[Onthebarricades] Revolts and protests over social cleansing and land rights, Dec/Jan 07-08

[Andy]

*  SENEGAL:  Uprising in the capital after crackdown on street traders 
forces government climbdown
*  PAPUA NEW GUINEA:  Street vendors fight back as soldiers attack market
*  TRINIDAD:  Street vendors protest over police crackdown
*  US:  New Orleans land grab leads to protests; police attack protesters 
prompting scuffles
*  INDIA:  Residents in Mumbai occupy contested site in land grab row
*  INDIA:  Slum dwellers stage dharna against eviction
*  INDIA:  Bengal car launch marked by protests over land grab for factory
*  GREECE:  Women enter male-only religious site in protest over land 
dispute
*  BRAZIL:  MST landless protest repeatedly halts railway; two killed in 
clashes over GM
*  CAMBODIA:  Rights day marked by protest against evictions
*  PHILIPPINES:  Farmers stage protests after long march to claim land

http://voanews.com/english/2007-11-21-voa56.cfm

Senegalese Authorities Disperse Protest After Riots in Capital
By Nico Colombant
Dakar
21 November 2007

Colombant report - Download mp3 551k
Listen to Colombant report

Senegalese forces get testy with marcher
Senegalese security forces broke up a union march after groups of young men 
rioted in several parts of the capital Dakar, erecting burning barricades, 
destroying market areas and attacking government offices. Protesters are 
complaining President Abdoulaye Wade is not doing enough to help workers and 
the poor, while trying to embellish the city for an upcoming summit of 
Islamic nations. VOA's Nico Colombant has more from Dakar.

Senegalese security forces fire tear gas
Hundreds of union members marched in central Dakar Wednesday despite a ban 
on their protest announced just as they were about to begin.
The unions called on police to join them on their side. Instead security 
forces fired tear gas.
A security official explained he was hoping to make the march secure, but 
was now under orders to stop it.

Youths burned barricades in Dakar
March organizer Cheikh Diop said this is not normal, and that he will plan a 
new protest when the city is calmer.
He says the protest is against higher prices, low salaries, and inadequate 
employment policies, among other problems.

Party official picks up scattered papers
Another marcher and union leader, Fatou Samba, says Senegalese now only eat 
once or twice a day. She says many families are abandoning their children, 
while young men try to flee to Europe, and young women are turning to 
prostitution.
An official at ruling party offices in the Medina neighborhood of Dakar 
shows how angry youths ransacked the place earlier in the day as he tried to 
pick up official documents which have scattered outside in the street.

Man bikes in front of looted ruling party headquarters
He says this is not protesting, but unnecessary anarchy.
Nearby, a young street hawker says President Wade does not understand the 
plight of the poor. He says they have to work by any possible means to 
survive.
The protests follow a decision by authorities to ban street vending and 
clear out informal market stalls along main arteries, which are being 
renovated ahead of a scheduled March summit of Islamic countries.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7105772.stm

Street vendors riot in Senegal

Police used tear gas and truncheons to disperse the rioters
Police in Senegal's capital, Dakar, have fired teargas at hundreds of 
protesting street vendors who threw stones and burned tyres.
The clashes came in response to police enforcing a new government policy to 
remove the vendors.
Demonstrators blocked main streets and attacked cars. At least fifteen 
people were arrested - making it the most serious riot in Senegal for years.
Thousands of people earn a living peddling goods on Dakar's streets.
The violence broke out shortly after trades unions held their own 
demonstration against rising food and fuel prices.
Plumes of smoke
Old tyres, plastic rubbish containers and wooden stalls were used to light 
fires along Dakar's busy central business district.
Plumes of black smoke rose above the city centre as riot police pursued 
youths down side streets choked with tear gas.
Disturbances reportedly spread to neighbouring residential quarters.
Police began evicting the thousands of street vendors on Thursday, three 
days after President Abdoulaye Wade sought an end to informal trading in the 
city.
He said uncontrolled street vending had cost the country some 125m Euros 
because traffic jams were putting off investors.
Dakar is to host the 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) 
summit in March, and ahead of the meeting the city has been undergoing a 
major facelift - new hotels, conference rooms, bridges and roads are all 
being built.


Worst riots in years hit Senegalese capital    (21/11/2007)

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL2111892

Police fired tear gas at stone-throwing protesters who rampaged through the 
Senegalese capital Dakar on Wednesday, burning cars and looting government 
offices after authorities forcibly evicted street vendors.

Several people were hurt and dozens arrested, witnesses said.

The worst riots to hit Senegal in many years erupted after President 
Abdoulaye Wade's government ordered police last week to move on hawkers in 
Dakar, where thousands of people earn a living peddling goods on the crowded 
streets.

After hours of disturbances, Dakar Governor Amadou Sy announced the creation 
of four new markets to relocate the traders, in a bid to defuse popular 
anger.

"People are fed up. These are youths who sell things in the street who voted 
the president in and now he wants to chase them away," said Ouzin Diop, 28, 
watching from behind the iron railings of the supermarket where he works.

"It's a long time since we've seen anything like this."

Senegal has long been regarded as a bastion of stability in volatile West 
Africa, but social tensions have risen due to spiralling living costs and 
high unemployment. This has driven thousands of young people each year to 
risk their lives trying to reach Spain's Canary Islands in rickety boats.

