A communique from the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) "Intergalactic Commission," Dec. 24 (our translation):
Compañer@s, Herman@s: In a few days more will be Dec. 30, 2006, the start of the "Encuentro de los Pueblos Zapatistas con los Pueblos del Mundo" (Meeting of the Zapatista Villages with the Peoples of the World), which will end Jan. 2, 2007.
The compañer@s of the support bases and the authorities of the autonomous municipalities and Good Government Committees (juntas de buen gobierno) of the Carcol of Oventic are very happy and animated, as are the compañer@s of the other caracoles preparing for the encuentro.
As of Dec. 24, we have counted compañer@s from 30 countries whose rpesence is confirmed. From the American continent, we have registered compas from Argentina, Brasil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Estados Unidos, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay and Venezuela. From Europe, brothers and sisters have arrived at Oventic from Germany, France, Belgium, Basque Country, Catalonia, Spain, Greece, Italy, Norway, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Sweden and Switzerland. And from Oceania, we have met compas from Australia and New Zealand.
We have also had communication from compañer@s who, while very animated, were unable to come this time, but say they are preparing to attend the next encuentro in July...
After registering by Internet, all attendees should check in at the offices of Enlace Zapatista in San Cristo'bal de las Casas, Chiapas, Ignacio Allende Street, number 22-A, Barrio de San Antonio, telephone: (967) 6781013...
For our compañer@s around the world who have access to the Internet, if all goes well, there will be information transmitted live and direct of all our activities. You can also read accounts,updates, and see photos on our page:
You can also write us, tell us what you are doing, what you think, or send word by e-mail:
intergalactico@ezln.org.mx
The Zapatistas invite you to speak with us and exchange ideas and experiences. For the first time in our history, we are bringing together representatives from our five Good Government Committees and our Rebel Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities (MAREZ) to speak publicly about our humble work and the problems and challenged we confront... We are only trying to show what we are building, with many difficulties, but also with many desires construct another world, one in which those that command, command obeying.
Very well, compañer@s, we will be seeing you the days of the encuentro. We are waiting for you.
Insurgent Lieutenant Colonel Moises
EZLN Intergalactic Commission
Source archived at Chiapas95
La Comisión Intergaláctica del EZLN invita a todos y a todas a los encuentros entre los pueblos Zapatistas y los pueblos del mundo en Oventik, Chiapas el 30 y 31 de diciembre del 2006 y el 1 y 2 de enero del 2007.
Anton Balasingham 1938 - December 14, 2006
Journalist who became the chief strategist and negotiator of the Tamil Tigers in their struggle for autonomy
Anton Balasingham provided the intellectual framework for the violence of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. He was the brains behind the brawn, someone the leadership could turn to for ideological guidance, philosophical justification and political explanation while the killing went on.
A forlorn-faced man, ill with a transplanted kidney, he travelled to devastated northern Sri Lanka in 2002 to act as the rebels’ negotiator in peace talks brokered by Norway. The Tigers vainly asked India to host the encounter so that Balasingham could be near a hospital in case of an emergency. Everybody feared that he would die before the best chance of peace in more than two decades could be seized.
The difficulty was how to get him to Sri Lanka without his being assassinated. So, accompanied by his Australian wife, Adele, he flew in from London to the Maldives and transferred to a privately chartered De Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter seaplane, which landed on a reservoir in a rebel-controlled area south of Kilinochechi. The Colombo Government had ordered the airspace above northeast Sri Lanka to be kept clear of all aircraft, and the seaplane maintained radio silence throughout its journey lest hostile forces picked up the signal, revealing its whereabouts and mission.
The First Secretary of the Norwegian Embassy in Colombo was aboard. Immediately after it landed a Sea Tiger craft moved in to provide security. On the shore, the plump figure of Velupillai Prabhakaran, leader of the Tigers, could be made out standing with his wife Mathivathany, and other Tigers leaders. They were awaiting “Bala Annai” and “Auntie”, as young Tigers cadres called the Balasinghams. A house had been constructed for their stay.
This elaborate journey was a measure of the importance the Tigers placed in the one man they could trust with their destiny in what looked like being a breakthrough in talks with the Sri Lankan Government of Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Everybody underestimated, however, the determination of hardcore Sinhalese organisations like the JVP and hardline Buddhist clergy to scuttle any deal that gave the Tamils even a hint of autonomy. The peace deal failed, and Balasingham had made a life-threatening journey with no more to show for it than the continuation of a shaky ceasefire.
Under his guidance the Tigers had entered several rounds of successful talks with the Government, all brokered by Norway, watched suspiciously from the sidelines by President Chandrika Kumaratunga. In the end she used her presidential powers to scupper the deal.
Her successor, President Mahinda Rajapakse, also rejected the concepts of a Tamil homeland and Tamil nationhood. The JVP, in a previous incarnation a fanatically violent organisation but by now the third biggest political party in the country, had threatened “undiplomatic” consequences if the peace deal went through. All of this, Balasingham said with uncharacteristic understatement, represented an obstacle.
