[Onthebarricades] Pro-democracy, human/civil rights and anti-government protests, AFRICA - LATIN AMERICA - MIDDLE EAST - EUROPE, December 2008

Sat Oct 24 23:37:59 PDT 2009

AFRICA

* NIGER: Thousands protest extension of strongman's term
* BOTSWANA: Opposition candidate stages demonstration
* MAURITANIA: Latest on anti-junta protests
* KENYA: Vicious police attack on protest against anti-media law
* KENYA: Mungiki, police in standoff over funeral
* KENYA: Human rights groups protest over taxes, perks
* KENYA: Kibaki heckled at public event
* KENYA: Media protesters demand release of activists
* ZAMBIA: Police attack opposition protests after election
* SOUTH AFRICA: Police violence mars anti-poll protest
* NIGERIA: Shutdown after police arrest taxi driver
* NIGERIA: Youths protest "hijacking" of scholarship scheme
* NIGERIA: Film marketers protest alleged sabotage
* RWANDA: Kabuye attesy protests reach Brussels; businesses shut down in 
Kigali
* BURKINA FASO: Street renamed in protest over murder
* ZIMBABWE/IRELAND: Protest over humanitarian crisis
* ZIMBABWE: Repression against constitution protests

LATIN AMERICA

* BRAZIL: Coconuts used as violence symbol in protest; police killings 
and disappearances blamed
* PERU: Police injure 20 at protest against mayor; office occupied over 
corruption
* BOLIVIA: Clashes at protest over used car ban
* DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Youth protest against impunity for officials

MIDDLE EAST

* IRAN: Students protest against gender apartheid, censorship, clash 
with goons at pro-democracy rally
* IRAN/FINLAND: Iranians protest at OSCE venue
* IRAN: Student at centre of dispute over Ahmadinejad criticism

EUROPE and NORTH

* UK: Protest against "terror" trial of Baloch rights activists
* KYRGYZSTAN: Opposition plans protests
* UK/WALES: Fresh ID card protest
* UK: Woman pays parking fine in pennies
* UK: Police murder victim's family stage protest at inquest
* UK: Anti-CCTV protest - alien hoax exposes privacy risk
* UK: Footballers protest wrongful imprisonment
* CANADA: Protests against coalition deal
* CANADA - QUEBEC: Protesters hold symbolic dice tournament to protest 
fascistic social policing
* AUSTRALIA: Protest against internet censorship
* CROATIA: Facebook protests fizzle
* AUSTRALIA: Protest targets lawyers
* ITALY: Mayor chains self to pole to protest corruption probe coverage
* IRELAND: Solidarity march over priest child abuse cases

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_West%20Africa&set_id=1&click_id=86&art_id=nw20081227143712557C842232

Thousands protest in Niger

December 27 2008 at 02:55PM

Niamey - Thousands of people took to the streets of Niger's capital 
Niamey to protest against a move to extend President Mamadou Tandja's 
rule, due to expire at the end of 2009, by three years.

The objective is to make "Tandja a president for life, a real political 
potentate", said Mamane Hamissou, head of a civic movement which 
organised the demonstration.

Tandja's supporters have urged parliament to allow the president to head 
an interim transitional government between December 2009, when his 
second and final term expires, until the end of 2012.

The move has sparked wide protests and the opposition has branded it a 
veritable coup d'etat.

Tandja earlier said he would step down next year and not seek to prolong 
his rule like many of his African peers. - Sapa-AFP

http://allafrica.com/stories/200812230504.html

Botswana: Bulela Ditswe Loser Goes On Independent Demonstration
Oarabile Mosikare
22 December 2008
Francistown — Although he denies it, Gerald Estate Police have revealed 
that Cornelius Gopolang requested a permit to demonstrate as an 
independent candidate.
Gopolang recently lost the Kanana ward primary elections against 
councillor, Ace Ntheetsang. Gopolang's loyal supporters lodged a 
complaint with the regional committee chairperson, Botho Ntirang.
They threatened that their man would run as an independent candidate if 
their pleas were ignored. Last week Saturday, Gopolang and some of his 
supporters demonstrated around the ward after obtaining a permit from 
Gerald Estate Police.
According to the station commander, Superintendent Motsholathebe 
Mothibi, the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) politician requested the 
permit as an independent candidate.
Mothibi disclosed that Gopolang was given a permit and the procession 
covered the Kanana ward. He said there was no way they could have given 
him the permit if he applied as an individual to hold a political 
demonstration.
On the other hand, Gopolang denied that he applied for the permit to 
demonstrate as an independent candidate. "I applied for that permit as 
an individual," Gopolang claimed. He said he was still a staunch BDP 
member and he has not jumped ship. He challenged the motive of the 
police for disclosing the contents of his application.
"What has that got to do with the police? They are not telling the truth 
if they say I applied for the permit as an independent candidate. I'm 
still a BDP member," he said.
In a previous interview, Ntirang said BDP rules do not allow demonstrations.
He said the weekend demonstrators broke party rules, but did not 
disclose if any disciplinary measures would be taken against the 
offenders saying it was an internal matter.
One of the regional committee members said Gopolang's march was a flop 
because it was attended mostly by primary school pupils.
He said they are not fazed by Gopolang's antics since he was an 
independent candidate.
"It would be a waste of time to discipline him. How can BDP discipline 
an independent candidate?" he asked.
(Mmegi)

http://www.breitbart.com/image.php?id=iafp081221122317.2hn8p1s7p0&show_article=1

Protesters hold a poster of Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi

Protesters hold a poster of ousted president Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi 
during a demonstration in Nouakchott in October. Mauritania's military 
junta has freed the ousted elected president from house arrest after 
weeks of international pressure.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200812160874.html

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Catholic Information Service for Africa (Nairobi)
Kenya: Faiths Join Protests Against Curbs on Media Freedom
16 December 2008
Nairobi — Violent scenes reminiscent of the dark days of President 
Daniel Moi's dictatorship have returned to the Kenyan capital after 
parliament passed a bill which tightens the state's grip on the 
broadcast media.
In what may well be one of the worst indictments of President Mwai 
Kibaki's commitment to democracy, anti-riot police citing 'orders from 
above' beat up and arrested journalists and civil rights activists 
protesting against the new law.
The Kenya Communications (Amendment) Bill 2008 was passed on Thursday 
and is awaiting presidential assent. In addition to stringent licensing 
requirements, the bill vests excessive power in the Communications 
Commission of Kenya, empowering it to determine the time, manner and 
content of broadcasts.
The bill also allows the internal security minister to switch off 
stations and seize equipment in case of "public emergency or in the 
interest of public safety and tranquility."
The bill has been roundly condemned by the media fraternity, civil 
society, the faiths, and foreign missions, which have urged President 
Kibaki not to assent to it.
Observers say legislators passed the bill to hit back at the media which 
has in recent months spearheaded campaigns to have Members of Parliament 
(MPs) pay tax on their hefty allowances.
The Kenyan media, one of the most robust in Africa, have relentlessly 
championed reform, exposed corruption and fought the culture of impunity 
in officialdom. Media have also been critical of the performance of 
President Kibaki, whose landslide election in 2002 was touted as Kenya's 
second liberation. His bitterly disputed re-election last year plunged 
the country into its worst ever crisis.
The National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) asked the president not 
to sign the communications bill, advising him instead to refer it to 
parliament for further debate.
"We take cognizance of the fact that the bill portrays the media as the 
problem in Kenya whereas everyone knows it is our politicians whose 
recklessness and selfishness is tearing our nation apart. What Kenyans 
would like to see is parliamentarians respect freedom of speech of other 
actors," NCCK said in a statement on Sunday.
The organisation, which brings together Protestant and evangelical 
churches, further called on politicians to focus on resolving the 
problems facing Kenyans such as high food and energy prices, inflation 
and poverty.
The new law has also been rejected by the Supreme Council of Kenya 
Muslims (SUPKEM).
On his part Cardinal John Njue, chairman of the Kenya Episcopal 
Conference, said he advocated for responsible media. At a church 
fundraiser attended by President Kibaki on Sunday, the cardinal was 
quoted by the Presidential Press Service as calling for regulations to 
ensure media houses acted responsibly and to restrain them from churning 
out programmes that made the society lose its identity and dignity.
Information permanent secretary Bitange Ndemo said the government had no 
intention of gagging the media, but the new law "will regulate the 
electronic media by promoting ethical standards and enhancing our moral 
values."
Kenya's media are already regulated by the state through licensing, laws 
on libel and protection of state secrets. The country also has a 
statutory media council to enforce professionalism.
President Kibaki has not commented on the ongoing saga. But Prime 
Minister Raila Odinga said he would pass to the president a petition 
against the bill handed to him by media owners on Monday.

http://www.capeargus.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4760663

Protesting journalists arrested in Kenya
December 14, 2008 Edition 1
Police in Kenya arrested 23 journalists and activists on Friday during a 
protest against a controversial new media bill on the sidelines of the 
country's 45th anniversary celebrations.
The police broke up the peaceful demonstration in Nairobi as it moved 
towards a football stadium, where President Mwai Kibaki was due to 
address tens of thousands of people celebrating independence day.
Around 50 demonstrators took part in the demonstration, wearing T-shirts 
and holding banners urging Kibaki not to ratify the Kenya Communications 
Bill, adopted by parliament last week.
"They were demonstrating without informing us. They didn't give us 
notice," said Nairobi police official Richard Mugwai, after those 
arrested were taken to Nairobi's police headquarters.
The bill, which provides for heavy fines and prison sentences for press 
offences, has sparked an outcry among Kenyan journalists.
In a letter to Kibaki, press rights group Reporters Without Borders 
described the bill as "draconian", adding that it gives the information 
minister the power to interrupt broadcasts, dismantle broadcasting 
networks, and tap telephones.
The bill also gives the internal security minister the power to seize 
broadcasting equipment without referring to any other authority. - Sapa-AFP

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/501902/-/u0l6a6/-/index.html

Students to hold demos to protest against Bill

By SIMON SIELEPosted Saturday, December 13 2008 at 22:12
University and middle-level colleges on Saturday said they would 
organise a series of peaceful demonstrations to protest against what 
they called an attempt to muzzle the media.
They said they would also protest against rising food prices and MPs’ 
failure to pay taxes. “This action is the only option left to instil a 
sense of responsibility in the Government,” they said.
The group calling itself Student Leaders Forum took issue with the MPs’ 
decision to vote in favour of the Kenya Communications (Amendment) Bill 
which they said is aimed at gagging the Press.
“We believe the Bill, if passed into law in its current form, will 
interfere with the democracy Kenya is enjoying, including freedom of the 
Press, which has done us proud by exposing the shoddy deals and scandals 
that we might not have known were it not for the media,” said their 
spokesman, Mr Mohammed Yosuf.
He added that arrangements had been made for young people across the 
country to converge on Nairobi on Monday to bring pressure to bear on 
the President not to assent to the Bill.
The students termed the proposed law “draconian in its current form 
unless it is returned to Parliament for the necessary amendment.”
They vowed not to pay taxes in future unless MPs do so in order 
allocations to the Higher Education Loans Board may go up.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200812120585.html

Kenya: New Media Law Provokes Protest, Arrests
Katy Gabel
12 December 2008

Nairobi — Kenyan police on Friday arrested several well-known media 
personalities who had gathered in Nairobi to demonstrate against a new 
media bill passed by Parliament this week.
<
The bill, which is now awaiting presidential ratification, would allow 
the government greater freedom to seize journalists' equipment and would 
empower government agents to open and search postal mail.
The arrests occurred shortly before the official celebration of Jamhuri 
Day, the Kenyan national holiday marking the end of British colonial rule.
During the official celebrations at Nyayo Stadium in Nairobi, a 
well-known comedian was arrested while attempting to pass a note to a 
person on the main stage, and a ruckus broke out in the stands. Later, 
spectators booed President Mwai Kibaki's speech, which addressed food 
prices, technology development and fuel prices, promised more funds for 
youth education and expressed commitment to a new constitution.
In a live broadcast of proceedings, KTN television, which is owned by 
the East African Standard media group, ran an advertisement over 
Kibaki's image which read "Protect Media Freedom. Protect Your Right To 
Know." The broadcast also showed a demonstrator being arrested and 
removed from the stadium. Kibaki ended his speech shortly thereafter.
Protesters are demonstrating their general dissatisfaction with the 
coalition government, formed in March to appease the country's two 
largest political parties after ethnic violence and widespread rigging 
of polls following the December 2007 presidential elections. Earlier 
this week, American Ambassador Michael Ranneberger called for the 
immediate implementation of reforms and urged MPs to pass "relevant 
legislation that is in the interest of all Kenyans."

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/245953,kenyan-police-arrest-journalists-during-media-bill-protest.html

Kenyan police arrest journalists during media bill protest
Posted : Fri, 12 Dec 2008 13:54:15 GMT
Author : DPA

Nairobi - Kenyan police Friday arrested 23 journalists and protestors 
demonstrating against a new media bill that many fear will curtail press 
freedom. Police say they arrested the demonstrators, who were heading to 
the Nyayo national stadium where President Mwai Kibaki was speaking 
during a national holiday, because they did not announce the protest in 
advance.
Kibaki has the power to veto the controversial bill, which parliament 
passed this week.
The bill allows the state to raid media houses, interfere with 
broadcasters' programming and take stations off the air.
Information Minister Samuel Poghisio says the government is only trying 
to encourage responsible media.
The government has in the past accused TV stations of inciting ethnic 
hatred.
During the post-election violence this year the government halted live 
broadcasts in the interests of "national security."
US Ambassador to Kenya Michael Rannenberger has expressed concern over 
the bill.
December 12 is Jamhuri Day, or Republic Day, which celebrates Kenya's 
independence from Britain.

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/502212/-/u0lp51/-/index.html

Groups protest Bill on media

Mars group civil society chairman Mwalimu Mati and his wife Jane leave 
Lang'ata police station following their release. They had been arrested 
last Friday. PHOTO/HEZRON NJOROGE
By FRED MUKINDA and CASPER WAITHAKA Posted Sunday, December 14 2008 at 20:12
The directors of an organisation which supported protests during Jamhuri 
Day celebrations in Nairobi were released on Sunday after two days in 
police custody.
However, Mwalimu Mati and his wife Jayne are not off the hook yet 
because police said they were still being investigated over claims of 
incitement.
The couple is associated with Mars Group Kenya, a human rights 
organisation, which police blame for planning the protests that erupted 
during Jamhuri Day celebrations at Nyayo Stadium.
They were released from the Lang’ata Police Station at 1.30pm, following 
protests from their supporters who had been camping outside the station.
“They are free without charges for now, and without bond or cash bail,” 
Nairobi police boss Njue Njagi said.
Mr Mati and his wife had been arrested at Nyayo Stadium alongside 51 
others who were freed hours later without charges.
The Nation learnt that plans to arraign them in court on Monday were 
dropped at the last minute.
On Friday, the police were targeting people who wore T-shirts that bore 
messages of dissatisfaction with the recently passed Communications 
Bill, which is designed to curtail the freedom of the press.
According to police, the group’s officials distributed T-shirts with 
messages aimed at inciting Kenyans into disrupting the celebrations. The 
black T-shirts also had the identity of Mars Group Kenya.
The celebrations, which marked 45 years of independent Kenya, were 
presided over by President Kibaki.
“We want a free Kenya where when people disagree they don’t become 
militant,” Mwalimu Mati said after his release.
Malicious
His wife said they would not relent on the fight, and if anything, they 
are going to push further.
“We will be calling on the implementation of the Waki Report, especially 
on police reforms to be addressed,” she said.
However, the conditions under which they were released are still 
unclear. Their lawyer, Mr Harun Ndubi, refused to comment on the issue.
On Sunday, an official of The Partnership for Change, Ms Wangui Mbatia, 
condemned the continued detention of Mr Mati and his wife.
“The charges being preferred against the two are not only ridiculous, 
but malicious and calculated to injure their reputations,” she said.

http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/news/Kenya_editors_protest_new_harsh_media_law_76872.shtml

December 15, 2008
Kenya editors protest new harsh media law
Risdel Kasasira
Kampala

The Association of Kenyan Editors has protested the parliamentary 
approval of new and harsher media law amendments.

In a strongly worded statement issued yesterday, the Kenya Editors’ 
Guild said Kenya’s Communications Amendment) Bill, 2008 is harsh and 
intended to muzzle media freedom in Kenya. The Kenyan parliament 
approved the new amendments to the Bill that seek strict media regulations.

“Kenya Editors’ Guild is alarmed by the alacrity with which Parliament 
has passed the above piece of legislation intended to muzzle and cripple 
the operations of a free and independent media,” the statement signed by 
association Chairman, Macharia Gaitho reads.

He said the media is witnessing “not just an assault on media freedoms, 
but a creeping dictatorship and totalitarianism driven and executed by 
an unholy alliance between Parliament and the Executive.”

The editors added “Repression knows no boundaries, and will surely 
stifle all the freedoms and civil liberties supposed to have been 
restored with the end of the one-party state.”

The editors said from the debate in Parliament on Wednesday, “it is 
absolutely clear that the motive of the Bill was not to provide for a 
fair regulatory framework for broadcasters, but to punish the media for 
imaginary transgressions”.