Since comfortably winning re-election in February, the octogenarian Wade has 
been criticised for pushing ahead with an ambitious infrastructure programme 
in Dakar to host an Islamic conference next year, while ignoring the plight 
of ordinary Senegalese, most of whom live below the poverty line.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L22482098.htm

Riots betray unease in Senegal
By: Reuters
Published: 23 Nov 07 - 8:24
Shock riots which swept across Senegal's capital Dakar betray growing 
discontent in one of West Africa's most stable nations, where rising food 
prices and high unemployment are widening the gap between rich and poor.
Hundreds of stone-throwing protesters rampaged through the city on 
Wednesday, blocking main avenues with burning tyres and rubbish as riot 
police firing tear gas fought to disperse them.
Many market stalls and businesses remained shuttered on Thursday and groups 
of young men loitered in side streets. In the main Sandaga market police in 
riot gear fired tear gas as small fires burned and protesters hurled rocks, 
witnesses said.
The unrest, which residents said was among the worst in almost two decades, 
erupted after President Abdoulaye Wade's government ordered police last week 
to evict thousands of street vendors whose stalls line the city centre's 
pot-holed streets.
But wider discontent over unemployment, rising prices of rice and bread, and 
a perception that the government is building luxury hotels and highways 
while ignoring the poor, meant the trouble quickly spread.
"Enough's enough," said the red-banner headline of Le Populaire newspaper. 
"Dakar joins with the evicted street vendors to protest their discontent 
with the government."
Senegal was one of the first African countries to espouse multiparty 
politics in the 1970s and is one of only two nations in West Africa never to 
have seen a coup.
Wade, an economic liberal, swept to power in 2000 with massive support from 
unemployed youths hungry for change after four decades of Socialist rule, 
telling his supporters it was "necessary to work: work hard".
Similar promises to tackle youth unemployment were one of the cornerstones 
of his campaign for elections in February, in which the octogenarian leader 
won a second term.
But Dakar's legions of jobless young are losing patience.
"Wade pledged to help the youth if he got a second mandate," said Ibrahim 
Mbemgue, 28, crouched on the roof of his apartment block in a Dakar suburb 
late on Wednesday as clouds of tear gas and smoke from burning tyres rose 
from the street below.
"He has betrayed the people. This is a general protest."
WALKING THE STREETS
Dakar Governor Amadou Sy announced the creation of four new markets for the 
evicted street traders in a bid to defuse popular anger. But the vendors 
complained the sites were far from the downtown crowds of potential 
customers.
"We realise our wooden tables on the side of the road aren't acceptable. But 
walking the streets with two shirts on your arm to sell should be allowed," 
said street seller Mor Deme, 32.
Cheikh Diop, president of the street vendors on the main Georges Pompidou 
avenue, said the hawkers should stay put until after the Muslim festival of 
Eid al-Adha, known locally as Tabaski, in December, to allow them to fund 
family celebrations.
But whatever the outcome of negotiations over the hawkers, the broader 
malaise is likely to remain.
According to the World Bank, 97 percent of new jobs created in Senegal 
between 1995 and 2004 were in the informal sector, meaning even the 
thousands of new graduates coming from Dakar's university each year struggle 
to find salaried work.
Thousands of young men risk their lives each year trying to reach Spain's 
Canary Islands in rickety boats, in the hope of finding jobs in Europe. 
Wade's signing of a repatriation deal with Spain last year, which saw 
Senegalese migrants sent home while others remained, has been another source 
of popular anger.
"We want to go to Europe but they won't even let us do that. Wade said the 
youth would work. But we see no work. Each day we get up and we can't afford 
bread for breakfast," said Mor Diop, 26, in the Grand Yoff district as riot 
police patrolled outside.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7109452.stm

Senegal U-turn after hawkers riot

Police used tear gas and truncheons to disperse the rioters
The Senegalese authorities have reversed their policy of banning street 
vendors from the capital, Dakar, after two days of riots.
They have been allowed to return to the streets until the end of the year 
"as long as they do not obstruct traffic".
President Abdoulaye Wade had said there would be no about-turn on this 
policy, which he announced earlier this month.
About 200 people were arrested in some of the biggest riots seen in Dakar 
for several years.
Hawkers will be allowed to stay on the streets until after the holiday 
season, which includes the Muslim festival of Eid-el-Adha - due this year on 
20 December - as well as Christmas and New Year.
Thousands of people earn a living peddling goods on Dakar's streets.
Earlier, the mayor had said that hawkers would be allowed to stay in some 
areas of the city.
But a spokesman for the street vendors, Mbaye Mbengue, told Senegal's Sud FM 
radio that salesmen who are accustomed to meeting passers-by may refuse to 
be confined to a single spot.

