERG, Santa Barbara Daily Sound A last-minute postponement of a student-organized assembly at Santa Barbara High School rankled students and led them to hold a lengthy sit-in Thursday morning in protest of the decision. Several student groups on campus planned to bring in representatives of the local chapter of Veterans for Peace on Thursday for a screening of Arlington West followed by a discussion with the film?s producers and the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq. Leaders with Students for Democratic Society and Dons for Real Change said administrators pulled the event on Tuesday and offered up poor reasons for doing so, including that the film was too biased and political. Principal Dr. Mark Capritto said a miscommunication between students and another administrator led to the outcry and that the decision to postpone the event resulted from complaints by teachers about losing class time. Geoffrey Parker, a senior and one of the lead organizers of the event, described how students planned the assembly for more than two months and had taken the appropriate steps to receive approval from the administration. Then, on Tuesday, he said an assistant principal came into his classroom and said the screening had been cancelled. ?I was completely shocked,? Parker said. ?Just a few days before it had been completely acceptable.? He said the administrator argued that the film was too biased to be shown in a school setting. Parker countered by pointing out that military recruiters are constantly on campus talking to students. ?Another excuse was that it was too political,? he said. ?A school is built to teach, to prepare children for the outside world. Without political information, how are we expected to vote?? After being informed of the cancellation, Parker and others organized a petition and a sit-in protest, which drew approximately 100 students who planted themselves in the main hallway of the school for four hours holding signs reading ?Let Them Speak of Peace? and ?Learning is a Right.? Dr. Capritto said he met with a group of students, including Parker, and clarified a few issues. ?It wasn?t cancelled,? he said. ?It was postponed based on an agreement that didn?t get through to the kids.? When the concept of holding the assembly came to him, Dr. Capritto said he approved it under the condition that it be optional and that if any complaints were made, it would be moved to the lunch period or after school. ?We?re at a very precarious time of year when kids need to be in classes,? he said. ??This is the end of the school year and we have a responsibility to our students.? He said worries arose that students would not recognize the optional aspect of the assembly and pressure their teachers to let them attend. Following complaints about lost class time, he said the decision was made to hold off on the screening. Dr. Capritto added that any consideration of the political nature of the film ? which explores the display of crosses representing soldiers killed in Iraq on beaches around the country, including the original display in Santa Barbara ? did not enter into the decision to postpone the event. ?I can certainly understand their disappointment based on the information they received from one of the assistant principals,? he said. Parker dismissed the argument that students would lose class time, emphasizing the authority of teachers to decide whether or not their students would attend the event. ?It was completely controlled by the teachers,? he said. ??We had ways so that teachers could allow some students to go and others not to go.? Others, including Mary Johnston-de Leon, treasurer of the local chapter of Veterans for Peace, said holding the event during lunch is not a feasible solution. With only 40 minutes for lunch, she argued, kids won?t give up their lunch period to watch a 32-minute film. While she plans to leave any future action, such as more sit-ins or protests, up to the students, Johnston-de Leon said she plans to write a letter to administrators letting her feelings be known. ?Without barely any warning, they pulled the plug on us,? she said. ??I personally don?t think it was warranted.? Peter Dudar and Sally Marr, the producers of Arlington West, said they turned down gigs with three other schools to make the drive from Los Angeles, screen the film and participate in the discussion. Both said they were stunned to learn the event had been cancelled, describing the many trips they?ve taken to screen the film since it came out three years ago for audiences that have ranged from sixth-graders to doctorate students. ?We?ve never had a situation like this before,? Marr said. ?It just doesn?t seem very fair, to really anybody.? She said the focus of the film is not to be political or critical, but merely to show the emotional impact of war. ?Our most important objective is to get our kids to acknowledge our fallen ? and to get them to care for the veterans when they return,? Dudar said. ??The kids feel so far away from this war, generally. They really need to understand.? Both said a similar assembly and screening at the high school last year drew in hundreds, so many that they had to turn away 200 students. Dr. Capritto, while reiterating that the politics of the film didn?t enter into his decision, said he should have examined the content more closely from the beginning. ?We need to really look into this and decide whether or not Santa Barbara High School, during school time, is the most appropriate forum for this film,? he said. The incident also gives the school the opportunity to examine its role as a learning institution as a whole, Dr. Capritto said. ?It really is incumbent upon us to be doing what we are supposed to be doing,? he said. While acknowledging that the film is of an educational nature, he said it?s ?clear that it is taking away from what we are already doing.? For now, Parker said he merely wants to facilitate further discussion about the situation. He recently sent out messages to other students asking them how they want to proceed. Future sit-ins and protests are a possibility, he said. ?I think this is really important information,? Parker said of the film. ?Even if I don?t get to hear it, I think it?s important for other people to hear.? Those who participated in the sit-in received truancy notices, he said. Otherwise, the protest went off peacefully and without a hitch. http://www.cacuss.ca/fr/08-news/details.lasso?nid=2802 Protesters rally behind students charged at March sit-in Liens de nouvelles: Index | Vieilles nouvelles | Le NewsWire de l'ASEUCC Soumis: 2008-06-06 Modifi?: 2008-06-06 U of T says "The events of March 20 were not about free speech. They were about violence." Cet article est disponible seulement en anglais. A story says that "armed with loudspeakers and placards, student protesters marched, shouted and sang their way to a downtown courthouse yesterday in an attempt to persuade prosecutors to free 14 people charged in an earlier demonstration. "We are rallying to show our support and to demand that the criminal charges be dropped, and the academic investigation against the students be dropped as well," said student spokeswoman Ahmina Hanif. But university spokesman Rob Steiner described the protesters as violent and said staff were confined to their offices for several hours while demonstrators blocked the door. "Most of what the university does is encourage free speech," Mr. Steiner said. "The events of March 20 were not about free speech. They were about violence." http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2008/06/students_walk_out_to_protest_t.html Students walk out to protest transfer of Madison High counselor Posted by The Oregonian June 03, 2008 16:35PM Categories: Breaking News About 30 students walked out of classes Tuesday afternoon to protest the anticipated transfer of David Colton, a guidance counselor at Madison High School. On a warm, breezy day, students wearing signs saying, "Save Dave Please" gathered in front of the school at 2735 NE 82nd Ave. and chanted, "Who do we want?" "Colton!" "When do we want him?" "Now!" "Mr. Colton puts students before his job," said Ryan Boileau, 17, a junior. "He often says to me, 'If I do this, I might be fired.'" "He's helped all of us," said Saba Saleem, 17, also a junior. "I couldn't imagine a senior year without him." Colton, 60, remained on the second floor of Madison during the protest. He said he been told he would be transferred to a school elsewhere in the district. Colton, who has been a counselor at Madison for the last decade, said he had run into difficulties with Julie Howland, one of Madison's three administrators, over the issue of Madison converting to small schools. The high school has split into three small academies but hasn't fully made the switch to autonomous entities. Howland couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday and Portland Public School district spokesman Matt Shelby declined to comment on the protest, saying it involved a personnel matter. Colton said he was touched by the show of support. "This is completely and totally overwhelming," he said. "It's a symptom of the general sickness of the building. People are stifled." http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jun2008/ruhr-j25.shtml Germany: Students protest planned education cuts By Parwini Zora 25 June 2008 Use this version to print | Send this link by email | Email the author On June 5, around 2,500 students and university teachers took to the streets to protest against the planned closure of the Romance Studies and Philosophy departments at the University of Duisburg-Essen. The widespread anger among students at this new round of cuts was manifested in the collection of more than 7,000 signatures in about two weeks, which were turned in at the chancellor?s office on the same day. Romance Studies is an umbrella academic discipline that covers the learning of Romance languages along with their literature. The planned cuts at the university mean that students will no longer have the opportunity to complete a degree in French and Spanish or in their corresponding literature. At the campus, there is a widespread fear among students and staff that the newly appointed vice chancellor?s plans for ?structural optimisation? will soon mean further substantial education cuts?especially in the humanities. For its part, the university administration made absolutely clear that its measures were in tandem with management decisions to phase out subjects that have ?less student enrolment and little profitability.? In a brief comment reported in the Ruhr-based daily WAZ, Dirk Hartmann, the vice-dean for humanities, confirmed that two positions in the Philosophy department were insecure and that this will severely affect bachelors (BA) students taking these subjects. During the last couple of years, German universities were compelled to amend their traditional degree courses into ?internationally competitive? BA and masters (MA) programmes, resulting in considerable changes to course duration. Recently, the Romance Studies departments at the Duisburg-Essen campus were compelled to adopt these new formats in order to make them ?attractive? for student candidates. Hartmann commented that ?planned cuts in professor positions will mean the constant switching of lecturers [who are often employed under limited contracts], leaving students with limited options which in turn will have an overall adverse effect on the quality of education.? Helmut Jacobs, professor of Spanish language and literature, was also quoted in the only other brief press report on this issue: ?We are working with a minimum staff?two for Spanish and two for French. And this leaves no room for any further cuts. If the professorship for French is cut back as planned, it will be no longer possible to ensure qualified teacher training at the campus for which the university has made its name since the seventies.? The universities in the Ruhr area were built during the 1970s as part of a social-democratic programme of social reforms. Since then, they have been subjected to gradual privatisation, especially during the last few years, in line with the ?reform? of public spending budgets. Following a cost-cutting merger, the universities of Essen and Duisburg in the Ruhr were merged in 2003 with subsequent cuts to university staff and services. Widely discredited among its popular base, the former coalition of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Greens was ousted during the last federal elections in 2005. In its place, a grand coalition of the SPD, Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union took power. The grand coalition has basically intensified the same programme introduced by its predecessor and in 2007 implemented a ?500 per semester tuition fee despite considerable student protests (See: ?Germany: Students protest implementation of tuition fees?) In this context, appeals made by Hannelore Kraft, the head of the SPD faction in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) parliament, ?to defend minor subjects at universities? are worthless. Kraft evidently thinks the electorate suffers from political amnesia and is unable to draw a balance sheet of the previous political record and anti-welfare measures carried out by the SPD at both a state and federal level. Confronted with a record historical slump in its popular support, the SPD is now seeking to pose as the champion of public education. The SPD student organisation JUSOS has initiated a poster campaign bearing the slogan ?Education is a basic right,? with the poster pasted around the university by the student organisation of the Left Party, the SDS. In fact, at the grassroots level, the education campaign by the SPD and its backers in the Left Party is entirely tame, limited merely to a signature campaign to ?put pressure on the chancellor? and a possible symbolic day of protest. ?It cannot be that the European cultural city of 2010 [Essen] is doing away with humanities,? Kraft thundered at the state parliament recently. She then went on to demand that minor subjects be protected and told deputies that the Christian Democratic-led state government had brought about a catastrophe for education with its implementation of the Law for the Independence of the University (HFG). The HFG of October 2006 abolished the status of universities as public institutions in NRW. Universities have since become ?independent,? paving the way for the implementation of tuition fees and other deregulatory measures. According to Pascal Geissler, the student representative of the audit committee to ensure teaching and educational quality at the Duisburg-Essen campus, there had been virtually no qualitative improvement in the conditions at the university?despite the funds drawn from the tuition fees during the last three semesters. Geissler pointed to the problem of overcrowded classes with students waiting for months to collect their certificates because younger staff employed at the campus could not examine students. ?Amidst all this, the chancellor is expecting to cut back professorships at the university,? he wrote in befog-aktuell.de. Giessler confirms that the university administration enrolled 3,000 students less than in the preceding academic year. Rather than improve the situation, the implementation of tuition fees had in fact had an ?evident chilling impact.? The official university web site stresses the pressure of financial restraints, saying that the campus has ?the challenge to be competitive with other universities because it is absolutely necessary to win state funds that are granted only on performance?in terms of successful graduates, the number of doctorates and especially research activity which can secure third-party funds [from industry].? Since being declared ?independent,? 20 percent of the minimal state funds allocated for universities are dependent on ?performance.? During the last three years alone, the state government has cut ?10 million in funding for the Essen-Duisburg University??6 million due to alleged ?poor performance.? This sum amounts to the equivalent of funding 200 university posts. According to the university authorities, the campus budget is running at a deficit, with only 92.5 percent of all its current expenses covered, notwithstanding the inflow of tuition fees. It is on this basis that the new chancellor will decide on the fate of the department of Romance Studies and other areas of learning. The university management has already announced it will be discontinuing its courses on design technology and Japanese socio-linguistics. Relevant discussion forums make clear that students are increasingly confronted with the problem of whether to study a subject that interests them or instead pick a topic at university that is considered profitable by big business and linked to shifting market trends. Increasingly, students are being left with no choice as available courses?especially in the sphere of humanities?are vanishing. University budgets starved of public funds will not only lead to an increasingly narrow choice of degree subjects but will renew calls for an increase in tuition fees in the coming period. This development is not limited to campuses in the Ruhr but is symptomatic of universities throughout Germany. Rather than being a right, education in Germany is increasingly being subordinated to the dictates of lucrative business interests http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0807/S00118.htm Green MP joins students in protest Friday, 4 July 2008, 1:34 pm Press Release: Green Party 4 July 2008 Green MP joins students in protest Green Party Tertiary Education Spokesperson, Metiria Turei, joined students in Auckland this morning in a march down Queen Street against student debt and fees. This Government has failed tertiary students and understandably they are angry, Mrs Turei says. "The meagre tertiary concessions in the 2008 Budget were ridiculous. There are not many students celebrating the extra five dollars a week that they were allowed to borrow. "Given the rising cost of food and fuel, the additional $5 loan shows utter contempt," Mrs Turei says. "Students on the march were also angry that the Government parental threshold level for eligibility for allowances was reduced only to 24 years from 25 years. This is tantamount to saying that those aged 24 are still children and is extremely demeaning. "We should be investing in our future leaders and ensuring they reach their full potential, instead we seem to be making it increasingly difficult for our young people to get the education the want and deserve, Mrs Turei says. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Fri Aug 29 23:03:08 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 07:03:08 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] E-protests, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <00c001c90a66$15109500$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * US: Obama supporters use network site against him over wiretapping * CHINA: Blogging the Guixou incident * SWEDEN: Uproar over online snooping * CANADA: Online protests grow over copyright bill * NORWAY: Data experts protest in Oslo over Microsoft standard * US: Players protest closure of Disney "virtual world" * CANADA: Net Neutrality protest * US, Minnesota: Protests over censorship on steamboat video page * BELARUS: Websites strike for an hour over censorship laws * GLOBAL: Site runs petition over iPhone format * UK: Protests over snooping technology at BT AGM * GLOBAL: Protesters seek to open up Apple formats * CHINA/GLOBAL: Olympics draw online protests * CHINA/GLOBAL: Hackers redecorate Olympics site * INDIA, Bangalore: Protest against software patents http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9107178&intsrc=news_ts_head Supporters use Obama's social network to organize protest against him Group opposes candidate's support of FISA bill By Heather Havenstein July 7, 2008 (Computerworld) A group of more than 20,000 supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama have used his official social network to organize an online protest against his stance on legislation set to be taken up by the U.S. Senate tomorrow. The users of the social network MyBarackObama.com have organized a grass-roots protest online that opposes Obama's support of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Act. The act would continue the controversial surveillance of e-mail and phone calls by the U.S. National Security Agency that started after Sept. 11, 2001, and would likely end lawsuits against the telecommunications carriers that participated in the program. The U.S. House of Representatives voted to approve the legislation last month. Jeff Jarvis, a blogger and associate professor and director of the interactive journalism program at the City University of New York, noted in a blog post that the protest could mark an important moment in "participatory, self-organized online politics," especially since Obama's campaign has built itself on the support of various grass-roots efforts. "When it's a grassroots organization that makes you ? rather than a party ? and you say you're beholden to them not to special interests and big money and lobbyists, well, then you really are beholden to them," Jarvis noted. "If they rise up from within to tell you that they don't like what you're doing ? when they use your own organizational tools to do that ? then I'd say you ignore them at your peril. Live by the crowd, die by the crowd." Jarvis added that it will be interesting to see what type of power these self-organized groups wield if Obama ascends to the White House. "Will his supporters at MyBarackObama continue to use these tools to influence him and government? And will he have to listen because he is beholden to them?" Jarvis asked. Obama's campaign did not respond today to a request for comment on the online protest. However, the senator said in a blog post Thursday that the ability to monitor individuals who want to attack the U.S. is a "vital counter-terrorism tool" and that he believes it is necessary to keep Americans safe. "The truth is that your organizing, your activism and your passion is an important reason why this bill is better than previous versions," Obama wrote. "No tool has been more important in focusing peoples' attention on the abuses of executive power in this Administration than the active and sustained engagement of American citizens." Obama went on to note that "when citizens join their voices together, they can hold their leaders accountable. I'm not exempt from that. ... I cannot promise to agree with you on every issue. But I do promise to listen to your concerns, take them seriously, and seek to earn your ongoing support to change the country." Patrick Ruffini, a blogger at TechPresident, noted that the online protest is a natural evolution in any open networked system that operates in the political space. "It's now a truism that when presented with an open platform, users will hack it to serve their purposes, not necessarily those of the sponsor," Ruffini said. "Many times, those two sets of priorities are intertwined (e.g. supporters' desire to get involved matched with a campaign's need for volunteers), though in this case, they weren't." If the campaign censored the group, it would endanger the financial support and volunteers that the online push has helped to generate, he noted. "Also, I suspect if you asked them privately, they'll say they love that this is happening," Ruffini added. "Why? Because the controversy and meta-coverage drives more people to use the tools." http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/beijing/archive/2008/07/02/can-the-propaganda-machine-filter-the-steam.aspx Posted Wednesday, July 02, 2008 7:01 PM Guizhou Riots: How much steam can the machine filter? Jonathan Ansfield Say somewhere in China, during the Olympics, mobs of citizens go spastic over some case of official malfeasance, or mishandled public concerns thereof. Not some quibble over sovereignty or state security (like Tibet or terrorism) which turns public opinion against "anti-China" forces. We?re talking a squarely domestic social crisis. Will word of unrest filter out to the wired masses elsewhere around the country? Will Netizens clamor in curiosity and anger? Will their attempts to access information and engage in debate be stymied? Will this make them even angrier? Will they find cracks in the vaunted Great Firewall of China? Will senior leaders react fast enough to dispel the uproar? Will a lot of observers still be stewing for some time afterward? Will the 20,000 to 30,000 foreign journalists in China for the Games be all over the story? The answer to all these questions is likely to be yes, if we?re to judge by reactions to violent convulsion in Guizhou this past weekend. On Sunday night, I stepped into my favorite pub in Beijing to find it dead quiet but for Little Wang, the 22-year-old exec barman. Wang?s a scrawny migrant from the south who mixes a mean mojito with an unflagging social conscience (he appeared on this blog in a previous post), and it does not take much to press his buttons. Little Wang was literally stomping mad over the mass protest in China?s deep-south a day earlier. Wang had first read about the incident in Weng?an county on popular Chinese Web forums, particularly Maopu. People were up in arms over the death of a 16-year-old girl who drowned in a river a week earlier. Police ruled her death a suicide; her family suspected she was raped and murdered. Rumors spread that two young men she was with were somehow related to the county party secretary and a police station chief, and that the girl?s uncle, a local teacher, was beaten to death outside public security headquarters where he pressed her case (turned out he was beaten but not dead, as later revealed by a Hong Kong TV interview with him from his hospital bed). On Saturday afternoon, a group of 300 people led by family, friends, and classmates descended on the police and government HQs. The crowd eventually swelled to as many as 30,000 people. A standoff with riot police spiraled out of control. In seven hours of fiery bedlam, people smashed, looted, and torched police cars and government offices, injuring more than 100 police. (The blog ESWN carries lots of pix) Suspicious death cases with police links can easily stir moments of national reckoning over class barriers in China today, as they long have race relations in the States - take the case of Sun Zhigang in 2003 or Lu Haixiang in 2004. Little Wang was plenty steamed about the rumors of foul play in Weng?an. The sentiment was echoed by his understudy Xiao Huang, who confessed to being ?dizzy? from hearing Little Wang?s rant but added: ?I myself have never thought anything good of China?s police. They?re all corrupt scum of the earth.? What really riled Little Wang, though, was his confusion about the case. Why were people in Weng'an angry? Were their suspicions true? Why didn?t the government address them properly? Efforts to answer his questions only left him more frustrated. Wang: ??All night and morning, I was clicking on posts about it. First it was there. Then it was gone. Then it was there again. Then gone. Every few minutes it was being deleted, sometimes every few seconds. The site had orders to block it. That was obvious. But they couldn?t keep up. Every time they did, we Netizens got angrier and angrier.? Little Wang gave up surfing on Tianya, the go-to Web forum in China for discussion of social injustices. ?Tianya?s too serious!? he scoffed. In fact, though the editors were scrubbing out posts about Weng?an, Tianya groupies were masking their posts under oblique headers, sometimes very oblique headers. Roland Soong, the Hong Kong-based uber-blogger behind ESWN, detailed this phenomena (see comment 030), which was later covered in The Wall Street Journal. Wrote Soong on Sunday evening: "For example, the first item says that oveseas media are paying a great of attention of the lives of people living in the plateau of the Yunnan-Guizhou area. The second item says that the people of X'an (Guizhou) are lighting an extra large sacred flame to celebrate the Beijing Olympics. The third item just says, "Delete this!! Your mother's c*nt!" The fourth item says that "when the army arrives in southwestern China, I think something big will happen! I believe that our troops have conscience." The fifth item says that the anti-American posts from the anti-American warriors have all met death -- the revolution has not yet succeeded and our comrades need to keep working. What was that last one? The term "American" is being used for "Chinese"!" I explained Soong?s insights to Little Wang. He said such invention was also evident on Maopu, a buzz-driven entertainment site which targets a younger audience (the name means ?pouncing cat?). He took a seat at my laptop and scrolled way down the site in search of links on the Weng?an rioting. Nothing. Little Wang sprung to his feet in a fit of accusatory stuttering: ?You see! Gone again!? By this time the easiest info to find in Chinese was by far the official Xinhua new agency?s initial two-graph report, which came out after the news proliferated in the forums and on Chinese news sites outside the mainland. Little Wang, for his part, was surprised Xinhua would report the incident at all. ?You must be kidding? All we can get is Xinhua?? Part of it read: "During the process of reception by the relevant government officials, certain people instigated the masses who did not know the truth to attack the county public security bureau, county government and county party offices. A small number of criminal elements vandalized the offices and set fire to many offices and vehicles." ESWN provided a link to the Xinhua piece that appeared on the obscure site of a Fujian-based trade weekly sponsored by the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture. Click on the link now and the page is blank. But at the time, the text was accompanied by an unattributed picture ? probably not Xinhua? - of a throng of thousands gathered outside Weng?an government buildings. ?Doesn?t look like a ?small number? to me,? cracked Wang. My shaggy mixologist friend was only further irked by what official attempts to paint people protesters as a herd of know-nothings incited by misinformation and ?criminal elements?, even if, by many accounts, this was partly the case. ?How are they supposed to know any better, when the government conceals everything from them?? A lot of Chinese Netizens felt that way, and over the next couple days they let the government know it. Not that there were tons of open venues for dissent. Whereas threads of discussion were cut off too fast to engender lasting debate on many Indies forums, those of central media appeared to be less carefully vetted in the first two days. Comments there predominately cast the protesters as ?rights defenders? up against corrupt local cadres and police. It?s not that surprising, in this day and age, that central government media would allow such scrutiny of a small-town mess. This is how the Communist Party distances itself from its problems. Still, it?s interesting to see how -- as the provincial and central government began to investigate the matter and establish their official version of events -- their online departments moved into a guiding role. They became mother ships, swallowing up a good proportion of the virtual space for critique of the government. Soong analyzes this stratagem of co-option in uniquely Chinese political terms, both traditional and technocratic. ?Hydrological engineering?, he dubs it: "Yes, HYDROLOGICAL ENGINEERING! Many of the current crop of central government leaders are technocrats with engineering background. As such, they must understand that public opinion is water that can carry the ship as well as turn it over. [per the dynastic conception of the imperial mandate to rule] The point about hydrological engineering is not to build dams to hold the water back because there will be a catastrophic dam break one day that might bring down the entire system. Instead, the point should be about controlling and redirecting the awesome power of nature in less harmful ways down selected channels." "In the case of the Weng'an mass incident, the major portals were deleting the related posts as quickly as possible. At Tianya Forum, it was estimated that a Weng'an-related post has an average lifetime of 15 seconds before being deleted by the administrators. That was supposed to be a record speed. The same thing was happening at Sina.com, Sohu.com, Baidu, etc. So this was building massive dams all over the map which builds up a tremendous pressure. Where was the pressure release point? You may be amazed that it was over at the Xinhua Forum. The webmasters posted the official Xinhua news story on the forum. That does not help in itself because Chinese netizens think that this Xinhua story was vague and misleading. However, the webmasters allowed the comments to run freely. This meant that the Xinhua posts became the meeting points of all those who want to talk about the Weng'an incident but could not do so elsewhere. Although that post did not contain any news information (such as photos and videos), it was a place for people to vent their outrage. As a result, Xinhua got a record-setting number of visitors who were very appreciative. Is this the plan for the future? You'll find out at the next mass incident (and there will be many)." On the independent forums earlier this week, an abundance of anonymous posts have emerged from "authoritative local sources" who dispel rumors of official meddling and blame the dust-up on small band of rowdies. Soong, who has translated quite a few of those posts, notes that Netizens do not trust them: "On one hand, there is the legendary "50-cent gang." These are supposed to be professional Internet writers who get paid 0.50 RMB for every post favorable to the government position. When yet another version of the Weng'an mass incident gets published as being the ultimate truth, the author is accused of being a member of the "50-cent gang" who is trying to confuse the public. Indeed, if you read through enough versions, you will probably throw up your hands and decide that you don't know what the truth is anymore. Instead, you change your investigation to questioning the motives of the people who are producing these versions." "On the other hand, there is the legendary "Internet special agent (??)." These are supposed to be professional spies who are paid by anti-China hostile forces to publish unfavorable information about China. For example, some of the posts mentioned that the People's Liberation Army has been dispatched to Weng'an with tanks and artillery, with the hint of a Tiananmen-like massacre to follow. Immediately, the other netizens reacted by pointing that these posts are coming from "Internet special agents." The netizens want to draw a very clear line: they may be protesting against what is happening in Weng'an but they will not serve the purpose of the anti-China hostile forces. This is very clear." By Monday, local authorities had detained or questioned as many as 300 rioters, and ordered a new inquest into the girl?s death. But the results of the review appeared a foregone conclusion. Three days after my encounter with Little Wang, state media across the country were leading on the file compiled by Guizhou?s Communist Party-run media ? the Guizhou Daily, Guizhou Television, and the Guizhou Metropolis Daily ? which took on key questions in the case point by point. It stood faithfully by the provincial government findings that the young men with the dead girl had no family connections to officials and had done no wrong - the girl had simply jumped into the river. The file was broken down into a series of ?inquiries? in The Beijing News, a progressive tabloid. At the top of the Maopu message board, the same body of information was packaged as ?rumor? and ?fact?. Maopu was back to its perplexing ways on Thursday. One featured link on the Weng'an protest poked a number of holes in the eyewitnesses accounts from the dead girl's friends. But the topmost link turned the problem of public mistrust in the case on its head: "Why didn't anyone doubt the rumors?" begged the title. One reason is officials in Weng'an did too little, too late to address people's suspicions. So argued the Jinan-based Qilu Evening News, far from Guizhou in Shandong province, in an editorial on Tuesday: "In the Internet age, if public information lags in the slightest, it can leave room for rumors to be broadcast. This is a reality that must be confronted." Arguably, senior leaders did react much faster and more attentively than they might have in the past. The provincial government sprung to action, backed by orders from Chinese leader Hu Jintao. Guizhou Party Secretary Shi Zongyuan, formerly chief of the state press and publication regulator, was in Weng'an within 48 hours of the incident. Shi ultimately pinned the riot on a "criminal elements" with "ulterior motives" - not a popular statement at all, as noted. But at a "public forum", according to the Guizhou Daily, he also did acknowledge "social conflicts that had accumulated over time", "tense relations between cadres and the masses", and "people's dissatisfaction toward our work". But the remarks were airbrushed when compared to unpublished comments Shi made behind the scenes at a meeting of 100 local officials. Blogging For China translated the intriguing account of a Guizhou journalist named Wu Hanpin, who apparently was in attendance and later blogged on the exchange: "After listening to the comments of those attending, Shi Zongyuan said: Weng?an county has always had tense relations between cadres and citizens, police and citizens. Weng?an county has repeatedly had violent incidents of robbery, murder, and rape which have gone unsolved. The people who live here lack a sense of security. The failures of the county public security ministry has made everyone in the local community angry. He advised that those responsible for county public security should be ?dismissed from class?. Hearing this, all of the local political leaders (members of the people?s congress, political consultative conference) clapped in approval." That page of Wu's blog now appears to be blocked. By the end of the week, Little Wang was not impressed by the Guizhou government's moves to resolve the issue fairly. He'd read a dizzying array of accounts and arguments, from Wu's to those on Maopu. He still believed it highly plausible that the dead girl was raped and murdered; that the two young men she'd been with were related to top Weng'an officials; and that the protesters were instigated to commit violence. He did not believe the provincial government was going over the heads of Weng'an officials to conduct an independent probe into the death or the riots. "Even if they sack a few officials, it's just a show," he concluded. "But how am I to really know?" http://worldreport.cjly.net/2008/07/from-us-to-sweden-eavesdropping.html Saturday, July 05, 2008 "From US to Sweden, Eavesdropping Legislation Causes Online Uproar," Weely NetPulse, July 4, 2008. its not just Americans who aren't buying into the idea of 'sacrificing liberty for security' >From the United States to Sweden, lawmakers approving government eavesdropping legislation has caused an online upheaval. In the US, Senator Barack Obama's website is being used by his own supporters to protest his switch on telecom immunity. TechPresident has done a phenomenal job of covering the MyBO group, Senator Obama - Please Vote NO on Telecom Immunity - Get FISA Right, so we'll let them take it from here. But its not just Americans who aren't buying into the idea of 'sacrificing liberty for security'...Swedes are causing an online uproar over lawmakers voting 'yes' to eavesdropping legislation as well. The Swedish FRA Act, passed two weeks ago, will allow the National Defense Radio Establishment to eavesdrop on all cross-border emails, phone calls and faxes without a court order. A poll revealed that only 31% of Swedes are for the FRA Act. Expressen, a Swedish tabloid newspaper, is responsible for creating the email script that has been used to send 6.6 million emails to flood the inboxes of the 143 Swedish lawmakers who recently voted 'yes' what has been called "the most far-reaching eavesdropping plan in Europe." As one blogger put it, "The surveillance and information gathering will become the national standard...Privacy will be a historical artifact." Our take - POL has been saying for a long time that somewhere, someday, online privacy issues will merge with online activism to create a firestorm. 6.6 million emails is a lot of emails - 6.6 emails in a country with a population of 9 million is a firestorm. It will happen again and again, in lots of places about lots of issues. http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/63637.html Swedish Eavesdropping Law Ignites Uproar 07/01/08 8:50 AM PT A bill passed two weeks ago by Sweden's government has citizens there flooding lawmakers' in-boxes with more than 1 million protest e-mails. The law allows Sweden's National Defense Radio Establishment to eavesdrop on all cross-border e-mail, phone conversations and faxes. Swedes have bombarded lawmakers with more than 1 million e-mails protesting the country's new eavesdropping law, adding to the growing public outcry over the measure, an official said Monday. The contentious bill allows officials to eavesdrop on all cross-border e-mail and telephone traffic. The government plans to implement it in January. The bill was passed June 18 in a 142-138 vote despite nationwide protests that are still continuing. The Opposition Critics say the law will encroach on privacy and jeopardize civil liberties. Supporters claim it is needed to fight international crime and terrorism. Parliamentary spokesperson Christina Green said protesters had sent 1.1 million e-mails to lawmakers by Monday afternoon, after the Expressen tabloid on Sunday launched an online campaign against the law. The youth wings of the governing coalition parties oppose the law. The main opposition Social Democratic Party leader Mona Sahlin said she would move to annul it if her party returns to power in the 2010 election. The lack of support for the legislation is a setback for Sweden's center-right government, which has seen its popularity decline in recent months. The legislation gives Sweden's National Defense Radio Establishment the right to scan all phone calls, e-mails and faxes crossing Sweden's borders, without a court order. Currently, e-mail and phone surveillance in the Nordic country of 9.1 million, known for openness and transparency, requires a court order if police suspect a crime. However, the intelligence agency is allowed to spy on airborne signals, such as radio and satellite traffic, without special permission. http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/256171/Canada_Online_Protests_Grow_Over_Copyright_Bill Canada: Online Protests Grow Over Copyright Bill Posted Jun 15, 2008 by Bob Ewing in Internet | 2 comments | 364 viewsNext in Internet Inside the Virtual World of Rocketon, Where Avatars Surf the Web With You Related News Online Mutiny Against Barack Obama On His Own Website Over FISA? Africa/Middle East Mobile Biz to Hit $107B by 2013 A Facebook group opposing the copyright legislation gains 7,000 new members. Emails fly leading to this query: Will iPod users force the next Canadian federal election? The digital protest over the Canadian federal government?s proposed changes to the copyright law is growing by leaps and bounds. Internet and email campaigns are springing up in opposition to the changes that are being put forward by Canada?s Conservative government. One Facebook group that was started by Michael Geist, a University of Ottawa internet law professor saw its membership rise to 48,000 when over 7,000 people joined within 24 hours of the legislation?s introduction. Messages on Friday by group members indicate that they were taking political action in an effort to prevent the controversial legislation from becoming law. "I just phoned the Liberal Party of Canada and said I would vote Liberal for the first time in my life if they brought down the government over this bill," Ray Klassen wrote. "I've requested an in person meeting with Dawn Black, MP for Coquitlam/New Westminster. I live only 1 minute from her office up on Austin," wrote Brian B of Vancouver. Bill C-61 was introduced on Thursday by Industry Minister Jim Prentice and Heritage Minister Jos?e Verner, is designed to update Canada's copyright rules and bring it in line with the country's obligations under the World Intellectual Property Organization treaty signed more than a decade ago. The bill spells out Canadians' rights with respect to digital copying of content, granting permissions to make copies of books, photographs, music and other media. The bill does have supporters as there are a number of entertainment industry groups, including the Entertainment Software Association of Canada and the Canadian Recording Industry Association, who praised it for proposing methods of stopping illegal piracy of copyrighted works. The main concern about this bill and what is behind the protests is the bill's anti-circumvention clause, which would allow copyright holders to place digital locks on content and thus prevent copies from being made. Those who oppose the legislation say the clause invalidates all of the other rights granted, thus heavily skewing the bill in favour of copyright holders. Regional sub groups of the original Facebook site are also active and each has hundreds of members. Copyright For Canadians is a website run by the Ottawa-based Canadian Internet Policy & Public Interest Clinic, and the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation and many of the Facebook groups refer members to this site which has an automated system that allows visitors to send protest e-mails to their respective MPs. As of Friday afternoon, more than 3,200 messages had been sent. "What we've seen over the past 24 hours has been nothing short of remarkable," Geist said. "Literally tens of thousands of Canadians are speaking out with an element of shock that the government would introduce this legislation in the manner that it has." "Besides voting, I've never taken action politically, but I've now got a face-to-face meeting set up with Guy Lauzon, our MP for [Stormont?Dundas?South Glengarry] on the 24th," the reader wrote. "He'll know first-hand that this bill, if passed, will cause him to lose votes." "Whether it does or does not pass, the fact remains that the party and whatever candidate happens to be in my riding will receive one less vote come the next election,? Robert Phillips says he has campaigned on behalf of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and was a former executive of the Brock University Conservative Club, wrote. Rallies are being called for with the Ontario riding of Guelph, where a by-election must be called by September. Brenda Chamberlain, a Liberal, currently holds the riding but the Conservatives have targeted her seat. "You're going to see the concern and protests build over the summer rather than go away," Geist said. Parliament will soon take a summer break so the bill is not going to proceed until it resumes, the bill will receive its second reading and then be sent off to a committee for closer scrutiny. There is speculation that the Conservatives could make it a confidence bill, meaning that if opposition parties voted it down, they would force an election. "Wouldn't it be funny if an election was fought over iPods?" wrote Charles Troster of Vancouver. http://article.wn.com/view/2008/04/09/Computer_experts_protest_in_Oslo_against_Microsoft_document_/ Computer experts protest in Oslo against Microsoft document format as world standard Star Tribune OSLO, Norway - Roughly 60 data experts staged a rare and noisy street demonstration in downtown Oslo on Wednesday to protest Norway joining adoption of Microsoft Corp.'s document format as the international standard. Last week, the International Standards Organization narrowly voted in favor of using Microsoft's Office Open XML, or OOXLM, format as a world standard. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20080509-1345-ca-disney-vmkprotest.html Players protest closing of Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom By Ryan Nakashima ASSOCIATED PRESS 1:45 p.m. May 9, 2008 LOS ANGELES ? OMG! VMK is going away. A group that has invested three years in playing a free online game called Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom is upset that the house that made Mickey Mouse is pulling the plug on the world. The game, launched in the summer of 2005 to promote the 50th anniversary of Disneyland, attracted thousands of fans who created more than 1 million avatars who trade virtual items and play games to earn credits. On Saturday morning, members of the group plan to protest the game's shuttering around the entrance to Disneyland in Anaheim. The game is set to close on May 21 at 10 p.m. Pacific time. ?I've put three years of my life into this,? said Andrew Lawson, a 16-year-old from Sun City, Calif. Lawson said he plays the game 20 hours a week and has developed friendships with other players that can't be replaced elsewhere. According to VMK.com rules, players are not allowed to reveal their real identities, e-mail addresses or phone numbers as a safety measure ? rules enforced by staff monitors. The game is only open when moderated, from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Pacific time. Scott Lawson, Andrew's father, said his family stayed at the Disneyland Resort three times, spending about $2,000 each time, to obtain a virtual hat based on Disney's ?Lilo & Stitch? series. ?We're saddened and upset at how Disney handled this whole thing,? said the 45-year-old traveling salesman. Walt Disney Co. spokesman John Spelich, a vice president in the Walt Disney Internet Group, said the company decided to close the site because it was promotional and he encouraged players to go to other Disney virtual worlds. DisneyFairies.com had nearly 6 million avatars created in its ?Pixie Hollow? game, while Disney's ?ToonTown Online? had more than 20 million, the company said. Combined with ?Pirates of the Caribbean Online? and ?Club Penguin,? more than 40 million avatars have been created in other Disney worlds. Portions of each site were free. ?You'd rather do anything in the world than disappoint a guest,? Spelich said. ?But in this particular instance, this promotional site is going to come to an end. We have invited those players who like features of VMK to sample the other ways we're offering to engage with Disney online.? http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/05/26/tech-rally.html?ref=rss Internet protesters to descend on Ottawa Hundreds expected to call for end to traffic interference by major ISPs Last Updated: Monday, May 26, 2008 | 5:03 PM ET Comments50Recommend139 By Peter Nowak CBC News Liberal MP Mauril B?langer will be one of the speakers at the net neutrality rally at Parliament Hill on Tuesday. Hundreds of protesters are expected to descend on Parliament Hill on Tuesday to urge government action on keeping the internet free from interference by service providers. The net neutrality rally will draw together politicians, labour unions, consumer groups and internet activitists, with protesters being bused in from Toronto, Montreal and Chatham, Ont., the home base of its organizer, TekSavvy Solutions Inc. "We're expecting between 300 and 500 [protesters], and if it's any more than that, we'll consider it an amazing success," said Rocky Gaudrault, chief executive officer of TekSavvy, an ISP with about 35,000 customers. At issue are the actions of big ISPs such as Bell Canada Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc., who have been slowing down the internet speeds of customers using certain applications, such as peer-to-peer software used for file sharing. Bell and Rogers, Canada's two largest ISPs, as well as others including Videotron Ltee and Cogeco Inc., say they need to slow such traffic down ? or "throttle" it ? because a small percentage of customers are abusing these peer-to-peer applications and causing network congestion, thus affecting the speeds of the majority. Protesters want ISPs to discontinue throttling Protesters will urge Industry Minister Jim Prentice and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to enact rules that prevent ISPs from discriminating between different types of traffic, and to force more transparency from the providers. They will also ask that ISPs be forced to provide the speeds they are offering and discontinue their throttling practices. Groups scheduled to take part in the rally include: The National Union of Public and General Employees. The Canadian Union of Public Employees. The Campaign for Democratic Media. The Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic. The Council of Canadians. The NDP's digital spokesman Charlie Angus and Liberal MP Mauril B?langer are also scheduled to speak. Smaller ISPs, including TekSavvy, which rents portions of Bell's network in order to provide customers with access, will be represented by the Canadian Association of Internet Providers. CAIP recently complained to the CRTC that Bell is being anti-competitive by expanding its throttling practices to its members, and asked for an emergency cease-and-desist order. The regulator on May 14 declined to issue the order, but the next day opened up the larger issue for debate and expects to make a ruling on ISP throttling practices by the fall. The rally begins at 11:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday. CBCnews.ca will be covering the protest, beginning with bus departures in Toronto at 4 a.m. ET on Tuesday morning. http://salem-news.com/articles/june082008/delta_queen_6-7-08.php Jun-08-2008 23:21 Deleted Comments on Youtube Video Raises Storm of Protest Commentary by Franz Neumeier for Salem-News.com The Delta Queen is the last traditional steamboat carrying overnight passengers on America?s inland waterways. Photos courtesy: save-the-delta-queen.org (MUNICH, Germany) - The deletion of negative comments on a Youtube video has raised a storm of protest among supporters of the Mississippi River steamboat Delta Queen. The video in question was posted under the user name "OberstrMN08". It shows Representative James Oberstar of Minnesota, Chairman of the House's Transportation Committee, speaking on the floor of the House of Representatives on April 24, 2008. In the speech, he explains why he is vehemently opposing proposed legislation that would exempt the Delta Queen from technical provisions of the 1966 Safety at Sea Act. Numerous viewers submitted comments to the video claiming that many of Mr. Oberstar?s statements were untruthful and that he was trying to manipulate his fellow members of Congress into voting his way. Within a few days, OberstrMN08 deleted all comments, and refuses to allow any further comments. Delta Queen supporters are accusing Rep. Oberstar of violating their right to freedom of speech while claiming the same right liberally for himself by posting the video in the first place. But they say Rep. Oberstar has not taken into account the accepted rules of the Internet. Just hours after the comments had been deleted, they posted their comments again on a different website, steamboats.org/forum/blog.php. This site also features an electronic document showing a print-out of the original, now deleted comments at Youtube. Another website, save-the-delta-queen.org, has posted a detailed analysis of Rep. Oberstar's speech where Save the Delta Queen campaign member Franz Neumeier pinpoints what are, in his opinion, manipulative and even untrue statements in Rep. Oberstar?s remarks. Says Neumeier: "Rep. Oberstar might be able to betray his constituents. He might be able to be untruthful to his fellow Representatives in the House because they not interested in any details. But condoning the deletion of comments on a video posted by his campaign organization on a public video-sharing platform like Youtube is really too much. This is an absolute no-go on the Internet." "Manipulation" and "inaccuracy" are words that can be found again and again in comments and statements by Delta Queen supporters when they talk about this speech of Rep. Oberstar in the House. Travis Vasconcelos writes in his comment at steamboats.org: " Mr. Oberstar is neglecting to accept the fact the United States Coast Guard did in fact certify the Delta Queen to operate for the 2008 season and has had multiple inspections where she does pass all necessary safety regulations as an overnight passenger carrying riverboat." and continues: "If Mr. Oberstar wants us to accept his assumption the Sultana [a steamboat of the Civil War era; editor's note] and the Delta Queen are of the exact same technological era, do we not have to accept for fact a 747 and anything the Wright Brothers flew are utilizing the same technology and therefore should be shunned for their danger potential. Are we to believe there have been no technological advances in any area ever?" The Delta Queen is the last traditional steamboat carrying overnight passengers on America?s inland waterways. For that reason she has been designated a National Historic Landmark. In 1966, she was inadvertently caught in the technical provisions of the Safety at Sea Act?a piece of legislation that was intended to cover ocean-going ships, not riverboats. Recognizing the difference between boats that operate on rivers, within yards of the shore, and ships that sail the high seas, Congress established an exemption for the Delta Queen in 1968. Since then, the exemption has been renewed nine times, in virtually every case by near-unanimous votes in both the House and the Senate. Without congressional action, the current exemption will expire on November 1st 2008. Bipartisan legislation to extend the exemption, H.R. 3852, was introduced by Congressman Steve Chabot (R-OH) on October 16th 2007. Currently it has 31 cosponsors. The bill remains in the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure because Committee Chairman James Oberstar of Minnesota refuses to release it to the floor. http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/214869,belarus-internet-news-sites-shut-down-to-protest-new-press.html Belarus Internet news sites shut down to protest new press controls Posted : Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:27:01 GMT Author : DPA Category : Internet (Technology) Minsk - A group of independent Belarusian Internet news sites shut down Wednesday to protest new laws tightening government control over the media. More than a dozen websites - one of the few sources of independently-reported news in the authoritarian former Soviet republic - placed a black banner on their home pages for one hour and disabled links, the Belapan news agency reported. The temporary shutdown making the sites unusable was "a symbol of the funeral of press rights in Belarus", according to Olga Babak, spokeswoman for the Belarusian Association of Journalists. Belarus' parliament on Tuesday passed into law media regulations extending an obligation to register with the government, and so submit to state censorship, to IP owners and web site operators. Belarusian law prior to the vote imposed strict controls on most media including mandatory jail terms for criticising the government, but had omitted mention of the Internet - a loophole exploited by independent media attempting to report news different from the state- controlled media. Aleksander Statikevich, editor of the independent newspaper Solidarnost predicted further crack downs against the press, saying the government "will not listen to journalists in an case. The authorities know exactly what they are doing." Belarusian President Oleksander Lukashenko in recent months has cracked down on Belarus' embattled independent media. Pressure tactics have included detentions and arrests of reporters, tax audits of independent media companies, and even mass theft of newspaper issues critical of the government. http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fpposted/archive/2008/07/02/what-happened-to-ruinediphone-com.aspx What happened to ruinediphone.com? Posted: July 02, 2008, 9:19 AM by DrewHasselback Technology What has happened to www.ruinediphone.com? This is (or rather, was) the website where irate iPhone fans could sign an online petition protesting the data plans Rogers Wireless will offer customers when the iPhone is launched in Canada on July 11. UPDATE: James Hallen, the Web site's creator, said the outage was due to his old hosting company "pulling the plug with no reasons." According to Mr. Hallen, the new server is up and angry potential iPhone customers can start signing onto his online petition by mid-afternoon on Wednesday. Drew Hasselback and David George-Cosh http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/16/bt_phorm_protest/ Phorm protestors picket BT AGM Walking the streets to protest against data pimping By John Oates ? More by this author Published Wednesday 16th July 2008 11:54 GMT Take the hassle out of finding your next job, click here The Register presents: The Evolving Security Landscape. Watch online! Attendees at BT's Annual General Meeting today will have to run the gauntlet of an anti-Phorm protest outside the event at the Barbican, London. Protestors will hear from Baroness Miller, who is tomorrow meeting the Home Office to outline her objections to BT's trial of the snooping technology without informing users. BT conducted two trials with Phorm which gave the former spyware company access to thousands of BT customers' browsing history without telling them. Phorm aims to use anonymised browsing information to sell more targeted advertising. BT insists the secret trial was legal, even though it appears to breach UK wiretap laws. The secret trial came to light when Reg reader Stephen noticed his browser making unauthorised connections with a server he didn't recognise. He contacted BT and was told the server had nothing to do with them and he had probably picked up some malware. BT denied having done any deal with Phorm, although Phorm admitted the server was theirs and was being used to collect browsing information. Despite legal concerns, the Information Commissioner's Office, the Home Office and several police forces have all passed the buck when asked if they would investigate the trials. Several other ISPs other than BT have shown an interest in the technology and potential new revenue stream. But campaigner Alex Hanff, who helped organise the protest, has a meeting later today with City of London police. Hanff will hand over a dossier of evidence to police so they can consider whether charges should be brought. Alex Hanff told the Register: "It's not quite as busy as we hoped. But we've had a very positive reaction from shareholders and have been handing out flyers. We've got at least one person inside the meeting who might get to ask a question." An e-petition on the 10 Downing Street website has already gained more than 15,000 signatures. http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=13741 Protesters call bad 'Phorm' outside BT meeting Phorm critic describes BT nightmare Jeremy Kirk In June 2007, Stephen Mainwaring of Weston Super Mare, noticed something wasn't quite right with his web browser. The browser kept trying to contact a domain he was unfamiliar with. Mainwaring, who runs a website offering a subscription service for horse-racing statistics, thought he might have become infected with malicious software. Fearing his customers' data could be compromised, Mainwaring called BT, his broadband service provider. BT concluded he must have had a virus. "I started to turn white," Mainwaring said. But the problem persisted, even after he wiped his hard discs clean and bought a new PC. Mainwaring started to investigate and found that the domain the browser was trying to contact belonged to 121Media, a company now called Phorm. Phorm created a targeted advertising system called Webwise, which three UK ISPs so far have agreed to trial. Webwise monitors a person's web browsing in order to serve relevant ads. Since advertisers will pay a premium to reach customers that fit a certain profile, ISPs employing target ad systems would get a cut of the revenue. Phorm says the system does not retain personal information, but UK privacy activists question whether the system violates wiretapping regulations. A similar debate is ongoing in the US concerning the company NebuAd, which is marketing a similar system. BT along with Carphone Warehouse and Virgin Media plan to trial Webwise. But BT has further aggravated privacy activists after it secretly tested Webwise on 18,000 subscribers over a two-week period in September and October 2006. Most people didn't notice the test. But Mainwaring did, along with 15 to 20 other people who complained through customer service channels. Mainwaring was one of several people who passed out leaflets about Webwise yesterday outside the London venue for BT's annual meeting. The calm protest was intended to raise awareness of the technology with BT shareholders, as well as press the UK government to investigate whether BT violated wiretapping regulations. The UK has been fuzzy over which government agency has jurisdiction over investigating the trial, said Alexander Hanff, a law student who has written a dissertation about how BT may have violated the law. Hanff said it appears the City of London police have the right to investigate if they choose, and he planned to provide them with his dissertation, as well as other materials regarding the secret BT trial. Phorm also appears to be drawing more political attention. A peer in the House of Lords, Sue Miller attended the protest. Miller said she planned on Thursday to press Home Office Undersecretary of State for Security and Counterterrorism Alan West for more clarification on ISPs and interception regulations. Miller said BT officials visited her on Monday and assured her the Webwise system complies with the law. Nonetheless, some ISPs, both in the US and UK, are steering clear of targeted advertising systems for fear of losing customers. "The real reason I don't touch Phorm is because it's illegal," said Jason Clifford, who runs an ISP called the UK Free Software Network. "I think it it's going to be a very poor return on investment." http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/07/28/anti_drm_protest_at_apple_stores_verizon_on_iphone_3gs_impact.html Monday, July 28, 2008 Anti-DRM protest at Apple stores; Verizon on iPhone 3G's impact By Aidan Malley Published: 06:45 PM EST Open-source campaigners are planning a flood campaign against Apple retail they believe will pressure the iPhone maker to open up its devices. Verizon, meanwhile, only believes the iPhone 3G has had slight impact on its sales, and Doom's creator wants to create an exclusive iPhone game. DRM opponents hope to overwhelm Apple retail In a symbolic gesture, the Free Software Foundation plans a new campaign, nicknamed the Apple Challenge, that it thinks will pressure Apple into opening its software code. The organization is asking supporters to book a Genius Bar appointment at an Apple retail store on Friday or Saturday and ask the technicians questions about the company's broader corporate policy regarding iPhone 3G and its software under the belief that any copy-protected hardware or software is "defective." Among the questions several few technicians would be likely to answer, including those asking why Apple doesn't allow iPhone developers to publish source code, why Apple continues to sell protected iTunes music, and why the company doesn't support open media formats like FLAC, Ogg Theora, and Ogg Vorbis. The questionnaire goes so far as to suggest that closed-source software for GPS would allow Apple to track customers' locations without their knowledge. Although Apple currently uses and promotes some open-source software through Mac OS X, the company has more often refrained from a similar policy with its portable devices. Chief executive Steve Jobs, however, has endorsed cross-platform formats but has only mentioned AAC and MP3, which still require licensing and are patented in a way that makes open-source modification impossible. Verizon downplays iPhone 3G's effects iPhone 3G's rollout has had just a "minimally short-term impact" on Verizon's sales, if the company's statements during its quarterly results call prove true. Though it stops short of handing out any statistics, the cellular service provider alludes to the Apple phone making a small dent in Verizon sales in the days following its launch but that it was "disproportionately less" than the company's market share, which is smaller than that of exclusive iPhone provider AT&T. The company also fires a direct jab at AT&T, noting that its wireless strategy doesn't depend on "any one device" and claims the iPhone actually spurred a rush of smartphone sales at Verizon. id Software's Carmack eager to develop iPhone exclusive John Carmack, the co-founder of game development house id Software, says his company is planning to develop an iPhone-exclusive title that would show off the abilities of the platform, Forbes says. While it's too early to reveal details, the game would be based on an existing storyline from the company such as Doom, Quake, or Wolfenstein but would be a "graphical tour de force" that shows off the visual prowess of the iPhone and iPod touch's PowerVR hardware. "The iPhone, as a device, is in the same generation power-wise as the PS2 or Xbox," Carmack says. "The graphics are a little lower but the RAM is a lot higher." Apple's handhelds also have considerably more storage than the cellphones id Software has developed for so far, with many games coming in over 10MB while a typical mobile game is often 300KB. At present, his only immediate lament is not having time to create a launch game. "I really regret not having something at launch," he says. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43510 MEDIA: Olympics Draw Harvest of Online Protests By Lynette Lee Corporal - Asia Media Forum* Beijing's Ritan Park, designated for protests with official permission, saw no banners or slogan shouting. Credit:Antoaneta Bezlova/IPS BANGKOK, Aug 11 (IPS) - Say goodbye to the usual slogan-shouting and banner-carrying protest actions, because one does not even have to be anywhere near China to push a mix of causes -- from Tibet and Burma to Darfur. Online creativity is the name of the game. While the spectacular 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremonies got underway, many groups are finding and using innovative ways online in which to express their displeasure about China's socio-political and economic policies. One such group is the Candle4Tibet.org (www.Candle4Tibet.org), an online campaign that encouraged people to light a candle for Tibet in homes or in public places on Aug. 7 at 9 p.m. The campaign began in India and went around the world until the evening of Aug. 8, the opening of the Beijing Olympics. Organiser David Califa said, in a telephone interview from Israel, where he is based, that there were more than 500,000 responses to the call. More than 3,900 people have also registered for Candle4Tibet's social networking site (www.Candle4Tibet.ning.com), an online support group for members. These are the same people, Califa said, who invited "more than 100,000,000 to join the vigil worldwide". "All this started from zero. It's not an organised campaign and we have no funds to speak of. This is really a people's protest, because it's from the people themselves, which makes it all the more special," the retired investment banker said in a phone interview. About four months ago, Califa was just one among the 75 million members of the popular social networking site Facebook. Then, Califa thought of rallying people to support the call of freedom for Tibet, which the Chinese state has occupied since 1951 despite campaigns for autonomy or independence. >From a sprinkling of fellow Facebook contacts, word got out quickly and spread even outside Facebook. Califa then worked on creating a dedicated website for this campaign. More than 150 countries are represented on the site, mainly the United States, India, Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Australia and South America. A quick check of the site also reveals a sprinkling of members from Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, and a few more from Taiwan and Japan. Asked about the seemingly small number of Asian countries figuring on the site, Califa said, "It could be a language problem, Internet access, or the circles of social network are not big enough." There is, however, a Japanese group in the network that helped out in translating all materials into Japanese. "I think one of the reasons why not a lot of Asians seem to be paying attention to this campaign is because China is a 'big brother' of sorts in this region," said a Thai activist who gave her name as Arsure. Open opposition to China would be to invite 'economic disaster' for any country, she added. Human rights advocates have criticised other countries' seeming inaction and unwillingness to question China's policies on Darfur, Burma and Tibet. Two other websites that have also launched protests against the Chinese government are the French-based Reporters Without Borders? (www.rsf.org) and Darfur Olympics (www.darfurolympics.org/). A few hours before the start of the Olympics, RSF launched a virtual demonstration site complete with a choice of placards. This, the group said, is to protest against the repression of press freedom and to demand the release of around 100 journalists, cyber dissidents and bloggers. As of Aug 9, cyber-demonstrators numbered to more than 13,500. A person who decides to participate in virtual protest is taken to an image of China's famed Bird's Nest Olympic stadium online, and invited add his protest with the aid of slogans such as 'Yes to sport, no to oppression', 'No Olympic Games without freedom', and 'I boycott the Olympic opening ceremony!' The Darfur Olympics site, meanwhile, is a week-long protest that is aimed at keeping the Darfur issue afloat during the Games. Its call is simple: for China to "stop sponsoring the genocide in Darfur". More than 400,000 people have been killed and more than 2.5 million have been displaced by Sudan, which enjoys close trade relations with China. Critics have continuously condemned China's oil purchases, the earnings of which, they say, are used to fund the Janjaweed militia and buy weapons again from China. Among the site's features is an alternative opening ceremony to the Beijing Olympics featuring images of Darfur's children in refugee camps, a week-long webcast by leading Darfur activist and Dream-for-Darfur chair Mia Farrow. It appeals to Olympic viewers to change channels whenever they broadcast commercials by the 15 corporate Olympic sponsors that refused to speak up about the Darfur situation. "I hope people will watch our daily broadcasts to hear from the people of Darfur who have suffered for so long," said Farrow in a statement. In a slightly different take on the protest actions, the global web movement Avaaz.org launched yet another campaign for peace and freedom through its 'Olympics Handshake' online campaign. Echoing the constant message of the 14th Dalai Lama about meaningful dialogue, Avaaz -- which means 'voice' in many Asian, Middle Eastern and Eastern European languages -- goes a step further by encouraging people to virtually shake hands with everyone worldwide. Inspired by the handshake that the Dalai Lama gave to every person he met during one of his visits to London, the handshake campaign now has more than 94,900 supporters, only two days after it was posted. The campaign's goal is for the Beijing Olympics to encourage China to open a meaningful dialogue on Tibet, as well as to deal with the Burma and Darfur issues. They also want to emphasise that these ongoing campaigns are not 'anti-Chinese', something that Califa also agrees with. "We are not against the people of China and the Olympics. Some of us even have compassion for the leaders of China," said Califa. For Califa and other protesters, it is all about the very basic right of freedom, including freedom from fear. "There are a lot of people in the free world who are afraid of China. A lot of companies are afraid of China. They put profit first before values, and it's absurd," he said. "But we are not afraid and this is just the beginning." (*This story was written for the Asia Media Forum coordinated by IPS Asia-Pacific) (END/2008) http://www.smh.com.au/news/off-the-field/protesters-hack-into-olympics-website/2008/08/07/1217702194013.html Protesters paint site orange August 7, 2008 - 9:01AM It's been claimed that hackers have tapped into the official website of the Beijing Olympic Games to colour some of its headlines orange in support of a protest against human rights abuse in China. Danish human rights activist and artist Jens Galschiot is pushing people to get involved in The Color Orange project ahead of and during the Olympic Games, which start tomorrow. He wants athletes, politicians, journalists and others in Beijing to display something orange, and is urging people around the world to hang up orange cloth strips on sculptures, lampposts, fences and other visible places in cities as a way of criticising China over its human rights abuses. Mr Galschiot said he received an anonymous phone call claiming that hackers had changed the headlines of the official Chinese Olympic website into orange, seemingly in support of the project. "I was rather sceptical about the message but I've checked the website ... actually the headlines are orange," he said in a statement on his website thecolororange.net. "But I dare not say whether hackers or a humanitarian-minded web designer are the originators. "These hackers must be exceptionally skillful if they have managed to make this small but very powerful change of the official Olympic Games websites." But, Mr Galschiot added, he did not defend unlawful hacking of websites. The official website en.beijing2008.cn had its main headlines in blue this morning, but smaller headings were all in orange, as were some other elements of the design. Australian Olympic officials were not available for comment this morning. http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2008-08-25-011-35-NW-LL Protest Against Software Patents - Candle Light Vigil at Bangalore Aug 25, 2008, 00 :02 UTC (0 Talkback[s]) (567 reads) (Other stories by Sandip Bhattacharya) "The issue was to send out a message against vested interests in the government and industry who are clandestinely trying to legalise software patents in India even after existing legislation disallowed it." From ldxar1 at tesco.net Fri Aug 29 23:30:26 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 07:30:26 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Ethnoreligious protests, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <00c101c90a69$e50b59e0$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * NEPAL: Police kill three in protest over inter-group conflict * NEPAL: Ethnic organisations stage anti-Hindi protests in Terai * NEPAL: Indigenous Tharus march against "One Madhes" demand, fight police * UKRAINE: Russian Crimeans called to protest anniversary * INDIA, Meghalaya: Bandh in dispute over state borders with Assam * INDIA, Mumbai: Sikhs attack MTV station over advert * PAKISTAN: Gilgit-Baltistan students protest against union with Pakistan * KENYA: Twelve killed as banned sect protest * PHILIPPINES: Iligan villagers protest inclusion in Moro homeland * KOSOVA: Albanian radicals protest elections * KOSOVA: UN police officer dies after clash with Mitrovica Serbs * KOSOVA: Serbs protest "illegal" mosque building in disputed area * KOSOVA: Army vets scuffle with police * SERBIA: 80 injured in protests against Karadzic deportation * SERBIA: Nationalists protest local government * EGYPT: Protests against town region switch; police attack * IRAN/UAE: Protest against renaming of "Persian" Gulf as "Arabian" Gulf * KYRGYZSTAN: Protest against land transfer concessions to Kazakhstan * KOSOVA: Mitrovica Serbs protest EU agreement * MACEDONIA: Protests against attempts to change official name of country * NIGERIA: Biafran separatist group plans week-long march * INDIA, Malabar: Factional conflict turns into crisis * KOSOVA: Albanians protest return of land to monastery * TURKEY: Rize town group protests UK police operation name * SOUTH AFRICA: Zulu protests, unrest over street renaming * YEMEN: Southern army protests continue, bomb blast wounds protesters * THAILAND/CAMBODIA: Protesters arrested at disputed temple * SOMALILAND/PUNTLAND/SOMALIA: Protest over Somaliland "aggression" to Puntland * INDIA, Andhra Pradesh: Protest for Telangana state * INDIA, Hyderabad: Christians protest depiction of Jesus * GERMANY, FINLAND: Sri Lankans protest against Tamil Tigers * AUSTRALIA: Protest supports Tamils * INDIA, Orissa, West Bengal: Protests against "Greater Jharkand" call * ESTONIA: Ethnic Russians protest on "Bronze Soldier" anniversary * SIERRA LEONE: Opposition party attacked in factional protest * MALAYSIA: Students protest to keep locals-only policy * KOSOVA: Serbs protest against border * INDIA, Puducherry: Protest over centre-focused independence day http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/28/asia/AS-GEN-Nepal-Shooting.php Police shoot at protesters in west Nepal town killing 3 The Associated Press Published: May 28, 2008 KATMANDU, Nepal: Police opened fire on protesters in western Nepal on Wednesday, killing three people, an official said. Government administrator Chetra Bahadur Bhandari said police were compelled to shoot at the demonstrators who had surrounded the district administration office and began attacking the building. They demonstrators were protesting the beating of some local people by rival groups a day earlier and allege the authorities failed to take action. Bhandari said an indefinite curfew has been imposed in the town about 550 kilometers (310 miles) southwest of the capital, Katmandu. The two sides of the dispute had gathered at the office on Wednesday so that the officials could resolve the differences. However, the two sides began clashing with each other and police and they began throwing stones at the administration office. Police first fired in the air but had to shoot at the protesters to control the situation, the official said. Bhandari said officials were investigating and searching the area for the attackers. The protest was not related to the rallies being held across this Himalayan nation to celebrate the declaration of a republic state on Wednesday. Security has been stepped up across this Himalayan nation for the planned rallies in major towns and cities. The special elected assembly meeting in Katmandu for the first time on Wednesday is scheduled to make the declaration, and celebrations are planned throughout the country. The assembly is to abolish Nepal's centuries-old monarchy and declare the country a republic state. http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080060118 Anti-Hindi protest disrupts life in Nepal Press Trust of India Tuesday, August 05, 2008, (Kathmandu) Indigenous ethnic organisations in Nepal on Monday revived the anti-Hindi protest triggered by Vice President Parmananda Jha taking oath of office in Hindi, with normal life disrupted across 22 districts in the Terai plains bordering India. Normal life across 22 districts in the southern Terai region was affected following a general strike call by the Tharuhat Struggle Committee, an association of Tharu community, in protest against newly elected vice president's decision to take the oath of office in Hindi on July 23. The Tharuhat Struggle Committee affiliated eight other organisations also expressed solidarity with the one-day strike. The protesters claimed that Jha had "disrespected" the interim constitution by the taking oath in foreign language. Protesters blocked traffic and held demonstrations disrupting normal life across the Terai districts, including Morang, Sunsari, Siraha, Dang, Rupandehi and Rautahat, the Kantipur online said on Monday. The protest revived the language row that had calmed down following the Vice President's statement on July 29 apologising for unwittingly hurting the sentiments of non-Hindi speaking people. Jha is a member of the ethnic Madhesi community that dominates the southern plains bordering India, and for whom Hindi is the most common language. Nepal's Supreme Court had issued notice to the Vice President and the Prime Minister's office on a petition filed by Nepali lawyer Bal Krishna Neupane demanding the oath to be invalidated. http://www2.