“It was therefore a show of extreme bad faith for Parliament to be 
asked, and to so readily pass, the Bill in its original version,” Mr 
Gaitho said. The statement said in the last few years Kenyans have 
witnessed brazen assaults by the government on free speech and freedoms 
of assembly and association.

http://kenyanexpressions.wordpress.com/2008/12/12/is-this-the-return-of-press-censorship-in-kenya/

December 12, 2008
Is this the return of press censorship in Kenya?
Posted by maik under 1 | Tags: Media Bill, MP's Taxes, Press Censorship |
No Comments
Kenya’s Media Owners Association (MOA) has called on President Mwai 
Kibaki not to assent to the Kenya Communications (Amendment) Bill passed 
by Parliament on Wednesday.
MOA Vice Chairman Martin Khafafa speaking at a press conference on 
Thursday, termed the proposed law that is awaiting President Kibakiâ€™s 
final approval as draconian and not in line with any democratic 
principes as it curtails the freedom of information and goes against the 
rule of self regulation.
â€œWe cannot allow the people who we pay to take away our voice, to take 
away our ability to think on our own. Freedom of expression is a basic 
human right enshrined in our constitution since independence. We will 
fight for it with our very lives,â€ he said.
â€The media today says â€˜Mr President, save our country. Please do not 
sign this Bill into law. Mr Prime Minister, save our country. Please do 
not agree for this to go any furtherâ€™.â€
Lawmakers collectively passed the Bill on Wednesday ignoring pleas by 
media stakeholders for them to delete Section 88 of the Bill, which 
gives the government powers to confiscate broadcasting equipment during 
national emergencies.
The new law hands power to the Information Minister to dictate broadcast 
content. It proposes that stations commit a minimum amount of time to 
locally produced content in lieu of which they will pay a fine to be 
used to “develop the Kenyan production industry”.
Khafafa said, â€œyesterday Parliament passed a law to ensure the media 
can never again tell the Kenyan people about their impunity and 
irresponsible looting of our taxesâ€.
He added, â€œOur politicians have now consigned all of Kenya to a 
permanent darkness. A darkness in which they will determine what they 
want Kenyans to hear and see and at what time they wish us and Kenyans 
to do so.â€
Information and Communications Minister Samuel Poghisio supported the 
Bill, saying was it aims to enhancing the regulation of the broadcasting 
sector and provided a legal framework to encourage professionalism in 
the media industry.
In the past week,some MPs had indicated that they would pass the Bill 
â€œto punish the mediaâ€ over the extensive coverage of their failure 
to pay taxes on their hefty allowances.
â€œWe feel it is a direct revenge against our exposure against their 
lack of paying taxes,â€ said Khafafa.
The MOA further accused Poghisio and his Permanent Secretary Dr.Bitange 
Ndemo of reneging on promises to delete the controversial clauses.
Editors had asked Parliament and the Government to erase draconian 
clauses in the Bill, which they said could curtail freedom of speech and 
information. They had said that they would have no option but to go to 
court to have it repelled.
The Bill was passed by Ninth Parliament but the Head of State returned 
it to Parliament for amendments after the media fraternity raised issues 
with the oppressive clauses. It had to be re-introduced in the 10th 
Parliament.
Below is the Headline Story in the Jamhuri Day edition of The Daily 
Nation ( COURTESY OF THE NATION MEDIA GROUP)
Don’t sign this bill Mr President
The Government, working through the Postal Corporation of Kenya, can now 
open your letters without the authority of the courts.
If your MP steals from the Constituency Development Fund and buys a 
fleet of limousines, your town newspaper cannot look over his fence and 
photograph them.
If you insult anyone on SMS, you will most certainly go to jail.
And when there is rioting in Kibera and police use live ammunition to 
put down the protests, the minister for Internal Security can send 
officers to TV stations to destroy equipment so that reports of the 
shootings are not aired.
It is the minister for Information, Mr Samuel Poghisio â€” who, by the 
way, is being accused by the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission of 
defrauding taxpayers â€” who will decide what can be broadcast, when and 
in what form.
He will do so by giving guidelines to a Communications Commission of 
Kenya made up of people hand-picked by him.
The minister claims he needs the powers to control obscene and 
objectionable materials, but the new law is deliberately vague, so that 
politicians will have the leeway to do as they please.
These are just but a few of the examples of the effect of the Kenya 
Communications (amendment) Bill, 2008, which Parliament enthusiastically 
passed on Wednesday afternoon.
That fraudulent law is not really about the media; it is about civil 
liberties. If you believe that it is right for the Government to read 
your mail, your SMSs and to decide what you can watch on TV, then you 
can sit back and relax.
But the nature of civil liberty violations is that once the Government 
has tasted blood, it will not stop there. It will keep taking them until 
a perfect dictatorship is established.
President Kibaki took an oath to defend the Constitution and civil 
liberties. Those were not mere words that he uttered; he must live to 
their spirit by returning to Parliament for amendment this Bill, which, 
with the stroke of a pen, would sink Kenya into the pits of infamy.
With one signature, it would take away the freedoms of expression, 
thought and communications that make our cherished democracy.
Throughout his political career, Mr Kibaki, despite his diplomatic mien, 
has been known for a certain quiet determination.
In the 1970s, he was the only Cabinet minister with the libertarian 
instincts to attend the premiere of plays by dissident authors regarded 
as radioactive by politicians of those days.
His partner in government, Mr Raila Odinga, has suffered personal pain 
for demanding the freedoms that the Government is now in danger of 
taking away.
It is not always easy to recognise history as momentous when you are 
living it. MPs may not have realised how big a blunder, and what an 
injustice they were inflicting on the nation, when in 1982 they voted 
for Section 2(A), outlawing multi-partyism.
That decision precipitated a coup attempt and unleashed a dictatorship 
whose excesses are the cause of the poverty and hardship that Kenyans 
experience today.
The violations of human rights in the 1980s and the Government-driven 
development of ethnic hatred and politically-instigated clashes, which 
culminated in the massacres early this year and nearly broke the country 
apart, can be traced back to that single appalling vote.
In 1987, very few visionaries saw the folly of stripping holders of 
constitutional offices of their security of tenure.
Kenya was a democracy only in name, but even in a dictatorship, it is 
expedient to maintain a faÃ§ade of respectability to keep the masses 
settled and dissidents in check.
The arrogance of power had persuaded the Kanu power-brokers that the 
fear of detention and torture could extinguish the candle of freedom in 
the human soul.
It flickered on through the darkness of the Nyayo House dungeons, the 
secret graves and the tribal massacres. Today, it is still burning.
Those who authored the mlolongo fiasco of 1988 thought they were being 
clever and â€œstrongâ€ by ridding politics of dissidents and enforcing 
conformity.
Ultimately, that decision â€” by forcing sections of the political elite 
to rebel against their own party â€” cost Kanu power and produced an 
inter-play of events, the result of which is the fragile politics of 
today; the weak, insecure state and near economic collapse.
The vote by Parliament to strip Kenyans of civil liberties in revenge 
because of the mediaâ€™s coverage of the taxation of MPsâ€™ salaries is 
an issue of the moment and one whose historic vibrations will be felt 
well into the future.
President Kibaki must not miss the moment, nor must he delude himself 
that this is an event without consequences for the country he swore to 
protect, and for his own legacy.
The law to gag the media â€” which otherwise seeks to regulate the ICT 
and broadcast industry â€” has been passed in gall and anger.
But it is the one act, which finally throws aside the cloak of 
parliamentary politics, enabling Kenyans to see in stark relief the 
truth about corruption, evasion of tax and the breakdown of 
representation in Kenyan politics.
In April 2006, the world was horrified when Kenyan MPs threatened to 
throw out that yearâ€™s budget if their mileage allowances were not 
increased.
At the time, donors had issued an appeal to feed millions who were 
facing starvation. What kind of leader would demand a pay raise when the 
people are starving?
The subversion of the legislative process to serve personal, myopic and 
emotional or financial needs in this brazen fashion will hopefully draw 
the attention of Kenyans to an awful truth: they spend a lot of money on 
elections and maintaining the National Assembly, they paid a high price 
for the election of their MPs, but these leaders are not their true 
representatives.
Rather, the men and women in the House work for the interests of their 
own feudal estate, a class that sees nothing wrong in bankrupting the 
impoverished mwananchi (citizen) to protect its own shallow lives of 
excess and extravagance.
Parliament is today a new aristocracy that has no regard for civil 
liberties, but is willing to go the extra appalling mile to nurse its 
own vanities and mask its corruption and emptiness.
Kenyans need to know that parliamentary dictatorship is as evil as any 
form of dictatorship and is to be fought and vanquished at all costs.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_East%20Africa&set_id=1&click_id=87&art_id=nw20081214132044713C873826

Kenyan protesters teargassed

December 14 2008 at 02:56PM

Kenyan police on Sunday fired teargas to disperse dozens of protesters 
demonstrating for the release of rights activists detained two days earlier.

An AFP reporter at the scene said a group of around 40 protesters 
gathered in front of the Lanita police station, in Nairobi, were 
dispersed but regrouped to block the road further away.

The demonstrators were calling for the release of activists detained on 
Friday during a protest against a new media bill they said curbed the 
freedom of the press.

The bill passed by parliament on December 10 has been widely criticised, 
including by the United States.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga's party has said it will take court action 
if President Mwai Kibaki signs it into law.

On Friday, police arrested more than protesters including many 
journalists, in Nairobi. It was not clear on Sunday how many of them had 
yet been released. - Sapa-AFP

http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_2442137,00.html

More protests over media bill
14/12/2008 17:13 - (SA)

Nairobi - Kenyan police on Sunday fired tear gas to disperse dozens of 
protesters demonstrating for the release of rights activists detained 
two days earlier.
An AFP reporter at the scene said a group of around 40 protesters had 
gathered in front of the Langata police station in Nairobi.
They were dispersed, but regrouped to block the road further away.
The demonstrators were calling for the release of activists detained on 
Friday during a protest against a new media bill they said curbed the 
freedom of the press.
The bill, passed by parliament on December 10, has been widely 
criticised, including by the United States.
Prime Minister Raila Odinga's party said it would take court action if 
president Mwai Kibaki signed the bill into law.
On Friday, police arrested more protesters including many journalists, 
in Nairobi.
It was not clear on Sunday how many of them had been released yet.
- AFP

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2008/12/18/kenya-media-protests-communication-bill/

Kenya: Media protests communication bill

Thursday, December 18th, 2008 @ 10:42 UTC
by Rebecca Wanjiku
During Kenya’s 45th independence celebrations on December 12th, the 
media engaged the government in confrontations and street protests over 
the Kenya Communication Amendment bill, a law that if passed will give 
the government rights to regulate electronic media in terms of content. 
While this kind of regulations exist in other countries, the Kenyan 
media has protested against the bill and the government has accused the 
media of following capitalistic interests and not using the available 
consultation avenues.
There have been accusations and counteraccusations for days, and Kenyan 
blogs have brought out the alternative view, which has not exactly been 
represented in the mainstream media.

Activists arrested at the Langata police station in Nairobi on Kenyan 
Independence day 2008 for wearing t-shirts advocating press freedom and 
calling for MPs to start paying taxes. (Picture by mentalacrobatics)
Sukuma Kenya wrote about the arrest of journalists and members of the 
public who participated in the protests or were caught up in the mayhem:
Caroline Mutoko of Kiss FM and Mwalimu Mati of Mars Group Kenya are 
among those who have this morning been arrested at the Nyayo National 
Stadium, Nairobi. The two have been taken to the Langata police station. 
60 other Kenyans are also being bundled into waiting police vehicles and 
it appears that it is planned to distribute those arrested in various 
police stations across the city.
The 62 are part of a larger group of Kenyans that had gone to attend the 
national event at the Nyayo National Stadium as we mark Jamhuri Day 
today and use the forum to address our leaders, making the Kenyan 
citizen’s grievances heard.
They were all wearing black T Shirts with the message “No Tax for MPs, 
No Tax for Us” which is part of the campaign being run in conjunction 
with Kenyans who care and university students to protest against MPs 
refusal to pay tax.
Kenyan Pundit, who also quoted Sukuma Kenya, offered several updates on 
the demonstration arrests such as this one:
Four colleagues in Garissa remain in detention for simply trying to 
present the Provincial Commissioner with a memorandum.
Kumekucha feels that the legislators are “teaching” the media a lesson 
for exposing the MP’s decision to vote against a motion seeking to tax MPs:
Tenth Parliament served the media sweet cold revenge marinated in the 
Kenya Communication (Amendment) Bill. And the Kenyan media must have 
seen it coming after their spirited exposure of the MPs’ lust and 
opposition to have their salaries taxed. Welcome to Kenyan politics and 
way of life where national good only stretches as far as personal 
aggrandizement.
The-xposer wonders why the bill was rushed through Parliament before 
consultations were over:
Now it is clear why the Kenyan legislators rushed to pass the Media 
Bill, without proper analysis…….If revenge would be the code of 
operation in this nation, what will happen to morallity? How many Bills 
have been passed out of revenge???
Kenyan Entrepreneur labels the current problem as a symptom of poor 
leadership from the coalition government that came to power after the 
post election violence at the beginning of this year:
I’ve said before that Kibaki should rule like a dictator, but that does 
not mean curtailing the freedoms of the press, which the public has come 
to rely on. I meant, that he should force through the fundamental 
changes that the country needs (without trying to look for consensus 
from parliament)–but changes that will have a POSITIVE effect on the 
country in the long-term. Things like, forcing the KRA to withdraw taxes 
from Mp’s salaries & daring the MP’s to go againt you or arresting 
people who pee on the streets or litter or spit, etc, etc…..So, it would 
be dictatorial yes, but in the long run, it would be good for the 
country. That’s the Lee Kuan Yew model: forced, positive, change.
Kumekucha sheds more light on what the bill intends to achieve:
Legalizing police raids on media house is akin to watering the seed of 
political incest where the Government would pretend to police itself in 
Parliament. Well, the politicians have selfishly made the bed and must 
accept to lie of it with all the thorns sprouting underneath. 
Self-regulation with independent arbiters is the practice the world over 
to have media remain responsible but not in Kenya.
After all is said and done, Capt. Collins Wanderi Munyiri at Kenya 
Imagine blames the media for failing to take the necessary steps:
But is the media entirely blameless? It celebrated in September 2007 
when Hon. Mutahi Kagwe, then Minister for Information and 
Communications, withdrew the same bill from Parliament citing the need 
for further consultations, and the need to introduce clauses to deal 
with cyber crime as well as to protect the optical-fibre cable. My 
commentary on this Bill was published in the Business Daily on 4th 
September, 2007. Instead of using the window created by the withdrawal 
of the bill to highlight its weaknesses and lobby for the removal of the 
offending clauses, the media concentrated on political sideshows.
Over the years, journalists in East Africa have failed to establish an 
effective mechanism of self regulation. The results have been 
catastrophic. In Kenya, wayward journalists have elevated politicians to 
the level of demigods through slanted coverage. Indeed, political 
content takes up most of the editorial space in the electronic and print 
media. My friends in the media openly admit that prominent politicians 
always have the press in tow because they generously tip (read bribe) 
reporters for favourable coverage. Any wonder, then, that all media 
houses in East Africa routinely ignore the professionals and businesses 
who sustain them through advertisement?
The post further accuses the media of cultivating the characters that 
the legislators currently demonstrate:
It is the prominence accorded to politics by the media in East Africa 
which has cultivated unparalleled arrogance in MPs, giving them a sense 
of invincibility. MPs, who often bribe reporters, believe they can ride 
roughshod over them and everyone else. I know that politicians bankroll 
journalists for favourable coverage and I have names of several 
reporters across all the media houses in Kenya; some do not even hide, 
they brag about it.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200812180023.html

International Freedom of Expression Exchange Clearing House (Toronto)
Kenya: Authorities Arrest Journalists Protesting New Communications Bill
18 December 2008

Several journalists and civil society activists in Kenya were arrested 
last week while protesting the passage of a new communications bill that 
would give the authorities sweeping powers, reports the Media Institute 
(MI).
The morning crew for Kiss FM radio station, co-anchors Larry Asego and 
Mzee Jalang'o, and Kenya's top female presenter, Caroline Mutoko, were 
arrested as they demonstrated against the bill, as well as the high cost 
of food and the refusal of MPs to pay taxes, on 12 December at 
Independence Day celebrations in Nairobi.
Former Transparency International (Kenya) director Mwalimu Mati and many 
other civil society activists wearing black t-shirts were also arrested 
and locked up at various police stations in Nairobi.
MI, the Kenya Editors Guild (KEG) and the Journalists Association of 
Kenya condemned the arrests as a return to dictatorship and a violation 
of fundamental liberties, calling it "ironic" when the country was 
celebrating 45 years of independence from the British.
The Kenya Communications (Amendment) Bill 2008 was passed on 10 December 
despite months of behind-the-scenes consultations between government 
officials, politicians and industry stakeholders. The bill now goes to 
President Mwai Kibaki, who has two weeks to decide whether it should be 
signed into law. IFEX members are preparing a joint letter to send to 
Kibaki.
According to MI, the bill will empower the Minister for Internal 
Security to take over media houses and seize equipment on grounds of 
state security - without referring to any other authority.
Meanwhile, the Information and Communications Minister also has powers 
to search and seize broadcast equipment, in addition to the right to 
intercept and disclose telephone calls, emails and letters, says MI.
The amendments also grant the Information Minister sweeping powers to 
control what can be broadcast, when and in what form. The Minister will 
also appoint the government-dominated Communication Commission, which is 
charged with licensing broadcasters and ensuring the broadcasts are of 
"good taste".
Among other provisions, penalties for press offences - fines and jail 
time - have also increased, suggesting "a discriminatory and vindictive 
attitude towards the media," MI says.
"This bill is unacceptable in a country that professes to be a 
democracy, as it literally takes away the fundamental freedom of 
expression and violates sections of the constitution that guarantee the 
same," says MI director David Makali.
Analysts believe that MPs passed the bill in retaliation against media 
criticism that MPs allowances should be taxed. Kenya's MPs are among the 
highest paid in the world. According to MI, some MPs have launched a 
scathing attack on the media, angered by the all-out campaign against 
the bill, and vowed to ensure the bill becomes law.
MI says that further demonstrations are planned to pressure President 
Mwai Kibaki to reject the bill.
Visit these links:
- MI: http://eastafricapress.net/
- MI on protests: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/99331/
- Reporters Without Borders letter to Kibaki: 
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=29657
- IFEX Kenya page: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/39/
(17 December 2008)

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-12-15-kenyan-journalists-held-at-protest-over-media-bill

Kenyan journalists held at protest over media Bill
NAIROBI, KENYA Dec 15 2008 14:39

Kenya police on Monday arrested four journalists protesting against a 
controversial media Bill, but Prime Minister Raila Odinga said he would 
hold talks with the president over the draft law.