http://www.thenational.com.pg/121007/Nation%2024.htm

Soldiers in brawl with city vendors
By DENNIS ORERE
The betelnut market at Boroko was raided by a group of Papua New Guinea 
Defence Force (PNGDF) soldiers allegedly from the Taurama Barracks after a 
soldier was badly beaten an hour earlier last Wednesday.
This was what eyewitnesses, who saw both incidents, said.
One of them, a vendor, said four soldiers allegedly under the influence of 
liquor, were driving near the market when they almost hit a man in front of 
them.
He said this frustrated the driver of the vehicle and hit the man with a can 
of beer.
"This attracted the attention of others in the market and they attacked the 
driver (soldier).
"The other three soldiers, who were in the car, tried to help their 
colleague but were also attacked by the by-standers, resulting in a big 
brawl.
"The driver was badly beaten compared to the other three," he said.
He said an hour later, about 15 armed soldiers arrived at the market and 
they raided the place.
Another eyewitness, a nearby shop security guard, said the soldiers set fire 
on the tables and other wooden materials in the market.
He said vendors and buyers were running everywhere, in fear of being bashed 
by the soldiers.
Two soldiers from the Taurama Barracks, who were not involved in the 
incident, told The National that the four soldiers who were in the vehicle 
had drank beer before the incident happened.
One of them said: "When the soldiers returned to the barracks after the 
brawl, they told a different story to the other soldiers, saying that they 
had attacked the man because he was pick-pocketing people around the market 
area when in fact, he was not."
He said this made the other soldiers frustrated and they decided to raid the 
market.
"We are supposed to protect our people and not to treat them like what 
happened.
"That was a very bad approach by us, soldiers," he said.

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_business?id=161254045

Street vendors protest over police clampdown
Camille Bethel cbethel at trinidadexpress.com

Saturday, December 22nd 2007

Christmas blues: Vendors protest yesterday at the corner of Queen and Henry 
Streets in Port of Spain. -Photo: STEVE McPHIE

Street vendors in Port of Spain yesterday called on Prime Minister Patrick 
Manning to come to their rescue after they were told they could not sell 
their Christmas stocks on the streets of the capital.

"I want Mr Manning to help us because we invested all our money on Christmas 
stocks. We need to sell our goods to survive this Christmas," one vendor 
said.

The call was made yesterday morning after police officers from the Central 
Police Station came out in their numbers to prevent the vendors from setting 
up shop on the Henry and Queen Streets sidewalks.

The angry vendors stood on the corner of Queen and Henry Streets crying out 
in frustration over the move which they said threatens to put a damper on 
their Christmas sales.

"We want to sell today, we want to sell today!" the vendors kept on shouting 
to the police and to people in the Jimmy Aboud building where they say the 
instructions to stop them from selling came.

"We spent all of our money in that store and now they telling us we can't 
sell our goods because the owner of the store say so. I have hungry children 
to feed and I spend thousands of dollars for this Christmas on stocks," one 
woman said.

Trevor Ellis, one of the affected vendors, said the police told them that 
although they would not be allowed to sell on Wednesday and Thursday of this 
week, yesterday would be their day to sell.

"The police passed earlier this week and told us that Wednesday and Thursday 
were the stores days but we could come out today and sell."

Vendors said some of them had spent up to $20,000 in stock expecting to be 
able to sell their goods today.

"All of the years gone by we have been given the opportunity to sell the 
days leading up to Christmas," one said.

Another vendor, Sharon Shand, said she went to the grocery over the weekend 
and had to walk back out empty-handed because of the high food prices. "I 
could not afford the groceries on the shelf so I came out here today to try 
and make some money because I have my sick mother to take care of and my 
children to feed.

The vendors said they were not going to the mayor's office because of the 
way he treated them.

"The mayor talks to people like dog. I not going up there to talk to he at 
all," one vendor said.

In a telephone interview yesterday, Gregory Aboud, president of the Downtown 
Owners Merchants Association (DOMA), said he sympathised with those persons 
who did not get a spot on Charlotte Street or at the Salvatori building or 
at Woodford Square to sell their goods.

"A lot of space have been made available for vending this Christmas and I am 
not sure if any more space is being allotted.

"I hope for the few days that remains everyone can have a chance to sell 
their goods and to do so within the generous guidelines that have been 
allotted for selling this year. Again, I do sympathise with those persons 
looking to make an extra living for Christmas, especially those who have 
been on the street all year," Aboud said.

Calls to the Mayor Murchison Brown's cell phone went unanswered all 
afternoon.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/12/21/america/NA-GEN-US-Katrina-Public-Housing.php

After clashes with police, protestors vow to press on against demolitions in 
New Orleans

The Associated Press
Published: December 21, 2007

NEW ORLEANS: Protestors, unfazed by violent clashes with police hours 
earlier, vowed to continue their battle against a plan to demolish 218 
public housing buildings in New Orleans, a bid that has further highlighted 
the growing tensions in a city struggling to recover two years after 
Hurricane Katrina.

On Thursday, police used chemical spray and stun guns on protesters who 
tried to force their way into a City Council meeting where the members voted 
unanimously to allow the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to 
demolish 4,500 public housing units.

The confrontation was the most violent and tense of a string of protests 
that have brought attention to the plight of a growing number of homeless 
and the lack of inexpensive housing for people displaced by Katrina, which 
ravaged the city in 2005, displacing tens of thousands and reducing entire 
neighborhoods to rubble.

The vote allows demolition crews to begin tearing down the buildings within 
weeks unless they are blocked in the courts. Lawyers fighting the demolition 
say they have not exhausted their legal options.

Endesha Juakali, a protest leader arrested on a charge of disturbing the 
peace, said the confrontation with the council was not the last breath from 
protesters.
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"For everything they do, we have to make them pay a political consequence," 
Juakali said. He vowed that when the bulldozers try to demolish the St. 
Bernard complex, "it's going to be an all out effort."