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-234/0807286421183041.htm 10 injured as anti-Hindi protests in Nepal turn violent New Delhi, July 28, IRNA Nepal-Anti-Hindi Protests Ongoing protests over use of Hindi language during oath taking ceremony by Vice President Parmananda Jha on Monday took a violent turn in Kathmandu when the protesters clashed with police leaving 10 people injured. Six students, three policemen and a youth were injured when agitating students and youths clashed with the police near Amrit Science College here as normal life in the city nearly came to standstill, PTI reported here. Jha, formerly associated to the Madhesi People's Rights Forum (MPRF), took oath in Hindi which triggered widespread agitation across the country. The agitators also vandalized the central office of MPRF at Baneshwor area in the outskirts of Kathmandu. Some 200-250 people stormed the office of the Forum, which fielded Jha for the post of vice president. Police had to intervene to stop further damage in the office. The agitators also burnt tire and effigy of Jha in different places blocking major roads. Vehicular movement came to nearly a halt in most part of Kathmandu due to the protest. Meanwhile, the eight major student unions affiliated to the ruling parties have dissociated themselves from the violent protests. Issuing a press release they said that they have withdrawn all the protest programs in view of the present sensitive situation. "Seeing the vulnerable situation in the country as also the matter being taken up by the Supreme Court we have decided to withdraw the agitation," said Nepal Students Union President Pradeep Poudyal. http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2008/jul/jul28/news15.php CA directs govt to take steps to maintain communal harmony; students call off protest The Constituent Assembly (CA) today issued a directive to the government, asking it to take immediate steps to maintain communal harmony in the wake of the ongoing street protests in the capital and outside against Vice President Parmananda Jha for taking oath in Hindi language. Today's legislative meeting of the CA unanimously passed a 'proposal of public interest' presented by Maoist CA member Chandra Prakash Gajurel. The proposal expresses worry that the agitations, if unchecked now, could harm the communal harmony and tolerance. Commenting on the proposal, Nepali Congress CA member Laxman Ghimire, MJF's Bijaya Gachhedar and UML's Pradeep Gyawali emphasised that the parties needed to work together to ward off possible communal discord. They also expressed support to the proposal tabled by the Maoist party. Responding to the queries of CA members over the ongoing protests against the Vice President, Home Minister Krishna Prasad Situala said the government was taking all necessary measures to control the protests. He, however, claimed that the situation was fully under control. Meanwhile, the eight student unions affiliated with various political parties including the three main parties - CPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress and CPN (UML) - have called off their protest against the Vice President. Issuing a statement, the student groups said they had decided to withdraw the protest programmes in view of the fragile political situation in the country. Earlier today, the student groups had submitted separate memos at the offices of the President and chairman of Constituent Assembly (CA), objecting to the VP's oath in Hindi language. In the memos, the students also demanded that Jha correct his mistake and apologise publicly. nepalnews.com mk July 28 08 http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2008/jul/jul06/news08.php Indigenous Tharus continue protest against 'one Madhes' demand Members of indigenous Tharu community continued their protest against the Terai parties' demand for single Madhes province, in Kathmandu, Sunday. The Tharu activists imposed chakka jam (traffic blockade) for half an hour at Minbhawan and Naya Baneshwor areas as part of their protest. They chanted slogan against the 'one Madhesh demand' as well as yesterday's police intervention into a demonstration in front of theConstituent Assembly building at Naya Baneshwor. Tharu Welfare Assembly, which has been organising protest in the capital and Terai districts since last few days, has declared that the protest movement world go on as long as attempts to establish a 'single Madhesh province' continue. It has also objected to the government's recent decision to introduce a supplementary constitution amendment bill to address the demand for 'autonomous Madhes province'. Meanwhile, as many as 15 organisations including Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NFIN), CPN (Marxist Leninist) and Chure Bhawar Ekta Party have announced their support to the Tharu community's protest. nepalnews.com mk July 06 08 http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2008/jul/jul09/news06.php Tharu activists to continue protest, more organisations rally against 'one Madhes' Tharu Welfare Assembly (TWA) has said that it would continue with its protest programmes in Kathmandu as well as in various Terai districts against the demand of some Terai-based parties for an "autonomous Madhes state". The organisation working for the welfare of ethnic Tharu community in Terai said that it would take out torch rallies in various Terai districts on Wednesday. Ethnic Tharus led by the TWA have been demonstrating in front of the Constituent Assembly venue in New Baneshwor against what they call 'Madhesisation' of 'what is originally Terai.' They have threatened of strong protest programmes against moves of Terai-based parties to undermine their identity in Terai by raising their demand for autonomous Madhes state. Meanwhile, with each passing day ethnic communities living in Terai are rallying against "One Madhes" demand raised by Terai-based parties to declare whole of terai as autonomous Madhes state. The latest joining them are the Kamaiya community who were freed from the age-old oppression of having to work as a bonded labourer for landlords in terai through a government decree. The Freed Kamaiya community have announced a protest movement against the demand of "One Madhes State". Speaking at a programme organised by Sustainable Development Society which is working for the welfare of the freed kamaiyas in Gulariya of Bardiya district, the society's chairman Bantiram Tharu said that the demand for "One Madhes province" is not acceptable to them under any circumstance and said that the society would express its solidarity to impose a bandh in most of the terai districts from Jhapa to Kanchapur against it. "If our demands are not met through peaceful means then we would wage a strong movement carrying our spades, axes and plough," he said. nepalnews.com ag July 09 08 http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2008/jul/jul05/news07.php Protesting Tharu activists clash with police At least half a dozen people were injured in police baton-charging during a protest of indigenous Tharu community against the 'one Madhesh one province' demand in the capital Saturday afternoon. Members of indigenous Tharu community staging demonstration against'one Madhesh' demand ... One protester was critically injured in the police action at Naya Baneshwor Chowk. Both the protesters and the police pelted stones at each other. The agitators chanted slogans against the police crackdown as well as the Terai parties that have been demanding a single Madhes province. Tharus have also opposed the decision of the government to introduce a supplementary constitution amendment bill in the Constituent Assembly (CA) to address the demands of the Terai parties. The protest rally began from Koteshwor and converged into a gathering in front of the CA building at Naya Baneshwor. Leaders of the Tharu Welfare Assembly, which organised the protest, said that single Madhesh was unacceptable to indegeneous Tharus. He also warned of serious consequences if their voice is not heard. President of Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NFIN), Pasang Sherpa said all the indigenous communities would support the movement launched by Tharus. Addressing the Gathering, CA members and Indigenous community leaders said that a single Madhesh was acceptable in no circumstance. UML CA member Santa Chaudhary declared that if the demands are not met, she would resign from the CA and join the protest movement of Tharus. nepalnews.com July 05 08 http://en.for-ua.com/news/2008/05/08/174448.html 8 May 2008 | 17:44 Crimean citizens are called to acts of civil protest Russian community of Crimea calls Crimean citizens to take part in mass acts of civil protest in case of derangement of the festive events dedicated to 225th anniversary of the Black Sea Fleet of Russia. It is said in the statement of the Russian Community of Crimea. "Stand up for Sevastopol! for the225th anniversary of the Black Sea Fleet of Russia and the Hero-City Sevastopol". Russian community of Crimea believes that "recent campaigns aimed at derangement of the celebrations in Sevastopol, dedicated to the 225th anniversary of the Black Sea Fleet Russia", are another link of the "anti-Russian policy", conducted by the Ukrainian authorities. In connection with such actions Russian Community of Crimea declares its firm intention to protect the interests of the Black Sea Fleet of Russia and encourage all its supporters to participate actively in the festive events dedicated to the 225th anniversary of the Black Sea Fleet of Russia, and in case of derangement - to take part in acts of civil protest. http://www.zeenews.com/articles.asp?aid=445791&sid=REG Border row: Meghalaya bandh to protest Assam ministers visit Shillong, May 29: Assam and Meghalaya appear to be on a confrontation course on the vexed border dispute, with some local bodies of Meghalaya calling for a bandh to prevent a 'illegal' visit by some Assam ministers to a disputed area. In view of a 24-hour bandh called by traditional bodies of Lagrin area in West Khasi Hills tomorrow, the state Chief Secretary has advised the Assam ministers not to visit the disputed place. Official sources said two of Assam ministers, including Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, were to visit the disputed area this weekend to lay the fundation stone of a health center besides some official quarters. Chief Minister Donkupar Roy visited the area yesterday along with his ministerial collegues to take stock of the situation. "The area belongs to Meghalaya constitutionally. The government will not allow encroachment on it," Roy told reporters today. Meghalaya government alleges that Assam has gradually encroached upon the area since 1979, besides pushing Nepali migrants to settle there. The Chief Minister claimed that Assam has encroached 40 km inside Meghalaya, and contended that laying of the foundation stone could bolster their claim on the area. The Chief Minister is expected to discuss the issue with his Assam counterpart in a day or two. http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2008-06/2008-06-17-voa40.cfm?CFID=22331723&CFTOKEN=18500308 Sikhs Arrested for Vandalism During MTV Protest By VOA News 17 June 2008 Police in India's financial and entertainment capital, Mumbai, have arrested 70 members of the minority Sikh community accused of vandalizing television channel MTV's offices while protesting an advertisement. The protesters allegedly threw stones, broke windows and damaged furniture Monday while protesting an ad for a show called On the Job 2. The advertisement for the show about unusual jobs depicts a Sikh girl giving a man a massage. The 70 people arrested were later released. MTV's legal counsel in Mumbai called the incident "unfortunate." http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=355131 Gilgit outfit protests against 1949 Karachi Agreement ANI Saturday 3rd May, 2008 Rawalpindi, May 3 : A students' body of Pakistan's Gilgit-Baltistan region participated in a major demonstration here recently to highlight their opposition to the controversial "Karachi Agreement" of April 28, 1949. Claiming that the agreement had led to the illegal handing over of the Gilgit-Baltistan region to Pakistan till Kashmir dispute with India was resolved, representatives of the Balawaistan National Students' Organisation (BNSO) said the pact was primarily responsible for the political and socio-economical problems that Gilgit and Baltistan were facing almost 60 years on. Terming April 28 as a "Black Day", BNSO leaders Shujaat Ali Engineer, Zafar Iqbal and Tufail Dogar, besides key representatives of the All Parties National Alliance (APNA) and the Jammu Kashmir National Awami Party (JKNAP) appealed to the Government of Pakistan to have the "unilateral and unconstitutional" agreement annulled or declared void ab initio (invalid from the outset). The event was also used to highlight the alleged excesses of the Pakistan Government in Gilgit and Baltistan during the past 60 years. They urged authorities in Islamabad to restore all human, constitutional, political, economical and social rights of the people of these two deprived and underdeveloped regions. They said that the people of Gilgit and Baltistan would not accept the hegemony of any outsider any more. At the end of the meeting, the following six resolutions were passed: 1.To end to corruption in Karakoram University 2.To provide merit-based employment to the educated youth of Gilgit and Baltistan 3.To teach and promote all languages of Gilgit and Baltistan to ensure protection of the egion's distinct identity 4.To protect the culture and civilisation of Gilgit and Baltistan 5.To terminate the construction of the controversial Bhasha Dam. If it is to be constructed, it should be renamed as the Daimer Dam and 6.To ensure full statehood status of Gilgit and Baltistan till the resolution of the Kashmir dispute. Spanning an area of approximately 72,496 square kilometres, the present-day Northern Areas in Pakistan, or what is traditionally known as the Gilgit-Baltistan region, is an area that has historically been of pivotal strategic importance, and so remains. This is the ancient 'axis of Asia', where South, Central and East Asia converge. Gilgit-Baltistan was traditionally both India's and China's gateway to Central Asia and beyond, into the heart of Europe. The Karachi Agreement of April 28, 1949, purportedly signed between the Pakistan Government and the 'President' of 'Azad Kashmir', Sardar M. Ibrahim Khan, and President of the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference, Chaudhary Ghulam Abbas, ratified the administrative control of Pakistan over these areas. Pakistan also reportedly received letters of accession from the Mirs (local rulers) of Nagar and Hunza. These letters, however, do not hold any merit as the Rajas of Nagar and Hunza had no power of accession since the entire State of Jammu and Kashmir reverted to Maharaja Hari Singh after the departure of the British. Critics of the agreement have charged Pakistan with suppressing these letters of accession, because it sought to bring the whole State under dispute before the United Nations (UN). http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/14/2216764.htm 12 killed as banned Kenyan sect protests: police Posted Mon Apr 14, 2008 7:44pm AEST At least 12 people have been killed in a series of clashes involving Kenyan police and members of a banned Kenyan sect protesting over the killing of their imprisoned leader's wife. Police said five people were killed in Nairobi, four in central Kenya and three others in the Rift Valley region where members of the Mungiki sect were blocking roads and stoning motorists. Nine of those killed were Mungiki members shot dead by police, while the three others were reportedly civilians caught up in the violence, police officials said. "We have things under control and have deployed security forces across the country to ensure that peace prevails," national police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said. "We assure the public that peace will be restored and all these hooligans brought to book," he added. The Mungiki sect was once a religious group of dreadlocked youths who embraced traditional rituals, but the authorities say it has evolved into a ruthless criminal gang involved in extortion and murder. The Mungiki members were protesting the killing of Virginia Nyakio, the wife of imprisoned sect leader Maina Njenga. Nyakio's mutilated body was recovered on Friday - three days after she was seized by unknown kidnappers. - AFP http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storyPage.aspx?storyId=127285 Iligan villagers protest inclusion in Moro homeland by JOYCE VELOSO and FATIMA IMAM abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak A group of residents in Iligan City launched a street demonstration Monday morning to protest their villages' proposed inclusion in the new Moro homeland agreement that was supposed to be signed by the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Malaysia on Tuesday. Demonstrators wore red T-shirts to symbolize their opposition to include eight villages of Iligan in the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE). These areas are: Digkilaan, Dulag, Hindang, Kalilangan, Lanipao, Mainit, Panoroganan and Rogongon. Should these areas become a part of the expanded Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), over 66,502 hectares of land or about 81.76 percent of Iligan?s total land area will be ceded to the BJE. The demonstrators opposed the move, saying that majority of residents in the these villages are not Bangsamoro people. In a statement, the Coalition Against the Inclusion of Iligan to the BJE said a big part of these villages is inhabited by the Higaonons, one of the Lumads or indigenous tribes of Mindanao. These Lumads have applied for land titles over ancestral domains found in Rogongon, Mainit, Panoroganan and Kalilangan, the group said. http://www.b92.net//eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2008&mm=05&dd=10&nav_id=50126 Radical Albanian group protests elections 10 May 2008 | 10:47 | Source: B92, Beta PRI?TINA -- Albin Kurti's Self-Determination movement staged a demonstration in Pri?tina yesterday to protest the holding of Serbian elections in Kosovo. The protest in Pri?tina Friday (Beta) Several hundred of his supporters, who engaged in violent demonstrations in the past that ended with fatalities, threw bags of garbage at the seats of UNMIK and Kosovo government. "UNMIK serves as dumpster," said Kurti, who is on house arrest pending trial over the deadly Feb. 2007 protests in Pri?tina, as his activists carried Albanian flags and anti-UNMIK and Kosovo institutions slogans. Kurti said that both the UN mission and the government of Kosovo should have prevented the parliamentary and local elections Belgrade is organizing tomorrow, as they "question the integrity of Kosovo". "The Serbian structures in Kosovo have for the past nine years controlled one fourth of the territory. Now these structures will be made official through the May 11 voting inside the republic of Kosovo. After May 11 there will be 23 parallel municipal presidents in Kosovo," Kurti said. But he added the protest Friday was "not against the international community" ? rather, Kurti said, the international community should not rule Kosovo, "but should instead have an advisory role". UNMIK chief Joachim Ruecker yesterday announced that the parliamentary and local votes in the province are "unacceptable, contrary to Resolution 1244, with the goal of creating parallel, illegal and illegitimate structures of Serbia in Kosovo". http://see.oneworldsee.org/article/view/150740/1/3188 UN Policeman Dies after Clashes Between Protesters and Peacekeepers in Mitrovica Luan Ibraj 18 March 2008 A member of the United Nations police force in Kosovo has died of injuries he sustained in violent clashes with Serbian demonstrators in the divided town of Mitrovica. While, more than 150 people, including NATO and UN personnel, were wounded on Monday during running battles between peacekeepers and Serbs opposed to Kosovan independence. Angry demonstrators attacked international troops with rocks, grenades and Molotov cocktails as the joint UN and NATO force took back a UN courthouse which the Serbs stormed last week. Kosovo Police Service (KPS) spokesman Veton Elshani said one of those hurt had later died. \\\"An Ukrainian police officer died of wounds suffered during violent demonstrations in the north of Mitrovica.\\\" After the police detained around 50 Serbs in the court, hundreds of residents from the Serb-populated northern part of the town attacked the security force\\\'s convoy and managed to free some of the prisoners. The two sides exchanged gunfire in bitter clashes which left 60 peacekeepers and 70 Serbian protesters injured. Later during the day police withdrew from the northern half of Mitrovica, but NATO-led Kosovo Force peacekeepers remain in the town, taking control for the situation in town. Monday\\\'s clashes were the worst seen in the region since Kosovo unilaterally declared its independence from Serbia last month, and they came four years after bloody riots among Kosovo Albanians and Serbs. Mitrovica, is a renowned flashpoint for violence. Bridges that connect two sides of the town have been closed to prezent clashes among the two communities. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/02/22/news/Serbia-Kosovo.php Tensions remain high in Serbia as protesters attack UN police The Associated Press Published: February 22, 2008 KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Kosovo: Violent protests rocked Serb-dominated northern Kosovo on Friday, as mobs chanting "Kosovo is ours!" hurled stones, bottles and firecrackers at U.N. police guarding a bridge that divides Serbs from ethnic Albanians. The scenes evoked memories of the carnage unleashed by former Serb autocrat Slobodan Milosevic the last time Kosovo tried to break away from Serbia, which considers the territory its ancestral homeland. There were disturbing signs the riots in Belgrade, Serbia, and in Mitrovica have the blessing of nationalists in the Serbian government. The government hopes somehow to undo the loss of the beloved province, the site of an epic battle between Serbs and Turks in 1389. Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's authorities have repeatedly vowed to reclaim the land, despite U.S. and other Western recognition of Kosovo's statehood. Some hard-line government ministers have praised the violent protests as "legitimate" ? and in line with government policies of retaining control over Serb-populated areas. In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said it was time for Serbs to accept that Kosovo is no longer theirs. She also suggested it was time to drop centuries of grievance and sentimentality in the Balkans. "We believe that the resolution of Kosovo's status will really, finally, let the Balkans begin to put its terrible history behind it," Rice said Friday. "I mean, after all, we're talking about something from 1389 ? 1389! It's time to move forward." Serbian President Boris Tadic called an emergency meeting of the national security council and said the rioting that engulfed the capital must "never happen again." "I most sharply condemn the violence, looting and arson," Tadic said in a statement. "There is no excuse for the violence. Nobody can justify what happened yesterday." Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders declared independence from Serbia on Sunday. The province, which is 90 percent ethnic Albanian, has not been under Serbia's control since 1999, when NATO launched airstrikes to halt a Serbian crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists. A U.N. mission has governed Kosovo since. The U.S. ambassador to Serbia demanded that authorities do more to guarantee the safety of foreign diplomatic missions after nationalists in Belgrade set fire to the U.S. Embassy in riots Thursday that left one dead and more than 150 injured. The State Department ordered nonessential diplomats and the families of all American personnel at the embassy to leave Serbia after the attack. In his first post-independence interview, Kosovo's prime minister told The Associated Press that the violence is reminiscent of the Milosevic era. "The pictures of yesterday in Belgrade were pictures of Milosevic's time," said Hasim Thaci, a former guerrilla leader of the disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army, said at his office in Pristina, the capital. "What we saw were terrible things." He said the violence was reminiscent of Milosevic's bloody 1998-99 crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo ? which was only halted by NATO airstrikes on Serbia. In Kosovska Mitrovica, some 5,000 Serbs rallied in the tense town, waving Serbian flags and chanting "Kosovo is ours!" in a fifth day of protests since the independence declaration. Protesters lobbed firecrackers in a skirmish with police. The clashes took place on the Kosovska Mitrovica bridge over the Ibar River ? dividing Kosovo Serbs from ethnic Albanians ? long a flashpoint of tensions in Kosovo's restive north. "Kosovo is Serbia and we will never surrender, despite blackmail by the European Union," Serbian government official Dragan Deletic told the crowd, which responded by chanting: "Kosovo is Serbia." He was referring to the several EU countries, including Britain, Germany, France and Italy, that have recognized Kosovo's declaration of independence. Tensions were higher than usual Friday after French NATO peacekeepers on Kosovo's border refused to allow in several busloads of Serbs who wanted to join the rally. There were fears that Serbian soccer hooligans, the same ones who attacked the U.S. and other embassies in Belgrade, were among those on the buses. Some of the hooligans apparently managed to evade the blockade, leading the clashes at the bridge. Kosovo Serbs have been venting their anger over Kosovo's statehood by destroying U.N. and NATO property, setting off hand grenades and staging noisy rallies. Even so, some Serbs seeing the violence can't help thinking the spasm of outrage will set back their cause. Pictures of women returning repeatedly for armfuls of clothes at trashed boutiques drew particular note. "It is sending the picture of Serbia as bandits," said Miobor Stosic, 67, a retired airline official. "We are so ashamed." Toma Rajcic, 40-year-old lawyer from Belgrade, was depressed over what happened. "It is disgusting. It is all coming back, the fighting, darkness," he said. "It is disgusting. It's time to leave this country." Pro-Western politicians in Serbia accused hard-line nationalists in the Kostunica's government of inciting the violence. Parties of Tadic and Kostunica are united in a coalition government that has ruled Serbia since mid-2007. But the two differ sharply on Kosovo, with Tadic saying Belgrade must press on with efforts to join the EU regardless of Kosovo, and Kostunica seeking to drop the bid because most EU countries plan to recognize the province's independence. Kostunica appealed for an end to the violence. "This directly damages our ... national interests. All those who support the fake state of Kosovo are rejoicing at the sight of violence in Belgrade," he said. He made no mention of the damaged embassies. Police said that in addition to the U.S. and Croatian embassies, the missions of Turkey, Bosnia, Belgium and Canada also were targeted. The U.S. ambassador to Bosnia said he had closed the consulate in the northwestern city of Banja Luka a day after protesters burned the U.S. flag and tried to storm the building. Bosnia consists of two ministates, one run by Bosnian Serbs, the other by Bosniaks and Croats. The Bosnian Serb parliament has condemned Kosovo's move and said it will consider a referendum to secede from Bosnia if more countries recognize Pristina's government. http://www.b92.net//eng/news/society-article.php?yyyy=2008&mm=06&dd=26&nav_id=51419 Serbs in protest against mosque construction 26 June 2008 | 15:19 | Source: FoNet BERIVOJCE -- Serbs from the village of Berivojce near Kosovska Kamenica are obstructing work on a building site where Albanians have begun illegally building a mosque. The Serbs are demanding that UNMIK and the Albanian authorities in Kamenica put a stop to the work and the ?further irritation of the Serb populace?, reads a statement from the Kosovo Ministry. Over a hundred Serbs are protesting. One Serb representative, Bo?a Stanojevi?, said that a number of Kosovo Police Service members were harassing and provoking Serb protestors. ?It is absolutely unacceptable that a mosque is being built in the Serb part of Berivojce. This is clearly intended to further embitter the lives of over 1,100 Serbs in this village,? said Stanojevi?, according to the statement. http://www.b92.net//eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2008&mm=08&dd=11&nav_id=52615 Army vets in scuffles with police 11 August 2008 | 10:44 -> 16:53 | Source: B92, Beta, Tanjug MERDARE, LESKOVAC -- Five former reserve soldiers have been lightly injured today when they clashed with police. Protesters were tying to cross the administrative line with Kosovo at Merdare, when MUP officers stopped them. A quadruple police cordon prevented the demonstrators from passing through to Kosovo, and the protest ended peacefully. The former army reservists from 22 southern Serbian municipalities gathered to protest at the line. Du?an Nikoli?, of Leskovac strikers, told B92earlier today that only the presidents of the striking committees will show up at Merdare crossing today, and that the protest "will not be massive". Yesterday, Chairman of the United Striking Committee of the 3rd Army District Gorjan Jakoviljevi? said that today's protest will have the goal "to pull down a sign reading, 'Kosovo Republic'". "It all started in Kosovo, and that's where it will all end. We will try to cross the administrative line, and to light candles for our fellow fighters who lost their lives defending Kosovo," he was quoted as saying by Beta news agency. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/30/europe/EU-Serbia-Protests.php 80 people injured in Serbia The Associated Press Published: July 30, 2008 BELGRADE, Serbia: Serbian doctors say 80 people have been injured in clashes during protests in support of war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic. Belgrade's emergency clinic says it has treated 51 policemen and 23 civilians. The city's military clinic reports treating three policemen and three civilians. All were injured in clashes late Tuesday between police and nationalist rioters. On Wednesday, the extremist Serbian Radical Party accused pro-Western president Boris Tadic of "provoking and organizing" the violence. Party leader Tomislav Nikolic says Tadic wants to "wipe out" the Radicals and "take Serbia into a war." The party has pledged to continue with daily protests. Karadzic was handed over earlier Wednesday to a U.N. war crimes court to face a genocide trial. http://politicom.moldova.org/stiri/eng/138377/ Anti-Tadic protesters rally A Belgrade rally by about 15,000 protesters opposed to the pro-Western government of Serbian President Boris Tadic turned violent Tuesday night, officials said. Police efforts to disperse the crowd brought accusations of brutality by Alexander Vucic, secretary general of Serbia's Radical Party, ITAR-TASS reported. Vucic said he was struck four times by police wielding rubber batons, the Russian news agency said. Thirteen policemen and 15 protesters were treated for injuries, ITAR-TASS said. The demonstrators were voicing their support for Radovan Karadzic, the former political leader of Bosnian Serbs who has been arrested on war crime charges. A few hundred protesters threw rocks at police, who responded with tear gas and baton rounds, The Guardian reported. Vucic had instigated the demonstrations, accusing Tadic of treason and dictatorship, the British newspaper said. Tadic responded that the protesters had a right to demonstrate peacefully but that There's no patriotism in hooliganism. Belgrade media has been reporting that Tadic has been receiving death threats, The Guardian said. http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7010698224 Egyptian Demonstrators Protest Governorate Change ShareThis April 20, 2008 8:54 a.m. EST Joseph Mayton - AHN Middle East Correspondent Cairo, Egypt (AHN) - Egyptian police forcibly ended a demonstration in the Western desert oasis of Bahariya on Saturday. The citizens of the small desert oasis were protesting against a presidential decree that moved the town into the Minya governorate from Giza. The move sparked the anger of approximately 5,000 demonstrators who called for a reversal of the decision to allow the town to remain in the more prosperous Giza governorate. An Egyptian security official, who was not authorized to speak with the media, told AHN Media Corporation that police had used tear gas to disperse the 5,000 residents who had been protesting the move. "We received reports that about 5,000 people were protesting in the streets," the official said, "where they shouted and burned tires before the police stepped in and used tear gas." The official added that at least 15 people had been detained in Egypt's most recent social upheaval. The protest in Bahariya comes less than two weeks since mass demonstrations and a general strike gripped the North African nation as people complained of low wages and high costs of living. http://www.thenational.ae/article/20080430/LATESTNEWS/753856085/1003/NEWS&profile=1003 Students protest outside UAE embassy in Tehran Last Updated: April 29. 2008 6:15PM UAE / April 29. 2008 2:15PM GMT TEHRAN // Hundreds of students today protested outside the UAE embassy against what Iranian state media called recent moves by Arab states to cease using the term "Persian Gulf". The protest was held ahead of National Persian Gulf Day, which takes place tomorrow. The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) said the High Council of Cultural Revolution has designated April 30 as the national day as it marked the withdrawal of Portuguese forces from the Strait of Hormuz. IRNA added: "During the protest gathering, the students quietly and calmly expressed their anger at [forgetting] the name of the Persian Gulf by a number of Arab countries, including the UAE. "The people, divided into small groups, chanting slogans against the move taken by several Arab states. "The Persian Gulf with its God-granted rich resources has been playing a decisive role in Iran's economic and social development in the past 1,400 years." http://kazakhstan.neweurasia.net/2008/04/29/kyrgyz-protest-against-concessions-to-kazakhstan Kyrgyz Protest against Concessions to Kazakhstan Posted by Adam Kesher | in Politics, Foreign Affairs | on April 29th, 2008 Tags: No Tags As we already reported earlier, the long-running dispute between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan over ownership of resorts on the shores of Lake Issyk Kul has been resolved in favor of Kazakhstan. But far not everyone in Kyrgyzstan is happy with the compromise. Hundreds of people marched in Issyk-Kul region Saturday to protest a government decision approving the handover of four Soviet-era tourist complexes in the area to Kazakhstan, reports AP. Besides, Kyrgyzstan also gives up three other disputed areas along the border with Kazakhstan. ?Land transfers always cause a lot grievances among the population,? said opposition Social Democrat party lawmaker Murat Jurayev, adding that the land transfer could set a dangerous precedent for the small country surrounded by larger Uzbekistan, China and Kazakhstan, with all of the neighbors having certain appetites towards Kyrgyzstan. http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2008-05/2008-05-01-voa40.cfm?CFID=23171096&CFTOKEN=95681794 Mitrovica Serbs Protest EU Agreement By VOA News 01 May 2008 Serbian workers march with banner, reading: "You too are a member of the Union," during a May Day rally in Belgrade, 01 May 2008 A group of Kosovo Serbs has demonstrated in the northern city of Mitrovica protesting against Serbia's decision to sign an agreement on closer ties with the European Union. The protesters burned the U.S. flag and criticized Serbian President Boris Tadic for authorizing the signing of the accord. Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica has opposed signing the accord unless it specifies that Kosovo is an integral part of Serbia. He says an accord without such a provision will constitute support for the February decision by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority to declare the area's independence from Serbia More than 30 countries, including the United States, have recognized Kosovo independence. But Serbia, backed by its traditional ally Russia, insists on maintaining sovereignty over the area. EU officials hope the signing of the deal before Serbia's May 11 parliamentary elections will help reformist politicians in the balloting. The accord, signed Tuesday, specifies that it will not be ratified until Serbia improves its cooperation with international prosecutors seeking to arrest fugitive Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his top military leader, Ratko Mladic. Both fugitives from the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s are thought to be hiding in the region. Kosovo has been under United Nations administration since 1999, after NATO air strikes halted Belgrade's crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists. http://see.oneworldsee.org/article/view/150637/1/3193 Protests against Initiatives to Change the Constitutional Name of the Country Dejan Georgievski 20 February 2008 Several thousand citizens of Macedonia gathered yesterday, at the Macedonia Square in Skopje, to protest the initiatives to change the constitutional name of the country, organized by the Youth Knows nongovernmental association. - The protests aim to express our position, as citizens of Macedonia, that we will not accept any change of the constitutional name, the Republic of Macedonia, emphasizes he organization, on the eve of the latest proposal expected to be submitted by UN Mediator Matthew Nimitz. The Youth Knows claim that they have no intention to undermine the country?s protest towards EU and NATO membership. - We want to support all those that want Macedonia to take its rightful place and the privileges that come with the membership in these organizations, but not if the price we pay is the name of the country and our national identity, add the organization representatives. The protests didn`t pass without incidents. A group of protesters stoned the Greek Embassy in Skopje, expressing their disagreements with official Athens through vandalism and violence. Last night, Mediator Nimitz was expected to come forward with the final and ultimate proposal for the name that would be acceptable to both parties in the dispute. http://allafrica.com/stories/200805140285.html Nigeria: MASSOB Plans Week-Long Protest March to Mark 41st Anniversary Leadership (Abuja) 14 May 2008 Posted to the web 14 May 2008 Edem Edem Abuja Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), may disrupt economic, social and political activities in Cross River State over the planned protest March scheduled to hold from 22nd to 30th May 2008. During the period, markets, schools and other businesses are expected to close down. The protest March is to mark the 41 years independence anniversary of Biafra. Addressing a press conference in Calabar, May 13, 2008, the group led by Engineer Sylvester Okafor, Regional Administrator and Director for Information in Cross River State stated, "we wish to use this opportunity to call the Easterners to come out en-mass and partake in this peaceful protest to show the world that we are united with one resolve for freedom. The people again stated, " Gentle men of the press present here, we the MASSOB are happy to be in your midst to intimate you about the programme activities for the incoming Biafra independence anniversary and 9 years of tortuous struggle by MASSOB for the actualization of this independence." The group said the organisation, which was formed by Chief (Dr.) Ralph Uwazuruike in 1999, aimed amongst others to unify the people of Eastern Nigeria to one united group of people, actualisation of determination, to stop the continued systematic killing of Easterners, which started since 1953. To give hope of security and survival to Easterners whose lives and properties are not guaranteed in the Northern and Western regions of Nigeria Consequently, the people alert that since nine years of MASSOB existence, despite her non-violent agitation for freedom, the Nigeria State had continued this genocide which led to the massacre of over 2000 members and detention of several thousands in various Nigerian prisons without trial. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/27/stories/2008052753640400.htm Protests continue to rock Malabar region Biju Govind IUML-Congress stand-off keeps the police on their toes KOZHIKODE: The stand-off between the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and the Congress is snowballing into a law and order problem in north Kerala, particularly in Kozhikode and Malappuram districts. At least a dozen incidents have been reported from the rural belts of the district over the last three days. A hartal was observed at Kuttiyadi on Monday in protest against attempts by a group of people to set on fire the local IUML office, Bafaky Bhavan, on Sunday night. Nadapuram, a politically and communally sensitive area, observed a dawn-to-dusk hartal on Sunday. Two offices of the Congress came under attack on Sunday. Statues and banners of the party were destroyed at Vanimel. The party offices at Chekyad and Kadameri were also attacked. Clashes were reported between IUML and Congress workers at Kadiyangatt and Perambra. Attempts were also made to ransack the Congress party office at Parambil Bazar. The police had a tough time defusing a potentially volatile situation after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress and IUML took out separate rallies in Nadapuram town. BJP activists took out a rally to celebrate their victory in the Karnataka Assembly polls. Burnt in effigy Congress leader Aryadan Mohammed, whose remarks against the IUML triggered the spate of protests, was burnt in effigy at many places, including Mambad, Pookiparamba and Randanthani in Malappuram district. Protest marches were taken out at Tirur, Edavannapara and Chemmad. Workers belonging to the IUML and Congress party almost came to blows at Wandoor. Cases have been registered against 600-odd activists belonging to different political parties at various police stations. A large posse of policemen, including a striking force, has been deployed in sensitive areas. ?As of now, the issue has not acquired a serious law and order dimension. The police are well prepared to tackle any situation,? Kundan Singh Jangpangi, Additional Director-General of Police, North Kerala, said. http://www.b92.net//eng/news/society-article.php?yyyy=2008&mm=06&dd=04&nav_id=50813 Albanian protest in De?ani called off 4 June 2008 | 15:53 | Source: B92 BELGRADE -- The recent decision by UNMIK Chief Joachim Ruecker to return property to the Visoki De?ani monastery has come in for criticism from local Albanians. Protests and demonstrations against the decision had been scheduled for today, but were cancelled in the meantime. The municipality itself is due to hold a debate on the topic after it was ordered by Ruecker to return all property belonging to the monastery that was seized 99 years ago. Pri?tina media were the first to report today?s planned demonstrations in De?ani, claiming that the organizers of the protest were Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) veterans led by Abdyl Mushkolaj. Mushkolaj was arrested after the Kosovo riots of March 17, 2004 on suspicion of instigating those incidents in western Kosovo and the De?ani municipality. However, according to KiM Radio, the protests have been cancelled until further notice. KPS spokesman Zeqir Kelmendi said that the police did not have any information regarding the planned protest. ?I have no information of any demonstrations, no-one has given me any information regarding protests, so I do not believe they exist. We had a meeting this morning and no one said anything about any demonstrations,? Kelmendi insisted. http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=106935 Rize group protests United Kingdom policy Wednesday, June 11, 2008 Rize group protests United Kingdom policy A member group of the Rize Federation of Associations (R?DEF) protested in front of the British consulate in Istanbul yesterday regarding the use of the city's name to describe a police operation in the United Kingdom. R?DEF President Ahmet Yurtman said Rize residents were saddened by the decision to call the UK's biggest-ever organized crime and narcotics operation ?Rize.? He also invited the British administration and Istanbul consulate to visit the small Black Sea city. ?STANBUL ? Anatolia News Agency http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_South%20Africa&set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=nw20080623102548709C919583 IFP protest infringed on constitution - cops June 23 2008 at 10:28AM The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP)'s protest at the weekend had infringed on the constitution and the democratic principles that governed SA, KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Hamilton Ngidi said on Monday. On Saturday, the party embarked on a protest in Durban central and in Umlazi against the street renaming process and the removal of a grade 12 History book it said destroyed the legacy of its leader, Mangosuthu Buthelezi. Police said protesters had been armed with axes, knobkerries and weapons and had broken shop windows, damaged cars and other property during their march. Police had to use rubber bullets to disperse the huge crowd. Ngidi said the protest was in contrast to the country's ideology of a peaceful protest and that comments made by the party's Albert Mncwango could influence disorderly behaviour in future. Mncwango had reportedly told media the party's protest action was at its second stage and that a third stage was yet to come. "Judging from what transpired during the march in regards to the unruly behaviour and defiance of the rule of the law, an inference could be drawn that such a statement could lead to disorderly behaviour in the future," Ngidi said. "We will always frown upon statements inciting unruly behaviour and call upon leaders to desist making such statements. The South African Police Service is always prepared to maintain law and order at all costs," he said. Ngidi said the investigation into the incident would be finalised and forwarded to the National Prosecuting Authority. - Sapa http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2344516,00.html Protesters, cops clash in Durban 21/06/2008 14:08 - (SA) Johannesburg - Police have used rubber bullets to disperse Inkatha Freedom Party demonstrators at the Dalton Hostel in Durban, the SABC reported on Saturday. They were trying to join another group of marchers when they clashed with police. They were on their way to the Durban City Hall to hand a memorandum to municipal officials objecting to a proposal to rename the Mangosuthu Highway the Griffiths Mxenge Highway. A group of youths, believed to be Inkatha Freedom Party Members, earlier blockaded the highway and burnt tyres in protest against the proposal. http://www.dawn.com/2008/07/08/rss.htm#e7 Blast wounds seven Yemenis during protest by members of disbanded southern army SAN'A, Yemen, July 8 (AP): Police arrested a man for allegedly throwing a hand grenade that injured seven people in southern Yemen?s Dali province Monday, Yemen's official news agency said. A spokesman for former soldiers from Yemen's disbanded southern army said the blast occurred during a protest marking the anniversary of the north's invasion of southern Yemen. Police said 120 people were arrested. (Posted @ 10:05 PST) http://www.thestandard.com.hk/breaking_news_detail.asp?id=340 Thai protesters nabbed at disputed Cambodian temple (07-15 14:51) Three Thai protesters at a disputed ancient temple were detained by Cambodian soldiers for illegally entering the site, which is closed to the public, a Thai provincial governor said. The 11th-century Preah Vihear temple is at the center of a long-running territorial dispute as the main compound is situated inside Cambodia but the most accessible entrance to the site is at the foot of a mountain in Thailand. "We are negotiating to secure their release through local officials,'' Seni Chitkasem, governor of the border province Si Sa Ket, told Thai television. Cambodia sealed off the temple last month after about 100 Thai protesters attempted to march on the ruins on June 23. AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2008/07/16/2003417586 Heritage site protesters sent back TEMPLE SPAT: About 40 Thai border police officials crossed into Cambodia to retrieve trespassing Thais, alarming tourists and sparking a flurry of diplomacy DPA, BANGKOK AND PHNOM PENH Wednesday, Jul 16, 2008, Page 5 The Preah Vihear temple in Preah Vihear Province, Cambodia, is pictured on June 21. PHOTO: AP Cambodia defused a tense border standoff yesterday by returning three Thai nationals, including a Buddhist monk, who had crossed into Cambodia to protest the recent decision to list Preah Vihear temple as a World Heritage site. The Thais, identified as Phicharn Thapsorn, 35, Chanikarn Singnok, 64, and Buddhist monk Khamphor, were detained by Cambodian soldiers for trespassing in the Preah Vihear temple compound on the Cambodian side of the border. The men, reportedly members of a Buddhist peace pilgrimage group, had crossed into the temple area from Khantalak District, Si Sa Khet Province, which borders Cambodia?s Preah Vihear Province, on Monday night. Si Sa Khet Governor Seni Chittakasem confirmed that Cambodian authorities had released the three men unconditionally by yesterday afternoon. FEARS An estimated 40 Thai border police had crossed the Cambodian border into Preah Vihear temple to retrieve the trespassing Thais, alarming tourists and sparking urgent talks between the two sides, Cambodian authorities said. ?After the arrests, around 40 black uniformed Thai border guards with guns arrived at the temple and scared tourists with their weapons,? said Hang Soth, secretary-general of the government?s Preah Vihear authority in a telephone interview. Cambodia has had riot police and military on standby at the temple since Thai protests began earlier this month. HERITAGE SITE Preah Vihear temple, known as Phra Viharn in Thailand, was named a World Heritage Site at a UNESCO meeting in Quebec City earlier this month, despite Thai opposition to the listing. The ancient Hindu temple, perched on a 525m-high cliff on the Dangrek Mountain range that defines the Thai-Cambodian border, has been the source of a sovereignty dispute for decades. An ownership spat between Cambodia and Thailand led to a suspension of diplomatic relations in 1958 and eventually ended up in The Hague for an international settlement in 1962. Cambodia won. The temple reemerged as a source of bilateral tensions in 2006 when Cambodia first proposed listing the monument as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Thailand objected, and succeeded in blocking the subscription attempt in 2006 and last year on the grounds that parts of the temple compound were still subject to a border dispute. Cambodia redrew the Preah Vihear inscription map this year, excluding the disputed territory. It was approved by the World Heritage Committee on July 7. The Thai government at first backed the proposal, but then withdrew support when the issue became a political hot potato. Residents of Si Sa Khet province, about 400km northeast of Bangkok, have been protesting the listing, prompting Cambodia to shut access to the temple from the Thai side. http://allafrica.com/stories/200807160008.html Somalia: Anti-Somaliland Protest in Sanaag Garowe Online (Garowe) 15 July 2008 Posted to the web 16 July 2008 Hundreds of protestors gathered together in the region of Sanaag, in northern Somalia, to protest against the separatist republic of Somaliland, Radio Garowe reported Tuesday. The protestors, including students and women activists, carried placards expressing their messages, from supporting peace in Sanaag to condemnation of Somaliland's aggressive policies in the region. The demonstrators walked up and down the streets of Badhan, a town in the eastern part of Sanaag. The region is disputed between breakaway Somaliland and the semiautonomous state of Puntland, located at Somalia's northeastern tip. The two rival sub-states have fought several times in Sool and Sanaag regions since 2002. Last week, Somaliland forces briefly seized control of Las Qorey, a small port town along the Sanaag coast, before withdrawing voluntarily. Meanwhile, a German man and his wife who were kidnapped by Somali pirates on June 23 are still being held hostage somewhere in Sanaag region. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/18/stories/2008071860240400.htm Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad TRS cadres stage protests Special Correspondent HYDERABAD: The cadre of Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) staged demonstrations before houses of Congress MPs on Thursday as part of an agitation by the party demanding the Congress to concede separate Telangana before it took the confidence vote in Parliament next week. In the State capital, the demonstrations were held near the houses of Anjan Kumar Yadav at Golla Khidki, G. Venkatswamy and Sarve Satyanarayana at East Marredpally, S. Jaipal Reddy and D. Vittal Rao at Krishnanagar in Jubilee Hills. The TRS supporters also gathered near the house of Madhu Yaskhi at Nizamabad and A. Indrakaran Reddy at Nirmal in Adilabad. The police arrested several demonstrators, including MLAs T. Harish Rao and K. Nagesh and former MLA Nayani Narasimha Reddy. They were released later. Mr. Harish Rao and former MLAs G. Vijayarama Rao and T. Padma Devender Reddy participated in community lunch outside the house of Mr. Sarve Satyanarayana. The police foiled similar attempts near the houses of Mr. Madhu Yaskhi, Mr. Indrakaran Reddy and Mr. Vittal Rao. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/22/stories/2008072255000400.htm Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad ABVP to stage protest today HYDERABAD: The ABVP calls for protest by students before the Collectorates in Telangana districts on July 22 demanding an announcement on separate Telangana before the 2009 elections. It alleged that the Telangana movement was getting diluted by ?opportunist? parties. ?Special Correspondent http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/14/stories/2008071450360100.htm Protests by Christians across State HYDERABAD: Christians across the State strongly protested the publication of an objectionable picture of Jesus in a Telugu daily on Sunday. Publication of the picture triggered an attack on the office of Sakshi daily in Chirala town in Prakasam district and demonstrations in Nandyal, Guntakal, Anantapur, Guntur, Ongole and Bhimavaram. Copies of the daily were set ablaze in some places. The picture published in the religion column of the features section of the daily owned by Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy?s son Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy showed Jesus Christ in a manner that was reprehensible and hurt the sentiments of the community, Christian organisations alleged. Daily?s office attacked Reports reaching the State headquarters said irate Christians attacked the Sakshi office at Chirala. The enraged youth raided the office, ransacked the furniture and threw down the computers. They also damaged window panes of an APSRTC bus. Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy, Chairman of Jagati Publishers, which publishes the daily, tendered an unconditional apology for hurting the sentiments of Christians. In a statement issued here, Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy said: ?Sakshi will publish front page apology on Monday.? He sought forgiveness of the Christian community for inadvertently publishing the picture and clarified that the photograph was downloaded from the Internet by a sub-editor, who failed to notice its quality. Publication condemned Notwithstanding the apology, Christian and SC organisations condemned the publication. The SC Cell of the Telugu Desam Party at its State executive meeting in Khammam decried the publication of the photo. http://www.asiantribune.com/?q=node/12495 More than 1200 protesters marched against LTTE Tamil Tigers in Berlin Thu, 2008-07-31 04:43 Berlin, 31 July, (Asiantribune.com): Now it is the turn of the Sri Lankan diaspora to protest against the reclusive Tiger leader Velupillai Prabakaran and his terror outfit, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam throughout Europe. The latest successful protest march against the Tamil Tiger terrorists? atrocities was staged in Berlin, Germany. These type of marches against the Tamil Tigers were something unthinkable a couple of years ago, but today Sri Lankan diaspora in Europe are determined to expose the terrorists atrocities to the world by protesting in all the European capitals. On 26 July, "Sri Lankans against LTTE Terror ? Germany", successfully organized a demonstration against the Sri Lankan terrorist group, the LTTE also known as Tamil Tigers. More than 1200 Sri Lankans and Germans from all over Germany took part in the demonstration, which commenced from Alexanderplatz. The protesters marched carrying placards and shouting slogans from Alexanderplatz in Berlin-Mitte via "Unter den Linden" through Brandenburg Gate inside Tiergarten to Scheidemannstrasse opposite the Bundestag, the German Parliament. Along the way, the bystanders were educated about the objective of the demonstration with leaflets. The protesters demanded Germany to take action against the LTTE and its front organizations that collect funds for the LTTE terrorists under the guise of charity. "Sri Lankans against LTTE Terror- Germany," who organized the successful protest march demanded the Federal Government to: 1) Execute the EU Ban of the LTTE also in Germany on the highest level. 2) Ban the LTTE in all the 16 Federal States as a terrorist organization without any exclusion. 3) Ban all its front organizations active in Germany like the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), Tamil Youth Organization (TYO), and Tamil Coordinating Committee (TCC). 4) Execute strict Observations, Investigations and Punishments with regard to the fundraising activities of the LTTE in Germany in a sustainable way. - Asian Tribune - http://www.nowpublic.com/world/sri-lankans-finland-protest-against-terrorism Sri Lankans in Finland Protest Against Terrorism by Christina 123 | July 26, 2008 at 12:25 pm | 103 views | 2 comments by Christina 123 It has been revealed that Sri Lankan protestors have turned out in force in Helsinki to protest against ongoing civil unrest in the country. Sri Lankans in Finland stage protest demonstration against LTTE terrorism Sri Lankans living in Finland yesterday (July 25 ) staged a mass protest demonstration in Helsinki against LTTE terrorism in Sri Lanka . The protestors held their demonstration for 2 hours in front of the Finish parliament with a strong participation of Sri Lankan of all ethnicities and Finns alike. The protestor displayed banners saying that Sri Lanka is the homeland of Sinhalese , Muslims and Tamils but not of a single race. Many other banners and placard were seen held by the participants against recruiting of child soldiers , ethnic cleansing and civilian massacres, routinely carried out by the LTTE. The protesters also urged the Finish government to curb LTTE's front organizations that engaged in fundraising for the terror outfit and other LTTE affiliated criminal gangs that collect funds from the Tamil people through extortion. Also , they requested the Finnish Government to help Sri Lanka in defeating terrorism and building peace and harmony for the war torn nation. http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/760/39263 Protest remembers Black July J. Nathan 26 July 2008 Despite the heavy rain, more than 100 people participated in a rally through Sydney?s CBD on July 25, protesting the ongoing discrimination, abuse and killing of Tamil civilians by the Sri Lankan state. Twenty-five years ago, Sri Lanka experienced Black July, a government-backed anti-Tamil pogrom in which human rights groups claim over 3000 Tamils were killed and over 150,000 were left homeless. Fifty years ago, also in July, hundreds of Tamils were attacked and killed in the 1958 anti-Tamil riots, the first of many such riots to follow. Today, the Sri Lankan government has withdrawn from a ceasefire agreement with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and entered into war, thousands of Tamils have ?disappeared? over the last few years and Tamil journalists, aid workers, human rights activists and politicians have been assassinated. Human rights groups and media watchdogs point the finger at security forces, but to date no-one has been brought to justice. The rally started with a testimony from a member of the Tamil community who shared her devastating story of Black July. She witnessed rioters, supported by the government, throw burning tyres onto her father and brother, burning them alive. She was 17 years old at the time. Three young Tamils addressed the crowd, speaking about what Black July meant to them. ?If the international community can acknowledge that minorities will not be treated with equality in East Timor and Kosovo, and help create an independent state for them, then surely the same applies to the Tamils living on the island of Sri Lanka?, said one of the young speakers. Members of the Tamil Australian community joined others in remembering the incident that made so many of their families homeless and destitute overnight. The rally marched from Martin Place Station to Town Hall Station. ?History keeps repeating itself in Sri Lanka. Tamils are being killed and abducted on a daily basis, but the news just doesn?t get as much publicity as Zimbabwe or Darfur. So we decided to beat some drums and make some noise about it!? said Raj Jega, a member of a Tamil youth group. For information about Black July other human rights abuses against Tamils in Sri Lanka, visit http://www.blackjuly.info http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/24/stories/2008072455060100.htm Bandhs to protest Soren?s demand Bhubaneswar: Demonstrations and bandhs were staged in various places in Orissa on Wednesday in protest against Jharkhand Mukti Morcha chief Shibu Soren?s demand to form a ?greater Jharkhand,? taking away three districts of the State and three more from West Bengal. Normal life was affected in tribal dominated Mayurbhanj as BJP and BJD observed a 12-hour bandh across the district. Mr. Soren wanted Sundergarh, Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj districts included in the Greater Jharkhand State. Shops, business establishments, educational institutions and some offices were closed during the shut-down. ? PTI http://www.nowpublic.com/world/orissa-bengal-protest-sorens-territorial-demands Orissa, Bengal Protest to Soren's territorial demands by akhand11 | July 22, 2008 at 06:04 am | 91 views | add comment By Akhand in Bhubaneswar Jharkhand Mukti Morchha(JMM) supremo Shibu Soren's demand for a greater Jharkhand state by carving out three districts each of Orissa and West Bengal elicited heavy protest in the two states. All political parties excluding congress, which wants the support of the JMM to save the Government in the centre, has strongly oppose the proposal. They even held demonstrations in different part of the state and soren's effiges were burnt.Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in a strong reaction said if the UPA government accepted Soren's demand, it would be treated as 'anti-Orissa'. We will oppose the move. Soren reportedly proposes to Central Government to carve three districts of Orissa Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar and Sundargarh and other three districts of West Bengal ? with the present Jharkhand state for ?Greater Jharkhand?. Patnaik, chief of Biju Janata Dal, a Regional Party ruling Orissa, Mr. said Orissa's long-standing demand had been for inclusion of Oriya-speaking Sadheikala and Kharasuan areas of Jharkhand in the state. The other political parties in the state were more aggressive in their reaction, saying not an inch of the territory would be given to anyone. Activists of BJD, Bhanja Sena, Mayurbhanj Suraksha Samiti and other organisations held demonstrations at Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar district. Soren's effigies were also burnt. Apart from the chief minister, some ministers in his cabinet also came out with sharp criticism of the JMM chief's demand. They include Golak Bihari Naik and Chaitan Prasad Majhi. Political parties in Orissa on Tuesday opposed JMM supremo Shibu Soren's proposal for formation of a greater Jharkhand state. Strongly criticising the proposal, the ruling BJD's Sudergarh district leader, Anand Mohanty, said, "Not an inch from Orissa would be given to the JMM for its proposed Greater Jharkhand state." Mohanty told that "It is nothing but daydreaming on the part of Soren. The people, irrespective of all political parties, will fight against the proposal." BJP protests Sundergarh MP and BJP national vice-president Jual Oram, sharply reacted to the proposal and described it as "quite unfortunate." The BJP, according to Oram, will strongly oppose the move at the national level. Several leading citizens and sociocultural organisations of the state have condemned the proposal. Sananda Marandi, BJP MLA from Kuliana Assembly constituency in Mayurbhanj district, has slammed JMM supremo Shibu Soren and Mayurbhanj MP Sudam Marandi for amalgamation of three Orissa districts ? Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar and Sundargarh ? with the present Jharkhand state for ?Greater Jharkhand?. Reacting to the absurd proposal for truncating Orissa for Greater Jharkhand, Sananda reminded Shibu Soren and Sudam Marandi that they were ?nobody to shape the destiny of the people of Mayurbhanj?. Sananda in a statement asserted that it was a historical truth that some of the areas like Seraikela, Kharsuan, Dhalbhumgarh, Chakradharpur, Manoharpur now in Jharkhand were part of the erstwhile princely state of Mayurbhanj and due to a political conspiracy these areas were included in Bihar and later in Jharkhand. Now the two JMM leaders? move to snatch Mayurbhanj for formation of a Greater Jharkhand has churned the emotions of nearly 22 lakh people of Mayurbhanj, the Kuliana MLA further reiterated. Protest in WB In West Bengal, CPI-M's Rabin Mandal said the demand, if accepted, would divide the people of the state. Noting that Soren in his 13-point charter of demands had not only wanted three districts of Bengal carved out but also shifting of the headquarters of the Coal India and DVC in return for support to the UPA in the trust vote, Mandal wanted an all-party resolution on this issue. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/26/europe/EU-GEN-Estonia-Russia-Riot-Anniversary.php Several dozen demonstrate to mark anniversary of Bronze Soldier riots in Estonia The Associated Press Published: April 26, 2008 TALLINN, Estonia: About 100 demonstrators gathered in the Estonian capital Saturday to commemorate the anniversary of the riots that shook the small Baltic nation one year ago. A decision by the government to remove a pro-Soviet war memorial ? dubbed the Bronze Soldier ? and a nearby war grave sparked two nights of unrest in April 2007 that left one dead, more than 100 injured and many shops looted and burned. On Saturday, protesters ? mainly ethnic Russians ? met in a park holding banners calling on people to turn their backs on the government and demanding that Prime Minister Andrus Ansip resign. The event was peaceful. To ethnic Russians ? who comprise about 25 percent of the country's 1.3 million ? the Bronze Soldier was a sacred symbol of the defeat of Nazi Germany, but to many Estonians the monument was a caustic reminder of five decades of Soviet occupation. The statue was relocated to a military cemetery some 3 kilometers (2 miles) from the downtown square where it had stood for over half a century. Relations between Estonia and Russia deteriorated after the incident, with Moscow making efforts to isolate the Baltic state and punish it economically. http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_2375641,00.html Cops fire teargas at protesters 14/08/2008 12:08 - (SA) Clarence Macaulay Freetown - Police said they fired tear gas on Wednesday to disperse a crowd of violent protesters that besieged the offices of Sierra Leone's opposition party. The protesters - mostly youths angered by remarks made on the party's radio station criticising the government - attacked the headquarters of the Sierra Leone People's Party and tried to force their way into the radio station. Assistant Inspector General of Police Richard Moigbe said he received a distress call from the party early on Wednesday morning. Police fired a volley of tear gas canisters to push the rowdy crowd back from the building, he said. Several people have been arrested, Moigbe said, adding that the violence had "political connotations". Details of the remarks that caused the outbreak of violence were not immediately available. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/16/nation/22098629&sec=nation August 16, 2008 Students hold more protest PETALING JAYA: Several more groups of Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) students, this time from Segamat, Butterworth, Bukit Mertajam, Alor Gajah, Arau, Bandar Jenka, Sungei Petani and Kuala Terengganu, joined fellow students in Selangor and Ipoh to protest against any proposal for the university to open its doors to non-bumiputras. UiTM?s corporate affairs coordinator Jafri Jawahir said that besides the protest, the students also launched a signature campaign. The students, together with the Federation of Peninsular Malay Students, will submit the protest signatures to the Prime Minister soon, he said. http://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news.cfm?NewsID=59407 2,000 Sabah Mara students protest 16 August, 2008 Kota Kinabalu: Some 2,100 students from Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Sabah branch marched in protest Friday over the proposal to set a 10 per cent quota for non-bumiputeras to study in the institute of higher learning. Led by UiTM (Sabah) Student Delegates Council President, Awangku Ashari Awangku Yussof, they started the peaceful march from the hostel and walked for half a mile to the campus gate, he handed over a memorandum and a thick wad of papers containing signatures of students to Deputy Campus Director Abdul Kadir Rosline @ Ruslim. The students, he said, were upset with Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim for suggesting that non-bumiputeras be allowed to study in UiTM. "The UiTM is the last line of defence for bumiputera students to gain higher education. We felt angry and disappointed with the Selangor MB for insinuating opening the university doors to non-bumiputeras," he said. He said the university was set up to provide higher learning education to the Malays and other bumiputeras. This, he said, is enshrined in Act 153 of the Constitution that bestows special privileges to the Malays and bumiputeras the opportunity for higher level education. Abdul Kadir said the varsity administration allowed the peaceful march to enable the students to vent their feelings on the proposal. "Obviously, the Menteri Besar's statement had offended the students. We respect their stand on the matter and for that reason we allowed the march," he said. He said Abdul Khalid was wrong to state that there are unhealthy elements in terms of competition, quality and excellence level in the UiTM. Based on a recent ranking system, he said UiTM has been ranked among the top varsities in the country, so much so that it outdid other senior public universities. "The UiTM can vouch for its excellence and credibility unlike what the Menteri Besar had described," he said. Sabah is the fourth UiTM campus in the country after Perak, Kelantan and Shah Alam to conduct the protest march. Selangor Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid suggested that UiTM allocate 10 per cent of its intake to non-bumiputeras and foreign students so as to improve academic quality and raise competition among its students. However, he clarified that his remark was made in the context of raising the standards of higher education in the era of globalisation so that bumiputeras could improve their career prospects. He had also stated that it was only his personal view and not that of the opposition Pakatan grouping. http://www.b92.net//eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2008&mm=08&dd=25&nav_id=52965 Kosovo Serbs hold protest rally in north 25 August 2008 | 14:39 | Source: Tanjug ZUBIN POTOK -- Several hundreds Kosovo Serbs rallied in Zubin Potok on Monday in a protest they said was to warn UNMIK. They voiced their opposition to the setting up of the border between Kosovo and central Serbia in the north of the province, and sent out a message that they do not recognize EULEX. Zubin Potok municipal president Slavi?a Risti? said that Kosovo Serbs will never allow representatives of UNMIK, KFOR and the Kosovo Police Service to set up the border between Kosovo and Serbia. Risti? said that the installing of video monitoring at the administrative crossing that prompted the Monday rally is aimed at setting up customs in northern Kosovo and deployment of EULEX in this area. The EU mission in Kosovo is illegal and unlawful, because it does not have an approval of the UN Security Council, Zve?an Municipality President Dragi?a Milovi? told those gathered. The peaceful protest was held in the central part of the town, and the participants carried banners reading ?Stop to EULEX?, ?Kosovo is Serbia?, and, ?We do not want borders and customs?. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/08/stories/2008080852240300.htm Other States - Puducherry Association threatens to stage protest Staff Reporter PUDUCHERRY: The French Indian Puducherry Viduthalai Kaala Makkal Nala Narpani Iyakkam has threatened a protest if the Independence Day of the Union Territory is celebrated on August 16. The association pleaded with the government to celebrate November 1 as Independence Day in the Union Territory of Puducherry. Manmohan, Sonia informed According to a release, the association had already informed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi about this. They would also meet the Lieutenant Governor and the Chief Minister and submit petitions. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Fri Aug 29 23:40:45 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 07:40:45 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Miscellaneous protests Message-ID: <00c201c90a6b$58534380$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * NEPAL: Riot police (!!) take hostages (!!) in pay protest * GUINEA: Police take commander hostage (!!) in pay protest [no, these aren't dated April 1st...] * HAITI: Former soldiers stage protest * UK: Anti-Scientology protests continue * IRELAND: Anonymous takes off here too * PHILIPPINES: Disaster relative climbs pole in protest over missing relative * UK: Fathers' rights activists shut down Bristol court, occupy politician's roof, motorway * BULGARIA: Unrest over CSKA Champions' League exclusion * US: 911 memorial protested - "they've put the victims in a garbage dump" * INDIA: MPTC's protest denial of powers * NEPAL: Locals protest against Maoists * INDIA: Local politician's tour faces protests * VENEZUELA: Rightists protest over banned TV station, opposition blacklist * SPAIN: Cardinal's niece poses naked in protest against hypocrisy * US: Fans of Field's store brand protest renaming after takeover * UK: Anglers protest against local fishing ban * AUSTRALIA: Protests at Chaldean church over abuse accusations * US, Indiana: Protest against property taxes * NEPAL: Protest by survivors of Maoist violence * US, Grimes: Protest over standardisation of street names * INDIA, Tamil Nadu: 600 arrested in protest over temple * COLOMBIA: Protests against FARC kidnappings * NIGERIA: Women protest nude over death of local monarch * MANIPUR: Shutdown, protests over Olympic exclusion - conspiracy alleged * RUSSIA: Clashes at Nelly Furtado concert over rapper scheduled to appear http://www.wsvn.com/news/articles/world/MI91192/ Nepalese police release their hostages, end insurrection protesting working conditions KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) -- About 500 Nepalese riot police who revolted and took their senior officers hostage to protest poor working conditions released their captives and surrendered after a two-day standoff, officials said Monday. Seven senior police officers were released unharmed just after midnight Sunday, said Narendra Sharma, chief government administrator in the area. The armed policemen took over a riot police camp Saturday at Nepalgunj, about 310 miles west of Katmandu. They were protesting the alleged ill treatment of lower-ranking officers by their supervisors, low-quality food and other issues. Hundreds of police surrounded the camp Sunday after the government ordered an immediate end to the standoff, Sharma said. "The revolting policemen allowed their hostages to leave after midnight, and they are all being held at the police training camp," Sharma said. There had been reports of shots fired during the standoff, but no one was believed to have been hurt. Home Secretary Umesh Mainali told The Associated Press that authorities were assessing how to improve the 68,000-member force after two revolts in a month. In June, disgruntled policemen took 16 officers hostage at the same camp, which is the regional hub for security agencies in western Nepal. Police official Akhtar Ali Ansari said those involved in the latest action would face a special court. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L16393846.htm Guinea police take commander hostage in pay protest 16 Jun 2008 21:08:32 GMT Source: Reuters (Adds elite soldiers disarming protesting police) By Saliou Samb CONAKRY, June 16 (Reuters) - Police in Guinea demanding payment of salary arrears took the police chief hostage, fired into the air and blocked a road to the main port on Monday, just days after the authorities settled a pay mutiny in the army. Elite soldiers disarmed groups of police late in the day, but the police chief was still being held prisoner by nightfall. The West African country, the world's top exporter of the aluminium ore bauxite, agreed on Friday to promote all junior ranks of the army after soldiers last month looted shops and officers' homes in a mutiny that killed at least six people. New Prime Minister Ahmed Tidiane Souare had already agreed to pay the military mutineers 5 million Guinean francs ($1,100) each in claimed salary arrears. "Police officers are frustrated that soldiers get promoted every three years, whereas they don't move up. What's more, their salaries stay the same but the cost of living is going up," a senior police officer told Reuters. A Reuters witness in the Tombo district of the coastal capital Conakry saw police officers shoot in the air on Monday as they drove at high speed on board three vehicles. The police took hostage their national director, Sekou Mohamed Bangoura, another senior officer said. There were no details of the precise circumstances in which he was being held. During their mutiny last month, soldiers took at least two senior officers hostage to press their demands. Elite soldiers in red berets disarmed police protesters late on Monday and cleared tree trunks they had used to block traffic on a main highway leading to the city's port, witnesses said. Negotiations were under way to try to settle the dispute. "We are on strike because for the past year we have not been paid our monthly 50,000 francs ($11). For the moment they have only promised to pay us 300,000 francs, which is half the amount outstanding," said Municipal Police officer Ousmane Camara. The Municipal Police, run by the city council, performs minor security tasks such as guarding parked cars. Souare's appointment as prime minister last month threatened to destabilise a fragile political arrangement between President Lansana Conte and unions who protested against his rule in 2007. Conte summarily sacked the previous prime minister, Lansana Kouyate, a former diplomat appointed with the unions' agreement to end weeks of protests during which more than 130 people were killed, mostly shot dead by Conte's loyal security services. Unions were not consulted over Souare's appointment, and some senior union leaders threatened to call a general strike. Guinea's armed forces, which suffer from generational and ethnic divisions, have long been a prop for the president, who is in his 70s, since he seized power in a 1984 coup. But they have staged several protests over the last 12 years. Analysts say the latest government concessions to mutineers show the fragility of Conte's rule. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com) (Writing by Alistair Thomson; Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Elizabeth Piper) http://news.aol.com/story/_a/haitian-protest-by-former-soldiers-ends/n20080730184509990001?ecid=RSS0001 Haitian protest by former soldiers ends By PIERRE-RICHARD LUXAMA, AP Posted: 2008-07-30 18:45:23 CAP-HAITIEN, Haiti (AP) - A protest by former soldiers demanding back pay and reinstatement of Haiti's armed forces ended Wednesday after the men peacefully left the government building that they had seized a day earlier. Government negotiators and a former Haitian Army colonel who led the protests had been in talks to end the occupation of the former prison in the northern city of Cap-Haitien. U.N. peacekeepers and Haitian police loaded the former soldiers onto two yellow school buses to take them away from the area. Dozens of U.N. peacekeepers with armored vehicles and Haitian police in riot gear had surrounded the building. It was not known what prompted the soldiers to end their protest or whether they had been granted any concessions. They had occupied the building on Tuesday. An adviser to President Rene Preval, Patrick Elie, said the protest was "political manipulation" ahead of a scheduled Senate confirmation vote Wednesday on the president's nominee for prime minister. Two previous nominees have been rejected. "Some of the politicians have said this government should have in its program the re-creation of the" armed forces, Elie told The Associated Press. "I believe (the protest) is part of this campaign to put pressure on a government that it is at its weakest moment in some years." The Armed Forces of Haiti were disbanded in 1995 by Aristide, who had been ousted by a military coup four years earlier. Aristide was again toppled by a rebellion in 2004, which began in Cap-Haitien, and the 9,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force has provided the country's only real security ever since. Last year, Preval said in a visit to U.N. headquarters that he saw no reason to restore the army. Associated Press writer Jonathan M. Katz contributed to this report from Port-au-Prince. http://networks.org/?src=salon:2008:07:29:D927T6BO7_haiti_soldiers_protest Report: Ex-soldiers take over old Haiti barracks By JONATHAN M. KATZ Associated Press Writer Jul 29th, 2008 | PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Hundreds of armed former soldiers from Haiti's disbanded army stormed an old barracks and civilian prison on Tuesday to demand the force be reinstated, local radio reported. Radio Kiskeya said the former troops occupied the buildings in the northern city of Cap-Haitien armed with pistols and wearing camouflage. They reportedly demanded back pay and called for the government bring back the army to provide security against kidnappers. There were no immediate reports of shots being fired during the takeover of the buildings, which are now used by Haitian government ministries. The protesters raised a white flag to indicate they did not intend to fight against U.N. peacekeepers or Haitian police, a Radio Kiskeya journalist said from the scene. Radio reports said hundreds of former soldiers took part in the takeover, but an exact number could not be independently confirmed. U.N. peacekeepers are monitoring the situation, mission spokesman David Wimhurst said. The Armed Forces of Haiti were disbanded in 1995 by then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who had been ousted by a military coup four years earlier. Aristide was again toppled by a civilian rebellion in 2004, and a 9,000-member U.N. peacekeeping force has provided the country's only real security ever since. Last year, President Rene Preval appointed a commission of academics and ex-military officers to study whether a new security force is needed to one day replace the U.N. troops. But he also said in a visit to U.N. headquarters that he saw no reason to restore the army. Commission head Patrick Elie, a former undersecretary of defense under Aristide, said Tuesday that the commission has not yet reached any conclusions. http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2008/05/anonymous_to_sc.php Anons Go Unmasked at Latest Scientology Protest Posted by Candice M. Giove at 12:46 PM, May 12, 2008 At Saturday's "Operation: Fair Game: Stop," Anonymous' latest installment in a series of monthly global protests, one local member abandoned his ridiculous three-pronged disguise of glasses, a fake nose and a mustache. Instead Mike Vitale wore his name in white letters emblazoned across a black cotton T-shirt. For Vitale, it's no longer necessary to obscure his face with the cheap gag getup. The Church of Scientology already knows who he is and where he lives. Days before the protest focusing on "fair game," the method L. Ron Hubbard concocted in 1967 to silence critics, Vitale received an ominous and vague letter from a Church of Scientology-connected law firm threatening legal action against him for his involvement with Anonymous. "People were definitely quite concerned," he said of his fellow Anons. "I got asked more than a few times if this means I'm going to cut out." But he arrived, undeterred by the warning or the creepiness that the Church of Scientology learned of his once-guarded identity. The move didn't rattle other Anons who assembled across from The Church of Scientology's New York headquarters on West 46th Street either. "From the start people were always afraid, but I what I'm seeing is that people are letting go of that fear more," said Desu, who wore a shirt with Anonymous' headless suited emblem and his Guy Fawkes mask relaxed around his neck. "Some of them are not even wearing a mask or sunglasses." Many were even more defiant, saying hello to a conspicuous video camera parked in a window at the org. Annie, a member from Long Island, ferociously waved up at its lens. Though known online as Pentagram she applied for the group's protest permit last month, which requires disclosure of information members try so hard to conceal: name and address. She claimed that about two weeks ago she was photographed by a mysterious trench coat wearing woman near her home. "I live way out on Long Island, so if they want to waste their gas and drive two hours to snap pictures of me I'll give them a cup of coffee," she laughed. DeMiNe0, the administrator of epicanon.com, the main community site for NYC Anons, also ditched his disguise. In the past month he has received two "cease and desist" letters from Church of Scientology lawyers. "They even put fake information in these cease and desist letters," DiMiNe0 said, talking of references to threats the Church of Scientology claims Anons have made. "Who are they trying to fool? I am one of the people who researches this type of thing every day." Protestors stood on West 46th Street in front of the church and also positioned themselves on Broadway, where they were able to get a sound permit. They invoked Hubbard's words from a 1967 "fair game" policy letter. Critics, "May be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed." Though the organization no longer refers to the policy as "fair game," because Hubbard said a year later it made for a bad public image, Anonymous members and other critics say it's clearly still in play. In the past the Church of Scientology "fair-gamed" many detractors, most notably Paulette Cooper, a journalist who published a scathing book about the church in 1971 called The Scandal of Scientology. Church members later devised Operation Freakout to deal with the author. They flung 19 lawsuits her way and got her arrested on criminal charges. Through deception they managed to obtain her fingerprints on paper, type up a bomb threat, and mail it to a government official. She faced 15 years in prison, until the "fair game" policy and other documents came to light. Anons tell her story to those willing to listen. Others shout slogans or hand out pamphlets about Scientology. At the Broadway protest site, LazyKid holds up a hand-written, abbreviated story of Xenu-the galactic ruler whose population control method has had lasting effects on man according to Church of Scientology belief. The story is also something that its members wait years to hear, only after paying thousands of dollars for courses and auditing. "I thought that was just some weird version of Christianity," a man says when he stops to read the sign. He looks at it incredulously. "I could make up something better than that," he said as he walked off. With Anonymous positioned on a crowded Times Square drag, several young, polished looking church members stood steps away from the signs and screams. They held stacks of Dianetics postcards, and tried to coax people to come to the center to watch a 15 minute film. Tourists and New Yorkers walked down the corridor of proselytizers and protestors. But it seemed difficult for church staff to dispense their cards while Anons stood there, not to mention the many recent embarrassments suffered by Scientology after prominent defectors like church leader David Miscavige's niece Jenna Hill Miscavige and actor Jason Beghe spoke out. A young Church staff member smiled and handed a woman a card as she walked through the spectacle. Anonymous members shrieked their slogans. The stranger lightly shoved the card back into his hand. "Give it back! Give it back! Give it back!" A new chant was born. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/07/403501.html London anti-scientology protest 12.07.08 Billy Macrae | 12.07.2008 21:03 | Analysis | Culture | Social Struggles | London | World Images from the London anti-scientology protest, called 'Operation cult's closed' - apparently organised by the 'Anonymous' underground movement. This protest took place at two locations across London on Sunday 12.07.08. 'Operation cult's closed' took place in two locations across London. First was the 'Church of Scientology' London,146 Queen Victoria Street, London EC4V 4BY. The second was 'Scientology & Dianetics Centre': 68 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 0BB. Around 200-ish people attended, most wearing masks from the 'Anonymous' movement. The demonstrators see Scientology not as a religion, worthy of having a 'church', but as a dangerous cult. The atmosphere was happy, loud and chaotic. When I left around 4 it was all going off peacefully. Lots of flyers were being given out and people were honking their horns in support. People passing seemed keen to offer more support to the protesters than to the 'Church' of Scientology - in fact, many people present spoke of having negative previous experiences with Scientology. It seems the masks are necessary as there have been allegations of Scientologists harrassing demonstrators after previous events. For more info on the 'Anonymous' movement, here is their London site: http://www.londonlulz.com http://see.oneworldsee.org/article/view/148336/1/3184 Another Anti-Scientology Protest in Birmingham Anonym | 12.05.2008 01:59 | Birmingham Last Saturday (May 10th) tens of Anonymous activists gathered once again at the offices of the 'Church' of Scientology in Birmingham city centre to protest against the cult and its dangerous practices and policies. Wearing "V for Vendetta" masks and other costumes, they then spilled onto New Street to the bemusement of happy Saturday shoppers. http://www.nowpublic.com/world/anonymous-protest-against-scientology-dublin Anonymous Protest Against Scientology, Dublin by Anonymousirealnd | February 7, 2008 at 01:21 pm | 2126 views | add comment For immediate release Source: Anonymous Anonymous Protest Against Scientology DUBLIN, Ireland - 10/02/2008 11:00:00 AM GMT - An enigmatic group of Internet activists, calling themselves 'Anonymous', has declared war on the Church of Scientology. The group's goals include bringing an end to both the Church's restrictions of free speech, and its violation of basic human rights, not only those of its members, but also of its detractors. As part of this global mobilisation, the Irish members of this group have pledged to take the campaign to the streets of Dublin, in the form of a non-violent protest outside Scientology's headquarters on Middle Abbey Street on Sunday, 10th February 2008. On January 16, 2008, a video clip of Tom Cruise extolling the virtues of Scientology was leaked to the Internet. The Church claimed that this violated copyright, and forced sites such as YouTube to remove the embarrassing footage under threat of litigation. In response, Anonymous has called on its members to rise up against the Church, in what has come to be known as 'Project Chanology' Up til now, the attacks have ranged from the leaking of important Scientology documents, to prank phone calls and the faxing of black pages to waste ink, to the use of a method called 'Google bombing', a manipulation of the search engine which has resulted in the website being the first result returned by Google when users type "dangerous cult". The Church has appeared to be powerless to stop the guerilla action. The next phase of the campaign will take it into the "real world" with a worldwide wave of protesting outside Church properties on the tenth of February. The Church of Scientology is often accused of racketeering and fraud. A number of court cases have been filed against the Church of Scientology in its history, including USA vs. Mary Sue Hubbard, where the wife of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard was convicted of conspiracy against the US government. The Church has also been implicated in several deaths due to neglect or malice, such as Lisa McPherson's reported death in the custody of the Church. Controversial policies it espouses include forced abortions and brainwashing. It has historically attempted to silence and harass its opponents, as in Operation Freakout, a church campaign targeting Paulette Cooper, author of The Scandal of Scientology. Here in Ireland controversial episodes have included psychological abuse and intimidation (Mary Johnson) and the disappearance of members (e.g. Odhran Fortune, Tony Phelan) In a video posted on YouTube, which has now been watched more than 1.9 million times, the group says: "With the leakage of your latest propaganda video into mainstream circulation, the extent of your malign influence over those who have come to trust you as leaders has been made clear to us." "Anonymous has therefore decided that your organisation should be destroyed, for the good of your followers, for the good of mankind, and for our own enjoyment. "We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us." Anonymous has informed the Garda? of its intention to protest peacefully under provision 40.6.2 of the Constitution of the Republic of Ireland. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20080626-144775/Despair-drives-man-to-climb-tower-in-protestDespair drives man to climb tower in protestBy Jerome AningPhilippine Daily InquirerFirst Posted 02:18:00 06/26/2008MANILA, Philippines-A relative of missing passengers of the MV Princess ofthe Stars on Wednesday climbed a tower at North Harbor's Pier 12, stayingthere for two hours to demand that Sulpicio Lines fulfill its promise to letthe kin of the victims personally identify the recovered bodies.Levi Padua, whose three relatives were on the ill-starred ship, waspersuaded by policemen to descend after representatives of Sulpicio Linesassured him that he would be given a free trip to Cebu City, where theretrieved corpses are to be brought.Padua carried a big placard written with a message to Sulpicio Lines and theauthorities, which partly read, "Give us a ride to Cebu so that we may see[the bodies of] our relatives. We know that they're gone already; it's beenalready five days."Nobody apparently saw Padua climb the tower, owned by the Philippine PortsAuthority (PPA) and surrounded by several offices, at around 9:30 a.m. ThePPA and Sulpicio guards were busy attending to the crowd that flocked to thepier demanding news about missing relatives.Raised fistHis head wrapped in a red scarf, the bespectacled Padua stood on theobservation area of the tower. He occasionally raised his fist.His message said that he would not go down unless he was given the assurancethat he and other relatives of the victims would get the ride to Cebu.He said there was no "clear action" from Sulpicio on the relatives' requestto go to the accident site and help identify the bodies.Padua's companion, Josephine, whose husband Rey, a cousin of Padua's, is oneof the missing passengers. Josephine used a megaphone from the police toappeal to him to come down.Rey's daughter Raquel and another cousin, Jacqueline, were also among themissing passengers."Please get down here. What are you doing?" a sobbing Josephine said.Two policemen later climbed the tower and spoke with Padua for about 10minutes, after which he came down at around 11:30 a.m.No charges"We won't charge him anymore and would just let him go. We told him thatthere was someone from Sulpicio who would be talking to him. We completelyunderstand his suffering," Supt. Rolando Miranda told reporters.Padua was later brought to the Sulpicio office. He said a lawyer of thecompany had offered to bring him and Josephine to Cebu but they demandedthat all relatives of the missing passengers go there, too."They keep promising us action but nothing has happened. That's why Idecided to climb the tower and I will not hesitate to climb it again if theycontinue their incompetence," Padua said.He said he had accepted that his relatives were already dead.The passenger lounge at Pier 12 remained somber, with one or a few relativesoccasionally bursting into tears or shouting angry words at passing Sulpicioemployees.Angry confrontationA billboard displaying the names of the survivors stood side by side withanother pasted with pictures of the missing.At around 10 a.m., the crowd flocked around a woman and cheered her as sheannounced that she received a call from a sibling whose missing brother JoelVallena had been found alive somewhere in Palawan province. She immediatelyleft.The Sulpicio lawyer, Dante Vargas, later tried to speak to the relatives butthe discussion degenerated into a shouting match as the angry relativescrowded around him and peppered him with questions and expletives. Thepolice had to be called in to extricate the lawyer from the throng.In a message posted at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday on its website(www.sulpiciolines.com), Sulpicio Lines said it would be sending anothervessel, MV Cagayan Princess, to Romblon to get the recovered bodies.Another vessel, which is currently in Romblon, is still waiting for morebodies to be loaded before proceeding to Cebu.All bodies to Cebu"It is confirmed that we will be bringing all the bodies of the casualtieshere in Cebu City. As we assured you, we are exerting our best efforts.Today forensic experts of the National Bureau of Investigation-Manila areset to arrive in Cebu to help our local NBI in identification and autopsy.With this we are positive that we will be able to speed up our actions," thecompany said.Sulpicio said that it had formed a team, led by lawyer Noli Espina, at theCebu City Hall and that the team was meeting with the local NBI, theNational Disaster Coordinating Council, the Department of Health and membersof the funeral homes to discuss the procedure of arrival of the casualties."As soon as the casualties are autopsied and identified by the NBI, we willimmediately send the photos to Manila for further identification by theirfamilies. Once they confirm the identification, we can send the body toManila or they can opt to send a family representative here in Cebu City toclaim the body," the company said.16 medical expertsJustice Secretary Raul Gonzalez has ordered the NBI to speed up theidentification of the victims."You are hereby directed to send NBI teams of sufficient number to Cebu toexpedite identification of said victims," Gonzalez said in a memorandum toNBI Director Nestor Mantaring.Responding to the order, the NBI Wednesday sent a 16-member group of medicalexperts to Cebu to assist in identifying corpses retrieved from the ferry.NBI spokesperson Allan Contado said the quick reaction team-four doctors,one dentist, two fingerprint technicians, two chemists, three photographersand four medical technologists-arrived in Cebu at around 2 p.m. Wednesday.With a report from Allison W. Lopezhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/7452957.stmFriday, 13 June 2008 17:51 UKE-mail this to a friend Printable versionFathers protest at family courtStaff were evacuated from a Bristol Family CourtMore than 100 staff were evacuated from a family court in Bristol after afathers' campaign group protested outside the building.The employees were told to leave when a fire alarm was set off in the court.Fathers 4 Justice campaigners wearing superhero outfits were stopped at thecourts during a street demonstration.The 30-strong demonstration was joined by two men who scaled the roof ofdeputy Labour leader Harriet Harman's home in south London.Campaigner Jolly Stanesby said the group wanted parental equality.Mr Stanesby said: "We always have a little get-together before Father's Dayto put our message across."A Bristol County Court spokesperson said court proceedings were disruptedfor about 30 minutes."Court business has now resumed as normal. No-one was injured in theincident."Police and fire services were called to the scene after a fire alarm was setoff in a family court. Court staff could not confirm who was responsible forthe activated fire alarm.An Avon Fire and Rescue spokesman said the call was a false alarm.http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=144391Man nabbed after protest on roof of Labour's HarmanTwo Fathers 4 Justice campaigners, Mark Harris and Jolly Stanesby (no leftto right available), protest on the roof of the home of Harriet Harman.A protester was in police custody on Monday after he camped out all night onthe roof of Labour Party Deputy Leader Harriet Harman's south London home,forcing her to move out.The 49-year-old from the Fathers 4 Justice protest group scaled the buildingat the weekend to demand divorced fathers be given better access to theirchildren. The man, who has not been named by police, joined anotherprotester who was still on the roof early on Monday.A 49-year-old man who came down from the roof is in custody, a Scotland Yardspokeswoman said. A second man remains on the roof.The protest was the latest in a line of high profile stunts by the group,which has included heckling then-Prime Minister Tony Blair in the House ofCommons in 2006. On Sunday, police surrounded Harman's house in Herne Hilland waited for the two costumed men, who said they had enough food for aweek, to come down.Harman told reporters as she moved out: I don't think it is fair to thepolice resources to be tied up outside my house because of thisdemonstration when they could be doing other important policing work. "Ialso think it is unfair on the neighbors, so we are moving out," she said,adding that although the protesters said they wanted to meet her they hadmade no attempt to do so.10 June 2008, Tuesdayhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7562703.stmFriday, 15 August 2008 18:12 UKE-mail this to a friend Printable versionEnd to father's motorway protestGeoffrey Hibbert, dressed as Batman on the M25A Fathers 4 Justice campaigner dressed as Batman caused lengthy queues onthe M25 around London before being arrested just before the evening rush.Geoffrey Hibbert, 48, of Farnborough in Hampshire, spent seven hours on agantry near Heathrow Airport.He came down from his perch at Junction 14 on the road to Terminal 5 justafter 1600 BST.Police said despite the massive traffic disruption on the motorway, the manhad the right to protest peacefully.A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said that despite queues that stretchedfor 19km (12 miles) on the M25 and 32km (20 miles) on the M4, the decisionto allow the man to stay on the gantry all day was made by the seniorofficer at the scene."He has the right to protest peacefully. It is entirely a matter for thesenior officer," she said.Police had initially said the protest caused no tailbacks or lane closures.'Protest all day'A Highway Agency spokesman said: "We had delays at one point of 94 minutesand we did our utmost to get the message out to the public to get people totake alternate routes."The agency received permission from police to reopen two of four lanes onthe motorway a couple of hours after the protest began shortly after 0800BST.Speaking by mobile telephone, Mr Hibbert told the BBC: "I'm doing this formy daughter. I'll do my protest all day."Fathers 4 Justice protesters have staged a series of high-profile stuntsacross the UK, normally involving clambering on to a landmark dressed assuperheroes such as Batman, Spiderman or Superman.They are calling for more rights for fathers affected by issues involvingaccess to their children after divorce.http://uk.reuters.com/article/motorSportsNews/idUKDEL26008820080614?feedType=RSS&feedName=motorSportsNewsBriefs 2-Police detain 50 CSKA Sofia fans over protestSat Jun 14, 2008 10:03pm BSTJune 14 (Reuters) - Sport news in brief from around the world.Soccer - Police detained 50 CSKA Sofia fans for disorder on Saturday afterthey threw fireworks and assaulted people during a protest outsideBulgaria's Vasil Levski national stadium, police said.More than a thousand fans gathered to object against the Bulgarianchampions' loss of their place in next season's Champions League after theyfailed to meet Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) licensing criteria because ofdebts to the state and creditors.The BFU, who will decide at the end of June whether to expel CSKA fromtop-flight soccer, had their headquarters attacked by protestors after theybanned the club last week.http://www.projo.com/news/content/NINE_ONE_ONE_04-21-08_7L9OGPM_v27.27cb22b.htmlNorth Providence woman protests 911 memorial site01:00 AM EDT on Monday, April 21, 2008By Thomas J. MorganJournal Staff WriterMichele Murphy, Renee Newell's sister, holds a photo of Renee at the site ofthe 9/11 Memorial at Oakland Beach, in Warwick. Renee Newell died in theTrade Center attack.The Providence Journal / Bob ThayerNORTH PROVIDENCE - When American Airlines Flight 11 sliced into one of theWorld Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001, Lillian Tetreault's lifelurched and altered course.Aboard had been her daughter, Renee Newell, 37, a customer-service agent forthe airline, who perished at the hands of the terrorists.Tetreault has grown used to death, however. Her husband died seven monthsafter their daughter. Her mother died in 1944, one of 168 circus-goerskilled when the Ringling Brothers' big top exploded into flame in Hartford.Indeed, in the period around her daughter's death, "I had seven deaths," shesaid.It's the thought of what happened after her mother's death, however, thatmotivates her today. "It took 60 years for them to put up a memorial to thevictims," she said. Now she's worried about the memorial that New York Cityis planning for those who died at Ground Zero. But it's not a question oftiming, rather of place."They've put them in a garbage dump," Tetreault says bluntly.Workers spent months dismantling the debris at Ground Zero. They recoveredsome bodies, and many body parts. But many others had been all butpulverized by the tremendous collapse. The tangle of metal, concrete, officefurniture and vehicles was trucked to the Fresh Kills landfill, on StatenIsland, where it was examined bit by bit for further remains. Despite athorough search, no trace has been found of many victims.Tetreault said because of the violence of the aircraft strike she holds outno hope of ever finding any trace of her daughter's body.What upsets her is the city's plan to build a memorial at Fresh Kills. That's a huge landfill on Staten Island, now closed. The city plans to turn itinto a park and has published lavish artist's renderings showing a gracefulexpanse of green, which would house a memorial to the 9/11 victims."We are fighting to get them out of there," Tetreault said. "Just a coupledays ago they found body parts. They're still finding them there. They didn't do what they were supposed to do - they didn't sift the remains at thevery beginning. They allocated us 40 acres for Ground Zero remains, butevidently they have been throwing everything else in there - parts of firetrucks, tires, rugs. Everything is mixed in there. People don't really knowwhat's going on."In 2006, New York Magazine published an article about the proposed park inwhich the city's parks commissioner said the park would be the largest builtin the city in a century - 2,200 acres to be known as Fresh Kills Lifescape.The park would offer biking, kayaking, hiking, cross-country skiing, fishingand bird watching, the magazine reported.The park also would house "a stunning September 11 memorial . two WorldTrade Center-size mounds laid out on the ground."The Telegraph, a British newspaper, reported that visitors to the memorialwould be able to walk between the mounds and look across New York Harbor tothe now empty World Trade Center site.As impressive as that vision is, Lillian Tetreault isn't having any of it."We don't want a memorial at the dump," she said, dismissing the plan out ofhand. "Who wants to go to the dump?"She has turned instead to a group that is collecting signatures on apetition asking city and state officials to recover the "ashen remains" ofthe victims from the landfill and return them to the World Trade Center site"for their respectful, dignified and final resting place.""We are trying to get as many signatures as we can," she said. "We have over65,000. I got a couple hundred myself in the last couple of weeks and mailedthem off."The signature drive is also available online atwww.wtcfamiliesforproperburial.com/.In the meantime, her daughter's loss is a daily consideration."I still go to counseling," she said. "I just can't seem to accept it. I'mhaving a very difficult time, but that's life."http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/19/stories/2008051956940400.htmMPTCs to protest on May 21HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh MPTCs' Association has called for observanceof 'MPTCs protest day' on May 21 expressing their resentment against denialof powers, funds as stipulated in the 73rd constitutional amendment. Theoffice-bearers of the association said the protest was also against theState Government's 'step-motherly' treatment towards MPTCs. He said MPTCswould meet at 1,104 mandal offices on May 21 to observe the protestday. -Special Correspondenthttp://www.nepalnews.com/archive/videos/2008/may/may17/video02.phpKoteshwor locals protest against MaoistsLocal residents of Koteshwor blocked vehicular traffic along theKoteshwor-Naya Baneshwor stretch of road on Saturday, protesting against theMaoists for allegedly killing a local resident, Ram Hari Shrestha, in theircaptivity. They have also demanded strong punishment against those involvedin the murder.http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/16/stories/2008051658200300.htmProtests greet YSR tourStaff ReporterYELLAREDDY (NIZAMABAD Dt.): The Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy'sroad show in the Yellareddy Assembly constituency of the district continuedamid protests from TRS and TDP workers on Thursday evening.A group of TRS workers at Nagireddypet mandal headquarter expressed protest.Meanwhile, a small group of TDP activists including women protested againstthe price rise. Meanwhile, the Chief Minister addressing a public meeting atNagireddypet, said had the election code not been in force he would haveannounced a package to solve the long pending problems of the constituency."I have taken into note the requirements like a bridge across the Manjirariver and drinking water in the constituency. However, I am unable toannounce them now in view of the election code," he said while obliquelymaking promises.http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/28/america/LA-GEN-Venezuela-Protest.phpUniversity students march to demand return of Venezuelan TV stationThe Associated PressPublished: May 28, 2008CARACAS, Venezuela: Venezuelan university students are marching to protestlast year's removal of an opposition-sided television station from theairwaves.The students argue that President Hugo Chavez's decision not to renew thebroadcast license of Radio Caracas Television a year ago was aimed atstifling dissent.Chavez replaced the network with a state-run channel that regularlybroadcasts pro-government programming - a sharp contrast to theoften-critical RCTV.RCTV now only airs on cable.More than 2,000 students marched through Venezuela's capital on Wednesday,demanding the return of RCTV's broadcast license.Chavez repeatedly accused RCTV of violating broadcasting laws. RCTVexecutives deny any wrongdoinghttp://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/07/america/LA-GEN-Venezuela-Blacklist.phpVenezuela's opposition protests 'blacklist' barring Chavez foes from runningin electionsThe Associated PressPublished: June 8, 2008CARACAS, Venezuela: Thousands of opponents of President Hugo Chavez onSaturday protested a "blacklist" unveiled by Venezuela's top anti-corruptionofficial that bars key opposition candidates from running in upcomingelections.Comptroller General Clodosbaldo Russian has blocked more than 400 mostlyopposition politicians from running for office in state and municipalelections in November while he investigates corruption allegations.Opposition leaders say the list is illegal, saying that under Venezuela'sConstitution the basic rights of all citizens are guaranteed unless theyhave been charged with a crime and sentenced by a court. They also contendthe investigation targets Chavez opponents.Chanting "Freedom! Freedom!" and dancing to salsa music roughly 5,000opposition sympathizers marched through Caracas demanding that thecomptroller general lift the election ban. Some protesters waved postersthat read: "Respect the constitution!""Our political rights are being violated," said Leopoldo Lopez, a popularChavez opponent who has been prohibited from running for the Caracas Mayor'sOffice.Russian denied this week that the list unfairly targets key oppositionleaders, saying "the law does not distinguish" between opposition andpro-government official.Chavez allies currently control all but four of Venezuela's 23 stategovernorships and most of its municipal posts. But most of the politicianson Russian's the list are sided with the opposition.In an editorial published this week, newspaper editor Teodoro Petkoffcompared Russian's actions to the political witch hunt that U.S. Sen. JosephMcCarthy led against suspected American communists in the 1950s."Is it pure coincidence that more than 80 percent of the more than 400excluded ones are anti-government?" Petkoff wrote in the Tal Cual dailynewspaper. "Russian's list joins the group headed by the McCarthy List withhigh honors."The politicians on Russian's list have appealed to the Supreme Court tostrike down the ban, arguing that that their civil liberties are beingviolated.But few government adversaries have much faith in the Supreme Court, whosejustices were appointed by the Chavista-dominated National Assembly and arewidely perceived to be government-friendly.http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2845148.html?menu=news.quirkiesCardinal's niece in topless protestThe niece of the head of Spain's Catholic Church has stripped off in a softporn magazine in protest at her uncle.Magdalena Rouco Hern?ndez, a 27-year-old mother of two, appears topless onthe cover of the May edition of intervi?.Wearing red suspenders and stockings and with her breasts bared, the imagewill embarrass her uncle, Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, 72.Cardinal Rouco, a close friend of Pope Benedict XVI, leads an ultraconservative wing of the church and has clashed with Spain's socialistgovernment over issues such as gay marriage and relaxing divorce laws.But his niece, who told the magazine that she was brought up believing heruncle was "some kind of saint", accused him of double standards."My uncle never tires of repeating that the family is sacred and that youhave to respect it. But then he does not respect it and abandons his own,"she said."When my father died, [Rouco] did not come to the funeral, didn't sendflowers or tell my mother of his sorrow. He told us he had a meeting withPope John Paul II, but it was not true."Ms Hern?ndez also claimed Cardinal Rouco did not call her family after hermother's death and failed to help her when her husband lost his job."I wanted to lay bare the hypocrisy of my uncle," she said.http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2008/05/24/Group_protests_removal_of_Fields_name/UPI-32781211632648/Group protests removal of Field's namePublished: May 24, 2008 at 8:37 AMMacy's to close Ohio storeFAO Schwarz to open Macy's outletsMacy's Frango mints go organicMacy's may consolidate office staffCHICAGO, May 24 (UPI) -- A group of die-hard fans of the Marshall Field'sdepartment store brand in Chicago are protesting its replacement by theMacy's name, a report said Saturday.A "handful" of the protesters attended this week's Macy Inc.'s shareholdersmeeting in Cincinnati to bring their message directly to Macy CEO TerryLundgren, the Chicago Tribune reported. Group members picketed the meetinghall and passed out literature criticizing Lundgren's move several years agoto rebrand the former Fields stores with Macy's nameplates.Daniel Harcourt of Schaumberg, Ill., told the newspaper he bought one shareof Macy Inc. stock for $28 to gain admittance to the meeting."I was tired of being ignored as a customer," he said. "For the cost of apizza I was able to look (Lundren) in the eye and tell him I want myMarshall Field's. By ignoring the power of the Field's brand, he's reallyshortchanged the shareholders."Harcourt, writing on his blog, described his meeting with Lundgren as a"sometimes heated" 10-minute session in which is group pressed him for salesfigures for Macy's former Field's and Dayton's department stores inIllinois, Michigan and Minnesota. Harcourt quoted Lundgren as saying theywere "among the most unprofitable" in the company.http://www.expressandstar.com/2008/06/23/anglers-reeled-in-for-protest-on-ban/Anglers reeled in for protest on banAnglers from across the country descended on a Midlands town to protestagainst plans for a fishing ban.Nearly 200 fishermen flocked to Bewdley, dubbed the 'capital of angling'because of it's historical link to the sport. They came from Liverpool,Manchester, Devon, Norwich and Croydon after an article in the Angling Timesadvertised the protest yesterday. The publication's deputy editor GregWhitehead was there.He travelled all the way from Peterborough to join the protesters.A campaign to ban fishing along Severn Side South could be introduced if aswan sanctuary is created there.Owner Jan Harrigan has been holding talks with the Environment Agency andWyre Forest District Council about creating the sanctuary for swans. But themove would mean banning fishing along the river.She says that more swans die in Bewdley than in neighbouring towns andblames lead poisoning caused by anglers.However, protest organiser Tom Rigby, of Bewdley, said that fishermen weretreated as second class citizens and there was a lot of lies spread aboutthe sport.He added: "We haven't used lead shot for 15 years."Anglers are always blamed unfairly. This could have come from gunshot orbeen washed downstream. Tests have not found anything," he went on to say.Greg Whitehead said: "The district council is saying that they will not banfishing in the short term. But discussions are still going on and we willhave to keep an eye on this. It's important to protect the sport and I'mpleased to see the level of support."Angler Steve Williams, aged 46 from Bridgnorth, said: "I am here today as Ithink if this ban happens in Bewdley they could start bringing it in toother towns along the river. Angling is an important sport."Peter Trueman, aged 38, from Birkenhead, said: "I took extra holiday to comehere today as I wanted to make sure I supported the cause. I am a member ofKidderminster Angling Club and I fish here regularly."Bewdley Mayor, Barbara Stallwood, who is supporting the protest, said to theanglers: "You are our lifeblood. Without you this town will crumble."http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=592712&rss=yesAbuse victims protests outside cathedral14:00 AEST Sun Jul 6 200841 days 6 hours 59 minutes agoBy Katie BradfordProtest groups disrupted mass at St Patrick's Cathedral on Sunday morning,calling for a meeting with the Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart.About 15 victims and representatives of victims of clergy sexual abuseprotested outside the cathedral as well as around 100 members of aCampbellfield church demanding the reinstatement of their former priest.The rallies come as Pope Benedict XVI prepares to visit Sydney duringcelebrations to mark World Youth Day.In Good Faith and Associates (IGFA) spokeswoman Helen Last said victims wantrestorative meetings."The Pope has promised there will be a big pastoral engagement and we're notseeing any of it and haven't seen any of it for 10 years," Ms Last said.Members of the group will head to Sydney during the Pope's visit, but areconcerned about "draconian" laws introduced by the NSW government which havebeen criticised for impinging on free speech.Ms Last met with NSW police to discuss the laws last week and was informedany clothing or banners needed to be approved.The group has produced t-shirts saying "bloody angry Aussies against clergysexual abuse"."These are the most draconian laws that have ever been brought in and Ithink they say something about the unsavoury and unhappy relationshipbetween the church and the state and that needs to be sorted out," Ms Lastsaid.A spokesman for Archbishop Hart said he had no plans to meet victims ofclergy sexual abuse.Members the Our Lady Guardian of Plants church in Campbellfield inMelbourne's north east demanded their former priest Father Khalid Marogi bereinstated at the parish.About 50 protesters stormed St Patrick's for about 15 minutes, disruptingmass with loud chanting, until police asked them to leave.Spokesman Robert Yacoub said Fr Marogi was removed from the church withoutany warning.The church is of the Chaldean arm of the faith with 10,000 Iraqiparishoners.http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23978948-2862,00.htmlMass protest anger at cathedralAnne WrightJuly 07, 2008 12:00amARCHBISHOP of Melbourne Denis Hart yesterday stopped saying mass and calledpolice to deal with about 200 noisy protesters.They joined about 20 who regularly protest outside the archbishop's massescalling for him to discuss clergy sexual abuse with them.The groups chanted so loudly the archbishop stopped his sermon and policewere called.In Good Faith and Associates spokeswoman Helen Last said victims of sexualassault and their representatives had been protesting every Sunday for threeweeks because the archbishop refused to deal with clergy sexual assaultproperly.The rally was timely, Ms Last said, as the Pope prepares to visit Sydney forWorld Youth Day."We're very concerned about World Youth Day . . . there will be a largenumber of children gathered there with clergy and no proper procedures inplace," she said."The problem has not been dealt with properly . . . It is happening now andwe are very concerned with the lack of safety."But she said Archbishop Hart had refused any form of meeting."He came out last week and turned his back on us. He said he would pray forus but it's too late for prayers, it's time for proper protective action forchildren," she said."He's not willing to face the human side of this problem and really listento these people."The protesters plan to return to the cathedral every Sunday and go to Sydneyto protest when the Pope arrives, she said."We are prepared to do a very long protest, as long as it takes. We will notgo away until we get a meeting."A police spokesman said the protesters had been very noisy but there were noarrests or injuries.A spokesman for Archbishop Hart said he had no plans to meet victims ofclergy sexual abuse.http://networks.org/?src=abcau:2008:07:18:2307874Police 'preventing' WYD abuse protestPosted Fri Jul 18, 2008 2:44pm AESTMap: Sydney 2000Related Story: Qld man seeks abuse compo from PopeA group of victims of church sexual abuse say they are being prevented fromholding a peaceful protest in a park opposite today's World Youth Dayactivities at Sydney's St Mary's Cathedral.Six protesters have travelled from Melbourne to Hyde Park and say police aretelling them they can not hold up signs calling for the Pope to apologisefor sexual abuse by the Catholic clergy.Chris McIsaac, from the Broken Rites support group, says the demonstratorsare waiting for a final decision from police, but she hopes they will not bedeprived of their right to protest."Everybody in this park is holding a flag or a message of some kind," shesaid."It's heavily organised, this World Youth Day, by the church and so hencethe signs that suit them are fine."The ones they don't want to acknowledge, and that goes for sexual abuse byclergy, they're not allowed to have their say."http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080705/NEWS02/807050485/-1/rssProperty tax protesters pressure governorBy Vic Ryckaert . The Indianapolis Star . July 5, 2008About 50 people marched in the rain and waved signs calling for an end toproperty taxes during a protest at Gov. Mitch Daniels' residence onIndianapolis' north side yesterday morning."The politicians need to be put on a leash to mind the Constitution," saidLisa Kelly, the Libertarian candidate for lieutenant governor.Organizers blamed a steady rain for the modest turnout. Last year's rallydrew about 400 protesters to the 4700 block of Meridian Street.Protesters, including Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Andy Horning,called for replacing property and income taxes with a statewide sales tax."Our politicians have become a cancer," Horning said. "It's time to starttrimming that cancer back."http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/videos/2008/jul/jul03/video03.phpProtest by Maoist victimsVictims who suffered in the hands of the Maoists during and after theinsurgency held a protest rally in Putalisadak with various demands like thedisplaced people be taken care of, family members of the missing be providedcompensation and others.http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080711/NEWS10/807110381Crowd protests Grimes' address planBy LISA LAVIA RYAN . communities at dmreg.com . July 11, 2008One thing was clear to Grimes Mayor Tom Armstrong and the City Council afterThursday night's meeting: Many of the 200 residents and business owners whoattended don't want Grimes to adopt a new address system unless it mirrorsthose in Johnston, Urbandale, and other communities in northwest PolkCounty.The homeowners and business proprietors attended the meeting atDallas-Center Grimes High School to learn more about a proposal city leadersare considering to streamline Grimes addresses.Officials have said that because Grimes has annexed land in Polk and Dallascounties in recent years, addresses throughout the city now follow threesystems that don't work in unison.Officials are suggesting the city's address system be redesigned along aquadrant grid to help ensure that fire departments, rescue squads andutility crews can easily locate Grimes homes and businesses.Armstrong has said he and the City Council would like to make a decision byOct. 1.Several in attendance Thursday said while they agree the current addresssystem is confusing, they think the city is proposing the wrong solution.City officials have said they had considered basing a new address system onone used throughout other northwest suburbs in Polk County, but theyultimately decided that solution would affect too many residents.George Frampton of Clive, who owns Longview Golf Centre in Grimes, said hedoesn't understand how a county-based address system could require morechanges than the quadrant system, which officials said Thursday would affect84 percent of Grimes residents.Many street names would change, as would house numbers. Locations south ofSouth 19th Street would see the most changes, officials have said."This is a step backward," Frampton told the mayor and council after cityofficials presented the specifics of the proposal."No other city in the northwest quadrant uses an insular address system. Whynot follow the example set by our neighbors in Johnston and Urbandale anduse a metropolitan naming system?"Under such a naming system, roadways such as Meredith Drive - which extendsfrom Urbandale into Johnston - would keep their names as they continue intoGrimes, as would such major Johnston thoroughfares as Northwest 54th, 62ndand 70th avenues. Some change names when they hit Grimes city limits.Business owner Cory Orr agreed that the county address structure should befollowed."It's not about getting your Better Homes & Gardens magazine a week late -it's about losing customers who don't know how to find us," Orr said.More than two dozen others approached the podium Thursday night to expresstheir opinions about the proposed changes. Some exchanges between residentsand Armstrong became heated, with Armstrong at one point telling residentKevin Dirks to stop speaking or be escorted from the auditorium.Dirks had questioned Armstrong repeatedly during a presentation of theproposal and had become angry when Armstrong refused to answer all hisquestions."I'm a taxpayer; you can tell me you want me to leave, but I'm not goinganywhere," Dirks said, as some in the audience applauded and others shoutedat Armstrong, "Can you be impeached?"Some said that it seemed as if the new system already had been decided, asthe city sent letters last week telling residents what their new addresseswould be.Others, while commending the city on its efforts to rectify the addressissue, complained about potential costs involved with an address change,including masonry costs for residences where house numbers are carved intothe homes' stone or brick fa?ades.Others, like Jaime Wolfe of Grimes, said it would be a hardship for herfamily to spend money to change the address on legal and financialdocuments, such as property abstracts."My husband and I each work two jobs, and we don't have the time and moneyto spend all day taking care of all the things we'd have to change," Wolfetold the mayor and council.Residents who spoke near the end of the three-hour meeting suggested cityofficials revise their October deadline and take more time to determine whatsort of address system is right for the city."Just slow it down," resident Jason Brown told the mayor and council. "Maybewait till next spring and give people a chance to prepare for the financialburden they'll have to bear."Resident Don Gomez advocated waiting as well."Look around this room and listen to what you're hearing," Gomez said. "Thismight be good to do in the future, but not at this time. If you people haveany political savvy, you might want to keep the status quo."Armstrong said nothing has been decided, saying the city will host moremeetings and workshops to gain community input."People made some good points tonight and we'll use them as we work throughthe process," Armstrong said after the meeting."None of this is written in stone. The council could go back and decide theywant to try the county address system. We'll have to wait and see, but onething is certain - for the safety of the community, we need a solution thatmakes sense to rescue personnel and law enforcement."http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/29/stories/2008072953280200.htmTamil NaduProtest demonstration: 600 persons arrestedStaff ReporterKARUR: A total of 600 members of the Tamil Nadu Kurumba Makkal MunnetraSangam were arrested when they tried to stage a protest demonstration tohighlight their charter of demands, pertaining to the affairs of the SriMahalakshmi Amman Temple at Mettu Mahadanapuram in Karur district. Thosearrested included 105 women. Police led by the Karur Town DeputySuperintendent of Police A. Aravindh and Pasupathypalayam Inspector A.Sivaraman took them away to a marriage hall.http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/nationworld/story/418485.htmlBOGOTA, COLOMBIA: Colombia, major cities protest kidnappings by leftistrebelsTHE NEWS TRIBUNEPublished: July 21st, 2008 01:00 AMWell over a million Colombians, shouting "No more kidnapping," marked theirindependence day on Sunday with marches and concerts demanding freedom forhostages still held by leftist rebels.Demonstrators rallied across the Andean nation and in some 40 cities abroad,including Paris, London, Miami, Beijing, Sydney and New York.It was the second nationwide movement this year against the RevolutionaryArmed Forces of Colombia and its abhorred policy of kidnapping for ransom orpolitical leverage.http://allafrica.com/stories/200808110794.htmlNigeria: Women Go Nude in Kwara Community - to Protest Monarch's MysteriousDeathVanguard (Lagos)INTERVIEW10 August 2008Posted to the web 11 August 2008Demola AkinyemiTHE sleepy Ayedun town in Irepodun Local Government Area of Kwara State hasbeen thrown into confusion since penultimate Saturday night when theirmonarch, Michael Sunday Ajiboye, Alokelehin the second (Ilufemiloye) died inmysterious circumstances.The way the monarch died threw up possibilities of poison and spiritualattack which no one could instantly unravel. Ajiboye, who was installed asthe community's paramount ruler on December 12 1999, was 47 when he passedon. Aged parents, one wife and four children survived him. He was said to bereluctant to be a monarch even when it was the turn of his ruling housebecause he was said to believe strongly that he had a promising careerworking with INEC in the state.When Sunday Vanguard visited the ancient town which is about two hoursjourney from Ilorin, last Wednesday, one could feel the pall of sadness onthe town, as almost everybody seen, whether in the shops or walking by, worea grim look, mourning the departed monarch.A prominent member of Ayedun Development Association described the lateAjiboye as someone loved by all and sundry. "He was humble to a fault andmixed freely with everybody, he said."Another source, citing examples, told Sunday Vanguard that the eight yearsreign of the late monarch brought visible development to the ancient town ashe encouraged the sons and daughters of the town both at home and abroad notonly to come and have their own buildings at home but also establishbusinesses for the youths so that they would stay and work at home and notbe tempted to seek employment opportunities in Ilorin or Lagos.The state government was indeed constructing an ultra modern palace for him,a development that forced him to relocate to his father's house temporarilybefore death came. The angry sons and daughters of the community who refusedto be consoled by the dictum, "it is not how long but how well, cursed theperceived killer(s) of their monarch.The following day, shortly before he was buried, emotionally charged agedwomen, half naked, and youths went round the shrines in the town as was thetradition, cursing whoever might have killed the monarch. The essence of theaction according to a palace source was to ensure that the culprits do notsurvive the next seven days. His only wife, Alhaja Maryam Iyabo Ajiboye, whowas with the monarch when he died, spoke in an interview with SundayVanguard. Excerpts:What can you say about your late husband?He was a loving husband, very caring, he pampered me in everyway, he was socaring. I don't know what to say about him. But I want people to pray forhim so that God will grant him eternal rest. I don't know what I can sayabout him, he was different, you cannot compare him with anybody. Incharacter, you cannot say he was from his father or his mother.He was simply God sent. Life for him was short, but I thank God that hespent it well. It is not how long but how well, I thank God for his life. Ihave no regret whatsoever marrying him, for having him as my husband. Evenif I come again and if he comes again, I will love to marry him, to have himagain as my husband. I thank God for his life.Can you tell us his last moments?Last moment? We went together to Omu Aran last (penultimate) Saturday, hewas hale and hearty, to go and collect his newspapers. In the evening, hesaid I should follow him, we were doing this yam festival. He dressed sogorgeously that I was admiring him. I told him, ' look at you, you arelooking younger all the time,' he said, 'yes' because of you.' I said,'because of me? You are so lovely, I admire you,' we were joking, we werelaughing.In Omu-Aran, we went to see his friends, that same Saturday. We went roundOmu-Aran, we played together. Later we dropped Olu Owode, his friend, andcame back through Odo-Owa to see one of my friends but found that she hadgone to Ilorin; so we decided to come home straight. When we came home, Icooked, he ate very well, nothing happened to him. He was joking with hisjunior brother's wife like a baby, putting torchlight on her face, that onewill run right, left, he pursued him about with the torch light, that wasaround 7.30 p.m.Charging of handsetSo, later, we went inside. He had some friends with him, and rain wasthreatening, so those people went away and he was still playing with hisjunior brother's wife. I didn't know when he went inside to rest. When Ientered, I met him, and he said I should go and lock the door. I said heshould allow me to put on my towel to have shower. He stood up, put off hisclothes, charged his handset and my own. He put on his radio, he usuallylistened to Osun Radio in the evening time. So I went to lock the door.Coming back inside, he told me that his chest was doing somehow. I saidcould I bring water? He said no. Just like that everything started. I didn'tknow what to do, I ran outside to call people to help me. I went insideagain, I picked him up, that was how he died, just like that.How do you cope now?It is only God that can help me cope; without him, only God .How did you meet him?I am from this town, my mother and my father are from this town. I am aMuslim but he was a Christian. We met and decided to marry. We successfullylived together with our different religions, he didn't disturb me and Ididn't disturb him. My parents prayed for me, they did Muslim marriage forus, both families were happy. God gave us lovely children. My children lovedhim more than me because I am a disciplinarian, I am tough, very harsh andprincipled. I am the only female in my family; so I was trained the way theytrained all the males.http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/20/stories/2008082053840100.htmProtest over Monika issue in ManipurImphal: Normal life was hit in Manipur on Tuesday following a 24-hour bandhto protest the exclusion of Monika Devi from the Olympic team.http://www.newkerala.com/topstory-fullnews-8756.htmlProtests in Manipur over dropping of Monika from Olympic squadImphal, Aug 8 : Hundreds of agitators today protested against the exclusionof weightlifter Laishram Monika Devi from the Olympic squad by burning tyresand wooden planks even as Manipur remained paralysed following bandh callsgiven by different organisations.The United Committee Manipur (UCM) called a 22-hour general strike from 2200hrs yesterday while the ACOAM-Lup called a 24-hour general strike frommidnight last night.The Khwairamband Keithel, the main market of the state, was deserted andlarge number of security personnel were stationed in the area to prevent anyuntoward incident.All shops, business establishments and educational institutions remainedclosed following the bandh. All the inter-state and intra-state bus serviceswere also cancelled.Presently, Sports and Youth Affairs Minister N Biren and officials of theManipur Weight Lifting Association were in New Delhi to discuss the matter.''Nothing can be done if the result is positive. However, if foul play issuspected, then a test should be conducted again,'' Chief Minister O IbobiSingh said.MP from Manipur Dr Thokchom Meinya had also written to Union Minister ofState for Sports and Youth Affairs (Independent Charge) Dr M S Gill,demanding a thorough probe and transparency in the matter.UCM vice-president Yumnam Chitaranjan alleged that Ms Monika was informedabout the result of her failure in the doping test when she was about toboard the plane and said the entire process was ''pre-determined''.The UCM alleged that some officials of the Indian Weight Lifting Associationwere indulging in dirty politics and General Secretary B Y Gulati was tryingto send Sailaja Pujari, who had tested positive earlier, to the Olympics.Several political parties, social organisations, student bodies and NGOs ofthe state denounced the alleged conspiracy to prevent Ms Monika fromparticipating in the Olympics.Ms Monika claimed that over 30 dope tests had been done earlier and all hadturned out to be negative.--- UNIhttp://www.theage.com.au/news/music/nelly-gig-ends-in-riot/2008/07/17/1216163030995.htmlNelly Furtado gig ends in riotWhat a riot... Nelly Furtado peformming in Munich on July 8.Photo: AFPAdvertisementJuly 17, 2008 - 11:19AMNelly Furtado's latest concert ended in a riot.The Maneater singer was playing in Moscow, Russia, on Sunday when Russianrapper Timati tried to get on stage to perform a planned set with her.However, venue officials refused to let Timati near the singer, leading toNelly's security team becoming involved in an altercation.The incident quickly descended into a brawl reportedly involving up to 20people.Nelly carried on singing to try to divert attention from the fight, whicheventually ended with some of the crowd getting covered in blood and Timatilosing a tooth.The rapper said: I know who was behind it. They will be punished.Timati is a huge celebrity in Russia and owns a club and a record label.An official at the venue said: We learned at the last moment he was going toperform with Furtado. I gave the order not to let him get on stage. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Sat Aug 30 00:32:34 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 08:32:34 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Repression news, global South, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <00d401c90a72$939bcaa0$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * INDIA, Gujarat: Persecution of postcolonial academic draws criticism * CHINA/TIBET: China releases 1157 Tibet detainees, convicts 42 Sentences vary from 3 years to life * BAHRAIN: Shi'ite protesters released in royal pardon; 30 remain imprisoned * PAKISTAN: Mistreatment of religious minorities * LIBYA: Human rights group denounces protest detentions * EGYPT: Deportations of Eritreans despite protests * MOROCCO: King pardons Mayday protesters * PALESTINE: Hamas suppresses protests, assemblies * OAXACA: Protest leader freed from prison * SOUTH AFRICA: Zimbabwean refugees at risk of deportation for China protest; UNHCR denounces deportations * CHINA: Tibetan protesters denied fair trial * JORDAN: Palestinian demonstration banned * CHINA: One arrested, five detained over Chengdu protest * MYANMAR/BURMA: Imprisoned protester's life at risk * UGANDA: Constitutional Court voids anti-protest law * EGYPT: State attacks al-Jazeera over protest coverage * VENEZUELA: Spy law raises civil liberties worries * KENYA: Odinga demands release of jailed protesters * INDIA: Railways plan collective punishment over protest blockages * INDIA: Polygraph tests, brain scans used in "anti-terror" persecution * SOUTH KOREA: Courts crack down on protesters, but also punish police * NEPAL: Supreme Court voids jailing of Tibetans * PHILIPPINES: Media protests court ruling as blow to press freedom * SOUTH AFRICA: Police threaten service delivery protesters * IRAN: Iconic protester freed at last * PERU: Protesters arrested under obscure anti-foreigner law * BAHRAIN: Shi'ites sentenced to jail for protests * CHINA: Tibetans, Uighur victimised * IRAN: Mass execution condemned * CHINA: Public execution of Uighurs ahead of Games * CAMEROON: President pardons, commutes protest prisoners' sentences * TANZANIA: Students suspended for role in protests * CHINA: Monks jailed for life, 20 years * CHINA: Man who applies for protest permit "disappeared" * IRAQ: America encircles opposition stronghold with concrete blocks * THAILAND: Plan for protest repression "could spell end of govt" * SINGAPORE: Seven charged over IMF-WB protests two years ago * VIETNAM: Minority protesters jailed for six years * KENYA: Schools crack down over unrest * SOUTH KOREA: Riot police to be professionalised * MOROCCO: Rights activist jailed for publishing death accusation over Sidi Ifni http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Academics_protest_against_Ashis_Nandys_harassment/rssarticleshow/3143477.cms Academics protest against Ashis Nandy's harassment 19 Jun 2008, 0300 hrs IST,TNN Print EMail Discuss New Bookmark/Share Save Write to Editor NEW DELHI: Over 150 academics and activists from India and rest of the world have issued a strong protest note against the harassment of renowned social scientist Ashis Nandy and have demanded withdrawal of charges slapped on him. "We write to protest in the strongest possible terms against the charges of criminal offence levelled against Ashis Nandy, a political psychologist, sociologist and an internationally renowned public intellectual of the highest calibre. This is the latest case of harassment of intellectuals, journalists, artistes and public figures by anti-democratic forces that claim to speak on behalf of Hindu values sometimes and patriotism at other times, especially in Gujarat, but who have little understanding of either. "What is pernicious in this case is that the charge of criminal offence against Nandy levied under Section 153 A and B for his newspaper article, 'Blame the Middle Classes', was brought by the head of the Gujarat branch of the National Council of Civil Liberties. The state government of Gujarat by giving its permission for filing the case has shown its own complicity in the case." The article was published in The Times of India. The signatories include academics Veena Das of Johns Hopkins University, Sanjay Subrahmaniam of University of California, Partha Chatterjee of Columbia University, Rajeev Bhargava of CSDS, Richard Falk of Princeton University, Lawrence Cohen, University of California, Uma Chakravarty, writer Pankaj Mishra and activist Harsh Mander of Aman Biradari. The statement goes on to say, "It seems part of the strategy of the most intolerant sections of Indian society today to make a cynical use the language of civil liberties to achieve ends that are the opposite of what the aspirations to civil liberties and the struggles over them represent." "The harassment of well-known intellectuals and artists hides we fear, the daily intimidation being faced by members of minorities and especially the Muslims in Gujarat. We demand that all the charges against Professor Nandy be immediately dropped." One of the signatories, Pratap Bhanu Mehta of Centre for Policy Research, says that the Modi government's action is part of a systematic pattern where freedom of expression is assaulted. "You don't have to agree with Nandy's article. But the idea that in a democratic society, people using the law and the state machinery to target academic freedom, is cause for deep worry. To file criminal charges for making an argument is ridiculous. It appears that academics have to consistently make it clear that they have the right make arguments in public sphere without being subjected to intimidation or harassment," says Mehta. Another signatory, political scientist Nivedita Menon, points out that the piece doesn't attack Narendra Modi directly; rather it makes sharply critical observations about the communalization of the Gujarat middle-class. Says Menon, "Obviously, Nandy's sharp insight is more troubling to the Hindutva brigade. He seems to have held a mirror to the Gujarati middle-class and obviously they don't like what they see." She adds, "This is just the latest incident in a growing list of attacks - PUCL activists, Mallika Sarabhai to name a couple - on freedom of expression in Gujarat. Any voice of dissent to Modi's politics of hatred is being muzzled." http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2008-06/2008-06-20-voa78.cfm?CFID=22300960&CFTOKEN=52042442 China Releases More Than 1,000, Sentences 12 Connected to Tibet Protests By VOA News 20 June 2008 Screen capture taken from China State television 16 March 2008 shows boy being taken by force along street in Tibetan capital, Lhasa China says it has released more than a thousand people held for alleged involvement in anti-government riots in Tibet's capital, Llasa, three months ago. The official Xinhua news agency Friday said authorities released 1,157 people who participated in deadly protests in March. It says 12 others were sentenced this week for their role in the protests. In April, authorities handed down punishments to 30 people on charges including arson, robbery and attack on state organs during the unrest. Armored Chinese personnel carrier on a Lhasa street, 16 Mar 2008 The news agency quotes Tibet's vice chairman Palma Trily as saying another 116 people remain in custody awaiting trial. The report was published two days after human rights group Amnesty International urged China to reveal what happened to more than a thousand people arrested during the government crackdown on protesters. http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=Rest+of+the+World&month=June2008&file=World_News2008062115719.xml China frees 1,157 Tibet protesters Web posted at: 6/21/2008 1:57:19 Source ::: AFP BEIJING . China has released a total of 1,157 people who were involved in riots in the Tibetan capital Lhasa in March, the official Xinhua news agency reported yesterday, quoting a senior Tibetan official. They had been detained for minor offences connected with the unrest, Tibet vice chairman Palma Trily told a press conference in Lhasa. The announcement came on the eve of a shortened one-day Tibetan leg of the Olympic torch relay. Palma Trily also said courts in Tibet had Thursday and yesterday handed down "punishments" to 12 people involved in the unrest, Xinhua reported. Another 116 people were in custody awaiting trial, he said. The brief report did not announce what sentences they received but the official said a total of 42 people had now been punished over the unrest. Authorities in April jailed 30 people for between three years and life for arson, robbery, "gathering to assault state organs" and other crimes. He said a total of 1,315 people had been arrested or turned themselves after the riots. Amnesty International on Wednesday urged China to reveal what happened to people detained during a sweeping crackdown after the unrest, saying more than 1,000 people were held but only a small number faced "questionable" trials. Peaceful protests that began on March 10 in Lhasa to mark the anniversary of a 1959 uprising against China's rule of Tibet escalated into widespread violence across the city on March 14 and spilled over into other parts of China inhabited by Tibetans. Exiled Tibetan leaders say 203 people died in the subsequent government crackdown. China has reported killing one Tibetan "insurgent" and says "rioters" were responsible for 21 deaths. The Tibet issue was one of the major rallying cries for protesters who dogged the Olympic torch's month-long global journey before it came to China for the home run ahead of the August Games. Pro-Tibet activists as well as human rights and press freedom groups staged huge demonstrations in London, Paris and San Francisco, as well as smaller rallies in Australia, India and elsewhere. The flame's one-day stop in Tibet today is one of the most sensitive of the domestic route, which runs for thousands of miles over three months through every province and region of China. http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?col=§ion=middleeast&xfile=data/middleeast/2008/July/middleeast_July766.xml Bahrain releases Shias arrested during protests (AP) 30 July 2008 MANAMA, Bahrain - Bahrain's Sunni royal family released 225 Shias arrested during sporadic anti-government protests since December. The detainees were freed Wednesday in a royal pardon, said an Interior Ministry official, Abdul-Latif al-Zayani. Their release came a day after King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa met with prominent religious leaders from both Sunni and Shiite branches of Islam and after pressure from local and international human rights activists. Protests roiled the Gulf island kingdom in December, fueled in part by economic disparities between the predominantly Sunni ruling elite and the country's poorer, Shiite majority. Bahrain's Shias, who account for about 70 percent of the country's 450,000 citizens, complain of poverty, unemployment and a lack of services in their areas. Abdullah al-Durazi, head of the Bahrain Human Rights Society, welcomed Wednesday's pardons but said 30 other detainees remain in custody and that some of them are still awaiting trial. "It is a positive step from the king and we hope that we have a similar royal pardon for the other 30 detainees," he said. Some of the 30 who remain in custody have been convicted of killing a policeman, damaging police cars and burning tires during protests. Al-Durazi also called for a law against discrimination according to religious sect or gender. Resentment among Bahraini Shias is also high over alleged government practice of granting citizenship to Sunnis from Syria, Iraq, Yemen and the Baluchistan province in Pakistan and giving them housing and jobs, often in the security forces. The widespread use of these naturalized foreigners in the security services, according to the opposition, was behind the violence against demonstrators. The kingdom is a close U.S. ally. The oil-refining and banking island also hosts the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet. http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=15839 Pakistan: Christians protest Muslim mistreatment In Muslim-majority Pakistan, Christians and Hindus work in sub-human conditions and are arbitrarily force to vacate their shantytowns. A Christian, accused of theft, was beaten to death by Pakistani troops. Thursday, July 31, 2008 By Martin Barillas Due to lack of opportunities for education and jobs, a considerable number of Christians, Hindus and Sikhs, who are among the poorest of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, are forced to work as sanitary workers. This means descending into underground pipes bearing sewage to conduct repairs and remove obstructions: a labor spurned by most in Pakistan. Christian, Hindu, Sikh and other religious minorities are only 3 percent of the total population of the country. Their salaries are very low even while working under sub-human conditions, reported Aftab Alexander Mughal of Minorities Concern of Pakistan. Religious minorities not only serve as sanitary workers in the municipalities and other jurisdiction but also serve as domestic workers. Minorities Concern of Pakistan, a human rights advocacy group, asserts that their Muslim employers treat them badly. Non-Muslim servants in the average Pakistani household, according to Minorities Concern, are not allowed to eat or drink from the same utensils as Muslims. "Christian domestic help's job description was limited to cleaning of bathrooms and sewers. They could not be hired as cooks or dishwashers. They were commonly referred to as "chooras" (a derogatory term for people of the Christian faith)," Shazia Rafiq, a Muslim, as quoted by Minorities Concern from the "Weekly Pulse" of Islamabad. Due to their poor economic conditions, sanitary workers are forced to live in "katchi abadies" (shanty towns) surrounding cities and villages. Many have been living there for decades but they do not know when they will be suddenly forced to vacate. In two recent incidents, about 350 Christian and Hindu men, women and children were made homeless by the local authorities. Although some families have gone to live with their relatives in the other parts of the cities, many are still living on the roadside without proper shelter. On July 11, the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) sanitary workers of RCB were forced to leave their homes along the Haider Road in Saddar, Rawalpindi, twin city of Pakistan's capital Islamabad, where they had lived for more than 40 years. Christian girls forced to convert to Islam Christian girls Saba Younis, 13, and Anila Younis, 10, were kidnapped by a Muslim and sold to another who forced them to convert to Islam. Saba Younis was also forced to marry against her will. The courts will not remand girls to their father's custody. According to RCB, the action was a part of an anti-encroachment operation, while the residents were allegedly not served with any prior notice. Around 300 Christians were living in the locality and had been paying rent (Rs.1,400, $20, for each family) to RCB which was deducted from the salaries. Minorities Concern of Pakistan learned that the residents got very limited time to remove their household goods. The workers say that they have do not know where to go. In another incident, non-Muslims' homes in Rani Bagh, Sindh province, were pulled down by municipal administration. The families of 10 scheduled-caste Hindu sanitary workers are still homeless despite the Rs. 20,000 ($28) compensation they received. "The sanitary workers, who were employed by TMA city and Qasimabad, had been living in Rani Bagh since the days of defunct Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC)," according to the daily "Dawn." The TMA issued them notices a week before carrying out demolition operation on July 12 asking them to vacate the quarters after the government put into practice a beautification plan for Rani Bagh under the Hyderabad Development Package (HPG). As a result of their low income, almost all sanitary workers live below the poverty line. Generally, they live in un-settled areas without clean drinking water or electricity. Not only these workers' salaries are very low but also in many cases, their salaries are not paid in time by the authorities. On June 22, 2008, about 700 Christian workers demonstrated against the Municipal Administration of Sargodha, Punjab, because the administration did not pay their salary for two months' work. Sanitary workers face the worst working and living conditions in the country. According to a report of daily Dawn, some 3,000 (out of 7,500) or so sanitary workers of the Solid Waste Management wing of the city district government Lahore have tested positive for hepatitis B and C. In another case, four Christian sanitary workers of the Haveli Lakkha, Okara, became unconscious on April 30, 2008 while clearing choked sewerage pipelines. In many cases, sanitary workers die during cleaning the sewerage in various parts of the country. According to a study carried out in a hospital from Dec. 5 - 19, 2003, the sanitary workers handling waste in hospitals continue to work without adequate protective devices. Christian and Hindu sanitary workers are accused of theft and subjected to severe punishment. For example, Nadeem Menga - a Christian - was tortured and murdered by Pakistani soldiers seeking to determine whether he had stolen a motocycle. Led by Rev. Anjum Nazir, a Roman Catholic priest, Christians on June 28, 2008 protested the extra-judicial killing. According to Shehzad Menga, the victim's younger brother, also a low-paid "sweeper" at the same school, some people on June 27 tried to steal a motorcycle parked outside the nearby house of an army captain, but the officer's wife foiled the attempt. As reported by UCAN news, "The next day 35 people, 30 of us Christians, were detained." "When we failed to name the culprits, they started beating us with batons and kicking us with their army boots." Menga's brother recounted how he saw his brother badly beaten and, though injured, managed to pick him up and flee to the nearby Combine Military Hospital, where doctors pronounced Nadeem dead. However, they refused to hand over the body to the family until Rev. Nazir, pastor of Holy Rosary Church, spent the night at the hospital negotiating the release. Martin Barillas is a former US diplomat, who also worked as a democracy advocate and election observer in Latin America. http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/080616/2008061627.html On the convictions of Libyan protesters Libya, Politics, 6/16/2008 Human Rights Watch spoke last Thursday that The Libyan government about the held 11 peaceful political activists convicted on politically motivated charges. A state security court in Tripoli on June 10 reportedly sentenced the men to six to 25 years in prison. The men are part of a group of 14 arrested in February 2007 for planning a demonstration to commemorate the death of 11 people during a clash between protesters and police a year earlier. In May 2008, the authorities released one of the men, Jum'a Boufayed, and a second man, 'Adil Humaid, was released on June 10. A third man, 'Abd al-Rahman al-Qotaiwi, has been missing since his arrest. "In Libya today, just planning to criticize the government can land you in jail for years," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "The government should throw out these bogus convictions immediately." The trial of the remaining 11 men was conducted by the state security court, which was created in August 2007 to handle political cases. It is reportedly located inside Abu Salim prison in Tripoli, a facility run by Libya's Internal Security Agency. Information about the trial and verdict came from the Libyan ?migr? website al-Mostakbal ( http://www.libya-almostakbal.net/index.html ), which has closely monitored the case and spoke with two people who observed the courtroom proceedings. The men were reportedly convicted of planning to overthrow the government and meeting with an official from a foreign government, apparently a US embassy official in Tripoli. They were found innocent of arms possession. In recent years, Libya has sought to foster better relations with the United States and European countries, in part by seeking to improve its human rights image. "The Libyan government has been trying to patch up its notoriously poor human rights record," said Whitson. "But no patch is big enough to cover the blatant violation of these men's rights." One of the defendants, Jamal Ahmad al-Haji, is a writer and government critic. In an article he issued a few days before his arrest, he called for "freedom, democracy, a constitutional state, and law" in Libya ( http://libya-almostakbal.net/MinbarAlkottab/January2007/jamalhaggi200107.html ) . Jamal al-Haji holds Danish citizenship, which the Libyan government has refused to recognize. The authorities have refused Danish government requests to visit al-Haji, in violation of Libya's obligations under the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. The main organizer of the planned demonstration, Idris Boufayed, who lived in Switzerland for 16 years, was sentenced to 25 years. He is suffering from advanced lung cancer. "The Libyan authorities should throw out the political charges against all these men and make sure Idris Boufayed is free and able to get the medical care he needs," Whitson said. On May 28, al-Watan, a pro-government newspaper, reported that an official "medical committee" had consented to Boufayed's release on medical grounds. The meaning of the decision remains unclear. The Qadhafi Foundation run by Saif al-Islam al-Qadhafi, son of Libyan leader Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi, has announced that it is working on Idris Boufayed's behalf, given his failing health. The men convicted, released, or still missing are: Convicted: 1. Al-Mahdi Humaid (there are five Humaid brothers) - 15 years 2. Al-Sadiq Salih Humaid - 15 years 3. Faraj Humaid - 15 years 4. 'Ali Humaid - 15 years 5. Ahmad Yusif al-'Ubaidi - six years 6. 'Ala' al-Dirsi - six years 7. Jamal al-Haji - 12 years 8. Dr. Idris Boufayed - 25 years 9. Farid al-Zuwi - six years 10. Bashir al-Haris - six years 11. Al-Sadiq Qashut - six years Released: 12. 'Adil Humaid - released June 10, 2008 13. Jum'a Boufayed (brother of Dr. Idris Boufayed) - released May 27, 2008 Missing: 14. 'Abd al-Rahman al-Qotaiwi http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7011272540 Egypt Sends Eritreans Home Despite Protests ShareThis June 14, 2008 9:48 a.m. EST Joseph Mayton - AHN Middle East Correspondent Cairo, Egypt (AHN) - The first group of Eritrean asylum seekers have begun to be shipped back by the Egyptian government. The move to forcibly return hundreds of potential refugees has sparked the condemnation of London-based rights organization Amnesty International. Security sources reported on Saturday morning that at least two Eritreans have escaped custody. Amnesty reported that the first group of 200 Eritreans were flown to Eritrea on Wednesday on a special Egyptair flight after they were reportedly denied for months access to the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR. Some 1,200 asylum seekers are being deported by Cairo, Amnesty reported. Security officials confirmed that the deportations have begun and that all the African migrants will be sent away from the North African nation. Amnesty has criticized the Egyptian government over the deportations, saying that the Eritreans would be subjected to "serious risk of torture" upon arrival. They said that many of them will be detained and placed in inhumane conditions for weeks or even years. "The asylum seekers knew they were being deported and started to beg the security forces not to deport them, and even threatened to kill themselves," Amnesty activist Mohamed Lotfy said in a statement from the group. http://africa.reuters.com/country/MA/news/usnL04377655.html Moroccan king frees men jailed for May Day protest Fri 4 Apr 2008, 20:14 GMT RABAT, April 4 (Reuters) - Eight Moroccan rights activists jailed for chanting anti-monarchy slogans during Labour Day demonstrations last year were set free on Friday after receiving a royal pardon, the government said. Police arrested 17 people after marches in the northern town of Ksar el-Kebir and the coastal resort of Agadir on May 1 and charged them with "harming Morocco's sacred values". Five of them were sentenced to four years in prison, one was jailed for three years and two others received two-year prison terms. The other nine were given suspended sentences. "His Majesty King Mohammed VI has accorded his pardon in favour of 17 people pursued after the demonstrations on May 1, 2007," the government said in a statement. Abdelhamid Amine, vice president of Morocco's leading human rights group AMDH, said those jailed had denied chanting slogans hostile to King Mohammed. "This pardon is good news but it's also the correction of a judicial error," he said. "These people should never have been jailed simply for exercising their right to free speech." Since acceding to the throne in 1999, King Mohammed has shown more tolerance of dissent than his father King Hassan, whose reign came to be known as the "Years of Lead". In 2004 he announced the Arab world's first truth commission to investigate rights abuses and disappearances of government opponents and to compensate victims and their families. New independent newspapers and magazines are freer than before to criticise senior officials and hold them to account. But the monarchy still wields ultimate power and the government is quick to punish those who appear to show hostility to the king in public. Amine said one young man had been jailed after unwittingly ripping up a magazine that contained a picture of the king. A woman seeking a divorce was imprisoned last year for saying her husband sat around at home all day doing nothing "like a king", said Amine. Ahmed Nacer, a wheelchair-bound 95-year-old, was jailed in September over comments he made during an argument with a bus driver which officials said "harmed Morocco's sacred values". He died in prison in February. (Reporting by Tom Pfeiffer and Zakia Abdennebi; editing by Andrew Roche) http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2008/me_hamas0103_04_30.asp Wednesday, April 30, 2008 Free Headline Alerts No protests or celebrations in Gaza without a permit from Hamas GAZA CITY - The Hamas regime has banned protests or public celebrations in the Gaza Strip. Hamas police have issued a series of orders that require permits for protests or other assemblies. The police have also warned refugee camps in the Gaza Strip against celebrations without permission. "The Palestinian Police call upon any party that wish to organize a public assembly or celebration to obtain prior permission from the relevant authority in the police force," Hamas police said on April 26. The latest orders came amid the Hamas crackdown against Fatah and other opposition movements in the Gaza Strip. In April, Hamas's Executive Force raided several Fatah strongholds in Gaza City and Rafah. http://mexicomonitor.blogspot.com/2008/04/oaxacan-protest-leader-flavio-sosa.html Oaxacan protest leader Flavio Sosa freed from prison FLAVIO SOSA immediately took to the street carrying some documents just after freed from prison where he served for 18 months behind bars. He is one of the top leaders in Oaxaca state's 2006 popular movement by a wide-ranging group called the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca or APPO, which aimed at throw out Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, who many opponents charge rigged his own election and is deeply corrupted and uses violence and torture against his political opponents. After APPO and state and federal police clashed on serveral occasions in 2006, Sosa was jailed under charges of being the master mind behind violent robberies, damage to government building and kidnapping of police and government officials. State judges freed Sosa after state prosecutors failed to turn up evidence against Sosa. Now free again, he is back in Oaxaca City and making plans to analyze the failures of the social uprising that aimed to toss out a powerful PRI governor. Many of the key players still support the movement to toss the PRI politician from office. The PRI has controlled the Oaxaca state government for 79 consecutive years, at times using torture and election fraud to smash its political opposition. Analysts say certain states governments controlled by PRI governors have become increasingly anti-democratic and authoritarian since the PRI lost the powerful presidency in the year 2000. Before 2000, the all-powerful Mexican president, who was also the head of the PRI political apparatus, could control and remove rogue governors at will. That's no longer the case since the right-leaning National Action Party, or PAN, has held Mexico's presidency for two consecutive terms. Current President Felipe Calderon is a stalwart of the conservative PAN. http://allafrica.com/stories/200804291162.html South Africa: Zim Exiles Face Deportation After Protesting At Chinese Embassy SW Radio Africa (London) 25 April 2008 Posted to the web 29 April 2008 Tererai Karimakwenda It has been reported that the group of 129 Zimbabwean exiles who were arrested during a demonstration at the Chinese Embassy in Pretoria on Friday, were separated and taken to various police stations. Some were released over the weekend, 4 appeared in court Tuesday morning and 99 are still in detention at the notorious Lindela Centre, facing deportation. The Friday protests were organised by the Revolutionary Youth Movement of Zimbabwe (RYMZ) and the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum (ZEF). Gabriel Shumba, executive director of the Exiles Forum, said the demonstrations had proceeded without the required 7-day notification to the police, because the issues at stake were imminent and could not wait. He explained that the protestors wanted to hand over a petition to Zhong Jianhua, the Chinese Ambassador to South Africa, and could not wait for the bureaucracy required while people are dying in Zimbabwe. The petition calls on China to stop their support of the Mugabe regime in the face of a violent post-election campaign of retribution against opposition supporters. It also urged the Chinese government not to sell arms to Zimbabwe, because there is no war in the country. Shumba said the group that was bailed Tuesday includes the President of the Youth Movement Simon Mudekwa, General Secretary John Chikwari, organising secretary Max Gatakaca and the Pretoria branch chairman Farai Chimanikire. They paid 500 Rand bail each and are due back in court on May 29, facing charges of participating in an illegal gathering. Shumba said: "These laws have no place in a democratic society such as South Africa. It is ironic that we have to ask for permission for a demonstration as though we were in Zimbabwe." Shumba described the Lindela Detentiona Centre as a "notoriously filthy" place where residents contract life-threatening illnesses. Most of this group face charges relating to their legal status in South Africa and may be deported back to Zimbabwe. In view of the current government crackdown, Shumba fears their lives would be in grave danger. Shumba said Zimbabwe's Ambassador to South Africa, Simon Khaya Moyo, went to Sunnyside Police Station on Friday and apparently obtained the names of those who had been arrested. It is not clear what he intends to do with that list. Out of concern, Shumba said they have engaged the Solidarity Peace Trust, Lawyers for Human Rights and Crisis Coalition to assist with those facing deportation. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/11/news/UN-UN-Zimbabwe-Refugees.php UNHCR blasts South Africa for booting Zimbabwean refugees The Associated PressPublished: July 11, 2008 GENEVA: The U.N. refugee agency says South Africa has deported thousands of Zimbabwean refugees and fears many more could be forcibly sent home. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees says 17,000 Zimbabweans have been deported from South Africa in the last 40 days alone, and some of them could now be in danger as a result. In a statement Friday it urged South Africa to suspend all deportations, adding that many have fled violence linked to Zimbabwe's widely denounced June 27 presidential runoff election. UNHCR spokeswoman Jennifer Pagonis said several refugees have arrived in South Africa showing signs of beating and torture. In such instances UNHCR demands that people are provided with safe haven. http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/04/30/china18684.htm China: Tibetan Protesters Denied Fair Trial Sentenced in Secret After Party Urges 'Quick Hearings' (New York, April 30, 2008) - The trials of 30 Tibetans accused of participating in violent protests on March 14 in Lhasa were not open and public, as claimed by the Chinese government, and did not meet minimum international standards of due process, Human Rights Watch said today. Guilty or innocent, these Tibetans (and any other defendant in China), are entitled to a fair trial. Instead, they were tried on secret evidence behind closed doors and without the benefit of a meaningful defense by lawyers they'd chosen. Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. On April 29, 2008, the Intermediate People's Court in Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), conducted a "sentencing rally" (xuanpan dahui), during which the Tibetans' sentences, which ranged from three years to life in prison, were announced. Reports from the official Chinese news agency Xinhua characterized the proceedings as an "open court session." The actual trial proceedings, in which evidence from the prosecution was introduced, had been conducted covertly on undisclosed dates earlier in April. "Guilty or innocent, these Tibetans (and any other defendant in China), are entitled to a fair trial," said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. "Instead, they were tried on secret evidence behind closed doors and without the benefit of a meaningful defense by lawyers they'd chosen." Human Rights Watch said that severe flaws in the regional authorities' handling of the Tibetan protests precluded fair trials of people suspected of having participated in the disturbances. These flaws included a consistent failure to establish a distinction between peaceful and violent protesters; statements by the Procuratorate (the Public Prosecution) at the time of the suspected protesters' arrest that assumed their guilt rather than their innocence; and secret trial proceedings. On March 17, Zhang Qinli, the TAR Communist Party secretary, urged that there be "quick arrests, quick hearings, and quick sentencings" of the people involved in the protests, virtually a political directive to circumvent guarantees for a fair and impartial legal process. In addition, these 30 Tibetans may have been denied their right to their own counsel. All the lawyers who had publicly offered to defend Tibetan protesters were forced to withdraw their assistance after judicial authorities in Beijing threatened to discipline them and suspend their professional licenses. The authorities claimed that the Tibetan protesters were "not ordinary cases, but sensitive cases." The government made clear it would not respect their right to choose their own counsel. In China, criminal suspects are often coerced by the law enforcement authorites to forfeit their right to a defense lawyer or to accept court-appointed attorneys who are under effective control of the judiciary. In a 142-page report published on April 29, Human Rights Watch documented a pattern of interference and political control of lawyers who take cases viewed as politically sensitive by government and party authorities. Human Rights Watch said that the government's efforts at preventing the involvement of lawyers in the Lhasa cases suggested a deliberate policy of secrecy and concealment. "The Chinese authorities have so restricted the defendents' rights that the hearings are no more than a rubber stamp," Richardson said. "This isn't fair and transparent justice, it's political punishment masquerading as a legal process." Human Rights Watch said that the Chinese government had the right to prosecute and punish individuals who had committed violent acts, but that it should not suspend due process guarantees. Human Rights Watch said the political character of these first convictions raised serious concerns about future trials. A large number of trials of Tibetans accused of involvement in protests across Tibetan areas are expected to be held in the coming months. http://www.myantiwar.org/view/151719.html Jordan bars IAF from protesting Suha Philip Ma'ayeh, Foreign Correspondent Last Updated: May 14. 2008 9:13PM UAE / May 14. 2008 5:13PM GMT Demonstrators hold Islamic Action Front flags as they pass a billboard of King Abdullah II. AP AMMAN // As Palestinians prepare to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Nakba, "the catastrophe" that saw thousands evicted from what is now Israel, Jordan, which hosts the largest number of Palestinian refugees, has barred an Islamist group from organising public rallies to mark the event. The move was made under the controversial Public Assembly Law, which stipulates that public events, rallies or marches must be officially approved by the administrative governor at least 48 hours before the event. According to analysts, the ban was not intended to curtail Nakba commemorations, but to restrict the influence of the Islamic Action Front (IAF), which has been gathering power since the rise of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.The IAF, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood that nearly two weeks ago elected a pro-Hamas candidate to lead the opposition group, had been planning to hold rallies last Thursday and Friday as part of a weeklong commemoration.The requests, however, were turned down by Saad Manasir, Amman's governor, without an explanation, the party said. Party leaders were outraged at the decision and criticised the government for allowing the Israeli Embassy to hold what they called a celebration of the "raping of Palestine". The Islamic Action Front now plans to hold a public sit-in in front of the party's headquarters in Abddali, in Amman's centre, after evening prayers. Because the area is public property, they do not need to seek official permission. "The sit-in is to reiterate the Palestinians right of return and to support the resistance, and in solidarity with those under the unjust embargo in occupied Palestine," said Zaki Bin Rusheid, the IAF secretary general. He also called on Jordanians to fast that day and said those who did would be offered "austerity" meals to break their fast in the area next to the IAF's two-storey building. The 2001 Public Assembly Law, endorsed by parliament in 2004, has been criticised by human rights advocates, political parties and professional associations for restricting public freedoms in Jordan. But the government says its goal is to regulate public gatherings for security reasons. In 2001, the government cancelled the 1953 Public Assembly Law, which only required organisers of a public gathering to notify the administrative governor beforehand without the need of an official approval. However, after the second Palestinian intifada, which erupted in Oct 2000 and led to widespread, sometimes violent public protests in Jordan, and demonstrations against the 1994 Jordanian peace treaty with Israel, the government changed the law. The ban on Nakba activities come almost two weeks after the Muslim Brotherhood chose Hamam Said, a hardliner with close ties to Hamas, to lead the movement for the next four years. Analysts said the government was not trying to ban Nakba activities but rather curb the rise of the Islamists, who were gaining in popularity amid growing disenchantment in Jordan, where nearly half the population is of Palestinian origin. There is also concern for the unrest in Iraq, its implications for a growing Iranian influence and the recent war in Lebanon. "It all boils down to one thing. This is part of the ongoing tension between the government and Islamists where ties between the two parties have deteriorated in the past three years," said Samih Maayteh, an analyst specialising in Islamist movements. "The government does not wish to give the Islamists a forum to express their views. "The ban has nothing to do with the Nakba because many people express their views regarding the event which is not a contentious issue in itself." Several other Nakba events are taking place across the country. Mr Maayteh, who writes a daily column in the Alghad daily newspaper said the government was sending a message to the Islamists that "they are no longer a pampered organisation". Jordan hosts 1.8 million Palestinian refugees, 42 per cent of the refugee population.Fares Braizat, deputy director of the Center for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan, said there was consensus among Jordanians, whether Islamists or not, regarding the Nakba. "Nakba means almost the same thing to the overwhelming majority of Jordanians regardless of their political views and ideological positions," he said. In short, "it is the loss of Palestine". Despite this widespread opinion, Jordanians are gradually coming to terms with the reality of Israel in the region, he said. "Although three-quarters of Jordanians support a peace treaty between the Israelis and the Palestinians, still they do not wish to recognise Israel as a Jewish state in the region," he said, referring to a poll by the centre that is yet to be published. spmaayeh at thenational.ae http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/PEK314359.htm China punishes 6 for protest against chemical plant 12 May 2008 03:03:29 GMT Source: Reuters BEIJING, May 12 (Reuters) - Chinese authorities arrested one person on a charge of inciting subversion and warned or detained five for their roles in a protest in the southwest against plans for a petrochemical project, local media reported on Monday. Police were seeking another two on charges of illegally demonstrating in Chengdu, capital of the southwestern province of Sichuan, the Beijing News reported. "The police accused them of using the Internet and other means to spread rumours, inciting trouble or illegally marching or demonstrating, or using the Internet to spread rumours and harmful information," the report said. About 200 people took to the streets last week to demonstrate against plans for the ethylene plant and oil refinery in Chengdu's northern outskirts, an echo of a protest movement that forced the government to scrap plans for a chemical plant in the southern city of Xiamen. In March, officials in Xiamen confirmed they would shift a proposed plant to make paraxylene, a petrochemical used in polyester and fabrics, after thousands took to the streets and forced a rare invitation from the government for public comment. China's Communist authorities frown on public protest, but demonstrations are becoming more common due to anger over official corruption and pollution and tensions between industrialisation and environmental concerns. The Chengdu protesters, who news reports said were orderly and did not carry banners, worried the plant would lead to degradation of air and water quality. The ethylene plant was due to produce 800,000 tonnes a year of the industrial compound commonly used in packaging and insulation. The refinery, which would process 10 million tonnes of crude oil a year, had been approved by China's top planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, last year, the Beijing News earlier reported. http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/4-inside-burma/599-solo-protester-u-ohn-thans-health-in-danger- Solo protester U Ohn Than's health in danger Maung Dee Tuesday, 27 May 2008 00:00 New Delhi - Solo protester U Ohn Than has been suffering from cerebral malaria, even as he serves a life term in the remote Khamti prison, Opposition sources said. U Ohn Than had staged a series of solo protests in front of the UN offices and the US embassy as well as in crowded places demanding lower commodity prices, establishing a people's representative government and abolishing military dictatorship. "We heard the news from Khamti stating that U Ohn Than is in solitary confinement in a cell and is suffering from cerebral malaria. His family has been told to come to Khamti immediately as his health is rapidly deteriorating," lawyer U Aung Thein said. Than was sentenced to life imprisonment on April 2, by the Rangoon West District Court under section 124(a) of the Criminal Code, for provoking disaffection towards the government. A month later he was transferred to the Mandalay prison. After staging a hunger strike inside Mandalay prison, he was transferred again to the remote Khamti prison, earlier this month and has since been in solitary confinement. "He was transferred to Mandalay prison from Rangoon and then to Khamti prison. The authorities came in the way of prison visits by his family. His family has not been able to meet him yet," U Aung Thein added. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7423574.stm Ugandan law on protests repealed Police in Uganda have blocked protesters in the past Uganda's constitutional court has annulled a law that required organisers of public meetings or protests to seek written consent from the police. The court ruled that the law limited the public's fundamental right to freedom of assembly and association. Under the law, the inspector-general of the police had to approve any meeting of more than 25 people. The BBC's Sarah Grainger in Uganda says police would come up with excuses not to allow public gatherings. She says the ruling is significant as it will make it easy for politicians and other groups to hold public meetings and protests. Democratic principles "In the matter now before us there is no doubt the power given to the inspector general of police is prohibitive rather than regulatory," said the judgment by Justice Constance Byamugisha. "This means that the rights available to those who wish to assemble and therefore protest would be violated." The ruling also said the law violated democratic principles. "Maintaining the freedom to assemble and express dissent remains a powerful indicator of the democratic and political health of a country," it said. Opposition politicians have previously accused the government and the police of frustrating their efforts to hold public rallies and demonstrations. The ruling will stand unless it is contested at the Supreme Court, where it can be overturned. http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/05/24/egypt18929.htm Egypt: Satellite Company Punished for Protest Footage CNC Linked to Broadcast of Anti-Government Demonstrations (New York, May 24, 2008) - Egyptian authorities have enforced media licensing laws to punish a company associated with broadcasting information critical of the government, Human Rights Watch said today. Egypt's closure of CNC and its prosecution of Nader Gohar are just the latest episodes in the government's campaign to stifle freedom of the press. The government has already attacked several satellite news channels, apparently because it doesn't like the news they transmit. Joe Stork, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch The state-run Radio and Television Union brought a complaint against the Cairo News Company (CNC) on April 8, 2008, the day after Al Jazeera broadcast coverage of large anti-government street protests in the Nile Delta. CNC provides satellite transmission services and equipment to television networks operating in Egypt, including Al Jazeera, BBC, and CNN. On April 17, 35 plainclothes police officers raided CNC's Cairo offices, confiscating its five sets of satellite transmission equipment and thereby shutting it down. Nader Gohar, CNC's owner, has been charged with importing and owning television equipment and transmitting television broadcasts without permission. He is due to stand trial on May 26 and if convicted would face fines and at least one year in prison. "Egypt's closure of CNC and its prosecution of Nader Gohar are just the latest episodes in the government's campaign to stifle freedom of the press," said Joe Stork, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch. "The government has already attacked several satellite news channels, apparently because it doesn't like the news they transmit." Al Jazeera's April 7 coverage of the Mahalla al-Kobra protests included footage of protesters tearing down and defacing a large poster of President Hosni Mubarak. The next day, the head of the board of the Radio and Television Union, which oversees the regulation of public and private broadcasts and transmissions, filed a complaint with Egypt's prosecutor general, alleging that Gohar's company had been operating without required permits. On April 18, the day after police raided CNC's Cairo offices, the Office of the General Prosecutor questioned Gohar and informed him that he had been charged under Law 10 of 2002 with importing, owning, and operating satellite transmission equipment without the required licenses from the National Communications Council. Egyptian human rights lawyers and Gohar say that the closeness in time between the coverage of the protests and the complaint suggests that the charges are politically motivated. Gohar told Human Rights Watch that CNC's operating license expired in July 2007, after the company had been operating legally for one year. He said that when he tried to renew the license, authorities at the Ministry of Information told him he would have to wait until new regulations were issued, but that he could continue operations in the meantime. Gamal Eid, a lawyer representing Gohar and executive director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, told Human Rights Watch the charges against Gohar failed to include any specific examples of unauthorized operation. Although CNC frequently worked with Al Jazeera, Gohar told Human Rights Watch he did not cover the Mahalla events or provide the network with equipment to cover them out of concern that it would be damaged. Gohar and his lawyers believe the authorities presumed CNC was involved because it had worked closely with Al Jazeera in the past. According to Gohar, Ministry of Information officials told him that the Radio and Television Union was waiting for regulations to be issued in compliance with an Arab League document. "But they had said I could keep [operating] in the meantime," he told Human Rights Watch. Egypt and Saudi Arabia introduced the "Principles for Organizing Satellite Broadcast and Television Transmission and Reception in the Arab Region," adopted by the Arab League in February, which calls on member states to prevent satellite television channels from broadcasting transmissions that "negatively affect social peace, national unity, public order, and public morals" or "defame leaders, or national and religious symbols [of other Arab states]." Gohar's first trial hearing was scheduled for May 5 at Cairo's al-Galaa' court, but the presiding judge, Sherif Kamel, refused to allow his lawyers to see the prosecutor's file containing the charges and evidence against him until two days earlier, and did not allow them to copy the file. After Gohar refused to attend the opening session, Kamel postponed the trial until May 26. "Egyptian authorities made it impossible for CNC to comply with the law, and then shut it down," said Stork. "On top of that, they are threatening to imprison its owner in a trial marked by serious irregularities even before it begins." The closure of CNC has had direct and indirect chilling effects, Gohar said. "I was supposed to transmit for [US government-funded Arabic-language network] al-Hurra, they were going to do a daily morning show. But now al-Hurra is blocked because they don't have any uplink. And the other [satellite transmission] companies are not operating at their capacity, and are refusing to feed for Al Jazeera." The closure of CNC follows three other satellite channels being dropped by Egypt's state-controlled Nilesat satellite since the Arab League adopted the broadcast principles. On April 1, Nilesat abruptly stopped carrying the signal of al-Hiwar, a London-based Arabic television station, without providing any reason. Al-Hiwar's schedule included "Peoples' Rights," a program on which human rights activists and victims of abuses discussed violations by Arab governments, including torture in Egypt, and "Egyptian Papers," a program on which Ibrahim Issa and other government critics appeared. Nilesat earlier dropped the signal of al-Baraka, a television channel owned by a Saudi holding company that described itself as "the first Arab business channel based on Islamic values." According to media reports, al-Baraka's "paperwork was out of order." Nilesat also dropped al-Hikma, another Islamic-oriented television station, without explanation, according to Reporters Without Borders. Authorities also detained several bloggers and journalists who attempted to cover the protests in Mahalla on April 6. If found guilty, Gohar faces "not less than one year in prison" and a fine of "not less than 20,000 Egyptian pounds [US$3,740]," under Article 77 of Egypt's Penal Code. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7432895.stm 3 June 2008 11:41 UK Venezuela 'spy' law draws protest Mr Chavez says the law will protect Venezuela from "imperialist" attacks A new intelligence law brought in by Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has caused concern among rights groups who say it threatens civil liberties. Mr Chavez argues the law will help Venezuela guarantee its national security and prevent assassination plots and military rebellions. The new law requires Venezuelans to cooperate with intelligence agencies and secret police if requested. Refusal can result in up to four years in prison. The law allows security forces to gather evidence through surveillance methods such as wiretapping without obtaining a court order, and authorities can withhold evidence from defence lawyers if it is considered to be in the interest of national security. One part of the law, which explicitly requires judges and prosecutors to cooperate with the intelligence services, has caused concern among legal experts. "Here you have the president legislating by decree that the country's judges must serve as spies for the government," Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas Director for Human Rights Watch, said. US 'interference' "The president is constantly calling opposition leaders coup-plotters and pro-imperialists, and that makes me suspect this law may be used as a weapon to silence and intimidate the opposition," said Alberto Arteaga Sanchez, a specialist in constitutional law. "Among other problems with this law, any suspect's right to defence can be violated, and that's unacceptable," Carlos Correa, a leader of the Venezuelan human rights group Provea, said. Mr Correa compared the law to the Patriot Act in the United States, which gave US law enforcement agencies greater powers to intercept communications and investigate suspected terrorists on American soil in the wake of the attacks on 11 September 2001. Mr Chavez - who called the US Patriot Act a "dictatorial law" - denied the Venezuelan law would threaten freedoms, saying it falls into "a framework of great respect for human rights". Mr Chavez used his decree powers to overhaul Venezuela's intelligence agencies, replacing the Disip secret police and the DIM military intelligence agency with the General Intelligence Office and General Counterintelligence Office, both under his control. Interior Minister Ramon Rodriguez Chacin said the revamp was needed to combat "interference from the United States". In December, Venezuelans rejected a package of constitutional changes aimed at cementing socialism into Venezuelan law which would have given the president the chance to stand for re-election as many times as he wished. http://allafrica.com/stories/200806030138.html Kenya: No Reconciliation Possible Without Release of Protesters The Nation (Nairobi) OPINION 3 June 2008 Posted to the web 3 June 2008 Raila Odinga Nairobi FEW ITEMS OF POLITICAL discourse in post-crisis Kenya have been as misunderstood, and as deliberately distorted, as the issue of protesting youths who have been incarcerated for five months now in Rift Valley, Nairobi and western Kenya. A number of leaders of various hues are demanding that there be no impunity with regard to the terrible violence that swept our nation after the disputed presidential election results were announced at the end of December. Astoundingly, these anti-impunity leaders are referring only to youths whose only "crime" was staging lawful protests in their anger over the ECK's criminal conduct of the elections. These leaders have never once talked of there being no impunity for the security forces responsible for more than half of the killings. Equally astoundingly, the only police officer charged is the one in Kisumu, whose wanton killing of two youths was captured on television cameras. POLICE CULPABILITY IS CLEARLY indicated since most killings resulted from gunshot wounds, as pointed out by the highly respected Independent Medico-Legal Unit (Imlu). And let us also remember that the police actions, initiated at the highest level of its command, were done at the behest of the State, which then was under the control of a contending political party in the election. The vast majority of youths who are in custody killed or raped no one. They were defending democracy and electoral justice in the only manner available to them: demonstrations which enjoy the protection of our Constitution. The protests turned bloody primarily because of a grossly disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force by security agents, who had been given orders to shoot to kill. Yes, there were killings, rapes and violent robbery by enraged citizens. Such individuals must face the law, but surely a Police Force which was responsible for many of the deaths cannot be trusted to be the investigator and prosecutor for these crimes. The police are trying to cover up their own killings by laying the blame on the innocents. It is because of the serious doubts over the impartiality of the police and our judicial system that the National Accord established a commission, now headed by Mr Justice Philip Waki, to look into the entire spectrum of violence that swept the nation. Surely, trying to rush through police investigations violates the Accord and also gives them the opportunity to fix the evidence. The police themselves will be actually in the dock in front of the Waki Commission. Indeed, there are clear instances whereby youths have been or are facing trumped-up charges of robbery with violence, which is a non-bailable offence, in order to punish them. And in instances where bail is applicable, it is set at such an exorbitant amount that the youths are unable to go home to their families. In addition, thousands of the arrested protesters have still not been charged, which is a violation of the rule of law, since charges need to be brought within two weeks of arrest, at most. These demonstrations took place nationwide, but the police used maximum force in the Rift Valley, western Kenya and selected parts of Nairobi in order to portray the violence as coming from specific ethnic groups. Indeed, this use of brutal force was pre-planned by stationing large police contingents in these areas, as it was known that protests would erupt when the fraudulent election results were announced. These police officers who killed innocent Kenyans in Western, Nyanza, Rift Valley and the Coast looked the other way as ODM supporters were hacked to death or burnt in their homes in Naivasha, Nakuru, Nairobi and Central Province. WE IN ODM HAVE DEMANDED THE truth in the election dispute and justice for all Kenyans who were killed, attacked or affected in whatever manner by neighbours or the police, which acted as an armed wing of PNU. The only logical way to proceed is to let the Waki Commission on post-election violence proceed with its work without interference by the police. Otherwise this Commission is entirely redundant, and its work will be only for the history books. The national reconciliation, as well as the headway we urgently need to make in our common coalition programmes, cannot take place when there is so much legitimate anger over these wrongly incarcerated youths. The Right Honourable Raila Odinga is Kenya's Prime Minister. http://www.indianexpress.com/story/316693.html To put system back on track, Rlys plans to fine protestors Raghvendra Rao Posted online: Saturday, May 31, 2008 at 2257 hrs Print Email New Delhi, May 30: September 20, 2005: Following a Bombay High Court order, the BJP and the Shiv Sena deposited cheques for Rs 20 lakh each at the Maharashtra Chief Secretary's office as fine to the state Government for damaging public property during a Mumbai bandh called by them on July 30, 2003. Would the agitating Gurjjars have uprooted railway tracks in Bayana if they knew that the local population of the area could be penalised for causing loss to Railways property? Probably not. It is this reasoning that has now prodded the Indian Railways to dig out a one-year old suggestion: to formulate a policy wherein losses incurred on its property are recovered from the population of the particular area where violent incidents took place. The political "sensitivity" of the suggestion, though, is what appears to be holding the Railway ministry back from formally pursuing the idea either at the level of the Centre or a state like Rajasthan. Having suffered losses to the tune of Rs 12.28 crore from last year's Gurjjar agitation, Railway ministry in an answer to a question in the Rajya Sabha first talked about the idea. Answering to the part of the question, asked by Rajeev Chandrasekhar, on how Railways proposed to make good such losses, Minister of State R Velu had said, "Since rioters are part of a mob which goes berserk and largely consists of anonymous people, there is no way to make good the losses from them. But the Government can formulate a policy for recovery of the cost of losses from the entire population of a particular area where such incidents occur." However, the suggestion met with a quiet burial with Rail Bhavan failing to do the necessary follow-up. It was only after this year's Gurjjar agitation, which has already caused significant losses to the Indian Railways, that the matter resurfaced during discussions amongst the ministry's top brass. "There is no need to make a new law on this. All state governments, under various categories of law, are empowered to penalise errant populations if they indulge in unruly behaviour which ends up causing loss to government property," a senior Railway ministry official said. "Railways, being the most obvious sign of government property, is often in the line of fire of violent agitations. In addition to losses incurred on account of damage to stations, tracks, trains, bridges and level crossing gates during such agitations, Railways' major losses come from cancellation of passenger trains and the inability to load and move freight trains," another official added. http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=STATES&file_name=state9%2Etxt&counter_img=9 American put to polygraph test TN Raghunatha | Mumbai Giving a new dimension to the investigations in the Ahmedabad serial blasts case, the State Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) on Wednesday subjected American national Ken Haywood - from whose Internet Protocol (IP) address Indian Mujahideen purportedly sent an e-mail to media organisations minutes before the July 26, 2008 blasts - to lie-detector and brain-mapping tests. Haywood, who has hitherto repeatedly claimed that he is innocent and that his IP address might have been hacked by the terrorist outfit to send the pre-Ahmedabad blasts message to the media organisations, was among half a dozen persons subjected to lie-detector and brain mapping tests by the ATS during the day. Haywood was taken to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory at Kalina in Mumbai, where lie detector and brain mapping tests were conducted on him and others. Haywood, who lives in two 15th floor flats (1503 and 1504) in C-wing of posh Gunina Apartments located on the up-market Palm Beach Road in Navi Mumbai, came on the radar of the ATS a day after the Ahmedabad serial blasts. That was after the investigating agencies established that a 14-page e-mail, which was received by news television channels from the terror outfit on the day of Ahmedabad blasts, had been sent from the address alarbi_Gujarat at yahoo.com, using Haywood's IP address. http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-06/09/content_8329346.htm South Korea's court gets tough on violent protests SEOUL, June 9 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's judiciary has recently adopted a tougher stance on violent public protests, ordering heavy fines for both protesters and police who engage in such activity, the Supreme Court said Monday amid growing concerns over violent protests against U.S. beef imports, Yonhap news agency reported. Violence flared over the weekend when thousands of people trying to march to the presidential office clashed with riot police wielding shields in downtown Seoul. About 60 protesters and police officers were injured during the protests over the government's deal with Washington to fully resume U.S. beef imports. To deter violent action, the top court presented a series of recent rulings in which both protesters who used violence and police officers who used excessive force to put down disturbances were punished. In a compensation suit, a district court in the southern city of Jeonju recently ruled in favor of the family of a victim who was allegedly beaten to death by a policeman wielding a baton during a farmers' protest over the opening of the country's rice market. Even though there was no direct evidence that police violence was to blame for his death, the court took note of the increasing use of police shields against protesters in general and an internal directive for an aggressive crackdown at the time. "Police have to take caution to minimize physical damage when they use batons," the verdict said, ordering the government to pay the victim's family 64 million won (about 62,000 U.S. dollars). Another district court in the central city of Cheongju ordered the government to pay 160 million won to a citizen who lost sight in one eye when he was accidentally hit by a stone thrown by a riot policeman at protesters. The court said in the verdict, "The throwing of stones by police during a clash with protesters is illegal activity that is beyond their scope of operations." The judiciary has also been equally harsh on violent protesters. The Cheongju district court ordered a group of 11 protesters to pay 10 million won in compensation to the government for destroying a police ban and the fence of the provincial office during their protest over the country's free trade agreement with the United States. "Peaceful rallies and demonstrations should be acknowledged as much as possible within the lawful boundaries, but when they degenerate into illegal violent protests, those who engage in them should be held accountable and compensate for damages," the verdict said. The police crackdown on U.S. beef protests recently sparked severe public criticism after video footage circulated on the Internet showing a riot police officer stepping on a female university student's face. The officer faces a trial, police said. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/08/asia/AS-Nepal-Tibetans-Freed.php Nepal's supreme court frees 3 Tibetans jailed for anti-China protests The Associated Press Published: July 8, 2008 KATMANDU, Nepal: Nepal's supreme court has freed three Tibetan activists jailed for leading anti-China protests, a court official said Tuesday. Court spokesman Hemanta Rawal said the judges ruled in favor of the activists Monday and ordered them to be released immediately. Kelsang Chung, Ngawang Sangmo and Tashi Dolma were arrested last month, charged with violating the Public Security Act and imprisoned for 90 days. The judges ruled that police did not have enough evidence to arrest the activists and jail them under the act. The judges also said that police had failed to explain why the three were a threat to security and peace. The three were the first Tibetan activists in Nepal sentenced to jail terms since March, when almost-daily protests began in Katmandu condemning China's crackdown in the Himalayan region. Nepalese authorities have banned protests by Tibetan exiles, saying demonstrations against friendly nations, including China, will not be allowed. Tibetan refugees have also been barred from all political activities. Thousand of Tibetans were allowed to live in Nepal or pass through on their way from Tibet to Dharmasala in India, where Tibetan spiritual leaders live in exile. http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storyPage.aspx?storyId=123777 Media protests court decision giving police 'editorial prerogative' By CARMELA FONBUENA abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak Media groups are up in arms against the ruling of a Makati court that justified the arrest of journalists who covered the November 29 Manila Peninsula siege led by Senator Antonio Trillanes. In a ruling released Friday, a Makati court ruled that the police order for journalists to leave the premises of the Manila Peninsula during the Trillanes-led caper was "lawful." It also said that the succeeding arrest and handcuffing of those who disobeyed the order was "justified." "This is a big blow to press freedom. In effect, it's the police now who can say when you can cover an emergency and when you cannot," Luis Teodoro of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) said Wednesday. Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 54 Judge Reynaldo Laigo granted the motions to dismiss filed by government officials named in the class suit filed by the CMFR, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, and individual journalists. The media groups complained the arrests were "arbitrary and illegal having made with the abuse of discretion. the police officers being fully aware that there was no probable cause to believe they were committing or had committed an offense." The court didn't think so. Laigo's five-page decision said the complaint "does not constitute sufficient cause of action for damages against the defendants that warrants further prosecution of the instant case." All the Way to the Supreme Court Media counsel Harry Roque said they are going to file a motion for reconsideration. "Under no circumstances are we going to accept this ruling," he said. "We do not agree with the decision and will contest it all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary," said the NUJP in a statement. "We maintain that there was absolutely no justification whatsoever for the security forces to haul off our colleagues, many in handcuffs, to the police headquarters in Camp Bagong Diwa," the NUJP said. "The reason why we filed that case is to prevent the recurrence of journalists being arrested," Teodoro said. "If we let it stand, police can decide that certain operations may not be covered." The government officials in charge of the six-hour caper include Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, former Armed Forces chief-of-staff Hermogenes Esperon, and police officers led by Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Avelino Razon Jr., and National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief Geary Barias. They filed motions to dismiss saying that the media complaint "states no cause of action" and the court decided in their favor. Related Story . Manila Pen Siege: Did the Media Err in Judgment? Criminally Liable The court decision said journalists who "disobeyed" the police order to leave the hotel premises by 3 p.m. were criminally liable under Article 151 of the Revised Penal Code, which says: "The penalty of arresto mayor and a fine not exceeding P500 shall be imposed upon any person who. shall resist or seriously disobey any person in authority, or the agents of such person, while engaged in the performance of official duties." "It is applicable to all , including media practitioners," the decision said. "They were so lucky as none (charges) had been initiated against them." The police wanted the journalists to vacate the area to make way for the police to serve the warrant of arrest on Senator Antonio Trillanes IV and other rebel soldiers who walked out of a nearby court to take over the hotel. "Under the given dangerous decision, that order issued by defendant PNP-NCRPO Dir. Geary Barias was but lawful and appeared to have been disobeyed by all those, including some of the plaintiffs, when they intentionally refused to leave the hotel premises for which an appropriate criminal charge under Article 151 of the Revised Penal Cose, which is applicable to all, including the media personalities., could have been initiated against them," the decision said. "Thus, their having been handcuffed and brought to Camp Bagong Diwa, Bicutan, Taguig City for investigation, and release thereafter was justified, it being in accord with the police procedure." 'Editorial Prerogative' Teodoro is alarmed that the decision may set a dangerous precedent. "The editorial prerogative to make that decision to decide whether or not to cover an event will henceforth be that of the government," he said. Media groups maintained that the police instructions to leave the hotel premises only sounded a "request," not an order. "The decision to stay or leave is an editorial prerogative," said Teodoro. "This is a big blow to press freedom. This decision is on the same level or maybe a bit worse than the First Gentleman's string of libel suits against journalists," Teodoro said. Roque said the decision was "downright shocking." He was expecting that the court will decide first on the preliminary injunction filed by the media groups to restrain government officials from warning journalists against similar arrests. On this the court said, "Anent those pronouncements made by the other defendants and that advisory of defendant Secretary Gonzalez following that Manila Peninsula Hotel Standoff, the same have not and will not in any way curtail much less avert plaintiffs from exercising freely their right as such members of the press-covering or obtaining information on future events similar to what transpired at the Manila Peninsula Hotel." http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Finance%20And%20Labour&set_id=1&click_id=594&art_id=nw20080717193145371C917571 Police warn against protest pamphlet call July 17 2008 at 07:51PM Police on Thursday warned the Atteridgeville community against a pamphlet that was circulating encouraging people to join a "huge" protest march against the municipality and politicians on Friday. The pamphlet allegedly sent by the Gauteng Civic Association (Gaca) stated that, "We are tired of lies and empty promises by municipal officials. "From this Friday onwards people should build shacks on every empty space available". Police spokesperson Inspector Daniel Mavimbela urged people not to take part in the "illegal" action. "People are urged to treat Friday as a normal day. "We are warning anyone thinking of embarking on an illegal strike that the SAPS will deal decisively with them," said Mavimbela. However, he said the organisation distanced itself from the pamphlet. Gaca was not immediately available for comment. - Sapa http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/11/face-of-irans-99-protests-arrives-in-us/#more-1665 July 11, 2008, 4:54 pm Face of Iran's '99 Protests Arrives in U.S. By Azadeh Ensha Update, Monday, 10:37 a.m. Many, many more details on Mr. Batebi's escape from Sunday's New York Times. As thousands of students demonstrated against the Iranian government in July 1999, Ahmad Batebi was among them, holding a blood-stained T-shirt of a fellow protester high above his head. And then The Economist turned him into the face of the movement by capturing the stirring moment for its cover photograph. A headline seconded his determined visage, "Iran's second revolution?" The 21-year-old was arrested and sentenced to death shortly after its publication, though the punishment was later commuted to 15 years in prison. Late last month, Mr. Batebi safely arrived in the United States after serving nine years of his sentence. He spoke to The Economist this week about his years in Evin prison, where he suffered through harsh conditions. He told the magazine of a two-year stint in solitary confinement and a partial stroke. He was also tortured repeatedly: During his interrogation he was blindfolded and beaten with cables until he passed out. His captors rubbed salt into his wounds to wake him up, so they could torture him more. They held his head in a drain full of sewage until he inhaled it. He recalls yearning for a swift death to end the pain. The path from that horrible scene to the steps of the U.S. Capitol in Washington began when prison authorities granted him a medical leave after the stroke, Mr. Batebi said in an interview with NewsTalk, a Persian-language television program broadcast by Voice of America. The regime, it seemed, was not eager to have him die behind bars, he said. Mr. Batebi did not turn back. With the help of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran, he headed first to Irbil, Iraq, to secure documents for passage to Austria and then his final destination. While he promises to release cell phone pictures and further details of his journey, he's already posted a touching photograph that is not quite ready for the cover, yet provides a happy ending to a story that began there. You can see it here. http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-07-11-students-arrested-peru_N.htm?csp=34 Peru police arrest 3 U.S. students for protest Posted 7/11/2008 7:14 PM | LIMA, Peru (AP) - Three U.S. college students were briefly arrested in Peru for allegedly participating in an anti-government protest, police said Friday. The students from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, were detained Thursday morning in the city of Puno, officer Oscar Muchai Pina told The Associated Press. They were released later the same day. Identified as Hans Kulla-Mader, 19, Heather Meyer, 19, and Amelia Woodside, 21, the students allegedly attended a march the previous day that was part of a national strike called by Peru's largest labor union. Muchai Pina said Meyer and Woodside were carrying a sign that read "Down with (President) Alan Garcia, you rat." After local media published photos of the students marching alongside union workers, police arrested them at their hotel and confiscated signs and banners. Peruvian law prohibits foreigners from taking part in political activity, and violators can be deported and barred from returning. The students' Peruvian lawyer, Antonio Escobar Pena, said they were unaware of the statute and decided to attend the march after someone handed them a flier in the street. Authorities opted not to deport the students and released them, but Pena said they took a bus to neighboring Bolivia to avoid further legal difficulties. Kulla-Mader's father, Norman Kulla, confirmed the students had traveled to Bolivia but would not give more details. Kulla-Mader, a native of Los Angeles, did not return a call to his cellphone. Hometowns and contact information for Woodside and Meyer were not immediately clear. U.S. Embassy Spokesman Dan Martinez declined to comment on the case, citing privacy laws. http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/080713/world/bahrain_unrest_trial Bahraini Shiite activists jailed over protests Module body Sun Jul 13, 7:42 AM MANAMA (AFP) - A Bahraini court on Sunday sentenced a group of Shiite opposition activists to jail terms over clashes with police in the Sunni-ruled Gulf state last year. Eleven defendants were sentenced to between one and seven years behind bars, while four were acquitted because of a lack of evidence at the high-security hearing in the capital Manama, a judicial source said. Defence lawyers said they planned to appeal. The 15 went on trial over clashes between police and protesters in Shiite-populated areas in December following the death of a demonstrator at an opposition rally to demand compensation for victims of alleged human rights violations. They were charged with unlawful assembly, stealing weapons, burning a police vehicle and committing other acts of violence against police. The Shiite majority in Sunni-ruled Bahrain has been campaigning for compensation for alleged human rights violations in the 1980s and 1990s. During the trial, the defendants, rights groups and Bahraini opposition activists claimed that the accused had been tortured to extract confessions but the allegations were denied by Bahraini officials. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2008/07/12/2003417235 China jails more Tibetan protesters AGENCIES, BEIJING Saturday, Jul 12, 2008, Page 1 A Nepalese policeman detains a Tibetan protester at a rally in front of the visa section of the Chinese embassy in Kathmandu yesterday. More than 100 Tibetans are awaiting trial in China for their roles in protests. PHOTO: EPA Chinese courts jailed 12 more rioters for their roles in unrest in Tibet, state media said, weeks before the Beijing Olympics and after Beijing deported a Tibetan British woman it accused of anti-government activism earlier this week. China's Xinhua news agency said late on Thursday that to date the country has convicted 42 people for their role in the riots while another 116 await trial. Some 953 people were detained by the police, Xinhua said, quoting Palma Trily, the No. 1 vice chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region government. He did not give details on the length of the latest 12 sentences handed down on June 19 and June 20 but said neither these rioters nor 30 people convicted earlier had received death sentences. "But whether or not the death penalty will be applied for suspects still being investigated has to be determined based on Chinese laws," Palma Trily was quoted as saying. Meanwhile, China is offering rewards of up to 500,000 yuan (US$73,000) to anyone who provides information on major security threats during the Olympic Games, state media reported yesterday. The rewards aim to "mobilize the enthusiasm of the masses in maintaining public security, as well as to control and eliminate hidden dangers to the Olympic Games," Xinhua news agency said, citing Beijing authorities. The move, part of an increasingly strict security drive in China's capital ahead of the Games next month, urged residents in the city to report information on major threats until Oct. 31, Xinhua said. They would be given between 10,000 yuan and 500,000 yuan for credible tips, the notice said. Examples of what police are looking for included information on terrorist attacks, sabotage by illegal organizations such as the Falun Gong and plots to attack Olympic-related people and foreigners, Xinhua reported. The announcement comes a day after China claimed it faced a serious threat of terrorism in the Xinjiang autonomous region ahead of the Olympics. Authorities said 82 suspected "terrorists" had been detained and five organizations that had been planning to attack the Games had been cracked there this year. Human rights groups and other critics say the government has fabricated or exaggerated the terrorist threat as an excuse to crush all forms of dissent before the showpiece event. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080728/wl_mideast_afp/iranrightsexecution Ebadi rights group protests Iran mass execution by Aresu Eqbali Mon Jul 28, 7:18 AM ET TEHRAN (AFP) - The rights group run by Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi on Monday protested at the hanging by Iran of 29 criminals in a mass execution and said it doubted the convicts had been given a fair trial. "The Defenders of Human Rights Centre... is against capital punishment and believes it should be removed from the list of punishments in any country," the group said in a statement. "Unfortunately in recent years some have been hanged en masse in Iran so that Iran ranks the second country in the world in terms of the number of executions," it added. Iran on Sunday hanged 29 men convicted of offences including drug trafficking, murder and rape in the largest mass execution in years. The latest hangings brought to at least 155 the number of people executed in Iran this year, according to an AFP count. "It seems that the hanged men were deprived of a fair judicial procedure," the Defenders of Human Rights Centre said. "No authority has the right to deprive defendants of their rights during the arrest, trial and tribunal procedures as well as the right to legal representation," it said. The group, a frequent critic of the government over its treatment of dissidents and rights activists, was formed by five prominent rights lawyers and is headed by Ebadi, who was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 2003. Amnesty International reported that in 2007 Iran applied the death penalty more often than any other country apart from China, executing 317 people. As part of an unprecedented crackdown to improve security in society, Iran has stepped up its use of the death penalty -- facing repeated complaints by Western right groups. The authorities have defended the hangings, saying capital punishment is an effective deterrent that is used only after an exhaustive judicial process. But Ebadi's group dismissed that justification, saying: "The use of capital punishment will have no effect in cutting crime and will rather increase crime." Capital offences in the Islamic republic include murder, rape, armed robbery, drug trafficking and adultery. Earlier this month parliament was reported to be considering a bill which could see the death penalty also being imposed on those deemed to promote corruption, prostitution and apostasy on the Internet. Iran hopes that executing drug dealers and thugs as well as the adoption of stricter punishments will send a strong warning to criminals. But Ebadi's human rights advocates also voiced concern over what they described as the "faked" charge of being a "thug," saying such terms do not exist in the penal laws. A year ago, citing "promotion of social security," the authorities launched an unprecedented crackdown against women and "thugs" whose behaviour was deemed an affront to the country's strict Islamic moral code. http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/nationworld/story/417729.html YENGISHAHAR, CHINA: Government cracks down on extremists, protesters Straight shot to the Games THE NEWS TRIBUNE Published: July 20th, 2008 01:00 AM Shortly after dawn on July 9, the local government here bused several thousand students and office workers into a public square and lined them up in front of a vocational school. As the spectators watched, witnesses said, three prisoners were brought out. Then, an execution squad fired rifles at the three point-blank. The young men had been convicted of having connections to terrorist plots, which authorities said were part of a campaign aimed at disrupting the Beijing Olympics by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, an underground separatist organization in western China. The group has long fought for independence on behalf of the region's Muslim Uighur inhabitants. The public execution was a dramatic example of the massive, unforgiving security operation mounted in China to protect the Beijing Games from what Communist Party authorities describe as an urgent threat of violence and anti-government protest. With the Games three weeks away, precautions have proved so sweeping that some observers question whether the fellowship that is supposed to accompany the Olympics can survive. Alongside the crackdown against Muslim extremists in Xinjiang have come confusing new visa restrictions, multiple roadside checkpoints, reinforced pat-downs at airports and subway stations, and raids on bars popular among foreigners. On Thursday, China issued a manual advising the public what to do in the case of a terrorist attack, according to state-run media. China's leaders have extended the scope of their concerns to include peaceful political protests. In public and private comments, Chinese officials have seemed just as determined to prevent pro-Tibet demonstrators from unfurling banners in front of television cameras as they are to head off hotel bombings by Muslim extremists, according to Chinese specialists and foreign diplomats. The Beijing Public Security Bureau warned recently on its Web site that any demonstration must have prior approval from authorities, in effect banning anti-government protest. Aware of the misgivings about overkill, Chinese authorities have said their top priorities must be to guarantee the safety of Olympic athletes and spectators. "A safe Olympics is the biggest indicator of the success of the Games," Xi Jinping, a member of the party's elite Politburo Standing Committee and the senior official supervising preparations, said in a recent speech. "A safe Olympics is also the biggest indicator of the positive reflection of our nation's image." The Washington Post http://allafrica.com/stories/200805231025.html Cameroon: Biya Offers Clemency to Riot Convicts The Post (Buea) 23 May 2008 Posted to the web 23 May 2008 Christopher Jator Njechu President Paul Biya, May 20, in response to calls by youths under the platform of a humanitarian operation, known in French as 'Main Tendue', signed two decrees. One of the decrees reduces the prison terms of February riot convicts and the other commutes the sentences of those incarcerated for life or condemned to death. The group of youths made the call in a memorandum addressed to Biya during a debate that brought together believers of different denominations, May 8, at the Maison Don Bosco. The debate focused on the perception of believers on the February unrest from the perspective of the Holy Scriptures. The youths solicited the presidential clemency following a series of arrests and imprisonment of their peers suspected of violent involvement in the uprising. Human rights activist, Mouafo Djontu, also known to have led the recent student uprising at the University of Yaounde I, ahead of the National Day celebrations, urged the President to free youths jailed after the February uprising. Advocacy letters were also sent to diplomatic missions and human rights organisations, intimating amelioration of prison conditions.In the memorandum, the youths abhorred the arbitrary arrests of youths, violations of human rights in detention centres and prisons and the marathon trial in the sentencing of youths who simply demonstrated their dissatisfaction with the regime. Though the youths pleaded for, among others, clemency, food and medical assistance in favour of the inmates, Biya might have had them right by signing decree No. 2008/174 of May 20. The decree remits sentences in favour of those persons whose term of imprisonment is equal to or below one year, and a two-thirds reduction of sentence in favour of those persons whose term of imprisonment is above one year. The decision, which grants them eventual liberty, does not, however, include persons incarcerated for an offence committed during the period.Meanwhile the second decree No. 2008/175 commutes to 20 years imprisonment for persons originally sentenced to death and whose sentence has already been commuted, and 20 years for those sentenced to life imprisonment that has not yet been commuted, among others. It should be recalled the youth group led by Mouafo Djontu, visited prisons in Yaounde, Bafoussam, Douala and Buea and observed that the convicts were stuffed in foul conditions with hardened criminals, sleeping on bare floor, no medical assistance, malnourished, among others. http://allafrica.com/stories/200804181040.html Tanzania: Varsity Suspends 14 Over Riot The Citizen (Dar es Salaam) 16 April 2008 Posted to the web 18 April 2008 Polycarp Machira The University of Dar es Salaam has suspended 14 students for their alleged active involvement in a riot in which a student died at the main campus on February 22. Addressing a press conference at the 'Hill' yesterday, the vice-chancellor, Prof Rwekaza Mukandara, said an inquiry team that probed the riot had recommended that the culprits should also face criminal prosecution. The VC affirmed that students found to be innocent by the courts court will be readmitted at the university. "Those linked to criminal acts like theft, deliberate damage to public property and sexual harassment of female students during the riot must be handed over to the police for prosecution," he said. On the night of February 17 and 22, groups of UDSM students ran a riot at their Mabibo hostel and the main campus. According to the University administration, the riot resulted to the destruction of public property at the two locations. It included breaking of doors in rooms of female students and pulling them into the swimming pool. An undergraduate student drowned in the university swimming pool during the fracas. The inquiry team led by Emillyan Mushi, Judge of the High Court assisted by seven members was constituted to investigate the riot, and recommend punishment for its instigators. In its report, the inquiry team identifies 16 students as having allegedly participated in criminal offences committed during the fateful dates. They are Gachuma Makere, Mwangata Paul, Hilu Ernest, Mwalukasa Elisha, Gasto Florence of Ardhi University, Mwakolo Daniel, Mhelela Geofrey, Mursaly Abdulrahiman and Reinard Makwetta. Also in the list are Mhako Daniel, Silinde David, Chagulani Adams, Shirima Deogratius, Igogo Dady and Damsion Judith. The team also recommended that the existing student by-laws be enforced more vigorously. It also found out that some students at the main campus use drugs and advised criminal action against them. Already, five students found found smoking bhang at the university's sports grounds on April 10 were handed over to the police and were charged in court. They were Godson Emmanuel, Adili Mwangonda, Betenga Jimson, Joshua Mwanjimwango and Soka Elifasi. Owawa Stephen, Silinde David, Ally Selemani and Salum Ally were also suspended and charged with a breach of university by-laws. The group reportedly held an unlawful meeting on April 11 leading to disruption of academic activities at the main campus. http://www.metro.co.uk/news/world/article.html?in_article_id=145347&in_page_id=64 China jails riot monks for 20yrs Tuesday, April 29, 2008 Tibet monks in riots A monk and another man were jailed for life for riots in Tibet. The Buddhist, Basang, was acc- used of leading a gang which set fire to buildings and attacked police officers. Another two monks were jailed for 20 years and three for 15, along with ten other people, for their parts in last month's unrest. The open trial was attended by more than 200 people, including monks and 'masses from all walks of life', state TV reported. More than 200 people died during last month's crackdown on protests, the Tibbetan government-in-exile has claimed. But Beijing, which ran an Olympic security drill yesterday, insisted it killed no one and said 22 people had died at the hands of mobs. China also claims that seven schools, five hospitals and 120 homes were torched during riots in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, at a cost of nearly ?18million. It blamed the Dalai Lama, Tib- et's spiritual leader, for inciting violence in the region. But the Dalai Lama strongly denied the accusations and said he would stand down if violence got any worse. It was the first batch of sentencing but it remained unclear how many people were being held across China. Elsewhere, a US climmber was deported for having a 'Free Tibet' flag on Mount Everest. William Holland was banned from climbing in Nepal for two years. http://www.japantoday.com/category/world/view/man-goes-missing-after-applying-for-protest-in-beijing Man goes missing after applying for protest in Beijing Thursday 14th August, 05:43 AM JST HONG KONG - A 58-year-old man who applied to stage a protest in Beijing has gone missing after going to the police to check on his application, a human rights watchdog said Wednesday. The U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said on its website that Ji Sizun, a self-described grassroots legal activist from southeastern China's Fujian Province, applied on Friday at the Deshengmenwai police station in Beijing's Xicheng District for a permit to hold a protest in one of the city's three designated protest zones. http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/35078 Solidified concrete blocks unleash popular protest in Sadr City-MP Baghdad, 12 August 2008 (Voices of Iraq) A lawmaker from the Sadrist bloc loyal to anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Tuesday criticised putting more concrete blocks in the Shiite slum of Sadr City. "In spite of an agreement with the security forces stationing in Sadr City to reduce the concrete blocks, they solidified the bloc with concrete slabs," MP Zainab al-Kninani from the Sadrist bloc told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq - (VOI). The lawmaker stressed "the measure might increase the rising tension rampant in the district." This third wall that will encircle Sadr City, home to about 2.5 million people in northeastern Baghdad, is part of the U.S. and Iraqi effort to solidify the sharp drop in violence that followed fierce fighting there this year. Hundreds were killed beginning in March as Iraqi and U.S. forces battled Sadr's Mahdi Army, which the United States blamed for rocket and mortar attacks on U.S. and Iraqi government headquarters in central Baghdad's Green Zone. The fighting in Sadr City was one front of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's crackdown on defiant Shiite militias. A May 10 ceasefire ended the fighting in Sadr City and, 10 days later, Iraqi troops pushed deep into the slum unopposed. Fighting had been particularly fierce at the time, and U.S. forces built a (3.5-meter) security wall stretching more than 3 km across Sadr City. The MP expressed protest over "checking measures and illegal arrest operations conducted by security forces in Sadr City and other districts." She called for the government "to open more crossings to grant Sadr City residents the freedom to enter and depart their district," noting "the available outlets are not sufficient for the most populous district." Along with an Iraqi-built wall on the eastern side of Sadr City and a canal that runs along its northern edge, the walls will entirely encircle the area. Several checkpoints will search vehicles exiting and entering the slum. Such security walls, designed to stop suicide bombers and slow the traffic of weapons, have brought bitter debate where they have been erected around markets, public places and entire neighborhoods across Baghdad. http://www.bangkokpost.com/090808_News/09Aug2008_news18.php Curb on public protests could spell end of Samak govt ANUCHA CHAROENPO Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej's idea of amending Article 63 followed by a proposed draft bill to control public demonstrations may have been put on hold for now, but they are like a time bomb which could be reactivated to explode any time. Whether the moves were made to distract the general public from the controversial amendment of the entire constitution, critics are certain that the attempt at protest control would do more harm than good to the government led by the People Power party. Ironically, this public protest control move could actually rouse more people than ever to come out and protest against it. If the government wants to stay longer in office, it is recommended that it stop the move which is seen as an attempt to curtail people's freedom of expression and right to peaceful gathering. "I think more people who are fed up with the government's action will leave their homes to put pressure on the government to give up on the intention. No way will the people let the government finish the task," said Prapas Pintobtang, a political lecturer at Chulalongkorn University's faculty of political science. Mr Prapas said he was not sure why Prime Minister Samak and his government MPs had dared push for such an impractical idea. Such a law was pointless in a time when the country has been restored to democracy, not to say it would needlessly increase the tension between pro-and anti-government groups. Democracy in action... But if the prime minister has his way, protests by the People's Alliance for Democracy would no longer be allowed. "Aren't the government MPs and Prime Minister Samak not busy enough? Why do they have to get themselves into trouble and a messy situation despite the fact that they are duty-bound to bring about peace and unity in the country?" the lecturer asked. The prime minister on Sunday spoke through his weekly programme broadcast on NBT, formerly Channel 11, about his proposed amendment of Article 63 of the charter in order to bring protests in public places under control. In the amended version distributed to the media, the government added some content to the Article, stipulating that: "a person shall enjoy the liberty to assemble peacefully and without arms and without wrongful accusations to defame others and without instigating and misleading the public, without using the media to support their campaigns, without forcing and hiring any groups to join the protests." Shortly after the prime minister floated his idea, government MPs and Minister attached to the PM's Office, Chusak Sirinil, came out to throw their weight behind this, and confirmed that the government would add the amended clause to the charter rewrite campaign. It goes without saying that the embattled prime minister raised the amendment to Article 63 because he is extremely unhappy with the ongoing anti-government rallies led by arch-rival People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD). The PAD has staged its protest since May 25 to oust the government over its attempts to amend the charter and its alleged failure to solve the rising cost of living of the people over the past six months. Rassada Manurassada, a human rights lawyer at the Lawyers Council of Thailand, said the people's right to freedom of expression and their right to assemble in public places peacefully are principles of basic human rights guaranteed by the United Nations, of which Thailand is a member. "What would be added to Article 63 is considered a violation of human rights. And it is hard to prove what constitutes an offence in the amended Article," Mr Rassada said. He added that at present the country has its own criminal law to take legal action against those accused of defamation, instigating riots or deceiving other people. So he did not see the necessity of pushing for added protection. And many people, including former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who were defamed by the PAD had lodged complaints with the police using existing laws. Mr Rassada said it was true the ongoing demonstrations have caused traffic problems and were a nuisance to some members of the public, but that they have more advantages than disadvantages. The demonstrations helped promote people's participation and was democracy in action. "Without the public protests, Thailand would likely become a half-baked democracy," said Mr Rassada. Sunee Chaiyaros, a human rights commissioner of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), expressed serious concern over the plan to push for the draft bill regulating public gatherings proposed by a group 26 PPP MPs led by Sakon Nakhon MP Jumpot Boonyai. Ms Sunee said a similar bill had been drafted by the police during the administration of Mr Thaksin but had been heavily opposed by the public because it contradicted the 1997 charter, which gave people the right to assemble in public places without any arms. She added that the Highways Department had once proposed a similar bill as well, but it did not pass parliament's approval. The draft bill, containing 20 articles, seeks to set up a committee in Bangkok and other provinces which would have the authority to approve public gatherings. A Bangkok committee chaired by the Metropolitan Police Bureau Commissioner and a provincial committee chaired by the governor would be empowered by the bill to break up the rallies if they caused trouble to the public. Under the new law, the authorities assigned to disperse the protests would be exempt from cilvil and criminal punishment if their actions were "undertaken reasonably". Organisers of unauthorised public gatherings would be liable to imprisonment of up to three years if violence occurred at the protest site, and/or a fine of up to 100,000 baht. Instead of pushing for this kind of law, Ms Sunee suggested the government come up with instructions to police, soldiers, local officials and security volunteers about how to handle all forms of protest. She said the NHRC had made a recommendation about the need for such a set of instructions and proper training to the government of Mr Thaksin, but had never received any response. At this point, the government whip has set up a sub-committee chaired by PPP MP Sukhumpong Ngonkham to review the measures needed to regulate public gatherings. Mr Jumpot, who proposed the draft bill, will be invited to give more information before the sub-panel next week. Academics, human rights defenders and other think-tanks will be invited to testify as well. Mr Jumpot insisted on pushing for the draft bill because he wanted it to be used as a tool to keep order and maintain security in the country. He said in principle the law would deal with rouge protesters causing trouble for the public. He said he welcomed all public comments and ensured that all opinions would be considered. Pairoj Polpetch, chairman of the Civil Liberty Union, called on the public to keep monitoring the government's manoeuvres for the bill as he believed that one day it would surely be tabled and debated in parliament. When that time came, he predicted, the government would lose its legitimacy to rule the country. http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/8/20/213749/387 China: Free Wu Dianyuan And Wang Xiuying! by davidseth Wed Aug 20, 2008 at 06:40:38 PM PDT cross posted from The Dream Antilles The Chinese Government is very afraid of these two women. Seventy-nine-year-old Wu Dianyuan, on the right, and her neighbor Wang Xiuying, 77, followed the law. They applied for a protest permit. They wanted to protest inadequate compensation for the taking of their homes in preparation of the Olympics. They asked for the permit five times. They didn't get it. They ended up instead being sentenced to a year of "re-education through labor." Join me in Beijing. davidseth's diary :: :: According to NY Times: Two elderly Chinese women have been sentenced to a year of "re-education through labor" after they repeatedly sought a permit to demonstrate in one of the official Olympic protest areas, according to family members and human rights advocates. The women, Wu Dianyuan, 79, and Wang Xiuying, 77, had made five visits to the police this month in an effort to get permission to protest what they contended was inadequate compensation for the demolition of their homes in Beijing. During their final visit on Monday, public security officials informed them that they had been given administrative sentences for "disturbing the public order," according to Li Xuehui, Ms. Wu's son. Mr. Li said his mother and Ms. Wang, who used to be neighbors before their homes were demolished to make way for a redevelopment project, were allowed to return home but were told they could be sent to a detention center at any moment. "Can you imagine two old ladies in their 70s being re-educated through labor?" he asked. He said Ms. Wang was nearly blind. The Chinese government's suppression of all public protests at the Olympics is a disgrace. The details: At least a half dozen people have been detained by the authorities after they responded to a government announcement late last month designating venues in three city parks as "protest zones" during the Olympics. So far, no demonstrations have taken place. According to Xinhua, the state news agency, 77 people submitted protest applications, none of which were approved. Xinhua, quoting a public security spokesperson, said that apart from those detained all but three applicants had dropped their requests after their complaints were "properly addressed by relevant authorities or departments through consultations." The remaining three applications were rejected for incomplete information or for violating Chinese law. The authorities, however, have refused to explain what happened to applicants who disappeared after they submitted their paperwork. Among these, Gao Chuancai, a farmer from northeast China who was hoping to publicize government corruption, was forcibly escorted back to his hometown last week and remains in custody. Relatives of another person who was detained, Zhang Wei, a Beijing resident who was also seeking to protest the demolition of her home, were told she would be kept at a detention center for a month. Two rights advocates from southern China have not been heard from since they were seized last week at the Public Security Bureau's protest application office in Beijing. And so, tonight on TV in the US, you will doubtless see some wonderful running, in fact, an incredible world record in the 200 meter sprint. And some incredible volley ball. And some remarkable soccer. And panoramic views of the "birds' nest" stadium. And you will hear the touching stories of those who have overcome extreme hardship to excel at their sports. Some of this will bring tears to your eyes, and some of it will make you marvel that anyone could achieve such heights. Some of it will stir feelings of nationalism and pride. But there's something lurking just beneath the surface. It's the Olympics as Potemkin Village, the Olympics as propaganda, the Olympics as police state. And you've seen it all before. In the 1936 Olympics: Leni Riefenstahl, a favorite of Hitler's, was commissioned by the IOC to film the Games. Her film, entitled Olympia, introduced many of the techniques now common to the filming of sports. By allowing only members of the "Aryan" race to compete for Germany, Hitler further promoted his ideological belief of racial supremacy. At the same time, the party removed signs stating "Jews not wanted" and similar slogans from the city's main tourist attractions. In an attempt to "clean up" Berlin, the German Ministry of Interior authorized the chief of police to arrest all Romani (Gypsies) and keep them in a special camp. Nazi officials ordered that foreign visitors should not be subjected to the criminal strictures of anti-homosexual laws. Isn't Beijing wonderful? Isn't this all about peace, and unity, and brother and sisterhood? Isn't this all about fun and peaceful competition? Isn't this all about entertainment and sport as a unifying force? Isn't this beyond politics? Well, no, it isn't. The protests for human rights, for Freedom for Tibet, for free speech, for an end to the genocide in Darfur have all been suppressed in China. But, folks, we're not in China. And we need to raise a ruckus. We need to call on China to free Wu Dianyuan And Wang Xiuying, and everyone else they are holding to keep Beijing and its Olympics beautiful. http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2008/08/21/would_be_protesters_punished/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+World+news Would-be protesters punished Wu Dianyuan, 79, center, and Wang Xiuying, 77, wanted to protest during the Olympics. (AP Photo) By Washington Post / August 21, 2008 BEIJING - Two elderly women were sentenced to a year of "re-education through labor" after they applied for permits to demonstrate during the Olympics, according to the son of one of the would-be protesters. Wu Dianyuan, 79, and Wang Xiuying, 77, went to Chinese police five times between Aug. 5 and Aug. 18 to seek approval to protest against officials who evicted them from their homes in 2001. The Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau did not approve or deny their applications during the first three visits. On the fourth visit, the women were told that they would receive a year's punishment, until July 29, 2009, for "disturbing the public order." They will not have to go immediately to a re-education labor camp, but their movements will be restricted. If they violate various rules, they could be sent to a labor camp. Wu and Wang tried to return a fifth time to inquire again about their protest application but they were told that their right to apply had been stripped. Li Xuehui said his mother, Wu, and her friend are outraged. "We are a Communist society, with the people the leaders and owners, but basic citizens' rights cannot even be realized today. How sad it is." Li said. 'The way things are is the opposite of the 'people-oriented' ideology of the country when it was founded." http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=82,7002,0,0,1,0 Burma monk forcibly disrobed over street protests by Andrew Buncombe, The Independent, August 22, 2008 Yangon, Myanmar -- The Burmese monk who helped organise the huge street demonstrations against the country's military rulers has been disrobed by the authorities in contravention of Buddhist traditions. << Buddhist monks in cinnamon robes take to the streets of Yangon, Burma, in September 2007 Ashin Gambira, who was arrested last year following the so-called Saffron Revolution, told his lawyer that after he was detained, the authorities stripped him of his status as a monk. His lawyer, Aung Thein, told the Irrawaddy Magazine that the disrobing was carried out without observance of Buddhist traditions and with no consultation with senior monks. "Ashin Gambira said the authorities, under Buddhist rules, had no right to disrobe him or to charge him with criminal offenses," said the lawyer. The 29-year-old monk, leader of the All Burma Monks' Alliance, appeared this week at a court inside Rangoon's notorious Insein jail where he was charged with a series of offences including contacting banned organisations and having illegal contacts with foreigners. His family have said they believe that if he is convicted of any treasonable offences he will either be executed or jailed for life. The previously unknown monk alliance was central to last September's demonstrations which saw up to 100,000 people march in support of democracy and against soaring inflation. Human rights groups believe that up to 200 people were killed by the subsequent crushing of the demonstrations by the regime. Hundreds of monks and ordinary people, including almost all of the leaders of various pro-democracy groups, are believed to remain in jail. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/08/23/asia/AS-OLY-China-Protests.php China sentences 10 foreign protesters The Associated Press Published: August 23, 2008 BEIJING: Chinese police have sentenced at least 10 foreigners to 10 days of detention for protesting during the Olympic Games, an activist group and officials said Saturday. The most recent detainees included four protesters who were demonstrating against Chinese rule in Tibet, said the New York-based Students for a Free Tibet. The protesters - a German, two Americans and a British citizen - were seized Thursday while unfurling a Tibetan flag near the "Bird's Nest" National Stadium. Britain's Foreign Office confirmed the detention of the British protester and issued a statement saying, "We continue to underline to the Chinese government the need to respect its commitment to freedom of expression." The statement also urged British citizens to respect China's laws. China said it would allow protests during the Olympic Games only in three designated areas. Protesters also were also required to apply for permission to protest, but no application to demonstrate has been approved. The Public Security Bureau did not immediately respond to requests Saturday for comment about the detained foreigners' cases. The bureau issued a statement Thursday that said a separate group of six foreigners who were arrested Tuesday were ordered to serve 10 days of detention. Police did not identify the detainees, but Students for a Free Tibet said they were bloggers, artists and activists from the United States. Separately, the Chinese Human Rights Defenders group said AIDs activist Wang Xiaoqiao, who has been detained for nine months, has been convicted and sentenced to one year in prison in the central province of Henan. The organization accused the government of waiting until the Olympics, when the world was distracted by the games, to sentence Wang. Wang was convicted of extortion Aug. 12 in Xincai county in a case that involved a kiln that she claimed polluted her family's farm land, the overseas-based group said. Wang was detained shortly after she reached a settlement with the kiln owner, it said. The rights group said Wang was actually being punished for petitioning officials for compensation for AIDs patients. Wang's husband contracted the disease from a tainted blood transfusion, the group said. http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/080822/world/oly2008_china_rights_protest Grannies vow to fight on after punishment for Olympic protests Module body Fri Aug 22, 2:56 PM BEIJING (AFP) - Two Beijing grandmothers remained defiant and in good spirits Friday despite being sentenced to one year of reeducation through labour for applying to protest during the Olympics. In an interview with AFP, neighbours Wu Dianyuan, 79, and Wang Xiuying, 77, said they had not received compensation after their homes were demolished by the city government seven years ago and were simply fighting for their rights. "We have done nothing wrong," said Wang. "They won't let me protest, then they sentence me to a year labour camp. I am really mad. "But we are not afraid. We will go on protesting, you can see this is not fair, do you understand that?" The re-education orders seen by AFP said that Wang and Wu will be allowed to serve their sentences at home, but will be sent to a labour camp if they cause further trouble. Wang and Wu were seated together in a ramshackle one-room apartment without electricity in which Wu now lives after her home in central Beijing was demolished to make way for a development. The two said they had applied five times to stage protests at official Olympic protest zones set up by the government. "We will keep on protesting," vowed Wang. Ahead of the Olympics, the government said the three protests areas in city parks would be available for demonstrations. But it admitted this week that not one of more than 70 applications to protest had been approved. Wang, who lives across a narrow unpaved lane from Wu in a similar one-room apartment in a downtrodden southeastern Beijing suburb, said they were delighted when they heard that protests would be permitted during the Olympics. But instead of getting approval for their protest, they were both slapped with the one-year sentences of re-education through labour for disturbing public order. "What crime have we committed?" said Wang, as the two lifetime friends let out a burst of laughter. "We never committed any crime when we were young. Now we are so old we can't even speak clearly. How can we possible commit a crime?" The two women described as illiterate in the police document both need walking sticks to stand up and look far too frail to challenge the authority of the all-powerful Chinese sate. They are among hundreds of thousands of Beijing residents who have been relocated over the past decade as the city undergoes high-speed redevelopment, much of it tied to the Olympic Games. The Beijing city government insists that residents who have been relocated have received adequate compensation. But Wang and Wu said they received nothing. It is a familiar story in Beijing and throughout the country. Even the central government has said the phenomenon of illegal land grabs -- where local officials and property developers kick people out of their homes or off their farms -- is one of the major factors behind rising social unrest. The two old ladies seem to be genuinely amused that they have been branded public enemies. But they are nonetheless angry that years of effort to win compensation have so far failed. "They say we committed a crime," said Wu. "What crime? They have the power, so what they say counts. We are just ordinary citizens and we have no voice. We are victims." Wu's son, Li Xuehui, said that plainclohes police were camped in cars at the end of the lane watching for any further trouble from the grannies. The women also said neighbours had been ordered to spy on them and they were constantly under watch. But they insisted they did not care about the intimidation, and Wang said she would refuse to go to a labour camp. "I am not going, I don't care what happens. What can they do to me?" she said. http://www.bangkokpost.com/210808_News/21Aug2008_news12.php Students caned for absence, not protest No political motive for pupils' punishment The caning of eight students at Yothinburana school was unrelated to their attendance at a protest against the relocation of the school to make way for a new government building, deputy secretary-general of the Basic Education Commission Mangkorn Kullavanich said yesterday. The commission asked school heads and the Office of Bangkok Education Zone 1, which supervises the school, about reports eight students were caned after they took part in the protest. The school said they were caned as punishment for their unexplained absence from class. The punishment had nothing to do with the students' participation in the protest last Friday, said Mr Mangkorn. School director Manop Noppasirikul reported the incident to the commission. According to the school, in Bangkok's Dusit district, only five were caned by physical education teacher Suwattana Permpool on Monday. The other three were not punished after providing sound reasons for their absence. Parents of the students withdrew their complaints against the teacher filed with Tao Poon police after receiving explanations from the school director, said Mr Mangkorn. Earlier, the aunt of a Mathayom 2 (Grade 8) student said her niece was caned 18 times by Mrs Suwattana on Monday for attending the protest march. Her niece was among eight students who were caned, she said. More than 500 students from the school had joined the march to Government House to demonstrate their opposition to the relocation plan, which would clear land for the new parliamentary site. Kotchawan Pipatbundit, mother of a Yothinburana school student, said a group of parents whose children study there would join the anti-government People's Alliance for Democracy's march to the school tomorrow to give moral support to students. She had not yet met parents of the caned students, but those parents had joined their children in Friday's protest march to Government House. The new parliamentary site will occupy a 119-rai plot on the Chao Phraya river in Kiakkai. The land is currently occupied by agencies under the Defence Ministry, Yothinburana and residential areas. The school, which occupies eight rai, opposes the change. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/08/16/africa/AF-Tunisia-Opponent.php Tunisian opponent convicted for role in protests The Associated Press Published: August 16, 2008 TUNIS, Tunisia: A Tunisian government opponent has been convicted and sentenced to eight months in prison for her role in a peaceful protest, a human rights group in the North African nation said Saturday. A court in the central city of Gafsa convicted and sentenced Zakia Dhifaoui on Friday, the association Equity and Liberty said. She was convicted of disrupting public order, engaging in civil disobedience and attacking good moral standards, among other charges, it said. Court officials were not immediately available to confirm her conviction. Dhifaoui is a member of a legal opposition party as well as the Tunisian League in Defense of Human Rights. Six others were also convicted and handed six-month sentences on similar charges. Dhifaoui was arrested in July after taking the microphone at a peaceful demonstration where she called for the release of prisoners rounded up a month earlier when protests over high unemployment turned violent in the Gafsa mining region. Human rights group routinely criticize Tunisia for its lack of freedom of expression and its stern handling of political opponents. http://news.morningstar.com/newsnet/ViewNews.aspx?article=/DJ/200808220533DOWJONESDJONLINE000424_univ.xml Seven Charged In Singapore Over IMF-World Bank Protests8-22-08 5:33 AM EDT | E-mail Article | Print Article SINGAPORE (AFP)--A Singapore opposition leader and six other activists have been charged over protests during IMF-World Bank meetings almost two years ago, one of them said Friday, just days after the Prime Minister called for a ban on outdoor demonstrations to be eased. Chee Soon Juan, secretary-general of the Singapore Democratic Party, was charged along with his sister Chee Siok Chin and five other fellow party members, Chee Siok Chin said. The charges were read when the accused appeared in court Thursday, she said. They related to the distribution of flyers ahead of the 2006 International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings and to a public procession allegedly conducted without a permit during the meetings, she said. Under Singapore law, any public protest of at least five people without a permit is deemed illegal. Public demonstrations seldom occur in the country. Chee's applications for a permit during the meetings were denied. He engaged in a three-day standoff with police who stopped him from marching to the conference venue after he delivered a speech at Speakers' Corner, a government- designated free speech area. He said he was protesting against poverty and restrictions on free speech. In his key annual policy address televised Monday night, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the city-state should ease its ban on political videos and outdoor demonstrations as part of a gradual liberalization of society. "We have to move away from this total ban and find ways for people to let off steam a little bit more, but safely," Lee said, calling for demonstrations to be allowed at Speakers' Corner. The government created the Speakers' Corner as an outdoor venue for political speeches in 2000, although Lee said it does not attract many speakers. Would-be speakers must register with police and abide by a list of rules which forbid discussion of religion or topics that might provoke racial tension. Multiracial Singapore has bitter memories of deadly riots more than 40 years ago. Lee said demonstrators would still have to keep away from race, language and religious topics. Chee Siok Chin said the activists were campaigning "for free speech and assembly" and did not want to be restricted to specific locations. She said one of the seven accused pleaded guilty Thursday. The cases of the other six are to be mentioned in court again on September 3, she said. If convicted, they face a maximum fine of S$1,000 (US$710.93) on each charge. Singapore's leaders say tough laws against dissent and other political activity are necessary to ensure the stability which has helped the city-state achieve economic success. Police Friday referred inquiries about the charges to the courts, where nobody was immediately available for comment. Asked why the charges have been laid almost two years after the protests, a spokesman for the Attorney General's Chambers, the government's legal adviser, declined comment. "We do not discuss details," Han Ming Kuang said. "It's almost as if they were hanging on...until they got an instruction from somewhere," Chee Siok Chin said. Chee Soon Juan is one of the few Singaporeans who have publicly spoken against the People's Action Party which has ruled since 1959. He has been jailed repeatedly for defying laws against protests and refusing to pay fines. His party has no seats in parliament. The Chee siblings spent several days in jail in June for contempt of court over their behavior during a defamation case filed by the Prime Minister and his father, former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, who is still a powerful cabinet member. http://www.chinapost.com.tw/asia/vietnam/2008/08/08/169221/Vietnam%2Dsentences.htm Vietnam sentences tribe villagers for protest AP Friday, August 8, 2008 HANOI, Vietnam -- A Vietnamese court has sentenced four ethnic minority villagers to up to six years in jail for staging anti-government protests, state-controlled media reported Thursday. The villagers from the Central Highlands province of Dak Nong were given jail terms ranging from two to six years at Wednesday's one-day trial, the Quan Doi Nhan Dan (People's Army) newspaper said. The court found the men guilty of inciting protests and helping more than 50 people flee the country into neighboring Cambodia last year, it said. Their acts "made some people misunderstand the (Communist) Party's leadership and distorted the social economic development policy," the newspaper said. http://allafrica.com/stories/200807310238.html Kenya: Schools Take Tough Measures After Riots The Nation (Nairobi) 31 July 2008 Posted to the web 31 July 2008 Benjamin Muindi and John Ngirachu Nairobi Tough conditions have been imposed on students seeking re-admission in schools affected by the recent wave of strikes. Parents will have to pay between Sh2,000 and Sh6,500 per student to cover for the damage caused when students burnt dormitories and destroyed other school property during the protests that rocked more than 300 schools countrywide. Some 700 students of Mwasere Girls Secondary School in Taita District will each pay Sh6,500 for the reconstruction of a dormitory burnt during the protests. In some institutions, students in boarding schools will be made day scholars. In other schools they will have to sign declarations that they will not take prohibited items to school. Personal interviews will be conducted to establish who led the arson attacks in which schools lost millions of shillings in properties. Transfers frozen The Ministry of Education has already declared that students who led the arson attacks would not be re-admitted. It has also stopped the transfer of students for one year. Among the other conditions that students and their parents must fulfil before readmission include: * Paying damage fees for schools where buildings and property were destroyed. * Form Four candidates involved in violent protests against mock examinations be suspended until the KCSE exam. * Students sit mock exams as they commute from home. * Clearance after police investigations into the cause of the mayhem. * Expulsion of those involved in the attacks. * Students to identify those who might have committed arson. While some of the students face prosecution, parents will also bear the burden for the extensive damage to school buildings and property. However, many parents have protested at the directive requiring them to pay for repairs. On Wednesday, parents at Dagoretti High School said the amount needed for repairing classrooms and doors had been increased to Sh3,500 from the Sh2,000 agreed on during an earlier meeting between them and the school administration. The school is set to re-open later in the week. Prompt parents The decision that parents will bear the full cost of rebuilding schools burnt down during strikes was first made by President Kibaki during a meeting in Nyeri at the weekend. Later, the senior deputy Director of Education in charge of secondary education, Ms Concilia Ondiek, said money from the Constituency Development Fund and other devolved funds would not be used to rebuild the destroyed facilities. This, she said, would prompt parents to take charge of their children's discipline. The Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association chairman, Mr Cleophas Tirop, has since supported the directive saying parents should shoulder the cost of repairing burnt schools. Mr Tirop, who is the Kapsabet Boys High School principal, said that as a rule, parents meet the cost of damage caused by students. "We cannot pass the cost to the Government while the students caused the problem," he said. Most headteachers the Nation spoke to supported the directive, saying it served parents right because they had abdicated the role of disciplining their children. This week, parents, teachers and other players in education, have been meeting to find the solutions to strikes in schools. In Nyeri, students dominated hearings by a parliamentary committee on the wave of violence in schools. They cited an overloaded curriculum, poor communication with their teachers, lack of basic facilities and indiscipline as some of the causes for the unrest. Students who made presentations opposed the re-introduction of corporal punishment. In Nairobi, students from Sunshine Secondary School said they were aggrieved by the administration's decision to suspend boarding facilities for Form Fours as they did their mocks. Students from Upper Hill Secondary School have not yet been recalled after they burnt a dormitory. One student died in the blaze. Only those in Form Four had resumed to sit their mock examinations. Parents, staff and students of St George's Secondary met on Wednesday to discuss the re-opening of the school which had been closed to forestall a strike. At Queen of Apostles Seminary, where students defied the advice of John Cardinal Njue and set fire to a dormitory hours after the Nairobi archbishop left, the rector, Fr John Muhindi, said that while the school was bound to act by the Government's rules on students who planned and executed the strikes, it was upon the administration to decide what to do with boys. Mobile phones The school was still investigating the incident and had identified at least 15 students who might have been involved. Fr Muhindi said communication using mobile phones and some students who had sought permission to be out of school before the fire occurred might have contributed to the burning of the dormitory. Parents will pay for its repair but the school would chip in if required to. At Kahawa Secondary School, also in Nairobi, students have been ordered to pay for damages. The school was closed last week after violent protests. The headmaster, Mr Peter Kiragu, said students from other forms had resumed school and were sitting the end of term examinations this week. The headteacher said those involved in the strike would be suspended up to the time of the KCSE examination and would then only be allowed in the school to sit their papers. He put the damage caused at the school at Sh100,000. At Aquinas Secondary School, the 800 parents will pay Sh2,000 each for a dormitory that was razed last week. The deputy principal, Mr Charles Ng'ang'a, said parents had agreed to pay the amount at a meeting at the school last week. End of term exam Mr Ng'ang'a said the damaged dormitory would cost Sh1.67 million to repair. According to him, most of the students were angry with their colleagues for the incident which had spoilt the school's reputation. The school will reopen in August so that students in lower forms can sit their end of term examinations and the Form Fours the mock examination. When the Nation visited the school on Wednesday, screening was going on to identify the students who might had been involved in the incident. At Royal Star Academy in Ongata Rongai, a meeting between the parents and the school's director, Mr Moses Ochieng, will determine who will foot the bill for the reconstruction of a dormitory worth Sh3.4 million. Mr Ochieng said he had put the school's programme first and only two of the students involved in the arson attack were still missing. Ngara Girls and Pumwani Secondary, which were also closed last week, are awaiting instructions from the Provincial Director of Education. http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/365021/1/.html Seoul to replace riot police with professional forces By Channel NewsAsia's Korea Bureau Chief Lim Yun Suk | Posted: 05 August 2008 1748 hrs Riot policemen detain a South Korean protester during an anti-government rally against US beef. SEOUL: Protest rallies in South Korea are usually quelled by the riot police but in a few years' time, professional forces are expected to take over their duties. There are currently about 40,000 men serving as riot police to fulfil their military obligation. But by 2014, South Korea plans to replace them with full-time professional policemen, whose main job scope would be to crack down on illegal protests and haul away violent protesters. Lee Yeon Jae of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency explained in Korean: "As the former riot police unit will be replaced by these new police unit, we hope to implement stricter law and order, and to enforce peaceful rallies." The new police unit is already at work, having been dispatched to rallies in downtown Seoul over the weekend, where South Koreans were protesting against the import of US beef and the government of President Lee Myung Bak. However, the move has been criticised by several civic groups, who accused the government of going back to the days under military dictatorship. The groups also said the new unit is a revival of the infamous Baekoldan, also known as the "white skull corps". Baekoldan was a well-trained special police team who wore white helmets and blue jackets instead of police uniform. They were known for their harsh crackdown on student protesters under the military dictatorship of former President Chun Doo Hwan in the 1980s and 1990s. Oh Chang Ik, Director for the Citizens, Solidarity for Human Right, said: "The unit being set up now is not for defence purpose but to attack and arrest. This shows the basic principle of the police towards rallies. "It seems like they are treating the rally participants like terrorists or enemies. This is a very dangerous situation." A human rights group, Amnesty International in Korea, recently released a report saying police had used excessive force against peaceful demonstrators during the rallies against the import of US beef. But others have argued that in situations such as protests, it is difficult for the police not to get violent. - CNA/yb http://africa.reuters.com/country/MA/news/usnBAN128593.html Moroccan activist jailed over report of riot deaths Fri 11 Jul 2008, 6:56 GMT RABAT (Reuters) - A Moroccan rights activist was jailed on Thursday for telling journalists that security forces had killed and raped protesters during riots in a southern town last month, accusations the government strenuously denied. Brahim Sbaalil, a leading member of the Moroccan Human Rights Centre (CMDH), said the authorities committed crimes against humanity when they broke up a protest over poverty and joblessness by youths in the port of Sidi Ifni on June 7. The government said no one died in the disturbances but that 48 people were injured, including 28 police, and 188 arrested. Police arrested Sbaalil after a news conference at which he spoke of "deaths, cases of disappearances and rapes" during the clashes in the port town 700 km (435 miles) southwest of Rabat, the authorities said. He was sentenced to six months in prison and handed a 1,000 dirham fine for "outraging the public authorities by claiming the existence of fictitious crimes". Rights campaigners and journalists packed into the Rabat court of first instance to hear the verdict, which defence lawyers said they would appeal. The Rabat bureau chief of Arabic satellite news channel Al Jazeera, which carried the reports of deaths in Sidi Ifni, was charged on June 13 under Morocco's press code with publishing false information and had his press card removed. Hassan Rachidi said the Qatari-based channel's reports gave prominence to the official denials of any deaths. Press freedom campaigners said the charges against Rachidi are excessive and highlight Moroccan government hostility to Al Jazeera and its staff. His sentence is still pending. Tension lingered over Sidi Ifni for several days after the riots, with residents complaining of brutal police tactics. Some witnesses who reported relatives missing later found they were under arrest. Communications Minister Khalid Naciri said the government had a moral duty to remove the protesters who were blocking the port, the town's economic lifeline, and restore order. He said any abuses, if proven, would be severely punished. A parliamentary commission created to examine the events in Sidi Ifni is yet to report its findings. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Sat Aug 30 00:48:27 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 08:48:27 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Repression news, USA, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <00dd01c90a74$cc00fa30$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * Pakistani faces trial in America [A non-American, arrested outside America, for an alleged crime outside America, with no evidence and probably a victim of prolonged human rights abuses, on trial in New York?!] * And they want to do it again, this time for actions in Britain * Detroit teachers fired for protesting * Protesters could be jailed for peaceful protest... rightists cheer on state aggression * Offer to drop charges in Sean Bell protests * After Olympia Mayday unrest: outpouring of anti-protest filth, protesters appear in court * Maine peace activists acquitted by jury - resisting illegal war is not a crime * FBI recruiting infiltrators for Republican Convention protests * Protester jailed for seven days for peaceful protest * 34 convicted over Guantanamo Bay protest, basic rights denied * Twelve Guantanamo protesters jailed * Tibet protesters likely to avoid jail; newspaper grumbles * Anti-war protesters cleared * Gas price protester threatened with jail for further "offences" * Denver seeks to ban chains, other items * Evergreen: most serious charges dropped, but 3 more charged, others sought * Woman jailed for wearing ordinary dress to court, later charged for carrying prescription medicine * Anti-war protesters win $2 million for wrongful arrest * Denver cops profile people with maps, bicycles as dangerous http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hIx6txfR3X7XD0o5UhytUhiaSI7w Wounded Pakistani woman faces US judge 5 hours ago NEW YORK (AFP) - A Pakistani mother who graduated from a top US university, then vanished five years ago, was charged in New York with attempted murder of US officers in Afghanistan, in a case prompting protests from her homeland. Suffering from a bullet wound sustained during the alleged assault in Afghanistan, Aafia Siddiqui, 36, had to be helped into the New York courtroom Tuesday to face murder and assault charges. A petite and frail figure wrapped in a maroon scarf, Siddiqui shook her head in apparent bewilderment as the judge read out the criminal complaint. She had been flown from Afghanistan into New York's JFK Airport Monday after being formally arrested earlier that day, officials and her lawyers said. US officials claim Siddiqui, who studied neuroscience in the United States during the 1990s, before returning home to Pakistan, is an Al-Qaeda operative. On July 18 she allegedly seized a US serviceman's rifle during interrogation in Afghanistan and opened fire. Her transfer from Afghanistan to Manhattan is painted by officials as an example of the United States' long reach in a "war on terror." But defense lawyers say Siddiqui has for the past five years been held captive -- possibly in a secret US or allied prison -- and that attempted murder charges were invented as a pretext to bring her to US territory. The defense asserts that Siddiqui, an honors graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), was physically incapable of assaulting officers at an Afghan police station, as alleged. "Picture this woman, who is very tiny, and ask yourself how she engaged in armed conflict with six military men," said defense lawyer Elaine Whitfield Sharp. "It's not plausible. It's not credible and there's nothing to support it," Elizabeth Fink, another lawyer, said. Siddiqui had suffered "enormous human rights violations," Fink said. Siddiqui, who was also named in a 2004 US list of suspects linked to Al-Qaeda, faces a maximum sentence of 20 years prison on each charge, if found guilty. She will attend a bail hearing on Monday and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on August 19, when a judge will decide whether there is sufficient ground to hold a trial. According to the prosecution's complaint sheet, Siddiqui was first detained by Afghan police on July 17 in possession of bomb-making instructions and suspicious liquids. While undergoing questioning the next day she allegedly seized a US army M-4 rifle and attacked a group of US servicemen, including two FBI agents, two US army officers, and army interpreters. Allegedly she missed and was shot in return fire by a serviceman. "Despite being shot, Siddiqui struggled with the officers when they tried to subdue her; she struck and kicked them while shouting in English that she wanted to kill Americans," the complaint reads. Siddiqui's supporters in Pakistan say that she is the real victim and was likely held by US or allied forces ever since her disappearance, along with her three young children, in Karachi in 2003. "What a mockery that after five years in detention Aafia is suddenly discovered in Afghanistan," her younger sister Fauzia Siddiqui told a news conference in Karachi. "Aafia was tortured for five years until one day US authorities announce that they have found her in Afghanistan," her sister claimed. Her lawyer, Sharp, said Siddiqui had no idea of who held her and where. She said her client was abused during her confinement without indicating how. "She's very traumatized, very fragile. She doesn't know where her children are," Sharp said. Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, has lodged a request with US authorities for consular access to Siddiqui, the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan news agency reported. Siddiqui is a devout Muslim, according to her lawyers, and while living in the United States took active part in fund raising for the kind of Islamic charities Washington claims provide cover for Al-Qaeda funding. She also has a long relationship with the United States. On graduating from MIT she took a doctorate in neuro-cognitive science at Brandeis University, near Boston. US media reports have referred, erroneously, to her being a trained biologist, with skills applicable to making biological weapons. She returned to Pakistan in late 2002 after divorcing her husband, who was briefly detained and questioned by the FBI in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Between her divorce and disappearance she is reported to have married a nephew of the alleged September 11 mastermind, Khaled Sheikh Mohammed. However, defense lawyers question this and say any information extracted from Mohammed is tainted because he was tortured while being held by the CIA. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article4628575.ece August 29, 2008 British hacker Gary McKinnon in final appeal to Home Secretary over extradition (Dave Bebber/The Times) Gary McKinnon is due to be extradited to the United States within two weeks and faces up to 80 years in prison David Brown A UFO enthusiast who hacked into top-secret US military computers appealed to the Home Secretary yesterday to stop his extradition after losing a legal appeal. Gary McKinnon is due to be extradited to the United States within two weeks and could face a sentence of up to 80 years in a maximum-security prison if found guilty. He admits to having accessed 97 US Navy, Army, Nasa and Pentagon computers in what has been described as "the biggest computer hack of all time". Mr McKinnon, 42, an unemployed systems analyst, has said that he was looking for computer files containing details about UFOs and aliens. The US Government says that he stole passwords, deleted files and left threatening messages. Mr McKinnon, of Palmers Green, North London, admitted carrying out the hacks using a computer in the bedroom of a house owned by his girlfriend's aunt. He says that he was motivated by curiosity and gained entry only because of lax security. Related Links 'Biggest ever hacker' loses US extradition appeal Briton faces US court for hacking charges He had asked the European Court of Human Rights to stay his extradition pending an appeal, but the application was refused yesterday. He lost appeals to the High Court last year and to the House of Lords last month. US prosecutors allege that he caused nearly $1 million (?550,000) in damage. The US military says that he rendered 300 computers at a US Navy weapons station unusable immediately after the September 11 attacks. Mr McKinnon had become obsessed with a theory that the US was using alien technologies to create weapons and "free energy". He gave up his job and spent hours every night hacking in search of evidence. He hacked into 53 US Army computers and 26 US Navy computers, including those at US Naval Weapons Station Earle in New Jersey, which is responsible for replenishing munitions and supplies for the Atlantic Fleet. Calling himself Solo, he left a threatening message: "US foreign policy is akin to government-sponsored terrorism these days? It was not a mistake that there was a huge security stand-down on September 11 last year . . . I am SOLO. I will continue to disrupt at the highest levels." He was caught in November 2002 as he tried to download a grainy black-and-white photograph that he believed was of an alien craft held on a Nasa computer in the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas. He was easily traced by the authorities because he used his girlfriend's e-mail account. Mark Summers, an official representing the US Government, said that Mr McKinnon's hacking was "intentional and calculated to influence and affect the US Government by intimidation and coercion". If extradited, Mr McKinnon faces trial on eight charges of computer fraud. Each charge could carry a sentence of ten years in jail and a $250,000 fine. It is likely that he would receive a much lighter sentence and that, under a plea bargain offer, he would spend six to 12 months in a US jail before being returned to Britain to serve the rest of his sentence. Mr McKinnon has previously said: "What I did was illegal and wrong, and I accept I should be punished. But I am not a member of al-Qaeda. I believe my case is being treated so seriously because they're scared of what I've seen. I'm living in a surreal, nutter's film." He has suggested that the US authorities should take advantage of his expertise rather than prosecute him. "The reason I left not just one note, but multiple notes on multiple desk-tops, was to say 'Look, this is ridiculous'." Karen Todner, from Kaim Todner solicitors, said that Mr McKinnon was "distraught" about the decision by the European Court of Human Rights and appealed to Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, to intervene. "He is terrified by the prospect of going to America," she said. Ms Todner added that the alleged offences had been committed on British soil and so he should be tried here. She also said that Mr McKinnon had recently been found to have Asperger's syndrome http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080620/SCHOOLS/806200407/1026/rss06 Friday, June 20, 2008 2 Detroit teachers fired after protest Jennifer Mrozowski / The Detroit News Two Detroit Public Schools math teachers were fired Thursday following their participation in a raucous protest against school closings last year, in which some students said police used a chemical spray on them. Heather Miller and Steve Conn, who are married, participated in a May 1, 2007, protest along with students and members of the group By Any Means Necessary. They have been on administrative leave since June 2007. Board President Carla Scott said the teachers allowed students to be placed in harm's way. The students, she said, were taken to protest at schools that were not listed on their permission slips. The two teachers learned at the start of the school year they were on unpaid administrative leave. It's unclear who ordered that the two would not be paid. Their salaries were reinstated in October and it was then that the district charged them with misconduct and sought termination. A judge ruled last week that the teachers faced retaliation by Detroit Public Schools for their participation in the protest and that they must be reinstated and receive back pay. Doyle O'Connor, administrative law judge of the Michigan Employment Relations Commission, blasted the school district's actions in his 26-page ruling and ordered the district to cease interfering with employees' rights to pursue grievances, hold union office or participate in lawful public protests. The teachers' attorney, George Washington, said they will sue the district. http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news/policebeat.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-07-02-0136.html Protest may lead to time in jail The 'Tredegar 12' face trial July 29 but maybe not repayment Wednesday, Jul 02, 2008 - 12:08 AM A protester rappels from the Belle Island Bridge as police wait for him on the ground. (MICHAEL MARTZ/RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH) By MICHAEL MARTZ TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER First came the cause. Now come the consequences. Twelve political activists could face time in jail for their parts in a protest that blockaded the entrance to Dominion Resources' corporate headquarters in downtown Richmond on Monday. However, they may be spared from repaying the city for police, fire and rescue costs in responding to the protest. The protest blocked Tredegar Street at Dominion's gate beneath the Lee Bridge and caused a traffic jam at morning rush hour that reached to the Powhite Parkway. Police and fire officials said they don't have estimates of their costs and will not pursue recovery. "We don't want to give them that much credit," said Richmond police spokeswoman Karla Peters. The "Tredegar 12" will face trial July 29 in the traffic division of Richmond General District Court on charges of obstruction of justice and blocking a rescue vehicle during the protest, which was aimed at Dominion Virginia Power's plans to build a $1.8 billion coal-fired power plant in Southwest Virginia. The state issued the air-pollution permits for the project last week. Also on Monday, Dominion Virginia Power began construction of the plant in Wise County and also announced that it will attempt to build a third nuclear reactor at its North Anna power plant in Louisa County, which was a secondary target of this week's protest. "We didn't mean to cause any harm to the city," said Marley Green, a 22-year-old college student from Harrisonburg, in statement released by the group. "We felt the action was a necessary step that had to take place." Green was the most visible player in the protest, which began by surprise Monday at 7 a.m. He dangled in a climber's harness from the pedestrian footbridge to Belle Isle for more than two hours, while four other protesters blocked the street with their hands locked into containers of hardened cement. He was the only defendant who did not qualify for a court-appointed attorney at a preliminary hearing yesterday before Richmond General District Judge Thomas O. Jones. However, Blue Ridge Earth First! spokeswoman Hannah Morgan said yesterday that an attorney has volunteered to represent Green without charge. The four protesters who locked themselves into a human chain across the street are Holly E. Garrett, Kaitlyn E. Hart, Barbara Spitz and Alissa J. Walsh. The seven other protesters arrested in support roles are Emily Gillespie, Jason M. Johnson, Amber M. Keller, Lara Mack, Nottingham Parks, Vicente Rosa and Laura Von Dohlen. Each of the protesters could face up to 12 months in jail on the obstruction charge and up to six months on the charge of interfering with a rescue vehicle, as well as penalties up to $2,500 and $1,000 respectively. Richmond Commonwealth's Attorney Michael N. Herring said yesterday that he will seek jail time for the protesters and said he wants to send the right message with the prosecution. "There has to be a proper balance between the constitutional rights of expression on one hand, and public order and property on the other," he said. "If a stay at the hot, uncomfortable city jail isn't a deterrent, I don't know that other penalties may be, either." Contact Michael Martz at (804) 649-6964 or mmartz at timesdispatch.com Posted July 03, 2008 @ 05:42 PM by Anonymous "There will be no revolution so long as we want the trains to run on time." If people were never willing to be a few hours late to work, miss a few classes, or even spend some time in jail, African-Americans might still be considered second-class citizens. If a traffic jam is what it takes to get people to start thinking about the destruction of the planet and the exploitation of coal field residents, then you might want to grab a cup of coffee and wait it out. Posted July 03, 2008 @ 07:37 AM by dustyrose These children are the future of the planet who will have the final say on the earth's environmental impact on every living bio specimen on planet earth. If our generation should never do anything about the current pollution; then I pray to GOD GenY and GenX will do something about the trash left behind for our descendants who will have to clean up our trash buried in the earth, trash in our atmosphere, trash in our oceans, and the trash that found its way to our dinner tables -carcinogens-GREED Posted July 02, 2008 @ 09:13 PM by anonymous To the Liberal Losers who say they had a right to do what they did. You have every right under the First Amendment to protest whatever you want. What you DON'T have the right to do is block traffic, obstruct interstate commerce, and prevent people from getting to the hospital. These idiots should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/nyregion/18bell.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin Offer to Drop Charges in Sean Bell Protests By THE NEW YORK TIMES Published: June 18, 2008 The Brooklyn district attorney, Charles J. Hynes, announced on Tuesday that his office was prepared to drop all charges against 28 people arrested on May 7 in connection with protests against the acquittals of the officers charged in the shooting death of Sean Bell. All 28 people had been charged with disorderly conduct because they had blocked traffic or refused orders to disperse. They will be offered the chance to have their cases adjourned in contemplation of dismissal, Mr. Hynes's office said in a statement. If they stay out of trouble, the charges will be dismissed in six months. The statement was released shortly after Councilman Charles Barron, a Brooklyn Democrat who was among the 28 arrested, held a protest outside the district attorney's office to criticize what he called the slow handling of the cases. In all, at least 224 people were arrested on May 7 in Manhattan and Brooklyn in a series of carefully coordinated, nonviolent demonstrations at major intersections that disrupted traffic.. Barbara Thompson, a spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney's office, said charges were still pending against the 196 people arrested in Manhattan. http://www.theolympian.com/news/story/437813.html Olympia's patience wears thin with protests By Keri Brenner | The Olympian . Published May 03, 2008 The public's patience for protests and demonstrations reached its end after the May Day unrest in Olympia, dozens of readers said Friday. "While I still believe strongly in the right to protest, I think these groups have just gone too far lately," said Chris Rea of Olympia. "Once protesters started rioting, defacing and acting out with violence, then it's no longer a protest and the message they are trying to spread is completely negated." Six people were arrested after protesters threw rocks into downtown bank windows and left graffiti on the state Capitol's legislative building. "I am appalled and disgusted with those people who took it upon themselves to destroy and deface public and private property," said Ilene James of Lacey. "I find it hard to believe that anyone would actually scribble on the walls of our beautiful Capitol building - that's the most disgraceful thing of all." In November, 66 demonstrators were arrested at the Port of Olympia when protesters tried to block military shipments from Iraq headed to Fort Lewis. On Feb. 15, concert-goers rioted after a man's arrest for fighting during a hip-hop concert at The Evergreen State College. The rioters overturned a Thurston County sheriff's patrol car and caused $50,000 worth of damage to that car and three others. Dennis Mills of Olympia said he fears the incident will result in citizens becoming even more polarized. "As a person who has previously demonstrated for peace and social justice issues for the last six years in Olympia, I will have to think twice before endorsing, supporting, or participating in future rallies," Mills said. Several people urged citizens to pressure Olympia City Council and other leaders to take action regarding future protests. The City Council meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall. "It seems strange that Seattle can have a peaceful demonstration and Olympia always seems to get a violent one," said Buc Alboucq of Lacey. Some readers blasted the protesters. "They act like petulant children who should be taken to the woodshed," said James Boone of Olympia. Others blamed the unrest on the Bush administration or on Evergreen. The event was supposed to be a show of support for workers rights and immigration reform, but readers said any message was lost after the vandalism and rock-throwing. "My greatest sadness is that anyone should feel so alienated from their society that they would consider destruction to be the only way for their voices to be heard," Ken Adney of Olympia said. Christy Belcher of Olympia agreed, adding that the "escalating violence only hurts the cause of the peaceful protesters." http://www.king5.com/localnews/stories/NW_050208WAB_olympia_may_day_protesters_KS.c14977e0.html Olympia May Day protesters appear in court 06:06 PM PDT on Friday, May 2, 2008 By CHRIS DANIELS / KING 5 News Video: Olympia protesters appear in court OLYMPIA, Wash. - Protestors who stormed the state Capitol yesterday in a May Day rally appeared in court today. Friends of the suspects packed into the courtroom to listen as prosecutors listed off a series of accusations. Six young people - some with ties to other states - are now facing potential charges including malicious mischief, assault, and rioting. Related Content May Day protesters pound on Governor's door Slide show: Protests at state capitol Big cleanup underway after protests turn unruly Peace march turns violent in Olympia RAW: protesters clash with police Police say rocks were hurled through windows and graffiti was scrawled on the walls of the state Capitol as protests turned violent. One of the men arrested had already been arrested on the Evergreen State campus for a riot in March. "It's a culture, a culture with a lot of the kids that we run into down here and they give off the message that they're peaceful people, and their actions are a complete turnaround of words," said Lt. Jim Costa, of the Olympia police force. Groups have clashed with police in Olympia three times now in two years - at the port, at the Evergreen State College campus, and now at the Capitol. "It's been pretty violent, this is just another spin-off on that," Costa said. Police say it's caused them to consistently re-evaluate crowd control, like when to use non-lethal weapons, including a pepper ball gun used to disperse crowds in downtown Olympia on May Day. http://www.myantiwar.org/view/150667.html Jury acquits six in protest By Thursday, May 01, 2008 - Bangor Daily News BANGOR, Maine - Six longtime anti-war activists arrested last year for refusing to leave the Federal Building when it closed for the day were found not guilty Wednesday of criminal trespass. A Penobscot County Superior Court jury deliberated for 2? hours after a two-day trial. The defendants, who live in communities from Wells to Bangor, were arrested along with six others on March 8, 2007, at a protest at U.S. Sen. Susan Collins' office in the Harlow Street building. They said they were protesting President Bush's proposal to increase the number of U.S. combat troops in Iraq to support a military strategy known as the surge. Members of the group also were urging Collins to vote against continued funding for the war. After the verdict was announced about 1:45 p.m., the defendants, their attorneys and their supporters celebrated on the steps of the courthouse in between interviews with reporters. Jonathan Kreps, 57, of Appleton, Henry Braun, 77, of Wells, James Freeman, 59, of Verona, Dudley F. Hendrick, 66, of Deer Isle, Douglas Rawlings, 61, of Chesterville, and Robert Shetterly, 61, of Brooksville, chose to go to trial. The other six pleaded guilty and paid fines. "To be honest, I'm a little incredulous," Freeman said after the verdict. "I thought there was a remote chance that we'd have a hung jury, but I didn't expect this. The fact that this was a not-guilty verdict says something about the way the wind is blowing in this state. "People have had enough of this war, enough of corruption and enough of high oil prices," he said. "We can't continue to spend $12 billion a month on the war and not be affected at home." Freeman, Hendrick and Shetterly represented themselves. Attorney Philip Worden of Northeast Harbor represented Rawlings. "The key to the verdict was the great defendants," said attorney Lynne Williams of Bar Harbor, who represented Kreps and Braun. "They were sincere, believable and honest. That, along with very careful jury selection, is why we have this verdict." Williams said that Superior Court Justice William R. Anderson, who presided over the jury selection process but not the trial, allowed a defense-proposed question about potential jurors' attitudes toward civil disobedience. Justice Michaela Murphy presided over the trial. Brendan Trainer, assistant district attorney for Penobscot County, prosecuted the case. He referred questions to District Attorney R. Christopher Almy. "I think that the public in Maine is so disgusted with the war in Iraq that they demonstrated their disgust with this verdict," said Almy, a Democrat. "And, that they are upset with [Sen. Olympia] Snowe and Collins for getting us involved in this debacle." State law, he said, does not allow the prosecution to appeal a not guilty verdict. Almy, who praised Trainer's presentation of the case, said the verdict most likely would affect whether his office prosecutes protesters arrested in the Federal Building in the future. "At this point," Almy said, "we're going to have to consider the precedent that this verdict sets and we may very well have to consider giving these cases to the U.S. attorney to prosecute because this state court case may preclude successful future prosecutions. "Also, I would like to say that Snowe and Collins got us involved in this mismanaged war and it may be up to them to persuade the U.S. attorney to take on these cases," he concluded. When informed of the verdict, Jen Burita, a spokeswoman for Collins, said Wednesday, "We are pleased that the matter has been resolved." U.S. Attorney Paula Silsby, who is based in Portland, said she would have to research whether her office had jurisdiction to prosecute people arrested in the federal building in Bangor. Many years ago, she said, protesters arrested at the Federal Building in Portland were prosecuted in federal court. A woman juror who refused to be identified talked to the defendants on the courthouse steps after the verdict. She said that the war really did not factor into the verdict. The juror said that the state did not meet its burden of proof on the first element needed to prove them guilty of criminal trespass - whether the protesters were in the Federal Building knowing they were not licensed or privileged to be there. "I testified that I felt we had an obligation to be there," Freeman said, when asked if he felt he had a right to be in the Federal Building after he had been told to leave. He speculated that his acquittal and that of his co-defendants would increase the number of protests against the war. The six others arrested during the protest pleaded guilty to criminal trespass between May 2007 and January 2008 and paid the following fines: Patricia L. Wheeler, 62, Deer Isle, $200. Nancy W. Hill, 54, Stonington, $400. Judith Robbins, 59, Sedgwick, $400. Peter Robbins, 59, Sedgwick, $200. Diane Fitzgerald, 66, Blue Hill, $200. Maureen R. Block, 53, Swanville, $200. The fine for a first conviction is $200, the fine for a second is $400. http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/86568/?page=entire Maine Jury Says It's Legal to Protest an Illegal War By Penny Coleman, AlterNet. Posted May 31, 2008. A rare bit of good news for the anti-war movement goes largely ignored by the media. The stink leaking out of Ira Katz's office at the Veterans Affairs just doesn't stop. Every day some callous new email shows how little he cares that the stunning statistics about soldier and veteran suicides he is trying to suppress represent real lives that were his responsibility; some flat-footed attempt is made to convince Congress -- again -- that he didn't mean to "mislead." As the widow of a Vietnam vet who took his own life after coming home, all the skulduggery and frightening indifference that agents of this government have exhibited in its attempt to keep it all out of sight has been particularly hard to take. But even given my deep personal connection to these stories, I'm finding it increasingly difficult to sustain an appropriately high-decibel level of outrage. I am so very tired of it all. A little good news would go a long way. This must be the dreaded scandal fatigue. But just when I was feeling tempted to settle for the paltry encouragement in something as entirely meaningless as the demise of yet another administration enabler like Katz, who, for all his weasely ways, is finally only the dull instrument of his boss's heartlessness, a story came my way that gave me a moment of hope. But first, the bad news. The bad news is that this hopeful story -- one that illustrates a constructive and effective direct action for change -- was reported only in the Bangor Daily News. Period. The good news, which that paper reported on April 30, is that six peace activists were acquitted on charges of criminal trespass for failing to obey a police request that they abandon their sit-in outside U.S. Sen. Susan Collins' office in the Margaret Chase Smith Federal Building in Maine. The defendants, Doug Rawlings, Henry Braun, Jimmy Freeman, Dud Hendrick, Rob Shetterly and Jonathan Kreps -- dubbed the Bangor Six -- were arrested in March 2007 for protesting Bush's proposed troop escalation and Collins' continued support of funding for the war. According to Rawlings, "Our case was pretty simple: We argued that we believed we had a right and an obligation to stay in that federal building until Collins heard us out and agreed that the war is not only immoral but illegal under international law." Specifically, they based their defense on the First Amendment's "right of the people ... to petition the Government for redress of grievances," and their belief that the war is being pursued in defiance of Article VI of the Constitution ("all treaties made ... under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby"), the Nuremberg Principles and the Geneva Conventions. After a two-day trial in Penobscot County Superior Court, a jury of 12 citizens agreed and brought back a verdict of "not guilty." Though Judge Michaela Murphy explicitly instructed the jury to set aside their feelings about the war and only deliberate on the evidence presented during the trial, she did allow jurors to consider whether or not the defendants believed that they had the "license and privilege" to consciously choose to break Maine law because they thought international law was being violated. The jurors decided unanimously that the protesters did, in fact, believe they had that right. For Hendrick, a Naval Academy graduate and former Air Force officer who volunteered for two tours in Vietnam and who now teaches peace studies at the University of Maine at Orono, the "not guilty" verdict was especially sweet. Hendrick has been down this road before, having been arrested five years ago for protesting the war in front of Collins' office and again three years ago in front of the office of Maine's other senator, Olympia Snowe. In his defense, he told the jury, "My best friend's name is on the wall in Washington, as are the names of three other teammates and nine classmates." Those deaths and the deaths of another generation of soldiers and civilians were on his mind when he refused to leave the Federal Building: "Every life lost is a heinous crime, and we are all complicit. We should all be working to stop a foreign policy run amok without conscience," Hendrick told me. Penobscot County District Attorney Christopher Almy told the Bangor Daily News that he believes the verdict could be read as an indication of Mainers' disgust toward what he referred to as the "debacle" in Iraq and their impatience with both Maine senators, Collins and Snowe, who have continued to support it. He said he would have to reconsider how to handle such cases in the future. One option, he suggested, would be to refer such cases to federal prosecutors, but Maine's chief federal prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Paula Silsby, has said she does not think she has jurisdiction. Why the feds were not asked to handle this particular case to begin with is unclear -- other than the fact that it would have drawn greater attention to Collins' steadfast refusal, over the past six years, to allow her constituents to express their opinions in town hall-style meetings. After the verdict was announced, the defendants headed to a local watering hole for drinks and champagne. "We called Collins' office from the bar," Rawlings told me, "to tell her aide about the verdict. We got a terse note back from the office announcing Collins's firm stand on funding the war to 'protect the troops.'" Collins is up for re-election in November. Jurors, advised by the judge not to "surrender an honest conviction," appeared pleased with the decision. "A good thing was done here today," said trial juror Emily Herrold, who left the courthouse smiling. A little good news goes a long way. http://www.discourse.net/archives/2008/05/fbi_recruiting_infiltrators_for_gop_convention_protestors.html May 26, 2008 FBI Recruiting Infiltrators for GOP Convention Protestors This gets complicated. According to - City Pages (Minneapolis/St. Paul), Moles Wanted, the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force is recruiting people to infiltrate anti-GOP protest groups in the run-up to the upcoming Republican convention. The law is clear that police may attend public meetings undercover to see what people are up to. And of course undercover operations in private settings are also legal, although there should be guidelines as to when they are appropriate. And of course it's good citizenship for private citizens to report crimes when they witness them. But this story raises a number of serious questions. First, there's this: the FBI told the potential informant that he "would be compensated for his efforts, but only if his involvement yielded an arrest. No exact dollar figure was offered." In other words, the FBI is recruiting unpaid volunteers to become infiltrators. And they get paid only if they give information leading to an arrest. Which creates a serious incentive for agents provocateurs. This is not a sensible policy at all. It is in fact a very bad idea. Second, there's the weird description of the targets - "vegan potlucks" - and the general sense of massive overkill, which contributes to the chilling effect discussed in the article. I also wonder whether a similar effort is underway for the Democratic convention (not that two wrongs make a right). If it is not, would that be because of a political bias in the FBI, or a considered judgment that McCain is more likely to be a target of violence than the first Black (or female) major-party Presidential candidate? Bottom line: we don't want violence, but we also don't a stifling police presence that - whatever its motives - feels like an attempt to stifle dissent. And we especially don't want to live in an informer nation in which people with no training and who knows what personal agendas are offered a chance to make money by stirring up trouble and then phoning the FBI. Update: Emptywheel at Firedoglake has some good comments, notably: How does one equate vegan potlucks with this restriction on permissible terrorist investigations? Mere speculation that force or violence might occur during the course of an otherwise peaceable demonstration is not sufficient grounds for initiation of an investigation under this Subpart, but where facts or circumstances reasonably indicate that a group or enterprise has engaged or aims to engage in activities involving force or violence or other criminal conduct described in paragraph (1)(a) in a demonstration, an investigation may be initiated in conformity with the standards of that paragraph. [her emphasis] It's a very good question. Rule of Law anyone? http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/33787 Eve Tetaz, 76, Going to Jail for 7 Days for Protesting Gitmo Torture Prison Submitted by davidswanson on Sat, 2008-05-31 00:22. Nonviolent Resistance What have we come to? http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/29/AR2008052903103.html?hpid=sec-nation 34 Convicted in Display At U.S. Supreme Court Protesters Had Decried Guantanamo By Keith L. Alexander Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, May 30, 2008; Page B01 Thirty-four people were convicted yesterday of misdemeanor charges stemming from a demonstration at the Supreme Court in January in which they decried conditions at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. D.C. Superior Court Judge Wendell P. Gardner Jr. said the demonstrators violated the law by protesting at the plaza of the Supreme Court, where such activities are banned. He rejected arguments that they were practicing free speech when they marched to the plaza, despite warnings from police, carrying banners and wearing T-shirts saying "Shut down Guantanamo." The demonstration occurred Jan. 11, the sixth anniversary of the opening of the detention facility, which was set up to house terrorism suspects. During a three-day trial, prosecutors presented a videotape that showed several officers warning the protesters to remain on the sidewalk, where demonstrations are legal, or risk arrest. During the trial, many of the 21 men and 13 women wore orange jumpsuits to show solidarity with Guantanamo detainees. When the defendants spoke, they gave their name and then the name, age and a brief biography of someone they described as a Guantanamo detainee. Many wore a tag bearing the name of a detainee. As Gardner began explaining his ruling, one of the defendants, Paul Magno of the District, stood up and turned away from the judge. Gardner ordered a marshal to arrest Magno for contempt of court. Magno was escorted out, but not before shouting to the judge: "You have committed a crime against justice." The judge ordered all defendants to return to court today for sentencing. Each faces up to 60 days in jail. Gardner said most will probably get probation. Those who had prior convictions, mostly for civil disobedience or disturbing the peace, could be jailed, Gardner said, to stop them from doing "the same thing over and over." Because the charges were misdemeanors punishable by less than six months in jail, the case was heard by a judge instead of a jury. After the decision, several defendants said they weren't surprised by the ruling but were pleased that they could voice their concerns about Guantanamo in court. "We're sad about the convictions, but we're happy, moved and humbled to bring the stories, names and identification of the men in Guantanamo into a court of law," said Frida Berrigan, 34, of Brooklyn. She is the daughter of the late Philip Berrigan, a former Roman Catholic priest who was a major figure in the American peace movement during the Vietnam War. The protesters are part of a group called Witness Against Torture, which has held demonstrations across the country condemning the prison. Members range in age from 19 to their early 70s. The defendants represented themselves at trial, and their closing arguments drew emotional responses from each other and from supporters in the courtroom. Several wiped away tears as two defendants spoke on behalf of the group, citing the actions of Martin Luther King Jr. and others. Earlier in the trial, the judge had dismissed charges against a 35th defendant because he said he had not been conclusively identified by police in a review of the videotape. Before Gardner issued his ruling yesterday, one of the defendants stood and asked for a moment of silence for the detainees. Assistant U.S. Attorney Magdalena Acevedo quickly jumped to her feet to object. "Your honor, this is a court of law. And no matter what we may think of their personal beliefs, it does not justify them violating the law," Acevedo said. http://www.democracynow.org/2008/6/3/anti_torture_activists_convicted_jailed_for June 03, 2008 Anti-Torture Activists Convicted, Jailed for Protesting Gitmo Outside Supreme Court Thirty-four anti-torture activists have been convicted for protesting the Guantanamo Bay prison outside the Supreme Court. Twelve are now serving jail sentences. During the trial, protesters gave their names and those of Guantanamo prisoners and dressed in orange jumpsuits and black hoods. We speak to Matt Daloisio of Witness Against Torture, who gave the opening statement at the trial. [includes rush transcript] JUAN GONZALEZ: Thirty-four anti-torture activists have been convicted for protesting the Guantanamo Bay prison outside the Supreme Court. Twelve are now serving jail sentences ranging from one to fifteen days. The demonstration took place on January 11th, the sixth anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo. As they did in January, several protesters dressed like Guantanamo prisoners in orange jumpsuits and black hoods during their trial. AMY GOODMAN: Matt Daloisio is a member of Witness Against Torture. He read the opening statement at the trial. He's a member of the New York Catholic Worker, is on the board of the War Resisters League. Welcome to Democracy Now! Matt. Talk about the trial, what you said in your statement and what's since happened. MATT DALOISIO: As part of the trial, there were fifteen of us who chose to be silent in solidarity with the men who have no chance to speak in court. So at the beginning of the trial, I read a statement into the record, where fifteen of us who were wearing orange jumpsuits in the trial said that we've made it further in the criminal justice system in five months than men in Guantanamo have in five years, and we're going to be in solidarity with them by not defending ourselves, by not taking rights that are not granted to them. JUAN GONZALEZ: And so, how did the trial develop then? MATT DALOISIO: After that, the government put on its case and tried to prove how we were-we were charged with displaying a banner, flag or other device to draw attention to a political party, organization or movement in the Supreme Court. AMY GOODMAN: I'm confused. Explain exactly what you did. MATT DALOISIO: So, about forty of us assembled on the Supreme Court steps in orange jumpsuits and holding signs that said "Shut down Guantanamo." And about forty gathered inside the Supreme Court wearing orange T-shirts and reading accounts of prisoners in Guantanamo. AMY GOODMAN: Inside the Supreme Court. MATT DALOISIO: Correct. JUAN GONZALEZ: And there's actually a law that prohibits people from having banners outside the Supreme Court? MATT DALOISIO: Free speech ends at the Supreme Court's steps. And in this trial we weren't actually contesting the law. But we were contesting the fact that law without justice is simply a mechanism of tyranny. Inside the Supreme Court, there's a display about old Supreme Court cases, and one of them that they look as somberly is the Dred Scott decision in 1857. And we pointed out in court that we would like to think that if people in 1857 gathered on the steps and inside the Supreme Court speaking out against the Dred Scott decision, that justices in our land would be able to see that maybe we shouldn't be applying the law to this and recognize the value of speaking out against what are really crimes. AMY GOODMAN: Matt, you now have been sentenced, but explain what is happening. MATT DALOISIO: So twelve of our brothers and sisters are in D.C. jail doing sentences between one and fifteen days. And the rest of the defendants have suspended sentences and one-year stay away from the Supreme Court and one year of probation. And if we violate that, we could be serving our sentences, which range from ten to thirty days. JUAN GONZALEZ: How did they differentiate those who were sent to jail versus those that got suspended sentences? MATT DALOISIO: Some of the folks refused probation, and others refused to speak in their own defense in solidarity with those, again, in Guantanamo, who have no chance to speak in court. They also tried to single out who the leaders of the group were and tried to give them more time. There was clearly a tone in the court of wanting to discourage this from happening. It came out in the trial that the longest-serving police officer there was twenty-one years, and he had never seen a demonstration inside the Supreme Court. So it was clear that they wanted to make a point that they don't want these demonstrations in the Supreme Court. AMY GOODMAN: In the sentencing phase, each of you spoke the name of the prisoner you represented, and you invited the prosecutor and judge to join you? MATT DALOISIO: We had two folks-all of us represented ourselves, and we had two folks give closing statements, after which each one of us stood up individually and gave our name and the name of the prisoner we were there on behalf of. And it was a packed courtroom and a very emotional moment, at the end of which I asked the court to join us in a moment of silence for the prisoners in Guantanamo, over 200 of whom are still there. And everyone in the court stood, including the prosecutor, who stood to object. But to the judge's credit, he let the moment of silence stand. And it was another point in the trial where those men's names and their presence was with us. JUAN GONZALEZ: And the detainee you were representing? MATT DALOISIO: I was representing a man named Yasser al-Zahrani, who was arrested at the age of seventeen, and at the age of twenty-two, on June 10, 2006, he apparently took his own life. So my sentencing statement was simply to read and spell his name into the record and point out that it possibly will be the last time it's ever entered into a US court. AMY GOODMAN: Matt, were you one of the people who went to Cuba to try to call attention to Guantanamo, stopped from getting to the prison? MATT DALOISIO: In 2005, Witness Against Torture formed as a trip to go try to visit the prisoners. And there were twenty-five of us who tried to go to the prison in Cuba. AMY GOODMAN: I just want to say that on Saturday night at UC Davis in California, I talked to three prisoners by videoconference-we did it on a stage-who were in Sudan, ex-prisoners at Guantanamo. They said they were aware of the protest, and it was very moving to them inside. . http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/08/BAJB114OUQ.DTL Tibet bridge protesters' 'punishment' familiar Phillip Matier,Andrew Ross Sunday, June 8, 2008 The three protesters who scaled the Golden Gate Bridge and unfurled "Free Tibet" banners while suspended 150 feet over traffic a couple of days before the big Olympic torch run in April will have all the charges against them dismissed once they complete 25 hours of community service. Thanks to a decision by San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris' office, the three were eligible for pretrial diversion and community service - and the court officials in charge of picking the community service sent them to Students for a Free Tibet. Shouldn't be too onerous, since the three were already affiliated with the group when they climbed up the bridge's suspension cables April 7. "That's beautiful," said a not-too-happy John Moylan, president of the Golden Gate Bridge District Board of Directors. "There could have been a collision with all of the distractions they caused," Moylan said. "They put our workers in jeopardy. It was a very dangerous situation. They should have been prosecuted to the full extent of the law." That's just what the California Highway Patrol asked the D.A. to do - press felony conspiracy charges against climbers Mac Sutherlin, Duane Martinez and Hannah Strange, plus their helpers who were arrested on the ground. The D.A.'s office, however, wouldn't play ball. "In my estimation, that doesn't rise to the level of felony conduct," said Chief Assistant District Attorney Russ Giuntini. Instead, the D.A. filed misdemeanor charges against the climbers and nothing against their helpers. Defense attorney Mark Vermeulen, a 24-year veteran of defending protesters who worked on the case, says all three climbers were experienced and knew exactly what they were doing. "They wouldn't have done it if they had thought there was a danger," Vermeulen said. As for the fear that they could have caused an accident on the bridge, or that bridge workers who were sent up to remove the banners might have been hurt? "I suppose one would have to concede that it is always possible - but it didn't happen," Vermeulen said. Harris' office said prosecutors lacked the evidence to prove that the three climbers and their cohorts had conspired together, although according to CHP Capt. Bob Morehen, the D.A. pulled the plug on a felony case while CHP investigators were still trying to get that evidence. As a result, the three climbers were charged with misdemeanor trespassing, creating a public nuisance and resisting arrest. And since all three were eligible for pretrial diversion, the charges will be dropped once they complete their 25 hours of community service with their pro-Tibet group. "It doesn't surprise me," said Morehen, who has been around San Francisco for some time. "Does it surprise you?" http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/10/9525/ Published on Tuesday, June 10, 2008 by The Oregonian Anti-War Protesters Cleared in Tank Case by Aimee Green Two anti-war protesters who stood in front of a rose-laden tank during last year's Grand Floral Parade had their legal troubles wiped away by a judge Monday. Bonnie Tinker, 60, and Sara Graham, 67 - two members of the "Seriously P.O.'d Grannies" - were charged with disorderly conduct and interfering with police after they held up anti-war signs in front of the tank in the middle of the parade. "I don't think freedom of speech is disorderly," Tinker said. The Northeast Portland residents, who are partners and grandmothers, said they urged the Rose Festival not to include the World War II-era tank in the family oriented parade, but their request was denied. Tinker said the tank was meant to build support for the Iraq war by connecting it to World War II. "Any time a tank is in a city street, that should cause alarm in people, not generate applause and cheering," she said. Tinker said she was especially offended by the tank because it had roses and other flowers cascading out of the barrel of its gun. Multnomah County Circuit Judge Alicia Fuchs dismissed the case after Deputy District Attorney Elizabeth Puskar asked for an additional day. Puskar said police officers scheduled to testify didn't show up because they mistakenly thought the trial was set for today. Graham was one of five members of the Grannies acquitted in another anti-war protest case in December. The five were charged with misdemeanor criminal mischief for using red paint in April 2007 to write the number of U.S. service members killed in Iraq on the windows of a military recruitment center in Northeast Portland. A jury acquitted them in 30 minutes. Although Tinker and Graham were arrested under accusations of misdemeanor crimes for the parade incident, the district attorney's office reduced the charges to violations, essentially tickets that carry a cash fine. Jeff Howes, supervisor of the misdemeanor trial unit for the prosecutor's office, said his office "acted with discretion and restraint." Tinker's attorney, Stuart Sugarman, however, said he thought prosecutors reduced the charges to violations to avoid a jury trial. Sugarman noted the crushing results from December, when the prosecutor's office presented the red-paint "Grannies" case to the jury. Sugarman and Graham's attorney, Thaddeus Betz, represented their clients pro bono. Aimee Green; aimeegreen at news.oregonian.com http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080705/NEWS07/807050315/1002/LOCAL Published: July 5, 2008 6:00 a.m. Singer pleads guilty in gas price protest Associated Press Advertisement VALPARAISO - A judge told a Valparaiso man whose song protests high gasoline prices that he might want to change his tune. Jay Weinberg, 29, was arrested for climbing to the roof of a gas station to sing his song protesting high gas prices. He pleaded guilty Thursday to a trespassing charge. Porter Superior Court Judge David Chidester warned Weinberg not to get in trouble again during his six months on probation. "The next song you'll be singing is 'Chain Gang' by Sam Cooke," he said. On May 5, Weinberg carried a guitar and a megaphone to the roof of the Family Express station in Valparaiso, where gas was selling that day for $3.78 a gallon. He performed a song titled "Price Gouge'n" for about 15 minutes to the cheers of commuters before police arrived and arrested him. Weinberg says he's not done with his protests of high gas prices. http://politicom.moldova.org/stiri/eng/134768/ Denver moves to ban protesters' chains Denver City Council members say they want to ban such items as chains, quick-setting cement and cutter-resistant locks to thwart political protesters. The items would be deemed illegal in an attempt to keep up with tactics protesters may use at next month's Democratic National Convention, the Rocky Mountain News reported Tuesday. Protesters are getting pretty sophisticated, Councilman Doug Linkhart, chairman of the council's safety committee, told the newspaper. In other cities, they're not just handcuffing themselves to each other. They put their handcuffs inside PVC tubes, which are inside concrete. They've figured out ways that keep the police from just using bolt cutters to cut them apart. The language of the proposed ordinance reportedly would make it illegal to carry any tool, object, instrument or other article that can be used to obstruct streets, sidewalks and entry or exits from buildings or for hindering emergency equipment. If passed, ordinance would join an Arapahoe County measure that bans shafts, rods, projectile launchers and other potential weapons at picket lines and other public assemblies, the newspaper said. http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2008/06/evergreen_state_college_rioter.html Felony charges dropped against Evergreen State College rioters Posted by The Associated Press June 05, 2008 08:52AM OLYMPIA -- Four people charged with felonies for violence at a February concert at The Evergreen State College have been accepted into a diversion program. Charges will be reduced to misdemeanors if they complete the program and pay $45,000 for destroying a patrol car. Thurston County court papers say criminal charges against a fifth person who hid a seat stolen from the car will be dropped if he completes the diversion program and pays $541. The crowd at the hip-hop concert turned violent after one person was arrested. A Thurston County sheriff's patrol car was destroyed and three others were vandalized. The college paid the sheriffs office for damage to the patrol cars and will be reimbursed from the restitution. -- The Associated Press http://www.theolympian.com/breakingnews/story/429227.html 3 more charged in connection to riot at Evergreen By Jeremy Pawloski | The Olympian . Published April 24, 2008 Three more people have been charged with first-degree malicious mischief and riot in connection with the Feb. 15 riot that resulted in a sheriff's patrol car being overturned and looted at The Evergreen State College during a hip-hop concert. Evergreen spokesman Jason Wettstein said two of the three people arrested were Evergreen students. Those charged are Kelly Primeaux, 21, as well as Evergreen students Justin Killing, 19, and Christina Shimizu, 22. All are charged with first-degree malicious mischief, a Class B felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine; and riot, a gross misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and a $5,000 fine. The trio have been summonsed to court for arraignments May 5. They will not be arrested, Muldrew said. The prosecuting attorney's office also is considering charges against a fourth individual in connection with the Feb. 15 riot, but that person has not been charged yet, Muldrew said. http://www.theolympian.com/news/story/434357.html More riot suspects sought Sheriff's office seeks help in identifying those seen in video By Jeremy Pawloski | The Olympian . Published April 30, 2008 The Thurston County Sheriff's Office is asking the public's help to put names to faces of five people pictured on video footage during a Feb. 15 riot after a hip-hop concert at The Evergreen State College in Olympia. Suspects charged Those who have been charged with crimes in connection with the Feb. 15 riot at The Evergreen State College include: 1. Peter B. Sloan of Olympia, not an Evergreen student, charged with riot and first-degree malicious mischief. 2. Jake Silberman, an Evergreen student from Minneapolis, charged with riot while armed with a deadly weapon and first-degree malicious mischief. 3. Chase Hill, an Evergreen student, charged with second-degree theft. 4. Monica Ragan, an Evergreen student, charged with riot and first-degree malicious mischief. 5. Nina Hinton, an Evergreen student, charged with riot and first-degree malicious mischief. 6. Justin Killing, an Evergreen student, charged with riot and first-degree malicious mischief. 7. Christina Shimizu, an Evergreen student, charged with riot and first-degree malicious mischief. 8. Kelly Primeaux, not an Evergreen student, charged with riot and first-degree malicious mischief. Crime stoppers The Thurston County Sheriff's Office is asking anyone with information on the five unidentified suspects to contact the office at ******** or call Crime Stoppers at ********. The sheriff's office believes there is probable cause to charge the five with felonies based on their alleged actions on the video. Rioters caused $50,000 in damage to four sheriff's patrol cars, including one that was overturned and totaled. Evergreen President Les Purce has cut a $50,000 check from Evergreen's tuition funds to pay for the damage. Eight charged Eight people have been charged with felonies in connection with their alleged actions damaging the patrol cars. Detectives do not know whether the five additional suspects are Evergreen or high school students, or out-of-towners who were at the Dead Prez concert, Chief Criminal Deputy James Chamberlain said Tuesday. Chamberlain said one suspect appears to be holding a police radio microphone cord that was looted from the overturned patrol car. Another suspect appears to be holding a knife used to puncture a tire on the overturned car, he added. "We have evidence on the video of them all participating," Chamberlain said. The riot started after an Evergreen officer tried to arrest a man inside the concert on suspicion of fighting. The female officer was confronted by concertgoers outside the concert hall. Concertgoers opposed the arrest, believing it to be racially motivated, and blocked her patrol car from leaving. The officer called for backup, and responding officers used pepper spray and flashlights to move the crowd, police reports state. Police said members of the crowd threw objects at them. A disabled patrol car was flipped and trashed by rioters after police retreated. Student responses At Evergreen's campus Tuesday, one student said he does not support the Evergreen community "informing" on other students, and he would encourage fellow students not to identify for police the concertgoers pictured on the video. The student, Devin Matthews, said he doesn't think it's fair for concertgoers unlucky enough to be pictured to pay the price for activity that many more students participated in. Added Matthews' friend, Aaron Miles, "They broke the law, but is it necessary for them to go that far to arrest (the) individuals when so many more were involved?" Matthews and Miles said they did not attend the show. Matthews and his companions also expressed fatigue with the riot being brought back into the public eye. Miles said he is worried about Evergreen unfairly getting a tainted reputation from the ill feelings generated by the riot. Miles said he grew up in Olympia, and he wants to stay in Olympia after graduation, but now he worries, "Is it going to be hard now to get a job because of this?" Chamberlain acknowledged that some people might not have come forward because they don't want to get classmates in trouble. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/22/usa?gusrc=rss&feed=worldnews Hot pants land US woman in hot water Woman ordered to serve three days in jail after a judge found her in contempt of court for inappropriate dress McClatchy newspapers guardian.co.uk, Friday August 22 2008 15:50 BST Article history A woman was ordered to serve three days in jail after a judge found her in contempt of court for inappropriate dress. Kirstie Arnold, 28, of Lancaster, Kentucky, was sent to the Boyle county jail after wearing short shorts during a court appearance on Monday before Garrard District Judge Janet Booth. Booth had warned Arnold about her clothes in two previous court appearances, and in the last appearance had fined Arnold $50 (?25) for her attire. A court videotape of Monday's proceeding contains the following exchange: "Why shouldn't I put you in jail for contempt today?" Booth asked. "I told you twice." "I'm sorry," Arnold said. "No, you're not," Booth said. "I told you twice. I even fined you for being in contempt. Why shouldn't I throw you in jail today? You apparently don't care about the court's orders." "I forgot," Arnold said. "How could you forget?" Booth said. "No, seriously, how could you forget? It's a complete disregard of court order. Complete. You should go to jail today, and you're going." "Well, next time I won't wear shorts," Arnold said. "I bet you won't," Booth said. And with that, Booth ordered her to serve three days of temporary detention "for disregard and disrespect for court proceedings". Arnold declined to be interviewed yesterday. Booth could not be reached immediately for comment. Arnold would have been released yesterday except that she got into more trouble when she allegedly tried to conceal a drug from Lancaster police officer Allen Weston. Court records say that Arnold moved Suboxone, a drug for treatment of opiate addiction, from her purse into her pocket. She was then charged with possession of a controlled substance, tampering with physical evidence, possession of drug paraphernalia, and having a controlled substance not in its original container. The new charges against Arnold are in addition to pending charges of harassment, criminal trespass and leaving the scene of an accident. The last charge came after she allegedly knocked over a tombstone in a Lancaster cemetery with a vehicle and left, according to court records. Arnold remained in jail Thursday afternoon, but bond information was not available. Arnold's next court appearance is scheduled for Monday in Garrard District Court. If she is still an inmate at that time, she will wear a bright yellow jail uniform. http://www.connietalk.com/civil_rights_dont_lie_082108.html Antiwar Protestors Win $2 Million Judgment Thursday, August 21st, 2008 by Connie T. Sarah Kunstler is the Co-Director of Off Center Media, and the Media Director for the William Moses Kunstler Fund for Racial Justice; she's a Criminal Defense and Civil Rights Attorney in New York; and she's a documentary filmmaker. She produced and directed Tulia, Texas: Scenes From the Drug War, about a small town that wrongfully charged 46 men -- 40 of whom were African-American -- with drug and cocaine charges. She's the daughter of the famous civil rights attorney Bill Kunstler. Oh, and she has degrees from both Yale University and Columbia Law School. So the New York Police Department probably picked the wrong peaceful protest to interrupt, in front of the Carlyle Building in Manhattan, 2003. Because she was just one of a crowd of 52 people protesting the Iraq War, when the NYPD donned riot gear and surrounded the group, cordoned off the area and arrested everyone. Sarah Kunstler filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in 2004, also known as Kunstler v. City of New York. And, this week, the City has agreed to pay $2 million to settle the suit. A spokeswoman for the city's Law Department said that there is no "admission of liability on behalf of the city and the individual defendants. Although [the] defendants believe that they would ultimately have prevailed at a trial, the costs of going forward weighed in favor of a settlement at this time." http://www.roguegovernment.com/news.php?id=11565 Denver To Hunt Protesters With Maps, Bike Helmets 08-21-2008 Raw Story Almost everyone can be a potential violent protester at the Democratic National Convention, according to a new bulletin issued by the Denver Police Department and leaked to the ACLU. The bulletin lists myriad items police should watch out for, including "caches of supplies that could be used by violent demonstrators." The publication intended for commissioned police officers was provided to RAW STORY Thursday. On the list? Plastic shields, football helmets, gas masks, baseball catch protectors, cases of nails, hand held radios, maps, bicycles, and protest sign handles ("perfect for swinging at first responders"). The police say they're also worried about people with large numbers of city maps or "camping information." "Football, baseball, motorcycle and bicycle helmets are all used by violent protesters," the bulletin warns. "Bicycles are used to blockade sidewalks, streets and can be used to slow down responding emergency vehicles." Camping information is a threat, too, such as "information concerning the camping, boarding or housing of potential violent protesters that have rented campaign spaces, rented farms or land for the time period around the DNC." Maps are worrisome because they're "frequently used by violent protester [sic] to plan direct actions against conventioneers." "Baseball/softball catcher protectors" are also of concern, police warn. ACLU spokesmen will hold a press conference Thursday afternoon. The nonprofit criticized the document in a press release, saying many of the items are "innocuous." "Although the bricks were acquired for masonry repairs, Denver police accused the activist of 'stockpiling' the bricks for the DNC," the press release reads. The activist will speak at Thursday's press conference, but ACLU officials did not release a name Wednesday. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Sat Aug 30 00:56:43 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 08:56:43 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Repression news, Police State Britain, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <00e101c90a75$f2ea9100$0202a8c0@andy1> * UK: Pensioners arrested for proetst T-shirts - now even the right-wing press is starting to realise how bad things have become * UK: Police ban musician for getting crowd excited * UK: Petty bin regulations: "I'm waiting for riots in the streets" * UK: Bogus "conspiracy" charges used to target EDO protesters; houses raided, searched * UK: Draconian sentence for graffiti artists * UK: Lawyer speaks out on "terror" crackdown * UK: Police misbehaviour at Trafalgar Square - flag deemed "protest" * UK: So much for free speech - Scientology protester charged for "offensive" sign * UK: Plan to scrap constraints on state "development" projects * UK: Norwegian punished for not showing deference to airport goons [He argued with security for harassing him. So what? Why would they fear him saying he DIDN?T have a bomb?! These little Hitlers are totally out of control nowadays] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1026496/Pensioners-seized-Heathrow-police--inflammatory-protest-T-shirts.html Pensioners seized by Heathrow police - over 'inflammatory' protest T-shirts By Martin Delgado Last updated at 10:50 PM on 14th June 2008 Three pensioners were questioned and escorted from Heathrow after police decided the Stop Airport Expansion slogan on their T-shirts was ?inflammatory?. Mike Lacey, John Wilding and his wife Tessa were stopped as they tried to join a demonstration against plans for a third runway. Police took their names, addresses and descriptions and followed them out of a bus terminal, warning they would be arrested if they returned within 24 hours. Have the anti-terror laws gone too far? Tell us your view below... Inflammatory: Pensioners Mike Lacey and John Wilding, both in their 70s, were held by police who said their t-shirts breached airport bylaws Now the three have written to Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair, accusing the officers of harassment and abuse of their ?stop and search? powers. They were stopped despite police knowing that a demonstration against the extra runway was taking place nearby. Mr Lacey, a 71-year-old grandfather who used to work for Christian Aid, Dr Wilding, also 71 ? a retired academic and emeritus reader in psychology at the University of London ? and his English teacher wife Tessa, 60, live in Slough, which will be badly affected by noise and pollution if the runway is built. They were on their way to join a march to the village of Sipson, which is likely to be flattened if the runway goes ahead. As they walked into the main bus terminal at Heathrow to catch a connecting service, they were stopped by five Met Police officers who accused them of breaching airport bylaws. Protestors gather outside Hatton Cross underground station on May 31 before marching around the perimeter fence of Heathrow Airport to demonstrate against the plans for a third runway In a ?stop and search form? officers wrote that Mr Lacey was questioned because he had been ?seen in the bus terminal wearing inflammatory clothes?. Mr Lacey said: ?The process took half an hour and the police were unable to give any justification for their behaviour. ?When we asked why we had been stopped, they said the bus station was private property and only airline passengers and people meeting flights were allowed to use it. 'If that is the case, thousands of people broke the law that day.? Dr Wilding said: ?Their manner was overbearing and arrogant. My wife in particular felt intimidated. 'I have no doubt we were singled out because of our T-shirts.? The protest on May 31 attracted 3,000 demonstrators. Scotland Yard said a 1996 bylaw enabled police to stop people and ask them to explain what they were doing at the airport, as it was private property. A spokeswoman added: ?Three people were stopped and asked to account for their presence. They were not searched. 'The officers correctly interpreted the bylaws.? http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/aug/20/petedoherty.festivals Music: Doherty banned from headlining festival Singer Pete Doherty has been blocked from performing at a music festival amid fears his band would "gee up" the crowd into a dangerous frenzy. The decision came after police asked an intelligence officer to research Doherty's band, Babyshambles, who were booked to headline Moonfest festival in Westbury, Wiltshire, next week. They concluded that the band's tendency to "speed up and then slow down the music" could create a "whirlpool effect" and spark disorder. Lawyers acting on behalf of Wiltshire police convinced magistrates to provide a closure order for the festival on the night the band were scheduled to perform. John Green, Moonfest's organiser, said he was "livid" at the decision and accused police of waging a vendetta against Doherty, who lives locally. But Superintendent Paul Williams said the ban was designed to preserve public safety. "Experts are telling us that the profile of fans that follow Pete Doherty and Babyshambles is volatile and they can easily be whipped up into a frenzy, whereas the profile of someone that would follow around Cliff Richard or Bucks Fizz, for example, is completely different." Williams said "other organisation changes" at the festival meant security provisions were no longer adequate. Police were alerted to the potential perils of a Doherty performance, Williams said, after learning about his solo performance at the Royal Albert Hall last month. Some fans mounted the stage and police were called, but no arrests were made. Chief Superintendent Julian Kirby, the divisional commander, told Wiltshire's Gazette and Herald: "We carried out an analysis of what Pete Doherty and his band does. What he does as part of his routine is to gee up the crowd. "They speed up and then slow down the music and create a whirlpool effect in the crowd. They [the crowd] all get geed up and then they start fighting." Those present at north Wiltshire magistrates on Monday on behalf of police included a barrister, an acting chief inspector and an "industry expert". It took the court a day to reach its decision to support the force's application, which Green contested. It is believed to be the first court to issue section 160 of the Licensing Act (2003) to stop an act performing. Green said the revocation had cut the festival a day short. He said Doherty was "absolutely devastated and furious". He added: "He's very kindly offered a free gig for everyone who has bought a ticket and won't be able to see him." Green said police had offered him a deal during a pause in court proceedings to allow the night to go ahead if he agreed to spend more on security and removed Doherty from the lineup but he refused the "offer". "They told me privately they hate the fact he lives in Wiltshire and they don't want him on their patch," he said. Williams denied his force had offered a deal or had anything against the singer. He had never heard Doherty's music, he said. "Public safety is our primary concern." http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/23/waste.pollution?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront 'I'm waiting for riots in the streets' Britain is at war over rubbish. Exasperated householders are attacking refuse collectors and stealing their neighbours' bins. What's going on? Why can't we change our dirty habits? And since when was waste such an emotive issue anyway? Jon Henley reports Food blog: Jay Rayner on waste and food prices Jon Henley The Guardian, Monday June 23 2008 Article history Normal black bin bags and rubbish on Islington side of Southgate Road. Photograph: Linda Nylind It's starting to get nasty out there. In Preston, the Lancashire Evening Post reports, refuse collectors have recently come under a barrage of abuse from householders furious at "changes to the way their rubbish is collected". In some cases, it appears, residents have hurled burst and stinking bin bags, forcing bin men to flee. In Lynn, west Norfolk, according to the Lynn News, long-suffering refuse operatives have been "verbally and physically abused at least three times in the past month". Residents angry that overfull wheelie bins are not being emptied have been warned in no uncertain terms to cease attacking bin men or face prosecution. In normally staid Cannock, meanwhile, the Birmingham Post relates that decent, law-abiding family men, unable to cope now the council has switched to fortnightly collections, have been seen stealing into their neighbours' gardens at dead of night and nicking their wheelie bins. "It's like something out of Mad Max," says resident Paul Nicholls. "Every man for himself, scavenging for an extra bin." We are in the grip, it would appear, of a national crisis. "I'm waiting for the riots in the streets," Doretta Cocks of the Campaign for Weekly Waste Collection, which has grown from nothing to 22,000 highly vocal members in the space of three years, says ominously. "Though in fact, in some places we've already had them. An awful lot of people are very, very angry." The object of all this ire, rather oddly, is household waste: how we collect it, how we dispose of it, how much of it we reuse. The trouble is, we're rubbish at rubbish. Or at least, we were. In 2000, we were bottom of the European league table: only Portugal and Greece dumped more stuff in holes in the ground (the technical term is landfill) than we did. We were recycling barely 5% of what we threw out; the likes of Holland, Germany and Switzerland were at 60%. Over the past few years, however, stimulated by the prospect of swingeing ?180m-a-year EU fines and dire warnings that if we carry on as we are, all of our island's landfill sites will be completely full within the next eight or nine years, we have started to get a bit better. Unfortunately, it's proving to be a painful process. "I'm afraid change is unpopular," says Phillip Ward, director of the Waste Resources Action Programme (Wrap - get it?), the government's chief advisory body on the issue. "We're moving from an easy, familiar system where we just slung everything into a sack and once a week someone came and took it away for us - we neither knew nor cared where - to one where we actually have to do something. Some people will always find that difficult, for whatever reason." Judging by the media coverage, to say that some people are finding it difficult may be something of an understatement. The following, for example, is a by no means complete list of the principle rubbish rage incidents reported by the conservative press in recent weeks: ? In Broxbourne, Herts, the local council has begun rationing households to one officially approved, free purple bin bag a week and is charging 28p for each extra one; residents who continue to use black bags face a possible ?1,000 fine. ? Mid-Sussex council, for its part, has employed "snoopers to sift through residents' rubbish" and see exactly how much they throw away. "It's a gross invasion of privacy," fumes one opposition councillor. ? In Bolton, Zoe Watmough has been fined ?275 for daring to put her rubbish out the day before it was due to be collected. ? Poor Katie Shergold of Warminster, Wiltshire, has been told her bin was too heavy to be emptied because collectors could not move it with two fingers. ? Plucky June Key, 80, who lives in Bolton-by-Bowland, Lancashire, is now supposed to drag her wheelie bin "half a mile down a steep hill" for collection by the cold, uncaring operatives of Ribble Valley council. "I don't know how I'm supposed to manage," says June. "I'm too old." ? Gareth Corkhill of Whitehaven, Cumbria, has been fined ?225 because his bin was too full and its lid raised by four inches (or seven - there is some dispute). It would have been considerably cheaper, Gareth complained, just to "dump the rubbish in the garden and get done for fly-tipping". ? And in the ultimate affront to all right-thinking Englishmen, Colin Harrold, a war veteran, was ordered to pay ?70 by Scarborough council after he was foolish enough to "put his rubbish out in the wrong colour bag". Why, though, have we suddenly become so inordinately touchy about what happens to our waste? Why is rubbish, of all things, the new hobbyhorse of middle England? In part, suggests Cocks, because one of the marks of a civilised society is its capacity to deal with its waste. In part, too, because refuse collection is just about the one service used by every household in a borough; draconian new collection schemes tend to be seen merely as an attempt to get away with doing less in return for an already exorbitant council tax bill. In part, also, because we do not take kindly to being told what to do at the best of times - and never by town hall officials. "We used to be clients," she observes persuasively, "and the council was there to provide a service. Now we're the persecuted. We're an easy target, you see. And all we want to do is get rid of our rubbish. It can't be that difficult, can it?" In fact, though, rubbish has reached the top of our collective agenda principally because boroughs, driven by government targets and financial penalties for failing to meet them, find themselves having to substantially increase the amount this country recycles. Having raised that proportion to 33% in eight years, Britain - along with the rest of the EU - is now looking at a target of recycling 50% of its household waste by 2020. That means sending a lot less to landfill, which means changing people's habits. Now there are, of course, many ways to change people's habits. You can inform them of the benefits of a new behaviour pattern, and trust that their rapid comprehension and generous goodwill will induce them to cooperate by recycling more of their paper, glass, cans, cardboard, plastic and food and garden waste than they do at present. Then, when everyone who is willing to cooperate is doing so, you have to address the change-averse, by obliging them to recycle more. One obvious and highly cost-effective way to do this, local authorities argue, is to take steps to constrain the amount of residual, ie non-recyclable, waste that householders produce and that you collect. This is the stage that many English local authorities have now reached. Some of them (see Broxbourne, above) have begun providing smaller or fewer bags for residents' landfill rubbish. Others (nearly half in fact; around 180 authorities at the last count) have moved instead to what is known in the waste trade as AWC, or Alternate Weekly Collection. As the name suggests, this implies that they now collect recyclables only one week, and non-recyclables only the next. In both cases, a whole lot of new rules are attached to the scheme in order to make sure it works. For householders who don't recycle as much or as sensibly as they might, that unfortunately means being landed, in the worst instances, with an overflowing, malodorous and maggot-infested bin. Plus, if they're really lucky, a fine. For some people, this is self-evidently a national scandal. "It's a national scandal," says Cocks, whose campaign is based on public health concerns and dedicated to eradicating the scourge of AWC. "In public health terms we're moving back to the middle ages. In this climate we need a weekly collection of all waste otherwise you get maggots, flies, rats, the lot. I've had horror stories: one man had to use a blowtorch to get the maggots off his driveway. This country first introduced weekly refuse collections under the Public Health Act of 1875 precisely to break the breeding cycle of the house fly; now we're getting rid of them. It's beyond absurd." For others, it's the only way forward. "The bin fairy is dead," proclaims a breezy Paul Bettison, Tory leader of Bracknell Forest borough council and, as chairman of the Local Government Association's environment board, the nation's number one bin baron (or, if you prefer, trash tsar). "From now on we're all going to have to do a little bit of her work, and that's all there is to it. And in any case, the maggot problem is almost invariably exaggerated." Bettison relates, with some relish, the entertaining story of a mystery series of photos of wheelie bins overrun with flies and maggots that appeared in his local newspaper soon after Bracknell Forest first introduced AWC. "We had a young ranger on the team who had a degree in entymology or some such," Bettison says, "and he had a good look at the pictures and he said, 'Those are not the maggots of any fly found in Great Britain.' "So he investigated further, and he found that they were in fact a breed of maggot particularly favoured by fishermen. So this householder had gone out and bought a load of maggots from the bait shop, and emptied them into his wheelie bin. Just goes to show the lengths some people will go to avoid change. It was just the same when we introduced wheelie bins, mind: I got more hate mail that summer than I've ever had before or since." According to Bettison, the key to the problem is good communication, and an understanding that one solution will not fit all circumstances. "AWC has been shown to boost recycling rates by 30%," he says. "It won't work everywhere; it may not be appropriate in areas with a very high proportion of flats, multiple occupancy, that kind of thing. But where it is appropriate you just need to educate people properly. Look, anyone calls us up to complain they can't fit all their rubbish in their non-recyclables bin, we offer to send someone round and empty it onto a tarpaulin in their garden, show them what they could have recycled. They don't have to do it very often." But still, some council behaviour has been a tad over the top, wouldn't you say? Not exactly guaranteed to engender the full and willing cooperation of the great British public. At Wrap, Ward accepts part of the problem is that, as it so often is when rapid change is introduced, "not always done in the optimum way". Waste recycling in Britain, he stresses, is still very much a work in progress: "You have to realise we had no stock of people who knew how to do it. A lot of mistakes have been made along the way." Nor has it necessarily helped, he acknowledges, that some 300 different local authorities, all independent and all with their own ideas, are in charge. Nowhere is what Ward calls this "confusing patchwork of exactly what is collected, when, and in what receptacles" more evident than in one corner of north London. On the boundary between the boroughs of Islington and Hackney, Southgate Road is a fine street: busy, but not excessively so; big handsome houses, not all converted into flats; a couple of decent-looking pubs. And outside every front door, a magnificent display of assorted bins, bags and recycling boxes. On the Islington side of the road, residents can choose between brown boxes (kitchen waste), green boxes (paper, glass, cans, cardboard, plastic bottles), black bin bags (non-recyclable refuse), and grey sacks (garden waste). That all gets collected on Fridays. On the Hackney side, there are green boxes (paper, glass, etc), blue boxes (kitchen waste), and black bin bags or dustbins (other refuse), all for collection on Tuesdays. Plus brown wheelie bins (garden waste, alternate Tuesdays). Friends of the Earth last week dubbed Southgate Road "the most confusing street in the country for waste collection". Mark Penbury, one resident, agrees: "It is a bit of a nightmare," he says. "You want to do the right thing, but people inevitably get muddled and put stuff in the wrong bin, or leave it out on the wrong day, then it gets left there and stinks. I think it could be made a bit easier." Agnes, from Poland, is more forthright: "It's completely crazy. How do they expect people to do it right? And of course, you make a mistake, you can't argue with them. No way." It's the kind of situation that drives Cocks mad. Most people, she believes, now understand that we need to recycle more, for economic as well as environmental reasons (according to Bettison's figures, the UK sends as much rubbish to landfill as the 18 EU countries with the lowest landfill rates combined, and every tonne of waste that gets recycled in future will save local authorities as much as ?80 in landfill taxes and fees). "Most of us are on board," Cocks says. "Most of us are prepared to do our bit. But I can't tell you the number of emails I get from people saying they're giving up - they're afraid of being fined, they don't understand the rules, they've been upset once too often, they can't use their back garden because of the swarm of flies round the rubbish bins. It's all too complicated, and too fiercely enforced. People end up driving their rubbish to the tip or the recycling centre themselves - how environmentally friendly is that? They're trying to educate us into change, but they're ending up alienating us." The bin baron's riposte is typically robust. "To those who say they can't do it," says Bettison, "I say they have to. The days of easy waste disposal are over. No change is not an option. To those who say it's too complicated, I say it really isn't rocket science. To those who say waste food smells, if you've got a garden, there are ways of reducing kitchen waste to little more than water, at home. It all just takes a bit of extra effort, that's all - and it should even lead to lower council tax bills." Across at Wrap, Defra adviser Ward promises that things will get easier. Wrap is about to start a major public consultation process around just what constitutes a good recycling service, with the aim not only of "really making it work for everyone" but convincing sceptics that materials really are being recycled, not secretly dumped. "And we need more uniformity," he says. "We need to refine further exactly what is collected for recycling, and coalesce around maybe five or six different models. There are too many at present; it is confusing." But to approach future recycling targets, he warns, "more motivation, more incentivisation" is going to be needed. We could soon be looking at pay-as-you-throw systems and, once recycling has really taken off, even at once-a-month residual rubbish collections. That, I imagine, really will be fun. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/405280.html Support Campaigners in Court Five campaigners against Brighton arms manufacturer EDO MBM were arrested after some of them locked themselves to the doors of the factory on October 3rd (see previous press release) in protest against the sale of weapons for conflicts in Iraq and Palestine. The five were arrested for minor charges on October 3rd at a protest at EDO MBM. However, their charges have were raised to 'Conspiracy to Commit Criminal Damage' which carries a maximum ten year sentence and must be tried in a Crown Court before a jury. They will appear in Brighton Magistrates this Wednesday at 9.30am. The trial will last for ten days. Please come along and show your support ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Update on arrests following the Smash EDO Carnival Against the Arms Trade which was held in Brighton on 4th June (see http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/southcoast/2008/06/400163.html) Arrests have been made and houses searched in Southampton and Brighton last week over the Carnival Against the Arms Trade in Brighton. Two people were questioned over various alleged offences including the tipping of paint over a policeman during the carnival. They were also asked questions relating to 'conspiracy to cause criminal damage' charges. No charges are made and both have been bailed to later this year Two houses were searched. One search involved PC Sean Mcdonald from Sussex police and an officer from the London FIT team, the other included plain clothes and uniformed officers including one Stephen Webb, claiming to be from Sussex Police. The warrants were for the entire property and communal areas and other residents rooms were searched. Mobile phones, PCs, laptops, political stuff and clothes were seized. If you have had your home raided or been questioned relating to Smash EDO protests contact the campaign through www.smashedo.org.uk, smashedo at hotmail.com. Kellys Solicitors (01273 674898) have dealt with EDO related cases for years and are the best bet if you are arrested. It is possible to swap to Kellys after release from the police station even if you have used another solicitor when arrested. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rough Music Outlawed in Brighton On 23rd July 2008 in Hove Crown Court Judge Hayward and two lay magistrates dismissed the appeal of an anti-arms trade protestor against his conviction under a council bylaw enforced under section 235 of the Local Government Act 1972 which makes it an offence not to desist from shouting, singing, drumming,or playing loud music in a street or public place when asked to do so by a police constable or anyone else. Marcus Wise is the first political protester in Brighton to be convicted under the bylaw since it came into force in 1998. Marcus Wise was found to have refused to desist after a request by a police officer to turn down a sound system under his control playing an assortment of musical compositions at a demonstration outside the EDO MBM arms factory in Home Farm Business Estate, Brighton, at around 4.45pm on 17 July 2007. The police acted on the complaint of an employee of the arms company (who has since resigned) who said that the factory?s air conditioning was inadequate and she was forced on the day to leave a window open in hot weather. While the music was ?entertaining at first? it changed to ?Reggae? and became a nuisance. This meant the music was too loud to allow her to concentrate on her work assisting in the manufacture of weapons to kill civilian men women and children in the Middle East. The defence counsel raised the issue that the bylaw should not be used in the context of political demonstrations as its introduction by the local Council was for other reasons. A witness for the defence Alderman Francis Tonks, a former councillor on Brighton Council for 22 years, presented minutes of the meeting where the bylaw had been passed ten years ago. The bylaw came into force in August 1998 was introduced to deal with alleged nuisance caused by groups of ?drummers? assembling by the West Pier, as well as street buskers, and car windscreen washing touts in the town. The bylaw was never intended to deal with political protests Alderman Tonks explained Judge Hayward ruled that the bylaw was intended for ?the prevention and suppression of nuisance? and could be used at political demonstrations when music was being played loudly simply to cause nuisance rather than convey a 'relevant argument or message', otherwise it was clear that rights under the European Convention articles 10 and 11 did apply and protesters had a positive (though not absolute)right to make their political opinion heard even it if it was done in such a way as to be ?irritating, contentious, unwelcome or evocative.? The bylaw does not prohibit the use of megaphones, airhorns, or sirens, but does apply to singing, drumming and musical instruments, and amplified music that is played so loud as to cause a ?nuisance?. On hearing the judgement Mark Wise congratulated Judge Hayward on ?criminalising peaceful protest while helping EDO continue in making bombs that will be used to kill and maim women and children.? Judge Haywards findings appear to empower individual police officers to make a judgement that noise produced by shouting, singing, playing musical instruments or sound systems, is a 'nuisance' rather than a political protest yet leaves open the possibility that if political songs are sung in an irritating way or politically conscious music is played loudly enough to evoke an emotional response by the employees inside the factory, they remain exempt from the bylaw since these would be protected under ECHR Article 10 Freedom of Expression. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/405333.html Artists jailed for bringing colour to shitty cities. zcat | 04.08.2008 11:29 | Repression | Social Struggles | London Members of the DPM crew were jailed for up to 2 years for making dull shitty city scapes brighter and more colourful spaces. As they start a prison sentence, pictures of their work are to be exhibited in a New York art gallery. So are they vandals or frustrated artists? myspace page explaining more www.myspace.com/supportdpm Petition to present at appeal to try and get reduced sentences here http://www.gopetition.co.uk/petitions/graffiti-artists.html DPM tag EIGHT men were sentenced on Friday11th June in what was one of the biggest prosecutions for graffiti the UK has ever seen. All admitted conspiracy to cause criminal damage as part of a graffiti crew called DPM that tagged and painted trains and stations costing rail networks an estimated ?1 million. Detective Sergeant Michael Field, who led the inquiry described it as a ?major crime on a vast scale?. ?Graffiti is an attack on the community and the environment,? he said. ?It is anti-social and destructive and it?s a crime we take very seriously.? Indeed, the courts took it just as seriously, with the two year investigation culminating in sentencing five members of the group to a total of eight years in prison. On the day that the court opened its case against DPM, London?s Tate Modern was installing massive pieces of street art on the outside of their South Bank gallery to celebrate artists who made their names by ?decorating? streets and buildings in much the same kind of illegal activity. Hundreds of thousands of visitors have already filed past the installations, admiring work by Blu, an Italian graffiti artist who uses buildings as ?sheets of paper?, JR who illegally painted his initials around the streets of Paris and Brazilian Nunca who started tagging at the age of 12. One member of the Tate?s audience was Ziggy Grudzinskas, a 25-year-old art student and member of DPM who alongside his friends admitted the conspiracy charge between 2004 and 2006. ?I stood there completely baffled for about an hour outside of the Tate to tell you the truth,? he said before he was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment at Southwark Crown Court. ?I quite like it but it really confused me a lot. I know that half, if not all of the graffiti that is on the Tate Modern building is done by people who do illegal graffiti or have done illegal graffiti and have made their name doing that. ?It is like they?re saying ?yeah we?re on the edge of the law yet we?re being shown by one of the biggest galleries in London.? And it?s sponsored by Nissan!? According to Andrew Gillman, the 25-year-old so-called ?main mover? of DPM who was jailed for two years, the exhibition just highlights the mixed messages surrounding graffiti. He said: ?If you can make money from illegal graff or a gallery does it off your back, then it?s okay. ?It?s in advertising and fashion as well. There is graffiti on trainers, hoodies, hats, t-shirts, everything you can think of. People want to wear illegal graffiti that is on the trains and the street. ?How come you can wear it and buy it, use it in advertising, marketing, music and every album cover and as soon as you do it you?re f***ed, so where?s the message? If they don?t want people to be involved, don?t popularise it.? Graffiti is so popular in fact that not only has it made its way onto the catwalk but it is now been propelled from the street into (or onto) galleries. The Tate?s Street Art exhibition is the first major display of its kind and since its launch last month has been accompanied by street tours, workshops and even talks with professional street artists like Rough and Blek Le Rat. One, on August 15, entitled Graffiti ? Utopia or a bit boring? will see critics Ossian War and Ben Lewis debating whether graffiti is ?glorified vandalism or a legitimate cultural movement?. Curator of the Street Art exhibition, Cedar Lewinsohn said: ?I hope that we are there to challenge what people think about street art.? Despite the widening debate on the value of urban art, courts are still cracking down on the artists, branding them malicious vandals. Just weeks before DPM was sentenced, Gary ?Daze? Shields was given leave to appeal after being sentenced to 28 months behind bars. On his interim release, he told the Glasgow Evening Times: ?I totally understand what I did was vandalism, but I like the artistic side of it.? Lewinsohn said: ?There may be some mixed messages in society. I think the main thing is that it?s a real culture difference. In some countries it is legal and street art is more accepted. Brazil for instance is more relaxed about it. But in parts of Australia, they are like the UK and people really hate graffiti and tags on vans and trains. But in Melbourne, van drivers compete with each other as to whose is more decorated.? Lewinsohn?s book, Street Art ? The Graffiti Revolution, that accompanies his exhibition, charts the history of urban art from New York subway graffiti in the 1980s to today?s mainstream artists like Banksy, whose work is now auctioned for thousands of pounds. Lewisohn said: ?Every artist in the Street Art exhibition has made that leap into galleries, but it?s not a big leap. Although their art is available to see in the street, they also do a lot of studio practise beforehand, that is one of the main differences between street art and graffiti. Most of the artists have a studio and have gone to art school and have had their work in an exhibition.? DPM, it seems have already made that leap despite their conviction. An exhibition is to be launched a week after their sentence on July 19 in Soho, New York hosted by artist Elura Emerald and Hip Hop promotional company End Of The Weak. Called DPM ? Exhibit A the exhibition in the loft space in 440 Broadway in Grand Street will display large photographs of their work plus copies of their charge sheets questioning whether the young men are criminals or, in fact, artists. Emerald said: ?The exhibition in NYC is to give the recognition to the artists that I believe they deserve and to accentuate the fact that they are not at all criminals, and do not at all deserve to be put in jail for their creative force. ?I want to give them a platform to exhibit their art on a "legal" basis, and to spread the message that artists who paint on the street are merely expressing themselves through an artistic channel, it is not hurting anyone. ?I do not believe the creators of art should be punished, but appreciated and celebrated.? End of the Weak?s Padraic Mccroudi, who last summer hosted an event in association with the Tate Modern called the Art of Freestyle, said: ?Jailing artists for criminal damage, although it may seem to be a deterrent, does in fact only serve to gain kudos and notoriety for the artist. ?This in turn means that the criminal justice system in this case is fundamentally flawed and counter productive. ?It's important that the criminal justice system, the courts, the judges, the police and the greater community understand this and that if they ever really want address graffiti as an issue then we all need to explore avenues together, avenues other than jail time.? Many local authorities are already exploring these avenues funding street art workshops to connect with young people. In fact, Greenwich council and Tower Hamlets commissioned DPM?s Grudzinskas and Jack Binnie, who was handed a 12 month suspended sentence, to lead summer workshops as Street Art Tutors for young and vulnerable people. According to the references each council sent to the court to support Binney and Grudzinskas, their work with young people was ?positive? and ?inspirational?. A source at Greenwich council said: ?They showed the young people who aren?t able to do reading or writing that they can use artistic ways to express themselves. ?Their skills are obviously needed, it doesn?t make sense to send him down, we should use it.? Matthew Pease, 24, and Paul Stewart, 26, also of DPM who were sentenced to 18 months and 15 months respectively, took part in a five-day workshop in the Czech Republic to work with disadvantaged youths as part of an event organised by music and art organisation Community Music (CM). Pease said: ?For the first day we got them sketching to see what they could do and tried to teach them a few different things about how to go about building up a piece. ?Gradually, through the week, we were getting them painting. By the end of the week, every single person in the class had a quite sizeable piece and a finished product.? One member of DPM in particular made the headlines when he was hired by the BBC to tag the set of the country?s best loved soap while he was on bail. Gillman, who worked full-time at his family-run funeral service, was commissioned to tag Tanya Branning?s ?Booty? nail salon in EastEnders and other parts of Albert Square. He said: ?They knew I was a writer. I said to them, the tags I am putting up, are the tags I see in London so it?s realistic. And they said ?great, realistic tags, just what we want.? ?And they said ?maybe you could come up with three tags for EastEnders, you know, three writers that are just around the square, you could put up East 13 crew, one could be Rocky!? They were getting really into it.? But DPM have vowed never to pick up a spray can again since their conviction but their friendship will clearly remain. ?It was more about friendship than graffiti,? Gillman said. ?We knew what we were doing was wrong but when you are painting a piece, all your worries just fall away. "Trains were like a moving canvass, it goes underground it goes over bridges. And if you?re standing there amongst the crowd and you see everyone looking at it, it gives you a huge feeling of gratification. ?We tried to create something that was artistic, made people look, something that?s thought provoking, makes commuters look up from their paper. ?But I don?t think I could call myself an artist, I?m a vandal, I?ve admitted that.? DPM?s ?brains of the group?, Slav Zinoviev, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison had a different opinion. The 25-year-old, who recently graduated with a Masters in Information Technology, said: ?People are not really educated on the whole graffiti thing. But now that Banksy has come around, people see it as one of the purest art forms, which it essentially is. And so to that extent I would say that I was an artist. ?To train writers, tags are actually much more valuable to the graffiti community than a Banksy painting is. ?We were all brought together by some sort of passion and this is one of the things that has created stronger bonds between us, and perhaps given us richer memories than the average person possesses.? Sentencing, Judge Christopher Hardy said he had to acknowledge that some of the graffiti written by DPM showed ?considerable talent?. He added: ?It seems to be on the way to being recognised as a valued form of art. ?But in this case, it has been sprayed all over property without their permission, that?s simply vandalism.? Gillman, 25, of St John?s Hill, Battersea was jailed for two years; Zinoviev, of the same address, Grudzinskas, 25, and Stewart of Manor Lane, Lewisham received 18 months in jail; Pease of Manor Lane, Lewisham was jailed for 15 months. As they were led to the cells, members of a packed public gallery shouted, ?We love you boys, stay strong? and applauded them until they were out of sight. Other members of DPM, Matthew Tanti, 23, of Holmsbury Court, Upper Tooting Road, SW11 and Jack Binnie, 26, of Adelaide Avenue, Ladywell, were each sentenced to 12 months suspended for 12 months. Alex McClelland, 24, of Croxted Road, West Dulwich was sentenced to nine months suspended for 12 months. Outside court, Ziggy?s father Professor Gedis Grudzinskas said: ?Ziggy has been sent to prison for 18 months having pleaded guilty to a crime not involving violence, terrorism, knives or drugs but vandalising public property. ?British Transport Police declined to arrest him and others when they knew they were breaking the law, presumably to develop their case for this show trial costing the tax payer thousands and thousands of pounds unnecessarily. ?Now they have sent him to jail instead of getting him to do community service for example to clean and help restore the trains and stations. ?This is not justice is it?? http://www.campacc.org.uk/irish_peirce_070408.html Was it like this for the Irish? Gareth Peirce on the position of Muslims in Britain, London Review of Books, 10 April The history of thirty years of conflict in Northern Ireland, as it is being written today, might give the impression of a steady progression towards an inevitable and just conclusion. The new suspect community in this country, Muslims, want to know whether their experience today can be compared with that of the Irish in the last third of the 20th century. It is dangerously misleading to assert that it was the conflict in Northern Ireland which produced the many terrible wrongs in the country???s recent history: it was injustice that created and fuelled the conflict. Before Bloody Sunday, when British soldiers shot and killed 13 unarmed Catholic demonstrators who were marching to demand not a united Ireland but equal rights in employment, education and housing (as well as an end to internment), the IRA was a diminished organisation, unable to recruit. After Bloody Sunday volunteers from every part of Ireland and every background came forward. Over the years of the conflict, every lawless action on the part of the British state provoked a similar reaction: internment, ???shoot to kill???, the use of torture (hooding, extreme stress positions, mock executions), brutally obtained false confessions and fabricated evidence. This was registered by the community most affected, but the British public, in whose name these actions were taken, remained ignorant: that the state was seen to be combating terrorism sufficed. Central to the anger and despair that fuelled the conflict was the realisation that the British courts offered neither protection nor justice. The Widgery Report into Bloody Sunday, which was carried out by the lord chief justice, absolved the British army and backed its false account of 13 murders, ensuring that Irish nationalists would see the legal system as being aligned against them. We should keep all this in mind as we look at the experiences of our new suspect community. Just as Irish men and women, wherever they lived, knew every detail of each injustice as if it had been done to them, long before British men and women were even aware that entire Irish families had been wrongly imprisoned in their country for decades, so Muslim men and women here and across the world are registering the ill-treatment of their community here, and recognising, too, the analogies with the experiences of the Irish. As good a place to start as any is 19 December 2001. On this date a dozen men, all foreign nationals, were interned in this country. Recognising the connotations of the term ???internment???, discredited and abandoned in Northern Ireland, the government insisted this was not equivalent to arbitrary detention without trial, a practice forbidden by the European Convention on Human Rights except in extreme emergencies, because each man was free to leave. The premise on which they were detained was that the United Kingdom could not in fact send them back to their countries of origin, since it was accepted that they would be at the very least a target for torture, if they were not killed on arrival. December 2001 did not in fact mark the beginning of Britain???s official interest in men described as ???Islamists???, since some from Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, Libya and Algeria who were in this country as refugees had long been the subjects of complaints to the UK by the regimes they had fled. After 9/11, however, Tony Blair professed a desire to stand ???shoulder to shoulder??? with President Bush. It would have been difficult to match Bush???s executive onslaught on constitutional rights in the US, by means of the Patriot Act; the designation of ???enemy combatants??? and their detention by presidential order; the abolition of habeas corpus; the subjection of detainees to torture in Afghanistan and Guant??namo or their unofficial outsourcing via rendition flights to countries specialising in even more grotesque interrogative practices, many of them those same regimes which had pressured the UK to take action against their own dissidents. Claiming that a parallel emergency faced Britain, Blair bulldozed through Parliament a new brand of internment. This allowed for the indefinite detention without trial of foreign nationals, the ???evidence??? to be heard in secret with the detainee???s lawyer not permitted to see the evidence against him and an auxiliary lawyer appointed by the attorney general who, having seen it, was not allowed to see the detainee. The most useful device of the executive is its ability to claim that secrecy is necessary for national security. Each of the dozen men snatched from his home on 17 December 2001, and delivered to HMP Belmarsh, expressed astonishment: first at finding himself the object of the much trumpeted legislation and, second, at discovering who his fellow detainees were. Each asked why, if he was suspected of activity linked to terrorism, he had never been questioned by police or the Security Services before it was decided that he was a ???risk to national security???. The sole activity which some speculated might be the reason for their detention was their attempt to support Chechens when in 1999 their country was the subject of a second brutal invasion by Russia. But thousands of others had acted similarly, and such support was not unlawful. Each man was told that, for a reason that could not be disclosed, he was in some unspecified way thought to be linked to unspecified persons or organisations, in turn linked to al-Qaida, which was then depicted by now discredited ???al-Qaida experts??? as taking the form of the hierarchical pyramid of classic Western military systems. At the base of the pyramid were those who had been interned, almost all of whom said that they had never heard of al-Qaida before 11 September 2001. All of this echoed other wrongful detentions, like that of John Walker in 1974, when the West Midlands police coerced an innocent Irishman into confessing that he was an IRA ???brigadier???, ignorant of the fact that such a title existed only in the British army. This confession was nevertheless swallowed whole. Walker was one of the Birmingham Six, all of whom spent 16 years in jail before the assertions of their prosecutors were finally discredited. There should have been no need for the Muslim community to anticipate a similar wait, since just before Christmas 2005, three and a half years after internment had been rushed through Parliament, the House of Lords gave its judgment on that legislation in what should have stood as the most important legacy of British law in recent history. The law lords swept aside what had been said by the attorney general to constitute a just system necessary for national security. Focusing on the government???s disproportionate response to a claimed emergency, and its indefinite detention only of foreign nationals, the language of the law lords was heroic in its strength. There was a sense that the ruling???s importance went far beyond its importance to the 12 detainees, eight of whom had now been driven into mental illness, four of those into florid psychosis, and had been transferred by the home secretary from Belmarsh to Broadmoor. Since the judgment, however, signalling as it did that the government had impermissibly crossed the legal barriers guaranteed by domestic and international treaties, it has become clear that the government intends to ignore the spirit if not the letter of the decision. It has also become clear that the government had, and continues to have, a wider strategy of which internment legislation was only one part. Little by little, ripples of information have found their way to the surface, sometimes confirmed by the government, sometimes denied. While the world knows and can assess for itself what chains of reaction were created by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and by the enormity of injustice suffered by the Palestinians, the cumulative effect of many other policies deserves analysis. It emerged for instance that in late 2001 the UK had begun to tip off other governments, for the ultimate benefit of the US, of the whereabouts of British nationals and British residents. Moazzem Begg, who was living with his wife and children in Pakistan, was kidnapped in January 2002; within hours he was in the hands of Americans (with a British Intelligence agent to hand), and transported without any semblance of legality to Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, by this time an interrogation camp where torture was practised. After a year during which he witnessed the murders of two fellow detainees, he was moved to Guant??namo Bay. Until he finally returned to this country in 2005, nothing was known of the presence at his abduction of a British agent. Instead, for the whole of that year in Bagram, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office repeatedly told his father that they had no information about Begg and that the Americans would tell them nothing. Seemingly unrelated areas of injustice, we now learn, have all along been connected. Two British residents, acknowledged to have been seized in 2002 in the Gambia and subjected to rendition by the US as a direct result of information provided by British Intelligence, were for the next five years subjected to interrogation (including torture) primarily to obtain information about a man interned in this country. One of those interned in December 2001, a Palestinian, trying to guess the reason for his detention the next year, told his lawyers that he had raised money for many years to build wells and schools and to provide food in Afghanistan. One of those wells, he said, bore the name of the son of its donor, Moazzem Begg. The Palestinian???s lawyers, knowing by now that Begg was in Guant??namo, started to think the unthinkable. During hearings at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, at which these cases are heard, there is a brief opportunity for the detainee???s lawyer to question an anonymous Security Service witness concealed behind a curtain, before the lawyer is asked to leave the court so it can continue its consideration of secret evidence. The witness was asked: ???Would you use evidence that was obtained by torture???? The unhesitating answer was: ???Yes.??? The only issue that might arise, the agent added, would be the weight such evidence should be given. Three years after this, in December 2005, the House of Lords affirmed the principle that no English court can ever admit evidence derived from torture, no matter how strong the claimed justification or emergency. The message for the government was again unequivocal: the principles of legal obligation must be adhered to in all circumstances. Despite the strength and intended permanence of these two rulings by the House of Lords, however, many Muslims have come to see any protection from the courts as constituting only a temporary impediment before the government starts to implement a new method of avoidance. After three months of prevarication, the internees were released on bail under stringent conditions, but the Home Office was simultaneously pushing yet more emergency legislation through Parliament, this time to introduce Control Orders which placed a substantial number of restrictions on the now released detainees. Any breach would constitute a criminal offence carrying a penalty of up to five years??? imprisonment. Three of the detainees, including the Palestinian, were pitch-forked out of Broadmoor during the night and driven by police to empty flats. One of them, a man without arms, was left alone and terrified, unable to leave the flat or to contact anyone without committing a criminal offence, subject to a curfew and allowed no visitors unless approved in advance by the Home Office. Two of these three detainees were immediately readmitted to psychiatric hospitals; neither of them had been hospitalised before being interned. These men had already been found to have patterns of psychological damage explicable only as a result of their indefinite detention. Other former detainees, particularly those with wives and children, soon began to recognise the disturbing effects of the Control Orders. The electronic tag they had to wear, which registered every entry and exit from the house, was only one element of a family???s altered existence; a voice recognition system was supposed to confirm the detainee???s presence at home during curfew, but the machines, of US manufacture, often failed to recognise the accents of Arabic speakers, with the result that uniformed police officers would enter the house in significant numbers at all times of the day and night. No visitor would come near their homes because to enter required first to be vetted by the Home Office. Children could do no schoolwork that involved the internet, the use of which was forbidden. Families had endlessly to involve lawyers in the most trivial matters: to obtain permission to go into the garden; to attend a parent-teacher meeting; to arrange for a plumber to enter the house. What happened to these men? Are they still, three years later, trying to live normal lives despite the restrictions? The answer came only five months after their release. On 7 July 2005 bombs exploded in London. Within days it was known that the bombings had been carried out by young men born and bred in Yorkshire. On 5 August Blair announced that ???the rules of the game have changed??? and that diplomatic agreements were being made to deport the same small group of detainees to their countries of origin, although the government knew that the use of torture was still routine in these countries. It was said that an assurance would be obtained that the men themselves would not be tortured after they were returned, and that an independent monitoring organisation in each country would guarantee that this was being adhered to. Despite such assurances, these deportations flew in the face of two important legal commitments to which this country is obliged to adhere: one, to send no person to a country where there is a risk to him of torture, the central premise of the Refugee Convention, and, two, to achieve the eradication of torture (and not by negotiating a single exception, while offering no protest to a regime???s use of torture on others). On 11 August the Algerian and Jordanian former internees were again arrested. There were soon more arrests, this time of two Algerians who had been acquitted unanimously in a trial at the Old Bailey in April 2005 of involvement in a conspiracy to use ricin, an allegation that had been seized on at the time of their original arrest by Colin Powell in his attempt to justify the invasion of Iraq to the UN. (One juror described how for him a moment of truth came early in the trial, when a witness from Porton Down nervously drank three containers of water while in the witness box seeking to explain why an early lab report said to have been conveyed to the police and confirming that there was no trace of ricin, had, curiously, never reached the Cabinet Office.) Those detainees who remain in the United Kingdom are still in prison or under extreme bail restrictions. One has been returned twice to Broadmoor from prison before being bailed to a psychiatric hospital. There are now two more Jordanian detainees and several Algerians, while Libya rapidly became the third state to promise safe re-entry to its dissident citizens. As for the promised monitoring organisations, one was purpose-built in Jordan in 2005, a husband and wife team bankrolled by the UK, which by the summer of 2007 (when two thousand inmates in one Jordanian prison were beaten the day after the first ever visit of an NGO, Human Rights Watch, to whose representatives they had complained of torture), had still never visited a prison. In Libya, the independent monitor agreed to by Britain is the Ghadafi Foundation, headed by Colonel Ghadafi???s son. Algeria never signed a memorandum of understanding with Britain, nor did it appoint an independent monitor, although both safeguards were said by Blair to be non-negotiable precursors to deportation. Constant prevarication was ascribed initially to the Algerian president???s ill-health, and then to meetings being postponed, until finally the detainees??? appeals against deportation could be delayed no longer. SIAC, hearing evidence in large part in secret, found that Algeria???s ???body politic??? appeared to have moved to ???a state of lesser danger??? for perceived dissidents, that a limited amnesty was on offer, so that the refugees would not be put on trial, and thus that it was safe to deport them. Several Algerians in prison here or under severe restrictions decided to return. As they said in a letter to a British newspaper: ???We are choosing the alternative of a quick death in Algeria to a slow death here.??? In making this decision, two of the Algerians, Benaissa Taleb and Rida Dendani, dramatically miscalculated. Astonishingly, SIAC allows secret evidence to be given even on the issue of an individual???s future safety. Had the men properly understood the reality (or more important the fragility) of diplomatic arrangements, perhaps neither would have decided to return. Each was told that an amnesty applied in Algeria which he should sign even though he had committed no offence; indeed special arrangements were made by the Home Office for each man to have bail to attend the Algerian Embassy in London for this purpose. Each believed that he would not be detained more than a few hours on arrival and that, as the British diplomat organising these deportations had promised SIAC, there was no risk that he would be held by the infamous DRS secret police. In fact they were both interrogated for 12 days during which they were threatened and subjected to serious physical ill-treatment. They were then charged, tried and some months later convicted, on the basis of the ???confessions??? forced from them during this time. Dendani was sentenced to eight years??? imprisonment, Taleb to three. At the heart of Britain???s reassurances as to their safety had been the confidence that the Algerians would place too high a value on their relationship with Britain to risk its disapproval. No British official has ever attempted to visit either man in prison, despite reports that both continue to be held in conditions that violate every international norm; no official attended their trials and the fact that visa applications by the men???s UK lawyers have been ignored for a year by the Algerian authorities, despite repeated requests for help from our government, has been commented on with amusement during proceedings before SIAC as evidence of Algeria???s independent spirit. A desperate letter describing how he had been tortured was sent by Dendani from Algeria to the president of SIAC. It brought no response. Despite all this, it is still maintained that it is safe to deport people to Algeria. An application on behalf of appellants for a secret hearing at which information given to lawyers by those afraid of providing it in the open could be properly and safely examined has been rejected, not because SIAC considered the proposal without merit, but because the court???s rules, it appears, do not allow for such a procedure. Is the treatment of these two men simply a blip in an otherwise safe and lawful process? Is it reasonable for the Muslim community to see wider significance in the treatment of such individuals? Over the past year it has emerged that Britain has secretly been willing to disregard the most basic principles of refugee protection. First, we learned that Taleb???s interrogation by the DRS was indisputably based on information received by the Algerians from the UK. Not only did Algeria possess the 2003 findings against him by SIAC (under the internment legislation that the House of Lords subsequently held to be unlawful), but it has now been discovered that the asylum claims of possibly all of this small group of detainees have been passed to the regimes from which they had fled. Asylum rests on the central premise of confidentiality, and a clear promise to that effect is given by the Home Office to all those who claim asylum here. After all, the contents of the application, or the very fact of its having been made, might create danger for the applicant if he returned to his country of origin. In the case of one man whose appeal against the Home Office???s request to deport him has not yet been considered by SIAC, we have discovered that a specially commissioned medical report describing his vulnerable condition has already been prepared by Belmarsh and sent to Jordan. Taleb, known throughout his internment only by a letter of the alphabet so that his family in Algeria would not be at risk, arrived there to find that all the information about him based on secret evidence under now abandoned legislation was held by the Algerians, un-anonymised. Taleb had decided to return to Algeria in the hope he would be safe, and so no court in Britain had ordered his deportation. Yet the Algerians possessed all the British government???s ???evidence??? about him. His subsequent trial confirmed his worst fears. His Algerian lawyers argued, and he gave evidence of this himself, that he had signed an unread ???confession??? after spending 12 days in DRS custody and after having been beaten by his interrogators. The presiding judge countered by referring to the ???West??? and its ???illusory democracy???: ???Weren???t you imprisoned, confined to your home for several years without trial, without charge and without respect for any procedure of either inquiry or investigation in a democratic country par excellence, Great Britain? No one in this court can teach us a lesson or put to us the least complaint on this matter, since in this country no person has been subject to such treatment.??? Taleb???s claim for asylum in the UK he saw as amounting to a ???betrayal??? of his country of origin. Asylum was accorded ???only to those who hated their own country???, and the judge commented at length on Algerians who had gone abroad and painted a black picture of the country???s human rights situation ???to the benefit of NGOs whose time was spent vitiating the truth about Algeria???. Taleb???s eventual conviction was, curiously, for going to Afghanistan in 1991 to fight the Russians. In fact, he went to Pakistan in 1991 as an idealistic 18-year-old, where he taught refugees from Afghanistan; the Russians had left two years earlier. As for the amnesty he had signed? Not only its relevance but its existence was denied. The United Kingdom displayed no interest in any of this. The reality is that British Petroleum has sunk ??6 billion into obtaining oil from Algerian southern Sahara; the US and the EU are scrambling with the UK for a slice of Libya???s economic potential; and Jordan, one fifth of whose annual national income is provided by the US, is content to act as its most reliable provider of safe destinations for rendition and torture. In February, a judgment published by the European Court of Human Rights in the case of a Tunisian whom Italy sought to deport, although Tunisia continues to practise torture, revealed that the UK had tried to intervene in the case in the hope of undoing one of the European Court???s most important decisions, Chahal v. UK, in which the court insisted that the claim of a risk to national security could never trump a European country???s international obligation not to return a refugee who might be tortured. The European Court rejected this attempt in strong terms. Through a myriad other routes Britain attempts to evade internationally recognised legal restraints. Several years ago Tony Blair attempted to deport an Egyptian human rights lawyer who had been the victim of truly terrible torture in his own country: Blair argued that an assurance from Egypt of the man???s safety would suffice. Unusually, during a court challenge to the legality of his detention, private memoranda between Blair and the Home Office were made public. Across a note from the Home Office expressing concern that even hard assurances given by Egypt were unlikely to provide real protection against torture and execution, Blair had scribbled: ???Get them back.??? Beside the passage about the assurances he wrote: ???This is a bit much. Why do we need all these things???? The man succeeded in his court challenge, but today, on the basis of secret information provided by Egypt, he is the subject of a UN Assets Freezing Order managed by the Treasury. He has no assets, no income and no work, and can be given neither money nor ???benefit??? without a licence. ???Benefit??? includes eating the meals his wife cooks. She requires a licence to cook them, and is obliged to account for every penny spent by the household. She speaks little English and is disabled, so is compelled to pass the obligation onto their children, who have to submit monthly accounts to the Treasury of every apple bought from the market, every bus fare to school. Failure to do so constitutes a criminal and imprisonable offence. A few weeks ago in the House of Lords, Lord Hoffman expressed horror at ???the meanness and squalor??? of a regime ???that monitored who had what for breakfast???. The number of such cases now multiplies daily. They have nothing at all to do with national security, they only succeed, as they are intended to, in sapping morale; they have everything to do with reinforcing the growing belief of the suspect community that it is expected to eradicate its opinions, its identity and many of the core precepts of its religion. In December 2001 it was a small group of foreign nationals who paid the price for Blair???s wish to show solidarity with the US; and their predicament has never been widely known or understood beyond the Muslim community. But joining them in prison today are more and more young British men, and occasionally women. Many have little or no idea why they are there, although even more disturbingly, the majority were tried by the courts in conventional trials before conventional juries. Why is it, therefore, that the accused do not seem to comprehend why they are there when the prosecution has in any trial to serve all of its evidence in the form of statements, in order to inform the defendant of the case against him? The answer is that the vice underlying the internment/deportation cases is now being perpetrated in conventional trials. The accusations are similarly inchoate: defendants are said to be ???linked to terrorism??? or ???linked to extremism and/or radical ideology???. In these cases, the evidence before the court has time and again been found after a search on a defendant???s computer or in a notebook; the defendant is charged with possession of a certain item or this item is held to demonstrate the defendant???s desire to incite, encourage or glorify terrorism. The right to a fair trial is in many ways difficult to articulate. If a defendant believes his or her prosecution is unjust, does he or she have any concepts to hang onto that are not entirely nebulous, unless they can prove, as those wrongly convicted in Birmingham or Guildford did, that their confessions had been brutally coerced? Or in the case of Judith Ward, when it was proved that the prosecution had withheld for 18 years evidence that disproved her claimed fantasies, or that of Danny McNamee, in which the information that circuit boards identical to those he was held to have used were in the possession of an actual bomb-maker was kept from his defence and a fingerprint was claimed to be his when it was not. In each of these cases, bad, misleading and on occasion false ???expert??? evidence also played its part. Less well-known guarantees of a fair trial do, however, exist, just as clear protections for refugees exist, which were equally intended to hold good for all time and in the face of all emergencies. The relevant provisos, which underpin the right to a fair trial, are that the law should be clear and certain so that individuals can be confident that their behaviour does not transgress the limits society has set; that the application of the law should never be retrospective; and that there are protections intended to preserve freedom of speech, religion, thought and privacy. Young Muslims search the internet in their tens of thousands, as do non-Muslims. Any internet search, however, leaves an ineradicable trace which can and does provide material that puts its searcher now at risk of prosecution for possession of information that might be ???of use to terrorists???. They even risk arrest for writing anything that could be said to ???incite??? or ???encourage??? ???terrorism???. This is the context of many current prosecutions. The fruits of a police search are uncovered, prosecutions mounted for the ???possession??? of literature, films and pamphlets bought or viewed on websites, even if that viewing was swift and the item discarded or even deleted. The defendants are stigmatised as potential terrorists and their cases considered by juries more often than not without even one Muslim among their ranks to provide what the concept of 12 jurors randomly selected is intended to contribute to the trial process ??? a reflection of the collective good sense of the community. Two young Muslim women were separately tried at the Old Bailey last year for having written works deemed by the prosecution to be for a terrorist objective. One was the ???Lyrical Terrorist???, whose appeal against conviction is due to be heard shortly. The other, Bouchra El-Hor, was acquitted by her jury; she had the good fortune to have as a defence witness Carmen Callil, who witheringly described the letter that El-Hor had written as a classic example of the way devout women, whether Catholic or Quaker, Puritan or Muslim, experiment with creative writing as a means of expression while living isolated existences. The jury laughed at Callil???s savage critique, but one could see recognition and understanding follow. This is very dangerous territory, however, where a lucky accident of interpretation is critical to a jury???s understanding of a case and where police and prosecutors, neither of them armed with any understanding of Islam, press on with prosecutions although the court struggles properly to understand what is at issue. Where the human story is straightforward, the task is far easier, but even so, now that secret accusations and secret courts have intruded into the sacrosanct forum of an open jury trial in which secrecy is not allowed, what is a jury to make of an allegation that a defendant has breached a Control Order imposed on the basis of secret evidence which holds that he is a risk to national security? On trial just before Christmas was a young Essex Muslim, Ceri Bullivant, who had been placed under a Control Order and then charged with a criminal offence when he absconded, unable to cope with the restrictions of that order. In his case the jury magnificently acquitted him on the basis that he had a reasonable excuse to breach his order. It was only later, however, in the High Court, that what lay behind the secrecy became suddenly clearer. Mr Justice Collins quashed the order itself; before he did so, an Intelligence agent giving evidence from behind a screen admitted that the tip-off which had led to the decision that Bullivant was a risk to national security and ???associated with links to terrorists??? had come from a friend of Ceri???s mother who, after drinking heavily, had phoned Scotland Yard, which failed ever to contact the caller to ask for further explanation. Equally disturbingly, a childhood friend of Bullivant???s told the court that he had been approached by MI5 officers and asked to spy on local Muslim youths. When he pointed out this was unlikely to be productive since he was not himself a Muslim, he was encouraged to become one and told that ???converts are given a special welcome.??? >From a distance such blundering negligence might seem merely laughable, but those affected by it feel resentment, anger and despair. Why should young people as much a part of Britain as any other citizen require what are in effect interpreters to establish their innocence? The more religiously based the evidence, the greater the opportunity for obstinate incomprehension. Conspicuous by its absence in case after case is any evidence, expert or otherwise, proffered by the prosecution that attempts to explain the most basic concepts of Islam to a non-Muslim jury. Take the instance of a saying of the Prophet Muhammad familiar to all Muslims: ???Fight the unbelievers with your wealth, yourselves and your tongues.??? Should a man who made a supplication in those terms in Regent???s Park Mosque on the holiest night of Ramadan four years ago, in support of the citizens of Fallujah who were that night defending their city in the face of the announced eradication by US troops of all who remained there, have anticipated that he might be breaking the law, or that he could be charged and prosecuted in 2008 after a friend???s home video of his prayer was found by police in a raid? He had, after all, repeated those same challenging words many times over the years, and explained again and again to the public, to the police and politicians, one of the most fundamental concepts of Islam, the Ummah, which makes every Muslim anywhere in the world the brother of every other Muslim, so that if one is attacked others are obliged to help. Should he be surprised to be prosecuted for having reiterated these same words of support in a mosque? The answer lies in Blair???s warning: ???The rules of the game have changed.??? Previously accepted boundaries of freedom of expression and thought have been redefined and are now in effect being prosecuted retrospectively, with the result that our criminal justice system is becoming further distorted as many truly innocent defendants plead guilty, against their lawyers??? advice, terrified by the prospect, as they see it, of inevitable conviction and ever lengthening prison sentences. Thousands of others, all of whom have searched the internet, watch with horror the process of criminalisation and punishment. In this country we did not grow up with a written constitution and human rights legislation entered our law only recently. In times of tension we struggle to find answers to basic questions. Are there rules and can they be changed? Are there legal concepts that protect a community under blanket suspicion, or should that community???s adverse reaction to suspicion be seen as oversensitivity in the face of perceived political necessity? Should we accept the concept of the greatest good for the greatest number? The answer is again the same: we are bound by international treaty and, belatedly, by domestic human rights legislation, to hold that there are inalienable rights that attach to the individual rather than society. Article 8 of the European Convention protects not only respect for family and private life, but also the individual against humiliating treatment; Article 10 protects freedom of expression, Article 9 freedom of thought, conscience and religion, and Article 14 guarantees that in the enjoyment of these rights any discrimination is itself prohibited. Occasionally, fierce campaigning successfully sounds an alarm: the proposed extension from 28 to 42 days of the time allowed for questioning those suspected of involvement in terrorism is being energetically fought. But there are less obvious erosions of parallel rights. If this is indeed how it was for the Irish, we should urgently try to understand how significant change came about for them. Much current reminiscence ignores vital factors, such as the inescapable responsibility of the Irish Republic and, above all, the political weight of the Irish diaspora and the far-sightedness of those who began and maintained contact, long before Blair was elected and claimed the ultimate prize. Throughout the thirty years of conflict, forty million Americans of Irish descent formed an electoral statistic that no US administration could afford to ignore. It is said that on the night before he decided to grant a visa to Gerry Adams, Bill Clinton watched a film about the catastrophic injustice inflicted on one Irish family by the British state. Here, Lord Scarman and Lord Devlin, retired law lords, joined Cardinal Hume, the head of the Catholic Church in England, in educating themselves in the finest detail of three sets of wrongful convictions involving 14 defendants. At one critical moment Cardinal Hume confronted the home secretary, Douglas Hurd, challenging the adequacy of his briefing. No similar allies for the Muslim community are evident today, capable of pushing and pulling the British government publicly or privately into seeing sense. Spiritually, the Muslim Ummah is seen as being infinite, but the powerful regimes of the Muslim world almost without exception not only themselves perpetrate oppression, but choose to work hand in hand with the US and the UK in their ???war on terror???. It is for us, as a nation, to take stock of ourselves. We are very far along a destructive path, and if our government continues on that path, we will ultimately have destroyed much of the moral and legal fabric of the society that we claim to be protecting. The choice and the responsibility are entirely ours. Gareth Peirce is a lawyer who has since the 1970s represented individuals accused of involvement in terrorism from both the Irish and the Muslim communities. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/406951.html Tibetan "protestors" removed from trafalger square riku | 17.08.2008 18:48 | Repression | Social Struggles | London police being twats On Saturday after the main authorised tibet protest march, two protestors stopped to watch the olympics, they happened to be carrying two tibet flags but werent protesting. After a couple of minutes the heritage wardens (the people who supervise the square) asked them to leave, and then proceeded to get the police involved when they said they werent protesting and wouldnt leave.... anyway...5 policeman eventually came down and asked them to leave and threatened to use force...stating that they were enforcing local by-laws (which do exist).... the irony was that they really werent protesting....yet because the police turned up and treated it as such, thats what it became....! yah! another ridiculous example of police activity in london.... riku Download this article in pdf format Email this article to someone; Submit an addition or make a quick comment on this article Additions Ironies 18.08.2008 21:48 thanks for putting this up Riku.To clarify a little.when we first entered the square there were 7 of us but five left after the intervention of a couple of Heritage wardens,some lurking security and a community police officer,which left two of us.After singing a line from the current Madonna single "if its against the law arrest me" (at which the Heritage Warden looked horrified ,possibly at my sentiment but more probably at my vocal chords) & a bit of relatively friendly chat with the community police officer i said i intended to stay watching the olympics until 3.00pm.After the 5 police arrived it appeared that they were 4 to 1 in our favour,but had to act on the Heritage Warden's say so.They asked to see the bye law and then showed it to us where it said under Trafalgar Square bye Laws 2002 section 5 part 10 that noone should "take part in a display".we disputed that we were doing any such thing . as i pointed out to the police inspector "what about every design on a T-shirt and the bloke who i saw passing by with an England flag over his shoulder".As far as we were concerned we were just watching the Olympics with our Tibetan flags.After more conflab the police told us they would have to remove us by force.There was no suggestion of arrest so i continued to assume we were not doing anything illegal.however as it was now 5 to 3.00pm the police decided to just wait for our time to leave.i didn't feel that overall the police wanted to be there. After discussion between the two of us we felt that we were the victims of political discrimination by the GLA.This bye law ,if it means anything,(& such a catch all phrase as "display" hardly suggests it does)is clearly only implemented when it suits the GLA reps. i'd be surprised if they order out people wearing T-Shirts displaying their affections for football teams or coca-cola.So it depends on the bias of the GLA as expressed through its employees. As a result of this we decided to go to Parliament Square the next day and raise the Tibetan Flag.This we did yesterday & spent nearly two hours waving Tibetan flags opposite the Houses Of Parliament & Big Ben.About 50 people asked to be photographed with us including people from Russia,Pakistan,and Hong Kong....but no interest whatsoever from the police (& SOCPA).We had wondered whether Tiananmen square & Parliamen square were similar (ie that its illegal in both places to raise the Tibetan flag) but thankfully we found that they are not. The UK Parliament is a very suitable place to raise the Tibetan Flag because UK invaded Tibet in 1904.This is important because it means that the UK is the only Western nation that knows that Tibet was an independent nation before its occupation by China.The UK therefore has a huge responsibility to Tibet which the UK avoids. Gordon Brown failed to meet the Dalai Lama at Downing Street in May.