In taking the Tigers to the brink of peace, Balasingham had steered the rebels away from their earlier demand for a fully fledged independent state called Eelam. What the Tamils wanted, he said, was “a homeland and self-determination”. If that demand were rejected and the “oppression” continued, there would be no option but to fight for full statehood. Those words signalled the collapse of peace hopes.
Balasingham, who gained a PhD from South Bank Polytechnic in London (his dissertation was on the psychology of Marxism), had been the Tigers’ theoretician since the early 1990s and clearly had the full confidence of Prabhakaran. He had a British passport and in 1999, much to the Sri Lanka Government’s anger, was allowed to settle in London with his wife, Adele Wilby, an Australian citizen and former nurse he had married in 1978. She lived with him for years in Jaffna, the Tamils’ heartland, and became a leader of the Tigers’ women’s section. Australia sought her arrest for violating a law that prohibits participation in foreign wars.
By the time he moved to London, Balasingham, known among activist Tamils simply as “Bala,” was seriously ill with kidney trouble. The Tigers released a large number of Sri Lankan Army prisoners as a goodwill gesture in return for the Colombo Government ensuring his safe passage abroad. The gesture failed, and so the Tigers took Balasingham aboard one of their ships to Thailand, and from there he travelled to Singapore and on to London. No one expected to see him back in Sri Lanka.
When he did return for the 2002 peace talks the reunion with Prabhakaran was emotional. His influence over Prabhakaran was embarrassingly obvious at a packed press conference in Sri Lanka during the 2002 peace process. Balasingham knew about journalists, having been one himself for a Colombo newspaper before working as a translator at the British High Commission.
He was doubtless responsible for the image makeover of the Tigers leader. Eschewing his customary military fatigues and sidearm Prabhakaran attended the press conference in a safari suit and had even shaved off his moustache. After almost every question he would lean towards Balasingham to be primed with the reply, and for the most part Balasingham would do the replying for him. Which led one commentator to ask: “So who is the real leader of the Tamil Tigers?”
Balasingham died of cancer. He is survived by his wife.
Anton Balasingham, chief strategist of the Tamil Tigers, was born in 1938. He died on December 14, 2006, aged 68.jpg)
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Abrogate the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) between US and Philippines to Serve Justice for Nicole
alliance_seattle@yahoo.com Press Release
Task Force Subic Rape
Dec. 4, 2006
It is with deep pride and humility that the Task Force Subic Rape and the “Justice for Nicole Justice for the Nation” campaign join Nicole, her family and relatives, supporters and the entire nation in welcoming the decision of Judge Benjamin Pozon of the Makati Trial Court.
We believe that the Subic rape case is a landmark case for being the first that has come to trial in our country against U.S. servicemen, and for its importance in challenging the implementation of the Anti-rape Law in the furtherance of women’s rights. The case of Nicole has brought to light not only the issue of violence against women but also just as important the nature of the Visiting Forces Agreement or VFA.
The victory of Nicole is a victory for all Filipino women. It is as well a victory for the nation. From hereon, the VFA cannot be used to defend abusive conduct and behavior of any military person, man or woman, who transgress the laws of the land. Yet, in the same breath, for as long as the VFA is intact with its one-sided privileges given to the US military personnel, every woman who is abused by US military, would have to fight as hard as Nicole.
There will be other times and many more occasions to continue the struggle against the VFA. We will persevere in this. Nicole has won, and justice has been achieved for the entire nation. We as a people have shown that we are indeed sovereign. We want to thank Judge Pozon for his courage and belief in justice. In his decision, the people can gather hope again that indeed our justice system is the bearer of truth, which cannot be swayed by threats or any other political pressures. Thank you, Judge Pozon.
Nicole is a model of Filipino womanhood: courageous, unflinching in her principles, and one who should be emulated by all women who remain silenced in their pains. Justice can only be served once we all break out from the fears that envelop us. Violence against women cannot and will not be tolerated.
Nicole will move on, even how difficult it may be. Her victory must be made complete to the end until legal proceedings reach finality. TFSR will see to it that the justice she has claimed will not be taken away from her. Justice must be meted out not only to the convicted but even to those acquitted who were party to the crime. We collectively and individually will see to it that this victory remains a lesson and a guiding path for all women victims of sexual abuse.
"three guys
who did not stop a rape,
who egged the rapist on,
who treated the victim with extreme prejudice
because of her race and gender
WALKED AWAY.
FREE.
CAN NEVER BE PROSECUTED AGAIN
…EVER.
and you call that Victory?"
The masses of Venezuelan people are enthusiastic about Hugo Chavez victory!