The issue would have been controversial under any circumstances. But a 
recent shift in the composition of the City Council that gave whites a 
narrow majority has added a racial overtone to the protests, particularly as 
those most likely affected by the demolitions would be blacks.

For weeks, protesters have been gearing up to battle with bulldozers and 
have discussed a variety of tactics, including lying in front of the 
machinery.

Jerry Brown, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban 
Development, said demolition crews should be able to get to work soon, 
although some final details may need to be hammered out and presented to 
city officials before that can happen.

Developers chosen by HUD to do the US$700 million in redevelopment work said 
they were eager to get started and that the protracted fight over 
demolitions has stood in the way of building better communities.

"To begin moving forward you need to do the demolition," said James Kelly, 
president and CEO of Providence Community Housing, a group associated with 
the Catholic church and chosen to redevelop the Lafitte housing complex.

Police said 15 people were arrested on charges ranging from battery to 
disorderly conduct. Four people were taken to hospitals - two of them women 
who had been stunned with Tasers - and five others were injured and treated 
on the scene, police said. All four in the hospital were stable, police 
said.

Protesters said they pushed against the iron gates that kept them out of the 
building because the Housing Authority of New Orleans had disproportionately 
allowed supporters of the demolition to pack the council's chambers. Dozens 
tried to force their way in.

At the peak of the confusion, some 70 protesters were facing about a dozen 
mounted police and 40 more law enforcement officers on foot.

One woman was sprayed by police and dragged from the gates; emergency 
workers took her away on a stretcher. Another woman said she was stunned by 
officers, and still had what appeared to be a Taser wire hanging from her 
shirt.

"Is this what democracy looks like?" Bill Quigley, a Loyola University law 
professor who opposes demolition, said as he held a strand of Taser wire he 
said had been shot into another of the protesters.

Most of the units HUD plans to demolish are vacant, and many suffered heavy 
damage in Katrina, but those who oppose their demolition say they should be 
improved instead.

Critics of the plan say it will drive poor people from neighborhoods where 
they have lived for generations, but HUD denies that and says the plan will 
create an equal amount of affordable housing as existed before Katrina hit.

The council promised to monitor the redevelopment and make sure the poor 
have places to come back to, but those assurances did little to assuage 
opponents.

"The vote was already a done deal," the Rev. Marshall Truehill said. "There 
were no concessions."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-12-13-no-public-housing_N.htm

Demolition of public housing in N.O. draws protest
By Rick Jervis, USA TODAY
NEW ORLEANS - Federal officials began demolishing a local housing project 
Thursday despite protesters who angrily decried the destruction, saying the 
hurricane-ravaged city needs to preserve its affordable housing.

About 30 protesters had stood Wednesday in the path of a two-story 
excavator, temporarily blocking the demolition crew's path into the B.W. 
Cooper housing development in central New Orleans.

Thursday's gathering was less confrontational and crews began demolishing 
one section of the development. Another part of the complex will remain 
open.

About 50 protesters marched from the housing project to City Hall and the 
New Orleans office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development 
(HUD).

"There is a terrible housing crisis in our city and the country needs to 
know about it," said Elizabeth Cook, a member of the Coalition to Stop 
Demolition, which organized the protests. Just behind her, the large 
excavator chewed into one of the four-story buildings.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: New Orleans | Hurricane | Hurricane Katrina | 
Department of Housing and Urban Development | BW Cooper

HUD officials sealed most of the city's public housing projects following 
Hurricane Katrina and revived plans to demolish and replace them with 
mixed-income housing.

Demolition was approved for four of the city's largest developments - B.W. 
Cooper, St. Bernard, Lafitte and C.J. Peete - which account for about 4,500 
public housing units. Some of the properties, in decay already, were further 
battered by Katrina's floods. B.W. Cooper was the first of the projects to 
be demolished.

Protesters and civil rights groups said some of the buildings are still 
habitable and new plans will lead to increased homelessness if more 
government-subsidized units are not included. About 5,100 families were 
living in public housing pre-Katrina, according to HUD.

Knocking down dilapidated projects for mixed-income housing is a national 
trend that often leaves the poorest families homeless, said Sheila Crowley, 
president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a Washington-based 
housing advocacy and research group.

Debate over how much public housing to replace in post-Katrina New Orleans 
has even entangled two Louisiana senators. Legislation proposed by 
Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu calls for "one-for-one" replacement of the 
government-subsidized apartments. Republican Sen. David Vitter leads 
opposition to the bill, saying that with only two-thirds of New Orleans' 
population back since Katrina, the need for public housing has diminished.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/21/us/21cnd-orleans.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Violent Protest Over Housing in New Orleans
Alex Brandon/Associated Press

Protesters clash with the police outside the New Orleans City Council 
chambers.
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By ADAM NOSSITER and LESLIE EATON
Published: December 21, 2007

NEW ORLEANS - After protesters clashed violently with the police inside and 
outside the New Orleans City Council chambers on Thursday, the council voted 
unanimously to allow the federal government to demolish 4,500 apartments in 
the four biggest public housing projects in the city.

But the council also called on the Department of Housing and Urban 
Development to reopen some apartments in the closed projects immediately, 
and to rebuild all of the public-housing units that it bulldozes. The agency 
plans to replace barracks-style projects, known as "the bricks," with 
mixed-income developments.

"We need affordable housing in this city," said Shelley Stephenson Midura, 
who proposed the resolution adopted by the council. But, she continued, 
"public housing ought not to be the warehouse for the poor."