(Since 1959 John Major is the only UK Prime Minister to have received the Dalai Lama at Downing Street).So Gordon Brown its way past time to act for Tibet. ~~^^~~simon http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Scientology-protester--faces-court.4191420.jp Scientology protester faces court over 'ambiguous' sign Published Date: 17 June 2008 By ALAN McEWEN A PROTESTER has been charged with breach of the peace after carrying an "ambiguous" sign during a rally against the Church of Scientology. The 57-year-old was arrested after taking part in a protest at Hunter Square, near the controversial church's Scottish base on South Bridge. The protest was organised by campaign group Anonymous, which has been fighting for the right to describe the church as a cult. The protester who was arrested was wearing a Mexican wrestler's mask and carrying signs which read "Stupid Cu*t" and "Greedy Cu*t". The banner had flaps with letter "l"s on which could be folded down over the stars. Police decided the message on the banner was "too ambiguous" and could be taken as offensive. Around 60 people took part in Saturday's protest, policed by eight officers, while Scientologists ran a recruitment tent in the square. Last month, Edinburgh councillors said they had "no objection" to the use of the word "cult" in referring to the church. The decision followed a teenager taking part in a London protest being handed a court summons for refusing to put down a sign which read "Scientology is not a religion, it is a dangerous cult". In an online blog, the protester who was arrested said: "Following the recent arrests of protesters who displayed the word "cult", I decided to make the point that the word "cult" was being treated as an offensive profanity when applied to Scientology. "The arrest when it came was swift and non-negotiable. I was told, 'That's going too far, I'm arresting you'. I never received a warning. "I think it's a waste of taxpayers' money to arrest me over a joke. "The police treated it more like an Orange Order walk or football match, whereas previously, it was more of a carnival atmosphere. Perhaps I misread the mood." The protester, who said he lost touch with two friends after they joined the church in the 1970s, is due to appear at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on July 3. A spokesman for Anonymous Scotland, which has around 130 members, said: "The police had been good with us until the Scientologists started making frivolous complaints. They knew how to push the police's buttons and get them to intimidate us by taking down all our details. "We understand the sign could be viewed as slightly insidious, but this man was not warned about it. He was simply arrested and that's why we were angry." None of the group are former Scientologists, but some have friends or family who are current or former members. The group's next march is planned for the second weekend of July. A police spokeswoman said: "A 57-year-old man was arrested after displaying a banner with offensive writing. Aside from this, the protest passed peacefully." Scientologists claim to be dedicated to self improvement through counselling and rehabilitation. Famous members include Tom Cruise and John Travolta. No-one could be reached at the Church of Scientology. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/not-in-our-backyard-a-bill-that-threatens-historic-right-to-protest-852824.html Not in our backyard! A Bill that threatens historic right to protest By Andrew Grice and Ben Russell Tuesday, 24 June 2008 PA With an extra 100m passengers predicted to be using UK airports by 2030, there are new runways planned for four airports as part of a huge expansion programme More than 60 Labour MPs are threatening to derail plans to weaken people's long-standing right to oppose the building of new nuclear power stations and airport runways in their own "backyards". Ministers want to hand the final decisions to an unelected quango, and Labour whips are trying to head off a backbench rebellion when the Planning Bill is debated in the Commons tomorrow. Sixty-three Labour MPs have threatened to vote against the measure and ministers are set to offer concessions to avert an embarrassing first Commons defeat for Gordon Brown ? one which would prompt further questions about his authority. At present, major projects such as power stations, ports, airports, roads, railways, dams, water plants, hazardous waste facilities and critical gas and electricity works are subject to public inquiries, where lawyers for residents, pressure groups and developers do battle ? sometimes for years ? before government-appointed inspectors recommend whether the schemes should go ahead. Ministers then take the final decision. Under the Bill, an independent infrastructure planning commission would decide whether to approve such projects. Environmental groups and MPs from all parties have condemned the proposals as an affront to democracy. They say the final say on such developments should not be handed to an unelected quango but should be retained by ministers accountable to the public. The Campaign to Protect Rural England warned that the shake-up would remove democratic control over all the most contentious planning decisions. "This is crunch time for planning in this country," said Paul Miner, its senior planning campaigner. "Airport expansion and new power stations are huge matters of public concern. If ministers are serious about moving towards a greener future and more prudent use of resources, they should take the hard decisions this involves. MPs must stand up and be counted and use their votes to make sure we continue to have democratic accountability in our biggest planning decisions." Naomi Luhde-Thompson, of Friends of the Earth, added: "The Planning Bill is undemocratic, marginalises community voices and does nothing to tackle climate change. The Government's proposals mean local people will not be properly involved in decisions that could fundamentally affect them. Major projects such as roads, airports and power stations will be pushed through without local people having a proper say. "The existing inquiry process allows people to question the developer, call witnesses and present evidence at a public inquiry. In the new system, all of these rights are removed, with only limited opportunity for people to raise concerns, and no requirement for the developer or decision-makers to respond." Last night, the Labour rebels held talks with the Communities Secretary, Hazel Blears, and the Planning minister, John Healey, to demand that the Government's role is strengthened. It seemed ministers were likely to give some ground, with one government source saying: "We are not seeking confrontation, we are seeking compromise." The vote has been delayed twice to give ministers more time to head off a defeat. Mr Brown has been telephoning potential Labour rebels, who have signed a Commons motion saying the proposed planning commission would have "inordinate and unprecedented" powers. Two weeks ago, the Prime Minister narrowly survived a vote to extend to 42 days the maximum time that police can hold terror suspects. A defeat on the Planning Bill, at a time when Mr Brown has an overall majority of only 67, would raise further questions about his authority. Labour rebels have tabled amendments to the Bill to ensure that ministers retain the final say. John Grogan, one of the leaders of the revolt, said: "You should not be able to build a new power station or a big new airport without a politician being prepared to stand up for it and being responsible. The politicians should not be able to stand up and say, 'it's not us guv, it's the planning commissions'. There is a limit to the virtues of government by expert." John McDonnell, the Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington, added: "This is a straightforward case of accountability. Even if you just put a secretary of state's name on the decision, it allows you to understand who is responsible. You cannot devolve these issues to a group of hand-picked bureaucrats. In my constituency there is the issue of Heathrow airport. It will be a huge issue in my constituency but also a major argument over global warming." The Conservative leader, David Cameron, said: "This quango is going to be almost entirely divorced from the processes of democracy. That is wrong. People need a planning system in which they feel they have a say ? both at national and local level. That is why this Bill is getting such widespread opposition from so many different quarters." Steve Webb, the Liberal Democrat environment spokesman, said: "The Planning Bill is a Trojan Horse for airport expansion, new nuclear power plants and other controversial projects. The Government has got fed up with consultation and public inquiries. The worry is that it is about railroading through plans. If we do not get the amendments through, we will ask ministers about these projects and they will say, 'Sorry ? not my decision'." The Government insists the new system would be more democratic because MPs would debate national policy statements on energy or transport to lay down detailed guidelines for planning decisions and set out the principle of developments such as new nuclear plants. The commission would then decide detailed planning applications on about 45 cases a year. Developers would be required to consult local communities and the commission would hold public hearings into applications. All interested parties would still have a right to put their case to the commission. Ministers say the hearings would be less dominated by lawyers. NUCLEAR SITES Expansion or renovation planned at more than a dozen nuclear facilities, despite mounting concerns over safety and waste disposal. RESERVOIRS Major development planned to expand six reservoirs in the South and South-east, where OECD says water capacity per head is lower than in the Sahara. INCINERATORS Tough new environmental regulations could lead to the building of three massive, centralised disposal units for millions of tonnes of commercial and household waste. AIRPORTS With an extra 100m passengers predicted to be using UK airports by 2030, there are new runways planned for four airports as part of a huge expansion programme. BARRAGES Hugely controversial proposals under review to generate up to 5 per cent of Britain's electricity needs from the Severn Barrage alone. GAS PIPELINES Six huge underground gas fields built after surge in imports of liquefied petroleum gas and collapse in North Sea supply. MAJOR ROADS Massive infrastructure improvements to be enacted with widening of motorways and relaying of ?A? roads. About 500 miles of extra roads are planned. Stansted campaign would be silenced The public inquiry into the expansion of Stansted airport, around which a stream of retired solicitors, teachers and other professionals have mobilised in protest, is a good example of the sort under threat from the new law. When hearings began last May, environment groups co-ordinated protests outside while inside, Friends of the Earth, the Stop Stansted Expansion (SSE) group and the National Trust gave statements against the plans of the airport's owner, BAA. The inquiry has heard both sides of the case: the plans ? for a new terminal by 2015, with 68 million passengers a year by 2030 ? will create up to 13,000 jobs, boosting the economy by ?9bn, according to BAA. But the new runway and terminal would be built on 442 hectares of land, with 13 listed buildings being destroyed. Essex County Council is firmly opposed, while the SSE has described the plan as "going beyond environmental vandalism and ... tantamount to a declaration of war on the local community and global environment". High-speed rail: the future? Journey times between London and Manchester could be cut to little more than an hour under ambitious plans to build a new generation of rail routes. Network Rail yesterday announced a feasibility study into the construction of five high-speed rail links from the capital to major cities. The new lines would be built alongside existing routes out of London in the largest rail investment since the 19th century.They would be next to the West Coast line to Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow; the East Coast line to Edinburgh; the Great Western to Bristol, the Midland main line to Sheffield and the Chiltern route to Birmingham. London to Manchester would be 74 minutes; London to Sheffield 71 minutes. The moves follow predictions of a 30 per cent rise in passengers in the next decade. Network Rail said: "There is a huge case to be made for an expansion of the rail network." Nigel Morris http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/edinburgh/Norwegian-fined-for-airport-39bomb39.4162934.jp Norwegian fined for airport 'bomb' protest A NORWEGIAN engineer who protested that he "didn't have a bomb" while going through airport security checks at Edinburgh has been fined ?650. Kjell Bjoennes, 52, became upset when asked to remove his belt as he passed through the security area at Edinburgh Airport on Thursday. The contracts manager, who earns ?120,000 a year after tax, yelled at security staff "I have got a belt, not a bomb". Police were called after Bjoennes continued to shout about bombs and he was arrested. He appeared from custody at Edinburgh Sheriff Court yesterday and pled guilty to repeatedly shouting and swearing and placing the lieges in a state of fear and alarm and committing a breach of the peace. Paul Smith, defending, said the father-of-two had been through Edinburgh Airport with the same belt on before and "couldn't understand why a fuss was being made of it on this occasion". Sheriff John Horsburgh QC said the fine would have been ?1000 if Bjoennes had not pled guilty. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ldxar1 at tesco.net Sat Aug 30 01:17:04 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 09:17:04 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Repression news, Europe and global North, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <00e201c90a78$cab54380$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * JAPAN: G8 crackdown denounced * GREECE: Court sentences protesters, previously reported as acquitted, for Thessaloniki protests * TURKEY: Mayor fined for speaking truth to power * CANADA: Finally a little sense - court reverses contempt sentences, recognises indigenous people's different view of justice Protesters had been criminalised for standing up to a land grab * CANADA: Police pay man detained at G20 protest * JAPAN: Attack on right to leaflet attracts legal protest * BELGIUM: Mayor bans Rwandan demo for no reason whatsoever; protesters arrested * AUSTRALIA: G20 sentencing attacks right to protest, but police whine that freed protesters still have rights * IRELAND: Court case against Rossport protesters, three-month jail threat * SCOTLAND: Ban on word "cult" overturned * CANADA: State tries to terrorise indigenous protesters out of attending day of action * CANADA: Company drops charges against indigenous protesters * AUSTRALIA: State tries to bankrupt protest group * SPAIN: Nigerian migrant killed during deportation * ITALY: Genoa police found guilty of mistreating protesters - but likely to avoid jail * ITALY: Raft of repressive laws hit everyday life * SWITZERLAND: Journalists complain at UEFA censorship http://www.gmanews.tv/story/105868/Youth-group-slams-crackdown-on-protesters-at-G8 Youth group slams crackdown on protesters at G8 07/09/2008 | 04:41 AM Email this | Email the Editor | Print | Digg this | Add to del.icio.us MANILA, Philippines - Militant Filipino youths scored Tuesday what they called the repression against protesters at the G-8 summit in Hokkaido, Japan, and demanded the release of the arrested protesters. In a letter to Japanese ambassador Makoto Katsura dated July 8, the youths also reiterated their opposition to the Japan Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA). "We denounce such atrocious and barbarous acts by the Japanese authorities as they violate both the constitutional rights of Japanese citizens and the human rights of foreigners entering Japan," they said in the letter. Excerpts of the letter were posted Wednesday on the Manila Indymedia website. The youths also demanded the immediate release of all arrested G8 activists and all prisoners, including refugees and undocumented migrants from all detention centers nationwide. "We also demand to stop the unilateral 'Free Trade' agreement between Japan and Philippines under JPEPA, which includes the unfair Toxic Waste trading," they said. Citing reports from the No!G8 Legal Team, a group of volunteer lawyers and paralegals, Japanese police continued to crack down on protesters. In one incident, they said, police "mindlessly" shattered the window of a sound truck and forcibly dragged the driver out from his seat, injuring him. Some foreigners face deportation charges by simply profiling them according to their nationality, race and status. Some of them are Korean farmers now detained illegally inside the Japanese Immigration premises, they said. "This portrayal of terrorism by Japanese authorities only further adds to the already elitist and authoritarian image of the G8, worst than the Taliban and Al-Qaeda," they said. The letter was signed by Pinagkaisahan Collective, United for Peace Collective, Local Anarchist Network, Manila Indymedia, Collective of Anarchists in Bulacan, Anarchist Initiative for Direct Democracy, and NonCollective. - GMANews.TV http://www.commondreams.org/news2008/0709-04.htm FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 9, 2008 10:53 AM CONTACT: National Lawyers Guild Marjorie Cohn, NLG President, marjorie at tjsl.edu; 619-374-6923 Heidi Boghosian, NLG Executive Director, director at nlg.org; 212-679-5100, ext. 11 National Lawyers Guild Teams with Japanese Legal Network To Monitor Police Misconduct in Counter G8 Protests In Japan Extraordinary Force Used to Silence Protesters Critical of G8 and United States Policies JAPAN - July 9 -The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) is monitoring an escalation of repression by Japanese police against protestors of the Group of 8 Summit (G8 Summit) in the Japanese island of Hokkaido, as well as in Sapporo, Tokyo and other parts of Japan. The Lawyers Guild, a network of lawyers, legal workers and law students advocating for social change in the US, has teamed up with WATCH, a Japanese legal network created to document police and government misconduct during the anti G8 protests. Both organizations are deeply disturbed at the level of police harassment against G8 protestors. ?What we have witnessed in the streets of Sapporo, Tokyo and in Hokkaido Toyako is part of an ongoing and escalating campaign to suppress the movement for social change and real democracy in Japan,? said Marina Sitrin, professor and member of the National Lawyers Guild. As G8 leaders meet at their Summit in Hokkaido Toyako, the Japanese police and government manifest their anti-democratic policies with regard to demonstrators and people who oppose the group?s policies "The G8, which claims to oppose poverty and global warming, actually promotes aid to poor countries that forces them into debt and policies that create climate change. The National Lawyers Guild supports the global justice movement against these policies, in Japan and worldwide," said NLG President Marjorie Cohn. The G8 leaders have publicly cited Iran's nuclear energy program as a military threat, fueling fears of the possibility that the US will attack Iran. After the G8's 2003 declaration on non-proliferation, which specifically targeted Iran, last year's G8 communiqu? listed Iran as one of three countries (with Libya and North Korea) posing 'proliferation challenges' to world security, despite the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency's conclusion that there is no evidence Iran has a nuclear weapons program. ?We were surprised by the excessive force used by police in the counter G8 demonstrations," said Ko Watari, of WATCH. ?This was a non-violent demonstration where no acts against property or people took place, or even appeared likely to take place.? Three people have been arrested, one Reuter?s cameraman was standing on a public sidewalk when arrested by police; and his video camera was confiscated. The arrest of a sound truck driver followed immediately thereafter. Footage of the driver?s arrest shows him screaming in pain as the police attempted to pull him out of the truck, after smashing the truck window. A later inspection of the confiscated truck by the legal team revealed quantities of dried blood on the steering wheel and dashboard. ?Labor and peace movement leaders are concerned that the police will arrest them for organizing these protests, search their homes and interrogate their family members,? said Dan Spalding, Legal Worker Vice President of the National Lawyers Guild. Japanese law permits police to hold and interrogate suspects for 23 days without formal charges. They are often interrogated for 12 hours in a row, and often forced to sit on their knees all day while in detention, not being allowed to move without permission, even to use the bathroom. It is these sorts of conditions and punitive arrests that the National Lawyers Guild opposes. We call on the Japanese government to respect human rights in Japan. Founded in 1937 as an alternative to the American Bar Association, which did not admit people of color, the National Lawyers Guild is the oldest and largest public interest/human rights bar organization in the United States. Its headquarters are in New York and it has chapters in every state. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/28/europe/EU-GEN-Greece-Riots.php Greek court sentences 4 over riots at 2003 EU summit The Associated Press Published: May 28, 2008 THESSALONIKI, Greece: A Greek court on Wednesday found four people guilty of taking part in extensive riots during a 2003 European Union summit in Thessaloniki. Thessaloniki court officials said the defendants were sentenced to between five-and-a-half and eight-and-a-half years in prison for possessing explosive materials, causing explosions, and rioting. But defense lawyers appealed the convictions, and all four will walk free until the appeal hearing. The defendants were identified as British national Simon Chapman, 35 ? who was not present in court ? Spaniard Fernando Perez, 28, Syrian Suleyman Dakdouk, 39, and Greek Michalis Traikapis, 28. Another three suspects were acquitted. All seven were arrested at the June 20-21 riots during an EU summit to mark the end of Greece's term in the EU's rotating presidency. Rioters broke away from peaceful marches to clash with police, severely damaging more than 30 stores with petrol bombs and stones. No date has been set for the appeal hearing. http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=102141 Court fines Diyarbak?r mayor over riot remarks Friday, April 18, 2008 D?YARBAKIR ? AFP The mayor of the largest city in the southeast of the country was yesterday sentenced to 50 days in jail for "praising" rioters, but the court later converted the term to a fine. Osman Baydemir, the mayor of Diyarbak?r and one of Turkey's most popular Kurdish politicians, was sentenced for "praising crime and criminals" in remarks he made during a deadly unrest in the city in March of last year. The court then converted the sentence to a YTL 1,500 fine. Baydemir had hailed "the courage" of young rioters as he tried to reason with them in a bid to end the unrest that erupted over the killing of several members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in clashes with the army in March 2007. Authorities had accused the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) of orchestrating the riots, which began in Diyarbak?r and spread to other towns and Istanbul, claiming a total of 16 lives. It was the second sentence this week against Baydemir, who was among 53 mayors sentenced to more than two months imprisonment over a letter they sent to the Danish prime minister last year that urged him to ignore Ankara's calls to ban a Denmark-based TV station, which Turkey says is a PKK mouthpiece. Their terms were also converted to fines. Kurdish politicians in Turkey are routinely accused of supporting the PKK, which has waged a bloody 23-year campaign for self-rule in the Southeast and is listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community. http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2008/07/ontario-appeals-court-rules-aboriginal.php Monday, July 07, 2008 Ontario appeals court rules aboriginal mining protesters' sentences too severe Andrew Gilmore at 6:13 PM ET [JURIST] The Court of Appeal for Ontario [court website] ruled Monday that sentences imposed on seven aboriginal protesters in March for opposing mining company operations on community land were too severe. In February, Robert Lovelace, a member of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation (AAFN) [official website], was sentenced to six months in jail for contempt after he refused to comply with a court order allowing Frontenac Ventures Corporation [corporate website] to prospect for uranium on traditional AAFN lands in Ontario. In March, six members of the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation (KIFN) [official website] were sentenced [order, PDF] to six months' imprisonment each for contempt of court after they impeded the access of Platinex Inc. [corporate website], an oil drilling company, to exploration property on traditional First Nations land. Lovelace and the so-called "K6" were released in May after their sentences were reduced to time served. In Frontenac Ventures Corporation v. Ardoch Algonquin First Nation, released Monday, the court explained [judgment, PDF] that: [I]mprisonment, far from being a meaningful sanction for the community, had the effect of pitting the community against the justice system. That the court found it necessary to imprison the leaders of the AAFN simply serves to emphasize the gulf between the dominant culture?s sense of justice and this First Nation?s sense of justice. ... In summary, the appellants? character and circumstances, their actual conduct, and the difficult legal context within which it occurred, should have counted as significant mitigation when sentences were imposed on them. The court applied the same reasoning in its decision to release the six protestors in Platinex, Inc. v. Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation [judgment, PDF]. Canadian Press has more. The Frontenac and Platinex cases both involve mineral exploration activities on traditional aboriginal lands falling outside the First Nations' federally-recognized territory. In June 2007, Prime Minister Stephen Harper unveiled a series of reforms [JURIST report] designed to address a backlog of claims from aboriginal groups seeking redress for land seized by the Canadian government. In 2004, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled [JURIST report] that Canadian governments must consult with the Assembly of First Nations [official website] before developing land claimed by aboriginal groups. http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080528/OTT_Native_Protesters_080528/20080528?hub=Canada Updated Wed. May. 28 2008 7:54 PM ET The Canadian Press TORONTO -- Moments after the Ontario Court of Appeal decided he'd served enough time behind bars, the last of seven aboriginal protesters jailed over disputes with mining exploration companies walked out of court saying he planned to stroll barefoot in the grass. The overcrowded courtroom, filled mostly with aboriginal supporters, burst into applause and even a court police officer shook the hand of Ardoch Algonquin First Nation's leader Bob Lovelace who spent 3 1/2 months in jail. "It feels really good. It feels like justice is on our side," Lovelace said on the front steps of the courthouse, his wife by his side. "I think I'm going to go out and put my feet in the grass. It's been a long time." The eastern Ontario aboriginal leader was jailed in February for breaching an injunction that allowed Frontenac Ventures to conduct uranium exploration activities on his community's traditional territory unhindered. While the ruling does nothing to resolve the dispute, Lovelace said he hoped this "exercise" would prompt the Ontario government to engage in "meaningful" discussion and consultation on the matter which ultimately comes down to an archaic Mining Act that allows companies to stake land anywhere they like. But Lovelace cautioned he must "continue to protect our land," meaning he may be forced to occupy the disputed territory again if the company decides to proceed with exploration activities -- a situation that could land him back in jail. The court also decided six leaders from Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) First Nation had served enough time and ought to maintain their freedom. They had breached a similar injunction involving the company Platinex Inc., which sought to drill on their land some 600 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, Ont. Chief Donny Morris, deputy KI chief Jack McKay and members Sam McKay, Darryl Sainnawap, Cecilia Begg and Bruce Sakakeep were granted a temporary release last Friday pending the outcome of Wednesday's sentence appeal. Chris Reid, a lawyer representing the two aboriginal groups, argued aboriginal law dictates the leadership must uphold the wishes of their community, which in this case, is to stop companies from engaging in mining exploration on their land. "This is not an isolated case," Reid said. "It's something that's going to occur again and again." He suggested the aboriginal groups are prepared to discuss the matter, but want the right to say no if they don't like what they hear. The Appeal Court judges ruled that all seven would have their sentences reduced to time served but reserved their reasons for the ruling. While lawyers representing the two companies supported the release of the KI 6, they contested Lovelace's release, suggesting he had only to agree to abide by the rules of the injunction. Lawyer Neal Smitheman argued Lovelace's non-status band had a weak claim to the contested land in the first place which makes it a much different case than that of the KI 6. Another group of Algonquins have been negotiating a land claim that includes the Ardoch territory for more than a decade but negotiations have "failed miserably," he added. He suggested it's really a matter for the province to resolve, not the mining companies. "This is not Frontenac's fight. We are not the villains. We are the victim," he said. "We're just obeying the law." As for the KI appeal, Smitheman told the court he was "instructed" by Platinex not to oppose it. "It does not serve any purpose to keep the leaders of KI incarcerated," he argued. The groups have repeatedly slammed the province for doing nothing on the matter. Aboriginal Affairs Minister Michael Bryant even walked out of a meeting Tuesday with the KI 6 when the conversation turned to Lovelace's fate, Reid said. Still, the province's lawyer Malliha Wilson, surprised everyone when she spoke out in support of freeing all seven protesters. She also sparked a waved of laughter and much confusion among the three-judge panel when she suggested a more appropriate punishment than jail would have been to fine them and direct the money to a trust fund to support their communities. One judge noted the province's original position was to "impose a fine that hurts," and questioned the sudden change in language which was now promoting reconciliation. "The words `hurt' and `reconciliation' are total opposites," Justice James MacPherson said. Co-chief of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation Bob Lovelace was charged with contempt of court for staging protests that prevented a uranium mining company from mining on a site near Sharbot Lake. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2008/06/17/ot-g20-080617.html?ref=rss Man settles lawsuit over arrest at G20 protest Last Updated: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 | 5:35 PM ET A man who sued three police forces after being arrested and detained for 12 hours during a protest against the G20 summit in Ottawa seven years ago has agreed to an out-of-court settlement. David MacLaren, 53, reached a deal last week to drop his $1.5 million suit against the Ottawa police, the Ontario Provincial Police and the RCMP in exchange for cash. He is bound by an agreement not to disclose the amount, but Lawrence Greenspon, his lawyer, has said it was substantial. MacLaren told CBC News Tuesday that he hopes the settlement will make police think twice about applying unnecessary force. MacLaren was arrested as he was standing with his bicycle at the corner of Elgin and Queen streets on the afternoon of Nov. 17, 2001, during anti-globalization protests tied to the G20 summit. He said Tuesday that he did not participate in the protest, but was asked by OPP officers in riot gear to move along. He refused and alleges police pushed him to his knees, placed him in a choke hold and tied his hands behind his back with a wire tie. He was turned over to Ottawa police, placed in a padded wagon with 10 other people, and told he was in "big trouble" and would be charged with obstruction of justice, he alleged. He was held in a cell but released without charges 12 hours after his arrest, at 4:30 a.m., he said. MacLaren said the legal fight has cost him a lot, although he would not say how much. However, he said, it was worth it. Finance ministers from around the world gathered in Ottawa in November 2001 for annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Group of 20 nations. The IMF and World Bank meetings were originally scheduled to be held in Washington in late September, but they were postponed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The G20 gathering was initially planned for India, but was moved because of concerns about security. http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D906T9G00&show_article=1 Legal experts protest top court's decision against antiwar activists+ Apr 22 08:03 AM US/EasternWrite a Comment TOKYO, April 22 (AP) - (Kyodo)?About 140 legal experts on Tuesday issued a statement protesting the Supreme Court's recent decision finding three activists guilty for trespassing in a Self Defense Forces residential complex in Tokyo to distribute anti-Iraq war fliers. "The Supreme Court has failed to make a convincing case that the nonviolent act of distributing political fliers deserved a criminal penalty," the statement said. The statement was issued at the initiative of academics including Yasuhiro Okudaira, emeritus professor at the University of Tokyo, and Toshiki Odanaka, emeritus professor at Tohoku University. "The court did not show how the activists disturbed the private lives of (SDF personnel and their families living there) by the distribution and it seems unreasonable to brand their act as a crime," it said. "The edifice of a democratic society strengthens through acts of numerous people to express their opinions, such as by the circulation of fliers, and investigative authorities should not meddle in free communication among citizens," it noted http://allafrica.com/stories/200804240438.html Rwanda: Brussels Mayor Bans Another Protest Rally Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne) 23 April 2008 Posted to the web 24 April 2008 Brussels A controversial demonstration organized Tuesday by Rwandan associations in Brussels, Belgium, was banned by the Mayor of the city for "safety reasons ". However, police allowed a gathering of about 30 people in front of the courthouse, which they did not consider as a protest demonstration. The members of the Rwandan Civil Society in Exile (SOCIRWA) had planned the demonstration to commemorate massacres of thousands of ethnic Hutus in Kibeho, Southern Rwanda, allegedly by the army of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) between 17 and 25 April 1995. They also wanted to show solidarity with the victims (Twas, Tutsis and Hutus) massacred by Rwandan criminals since October 1990 to date. October 1990 is the date of the first military offensive by the pro-Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), then a rebellion in exile, on the Rwandan territory. The RPF is the party of President Paul Kagame, currently in power in Rwanda since the end of the 1994 genocide, which resulted in more than 800, 000 deaths according to the UN, mainly ethnic Tutsis. The Rwandan Community of Belgium (CRB) "vehemently" condemned the protest, describing it as a false commemoration. "This is all the more shocking because the organisers of the protest are known for their proximity and their sympathy with the Hutu power, which planned and carried out the genocide of Tutsis", adds CRB statement. According to the CRB, these organizations use the theory of the "double genocide" to convey a "radical negationism". On 6 April, another planned protest that was described as "negationist" by association genocide survivors (IBUKA) and the CRB, organized to mark the 14th commemorations of the genocide, was also banned by the Mayor. About 60 demonstrators nevertheless gathered that day, but were arrested by the Brussels police. The spokesperson for the Mayor said that the organizers SOCIRWA were the same as those who tried to hold unauthorized protest of 6 April. Among them was the distinguished activist Joseph Matata of the Center to Fight against Impunity and Injustice in Rwanda (CLIIR). http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/747/38646 G20 sentencing: upping the ante on the right to protest Margarita Windisch, Melbourne 19 April 2008 In an obvious attempt to silence political dissent, on April 14, 10 G20 protesters who had pleaded guilty to charges of common law riot, criminal damage and recklessly causing injury received severe sentences in Melbourne?s Magistrates court. The court cases relate to altercations with police that occurred during the Melbourne G20 summit demonstrations in November 2006. The G20 meeting involved finance ministers, central bank governors, World Bank and International Monetary Fund representatives from the world?s 19 largest economies. Five protesters received wholly suspended jail sentences, ranging from five to nine months, and four of the five also copped fines of up to $4000. Five more people were also convicted and sentenced to 12-month community-based orders with unpaid work of up to 250 hours. Before this sentencing, one G20 protester ? who has a mental illness ? had already been charged with aggravated burglary among other things, and on March 7 was sentenced by a County Court judge to 28 months jail with a non parole period of 14 months. Four minors still face charges of riot and affray in the Children?s Court and another group of 13 protesters, who have pleaded not guilty to charges, will stand trial at the County Court later in the year. The G20 cases are exceptional because of their unusual indictment procedure, and are an indication that the state is cracking down hard on political dissent. It has been common practice in the past that protesters charged during demonstrations in Melbourne are dealt with quickly by magistrates. David Marr argues in the March 22 Sydney Morning Herald that the three charges of unlawful assembly, criminal damage and aggravated burglary (which carries a maximum 25-year prison sentence) laid against some activists ? after brief occupations of defence recruiting and contractors? offices during the protests ? were used by the prosecution as a lever to take the cases to the County Court. The same article also suggests that the action by protesters at the G20 summit demonstration were not at all the worst seen in Melbourne, but that the state?s determination to prosecute was ?unprecedented?, in the words of civil rights lawyer Rob Stary. A report released by the Federation of Community Legal Centres of Victoria in 2007 accused the police of using disproportionate and unjustifiable force against protesters and bystanders during the G20 summit. The report also said that the strategy of the mainstream media and police in their portrayal of protesters was designed to erode the public?s confidence in the value of protest and defence of democratic rights and civil liberties. The police presence (on horses, in riot gear and with brawler vans) during the G20 summit was completely menacing. It was designed to overwhelm and intimidate a citizenry long unhappy with unpopular government policies. The Australian Federal Police and the Victorian police started their vicious crackdown on activists involved in the protest before the G20 summit had even officially ended, seriously violating civil liberties in the process. One man who didn?t even participate in the protests was violently snatched by police in the Melbourne CBD on Sunday November 19 and thrown into a divvy van. The man, who was arrested and later released, told the November 20, 2006 Melbourne Age that he had his hands tied and a policeman sitting on his head whilst being driven around town to a police station. Simultaneous early morning raids occurred in 2007, involving officers from the NSW, Victorian and federal police and counter-terrorism agents. According to a statement by Tim Davis-Frank, who was arrested in Sydney in March 2007 and had his house raided, some of the arrests ?led to serious personal injuries, significant property damage, loss of jobs and, in one case, being locked up for a month without bail?. Liz Thompson from the Ongoing G20 Arrestee Solidarity Network told Green Left Weekly that the crackdown on the G20 protesters is closely linked to the ?war on terror?, its associated attacks on civil liberties and the expansion of police powers. ?They were always going to find some type of ?emergency? to justify bringing these things in ? whether it be people throwing bottles at a police brawler van or street brawls in the city. This is how the war on terror works?, she commented. ?To be able to continue to justify the spending on CIRT [Critical Incident Response Teams] and other heavily armed police units, they have to keep coming up with a threat. This is why the NSW police arguing to the anti-terror unit that they had an important role to play in the G20 arrests is significant. It is a politically savvy move on the cops? part to ensure that the money keeps flowing. If the squads don?t get used, how will they keep justifying their existence to government bean counters?? Thompson also highlighted the exclusion list that was developed specifically for the September 2007 APEC demonstration (prohibiting people from attending protests) ? which included all of the G20 arrestees in Sydney ? and the subsequent proposal to make the extraordinary APEC police powers permanently available to police. She pointed out that these are worrying developments. The Ongoing G20 Arrestee Solidarity Network is calling for all charges to be dropped from the outstanding 17 court cases. For more information visit http://www.afterg20.org. http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23639714-2862,00.html Riot girl still on payroll Liam Houlihan May 04, 2008 12:00am A LEGAL Aid-employed G20 hooligan is allowed to continue her taxpayer-funded job because she has promised to behave. Julia Dehm was convicted of rioting, recklessly causing injury and intentionally damaging property for her actions during the violent anti-G20 protests that left several police hurt. In a move that has angered police, Ms Dehm has been cleared to continue her $35,500 publicly funded traineeship to become a lawyer. Victoria Legal Aid head Tony Parsons said there were several reasons Ms Dehm was allowed to continue. "Firstly, while she has been found guilty and been punished for a serious offence, her criminal behaviour was not the kind of conduct that would automatically exclude her from the legal profession (such as) an offence involving dishonesty," Mr Parsons said. "Secondly, she has given me a solemn undertaking that while employed at VLA she will scrupulously avoid any situation which might bring her into conflict with the law. "Thirdly, she has been punished for her offence by the courts. It is not VLA's role to impose an additional punishment on her." Police are angry at what they see as blatant hypocrisy where criminal activists are seemingly treated with leniency while wounded officers are hung out to dry. Police Association secretary Paul Mullett said it apeared to be double standards for a convicted criminal to be on the public payroll while injured police struggled for compensation. "If it's good enough for a convicted G20 protester to remain on the public payroll then it is certainly good enough for our member, Sen-Constable Kim Dixon, who was badly injured at the hands of these protesters, to receive fair and reasonable compensation for the serious harm they caused her," Sen-Sgt Mullett said. http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0520/corrib.html?rss Appeal in Shell protest sentence postponed Tuesday, 20 May 2008 12:14 An appeal by three Mayo men, who were convicted of assault at a protest near the Shell terminal, has been adjourned. The men were convicted for assaulting Garda Sergeant Donal Glennon during the protest on 12 October 2006 at Bellanaboy. The appeal was due to take place at the circuit court in Castlebar this morning. Judge Rory McCabe told the court that he has a personal conflict in dealing with the case and would not be able to hear it. The appeal is to be mentioned at the 10 June sitting of the Circuit Criminal Court in Castlebar, and has been put back for hearing until the September court sessions. The convicted men - Patrick O'Donnell, 49, from Porturlin in Ballina, his 21-year-old son Jonathan O'Donnell, and 21-year-old Enda Carey, also from Porturlin - were each given a three-month jail sentence and fined ?500 at the district court in Belmullet. Judge Mary Devins, who visited the scene of the protest at Bellanaboy during the district court hearing, ruled that the men had formed a scrum and charged the garda sergeant, causing him to fall into a ditch. The men denied the charges. http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Protesters-celebrate-city39s-39cult39-stance.4121704.jp Protesters celebrate city's 'cult' stance PROTESTERS who branded Scientology a "cult" were celebrating today after Edinburgh council bosses said they had "no objection" to the use of the word. Earlier this month, a teenager taking part in a London protest held up a sign which read "Scientology is not a religion, it is a dangerous cult," and was handed a court summons by police for refusing to put it down. The Crown Prosecution Service has since ruled the word was neither "abusive or insulting" to the church, which counts actor Tom Cruise as a follower, and no further action will be taken. But to avoid similar problems in Scotland, protesters who regularly rally outside the Scientology centre on South Bridge contacted the city council. A council official replied: "I understand that some of the signs you use may display the word 'cult' and there is no objection to this." A Lothian and Borders Police spokesman also said the force had "no issue" with the use of word as part of a peaceful protest. Jen Corlew, media director with human rights group Liberty, said today: "The leadership shown by the City of Edinburgh Council's decision to protect free speech is a positive step." The youngster in London was told his sign breached the Public Order Act, which makes it an offence to display a "threatening, insulting or abusive" sign. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2008/05/26/ot-aboriginal-080526.html?ref=rss Court conditions to keep some protesters from aboriginal day of action Last Updated: Monday, May 26, 2008 | 10:57 AM ET Comments23Recommend15 CBC News An annual aboriginal protest that led to blockades on the CN Rail line and the closure of Highway 401 near Belleville, Ont., last year is expected to be quieter this year, as many Mohawk activists in the region are either in jail or barred from participating in protests. The National Day of Action this Thursday aims to raise awareness about aboriginal issues such as land claims and the high rate of poverty among First Nations peoples. But many who would otherwise take part can't participate this year, said Dan Doreen, an activist from the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory. "They've got our people incarcerated, they got us on conditions," he said. Doreen, 34, is one of 16 people from the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory charged with offences such as mischief in connection with a blockade in April near Deseronto, Ont., about 26 kilometres east of Belleville. The Mohawks have mounted repeated protests over the past year-and-a-half regarding the Culbertson Tract, about 400 hectares of land on Lake Ontario's Bay of Quinte, near Deseronto, that the Mohawks say they never properly surrendered. Following Doreen's arrest, a judge imposed conditions that would land him in jail if he participates in a protest. "You know that's putting my family on the line," he said. "I have four kids at home, I run a business here on Tyendinaga Territory?. And, I guess OPP realize that and that's why I'm on these conditions." Mayor hopes for the best Meanwhile, Deseronto Mayor Norm Clarke hopes his town won't be targeted in any protests Thursday. "There may be people giving out pamphlets. That's fine with us. Everybody has a right to protest," he said, adding that such events become a concern when they shut down roads and affect commuters. Ontario Provincial Police said they haven't heard of any major disturbances planned for Thursday, but won't know for sure until that day. During last year's day of action, demonstrators erected barricades on the CN Rail line 20 kilometres east of Belleville and on Highway 2 near Deseronto, about 50 kilometres west of Kingston. Although the protests were largely peaceful, CN Rail suspended rail service heading from Toronto to Montreal and Ottawa. In addition, police shut down a 29-kilometre stretch of Highway 401 between Napanee and Belleville for 11 hours in response to the threat of a blockade. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2008/06/03/ot-sharbot-charges-080603.html?ref=rss Charges dropped against eastern Ont. uranium protesters Last Updated: Tuesday, June 3, 2008 | 11:04 AM ET Comments24Recommend14 CBC News A mining exploration company has withdrawn charges against a group of protesters who disobeyed a court order to stay away from a prospective uranium mining site. Frontenac Ventures announced in a Kingston courtroom Monday that it was no longer pressing contempt-of-court charges against the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation, co-chief Bob Lovelace, honorary chief Harold Perry and six non-aboriginal protesters. Neil Smitheman, legal counsel for Frontenac Ventures, said it didn't make sense to go ahead. "We're not here to prosecute people," he said. "We're in the business of drilling holes to see if there's a feasibility to do further mining." At least 100 people packed the courtroom Monday, when the accused were scheduled to face the charges laid last fall in relation to an occupation last summer of a site near Sharbot Lake, Ont., about 60 kilometres north of Kingston, where Frontenac Ventures wanted to do test drilling. The Algonquins say the site is on their land and they fear that uranium drilling could lead to environmental contamination. They began the occupation last June 29 and continued it until October, despite court injunctions granted in response to the company's requests that barred the protesters from going near the site. On Monday, Justice Douglas Cunningham, associate chief justice of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, made it clear that despite this batch of charges being dropped, the court injunctions remain in place. That means other protesters could still face charges if they go near the site. 'A public relations disaster' The withdrawing of the charges came less than a week after Lovelace was released from jail after serving just over half of his six-month term. His lawyer, Christopher Reid, said he believes both events are related to public perception about the situation at Sharbot Lake. "This has been a public relations disaster for those people responsible for putting Mr. Lovelace in jail," he said. "They've realized that it was a failure. Did they stop the protest? No." Lovelace and his supporters said they hope the publicity surrounding the case will inspire the Ontario government to consider a moratorium on uranium mining. Last summer's occupation ended in October after reaching an agreement with the Ontario government to begin mediation talks. The protesters briefly resumed their blockade of the site in February after mediation talks broke off. http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/753/38935 Government to bankrupt desalination protesters Ben Courtice 31 May 2008 Your Water Your Say (YWYS), the group campaigning against Victoria?s proposed Wonthaggi desalination plant, is facing bankruptcy due to the state and federal governments? decision to pursue costs against the group after it lost a preliminary court case over the project. YWYS argued in the Federal Court that federal environment minister Peter Garrett failed to give appropriate consideration to greenhouse gas emissions and the effect of further global warming on wetlands of international importance, and listed threatened species and communities. It argued that Garrett?s acceptance of the Victorian government?s decision to administratively separate the pilot plant from the major works enabled works to begin before any inquiry into the environmental effects. YWYS president Andrea Bolch said in a May 25 statement: ?The pursuit of costs from community groups that challenge government decisions strikes at the heart of democratic principles and our right to be heard. The government has decided that they don?t want pesky community groups questioning or challenging their decisions so they will spend enormous amounts of taxpayer funds to fight them in court and then ensure they are put out of business.? Bolch added, ?If the governments are successful in securing costs, YWYS will effectively face bankruptcy and the voice of the community will be silenced ? The government has never justified nor explained why it had chosen the most expensive and environmentally damaging solution to solve Melbourne?s water problems. By taking this action they will try to ensure they never have to explain it.? YWYS campaigners have not given up. They will challenge in court the governments? application for costs and are continuing their campaign with a community protest at the plant site near Wonthaggi. The group is planning to send a large contingent to the July 5 Climate Emergency rally in Melbourne. Stay informed about the campaign at http://www.yourwateryoursay.org. http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=68&art_id=nw20070713104855274C368394 Nigeria protests death of deportee July 13 2007 at 10:59AM Abuja - Nigeria has lodged an official protest in Spain about the death of a Nigerian being deported by Spanish authorities and will send a delegation to Spain next week to help unravel the mystery, the government said on Thursday. Osamuyi Akpitanhi was reportedly tranquilised, bound and gagged by customs agents before being placed on a Spanish airliner back to Lagos on June 9. He died about 90 minutes into the flight, and his story generated large protests in Nigeria at the end of last month and prompted the parliament to launch an inquiry into his death. Testifying before the investigative panel, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, permanent secretary of Nigeria's foreign ministry, said the government was in contact with Spain on the matter and had summoned its ambassador to Nigeria on Friday to offer an explanation. Baba-Ahmed is billed to lead the delegation to Spain next week and said the visit was designed to further pressure the Spanish government to expedite its own investigation into the incident. Osamuyi Akpitanhi was reportedly tranquilised, bound and gagged by customs agents Nigeria's ambassador in Spain had also lodged a protest with Spanish King Juan Carlos I, which Baba-Ahmed called "the highest level of diplomatic protest". Baba-Ahmed said Spanish authorities had assured Nigeria that nobody would be spared if found guilty, adding that Akpitanhi's body was being held in Spain to enable the authorities to complete their investigation. Baba-Ahmed acknowledged that many Nigerians lived illegally in Spain and other parts of Europe, adding that Spanish authorities were still holding two other deportees who were with Akpitanhi. Also testifying to the parliament panel on Thursday, a Nigerian aboard the Iberia Airline aircraft when Akpitanhi was allegedly killed said Spanish security officials tranquilised, tied him up and gagged him before dragging him into the aircraft. Lanre Obafemi said Akpitanhi died one-and-a-half hours into the flight back to Nigeria as all efforts to revive him failed due to a lack of any medical personnel on board the aircraft. Obafemi charged the Spanish authorities with inhumane treatment and his testimony was backed up by a Nigerian journalist, Ahaoma Kalu, who helped mobilise a nationwide protest on June 29. The chairman of the parliamentary committee, Henry Dickson, assured that his panel would do its best to get to the root of the case. - Sapa-DPA http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/international_politics/police+doctors+guilty+of+mistreating+genoa+g8+protestors+in+2001/2339577?intcmp=rss_news_itnnews Police, doctors guilty of mistreating Genoa G8 protestors in 2001 Watch the report Print this page Last Modified: 15 Jul 2008 By: Girish Juneja Last night senior police, prison officers and two doctors were convicted of mistreating protestors at Genoa's G8 Summit seven years ago, More4 News reports. It is a case that has shocked Italy. Extreme violence on the streets of Genoa marked that year's G8 meeting. The violence came in part from a fringe of the anti-globalisation protestors but largely it came from the Italian police. http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Italian_officials_found_guilty_of_abusing_G8_protestors Italian officials found guilty of abusing G8 protestors >From Wikinews, the free news source you can write! Current revision (unreviewed) Jump to: navigation, search Tuesday, July 15, 2008 Official G8 group portrait. Fifteen Italians including police officers, doctors and prison guards were found guilty of abusing and beating protesters at the G8's 27th summit in Genoa in 2001. A judge handed down jail terms between five months' and five years' imprisonment. The charges include abuse, fraud, criminal coercion and inhuman and degrading treatment. Another thirty defendants were cleared of charges, including assault. In June last year former deputy police chief of Genoa, Michelangelo Fournier, belatedly admitted in court that police had "butchered" protesters. In a graphic description of the violence he said he had kept quiet until then "out of shame and a spirit of comradeship". The heaviest sentence was five years for Biagio Gugliotta in the penitentiary police department, the commander on duty at the camp at Bolzaneto. Twelve other police officers, eight men and four women, received jail terms of five to 28 months. Doctors Giacomo Toccafondi and Aldo Amenta were given 14 months and 10 months respectively. Dr. Toccafondi was accused of insulting detainees and failing to inform authorities after they were sprayed with asphyxiating gas in cells. The judges issued their verdicts after 11 hours of closed-doors deliberations. All those convicted are expected to appeal and none will go to prison until the appeals process is complete, which normally takes years. The sentences totalled less than a third of 76 years what had been demanded by the prosecution. The BBC's David Willey in Rome says it is unlikely that any of those sentenced will actually serve time in prison because their offences will have expired under Italy's statute of limitations before the appeal process is completed. It is expected the Italian government will be forced to pay out millions of pounds to those who were victims of police brutality during their detention. Protestors burn a police vehicle which was abandoned by police durning a clash with protestors. Image: Ares Ferrari. Police were accused of organised and premeditated brutality at the Diaz High School which protesters were using as a dormitory during the summit. In another ongoing trial, 28 defendants, including some of Italy's most senior police officers, face charges related to the raid on the school. The raid left seventy-three protesters injured with three in comas. A judge ruled that there was no evidence to show any of those demonstrators had been involved in the violence in Genoa. More than 250 of those arrested were taken to a holding camp that had been created at Bolzaneto, six miles from Genoa. The detainees at Bolzaneto included about 40 who were arrested in a raid on the Diaz school. During the trial the court heard how the holding centre had been the scene for "episodes of torture that violated human dignity." One of the prosecutors in the case, Patrizia Petruziello, said that 40 protesters who were arrested suffered "four out of five" of the European Court's criteria for "inhuman and degrading treatment". Of the 252 demonstrators who claimed abuse, strong evidence emerged in at least 209 cases considered during the trial. Demonstrators said they were strip-searched, spat at, insulted, verbally and physically humiliated, beaten and sprayed with asphyxiating gas. Some were threatened with rape and sodomy. They were denied food, phone calls or access to consulates while detained. While being held they were forced to sing songs in praise of Italy's late fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini and other antisemitic songs about Chile's Augusto Pinochet, which which included the line "Death to the Jews." The prosecution claimed that this was torture. The 2001 summit in the northern Italian city was one of the most violent in the history of the G8. Between 100,000 and 200,000 demonstrators took part in anti-globalisation protests. A 23-year-old Italian demonstrator Carlo Giuliani was shot dead by a conscript Carabiniere and hundreds more injured as two days of riots erupted at the summit in the city of Genoa that was hosted by Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi. In December 2007, 24 demonstrators were found guilty of damage to property and looting. They were given sentences ranging from five months to 11 years. The trial has lasted nearly three years. http://www.buzzle.com/articles/208591.html Genoa Riots: 15 Guilty of G8 Brutality Will Not Go to Jail Police officers and doctors convicted of gross mistreatment of detainees at holding camp freed The 15 Italian police officers and doctors sentenced to jail for brutally mistreating detainees at a holding camp after the 2001 G8 riots were yesterday celebrating their freedom after it became clear that none of them would actually serve prison terms. Defendants in Italy do not go to jail for most offenses until they have exhausted all the appeals to which they are entitled, normally at least two. And in this case, it emerged, the convictions and sentences alike will be wiped out by a statute of limitations next year. Late on Monday, judges in Genoa where the summit was held convicted 15 accused and acquitted a further 30. Those found guilty, including the camp commander, Biagio Gugliotta, were given jail sentences ranging from five months to five years. The only real effect of the verdict will be to allow the victims to receive compensation. The court heard that detainees from Britain, Italy, France, Germany and elsewhere were insulted, kicked, beaten and sprayed with asphyxiating gas in their cells. Some were threatened with rape. Others were forced to shout out chants in praise of Italy's late fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini. The abuses took place at the camp in Bolzaneto, six miles from Genoa, where more than 250 of those arrested were taken. Roberto Castelli, Silvio Berlusconi's justice minister at the time of the offenses, said the three-year trial had "dismantled the theory" that the violence was organized by the then-new government as a way of putting a stop to rioting by anti-globalisation protesters at the Group of Eight's meetings. The leader of the right's parliamentary group, Fabrizio Cicchito, said: "There was no systematic repression or torture, but there were mistakes by certain members of the forces of law and order." But Paolo Ferrero, a Communist minister in the last centre-left government, called the outcome scandalous. He said it was part of an Italian tradition "of not wanting to shed light on events that really happened". http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/0807/breaking62.htm Thursday, August 7, 2008, 16:14 Rome bins scavenging ban after protests Rome's right-wing mayor has put on hold a new law banning poor people from scavenging in rubbish bins, after charities said it would have to be accompanied by more help for the destitute. With Rome's Gianni Alemanno and other mayors being given new powers to police Italy's towns and cities by Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right government, new laws against crime, begging and even picnicking in public are coming thick and fast. "Mayors are competing to see who is the toughest 'sheriff', with recent by-laws on from everything from prostitution, drug pushing, begging, vagabonds, rubbish and hawking," said Monsignor Vinicio Albanesi of church charity Capodarco. Yesterday, Mr Alemanno proposed a by-law against people ransacking rubbish bins for food, clothes and things to sell saying it "made a mess because of the rubbish tipped all over the streets". The mainly Roman Catholic charities who feed the poor in the capital protested immediately. "I understand the very real concern about protecting health and hygiene, but those who are ransacking the bins need to have a chance to live," said Don Ciotti of the charity Abele. The mayor, a former fascist youth leader who now belongs to the conservative National Alliance allied to Mr Berlusconi, also announced this week that Rome traffic police would carry guns, for the first time in 35 years, to help combat street crime. Mr Berlusconi is deploying 3,000 army personnel to patrol ten Italian cities to boost the law-and-order campaign that helped bring him back to power for a third term in April's election. http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/news/sport/Broadcaster_to_protest_over_footage_omissions.html?siteSect=184&sid=9219057&cKey=1213525472000&ty=nd June 15, 2008 - 11:20 AM Broadcaster to protest over footage omissions The head of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation is to complain to European football's governing body about censorship of television images during Euro 2008. Director-general Armin Walpen told the Swiss newspaper SonntagZeitung he would write to Uefa because it had not allowed images to be shown of crowd trouble during a match between Austria and Croatia. Uefa, which controls live television feeds of tournament matches, did not show footage of fans burning flares or of a spectator running onto the pitch during the game on June 8. Walpen said the omissions were "more than problematic" from a journalistic point of view. But Uefa said it did not want to give publicity to troublemakers. "We concentrate on what's relevant to the game," spokesman Wolfgang Eichler added. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Sat Aug 30 01:30:35 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 09:30:35 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Miscellaneous global protest analysis, Apr-Aug 2008 Message-ID: <00f701c90a7a$adecb970$0202a8c0@andy1> ON THE BARRICADES: Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008 https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/ * INDIA: Protests sweep the country * EGYPT: Protest groups make a mark * FRANCE: May 1968 still fascinates, divides * INDIA: Local protests, global problems (warning, barf alert) * MEXICO: Daily protests, and threat of repression * CHINA: Ahead of Olympics, global protests spread * UGANDA: Market redevelopment excludes poor traders * GLOBAL: "Food riots", famine and warped priorities * GLOBAL: The structural roots of hunger * GLOBAL: Speculation is "massacre of the world's poor" * HAITI: Food unrest "unnerving but not surprising" http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/29/asia/india.php Members of Bajrang Dal, a Hindu group, in the northern Indian city of Chandigarh burned on Saturday an effigy of Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, Jammu and Kashmir's former chief minister, who opposed a government decision to transfer forest land to a Hindu shrine trust. (Ajay Verma/Reuters) Discontented Indians protest across the country By Heather Timmons Published: June 29, 2008 NEW DELHI: Discontent is sweeping through India in the form of widespread protests over land use, food, fuel and jobs. Indian citizens have long embraced their constitutional right to assemble, and they have done so with fervor this month in large protests over a variety of issues throughout the country. Some speculate that India's weak central government, which is run by an uneasy coalition between the Congress Party and the Left Front, could be contributing to the unrest. Others attribute the upheaval to rapid changes in Indian society. On Saturday, the Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir in the north was roiled for a seventh consecutive day by demonstrations, the region's largest in nearly 20 years. The protest was over what demonstrators say is a plan to build a settlement for Hindu pilgrims on forest land. Three people have been killed and more than two dozen injured, local officials said. On Saturday, the police tried to disperse the crowds by using tear gas and firing live ammunition into the air, The Associated Press reported. Two weeks ago, in Darjeeling, Nepali-speaking separatists went on strike, shutting businesses and schools. Tens of thousands of tourists were asked to leave the area, in West Bengal in India's northeast. The protesters, led by a separatist movement, the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha, are demanding a new state for people of Nepalese origin. Although Indian residents with roots in Nepal have been seeking quasi-independence for decades, a new social mobility may have heightened the aspiration. Such people are now "going all over India, from Bangalore to Delhi; they are more educated, they are part of the mainstream," said Ravi Thakuri, a Nepali-speaking lawyer from Darjeeling who works in New Delhi. In another part of the country, Rajasthan State in the northwest, thousands of nomadic shepherds, known as Gujjars, shut down trains and roads leading to the city of Agra, home of the Taj Mahal, during the last two months. The Gujjars were demanding that the government award them a special caste status that would make them eligible for more benefits and jobs. Weeks of protests ended June 18 after the government promised more jobs. More than 30 people were killed when the police fired into crowds. Nationwide protests also occurred in response to a 10 percent increase in the price of fuel on June 4. Trains were disrupted, and schools were closed. Rising prices for food and other essentials also led to scattered demonstrations in pockets of India. The most recent protests, in Jammu and Kashmir, touch on a particularly delicate subject: the status of Muslims in the state, the only one in India with a Muslim majority. Tens of thousands took to the streets Friday night in Srinagar, the state's main city, demanding independence. The crowds were much smaller on Saturday, witnesses said, in part because the police used tear gas and bamboo sticks against them. Protesters burned effigies of a former minister and set barricades and cars on fire. Srinagar businesses remained closed, and no vehicles were running on India's only road into the Kashmir Valley. Supplies in the valley, including food, are running out, residents said, and thousands of tourists have fled. Jammu and Kashmir, in the Himalayas, is a summer destination for Indians because of the temperate weather, despite its history of unrest between Hindus and Muslims. Recently, the state began to attract international tourists. Protests and terrorist attacks in India have seldom been aimed at foreign visitors. But in late May the United States issued a warning about the Gujjar protests, noting that roads and trains could be affected and urging Americans to keep low profiles. Yusef Jameel contributed reporting from Srinagar, Kashmir. http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Egypt/10220938.html Egypt's protest groups make a mark By Ramadan Al Sherbini, Correspondent Published: June 14, 2008, 00:01 Cairo: Protest groups are all the rage in Egypt. Four years ago, the anti-government group Kefaya ("Enough") broke political taboos in this Middle Eastern country of nearly 79 million by vociferously criticising the policies of long-serving President Hosni Mubarak. Soon more protest movements emerged in virtually all categories. They include Intellectuals for Change, Artists for Change, Youth for Change, Citizens against Price Hikes, and most recently Citizens against Stupidity. "Ours is a group presenting a new brand of opposition to all ill-conceived and mistaken decisions," said Khalid Abdul Fateh, the founder of Citizens against Stupidity. "We are keen to draw the attention of everybody, the government, politicians and even the average citizen, to the wrong decisions they make and encourage them to correct them," Abdul Fateh, 44, told Gulf News. According to him, the nascent movement has drawn members from political activists and ordinary people. "We assume that the wrong decisions made by the government are based on good intentions, not the result of a conspiracy. Therefore, we just call them stupid decisions." In Abdul Fateh's opinion, one of the "dumbest" decisions taken by the Egyptian government was the recent increases in prices of fuel and vehicle license fees. "These outrageous increases were declared a few days after President [Hosni] Mubarak ordered a 30 per cent pay rise for public sector employees to help them cope with the mad price increases," he said. "These new, stupid price hikes have not only gobbled up the pay rise, but also dented the credibility of the whole regime." Over recent years, Egyptians have been hit by a successive spate of rising prices, which have triggered protests against price hikes and low wages. The most violent protests erupted on April 6 and 7 in the industrial Nile Delta of Al Mahalla Al Kobra where 3 people were killed and more than 100 injured in clashes with police. Around 40 per cent of Egypt's population of nearly 79 million is believed to live below the poverty line. "Street democracy is at work in Egypt and has brought about some changes," said Abdul Fateh, who had earlier campaigned against "stupid" decisions at the international level such as "the disastrous invasion of Iraq" in 2003. He recalls that his shift of focus to the home scene was prompted by a problem he had as a member of the parent-teacher association at his children's school. "We, the parents, had joined hands to give the school a face-lift and make it greener, without costing the public treasury a penny," he said. "But much to our surprise, we found the education authorities unleashing a bulldozer on a fountain and other amenities we had built inside the school. They claimed that we should have got a permit from the Education Directorate before embarking on this effort. How stupid!" Enough: Kefaya at a glance Created in late 2004, Kefaya ("Enough"), credited with opening the door to non-traditional opposition in Egypt, is a loose umbrella movement of liberals, leftists, secularists and Islamists. Since its emergence, Kefaya has staged protests against the policies of President Hosni Mubarak, who has been in power for almost 27 years. The group is also vehemently opposed to the notion of handing over power from the 79-year-old Mubarak to his 44-year-old son Jamal. The Mubaraks have repeatedly denied claims of hereditary succession. The influence of Kefaya has, however, dwindled after Mubarak made a clean sweep in Egypt's first competitive presidential election in September 2005. The group's founders say they plan to rejuvenate Kefaya and rebuild its street clout. http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_World&set_id=1&click_id=3&art_id=nw20080430145834421C274095 May '68 riots still fascinate French April 30 2008 at 03:19PM By James Mackenzie Paris - Forty years after May 1968, France is enjoying a wave of nostalgia for the student revolt that rocked the streets of the Latin Quarter in Paris, fuelled by a never-ending debate about what it all achieved. Countless magazine supplements have shown the fashionably dressed student stone-throwers confronting phalanxes of helmeted police, and radio stations have replayed the breathless live reports that brought the riots directly into French homes. Television debates have pitted supporters who say the 1968 protests helped free up a hidebound society against critics who say they undermined vital institutions and opened the way to social breakdown. For some it has all been too much. Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the undisputed hero of the movement, called a recent book of interviews on the subject "Forget 68". "All commemoration is stupid," Andre Glucksmann, another leading member of the 1968 generation said, "Either you glorify May 1968 or you vituperate against it." Sparked by a dispute concerning visiting rights to a female students' dormitory, the protests for university reforms and wider personal liberties led to three weeks of riots and sit-ins in the streets around the main Paris university, the Sorbonne. The crisis, which blew up into a general strike that paralysed the country, was so serious that President Charles de Gaulle made checks to ensure the army would be ready to intervene if necessary. Kept alive by the perennial French fascination with revolution and street protests, the events have divided the country ever since. 'We can count society lucky that we never got the chance to seize power' Behind the confrontation, the surreal humour and idealism of the students, summed up in slogans such as "Sous les paves, la plage" ('Under the paving stones, the beach') and "Never work", remain the strongest image of the 1968 protests. Opposed equally to the conservatism of de Gaulle and a communist party they attacked as "Stalinist", the students were looking for something traditional politics did not offer, Glucksmann said. "It was very happy, very cheerful," he said. "But for me, it wasn't about enjoyment, it was above all, a search for truth and when you discover truth, it's astonishing, it's joyous." But many conservatives say the carefree picture of youthful protest hid a malign disrespect for social institutions that has spawned ills ranging from high divorce rates to the violent riots that hit France's poor multiethnic suburbs in 2005. President Nicolas Sarkozy has been the most prominent recent critic, pledging during last year's election campaign to "liquidate the heritage of May 1968" and restore respect for traditional values. Sarkozy's attack has been derided by many who point out that he himself - thrice married, most recently to an Italian fashion model - could never have become president in the conservative world before 1968, when a woman still needed her husband's permission to open a bank account. But many veterans of the movement also acknowledge that the utopian vision behind the protests, while enormously powerful in many ways, was politically impractical. "It marked society profoundly. Society has taken up all the good things about 1968," said Peter Schneider, a German writer who was a prominent activist at the time. "But politically, thank God, it was a failure. We can count society lucky that we never got the chance to seize power," he said. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2008/05/19/stories/2008051950290800.htm Global problems and local protests S. VENKITARAMANAN The current food imbroglio has not arisen due to excessive consumption by India or China. What is obvious is that it is a global problem calling for a global solution and not for protest actions holding up Government offices, Parliament and the Legislature, points out S. VENKITARAMANAN. Indian political activists are staging Canute-like protest games against the alleged failure of the Government of India to control food prices. But the UN Secretary-General, who should know better, has, on his part, set up a Global Task Force under a former British diplomat to assess the global problem of rising food prices and suggest solutions. This will include a rethink on subsidies, bio-fuels and export restrictions. It is a pity that a global problem acknowledged as such by the international statesman is being attempted to be blown up as a political failure on the part of the Government of India. The UN Task Force is expected to come up with some solutions and present the same at a meeting of the UN in June or July. Whether the global problem can be fixed in keeping with the diverse interests of the producers and consumers is, of course, doubtful. In a characteristically flat-footed fashion, the US President, Mr George Bush, had started a controversy on this subject. He stated that the food price inflation is due to excessive consumption by India and China. Unfortunately for the President, the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the UN came up with figures very soon thereafter, which showed that the consumption of food-grains in the US has increased far more sharply in the recent period than in India and China. President Bush was wrong on basic facts and blaming the developing countries for what is primarily increasing consumption by the richer countries, such as the US. Be this as it may, the fact remains that the prices of wheat and rice, as well as corn, have risen very sharply in the recent period. This is partly due to adverse weather conditions and partly due to rise in the price of crude, which feeds into the prices of fertilisers and pesticides. As a result of all these, prices have risen to astronomically high levels leading to food riots in countries such as the Philippines. One country, Haiti, even had a change of Prime Minister. These have not solved problems. The situation is, indeed, grave. While our protesters are crying hoarse about local Government?s failures, global statesmen are bothered about what is to be done at an international level. Grappling with famine This brings to mind memories of the 1960s when, following the onset of famine conditions in Bihar and Northern India, India was forced to request the US for PL-480 shipments in a larger measure than before. If I recall right, we wanted 10 million tonnes of wheat and that too in a short period of time. I was then working with C. Subramaniam, former Food Minister, who made a special visit to the US to persuade the US Government under President Lyndon Johnson to expedite its shipment. It must be remembered that the US had then a large wheat surplus and Public Law 480 was a means of using that surplus for giving free food aid to distressed countries. I also recall that at that time the Communists of India were vociferous in their protest against obtaining the grant-in-aid. They had, however, no alternative to offer since Russian agriculture was at that time not robust enough to meet Russian needs, let alone supply India?s needs. The then US Secretary for Agriculture, Mr Orvelle Freeman, played an important role for utilising the food aid as a means of encouraging necessary policy changes in India. There was admittedly a need for liberalising markets for Indian agriculture and I recall that C. Subramaniam introduced a number of measures at that time, including the policy of remunerative prices for farmers and setting up an Agricultural Prices Commission. Second Green Revolution He also set up a Food Corporation of India for obtaining and storing a buffer stock. It was at that time that the seeds of the Green Revolution were planted, thanks to the pioneering efforts of Agricultural Scientist Dr M.S. Swaminathan and B. Sivaraman, who was then Union Secretary for Agriculture. The Green Revolution thus started in India and became a model for the rest of the world. India was able to overcome the ignominy of dependence on external sources of cereals for a long time.The reasons why India has had to import food-grains in recent years may perhaps be traced to the comparative neglect of agriculture and related investments. But that is a problem that can be solved. The solution will, indeed, take time and in the meantime, India will have to rely on imports. These being at high prices naturally leads to increase in demands for higher support prices by Indian farmers. What is more relevant is to formulate policies for encouraging and ensuring food self-sufficiency because that is perhaps the best recipe for ensuring rural prosperity. This will also mean a second Green Revolution, perhaps including genetic modification of important cereal crops. China has shown the way for introducing and popularising hybrid rice variety. India should not lag behind. There has been, of course, a movement towards encouraging organic agriculture, including use of bio-mass fertilisers and better use of soil and water. The two methods are not contradictory. We should try organic farming to attain increased yields. To obtain faster growth in food production, genetic modification seems to be unavoidable. Resistance to GM India has to overcome the resistance to the introduction of GM crops in order to attain food security in the shortest possible time. Various measures have been contemplated by global statesmen, including Mr Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of Britain, and Mr Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank, for tackling the slow growth of food production in the world. They are thinking of special programmes to assist the rural countries to increase food production. These measures will also take time. But I think the concept of a World Food Bank, which has been propounded by the economist, Jeffrey Sachs, Professor of Columbia University, is definitely worth considering. One aspect in the current food imbroglio is interesting. Japan has been keeping millions of tonnes of rice in its godowns in order to prevent a fall in rice prices. Japan?s domestic producers fear competition from imports. It is obvious that in the present context persuading Japan to release a part of its rice stock in the international market will be a useful measure to reduce prices. This is a measure that requires persuasion at global level. All this is a far cry from the days of PL-480 when the US was consciously promoting wheat consumption in countries such as India. The present situation has not obviously arisen due to excessive consumption by India or China, as alleged by Mr George Bush. What is obvious is that it is a global problem calling for a global solution and not for protest actions holding up Government offices, Parliament and the Legislature. Global problems have to be handled by a series of concerted measures, both local and global. Protests that stop the functioning of Parliament and Government cannot be effective in the context of global efforts. When will our politicians learn that economics is too important to be dealt with by polities alone? http://www.securitycornermexico.