Police fired tear gas and pepper spray at about 50 protesters marching 
to Parliament to denounce the Bill passed last week and which has 
sparked criticism from media owners and rights groups.

"Freedom of the press. Our right" and "We don't want the Bill to 
signed," chanted the group wearing black T-shirts, an Agence 
France-Presse photographer reported.

The Bill will become law when President Mwai Kibaki signs it.

Odinga's party, which formed a unity government with Kibaki's party 
earlier this year, has threatened court action if the president assents 
to the Bill.

"We were hoping to have consultations before the Bill was presented to 
Parliament. Unfortunately that did not happen," Odinga told reporters 
after meeting media owners on Monday.

"But I will present the petition to the president and we will then 
communicate the final results of the discussion.

"I want to reiterate the government's commitment to the protection of 
the freedom of the press," he added.

On Sunday, police freed dozens of people arrested during the country's 
independence day celebrations on Friday while protesting the media Bill 
and demanding that lawmakers' allowances be taxed. -- AFP

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/regional/-/1070/506192/-/707c9i/-/index.html

Mungiki and police clash over burial

By WAIKWA MAINAPosted Tuesday, December 23 2008 at 20:34
In Summary
• Officers arrest mourners, among them school children

Business came to a standstill for the better part of Tuesday in Murang’a 
Town, parts of Mathioya and the Murang’a-Kiria-ini road during a 
stand-off between the police and suspected Mungiki sect members.
The outlawed sect members were part of more than 300 mourners on their 
way to Mathioya for the burial of Mr Joseph Kigotho Kinyua, 25, who was 
killed in Kiambu last week.
The impasse was still on by late evening when the police ordered the 
mourners to take the body to the mortuary and destroy the casket until a 
new licence for the burial was issued.
Mourners, who included children and women, were stranded at the Murang’a 
police divisional headquarters waiting to know the fate of their 
relatives taken to different police stations in the district.
Some of them sustained serious injuries and were bleeding profusely as 
they were forced into police vehicles and driven away.
The police have refused to disclose the whereabouts of the arrested 
people, some of them primary school children, said Mr Paul Kamau, the 
father- in-law of the deceased.
Among those arrested and taken away were eight boys aged between 12 and 
16 years.
Mr Kamau said three of the boys were his sons.
There was a heavy presence of police at the deceased’s Gikoe home, where 
the family was stopped from conducting the burial.
Sect’s conditions
However, district commissioner George Natembea denied that his officers 
barred the burial blaming the sect members for “imposing” conditions on 
security officers.
Trouble started at around 11am when the motorcade was stopped by police 
officers at Mukuyu road block. The police are said to have beaten up 
drivers as mourners watched.
Mungiki sect political leader Njuguna Gitau called on the police to 
release the arrested youth, saying they were innocent people heading for 
Mr Kinyua’s burial.

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/502780/-/u0lt8g/-/index.html

Human rights groups defend Jamhuri Day protest marches

By JAMI MAKAN and SUDHIR BYARUHANGAPosted Monday, December 15 2008 at 21:13
Human rights groups have defended their Jamhuri Day protests, saying, 
they will do the same in future unless MPs agree to pay tax on their 
perks and food prices are reduced.
“Non-violent, peaceful protest is a legitimate means of voicing 
legitimate concerns,” Ms Gladwell Otieno of he Africa Centre for Open 
Governance (AfriCOG), said on Monday.
Separately, the Marketing Society of Kenya, the Universities’ Academic 
Staff Union and the Federation of Evangelical and Indigenous Christian 
Churches of Kenya added their voices to the chorus of organisations 
condemning the Kenya Communications (Amendment) Bill 2008.
The Bill seeks to outlaw cross-media ownership and also allows the 
Government to raid media houses during a state of emergency.
At a press conference in Nairobi on Monday, the Kenya National 
Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR), AfriCOG and other rights groups also 
said they would continue with protests over Government’s perceived 
inaction on the Waki and Kriegler reports and the refusal by MPs to pay 
tax their six-figure perks.
The groups also condemned the detention of two protesters at Lang’ata 
Police Station for more than 24 hours, saying it violated the Constitution.
The Constitution states that any person who has been arrested must be 
taken to court within 24 hours, unless he or she is suspected of an 
offence punishable by death.
The two, Mr Mwalimu Mati and his wife, were released on Sunday after 
they were arrested on Friday.
Elsewhere, the Marketing Society of Kenya criticised the Communications 
(Amendment) Bill 2008, which gives the Internal Security minister power 
to search and raid any broadcasting station during a state of emergency.
Emergency
Section 88 of the Communications Act 1998, which was not removed by the 
amendment Bill despite intense lobbying, reads: “On the declaration of 
any public emergency… the minister for the time being responsible for 
internal security may… take temporary possession of any 
telecommunication apparatus or any radio communication station or 
apparatus within Kenya.”
But the marketing society said freedom of expression is a necessary 
ingredient to good governance.
And the Universities’ Academic Staff Union urged President Kibaki to 
withhold his signature from the Bill, saying, the rights of all Kenyans, 
not just journalists, were under threat.
“In the era of the knowledge economy, press freedom is an instrument for 
keeping watch on human rights, trade union rights and academic freedom 
rights that are indispensable,” the group said in a statement.
Also on Monday, the Federation of Evangelical and Indigenous Christian 
Churches of Kenya said: “We, on behalf of the 67 churches and 
denominations under our umbrella, wish to strongly condemn attempts by 
Parliament to curtail the freedom of the media.”
Meanwhile, four civil society members who stormed Jamhuri Day 
celebrations in Garissa Town were freed on cash bail on Monday after 
entering a ‘Not guilty’ plea.
The activists from the Northern Forum for Democracy appeared before 
Garissa senior principal magistrate Maxwell Gicheru on charges of 
creating disturbances in a manner likely to cause a breach of the peace 
and storming the dais armed with offensive placards.
They paid Sh5,000 each.
Additional reporting by Issa Hussein

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/501578/-/u0l3bp/-/index.html

Protesting Kenyans take row to stadium

Members of the public heckling as President Kibaki delivers his speech 
during Friday’s fete. Photo/HEZRON NJOROGE
By MUCHEMI WACHIRAPosted Friday, December 12 2008 at 22:03

• Members of public complain about rising costs of foods and issue of 
MPs’ tax
A moment of prolonged silence during the Jamhuri Day celebrations on 
Friday was enough indication that something was in the offing.
The crowd that remained unexcited as President Kibaki went round in the 
ceremonial military Land Rover, only came to in protest against the 
arrest of comedian-cum-journalist Walter Mong’are.
The silence had been occasioned by a crackdown on a group of members of 
the civil society who had earlier warned that they would lead people in 
staging protests at the Nyayo National Stadium, the venue of the 
celebrations.
They wanted to protest against the rising costs of basic foods and the 
refusal by MPs to pay taxes.
When Mr Mong’are, also known as Nyambane, who works with the Nation 
Media Group, was arrested, there was shouting and heckling.
A section of the crowd even tried to hurl plastic water bottles at the 
security agents who were carrying the comedian out of the stadium.
Made attempt
Mr Mong’are, who had been seen earlier mingling with other journalists 
at the venue, changed his clothes and donned a white and black stripped 
shirt and pants, the official attire in the country’s jails.
He made an attempt to access the podium where President Kibaki, the 
First Lady, Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Vice President Kalonzo 
Musyoka were seated, but security agents quickly pounced on him.
He resisted the advancing men, creating a scene, which became the centre 
of attention with journalists busy taking photos of the unfolding drama 
as the President and other dignitaries watched.
It is after his arrest that the stadium became livelier and the crowd 
more animated.
Several other side shows followed, diverting attention from the 
entertainment troupes.
At one time, a crowd at the one of the terraces attempted to break the 
gates, demanding to take a petition to the President.
Chaos followed as the police struggled to restrain the unruly crowd.
But even after succeeding, a section of them continued shouting “tuna 
njaa” (we are hungry), disrupting the speeches.

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/501574/-/u0l3bl/-/index.html

Police swoop on protesters

Activists arrive at Langata Police Station after being arrested in 
Nairobi on Friday. Photo/STEPHEN MUDIARI
By CASPER WAITHAKAPosted Friday, December 12 2008 at 21:59
Anybody in a black T-shirt outside the Nyayo National Stadium faced the 
wrath of the police on Friday.
Although they had not staged any meaningful demonstration as they had 
planned, they were all seized and shoved into the nearby police post.
Some were even plucked from the queue as they tried to enter the stadium 
and whisked into waiting police cars.
Other innocent wananchi were caught up in the melee and found their way 
into the police post.
Among those arrested are Caroline Mutoko and Larry Asego of Kiss FM and 
human rights activist Mwalimu Mati as they made their way into the stadium.
The T-shirts bore the words: “No tax no tax uta do?” (No tax no tax what 
will you do?) Those who wore them were pushing Members of Parliament to 
pay tax on their hefty allowances and lower food prices.
They were said to be members of a lobby group calling itself the 
Citizens Alliance for Change and were protesting against the Kenya 
Communications (Amendment) Bill, 2008, awaiting presidential assent.
The Bill threatens to curtail freedom of the media.
Two of their leaders who escaped arrest said they would hold 
demonstrations from tomorrow to press for the release of their members.
Mr Richard Wafula and Mr Jakobuya Dimba said: “We’ll keep on pressing 
for taxation of MPs and the freedom of the press.”
They added: “We realised that since the price of maize flour was lowered 
because of our loud protests, we felt that the only way to deal with the 
Government was through such action.”
Unruly crowd
They said 50 of their members were arrested.
An officer who spoke to the Nation on condition of anonymity said there 
was nothing unusual about the arrests, adding that all they were doing 
was to contain the unruly crowd whom he noted were demonstrating at the 
wrong time.
A lot of pressure has been piled on the Government, especially after the 
prices of maize flour hit a high of Sh120 for 2 kilos, which was beyond 
the reach of common Kenyans.
The police post at the stadium was overwhelmed by the number of people 
arrested, who were later ferried to Lang’ata Police Station.
At around midday on Friday, only seven suspects were being held at the 
police post.

http://www.transworldnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?id=70387&cat=0

Protests in Kenya Interrupt President Mwai Kibaki’s Independence Day Speech
Atlanta, Ga. 12/12/2008 06:20 PM GMT (TransWorldNews)

An independence day speech being delivered by Kenya’s President Mwai 
Kibaki was cut short on Thursday when protesters began jeering the 
leader after a man was arrested while trying to hand the leader a note.

Kibaki was addressing a large crowd at Nairobi’s Nyayo Stadium in 
celebration of the country’s 45th Independence Day when protesters began 
to heckle him over recent government bills that have limited the rights 
of Kenyans.

Many of the protesters expressed outrage over a bill passed on Wednesday 
that allowed the state to raid media houses and control broadcast 
content, a direct attack on freedom of speech and press.

Many attending the Independence Day celebrations wore shirts bearing 
slogans that expressed extreme displeasure with the parliamentary 
measure. In addition to those protesting the media bill several voiced 
outrage over the rising food prices in the country

At least 20 protesters were arrested during the celebrations.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Africa&set_id=1&click_id=68&art_id=nw20081214132044713C873826

December 14 2008 at 02:56PM

Kenyan police on Sunday fired teargas to disperse dozens of protesters 
demonstrating for the release of rights activists detained two days earlier.

An AFP reporter at the scene said a group of around 40 protesters 
gathered in front of the Lanita police station, in Nairobi, were 
dispersed but regrouped to block the road further away.

The demonstrators were calling for the release of activists detained on 
Friday during a protest against a new media bill they said curbed the 
freedom of the press.

The bill passed by parliament on December 10 has been widely criticised, 
including by the United States.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga's party has said it will take court action 
if President Mwai Kibaki signs it into law.
On Friday, police arrested more than protesters including many 
journalists, in Nairobi. It was not clear on Sunday how many of them had 
yet been released. - Sapa-AFP

http://www.rfi.fr/actuen/articles/107/article_2026.asp

Banda wins presidential election with narrow margin
Article published on the 2008-11-02 Latest update 2008-11-02 17:19 TU

Rupiah Banda, acting president since Levy Mwanawasa's death from stroke 
in August last, was sworn in as President on Sunday. He won the election 
with a score of 40.09 per cent of the vote, narrowly defeating his 
opponent Michael Sata who took 38.13 per cent.
Banda, sworn in just hours after the official result, said he would 
continue the policies of Mwanawasa and would fight poverty. He appealed 
to the opposition to "put aside petty squabbles"
Police broke up protesters on Saturday night with tear-gas on the 
streets of Lusaska. Supporters of opposition candidate Michael Sata 
marched in Mandevu, an area of the capital, to voice their anger that, 
after an initial lead, Sata had dropped back behind Rupiah Banda.
Police spokesman Benny Kapeso said the protests had begun at 9 pm 
Saturday and witnesses claimed that the demonstrators had attempted to 
set fire to the market.
On Sunday police were deployed in key areas of the city and patrols were 
increased.
Brian Lingeloa of the Media Institute of Southern Africa says that 
independant observers have described the election as free and fair and 
that Lusaka has been calm today.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200812100807.html

South Africa: Protests Mar City Poll
Lindsay Dentlinger, Andisiwe Makinana And Murray Williams
10 December 2008
Cape Town — Police used stun grenades to disperse crowds and reports of 
intimidation flowed in today as voting got under way in 27 by-elections 
in the Western Cape.
A last-ditch attempt by the ANC to have the by-elections postponed 
failed to prevent polling stations opening their doors across the 
province at 7 this morning, where voting got off to a slow start.
A total of 174 936 voters are registered to cast their ballots across 
the province before 9 tonight.
The eight by-elections in the Cape Metro in which the ANC was 
disqualified were particularly volatile today, with trouble reported in 
Philippi and Gugulethu.
Police used stun grenades to disperse about 100 people, mostly elderly 
women, as they attempted to enter the Intsebenziswano Senior Secondary 
School in Philippi shortly after 10am, where they were expecting to hold 
a meeting to pledge their support for the ANC.
Women, surprised by police action, ran screaming down the road. "We were 
not doing anything. We've been peaceful, it's them (police) that are 
provoking the people."
The gathering had marched peacefully from the Brown's Farm Community 
Centre, where they had started their campaign to discourage people from 
voting.
One lady contended the police's action had been prompted by the "Shikota 
movement".
"It's them, it's them," she shouted, as she ran to avoid the smoke of a 
stun grenade.
Protesters had started their offensive against the Kosovo by-elections 
at the Weltevreden temporary polling station for Ward 33, which had been 
set up in a tent on a field.
Wearing ANC T-shirts, a group of men discouraged people in the area from 
voting and handed out pamphlets informing people of the meeting at the 
school.
The pamphlets informed people that the ANC had not been allowed to 
participate in the election, and discouraged sympathisers and members 
from voting to show their support for the party.
The Weltevreden temporary polling station was one of the busier ones in 
the area today and, within two hours of the polling station opening, 
more than 70 people had voted and a steady stream, undeterred by the 
protests, were queueing up outside.
After protesters were prohibited from meeting at the school, they 
instead moved through the area to discourage people from voting.
Closely followed by police, they made their way through Philippi where 
three wards are being contested.
Community organisers appealed for calm from their supporters and said 
they would await senior ANC leadership to give direction on holding a 
meeting later in the day.
DA leader Helen Zille laid a charge of intimidation against the ANC with 
IEC Western Cape head Courtney Sampson after visiting the Efibedeni 
voting district in Kosovo in Philippi.
"The ANC had erected a cordon and was physically preventing people from 
voting. People were going through anyway, but you had to be very brave 
to go and vote."
Sampson confirmed that Zille had laid a complaint by telephone and that 
the police had also forwarded several complaints of intimidation against 
the ANC which they had received. Sampson said all these would be 
followed up.
He said the primary complaints was of the ANC using loudhailers to 
allegedly dissuade voters from voting. "But it is a fine line between 
(allegedly) doing that and the ANC's (legitimate rights) to inform 
voters that it was not participating in the by-elections."
He said he would visit several sites to personally investigate.
In Gugulethu, ANC Youth League members, wearing party T-shirts, gathered 
outside the Gugulethu Library singing freedom songs and handing out 
pamphlets about the party's failure to register.
At 11.25am, police were called to disperse the crowd, and they told the 
group to move away from the venue's entrance.
An IEC official said: "It looks like the ANC is going to create problems 
for us. I'm nervous about this afternoon."
Independent Democrats looked on, while Congress for the People (Cope) 
supporters "engaged" the ANC group. Inside the polling stations, voting 
went ahead, albeit at a "very slow pace".
Five wards in the Drakenstein Municipality are being contested - three 
in Paarl, one in Saron and one in Wellington.
In Ward 26 in Paarl, a representative for Cope said they were told by 
the IEC to remove their banners as the party was not yet registered.
The voting station in Paarl was quiet this morning, but controversy 
erupted when it was alleged that the ANC was distributing food parcels 
to voters.
Numerous sources, including the ANC head office in Paarl, later 
confirmed that food parcels were being distributed to ANC members.
The Cape Argus was told by several ANC staffers at two different voting 
stations in Ward 26 that they had handed out food parcels containing 
basic foodstuffs - "but only if they were needy and were sure they were 
going to vote for the ANC".
However, ANC MPL Garth Strachan said his staff denied this, and he 
promised to investigate.
"It is widespread practice by all political parties to offer 
refreshments, but handing out food parcels is a different matter," he said.
At the time of going to press, Strachan was obtaining sworn affidavits 
in which officials denied handing out food parcels.
The ANC, out of desperation to contest today's by-elections in these 
areas, brought another urgent application before the Electoral Court on 
Monday night asking for the elections to be postponed.
The ANC filed this second application to the Electoral Court even before 
the court had ruled against them in their first application challenging 
the IEC's ruling that they had missed the deadline for the registration 
of candidates to contest the elections.
(Cape Argus)

http://www.capeargus.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Cape%20Argus&fArticleId=4755779

Protests mar city poll
Crowd dispersed with stun grenades Reports of intimidation

December 10, 2008 Edition 2
LINDSAY DENTLINGER, ANDISIWE MAKINANA and MURRAY WILLIAMS
Police used stun grenades to disperse crowds and reports of intimidation 
flowed in today as voting got under way in 27 by-elections in the 
Western Cape.
A last-ditch attempt by the ANC to have the by-elections postponed 
failed to prevent polling stations opening their doors across the 
province at 7 this morning, where voting got off to a slow start.
A total of 174 936 voters are registered to cast their ballots across 
the province before 9 tonight.
The eight by-elections in the Cape Metro in which the ANC was 
disqualified were particularly volatile today, with trouble reported in 
Philippi and Gugulethu.
Police used stun grenades to disperse about 100 people, mostly elderly 
women, as they attempted to enter the Intsebenziswano Senior Secondary 
School in Philippi shortly after 10am, where they were expecting to hold 
a meeting to pledge their support for the ANC.
Women, surprised by police action, ran screaming down the road. "We were 
not doing anything. We've been peaceful, it's them (police) that are 
provoking the people."
The gathering had marched peacefully from the Brown's Farm Community 
Centre, where they had started their campaign to discourage people from 
voting.
One lady contended the police's action had been prompted by the "Shikota 
movement".
"It's them, it's them," she shouted, as she ran to avoid the smoke of a 
stun grenade.
Protesters had started their offensive against the Kosovo by-elections 
at the Weltevreden temporary polling station for Ward 33, which had been 
set up in a tent on a field.
Wearing ANC T-shirts, a group of men discouraged people in the area from 
voting and handed out pamphlets informing people of the meeting at the 
school.
The pamphlets informed people that the ANC had not been allowed to 
participate in the election, and discouraged sympathisers and members 
from voting to show their support for the party.
The Weltevreden temporary polling station was one of the busier ones in 
the area today and, within two hours of the polling station opening, 
more than 70 people had voted and a steady stream, undeterred by the 
protests, were queueing up outside.
After protesters were prohibited from meeting at the school, they 
instead moved through the area to discourage people from voting.
Closely followed by police, they made their way through Philippi where 
three wards are being contested.
Community organisers appealed for calm from their supporters and said 
they would await senior ANC leadership to give direction on holding a 
meeting later in the day.
DA leader Helen Zille laid a charge of intimidation against the ANC with 
IEC Western Cape head Courtney Sampson after visiting the Efibedeni 
voting district in Kosovo in Philippi.
"The ANC had erected a cordon and was physically preventing people from 
voting. People were going through anyway, but you had to be very brave 
to go and vote."

Sampson confirmed that Zille had laid a complaint by telephone and that 
the police had also forwarded several complaints of intimidation against 
the ANC which they had received. Sampson said all these would be 
followed up.
He said the primary complaints was of the ANC using loudhailers to 
allegedly dissuade voters from voting. "But it is a fine line between 
(allegedly) doing that and the ANC's (legitimate rights) to inform 
voters that it was not participating in the by-elections."
He said he would visit several sites to personally investigate.
In Gugulethu, ANC Youth League members, wearing party T-shirts, gathered 
outside the Gugulethu Library singing freedom songs and handing out 
pamphlets about the party's failure to register.
At 11.25am, police were called to disperse the crowd, and they told the 
group to move away from the venue's entrance.
An IEC official said: "It looks like the ANC is going to create problems 
for us. I'm nervous about this afternoon."
Independent Democrats looked on, while Congress for the People (Cope) 
supporters "engaged" the ANC group. Inside the polling stations, voting 
went ahead, albeit at a "very slow pace".
Five wards in the Drakenstein Municipality are being contested - three 
in Paarl, one in Saron and one in Wellington.
In Ward 26 in Paarl, a representative for Cope said they were told by 
the IEC to remove their banners as the party was not yet registered.
The voting station in Paarl was quiet this morning, but controversy 
erupted when it was alleged that the ANC was distributing food parcels 
to voters.
Numerous sources, including the ANC head office in Paarl, later 
confirmed that food parcels were being distributed to ANC members.
The Cape Argus was told by several ANC staffers at two different voting 
stations in Ward 26 that they had handed out food parcels containing 
basic foodstuffs - "but only if they were needy and were sure they were 
going to vote for the ANC".
However, ANC MPL Garth Strachan said his staff denied this, and he 
promised to investigate.
"It is widespread practice by all political parties to offer 
refreshments, but handing out food parcels is a different matter," he said.
At the time of going to press, Strachan was obtaining sworn affidavits 
in which officials denied handing out food parcels.
The ANC, out of desperation to contest today's by-elections in these 
areas, brought another urgent application before the Electoral Court on 
Monday night asking for the elections to be postponed.
The ANC filed this second application to the Electoral Court even before 
the court had ruled against them in their first application challenging 
the IEC's ruling that they had missed the deadline for the registration 
of candidates to contest the elections.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200812180173.html

Nigeria: Protest in Akure Over Taxi Driver's Arrest
Dayo Johnson
18 December 2008
Akure — BUSINESS and commercial activities were totally paralyzed in 
Akure, the Ondo State capital for hours yesterday, following the arrest 
of the chairman of the state Taxi Drivers Association Chief Jacob Adebo 
by soldiers from the 323 Artillery regiment.
The state governor Dr Olusegun Agagu had reacted swiftly by inviting all 
the warring parties to a meeting which was on going as at the time of 
filing in this report.
The taxi drivers blocked the major roads in the metropolis leaving 
commuters stranded for hours.
They used their vehicles to block other roads while commuters had to 
trek long distance to get to their various destinations.
Investigations revealed that men of the 323 Artillery regiment in Akure 
reportedly beat up members of the drivers union and also arrested their 
chairman.
According to the drivers," some soldiers came into their garage, beat 
some of them and took the chairman of the union to the Army barracks.
But the soldiers while reacting, denied the allegation but said that it 
was the driver that beat up one army officer and a policeman and 
subsequently seized the car of the policeman.
Speaking with newsmen, the Commanding Officer of the 323 Artillery 
regiment, Lt Col Muili Folorunso said "that one officer driving his 
personal car was traveling and on sighting the soldier decided to give 
him a ride since they were going to the same destination.
Folorunso added that men of the drivers union, who acted as policemen, 
thought that the policeman in mufti was trying to carry their passenger, 
however swooped on them, beating them up and seized the vehicle.
The military officer had to report to the Commanding Officer who 
directed that the vehicle should be brought to the barracks.
(Vanguard)

http://allafrica.com/stories/200812290850.html

Nigeria: Ndokwa Youths Protest Alleged Hijack of Desopadec Scholarship 
Scheme
Emma Amaize
29 December 2008
Wari — PLACAD CARRYING youths from the Ndokwa Youth Leaders Assembly 
(NYLA) in Delta State stormed the residence of the chairman of the Delta 
State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC), Chief 
Wellington Okirika, in Warri, during the yuletide break, alleging that 
the Commission's scholarship programme for Ndokwa East local government 
has been hijacked by some persons.
They accused a top official of the commission of imposing fake names on 
the people and gave the Delta State Government a two-week ultimatum to 
remove him from office, but, the NYLA president, Mr. Chukwuma Theophilus 
was attacked by some opposing youths, believed to be loyal to the 
DESOPADEC official shortly after the protest.
Before the attack, Mr. Theophilus had told Chief Okirika, "We are giving 
the Delta State Government and the leadership of DESOPADEC two weeks 
ultimatum to sack the official (names withheld) as a commissioner, 
representing Ndokwa East Local Government Area, starting from Wednesday, 
December 24, 2008.
"This ultimatum became imperative as it is a known fact that the 
official was imported and imposed on the youths and people of Ndokwa 
land from USA with no idea of the suffering of the people of Ndokwa and 
youths activities in Ndokwa, not to mention the entire Ndokwa land."
He told the chairman categorically that the just concluded scholarship 
scheme by the leadership of DESOPADEC to the students of Ndokwa land was 
marred with fake names as a result of the collaboration of the official 
with some unknown self acclaimed youth leaders to deprive the bonafide 
students of their scholarship dividends.
The NYLA boss called for the suspension of the micro-credit finance 
scheme of the DESOPADEC for the youths and people of Ndokwa land, 
saying, "This call became necessary as the names on the list and the 
beneficiaries are sponsored youths and friends of the DESOPADEC 
official," he stated.
Addressing the protesters, Chief Okirika promised to look into the 
issues raised and promised to pay those that had not benefited from the 
micro-credit scheme and scholarship.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200812010432.html

Nigeria: Film Marketers Protest in Onitsha
Vincent Ujumadu
1 December 2008
AWKA-MEMBERS of Film Video Producers Marketers Association of Nigeria 
(FVPMAN) at the weekend staged a protest at the Electronics Dealers 
Market in Onitsha over alleged sabotage of their business by the 
National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB).
They accused NFVCB of a deliberate plot to undermine the local film 
industry which they said, they have worked tirelessly to sustain.
The film producers and marketers, who were billed to release their films 
into the market at the weekend, were stopped by their chairman, Mr. Rob 
Emeka Eze of Remmy Jezz Production to avoid infringing on the agreement 
they reached with the board.
The chairman's action however did not go down well with the producers 
and marketers who moved around the market, protesting over the action of 
the Censors Board who they alleged, were bent on frustrating their business.
Some of them said they borrowed from banks to invest in the production 
of movies which would have been released last Friday to meet the demand 
of the Christmas season.
They claimed that over 40 titles of their members' films were with the 
Censors Board, adding that the situation was affecting them and the 
industry as their customers have started diverting to other African 
countries who took after Nigeria in film production.
Reacting to the alleged sabotarge, the Onitsha zonal director of NFVCB, 
Mrs. Elizabeth Uwaezuoke denied any attempt to frustrate Nollywood 
industry, describing the allegation as "cheap blackmail".
She wondered how the Censors Board would want to destroy a house it is 
building, stating that the problem was that at the time others were 
making efforts to obtain their licence, the Onitsha marketers refused 
because they were contesting the action of the board in the court.
(Vanguard)

http://allafrica.com/stories/200812020096.html

Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne)
Rwanda: Protest in Brussels Over Kabuye's Arres
1 December 2008

Brussels — About a hundred Rwandans protested last week in Brussels in 
front of the buildings of the Council of Europe and the European 
Commission to request the release of Rose Kabuye, the head of protocol 
for Rwandan President Paul Kagame arrested at the beginning of the month 
in Germany and transferred to France.
The week before, a protest also took place in Kampala, the Ugandan 
capital. Rose Kabuye is one of the nine Rwandans targeted by the arrest 
warrants issued in November 2006 by French Judge Jean-Louis Bruguière. 
He accuses these representatives of the regime in power in Kigali to 
have taken part, on 6 April 1994, in the attack against the plane of 
President Juvénal Habyarimana. This attack preceded the beginning of the 
Tutsi genocide committed by Hutu extremists, which resulted in more than 
800 000 deaths according to the UN.
"These warrants are politicized", argued a spokesperson of the Rwandan 
Community in Belgium (CRB), the association at the origin of the 
protest, "we consider that the European Union does not have the right to 
thus assume the power to ridicule the sovereignty of poor countries". 
According to him, the arrest warrants issued in February by Spanish 
justice against forty soldiers of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), the 
party in power, are as debatable in that they are based on the 
"negationnist theory" of the double genocide.
Whereas a Rwandan inquiry commission published in August a report 
underlining the responsibilities of the French authorities in the 
conception of the 1994 genocide, the CRB also estimates that "France is 
in a bad position to want to try those who put an end to the genocide 
whereas it contributed to set it up".
The protesters, which some carried caps of the RPF colors, addressed a 
memorandum to the president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel 
Barroso, in which they deplore "the improper use [...], for political 
ends, of universal jurisdiction". "Universal jurisdiction must have its 
true mission re-established, track and prosecute those who are really 
guilty", he advocated in this text.
The CRB regrets, thus, that the genocidaires who live in countries of 
the European Union without worry and, while requiring a moratorium of 
the execution of the arrest warrants, requests the creation of a 
"supra-continental court" which would control the non-political 
character of possible arrest warrants incriminating African leaders.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200812080226.html

Rwanda: Business Operators Protest Kabuye Arrest
Berna Namata in Kampala
8 December 2008
Kigali — Over 1000 business operators from Nyarugenge Friday took to 
Kigali streets to protest the recent arrest of Rose Kabuye.
This is the latest among a series of similar protests that have been 
going on across the country since Kabuye's arrest in Germany on November 9.
By 2pm most business outlets in downtown Kigali had closed and the 
business owners had gathered at the city centre to march to the German 
embassy.
They took to the streets carrying placards with several messages.
Nyarugenge district includes the business district so most of the 
businesses in the city were closed.
One of the placards directed towards those responsible for Kabuye's 
arrest read: "Why don't you arrest genocidaires on your soil!! Hypocrisy!"
"After failing to stop the Genocide they have to arrest those who 
stopped it. Now they have become judges while protecting perpetrators of 
the Genocide," said Laurent Mwenzanyu, the chairman of the business 
community in the district.
Kabuye was part of the Rwanda Patriotic Army (RPA) a force that is 
responsible for stopping the Genocide against Tutsis which left over a 
million people dead.
Mwezanyu who owns a wholesale shop the city said "we did it (protest) as 
Nyarugenge business community. We are showing our solidarity. We are 
going to match around the city in protest for the arrest."
"Their radios [French] don't air what is going on so that people can 
have debates and get to the full understanding of issues," he added.
"The French have always been against peace since their arrival in 
Rwanda," said an angry looking Joseph Mugarura an employee of Rwanda 
Micro Finance, a banking institution in Kigali.
Rose Kabuye was arrested following indictments issued by French Judge 
Jean Louis Bruguiere against her and eight other former RPA officers 
claiming that they played a hand in the shooting down of former 
President Juvenal Habyarimana.
The Government of Rwanda has strongly contested the indictments saying 
that they are politically motivated owing to the fact that the judge did 
not conduct investigations in the matter to come up with concrete evidence.
On arrival in France, Kabuye was granted bail by court and she is 
currently waiting for a date of hearing to be fixed.
Since her arrest numerous songs have been composed to stress Rwandan 
feelings against the arrest of Kabuye.
(New Times)

http://allafrica.com/stories/200812010564.html

Rwanda: Hundreds Turn Up for Kabuye Protests in Brussels
James Karuhanga
29 November 2008
Brussels — Nineteen days after Rose Kabuye's arrest in Germany and 
extradition to France, protests against what many consider an illegal 
arrest of the chief of State Protocol continue all over the world.
Apart from the ongoing online protests and petitions by Rwandans the 
world over, the Diaspora in Belgium also mounted a rally in Brussels, 
Belgium Thursday afternoon.
Chantal Karara, head of the Rwandan Diaspora in Belgium confirmed this 
in a phone interview. She told The New Times that La Place Schuman, an 
area close to the European Commission institutions was the setting of 
the protests.
"We sang and danced in protest to Rose's arrest," she said, adding that 
they also sent, through a representative, a memo of protest to José 
Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission.
"His representative came and listened to our protests," she said, 
explaining that they also wrote requesting the EU to consider looking 
into the basis of the indictments and arrest warrants issued by French 
Judge, Jean Louis Bruguiere.
Kabuye was arrested in Frankfurt, Germany on the basis of Bruguiere's 
arrest warrants.
The French Judge claims that she played a role in downing former 
President Juvenal Habyarimana's plane.
"We pointed out that people like Rose Kabuye are the ones who fought to 
liberate our country, unlike what is being suggested in the faulty 
indictment charges," Karara said.
More protests are planned for today in Paris.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200812140006.html

Reporters sans Frontières (Paris)
Burkina Faso: Protesters Rename Ouagadougou Avenue After Slain 
Journalist On 10th Anniversary of Murder
13 December 2008
Reporters Without Borders marked the 10th anniversary of journalist 
Norbert Zongo's murder today by organising a protest in which stickers 
were used to rename one of the capital's avenues after Zongo. The editor 
of the weekly L'Indépendant, Zongo and three companions were murdered in 
the southern town of Sapouy on 13 December 1998.
In the course of a march through the streets of Ouagadougou organised by 
the Collective againt Impunity in Burkina Faso, Reporters Without 
Borders secretary-general Jean-François Julliard and head of information 
Léonard Vincent put up large stickers with the words "Avenue Norbert 
Zongo" in the form a Ouagadougou street-name sign.
They distributed stickers to demonstrators and urged them to affix them 
everywhere in the capital as a tribute to the slain journalist and his 
three fellow victims.
"Ten years after the multiple murder in Sapouy, the people of Burkina 
Faso are still in the dark although suspicion and evidence have pointed 
to the president's brother and the presidential guard," Reporters 
Without Borders said.
"Not only have the authorities done everything to prevent justice being 
done in this case but - compounding scandal with contempt - they have 
done nothing to ensure that Burkina Faso honours one of its finest 
sons," the press freedom organisation add. "At least that injustice has 
been partially redressed today."
Zongo (picture) was an investigative journalist and editor of the weekly 
L'Indépendant. His charred body was found along with the charred bodies 
of his three companions in their car in the southern town of Sapouy on 
13 December 1998. At the time of his death he had been looking into how 
David Ouédraogo, the chauffeur of President Blaise Compaoré's brother 
François, died at the hands of presidential guard members after being 
arrested on suspicion of stealing from his employer.
Following street protests, President Compaoré created an Independent 
Commission of Enquiry (CEI) to look into the multiple murder of Zongo 
and his companions. A few months later, the commission named "six 
leading suspects."
Sgt. Marcel Kafando and two other presidential guard members were 
convicted in August 2000 of kidnapping Ouédraogo and torturing him to 
death. In February 2001, the public prosecutor went on to charge Kafando 
with murder and arson in connection Zongo's death. But despite the 
gravity of the charges, Kafando was allowed to continue living at his 
home in Ouagadougou all these years.
Investigating judge Wenceslas Ilboudo finally ruled on 19 July 2006 that 
the investigation against "Marcel Kafando and any other unidentified 
person" for the murder of Zongo should be abandoned on the grounds that 
a prosecution witness had withdrawn a statement he had made eight years 
before. The ruling was confirmed on appeal, meaning that no further 
attempt would be made to find out who murdered Zongo.
At that stage, the investigation could only be reopened if "new 
evidence" was produced. This is what Reporters Without Borders did on 20 
October 2006, when it gave the Burkina Faso state prosecutor a copy of 
the original draft of the CEI's report, before it was toned down on the 
insistence of two of the commission's members, who represented the 
government.
Passages about the contradictions in François Compaoré's statement and 
the attempts by businessman Oumarou Kanazoé to silence Zongo prior to 
his murder were completely eliminated from the final version of the 
report. The conclusions of the original report were also much more 
positive and detailed, and much more specific when identifying the "six 
leading suspects," all members of the presidential guard.
Reporters Without Borders defends imprisoned journalists and press 
freedom throughout the world. It has nine national sections (Austria, 
Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland). 
It has representatives in Bangkok, London, New York, Tokyo and 
Washington. And it has more than 120 correspondents worldwide.