Advocates for public housing residents contend that the agency's plan will 
not provide enough housing for the 3,000 families who lived in the projects 
before Hurricane Katrina, almost all of whom were black. Many of them have 
not been able to return to the city, and some protesters say they are being 
deliberately excluded from New Orleans.

"The issue is and the question remains, who's in the mix," said Torin T. 
Sanders, pastor of the Sixth Baptist Church, referring to the plan for 
mixed-income housing. He and other speakers at the four-hour hearing that 
preceded the vote said that previous redevelopment efforts had shut out most 
public housing residents.

The city's shortage of low-cost housing is only going to get worse in the 
coming months, as the federal government tries to move more than 30,000 
people out of government-owned trailers, said Courtney Cowart, strategic 
director of disaster response for the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana.

But representatives of the residents' councils at three projects spoke 
earlier in the hearing, describing the poor conditions at the complexes 
before the storm and expressing their support for the new plans. "It's about 
being able to walk into a house and say this is a house, not a project," 
said Donna Johnigan, a resident at the B.W. Cooper Apartments, which the 
government began to demolish last week.

The future of public housing in the city has been a subject of passionate 
debate in this storm-scarred city, involving race, money, history, the right 
to return - and who gets to make the decisions.

That the three blacks and four whites on the council joined to support the 
demolitions seemed to echo a widely held feeling here, crossing racial 
lines, that the old housing projects were deeply dysfunctional, both for 
their residents and for the people who lived around them.

Mistrust of the government was voiced by many of the speakers who opposed 
the demolitions, while supporters said most of the protesters were outsiders 
who did not live in New Orleans, much less in the four housing projects.

Police officers on foot and horseback tried to keep protesters out of the 
council chambers once all the seats were filled. Demonstrators tried to push 
through some iron gates to get into the chambers when the police used what 
appeared to be pepper spray and stun guns; at least two demonstrators needed 
medical treatment.

There was also a brief fight inside the chambers and the police ejected some 
demonstrators. About 15 protesters were arrested, the police said, mostly on 
charges of disturbing the peace.

Adam Nossiter reported from New Orleans, and Leslie Eaton from Dallas.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Mumbai/Residents_protest_to_reclaim_ground/articleshow/2644299.cms

Residents' protest to reclaim ground
23 Dec 2007, 0455 hrs IST,Radha Rajadhyaksha,TNN

MUMBAI: Citizens' power came to the fore on Saturday night when over a 
hundred residents of Gandhinagar, Bandra East, sat in dharna on the MIG 
Cricket Club playground, and refused to move out at the club-imposed 
deadline of 8 pm. They also stalled the construction of a stage on the 
ground for a forthcoming Christmas party by showing the police a letter from 
the BMC forbidding entertainment programmes on the ground.

The ground, marked as a public playground in the Development Plan, has been 
mired in controversy from the start - while it is supposedly BMC property, 
the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA), which has 
planned the entire area, is said to have sold it to the club's general 
secretary Pravin Barve for a song, thereby depriving residents of their 
rightful open space. When the issue of open spaces in the city being gifted 
away to 'caretakers' exploded in the city recently, mayor Shubha Raul had 
even visited the ground and promised to set things right.

The club has been keeping the ground open to residents for three hours in 
the morning and three hours in the evening but would change the closing time 
at its whim, a fact that residents were unhappy about. Besides, it would 
remain closed on Sundays, for cricket matches, entertainment events and from 
June to September.

The Lower Economic Group (LIG) residents of Gandhinagar, who had been 
planning a stir for some time, on Friday took the plunge by going to the BMC 
office and getting a signed letter from the assistant commissioner. "When 
Barve called the police on being confronted with the dharna, we showed the 
police the letter. They then stopped the construction,'' says Neelima 
Vaidya, joint secretary of the LIG Residents' Association. The residents 
continued sitting in dharna till 10 pm, and say they will keep an eye on the 
playground to watch if construction starts again.

When questioned, Barve claimed there had been no protest and that he had not 
received any communication from the BMC.

Incidentally, the BMC letter, a copy of which is with TOI, is addressed to 
him, and is in reference to his letters to the BMC dated December 10 and 
December 12. "We are going ahead with the Christmas party inside the club," 
Barve told TOI.

http://www.hindu.com/2007/12/28/stories/2007122860650300.htm

Slum dwellers protest eviction; board says they are trespassers

Staff Reporter

Protesters stage a day-long dharna, officials to look into their claims 
today

- Photo: Sampath Kumar G.P.

SHELTERLESS: Slum dwellers of Chikkabommasandra of Yelahanka staging a 
protest inside the Karnatala Slum Clearance Board office in Bangalore on 
Thursday.

BANGALORE: More than 120 families residing at the Chikkabommasandra slum 
attached to the Judges Colony in Yelahanka New Town were evicted by the 
staff of the Karnataka State Slum Clearance Board on Thursday.

The family members alleged that they were thrown to the streets along with 
their belongings without any prior notice from the board.

Protesting the eviction, the residents led by leaders of Samata Sainik Dal, 
gheraoed the slum board Commissioner's office and staged a protest for the 
whole of Thursday. The members withdrew the dharna in the evening after an 
assurance from the officials that the evicted families would be temporarily 
rehabilitated. They have decided to continue the dharna on Friday.