Chávez has won 62,89% of the votes and he has gained the majority in all states of the country, even in Rosales stronghold the state of Zulia.Photos:
Sean Bell Funeral
New Black Panther Party Demonstration
Counterpunch Weekend Edition
December 2 / 3, 2006
By KEEANGA-YAMAHTTA TAYLOR
Sean Bell was murdered and his two friends, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, were maimed by New York City cops minutes after the trio finished celebrating Bell's marriage the next day. The three were set up by undercover cops who were looking for trouble in a bar in Queens; they were trapped in their car desperately trying to leave the scene. New York's finest pumped fifty bullets in their direction-twenty-one shots hitting the car the three friends were in-invoking the ghost of Amadou Diallo.
The NYPD is already leaking and spreading lies to a willing press in hopes of shifting the blame onto three unarmed, innocent Black men-as per usual. So now we can read about the "sympathy shooting" explanation-likened to how when one person in a room laughs then everyone starts laughing: when one cop started shooting they all started shooting. The cops and the media are bending over backwards to troll through the histories of these men to bring up juvenile criminal records that were supposed to have been sealed. We are fed uncorroborated stories that Guzman bragged he had a gun. Predictably, in the smoking carnage of the aftermath of the NYPD execution of the three buddies no guns were found.
In many ways this case is just another example of the racist police terror that grips most of the inner cities in the United States. Police departments in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Dallas, and Philadelphia-to only name the most egregious-have spent the better part of the last two decades locked in corruption scandals from accusations of torture and racism; to drug dealing and murder for hire; to forced confessions and planting evidence, and battling lawsuits against charges of police brutality and police misconduct.
Racist police practice remains the main culprit for the disproportionate numbers of imprisoned African-American men and women in the nation's jails and prison. 58 percent of all convicted drug felony cases involve African-American men-even though Black men are only 6 percent of the national population and 72 percent of all illegal drug users are white. 12 percent of Black men aged 25 to 29 years old are imprisoned compared to 3 percent of Latinos and 1 percent of white men. In 2002, there were 603,000 Black men in college compared to 791,600 Black men in prison. Black women are two and a half times more likely than Latinas and four and a half times more likely than white women to be imprisoned. In total, 49 percent of the U.S.'s two million prisoners-in prison or in jail-are African American. This is a shocking statistic considering that Blacks are less than 13 percent of the entire United States population.
Legitimizing Racism
The legal lynching of Sean Bell certainly fits into the historical continuity of racist police violence directed at African Americans. But racism against Latino immigrants, Arabs and Muslims have also risen sharply. The cold, hard facts are that the political rancor in Washington amongst Democrats and Republicans about immigrants, so-called border security, homeland security, and the War on Terror in general has made racism permissible, tolerable and legitimate all in the name of "political debate".
The racist backlash against the nascent immigrant rights movement is not only embodied in the neo-fascist Minutemen Project, but has also found expression in a number of "state's rights" initiatives aimed at rehabilitating Jim Crow segregation for Latinos and relegating Latinos to second class citizenship. Since the mass marches of last spring, several local ordinances have passed in favor of English only laws, prohibiting the extension of social services to the undocumented, and essentially criminalizing the undocumented-and those who look like the undocumented-across the country. Local officials and anti-immigrant activists have taken their cue from Washington D.C., where politicians from both parties have blamed the presence of immigrants in this country for everything from unemployment, to low wages, to poor schools, and to placing an undo burden on the social safety net-a ludicrous charge considering the now two billion dollars a week the U.S. continues to plow into a losing effort in Iraq. Both Democrats and Republicans worked together to sanction the building of 700 mile long wall along the U.S. and Mexican border-including liberal darling Barack Obama who pitched in his vote for the wall as well. During a heated race for a Senate seat in Tennessee Democratic Congressman Harold Ford bragged, "I'm the only person on this stage who has ever voted for an anti-illegal-immigration bill" Congressman Tom Tancredo-an elected representative of the United States government-recently compared the 65 percent Latino city of Miami to a Third World country. He complained about Miami, "the sheer size and number of ethnic enclaves devoid of any English and dominated by foreign cultures is widespread. Frankly, many of these areas could have been located in another country. And until America gets serious about demanding assimilation, this problem will continue to spread."
It is not only the racist nature of the "debate" over undocumented immigrants that poisons the atmosphere, but it is also the shrill anti-Arab and anti-Muslim rhetoric that has been the political vogue since 9-11-with no end in sight. Since 9-11 and the racist roundups of thousands of Muslim men, it has been open season on Arabs and Muslims in American society. According to a Washington Post poll taken last March, a majority of Americans think that "Muslims are disproportionately prone to violence." The same poll found that one in four Americans has a negative view of Arabs. A USA Today poll in August found that almost 40 percent of Americans harbored some prejudice against Muslims and the same number favored Muslims having to carry national identification cards.
This anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racism has been sanctioned from the highest levels of government as the Bush administration and the Democrats who support its war efforts demonize and de-humanize the Arab "enemy" to justify both the U.S. and Israeli destruction of Arab country after Arab country. The unfathomable, genocidal deaths of 655,000 Iraqis since the war began in 2003 is only tolerable if the Iraqis are viewed as having less humanity and less worth than the rest of the world. Even as late into the war as 2005, there was a 30 percent increase in hate crimes perpetrated against Muslims. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) tracked 1,972 incidents against Muslims in 2005-the highest number since 1995 in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing. According to a study compiled by the University of Illinois, the wages of Muslim men in the United States have dropped by 10 percent since 9-11.
Racism and the State
Racism in American society is hardly new, but there is a new respectability for it that is sanctioned by the highest levels of government lending an air of authority and legitimacy to the attacks on Latinos and Arabs in our society. Racism has historically been used to divide, distract and rule American workers. Today is no different. Neither political party has solutions for the ongoing crisis that all workers lives are mired in-unattainable healthcare, rising taxes, low wages, raided pension funds, perpetual downsizing and layoffs and general insecurity spurred on by unending wars and an uncertain future. In the absence of a real political program, the powers that be have opted for scapegoating and repression.
The resurgence of racism is coupled with ever expanding police powers and the legitimization of a "by all means necessary" approach to law enforcement. From wiretapping to the purposely vague "enemy combatant" label the Bush administration is not only preparing for battles abroad but the inevitable conflicts at home. In other words, not only has the Patriot Act allowed the Bush Administration to follow and surveil perpetually suspect Muslim organization, but the same laws are used to monitor and harass peace and anti-war organizations. From Abu Grahib to Guantanamo to the South Side of Chicago, to East L.A., to the streets of Queens where Sean Bell was gunned down law enforcement has been allowed to roam unchecked by city halls, state houses and the federal government.
It is inevitable that this web of "respectable" racism directed at the undocumented, Latinos, Muslims and Arabs would eventually entangle African Americans. American racism is not like a water facet that can be turned on for some and turned off for others. It is a continuous stream that eventually gets everyone wet. In the 1990s in California, tens of thousands of African Americans voted for the racist Proposition 187---an ordinance aimed at stripping immigrants of their access to a wide range of social services. Blacks were told that the presence of Latino immigrants-documented and undocumented-were cutting into desperately needed resources for the Black community. Of course the passing of Prop 187 did not increase resources in the Black community it only helped to stoke general racial animosity so much so that a few years later Proposition 209-a California ban on affirmative action-passed resulting in thousands of Black students being locked out of universities across the state.
When Latinos buy into the stereotypes that Blacks do not work as hard as immigrants, it helps to preserve an atmosphere of finger pointing and scapegoating and divides Latinos against a necessary ally. When Blacks and Latinos accept the racist caricatures of Muslims and Arabs as terrorists it only helps justify government spending on "security" and law enforcement which in turn contributes to a "law and order" atmosphere allowing the police, the military and the border patrol to do "whatever it takes to keep us safe"-including harassing, detaining and sometimes killing Muslims, Latinos and Blacks. The American state has used the scapegoating and demonization of undocumented immigrants and Muslims to rehabilitate racial profiling after African American protest in the late 1990s largely discredited the practice.
Fighting Back
The attacks on these affected communities has not only created victims but has also produced resistance. The immigrant rights movement, which drew millions of documented and undocumented workers onto American streets in unprecedented numbers, is the most powerful example of this dynamic. The movement was largely born out of reaction to a proposed congressional bill which would have criminalized the mere presence of the undocumented in the United States while turning all Latinos into suspects.
But there have been smaller expressions of resistance showing that the pieces for a generalized movement against racism exist. Earlier this month when six imams were handcuffed and herded off of a U.S. Airways plane because some passengers complained the men made them "uncomfortable", supporters organized a pray-in at the airline's ticket counter at Reagan Airport in Washington, D.C. UCLA student, Mostafa Tabatabainejad, was handcuffed and tasered in the school library when he was profiled and asked to show identification and he refused. In response to this blatant act of racism and police brutality, two hundred students organized a protest against the police tactics and anti-Muslim racism. When management at Smithfield Foods fired 75 immigrant workers because they said the workers social security numbers did not match federal data, nearly 1,000 Latino workers walked off the job to audible shouts of "justicia" , "we want justice" and "no more abuse." Within two days management caved reinstating most of the fired workers and promising no reprisals for those who participated in the wildcat. Finally, in the aftermath of the murder of Sean Bell hundreds of Blacks took to the streets to demand justice and an end to police brutality in the Black community. This all just in the month of November.
The current debate and discussion amongst activists and in movement circles on how to achieve "Black-Brown" unity and collaboration are not simply abstract projections on "can't we all get along". These are desperately needed discussions on how to organize a movement based on the political principles of solidarity and "an injury to one is an injury to all." In fact that debate needs to be widened to include Muslims and Arabs and white workers who are rapidly being disabused of any false notions of privilege and power as their living standards have followed everyone else's down a bottomless sink hole.