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/mhsnaueyauql/rss2/

Dublin protest highlights Zimbabwe crisis

13/12/2008 - 15:17:51
Protestors have gathered in Dublin to highlight the humanitarian crisis 
in Zimbabwe.

"Friends of Zimbabwe in Ireland" were walking through the city centre to 
Government buildings to voice their concerns over the cholera epidemic 
in the country, which has killed almost 800 people so far.

The World Health Organisation estimates that up to 60,000 people could 
be hit by the disease unless immediate action is taken.

There are also concerns over the disappearance of a humanitarian worker 
in the country 10 days ago.

Jestina Mukoko was abducted outside her home in Harare on December 3.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200812160856.html

SW Radio Africa (London)
Zimbabwe: More Arrests And Injuries As NCA Lead Peaceful Protests
Alex Bell
16 December 2008
Members of pressure group the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) 
again became targets of riot police on Tuesday, after yet another 
violent crackdown on peaceful demonstrations across the country.
Scores of people had been expected to take to the streets on Tuesday for 
the fourth round of NCA led protests calling for a democratic Zimbabwe. 
The last three actions have been the sites of chaos, as police used 
force to break up the crowds of demonstrators, and two weeks ago more 
than 20 people were injured at the hands of the police.
Tuesday's planned demonstrations went ahead in central Harare, Mutare 
and Masvingo and predictably the crowds of demonstrators were once again 
dispersed by heavily armed riot police. According to a NCA statement 
released on Tuesday evening, the Harare demonstration had more than 500 
participants who were set upon by police armed with guns, teargas and 
batons. The NCA explained that police did not hesitate to fire shots at 
the NCA members, and "all hell broke loose as the heavily armed police 
unleashed terror on the demonstrators as well as members of the public."
More than 51 people were arrested and are currently in police custody at 
different stations in Harare, while more than 10 activists sustained 
serious injuries. At the same time NCA officials explained on Tuesday 
evening that eight people are confirmed to have been arrested in Mutare. 
Meanwhile, more than 300 demonstrators took to the streets in Masvingo, 
and successfully marched without any interference from police.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/12/13/brazil.violence/index.html?eref=rss_latest

December 13, 2008 -- Updated 0224 GMT (1024 HKT)

Protesters use 16,000 coconuts as symbols of violence
• Story Highlights
• Protesters line up coconuts on Brazil's Copacabana beach
• Rio de Paz says coconuts represent victims of urban violence, drug wars
• Protesters string up sign in sand that says "Shame" in four languages
• Earlier, group staged mock cemetery in beach sand representing missing 
people

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (CNN) -- Antiviolence protesters stretched out 
16,000 coconuts on Brazil's world-famous Copacabana beach Saturday, each 
one representing a victim of urban violence.

Protesters used dummies to represent victims of violence on Brazil's 
Copacabana beach this week.

Activists from ONG Rio de Paz led a protest march Saturday morning that 
included residents and tourists who usually can be found on the beach on 
weekends.
The protesters strung up a sign on the sand that said "Shame" in 
Spanish, Portuguese, English and French.
They finished with a minute of silence for the victims of violence.
Rio de Paz said the coconuts represent victims of violence, homicides, 
dead police officers and those who have been shot in gunfights between 
authorities and gangs of narcotics traffickers.
The figure itself was obtained from official information from the Rio de 
Janeiro governmental Institute of Public Security.
It was the second protest staged this week on Rio de Janeiro's 
Copacabana beach by the group Rio de Paz.
On Tuesday, the group created a mock cemetery in the sand with 
mannequins representing 9,000 people who Rio de Paz says have been slain 
and secretly buried since January 2007.
Don't Miss
• Brazil protesters say 9,000 have disappeared in 2 years
Rio de Paz President Antonio Carlos Costa said he believes that about 
6,000 of the missing people were killed, many by drug traffickers 
fighting for territory in Rio's slums and poor neighborhoods. Others, he 
said, were killed by hit squads and police acting on their own.
"In general, they are assassinated by police -- police acting outside of 
their regular work hours," Costa said Tuesday.
"They are also assassinated by narcotraffickers. The bodies are disposed 
of in secret cemeteries in the metropolitan Rio de Janeiro area or 
incinerated alive by narcotraffickers in what they call 'microwaves.' "
To illustrate the point, demonstrators also constructed facsimiles of 
the "microwaves" that narcotics traffickers and death squads reportedly 
use to cremate remains of those they have abducted.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-12/10/content_10481618.htm

At least 20 injured in clash with police in Peru

www.chinaview.cn 2008-12-10 09:51:16

LIMA, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- At least 20 people were injured Tuesday during 
a protest against the mayor of a northern Peruvian city, local media 
reported.
The injuries occurred when about 2,000 residents in Juanjui, San Martin 
province, staged a protest against Mayor Walter Hildebrandt, whom they 
accused of embezzling municipal funds and not doing "any public work" in 
the past two years.
About 200 protestors occupied the Municipal Palace before a clash with 
police. At least 20 people were injured in the encounter.
The protestors were still occupying the Municipal Palace while 
Hildebrandt took cover at a police station.
Cesar Villanueva, president of San Martin province, told local radio 
station Radio Programs del Peru that the residents overreacted when 
questioning the work of the municipal government.
He urged them to be calm and start a dialogue with the municipal 
government.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N15523741.htm

Bolivian police, protesters clash over used car ban
16 Dec 2008 00:51:20 GMT
Source: Reuters
LA PAZ, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets on 
Monday to break up a protest by Bolivians angry over a new government 
law banning the import of older used cars, killing at least one person.
The government of President Evo Morales issued a decree earlier this 
month prohibiting importers from bringing cars manufactured before 2004 
into the country, saying they posed an environmental and safety risk.
Some Bolivians who work in the car import industry blocked a key road on 
Monday in protest.
One protester was killed when a rubber bullet hit him on the neck, 
Bolivian daily La Razon reported on its website.
Deputy Interior Minister Marcos Farfan confirmed the death and said 
three policemen were injured while dispersing protesters blocking the 
road linking Bolivia's administrative capital La Paz with the central 
Oruro city.
Protest leader Jaime Rueda, speaking to local radio Erbol, warned more 
protests were possible because thousands of jobs are at risk.
Most vehicles in South America's poorest country are tattered cars 
imported from Asia via ports in neighboring Chile.
The government estimates that most of the 10,000 vehicles imported into 
Bolivia every month are at least 10 years old.
"We want the vehicles coming into Bolivia to ... be safe and not 
pollute," deputy Finance Minister Roberto Ugarte told the state-run 
television network.
Although recent polls indicate that leftist President Morales is highly 
popular, trade unions often turn to roadblocks and rallies to protest 
against government policies they think could threaten their livelihoods. 
(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

http://www.dominicantoday.com/dr/local/2008/12/29/30569/Dominicans-protest-presidential-pardons

29 December 2008, 7:56 AM
Text size: Smaller Bigger
Dominicans protest presidential pardons

The poster for Monday's demonstration "In black against impunity".
Santo Domingo.- Under the slogan “Dressed in black against impunity”, 
representatives of several youth organizations are holding a protest 
against the pardons issued by president Leonel Fernández and the Supreme 
Court’s ruling in the Sun Land case.
The event is planned for today, Monday 29th December at 4:00 p.m. in La 
Lira Park on Santo Domingo’s Lincoln Avenue, at the intersection with 
Lope de Vega Avenue, and participants will dress in black as a sign of 
“mourning”.
The organizers and their supporters, which include the Frente Amplio de 
Lucha Popular (Falpo), are calling on all citizens to turn out and 
reject the presidential pardon and the Supreme Court’s sentence, which 
declared the unconstitutionality recourse against the multi-million 
dollar loan contracted with Sun Land as “inadmissible”.
The organizers also include a group of young people “committed to the 
need for a country where the dignity of its inhabitants is respected”, 
according to the Falpo press release.
The president pardoned Vivian Lubrano de Castillo, convicted in the 
Baninter fraud case, transport union leaders Casimiro Antonio Marte 
Familia (Antonio Marte), Milcíades Amaro Guzmán and Gervasio de la Rosa, 
as well as former government official Pedro Antonio Franco Badía, 
convicted in the Plan Renove fraud case.

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2008/12/08/iran-students-protest-dictatorship-and-gender-apartheid/
Iran: Students Protest Dictatorship and Gender Apartheid

Monday, December 8th, 2008 @ 16:34 UTC
by Hamid Tehrani

Photo is from yaarinews.com

A group of students held a protest rally against the Iranian government 
and president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the University of Tehran on Sunday 
to commemorate Student Day, the anniversary of the murdering of three 
students of University of Tehran on December 6, 1953.
Daftare Tahkim Vahdat (means the Office of Consolidation of Unity), an 
important student association, had organised this demonstration to 
protest against censorship, gender apartheid and pressure on students. 
They chanted slogans such as “Down with the dictatorship” and clashed 
with security forces. You can see a collection of photos here.
Here is a video on the demonstration:
Salam Demokrat says that students who had been in jail or deprived of 
studying delivered speeches at the university. The blogger adds:
در ادامه سخنرانی ها دانشجوی منع تحصیل و زندانی آزاد شده، مهدیه گلرو، از 
دانشگاه علامه
در مورد جنبش زنان و خاطرات زندان خود سخن گفت و مورد تشویق و پشتیبانی 
فراوانی از دانشجویان قرار گرفت. بعد از خانم گلرو، دانشجویان کرد، بیانیه 
ی خود را خواندند. و دانشجویان سوسیالیست دانشگاه های ایران و دانشجویان 
سوسیالیست پلی تکنیک بیانیه های خود را توزیع کردند
Mahdieh Golro talked about the women's movement and her experience in 
prison. Students encourgaed her very warmly. After Golro, Kurdish 
students read their statement and socialist students distributed their 
tracks.
The blogger adds that the number of students was between 3000 to 4000.
See more photos here.
Posted by Hamid Tehrani
Print version

http://newsblaze.com/story/20081208064801zzzz.nb/topstory.html

December 08,2008
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'Thousands' at Iran Anti-President Protest
By The Media Line News Agency

Thousands of Iranian students staged a protest at Tehran University 
against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadi Nejad on Sunday, student 
sources say.

The protest was organized by the Office to Consolidate Unity, a 
pro-reform student group and was held amid tight security.

There are contradicting reports as to the number of participants in the 
demonstration with the pro-government Fars news agency claiming only 150 
protesters turned up.
Organizers said "thousands" of students poured in from other 
universities to participate, according to AFP.

The protest appears to indicate a growing dissatisfaction with the 
president's conduct.

Ahmadi Nejad was elected to office in August 2005. His term ends in 2009 
but he will be eligible to run again in the next presidential elections.

Students were protesting against Ahmadi Nejad's economic policies and 
called for an improvement of human rights in the country as well as 
greater academic freedom.

Students have traditionally been an active political force in Iran and 
the country's universities are a hotbed of political activism.

Parallel to the reported protest at Tehran University, students also 
gathered outside the Saudi embassy in Tehran on Sunday, expressing 
disapproval of the perceived normalization of ties between Saudi Arabia 
and Israel, Fars reported.

Students were demonstrating after Saudi King 'Abdallah Bin 'Abd Al-'Aziz 
participated in an interfaith meeting that was attended by Israeli 
President Shimon Peres in New York last month, the agency said.

Another student protest took place outside the Swiss embassy on Sunday 
to protest what demonstrators said was the world's silence on the 
suffering of the Palestinians and the "merciless" treatment of Gaza 
Strip residents.

Students have always been politically active in Iran and they were the 
drive behind the revolution, according to Dr. Mahmjoub Zweiri, an expert 
on Iran from the University of Jordan's Center for Strategic Studies.
"No doubt they're a strong presence in politics in Iran and they were 
also behind the reform movement in Iran in 1997," he told The Media Line.

Zweiri said he did not think students were strong enough to topple the 
president or his government but they could weaken him and the president 
would not be able to marginalize them entirely.
Ahmadi Nejad is facing pressure because of his economic policies and his 
hard-line rhetoric, which has affected Iran's image internationally, 
Zweiri said.

It is still unclear whether he will indeed run in the next presidential 
elections.

"Everything will depend on what the new American administration will do 
over the next six months," Zweiri said. "If the new administration tries 
to be involved in Iranian politics, Ahmadi Nejad's position will be 
strong. If the new administration avoids any intervention, I think he 
will face a real problem in his political career in the future."

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSDAH75316320081207

Group causes damage at Tehran University: report
Sun Dec 7, 2008 12:39pm EST
07 Dec 2008
TEHRAN (Reuters) - An "illegal splinter group" of an Iranian student 
body caused damage and clashed with security personnel during a 
gathering at Iran's largest university on Sunday, the official IRNA news 
agency reported.
Pictures obtained by Reuters showed hundreds of people gathered at 
Tehran University in the center of the Iranian capital, some of them 
carrying pro-democracy banners.
One photograph showed some demonstrators tearing down a metal gate at 
the university, one of the oldest campuses in Iran. IRNA called those 
who gathered a "limited group" and said they had attacked the 
university's western entrance gate.
Student protests have been relatively rare in recent years in Iran, 
which is embroiled in a nuclear row with the United States and is often 
criticized by Western rights groups for cracking down on dissent at home.
Liberal-minded students and academics have criticized President Mahmoud 
Ahmadinejad for clamping down on dissent on campuses. The president and 
his government say they support free speech and welcome constructive 
opposition. Ahmadinejad is expected to seek another four-year term in an 
election next June.
"We want democracy," said a placard carried by one protester on one of 
the photographs made available to Reuters. "Return expelled students and 
professors," said another.
IRNA said people gathering at the campus "must have confused Tehran 
University with a battlefield" and denounced their "savage moves and 
insulting slogans."
Referring to a prominent Iranian student movement, the state news agency 
said "an illegal splinter group associated to the Office of 
Consolidation of Unity tried to express their existence by inflicting 
damage to the university's property."
It did not give details about the damage at the university.
Students and activists say some of those who have spoken out against the 
conservative government have been detained or blacklisted from 
university courses.
Rights activists say other dissenting voices, including labor movement 
figures and women's rights campaigners, have also been targets of a 
government crackdown.
(Writing by Fredrik Dahl; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

http://en.yle.mobi/news/ns-yduu-109398

Iranians Protest at OSCE Meeting Venue
04.12.2008 18:26 (updated 05.12.2008 5:46)

Image: YLE

Members of The Iranian opposition held a protest in Helsinki on Thursday 
at the venue of the Ministerial Council meeting of the Organisation for 
Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Up to about 80 supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran 
(NCRI) took part in the demonstration on Thursday morning. Police say 
that the demonstration proceeded peacefully.

The aim of the demonstration was to draw the attention of the 
international community to the actions of the Iranian regime. The 
protesters said that the Iranian government supports terrorism and 
hard-line Muslim movements all over the Middle East.

Detention of Iranians at Airport Criticised

The demonstrators also criticised the detention of two Iranian men who 
arrived in Finland on Sunday, whom the Iranian government considers 
terrorists. The men were detained on the basis of an international 
arrest warrant. They were released on Wednesday, but ordered not to 
leave the country.

The two were in Finland to take part in NGO activities linked with the 
OSCE foreign ministers' meeting.

Finland has not received an official extradition request for the men. 
Minister of Justice Tuija Brax says that the Ministry of Justice will 
not deal with the matter until an official request is made. She also 
emphasised that Finland does not return people to countries where they 
would face the death penalty.

YLE

http://hotair.com/archives/2008/12/18/video-a-protest-where-it-counts/

Video: A protest where it counts
posted at 1:22 pm on December 18, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
The Left fell in love with a reporter who threw shoes at a man who 
couldn’t (and wouldn’t) take retribution against his protest. What about 
supporting a protester who actually put his neck on the line to “tell 
truth to power”? Two weeks ago, an Iranian student ripped Ali Larijani 
to his face at a speech and denounced Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:
No shoes were harmed in the filming of this incident, but the speaker 
may have been lucky to get out alive. As soon as he denounced Larijani 
as illegitimate, a cheer went up in the auditorium, but it quickly got 
drowned out as soon as the student directed his ire to Ahmadinejad. 
While the protester described the Iranian president as “nauseating”, 
some in the auditorium jumped to their feet and started chanting support 
slogans for Ahmadinejad — including “Death to hypocrites!”
Note the reaction of the rest of the students in this video, taken at 
Shiraz University on December 5th. They don’t seem happy to find 
themselves in the middle of this near-riot, although Larijani himself 
seems unmoved by either the criticism or the response. The student gets 
shouted off the stage, and no one seems interested in defending him.
Which took more guts — tossing shoes at President Bush in Iraq, or 
standing up to the mullahcracy in Iran?

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/12/414268.html

Imperial justice: cops bully London protestors
Ahmar Mustikhan, Freelance Journalist | 03.12.2008 17:52 | Analysis | 
Repression | Social Struggles | World
Protest marred the trial of Hyrbyair Marri and Faiz Baloch in London. 
The two have tried to organize the Baluch resistance against Pakistan 
military atrocities in Baluchistan, that includeds killing, rape, 
torture and disappearances.
By Ahmar Mustikhan

LONDON, U.K.: As the Baloch 'terrorism' trial resumed in London friends 
and supporters of the defendants, Hyrbyair Marri and Faiz Baluch, staged 
a protest outside the court, calling for the trial to be halted and the 
charges dropped.

Marri is a younger brother of Nawabzada Bala'ach Marri, member of the 
Baluchistan state assembly, who was assassinated by the Pakistan army on 
November 20 last year. Prior to Marri's death, one of the most popular 
politicians former governor and chief minister Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti 
was killed by the Pakistan army on August 26, 2006. The two were among 
tens of thousands of Baluch people killed in Baluchistan in their 
sporadic movements to drive out Pakistan's nuclear armed army from their 
territory.

Ghulam Hussain Baloch, an activist of the Baluch Human Rights Council -- 
one of the most potent voices of the Baluch Diaspora worldwide --, said 
the Baluch gathered at the Woolwich Crown Court premises to show 
solidarity with the under-trial.

"The court is at the southern most tip of London, but a sizable number 
did get there," Baloch said.

Baloch said the hearing was meant for selecting a jury and a verdict is 
expected in February.

Although the police and court officials were needlessly bullying, 
forcing the protesters to leave the court grounds, the supporters of the 
defendants made their point and were seen by court staff and by everyone 
who came to the court and who passed by it.

The Balochistan human rights crusaders Hyrbyair Marri and Faiz Baluch 
are being prosecuted on terrorism charges, which are widely believed to 
have been concocted by Pakistani intelligence.

Monday's protest was supported by Baloch and Sindhi rights campaigners 
from Pakistan and by members of CAMPACC, the UK Campaign Against 
Criminalising Communities, which opposes abuses of the anti-terro laws.

Mr Marri and Mr Baluch are represented in court by two of the UK's 
leading human rights barristers, Henry Blaxland QC and Dame Helena 
Kennedy QC.

Mr Marri is a former MP and government minister in the regional assembly 
of Balochistan - a previously independent state, which was invaded and 
annexed by Pakistan in 1948, and which has ever since been under illegal 
Pakistani military occupation. Mr Baluch is his campaign assistant.

"The Pakistan High Commissioner, speaking on behalf of the new 
democratic government of Pakistan, says his government wants 
reconciliation in Baluchistan and opposes the prosecution, effectively 
calling for the charges to be dropped," says human rights campaigner 
Peter Tatchell, who helped coordinate Monday's protest.

"Previously, the acting Interior Minister of Pakistan, Rehman Malik, 
announced that terror charges against Mr Marri in Pakistan have been 
cancelled; stating that the case against him had been politically 
motivated by the Musharraf dictatorship. This discredits the whole basis 
on which Marri and Baluch have been charged in London.

"The trial is another abuse of the anti-terror laws, whereby legitimate 
human rights campaigners end up on trial.

"It appears that the UK government has been blackmailed into arresting 
these men and harassing other Baloch exiles and refugees. It is reported 
that Pakistan's military and intelligence services have threatened to 
end all cooperation with the UK government in the "war on terror" unless 
critics of its war in Balochistan are silenced and jailed. That is 
probably why Marri and Baluch are on trial.

"The UK authorities seem to have decided these men are expendable for 
the sake of the 'greater good' of tackling terrorism by maintaining 
close relations with the Pakistani military and intelligence services.

"Marri and Baluch have campaigned for self-determination for Balochistan 
and helped expose Pakistan's annexation and oppression of the Baloch 
nation. They are defending their people against military oppression and 
economic exploitation. Pakistani military chiefs want them prosecuted 
because they have been such effective campaigners, exposing to the world 
Islamabad's tyranny in Balochistan.

"For nine years, the UK's Labour government aided and abetted the 
illegal dictatorship of Pervez Musharraf, selling him military equipment 
that was used to prosecute Pakistan's illegal war in Balochistan - a war 
that has involved the perpetration of war crimes and crimes against 
humanity and which has been strongly condemned by international human 
rights groups," said Mr Tatchell.

According to British news reports charges against Hyrbyair Marri and 
Faiz Baloch were primarily brought up as a trade-off beteen London and 
Islamabad to have Rashid Rauf arrested in Pakistan. Rauf was suspected 
of involvement in an aborted Transatlantic Aircraft Plot to blow up 
airplanes midair when they are flying from the Europe to U.S. Rauf was 
married to a relative of Maulana Masood Azhar, founder of the extremist 
Jaish-e-Mohammed or 'Army of Mohammed.'

Some planted Press reports said Rauf was allegedly killed in a U.S. 
attack in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas on November 22, 
but his family said he is alive. He had earlier mysteriously escaped 
from a Pakistani jail on December 14 last year, while handcuffed.

Rauf has dual nationality, Pakistani and British. "Some 800,000 strong, 
many with Kashmiri roots, the British Pakistani community is an 
attractive target for many reasons not the least the fact that second 
and third generation members have British passports and can thus travel 
more easily in the West," says Bruce Riedel, a senior fellow at 
Brookings Instituion and advisor to President-elect Barack Obama on 
Pakistan.

Photos of the London protests are available to view and download:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11288615@N00/?saved=1

[Freelance journalist Ahmar Mustikhan is founder of the DC-based 
American Friends of Baluchistan]
Ahmar Mustikhan, Freelance Journalist
e-mail: ahmar_reporter at yahoo.com

http://www.nowpublic.com/world/protest-against-uk-puppies-queens-hygiene

Protest Against UK: Puppies for Queen's Hygiene?
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by Ahmar Mustikhan | December 29, 2008 at 02:55 am
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QUETTA: Baluch students and youths protested in multiple cities and 
towns in Baluchistan and in Pakistan's commercial capital of Karachi 
Sunday against the terror trial of two Baluch activists Hyrbyair Marri 
and Faiz Baluch in London.

“Protests were held all over Baluchistan,” Majeed Baluch, a member of 
the Baloch Human Rights Council, said from Muscat, Oman—a Gulf nation 
with significant Baluch population. The Baloch Students Organization 
(Azad), organized the rallies.

Marri and Baluch were arrested after the British government reportedly 
made a secret, unspoken deal with Pakistan military generals to get 
Rashid Rauf, a Briton of Pakistani origin, extradited to the U.K., in 
return for charges against them.

Rauf, a relative of terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed leader Masood Azhar, 
was allegedly involved in a conspiracy to blow up Western airliners 
flying to the U.S. from Europe over the Atlantic.

Rauf mysteriously escaped from a jail in Islamabad last year.

Marri and Baloch had tried to organize the Baluch against the atrocities 
of the Pakistan army in Baluchistan. The Baluch accuse Pakistan army of 
Nazi-style brutalities against them in five military operations in the 
last six decades.

At the protest rally in Karachi Sunday, a girl protester Maheen Baloch 
said every nation has the right to freedom under the United Nations 
charter. “Why can't the Baluch enjoy the same rights?” she asked.

She deplored Baluch villages were being bombed by fighter jets supplied 
to the Pakistan army by Pentagon.

“The United Kingdom is a democratic country and talks about human 
rights, how has it put on trial two defenders of Baluch human rights,” 
she questioned in a live interview with the Sweden-based Baluchi Radio 
channel Gwank from the protest venue in front of the Karachi Press Club.

This is the first time in Baluch history girls and women have taken to 
streets of Pakistan. As many as 900 activists remain missing in 
Baluchistan and 600 are still languishing in Pakistani jails, according 
to Ghulam Mohammed Baloch, president of the Baluchistan National Movement.

In Iran too, Baluch face public hangings at the hands of the Islamic regime.

Baluchistan, named after the ethnic Baluch people in southwest Asia, is 
a Texas-sized stateless region divided among Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan.

Marris' brother Bala'ach Marri was allegedly killed by the Pakistan army 
in November last year in Sarlath area.

Twice-premier Benazir Bhutto had visited with his father Nawab Khair 
Bakhsh Marri to condole the death, inviting the ire of Pakistan military 
generals. Bhutto herself was killed on December 27 last year.

Samad Baloch, a leader of the B.H.R.C. in London, has accused the 
Pakistani military of using phosphorous bombs to bomb Baluch villages in 
the Marri and Bugti areas, strongholds of resistance against Pakistan 
military.

Recent Pakistani Press reports have suggested kidnapped Baluch women are 
being forced into sexual slavery. Pakistan military has routinely used 
rape and sodomy against the Baluch resistance.

In spring this year, Pakistani soldiers burned alive three Baluch 
tribesmen, loyal to resistance leader Nawabzada Brahamdagh Bugti, 
grandson of former governor and chief minister of Baluchistan, Nawab 
Akbar Khan Bugti.

Earlier on January 2, 2005 a woman doctor Shazia Khalid was raped in the 
Sui area in Baluchistan. Nawab Bugti, 80, rose up in arms against the 
rape and the aging leader along with nearly three dozen of his 
supporters were killed in army bombing in the Bhanbore area of 
Baluchistan in August 2006.

Former military coup leader-turned-president General Pervez Musharraf 
defended the rapist Captain Hammad and congratulated the Pakistani 
soldiers who killed Bugti.

The prosecution tried to link Marri and Baluch, both secular nationalist 
leaders with the Taliban movement, said Maheen Baloch.

The American Friends of Baluchistan described Marri and Baloch as foot 
soldiers in the war against religious extremism and bigotry promoted by 
Islamabad. It hoped the British authorities under Prime Minister Gordon 
Brown would come out of its Victorian age mindset.

“Those were the days when Victorian queens used Pomeranian puppies for 
hygiene as they could not take regular shower because of the extreme 
cold. This is an age when all secular forces should unite against Al 
Qaeda,” said Mohammed Ali Baloch, an A.F.B. leader.

Maheen Baluch regretted that the trial of Marri and Baloch showed the 
U.K. Government was colluding with Pakistan army in its human rights 
violations in Baluchistan. “Britain is not lagging behind Pakistan when 
it comes to Baluchistan,” she said.

International human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell Sunday deplored the 
politically motivated terror trial against Marri and Baloch in spite of 
lack of any real evidence.

The trial will expose high level collusion between the British 
government and the agents of the former Pakistani dictator, Pervez 
Musharraf, said Tatchell, who is a personal friend and political ally of 
the two defendants.

He stood bail for Baluch.

"These men were framed by the Musharraf regime, to silence their highly 
effective campaigning against Pakistani human rights abuses in 
Baluchistan," added Tatchell.

He accused the U.K. authorities of conduct unbecoming of a civilized 
European power.

"The British government was blackmailed into arresting them. Musharraf's 
agents issued an ultimatum to the U.K. authorities: arrest these men or 
we will halt all cooperation in the war on terror. The Labor government 
caved in to these demands from Musharraf's dictatorship. It decided 
these men were expendable for the so-called greater good of 
anti-terrorist cooperation with the Pakistani regime," said Tatchell.

Marri and Baluch are accused by London of preparing acts of terrorism 
abroad - charges they strenuously deny. Both men have been law-abiding 
citizens. They fled to Britain to escape persecution by the former 
military coup leader and tyrant, General Pervez Musharraf.

Marri is a former MP and government minister in the regional assembly of 
Baluchistan - an independent state, until 1948.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Human Rights Commission 
of Pakistan and the Asian Human Rights Commission have documented and 
condemned severe and widespread human rights abuses by the Pakistani 
armed forces in Baluchistan - abuses that amount to war crimes and 
crimes against humanity, including the indiscriminate bombing of 
civilian areas and the systemic use of torture. In one of the most 
gruesome recent abuses, human rights campaigners allege that Pakistani 
soldiers boiled to death four Baloch prisoners in April this year.

Marri's father is a renowned Baluch national leader, attended Queen 
Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953 as a guest of the British government, 
Tatchell said.

The elder Marri has stubbornly resisted any deal with Islamabad and has 
thrown the gauntlet at the Pakistan army twice in the last four decades

Marri and Baluch, were arrested by police in London last December. Marri 
spent four months in Belmarsh high security prison, and Baluch eight months.

"The police and security agencies in the UK have pursued these terror 
charges based on evidence provided to them by Musharraf's dictatorship - 
a dictatorship that the arrested men campaigned against," said Tatchell.

"Marri and Baluch have been set up by Musharraf's agents because of 
their highly effective exposure of Pakistan's war crimes and crimes 
against humanity in annexed Baluchistan," Tatchell said.

"Our government has ignored the fact that Musharraf's henchmen in the 
Pakistani intelligence agency, the ISI, are notorious for framing 
political opponents, especially Baluch nationalists.

"This belief has been reinforced by the acting Interior Minister of the 
new democratic government of Pakistan, Rehman Malik. He recently 
announced that terror charges against Marri in Pakistan have been 
dropped; stating that the case against him had been politically 
motivated. This discredits the whole basis on which Marri and Baluch 
have been charged in London.

"Marri and Baluch's arrest came just a few months after Musharraf 
demanded that the British government arrest Baluch activists in London. 
In exchange, Musharraf offered to hand over Rashid Rauf, implying that 
action against the Baluch activists was a precondition for surrendering 
Rauf to the U.K.

Rauf is wanted in this country in connection with the 2006 Islamic 
terror plot involving liquid explosives on trans-Atlantic airliners, 
which resulted in the conviction of three men in London in September. He 
is also sought in connection with a murder in the U.K.

"Prior to Marri's arrest, Musharraf's regime made repeated 
representations to the U.K. government that he was wanted on terrorism 
charges in Pakistan - charges that have now been dropped by the 
Pakistani authorities.

"Soon after Musharraf met Gordon Brown at Downing Street in January this 
year, he held a press conference for Pakistani journalists where he 
allegedly denounced Marri as a terrorist and praised the British 
government and police for cooperating with his regime.

"Claims of connivance are credible. For nine years, the U.K.'s Labor 
government supported Musharraf's dictatorship politically, economically 
and militarily, despite him having overthrown Pakistan's 
democratically-elected government in 1999. Labor sold him military 
equipment that his army uses to kill innocent Baluch people. The US 
supplies the F-16 fighter jets and Cobra attack helicopters that are 
used to bomb and strafe villages.

"Marri is an unlikely terrorist. He is a former Baluchistan MP 
(1997-2002), and was the Minster for Construction and Works in the 
provincial assembly in 1997-1998. He fled to Britain in 2000, fearing 
arrest, torture and possible assassination by Musharraf's men.

"The arrest of Marri -- together with the murder of one brother and the 
attempt to frame another brother [Mehran Baluch]-- looks like a 
systematic attempt to target his family and crush three leading voices 
of Baloch dissent.

"The Asian Human Rights Commission reports that Pakistani army raids 
have resulted in 3,000 Baluch people dead, 200,000 displaced and 4,000 
arrested. Thousands more have simply disappeared," said Tatchell.

Marri is represented by Henry Blaxland QC and Jim Nichol of TV Edwards 
Taylor Nichol solicitors (020 7272 8336) and Baluch is represented by 
Helena Kennedy QC and Gareth Peirce of Birnberg Peirce solicitors (020 
7911 0166).

Prominent civil liberties lawyer Sajida Malik is also on the defence 
panel for Baluch.

"A former British Protectorate, Baluchistan secured its independence in 
1947, alongside India and Pakistan, but was invaded and forcibly annexed 
by Pakistan in 1948. The Baluch people did not vote for incorporation. 
They were never given a choice. Ever since, Baluchistan has been under 
military occupation by Islamabad. Baloch demands for a referendum on 
self-rule have been rejected. Democratically elected Baloch leaders who 
have refused to kow-tow to Pakistan's subjugation have been arrested, 
jailed and murdered,” said Tatchell.

http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insightb/articles/eav120408a.shtml

CIVIL SOCIETY
KYRGYZSTAN: NATIONWIDE PROTESTS TO BEAR AN ISLAMIC STAMP
Arslan Mamatov 12/04/08
Print this article Email this article
As opposition parties around Kyrgyzstan gear up for promised 
demonstrations in mid-December, one new party is using religion to 
cement its appeal. Two prominent opposition leaders, Tursunbai Bakir 
uulu of Free Kyrgyzstan and Nurlan Motuev of the Kyrgyz Patriotic Party, 
recently announced their unification as the Kyrgyzstan Muslim Union and 
promised nationwide protests throughout the country in mid-December.
At a press conference announcing their party on November 25, Bakir uulu 
and Motuev described their support.
"We prayed with believers, then we talked with them outside the mosque. 
Over six days we visited three regions and met 80,000 people," Motuev 
said. Co-Chair Tursunbai Bakir uulu claimed that 95 to 98 percent of the 
people they met supported their plans.
The Kyrgyzstan Muslim Union plans to start protest rallies on December 
16 in Naryn and finish on December 24 in Bishkek, covering all seven of 
the country’s regional centers in eight days.
Corruption and the misuse of resources are at the center of the Muslim 
Union’s agenda. Referring to the presidency of Kurmanbek Bakiev, Motuev 
explained: "Corruption and other bad things flourish in this power. 
These are rejected by Islam and Sharia law."
The Muslim Union will demand an end to alleged corruption in the 
president’s family, food price stabilization, a decrease in the price of 
coal and electricity, and checks on how the president appoints 
officials. "If authorities do not follow our demands, we will demand the 
resignation of all government officials," said Bakir uulu.
Already the group has faced obstacles. The Kyrgyz constitution forbids 
political parties from organizing along religious lines. But the 
organization is making no attempt to hide their intentions. "We cannot 
be registered as a Muslim party and that’s why we have to register as a 
union," Motuev said. "But you should consider the Kyrgyzstan Muslim 
Union a party."
Tursunbai Bakir uulu is already a well-known politician. In his run for 
president in 2005, he positioned himself as the only true Muslim on the 
ballot, winning slightly less than four percent of the vote. He is also 
quick to point out his sober credentials.
"We represent a moderate Islam and are opposed to radicals," he told 
EurasiaNet.
"Before joining with another politician, I thought of all politicians 
and realized there was not a true Muslim among them," Bakir uulu said. 
"First, I met Nurlan Motuev praying in the Central Mosque. Then I saw 
him praying in the prison. In a difficult time, he didn’t leave Allah 
and his faith. So my choice was with him."
Some observers were surprised at the choice. Motuev is widely regarded 
as something of an oddball in Kyrgyz politics, known for outlandish 
accusations. He is infamous for illegally seizing a coalmine in 2005 and 
spending some time in prison a year later. [For details, see the Eurasia 
Insight archive]. This October he staged a protest against the presence 
of US troops at the Manas Airbase outside of Bishkek. He burned a US 
flag and effigy of President George W. Bush in front of a small crowd, 
claiming the Muslims of Kyrgyzstan would unite to push the US out of the 
country.
Observers say Bakir uulu needed a northerner to bolster support for the 
alliance and spread its appeal beyond his native South.
As Islam spreads in Kyrgyzstan, the union’s political blend may have a 
cadre of likely followers. "Allah will save our country," a teenager 
from the Chuy valley who gave his name as Nursultan said. The 
16-year-old prays five times a day in his village, where the majority of 
young people are unemployed, including his two older brothers.
Kadyr Malikov, an expert on Islam at the Kyrgyz-Russian Slavonic 
University in Bishkek, described the upswing in religious practice.
"The process of Islamization [in Kyrgyzstan] is very fast. Seventy 
percent of the population consider themselves Muslim. It is inevitable 
and natural that during a social-economical crisis, believers become 
politicized. Unfortunately, the ruling Soviet elite lacks flexibility . 
. . It relies heavily on control and repression," he said.
"We have been warning the Kyrgyz government about possible religious 
protests since 2005. We said that there were politicians who were ready 
to use religious slogans in political games. Now Tursunbai Bakir uulu 
and Nurlan Motuev are the first to legitimize Muslim political 
discourse," Malikov said.
The Kyrgyz Muslim Union emerges at a time of increased religious tension 
in the country’s South. In October, villagers in Osh region protested 
when authorities did not allow them to hold festivities marking the end 
of Ramadan. On November 28, 32 people were sentenced to between nine and 
20 years for participating in disorderly demonstrations. Authorities 
allege all are members of the banned Hizb-ut-Tahrir party.
Still, Kyrgyzstan’s official Muslim Spiritual Board does not believe 
that this is a major shift in the country’s religious dynamics.
"Our society is not ready for Muslim leadership," Asan Saipov, the 
Board’s press secretary, told EurasiaNet. The public organization 
regulates Muslim affairs, including mosque activities and organizing the 
yearly Hajj. "I am not sure that Tursunbai Bakir uulu is a person who 
can lead the Muslim community," Saipov continued. "Of course, some 
people who consider themselves Muslim may follow him. But they must know 
he wants only power."
But Bakir uulu remains resolute. "True Muslims will support us; that’s 
why we are full of optimism," he said.
Editor's Note: Arlsan Mamatov is the pseudonym for a Kyrgyz journalist.
Posted December 4, 2008 © Eurasianet

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/12/414272.html

Protest against ID cards on 10th December in Cardiff
No Borders South Wales | 03.12.2008 19:04 | Migration
On Wednesday 10th December the registration of non-EEA students and 
spouses for ID cards will begin in Cardiff. At 12 noon No Borders South 
Wales will be holding a protest outside the UK Border Agency at 31-33 
Newport Road where this registration will happen.

We invite all opponents of ID cards to join us.

This is a follow up to the last demonstration when ID cards came into 
force on the 25th November in the same place, which was part of a 
national day of action by No Borders.

All the info: http://noborderswales.wordpress.com/tag/id-cards/
No Borders South Wales

http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2008/12/03/Woman-protests-fine-with-pennies/UPI-29941228353818/

Woman protests fine with pennies
Published: Dec. 3, 2008 at 8:23 PM
Order reprints | Feedback
CHISELHURST, England, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- A Chiselhurst, England, woman said 
she paid a $160 parking fine in pennies after her parking pass fell off 
her windshield.
Maggie Gebbett, 63, said she received the penalty notice in May and 
wrote a letter of appeal to Bromley Council, explaining that she had 
purchased a parking pass but the hot weather had caused it to peel from 
her windshield, The Daily Telegraph reported Wednesday.
Gebbett said a solicitor acting as an adjudicator for the Parking and 
Traffic Appeals Service recommended the fine be canceled despite ruling 
that there had been a technical breach. However, she said the council 
refused to cancel the fine and told her it would be increased if it was 
not paid by Wednesday.
"I just think they have been extremely shabby about everything that has 
gone on," Gebbett said of the council as she rolled a wheelbarrow of 1 
and 2 cent coins to the council office. "I have been told I can't have 
my case reviewed if I pay, but I am going to try and insist on a review. 
I have written a letter to say I'm making the payment under protest."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7766825.stm

Friday, 5 December 2008

Ignore protest, Menezes jury told

The coroner said a verdict of unlawful killing would be not be justified
The coroner at the inquest into the death of Jean Charles de Menezes has 
told the jury to "ignore" a courtroom protest by family members.
On Thursday, several relatives walked out of the hearing wearing 
T-shirts criticising the coroner's decision to exclude a verdict of 
unlawful killing.
Sir Michael Wright said it was "wrong for anyone to try to put pressure 
on a jury and it should not have happened".
Mr de Menezes, 27, was shot in 2005 by police hunting a would-be bomber.
'Not justified'
The Menezes family staged their protest just before the 11-strong jury 
was sent out to begin its deliberations.
They wore T-shirts bearing the slogans "Unlawful killing verdict" and 
"Your legal right to decide".
On Tuesday, the coroner had told the jury at the Oval Cricket Ground in 
London that it would not be able to return an unlawful killing verdict.
Sir Michael said that, having heard all the evidence, such a verdict was 
"not justified".

Everyone relies on you to make your decisions only upon the evidence you 
have heard in court

Sir Michael Wright, coroner
Criticising the protest, he told jurors: "In any event, it is quite 
wrong for anyone to seek to put pressure on a jury and it should not 
have happened.
"To turn it upside down, to turn it on its head, just suppose the 
families of the police officers had come to court wearing T-shirts with 
particular messages seeking to influence you.
"You would readily understand that that was quite wrong and that you 
should ignore [it], and exactly the same applies here.
"I am very aware that these proceedings are stressful for a large number 
of people, and not just for the family of Mr de Menezes, but everyone 
relies on you to make your decisions only upon the evidence you have 
heard in court."
On Tuesday, Sir Michael said that his decision to restrict the choice of 
verdict did not mean mistakes had not made in the lead-up to Mr de 
Menezes' death.
But he added: "All interested persons agree that a verdict of unlawful 
killing could only be left to you if you could be sure that a specific 
officer had committed a very serious crime - murder or manslaughter."

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?Courtroom_T-shirt_protest_by_Menezes_family&in_article_id=432216&in_page_id=34

Courtroom T-shirt protest by Menezes family
Thursday, December 4, 2008

Vivian Figueiredo, Patricia da Silva and Alessandro Pereira staged the 
protest.
Relatives of Jean Charles de Menezes staged a courtroom protest today - 
just minutes before jurors were sent out to consider their verdicts.
The 27-year-old Brazilian's cousins stood up in front of the jury and 
unveiled T-shirts displaying the message: "Your legal right to decide - 
unlawful killing verdict."
Coroner Sir Michael Wright directed the jury earlier that they could 
return only a verdict of lawful killing or an open verdict.
Several of the 11 jurors looked on open-mouthed as Patricia da Silva, 
Alessandro Pereira and Vivian Figueiredo - stood up and unzipped their 
jackets, revealing the message.
It came after the de Menezes family legal team withdrew from the inquest.
Michael Mansfield QC, the barrister representing the Menezes family, and 
his junior, Henrietta Hill, were absent from court when the jury 
returned to hear the coroner complete his summing up.
Mr de Menezes, 27, was shot dead by police marksmen at Stockwell Tube 
station in south London on July 22 2005 after being mistaken for failed 
suicide bomber Hussain Osman.
Coroner Sir Michael Wright told the jurors: "You may notice that Mr 
Mansfield and Miss Hill and their instructing solicitors are no longer 
in their places.
"The evidence and legal submissions, of course, are now all over, and we 
have had all their assistance throughout those very important stages.
"I understand, however, that from this point they will no longer be here.
"There is absolutely no difficulty about that, no disrespect is meant by 
it to anyone, and I am sure that you will have been greatly assisted by 
their work over the course of this inquest. The other representation 
remains as before."
The coroner's ruling out of unlawful killing leaves the jury with a 
straight choice between lawful killing or an open verdict.

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/263503

Intergalactic alien mounts protest against privacy invasion by CCTV cameras
By Adriana Stuijt.
Published Dec 15, 2008 by ■ Adriana Stuijt

An irate UK citizen, sick and tired of the snooping by police CCTV 
cameras into his flat, asked an Intergalactic Alien to help mount a 
protest against this invasion of privacy. And it worked a treat.
Bournemouth resident James Sanger said he only realized exactly how much 
his privacy was being invaded after he saw the police cameras scanning 
and tracking him as he walked from the petrol station to his flat. "I 
then realized that they could see right into my flat and even watch 
everything I was doing. This was a gross invasion of my privacy."

He pointed out that his town was the first in the UK where the police 
installed CCTV cameras in 1986. And now there are some 4-million cameras 
countrywide, watching UK citizens constantly while they go about their 
ordinary, every-day activities. In fact a citizen strolling through 
central London 's shopping district runs a good chance of being recorded 
at least 300 cameras by CCTV cameras.

Sanger said in his case, he realised that this was clearly the way the 
police were actually profiling him for no apparent reason at all. He 
decided to 'hoist them with their own petard,' by devising an innovative 
citizen protest...

He created an Intergalactic Alien, 8 foot tall -- his buddy, with 
flippered feet, grotesque protuberances and slouching gait -- to stroll 
around the city centre at night and peer into the store-front cameras. 
His unique protest action certainly made the point - and even the 
evening TV-news. And the police were there in a flash...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/liverpool/article5280253.ece

December 3, 2008
Liverpool avoid FA punishment over support for campaign to free Michael 
Shields

(AFP PHOTO/ PAUL ELLIS)
Steven Gerrard was one of a number of players who wore T-shirts in 
support of Shields before the match against West Ham United
Times Online
The FA will not take formal action against Liverpool after its public 
display of support for the campaign to free Michael Shields, the fan 
serving a ten-year jail sentence for the attempted murder of a Bulgarian 
waiter in Istanbul in 2005.
The governing body wrote to the club for an explanation after players 
wore T-shirts with the slogan “Free Michael Now” before the televised 
match against West Ham United on Monday. Fans on the Kop also held up a 
mosaic calling for the release of Shields, 22.
"We have spoken to Liverpool Football Club today about this matter," an 
FA statement read. "We understand that Michael Shields' case is a very 
emotive issue and one that many Liverpool players and fans feel strongly 
about.
"Having heard the club's explanation we will not be taking any formal 
action, and we are satisfied that they understand the sensitivities 
around football matches being used as a platform for political messages."
Related Links
• Carragher upbeat despite draw
• Benitez backs Keane to regain form
• Benitez needs brave hearts to cope with pressure
Despite another man confessing to the attack, Shields was jailed but has 
since had his sentence was reduced to ten years on appeal. He was 
transferred to the UK to serve the remainder of his sentence, but his 
supporters have never halted their campaign to prove his innocence.
A judge at London's High Court decided last month that Shields' case 
should be heard in full by three judges and a judicial review hearing is 
due to begin tomorrow. Shields insists he did not commit the crime and 
still remains behind bars despite the best efforts of his family and 
various local politicians, who have campaigned for his release.
Earlier this year Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov refused to pardon 
Shields and Justice Secretary Jack Straw has said that he had no power 
either to pardon or grant Shields an early release. A Fifa spokesman 
confirmed the organisation had been liaising with the FA over the matter 
and said the decision to not discipline the club was down to the host 
authority.

http://www.nowpublic.com/world/canadians-rally-and-protest-coalition-deal-harper-address-public

Canadians Rally and Protest Coalition Deal, Harper to Address Public
Share:
by Rob Walker | December 3, 2008 at 01:42 pm

Deals have been inked today between the Canadian Liberal, NDP and Bloc 
Quebecois. The deals laid out procedures and divvies up cabinet 
positions evenly.
The major impact of the pact promises major economic action, including 
an immediate stimulus package.
"The chief (one) would be an immediate stimulus package, one that would 
be substantially larger than anything we've heard the Conservatives talk 
about," Comartin said.
Source: canada.com
With the political crisis heating up, Conservative leader and Prime 
Minister Stephen Harper will take to Canadian airwaves to talk about the 
opposition coalition.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper will address the country at 7 p.m. ET on 
Wednesday to talk about the political crisis that could topple his 
Conservative minority government.
Harper will take to the airwaves to rally support to prevent a 
Liberal-NDP coalition from taking power.
The coalition, which is backed by the Bloc Québécois, has asked for 
equal TV time to respond.
Source: cbc.ca

Already thousands of people have gotten together online and are working 
on having protests for a 'Rally for Canada'. The website 
rallyforcanada.ca is urging Canadians to protest the liberal-NDP-Block 
quebecois coalition pact.
The site urges people to turn out Saturday on Parliament Hill, Queen's 
Park, Halifax, Montreal, Kitchener, London, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, 
Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.
Matthias O'Brien, 19, one of the organizers, said the protests are part 
of an effort to save Canada's democracy.
Source: torontosun.com

NowPublic staffer Jordan wrote about the Canadian dollar slumping below 
80 cents US, and how this current crisis could be part of the cause.
Easy come, easy go... once riging high, the Canadian Dollar is once more 
losing ground. Maybe due to the cartoon-brawl into which our government 
has descended: a little tornado with fists flying in and out.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2008/12/08/2003430610

Pro, anti-Harper groups hold demonstrations
TAKING TO THE STREETS: A recent opinion poll showed that 56 percent of 
Canadians favored a return to the polls rather than for the opposition 
to rule through a coalition

AFP, OTTAWA
Monday, Dec 08, 2008, Page 7
Supporters and foes of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper 
demonstrated on Saturday in cities across Canada after a week of 
political crisis.
Harper on Thursday obtained an unprecedented shutdown of parliament, 
thwarting an opposition bid to unseat his ruling Conservatives and 
install a leftist coalition.

The coalition opposed to Harper groups the Liberals, New Democratic 
Party (NDP) and the separatist Bloc Quebecois.

They accused the Canadian prime minister of failing to shore up the 
Canadian economy, and were angered by a proposal — since withdrawn — to 
cut subsidies for political parties.

Harper attacked the opposition which had sought to bring a motion of 
no-confidence against the government today, saying the coalition was led 
by socialists and separatists.

Most Canadians backed Thursday’s move by Governor General Michaelle Jean 
to suspend parliament and avert the vote, an Ipsos poll found.

Some 56 percent of respondents said they would preferred to return to 
the polls rather than let the coalition take power.

The coalition hopes to topple the government when work resumes next month.

If Harper’s government collapses, it will be up to Jean to decide if she 
calls new general elections or gives the coalition a chance to govern.

The biggest demonstration on Saturday brought out 2,500 people in 
Calgary, Alberta.

In Toronto, about 2,000 people rallied with Liberal leader Stephane Dion 
and NDP chief Jack Layton.

“Harper took an economic crisis and added the parliamentary crisis, but 
he then tried to transform it into a national unity crisis — all of this 
because he cares more about his job than your jobs,” Dion said.

Layton added that Harper “by closing down parliament ... has silenced 
your voice. He has turned his back on the economy and on the people who 
are being thrown out of work.”

http://www.vancouversun.com/Police+carefully+patrol+protest+volatile+Montreal+neighbourhood/1073684/story.html

Police carefully patrol protest in volatile Montreal neighbourhood

By Michelle Lalonde, Canwest News ServiceDecember 13, 2008
MONTREAL — About 100 protesters held a symbolic dice tournament in a 
parking lot in Montreal North Saturday afternoon, near the spot where 
18-year-old Fredy Villanueva was killed by police after they allegedly 
intervened to enforce a bylaw against public gambling last August.
Despite a heavy police presence, including four officers on horseback 
hovering nearby and a police commander who waded through the crowd as 
protesters chanted anti-police slogans, the protest ended peacefully.
The event was in part a response to an announcement on Dec. 1 that no 
criminal charges would be laid against Jean-Loup Lapointe, the Montreal 
police constable who shot Villanueva. A public inquiry is to be held on 
the killing by Quebec Court Judge Robert Sansfacon.
Francois Ducanal, spokesperson for the Coalition against Police 
Repression and Abuse, which organized Saturday’s event, said the dice 
tournament was meant to highlight the group’s contention that police 
officers often use little-known bylaws to harass people they consider 
“undesirable”.
“They use bylaws that most people don’t even know exist as excuses to 
target people because of their skin colour, or because they are young, 
or poor,” Ducanal said.
As perplexed parents shepherded their kids through the crowded parking 
lot behind a hockey arena,
protesters tossed dice onto recently removed campaign posters of 
provincial politicians, including Premier Jean Charest and Parti 
Quebecois leader Pauline Marois.
Police spokeswoman Anie Lemieux said it was not unusual for Montreal 
police to send mounted officers to public demonstrations. She said the 
police had no intention of enforcing the bylaw against public gambling.
“We are not going to intervene in this game of dice because it is 
symbolic and it is part of a demonstration,” she said. “They have the 
right to demonstrate peacefully. If they start throwing things or 
jumping on people, then we are ready to intervene.”
Not far from the dice throwing, a poster bearing a photo of Villanueva 
was taped to a tree. Flowers and candles had been placed around the 
trunk, marking the spot where Villanueva, his brother and friends were 
allegedly playing dice when the conflict with police began.
Banners were draped on a nearby fence and across a mountain of snow, 
reading “On ne joue pas avec la vie” (You don’t play with lives) and 
“Justice pour Fredy”.
Ducanal said his group has three demands: that the inquiry to be held 
into Villanueva’s death be truly independent and impartial; that police 
end practices his group considers to be racial and social profiling; and 
that politicians work to solve the root social problems of poverty and 
discrimination in Montreal North.
The group plans to hold another protest Monday night at Montreal City 
Hall. Ducanal said an earlier attempt by members of his group to ask 
Mayor Gerald Tremblay questions about the issue during a public question 
period were stymied when the doors to city hall were chained shut.
Montreal Gazette
mlalonde at thegazette.canwest.com

http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuId=77&ContentID=113052

Protestors rally against internet censorship
13th December 2008, 13:00 WST

A crowd of several hundred gathered at Stirling Gardens in Perth today 
to rally against the Australian Government’s plans for mandatory 
censorship of the Internet.
Scott Ludlam Greens MP spoke at the rally, putting forward his queries 
about the proposal.
He questioned exactly what the Government’s plans were and said he 
wanted to know why they had announced changes to censorship with no 
further explanation.
Mr Ludlam said the rally was a great opportunity for people to air their 
concerns in a public domain rather than in an online environment.
“It was good for people with similar concerns to meet face to face,” he 
said.
He said the plan would not only slow internet connections but would be 
unlikley to catch the very people it sought to stop.
A Facebook page titled, Perth Australians against Internet Censorship, 
Say No to Mandatory Internet Filtering states that the Australian 
government was ‘quietly going ahead with plans to filter all 
Australian’s access to the internet in a manner similar to the People’s 
Republic of China an Iran.’
According to the group, the filter will significantly slow down the 
internet for all Australians, will not prevent distribution of illegal 
material and the filter represented ‘ a dangerous erosion of our freedom.’
Prior to the rally more than 600 people had indicated on the Facebook 
site that they intended to attend the rally.
Similar rallies took place in capaital cities around the nation

PERTH
LISA CALAUTTI

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24795948-2,00.html?from=public_rss

Digital Liberty Coalition protests against web filter held across Australia
By Andrew Ramadge, Technology Reporter
NEWS.com.au
December 13, 2008 07:00pm

Digital divide ... hundreds attended rallies across Australia today to 
oppose the Government's web filtering plan.
• Protests against web filtering scheme
• Held in capital cities across Australia
• Monthly rallies until March
HUNDREDS of people attended rallies in Australian capital cities 
yesterday to voice their opposition to the Rudd Government's planned 
internet filtering scheme.
The rallies, held in seven cities including Brisbane, Melbourne and 
Sydney, were the first in a series of demonstrations organised by 
anti-censorship group Digital Liberty Coalition (DLC).
In Sydney a crowd of up to 300 mostly young and tech-savvy protestors 
gathered at Town Hall to hear guest speakers including bloggers and 
musicians criticise the web filtering scheme.
IT worker Jon Seymour, who runs the blogs Broadbanned Revolution and 
Filtering Fallacies, said he was concerned the filter had the potential 
to be misused.
"Even if there's no realistic scenario where it's going to be abused 
now, it's certainly possible that future governments might choose to use 
(it) to start frustrating political opinion," he said.
"We have to resist this now, because once it's in place it will be very 
hard to dismantle."
UNSW computer science Dane Edwards said he attended the rally to voice 
concern over the effect the filter would have on people who were less 
technologically savvy.
"For people who are technically skilled, people who know how to use 
computers properly, this censorship is going to be pathetically easy to 
defeat," he said.
"(The fear is that) a lot of material that shouldn't be blocked will be."
Under the Government's current plan, all Australians will be served a 
"clean" internet feed with websites on a secret blacklist maintained by 
the communications watchdog blocked.
A secondary filter to block material inappropriate for children will 
also be introduced, however users will be able to opt-out of this system 
by lodging a request with their internet service provider.
Opponents to the plan are concerned the filter will slow internet 
connection speeds and accidentally prevent access to a large number of 
legitimate websites.
Studies cited by the Australian Communications and Media Authority this 
year found web filtering software blocked the wrong content in up to 25 
per cent of test cases.
Anti-censorship advocates are also concerned that the secret blacklist 
of websites to be blocked for all users could be misused or expanded for 
political reasons.
DLC Sydney rally coordinator Jerry Hutchinson said the low take-up of 
existing free web filtering software, introduced by the previous 
government, showed that parents were not interested in the concept.
"The Howard government spent a lot of money on that and people aren't 
downloading it," Mr Hutchinson said.
"Why? Because people can monitor their own children – they don't need 
censorship in their home."
A live trial of filtering software is scheduled to begin this month, 
with internet service providers Optus and iiNet taking part in the test.
Australia's biggest ISP Telstra has refused to take part, with chief 
operating officer Greg Winn calling the Government's plan a "pipe dream".
DLC plans to hold anti-filter demonstrations in capital cities once a 
month until March, when it will promote a national protest in Canberra 
called March in March.

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/queensland/hands-off-our-internet-say-freespeech-protesters/2008/12/13/1228585168416.html

Rally rejects Rudd's internet filter
Andrew Wight | December 13, 2008
Hundreds of free-speech advocates and internet aficionados turned out at 
Reddacliff Place in Brisbane's CBD today to protest the Rudd 
government's proposed mandatory internet filter.

-------------------------
GALLERY: Brisbane protest
-------------------------

With 937 people registering on the event's Facebook group, the 
tech-savvy crowd turned out in the summer heat to raise awareness of the 
problems that would arise from the proposed filter, which will block all 
websites found on a government "black-list."
Holding a sign labelled "hands off my LOLcat", education and IT worker 
James Croft, from Brisbane's south-side, was concerned about the 
curtailing of free speech such a filter would result in.
"The only other countries that have a mandatory filter are Iran, Burma, 
China, Saudi Arabia and North Kore.: Australia will be the first 
democracy to have one," he said.
"It's a slippery slope. Once you have the censorship in place, who will 
have control over what other sites are blocked?"
One of the speakers on the day, IT consultant Mike Fitzsimon, told the 
crowd how a website that had helped him through a grievous medical 
condition would probably be blocked by a mandatory filter.
"Ostomates.com is a site run by a woman in Perth, where people can 
discuss their medical problems and give each other support," Mr 
Fitzsimon said. "But on these forums, people also use language that 
could be misconstrued by the censors.
"Because we are describing anatomy, but using our own terms, this site 
could be placed on the black-list."
Mr Fitzsimon's said the government's figure of 0.08 per cent of all 
websites being blocked would actually mean three to eight per cent of 
legitimate websites would also be accidentally blocked.
"The government's (current) Netalert in-home system is the best solution 
to the problem (of child porn) because it is applied where its needed - 
in the family home," he said.
Digital Liberty Coalition Brisbane rally co-ordinator Jasmine Marosvary 
said the group hoped to raise awareness of the problems which would 
arise from the proposal.
"We feel a mandatory filter will infringe on our civil rights and there 
are other means available to protect children," she said.
"Helping parents supervise and educate their children about the dangers 
of the internet is another way.
"Digital Liberty Coalition has brought together many different concerned 
groups and we are holding rallies around the country.
"We're expecting all kinds of ages, from parents with kids and teenagers."
In the midst of all the commotion, a lone Byron Bay system administrator 
dressed as a robot was adamant that the filter represented censorship.
"All us robots have to stand up for free speech," he said.

http://www.examiner.com.au/news/national/national/general/cash-floods-in-for-anticensorship-protests/1379008.aspx

Cash floods in for anti-censorship protests
ASHER MOSES
5/12/2008 4:06:00 PM
Political activists GetUp have raised over $30,000 in less than a day to 
support their fight against the Government's plan to censor the 
internet, a response the group has described as "unprecedented".
The money will be put towards an advertising blitz designed to inform 
the public of the consequences of the plan, which experts say include 
slower internet speeds, significant false positives, failure to stop 
people from subverting the filters and the risk that the blacklist will 
be expanded to include the blocking of regular pornography, political 
views, gambling and pro-abortion sites.

Meanwhile, as the Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, continued to 
dodge questions regarding the scheme in Senate question time, it emerged 
that protesters are planning anti-filtering marches for Saturday 
December 13 in Australia's capital cities.
Almost 500 people have signed up on Facebook to attend the protest at 
Sydney's Town Hall, while more than 1000 will picket at Melbourne's 
State Library. Thousands more are listed as "maybe attending".
Live trials of the controversial internet filters, which will block 
"illegal" content for all Australian internet users and "inappropriate" 
adult content on an opt-in basis, are slated to begin by Christmas, 
despite harsh opposition from the Greens, Opposition, the internet 
industry, some child welfare advocates, consumers and online rights groups.
Even NSW Young Labor has abandoned the Government's filtering plans, 
passing a motion last week rejecting the mandatory scheme and calling on 
Senator Conroy to adopt a voluntary opt-in system.
Ed Coper, campaigns director at GetUp, said the response to the 
anti-censorship campaign had been "astronomical" and "quite unprecedented".
Almost 80,000 people have signed GetUp's petition and the organisation 
has created a widget that website owners can embed on their sites, which 
allows their visitors to sign the petition and obtain more information 
about the filtering plans.
Mr Coper said GetUp's advertising blitz would begin next week, with the 
number of ads determined by how much money is raised.
"We're thinking about putting it [the ad] on high profile news websites 
but also on the websites that are trafficked by the more engaged 
internet users - the technological websites that the regular internet 
users visit a lot," he said.
Despite having yet to prove the viability of its filtering plan, the 
Government will by the end of the year shut down the existing NetAlert 
scheme, which was set up by the previous government and provides free 
software filters to all Australian families.
These are different to the filters proposed by Senator Conroy, which are 
mandatory and block sites from the ISP end.
In 1999, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, then the Opposition 
communications spokesman, told Parliament that ISP filters were "largely 
ineffective", citing CSIRO research that found software filters were 
better because they were voluntary and the level of blocking could be 
customised by users.
Newer tests released by the Australian Communications and Media 
Authority in June found available ISP filters frequently let through 
content that should be blocked, incorrectly blocked harmless content and 
slowed down network speeds by up to 87 per cent.
Moreover, none of the filters will be capable of filtering non-web 
applications such as peer-to-peer file sharing programs. And the filters 
can easily be evaded by those set on accessing child pornography, using 
freely available tools.
During Senate question time this week, Senator Conroy refused to say how 
many customers an ISP would need to enlist for a trial to be credible or 
whether the results would be independently examined and verified.
He justified the closure of NetAlert by saying it was a "monumental 
failure of a policy" because the free voluntary filters had attracted 
"extraordinarily small usage".
Anti-filtering advocates have seized on those comments as a sign that 
there is little demand for internet filters in the first place.

http://www.croatiantimes.com/index.php?id=2070

08. 12. 08. - 12:00
Anti-government Facebook protests fizzle
Croatian Times
Anti-government protests organized on Facebook fizzled Friday when 
roughly 3,500 people turned out for a demonstration that organizers 
hoped would draw 60,000.

About 2,500 people gathered in the capital, Zagreb. Several hundred 
turned up in Croatia's second-largest city, Split, and a few hundred 
more in five other cities to protest government austerity measures.

"It's easier to click a mouse, in the safety of your home, than show up 
in public," said Jaksa Matovinovic, a spokesman for the group that 
organized the protest.

Still, the protests demonstrated that online social networks have began 
to have some political impact in this former Yugoslav republic, where 
only 2 in 5 households have access to the Internet

Younger generations are well-versed in the Internet, but gaffes by some 
politicians reflect Croatia's relative computer illiteracy.

Speaker of parliament Vladimir Seks called the social networking Web 
site "Facebok." Opposition lawmaker Mato Arlovic, spoke of "emajl" - 
enamel in Croatian - when he meant e-mail. And former Interior Minister 
Ivica Kirin called YouTube "Jubito" in a widely played clip posted on 
that site.

The Facebook group, called "Tighten your own belt, you gang of knaves," 
criticized Prime Minister Ivo Sanader's measures to fight a potential 
financial crisis, saying they would hurt the average Croat while 
politicians and the rich would be unscathed. It also blames the 
government for failing to fight crime and corruption.

"Only united we are becoming a force that no one can ignore," the 
group's leader, Josip Dell Olio, told the crowd in Zagreb.

Recent police questioning of two members of Facebook groups critical of 
the government signalled that politicians may not be prepared for a new, 
cyberspace opposition.

Irate Croat politicians still sometimes place calls over critical 
stories in traditional news media, and occasionally, stories are being 
pulled or changed as a consequence.

Although there are few formal restrictions, Croatia still has some ways 
to go in shedding its authoritarian past, first imposed by communism and 
then by the nationalist forces that ruled the ex-Yugoslav country in the 
1990's.

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/national/keddies-protest-takes-to-the-street/2008/12/11/1228585025698.html

Keddies protest takes to the street
Jennifer Cooke Legal Affairs Reporter | December 12, 2008
USING crocodiles to illustrate his deep unhappiness with his former law 
firm, Mohammed Tariq mounted a one-man sandwich board demonstration in 
the city yesterday, calling for an independent inquiry into the 
activities of Keddies Lawyers.
He wants the Legal Services Commissioner, Steve Mark, to withdraw 
himself from investigating multiple complaints about the firm, some of 
which were lodged more than a year ago, and to recommend to the 
Attorney-General, John Hatzistergos, that a retired judge take over.
Mr Tariq, a former court interpreter who has been unable to work since 
receiving brain, neck and back injuries in a car accident last year, 
says the Office of the Legal Services Commissioner, the legal regulator 
to which all complaints about NSW lawyers are referred, is "toothless" 
and incapable of investigating multiple complaints about the state's 
largest personal injury law firm.
In a letter he sent to the commission, Mr Tariq asked Mr Mark to remove 
himself from investigations into complaints that include excessive 
charging, not providing bills and not telling clients the total amount 
of their injury compensation.
A complaint by Xi Chen, who says her case was settled without her 
consent, was lodged more than two years ago.
In the interim, many complaints against Keddies have been dismissed, or 
the commission's file on the matter closed after complaints were 
withdrawn. Some of the withdrawals occurred after refunds were paid by 
Keddies.
Despite requests by the Herald this year, Keddies has not explained why 
$100,000 was refunded via two separate cheques to Gu Xi Liang, who has 
since made further complaints, including against his two barristers.
Mr Tariq, who remains incensed about his solicitors' bill, parts of 
which are plastered to the back of his sandwich board, believed that his 
only other avenue of complaint - the Law Society of NSW - was barred to 
him due to what he saw as a conflict of interest in Scott Roulstone, a 
Keddies partner, being a member of its executive.
However, a spokeswoman for the society said yesterday that Mr Roulstone, 
who remains a Law Society councillor, did not nominate or accept a 
nomination for the position of senior vice-president during council 
elections two weeks ago due to work commitments. She said any complaint 
against a councillor would only be dealt with by the commission.
A spokesman for the Bar Association declined to comment. Mr Mark did not 
return the Herald's call.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=6407567

Florence Mayor Chains Himself in Rome Protest
Florence mayor chains himself to pole in Rome to protest coverage of 
corruption probe
ROME December 6, 2008 (AP)
The Associated Press

The mayor of Florence says he has chained himself to a metal pole 
outside two publications in Rome to protest coverage of a corruption probe.
Images broadcast on Sky TG24 show Mayor Leonardo Domenici chaining 
himself to the pole outside the offices of Italian weekly L'Espresso and 
Rome daily La Repubblica. He is pressing his claim of innocence.
The Florence probe is looking into plans to develop an area of the city, 
including possible construction of a soccer stadium. News reports say 
two city commissioners are being investigated.
Domenici told reporters Saturday his governance has been above board.
Milan daily Corriere della Sera quoted Domenici as saying in an 
interview he is so disgusted he will leave politics in June when his 
second term expires.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2008/1230/1230581467509.html

December 30, 2008
Priest in child abuse protest urges bishop to step down
Fr Michael Mernagh at St Colman's Cathedral in Cobh yesterday. He is to 
walk to Dublin to show solidarity with victims of clerical sex abuse.
Photograph: Michael MacSweeney/Provision
OLIVIA KELLEHER
A PRIEST who is walking from Cork to Dublin to show solidarity with 
victims of clerical sex abuse has met Bishop John Magee of Cloyne diocese.
Bishop Magee has been severely criticised over recent weeks following a 
report on the mishandling of allegations relating to clerical sex abuse 
in his diocese.
Fr Michael Mernagh (70), who yesterday said he believed Bishop Magee 
should step down from his post, also maintained a three-day vigil 
outside St Colman's Cathedral in Cobh over Christmas in protest at the 
Cloyne revelations.
The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre has also added its voice to calls for 
Bishop Magee's resignation. Chief executive Ellen O'Malley-Dunlop said 
his handling of the abuse cases was "absolutely unforgiveable". She was 
not surprised he had not resigned, but "our culture has changed. We now 
have national guidelines for the protection and welfare of children, 
Children First, but he definitely did not put children first" and he 
should stand down.
Fr Mernagh said he had the meeting with Bishop Magee after a concerned 
member of the clergy came outside to talk to him on Christmas Eve and 
invited him in to speak to the bishop.
Fr Mernagh said he had had an informal chat with the bishop in which he 
outlined his concerns.
"I explained what I was about and my purpose in being there. I think he 
took that on board. I wasn't there to confront him. I said the reason I 
was doing it was because I had a responsibility as a priest to atone for 
what had happened and to be in solidarity with the victims of abuse in 
all dioceses, not just in Cloyne.
"I was straight out with it. I didn't feel uncomfortable. We talked a 
bit. It wasn't a long conversation as he was just off the altar. It was 
cordial."
Fr Mernagh said he told Bishop Magee that his walk wasn't just about 
Cloyne but the whole church. The Dublin-based Augustinian priest said he 
was treated with respect by the bishop and his secretary even though 
they were "under a lot of stress".
Meanwhile, Fr Jim Killeen, director of communications in the diocese of 
Cloyne, yesterday refused to comment on rumours that Bishop Magee may 
have travelled to Rome in recent days. Fr Killeen said no further 
statements would be issued on the Cloyne report. Sources however, have 
indicated that Dr Magee is still in Cobh and has no plans to travel.
Bishop Magee sought to defuse the child protection controversy through a 
special Christmas message in which he personally accepted 
responsibility. At Christmas Eve Mass in Cobh, Dr Magee said he took 
full responsibility for the "errors" made in relation to the management 
of child sexual abuse claims in the diocese. He gave a full assurance 
that such mistakes would not happen again.