"We have been staying in this slum for 20 years. After the board built 
houses under the Centre's Valmiki Ambedkar Awas Yojana (VAMBAY) here, we 
were promised that genuine slum dwellers would be allotted the houses but 
most of the 270 houses there have been allotted to people recommended by 
influential officials," Kamalamma, a resident said.

M. Venkataswamy, Samata Sainik Dal president, alleged that the slum board 
officials had sold the VAMBAY houses for more than Rs. 3 lakh to people 
recommended by influential politicians.

He said members of the Samata Sainik Dal along with the residents would 
resume their protest on Friday demanding that the allotment made to people 
who were not the genuine beneficiaries be cancelled.

V. Ashok, Commissioner of the Karnataka State Slum Clearance Board, refuted 
the allegations and said that the protesters had unauthorisedly occupied the 
VAMBAY houses. "Before the VAMBAY houses were built less than 50 families 
lived in the slum and most of them have been accommodated," he said.

He said he would meet the protesters on Friday and examine the genuineness 
of their claims.

Title deeds sought

Demanding regularisation of slums in the city and "hakku patras" (title 
deeds) for slum dwellers, members of the Karnataka Kolageri Nivasigala 
Hitharakshana Janti Kriya Samiti on Thursday staged a protest in front of 
Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) head office. Most of the land 
where slums were located was owned by the urban local body of the area. 
Although the H.D. Kumaraswamy Government had directed all the officials to 
conduct a survey and grant ownership rights and title deeds to slum dwellers 
in January this year, slum dwellers were yet to get the benefits, Arul Issac 
Selva, samiti member said.

The members submitted a memorandum to BBMP Deputy Commissioner 
(Administration) S.L. Manjunath, who assured them that he would fix an 
appointment for them with Commissioner S. Subramanya next week.

http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage.php?autono=310256&leftnm=3&subLeft=0&chkFlg=

NGOs, activists to protest Tatas` Rs 1-lakh car

9TH AUTO EXPO 2008

Sreelatha Menon / New Delhi January 10, 2008

Tata will unveil the Rs 1-lakh car, also known as the lakhtakiya car, at the 
Auto Expo and an array of NGOs and activists from Singur, West Bengal, and 
other parts have lined up in Delhi for a not-so-grand reception with 
pamphlets and protests.

The protests are meant to highlight the plight of the hundreds of 
sharecroppers of Singur besides the 12,000 landowners whose land was 
acquired by the Bengal government for the Tata factory which is to make the 
small car.

NGOs have contended that the company has been given land in Singur, about an 
hour's drive from Kolkata, almost free to make the car.

Among the prominent activists to attend the protests are Medha Patkar and 
Anuradha Talwar, who heads the Paschim Bangal Khet Majdoor Samiti (PBKMS).

Several villagers from Singur who gave their land for the Tata car factory 
and activists from the New Trade Union Initiative (the mother organisation 
of the PBKMS), the National Alliance of People's Movement and the Delhi 
Forum for Solidarity will also attend.

Talwar, who has been spearheading protests against the alleged dispossession 
of hundreds of sharecroppers, said the car has been "painted with the blood 
of the people of Singur".

It is not clear whether the activists will actually protest inside the Auto 
Expo venue at Pragati Maidan.

M V Vijayan, who is organising programmes to last till the end of the Expo 
on behalf of the Delhi Solidarity Forum, said, "We will be addressing the 
media tomorrow and we have a day-long demonstration at Jantar Mantar the day 
after."

Activists will also be meeting political leaders of the CPI (M) and 
ministers in the central government to push the cause of the villagers of 
Singur.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ikKQ5ybisEQfamwHcvtqMvZh0Y-gD8U2HV280

Greece: Women Protest in Monk Sanctuary

By COSTAS KANTOURIS - Jan 9, 2008

THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) - A group of female protesters locked in a land 
dispute with the Greek Orthodox Church defied a 1,000-year-old ban and 
entered the all-male Mount Athos monastic sanctuary in northern Greece, a 
police official said Wednesday.

A police spokesman said on customary condition of anonymity that the small 
group of nearby villagers, including at least six women, climbed over a 
fence Tuesday and briefly entered the self-governing peninsula, where women 
are strictly forbidden.

Parliament member Litsa Amanatidou Paschalidou was among the women who 
entered the sanctuary. She called it a "purely symbolic act," which was 
meant to send a message to the church to "pursue policies which serve the 
public and not its financial interest."

The protesters, who say the monks are making illegal claims on their 
property, broke away from a rally of more than 400 people and evaded a 
police cordon, entering Athos grounds.

No arrests were made, but the public prosecution service in nearby 
Thessaloniki requested details of the incident from police, officials from 
the service said.

Monks at 20 monasteries on the Athos peninsula have imposed a strict ban on 
women for nearly 1,000 years. The ban is upheld by Greece's constitution, 
and violations are punishable by up to a year in prison. In the past, single 
female visitors are rumored to have entered the enclave disguised as men.

Resident groups in the northern Halkidiki holiday resort area are at odds 
with several Athos monasteries over the ownership of land outside the 
sanctuary area.

"If they are to take away our homes, then it might be better for us to go to 
prison, as we won't have anywhere else to stay," said Kyriaki Malama, 
spokeswoman for the Halkidiki citizens' movement.

"We are fed up and angry about this land seizure and the monasteries' 
demands. It was an effort to persuade authorities to take action," she told 
The Associated Press.

Paschalidou, the lawmaker, said the Athos land claims were based on titles 
dating back to the Middle Ages and the period of Ottoman Turkish rule. 
Greece has not completed a national land register, and land disputes are 
common.

"I supported the women who wanted to make this symbolic gesture," she said. 
"The problem with the land has existed for years, not just here but all over 
Greece."

Officials from the Greek Orthodox Church could not be reached for comment.

http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUSN0756131020071107

Landless protest halts Brazil CVRD railroad again
Wed Nov 7, 2007 11:27am EST
http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUSN0756131020071107

RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Landless peasants halted railroad traffic 
on an important route owned by Brazilian mining giant CVRD on Wednesday in 
the third such protest in just about a month, the company said.
The Carajas railroad run by CVRD (VALE5.SA: Quote, Profile, Research)(RIO.N: 
Quote, Profile, Research), the world's biggest iron ore miner, transports 
250,000 tonnes of iron ore per day from its biggest open-pit mine in Carajas 
to coastal ports.
A previous protest in mid-October disrupted iron ore shipments for two days 
and briefly left a pellet plant in Maranhao owned by the company without raw 
materials, but a CVRD spokeswoman said the pellet plant had enough stocks 
for now.
CVRD said some 300 members of the leftist Movement of Landless Rural 
Workers, brandishing machetes and sickles, invaded the tracks near the town 
of Parauapebas in northern Para state in the lower Amazon basin early on 
Wednesday.
"The traffic is disrupted. They stopped one train and damaged its breaks, so 
we cannot even remove the locomotive from there," the spokeswoman said.
Last time, police dispersed the protesters and reopened the route. But the 
protesters moved their camp close to the railroad while they negotiated with 
the Para state government for an agrarian reform plan, credits for settled 
members, education and health care in settlements and other issues.
The government said talks broke up this week even though the government had 
promised to satisfy most of their demands.
CVRD said a riot police squad still remained in the vicinity and the company 
expected the government to use it to free the tracks soon. Some 2,700 train 
carriages normally circulate daily at the railway.
The peasants' movement, known as MST, staged various protests across Brazil 
last month, including one that ended in bloodshed at a farm owned by 
Switzerland-based Syngenta (SYNN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research) -- the 
world's largest agrochemical company
An MST leader and a guard were shot dead there. The peasants accused 
Syngenta of financing armed militias, which the company denied.
The MST and similar groups frequently occupy farms, block highways, torch 
crops, and stage rallies to pressure the government to give more land to the 
poor. Landowners often hire armed guards and hit squads to repel invasions. 
(Reporting by Andrei Khalip; editing by Walter Bagley)

http://www.nwrage.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1947

 Two people were killed during weekend clashes after landless peasants in 
Brazil occupied the farm of a multinational agrochemical company in the 
latest of several such protests over the past week.

Police said on Monday a peasant leader and a guard were killed at the 
Swiss-owned Syngenta Seeds farm in the southern state of Parana after it was 
occupied by 200 landless militants on Sunday. Six protesters and three 
security guards were also wounded during the clashes, police said.

The Landless Rural Workers' Movement (MST) and allied movement Via Campesina 
invaded the farm to protest its use of genetically modified seeds. 
Switzerland-based Syngenta is the world's largest agrochemical company.


TWO KILLED IN BRAZIL LANDLESS PEASANTS' PROTEST

SOURCE: Reuters
AUTHOR: Andrei Khalip
URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUSN2247157920071022

DATE: 22.10.2007


RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Two people were killed during weekend 
clashes after landless peasants in Brazil occupied the farm of a 
multinational agrochemical company in the latest of several such protests 
over the past week.

Police said on Monday a peasant leader and a guard were killed at the 
Swiss-owned Syngenta Seeds farm in the southern state of Parana after it was 
occupied by 200 landless militants on Sunday. Six protesters and three 
security guards were also wounded during the clashes, police said.

The Landless Rural Workers' Movement (MST) and allied movement Via Campesina 
invaded the farm to protest its use of genetically modified seeds. 
Switzerland-based Syngenta is the world's largest agrochemical company.

The MST and similar groups frequently occupy farms, block highways, torch 
crops, and stage rallies to pressure the government to give more land to the 
poor. Landowners often hire armed guards and hit squads to repel invasions.

Local police commander Maj. Celso Borges told Reuters that a few hours after 
the invasion on Sunday, some of the guards "returned, armed, to retake the 
farm." He said he did not know who started shooting first.

Valmir Motta, one of the regional MST leaders, was killed with two gunshots 
in the chest. The MST described the killing as an "execution" and demanded a 
full investigation.

The MST accused Syngenta of hiring security services that were used to form 
armed militias to evict and attack landless settlers.

In a statement, Syngenta denied claims by the MST it had ordered the use of 
force, adding that its guards work unarmed by contract. The same farm was 
occupied for weeks last year.

The protesters were still occupying the farm on Monday, but the situation 
was calm and police were patrolling the area, Borges said.

"We have no information on them being armed now, although the shootout 
indicates they had guns," he said.

On Thursday, police dispersed a large group of landless peasants that had 
blocked the tracks of a major railroad operated by Brazilian mining giant 
CVRD and thrown stones at a passing train.

The protest, which was part of a broader campaign by the radical leftist 
group "in defense of agrarian reform and against imperialism," disrupted 
iron ore shipments and briefly left CVRD's pellet plant in Maranhao without 
raw materials.

On Tuesday, landless militants briefly invaded tree plantations of 
Votorantim and Stora Enso paper companies, destroying saplings as part of a 
protest against multinational agricultural companies.

ACTIVIST, GUARD KILLED ON BRAZIL BIOFARM

SOURCE: The Associated Press, USA
AUTHOR: Alan Clendenning
URL: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hgS0bPjS8RzYmbdwwxKG9chWwc9Q

DATE: 22.10.2007
SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) - Two people were shot dead when activists were 
confronted by armed men as they invaded a Swiss-owned farm that has been a 
flashpoint in the debate over biotech crops, authorities and the company 
said Monday.

A security guard and an activist were killed by gunfire Sunday at the 
research farm owned by Syngenta AG, a global company with a heavy focus on 
genetically modified seeds.

The official Agencia Brasil news agency said four activists and four 
security guards were injured. Details of the clash were still unclear, but 
the Parana state government said seven guards were arrested, facing possible 
homicide charges.

Police were standing guard outside the farm Monday to prevent more violence, 
the state government said in a statement.

Activists, including members of Brazil's Landless Workers Movement and the 
peasants rights group Via Campesina, shot off fireworks as they entered the 
farm, and a bus arrived later with gunmen, the Landless Workers Movement 
said in a statement.

A shootout ensued, though Syngenta's contract with its security company 
required the guards to be unarmed, Syngenta spokesman Medard Schoenmaeckers 
said. He described it as "a quite dramatic and violent confrontation where 
we understand that indeed there were some deadly injuries,"

While Brazil's national government allows use of genetically modified seeds 
for some crops, Parana's state government recently outlawed genetically 
modified corn and has tried repeatedly tried to shut down the Syngenta farm.

Landless Workers Movement spokeswoman Maria Mello said the Syngenta invasion 
was part of a push to target "multinationals in the agribusiness sector 
whose presence in Brazil delays the swift implementation of agrarian 
 reform."

The group also wants "to bring an end the evil effects of genetically 
modified products and their growing presence in Brazil," Mello said.

The landless group, a strong political force in Brazil, uses invasions of 
private property to pressure the government to redistribute land to the 
poor. Via Campesina says it represents poor farmworkers and indigenous 
communities in 56 nations.

About 300 activists first invaded the farm in March 2006, breaking down the 
gates and setting up tents to publicize their claim that research there into 
genetically modified soy and corn is illegal.

They stayed until July, when Syngenta won a court order to expel them. The 
company, Schoenmaeckers said, "never did anything wrong or illegal in 
 Brazil" and is still in the process of deciding the farm's future. He said 
no Syngenta workers were at the farm when the clash erupted.

Syngenta was created in 2000 when Novartis AG and AstraZeneca PLC merged 
their agribusinesses. The company's Web site says that 60 percent of its 
corn and soybean seed has genetically modified traits.

The clash at the Syngenta farm came just days after at least 1,000 Landless 
Movement activists blocked a railway used to export iron ore from a massive 
mine complex.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/12/10/2114923.htm?section=world

Cambodians protest against forced evictions on rights day
Posted Mon Dec 10, 2007 9:12pm AEDT
Protesters threatened with forced eviction in Cambodia have been 
demonstrating to mark International Human Rights Day.
Their action has coincided with the final day of a visit by the United 
Nations Special Representative on Human Rights in Cambodia, Yash Ghai.
The Government has acknowledged the problem and has stepped in to prevent 
several instances of land-grabbing.
Mr Ghai has strongly criticised the evictions, saying that poor people are 
losing their land to the rich and powerful.
"There's an enormous amount of suffering, people are extremely anxious, 
fearful of the police and the courts who are very much part of this 
mechanism for appropriation of land," he said.
"So the whole legal system has become enormously corrupt."
- BBC

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/topofthehour.aspx?StoryId=102922

National (as of 12/19/2007 10:05 AM )

Sumilao farmers continue protest

Higaonon and Lumad tillers marched anew to the office of the Department of 
Agrarian Reform in Quezon City a day after President Arroyo placed the 
disputed 144-hectare property in Sumilao, Bukidnon under land reform, radio 
dzMM reported Wednesday.

The farmers, who walked 1,700 kilometers for two months from their homeland 
to Metro Manila to claim the land, said they will continue the protest until 
the government gives them the land titles.

On Tuesday Malacañang revoked the 1996 executive order issued by former 
executive secretary Ruben Torres converting the agricultural land into an 
agro-industrial area. The move consequently returned the land ownership to 
the Higaonon and Lumad farmers.

The disputed land was owned by the Quisumbing family until it was sold to 
San Miguel Foods Inc. The company planned to build a hog farm, prompting the 
farmers to seek the government's help.

The farmers asked DAR to immediately issue a cease-and-desist order to stop 
SMFI from constructing buildings for the planned hog farm.

The new executive order was issued after Mrs. Arroyo promised during a 
Monday meeting with six leaders of the protesting farmers that she would 
return the property.

Sergio Apostol, chief presidential legal counsel, said the would-be 
farmer-beneficiaries would have to pay Land Bank of the Philippines for the 
property while SMFI would have to be paid by the government. Apostol added 
that the distribution of the land among the farmers would be up to DAR.