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor writes regularly on issues of race and class for the International Socialist Review. She is author of Civil Rights and Civil Wrongs: Racism in America Today and Racism and the Criminal Injustice System.
Around 10pm on 28 November, 2006, a group of detainees started a riot in Wing B after a guard switched off the TV preventing them from watching a report about Harmondsworth, and it soon spread to all 4 wings. Some detainees have reportedly been beaten up, while others were kept locked in, with fires and smoke all over the place [reports and updates]. 'Specialist officers' from prisons across the south of England were brought in to help the prison and immigration services 'contain the situation'. Everything is 'under control' now, according to the Home Office. [John Reid Invokes Riechstag Fire Tactics For Detention Centre Fire]
Several calls have been made for the next few days to show solidarity with those struggling inside the detention centres. No Borders is calling for a solidarity protest outside the headquarters of Kalyx on London's Edgware Road this Friday, 1st December from 3.30pm to 5.30pm. Barbed Wire Britain is also calling for a demonstration at Harmondsworth and Colnbrook detention centres near Heathrow airport for this Sunday 3rd December from 12:00 noon. Another protest has also been called by London FRFI for Tuesday 5th December from 1pm outside London's Communications House immigration reporting centre.
Late on Tuesday night, detainees in Wing B of Harmondsworth were watching the 10.00pm news, where an ex-detainee was being interviewed about Anne Ower's report criticising the centre's management and poor conditions. Detainees say a guard switched off the TV, incensing the detainees and sparking major disruption throughout the centre, with doors being broken and fires lit, causing the sprinkler system to go off. Early reports said that many detainees were beaten up, others were locked up in their rooms in parts of the centre, while others were still rioting. It was very difficult to get correct information as detainees were prevented from reaching the phones. When No Borders activists managed to speak to some detainees, the latter were soon told by the security guards to “get off the phone”.
At around 2:30am, the situation was escalating, with a lot shouting and smashing going on. A detainee said wings B and C were the worst, with water everywhere in wing B after they smashed the plumbing system, while the alarm in wing C was no longer working. Detainees could not go out and the guards were nowhere to be seen, supposedly because they feared for their own safety. Police had been called but they hadn't gone in yet. the caller also said some detainees were injured.
At around 3am, many detainees were outside in the exercise yard, while those on the 3rd floor were locked in and could not get out. Smoke could be smelled and it was getting hot inside as they had no ventilation. The police and the fire brigade arrived just before 4am and said everything was “under control”. A Home Office spokesperson said a number of “specialist officers from prisons across the South of England” were deployed to “assist the Prison and Immigration Services by securing the perimeter” and that there was “absolutely no risk to the public.”
Around mid-day, communication with detainees was partly restored; the lines seemed to have being re-opened but most detainees were still not answering. A detainee in wing D said nobody was hurt in his wing but riot police were still there. Together with others, he was taken to the courtyard around midnight and spent the night there, in the cold and without any food or medication. They could not go back inside until 7 am. In wing A, a detainee said they were still all locked up in their rooms and the police were beating up people in the corridor. They had no water, no food and spent the night locked inside despite the fire and smoke. Just before noon, about 50 detainees were seen in the courtyard spelling out the words “HELP”, “SOS” and “FREEDOM” using their bed sheets.
Strangely enough, the riots this time received some attention from the mainstream media (although, of course, their reports were mostly watered downed). The BBC had a reporter on the ground and a helicopter hovering overhear, which was ordered away from the scene by the police at about 14.10 for “security reasons”. The police had their own helicopter in its place now. Later in the day, the events were the leading story on Sky News. Both channels had interviewed George Mwangi, who blamed fellow detainees for the 'disturbances'.
Harmondsworth Previous Protests and Background Info
The riots come a day after the chief inspector of prisons strongly criticised the centre's (mis)management, in what was described as the "poorest report ever" on any UK immigration removal centre. Earlier this year, many detainees in Harmondsworth and other detention centres, mainly in adjacent Colnbrook, went on hunger strike in protest at their inhumane treatment by security guards during the No Borders demonstration on 8 April, 2006. A few months before that, in January 2006, there was a big, organised protest by detainees following the death of Bereket Yohannes, a 26-year-old Eritrean who was found hanged in the showers of Harmondsworth. Those deemed by the management to have been the organisers of the peaceful protest were punished by being locked up in 'secure cells' and later transferred to other detention centres. In 2004, there were similar riots sparked by the death of an inmate, causing a temporary closure of the detention centre and the 'transfer' of detainees to other immigration prisons.
Run by Kaylix (former UK Detention Services owned by Sodexho), Harmondsworth is the UK's biggest detention centre. Situated near Heathrow airport in London (to make deportations easier), it opened in September 2001. The centre can hold up to 550 men, women and children. According to the latest Home Office figures, there were 470 detainees in Harmondsworth as of 30 September, 2006, 345 of whom were asylum seekers.
The total number of detainees incarcerated in all 10 detention centres was 2,010, of whom 1,455 were asylum seekers, i.e. detained solely under the Immigration Act powers (note the Home Office no longer include persons detained in prison in the statistics). A total of 7,390 people left detention in Q2 2006, a fall of 1% from Q1 2006 (7,490). Of the 4,360 (59% of the total) asylum detainees leaving detention, 2,610 (60%) were 'removed' from the UK, 1,465 (34%) were granted temporary admission/release and 280 (6%) were bailed.
Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre 'Not fit for Purpose' | Noborders Demo at Harmondsworth Detention Centre | Harmondsworth Detainees Protest after Death in Detention | Severe riot at Harmondsworth refugee removal centre (2004) | Hunger Strike in Colnbrook Detention Centre | Voices From Detention | Asylum Statistics: Q3 2006 | Continuing conflicts that create refugees | Why campaign against deportation
further Links: NoBorders groups in UK | National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns | Barbed-Wire Britain
detention centres: barbed-wire prisons
Muñoz’ work for Telesur has been most notable for his investigations into the problem of forced displacement in the Colombian civil war. Before working for Telesur he was a reporter and editor for several commercial newspapers and televisions shows. A short comment from him was just broadcast on Colombian television, in which he says, “I am neither a terrorist nor a rebel. I would have no time for such things, I have dedicated my life to the work of journalism.”
A protest outside the DAS offices in Bogota has been called for tomorrow at 11 a.m. We’ll keep watching and reporting on this brazen attack against freedom of the press in Colombia.
Article by By Dan Feder
Take action now - send a letter demanding that all charges be dropped against the anti-racist demonstrators falsely arrested by the LAPD.
After nearly two hours of peaceful protest, dozens of LAPD police in full riot gear instigated a wave of unprovoked violence on the progressive crowd. They pushed protestors, struck them with batons and wrestled several people to the ground while beating them brutally. Several ANSWER activists were brutalized and one was arrested because his friend was attempting to take photographs of riot police slamming a bystander against the back of a truck and hitting him with a baton. Top police brass later tried to justify their violence by saying protestors provoked the beatings by “crossing police lines" - an outright lie.
| Take action now! Click here to send a letter demanding that all charges be dropped against the anti-racist demonstrators falsely arrested by the LAPD. |
LAPD and Minutemen collaboration
The police arrested around six people without cause while the fascist Minutemen chanted “L-A-P-D,” cheering them on. It was a naked display of police and fascist collaboration. The outraged anti-immigrant crowd stood their ground and defended their demonstration while chanting “Cops and the Klan go hand in hand!” Carlos Alvarez, an organizer with the ANSWER Coalition, then gave an impassioned speech to denounce the LAPD's brutality and defend the rights of the protestors to demonstrate against the Minutemen.
Hundreds of cops escorted around 150 Minutemen down Hollywood Boulevard in their racist march, which was followed by progressive pro-immigrant rights demonstrators. Despite the efforts of the LAPD to impede the several hundred progressive demonstrators, including another wave of police violence, protestors outlasted the Minutemen and held a brief victory rally before marching to the ANSWER office less than one block away. Activists felt a sense of accomplishment and struggle after fending off police violence and maintaining an organized, successful action against the Minutemen.
| Support! |
Organizing to fight back
The ANSWER Coalition has vowed to respond swiftly to this vicious police attack. Along with its partners in the National Lawyers Guild and Latino Movement USA, ANSWER will host a press conference on Tuesday, July 12 (see below). Featured speakers will include immigrant rights organizers, ANSWER organizers and lawyers, victims of police brutality at the protest and others. There will be video footage shown that depicts the outrageous brutality of the cops that day. ANSWER and the NLG are vigorously defending the rights of the anti-racist protestors and plan to file a civil suit against the LAPD and the city - helmed by pro-police mayor Antonio Villaraigosa - because of this flagrant assault on people’s civil rights.
Muna Coobtee, member of the ANSWER steering committee in Los Angeles said: “This unprovoked, terrible assault on a peaceful protest violates our civil rights and is aimed at the heart of the immigrant rights movement. The police came to this demonstration today, in an alliance with ultra-right-wing elements, to try to beat back the struggle for equality. We can’t look at this incident in isolation from the overall political climate. We know that it is related to the racist raids launched by the federal government targeting undocumented workers. It is related to the bigotry being whipped-up by the immigration hearings happening all over the United States . Because these connections are clear, we can be clear in saying that these intimidation tactics won’t workthey will backfire. The immigrant workers’ movement will remain stronger and more united than ever before.”
The independent people’s movement will not tolerate the LAPD’s criminal behavior. Police repression and the Minutemen are part of the right-wing's ploy to defeat the just struggle of immigrants for amnesty and full legalization. All charges leveled at any anti-racist protestor must be dropped immediately. The LAPD and the city must be held accountable.
This (symbolic, but at least to some scale) concrete success in the local political scenery was followed by the decision fo the refugees in deportation camp Bramsche to go on strike themselves. Bramsche formally belongs to the ZAAB Blankenburg, in both camps accordingly to the authorities approx. 500 refugees live at the moment. After last weeks token strike there is now no time limit for the boycot of the cantine. This leads to the fact that the strikes in Blankenburg and Bramsche are fights against the Camp politics (of Lower Saxony) in general. The refugees in Bramsche have declared the same demands as the inhabitants of Camp Blankenburg. As the living conditions in both camps are quite similar and both institutions officially belong together the refugees in Bramsche also want to get involved in the round table talks that are going to take place in Oldenburg. Furthermore the refugees demand the closure of the cantine and the possibility to cook for themselves instead. The camp-school has to be closed and the children of the camp should go to regular schools. Last but not least the medical treatment should be appropriate, and doctors should be freely chosen.
For the strike in Bramsche money is urgently needed. Donations to AK Dritte Welt e.V., Konto-Nr. 015 131 337, BLZ 280 501 00, LZO, Verwendungszweck: Aktionstage
We don't accept racism, exclusion, and inequality!
We demand a Complete clarification!
following organisations are calling for the demonstration: Dortmunder Arbeitskreis Flüchtlinge, Initiative gegen
Rassismus und Ausgrenzung Dortmund, Internationales Aktionbündnis Bochum/Ruhrgebiet, KARAWANE für die Rechte der Flüchtlinge und MigrantInnen Wuppertal/ NRW, Sozialforum Dortmund, AGIF - Föderation der ArbeitsmigrantInnen aus der Türkei in Deutschland.
Lea Ud. el Artículo en Español
November 13, 2006
Today, Monday, November 13, presumed paramilitaries committed a massacre in the Montes Azules jungle region of Chiapas, killing nine indigenous women and men and two children.
The assassinated, according to a hand-written document received by Narco News from inside Zapatista civilian communities in the region, are:
The details of the massacre, in a very isolated area, far from urban and media centers, are still sketchy, but the warning signs that violence on this scale was brewing in the region have been known by state and federal officials all along. They were specifically warned by human rights organizations last July and August, but in lieu of taking positive action, their police and other agencies merely aggravated the problems since then.
The dead lived and worked in the Ejido Dr. Manuel Velasco Suarez II, known as Viejo Velasco Suárez, a farming community established in 1984 through an agreement with the Mexican government. They and their previous generations had lived in other parts of the Lacandon Jungle that, in 1972, had been declared a “nature preserve.” Then, as now, the ecological imprimatur turned out to have more to do with looting Mother Nature than protecting her: the creation of the Montes Azules biosphere served to grant the Mexican government monopoly control over exploitation of hardwoods and other natural resources. As part of the environmental show and simulation, 66 families of the Lacandon indigenous group – a population that today numbers in the hundreds, descendants of Maya peoples of the Yucatan Peninsula that had emigrated to Chiapas centuries ago – were declared sole stewards of more than 600,000 hectares of rainforest, but on the condition that they cede economic rights to the government over the land.
Since then, members of other Maya indigenous peoples – primarily Tzeltal and Chol – have lived under siege by the government, its police agencies, its Armed Forces, the Lacandones, and other communities of Tzeltales (from the town of Nueva Palestina) and Choles (from the town of Frontera Corrazal) that had allied with and benefited from the deal. The remaining indigenous communities in the region found themselves under permanent attack since then. Conflicts in the zone led to the 1984 agreement that created Viejo Velasco Suarez and other communally farmed communities, protected, supposedly, by law: Flor de Cacao, Nuevo Tila, Ojo de Agua and San Jacinto Lacanja, all in the same region as the world-renowned ancient Maya temples and ruins at Yaxchilán, near the gigantic Usamacinta River that is Mexico’s border with much of Guatemala.
The eleven deaths in today’s massacre come – as massacres often do – at a time when the Mexican federal government has returned to the bad old days of large scale repression (in Atenco last May, and in Oaxaca at present). At times like this, paramilitaries and police agencies are emboldened by the signals sent from the top, and increase their historic aggressions against those – especially indigenous – communities perceived as being in the way of economic interests.
The federal government of Vicente Fox and his Interior Minister Carlos Abascal (“the Butcher of Oaxaca”) was warned as recently as this year about the time bomb of violence threatening Viejo Velasco Suarez and the other communities in the Montes Azules regions.
On July 19 of this year, the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center issued an alert titled “Threats of Eviction and Harrassment Against Indigenous Peoples in the Lacandon Jungle.” Known as “the Frayba Center,” this organization was founded by former Catholic Bishop Samuel Ruíz and is respected throughout the world as thorough and honest in its work.
The human rights organization alerted that it had received reports that:
“…on Saturday, July 14, the (state of Chiapas) Public Security police installed itself near the community of Ojo de Agua in El Progreso, threatening to violently evict the families of that community, families that are defending their right to the land as indigenous peoples… We who live in San Jacinto Lacanja, Flor de Cacao and Viejo Velasco are also threatened with eviction.”
The Frayba Center stated in its July 19 alert:
“In the opinion of Frayba this is an historic problem with a series of irregularities and clumsiness by institutions and functionaries that disregard previous agreements, manipulate parties to the conflict generating more problems, threaten violent eviction to force the communities and organizations to ‘sit down and negotiate” or don’t understand the commitments assumed during negotiations with the communities in dispute.”
The Frayba Center demanded that government authorities take measures to “guarantee the personal security and integrity of the families” of the four threatened indigenous communities, that they respect the 1984 agreement and others that granted them their lands, and that international treaties guaranteeing such protections for indigenous peoples be respected.
A few weeks later, representatives of that organization, together with a delegation of North Americans from Global Exchange, as well as the NGOs Maderas del Pueblo (“Hardwoods of the People”) and Xi’ Nich, went on a fact-finding mission to the afflicted communities. Global Exchange issued a detailed seven page report, which explains much of the background history of the conflict and, also, interestingly, the difficulties and obstacles presented to their attempts to visit the communities.
The report concluded:
“While the exact reasons for the exclusion of these four communities from the land legalization process are unclear, geographical and political factors offer an important clue. Three of the communities—Flor de Cacao, San Jacinto Lacanja, Ojo de Agua el Progreso—are located in a terrain where there are still precious woods that the Lacandon community wants to exploit, according to Miguel Angel García from Maderas del Pueblo. They are also on the banks of the Usumacinta River, one of the most important sources of pristine drinking water in the region. “Plan Puebla-Panama,” the government’s proposal for economic “modernization” for the country, also contemplates the construction of hydroelectric dams on the Usumacinta. Additionally, many of the individuals who testified believe the reason that the Lacandon community and comuneros want the land for themselves is so they can develop it for tourism purposes, as the archaeological site of Yaxchilan is located nearby, and the Lacandon community engages heavily in the tourism business. The fourth community, Viejo Velasco, because of its affiliations with the EZLN, also is likely perceived by the Mexican government to be an impediment to the maximization of profit. Indeed, shortly after our visit to El Desempeño, government officials violently evicted the EZLN civilian support base community Chol de Tumbala that was similarly in the process of securing their land claims. Federal, state, and local government officials should take immediate steps to guarantee the integrity and safety of Ojo de Agua El Progreso, Flor de Cacao, San Jacinto Lacanja, and Viejo Velasco. These communities are entitled—under both the covenant of 1984 and the agreements reached at the Limonar roundtable—to land security. The local, state, and federal government should immediately take action to stop the threatened illegal evictions and restore the families who have fled to their lands, if those families wish. Fairness and justice demand nothing less.”
The international human rights organization sent its findings to Mexican president Vicente Fox, his Interior Minister Carlos Abascal, to Chiapas Governor Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía and various bureaucrats under each of them.
Instead of taking action to correct the wrongs, the state and federal governments set in motion the events – and gave signals that would be received as impunity by the opponents of these communities that have violently threatened them – that brought about, today, the massacre of eleven indigenous civilians.
According to a hand-written chronology of the events since then, received today by Narco News, authored by members of the afflicted communities, the aggressions against them increased after the Fox and Salazar governments were informed:
And in another handwritten document sent to Narco News, dated Saturday, November 11, community members explain that the comuneros from Nueva Palestina shut off their water supply, leading the community of Viejo Velasco Suarez to turn the water back on and expel eleven of the occupying comuneros from their community. The document contains the names and signatures of the 11 men expelled.
It says:
“We ask the Palestinas, the state and federal governments, to respect this agreement to cease the violence in both parts of our community. We hold the government responsible for anything that happens…“On Wednesday, November 1, 2006, the Palestinas began to close the tap for piped water through today, Saturday, November 11 of this year. That is why the original groups of this community take the following action… we totally disassociate ourselves from the Palestina groups and we don’t want them to keep harassing us in this community of Viejo Velasco, where each one of them signs his agreement to leave and to never return so as not to cause more problems with the original residents.”
According to an email just received from the families of the dead:
“The aggressors have been residents of the community of Nueva Palestina, and in common with the sad occurrences of the Acteal Massacre (of December 22, 1997, also in Chiapas) the families of the victims confirm that there are now various police roadblocks put up around them.”
According to a communiqué tonight from Maderas del Pueblo, the attackers were from Nueva Palestina, and they came at dawn: “four subcomuneros from the aggressor group who came to the community strongly armed with intentions of violently evicting the families that lived there.”
Two days later, today, six women, three men, and two children from this afflicted community are dead. At press time, various human rights organizations and the Good Government Council in Roberto Barrios of the civilian bases of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN, in its Spanish initials), as well as the Other Journalism with the Other Campaign, are investigating the details of another massacre forewarned.
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