Signalfire

YANGON — Fears that the deaths of two young men shot in a quarrel with troops could spark unrest prompted Myanmar state media to insist Friday that the incident was “not a fight” between the army and the public.

As authorities try to avoid anti-government feeling ahead of the country’s first elections in two decades, the New Light of Myanmar said the violence that killed Soe Paing Zaw, 19, and Aung Thu Hein, 23, was “just a drunken brawl”.

The paper claimed there was a “plot” to use the incident to provoke riots in the country, adding people wanted to help the state “wipe out such elements provoking mass protests for political gains”.

“The government is now gearing up hand in hand with the people… (to take) action against those elements deceiving the people into taking to the streets with the intention of destroying State stability and peace,” it said.

Soe Paing Zaw and Aung Thu Hein, who were shot dead on Saturday night in Bago, north of Yangon, were hurriedly cremated in the town on Tuesday afternoon amid tight security, according to witnesses.

A memorial service at their homes in the town on Saturday is also expected to be heavily guarded as the junta tries to avoid unrest ahead of the November 7 vote — although there have not been any reported protests so far.

An unnamed Myanmar security officer said authorities would keep tight control over the situation as they “do not want any unrest ahead of the election”.

The pair were killed after a taxi they were travelling in with five others was hit by a motorcycle carrying two army officers, who had been drinking beer nearby.

According to the report, one officer ran away from the fight and came back with four security troops from Bago Railway Station, one of whom fired the fatal shots.

“In reality, it was just a drunken brawl in the street between some young soldiers and some young civilians, not a fight between the Tatmadaw and the public,” the paper said, using the term for Myanmar’s feared military.

“Such cases take place sometimes,” it added.

The report said that a lawsuit had been filed against the servicemen involved and stressed a “fine tradition” of punitive action being taken against offending soldiers.

It did not mention how many people would face the lawsuit, but soldiers who are to be prosecuted are thought likely to be dismissed from the army before facing criminal proceedings.

“Officers concerned called at the houses of the two victims to beg the pardon of their parents,” the paper said.

Myanmar, which has been ruled by the military since 1962, has seen sporadic eruptions of civil unrest over the years, but most have ended in a bloody victory for the junta.

The country has banned civilians from holding any weapons and strictly controls press and other freedoms to maintain an iron grip on power.

Upcoming elections — the first since democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi was denied power after her party’s landslide victory in the 1990 polls — have been criticised as a sham aimed at putting a civilian face on military rule.

2010.09.08

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck was heckled Wednesday night as he addressed an angry crowd that had gathered at a Westlake school for a community meeting in the aftermath of a deadly police shooting.

The crowd shouted: “Boo!” “Killers!” and “Assassins!” as Beck took the microphone at John H. Liechty Middle School.

“I hope we came here to have a discussion,” Beck said. “Please, let’s respect each other.”

Beck had to step away from the microphone as the heckling continued.

The meeting was conducted in Spanish and English in the heavily immigrant neighborhood, where officials were hoping to ease tensions after two days of violent protest following the shooting Sunday afternoon of Manuel Jamines, 37.

The LAPD said Jamines, a Guatemalan immigrant who worked as a day laborer, threatened passersby and three police officers with a knife and refused repeated commands in Spanish and English to drop the weapon. He was fatally shot by one of the officers near 6th Street and Union Avenue.

Councilman Ed Reyes, whose district includes Westlake, also addressed the crowd.

“We’re here trying to air our concerns in a peaceful manner,” he said.

Riot-clad Los Angeles police officers in patrol cars Wednesday night were playing a cat-and-mouse game with throngs of protesters along 6th Street in the third straight day of violent clashes following the deadly shooting of a Guatemalan immigrant who allegedly threatened officers and passersby by with a knife.

A few hundred people had gathered at Burlington Avenue and 6th in Westlake, where some hurled bottles at squad cars. Others shouted “Pig!” and profanities at officers as they got out of their vehicles, rifles in their hands.

At least one fire was lighted, but it was quickly extinguished.

Dozens of police cars, lights flashing and sirens wailing, chased after groups of protesters who were running along 6th, near the scene where Manuel Jamines, 37, was shot Sunday afternoon by an LAPD officer.

The LAPD earlier declared a modified tactical alert, holding over extra patrol officers.

LOS ANGELES — Demonstrators pelted police for a second night in a poor immigrant neighborhood following the fatal shooting of a Guatemalan day laborer who allegedly threatened people with a knife and then turned the weapon on a responding officer.

Officers fired at least two rounds of foam projectiles at demonstrators Tuesday night and 22 people were arrested, mainly for failure to disperse and unlawful assembly, Officer Karen Rayner said.

The disturbance erupted despite police Chief Charlie Beck’s pledge to conduct a full investigation into the Sunday afternoon shooting of Manuel Jamines, 37, in the Westlake district near MacArthur Park, a neighborhood packed with recent immigrants from Central America.

An estimated 300 protesters who gathered outside the local police station hurled eggs, rocks and bottles and set a trash bin on fire. Others dropped household items from apartment buildings.

“People were throwing televisions, air conditioning units, miscellaneous furniture and other objects from the windows,” Lt. Cory Palka said.

At least one officer and a Univision reporter were slightly injured by thrown or slingshot-propelled objects, police told City News Service. A man who fell off his bicycle suffered a head injury.

In Monday night’s violence, three officers were slightly injured by thrown objects and four people were arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor inciting a riot, Officer Bruce Borihanh said. Police said most of Monday’s trouble involved a group handing out revolutionary fliers.

In the wake of the protests, authorities scheduled a community meeting for Wednesday evening at a school.

Beck said the Jamines shooting occurred after someone flagged down three bicycle officers to tell them a man was threatening people with a knife.

The officers approached the suspect and told him in Spanish and English to put down the weapon. Instead, Jamines raised the knife above his head and lunged at Officer Frank Hernandez, a 13-year veteran of the department, Beck said.

Eyewitness accounts from six civilians, nine police personnel and two fire department staff indicate Hernandez fired twice “in immediate defense of life,” Beck said. Jamines died at the scene.

Investigators recovered a bloody, 6-inch knife at the scene but didn’t know where the blood came from.

“This was a very brief moment in time, just 40 seconds between first contact and the time of the shooting,” Beck said.

Beck said the timeline was based on preliminary interviews. He said the department’s Force Investigation Division will conduct a thorough, transparent probe.

The three officers involved in the shooting have been temporarily reassigned.

Jamines had a wife and three children — ages 13, 6 and 8 — in his hometown of Mazatenango, Guatemala, according to his cousin Juan Jaminez, 38. He came to the United States six years ago to find work and spent most of his time looking for jobs in a Home Depot parking lot near his home.

Jamines was drunk but not dangerous, his cousin and neighbors said.

“Killing a drunk isn’t right,” said Juan Jaminez, also a day laborer. He and others described Jamines as a friendly, hardworking man who liked to drink on the weekends but wasn’t violent.

“The officer who did this should be subject to discipline and a thorough investigation,” said Juan Flores, 39, a restaurant cook who knew Jamines.

Flores said the officers should have used a non-lethal weapon.

Beck said the officer involved in the shooting didn’t have a baton or stun gun. He said bicycle officers frequently do not carry the selection of non-lethal weapons found in patrol cars.

Juana Neri, 57, a Mexican immigrant housewife who lives nearby, pushed her grocery bag in a baby stroller past the corner where Jamines was killed.

“It’s bad, what the police did, but what’s worse is the silly stuff that people were doing here,” she said, referring to Monday’s violence. “We are not in our country, and with the problems that Hispanic immigrants have these days, it’s better not to cause problems.”

MacArthur Park was the site of a May 1, 2007, clash in which police pummeled immigration rights marchers and reporters with batons and shot rubber bullets into the crowd. Police cited significant command failures in the response to a confrontation with a group of “agitators” that triggered the sweep through the park, and a deputy chief at the scene quickly resigned after being demoted.

Ugandan police

Four police officers have been detained over the shooting of striking tobacco workers, which left two people dead and several others injured.

The dead have been identified as Dennis Bazara and Benard Byabasaija. Ms Sylivia Kabasuinguzi, who was seriously injured in the incident, has been admitted to Hoima Referral Hospital.

Investigations
The Mid-western Regional Police Commander, Mr Marcelino Wanitho, told journalists that investigations have revealed that the guns of two of the arrested police officers were used to fire live bullets during the strike.
The British American Tobacco Company Workers on Tuesday staged a sit-down -strike, protesting the delay by the company to pay their August salary.

Strike stopped
Anti-riot police rushed to the BAT office located in Kabati, a suburb of Hoima Town and fired in the air and used tear gas to disperse the workers who had been joined by disgruntled farmers. The latter were reportedly protesting the delay by the firm to pay for their tobacco.Mr Wanitho said the officer commanding the riot police and the officer in charge of Hoima Police Station, who were at the scene, will be charged with negligence of duty by the police disciplinary committee.

“They failed to effectively command the police which went to the scene and ended up shooting unnecessarily at innocent civilians,” Mr Wanitho said, adding that the police officers who fired the live bullets would be charged with murder.

Mr Wanitho apologised to the public and the bereaved families over the incident.
“It is regrettable, unfortunate and police is sorry about the shooting,” Mr Wanitho said.
“The IGP (Gen Kale Kayihura) has appointed a team from the police headquarters which will team up with our detectives here to investigate this incident,” Mr Wanitho said.

Victim speaks
“I saw a police official aiming a gun at me as I was running out of the factory. He shot me. I fell down and started bleeding on my right leg. I realised I was shot. I am in deep pain. I pray I survive,” Ms Kabasinguzi said at Hoima Hospital.

LOS ANGELES — A protest over the fatal police shooting of a Guatemalan immigrant turned violent when some demonstrators threw bottles at officers, set trash cans on fire and refused to disperse.

Television news footage showed people tossing the bottles and plastic crates at officers in riot gear late Monday near MacArthur Park, a neighborhood with a large Central American population west of downtown.

Police declared the protest an unlawful assembly around 10 p.m. and ordered the dozens of protesters to disperse. The majority of the crowd cleared out, but a small number lingered and caused trouble, police spokesman Gregory Baek said.

Police made a couple of arrests, Baek said. He said police won’t have a final tally until they complete the booking process for the suspects.

The protest began in the afternoon with demonstrators marching back and forth between a bustling shopping area where the shooting occurred and the Rampart police station three blocks away.

Police said three bicycle officers were patrolling the area Sunday when someone flagged them down and said a man was threatening passers-by with a knife.

When officers confronted the man, they ordered him to drop the knife but he refused, Lt. Andrew Neiman said.

“Instead, he came after the officers with a knife raised in the air, leading one of the officers to fire at the suspect,” Neiman said.

Authorities have not released the man’s name. However, friends identified him as Manuel Jamines, 37, a construction worker and father of three.

Protesters contend the man was not dangerous and say officers should have used a non-lethal weapon to subdue him.

“When you’re trying to stop a suspect or stop a deadly action, the purpose is to stop the threat as quickly as possible,” Neiman said.

MacArthur Park was the site of a May 1, 2007, clash, where police officers pummeled immigration rights marchers and reporters with batons and shot rubber bullets into the crowd. Dozens of protesters and journalists were injured as officers cleared the park.

The embarrassing incident cost the city more than $13 million in lawsuit settlements. Police were retrained on crowd control, forming skirmish lines, using batons in a crowd and using extraction teams to identify and arrest violent demonstrators.

September 02, 2010

Palu, Indonesia. Police officers and their families are being evacuated to prevent further violence after a riot on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi left six people dead, a top police official said on Thursday.

Hundreds of people in the town of Buol, in Central Sulawesi province, attacked a police station with petrol bombs and stones on Wednesday after a man died in custody.

Officers opened fire on the mob, killing six people and injuring dozens more, but the unrest did not abate, police said.

“Until late evening, locals continued to sweep the town in search for our personnel,” National Police Deputy Chief Comr. Gen. Yusuf Manggabarani told reporters.

Officers’ houses were burnt in the disturbances, the state-run Antara news agency reported.

“We have evacuated our members and their family to safety,” Manggabarani said.

“We will withdraw our local officers involved in the clash. If they are still there, it will be difficult for locals to stay calm.”

Manggabarani said more than 100 replacements from the Brimob paramilitary police headquarters in Jakarta will arrive on Thursday.

Around 300 police reinforcements were sent to the area on Wednesday, according to Antara.

Police spokesman Iskandar Hasan said Wednesday the shootings were under investigation and “firm action” would be taken against any officer proven to have violated procedures.

“They have to take responsibility for every single bullet they used,” he said.

(AP)

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Police killed five villagers as dozens of people ransacked a station in central Indonesia to protest a person’s death in custody.

Brig. Gen. Amin Saleh said Wednesday more than 100 villagers — some carrying rocks and Molotov cocktails — converged on the police post in Buol district late Tuesday.

He said security forces were forced to open fire after the protesters ignored warning shots. At least 17 people were injured, and most were police struck by rocks.

The protest followed a motorist’s death in police custody Monday. It was unclear why he was detained, but the protesters suspected he was tortured by police.

Buol is in central Sulawesi province, about 1,500 kilometers (957 miles) northeast of Jakarta.

August 28, 2010
DENVER – About 150 protesters marched through the streets of Denver on Saturday, demanding that more action be taken in the recent rash of alleged police and jail guard misconduct.

The marchers carried signs that read “Police get up early to beat the crowds” and “All police are murderers.”

The first stop was at a sidewalk in Denver’s Lodo district, where 23-year-old Michael Deherrera was captured by a city security camera being beaten by police.

They also gathered at a spot where Mark Ashford was beaten by police after shooting video of a police traffic stop.

The protesters do not believe the resignation of Denver’s Safety Manger Ron Perea was enough.

“This is a first step, but only a first step,” said Glen Spagnuolo, an organizer of the demonstration.

The marchers ended in front of the new Denver jail facility in downtown.

There they demanded justice for Marvin Booker, an inmate who died at the new facility.

Booker was tased and restrained by officers following a scuffle in the holding cell July 9 where a female sheriff’s deputy was also treated for injuries suffered during the altercation.

Spokespersons for the Denver Police and the Denver Police Protective Association said they were not aware of the protest.

They added they can not comment on any ongoing investigations.

Aug 26

On Wednesday, one more teenager in the Valley succumbed to his injuries sustained allegedly during torture in the police custody, taking the toll in the ongoing two-and-a-half-month long unrest to 64. The news of his death triggered fresh protests at many places, forcing the police to use tear smoke canisters to disperse mob.

Sixteen-year-old Umar Bhat, an eyewitnesses alleged, was arrested by the police during a protest at Soura on Friday. “They banged him against the iron shutter of a shop before taking him to the lock-up,” claimed Imtiaz Ahmad, a protester at Aanchar, a locality in the vicinity of Soura.

Umar’s father, Abdul Qayoom Bhat, alleged that his son was in police custody for one night and was released on Saturday evening in an unstable condition. “We took him home, but late in the night he starting vomiting blood. We took him to a hospital. And now we have brought back his dead body,” said Bhat. Umar, he said, was his only son. “My son was tortured in custody. He was administered electric shocks,” he alleged.

A crowd of agitated youth came to Bhat’s house, waiting to take his son to burial. The noise was deafening, drowning the wails of the women coming from inside the house.

Umar, a police statement confirmed, had been arrested along with two others on Friday. “All the three were set free on the following day and handed over to their parents,” the statement said.

The doctors at the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences said Umar had suffered multiple injuries and could not be revived despite their best efforts. “The boy had intestinal and liver injuries,” said Director SKIMS Abdul Hamid Zargar, adding that he was on life support system for two days before they gave up hope of his recovery. Medical Superintendent Amin Tabish said the death was due to kidney and respiratory failure.

The death aggravated the already tense situation around Soura, a locality on the northern extremity of Srinagar. People were out on the streets shouting slogans and pelting stones at the police and CRPF men. The protesters set on fire a police and a private vehicle. There was also an attempt to burn the ancestral house of National Conference founder Shiekh Muhammad Abdullah. The police repeatedly fired in the air to keep the advancing protesters at bay.

Soura has been the scene of strife over the past week. On Thursday, CRPF personnel stationed at a local camp used pellet guns to break up crowds of the stone-throwing youth, injuring three members of a family. Government later withdrew the camp from the area — the first time government did so during the ongoing spell of unrest.

At Frestbal Pampore, 22-year-old Javid Ahmad was hit by a rubber pallet fired by CRPF at a group of protesters on the national highway. The youth suffered injuries in his neck and shoulder and was shifted to Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital here. Following this incident, curfew was re-imposed in different parts of the Valley.

August 26
Less than one week after a Tompkins County grand jury found no basis to prosecute Ithaca Police Sgt. Bryan Bangs –– a white police officer –– in the shooting of a black narcotics suspect, Shawn Greenwood, Bangs’ home in Etna was burned to the ground early July 11, leaving community members stunned and divided over the issue of race in Ithaca.

The shooting occurred on Feb. 23 as several officers attempted to serve Greenwood with a search warrant in a multi-agency narcotics investigation, according to Tompkins County District Attorney Gwen Wilkinson. They approached the Ithaca resident outside of Pete’s Grocery on West Buffalo Street. Greenwood resisted removal from his vehicle, which prompted the officers to taser him.

Greenwood then drove onto a curb and hit a Dryden police officer. The other officers on the scene yelled at Greenwood to stop driving, but when he continued, Bangs fired several shots that killed the 29-year-old man.

The report issued by the grand jury on July 1 found that Bangs acted in self-defense, discharging his weapon to prevent the van from “violently crush[ing] him against the brick wall.” Forensic teams determined that the Tasers lodged in Greenwood’s clothing failed to shock the suspect. The testimony of 26 witnesses and assessment of 233 exhibits also revealed that Greenwood possessed about 55 grams of cocaine at the time of the shooting.

On July 11, a neighbor of Bangs awoke around 4 a.m. to see flames blazing from the officer’s home. Bangs escaped unharmed from the roof of his home, but the torching left the house largely unsalvageable and the arsonist remains unidentified.

The Ithaca Common Council, Ithaca Police Benevolent Association and Community Leaders of Color all released independent statements denouncing any deliberate violence against Bangs and encouraging residents to assist with police investigations. The Calvary Baptist Church and St. Paul’s United Methodist Church hosted prayer services urging healing and unity in the community, while the Tompkins County Red Cross pledged to provide shelter, clothing and food to the Bangs family.

The Ithaca Police Department could not be reached for comment on the ongoing investigation.

Later in August, hundreds from both the Ithaca community and across the country headed to LakeWatch Inn in Ithaca to raise money for a Bangs Relief Fund opened at the Chemung Canal Trust Company. The event featured, food, music, auctions and raffles to benefit the fund.

Nonetheless, the community remains discontented as tensions rise not only in response to the jury’s decision and the torching of Bangs’ home, but also to the actions of town officials. The creators of a Facebook group supporting Bangs accused Ithaca Mayor Carolyn Peterson and other city administrators of attempting to restrain the group’s rights to free speech and shutting the page down. Although officials have denied the allegations, more than 300 people have joined another group calling for Peterson’s resignation.

“We need a real leader that will support our law enforcement officers to the fullest, a leader that is not afraid to stand up against what is wrong and not buckle under pressure,” the website says. “Mayor Peterson’s actions the last few months are inexcusable and unconscionable.”

Many community members have also noticed a tense atmosphere in the city.

“Whenever the Southside Community Center throws a downtown event there’s more police than I’ve ever seen,” said Ithaca resident Anthony Galucci. “We have racial and class segregation in Ithaca. The poor urban neighborhoods, black and white, are the ones under supervision.”

The IPD has attempted to ease tensions by requiring its sergeants, lieutenants and chiefs to participate in the Multicultural Resources Center’s Talking Circles in 2009. Along with other members of city administration, the officers discussed racism, race issues, and racial identity with 10-16 diverse adults over a five-week period, according to Audrey Cooper, director of the Multicultural Resources Center.

Cooper said she hopes lower ranking officers and city officials who have not partaken in the Talking Circles will do so in the future.

“From a personal perspective, there are absolutely racial tensions in the city that need to be addressed and we create a very safe space for this,” she said.

Within the Ithaca Police Department, Lt. Marlon Byrd has spearheaded a community relations program aimed at engaging with local residents in non-confrontational ways. While on shift, officers rotate in a “community car” that stops at local community centers, parks, and businesses to build relationships with residents and hear their concerns.

“My philosophy is that if people get to know officers as individuals instead of as just the law, they develop a mutual respect for each other,” Byrd said. “I want the police to also see the community in not just a negative way.”

Instead of focusing on traffic violations, these officers work to fix broken backboards on basketball courts, talk to students about problems in school, and bring these issues to the upper levels of the police department and city administration. Byrd came up with the idea for the program after several controversial altercations between the police and the community.

According to Cornell Director of Community Relations Gary Stewart the University has looked at this social unrest in the Ithaca community through a very different lens, focusing on its effect on recruitment and retention of students, staff and faculty from every background.

The Community Relations Office has spearheaded a multi-media initiative to ease community tensions and improve local communication. The office has sponsored community forums that discuss Ithaca’s disenfranchised populations, public service announcements that have won New York State Broadcasters Award, a weekly radio show called “All Things Equal” that has touched on everything from new equity strategies in area schools to local affordable housing and employment challenges, and a twice-monthly Ithaca Journal newspaper column titled “East Hill Notes.”

Stewart said that racial issues “will remain on the front burner for the foreseeable future.”

“As always, it’s important that every stakeholder and those who previously didn’t have a voice in this conversation continue to meet, strategize, share and stay connected,” he stated in an e-mail. “That’s the only way these problems can be resolved.”

2010-08-25
A mob hacked a police constable to death in a Chhattisgarh village Wednesday after he gunned down two civilians in an inebriated condition.

The incident took place in Bakarkatta village in the state’s Maoist insurgency-hit Rajnandgaon district, some 225 km west of Raipur.

‘District Force constable Ashwani Verma shot dead two residents – Dinesh and Bhagwan – over some minor dispute. As the news of the civilians’ killing spread, a large number of people gathered and killed the constable with sharp-edged weapons locally called ‘tangia’,’ sources at the police headquarters here told IANS.

The sources added that Rajnandgaon District Superintendent of Police B.N. Meena left for the site with additional forces to assess the situation.

Reports reaching here said that a large number of people gathered at Bakarkatta and raised slogans against the police for the civilian killings.

‘The situation is very tense there…residents are very upset after the policeman took out his service revolver and killed two people in their early 30s. Additional forces have reached the village and are trying to calm the protesters, who refused to hand over the cop’s body to the police,’ a local policeman told IANS over phone.

August 25

Report by Orissa Diary correspondent; Bhubaneswar: The protest over the death of a young lawyer took an ugly turn on Wednesday after the lawyers went on a rampage and ransacked the office of Cuttack District Collector.

The agitating lawyers burnt tyres on road as mark of protest against the death of lawyer Bishnu Das. They demanded a compensation package of Rs 50 lakhs for the family of the deceased and to provide employment to one member of the deceased family.The lawyers also demanded to continue the judicial probe and take stern action against the cop whose bullet had taken Das’s life.

Similar protests were also held by the lawyers in the capital city Bhubaneswar as well. The lawyers in Bhubaneswar celebrated black day today. They are on a cease-work till Friday too. The lawyers also condemned the misbehaviour done to the High Court judge.

Apart from it, the lawyers’ association at Rourkela, Gajapati, Paralakhemundi and Jeypore , Salipur  has also condemned the incident.

SAN BERNARDINO – Family members of a man shot and killed by police organized a protest Tuesday against alleged police brutality.

Cedreona May, sister of the late Cedric May, called the protest the “March for All for Justice.” She and her family have previously accused San Bernardino police of using deadly force without justification.

“He had no weapons. No guns. No nothing,” Cedreona May said Tuesday.

Cedreona May said by telephone that participants planned to march Tuesday afternoon from City Hall to the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s headquarters.

A police officer shot Cedric May one year ago. The incident happened around 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 25, 2009, in the 1500 block of Belle Street. Police reported at the time that Cedric May grabbed an officer’s genitals and Taser while fighting with police.

The shooting happened the night Cedric May’s family had a barbecue to celebrate his release from jail on the previous day. His family members said at the time that contrary to police statements, Cedric May was shot after being handcuffed.

The District Attorney’s office has sided with police. Prosecutors announced in June that they would not file charges against the police officer who shot Cedric May.

The District Attorney’s office reported an officer shot Cedric May only after the man aimed a police Taser at another officer’s head.

2010-08-24
Bodies of four pro-Maoist People’s Committee against Police Atrocities (PCAPA) supporters were found in West Bengal’s Bankura district Tuesday, police said.

The bullet-riddled bodies were found lying at Melara village in the Barikul area.

‘The needle of suspicion points towards local villagers and the anti-Maoist Public Resistance Committee,’ said a police officer.

The PCAPA members had fled to Jharkhand realising the animosity of the locals towards them. They were killed when they tried to return, the officer said.

17 Aug
The Colombian army’s alleged killing of a 16-year-old sparked violence in the eastern department of Norte de Santander. Local authorities say the situation is now under control.

Authorities in the municipality of El Tarra have implemented an alcohol ban and prohibited citizens from carrying arms or driving motorbikes, following a wave of violence triggered by the minor’s death on Sunday night.

The department’s secretary Margarita Silva said the situation is now under control and the prosecutor general will open an investigation into the incident. Community leaders have called for a humanitarian commission to investigate.

A community leader, who wished to remain anonymous, told Caracol Radio that the events leading up to the shooting are unclear.

The leader said that shots were fired at the municipality’s military base, and soldiers responded by shooting into a group of nearby civilians, which resulted in the minor’s death.

The incident led to riots in which the mayor’s office and the Agrario Bank were partially destroyed, three vehicles were set on fire, and three people injured. The army tried to subdue the violence by firing shots into the air and releasing tear gas.

According to Caracol Radio “the community” claims the victim “was trying to get on a motorbike when they shot him.”

An army press release stated that the minor belonged to an illegal armed group, and claimed that soldiers had acted in self-defense after they were shot at.

Norte de Santander Governor William Villamizar called for order, and did not rule out implementing a curfew if tensions do not diffuse.

Hundreds of villagers have blocked a highway in eastern Afghanistan to protest a night raid by Nato and Afghan soldiers that left two people dead.

A statement from the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said two “Taliban insurgents” were killed in the raid in a district near Jalalabad.

But villagers said the men were civilians; their protest temporarily closed the highway connecting Jalalabad to Pakistan on Wednesday.

“The Americans who killed these people should come and see whether it is civilians or insurgents they killed,” Mohammad Gul, one of the protesters, said. “We need an explanation from them.”

Many of the protesters chanted anti-American slogans, like “down with Obama” and “down with foreign forces,” during the hours-long protest.

Isaf said the men had been involved in roadside bomb attacks, and that Nato and Afghan soldiers were fired upon from “multiple directions” as they entered the compound.

Routine civilian casualties

The protest mirrored a similar demonstration last week, when Nato and Afghan forces raided a house in Wardak province. Neighbours claimed the night raid killed three civilians, and hundreds of them took to the streets to protest the following afternoon.

Afghans have staged a number of similar protests in recent months: Villagers near Jalalabad burned tyres in May after a night raid killed at least nine people, and hundreds protested after Nato troops opened fire on a bus in Kandahar in April.

General Stanley McChrystal, the former commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan, issued a classified directive earlier this year calling on troops to limit their use of night raids, which routinely result in civilian casualties.

A United Nations report released last week found that raids by Nato troops killed 41 civilians in the first half of 2010.

Night raids have been a particular point of friction between Nato and Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president. Karzai demanded an end to all night raids in February.

2010-08-12 1
Johannesburg – Security guards allegedly went on a killing spree at a mine owned by the nephew of President Jacob Zuma and the grandson of Nelson Mandela, the Sowetan reported.

Police on Thursday recovered four bodies from a shaft at the Aurora Grootvlei Mine three days after they were shot.

“There’s now four bodies that have been retrieved from the shaft,” Warrant Officer Jannie van Aswegen said.

The mine is co-owned by President Jacob Zuma’s nephew Khulubuse and Nelson Mandela’s grandson Zondwa.

Police, he said, found out about the shooting from the Sowetan newspaper on Thursday.

According to the newspaper security guards allegedly shot at least 20 people at the Aurora Grootvlei Mine between Springs and Benoni, and left the bodies underground on Monday.

The motive for the shooting was not yet known and no arrests had been made.

Police began retrieving the bodies from the mine shaft at 10:00 on Thursday and could not yet confirm the figure reported in the Sowetan.

Meanwhile the National Union of Mineworkers said it was shocked after reading the reports.

The union linked the incident to the mine’s failure to pay its workers, leaving them “to fend for themselves”.

The mine confirmed there had been deaths, adding the killings were of illegal miners. This followed a push by the police to flush them out, it said.

- SAPA

10 August 2010
Kampala — Drifrance Musisi, a supporter of the National Alliance for Free and Fair Elections (NAFFE), was excited as he left the school where he teaches in Kampala on July 26 and headed to the city centre to hang up posters announcing the next day’s demonstrations.

His conviction is that next year’s general elections must be free and fair. Along with three other NAFFE activists, Musisi was ready to participate in the countrywide demonstrations calling for the overhaul of the Electoral Commission (EC). He did not suspect his day would end in a police cell where he would spend a day being tortured.

Musisi and his colleagues were pasting NAFFE posters denouncing the Kiggundu-led EC posters on trees near Sure House on Bombo Road in the city centre when a police patrol car pulled up behind them. Policemen jumped off the truck, bundled them on a pickup truck, and sped off to Wandegeya Police station.

“They took us to a dark room where they began beating us. They made us sing songs praising the ruling party,” says Musisi, “Three policemen kicked us ruthlessly asking who had sent us, who we support, which political party we belong to and why, and then which party NAFFE is working for.”

He says after almost every 20 lashes of the cane, the torturers would stop and pour a basin of water on them before resuming the beating. Musisi says the OC Wandegeya Police Station supervised the torture. “Whenever we asked why we were being beaten, they would increase the intensity of flogging and kicking. They spayed pepper in my eyes and I feel so much pain,” Musisi, whose eyes are still red, says. Musisi’s back bears bruises he claims were inflicted on him by the police officers. Some of the wounds are deep and are just a few inches to the ribs. He cannot walk properly.

The DPC Wandegeya Police Station, Gerald Tumushime, confirmed arresting Musisi and group but denies they were tortured. He challenges Musisi to return to the station point out the officer who tortured him. Tumushime said Musisi and his colleagues are still under investigation though they were released on police bond. The OC Wandegeya, says people are not tortured at police stations and dismissed Musisi’s allegations as false.

Musisi, 31, a primary school teacher turned political activist, was one of many people rounded up by police on the eve of the July 27 nationwide demonstrations against the Electoral Commission. The protesters accuse the EC of bias and incompetence and want it disbanded.

Musisi and his friends were arrested at 9 pm and were released on a police bond at 8 pm on Tuesday after being charged with inciting violence.

The encounter of the police and opposition supporters last Tuesday was marked by ghastly scenes of police brutality across the country. The police beat up NAFFE protesters in Hoima, Mbale, Arua, Kampala, Soroti, Bushenyi, Jinja and Rukungiri. In all cases, police wielding sticks beat up whoever dared show up on streets. Even demonstrators who did not resist arrest were beaten up. The beating was so brutal that, for the first time, some officers have been reprimanded.

“Officer you are not supposed to beat me because I am exercising my constitutional right because I am demonstrating peacefully. You are supposed to provide me and other demonstrators security,” shouted a youthful demonstrator to a police officer at City House in Kampala. The police man has just taken the demonstrator’s shirt, an act that provoked him.

In another incident, Francis Mwijukye, a youthful political activist, was wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the words “NAFFE” when he went to police to bail out an arrested colleague. “The police ordered me to take off the T-shirt claiming it expressed support for the arrested. They removed the T-shirt and I went back to office undressed.”

The anti-riot police, in their new blue,white-light, and green patterned camouflage uniforms flog the demonstrators with sadistic glee; throwing their captives on the blue UP-registered police pick up trucks and rain tick lashes on their often contorted bodies. Video footage from Mbale town, showed demonstrators being bundled on police pick-up cars trying to shield themselves from whips of policemen flogging them even when they were submissive to arrest.

It has become a pattern. The situation is similar to the run up to the 2006 elections. Police pounce on any sign of a demo. On June 9, Kizza Besigye, the leader of Uganda’s biggest opposition party, the the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) was flogged by the stick-happy gangs in civilian clothing as the police personnel watched. But it has got worse since two bomb blasts, blamed on Somali’s al Shabaab insurgents, rocked the city on July 11.

Human rights activists are concerned that the government might be using the terrorist attacks on Kampala as a blanket pretext to deny people the freedom of assembly.

Livingstone Sewanyana, Executive Director for the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative, says state agencies like the police should device measures of protecting Ugandans without violating their rights. He says the threat of terrorism has been more pronounced in the Western world but people there have continued to exercise their civil liberties such as the right to demonstrate. Sewanyana says it is important for the police to respect the people’s constitutional right to assemble, demonstrate and express themselves peacefully, and unarmed without impediment on their rights as they protect all stakeholders.

But the police claim terrorists can take advantage of the crowds to hit at the innocent people.

“We are not saying they should not demonstrate,” says Asan Kasingye, the police’s Deputy IGP for Community Affairs, “(But) we should not compromise safety because I think the right to life is much better than the right to assemble or demonstrate.”

He says people need to notify the police of their functions as the Constitutional court ruled in 2008 but “we need ample time to be able to work so that no one accuses the other of faltering in case of an attack.”

However, in the case of Muwanga Kivumbi Vs the Attorney General, the Constitutional Court ruled that holding a demonstration is a constitutional right and one does not have to seek permission from the police but merely to notice the police to offer protection to the demonstrators. However, the police and the executive have ignored this ruling. Instead, they often cite security or manpower reasons to deny the Ugandans, especially the political opposition groups, their right to demonstrate.

The court ruled that: “a society, especially a democratic one, should be able to tolerate a good deal of annoyance or disorder so as to encourage the greatest possible freedom of expression, particularly political expression… the right to peaceful protest is not absolute…Government has a duty of maintaining proper channels and structures to ensure that legitimate protest whether political or otherwise can find a voice.”

Sewanyana says the executive arm of government ought to comply with the court ruling

“While the security agencies fight terrorism, people’s liberties should be protected. These liberties can only be restricted in manner that is demonstrably justifiable in a free and democratic society,” says Sewanyana. He says security agencies should not use terror attacks to suppress people campaigning for free and fair elections next year, the people’s freedom to assemble, associate and express themselves should be upheld.

Margret Wokuri, the Interim Coordinator of NAFFE, wonders why it is only opposition political assemblies that the police are against yet there are many places where crowds gather for other purposes and are not dispersed.

Wokuri, an assertive woman who speaks in a sharp commanding voice, says she is determined to take the activities of her new pressure group, which has brought her in the limelight, further. “I know the police brutality to demonstrators would not reduce but we will expose the kind of police force we have in this country,” she says.She says whenever police exhibit good crowd management skills, there is no chaos.

But with the 2011 elections, which are being organistion by a discredited Electoral Commission, at hand, police brutality and intolerance and opposition defiance, broken bones and bleeding faces are likely to increase.

Aug 05, 2010

SRINAGAR, India (AP) – The death toll from civil unrest in Indian-controlled Kashmir has risen to 49 after three more people died from gunfire by paramilitary forces on demonstrators angry about decades of Indian rule over the Himalayan region.

Kashmir has been rocked by violent protests for nearly two months with demonstrators hurling rocks at paramilitary soldiers and setting government buildings and vehicles ablaze. In response, security forces have fired live rounds and tear gas into large crowds.

Clashes between demonstrators and security forces erupted in several areas Thursday after police and paramilitary soldiers fired warning shots and tear gas, said a police officer on condition of anonymity, as he was not authorized to speak to the media.

AP
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Dozens of homeless drug users have died inside a jail in western Puerto Rico in the last decade, the American Civil Liberties Union said in a report Thursday calling for an investigation into possible rights violations.

The ACLU said some of the 53 deaths between 2002 and 2008 at the Guerrero Correctional Institution potentially could have been prevented with better medical care.

“The alarming number of deaths at the Guerrero Jail and the failure to adequately investigate them may constitute deliberate indifference on the part of the jail’s administration toward the medical needs of these prisoners,” the report said.

All but one of those who died were in pretrial detention at the minimum-security prison, and 73 percent perished within their first week of confinement, according to the report. There were no signs of violence.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Caribbean territory’s corrections department, Sheila Padin Hernandez, said it was preparing a response to the report.

Officials said previously that many of the deaths resulted from the use of Xylazine, a horse sedative that addicts were injecting along with heroin.

William Ramirez, executive director of the ACLU in Puerto Rico, said victims in those cases likely could have been saved with quick medical attention. He said the precise cause of death remains a mystery in many cases because the government has not investigated properly.

“I suspect there is a lack of proper medical care while withdrawal is going on, but there might be other reasons. We really can’t say,” Ramirez said in an interview.

The ACLU launched its investigation in 2006 after hearing reports from the homeless community in northwestern Puerto Rico about police sweeping up addicts and taking them to detox at the jail in the west-coast city of Aguadilla.

Many were arrested for minor charges such as panhandling or vagrancy, according to the report. Some were detained for being under the influence of drugs.

“The average person would not be picked up and put in a prison like Guerrero for being out on the street,” Ramirez said. “That only happens to people who are homeless.”

August 6, 2010

MONTREAL – Nearly two years after a police officer shot 18-year-old Fredy Villanueva to death, Montreal North residents say it’s time to take back public spaces so young people can feel at home in their neighbourhood instead of sensing they’re being watched.

Police officers slow down in their cruisers and stare at groups of youths, said Stephanie Germain, spokesperson for Hoodstock, the annual neighbourhood forum held to commemorate Villanueva’s death and address the broader problems in Montreal North.

“It’s as if they want us to feel like we’re intruders,” she said yesterday to journalists in the parking lot behind Henri Bourassa Park where Villanueva was shot on Aug. 9, 2008.

Taking back public space is the theme of this year’s Hoodstock, to be held Sunday, along with a memorial procession for Villanueva.

A Montreal police spokesperson was not available yesterday to comment on Germain’s statement.

Villanueva’s shooting raised the issue of racial profiling, but Montreal police have said the department does not tolerate racial profiling. Deputy police chief Sylvain Brouillette told The Gazette last year that complaints from residents in the aftermath of Villanueva’s death led to more specialized training for police officers in the anti-gang squad.

Villanueva was playing dice with a group of friends in the parking lot just before he was shot. Constable Jean-Loup Lapointe approached them, an altercation ensued, and Lapointe fired his gun as he tried to arrest Villanueva’s brother Dany. Fredy Villanueva was killed and two other men were wounded; all were unarmed.

The shooting sparked riots in Montreal North and protests against the police’s actions.

The public inquest into the shooting is to resume in September.

Alexandre Popovic, a spokesperson for the Coalition contre la repression et abus policiers, says his group intends to petition Montreal North borough council, and eventually the province’s toponymy commission, to change the name of Henri Bourassa Park to Fredy Villanueva Park so the incident will not be forgotten after the inquest is complete.

03 August 2010
A tense situation has erupted in the Matara town where over 2000 university students are on a protest march to the Matara Police station demanding the police to arrest the police officers responsible for the murder of university student Susantha Bandara.

The protestors have obstructed traffic along the Colombo-Matara main road bringing traffic to a complete standstill.

The army, riot police and a special police contingent have been deployed in and around Matara town to prevent the protestors from proceeding beyond the Matara bus stand.

The protest has been organized by the Inter University Students Federation (IUSF) who are demanding the police to take immediate action against Bandara’s murder.

Susantha Aruna Bandara, a third year student of the Ruhunu University passed away last month as a result of the injuries he suffered following an assault by the police at the University premises in June, the IUSF said.

According to IUSF Convener Udul Premaratne, the deceased student had suffered severe injuries after being assaulted by the police on June 18 while he was at the university hostel.

30 July 2010

An Afghan policeman fires into the air during clashes with protesters in Kabul. An Afghan policeman fires into the air during clashes with protesters following Friday prayers in Kabul. Photograph: Omar Sobhani/Reuters

The Afghan capital is on high alert after rioting sparked by the death of four civilians when a US embassy vehicle crashed into their car. There are fears of a repeat of the city-wide riots that struck Kabul in 2006.

Police fired shots into the air in a bid to disperse an angry mob that torched two embassy vehicles and threw stones at police and Nato soldiers who rushed to the scene near the centre of Kabul’s diplomatic quarter.

Sayed Abdul Ghafar Sayedzada, the head of Kabul’s crime investigation department, said six Afghan civilians were involved in the accident and four died. The US embassy said the vehicle had been carrying four US contractors who “co-operated immediately with local Afghan security forces after the incident”.

“Our sympathies go out to the families of those Afghans injured or killed in this tragic accident,” the embassy statement said.

A western official said two embassy vehicles went to the scene to rescue the contractors but after one of the rescue cars got stuck on a central embankment everyone was forced to get into a single car.

The stranded rescue vehicle and the original car were left at the scene and torched by the rioters.

According to local news agency Pajhwok, despite efforts to cordon off the area an angry crowd of hundreds of civilians soon appeared chanting slogans against foreign troops and Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president.

Witnesses said several Afghan police were wounded after being hit by stones thrown by protesters in an area close to a US military base and a few minutes’ walk from the main gate of the US embassy.

It is one of the most serious outbreaks of public anger in the capital since 2006 when Kabul was struck by hours of rioting after a US military convoy ploughed into a group of pedestrians. Buildings run by foreign aid charities were ransacked and torched during that unrest.

In the latest case, most organisations with foreign staff ordered all of their expat employees into lockdown, banning them from movement around the city. Restrictions were mostly lifted by evening.

One foreign executive working in the capital described the drive down the Jalalabad Road to his guesthouse as “very hairy …. with crowds stoning vehicles with foreigners in them although fortunately not mine. But the car immediately behind me was battered.”

SANTO DOMINGO – Two people were killed and six others wounded when police opened fire on a crowd that gathered as they were trying to arrest a suspected drug dealer, Dominican authorities said Thursday.

The incident took place Wednesday night in San Francisco, a town 120 kilometers (75 miles) southwest of the Dominican capital.

Agents of the DNCD counternarcotics bureau were in the process of arresting suspect Encarnacion Castillo when he attacked them with a machete, forcing the agents to respond with their guns, the National Police said in a preliminary report.

As the incident was unfolding, “a crowd that witnessed the event threw stones at the DNCD agents,” leaving them no choice but to shoot, according to the police report.

The wounded, including a 9-year-old boy, are being treated at a hospital in Azua.

Authorities are investigating the shooting, the National Police said. EFE

Lagos : Nigeria | Jul 27

There was commotion in Akowonjo area of Egbeda in Lagos State , Nigeria on Tuesday afternoon as an unidentified police officer reportedly shot a commercial bus driver to death ..

The Tuesday killing occurred less than fifteen days after a commercial bus driver was shot to death by another unidentified policeman for refusing to part with 20 naira .

Irate hoodlums , who were present during the time of the extra – judicial killing reportedly took law into their hand as they pounced on the killer policeman and beat him to a state of coma .

The situation became more tensed some minutes after the jungle justice as a reinforced team of policemen arrested several people in connection with the incident that has created tension among residents Vulcanizer Bus Stop area of Akowonjo .

The killer policemen had around 3o’clock on Tuesday reportedly opened fire on the driver of the bus , who had reportedly ignored the policeman’s request to halt his vehicle and part with something..

Hoodlums who saw the driver gasping for breath before finally giving up , went on rampage and battered the erring policeman as other members of his team escaped into thin air.

Various dangerous weapons including machetes knifes and broken bottles were reportedly used by the hoodlums on the killer policeman , who is said to bein a very serious situation.

Scores of residents of the area , mainly youths have since been arrested in the area by combined team of policemen from Area F police formations and other police stations around Akowonjo .

Over twenty five patrol vans with over one hundred anti riot policemen were immediately drafted to the area to forestall a further breakdown of law and order in the area.

July 24

The dead man has been identified as Sterling Mackonen Diaz of Lodge Place. Diaz killing was recorded as the 18th police killing for the year thus far. It is alleged that Diaz was shot 17 times. Police claim Diaz was a suspect in a two homicides in the Morvant area.

According to a police report, at about 7.50 pm a party of officers from the High Performance Team under Cpl Samuel and also from the North Eastern Task Force under Cpl Darryl La Pierre were on mobile patrol along Gerbera Street Extension when they observed four men acting in a suspicious manner.

The report stated the officers attempted to approach the men when one of them started shooting. The officers returned gunfire and when the smoke cleared, Diaz was on the ground bleeding from multiple gunshot wounds. The other men escaped. Police said a nine-millimetre semi-automatic pistol was seized at the scene.

Diaz was taken to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital by the officers where he later succumbed to his injuries. Yesterday, at the Forensic Science Centre in St James, Diaz mother Sherry Dan said she was told by residents that Diaz was ambushed by police and shot to death.

She admitted not having all the details and added that she was yet to be informed by police as to what occurred.

A relative, who wished not to give her name said Diaz was the father of a two-year-old boy and worked as a manager at Francis Plaza in Chaguanas. She admitted that Diaz had a few pending matters before the courts.

“He was an incredible father. He provided for his son and family one hundred percent. He will surely be missed by the people whom he knew,” the relative said.

Dan said her son was a member of the religious group Twelve Tribes of Israel and was looking to celebrate the group’s Christmas Day on July 23. She added that he was looking forward to sharing presents to the children of the area and attend the Tribe’s annual Christmas Party and Dance at the Belmont Community Centre.

“We will go ahead and give out the presents to the children because they are looking forward to it. Today (yesterday) is a sad day for us and our Christmas Day will be a sad one,” Dan said.

PANAMA – One person was killed, more than 100 others injured and dozens arrested in clashes between demonstrators and police in the western Panamanian city of Changuinola, authorities said Thursday.

The confrontations began early on Thursday after the city’s main streets were blocked off by workers for the Bocas Fruit Company, who are protesting against new government measures that restrict protests and the right to strike.

Police spokesman Jairo Polo told Efe that the dead man was identified as Antonio Smith, 30, a leader of the banana workers union, but he did not provide any details regarding the circumstances of his death.

Sources at the office of President Ricardo Martinelli said he called an emergency Cabinet meeting and sent his chief of staff, Demetrio Papadimitriu, to Changuinola, to speak with the protesters.

Channel 2 television reported that the city is almost out of food and lacks supplies at the regional hospital after seven days of demonstrations that were begun originally because the Bocas Fruit Company didn’t pay its workers.

Operations at the Manuel Niño airport have also been affected with demonstrators stoning the facility along with other buildings, the TV channel reported.

The workers are protesting against a law recently approved by the government that allows punishment of up to two years in prison for people found guilty of blocking streets during demonstrations and another one limiting the exercise of the right to strike, as well as modifying other labor regulations. EFE

A protest outside the Guyana High Commission, 1 July 2010 called for justice after 16 year-old schoolboy Kelvin Fraser, brutally gunned down by Guyanese police on Monday 7th June 2010.

Norman Browne and Dr Michelle Asantewa led the protest which was attended by a small but vocal group of supporters disgusted by the heavy-handed measures of the Guyana Police Force (GPF). The slogans called for real justice for Kelvin and for Human Rights violations in Guyana to end now. We also stressed that accountability for the widespread killings of innocent people lies with the PPP regime. It is our view that the Head of State is ultimately responsible for such blatant crimes against humanity and should therefore be brought to trial in The Hague under International Human Rights Laws.

The shooting of Kelvin Fraser took place when police were called to the Patentia Secondary School to settle reports about a ‘scuffle’. The disturbance was allegedly one of many instances of sexual harassment of young girls by teenage boys. Of course these boys’ actions are despicable. But no one involved in this school ground ‘scuffle’ and acts of sexual harassment were brandishing guns, knives or any kind of weapon. Therefore, this shooting was unprovoked, unnecessary and can only be described as murder by which an innocent child lost his life.

It has taken over three weeks for a charge to be made against the policeman believed to be responsible. This charge came as the result of continued pressure from Guyanese at home and overseas. It is well known that the GPF do not investigate such wanton shootings by its trigger happy members.

Guyana is now effectively a police state in which the police are empowered by a shoot to kill policy. It seems clear that a shoot to kill policy exists because the police who shot him did not intend to ‘disarm’ Kelvin Fraser – the boy was unarmed. They meant to shoot him. Several pellets discharged at close range against an unarmed schoolboy is unjustifiable and therefore mindless murder.

Given this outcome the Police did not arrive at the Patentia Secondary School to protect and serve the harassed girls, but to enforce its power to shoot and kill. When such enforcements and unwarranted shoot to kill policies are enacted against innocent, unarmed citizens they are callous acts of Human Rights violation.

Human Rights Abuse

The issue of Human Rights is more urgent than ever in Guyana, if there is to be any hope of ending the mindless slaughters. Who is accountable for the countless acts of extrajudicial killings by the GPF that go uninvestigated? We believe it is the Head of our now lawless State. Charges made against police never seem to lead to convictions because corruption in Guyana seeps from the government through the legal system. This is our main concern about the charge against Quancy John, the policeman allegedly responsible for Kelvin’s killing. Such is the level of corruption – and given the government’s power over the judiciary – we are not confident about due process.

We want genuine justice for Kelvin. His death must not be in vain. Guyanese live in fear of being shot or otherwise silenced for dissent against the government. But in a democratic society every citizen has the right to challenge the actions of its democratically elected government. However, the operations of the Guyana government, GPF and the GDF (Guyana Defence Force) bear the marks of Apartheid South Africa and must be condemned.

Our protest was the basis to form an organisation or join others for a more collective call to the international community to investigate Human Rights violations in Guyana. We will press said community to acknowledge the Head of State’s involvement in these atrocities by wilfully empowering its security forces – such as the sinisterly named ‘Phantom Squad’ – to shoot to kill. We will seek support from Guyanese across the Diaspora to participate in ongoing, peaceful campaigns that highlight Guyana’s situation to respective international bodies concerned with such instances of Human Rights violations. We would like to thank those who have so far provided their support.

Authorities in Indian administered Kashmir have imposed an indefinite curfew in the summer capital Srinagar, after three more people died in police firing Tuesday.

The provincial government has called in army to help maintain law and order in the city.

A police spokesman said that army will be deployed at sensitive places in the city.

Curfew passes issued by the district authorities earlier, including those of journalists, will not be valid now, an official said.

This measure can lead to temporary media gag in the region

Earlier in the day three people including a 25 year-old-woman and a teenager died in police and paramilitary firing on protests that broke after a teenager missing since last night was recovered dead from a stream.

Residents said that the teenager went missing when police chased a group of stone pelting protestors, and alleged that he either drowned trying to escape police or was beaten to death by them.

Police and paramilitary CRPF used force on funeral processions, and beat up journalists covering the protests injuring a few badly.

With people in the procession unable to resist the heavy teargas and baton charge, the bodies they carried fell to ground. Paramilitary men were seen beating the odd relatives, who tried to cling to the bodies on ground.

Fifteen people, mostly teenagers and youth, have died in police action since June 11, when a tear gas shell killed a teenager, apparently returning home from tuitions.

Police first denied hand in his killing, but the autopsy confirmed use of firearm.

Repeated killing of protestors have lead to continuous unrest in the region in the last few weeks.

Provincial government in Srinagar and the federal government in New Delhi have blamed opposition People’s Democratic Party, Kashmiri separatists, militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba and Pakistan for the street protests over civilian killings in the region