Thai villagers protest globalization

Bangkok, Thailand, July 25-- While Southeast Asian leaders debated the merits of globalization inside a plush Bangkok hotel Tuesday, thousands of impoverished villagers protested nearby, saying the new global economy has wrecked their lives.

At Bangkok’s Government House, across town from the Shangri La where foreign ministers from throughout Southeast Asia are holding their annual meeting, about 3,000 protesters from Thailand’s rural provinces stood face-to-face with riot police.

They tore up and burned T-shirts bearing the US and Thai flags, chanted anti-globalization songs and yelled slogans against the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Several observers at the scene, including a Buddhist nun, appealed for calm over a loudspeaker system, warning the situation could deteriorate into violence.

Across the street from the mass of protesters, Thai riot police carrying shields and sticks formed a security chain around the Government House, where Thailand’s executive branch meets.

At the same time, roughly 600 of the 3,000 protesters, who are holding a hunger strike until the Thai government and ASEAN address their concerns, received medical attention from local hospital personnel.

The protesters say Southeast Asian governments and international organizations are not responding to the needs of the poor and must be pushed into taking action.

“The governments in the region, just like Thailand, are totally in the hands of the international financial organizations and have no say of their own anymore,” said protester Chalida, who would only give her first name for fear of being harassed by the Thai police.

“Their policies please a few people but most people here still live in the villages, where they get nothing from these (ASEAN) meetings or from any of the policies they talk about.”

In Washington on Monday, a coalition of activists supporting the Bangkok protesters held a vigil outside the Thai embassy and launched their own hunger strike.

ASEAN ministers here were divided Monday over the issue of globalization, which counts its strongest critics among the developing world.

Tech-savvy Singapore urged the group’s 10 members to embrace the new economy and the information technology age.

But conservative Malaysia cautioned against change for change’s sake, saying that reform must serve to benefit the people of Asia.

The majority of the Government House protesters are from fishing communities in northeastern Thailand, where they claim the Pak Mun Dam power-generating plant, built with loans from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), has wrecked their livelihoods.

The fishers have been joined in recent weeks by activists protesting what they claim is the destruction of villages in Cambodia and Vietnam by other large infrastructure projects funded by Southeast Asian states and the ADB.

Outside the Government House, the protesters have set up a tent city full of makeshift bamboo shelters, motley dwellings improvised from corrugated metal and canvas and mats for children and elderly to lie on.

Several weeks ago, a group aligned with the protesters breached the security cordon at Government House and scuffled with riot police, resulting in at least 22 protesters being injured by police batons and tear gas.

Tempers had flared previously in May, when some of the same protesters seized the Pak Mun Dam and prevented it from running. The protesters have since moved out of the dam’s main power-generating plant.

“We have been protesting in a peaceful manner, but ... we are willing to die for our cause,” one told reporters.

Senior Thai government officials have said a committee would be set up to consider the problems at Pak Mun, and the Asian Development Bank has said it may commission a review of some of its Southeast Asia infrastructure projects.

Source: Agence France Presse

UK: “passenger power” stops deportation

London, England— A London airline passenger single-handedly stopped the deportation of a Zairian man on a flight to Frankfurt by refusing to sit down.

The 26 year old North London man, whose name has not been revealed, refused to sit down and prepare for the take-off on flight BA902, the 7:15 British Airways plane to Frankfurt, because he objected to the enforced deportation of Salim Rambo, a 23 year old Zairan refugee who was being sent back to Germany under the “Third Country” rule.

According to a spokesperson from the anti-prison network, CAGE, who have spoken to the detained refugee, as the plane taxied forward towards the runway, one of the passengers asked a steward to tell the pilot that he was making a peaceful protest about the deportation.

He then made a speech to the passengers telling them a forced deportation was taking place on the plane and that it was racist. As a result he got a round of applause from the other passengers. The pilot then refused to fly the plane until the protester and the refugee were removed from the plane.

Police were then called to the waiting plane at the airside at Heathrow, and both protester and asylum seeker were removed. A 26 year old North London man has been released on police bail until the end of August.

The CAGE spokesperson also said that immigration officials handcuffed Mr Rambo and made threats unless he agreed to board a later flight, but he refused to do so because people can only be deported on a specified flight.

Now the Immigration service will have to find a suitable flight and, under the Dublin Convention, give Germany three days notice before he can again be deported.

According to CAGE, the 26 year old was not known to them, but spontaneously responded to a protest an hour before the flight when four campaigners were giving out leaflets about the deportation at the terminal.

This use of passenger power, though new to the UK, has been used before in France and Belgium. In Belgium, protests of this sort have prevented deportations by commercial airlines for well over a year.

According to Benoit Bendel, a legal advisor for the Belgian Refugee Council, the Belgian protests developed because of the publicity over the death of asylum seeker, Semira Adamo, while being deported by plane to Nigeria, when allegedly, she was handcuffed and had a cushion over her mouth to silence her protests.

As a result protest organizations in Belgium tried to attract the attention of passengers on flights where asylum seekers were being deported, to get them to protest and refuse to fly with deportees.

Because of this, both commercial airline pilots and crew refused to carry asylum seekers. However, negotiations between the pilots and the Belgian Ministry of Transportation have recently led to an agreement which allows deportations to again take place on commercial airlines subject to new regulations.

Meanwhile Mr. Rambo has at least a few more days in the UK. He had originally fled Zaire, a country where a civil war rages, for Germany, but the German authorities refused his claim for asylum despite the fact that he fears he will be killed either by government or opposition forces if he is forced to return.

He fled again to Britain, but has come up against the ‘Third Country’ rule by which an asylum seeker can only apply for asylum to the first country he comes to. Because the UK immigration service have classed him as a ‘Third Country arrival’ he has had no legal advice since it was decided to remove him. He remains in the detention centre at Harmsworth.

Source: Grassroots Media Network tta@mail.utexas.edu

Peru: violent protests against Fujimori

By Abraham Lama

Lima, Peru, July 31 (IPS)— Peru’s president Alberto Fujimori and his principal rival, Alejandro Toledo, are exchanging volleys of blame for the violent incidents surrounding Fujimori’s inauguration in which six people died and four government buildings were set ablaze.

But political observers, such as Jaime Antezana of the Cable News Network (CNN), maintained that the burning buildings Friday were the work of members of radical leftist organizations, including the Maoist ‘Patria Roja’ (Red Fatherland).

The violence occurred in Lima’s historic downtown area as Fujimori took the oath of office for his third consecutive term as president. Antezana says the radicals took advantage of the opposition march called by Toledo in order to launch their own political actions.

“Before Toledo’s march toward Congress began, Patria Roja militants attacked police with rocks and sticks, shouting ‘revolution!’ and created a climate of confrontation. Then they tried to set fire to the Palace of Justice, right in front of the gathering of Toledo supporters,’’ he added.

Antezana pointed out that “it was evident that when Toledo’s march was dispersed by teargas, the people of Patria Roja were reinforced by the most radical and young sectors of the demonstrators, and with that help they achieved their goals.’’

Vice-president Francisco Tudela indicated that “militants from the two terrorist organizations that were recently defeated were able to escape (prison) and are at large, marauding as they wait for opportunities like the march of the Four ‘Suyos’ (regions) that was irresponsibly convoked’’ by Toledo.

Commentator Raúl Chanamé, also from CNN, pointed out that “television images and photographs in the newspapers reveal that organized groups of people were carrying gasoline and rags.’’

But the rumors about actions by infiltrators from the radical left are rejected by Peru’s principal political leaders: president Fujimori, re-elected in May’s controversial vote, and Toledo, the former presidential candidate who refused to accept the legitimacy of his electoral defeat.

For Fujimori, the organizers of the “March of the Four Suyos’’ had intended to set fire to the congressional building in order to prevent his inauguration ceremony from taking place there.

According to the presidential version of events, once they saw the police approach Congress, the Toledo demonstrators set other public buildings ablaze instead.

But Toledo, who had promised to prevent Fujimori’s swearing-in with a massive yet peaceful demonstration outside Congress, said he opposes violence and maintained that the fires were set by government intelligence agents in order to discredit the opposition political movement.

Amid the political fallout, the shadow appeared of a potential lawsuit against Toledo and leaders of ‘Peru Posible,’ the opposition movement he heads.

Authorities have yet to issue an official statement on the legal charges that the Radio and Television Association demands in response to the failed attempts to also torch TV Channel 4 and Radio Programs of Peru.

According to the leadership of the Democratic Front, which encompasses Peru Posible, the potential case against Toledo, and probably against Alvaro Vargas Llosa (Toledo’s adviser and son of famed writer Mario Vargas Llosa) would be the beginning of a “political persecution that would open the way to a fascist era.’’

Opposition parliamentarian Rafael Rey said that “unless Fujimori provides proof for his statements, it is just an exaggeration. It would be a serious political mistake to prosecute Toledo.’’

Governing party legislator Fernan Altuve agreed that “a criminal complaint against Toledo would be counterproductive for the government.’’

Legislator Fernando Olivera, meanwhile, a member of the political opposition though not a supporter of Toledo, on Monday requested a congressional investigation into the events of last Friday.

“Neither of the two stories are acceptable,’’ he said. “They accuse their adversaries without evidence in order to obtain an ignoble advantage.’’

“There is direct responsibility, which we need to investigate, but there is also indirect responsibility, committed by those who created this situation and by those who did not adopt measures to prevent it,’’ Olivera concluded.

Columnist Cesar Campos, of the newspaper ‘Sintesis,’ said Monday that the Four Suyos March had been announced 11 days ago and “was a challenge to the organizational capacity of the promoters, and now the violence that occurred is their indirect responsibility.’’

Campos said that Toledo, after the successful demonstration on July 27, in which 80,000 people from throughout the country took part, “is the appropriate spokesman to force the government into a dialogue on democratization.’’

“If he doesn’t, he has given the regime a pretext to enter a hardline phase,’’ commented Campos, who believes that Friday’s events are “likely to have consolidated military support for Fujimori.’’

Malnutrition major problem in Mexico, says report

Mexico City, Mexico, July 29— Some 66 percent of the 30 million Mexicans who live in rural areas - one third of the general population - are malnourished, according to official figures.

According to the study, “Malnutrition in Mexico at the Township Level” presented by the National Institute on Nutrition (INN), more than half of the people who live in Mexico’s 2,403 municipalities lack minimum nutritional requirements.

The report shows that people living in the central and southern states face a more dire situation.

According to the INN study, 27.8 percent of the Mexican rural population suffers from severe malnutrition, 22.2 percent from significant malnutrition and 15.9 percent from moderate nutritional deficiency.

In addition, the document emphasizes that 40 percent of Mexican children live in districts that have major health problems.

One of the authors of the report, Abelardo Avila, said that in order to eradicate this problem it would be necessary for public assistance programs to get to the poorest communities.

This expert said that “political motives” inhibit public and private organizations from using existing research studies to aid in distributing assistance resources in a fair manner.

To solve the problem of a population at risk of contracting health problems, Avila recommended allotting a partial subsidy to improve the nutritional qualities of corn flour, from which tortillas are made.

This is the basic foodstuff for the majority of Mexicans.

According to Avila, 15,000 Mexican children and 200,000 adults die annually due to problems of malnutrition.

Source: Grassroots Media Network: tta@mail.utexas.edu

Father demands justice for son killed by ranchers

Mexico City, Mexico, July 29— The father of an undocumented Mexican murdered on May 13 by a Texas rancher on Wednesday demanded justice from the US government and an end to violence against Hispanics who come north in search for a better future in the United States. According to official reports, Texas rancher Samuel Blackwood, shot undocumented immigrant Eusebio de Haro, 22, and a friend when they came to his ranch to ask for food. Eusebio bled to death. Eusebio’s father Paciano de Haro said that the Mexican government would pay legal expenses in the civil case brought before a US court.

Three law firms have taken Eusebio’s murder to a Texas federal court, where they are suing for economic compensation and punishment for the killer. “If the United States is a democratic country and applies the same law to all criminals, let it try my son’s murderer with the same severity, as (my son) was unarmed and only went (there) looking for work,” he said. Paciano, who has 14 children, did not say how much money his lawyers were requesting as compensation.

“We are not interested in the money, we want justice,” said De Haro, who lives in the rural municipality of San Felipe Torres Mochas, in the central state of Guanajato.

Source: Grassroots Media Network: rootmedia@mail.com

Activists protest US base in Ecuador

Manta, Ecuador, July 30— Nearly 100 protesters —described as high school students in one press report—marched in Manta, Ecuador, on July 29, shouting slogans against the US troops stationed at an air base there.

A smaller group of about 10 protesters managed to plant flags on the beach in front of the air base, and were briefly detained. The actions were part of the activities of the First Worldwide Anti-Imperialist Encounter, organized by leftist groups. Over 1,000 people reportedly attended the Encounter in Manta; police and military forces were massively deployed in the city in response.

On July 11, a group of people stormed the installations of the Ecuadoran Institute of Social Security (IESS) in opposition to the US military presence at the Manta base.

Meanwhile, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) has decided to break its six-month truce with the Ecuadorian government. On Aug. 2 the group plans to hand over to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) one million signatures on a petition demanding a national referendum on six questions, including the dollarization of the economy (already under way), the privatization of state enterprises, and the US presence at the Manta base. The handing in of the petition will take place in conjunction with a national march.

The latest protests come as the US steps up its military involvement in Colombia, and as Ecuadorans grow more fearful that their country will be drawn into the battle. At a July 11 press conference, Ecuadoran foreign minister Heinz Moeller denied that the Manta base was part of Plan Colombia, the US backed program which emphasizes military intervention against leftist rebels.

Source: El Universo, La Republica, Pulsar, El Comercio

European Union calls for US death penalty moratorium

Statement of Amnesty International July 31— Amnesty International USA today welcomed the European Union (EU) request for a moratorium on federal executions. In a letter delivered yesterday by the French Ambassador, the EU also urged President Clinton to grant clemency in the case of Juan Raul Garza, the first scheduled federal execution in nearly 40 years. “The increasing number of executions in the United States is of grave concern to the international community, including the member states of the European Union,” said AIUSA Executive Director William F. Schulz.” The United States regards itself as a bastion of human rights, yet continues to expand and accelerate the use of the death penalty.” The letter restates that the European Union is firmly committed to the abolition of the death penalty and stresses that the Garza case is a decisive case that threatens a breach of the de facto 37 year moratorium on federal executions. Amnesty International, the world’s largest human rights organization, has been campaigning to highlight the impact of use of the death penalty on the United States’ relationships abroad. In a report released this week, Amnesty International details the cases of 10 of the 87 foreign citizens on death row in the USA. In almost every case, arresting authorities breached the provisions of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations by failing to promptly inform detainees of their consular rights. Article 36 of the Vienna Convention is a reciprocal guarantee of the right to consular assistance that also protects US citizens arrested abroad. Source: Amnesty International

Campesinos block highways in Costa Rica

San Jose, Costa Rica, July 28— At least six of Costa Rica’s main highways were blocked in the north, center and south of the country on July 27 as campesinos demanded “coherent policies” from the government and a solution to a rural financial crisis that is making indebted agricultural producers lose their property. The Ecuador-based radio news service Agencia Informativa Pulsar reported that 60,000 campesinos, or peasants, were involved in the protests, while the Agence France Presse and Associated Press wire services estimated that hundreds participated.

The government and the National Commission of Agricultural Organizations began negotiations on June 16, as a result of road blockades in March, but the campesino groups broke off the talks.

Source: Pulsar, La Prensa Libre, El Nuevo Herald, Agence France Presse, Associated Press