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=824&Itemid=1090 Protest Fatigue in Mexico City, A Daily Mess of Demonstrations By Manuel Roig-Franzia Washington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, July 15, 2008; A13 At a Mexico City demonstration against human rights abuses in China, candles spell out the word "justice" in Spanish. (By Gregory Bull -- Associated Press) MEXICO CITY -- On any given day, there are six or seven or eight demonstrations taking place in the Mexican capital. The city government keeps a running list of them on its Web site. Teachers who want more money. State-employed oil workers who want to stop privatization. Campesinos who say the government stole their land. There are naked protesters. Protesters in Aztec costumes. Protesters dressed like vampires. And they are almost always in the way. Blocking roads during a demonstration is considered by some Mexicans to be a kind of inalienable right. But a few politicians have begun to say -- gently, lest they become targets of protests themselves -- that enough is enough. "Sometimes you end up sitting half your day waiting for the roads to clear -- it's irrational, it's unjust!" Mariana G?mez del Campo, a member of Mexico City's legislative assembly, said in an interview. "I don't think there's another city like this in the world." G?mez, who once missed a college exam because of gridlock caused by a protest, has been trying for months to pass legislation that will establish "rules of the game" for protests, which numbered 2,000 last year alone and drew more than 9 million people. Restricting protests could go a long way toward keeping the roads clear. Traffic has worsened here as the city has swelled from merely huge to one of the three or four biggest in the world, a sprawling, horizonless metropolis of more than 20 million. Everyone, it seems, is trying to get somewhere at the same time. Roads are perpetually clogged, and don't even ask what happens when it rains. Streets turn into lakes, alleys turn into rivers. Construction is everywhere. But protests are the great traffic menaces, and there are all kinds. There are "bloqueos," or blockades, for instance, a lightning-strike sort of demonstration that often pops up in residential neighborhoods, trapping residents who want to get out and impeding those who want to get in. There are "plantons," or sit-ins, which tend to be more permanent, complete with forests of folding chairs, supply tents, mattresses and latrines. The greatest planton of all was staged after the disputed 2006 presidential election, when supporters of failed candidate Andr?s Manuel L?pez Obrador camped for weeks on Avenida Reforma, one of the city's main thoroughfares. Congressman Ricardo Cant? Garza called the huge tent city "a necessary evil." But it is the daily, run-of-the-mill protests that seem to most infuriate commuters. G?mez calculates that the protests cost 1,056 man-hours and the equivalent of $8 million a day. She'd like to lessen that impact by corralling demonstrators and setting aside areas of the city where they can have their say without creating automobile logjams. "Good luck," said Francisco Ram?rez, a vendor who sells fresh fruit juices near Mexico's Interior Ministry. "People here like to protest -- a lot." Ram?rez, like many dwellers of the capital, has become an expert on protests. His stand is inside a fenced perimeter that has grown to several blocks around the ministry building, one of many protest hot spots. Inside the perimeter, there are businesses and houses -- a kind of protest-free "green zone." But even though protesters are kept on the outside, it doesn't mean matters haven't been complicated for residents and workers inside. Demonstrators have simply shifted to blocking the streets around the perimeter. In some ways, things have gotten harder. Ram?rez parks farther and farther away. Sometimes he's so far away that he doesn't even bother to break down his stand because he can't imagine hauling it for blocks. Instead, before leaving for the night, he chains the industrial blender that is his livelihood to a post and hopes for the best. Nelly Rodr?guez, who works in the Interior Ministry, has found herself trapped inside the safety zone by the hordes. Sometimes she sneaks out a secret exit and wobbles for blocks on high heels to reach her car. One recent afternoon, she was plotting her exit strategy. "I don't know what they're protesting about today," she said wearily. "But I know they're coming. They're always coming." ? 2008 The Washington Post Company http://en.epochtimes.com/news/8-7-9/73177.html Ahead of Olympics, Massive Arrests Spark Intensified Protests By Mimi Li, Shaoshao Chen and Ally Wang Epoch Times StaffJul 09, 2008 Reporters Without Borders displays a banner calling for boycott of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing during a European Summit at European Council headquarters in Brussels. (Dominique Faget/AFP/Getty Images) NEW YORK?In less than 30 days, Beijing will kick off its opening ceremonies for the 2008 Olympics. But while China prepares for its appearance on the world's center stage, the Tibetans, Uighurs, Falun Gong practitioners, and political dissidents of China fear they will suffer 30 days of persecution and oppression. These groups who are denied rights by the Chinese regime cannot speak out in China, but protests and calls for human rights in the U.S. are gaining steam as the start of Beijing Olympics draws closer. The Unlucky Eight Eight is generally considered a lucky number in Chinese culture, but members of the "POC 8"?eight select prisoners of conscience in China?likely don't consider themselves lucky. According to Reporters Without Borders, the POC 8 includes Huang Qi, Sun Lin, Qi Chonghuai, Hu Jia, Yang Chunlin, Chen Guangcheng, Shi Tao and Yang Zili. The prisoners were the highlight of a July 8 global appeal for their release that saw representatives from Reporters Without Borders, Initiatives for China, and New York officials gathering at New York's City Hall to speak out for the POC 8 and to call for their release. "They are innocent," said Lucie Morillon from Reporters Without Borders. "They didn't do anything wrong. The only thing they wanted to do was to peacefully speak their mind. Their ultimate goal was to improve the status of human rights and the status of people in China." According to Baiqiao Tang, a Tiananmen survivor and director of the China Peace and Democracy Federation, there are 732 documented political prisoners in China today. But that number is said to be a low estimate. Prominent Tiananmen Square activist Jianli Yang experienced first-hand being arrested and held in a Chinese prison, and was only released last year. "Since my release, I cannot forget for one second the thousands and thousands of political prisoners I have left behind," he said at the July 8 appeal with sorrow in his voice. Yang told the story of Bingjiang Wang, another political prisoner who is the founder of the overseas Chinese democracy movement. Yang was abducted in 2006 and was held for six months before his arrest was even announced. He was later sentenced to life in prison. While Chinese officials are keeping detained political dissidents in jail, Chinese police are busy rounding up Falun Gong practitioners and transporting them to labor camps, sometimes without trial, according to the Falun Dafa Information Center (FDIC). The FDIC also says that more than 200 Falun Gong adherents have been arrested in Beijing alone, and more than 30 have already been sentenced to "re-education through labor" camps without trial. Labor camp sentences are lasting up to two and a half years. "The fact that these people are being sentenced to such long terms shows that these arrests are not about ensuring a 'harmonious Olympics' as Party officials may try to claim," said FDIC spokesman Erping Zhang. "Although Falun Gong adherents pose no threat whatsoever to the games, the Olympics are being taken as an excuse to put them behind bars for years." Chinese police are conducting not only warrant-less, door-to-door arrests, but are also targeting areas where Olympic events are being held, such as in Beijing's Chaoyang District, which hosts soccer and swimming events, and Haidian District, which hosts basketball and volleyball events. The arrested are then often sentenced in "sham trials," and families are notified months after the sentence. "Given the large percentage of people who have already been sent to labor camps, the dozens currently filling Beijing's detention centers are at grave risk of wrongful sentencing," said Zhang. "It is now imperative that the international community leverage real pressure and stop these deplorable actions, lest the legacy of the 2008 Olympics be hundreds of Beijing residents languishing in labor camps." Terror in Tibet The crackdown on Tibet by China's government has also intensified recently when more than 1,000 Tibetan monks were arrested and detained to suppress potential protests during the Olympics. The organization Students for a Free Tibet and its "sources in eastern Tibet" confirmed that three central monasteries around Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, were emptied and the monks sent either 600 miles away to Gormo or even further to Xining on the Eastern Tibetan border. The British newspaper The Times reported that the monks that were taken into custody will be released after the Beijing Olympic Games. "The Chinese government has locked up over a thousand Buddhist monks in Tibet to crush any sign of dissent during the Olympics," affirmed Lhadon Tethong, Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet, adding, "This is the latest in a series of Beijing's despicable acts that use the Olympics as an excuse to crack down on Tibetan cries for human rights and freedom." "The Chinese authorities are planning to perpetrate a massive fraud during the Olympics, attempting to convince the world that all is well while Tibetans continue to suffer under China's brutal occupation," said Tenzin Dorjee, Deputy Director of Students for a Free Tibet. The arrests of Tibetan monks followed the slew of recent events involving the Chinese government clamping down on the autonomous region. In March, Tibetan protests turned violent and dozens of deaths were reported after the Chinese military brought Lhasa and parts of Tibet under martial law. The tactic was repeated two weeks ago when Chinese troops inundated the streets of Lhasa when the Olympic torch was scheduled to be paraded through Tibet. The New York press conference at City Hall featured Tibetan activists, including Phurdu Dorjee. Dorjee is a native Tibetan who has seen China constantly tyrannize his homeland and his people. "The Panchen Lama, the second highest religious figure of Tibet, was imprisoned when he was just a six year old boy," said Dorjee. "Is this not a violation of human rights. Since 1949, we have lost 1.2 million Tibetans. Is this not the clear cut truth that China is guilty of genocide in Tibet? And has this genocide stopped? No!" The group says that calls for the Bush administration and the international community to condemn these actions have largely been ignored. "We are extremely disappointed that President Bush and other world leaders are turning a blind eye to the suffering of the Tibetan people and are attending the Olympics opening ceremonies," said Han Shan, Olympics Campaign Coordinator for Students for a Free Tibet. Changing China When Beijing won the rights to host the 2008 Olympics in 2001, the Chinese government made a promise to the International Olympic Committee and international community to concretely improve human rights. But those promises have been empty for the most part. "We've been waiting for the improvement of human rights we've been promised. We've been waiting for the complete freedom of the press we've been promised," said Morillon. Yang added that, "There are two Chinas in China: one China is the China the Chinese government is trying to showcase to the outside world and its citizens; the other China is the China that the government does not want us to see." According to Jeremy Taylor, host of a local cable show, it is for that reason that the outside world must look through the mask that China has put on and preserve in demanding rights. "Stop supporting a government that commits genocide against its own people," said Taylor. "Stop supporting a government that commits genocide against Tibet and against Burma. Stop supporting a government that protects the world's worst perpetrators, including Kim Jong-Il and Robert Mugabe." http://allafrica.com/stories/200805200114.html Uganda: Shauriyako Market - From Ugly Riots to Business Bliss The Monitor (Kampala) COLUMN 20 May 2008 Posted to the web 20 May 2008 Al-Mahdi Ssenkabirwa & David Musiimaami Kampala Anyone who has not been in Kampala in the last two years or so would not believe that where a magnificent shopping mall stands today used to be the stage for scene of ugly riots. This is the Original Shauriyako Plaza, whose construction has swallowed billions of vendors' savings. The new mall is located on Plot 39A Nakivubo Road between Nakivubo Trade Centre and Gaggawala Plaza, overlooking the new taxi park. Even before its completion, traders are swarming it to book space. The fresh new look of the complex has reshaped the skyline to the lower eastern part of Kampala city, thanks to vendors who saved their earnings to realise such a dream. Mr Salongo Katende, one of the beneficiaries says owning a shop at the new complex is his life achievement. "I am very happy to witness the completion of our complex," Mr Katende said. "I feel as though I own a building by just owning a shop in the heart of the city." He says if he is to rent out his shop, he will be able to bag $1,000 (about shs1.6million) monthly. Although every vendor admires the splendid building now, the sailing hasn't been smooth. In 2006, when plans to develop the market were hatched, many people vehemently opposed it claiming that it would be a miracle to get the needed funds for the project, Mr Rock Luzze the brain behind the redevelopment says. According to Mr Luzze, some vendors feared that the redevelopment could deprive them of their ownership rights on the stalls. This consequently sparked violent riots at the market which led to some vendors to get injured and lose property. But Mr Luzze, who is also the chairman of the vendors, says today many vendors who protested against the redevelopment of the area are happy about the achievement. Before the idea of redeveloping the market came up, city businessman, Hassan Basajjabalaba who also had a claim on the market land threw the vendors in panic after threatening them with eviction. Mr Basajjabalaba's agents sealed off the market for several weeks leaving hundreds of traders jobless. The closure of the market then set another stage for a clash between Local Government Minister, Maj. Gen. Kahinda Otafiire Mayor Nasser Sebaggala with the former urging the latter to offer the market to the highest bidder (Bassajjabalaba) . But Mr Ssebagala stood his ground saying he couldnt betray his people. "It is really a dream come true. We wanted Shauriyako Market to match with the international standards and here we are," Mr Luzze says. To qualify for a shop at the new mall, each vendor was obliged to pay Shs9million. He says each vendor paid Shs1 million for the lease and Shs8 million to facilitate the construction works. The four-storied complex has 150 shops on each floor totalling 600 shops. According to Mr Luzze, the vendors who paid for the shops would be the first to benefit but other willing traders would be considered at a later stage. "We are now on final touches and once this is done, we shall first allocate the shops to our members who paid their money and if more space is l available we shall bring others on board," he says. However, Mr Luzze remained tightlipped on the amount of money they have spent on the project. Shauriyako Market was set up in the 1950s for vendors dealing in cooked food which was perceived to be unhygienic. It is derived from the Swahili words, Shauri yako, to mean it's up to you. After seeing the impressive results at Shauriyako, vendors in St Balikuddembe Market (Owino), located just metres away have jumped on the bandwagon with a massive strategy to raise money also to redevelop the market themselves. About 20,000 vendors operating in the Market have up to next month to collect shs20billion required to kick start the project. Mr Erias Lukwago (DP, Kampala Central) describes the new face of Shauriyako Market as a ray of hope to city dwellers who have for long been searching for space where to do business. "Completing the market complex [Shauriyako] is a major breakthrough for my people in Shauriyako and I hope when it officially opens the beneficiaries will really start to enjoy what they have longed for." He said with its new look, the market will be one of the busiest shopping centres downtown. However, Ms Juliet Nalujja, who used to own a stall in the old market, is pessimistic that low income earners will not afford the new rental fees at the shopping mall. "I used to operate in the old market with my meager capital of Shs350,000," she says. "But in the new shopping complex even my capital is not enough to cover rent for one month." http://www.counterpunch.com/schulte05242008.html Weekend Edition May 24 / 25, 2008 Starvation, Food Riots and Warped Priorities Can the Whole World be Fed? By ELIZABETH SCHULTE The depth of the global food crisis is best expressed by what poor people are eating to survive. In Burundi, it is farine noir, a mixture of black flour and moldy cassava. In Somalia, a thin gruel made from mashed thorn-tree branches called jerrin. In Haiti, it is a biscuit made of yellow dirt. Food inflation has sparked protests in Egypt, Haiti, Mexico and elsewhere. Tens of thousands protested earlier this month in Mogadishu, as the price of a corn meal rose twofold in four months. And while the crisis seemed to come out of nowhere, the reality of hunger is a regular feature of life for millions of people. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that 854 million people worldwide are undernourished. Hunger isn't simply the result of unpredictable incidents like the cyclone that struck Myanmar. In most cases, millions teeter on the edge of survival long before the natural disasters hit. According to UN Millennium Project Web site, of the 300 million children who go to bed hungry every day, only "8 percent are victims of famine or other emergency situations. More than 90 percent are suffering long-term malnourishment and micronutrient deficiency." The technology and know-how exist to make our capacity to produce food even greater--if this were made a priority. As part of a recent series on the global food crisis, the Washington Post described the damage being done by gnat-sized insects called "brown plant hoppers." Billions them are destroying rice crops in East Asia and putting millions of poor people at risk of going hungry. The threat could easily be eliminated with the creation of rice strains resistant to this pest, but that hasn't happened--because funding for research projects has been cut. The International Rice Research Institute used to have five entomologists, or insect experts, overseeing a staff of 200 in the 1980s. Now it has one entomologist, with a staff of eight. The world's wealthiest countries and their international loan organizations, like the World Bank, have cut money for agricultural research programs. According to the Post, "Adjusting for inflation and exchange rates, the wealthy countries, as a group, cut such donations roughly in half from 1980 to 2006, to $2.8 billion a year from $6 billion. The United States cut its support for agriculture in poor countries to $624 million from $2.3 billion in that period." * * * SEARCHING FOR answers to the crisis, some people argue that "there simply isn't enough to go around," or that there are "too many" people to feed in a world of limited resources. This argument has been around for many decades. In effect, it tries to blame starvation on the starving themselves. And it simply isn't true. "The food crisis appeared to explode overnight, reinforcing fears that there are just too many people in the world," wrote Eric Holt-Gim?nez and Loren Peabody of Food First. "But according to the FAO, with record grain harvests in 2007, there is more than enough food in the world to feed everyone--at least 1.5 times current demand. In fact, over the last 20 years, food production has risen steadily at over 2.0 percent a year, while the rate of population growth has dropped to 1.14 percent a year. Population is not outstripping food supply." The problem isn't that there isn't enough food. The problem is that the people who need it are too poor to buy it. This is the case around the globe, including some of the wealthiest countries in the world. In the U.S., food pantries report being stretched to the breaking point because more working people are turning to them when their paycheck doesn't make it. Demand is up 15 to 20 percent over last year, and the pantries are serving "folks who get up and go to work every day," Bill Bolling, founder of the Atlanta Community Food Bank, told USA Today. "That's remarkably different than the profile of who we've served through the years." This flies in the face of the commonly held idea that average Americans and a culture of overconsumption and waste are eating up the world's resources. Of course, examples abound of people who get much more than their fill, in elite hotels and restaurants around the globe--but they are a small fraction of the population. And when these parasites gorge themselves, they steal from the mouths of poor people everywhere--in less developed countries, but also in wealthy nations like the U.S. * * * THE POTENTIAL exists to eliminate hunger and malnutrition anywhere in the world. What stands in the way of our ability to feed each and every person is really the system we live under--capitalism. The drive for profit at the heart of the system--where things like food, which should be viewed as a fundamental right, are seen as commodities to be bought and sold--is really the source of the problem. No amount of technology can overcome this fundamental fact. Thus, during the Great Depression, while millions of poor and unemployed Americans went hungry, U.S. farmers were facing the exact opposite problem: They were producing too much food to keep prices from falling. So at the same time that millions of poor and unemployed people stood in breadlines for food assistance, food crops were being destroyed, because no profit could be made from giving it away. As the author John Steinbeck wrote in the Grapes of Wrath: The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at 20 cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up?...A million people hungry, needing the fruit?and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains... There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate--died of malnutrition--because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. Capitalism is a chaotic system, where starvation can exist amid plenty, and where a disaster seems to loom around every corner. In Mexico, for example, the price of tortillas went up 60 percent last year. Increased demand for American farmers to divert corn for use in ethanol as opposed to corn for food was largely to blame for the skyrocketing prices of this Mexican staple. But Walden Bello of Focus on the Global South asked an important question in a recent article: "How on earth did Mexicans, who live in the land where corn was domesticated, become dependent on U.S. imports in the first place?" During the 1980s, in return for bailouts from the IMF and World Bank, Mexico was forced "liberalize" its trade policies, and this accelerated under the North American Free Trade Agreement. U.S. farm products flooded the Mexican market, and agribusiness giants like Cargill reaped huge profits. Mexican farmers couldn't possibly compete. International "aid" is organized around the principle not of solving poverty but of making profits--and in the process, it usually leads to more suffering. In Ethiopia, the poverty "experts" at the World Bank forced the country to devote good land not to food crops, but to export crops to sell on the world market. As a result, the famine of the 1980s were made even worse. These crises aren't aberrations, but are built into the system. A recent Time magazine article grudgingly commented, "The social theories of Karl Marx were long ago discarded as of little value, even to revolutionaries. But he did warn that capitalism had a tendency to generate its own crises." The Time article was titled "How Hunger Could Topple Regimes." The current system and its warped priorities can't possibly accomplish something as important as feeding the world's people. It will take a society organized on a completely different basis to achieve this. If we could harness the resources wasted on the pursuit of profit--including the wars that our government funds around the globe--we could feed the world many times over. Elizabeth Schulte is a reporter for the Socialist Worker. http://www.activistmagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=914&Itemid=143 The Structural Roots of Hunger, Food Crises and Riots Written by Canadian Dimension magazine Thursday, 07 August 2008 In recent months major international banks, financial newspapers and mass media have been forced to recognize that there is a major food crisis and that hundreds of millions of people face hunger, malnutrition and outright starvation. World conferences have been convoked and national emergencies have been declared, as millions riot in nearly fifty countries, threatening to overthrow regimes. In North America and Europe, skyrocketing food prices, combined with stagnant wages, home evictions and debt payments threaten incumbent regimes and increase pressures on all governments to take urgent action. Mainstream responses are predictably inadequate, and their explanations for the crisis range from inadequate and self-serving to silly. The World Bank repeats the call for emergency food aid and several hundred-million-dollar grants to the "most needy," which usually turn out to be regimes who have been model pupils of the World Bank and IMF policies. Academics and policy advisers blame China, "for eating too much meat." Others point to the diversion of production to biofuels like "ethanol" and "bio-diesel." But they fail to ask which classes fashioned the economic policies that enabled this "diversion" to take place. In any case, as Bruce Burnett, director of market analysis with the Canadian Wheat Board, has said, ethanol?s impact has been greatly exaggerated: "the tightness in wheat supplies was not driven by ethanol; it was driven by our tight wheat stocks globally. Perhaps ethanol got us into this situation more quickly." It?s true that there is a supply problem, but from where does it really stem? While food shortages and food inflation have taken on crisis proportions in recent months, it?s a crisis whose roots can be traced to decades-old policies. Heavy private and state borrowing in the 1970s owing itself to the availability of cheap credit led to a growth of indebtedness in the so-called Third World. Indebted private banks, businesses, manufacturers and real-estate developers foisted their private debts onto the state. The state, faced with mounting debt obligations, turned to the IMF and World Bank to secure loans and, more important, to gain their certification for jumbo loans from commercial banks. The IMF and World Bank demanded fundamental structural changes from states to grant loans. These conditional loans involved a comprehensive transformation in investment, trade, consumption and income policies, including the elimination of protective trade barriers in agriculture and manufacturing. As a result, there were massive inflows of subsidized agricultural commodities from the U.S. and the European Union, which destroyed small- and medium-sized family-farm producers of basic foodstuffs. Bankruptcy of food producers led to massive displacement of farmers and farm workers to the cities, and the concentration of land in the hands of agro-business plantations owners who concentrated on growing crops for export. IMF and World Bank demands included the re-allocation of state credit, loans and technical assistance toward big agro-exporters in single commodities because such crops earned hard currency needed to pay back loans and for-profit remittances of the multinational corporations back to their stock holders, directors and owners. The middle-term consequences of these policies manifested themselves after a little more than a decade. Family farmers were bankrupted, their land bought up by real-estate speculators (self-styled "developers") for commercial uses, golf courses, resorts, gated luxury communities and export staples. Rice fields were turned into country clubs. This restructuring has produced the absurd and tragic result that millions of people are starving in countries that export large amounts of food. Between constrained food supplies, increased food-import demands from China and India, diversion of crops from foods to fuels, rising farm-input costs of oil-derivative imports like fertilizers, rising transportation costs and, finally, the actions of huge investment funds in buying up enormous amounts of grain ? bringing the story up to the present, this combination of factors was bound to drive up prices. So, it was not simply that "demand" was up, as the orthodox pundits would have it. Under conditions of markets tightly controlled by big agribusiness, grain stocks fell to their lowest levels in 35 years relative to demand, largely because big agro-capital sought to limit the supply of food, increase production of biofuels and divert capital to commodity speculation. As a result of the ascendancy of giant agro-capitalist rule and their investment and land-use policies, average food prices rose by 45 per cent between July, 2007, and April, 2008, and are projected to rise by an additional fifteen per cent by July. Frightened more by mass protests toppling compliant client regimes than by mass hunger and rising mortality among the poor, leaders from around the world met in Washington earlier this spring. They whined about the food riots and moaned over the "loss of a decade?s progress [sic] in Africa," and even called for "action." As might be expected, a few hundred million dollars in emergency food aid was promised. Some countries were frightened into blocking exports of basic food items in order to prevent food riots turning into mass insurrections. Yet these actions and food handouts have had little positive effect at home, and have exacerbated scarcities for food importers. None of the world leaders meeting in Washington "concerned" about hunger proposed agrarian reforms ? redistributing land to peasants and farmers to produce food. None of them even proposed reforms like price and profit controls, or the re-conversion of land use to agricultural production, or outlawing speculation in commodity futures in the world bourses. It is no wonder that the IMF predicts food prices will continue rising until 2010. The bankruptcy of export-product specialization at the expense of food security is abundantly clear. What was once the demand of a radical minority is now at the top of the agenda for a multi-billion-person movement: a return to policies of food self-sufficiency. Food Sovereignty La Via Campesina (The Peasant Way) is an umbrella body that encompasses more than 120 small farmers? and peasants? organizations in 56 countries, ranging from the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) in Brazil to the National Farmers Union in Canada. Simple access to food is not enough, La Via Campesina argues. What?s needed is food sovereignty: access to land, water and resources. The people affected must have the right to know and to decide about food policies. Food is too important to be left to the global market and the manipulations of agribusiness. The central demand of the food-sovereignty movement is that food should be treated primarily as a source of nutrition for the communities and countries where it is grown. In opposition to free-trade, agro-export policies, it urges a focus on domestic consumption and food self-sufficiency. La Via Campesina?s demand for food sovereignty constitutes a powerful agrarian program for the 21st Century. Labour and left movements worldwide should give full support to it and to the campaigns of working farmers and peasants for land reform and against the industrialization and globalization of food and farming. We in the Global North can and must demand that our governments stop all activities that weaken or damage Third World farming. In particular: stop using food for fuel; cancel the debts of developing nations (ending that cash drain would provide essential resources to feed the hungry now and rebuild domestic farming over time); get the WTO out of agriculture; and self-determination for the Global South. Current attempts by the U.S. to destabilize and overthrow the anti-imperialist governments of the ALBA group ? Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua and Grenada ? continue a long history of actions by northern countries to prevent developing countries from asserting control over their own destinies. Organizing against such interventions "in the belly of the monster" is a key component of the fight to win food sovereignty around the world. Orignally published as an editorial in the July/August 2008 issue of Canadian Dimension magazine. http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney04262008.html "A Massacre of the World's Poor" Food Riots and Speculators By MIKE WHITNEY Food riots have broken out across the globe destabilizing large parts of the developing world. China is experiencing double-digit inflation. Indonesia, Vietnam and India have imposed controls over rice exports. Wheat, corn and soy beans are at record highs and threatening to go higher still. Commodities are up across the board. The World Food Program is warning of widespread famine if the West doesn't provide emergency humanitarian relief. The situation is dire. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez summed it up like this, "It is a massacre of the world's poor. The problem is not the production of food. It is the economic, social and political model of the world. The capitalist model is in crisis." Right on, Hugo. There is no shortage of food; it's just the prices that are making food unaffordable. Bernanke's "weak dollar" policy has ignited a wave of speculation in commodities which is pushing prices into the stratosphere. The UN is calling the global food crisis a "silent tsunami", but its more like a flood; the world is awash in increasingly worthless dollars that are making food and raw materials more expensive. Foreign central banks and investors presently hold $6 trillion in dollars and dollar-backed assets, so when the dollar starts to slide, the pain radiates through entire economies. This is especially true in countries where the currency is pegged to the dollar. That's why most of the Gulf States are experiencing runaway inflation. The US is exporting its inflation by cheapening its currency. Now a field worker in Haiti who earns $2 a day, and spends all of that to feed his family, has to earn twice that amount or eat half as much. That's not a choice a parent wants to make. Its no wonder that six people were killed Port au Prince in the recent food riots. People go crazy when they can't feed their kids. Food and energy prices are sucking the life out of the global economy. Foreign banks and pension funds are trying to protect their investments by diverting dollars into things that will retain their value. That's why oil is nudging $120 per barrel when it should be in the $70 to $80 range. According to Tim Evans, energy analyst at Citigroup in New York, ?There?s no supply-demand deficit". None. In fact suppliers are expecting an oil surplus by the end of this year. "The case for lower oil prices is straightforward: The prospect of a deep U.S. recession or even a marked period of slower economic growth in the world?s top energy consumer making a dent in energy consumption. Year to date, oil demand in the U.S. is down 1.9% compared with the same period in 2007, and high prices and a weak economy should knock down U.S. oil consumption by 90,000 barrels a day this year, according to the federal Energy Information Administration." ("Bears Baffled by Oil Highs" gregory Meyer, Wall Street Journal) There's no oil shortage; that's another ruse. Speculators are simply driving up the price of oil to hedge their bets on the falling dollar. What else can they do; put them in the frozen bond market, or the sinking stock market, or the collapsing housing market? >From the Washington Times: "Farmers and food executives appealed fruitlessly to federal officials yesterday for regulatory steps to limit speculative buying that is helping to drive food prices higher. Meanwhile, some Americans are stocking up on staples such as rice, flour and oil in anticipation of high prices and shortages spreading from overseas. Costco and other grocery stores in California reported a run on rice, which has forced them to set limits on how many sacks of rice each customer can buy. Filipinos in Canada are scooping up all the rice they can find and shipping it to relatives in the Philippines, which is suffering a severe shortage that is leaving many people hungry." (Patrice Hill, Washington Times) The Bush administration knows there's hanky-panky going on, but they just look the other way. It's Enron redux, where Ken Lay Inc. scalped the public with utter impunity while regulators sat on the sidelines applauding. Great. Now its the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) turn; they're taking a hands-off approach so Wall Street sharpies make a fortune jacking up the price of everything from soda crackers to toilet bowls. "A hearing Tuesday in Washington before the Commodity Futures Trading Commission starts a new round of scrutiny into the popularity of agricultural futures, once a quieter arena that for years was dominated largely by big producers and consumers of crops and their banks trying to manage price risks. The commission's official stance and that of many of the exchanges, however, is likely to disappoint many consumer groups. The CFTC's economist plans to state at the hearing that the agency doesn't believe financial investors are driving up grain prices. Some grain buyers say speculators' big bets on relatively small grain exchanges, especially recently, are pushing up prices for ordinary consumers." ("Call Goes Out to Rein In Grain Speculators", Ann Davis) The agency doesn't believe financial investors are driving up grain prices! Mike Whitney lives in Washington state. He can be reached at: fergiewhitney at msn.com http://www.worldpress.org/Americas/3131.cfm Haitian Food Riots Unnerving but Not Surprising Mark Schuller Americas Program Center for International Policy April 29, 2008 Haitians protest against the cost of living on April 7 in Port-au-Prince. (Photo: Thony Belizaire / AFP-Getty Images) Beginning early April, Haiti was gripped by a nationwide mobilization to protest high food prices, reaching a crescendo on Thursday the 10th, as thousands of people took to the streets. Some protestors burned tires, blocking national highways and city streets in Port-au-Prince, and a few looted local stores. Clashes with police and United Nations troops resulted in an official count of five dead. The media covered these events during the days of the crisis but offered little information to explain the protests. This superficial coverage tells an all-too-familiar story of Haiti. The media swarmed to cover the high drama of United Nations troops breaking up demonstrations with rubber bullets, and the State Department warning its citizens not to enter the country. Then, almost as quickly as it appeared on the news, Haiti disappeared, leaving the residual image of being hopeless, violent, and dangerous. As awful as the loss of life, property damage, and the resulting climate of fear are, the "rioters" in the street are only the most visible manifestation of a crisis with deep roots. Both the Haitian government and the international community played important roles in creating the current crisis. Collective Coping While some individuals chose to "riot"?and even fewer looted stores?most people in Haiti's poor majority actively help one another to survive. While the rising sale of "dirt cookies"?biscuits made of clay, salt, and oil?and the food protests and isolated cases of looting illustrate the desperation of the hungry, Haiti also has a still-extant tradition of youn ede l?t?one helping the other. Although foreigners may not see these invisible ties, even in the crowded capital city ordinary Haitians often share what little they have with neighbors and extended kin. Several times, I have seen a neighbor, fellow church member, coworker, friend, or cousin drop in on someone with a plate of food in hand to make sure he or she had something to eat that night. Most people I know in Haiti also, with no outside help or guidance, organize s?l?solidarity lending groups. Each pay period a group pools together funds, with one person receiving the entire amount, usually to pay for their annual or biannual rent or to pay for their children's schooling, a quarter to a half of a minimum-wage earner's salary. People also organize in neighborhood associations, picking up trash, fixing potholes, and even opening community schools. Unnoticed by mainstream accounts, this collectivist tradition in Haiti allows people living on the margins of society (the minimum wage for those few who work in the formal sector is 70 goud, or $1.80 per day) to survive. A Haitian proverb explains the dynamic: bourikchaje pa kanpe (the overloaded donkey can't stand still). People who are forced to deal with many problems at once can't stop, they must keep going. Why did some take to the streets now? Many people have been telling me for the past four years, including three weeks ago,1 that their top concern was lavi ch? a? the high cost of living. Sylvie St. Fleur,2 a recently laid off factory worker in her 50's, spoke for many: "The thing that destroys the country is that you can't buy anything. This high cost of living is killing us in Haiti." Sylvie argued, "If you used to buy a sack of rice for 1,000 goud, you have to buy it at 1,500 goud ($37.50). Only now, a cup of sugar costs 25 goud, a cup of rice costs 18 or 19 goud, a cup of beans costs 25 goud. Even if you work for 70 goud per day (minimum wage), you buy a gallon of gas for 150 goud ($3.75) ? you see? Here you can work two whole days and you can't even buy a gallon of gas." On each visit to Haiti I have observed new increases in food prices. Each visit also brings news of someone's death from not having access to clean water, enough food, or health care. Three weeks ago, colleagues at a grassroots women's organization mourned the loss of Imanne, a public health care worker in her mid-40's who had high blood pressure and diabetes?diseases we've been treating in the United States for generations. Imanne could have survived despite Haiti's lack of investment in health care if she had the means to afford privatized care. As a low-wage earner, she could not. Rents in safe neighborhoods in P?toprens doubled in 2004-53 and the poor have been forced into neighborhoods like B?l? (Bel-Air) or Sitesol?y (Cit? Soleil) where clashes between armed gangs and United Nations troops are regular occurrences. Yolette Pierre explains, "In my neighborhood, in Cit? Soleil, people who were able to leave, they left. People who remained, we have no choice. You sit in your house and the bullets come through the walls, inside your house." Prices for staple goods such as rice, corn, beans, and cooking oil increased on average 30-40 percent over this one-year period. Rising gas prices explain part of these dramatic price hikes.4 However, according to the Nouvelliste , the cost of gas only went up 15 percent over this same period.5 What accounts for the rest of the increase? Sylvie St. Fleur explained, "Haiti doesn't suffer from a lack of food because there's no food, no! It is because the rich don't understand the poor." Missing from most media accounts is that while Haiti is the "poorest country in the hemisphere" by economic measures?80 percent live on less than $2 per day, and around half have an income of $1 or less?it is also the most unequal. It is second only to Namibia in income inequality (Jadotte 2006), and has the most millionaires per capita in the region. Margarethe Thenusla, a 34-year-old factory worker and mother of two said, "When they ask for aid for the needy, you hear that they release thousands of dollars for aid in Haiti. But when it comes you can't see anything that they did with the food aid. You see it in the market, they're selling it. Us poor people don't see it." 'We're Waiting and Watching the Situation' The role Haiti's government has been playing in this deteriorating economy receives some attention and analysis, but much less than the hit-and-run accounts that reinforce the country's bad image. The interim regime of United Nations retiree G?rard Latortue (2004-6) took no effective measures to halt the rising prices in rent, food, and transport. On the contrary, his government's words and actions likely contributed to their increase. In his first month as Interim Prime Minister, Latortue withdrew Aristide's $22 billion demand for restitution from France, severed diplomatic ties with CARICOM (the Caribbean community), hailed Aristide's armed opposition as "freedom fighters," and granted a three-year tax exemption for the large importers?traditionally an elite made up of lighter-skinned people?who control the country's foreign trade. Through a top-down, rushed process called the Cadre de Coop?ration Int?rimaire (C.C.I.?in English, I.C.F.),6 the interim government signed off on neoliberal plans such as privatization of state-run enterprises, lower tariffs for imported rice, and an export-oriented agricultural and industrial plan to the detriment of local production. People have been talking about lavich? a?the high cost of living?for years. In addition to being what most people cited as their top concern, many Kanaval, Rasin, and even the typically apolitical, light-hearted konpa songs decry lavi ch? a. This common cause bridged the political divide: members of Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas party demanded Latortue address the problem, while leftist groups in opposition to Aristide, including PAPDA,7 and student organizations organized sit-ins to demand lower prices for staple goods. Latortue promised to create a commission to study the issue. Ultimately no action was taken. When it came time to hold elections, the international community stalled the elections process and USAID attempted to influence the outcome by funding Gallop polls that noted a steady decline in support for former president Rene Pr?val. Nonetheless Pr?val was voters' clear favorite in elections finally held on Feb. 7, 2006. Pr?val received the majority of votes that were cast for the office, but blank ballots brought his total to just under 50 percent. Like most other Latin American countries, the Haitian Constitution stipulates a run-off of the top two contenders. According to non-governmental and government sources I spoke with at the time and again a month ago, this was the stage on which the international community demanded that Pr?val form a so-called "unity government" made up of members of all six parties that gained seats in the Parliament.8 Pr?val's government made some progress on security and stabilization; kidnapping and homicide rates dropped. Responding to mobilizations noted above, one of Pr?val's first actions was to negotiate Petro Carib? with Venezuelan President Hugo Ch?vez. Petro Carib? is a bilateral agreement offering lower-cost oil and credit at reduced interest rates. In Haiti's case, the agreement also included developing state-run power plants. According to Pr?val's chief of staff, three such plants were scheduled to be on-line this month. Haiti's parliament ratified Petro Carib? in August 2006, and taptap (public transit "bus") fares immediately returned to pre-coup levels of five goud. However, many people told me, "se tann nap tann" or "se swiv nap swiv." ("We're waiting," "we're following the situation closely.") While Pr?val is generally well-regarded for his honesty and sincerity, behind closed doors people from all classes I spoke with?day laborers, street vendors, factory workers, N.G.O. employees, and other middle-class professionals?complained about his apparent lack of leadership and unwillingness to address the public. To many observers, while his relative silence may have contributed to keeping his "unity government" together, government inaction led to the return of violence and lavi ch?. The events of early April demonstrated that the people's patience had finally worn out. Vilner Chery, a peasant farmer who with his neighbors blockaded Route National No. 2 outside of Les Cayes, decried, "Our children are hungry and we can't feed them. We know we have a president in this country. So we're forced to get out on the street and cry for help to the people who have the capacity to do something for us. That's why we put up the barricades to block the cars. The president must do something about this." The mobilization by Chery and others in the South was peaceful and apolitical, led by local peasants. Journalist Reed Lindsay quotes a small farmer, Jeff Desrosier: "We don't block roads to destroy vehicles and cause disorder. We only need Pr?val to come to talk to us, so that the price of rice goes down. There are eight people here who have died from hunger." The demands were familiar, shared by poor Port-au-Prince women like Linda, who asked pointedly, "Did the cost of living go up for the government? Because the people, we are suffering and the government isn't. They act like the cost of living hasn't gone up." Lindsay quoted the demands of Cavaillon community organizer Frantz Thelusma, "First, we demand the government get rid of its neoliberal plan. We will not accept this death plan. Second, the government needs to regulate the market and lower the price of basic goods." People in Port-au-Prince, especially the self-named "political class" including the Senate, only became involved later. According to Lindsay, the Port-au-Prince protests were larger, but differed from the original protests outside the capital in that they had different motivations and sectors of society involved. Often-conflicting political motives and people's sheer desperation and relative anonymity lent a more violent character to the later protests. Some reports imply political motives behind the "riots." Carol Williams wrote in an April 13 L.A. Times story that priest and close Aristide ally G?rard Jean-Juste was seen leading some of the rallies. The implication was that Lavalas?the most popular party among Haiti's poor majority?was unhappy with the unity government's inaction and demanded its attention, threatening a split. On Saturday, April 12, the Senate recalled Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis by 16 votes, with the 10 members of Pr?val's Lespwa party abstaining. Rightist opposition leader Youri Latortue led the recall effort. Latortue said that Alexis' removal, plus Pr?val's negotiation with local business leaders and international agencies to lower the price of foreign rice from $51 to $43,9 "would satisfy the people." Some people I spoke with from citizen organizations and the government saw Alexis as neoliberalism's champion, being behind moves to privatize the phone company, Teleco, laying off thousands of workers. Pointing to the fact that Lespwa sat out the vote, others disagree with this interpretation, directly questioning Latortue's motives in this effort. Alexis may have promoted neoliberalism, these analysts point out, but Latortue's ousting him could usher in a more rightist prime minister. Some commentators have even speculated that the interests of the economic elite and the Army seek to destabilize the government. For even the best mainstream news coverage, the analysis usually stops here, at the state level. 'Politics of the Stomach' The food riots in Haiti were also a result of policies and actions of the international community. Haiti has lost its food sovereignty as a result of decades of foreign-imposed neoliberal measures. This is a concrete example of what longtime Haiti advocate Paul Farmer calls "structural violence"?the long-term underdevelopment and inequalities in the world system. Many people in Haiti point to the first trigger being the USAID eradication of the Haitian pig population following an outbreak of swine fever. Peasants counted on pigs as "bank accounts" (Diederich 1985) so the action amounted to Haiti's "great stock market crash" (Smith 2001:29), contributing to Duvalier's ouster on Feb. 7, 1986. Under United States military supervision, Duvalier was replaced by an army junta, the C.N.G., whose finance minister Delatour imposed a series of neoliberal measures, including currency devaluation, trade liberalization, and opening Haiti's agricultural markets to United States producers. Today, Haiti is the most "open" economy in the hemisphere.10 In the 1990's, responding to humanitarian crises following the violent 1991-4 coup period, USAID gave millions of dollars in direct food aid (PL-480). The implementation of this aid weakened Haiti's economy, with free or heavily subsidized United States rice underselling the local peasantry; with the grains and the food-for-work programs arriving during the peak of harvest season, when farmers sold their crops and needed hired help the most; and with conditionalities such as still lower tariffs and further trade advantages for United States businesses (Richardson 1997). While it can be argued that Haitian governments can choose to refuse this aid, the majority of their funding comes from international institutions.11 People in Haiti call this dependency on foreign aid a "politics of the stomach" (e.g., Fatton 2004). Not surprisingly, United States assistance to Haiti is still laced with conditionalities that benefit United States corporate interests. For example, the HOPE Act passed in December 2006 was designed to create jobs and cut tariffs on sub-contracted textile productions. While the estimates are way lower than projections, 2,000-3,000 instead of 50,000 jobs according to an industry lobbyist, the rationale is that saving $1.50 on a pair of pants spurs foreign investment, sorely lacking in Haiti.12 Nonetheless, the strings attached to HOPE give even more benefits to United States business. HOPE contains a condition that Haiti must not "engage in activities that undermine United States national security or foreign policy interests"?Section (d)(2). In order for private, often foreign, companies to receive tax benefits in the bill, the Haitian government must establish or make progress toward "elimination of barriers to United States trade and investment." In addition to bilateral aid, international agencies also imposed neoliberal conditions on Haiti through negotiations on foreign debt. By 1991, when Aristide?Haiti's first democratically elected president?took office, the official debt was $785 million (International Monetary Fund 2005b:27-28), more than half of what was claimed in 2006 of $1.463 billion (I.M.F. 2007:73). Debt drains resources that could otherwise be invested in national production. For example, in 2003, Haiti's scheduled debt service was $57.4 million, whereas total foreign pledges for education, health care, environment, and transportation added up to $39.21 million (I.M.F. 2005a:88; World Bank 2002:vii). The scheduled debt service for 2009 is $78.7 million.13 Debt also is the leverage for imposing what used to be called "structural adjustment programs" (S.A.P.'s),14 including privatization, trade liberalization, and forced reduction in services such as health care, education, or rural credit. Some argue that competition and free trade bring prosperity to all. In this logic, barriers to trade such as protective tariffs need to be removed. Many of the proposals to respond to the crisis still depart from this logic. But Haitian peasants cannot "compete" with the United States under a free trade system. First of all, under the United States Farm Bill, United States agribusiness and some individual farmers15 received $13.4 billion in subsidies in 2006, a total of $177 billion over the previous decade.16 At the same time, the World Trade Organization (W.T.O.) repeatedly strikes down tariffs and other subsidies in Southern countries as "impediments to free trade." Even without the subsidies, the average United States farm?individual or corporate?benefits from what we now take for granted as public responsibilities: building and maintaining roads, irrigation canals, water treatment, pumps and pipelines, and federally insured credit, etc. These public investments cost money, which high debt payments and reduction in social spending mandated by structural adjustment programs have prevented in Haiti.17 Occasionally, international institutions directly contribute to the increase in prices, as in January 2003, when the I.M.F. demanded that the government stop subsidizing the cost for fuel, triggering immediate hikes in taptap fares as well as protests. Very efficient in economic terms because timachann (street vendors) operate on very slim profit margins, the informal market immediately saw a rise in prices for staple goods as a result. As a result of all these factors, Haiti is almost entirely dependent on foreign food production. Once an exporter of rice, now Haiti imports an estimated 82% of total consumption, $200,000,000 per year (MOREPLA [Mouvman Revandikatif Peyizan Latibonit?in English, The Peasant's Movement for Justice in the Artibonite] and PAPDA 2004). Haiti has lost its food security and food sovereignty. As Pr?val recently stated in his effort to calm the populace: "In 1987, when rice began being imported at a cheap price, many people applauded. But cheap imported rice destroyed [locally grown] rice. Today, imported rice has become expensive, and our national production is in ruins. That's why subsidizing imported food is not the answer." It is therefore not surprising that prices for basic foodstuffs in Haiti are tied to the global market where rising petroleum costs and inflation in grain prices because of its increasing use as biofuel have driven up prices. Thirty-seven-year-old community leader and timachann Linda Thibault explains, "You have to buy Miami rice. Do the math: if a bag of Haitian rice costs 150 goud, and a bag of U.S. rice costs 65 goud, I can buy two bags of U.S. rice and still have money left over for the cost of one bag of Haitian rice. I am forced to fill my body with U.S. rice. My children can eat more." Why Now? The question remains, why now? And, what does this mean for Haiti? The answer depends on the level of analysis. It is possible that the people were simply tired and fed up, not unlike the dechoukaj?uprooting?following Duvalier's ouster in 1986, and that recent mobilizations were spontaneous and grassroots, as Lindsay reported was the case in Cavaillon where peasant associations organized peaceful demonstrations calling upon the government and the United Nations to end neoliberalism and lower prices for rice. The mobilization across the "Aristide divide" might generate a productive reconciliation between Lavalas party leaders and leftist N.G.O.'s: for example, unions such as Batay Ouvriye (an outspoken critic of Aristide) and C.A.T.H. ([Centrale Autonome des Travailleurs Ha?tiens?in English, Autonomous Central of Haitian Workers] with ties to Lavalas) are both pressuring for a substantial increase in Haiti's minimum wage. It is also possible that this could represent a fissure in Pr?val's "unity" government, with Lavalas?and by extension the majority of people who voted for him?demanding a greater say and role. Pr?val's rare public statement outlines an alternative to the neoliberal vision of development embodied by many donors, outlining national production as a priority. This?with the 364 tons of food aid Ch?vez provided, in addition to the power plants coming on line?might foretell a progressive turn for the Pr?val government. An early sign would be Pr?val's nomination of Alexis's successor, not named as this article went to press. It is also possible that Latortue?who has made several public statements in favor of returning the army that Aristide disbanded for its role in perpetuating human rights violations?is intentionally destabilizing the government as a pretext for promoting a rightist agenda. It is also possible to see the food riots as a reaction to the United Nations Security General Ban-ki Moon's April 2 remarks, in which he said that Haiti's economy was better than it had been in the past decade?a complete denial of the realities of people like Sylvie or Yolette who saw their minimum wage of 70 goud ($1.80) buy less and less on the market. His speech also argued that the 9,000 United Nations troops in Haiti remain past their current October mandate. Many people in Haiti, spanning political ideology and socioeconomic status, share resentment of the United Nations presence and view it as an insult to Haiti's sovereignty. Some, particularly low-income residents of places like B?l? and Sitesol?y, see the United Nations as a threat since United Nations troops have shot and killed many neighbors. Others, including progressive N.G.O.'s, see the United Nations troops as establishing and maintaining a situation of a leta restav?k?a "servant" government, referring to the practice of forced child servitude. The United Nations shooting of the protesters and public statements of support for Pr?val from Ban-ki Moon and individual governments like Canada could foretell a division between Haiti's people supported by a tenuous coalition of formerly bitter enemies?and Haiti's government, supported by the international community. As the many people in Haiti I talked with last week told me, Se swiv nap swiv?time will tell. Most importantly, the events of the week before last in Haiti need to be viewed in context and not simply as "Haitian exceptionalism" (e.g., Trouillot 1994) based on the stereotypic narrative of Haitians being violent, unruly, ungodly, and dangerous. Rather, Haiti needs to be seen as an early warning. Haiti's geopolitical position?especially its close proximity to the United States and level of dependence on foreign aid?highlights the contradictions and flaws in the system of international aid and growing global food crisis. The World Food Program noted that costs for basic foodstuffs have risen 70 percent over the past year worldwide, 40% since last summer (W.F.P. 2008). Before Haiti there were riots in several countries, including Cameroon, Egypt, Bolivia, and Indonesia. These so-called "food riots" are really the first flares shot up to signal the need for significant changes to the economic model. Cut the Strings What is to be done? First, take heed. Second, take action. Long-term solutions will have to address both our dependence on oil and the inequalities in distribution within the world system. One action we can take is to pass the Jubilee Act?which would be a complete, immediate cancellation of the debts of 67 southern countries, of which Haiti is one, without conditionalities?that passed the House of Representatives on April 16 by a vote of 285 to 132. There was a Senate hearing on April 24. Debt cancellation would free up resources?$80 million per year in Haiti?as well as relieve the pressure of neoliberalism, empowering southern civil societies and governments to define their own priorities, like national production. To unravel the inequalities of this contemporary neoliberal world system, it is best to start with the thread that is already loose. End Notes I have conducted two years of anthropological fieldwork in P?toprens, and have returned for several follow up trips, including working on a documentary about Haitian women workers (www.potomitan.net). Names of some individuals have been changed upon their request to protect their anonymity. Many middle class people were also forced out of their homes when landlords rented to United Nations troops. Fares for taptap (buses) doubled for many P?toprens routes from 2003 to 2005, from 5 goud to 10 goud. It should be noted that these indices aren't necessarily related, as price at the pump contains taxes and other variations. Globally the price for oil did not go up as high as in Haiti; indeed, Haiti has the highest gasoline prices in the region (I.M.F. 2007: 56). Coming from a donors' conference in Washington in July 2004 in which donors pledged 1.4 billion dollars in unmet need over the Latortue period. The Haitian Platform to Promote Development Alternatives. It is certainly true of most Parliamentary systems that leading parties create coalitions of other, like-minded parties. But Haiti's "unity government" contains representatives of all parties, from far-right to far-left. Some ministers even come from parties that did not obtain a seat in Parliament and secured less than 1 percent of the popular vote for president. Merchants agreed to a $3 cut to their profit margin. Customs duties are the lowest in the hemisphere. Excepting gasoline, they varied from 0 to 15 percent, "noticeably lowered in the 2000's" (I.M.F. 2007:54) following I.M.F. rulings, with an average of 9 percent according to the Heritage Foundation. The mid-1990's figure was 90 percent (Morton 1997:vi), the latest estimate, 65 percent (Mulet 2007). Private direct investment in Haiti was 4.7 and 7.8 million in fiscal years 2002 and 2003 (I.M.F., 2005b:24). World Bank, I.M.F., and Inter-American Development Bank (I.D.B.) Web sites all list scheduled payments. (See also Weisbrot and Sandoval 2007.) Because of rising opposition, they are now called "development policy loans" or "poverty reduction and growth facility." Ten percent of farms received 75 percent of the subsidies, according to this study. Environmental Working Group. In 1825, Haiti was forced to pay an indemnity to France in exchange for the former colonizer's recognition of Haiti's independence, won in 1804. The initial sum of 150 million francs was reduced, but this plunged Haiti into a century-long debt that consumed 80 percent of Haiti's customs to pay off (Bellegarde-Smith 1982:15; Gaillard-Pourchet 1990). Mark Schuller teaches anthropology at Vassar College and SUNY-New Paltz. For a fuller analysis readers can consult Schuller's chapter in a recently published book, Capitalizing on Catastrophe: Neoliberal Strategies in Disaster Reconstruction. He is a collaborator with the C.I.P. Americas Policy Program. Sources Bellegarde-Smith, Patrick, Race, Class, and Ideology: Haitian Ideologies for Underdevelopment, 1806-1934, New York, N.Y.: American Institute for Marxist Studies, 1982. Diederich, Bernard, "Swine Fever Ironies: The Slaughter of the Haitian Black Pig," Caribbean Review 14(1):16-17, 41, 1985. Farmer, Paul, "An Anthropology of Structural Violence," Current Anthropology 45(3):305-325, 2004. Fatton, Robert, "The Haitian Authoritarian Habitus and the Contradictory Legacy of 1804," Journal of Haitian Studies 10(1):22-43, 2004. Gaillard-Pourchet, Gusti-Klara, L'Exp?rience ha?tienne de la dette ext?rieure, Port-au-Prince: Maison Henri Deschamps, 1996. International Monetary Fund: Haiti: Selected Issues, pp. 101, Washington: International Monetary Fund, 2005; Haiti: Use of Fund Resources?Request for Emergency Post-Conflict Assistance?Staff Report; Staff Supplement; Press Release on the Executive Board Discussion; and Statement by the Executive Director for Haiti, pp. 81. Washington: International Monetary Fund, 2005; Haiti: Selected Issues and Statistical Appendix, pp. 76, Washington: International Monetary Fund, 2007. Jadotte, Evans, Income Distribution and Poverty in the Republic of Haiti, pp. 40. Quebec: Poverty Monitoring, Measurement, and Analysis, 2006. MOREPLA, and PAPDA, K?mansmanmobilizasyon pou defann pwodiksyon nasyonal la, pp. 4. P?toprens, 2004. Morton, Alice, 1997 Haiti: N.G.O. Sector Study, pp. 52. Washington, D.C.: World Bank. Mulet, Edmund, 2007 Speech at the Center for International and Strategic Studies, in a Roundtable With Ambassador Edmund Mulet, Washington. Richardson, Laurie, and Grassroots International, Kenbe Peyi a Sou Kontw?l, Demokrasi Nan Grangou?Men Politik USAID an Ayiti, 1997, pp. 96, Boston: Grassroots International. Smith, Jennie Marcelle, When the Hands Are Many: Community Organization and Social Change in Rural Haiti, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001. Trouillot, Michel-Rolph, "Haiti's Nightmare and the Lessons of History," North American Congress on Latin America (N.A.C.L.A.) Report on the Americas XXVII(4): 46-52, 1994. Weisbrot, Mark, and Luis Sandoval, Debt Cancellation for Haiti: No Reason for Further Delays, pp. 14, Washington: Center for Economic and Policy Research, 2007. World Bank, Haiti: External Financing Report: Oct. 1, 2000?Sept. 30, 2001, pp. 37, Washington: World Bank. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Sat Aug 30 17:18:49 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sun, 31 Aug 2008 01:18:49 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Fw: Fwd: i-witness video emergency press statement from the RNC Message-ID: <000a01c90aff$25f32600$0202a8c0@andy1> Re: Fwd: i-witness video emergency press statement from th Seems that the mayor's office is not taking calls - I was just disconnected Mary - I wonder if calling local TV stations is another strategy ? - greg At 3:32 PM -0500 8/30/08, Mary Patten wrote: from a friend in St. Paul... please read and make a call if you can... thanks, MP Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 13:55:10 -0600 From: "rachel mattson" To: rachmattson at gmail.com Subject: i-witness video emergency press statement from the RNC friends: i'm forwarding you this emergency email from Eileen. i just happened to NOT be at the house when the police showed up, but quite a few of the i-witness people (and a few friends) are inside the house with her. they've all been under house arrest for several hours. please contact the mayor of St. Paul (information at the bottom of Eileen's email) if you have a minute. and keep your ears posted! (check out http://iwitnessvideo.info/ for ongoing reports -- if, that is, we have time to post them.) there's lots of other ridiculous shit happening out here, and we'll be posting updates as they come. love and thanks. rachel ------------ This is Eileen Clancy, one of the founders of I-Witness Video, a NYC-based video collective that's in St. Paul to document the policing of the protests around this week's Republican National Convention. The house where I-Witness Video is staying in St. Paul has been surrounded by police. We have locked all the doors. We have been told that if we leave we will be detained. One of our people who was caught outside is being detained in handcuffs in front of the house. The police say that they are waiting to get a search warrant. More than a dozen police are wielding firearms, including one St. Paul officer with a long gun, which someone told me is an M-16. We are suffering a preemptive video arrest. For those that don't know, I-Witness Video was remarkably successful in exposing police misconduct and outright perjury by police during the 2004 RNC. Out of 1800 arrests, at least 400 were overturned based solely on video evidence which contradicted sworn statements which were fabricated by police officers. It seems that the house arrest we are now under and the possible threat of the seizure of our computers and video cameras is a result of the 2004 success. We are asking the public to contact the office of St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman at 651-266-8510 to stop this house arrest, this gross intimidation by police officers, and the detention of media activists and reporters. The Ma - Eileen Clancy -- Dr. Rachel Mattson 917. 216.1426 * * * check out www.howhistoryfeels.blogspot.com -- Mary Patten Associate Professor Department of Film/Video/New Media School of the Art Institute of Chicago 112 S. Michigan, #512-G Chicago, IL 60603 email: mpatte at artic.edu voice: 001.312.345.3684 fax: 001.312.541.8070 -- gregory sholette 280 Riverside Drive no. 3E New York , NY 10025 USA gsholette at gmail.com gregorysholette.com Assistant Professor Queens College: CUNY Department of Art Klapper Hall 172 65-30 Kissena Boulevard Flushing, NY 11367 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ldxar1 at tesco.net Sun Aug 31 10:52:24 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sun, 31 Aug 2008 18:52:24 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Police state America - dissidents terrorised at gunpoint ahead of RNC Message-ID: <00b101c90b92$54bf1730$0202a8c0@andy1> http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/30/police_raids/ Saturday Aug. 30, 2008 12:44 EDT Massive police raids on suspected protestors in Minneapolis [updated below (with video) - Update II - Update III - Update IV] Protesters here in Minneapolis have been targeted by a series of highly intimidating, sweeping police raids across the city, involving teams of 25-30 officers in riot gear, with semi-automatic weapons drawn, entering homes of those suspected of planning protests, handcuffing and forcing them to lay on the floor, while law enforcement officers searched the homes, seizing computers, journals, and political pamphlets. Last night, members of the St. Paul police department and the Ramsey County sheriff's department handcuffed, photographed and detained dozens of people meeting at a public venue to plan a demonstration, charging them with no crime other than "fire code violations," and early this morning, the Sheriff's department sent teams of officers into at least four Minneapolis area homes where suspected protesters were staying. Jane Hamsher and I were at two of those homes this morning -- one which had just been raided and one which was in the process of being raided. Each of the raided houses is known by neighbors as a "hippie house," where 5-10 college-aged individuals live in a communal setting, and everyone we spoke with said that there had never been any problems of any kind in those houses, that they were filled with "peaceful kids" who are politically active but entirely unthreatening and friendly. Posted below is the video of the scene, including various interviews, which convey a very clear sense of what is actually going on here. In the house that had just been raided, those inside described how a team of roughly 25 officers had barged into their homes with masks and black swat gear, holding large semi-automatic rifles, and ordered them to lie on the floor, where they were handcuffed and ordered not to move. The officers refused to state why they were there and, until the very end, refused to show whether they had a search warrant. They were forced to remain on the floor for 45 minutes while the officers took away the laptops, computers, individual journals, and political materials kept in the house. One of the individuals renting the house, an 18-year-old woman, was extremely shaken as she and others described how the officers were deliberately making intimidating statements such as "Do you have Terminator ready?" as they lay on the floor in handcuffs. The 10 or so individuals in the house all said that though they found the experience very jarring, they still intended to protest against the GOP Convention, and several said that being subjected to raids of that sort made them more emboldened than ever to do so. Several of those who were arrested are being represented by Bruce Nestor, the President of the Minnesota chapter of the National Lawyers' Guild. Nestor said that last night's raid involved a meeting of a group calling itself the "RNC Welcoming Committee", and that this morning's raids appeared to target members of "Food Not Bombs," which he described as an anti-war, anti-authoritarian protest group. There was not a single act of violence or illegality that has taken place, Nestor said. Instead, the raids were purely anticipatory in nature, and clearly designed to frighten people contemplating taking part in any unauthorized protests. Nestor indicated that only 2 or 3 of the 50 individuals who were handcuffed this morning at the 2 houses were actually arrested and charged with a crime, and the crime they were charged with is "conspiracy to commit riot." Nestor, who has practiced law in Minnesota for many years, said that he had never before heard of that statute being used for anything, and that its parameters are so self-evidently vague, designed to allow pre-emeptive arrests of those who are peacefully protesting, that it is almost certainly unconstitutional, though because it had never been invoked (until now), its constitutionality had not been tested. There is clearly an intent on the part of law enforcement authorities here to engage in extreme and highly intimidating raids against those who are planning to protest the Convention. The DNC in Denver was the site of several quite ugly incidents where law enforcement acted on behalf of Democratic Party officials and the corporate elite that funded the Convention to keep the media and protesters from doing anything remotely off-script. But the massive and plainly excessive preemptive police raids in Minnesota are of a different order altogether. Targeting people with automatic-weapons-carrying SWAT teams and mass raids in their homes, who are suspected of nothing more than planning dissident political protests at a political convention and who have engaged in no illegal activity whatsoever, is about as redolent of the worst tactics of a police state as can be imagined. UPDATE: Here is the first of the videos, from the house that had just been raided: Jane Hamsher has more here, and The Minnesota Independent has a report on another one of the raided houses, here. UPDATE II: Here is the video we took from the second house as the raid was occurring. We were barred from entering but spoke with neighbors outside as well as with Bruce Nestor, the President of the Minnesota Lawyer's Guild, regarding these raids: Over at FDL, Lindsay Beyerstein spoke with the property owner whose house -- the fourth one we now know of -- was being raided while the raid was in progress, and Lindsay has details here ("About an hour and a half ago 20 to 30 heavily armed police officers surrounded the house. One of my roommates said 'I want to see a warrant' and she was immediately detained"). Meanwhile, Indy Media of Twin Cities -- an association of independent journalists in the area -- just told me that several of their journalists have been detained while trying to cover these raids. Their site, with ongoing updates, is here. The Uptake also has several reports of the various raids, including video of the raid at the property whose owner Bernstein spoke with as the raid occurred. That video includes an interview with a lawyer from the National Lawyer's Guild who was detained and put in handcufffs, explaining that the surrounded house is one where various journalists are staying. Additionally, a photojournalist with Democracy Now was detained at that house as well. So, both journalists and lawyers -- in addition to protesters -- have been detained and arrested even though not a single violent or criminal act has occurred. UPDATE III: FDL has the transcript of part of my discussion about these raids with the National Lawyer Guild's Minnesota President -- here. The Uptake has this amazing video interview with the Democracy Now producer who was detained today. As the DN producer explains, she was present at a meeting of a group called "I-Witness" -- which videotaped police behavior at the 2004 GOP Convention in New York and helped get charges dismissed against hundreds of protesters who were arrested. The police surrounded the St. Paul house where they were meeting even though they had no warrant, told them that anyone who exited the house would be arrested, and then -- even though they finally, after several hours, obtained a warrant only for the house next door -- basically broke into the house, pointed weapons at everyone inside, handcuffed them, searched the house, and then left. Here is a blog post from one of the members of I-Witness asking for help during the time when they were forced to stay inside the house (see the second post -- it reads like a note from a hostage crying out for help). This is truly repugnant, extreme police behavior designed to intimidate protesters, police critics and others, and it ought to infuriate anyone and everyone who cares about basic liberties. UPDATE IV: More here, including on the Federal Government's role in these raids. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ldxar1 at tesco.net Sun Aug 31 10:56:41 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sun, 31 Aug 2008 18:56:41 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Repression in Russia Message-ID: <00d001c90b92$ee014080$0202a8c0@andy1> http://transform.eipcp.net/correspondence/1220008997 New Issue of Chto Delat Confiscated and Under Investigation PETERSBURG, August 29, 2008. On the evening of August 27, the new issue of the newspaper Chto Delat (No. 19: What Does It Mean to Lose? The Experience of Perestroika) was confiscated during a militia raid at the printers in Petersburg. The raid on the printer's workshop was connected to an earlier incident, when a Petersburg activist was arrested by Petersburg militia at the gates of the Kirov Factory for handing out a flyer to workers. The flyer aroused suspicion because it contained material critical of the Russian-Georgian conflict, and the militia raided the printer's workshop at which the flyer had been produced, where they discovered the most recent edition of Chto Delat. They confiscated the entire edition of 3,000 newspapers and detained Chto Delat editor Dmitry Vilensky for questioning. "The situation really did look pretty absurd," says Vilensky. "We produced this issue for the U-Turn Quadriennial in Copenhagen, and it's one of the most artsy issues we've made so far; it contains almost no references to the current political situation." Instead, the issue is dedicated to the problematic of perestroika, whose hopes and outcome the authors subject to critical enquiry. The security officials' suspicion was aroused by the "political look" of the paper and, in particular, by the libretto of a film-opera by the Chto Delat work group, to be premiered at U-Turn later next week, in which a nationalist, a democrat, a revolutionary, and a businessman debate the fate of the Soviet Union and its present outcome. The full text of the screenplay can be found here. Yesterday, Vilensky was informed by the Petersburg militia that the case had been handed over to the Kirov district attorney's office to investigate whether the newspaper is in violation of the Russian constitution, which contains paragraphs against extremism and the incitement of ethnic and religious hatred. "The militia - who told me that they 'didn't want blood' - were quite surprised by this move," Vilensky says. "They told me that the signal came from the FSB official who was coordinating the raid on the printers." The entire edition is still in custody, and will not be distributed at U-Turn, where it was meant to be part of a video-installation. The printer's workshop Polyarnaya Zvezda [Pole Star] has since been cordoned off as a crime scene, and all its employees questioned. It was one of the only remaining places in Petersburg to print opposition leaflets of a wide range, including the Petersburg issue of National Bolshevik organ Limonka. Its closure - and the seizure of what is perhaps Chto Delat's most politically innocent issue - is symptomatic of the new atmosphere of suspicion and fear that has arisen in Russia. transform.eipcp.net 2006 | contact at eipcp.net | www.eipcp.net -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ aut-op-sy mailing list aut-op-sy at lists.resist.ca https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/aut-op-sy aut-op-sy -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: