Signalfire

09.10.10

A Cuban anti-riot squad, previously unseen but surprisingly well-equipped and with fixed bayonets, quelled a Pakistani student protest in Matanzas, a video of the event shows.

“Our hand will not tremble in the face of violence,” one Cuban official warns the medical school protesters in the video, broadcast on the Maria Elvira Live program on MegaTV.

The official adds that it’s the second protest by the Pakistanis but gives no dates for either, and says 15 leaders of the latest manifestation were to be flown home immediately.

A statement by the Cuban Embassy in Pakistan on Thursday, after parts of the video were posted on the Internet, confirmed the protests but did not mention the students’ complaints of inadequate education and living conditions.

“Unfortunately, since the first months of 2007 and until now, grave violations of discipline have repeatedly been committed by a small group of students,” the statement said.

“Such violations of discipline have included, among others, disrespect for their professors, disregard to the Cuban authorities, failing to attend class, misbehavior, physical aggressions . . . along with acts of violence,” said the statement, published by the online Pakistan Observer.

The video shows scores of members of the anti-riot squad dressed in black and equipped well for a country where riots are extremely rare — with tear gas guns, riot batons, dogs, face shields and U.S.-styled helmets. Several had bayonets fixed on their AK assault rifles.

About five squad members are seen briefly pushing back a group of a few dozen students, some wearing skull caps. But the video did not show any signs of violence.

WELL PREPARED

It’s not clear if the unit, previously unseen in public, belonged to the police or military, but its deployment signaled that the government is well prepared for street disturbances.

“This is a super well-equipped unit, which we have never seen before but which showed that it was ready for something serious,” said Camilo Loret de Mola, who appeared on the Maria Elvira Salazar program that broadcast the video.

Loret de Mola said the video was received from a Cuban he declined to identify. The program broadcast segments on Wednesday and Thursday.

The protest took place at the Maximo Santiago Haza Medical School in Jagüey Grande, in Matanzas province, where nearly 1,000 Pakistanis have been studying on scholarships arranged after a devastating earthquake hit Pakistan in 2005.

Pakistani media reports indicate that it occurred sometime before March, and that at least five of the students were sent home.

The video, apparently taken on cellphones, shows the riot squad virtually surrounding the campus and posted on rooftops as the students are warned by Rolando Gómez, a foreign ministry official who helped set up the scholarship program.

FUTURE AT STAKE

“Think well about what’s at play here,” Gómez cautions them, because “today is the day that you decide if you want to be doctors or you want to go home.”

El Nuevo Herald phone calls to a number listed for the embassy went unanswered.

Under the scholarship program, about 400 Pakistani students arrived in Cuba in 2007 and another 600 arrived a year later. They were sent to the Matanzas school rather than the better known Latin American School for Medicine near Havana, which has about 30,000 students from 126 countries.

A letter purporting to speak for the 1,000 Pakistani students in Cuba, posted Sept. 17, 2009 on the website Overseas Pakistani Friends, detailed a slew of complaints against Cuban and Pakistani authorities.

“We are very much frustrated and feel our future on stake, as we do not even know whether our degree is valid or not” once they return to Pakistan, the letter notes.

While the scholarship program touted Cuba’s medical education as “world leading,” the letter added, the Matanzas school “by no definitions of the word can be called a world leading university.”

The converted Spanish-language school lacks facilities such as a “library, proper laboratory, no specimens (The dead bodies etc) are available for the dissection, and even the nearest hospital is far away from our school.

“How can one think of a medical school without any hospital attached?” the letter asked.

10 September
Riot police are reported to be protecting the premises of Chitungwiza’s municipality from angry flea market vendors whose stalls were demolished in a clampdown that started last week. The heavily equipped riot squad was deployed Wednesday morning after a truckload of people, suspected to be the flea market vendors, drove by the offices chanting intimidating slogans aimed at the town clerk Godfrey Tanyanyiwa.
The vendors assaulted the Mayor and several senior council members soon after the demolitions last week Tuesday. It was feared that they were planning another attack and officials were moved to vacate the municipal buildings and send the workers home.
Personal bodyguards are reported to have been hired for the town clerk Tanyanyiwa after last week’s incident. This has further strained relations between top officials and municipal workers because the municipality is short of money and many workers are complaining that they have not been paid.
Simbarashe Moyo, chairperson of the Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA), compared last week’s demolitions to “Operation Murambatsvina”, when nearly one million innocent Zimbabweans were displaced after the government bulldozed their homes and businesses back in 2005.
The Chitungwiza council said that the stalls had been erected at undesignated sites but Moyo explained: “These people were trying to find home grown solutions to the problem of unemployment, which is over 90%, without resorting to any illegal means. Their property was destroyed and they were left with no option.”
Moyo said the Chitungwiza council had set aside land for the purpose of establishing a flea market so that they could collect some revenue, but had not built anything there. “The vendors could not be expected to wait while their families starved. It was an organized response to a crisis. You can understand their anger,” he added.
Chitungwiza Mayor Philemon Chipiyo told the press on Wednesday that he had been out of the office and did not know enough about the current situation to comment. He is quoted as saying he “wouldn’t want to engage in gossip” and he referred reporters to the town clerk.

Tens of traders clashed with police in Nairobi’s Muthurwa Market after a dawn demolition of their kioks in the area.

The hawkers arrived on Friday morning to find their kiosks flattened by council Askaris who had staged the exercise past midnight on Thursday.

In anger, the traders blocked a section of Nairobi’s Landhies Road and stoned motorists before police arrived and dispersed them. This also affected businesses in and around the market.

Traffic flow on some roads was affected in the melee that ensued.

The team of anti-riot officers used several teargas canisters and live bullets to disperse the hawkers who claimed they had been left with no place to operate.

Council officials said the demolition was conducted to enable easy operations there. An official, Robert Keriago said several illegal structures had been erected within the market hence blocking operations.

Seek approval

“They do not seek the approval of the council before constructing the structures. They are all illegal,” he said on the phone.

Central deputy OCPD Tom Atuti said none had been injured in the operation adding they would not allow the hawkers to disrupt business there.

The demolition came as the Cabinet cleared the way for the demolition of old council houses to pave the way for the construction of low-cost modern units.

The Cabinet approved the ‘re-development’ of the old local authority estates in a move expected to provide more affordable housing units for sale and rental in various cities and towns.

It further approved the development of multi-storey parking facilities, a move expected to ease parking pressure and congestion in urban areas.

They also resolved to improve the manner in which solid waste is managed in the country as this will create opportunities for employment and energy generation.

In Nairobi, at least 25 estates have been earmarked for demolition.

Estates likely to be affected include Muthurwa, Shauri Moyo, Bahati, Mbotela, Ziwani, Makongeni and Jericho.

Police have raided buildings across Germany to search for evidence that the country’s largest neo-Nazi group is an “aggressive and combative” threat to democracy.

Senior interior ministry officials have confirmed that the sweep of 30 buildings is an investigation into whether the Aid Organisation for National Political Victims and their Relatives (HNG) should be banned.

“Today’s searches will show whether our suspicions are confirmed and the HNG is positioned against constitutional order in an aggressively violent manner,” Klaus-Dieter Fritsche , an interior minister said in Germany’s capital Berlin.

“Our findings bring us nearer to the suspicion that the HNG’s main goal is to network and strengthen the mainly fragmented neo-Nazi scene beyond trench warfare.”

The 600-strong far-right group is accused of keeping in contact with imprisoned Nazis to strengthen extremist ideology and “encourage them to commit further crimes”.

“Imprisoned comrades are not only kept within the group while in jail, but also encouraged to ‘fight on against the system’,” said Mr Fritsche.

In March 2009, the government banned a neo-Nazi organization, Heimattreue Deutsche Jugend, which sought to attract youths to an anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant ideology under the guise of activities such as summer camps and outings.

Police had uncovered swastikas, black-clad youngsters and extremist lyrics during a raid on one of the HDJ’s camping sites on the Baltic Sea coast of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state.

Germany has grappled with the proliferation of anti- immigrant and extremist groups, underscored by regional state election victories of the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany.

Belarusian police have arrested six anarchist activists on suspicion of involvement in Monday’s fire-bomb attack on the Russian embassy in Minsk, BelaPAN reports.

Ihar Bahachak, Valery Khotsin, Syarhey Slyusar, Mikalay Dzyadok, Alyaksey Zhynhyarowski and Alyaksandr Frantskevich were arrested in a police raid on an apartment in Minsk at about 6 a.m. on September 3, reported the news site belarus.indymedia.org.

The police searched the apartment and seized five computers, two laptops, mobile phones, cash, posters and magazines, according to the site.

The six young men were taken to the interior ministry’s organized crime prevention department for interrogation and then placed in the detention center on Akrestsina Street.

The indymedia site described the arrested men as “civil society activists who participate in various social campaigns aimed at the protection of human rights and free access to information.”

Belarus’ law-enforcement agencies have released no official information on the arrest.

Under regulations, a person may be detained without being charged for 72 hours. A prosecutor has the right to extend the detention to 10 days.

September 06, 2010

Buol, Central Sulawesi. New evidence of alleged human rights abuses by Indonesian security forces in Buol, Central Sulawesi, has emerged.

Amnesty International has called for the government to establish a fact-finding team after police officers opened fire on protesters, killing eight and injuring 28 others.

The demonstrators were protesting against the death of motorcycle taxi driver Kasmir Timumun police custody. Police claim he hung himself though this is disputed by the man’s family, who allege Kasmir’s body bore the marks of torture.

State news agency Antara reported on Monday that three shooting victims — Lubis, 33, who suffered a gunshot wound to his right elbow; Sudirman, 31, who was injured in his left thigh; and Sutomo, 35, who was wounded in his left cheek — had returned to Buol Hospital for treatment to their injuries.

Sudirman said police had been forced to leave the hospital where he was undergoing treatment to his injuries on Sept. 2 and had witnessed officers threatening other patients with their guns.

“I was traumatized and therefore I ran away and went home,” said Sudirman, from Leok Dua.

He said that he had returned home for two days but his condition continued to deteriorate so he had decided to return to the hospital.

Lubis, a farmer, told a similar story, saying he had seen several people running out of the hospital as several police officers went on a rampage inside.

“I was traumatized,” Lubis said.

Sudirman and Lubis said that they were shot riding motorcycles on the edges of the clash between Buol residents and police.

Students from different political affiliations are staging a huge protest at one of India’s top universities.

They are angry over plans at Jadavpur University – renowned for its engineering and science faculties – to install a closed-circuit TV network.

The students have started a “gherao” (encirclement) of the office of the university’s vice-chancellor, registrar and some senior officials.

They have been confined to their offices for more than 24 hours.

“This is a clear infringement of our freedoms. We are not terrorists,” said Lokeswari Dasgupta, of the United Students Democratic Forum, which is leading the protests at the Calcutta university.

University authorities do not admit publicly that Maoist activities in the Jadavpur campus is the cause for planning a CCTV network.

But unofficially they say that a recent press conference held by a Maoist leader in the university premises – at a time when the police was trying to arrest her – may have provoked the authorities to improve the security arrangements.

Maoist leader Debolina Ghosh was a former student at Jadavpur University and she dared the police to arrest her in the university during the press conference.

But the students say the funds to be spent on the 16 proposed CCTVs in the Jadavpur campus are a “complete waste”.

“Why should they spend two million rupees ($42,991) on CCTVs when we get terrible food in hostels, have serious problems in getting drinking water and are not provided wi-fi internet connection in the campus?,” asked Palash Ghosh, the general secretary of the engineering department of the university.

University Vice-chancellor Pradip Ghosh is unwilling to back down, despite being confined to his office for a day.

“The students are unnecessarily agitated over an issue which does not fall within their jurisdiction. CCTVs are absolutely essential for the security of the campus and in a month they will be installed at the gates and other strategic locations,” he said.

The students are also protesting against a code of conduct that the university authorities is seeking to impose.

Among other points, the code makes it obligatory for students to show their identity cards at the gates while entering the campus – and for visitors to leave the university premises by 9pm.

Jadavpur University has been a hotbed of left wing radical activity since Maoism first took roots in West Bengal in the 1970s.

But despite its radical traditions, it has been acknowledged as a “centre of excellence” and is closely linked to India’s nuclear programme.

Raipur, Sep 8 (IANS) Seven Maoist guerrillas, including six women, were arrested with arms and ammunition in Chhattisgarh Wednesday for killing five security personnel in an ambush last month, police said.

The seven, amongst the dozens of Maoists wanted for the Aug 29 killing of five security personnel in Kanker, were arrested from a forest in the district that is part of the 40,000 sq km Bastar region along with Dantewada, Bijapur, Bastar and Narayanpur districts.

“We had been tracking the Maoists for several days and finally they were trapped today. Six of the seven Maoists apprehended were females and had been involved in an ambush on a joint patrolling party in Kanker district’s Bhuski village Aug 29, in which five jawans were martyred,” Ajay Yadav, Kanker district superintendent of police, told IANS over phone.

The arrested rebels also included minors. Six guns and some detonators were recovered from them.

Lakhan Patle, sub-divisional officer of police (SDOP) of Bhanupratappur where the Maoists were arrested, said a few of the arrested were minors.

“We have got vital leads from the arrested rebels about other Maoists who were involved in Aug 29 attack. More Maoists will be arrested soon,” said Patle.

About 100 Maoists had ambushed a patrol drawn from the Border Security Force (BSF), district force (DF) and special police officers (SPOs) in Bhuski village in Kanker district, 250 km from here.

Amongst the five killed were three BSF troopers.

NEW DELHI: In yet another sign of increasing Chinese influence in India’s neighbourhood, Nepal is detaining refugees from China’s Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) and handing them back to Chinese authorities.

Tibetan agencies in Kathmandu have brought the matter to the notice of the Indian embassy in Kathmandu but highly placed government sources said New Delhi is not inclined to take up the matter officially with Nepal.

According to information available with government agencies, Nepal intensified patrolling along its border with China in June and since then, has been regularly handing over Tibetan refugees, who were on their way to India, back to Chinese authorities. While Indian officials admitted this was another manifestation of China’s influence in Nepal, they said they had no option but to convey to the Tibetans that it may not be possible for India to intervene in the matter.

“The Indian embassy as well as some other embassies in Kathmandu are aware of the matter. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is trying to help us. We faced a similar situation in 2003 but it was sorted out. However, it started all over again in June this year,” Tibetan Refugee Welfare Office secretary in Kathmandu Trinlay Gyatso told TOI.

The first of such incidents was reported in June when 33 Tibetans who had crossed over into Nepal were caught and handed over to the Chinese. These refugees were on their way to India and by handing them over to China, Nepal violated its agreement with UNHCR to allow safe passage to Tibetan refugees to India. According to the human right groups active in Nepal, the three were jailed by Chinese authorities and they continue to languish there.

While New Delhi has its hands full dealing with the Maoist-instigated resentment in Nepal, China has quietly worked its way up not just within the Nepal establishment but also among its people with Chinese study centres mushrooming all over the country. China recently pledged $1.5 million to Nepal to check what it calls anti-China activities by Tibetans.

9 September 2010

Prague, Sept 8 (CTK) – The police registered 265 crimes with an extremist motive in the 10.5 million Czech Republic last year, which was 0.07 percent of all crimes and 48 more than in 2008, according to a document the Chamber of Deputies defence and security committee discussed yesterday.

The police cleared up 186 crimes last year, or 60 more than in 2008. A total of 293 people were prosecuted, which was about 100 more than in 2008, and courts convicted 103 people of racially motivated crimes.

Deputy Interior Minister Zdenek Salivar said “the extremist scene is on the defensive” now.

He said that is why rightist extremists have moderated their rhetoric. The militant wing is now trying to change the neo-Nazi label and focuses on environmental themes.

Salivar said the abolition of the Workers’ Party (DS) last year was a step of European importance.

The party, however, practically continues its acitivities under a new name, the Workers’ Party of Social Justice (DSSS).

The number of neo-Nazi concerts roughly halved to 18 last year, and only one sole was held after last June’s raid on rightist extremists, the report says.

The concerts have been moved abroad, mainly to Poland and Slovakia, Police President Oldrich Martinu said.

He said the concerts were a significant source of money for the extremist groups.

The police inspection also checked six cases on suspicion of police involvement in criminal activity with an extremist subtext last year.

The suspicion was not proved in three of them, another two continue to be checked and one case ended in a disciplinary punishment.

A total of 24 police members were involved in the cases, the report said.

It said the military police investigated ten cases, involving 12 soldiers.

Salivar said everyone who seeks a job with security corps is checked for extremism now.

Rajshahi, Sep 9 (bdnews24.com) — A high-profile leader of banned extremist political outfit – Purba Bangla Communist Party (ML Lalpataka) – was killed in an alleged ‘shootout’ with RAB, in the small hours of Thursday, in Rajshahi.

Elite force Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) claimed that with the death of Ratan alias Titas, 38, who was also the commander of the party’s Rajshai zone, an era of Lal Pataka was brought to an end.

The claimed shootout took place at Thandar Para village under Bagmara Upazila at about 1am.

A RAB-5 press release said the Bagmara camp intelligence team of the agency had learnt that top leaders of the banned party were meeting the zonal leaders, aiming at reformation of the party. The party was without direction after the death of its former Rajshahi commander Elahi Box Mithu, on Aug 25 in another ‘shootout’.

After being tipped off, a RAB-5 team took up position at a Thandar Para village mango-orchard at about 1am.

Suspecting the presence of RAB, the extremists tried to flee. When the RAB personnel chased the alleged extremists they started firing at the law enforcers, the release claimed.

RAB personnel were then also compelled to fire back to defend themselves. The body of Titas was found as his companions escaped after a 20-minute gunfight, RAB claimed.

Police recovered a locally made single-shooter gun, a foreign-made pistol, a magazine, five rounds of bullets, a large machete, a dagger and some party leaflets.

According to RAB, Titas had at least 10 murder cases, including a police killing case, and some other cases against him.

Sep 8th

NEW YORK: The Zambian police routinely engage in cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, including torture, to extract confessions, Human Rights Watch said today. The government should investigate, discipline those found to be implicated, and train officers to interrogate suspects without coercion, Human Rights Watch said.

Human Rights Watch, the Prisons Care and Counselling Association, and the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa interviewed prisoners at six prisons throughout Zambia’s central corridor. They described what happened to them in police custody, before they were transferred to prison. Dozens of detainees said they had been beaten with metal bars, hammers, broom handles, police batons, sticks, or even electrified rods. Many said they had been bound first and hung upside down. Female detainees reported that police officers tried to coerce sex in exchange for their release.

“Hanging suspects from the ceiling and beating them to coerce confessions is routine police practice in Zambia,” said Rona Peligal, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The government needs to call an immediate halt to police abuse, investigate violations, and strengthen grievance mechanisms.”

These reports of physical abuse of men, women, and children held in police custody indicate a widespread and systematic pattern of brutality, in some cases rising to the level of torture, Human Rights Watch said.

Several former police detainees still bore the scars from the abuse at the time of their interviews; many reported suffering serious long-term health consequences. Inmates showed researchers their misshapen fingers – a result of being smashed by hammers and iron bats – and scars on their feet and hands resulting from beatings with police batons. Two inmates had lost their vision as a result of blows to the head, while others complained of chronic pain and swelling resulting from repeated beatings to their legs without subsequent medical treatment.

“I’m having some problems as a result of my torture,” one detainee abused in police custody reported. “I can’t feel my hands anymore.”

The interviews were conducted by Human Rights Watch, the Prisons Care and Counselling Association, and the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa as part of research into the health conditions in six Zambian prisons, between September 2009 and February 2010.

No Response From Officials

Human Rights Watch presented their findings and concerns in letters to the minister of home affairs and the inspector general of police on June 25, 2010, and again requested a response on August 31, but received no response. The letters called on government authorities to investigate the brutality against detainees in police custody, and to discipline immediately all officers found to have used force inappropriately against suspects. The letters also called on the police authority to institute special training sessions for police officers on non-coercive methods of interrogation, and to seek increased funding for the authority charged with investigating abuses.

Little Recourse

Despite the prevalence of brutal abuse, grievance mechanisms are insufficient, the researchers found. In 2009, work by the Police Public Complaints Authority, which was created to receive and adjudicate complaints against the police, led to settlement or punishment in only 27 of its 245 cases.

The United States Department of State reported that many complainants dropped their complaints after direct intervention by the police implicated in the abuse, either through intimidation or compensation to avoid an investigation. Yet many cases also went unreported due to ignorance of the existence of the authority or fear of retribution. The Zambian Human Rights Commission has noted that inadequate funding, personnel and transport, and resistance by the police have contributed to the authority’s ineffectiveness.

“The violent abuse experienced by suspects in police custody in Zambia violates both the rights of the detainees and Zambia’s national, regional, and international law commitments,” Peligal said. “All of this treatment is prohibited, and much of it would clearly constitute torture.”

Violates International, Regional Law

Under international human rights law, people in detention retain their fundamental human rights aside from their liberty. The most fundamental protection for detainees is the absolute prohibition on inhuman and degrading treatment and torture. The prohibition is a well-established norm of international and regional law, by which Zambia is bound, and is also reflected in the Zambian Constitution, and in several of the human rights treaties to which Zambia is a party. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention Against Torture prohibit torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment without exception. The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights also prohibits “all forms of exploitation and degradation,” including slavery, torture, and cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment and treatment.

“Using force to extract confessions is no way to achieve justice,” Peligal said. “It doesn’t work and it violates Zambians’ rights. The government needs to call an immediate halt, train police to interrogate suspects properly, and punish violators.”

Selected Accounts From Prisoners About Treatment in Police Custody

“When I was in police custody, they beat me, a torture I have never experienced in my lifetime. They beat me, undressed me, whipped me. They put handcuffs on me so hard that the blood couldn’t flow. They turned me upside down and hung me upside down, with a steel cord between my legs. They swung me and beat me. They saw I was crying and screaming and put a cloth in my mouth to suffocate me. I fainted – I couldn’t handle the pain. They were abusing me with their language, calling me a prostitute. They put me somewhere where I couldn’t talk to anyone. They were trying to get me to say something -I don’t know. They were just torturing me for four days, beating me. After, there was lots of blood where I was beaten. My hands were green and swelling.

They hit me on my ears and face with a metal band. There were scratches on my face. They said, ‘You have to give us information about who had killed the person.’ They tried to find out who had killed the person – I didn’t know. The police are supposed to investigate a case, not to torture.

After, they were scared to take me to a doctor because I still had injuries. They only took me after one month, when the swelling was down. When I went to the doctor, the police followed me into the doctor’s room and listened to me. The police told the doctor that I was lying. ‘Just a simple torture that she was given, not much,’ he said.”

- Tandiwe, 27, female detainee, Lusaka Central Prison

“I [was arrested for] aggravated robbery. In these cases they treat the subject as if the suspect is already guilty. My hands were cuffed for four days and nights. They passed a metal bar between my hands and legs and hung me between two tables and beat me with the police baton. They mostly beat my low back, under my feet and on top of my feet and the hands and the head. There were almost six guys -they were forcing me to accept a situation I never knew….Words were put in my mouth. They introduced men to me and told me they were my gang members. In fear of pain I accepted. Brought here [to prison], I was told I am jointly charged with them. I know from civics class that I was supposed to go to court and get a lawyer, but none of that happened.

I was tortured twice a day for five days. Breakfast is torture; lunch is torture. They used electrified rods too. I’m not certain where they were applied. I can’t really remember everything. Pictures come into my mind. Sometimes I feel like committing suicide, or like this was all my fault. That I will be rejected by my family. Sometimes I feel that my hopes and dreams are shattered. Sometimes I feel that it is the end of the world.”

- Titus, 21, male detainee, Mumbwa Prison

“They arrested and they beat me, asking questions. They beat me up when I said I didn’t know anything. They said, ‘we want you to say this, then we will let you go.’ They didn’t sexually abuse me, but they asked me to have sex with them. They said they would release me if I did, and I said no.”

- Gladys, 35, female detainee, Lusaka Central Prison

“I was arrested…for burglary. I spent 11 days in the police station. While I was held by the police I was beaten on my forearms with an iron bar. I have scars on my hands and forearms. The bar was the width of a man’s index and middle finger, three feet long. They beat me every day, trying to force me to confess. They used a short wood baton to beat me on the waist, the width of a man’s forearm. I needed medical care but I didn’t have the opportunity….When I sit for a long time, I feel pain.”

- Peter, 18, juvenile detainee, Choma Prison

“I was beaten by the police when I was in police custody. They put my arms under my knees and clasped my hands in front of my knee. After cuffing me, I was beaten with a short baton. My feet were aching and swelling. They beat me on my feet. I received no medical treatment after the police beat me. I still have a problem with my leg-when I walk too much, it swells.”

- Clive, 21, male detainee, Mwembeshi Prison

Mozambican state radio says six people have been arrested, accused of incitement for sending cell phone messages calling for protests over high food, water and electricity prices.

Monday’s radio report says they were arrested a day earlier in Nampula for trying to spread the protests to that northern province. While Nampula has seen no unrest, protests last week in the capital, Maputo, turned violent. At least 10 people were killed in clashes with police.

Maputo was calm over the weekend. Monday, many people were staying home for fear of more violence. Police reported finding a few burning tires in the streets but no protesters at the roadblocks.

No one has claimed responsibility for organizing the protests sparked by rises in the government-set price of bread, water and electricity.

Sep 7, 2010
BEIJING – TWO Tibetan journalists have been arrested in north-western China after writing about a government crackdown on 2008 ethnic unrest in Tibet, a press freedom group said on Tuesday.

The writers, identified as Buddha and Kalsang Jinpa, were taken into police custody in Qinghai province in June and July respectively, and were accused of ‘separatism,’ the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said in a statement.

It said the arrests bring the number of Tibetan journalists and writers jailed in China to 15, ‘almost half the number of journalists detained in China’ for their writings.

At least another 50 Tibetans are in custody for sending information abroad, the group said, without elaborating.

‘There has been no let-up in these arrests since March 2008 and their effect is to drastically curtail the ability of Tibetan intellectuals to make their voices heard,’ the group said, while demanding the pair’s release.

The India-based Tibet Post International said the two writers were arrested after publishing their articles outside China. Police in Xining, the capital of Qinghai province, denied any knowledge of the matter when contacted by AFP. — AFP

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.

SRINAGAR, India — Tens of thousands of troops enforced a rigid curfew in India’s portion of Kashmir on Tuesday, wary of violent demonstrations after the deaths of four protesters who were shot dead by security forces.

The mostly Muslim Kashmir region has been roiled by anti-government demonstrations and clashes between protesters and government forces for the past three months. Monday’s deaths brought to 69 the number of people killed in the civil unrest against rule from predominantly Hindu India.

The streets of Srinagar, Indian-held Kashmir’s main city, and other towns were deserted Tuesday with soldiers in riot gear turning out in full force.

On Monday, four people, including two teenage boys, were killed when security forces fired live ammunition into crowds to disperse rock-throwing protesters in Palhalan, a village north of Srinagar, police said.

That led to more protests, with local residents saying there was no clash and that soldiers opened fire on a peaceful protest without provocation.

Anti-India sentiment runs deep in Kashmir, which is divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both in its entirety. Protesters reject Indian sovereignty over Kashmir and want independence, or a merger with predominantly Muslim Pakistan.

The recent unrest is reminiscent of the late 1980s, when protests against New Delhi’s rule sparked an armed conflict that has killed more than 68,000 people, mostly civilians.

The state government ordered a probe into Monday’s shooting. In the past, human rights groups have denounced such investigations as weak moves to calm public anger.

Demonstrations against Indian rule continued until early Tuesday with tens of thousand of Kashmiris chanting, “Go India, go back” and “We want freedom.” Angry protesters attacked police stations with rocks and petrol bombs, a police officer said.

Troops fired warning shots and tear gas to quell the protests, he said. At least 14 people were wounded in the clashes. The police officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.

Armoured vehicles patrolled the streets Tuesday and government forces used barbed-wire barricades to seal off public squares and neighbourhoods in Srinagar.

AFP
Police in Mozambique have arrested 286 people for violent protests against rising prices that left 13 dead and more than 400 injured during three days of unrest last week, authorities said on Tuesday.

Sixty-six stores were also looted and three banks vandalised during the unrest, which paralysed the capital Maputo on Wednesday and Thursday and spread to several other cities in the centre and north, national police said in a statement.

“This unrest, characterised by a strong dose of violence, was convened via electronic text messages in circulation on the mobile networks,” the statement said.

“The majority of those responsible for these acts were young people of both sexes, the unemployed, individuals who appeared to have consumed alcohol and informal vendors.”

The statement did not specify what charges had been brought against the detainees. National police spokesman Pedro Cossa could not immediately be reached by telephone.

The riots erupted as demonstrators took to the streets in poor neighbourhoods around Maputo and in several provincial capitals to protest sharp increases in the price of food, fuel and other basic necessities.

Clashes erupted between protesters and police, who in some cases used live ammunition to disperse demonstrators burning tyres and cars to block major roads.

Five police were among the 403 people injured in the clashes, the statement said.

The demonstrations were sparked by text messages calling on the public to protest new increases in the price of bread, electricity and other essentials.

The import-dependent country has seen prices rise sharply in recent months as the Mozambican currency, the metical, has fallen 43 per cent against the South African rand since this time last year.

2010-09-04
MAPUTO, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) — Riots against price rises spread to the central province of Manica in Mozambique on Friday.

Radio Mozambique said that thousands of young people in the province were dispersed by riot police when they were trying to erect barricades on the main streets of the provincial capital Chimoio.

According to the radio and the TVM, groups of people aged between 13 and 28 took to the streets to protest against the rising prices.

The TVM showed pictures of people being chased by the riot police also in the central port city of Beira.

The man in charge of the riot police told the TVM that “It is a small group which is trying to attract other people to do what is happening in Maputo and Matola cities.”

“We are going to contain these demonstrations,” he said, without identifying himself.

There are no reports of casualties in Chimoio, according to Radio Mozambique.

Life in Maputo and Matola relatively returned to normal on Friday, despite threats to resume the industrial action.

The Mozambican government has been calling on the people to be calm and return to work after a two-day rioting in the two cities.

The riot police and the military are still patrolling the streets of Maputo and Matola.

The riots have cost the government 3.3 million U.S. dollars. Seven people were killed and 288 others injured in the riots.

September 4

MAPUTO, Mozambique (AP) – Mozambican state radio says police clashed overnight with rioters near the capital’s airport.

No injuries were reported in Friday night’s unrest, which followed two days’ of riots over the cost of living that left at least 10 people dead. The radio says 20 people were arrested Friday, and that calm was restored by Saturday morning.

Amid rising food prices worldwide, Mozambicans are protesting increases in the costs of bread as well as of fuel and water set by their government. Authorities are struggling to contain the violence in the southeastern African nation where more than half the population lives in poverty.

Ten people were killed amid further rioting in Mozambique, as police fired rubber bullets and teargas at demonstrators.

03 Sep 2010

A 30 per cent rise in the price of bread has caused widespread anger in one of the world’s poorest countries, but the government has said it is helpless in the face of soaring global wheat prices.

Drought and fires in Russia, which had been the world’s No. 3 wheat exporter, and a decision by the Russian government to extend a grain export ban until late 2011, have helped to boost benchmark US wheat prices by more than 25 per cent this year.

“Riots in Mozambique may just be a start as drought is expected to worsen in east Africa and dry heat reduces harvests in the U.S. and Russia,” investment bank Fairfax said in a research note.

On the opposite side of Africa, in Cameroon, the government is threatening to close down businesses found breaking price agreements on food staples after consumer groups warned that recent market price hikes could trigger unrest.

After initial calm in Mozambique’s capital Maputo, police said protesters began looting in the city’s outskirts.

Protests also broke out in the central town of Chimoio, 760 km (475 miles) north of Maputo, and at least six people were hurt after police opened fire on protesters, according to reports.

“Two of the wounded are in serious condition,” Teresa Inacio, a nurse at the Chimoio provincial hospital, told Lusa.

The number of deaths in the disturbances that broke out on Wednesday rose to 10 and the number of injuries to 443, according Mozambique’s Health Minister Ivo Garrido.

The dead included two children killed when police fired on protesters who blocked streets, set tyres alight and looted stores in the deadliest riots to hit the southern African country of 23 million since 2008.

Sep 4

“Three police were injured when protesters threw stones at them. When we tried to stop them some people threw stones and other objects at police,” said police spokesman Arnaldo Chefo.

Ten people were killed and more than 440 injured in violence since Wednesday sparked by spiralling food prices. Police fired rubber bullets and live ammunition to control demonstrators.

Police said no incidents of unrest were reported overnight.

“The situation remained calm during the night. There were no deaths and no injuries, said Belmiro Muradiwa, the provincial spokesman for the central Manica province.

The unrest has interrrupted fuel supply in Maputo and long lines have formed outside fuel stations, as people scramble to fill up their cars.

Prices hike for several essential foodstuffs including bread were implemented on September 1 and the government said this week the increases were “irreversible.”

Mozambique police kept a close watch over the capital Maputo on Saturday after three days of riots over food and fuel price hikes that left ten people dead.

No new cases of unrest had been reported since last night, when three police officers were injured in clashes with demonstrators, police officials said. “Three police were injured when protesters threw stones at them. When we tried to stop them some people threw stones and other objects at police,” said police spokesman Arnaldo Chefo.

Ten people were killed and more than 440 injured in violence since Wednesday sparked by spiralling food prices. Police fired rubber bullets and live ammunition to control demonstrators.

The Red Cross, which has been monitoring the demonstrations since they started, said no fresh incidents of unrest had been reported.

“We have no incidents reported since yesterday,” said Americo Ubisse, the organisation’s spokesman in Maputo.

“Everything is fine, the situation is still under control,” he added.

The Red Cross also said Chomoio in the centre part of the country was quiet, following fresh skirmishes on Friday night.

In markets around the city people went about their usual business, with shops re-opened and buzzing with customers.

But the impact of the riots was still evident everywhere in the city, with charred debris scattered across the streets and blockades being removed by the police.

The unrest interrupted fuel supplies in Maputo and long lines formed outside fuel stations, as people scrambled to fill up their cars.

Price hikes for several essential foodstuffs including bread were implemented on September 1 and the government said this week the increases were “irreversible.”

“It is not just bread. So many things have got too expensive here in Mozambique. Electricity went up, water and rice,” said Joao Francisco Chirindze, a carpenter.

Chirindze said the cost of living was too high for many people. He said his household expenses amounted to between 5,000 and 7,000 meticals (140 and 190 dollars, 100 and 150 euros) a month, more than twice his salary.

He said he supplemented his wages by doing odd jobs on the side, helped by the money brought in by his wife from selling potatoes.

“The metical is down right now, it doesn’t have the same value it used to. The dollar and the South African rand have gone up a lot. Everything is difficult to buy,” he lamented.

According to the United Nations, more than half the 22 million Mozambican population survives on less than one dollar a day.

“The customers are complaining, they do not want to accept the price of six meticals for bread. They say it is very expensive,” said Alcido Manjate, a bread vendor from Benfica, a poor neighbourhood outside Maputo.

The violence was the worst in Mozambique since 2008, when six people were killed in protests against a public transport fare increase.

The southern African country which lies on the Indian Ocean coast relies on neighbouring South Africa for many goods, while a large number of Mozambicans work in South African mines.

(AFP)

MAPUTO — Mozambique police were on alert on Sunday after days of riots over food prices, as calls for renewed protests were circulated via mobile phone text messages.

While calm prevailed in capital Maputo after the recent unrest, the anonymous messages urged people to resume demonstrations on Monday.

“We are prepared, in terms of the force that is on the ground to control the situation. We will continue to monitor the situation,” said Silvia Mahumane, a Maputo police spokeswoman.

“The situation is calm now. There were no incidents reported in connection with the unrest,” Mahumane said.

On Wednesday, riots erupted in Maputo and surrounding areas as people blocked the roads with burning tyres, in protest at high fuel and food prices.

Rioting spread to several towns in central parts of the country, resulting is deadly clashes with the police.

Ten people were left dead and over 400 injured before an uneasy calm returned on Saturday.

“Tomorrow we will take preventative measures so that we are not taken by surprise if violence starts again,” said Americo Ubisse, who heads the Red Cross operation in the country.

“Even today teams are ready,” he added.

On Saturday, markets and shops around the city re-opened for the first time as people rushed to stock up on food commodities.

In 2008, similar riots paralysed the poor southern African country where six people were killed in protests against a public transport fare increase.

5 Sep

Yet another street festival in central Hamburg ended in fighting between hundreds of rioters and more than 2,300 police on Saturday evening.

The peaceful and friendly festival lasted all afternoon, with stands and music filling the streets of the Schanzenviertel area, only overshadowed by the expectation of a descent into rioting.

The atmosphere remained relaxed until darkness at around 8 pm, when the huge police presence, complete with water cannon, became obvious around the access roads into the area around the squatted building known as Rote Flora.

Critics say that such a show of force – with officers drawn from around the country – acts as a provocative challenge to potential rioters.

But Christoph Alhaus, Hamburg’s new mayor and former interior minister with responsibility for such decisions, along with his successor in that office, Heino Vahldieck, said the police would act decisively against any sign of riot.

By 9:30 pm the area around the Rota Flora was tense and the streets were empty of anyone other than people holding beer bottles – and the police.

This year the pubs and restaurants in the immediate area were not only closed but largely barricaded.

But it seems the mood has changed – particularly after rioters this May smashed up local shops rather than the banks and drug stores. Some closed up bars bore signs saying, “Closed against violence.”

Some locals were even seen actively trying to prevent the rioting – throwing buckets of water on burning piles of rubbish and pulling apart barricades.

But by 11 pm the erection of a barricade on one street attracted the attention of the police, who were then showered with stones, bottles and some fireworks.

They retaliated with baton charges and water cannons for around two hours, eventually taking control of the streets around Rota Flora and pushing the rioters out of the area.

Several arrests were made, with numbers not yet clear, while at least one police officer and a number of anarchists were injured.

Maputo — Rioting on Friday in the central Mozambican city of Chimoio caused injuries to six people and led to 68 arrests, according to a report in Saturday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”.

The rioters in Chimoio were clearly copying the disturbances in Maputo and Matola on Wednesday and Thursday, where protests over rising prices became a pretext for the looting of shops and warehouses.

The Chimoio rioting was centred on the city’s informal markets, and the main purpose of the rioters seemed to be to grab the goods of the vendors. In the worst hit area, the Fernando Manyanga market, rioters set two stalls and one house on fire.

Traffic along the main road to Zimbabwe was temporarily interrupted, because rioters erected barricades. A truck and a light vehicle that attempted to break through the barricades were stoned, and their windows were smashed. Other roads out of the city were blocked for two hours, but no attacks on vehicles were reported.

Shops, banks, schools and other institutions closed for the day for fear of looting. In government buildings, the staff were sent home so that they could protect their own property. Passenger transport came to a standstill, and even after the police brought the situation under control, traffic remained thin.

Two of those hit by police bullets were children. Those who were seriously injured in the clashes are undergoing medical care in the Manica Provincial Hospital in Chimoio.

One of those detained was Tanger Maria de Jesus, who is a member of the National Council of the opposition Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM). According to “Noticias”, the police picked him up on the grounds that the previous day he had been mobilising people to participate in the riot.

But the MDM General Secretary, Ismael Mussa, told AIM on Saturday that this was completely untrue. No charges were laid against Tanger de Jesus, and the police released him unconditionally later in the day.

According to the Manica provincial governor, Ana Comoane, speaking at a press conference, there were also minor incidents in the other two significant urban centres in the province, Manica Town and Gondola. She claimed that the police brought these disturbances speedily under control.

September 5, 2010

An intelligence agency of police suspects possible unrest before Eid over wages in 110 garment factories in the capital as well as in Savar, Narayanganj and Gazipur.

The government had already requested all RMG factory owners to pay their employees within September 7 to avert any untoward incidents sparked by disgruntled employees.

The Special Branch (SB) of Police submitted a list containing names of the factories at a meeting on ‘Eid Security’ held at Police Headquarters yesterday, sources said. There are around 6,500 garment factories in Bangladesh.

“It is a list of possible organisations where unpleasantness might occur, though the figures may change,” said Hassan Mahmood Khandker, inspector general of police (IGP).

According to sources, police high-ups, including the IGP, have spoken to the leaders of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) after the meeting to seek their cooperation in this regard.

“We don’t want any unpleasant incident to take place over wages and won’t spare those who don’t pay before Eid,” warned the IGP, adding, “Everyone should follow the directives from the labour ministry and pay the workers by September.”

The meeting also discussed the issue regarding the safety of homebound people from extortionists as well as other kinds of harassers.

Police forces across the country have been instructed to take adequate measures to ensure safety of the travelers, said the IGP.

The home minister also visited a number of market places and found the security to be satisfactory as police was present to prevent crimes like extortion or mugging from occurring, he added.

Chaired by the IGP, the meeting was attended by Zaved Patwary, additional IGP and chief of SB, Shamsuddoha Khandaker, additional IGP (Finance); Muhammad Aminul Islam, additional IGP (Training); AKM Shahidul Hoque, Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner and Md Mukhlesur Rahman director general of Rapid Action Battalion, among others.

Government employees close schools, hospitals and challenge President Jacob Zuma and ANC.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — A nationwide strike by 1.3 million government workers — now in its third week — has brought to a standstill many of South Africa’s schools and hospitals.

The strike of public sector workers, including teachers, nurses, immigration officers and most other government employees, is for higher wages and benefits and threatens to become the most serious work stoppage since the end of apartheid in 1994.

The strike is also a battle for the political high ground in the country.

Government hospitals across the country are closed or operating with skeleton staffs including 3,000 military medical officers deployed to strategic hospitals. Several patients have died because of the reduced medical care, according to local news reports.

Strikers allegedly stabbed a non-striking nurse at Northdale Hospital in Pietermaritzburg a week ago and in Bloemfontein a fire is alleged to have been set by strikers.

Police have fired rubber bullets into striking workers, and hundreds of incidents of violence on the part of workers are being investigated by the courts. Schools are closed, exams are being missed, and there is no end in sight.

The country that so successfully hosted the World Cup of soccer has seen its government business crippled. The real estate business is hampered because government clerks are not processing  housing clearance certificates. The immigration office is not issuing work permits, passports or travel documents.

The car manufacturing industry, the biggest in Africa, shut down as well when the National Union of Metalworkers (NUMSA) joined the strike on Aug. 30.

Nevertheless, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, said last week that the strike would not have a major economic impact.

This seems like hopeful thinking, since any pay increase would likely increase the South African government’s spending by 1 to 2 percent and would increase the national deficit significantly. If the strike carries on for much longer, there is every reason to expect economic growth will indeed suffer.

South Africa’s strong labor unions helped to bring about the end of apartheid to bring the ANC party to power. But now their demands for higher wages are often cited by potential foreign investors as a reason to avoid South Africa, depriving the nation of much-needed foreign direct investment.

In this country of almost 50 million people, unemployment runs at roughly 30 percent and inflation is about 4.2 percent. The unions are asking the government for an 8.6 percent rise in yearly take-home pay, more than double the inflation rate. The government has offered a 7.5 percent rise but the strikers are holding out for the remaining 1.1 percent and vow they will continue to do so.

The strike hits South Africa just as it was recovering from the worldwide recession.

Wages in South Africa are relatively low and living standards of workers are bad. Many black workers, especially trade union members, are angry that their lives have not improved significantly since the end of apartheid. More than 50 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, according to surveys.
The strike also comes at a sensitive time, when opposition to President Jacob Zuma’s government has grown, giving the work stoppage deeper political implications.

Zwelenzima Vavi, the head of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) is pushing the ANC government to implement more socialist policies to improve the lives of workers. He has also called for the government to crack down on corruption and cronyism.

Cosatu is a key supporter of the ANC party along with the South African Communist Party. But both the labor unions and the Communist Party are becoming increasingly angry with the ANC’s pro-business policies.

Cosatu is arguably the most powerful organization in the country and boasts a membership of more than 2 million. Vavi is at loggerheads with alliance partner the ANC over economic policy, media regulation and what some have called “the soul of the nation.”

Within this context, the strike is a show of power by Cosatu ahead of the ANC General Conference starting on September 20th.

“We will not make the mistake of voting into power our worst political butchers,” said Vavi recently.

“We have nothing to celebrate. We lost more than 1.1 million jobs. As a result, 5.5 million South Africans have been pushed into poverty,” Vavi said recently, reported the AFP news agency.

He has publicly lambasted Zuma for allowing corruption, especially in high profile cases of government ministers and his son Duduzane, who has reportedly amassed a fortune. Such criticism of the ANC by a trade union leader is a public break that last surfaced in 2001.

The test of whether or not the trade unions will continue to support the ANC may come later in September at the party’s National General Council. Without the support of Cosatu the ANC will struggle to lead to country.

The more likely scenario, according to local experts, is that Cosatu may try to force the ANC to change its direction. This may mean eventually replacing Zuma with his short-term predecessor, Kgalema Motlanthe, who is seen as above the fray, uncorrupt, and much more reliable as a leader by both business and labor.

The strike may ultimately decide more than the take home pay of a teacher or nurse. Less than a cry for more money, social commentators suggest the strike’s greater implications are about what kind of country South Africa’s black majority wants and who they want to lead it.

ISLAMABAD—Capital police arrested four PTCL workers when they were protesting for their demands in-front of national press club, here on Saturday. Workers of Pakistan Telecommunication Limited have initiated a demonstration camp in the PTCL headquarter Islamabad, since last five days for their demands. On their fifth day of protest they came in front of national press club. They closed the adjacent road for almost two hours and chanted slogans against PTCL administration. Then police arrested them.

Human rights activist Farzana Bari came there and resisted to police for arresting peace full demonstrators of PTCL, but in vain. Situation became very serious when Farzana Bari laid before the police van. She tried to stop the police from arresting the protesters. A.C city Asim Ayub called ladies police to tackle the female protesters.

Pakistan Telecommunication workers are protesting to take the fifty percent increase in salaries announced by Prime Minister of Pakistan. Farzana Bari was off the view that these are peace full protesters and their detention is illegal. “peace full protest is the right of every citizen”, she remained. Whereas police officials said that these persons opened fire on police party last night, that’s why we are arresting them. Police could arrest Muhammad Ramzan, Hamid Khan, Khalid But and Farrukh Jamil out of more than five dozen protesters. An arrested person Farrukh jamil Qureshi told to The Daily Mail from police van that he was not in the protesters, and he was the worker of peoples labour bureau. “I was passing by the road but police arrested me”, he said.

Workers from different countries have gathered here, even in the month of Ramadan. On Friday night police batten charged and arrested more than 70 demonstrators when they tried to enter the main offices of building, and shifted them to Margallla Police Station and I-9 police station.

More over PTCL workers are on strike in all most all cities of Pakistan and thousands of telephones are still silent since last months. In the protest camp regional general secretary PTCL workers union Gujranwala Rana Bashir Ahmed said that we would protest until the acceptance of our demands. “ we would jam the whole telecommunication system of country, if we are not given our rights”, he said.

Bangalore, Sept 4, DHNS

More than a dozen students of BSF Institute of Technology protesting against the alleged high-handedness of their prin- cipal sustained injuries as they were forcibly evicted from the college main gate at Yelahanka on Saturday.
Students of BSF Institute of Technology staging a protest in front of the college on Saturday. Students injured when BSF personnel forcibly evicted them. According to police, trouble started when principal B Anil Kumar sought to discipline the students who were allegedly indulging in “questionable” activities.

Protesting this, a section of the students took to the streets and attempted to block the road. The police, intervened and asked them not to disrupt the traffic. They also asked the students to move into the campus and sort out their differences with the principal.

The students gathered in front of main gate of the institute and started shouting slogans against the principal. They tried to block the movement of officers and vehicles also. The students threw stones at the windowpanes of the sentry’s room and a few vehicles compelling BSF service men to evict the protesters. A few students who sustained injuries in the melee have been admitted to the Government Hospital in Yelahanka.

According to sources, a few students had gone ‘astray’  by indulging in activities – smoking, playing cards etc – banned on the campus. The principal asked the erring students to vacate the campus insisting that they bring their parents.

The students, however, alleged that the principal was harassing them without any reason.
“He is evicting us from the hostel and the classroom for trivial reasons. The authorities should act against him,” Manekappa, a student, demanded. They accused the principal of harassing a lady teacher.

A complaint of unlawful assembly and damage to public property has been registered.  No one has been arrested, according to sources.

Sep 5 2010
THE number of people squatting in Welsh homes is at its highest for 40 years, claims a major bailiff firm.

Hundreds of homeowners in Wales are having to fork out thousands of pounds to evict the unwanted residents, after a rise of at least 40% in the number of squatters taking over homes.

The shocking figure comes as estimates suggest the popularity of squatting in Wales and England has risen year-on-year with the number of squatters increasing by a massive 132% in the past 15 years.

Yet experts fear the latest projections are just the tip of the iceberg, as more and more are driven into squats as a result of the recession, a hike in house prices and rents and reduced public housing.

Whereas squatters were once frequently activists making a social or political statement by taking over the homes of others, experts now say the majority are forced into the lifestyle by financial pressures.

Most Welsh squatters are thought to be in Cardiff, Swansea and Wrexham, but outside school holidays many can be found in posh holiday homes where they live a life of luxury on the cheap.

Contrary to popular belief, squatting in Wales is legal providing no damage is caused to the property when entry is gained. And as squatting is a civil matter the police have no powers to remove the occupants – instead the owners must either take action through the civil courts or employ expensive bailiffs who act “within the framework of the law”.

Ben Gower, a manager at the UK Bailiff Company, said his firm had seen an unprecedented rise in squatting throughout the country.

He said: “Exact numbers are not available, as no database is maintained by the police because they are not always advised of such incursions. But based on our internal database, there were approximately 100 squatter cases last year, and if the current trend continues to the end of the year, the number we will have dealt with will have increased by 40%.”

This evidence is backed by the Advisory Service for Squatters (ASS), a voluntary group which provides legal and practical advice to squatters, which claims there are now as many as 22,000 squatters in Wales and England, compared to 15,000 in 2003 and just 9,500 in 1995.

Mr Gower said his firm’s statistics only provided a glimpse at the true picture of squatting in Wales and predicted the situation could be much worse.

“Because of the lack of a centralised database there is no way to tell exactly how many people are squatting. There has clearly been a big rise in the cases we have dealt with, which would suggest the numbers are increasing throughout the country.”

An ASS spokesman called Mike, himself a squatter, said the estimates represented the largest rise since the 1960s and ’70s. He added that the traditional profile of a squatter no longer applied to the current movement, as most squatters were now less concerned with social or political statements, and were driven by financial need.

“The increase in the number of squatters is mainly due to necessity,” he said. “People aren’t exactly attracted to squatting, it’s primarily down to the fact that they need somewhere to live.

“While there will be a few people living in squats because they are politically opposed to paying rent to landlords, these are in the minority.”

According to Mr Gower, Welsh squatters come from a variety of backgrounds and are choosing to live in a number of different types of buildings.

“We are seeing two types of squatters, commercial and residential. Commercial squatters are highly organised, they know exactly what they are doing and they know the law can’t touch them.

“They target primary site locations on busy high streets, usually selling clothing, watches, perfume and seasonal goods such as fireworks and Christmas items. They always leave people on site overnight to protect their interest and they use locksmiths to break in, which makes it very difficult to remove them.

“Then there are residential squatters, of which there are two types, those that move in to residential buildings and those to industrial buildings.

“In residential buildings they either break in or are given the keys by a landlord’s previous tenant. A high number of these squatters are from overseas, who are desperate to take any property, as they do not have large deposits to put down on premises.

“Industrial squatters are usually new age travellers who often use and abuse premises for raves, creating a mess. These units are generally empty industrial units where access is available.

“Squatters usually stick to the larger towns, where they can mingle in with the population. They have an infrastructure on the doorstep – in Wales this means most are in Cardiff, Swansea and Wrexham.

“Because of the downturn in the economy and this hitting youngsters worst, particularly those aged between 18 and 25, the numbers of residential squatters are definitely on the increase.”

He added that the cost to owners who want to clear out squatters is one many are not prepared for. The most common remedy to empty a squat is through a drawn-out civil legal process, which can take up to three months to complete and which can leave owners with thousands of pounds in legal costs.

Another way to remove unwanted occupants is to hire the services of bailiffs, such as Mr Gower’s firm, but for which he quotes a guaranteed removal fee of £2,350 plus locksmith fees.

One Welsh homeowner found himself facing huge bills after he became a victim of squatters. The homeowner, who did not want to be named for fear of reprisals from squatters, said it was an “extremely distressful” experience.

“When I drove past our property, to my horror I noticed a light was on, a scooter was parked on the property and my car, left in the drive, was missing. I immediately telephoned the police.

“After speaking to the people inside, the police said they had admitted the property was broken into in the last couple of years and they had been living there since. They told me they were willing to pay rent. The police warned us not to disturb them and promptly left.

“I also saw a satellite dish had been fixed to the chimney. These were not people who were poor or homeless. This has left us extremely distressed. It makes us sick to think of what they did and has left us with no faith in the police.”

One former squatter is Swansea anarchist and Class War publisher Ian Bone, once dubbed the “most dangerous man in Britain”. Although no longer squatting, Mr Bone said the way of life was not always as hard as many people may expect.

“I was squatting in a disused children’s home in Swansea’s Sketty Park with lots of other homeless families who were in desperate need of a roof over their heads. This was a really nice building, it was fully furnished and had blankets and everything else we needed. It wasn’t living in squalor.

“We had to get the local people on our side, they didn’t seem to mind that we were there, because they knew we weren’t interested in damaging the place as it was somewhere we wanted to live – I suppose it might have been a bit different if we were in someone’s house. But our needs were obvious, we just wanted a roof over our heads.”

Peter Black, AM for South Wales West and the Liberal Democrat’s housing spokesman, called for more social housing to be made available to alleviate the problem.

“A big factor in this trend must be that there are 27,000 private sector homes in Wales being left empty. These are attractive to homeless people in desperate situations and the Government needs to address this.”